Sorry for the long wait, I was busy with my other story...
Day 10
"Robin?" He shook her shoulder lightly to wake her up.
Robin started stirring, and buried her head into the pillow.
"I got you breakfast." Barney whispered.
"Coffee too?" She mumbled.
"A latte macchiato," his hand was still lying on her shoulder, stroking her softly now.
She propped herself up, and rubbed her eyes before noticing the cream cheese bagel, a small bowl of fruit salad and the latte macchiato on the nightstand.
"Wow, that looks really good. Thank you Barney."
"We got a lot to do today, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day." He got up, and disappeared in the bathroom.
He remembered Lily's words while he was shaving, maybe making a girl breakfast in bed was crossing the line, but there were no hidden intentions, and Robin knew that.
…
They got the rental, and arrived at Ted's apartment around ten. Luckily no-one was home, and they were able to start packing right away.
"I'll start by bringing some of the smaller furniture items downstairs, okay?" Barney asked.
"Sure." Robin kept throwing things into the boxes as quickly as possible.
"You really don't want to see Ted, do you?" Barney asked.
"Nope." She replied.
"Me neither." He said, quickening his pace as well. He knew that they wouldn't be able to keep this a secret for very long, but he really dreaded the conversation with their friends about the change of plans.
…
"Dude! Have you never used a screwdriver before?" Robin asked.
They were both sitting on the floor, trying to disassemble her bed.
"'Cause I have." Barney replied.
"It sure doesn't look like it, here, let me do it." Robin tried to get a hold of the tool.
"Will you just…" Barney tried to free his hand, they were so busy wrestling that they didn't notice Lily entering the apartment.
"What's going on in here?" Lily's voice surprised them, and both turned around quickly.
Robin took the screwdriver out of Barney's hand, and turned back to the task on hand.
"What are you doing?" Lily asked baffled.
"What are you doing here, Lil?" Barney asked.
"Ted asked me to check in on Robin, are you moving out?" Lily replied shocked.
Robin just nodded.
Barney watched her for a second, she clearly didn't want to have this conversation right now.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" Barney asked while getting up, "alone?"
Lily nodded, and followed him into the living room.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Don't freak out, but Ted is seriously driving Robin crazy, so we decided that she could live with me for a while." Barney explained, barely speaking loud enough for Lily to hear what he was saying.
"What? You got to be kidding. That is the worst idea ever."
"Why?" Barney challenged her.
"Well for starters, Robin won't be comfortable in your man cave, you don't even own a real stove for Christ's sake, let alone have any food around."
"That's your go-to argument?" Barney asked confused.
Lily pulled him into the kitchen, wanting to make sure that Robin didn't overhear the conversation, "Barney I know what you are doing, you are trying to hook up with her, and that's not cool. She is in a really vulnerable place right now."
"I know that Lily, and that's not what I am doing. I want her to get better, and getting out of this apartment, and Ted hovering over her 24/7 is exactly what she needs."
"Barney, I get that Robin is annoyed by Ted, but he knows her better than we do, and I think if you would just let things run its course she'd realize that, and start open up to him." Lily countered.
"Bullshit. Who is she most comfortable around right now? Me! Not Ted. Lily this move is what she needs, and it's not like she will be by herself either, I will make sure she's okay."
"Oh come on Barney, Robin went through something very traumatic, you can't just handle this."
Barney rolled his eyes.
"What about your bimbos? You can't just bring random chicks home when Robin is there." Lily said.
"We've talked about that, and Robin is okay with it." Barney replied.
"Oh really? So she just has to hide out in her room day-in and day-out?" Lily asked.
"Lily listen, this is happening, whether you like it or not. You can either be on board, and help us, or not. Your choice, although I recommend the former if you want to start gaining Robin's trust again."
Barney left the kitchen before Lily could reply.
"Wow," Barney was surprised to find the entire bed disassembled.
"How did it go?" Robin asked.
"I am not sure yet." Barney replied, while picking up the first piece of the frame.
"I heard you could use another set of hands?" Lily asked when she entered the room.
Barney and her eyes met, and Barney smiled at her before passing her to bring the furniture to the truck.
…
"I think it's time for a pizza." Barney exclaimed an hour later.
It had taken forever to disassemble the closet, and they were almost done carrying everything downstairs.
"I'd rather get going." Robin said.
"Oh come on, you can't move without ordering pizza." Lily chipped in.
Barney looked at Robin, waiting for her reply.
She shrugged, and mouthed 'Ted'.
"Lil you are sure that Ted's not coming home for lunch today, right?" Barney asked.
"Yeah, he has a meeting with clients, that's why he asked me to check on you in the first place." Lily explained.
"Okay then, let's order pizza." Robin said, and Barney pulled his phone out.
The pizza arrived half an hour later.
"Robin are you sure you want to live at the Fortress of Barnitute? I've spend some nights there, and it's not necessarily the … how do I put this delicately… the most girl friendly place." Lily asked.
"I think it'll be fine." Robin replied.
"Me too, we can stay up, drink scotch together, and watch hockey games."
"Since when do you watch hockey, Barney?" Lily asked delighted.
"Since I got my new sport package." Barney replied.
"Since he constantly hangs out with a Canadian, and realized that the big white north isn't that bad after all." Robin interjected.
Barney grinned, "well, I don't know about that."
"I'll take you one day, prove to you how wrong you were about Canada." Robin promised.
"I'll take you up on that Scherbatsky."
"Oh I hope you will." Robin replied winking at him.
Barney noticed Lily smiling at her pizza, and wondered what she was thinking right now.
