Chapter Text
One year later…
Robin stretched in her chair and waved away her makeup crew. They all silently started packing up their things as Robin’s manager’s eyes widened.
“You still have a meet and greet tonight, what are you doing?”
Robin yawned and rubbed her eyes, uncaring of how her sweat made her foundation stain her glove. “I just did two encores while running on nothing more than a protein bar I managed to snag before going on. I am tired and I am sleepy and there is a difference between the two and I am both at once. Let’s schedule a meet and greet breakfast in the morning instead. No, a brunch. Meet and greet brunch.”
Her manager stared at her before shaking their head. “Yes ma’am.”
“Thank you. That will be all for tonight.”
Her manager nodded and left, shutting the door to Robin’s trailer tightly behind them. As soon as she heard the door latch into place, Robin sighed and sank down into her chair, finding solace in the shapes of her ceiling.
Her phone buzzed on her vanity with what she could only assume was yet another message demanding her to clean up some mess or another in another galaxy. Humanitarian work here, diplomatic visits there, breaking news your brother is a wanted criminal in yet another system, wake up early it’s time to learn more choreography, it never stopped.
It had been a risk in the beginning, when she refused to buy another neck piece to hide her scars. Her manager had bitten their nails all the way down in stress the night Robin performed without it, and the PR team had a field day trying to find a way to word a statement about the scars that didn’t damage the Family’s image. Luckily, Sunday had started his new career around the same time, so the media coverage turned into painting Robin as a helpless victim in a cycle of abuse passed down from insane father to insane brother.
Well, luckily for the PR team. Robin was two seconds from eating the next sympathetic bouquet she got in the mail and the card with it.
She reached over to silence her phone without checking the message. She caught a glimpse of a news headline in it, and that only reaffirmed her decision to ignore the outside world for a few hours.
“No, sir, the greet is canceled! Someone call Security!” She heard her manager’s voice bark through her door. Robin was on her feet in a second and yanked her door open to see several large men employed by the venue’s security team circle around a person in dark clothes.
“What’s going on out here?” She asked the group.
“I’ve got a ticket with her name on it right here!” Said the person Security was trying to detain. Their voice was robotic, an Intellitron perhaps? But Intellitrons usually abided by rules very strictly. Robin pulled her trailer door open the rest of the way and repeated her question.
The Security muscles moved out of the way and revealed a man with peculiar eyes. Well, everything about him was peculiar. The skin of his face was sun-kissed and freckles, his chin sported a small patch of fuzz, his black-and-white hair that covered his right eye was barely shoulder length and tied back in a low ponytail with a red ribbon decorated with a silver chain sporting a pearl attached to its links, he wore a black coat over his body, but Robin could make out something shimmering underneath, and when he smiled, Robin saw that he had rows of jagged, shark-like teeth. Hanging from his ear was an earring made of a piece of purple fabric and a golden star. The earring and the chain on his hair ribbon looked familiar.
“Let him go.” Robin commanded. Her manager protested, but she gave them a harsh glare and they scurried away. “He’s family.”
The Security team took their time clearing out, but eventually all that remained by Robin’s trailer was Robin herself and the intruder, who looked up at her in her doorway with such a soft expression that Robin nearly didn’t recognize him.
“Boothill, is that you?”
“Yes ma’am, it is.” He bowed his head respectfully.
“Where’s your hat?”
Boothill itched the side of his face. “I, uh… lost it.”
“Oh you poor thing.” Robin stepped back into her trailer. “Come in, please!”
He hesitated, but took heavy steps up into her trailer and quietly shut the door behind him. Robin found a stool for him to sit on and stood awkwardly by her makeup chair.
“So, uh… how have you been?” She asked.
He stared at the stool before sitting down. His coat fanned out around his legs and Robin saw the pistol strapped to his hip. He clasped his hands together on his lap and kept his eyes on the ground. He looked tired, exhausted even. Robin once again found that she didn’t recognize him.
“Boothill?”
“I’m okay, I’m okay.” He smiled softly, eyes flicking up to her face for a second before flicking back down to the floor. “It’s just been a while.”
“It has been.” She pulled her makeup chair out and sat down, leaning forward and tilting her head to the side to try to look him in the eyes again. “Is there anything I can get you? Some water? Food?”
He shook his head and retrieved a phone with a cracked screen out of his pocket, silently popping the case off, and pulling out a faded piece of pink paper and a ripped bar napkin. He handed the two papers over to her.
