AN: This chapter has several flashbacks. I've marked them all by date, but I'm giving a heads-up now in case anyone finds it confusing.


Last Time in New York

After Barney and Robin leave James's room, they go down to the front desk to check on theirs and indeed the bridal suite is now ready for them. Opening the door, they start looking around, ready to settle in for the weekend. Shortly after they'd arrived, Robin left the photo of the gang Ted gave her at the front desk for safekeeping and she immediately sees that Curtis had it sent to their room where it's sitting in a place of pride on one of the nightstands. While Robin's busy scoping out the picture, for all that his friends often joke about his irresponsibility, Barney goes around the room ensuring that all their luggage is accounted for and locking the doors to the outside since his travels for GNB have taught him you can never be too careful.

Once he's satisfied that everything's as it should be, Barney glances around the suite with a less scrutinizing and more appreciative eye. He smiles at Robin as she too admires the suite. "We're finally here…." It's a sweet sentiment that has her smiling in return, and then he adds, "….where we're gonna consummate our marriage."

Robin laughs, shaking her head. "I thought you wanted to do that at the church immediately following the 'I do's?" she remarks as they pass one another, each going to check out the opposite side of the suite.

"And once you met our reverend you said we could never do it there again; he'd kill us. But I still don't want to wait," he shrugs, "so we'll just have to detour up here before we go down to the reception."

Robin stops before the French doors, gazing out the window at the stunning view: the beautiful sandy beach they can walk right out onto with blue ocean beyond as far as the eye can see. And in two days the reception tent where they'll share their first dance as husband and wife will be just around the corner on the front lawn. "You're right. We're finally here; we're finally doing this. It's so real now."

He comes up behind her, wraps his arms around her waist and draws her back against him as they both look out the window.

"It's gorgeous, Barney. One of these nights we have to find time for a moonlight walk."

"You mean you want to bang out on the beach," he grins.

She reaches down and covers his hands at her waist with her own. "Whatever else we get up to while we're out there walking is just between you and me…."

"Hmm, maybe we can get away tonight," he proposes suggestively, pressing a kiss to the shell of her ear.

Robin sighs. "Everything is – "

" – perfect," they finish together, followed by a joint "Awww" that they're still so entirely in unison.

"Robin, I love you."

"I love you."

Moving her hair aside, he starts kissing her neck and it's just the kind of slow buildup that leaves them hot and aching inside, makes the main event that much more spectacular when they finally get to it. Enjoying what he's doing, Robin murmurs his name and in response Barney pulls her blazer aside to nuzzle and kiss her shoulder through her thin blouse. "What does this remind you of?" he asks, his breath warm against her skin as his lips brush the underside of her jaw.

"That first night," she whispers, setting her head back against his shoulder to give him better access to her neck.

"The night we got engaged," he confirms.

Robin smiles decadently. "That night was a record."

He makes a small sound of amused agreement. "I thought we'd hit the limit during our summer, but that night was…."

"….superhuman," she completes his sentence. "I seriously didn't think that many times was physically possible – and so fantastic every time. Nothing can top that night."

"Our wedding night will," Barney boldly promises.

Robin turns to face him, draping her arms over his shoulders. "They have a king-sized bed here just like at home. Except you know what they say about hotel sex: it's always sexier…I've never tried bridal suite sex before but it's got to be even better."

"Has to be."

This time it's Robin who grins cheekily. "Let's go mess up that bed."

Barney's expression perks up with excitement. He'd been swept away in the moment, honestly just kissing her because he loves her and he couldn't help himself. He wasn't planning to actually get sex out of it here and now, but he's thrilled for the turn things have taken. "Are we doing this? Right now?"

"We're doing this."

He hums in pleasure, bending to kiss her neck again. "But not quick like it would've been in the limo. I want to enjoy you."

"We have over three hours until the best man poker game," Robin points out.

"That should be just enough time. Just barely."

"Ooooh,"she breathes seconds before his lips touch hers.

Her fingers are buried in his hair and he's pulling her closer, the kiss growing increasingly passionate, when her stomach growls loudly. She breaks the kiss, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry."

"That's okay. We haven't eaten since this morning. I'm hungry too." And he knows what that means; he should be seeing that his fiancée has a nice meal, not trying to have sex with her while she's starving. He moves his hands up her arms, easing their bodies apart. "We should probably be downstairs right now getting lunch…."

"Uhh, you're right," Robin realizes. "We just got here barely two hours ago, literally just got into our suite. We haven't eaten in hours, there are a million things to do, and we can't keep our hands off each other."

"Some things never change."

"Yeah," she laughs. "But this is no time for sex, right?"

