Yay, first HIMYM femmeslash (from me, anyway. Not so sure about in general).
Disclaimer: I don't own HIMYM.
Tequila
This is so much more fun than going out with the Woo Girls.
When Robin knocks back the tequila, the alcohol burning her throat in the best possible way, she looks over at Lily. She hasn't spent much time alone with Lily lately, and it's like Robin's meeting her for the first time. Robin notices the little things, like the tiny grimace Lily makes whenever she takes a shot.
They're sitting, shoulder to shoulder, with their faces too close too each other, the way you can only get away with when you're drunk, and they're talking.
"I am so not looking for a man right now," Robin says. "I mean, I'm just starting out at this new job, and then there was that Ted thing, and I'm just so not wanting a relationship. You know?"
"Well," Lily says, as she coughs from the alcohol. "Well. Sometimes you don't have to look for a man. Sometimes it's just there."
"What?"
"Sometimes," she repeats, as if Robin is one of her students, "it's just there. Someone who loves you, but is too shy to tell you."
"Who?"
"N-no one." Lily takes the lemon and salt. "I was speaking hypoten... hypoth... in general. I mean, imagine if someone, your good friend, was in love with you, and then couldn't tell you. Would you turn them down just because you're not looking for a man?"
And Lily's hand is on her leg, and Robin wishes that she hadn't worn quite so short a skirt, because this is awkward.
Lily continues her monologue. "Maybe they're, like, really scared to tell you. Because it would mean changing everything about themselves. But my point is, my point is, you shouldn't write them off, you know? Because you could be made for each other, and you wouldn't give them a chance."
"What are you talking about?" Robin may have asked that before -- she can't quite recall. All she knows is that her face is very close to Lily's -- Robin can see the clumps in her mascara, smell the liquor on her breath -- and that Lily's hand is very slowly inching up her thigh, and this is a little bit uncomfortable. But not as much as you would think.
"Well, you're really pretty," Lily says. "It's not unreasonable for you to think about these things."
Something moves in Robin's tequila-addled brain. She raises her eyebrows at Lily, knowing that there was something significant happening and not knowing what it was, exactly.
"Wanna go outside?" Lily asks.
"What? Why?"
"Dunno. I just want to go outside."
"All right."
They get up, their legs unsteady like a newborn giraffe. Lily's hands grab Robin's arm. Lily's hands are soft, and small, and god her nails are sharp.
As the door closes behind them, Robin looks around. The street's the same as it always is, and she sees no reason why Lily would want to go out.
"Lily, what is this --"
And then, all of a sudden, Lily's kissing her.
Robin can taste the lemon and the salt and the alcohol on Lily's lips. At first it starts out almost chaste – the only thing about it that couldn't be mistaken for friendship was the length, but then Robin feels Lily's tongue on her lips, and her mouth opens, almost involuntarily. Robin knows that, objectively, she wants to pull away, but the way Lily's lips caress hers, and Lily's hands on her waist... Robin doesn't move until she hears a voice.
"Hot!"
Robin turns around to see Barney, grinning at them like a cat that caught a canary.
"Barney, it's not..."
"Oh, it's exactly what it looks like," Barney says. "My two hot lady friends, making out!"
"Hi, Barney," Lily says. Before Robin can begin to make sense of what just happened, or was happening, Lily runs past her, grabs Barney's wrist, and drags him inside. Robin puts her hand to her forehead.
Did that just happen?
When Robin goes in, Barney and Lily are talking.
"You said that if I did this for you..."
"Please, Aldrin. I just said that to see you two --"
"Well, fine, then. You can sit around and be miserable for the rest of your life, for all I..."
"Robin!" Barney looks up at her. Robin blinks and nods, heads over to the bar. She puts a bill on the bar.
"Another shot of tequila," she says, leaning over the bar.
She's never needed it more.