“I hate to disappoint, but I really don’t have a way to give ya back that neck thing you gave me.” He gestured to his earring. “Sort of broke it a little.”
Robin stared at his earring for a second and memories of the last time she went home to Penacony bubbled to the surface of her mind. She shook her head, but her cheeks still burned a little.
“No worries! It looks good on you, better even!”
“Thanks, Princess.” He laughed softly. Everything about him was too soft, where were his jagged edges? His crazed eyes? He slouched over like gravity weighed down his metal plates, like he didn’t have the strength to even pull himself up.
Robin stared at him for another minute before her eyes widened. “You’re not a Pathstrider anymore.”
Boothill’s laugh was a little stronger now. Robin’s eyes widened even more.
“You did it? You actually did it?”
Boothill spread his hands out to the side and bowed his head. “Guilty as charged, Princess.”
Robin stood, tucking the papers onto her chair, and moved closer to Boothill. “They’re all dead? Everyone on your list?”
He looked up at her with the crosshair in his visible eye, grinning fully now just as she remembered.
“Every. Single. One.”
“Heads rolled?”
“All over the ground.
“Blood was spilled?”
“Splashed all over the walls.” His augmented teeth glowed in the lights of Robin’s trailer.
Robin smiled proudly and reached down to take Boothill’s hand. The metal was cold under her touch. “So what happens now? You didn’t die like you said you would.”
“Well, I couldn’t disappoint the ex-head of the Oak Family, now could I? And I distinctly remember receiving a personal invitation to come see a show when I needed my spirits lifted. You did great tonight, can’t believe I waited so long to take you up on your offer.” He smiled warmly at her before the smile faded and he shrank away into himself a little. “If you don’t mind me sayin’. Sorry.”
“Sorry? Whatever for?”
He pulled his hand away and itched his cheek, looking away from her and at her wall. “I don’t know. Been sayin’ that a lot.”
“Well, if you’re not receiving blessings from The Hunt anymore, it would make sense that your confidence would need to be built up again. How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?”
“What? No, nothin’ like that.” He shook his head. “But my body was built to be a Pathstrider, it’s just been a little harder to move around without the proper Aeon-juice, if that makes sense.”
“It does.” She stepped back out of his space and sat back down. “So what’s the plan now?”
He wrung his hands together. “No clue. I traveled a bit as a Nameless for a while, but the Path of Trailblaze wasn’t too appealin’. I’ve just been kinda driftin’ around since partin’ ways with our dear friends, not really sure what to do. That’s when I caught wind of your concert one system over from the hole I was digging myself, remembered an old invitation I’d been given, and hopped on over.”
“That’s very sweet of you to remember. It seems a lot has changed for you.”
“And you look the same as I remember.” Boothill snorted without any malice behind it. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Robin giggled. “I wasn’t the one who traveled the universe, taking my vengeance on those who scorned me. You look good. The beard’s new.”
Boothill touched his chin. “Ya like that? I accidentally set myself on fire while we were in Lushaka of all places and when they pieced me back together, my dear bro Dan Heng got some of the locals to donate some skin grafts or somethin’ like that to replace my synthetic hair and other parts that I lost. Even managed to make it out without lookin’ like a patchwork. I wouldn’t call it a beard, but it’s close to what I had before my little metallic upgrades way back when.”
She giggled again, suddenly curious if pictures of pre-cyborg Boothill existed. “You have some good friends looking out for you. You look really good, and I mean really good.”
His cheeks changed color slightly - did he blush blue? - and he reached a hand up like he was going to tug down the brim of his hat, but stopped when he realized it wasn’t there.
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
Robin stretched her arms above her head and yawned slightly. “So what’s the plan now, cowboy? Do you have anywhere to stay?”
He blinked at her before shaking his head. “I, uh… haven’t thought that far ahead…”
Robin felt her feathers start to puff up. She smoothed out her wings and cleared her throat. “Well, you could always stay here for the night.”
Boothill looked up at her, eyes wide in disbelief. “Really? You mean it? I won’t stay the full night, I’ll be gone by mornin’, I promise.”
“Boothill,” Robin breathed out a small laugh, “I meant it when I said that you would always have a place to lay your head. I don’t need to be the voice of The Harmony to offer you a bed.”
He shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t feel right just takin’ a night’s sleep for free. I can work for my keep, you need a bodyguard? I can be a bodyguard. Need someone to sell tickets at the door? I can do that, too. I’m a heck of a salesman, I think. Heck, I could even just be the guy who washes your laundry or somethin’.”
