THAT DID IT, somehow, and Roux ends up calming down a great deal, enough to take the water from their hand and actually get a few sips in. Perhaps there would have been a time in the past when, had Robyn done the same thing, he would’ve swatted the glass away or maybe even taken it and smashed it against something, given how prone he was to fits of anger, his temper an issue between them in the years they’ve known each other.
Between the twins, Harbor’s mood had always been lighter, his patience much longer than Robyn’s when it came to dealing with the unruly, which was why the arrangements they’d made in the past had worked for the two of them. Harbor cared for the more difficult Tributes, and Robyn took on the particularly docile ones, beyond taking care of scheduling as well and making sure things happened strictly according to the timetable ( things Harbor admittedly preferred to bow out of himself ). Roux had been the toughest of the lot, even when many other Tributes came and went long after him, and Robyn had envied Harbor’s ability to deal with him, thought it a slight in their own skillset that they couldn’t calm him down themself. When Harbor was taken from them, they had had to deal with him on their own, and the results of their efforts were exhausting on good days, and catastrophic on bad ones. That they’re somehow both here now, sitting next to each other, with Robyn offering Roux a glass of water, and Roux taking it without incident, is testament to how much they’ve changed.
Roux might not agree, but Robyn wants to think he’s matured a little too, albeit very, very slowly and in particularly tiny increments.
He recognizes that he needs to talk to Swann and is even honest about his fears, about not knowing how she would react to what he has to say, and then subsequently being afraid of that. Robyn is familiar with that feeling, that notion of avoiding someone because you have something to say to them that they might not want to hear. It’s no small miracle that Roux has confided in them his thoughts all breakfast time, and that he keeps confiding in them still. When he goes on to say sorry, too, that’s when Robyn knows that this Roux in front of them isn’t at all the same one they’ve watched over from a safe distance in the past almost six years. It’s an apology not just for what he’s asking from them now, but an apology for before. It’s a single word, and it’s vague, and it barely covers all the migraines and the bullying and the messing around and the terrible fucking treatment, but for Robyn, in this instant, it’s good enough to encapsulate all that anyway. Knowing Roux, at least.
“It’s quite alright, Roux,” they say calmly, and it surprises them how much they mean it. Additionally, it shocks them how they don’t feel like they need to ask for more from him at the moment, but perhaps they will, eventually, now that it seems they’ve reached a certain point in their relationship where honesty is no longer something to be avoided. “I do understand, though. Everything you’re telling me. I promise, I do.” Just a few months ago, they never would have said anything like this at all. “Remember that Swann loves and cares for you, and that she will try her best for you, even when it gets hard. That talk should be tough, but I’m certain you’ll make it through in the end.” They pause. “If you can talk like this with me, of all people, you can talk like this with her.”
Roux has been making Robyn’s life hell for years, there is no way he can’t deny that. He did ignore that, of course. Always so busy thinking of only himself, Roux didn’t think about it at all until now. It’s not until he got to actually talk to them and see how recent events affected them that Roux realized he wasn’t exactly helping Robyn when maybe that’s what they needed after Harbor’s disappearance. If anything, Roux perhaps made something that affected both of them so deeply worse. Without Harbor to rein him in and take care of the messes he left behind, Robyn had to take on all of those responsibilities and problems their brother was in charge of. Roux was semi-okay with that, not seeing Robyn as anything more than an assistant who would take care of his schedule only for him to ignore all of their work. He enjoyed fucking with them, and Robyn probably knew that too given how insistent Roux was on making their blood boil. And yet, despite all of that, Robyn is still willing to talk to him, guide Roux as he tries to deal with his own fucked up feelings.
Robyn is a much better person that he could ever be.
The glass that once upon a time would’ve probably be dropped to let Robyn pick it up for him is now carefully placed back on the table once there’s not even one drop of water left. Roux’s apology is pitiful and mediocre, but Robyn accepts it nonetheless, another display of the miles ahead of Roux. There’s probably a lot Roux has to learn from them, but he puts that thought aside, knowing that if he wants to fix his shit he is going to take it one step at a time so he actually sticks to this.
“I know that about Swann,“ he adds in before he bites his tongue, hesitating on whether he really wants to say the other thing that’s on his mind. “I’ll do better for her, that much I have decided that by now. But uh.... You eh, you care too. And you’ve been good despite all the shit I did, so uh....“ Words are obviously not his forte right now. Roux shines when he gets to talk about himself and his accomplishments, but this is different. So, he chooses to shut up and move towards Robyn, wrapping them into a bear hug.