"Alright, we'll save this for later," Barney smiles, taking her hand. "Let's go down to the bar and grab lunch."

She nods. "I'll bring the notebook so we can multitask."


Over sandwiches and a salad down at the bar, Robin's double-checking their weekend schedule and dealing with the threat of Barney's ring bear when they both hear the beep of the newly arrived motor coach transporting their elderly relatives. That ominous sound means they won't have a minute to themselves for the rest of the day. Their aging relatives will leech onto them with a million questions and rambling stories and they won't get any time together at all. Even with everything else that's going on they were still able to enjoy a quiet lunch, just the two of them. Now they won't be able to shake these seniors for anything.

"Oh god, this is gonna be rough," Robin whines. "My great-grandparents never stop bickering." Their back and forth is enough to drive her crazy. "But I guess that's what happens when you've been married for sixty years." You fall into the routine of it over time, she supposes.

Barney contemplates that; Robin's great-grandparents have been married for sixty years. He told Robin himself they'd still be together sixty years down the line, and he fully believes it, but up until now he never really thought about what sixty years down the line would look like. He still imagined himself and Robin and their relationship exactly as there are now. Sure, they'd have to get older, but he never really thought about the changes that being an older, long-married couple might bring. But the arrival of that shuttle bus brings it all home and makes Barney abruptly realize that Robin's raised an excellent point.

A couple married sixty years, together so long it's just the same bickering repeated over and over again on an endless cycle. What if that inevitably does take the forefront and all the rest goes by the wayside? "Sixty years…." he muses aloud. He's seen pictures of Robin's great-grandparents. They're so wrinkled and old, it makes sense that the only thing left to do is companionably squabble over their TV trays while eating their frozen dinners and watching Jeopardy. "Man, when's the last time you think they had sex?"

After joking about some Canadian nonsense she clarifies her guess as 1967. But that was well before either of them was even born. Is that what he and Robin have to look forward to? Decades' worth of sexlessness? His brow furrows in concern as he poses the question, "That's not gonna be us, right? Like when we get married, it's not all fighting, no sex?"

"What?" Robin tries to play it off. In reality, the same thought occurred to her too. Yes, it's the cliché for marriage, but aren't her grandparents living proof that the cliché must be at least partially true? Still, she shoves that aside in favor of solid reasoning, with herself just as much as Barney. "No way," says as if the whole thing is a whole lot more ridiculous than she actually finds it. "It's us." Which is so true. When hasn't their relationship been highly sexual? They can't keep their hands off each other; it's a point they just established and a known fact among their friends. "R-train" – as in, he's always welcome to climb aboard – "and B-nasty," she reiterates.

Barney nods vigorously. Right, she's right. They're unique. They go at each other like crazy. What they have is magic.

Playing with his tie, she moves in close, her voice growing more sensual as she assures him, "That will never happen."

They lean in and kiss each other….but it still picks at their minds, the thought that 'never' is such a strong word. Because they go at each other like crazy right now, but they've only been back together for five months. Maybe that compelling craving to have each other will lessen over time until it wears off altogether and they too become her grandparents, all fighting and no sex…..

And now that the idea is in their heads, the events of the day serve as a frightening example. They can't keep their hands off each other? Some things never change? But is that really true? What if they will change; what if they've already begun to change the very second they got in the vicinity of vows actually being spoken? Look how many times already today they were going to but then didn't have sex: in the limo, in James's room, in their hotel room just now – and it's barely after two in the afternoon. Already they're blithely agreeing to postpone sex. Is this just the beginning of the end? They can't let that happen. They have to hold on to that wild can't-keep-our-hands-off-each-other spark. They can't just become this old married couple.

So as soon as Robin and Barney break apart they simultaneous burst out with the thought that's plaguing both their minds. "We have to have sex right now!" They must in order to prove they're just as I-have-to-have-you-NOW hot for each other as ever before, to prove that their magic truly is never going to fade away.

The realization that they're both thinking the same thing, that it's not just a private paranoia, is a sweet one. It's a pleasant feeling to know someone else gets it too, and it once again proves their utter compatibility, leading them to jointly coo, "Ohhhh". But as perfect and adorable as they are together, the point still stands. They have to have sex right now to dismiss this notion that their relationship will be anything but intensely passionate for all time.

Leaving their lunches untouched they hurry out of the bar, already kissing. Pressed together this way, hands stroking and tongues caressing as they make their way through the halls of the hotel, it's no longer only just a need to prove themselves but a very real urgency now. They both feel it desperately.

Robin nudges her pelvis into his and Barney's hand goes down to the small of her back, helping her maintain the contact. "That's it," he encourages. "You're my dirty, dirty girl."