“Boothill-” Robin covered her mouth to keep from laughing. “You don’t need to work for your bed.”
He shifted forward on his stool. “But I gotta, I wanna. I ain’t no freeloader. Just give me an’ order and I’ll do it. For you.”
“And I am telling you,” she stood again and stepped back into his space, making him have to crane his neck to look up at her since she was still in her heels and he was hunched over. She held herself back from cupping his face in her palms. Were his eyes always so deep looking? Wait no, single eye. She couldn’t see the other through his thick hair. “That I am simply satisfied with just having you here. You don’t know how overjoyed I am that you are here with me, really. If it would please you, I would be honored to have you on my staff as a bodyguard, but know that it is not a requirement of you to be on my payroll simply to stay here by my side.”
Boothill stood and hugged her, whispering a dozen ‘ thank you ’s into her hair. She hugged him back, wondering just what the actual fuck had happened to him in the past year. But, if he was here to stay, she would have all the time in the cosmos to learn. It occurred to her that she really didn’t know anything about the man who squeezed her tight other than he was kind, but for now that was good enough.
He pulled away and cleared his throat. “So should I pitch a tent outside?”
Robin laughed and shook her head. “No, you can stay here in my bed.”
“In… your bed?” His mouth twisted into an unreadable shape.
“I could also get you a separate cot if it would make you more comfortable.”
“In your bed?” He asked again.
“Yes, that was my suggestion, my dear.”
“ Dear?! ”
Robin snorted and stepped back, putting her makeup chair back to where it belonged and moving to her bed, sitting herself down and starting to undo the buckles of her heels. “Is there something else you would like to be called?”
“Well, I wasn’t sure if you still felt the same way- I mean, I wasn’t expectin’ anythin’- I mean, that’s cool. That’s fine.” He rubbed his nose and put his hand in his pocket, very cooly.
“Boothill,” Robin took a deep breath, “would you like to try being a team? Boothill and Robin, just like old times?”
Boothill’s face flushed an even deeper shade of purple/blue and his eye widened comically. “You mean like…”
“It doesn’t have to be like that!” Robin backpedaled. “We’ve only just found each other again, we can take our time. I admit that I got a little too eager when I saw you, I can make the call to get a cot for you now if you would like?’
“That would be nice of ya, thank you.” He mumbled.
“Then let’s take this one day at a time?” She offered him a soft smile. “In the morning we can figure out what all this means for us.” She looked down to focus on getting her other heel off, but the buckle was being stubborn. “Goddamnit, hold on.”
Boothill was across the room and kneeling down in front of her, silently threading the shoe’s strap through the damned buckle with precise movements from his fingers and sliding the shoe off, setting it on the floor next to the other and looking up at her with a bashful expression.
“I like the idea of Boothill and Robin.” He whispered, eyes initially darting around but focusing on hers after a second. “If you’d have me, that is.”
Robin leaned forward and brushed their lips together, tensing when Boothill initially flinched away, but let her eyes flutter shut and her wings flutter around when he pressed back into the kiss. His lips were chapped and dry, and she fought to keep herself from reaching out and touching him. But she held herself back, she needed to take this slow. She wanted him to stay, to drown out the outside world when it got too loud, to tell her when she was being unreasonable and to hold her when she felt like collapsing, and she didn’t even realize how badly she needed this - needed him - until he stumbled back into her life just as haphazardly as last time.
Boothill put his hands on either side of her legs, holding onto the bed and slowly rising to his feet, never once breaking the kiss. Robin grabbed onto his shoulders to keep from falling backwards, and in doing so helped shuck off his coat. Once he was fully standing, he fumbled with his belt - the noise of the leather dragging across the metal of his waist making Robin’s brain go fuzzy - and let it fall to the floor so that his gun wasn’t so dangerously close to them.
Robin made a happy noise when Boothill’s knees hit the bed and she shifted backwards to give him space to crawl over her, wrapping her arms around his shoulders even more and pulling him down, tilting her head to the side to deepen the kiss even more and drowning everything that was Boothill .
He pulled away first, propping himself up on hands on either side of Robin’s head and breathing a little heavily. His eye was half-lidded and he was flushed purple/blue all over where he had skin.
“So much for takin’ things one day at a time.” He coughed out.
Robin rolled her eyes and admired the view looming over her. “I don’t hear any complaining, do I?”
Boothill let himself drop onto the bed next to her, an arm sprawled over her torso to hold her close. “No ma’am, you do not.”