Disclaimer: I do not own How I Met Your Mother or it's characters. This is written purely for enjoyment and with no malicious intent.
"Barney! Hey, come on in!" Tracy cheerfully greeted after opening the front door of she and Ted's house.
"Hey," Barney, definitely more solemn than usual, replied, entering his friends' home.
Tracy looked out the door, then turn to the suit-clad visitor, "Robin isn't with you?"
All the blonde could do was shake his head, which was fine for the bass player- at least for the time being. She closed the door and was about to offer Barney a seat when another voice boomed through the room.
"Barnicle in the hiz-ouse!" Marshall boasted, venturing into the living room, carrying two beers, handing one to his friend. Ted and Lily followed behind him, holding their own drinks as well as an extra one that Ted handed to his fiancée.
Tracy had really outdone herself, the coffee table in the center of the space, was covered with tasty treats, including pretzels, potato chips, tortilla chips, five different kinds of crackers, hummus, homemade salsa and queso dips, and several dessert pieces, including her famous "sumbitches" cookies. The spread wasn't quite up to par with Lily's typical gourmet menu, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Everyone hugged Barney, happy to see him after a few weeks of their favorite "Bro" being absent from the group, due to traveling with his bride of over a year. Speaking of Mrs. Stinson, Lily glanced around, noticing her friend was missing, "Where's Robin?"
"Yeah, Lily really wanted to partner with her for charades," Marshall offered, obviously anxious to escape the possibility of teaming up with his wife, who was awful in games, except for Twister.
Barney sighed, reaching into the bowl of pretzels and stealing a few, but answered his friend's inquiry before popping a the salty snack sticks into his mouth, "She flew to Japan early for a story. She's really sorry she couldn't make it."
"No problem," Ted answered, taking Tracy's hand, leading her to the couch, sitting down next to one another, "Hopefully this will be one of many game nights we host here."
"Barney, you've seen the place before tonight, right?" Tracy asked, patting the empty space, to her right, on the sofa.
Barney accepted the seat invitation, "Yeah, once. After you and 'Poohbear', over there, first closed Escrow."
Ted and Tracy had just purchased the three bedroom, two bathroom Bungalow a couple of months back, shortly after their engagement. It was where they planned to begin their family, whenever that may be, and their first newlywed nest. They originally wanted it to be a starter home and after saving for awhile, Ted wanted to try his hand at designing their dream house, as opposed to skyscrapers, their forever home.
However, Ted was already seeing his fiancée fall harder and harder for their current residence. As soon as she placed her little yellow school bus on one of the shelves he (well, Marshall) assembled, he knew no matter how many kids they had, Tracy would never want to leave- not even for an umbrella-shaped Mosbius Original.
"Where are the munchkins?" Barney wondered aloud, desperately aching for any and all attention to evade him and, simultaneously, hoping the group wouldn't ask why.
"Mickey is watching them," Marshall answered, taking a seat on the adjacent armchair to Barney, Lily sitting in the opposite one, beside Ted.
"And, let me tell you, I love those beautiful, little bastards, but if I had to hear Yo Gabba Gabba one more time today, I may have went up to the roof and jumped off," Lily joked, but seriously grateful for adult conversation.
With everyone so busy, the gang couldn't regularly just walk down to MacLaren's whenever they desired, but they made sure to always get together when they could manage it. The women of the group would went to lunch once a week (though, sometimes, minus Robin due to her traveling), the men would occasionally pay laser tag together, and all of them tried desperately to meet at their favorite bar every Friday night for dinner and drinks. And, of course, game night was scheduled when the couples could fit it in between traveling, wedding plans, toddlers and babies, etc.
"You guys ever going to consider moving to a bigger place?" Tracy questioned and the Eriksons looked at each other and shrugged.
"Eventually we'll have to, but.. it's the apartment."
"It's like a family member."
"We still have time. Daisy's crib is in our room and Marvin has his room with his new big boy bed."
"You could always keep it and turn it into a bar," Ted added, thinking back to his and Barney's makeshift pub from a few years back. Everyone, with, shockingly, the exception of Barney, bounced with excitement at the idea.
"I could be apart of Puzzles 2.0!" Tracy declared, receiving a high-five from her love.
Once the momentary burst of energy dissipated, Barney found himself to be in the hot seat again.
"So how's married life? Honeymoon over yet?" Tracy giggled innocently.
"Great. Really great. Awesome. Awesomely great. Greatly awesome," Barney rambled, causing concern among the friends.
"Once more and I'll believe you," Tracy urged, recalling his mood when she first welcomed him into the house.
Barney turned to her, then made eye contact, reluctantly, with each of his pals individually. He gulped, then sighed, then punched the bridge of his nose, trying to gain courage.
He looked down at the floor and finally spoke, "Robin and I are separated."