Right now in this moment when he's talking sexy to her she isn't thinking about anything other than his hands on her body, and the only thought in his mind is of how fast they can get each other naked.

"How much farther is our room?" she wonders impatiently between kisses.

"Just up here," he answers against her mouth.

When they reach the door of their suite, she turns in his arms to try the handle but of course it locks automatically. Barney allows himself to let go of Robin just long enough to reach around her and insert his key into the lock. Looking over her shoulder at him, they share a naughty smile at the sexual connotation, but he has trouble actually getting the door unlocked what with the way she's tilting her hips back against him and sliding over his zipper. Another few minutes of that and pants will be going down around the ankles and he'll be taking her right here, this way. But then the lock turns and the door opens and Robin automatically turns around to face him again and get back to all that kissing.

But Barney holds up a finger. "One more thing before we start," he says, giving her a look that's ridiculously arousing. He steps inside, setting their room key down on the table to free up his fingers for better things, and grabs the "Do not disturb" sign from the other side of the door. Crossing back out into the hallway with her, he pulls the door in toward them to hang the sign on the outside knob.

Robin reads it and nods her approval. "Exactly. Don't come a knockin' cause the Stinsons are always gonna be up to some dirty business."

"Damn straight," he agrees before lunging for her mouth again.

His arms go around her waist and she brings one hand up to cradle his neck, using the other to push open the door and then it too is right back up to his face, holding his mouth steady against hers. He reaches out to shut the door behind them as they pass but he misses and thinks screw that, whoever walks by is just getting a show. He's not letting go of her right now for anything. He moves his hand under her jacket, sliding over bare skin where her shirt has ridden up – soon to come off completely – and it is so on, the promise of making love to her imminent.

Robin relishes Barney's hands inching over her waist and hips, pressing her to him. It feels so good, but it doesn't escape her notice that the carnal and wild Stinsons are about to get to some dirty, dirty business…..in a private hotel suite of the quaint seaside inn they've legally booked for the weekend. Not exactly wild and dirty at all. Not very far from old married monotony actually.

She breaks away, setting her hands to his chest for a modicum of space – because when they're this far gone it takes a fire alarm, a bullhorn, usually some physical distance of at least a few inches between their bodies to pull Barney's attention from anything other than loving on her. "Wait, wait, wait. You know what would really prove we're not some old, married couple?" she poses, her tone turning amorous as she pulls him back in by his lapels. He smiles down at her all sexy and loving, and she really does want him right now, point-proving aside. But this way will kill two birds with one stone. "Doing it somewhere we're not supposed to," she says waywardly, feeling his fingers tighten on her waist when she says 'doing it'.

And that's what has them scrambling out of their hotel room and the very available bed right behind them to go seek the uninhibited, wild and forbidden, unconventional sex to be had up on the roof.

But after nearly being caught by Robin's great uncle, even their efforts to make this bang a home game fail them when they realize Barney has locked them out. Nevertheless, they're not going to complacently put off sex again. They've got to prove they're so hot for each other they just can't wait – and now that they've actually jumpstarted the process enough to leave them both turned on and wanting more it's really not that much of an exaggeration. And so they're still doing this. Now. Even if that means they'll have to walk down to the front desk for a spare key.

That's easier said than done however with the place crawling with so many senior it's like Night of the Living Dead. With the lobby flooded with "zombies" they're stuck wandering the halls looking for some place, any place, where they won't be found. When they happen upon the ice machine room, Robin's sure they've finally located a sanctuary to sex each other up good and prove they're a couple whose libido and desire for each other will never fade. Yet before they can so much as kiss they run into James, who happened to be hiding there first in hopes of avoiding the many questions being gay, black, and in the middle of a divorce will bring him.

But answering his return question – "What are you two doing?" – isn't exactly easy. Out of respect for Robin, Barney looks to her for a signal on that one. Do they come clean and admit that what they're trying to do is each other – and why – or do they make up a pretext instead and keep things private between them?

But Robin has no qualms divulging they're trying to have sex some place naughty, so Barney reaches over and strokes her arm as he jumps in to explain the rest to his brother. "We're trying to sneak in one last bang cause we're afraid that the magic might fade after we get married."

Hearing her fears put into words, Robin crosses her arms over her chest in a defensive posture. Neither one had actually said so out loud but Barney's clearly read her mind and has the same worry too. "Are we being crazy?" she asks James.

A look of hesitation crosses over him before he admits, "That is what happened with me and Tom."

