It has been a long time but here I am with a new small one shot!
Give way for a bit of Robbie/Jade friendship! :)
Jade's surprised to find Robbie in front of her apartment door. She's used to Cat just showing up like this, unannounced. Even Tori and Andre might do that at times, even both of them together. But Robbie? Robbie doesn't like spontaneity. He likes it less than Jade does and that's saying something.
"Beck's not here," she says, almost as a reflex.
Beck has a lot of college friends or, you know, people he knows from college, and she easily can get them to leave by saying that. It sometimes works on their shared friends too, though rarely.
Robbie now weirdly even says "good" about that, before he steps forward. And the way he does it, Jade automatically steps back and gives Robbie room to just pass her by and walk into her apartment.
Okay, then. She closes the door behind him and turns around to see him sit down on the couch. He's biting his lip and his hands twitch nervously and in that way as if... well, as if about to move a puppet. She's seen that before since Robbie said goodbye to Rex. When he gets extremely nervous, his instinct goes back to his oldest, best and cruelest friend. Rex would make a joke or mean comment in a situation like this. Robbie would distract himself through him, would ease the situation through him in a way he can't do without him.
When Jade sees Robbie like this, it sometimes worries her that he'll pick Rex up again and will become dependent on him once more.
Well, but Rex isn't close at the moment. And she will make sure he won't leave the apartment before whatever's bothering him is resolved. If she has to kill someone to help him, hell, she will.
"What's up?" she asks as she sits down on the chair next to the couch.
Robbie's biting his lip, looking down on his hands without really looking, without seeing how they are still twitching.
After a long moment he says: "When you and Beck got together... were you comfortable with him right away?"
Jade narrows her eyes. "Why?" She won't answer personal questions.
Robbie glances up into her face and then down again. "I just mean... Did you enjoy being close to him as soon as you got together or did you get used to it over time?"
Yeah, no. She still won't answer it. But she does wonder what this could be about. How would answering these questions help Robbie in any way? "What's going on?"
Robbie glances up once more, then bites her lip, before he says: "I love Josie. As least I think I do. But... I don't like to..."
Okay, Jade thinks she's understanding what he's worrying about. She finishes his sentence: "Touch her?"
"I like to touch her," Robbie immediately defends himself though.
Well, and what's the problem then? Obviously that's what this is about. Robbie isn't a big fan of touching, just like Jade isn't. He's more ready to quickly hug or alike but he also doesn't like it if someone suddenly touches him without warning, even a clap on the shoulder, she noticed. Though just like her, he's much more relaxed about it with their group of friends.
But then, there's also them watching movies together and… Robbie's always sitting apart. Beck and Jade are obviously cuddling and usually the others also end up having their legs on top of each other or alike. Robbie never involves himself much. Jade noticed that their friends casually involved him and sooner or later he had to get up to get himself something to drink or get more snacks or alike and he never got back in the same position but sat apart again.
Jade knows the feeling. She loves being close to Beck but other than that it's difficult for her sometimes. She loves her friends and yes, she hugs them mostly for a greeting when they meet up, and sometimes, when she's watching a horror movie with Tori and Cat, she lets them cuddle up to her in fear but mostly they have to cuddle up to each other while hiding behind their blanket. At a certain point she's just… over it and doesn't want to be touched anymore. She knows Robbie gets to that point even quicker than she does.
He glances up to her again, biting his lip, before he confesses, staring down on his hands once more: "I just don't like to do so all the time. I don't like to… you know, hold hands with her when we're out shopping or are at the movies, or cuddle with her all the way through a movie or… I don't know. I don't like when everything lasts so long and…"
He blushes and she's pretty sure she gets the picture – especially with that last sentence. Okay. Well, no reason to be embarrassed. She sometimes doesn't like when it's last too long and sometimes she enjoys it lasting really long and it's difficult when Beck feels just the other way around about it at the same time. But well, that's neither here nor there.
Robbie has now caught himself just in time because he reveals something too personal for him and asks: "Have you ever felt like that with Beck?"
"I haven't" Jade simply answers. If there's one person whose touch never made her uncomfortable, even though they touch all the time, it's Beck's.
Robbie's shoulders droop down. Gosh, can he look defeated. His hands don't even twitch anymore.
Jade rolls her eyes. Why does everyone have to make it so damn difficult? Life and love. Why does anyone have to make such a big deal out of it?
"Just because you feel the way you do about touching, it's doesn't mean that you don't love Josie. I don't believe in that crap. Like: Oh, you're only in love when you're all lovey-dovey all the time. That's just dumb!"
That is just as dumb as assuming a couple couldn't be in love because they bicker more often than you would feel comfortable with yourself. People are different and relationships are too and why is that so hard to understand for so many people? Even for Robbie, who Jade knows to usually appreciate all the different people and lifestyles around him. Well, when it isn't himself. He has always been self-conscious about his own being and feelings. As if there has got to be something wrong with him. … Jade can relate sometimes.
"But you are like that with Beck," Robbie insists.
