Robin Prompt #2

"I didn't say you had to eat salad," Damon said with a roll of his eyes. "I haven't seen you eat anything proper in days."

"I've been busy."

"Would it make you feel better if the others came, too?" He obviously didn't want to ask that. He looked down, shoved his hands in his pockets and said the words like he knew that she was saying no because it would be just the two of them. Robin felt bad, but she didn't want him to get the wrong idea. Yes, she liked him. Yes, he knew that. But she just... couldn't.

"I just don't want to go, Damon," she said. She looked up from her hands just in time to catch his eye. One corner of his lips perked up into a half smile, causing her eyes to dart to the movement. He was very good looking, and she did like him a lot. Would it be so bad if they went for one meal? It's not as if it was a date. They were just two friends going for dinner. Her glasses would remain glued to her face like they always did and she would eat some proper food for the first time in a week. "I'll go get my jacket," she said. His small smile stretched into a grin. Yeah... this wasn't a good idea.

Damon drove. They chatted a little on the way and she laughed when he got annoyed at some old guy going at half the speed limit. She found she was so comfortable around him, which was strange for her. She was used to avoiding most guys when she was sober. When she was drunk it was a different story. Sober she was fully aware of the risks - of what could happen if she caught their eye for even the smallest second without the protection of her glasses. After that, she would never know if their feelings were real, or just a side effect of her power.

He pulled up outside a restaurant that sat just on the edge of town. Robin got out and looked around at the deserted car park. There were two cars in it which she found odd. This place was usually busy all the time. "You okay?" Damon asked. Robin hesitated and scanned the area some more. She was being silly and paranoid, but something felt off.

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine," she smiled and went around the car to stand next to him.

"There's no point lying to me."

"It's nothing, I'm just overthinking things." She started walking towards the building and he followed a second later, catching up easily.

Once they were seated at a table Robin started to relax. There was a family across the other side of the room that were being loud but not annoyingly so, and an older couple by the window. There was nothing weird or God-like hiding in the corners. She took off her jacket, crossed on leg over the other and leaned forward on the table. "What's it like being able to sense everyone's emotions? How does it work?"

"It's... intense. Especially if there's a crowd of people all experiencing different things. You know what it's like to be flooded with different emotions? It's like that but all the time. I can feel everything that everyone in this room is feeling. I can tune it out, but it's still there. And on top of that I have my own emotions, too." Damon looked down at the table for a second. "Sometimes it can be a good thing - most of the time it's a good thing." She was about to ask when it could be a bad thing, but he got a question in first: "What about yours?"

"Mine is never a good thing," she smiled. "I play with the chemicals in your brain. When someone looks into my eyes... I don't know. Maybe they send signals across? I'm not sure why it's my eyes. But I know that I manipulate people's brains into thinking that they're in love with me. What they're feeling is real but... it's not, you know? And it's not just puppy love, it's full on I'd-die-for-you love."

"And the glasses stop it?"

"Anything stops it. If I looked at you through a window, in a mirror..." Robin paused and ran a hand through her hair. She couldn't look at him. She just couldn't. Talking about it made her realise how horrible it was. She could never properly look at him. What if she misjudged? What if she looked at him thinking he'd be okay and he was affected? "The feelings never really go away," she said out loud. "There'll always be something left over. I had a boyfriend once and I accidentally caught his eye and even though it was just for a second... The next day he told me he loved me. Although he was positive that it wasn't because of what happened, I couldn't trust what he was feeling. I would never know if what he was feeling was real or because of what I had done to him."

"Are we ready to order?" The waiter came out of nowhere. Robin sat up properly and realised she hadn't even glanced at the menu. She ordered something she remembered having before, too distracted by the conversation to think about it.

"You trust that Richard's feeling are real, and Sam, Piper, Kyle. What makes them different?"

"They're family. It took me a long time to trust them, especially Sam and Piper."

"You can't live in constant fear that you might accidentally look at someone."

"I don't... just that I might look at someone I like, because then the whole relationship would just go to shit." He didn't say anything in reply. After a second she forced herself to smile. "Anyway, change the subject. How do you and Lloyd know each other?"

So they talked about how he ended up being here with them, where Robin has travelled, where she liked the most, her family in Spain, his family further north. They talked about loads of different things and avoided going back to the topic of the first conversation. They finished dinner and desert and sat with half finished drinks for ages.

Just as Robin was about to suggest that they should get back, she adjusted her legs and ended up brushing her foot against his leg. Her heart gave a flutter - partly from fright and embarrassment and partly because... it was Damon. She looked down to hide a blush and pulled both her feet underneath her chair. "Maybe we should get back," Damon said. When she looked up he had a little smile on his face. She hated that he knew what she was feeling. There was no way she could hide or deny it. So she figured why even bother to try? She sat up properly again and didn't let that smile get to her.

"Fine." She turned find the waiter and gave him her sweetest smile. He was at her side faster than Tyler teleporting. "Can we have the bill please?" She asked. He nodded and scurried off again.

"No need to torture the poor guy."

"What? I'm just getting the bill." Damon raised an eyebrow at her but she just smiled. The waiter came back with the bill which Damon took. "I'll pay my half."

"No, I got it."

"Damon, let me pay for me." She held out her hand but he ignored her. "Damon," she complained, "if you pay for both of us it makes this feel like more of a date than it already does."

Damon's eyes lifted to look at her. "I'm paying. You're not complaining. And it's not a date." Robin huffed and sat back in her seat. "I'm much more charming and funny on dates." That made her smile. She grudgingly let him pay the bill and they both stood to leave. Robin was halfway through putting her jacket on when she heard the waiter coming over and turned to see what he wanted.

"I have a message for you?"

"A what? From who?"

"Robin..." The way Damon said her name brought back the feelings she had when they first got here. Something was off, and she might have been ignoring the feelings through dinner - even forgotten them - but she felt them in full force now.

Robin turned to answer Damon and that's when she felt the knife sink into her side. She gasped and her hands flew to feel the knife that was sticking out of her. "I was told that you've experienced this before, and was told to tell you that it's just a reminder of how weak you are, and a small taster of what's to come." Then the guy collapsed.

Damon was already at her side, his phone to his ear as he helped Robin sit down on the ground. "Richard, get Tyler. Robin's hurt. Yeah, we're still here. No, some waiter stabbed her, I think he was in some trance or something. He just passed out afterwards." Robin focused on breathing through the pain. It was more or less in the same place as last time, and although she remembered it being painful, she had forgotten just how painful. "Hey, hang in there, babe. You're okay," Damon said to her after hanging up and helped her get comfortable.

"Nobody's ever called me 'babe' before," she said. She tried to smile, but ended up wincing.

"Good," he smiled.

"Damon?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for dinner."

"Anytime." This time she didn't have to fight to stay upright. She didn't have to keep herself awake to save anyone. This time, Robin blacked out quickly and it wasn't Piper who's arms she was in, it was Damon's.