Barney and Robin's faces fall and Robin's telltale rapid blinking kicks in. That is literally the last thing they wanted to hear right now, and they turn to each other in shared concern. But James promises he won't let it happen to them too and sacrifices himself for the cause, leaving Robin and Barney free to seek a new hiding place – now with an even greater determination for the sex that will prove the magic's still there and is never going away.

But the outbreak is no longer limited to the lobby alone. The hotel is now crawling with elderly obstacles. In spite of that, just like they wouldn't let the possibility of being related keep them apart, this new threat to their relationship's longevity will be quashed just as quickly. Once they're both panting and trembling, falling over the edge into a toe-curling orgasm, the very idea that passion might ever go away will seem far less threatening to them.

If they can just find a little privacy. Perhaps the second floor is safe? The gym? But Barney reminds Robin of his Papa Sid's love for saunas, and she chastises herself for not thinking of it on her own after the many stories he's told her and since they had to go out of their way to make sure this hotel had a sauna especially for him.

Finally they settle on splitting up, Barney to check for open rooms upstairs, Robin to scope out the business center. Grinning lecherously at their victory and soon to come – what up – sex, they start to take off but Barney can't end it like that. He pulls her back for one last enthusiastic kiss. She melts into his arm and they both moan as they clutch onto one another – the magic still very much, very vividly alive. Yet they have to regretfully tear themselves away from each other now so that they can have each other all the way later in whatever private little nook they can find.

After a brief detour where Barney nearly gets captured on the second floor and Robin runs into Ted and Lily, Barney finds plenty of empty rooms up on the third floor, calling Robin to tell her, and she races to him, just as eager as he is. Seeing each other around the corner, they giggle happily and go running into one another's arm. As they kiss, Barney straightaway curves Robin's body to his – no waiting; they have to have each other right now. His hands immediately roam her curves, dragging her shirt up with him as she steps in closer and he groans softly at the exquisite feeling of her body against him.

This time it's Barney's great aunt that nearly catches them, driving them into the safety of the nearest unlocked room, but it doesn't matter because they've finally found some privacy at last. So very pleased that they made it, they laugh gently and Robin presses Barney back against the wall, ready to come together for real this time….Until they realize they're not alone in the room. This is, in fact, Robin's great-grandparents' room – and they apparently have the same idea as Barney and Robin – with the addition of using dentures and a walker for sex aids.

They scramble from the room, horrified with what they just witnessed, and voice the same shared sentiment – "I never want to have sex again" – which just has to produce another "Ohhh" at their mutual response. Nevertheless, basking in their love doesn't last long with the image of what Robin just saw her nana doing forever cemented in her mind.

As Barney expounds on her great-grandfather's swinging testicles, a truly disturbing memory if there ever is one, she closes her eyes and allows her mind to step outside the immediate gross-out factor to really consider what they walked in on. And that's when she realizes the underlying truth of what they've just discovered. Her great-grandparents have been married for sixty years, yes, but it's clearly not all fighting and no sex. They're the longest married couple Robin's ever known, and yet when they've only just arrived at the hotel the very first thing they want to do is tear into each other.

She turns to Barney, letting him in on what she's just recognized. "Still, when you think about it, married for sixty years and they still want to jump each other's bones? I mean it's….it's kinda sweet."

They both glance over at the closed hotel room where the sixtieth anniversary couple is currently having some very creative walker-enhanced sex, and the two of them think back on their own history together and all of their years– not sixty, but six or more depending on the messiness of how soon you want to measure the start of all their magic, and still a good amount of time in this day and age.

There was an instant, undeniable spark between them from the very beginning, long before they could categorize themselves as bros or even true friends. Getting to know each other only intensified that spark and it didn't flicker and fade, not even when Robin dated Ted for a year and Barney banged his way across the city. The year after that, when the two of them were both single again and spending exorbitant amounts of time together under the guise of broing out, that was the start of the real magic – sometimes even literal magic, like that one particular night five years ago, back in early April 2008, one of many close calls they had back then…..


2008


It's late at MacLaren's – very late – and Barney and Robin are the only two left in the booth drinking together. Ted disappeared much earlier to go off on a date with Stella. Marshall and Lily stuck around a while longer, but once she muttered "rhinoceros" they too shot out of there. In fact, much of the bar has left at this point. It's only just the stragglers who couldn't yet manage to get lucky tonight, and then the two of them, nursing the last of their scotch.

They've been talking and drinking and laughing the night away, enjoying each other's company so much that Robin hadn't even noticed how late it was getting until she looked around just now and saw that the bar has pretty well emptied out. Glancing at her phone, she's surprised to see it's nearly 3 a.m. – which gets her wondering why Barney isn't off by now securing his latest bed partner for the night. "Why haven't you picked up some bimbo yet? It's almost closing time."