"So Robin, what about when Barney brings bimbos home?" Lily asked.
"What about it?" Robin asked.
"Well, won't that be kind of awkward."
"Nah, I can pretend to be his wife in the morning, it'll be fun." Robin replied.
"Exactly, besides, it's not like I am constantly bringing girls home anyways."
"Right, you prefer dark alleys," Lily spurted out without thinking about what it was she had said.
Barney's head spun around, he just starred at her for a second, a second that felt way too long to all three of them, before he finally said, "McLarens bathroom stalls are quite roomy actually."
"I'll get me another coke, want anything?" Robin asked as she left the room.
"Really Lil, really?" Barney asked as he got up himself.
"I didn't mean to." Lily defended herself, but Barney had already left the room.
He found Robin leaning against the kitchen counter, she pushed herself off and opened the fridge when she saw him coming.
"Robin listen," he started, but she talked over him immediately.
"Don't Barney, okay?"
He nodded, she was right, this wasn't them. He shouldn't be trying to be a Ted. Still, he really wanted to pull her into a tight hug, and tell her that everything would be okay.
"You wanna get going? We still got a lot to do today." Barney suggested.
Robin nodded, and emptied her glass.
Lily had cleaned up the pizza cartons, while they were in the kitchen.
"Robin I am sorry." She said as they entered the room.
Robin just waved her off, "who will help me carry this closet door down?"
"I'd say you two do it," Barney suggested.
"And you watch?" Robin teased him.
"No Robin. I will take the other parts." He pushed past her, and started to pick things up.
Within twenty minutes they had everything in the truck, and were good to go.
"Are you sure you don't want me to help unload?" Lily asked for the tenth time.
"Positive, I'll pay the doorman to help us, it'll be easy." Barney assured her.
Robin nodded, "it's fine, we got this."
Lily nodded, and drew her best friend into a hug. Barney watched them, he couldn't believe Lily was on board with Robin living at the Fortress of Barnitude.
"Jeez, she isn't moving to another country." He spoke up.
Lily let go of Robin, "I know, it's just … you two living together, that's huge!"
"Let's go before Lily get's even more sentimental Robin", Barney joked.
…
They got to Barney's apartment, and Victor, the doorman, was more than happy to help them carry things. Well, the money helped curve his enthusiasm.
Between Victors help, and the comfort of having an elevator, they had everything upstairs rather quickly.
"Have you thought about how you want to arrange the furniture?" Barney asked as he entered the room.
Robin shook her head, "not really. I mean this room is much nicer, than the other one, I might just get another dresser or something." She shrugged, and walked towards the window.
"The view is nicer too, huh?" Barney asked as he stepped behind her.
"Yeah," she turned around, "thanks again Barney."
"Stop thanking me every five minutes, it's really annoying. So what do you think, put the bed on this wall?"
"I was thinking the closet," she replied.
"And the bed?"
She pointed towards another wall.
"Well, let's do it!" he exclaimed.
…
They went out to go shopping after reassembling the closet, and Barney helped with selecting a nice lounge chair and dresser, as well as a rug. He also insisted on buying her a few nice pictures for the room, arguing that Lily wasn't going to visit often anyways so there was no need to have her paintings up on the wall.
There élan was fading quickly after they returned, and so they weren't making that much progress afterwards.
"Dude, that's the wrong screw." Robin pointed out.
"It got to be the right one, it's the only one that makes sense." Barney replied annoyed, shifting through the screws on the ground.
"I swear, if I collapse with this bed tonight..." The doorbell interrupted Robin.
"I'll get it," she jumped up, and Barney watched her grinning. Maybe Robin should just sleep in his bed again, that way they could finish building the bed tomorrow.
He could hear Robin talk, but not quite make out what she was saying. But then he heard Ted, and got up himself.
Robin had the doorknob in her hand, keeping Ted from entering the apartment.
"I got home and all your stuff was gone," Ted was clearly angry.
"Hey bro." Barney said, while stepping behind Robin.
"Don't bro me. Whose idea was this? When were you going to tell me?"
"Ted listen," Barney started, but Ted wasn't having it.
"No, I want to hear this from Robin."
Barney looked up at the ceiling, annoyed by his friends attitude.
"I've asked Barney if I could move in, and he was okay with it. Ted it's not like our living arrangement has been working lately." Robin answered firmly.
"What do you mean it hasn't been working?" Ted asked, still fuming.
"It's weird. And not just since…that night. Living with an ex is just awkward." Robin replied.
"Everything was going fine until Barney interfered."
"Hey." Barney interjected.
"This has nothing to do with Barney, Ted. Me living with you isn't working, and it certainly won't help me get back on my feet."
"But living with Barney will?" Ted asked.
"I think it will, yes."
"Oh come on, he just wants to get in your pants."
"Hey!" Barney interjected once again.
"Good night Ted." Robin was surprisingly calm.
"You are making a huge mistake." Ted said, shaking his head, "and you can always come home, okay?" He turned around, and started walking down the corridor.
"Good night." Barney shouted after Ted.
Robin closed the door, letting herself fall against it.
"Well, that went fairly well." Barney commented.
"He'll be back, this is far from over." Robin replied.
Barney nodded, "hey, how about, we screw building your bed, and instead put our PJ's on and watch TV in bed?"
"Hockey?"
"Sure thing."
…
Robin had fallen asleep rather quickly, and Barney was watching her. Today had been a good day, of course they had a lot to do so she didn't really have time to think too much about what had happened. Still, Barney had a really good feeling about her living here with him.
For the first time in his life, he felt like he was making a large difference in someone's life and it felt kind a good.