Jade shrugs. "But not because he's the right one. Well, that's part of it." Obviously, she can't be with just anybody the way she is with Beck. She feels like she will never again meet someone around whom she feels so comfortable. "But it's also because apparently that's the person I am. With the right person I like being all close or whatever. If you're not that kind of person at all, not even 'the right one' will change that."
It doesn't make him a worse person or his relationship a worse one. He can still love and be loved.
Robbie's looking up again, into her eyes, and she holds the gaze.
Finally, he says all quiet: "But it's not enough for her."
"She said that?" Jade checks. Because she knows Robbie would've said it in such a different way if Josie actually did say it. He would've led with that and possibly would've cried right away before he would've asked Jade how he could force himself to be physically closer to her. Which would've been awful but Robbie is the kind of person to give himself up for the people he loves, even if it would destroy him – which is why he absolutely needs someone who doesn't ask him to give himself up, who doesn't ask him to change, who loves him for who he is. Jade got the impression that Josie is that kind of person.
"No," Robbie confesses. "But how can it be enough for anyone?"
Which is just stupid. "It's enough for you." So why shouldn't it be enough for Josie?
Robbie looks back down to his hands and he still looks so beaten and defeated. Yeah, he definitely wanted Jade to tell him that she felt the same with Beck in the beginning, that she got used to all the touching over time, that she fell in love with that too, just like she fell in love with Beck. Because that would've meant that it could happen for him too, that he was normal. Or at least as normal as Jade is, she guesses.
Jade doesn't know what to tell him about that. What could she? She won't lie to him and pretend like she ever felt with Beck and his touches like she does with everyone else's, just to make Robbie feel better.
But she knows how to ease him up a bit.
"Come on, you don't believe she needs more lovey-dovey things because she's a girl, do you?"
Obviously, Robbie doesn't. But this might show him how ridiculous his thoughts are.
"No," he defends himself and she makes a gesture that's supposed to express something like "see" while she says: "So why shouldn't she be just like you?"
Robbie shifts on the couch uncomfortably and still staring at his own hands without really looking at them: "I don't think I satisfy her."
Okay, now it's definitely about sex. Jade can't blame him for worrying. If he rarely likes to touch for too long…
"Did she ever complain?" she still asks because… this isn't about what most people like – or possibly most women if it's true that they want more foreplay or whatever on average. This is about a specific woman whom Robbie loves and who loves Robbie.
"No," Robbie has to confess again. "But… It's tough to talk about stuff like that." Which is why he thinks that Josie might have not complained about it because it makes her uncomfortable too.
And yeah, Jade knows that it's tough to talk about things like that, especially in a new relationship, though Beck and she have been together for such a long time and long feel comfortable talking about everything.
Still. "She doesn't look to me like someone who wouldn't tell you." Or she would've at least tried to make him stay closer for longer a few times – and he would've noticed. He's so sensitive about the people around him, he wouldn't have missed it.
Robbie bites his lip again, then: "I don't even like to cuddle afterwards."
And that could give off the impression that he only uses Josie for sex, that he's leaving right after. As if anyone would ever see that kind of person in Robbie.
"You know, I feel the same sometimes," she says honestly. "Even though I love touching Beck. Sometimes I don't." Sometimes that's the thing she likes about morning sex. That she gets some satisfaction but there's no question of cuddling or not, but both get up right after and go their separate ways. She's quite sure that Beck also feels that way sometimes. Though both care very deeply about each other.
Robbie puts his hands on his own arms, pretty much holding himself. He obviously still feels unsure but that new fact helped him somewhat.
Roughly, Jade tells him: "Don't make yourself go crazy over this, Rob. Come on. I met her and she's whipped by you."
Robbie snorts in an unbelieving way.
"I'm not kidding," Jade assures him though. "You know that she called me after we first met."
"No," Robbie says, now looking up in interest.
"Yeah," Jade confirms. Josie texted first to ask if they could talk on the phone but yeah, then they did. "She wanted to make sure that I was kidding when vetting her." She likes to check her friends' partners thoroughly. Because she loves her friends and wants to make sure that they're only together with people who deserve them.
Josie was a good sport about it, made a lot of fun comments and took all of Jade's mean ones with absolute ease. And then they talked on the phone and she asked if she was right in assuming that Jade was only kidding.
"Apparently," Jade explains, "all our approvals were very important to you."
That's what Josie said on the phone and Jade knows it's true. Robbie doesn't have many friends and those he has are of the upmost importance to him. Boy, can Jade relate to that. While the rest of the group makes friends so easily – or at least are able to; Beck and Cat also don't call too many people their friends – Jade and Robbie prefer to keep to their closest friends they already made and trust.
And that Josie realized that about Robbie, about him wanting the approval of his friends, and that it was important for Josie too, so much so, that she even called to possibly make it right with Jade if there actually was miscommunication instead of trying to badmouth her to Robbie or alike… That shows Jade how much Josie cares about Robbie, how much she loves him.
Robbie smiles slightly. Yeah, he gets that from Jade's words too.
Well, and Jade can't soothe his problems more than like this. Instead, she changes the topic, knowing she helped him as much with his problems as she could and now wanting to distract him instead.
"Whatever. You just came here to whine? I thought you had that super important audition that you nailed. What's up with that?"
Robbie's face immediately lights up.