He doesn't answer, just smiles inscrutably. "Want to see a magic trick?"

Her hands immediately swoop down to cover her open drink. "Barney, we've talked about this," she warns him sternly. "We've even had an intervention about this. No fireballs, especially in the bar."

Barney pouts, giving her those adorable pleading eyes, but she won't be moved on this point. She's not getting singed for any man.

"Fine," he relents. "But I'll still show you a magic trick."

He has on that mischievous expression he gets before he does something really, really good or really, really bad but entertaining in either case. That expression always exhilarates her heart rate in a way that it definitely shouldn't. "What are you up to?" she questions suspiciously.

"Just a special little trick I've been working on."

Her curiosity and the crazy affect he has on her pulse get the better of her and she finds herself saying, "Alright. Show me." But then she realizes the insanity she potentially opened herself up to. "You promise no fire?"

"No fire." He's managed to keep a straight face so she nods her consent. "Okay, the first thing we have to do is stand up," he explains, doing just that.

"Me too?" Robin whines. Her world has that hazy edge to it where she's feeling the alcohol just enough for it to be nice but not enough to qualify as drunk, and she rather likes it right where she is, sitting comfortably and finishing off the last of her Glen McKenna.

But Barney insists, "Yes, you too", pulling her up to stand beside him next to the booth.

"Okay, now what?"

He smirks. "Put your hand in my pocket."

Robin gives him a leveling look. So that's what he's up to, and it's pretty disappointing as far as Barney's plays go. "You'll have to do better than that."

"Please," he scoffs. "If this were a come-on, Lil' Barney would be reaching for you. Huh?" he nudges her, proud of his joke. She rolls her eyes, but he notes that she's smiling. "No, I'm serious. Put your hand in my pockets. Both sides. It's part of the trick. You have to verify they're empty."

She eyes him carefully but all too quickly gives in, a disturbing measure of the power he has over her – but she chooses not to think about that. Warily reaching out, she tentatively slides her hand into his front left pant pocket. Her eyes catch on his as her fingers glide against his thigh, and his smirk widens. "Move a muscle and I'll kill you."

"Easier said than done with your hand in my pants," Barney quips. "You could always move an inch to the right, help us both out…."

Robin extracts her hand but like the fool she is slides it into the opposite pocket. "How would that help me?"

He looks down at her, his eyes promising all sorts of wicked things. "You'd like the end result."

It's spoken with a self-assured certainty that shouldn't be sexy but it certainly is. And he's too close and she's had too much to drink – that must be it – because she finds the thought tremendously tempting. It puts other images in her mind too, images that shouldn't – that can't – be there. Worst of all, they cannot be so appealing to her.

She withdraws her hand and puts some cautious distance between them but Barney will have none of it. This builds the suspense in the trick, among other things…. "Now my coat."

Robin sighs but she steps in close again and reaches into his breast pocket – for the good of the trick, of course – her fingers grazing over his chest in the process. She looks up at him and sees that teasing glint in his eyes that lets her know he's enjoying himself very much. "You know, you could have just taken this off before making me reach inside."

"Not as much fun that way," he winks at her.

She steps back away. "Okay, so now that I've inadvertently felt you up a little, I can verify that…." Her lips curve into a taunting smile. "….there is absolutely nothing going on down there," she teases him.

Pinning her gaze, Barney offers, "Put your hand back in my pocket and we'll see about that."

Robin shakes her head a little, wondering how it always goes back to the same place with the two of them, how teasing turns to open flirtation that always winds up sexually charged and keeps leading to these heated 'almost' moments between them. They've got to stop doing this. "Come on. You've got the all clear. Let's see some magic."

He takes up her challenge with a boyish grin. Waving his hand and doing a little magic, a real live robin comes fluttering out of one arm and a sea of glitter out of the other. "Get it?" he asks excitedly. "It was a robin and then some sparkles. Robin Sparkles. Eh?"

Robin genuinely is amazed and she laughs, helplessly charmed.

Until Carl comes over and starts yelling at Barney. "You can't bring an animal in here."

"Technically it's a bird, not an animal," Barney defends.

"Birds are still animals; they're just not mammals," Robin corrects him.

"I don't care what it is. It can't be in here. And now you've got glitter all over the floor. This is gonna take Wendy an extra half hour to clean up." Carl turns to Robin now too. "Come on you two, out."

Grumbling, they gather up their things and head out the door.

Bumping his shoulder with hers on the way up the stairs, Robin playfully taunts him, "You got us kicked out of MacLaren's."

