For as long as they could remember, both Barney and Robin had absolutely hated Valentine's Day. Barney had hated the actual holiday itself but had loved the day before it, which he nicknamed Desperation Day, representative of all of the desperate people, especially girls, who felt like they needed a date or just a quick fling in time for the next day. He took great pleasure each year in seeking out the most desperate one he could find, though in reality, he was probably just as desperate and lovestarved as the women he was searching for.
As for Robin, she'd never really been the romantic type. She was more unconventional when it came to love and would rather have just stayed home on Valentine's Day and continued on with her normal life than go on some super complicated, fancy date (Though she realized, every year, that perhaps it would be nice to one year have someone to spend the holiday with.)
And this never changed much for both of them, even for the first February that he and Robin were engaged, and the second February when they were married. They never would be too invested in the holiday, and that was fine by both of them. But in 2014, things changed just a little.
On February 12th, Marshall and Lily had invited them to 'couples night' at their apartment, which both Barney and Robin were both exceptionally close to refusing. However, they enjoyed the night more than they thought they would- or at least somewhat more. By the end of it all, they left feeling an awkward combination of satisfied, annoyed, happy, and slightly drunk all at once. Certainly no 'best night ever,' but definitely a night more fun than expected. They had gone home afterwards like normal, followed routine of what they predictably normally did before bed, and gone to sleep then. Or at least Robin did. But Barney couldn't sleep that night. He lay there in bed, wide awake, thinking. As much as he hated to admit it, he realized that the holiday that was Valentine's Day was slowly growing on him, bit by bit. He caught feelings for sure- bad. But he needed to get it all right. He didn't want to go all Ted Mosby and steal her a blue French horn or whatever Ted usually did, he wanted to do the opposite. He needed this Valentine's Day to be special, just not overly, sickeningly special.
He sat up on the edge of the bed, a smile on his face and a concept for the next sorta play formulating in his mind- The Valentine's Day.
The morning after the next, Robin awoke to the smell of something cooking- bacon, probably, with a hint of coffee. Barney entered the room not long after, smiling warmly and holding a tray with a plate of bacon, a mug of coffee, and a wrapped muffin on it.
"Good morning," he said, bringing her the tray. "You know, I really usually don't like making breakfast, so I'd consider yourself honored to get this. Just…thought you'd know that."
She took the tray from him. "Aww, thank you! I love that you did this, especially the muffin in the wrapper part. Really completes the whole thing."
"I know, right?" He was still smiling, the endearing, cute little half-smile, the way he always did. He watched as she sipped her coffee. "You enjoying that?"
She nodded. "Yeah, definitely." She took another sip, then placed the mug down. "Quick question though," she said. "We're not gonna, you know, talk a whole lot about what day it is today, right? I mean, just to be clear, you don't have anything too special planned..?"
He quickly shook his head. "Oh, no, of course not. Valentine's Day sucks. It always has and it always will." He looked very proud and certain as he spoke the words, throwing in a quick nod at the end.
"Good." She sounded genuinely relieved. "Because I don't want another Ted Mosby situation. One time, the dude bought me a teddy bear that was bigger around than my doorway, so.."
Barney continued shaking his head slowly. "Nah, the holiday's still stupid." He placed the mug and a fork back on the tray it set it on the nightstand by the bed.
"So we agree it's just another day?"
He nodded quickly. "Yeah, just another day!" A minute after, he added, in a lower, more seductive voice, "Though..there is something we could do that's not stupid."
"And that is?"
Without answering, his lips locked with Robin's, and she didn't protest to what he was going for as they kissed for awhile, and of course, the events then transpired.
…..
Robin lay next to him in a half cuddle, snuggled by him endearingly.
"See, that's the kind of thing that make Valentine's Day," he breathed out, placing his arm up behind his head on the pillow. "Or at least it always has to me." He turned and winked at her.
"Can't say I don't agree with you." She smiled back at him, rubbing her hand over his chest.
A moment later, he sat up. "Well, this has been fun, but I gotta throw some clothes on." He got up off the bed and gathered his clothes, sliding his arms into the sleeves of his white shirt, buttoning it up, and quickly tying on a tie. He put on his suit jacket and adjusted the tie, "If you'll excuse me, I'll be heading out now, and… I highly recommend you come, too."
She looked perplexed and tilted her head in confusion. "Where are you going?"
"Where we both are." He smiled, and there was a sweet, soft look in his eyes as he jerked his head in motion towards the door. "Put on a jacket, Scherbatksy. We've got a date to go on."
She rolled her eyes. Just about twelve or so minutes ago, Barney had sworn that he wasn't going to do this, but now he seemingly was about to do something that Robin deliberately didn't want to do for Valentine's Day. Whatever, she thought. It's Barney- he can't go too wrong on this I'm sure. I'll just go along with it and hope it isn't too mushy.
There was a bitter chill in the air when they left, and a few loose snowflakes drifted like shreds of paper through the wind. They took a cab together, which naturally was driven by Ranjit, and stopped first at a place that Robin had long become familiar with- the laser tag arena.
Undeniably, this place was quite significant to them, especially for Barney. After all, some nine odd years ago, Barney had selected Robin as his laser tag buddy for the day, and that particular day also happened to be the day when he realized that there was undeniable chemistry between them.
