Get This Close (Episode 10, The Fight)
She'd been sitting next to him at their usual table and for the first time in a long time, she'd been allowed to touch him in a way that was not strictly friends-only: To grip his arm and feel the swell of his bicep beneath the thin cotton of his shirt (boy she needs to get laid!), to excitedly rub his leg under the table without him either calling her on it or stopping her, to even touch his face (the bruise felt like warm steak and the thought still makes her mouth water).
These last couple of months have been tough on him (and on her) but they've successfully managed to elevate their relationship somehow. She's saved his ass twice now - once after he got sick from riding the bucking bronco and then again when he was kicked out of that bimbo's apartment and left in the street naked without a shred of his dignity intact. She thought she's been doing so well! That moment of weakness at Shelter Island when she'd (almost) thrown herself at him was completely forgotten, as was his inexplicably sweet behaviour before she left for Japan.
They were back to being Barney and Robin again. Bros. Compadres. Wing-man to wing-woman.
So why had she been pulling at him like he was…? he was…? He was Barney Stinson and you didn't get close to Barney Stinson. Not ever. Well, unless you were a bro. But a proper relationship (with a girl) that might (on the outside chance) involve cuddling and not leaving first thing in the morning…?
No way.
And what about her? She didn't exactly fawn over guys. Well, okay, there was Simon, and that British doctor guy a few years ago (god, what was his name?) and Gael… but they were just silly, temporary, infatuations. This was Barney and he was her friend and she didn't get silly infatuations about a friend.
(Hey, totally not true. Remember Ted? Remember how that ended?)
But even so, the next time she's in the booth and jammed up tight next to him, she misses the easy intimacy and she misses the chance to touch him.
And there's one brief moment when he looks over at her and makes a crude joke, but there's this weird longing in his eyes, as if he somehow misses it too.
Something hurts inside her far more than she'd ever expected it to and, to her own great surprise, she smiles at him.
After all, someone's got to make the first move, right?