"They were closing in ten minutes anyway," Barney mutters. At the top of the stairs he starts texting furiously, arranging a ride home. "Wanna split a cab?"

She looks at him suspiciously, certain he has unpure intentions. "I don't trust you inside a cab. I know what happens once you get girls in a cab. We both know what comes next."

He crosses his heart like the boycott he never was. "I promise to be good. Unless you decide you don't want to be…."

"Not gonna be a problem."

"Hm. We'll see….."

Looking at each other in the darkness, they fall into silence for a moment, the sexual tension palpable between them, and Robin doesn't like it one bit – or rather she hates that she loves this zip between them whenever they're alone together this way with the fact that they're insanely attracted to each other right out in the open staring them in the face, the elephant in the room they never, ever address. So she opens her mouth to speak because she needs to be saying something. "That really was an amazing trick, Barney…..Got any other magic to keep us entertained while we wait?"

"Mm-hm." Barney's more comfortable dancing with danger than she is and he moves in toward her. "Now it's my turn to reach into your pants." His voice is low and seductive as his hand plays at the waist of her jeans. He runs the middle and forefinger of his other hand along her bare shoulder, assuring her, "I've got a trick I can show you with these two fingers that I guarantee you'll agree is magic….Remember what I whispered in your ear?"

She knows he means the week before when she tried to help him find the woman who was sabotaging his love life. That night, while she was roleplaying the woman he was hitting on, she asked him to tell her how he gets all these women to come home with him. What he told her was so tantalizingly dirty that even in a bar it had to be whispered, but it set her on fire all the same, sending a throbbing ache to all the good places, places that really wanted to see if he could deliver on what he claimed. "You didn't say your fingers," she murmurs.

His eyes darken. Because she's not telling him 'no', only haggling over the details – which isn't a problem for him at all. He'll give her anything she wants, any way she wants, just as long as she lets him finally have her at all. "Robin, I've got magic everywhere. But we'd get arrested if I did that to you out on the street." He takes her arm and starts leading her away. "For what I whispered in your ear, we'll have to duck around that corner where I can – "

Robin pulls away, taking a protective step back….because of how much she wants to step forward and let him show her. "Thanks, but I'll stick to strictly clothed magic for now."

All at once Barney's face lights up and he breaks out into a huge grin. "Ahh, Scherbatsky…." he gushes, his tone both amused and very pleased with himself, pleased with this turn of events.

Robin can't understand it and gives him an odd look. She just turned him down. He ought to be disappointed. "What?"

His eyes sparkle down at her and he waves a victorious finger in her face teasingly. "You said 'for now'."

"What?" she squeaks, realizing he's right. She just left him an opening a mile wide and all but admitted she'd like to sleep with him someday. She has no recourse but to lie through her teeth. "No. No, I didn't."

"You totally did," Barney snickers. "And you're giggling. You think I'd forget your tell?"

She sighs heavily. "Alright, so what if I did? It's just a figure of speech."

"A figure of speech that means not now but eventually you wanna try some naked magic with me."

"Shut up." But her eyes are twinkling with enjoyment now too and she's smiling even as she says it. "I do not."

Barney moves in closer, all the better to tempt her. "That's not what your eyes are saying."

Robin immediately looks down. She can't have him reading her right now; she'd come out on the losing end, on the end that has her rolling around in the sheets with him tonight. "My eyes aren't saying anything," she insists to the ground.

Their cab pulls up a second later and Barney holds the door open for her, but Robin hesitates on the curb. "I don't know if I want to get in there with you."

Barney smiles at that. Her reluctance to be alone with him can only be a good thing as far as he figures. "I promised to be good, remember? Besides, my stop comes first. All you have to do is not get out and come upstairs with me." He captures her gaze and they both feel that zing again. "Think you can manage it?" he dares her, setting off every competitive bone in her body.

She has her pride to protect, proving she can withstand their chemistry just as long as he can, thank you very much. Challenge so accepted. "I can resist you just fine, Barney."

"Says the girl who just giggled."

She narrows her eyes at him as she slides past and into the cab. He moves in and sits down beside her, shutting the door, and then it's just darkness and the two of them and a space that seems to be getting smaller with each heated breath they take.

Barney's hand is on the seat between them and they're both staring straight ahead, neither one talking, when Robin feels his fingers begin to stroke her thigh. She looks over at him. "I thought you were going to be good."

"Bump in the road," he excuses.

"We're stopped at a light." But she doesn't brush his hand away and his fingers keep stroking her. It's dark and it's late and she wants him so much that she lets him. She lets him touch her and blames it on these bumpy New York streets. Till he moves his hand up over the top of her thigh….and she knows where it's heading next. "You're not getting any tonight, Barney." She puts her hand over his and removes it from her leg. "Sorry, I guess the Barnacle miscalculated."

