A/N

Hello! Sorry I've been absent for so long- I've been crazy busy as per. But Monday's episode was so bloody perfect I had to write this cheeky one shot. I will finish diversions at some point- but this needed writing first Hope you enjoy it. Btw I don't own any of the characters HIMYM does. This one shot takes place at the end of 7x09. Any reviews are, as always, appreciated. C x

Home

They snap back to reality, reluctantly leaving the flashback of the shattered perfection of their rainy almost in the past.

'Disaster averted.' She lies through a forced smile, her mind still lingering enviously in the periphery of the stormy memory. No one had ever said anything to her so perfect and for Christ sake it had even been in the rain, the rain! And despite the three month struggle she had been enduring she was still sitting smiling, pretending that kissing him would have been the worst idea in the world.

'Exactly,' he pauses. It crushes her. She expects him to carry on by telling her how much he thinks he loves Nora. But instead he turns to her and starts to make strange noises. But she isn't listening because she's looking at his eyes. The eyes she's refused to meet properly for the last three months. But now they're looking at her so intently, so perfectly and she just knows that he meant that 'exactly' about as much she meant that the disaster had been averted. And so she holds his eye contact and mimics his actions.

And he kisses her.

She's not shocked, his eyes warned her a couple of minutes ago but she's stunned by the memories its brought back. For the last few weeks she's been kissed politely but now here she was, thanking the lord she was already sitting down because her head was spinning. His hands move up through her hair as she grasps his right arm. They are perfectly in sync despite it being almost two years out of practice, but it's different this time. The passion is still there but there's this intensity, this subtle gentleness. But with every kiss her thoughts fade away, locking away Kevin, and that promise she made to herself at sixteen that she'd never be the other woman. Because as far as she was concerned, if this kiss was anything to go, by Barney didn't see her as the other woman either.

She feels his hands exploring her body like they used to and for a second she swears she can't breathe. He starts to move his lips down from hers, gently coveting every inch of her neck. She just circles her thumb across the top of his chest. She can feel his breath becoming increasingly sharp on her cheek as she slips her hands under his collar, dragging her fingers slowly along his back. She does it rhythmically until he gives up trying to kiss her and just rests his head perfectly in the crook of her neck. He nuzzles it lovingly and she wants to burst.

But then the cab stops, they've reached her office. And suddenly both their thoughts catch up with them. They both tense, unmolding themselves from each other once again. They look at each other and neither of them wants to be the first to talk, neither of them wants to say how perfect that was, neither of them wants to ask what it means, neither of them wants to say that that was what should have happened in the pouring rain three months ago because they are both terrified the other won't feel the same. And so as she reaches for her purse to pay the cab driver he just looks nervously at his feet, wondering what the hell just happened.

Her brain is recoils and as it does her normal thought process is jolted back into place by Nora's presence on the pavement. She had been working the day shift and must be on her way home. She knows Barney is looking at her too.

Before she knows what she's doing she's out the cab, waving at Nora. He can't understand or believe what he is seeing as Robin points to their cab and Nora walks towards it. She opens the door.

'Robin said you were on your way home, we might as well share the cab'

She's so perky and British and for the first time he realises how much that has the potential to annoy him. She chats about her day the whole way home; he makes the odd non committal noise. But his head is still spinning. No-one made him feel like Scherbatsky did, she just did something to him that just made him feel excited to be home. Because no matter who else he kissed, and he had kissed a lot of women- she would always be home. It just seemed so obvious now.

And he knows he should feel awful for cheating on Nora, the girl who's parents' he was supposedly meeting in two days time. But this whole time, he knows it's not Nora he's been cheating on. It's her. Because from his first kiss with Scherbatsky he's known he never wanted to kiss anyone else. But she pushed him into Nora, and so he did it- to prove to her that he could do serious, that he could be a good boyfriend. And she was the only person that could have broken it, because it was all for her- it always had been for her.

A now she was clearly ready, because he knows that that kiss had pushed Kevin into the background in the same way it had Nora. Because he knew Kevin, he knew him well enough to know he'd never made her head spin.

So he stops Nora talking. He tells her they need to talk. They do- he explains, it's only fair in the long run. She takes it surprisingly well, she tells him she's not surprised and that her friends even warned her about it. She tells him that Robin is a lucky girl because he is a good person. He can see how strong she's being and for a moment he doubts his decision because she is taking this with such politeness and grace but then his brain reminds him of the kiss and silences the doubts. He reroutes the cab and drops her off at hers. He sees the tears in her eyes as she turns to wave goodbye and he feels awful. But its time he went home, he knows that.

As he arrives back at his, he feels his phone vibrate against his thigh. It's her. He opens it as quickly as he can, anticipating the admission he's been waiting for. But as he reads it he remembers she's still Scherbatsky, she's still terrified. And so she's still lying.

She tells him it was a mistake and that she's sorry. But he's changed; unlike two years ago he's not settling for this as some lame excuse. Because this is his future, his white picket fence and he's not letting go of it for anyone. So if this is how she really feels she can come round here later and tell him because he knows her too well. He knows she doesn't stand a chance. He loves her and she loves him. He's ready to stop dancing round, he's ready to commit, and he knows she is too but he also knows she's bloody terrified. But he's ready to hold her hand and walk through the scary world of adulthood together. Because he knows now, its only her hand he wants and he'll wait as long as it takes until she'll hold it.