Disclaimer: Neither HIMYM or Skyway Flyer's music belongs to me.

In Circles- a Barney/Robin fanfic

Barney and Robin sat in their booth in MacLaren's Pub. Marshall and Lily had gone upstairs and Ted was out on a date. The two were sitting and talking about random things. At the moment, they were discussing drugs.

"And that's when I vowed never to do drugs." Barney said with a laugh.

"Not even natural, non-chemically made stuff?" Robin said with a smile.

"Nope. Not even once or tw-Robin, what's wrong?" Barney broke off in the middle.

Robin shook her head as if to say 'nothing', but tears were pooling in her eyes.

"Come here." Barney stood and crossed to the other side of the table and put his arm around Robin. "What's wrong, hmm? C'mon, tell Uncle Barney."

Robin gave a watery smile at that, and said "Barney. Please, that's just odd."

"Okay. But seriously, what's wrong?"

"It's just…I had that same discussion w-with Don on our hosting gig on th-that kid's show. I kn-know it's been four weeks since…we…b-broke up, but I just…things that remind o-of him make me sad, and I can't help it, and I don't know where I'm g-going with my life, and to h-have that discussion, with the exact same words, I d-don't know what come over me…" Robin trailed off with a sob.

During Robin's explanation, Barney had looked at Robin closely. He saw now that she looked…well, she looked like crap. There were seemingly permanent rings under her eyes and her hair was unkempt. As he watched tears roll down her face, something came over him. As she poured out all her troubles to him, the feeling he had felt only once in connection to Robin returned. In the middle of her sentence, he leaned in and captured her lips with his.

After a few second, Barney broke the kiss. He leaned back and waited for Robin to say something. She didn't. So Barney just sat. A minute or two passed. Then Robin opened her mouth as if to say something, but no sound came out. Instead, she leaned in and kissed Barney.

After the second kiss, Barney let out a long sigh.

"So…where does this leave us?"

"I don't know, Barney…I don't know what to do. I don't know…I think I like you, I don't know. I'm just clueless."

"Robin. I'm going to be totally honest here. I never got over you. I just…just kept running circles around you. I could never admit it, and I could never really accept it myself. I had to be stronger. I couldn't show this weakness. You moved on, and so did I, but in reality, I never did." Barney said in a rush, his voice breaking on the last word.

"Barney. You think I moved on? You actually think that? Sure, I went out with others, but…I once heard you don't ever get over people, you just move on. And I've been running circles around this…thing that we had ever since we broke up too. I never wanted to admit to myself that maybe, maybe I had fallen for this womanizing awesome jerk who I swore never to fall for."

"I guess we never made it very far, did we?" Barney said with a wry smile.

"No. I guess not." Robin agreed.

"So….what do we do now?"

"I don't know, Barney. If we tried this again, I don't know if it would really work…look at what happened last time."

"But, Robin. Look. What if we did it on our own terms this time? What if we didn't define it? What if we just waited, and just went with it. Things…would be so much clearer if we weren't anchored in definitions."

"I…still don't know…"

"C'mon, Robin." Barney pleaded. "There's nothing to hold us down now. We both said it. We're both just running in circles around each other. So let's give this a shot. Let the circles intersect for a time, and just try it. You know it would be better for everyone."

Robin thought for a moment, then nodded very slowly. "But let's take it slow, okay? I don't want to be rushed. I just want to be Barney and Robin again. The two awesomes that don't cancel out...the two awesomes that add up."

Barney nodded with a happy smile. He leaned forward and kissed Robin, slowly, sweetly. He kissed in a way that Robin would never have guessed Barney Stinson capable of.

"You think Ted's back yet? I think it's time to tell the others and partyyy!"

"Barney! It's half past midnight!" Robin laughed.

"And? This is important. Come on, you know how much fun it'll be to wake them up to tell them this." Barney retorted with a mischievous smile.

"Alright. Let's go."

As the couple walked off to apartment, the circles around them seemed to slow to a halt. In that moment, the two stopped running circles and stood still, accepting what they had. They would always be two awesomes, never cancelling out, because two circles don't cancel each other out. They simply add up and keep running together.

Author's Note: Hey everyone! So, this was my first HIMYM fanfic, hope it was okay…The title and some of the lines in this story (listed below) are from a song by Skyway Flyer called 'In Circles.' That's where I got this idea from, you should check it out…YouTube search running circles where you are or in circles by skyway flyer, and you'll probably find a live performance (there isn't a music video yet). So yeah…hope this was enjoyable and thanks for reading!
(Reviews are appreciated but won't be begged for. )

Lines from the song (this is pretty much how they are in the song, with a few changes to the wording: running circles where we are, we never made it very far, Things would be so much clearer if we weren't anchored, there's nothing to hold us down now.

~Jexi0322