He holds her gaze meaningfully with a naughty, confidently challenging look that has all her cylinders firing. "For now," he throws her own words back at her.

Robin is the first to blink three times and look away. He chuckles low and deep, and it's not even right the way it trips down her spine and proves what a liar she is, proves how very true her inadvertent 'for now' slip really had been.

"And who says I'm not getting any tonight?" Grinning, Barney waggles his hand in the air. "These fingers are magic."

Robin shakes her head at him but she's laughing – and not at all doubting the truth of his statement.


Present


To this day, that's a memory Barney and Robin still enjoy. And when they did finally sleep together, just two weeks later, it was better than either one of them had even imagined – and they'd both spent months letting their imaginations run wild. There were no traces of the awkwardness or learning each other's bodies that first-time lovers usually encounter. It was like they were made to be doing this. They knew instinctively how to touch each other, when they were on the climb, when to tease, when to give more, just exactly what the other person needed. It was certainly magic that night.

And the magic was still there more than seven months later, the night Barney faked being in a fight to get Robin's attention. Now they know it was just a flimsy excuse on both their parts to allow them to openly lust after each other and bask in that magic for an evening.

Another five months later, almost a year to the day after the first time, they finally slept together again….and again, each time as amazing as the one before it. They leapt buildings to be together, not stepping – barely even noticing – when they rolled right off her bed.

Fast forward to their secret summer: days of sneaking around just to be together; nights where they couldn't get enough of each other; months when the spark became a raging fire. That was magic and something even more, something softer too. It was tinged with a whole new kind of magic.

Even after they called the whole thing off, the magic still never dwindled. The night Barney convinced Robin to sundress up and be herself again, the morning she came to visit him to find out if she made him feel needed, the evening before Blitzgiving where they touched and laughed and hung all over each other all night long, sharing a cab on the way to find Ted and Zoe, out in the pouring rain of a hurricane, dirty dancing at Punchy's wedding – all those times and more they felt that magic still there zinging between them, and they very nearly did something about it. They very nearly couldn't help themselves; it was only outside interruptions that stopped them.

When they did eventually make love again, the spark was so alive that they already started in the elevator – hell, even in the cab – and left of trail of clothes through his bedroom. It had been two years of wanting each other and they couldn't come together quickly enough.

Over the next ten months and even after unknowingly breaking each other's hearts, even while she was with another man and he was engaged to another woman, that magic wouldn't be silenced. It still had the power to capture them both in an instant and remind them that it's never been like this with anyone else and it never will be…


August 2012


It's a mild late August evening, the kind of New York summer night that's just right, not too hot and not cool either, clear skies and you can actually make out stars if you're high enough above the city.

Barney is all by himself for the week while Quinn's gone to visit her parents, and tonight Ted's off somewhere with Victoria. Lily and Marshall are busy too with the baby. He already stopped by their apartment before a dirty diaper potent enough to wake the dead chased him out. But in those few minutes he learned from Lily that Robin is still at WWN, working on some big breaking story. It's not even a conscious decision on his part; his heart just wills him there and soon he's taking the elevator up to her floor, a bag of takeout in his hand because Robin's just as bad as he is when she's caught up in work mode and he knows she hasn't stopped to eat dinner yet. After briefly getting entangled in a conversation with Patrice, who's working late too, he makes his way to Robin's office and gently knocks.

To say that she's surprised to see Barney at her door would be an understatement, but it's a pleasant surprise. The awkwardness that was present between them after their slipup last fall had worn off during the spring and summer months until they're just as close as ever. Well, almost. There are proprieties that have to be kept now that he's an engaged man and she's seriously involved with someone else. There are precautions, certain boundaries they have to set after what happened before. But though they may not talk every day, it's certainly every other day. They still text regularly too, over the silliest things that no one else would find funny, and they continue to share the occasional lunch on the roof together, a tradition that started shortly after she got her first research position at World Wide News almost two years ago now.

She discovered the beautiful rooftop retreat very early on in her employment and told Barney all about it, and what with him working so close lunches together up on the roof became their regular thing. So that's where they head now, and Barney couldn't have come at a more opportune moment because now that her head's out of her work Robin's realized that she's starving.

There are a spattering of other WWN employees up on the roof but nothing like at lunchtime, meaning they have their pick of tables. They chose the one closest to the railing for an optimum view and start out on the feast of fries, beer, and the best burger in New York, courtesy of Barney.

