A/N: Hey guys. So here is another little one shot for you. Its set post season 7 finale (contains minor spoilers) and is a song fic (based on Robyn's song 'dancing on my own') from Robin's POV. Its a little bit angsty (suprise suprise) and I hope you like it. I obviously don't own the characters- HIMYM does

Dancing on my own

Somebody said you got a new friend

Does she love you better than I can?

There's a big black sky over my town

I know where you're at, I bet she's around

Yeah, I know it's stupid; I just gotta see it for myself.

The room is full of flashing lights and neon beams streaming across her strobed vision. She's too drunk to focus or remember how much she hates nightclubs and so she dances forcing her body move awkwardly to the rhythm. She's never really been a fan of dancing, not alone anyway- but what else can she do now? 'Dance it out Sparkles' that's what her choreography instructor used to say to her- so that's what she was doing,' dancing it out'. But 'dancing things out' was impossible without the beat and without his lead she just didn't have a clue where to start.

And before he would have appeared, taken her by the hand and literately thrown her back into the rhythm, their unique rhythm that was so beautifully familiar and she would have had no choice but to just dance.

But now, as she focuses for a second, he's twirling and spinning with someone else, some stripper with pointlessly blonde hair- and they've got their own rhythm and it looks painfully perfect.

She knows she shouldn't watch because she knows it hurts. She knows she's going to be back at the bar before long trying desperately to drown it all. But as she turns to watch them she realises she needs the pain, she needs to feel something because since that night, that night she broke him, she's been numb and so at least watching him, as much as she can feel the tears in her eyes and the heat in her cheeks, she feels something and that's better than nothing, right?

I'm in the corner, watching you kiss her,

I'm right over here, why can't you see me,

I'm giving it my all, but I'm not the girl you're taking home,

I keep dancing on my own

But as she sees him reach across and run his hands through her blonde hair she knows her inner drunk sadist was wrong. Pain isn't good and she can't watch this- she just can't. So she goes back to the bar. She doesn't even know why she's here in the first place. She hates nightclubs, she hates the men that feel the need to stroke and touch her, she hates that Lily and Marshal aren't here to hold her hand and that Ted isn't here to remind her she's a Scherbatsky and to hold her head up high. They're all gone now, too loved up to care while she's still out there trying hopelessly to put the pieces of her jigsaw together, a jigsaw she has no clue how to start.

Other people had had a some tips; their parents had shown them to start with the corners, but not her, all her parents had shown her was how wrong it could all go. Maybe had she'd known about all the tricks of the trade, she would be the one being spun round like a fairy princess, rather than the one sat drinking scotch and craving a cigarette in a cheap nightclub that she was only in because he'd asked her to come. He'd said it would be a laugh. It wasn't. But she was determined not to let him down again so it was time to have some fun.

The guy behind her was being overly friendly, but it was time to stop caring and being so picky-normal people called this playing the game. She smells cigarettes on his breath and it's decided- let's have some fun.

But as she dances with him, she realises it's that type of 'fun' your parents used to tell you to have with the next door neighbours kids (that you really hated) just to pass the time. That type of fun that as long as you're smiling you're having a good time. So she smiles, she smiles so much her cheeks start to hurt but it's worth it because as Barney looks over she catches his eye. He throws her a big 'thumbs up'. Her grin isn't forced anymore as she feels something surge inside her- she loves him. My god she loves him and she starts to dance like she used to. But then he turns away and it's all pointless again. She feels her plastered smile crumble but Mr Cigarette doesn't care, he doesn't even notice. So she keeps dancing…because who knows, maybe the guy who has yet to look her in eye (apparently her boobs are far more interesting) could be the one? She tries to look over at Barney again, but he's just not looking anymore. But she needs him to look- because if he doesn't look how is he supposed to realise what a big mistake he's making?

I'm just gonna dance all night

I'm all messed up, I'm so out of line

Stilettos and broken bottles

I'm spinning around in circles

Idiot. She needs to stop torturing herself with these increasingly desperate scenarios. What did she think she could do? Do some sort of drunken retarded jig and he'd drop his beautiful fiancée come over and spin her like he used to? Because yes Scherbatsky- that's exactly how the real world works. So she goes to the bar one last time, necks another, and returns to her stranger. He's welcoming enough and maybe, just for a little while, he'll numb the pain again.

So far away but still so near

The lights go on, the music dies

But you don't see me standing here

I just came to say goodbye

The lights come on, everything is exposed now. The girls, like her, suddenly look down at the guys who've been grinding on them for the past half an hour and shudder as they realise what they've just been touched by.

But there is one girl in this club who's not shuddering or making her excuses to get away. Quinn gives her ringed left hand voluntarily to the man who so badly wants it. He doesn't even look back for her is because he's looking at Quinn and for the first time she gets it- he actually loves her. There is going to be no fairy tale twist. Barney loves Quinn and Quinn loves Barney- this is their happy ending, their fairy tale and as painful as it is she needs to accept it because no matter how much she wants it or how hard she tries, he doesn't love her anymore and she isn't his 'one', Quinn is, and so it's hopeless. But it hurts, she's trying to smile so hard, but her face is tired and she can't anymore. She knows she has to be happy for him or she'll lose him and a sad she knows it is is- she needs him. She needs him throw her that thumbs up every once in a while to make her days that little bit brighter.

So she had no option but to try and be ok with it, be ok and move on. God that sounded easy. Maybe it was? It was time to start a new chapter again. But as she left the club alone at 4 AM in the morning, forcing her new chapter epiphany into her head she couldn't help but pine for her old stories of how he used to spin her in every direction. And maybe, just until the sun came up, it would be ok just to think about them, just for a little while, because let's be honest, there was no point starting a new chapter at 4am in the morning, she start tomorrow. She'd get over him tomorrow.

I'm in the corner, watching you kiss her

I'm giving it my all, but I'm not the girl you're taking home

I keep dancing on my own