I keep writing more stories even though I shouldn't. I promise I'll update my other story next, but this was stuck in my head. Now I'll probably update them in rotation. I have finals this week so probably no more updates but after that winter break for six weeks so I'll be updating often! Let me know what you thought of this concept. I'm not entirely sure about this yet. I have a whole backstory written and everything. But I'm only going to reveal a little at a time haha. Thanks for reading!

What the hell was she doing here? When Robin met Lily while shopping a few days ago and was invited to have drinks with her friends, she was ecstatic. She recently moved back to the city for a job, after living in Chicago for a few years. Anyway, she had been having trouble finding anyone, which wasn't really a problem. Robin was a very independent person, but it'd be nice to have some friends. And that led to this. Having drinks in a bar with Lily, her fiancé, her fiancé's roommate who couldn't stop staring at her, and Barney Stinson. Of all the people in New York City (the biggest city in the United fucking States) she befriended one of Barney's friends. Robin and Barney went way back. Well, maybe not way back but about eight years back.

They were young when they met, Robin was a freshman in college and Barney was a junior. It was a chance meeting; they didn't even go to the same school. They happened to have one mutual friend and were both invited to a party. The rest was history. Actually, that's completely false. They were drawn to each other; of course they were both extremely attractive people. The next three years were a whirlwind of events that ended in both of them being heartbroken. Robin was so sure she would never see Barney again after that day, but here she was in a bar having drinks with him and his friends. He looked older, obviously. She hadn't seen him in about four years. But he also looked different. He was wearing a suit, which she didn't think she'd ever seen him wear before. Well, okay, there was that one time but that didn't count.

She didn't even know how to act. Were they supposed to pretend they didn't know each other? She barely got a chance to think about it before Lily was introducing her and Barney was pretending he didn't know her and Ted was staring at her and Marshall and Lily were being the perfect couple and Robin didn't know what to do. Of course, as if her luck wasn't bad enough, she ended up sitting in the booth next to Barney. They were separated as much as they possibly could be, not even glancing at each other. It put her on edge to be this close to Barney again after so many years. And she couldn't even acknowledge it because Barney was pretending nothing ever happened.

"Now Barney, this one's off limits. There are plenty of other girls in this bar for you to go after. Besides this one's too smart to fall for one of your ridiculous schemes." Lily instructed looking directly at Barney, who laughed slightly but didn't look up from his drink. Robin's stomach sunk. He had become exactly like her, never looking for more commitment than a night. She could remember how willing they'd both been to jump into a relationship when they met. Now, he seemed just as commitment phobic as her because they had destroyed each other. And that's what relationships did; they destroyed people. She quickly shook herself out of her thoughts when she realized Ted was talking to her.

"So, Robin where do you work?"

"Uh, just a local news station. I'm a reporter." She explained.

"Oh, cool! And Lily said you just moved here. Where are you from?" He asked genuinely interested. She wanted to stop him now, before he got too invested in starting a thing with her. But she had to at least humor him.

"Well, I'm originally from Canada." She glanced sidelong at Barney, half expecting him to make a jab at her home like he always used to but he said nothing and she continued. "Then I went to college in Boston," Barney stiffened at the message and she powered through. "Moved to Chicago afterward and eventually ended up here."

"Well, we're all thankful for that." Ted said with a smile. "

"Yeah, we could use another girl in this group." Lily agreed.

"Happy to be of service." She said with a tight smile all too aware of the fact that Barney hadn't said a word since she sat down. She wanted to talk to him. God, they had so much to talk about, but he wouldn't even look at her.

"If you'll excuse me, there's a blonde at the bar who could use some attention." Barney said with a wink quickly excusing himself.

"Is he, uh, always like that?" Robin asked hesitantly. She suspected the answer, but she wanted it to be confirmed.

"Yeah, but you'll get used to it." Ted assured her with an easy smile. She glanced at the bar where Barney was chatting up a blonde and she didn't think she would. As much as she liked Lily, she didn't know if it was worth putting herself through this everyday.

"He's a crafty one." Lily revealed. "Always coming up with new plots and plans to get women into bed."

"And it works every time," Marshall affirmed. "He's pretty smooth." Robin almost laughed because the Barney she knew had been anything but smooth. She had trouble picturing him as anything but the sweet nerd who asked her out. It was hard to put the image of the Barney she had met tonight with the image of the Barney she had known all those years ago. They seemed like two entirely different people. Well, they probably were. She was nowhere near the same person she had been. Barney sent one last wink over to the group as led the blonde out of the bar. Before they were gone, though, Barney gave her one last lingering look. She sighed shaking the memories out of her mind. They talked for another hour or so before Marshall and Lily used what Ted called the "secret code" and excused themselves.

"So, Robin do you want to get dinner sometime?"