For awhile since then, he had played laser tag with Ted, Nora, and even once Robin's father, believing that Robin didn't like the game too much and not wanting to bother her for it. He couldn't have been more wrong- she'd always loved it, and they were quite a legendary team when they played together, both having equal amounts of fun as they laser-gunned down small children and laughed mischievously about it.
This particular game had been especially ruthless and raw as far as laser tag goes, and things quickly got intense between Robin and an eight year old.
"Barnhouse Supreme is in the clear," Barney reported into his walkie talkie (They had both taken the games so seriously that they felt it was necessary to carry walkie talkies.)
"Copy that, Barnhouse, R-Stacks is going in," Robin responded, then lasering down that same eight year old the minute he approached her.
The kid pouted disappointedly. "No fair, I was in the lead!" he whined.
"What are you gonna do about it, go cry to your mommy? Yeah, thought so!" Robin taunted. Just then, Barney sauntered over proudly. "Robin, please, let me handle this." He sighed and stooped down to the kid's level. "Kid, life is unfair. Sometimes you get owned by those who are better than you. You might get it next time. Good luck." He patted the little boy on the shoulder, and the boy then huffed off angrily.
Barney turned to Robin, smiling so wide it looked like his face would split.
"We're a pretty great team aren't we?" She said, blowing the hair out of her face.
"We're beyond great, Robin. We're beyond awesome, heck, we're beyond legendary. You know what we are? Awesomedary."
"Awesomedary," she echoed. "Lame, but totally catchy at the same time."
"You know it."
They high fived, proud of their accomplishments of working as a team.
The next place they stopped at was the Natural History museum. The last time they'd been there was four years ago, and they had had more fun messing with the exhibits than most regular people would have. But they were who they were- Barney Stinson and Robin Scherbatsky- and they weren't regular people by any means.
The place appeared to be closed off to the public that day, which Robin questioned immediately. "Wait a minute," she said, stopping in her tracks. "Did you-"
"I already know what you're about to say," he responded, putting his hand up. "And I indeed did."
She was absolutely taken aback by this, and her jaw dropped in shock.
"We can't literally do anything we want to, but..we can touch more stuff. I paid 'em five thousand to shut up and let us poke dead animals and try on ancient costumes for, like, an hour, and they didn't refuse, so…wanna go touch more stuff?"
She nodded quickly. And for an hour, that was what they did. They saddled the backs of onyx and tigers, put monkeys in different exhibits, and tried on as many costumes as they pleased. There was a certain pleasure in going against common rules that they couldn't deny, and they toasted frosty glasses of champagne to their rulebreaking as they sat atop triceratops figures. The ideal date, and that still wasn't the end.
The last place that they arrived at was Central Park. By the time they got there, snow was falling heavily- snow just seemed to follow Robin wherever she went, the same way the rain followed Ted.
It was all such a beautiful sight. They walked for awhile until they came across a bench- ironically, it was the same bench where Robin had sat that cold, lonely night three years ago. She recalled how alone she felt then, and how she also felt that no one could truly understand the emotional pain she was experiencing. But so much had changed since then, she realized as she looked at Barney, the man who had gotten her through more in her life than anyone else she knew. And every day, she thanked the universe for that.
They sat down on the bench, side by side, and smoked El Piramide together, blowing out the sweet smoke in contrast to the cool air, savoring the familiar taste.
"Y'know, I gotta admit, you really made this Valentine's Day awesome," she commented as she took a drag off the cigar.
"Please," Barney scoffed. "I made today awesome? Robin. I make every day awesome. I'm over 100% awesome. I've got awesome overflowing out of every part of my body." He paused and quickly licked his lips. "But, actually, I've got you to thank for half of that awesomeness. Without you I'd only be 99%, so…" He trailed off.
She smiled. "It's literally impossible for me not to love the crap out of you."
He shrugged. "Only natural." A minute later, he added, "In case you're wondering about, y'know, why I did this today? A few nights ago, I remembered that time about four years back, when I was being a super jerk to you after we broke up, and I realized that I never really made that up to you, so..Robin Scherbatsky, I'd say you received your second superdate."
She shook her head slowly. "You're such an idiot." After they kissed, she asked him another question. "Listen, today aside, we're still not gonna be one of those annoying couples who puts too much effort into Valentine's Day, right?"
Barney responded immediately to that. "Uh, no, of course not! This was just kind of a one time thing..I guess you could say that I wanted you to believe in Valentine's Day again without actually…believing in Valentine's Day. I wrote this out, btw, all of it. And I still pretty much hate the holiday, so I'd say we're good."
"We've agreed to both hate Valentine's Day then?"
"Right! It's like you're reading my mind!"
They kissed again as the snow continued to fall, both so full of equal love and yet cynicism. Barney's goal was to get Robin to realize that, though it was a holiday of gooey fluff, Valentine's Day could still be awesome, and he had succeeded in getting that message through. Today, they were proud of what they had, prouder than they had ever been, enamored of their ability to work together as a team and to understand each other better than anyone.
The rest of the night was concluded by Robin donning a Stormtrooper costume, a rousing game of Battleship, and watching various Robin Sparkles videos on repeat, particularly Sandcastles in the Sand, all the while Barney teasing her for her past, though he was just as infatuated with that aspect of her as any other. The night was also accompanied by many high fives, naturally, all for different reasons.
It was everything that they needed to make a good night, and there was absolutely nothing else they could ask for.