One Week
A/N: Robin is away for a week and Barney's challenge gets a little more solid (not in that way, yet) and meanwhile Ted is Ted. [and thank you The Leap for the new vocab =) ]
Beta: the awesome 1angelette
A/N: Sorry I've been slow but school's now done and I get a huge summer break ;)
"So, how long?"
"68 hours."
"And you're fine?"
"I will be 'til the 69th hour. What up!" Barney said, raising his hand for a high-five. Lily shook her head and he, disappointed, put it down. "Lily, please. I'm fine, I have self control," he said, nodding to a blonde across the room. Seeing this, Lily hit his arm. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Barney, if you're going to date this girl, Robin, you can't be hitting on or flirting with anyone else."
"What about-?"
"No," she said with a straight face, taking a guess at what he would say.
"But I didn't even-"
"No."
"How could you say no when you don't even-?"
"No."
"But-"
"I said no!" she commanded.
"Hey, Lilypad." Marshall kissed his fiancé. "What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing," Barney bitterly replied. Lily shot him another look, warning him, and Barney actually seemed worried and decided he shouldn't say anything more on the issue.
"Right, well, I was upstairs and I think Ted might have a love-overload soon."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you know how Ted is, right? How sometimes he over-thinks things and how he falls in love way too easily?"
"You mean how he Teds-up and Teds-out?"
"That's Ted," Lily agreed.
"Well, I think he's reaching an even more dangerous level of Tedding."
--
Flashback to 4 minutes ago
--
"What are you doing?" Marshall asked Ted. He was standing behind Ted who was on the computer.
"What? Nothing, I was-"
"In a chat room?" Marshall raised an eyebrow when Ted tried to hide his online activities by opening a new window on his computer; unfortunately for him Marshall had been observing his activities a good minute before alerting Ted. "Oh Ted, Ted, what were you doing in a chat room called "Lonely Yorkers"?"
"I was not in a chat room named Lonely Yorkers, that'd be stupid..." Ted grinned awkwardly (or grimaced, depending how you looked at it), but was succumbed by Marshall's glare. "It was called 'Single4York'," he corrected (holding up the appropriate number of fingers) before moving away from the computer and Marshall, to fetch a beer in the kitchen.
--
Flashforward
--
"Oh, no," Barney said with a sigh.
"Did he meet anyone?" Lily asked worried.
"I don't think so," Marshall said reassuringly. "But we should keep an eye on the situation and make sure it doesn't reach the next level."
"You mean...?" Barney asked.
"That's right. 'The Mosby'," Marshall stated.
"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that." Lily took his hand.
"Here, here." Barney raised his glass. "In other news, I've nearly perfected my list," he said, placing a yellow legal pad onto the table.
"You actually made a list?" Lily asked, stealing it away from Barney.
"Yup," Barney replied, taking the yellow legal pad back from her. "I mean," he said, looking it over, "it's not finished yet. I wanted to make sure it had all the stupid things couples do, that's why I'm showing it to you two." He grinned and handed it to Marshall.
"Well, let's see what you got." Marshall said. "Share a dinner; hold hands in public; have an annoying two person message on your phone – aren't we a little old for that? I mean, you're thirty years old."
"Please, it's fine. Keep going."
"Get matching clothes; meet the family; overnight bag?"
"Like when you bring your stuff over to their place so that you actually stay there 'til the sun comes up." Barney explains.
"Oh," Marshall said understandingly. "Well, it looks like this is a pretty good list."
"Pretty good? Pretty good isn't good enough. I don't want a 'pretty good' list, I want an awesome list. I need a hot list, not a pretty one. So can you guys think of anything else? Anything to add?"
"You could play sports together!" Lily exclaimed, Barney frowned.
"If by that you mean 'physical activities', then duh, but I didn't think I had to write it down."
"No, not that," she said in disgust. "I mean you two could play sports together."
"She did say she used to play tennis..."
"See, it's perfect!" She persisted.
--
Later on...
--
"Hey, Barney, what's up?" Robin answered her phone.
"Oh, nothing much, I was bored, thought I'd see what you were up to. Not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Uh no, no I was just looking over a few figures - did you know that there's a huge debate going on about the difference between crêpes and pancakes?"
"No I did not, but that is fascinating!"
"Sarcasm, nice."
He smiled making a soft chuckle in the depths of his throat. "Thanks."