The conversation flows easily as it always does with the two of them. They start out dinner at 8:30 p.m. when it's still light out and Robin decides it'll be alright to take a break "for a few minutes", but they're so lost in the food and each other that the next thing they know it's dark, the little white LEDs on the rails of the roof's edge and the city around them providing the only light…..And except for one other woman on a bench nearby, they're the only ones left on the roof.

That one last person gets up and leaves too after her phone rings. But it's not the fact that they're all alone up on the secluded, slightly romantic rooftop that has Barney and Robin on edge. No, it's the woman's ringtone that's changed the mood from fun and easy enjoyment of each other's company to something heavy and dangerous, all too alive and electric in the air between them.

The phone that started all this was playing Lady Gaga's "Love Game". They have no idea why all this time later it would still be someone's ringtone, yet it remains an annoyingly infectious song that will now be stuck in both their heads for hours. But it's not as simple as the earworm quality of the music. The reason it holds meaning for the two of them is that it was incredibly popular back in 2009 and seemed to be playing all the time during their summer. However, it's the one specific night that's captured them both, held tight by the memory. They were out at a club because it was the perfect excuse to sneak away to a place the others wouldn't want to go but the two of them could go together as 'bros out to wingman each other' without arousing suspicion….and if they happened to choose a remote club across town where no one would know them so they were free to do whatever, all the better.

Out on the floor they were dancing and grinding and by the time "Love Game" came on, encouraging her to take a ride on his disco stick, Robin and Barney were more than ready to do just that. Sneaking out a back exit that wasn't even meant for patrons, they propped open the door so they'd be able to get back inside and them promptly proceeded to jump each other's bones out in the back alley against the wall of the club. As they started out they could still hear the song playing in the near distance, providing a steady backbeat to set their initial tempo. It was hot and desperate and dirty; visceral, intense, fiercely passionate sex. Robin was left with bite marks on her neck, Barney had scratches down his back, and she's pretty sure that afterwards he ditched the used condom on the ground at their feet.

It wasn't a story they'd ever tell anyone else, but it was amazing. Whenever she hears that song she always thinks of that night. And apparently he thinks of it too, judging by the way he's looking at her. The moment draws out between them, romantic tension thick and heady in the air, and their hands are just barely touching now on the tabletop. She isn't sure if he moved or if she did or if they both did, but the one thing she does know is she's not cheating. She's not cheating with Barney again.

Even so, they feel that magnetic pull to each other and it almost seems like they're both leaning in ever so slightly…..

But that's ridiculous, Robin scolds herself, because Barney is happily engaged. He doesn't even think of her that way anymore. To remind them both of that fact, she says the one thing that's guaranteed to cool them down in an instant. "So why didn't you go with Quinn to meet her parents?"

The mention of Quinn makes Barney uncomfortable. He doesn't want to talk about or even think about Quinn, not when he has the chance to spend the evening with Robin. "We may have gotten into a disagreement," he quietly confesses, staring down at the polished wood of the picnic table. His voice takes on a bitter, more animated quality as he tells her the rest. "She thinks the Bro Code is stupid. She hates my blog. And she thinks I play laser tag too much. She says it's 'childish'." He uses air quotes. "Now she's insisting I give it up altogether."

Robin's eyebrows kept scrunching up harder and harder as he spilled the truth about his fight with Quinn, and by the time he got to the part where Quinn was trying to forbid him from playing the laser tag he loves so much, her eyes are practically shooting daggers. "Well that's just ridiculous. Maybe it's not the most sophisticated thing, but neither is beer and that doesn't make it any less awesome." They do an automatic cheers to that, clinking together the necks of their beer bottles. Grinning, Barney goes to throw away their trash and she gets up too. "And besides, any game that involves a fire arm – even a laser one – is automatically kickass."

Walking back to her, he comes to a stop standing so close in front of her that his suit jacket nearly grazes her dress. "See, you just get me."

Robin smiles softly. "Oh, you're not that complicated. The recipe to make Barney Stinson happy? Easy. Give you a nice suit, a little appreciation, some genuine affection, killer sex and you're good to go."

"Of course the killer sex being the most important part," he smirks.

"Of course."

Barney leans in closer still. "No one can say we didn't get that part right."

It's like he's read her mind, and it's just the two of them alone with their guards down so she allows herself to admit it. "No, they can't…." They may have been a mess at the emotional stuff but making love to each other was one thing they excelled at, one place that no one else could even come close to touching. "It was…." she starts out in a whisper, searching for some way to describe it.

"….killer," they both finish together, looking into one another's eyes. Somehow they're close enough now that their chests are practically pressed together, and by innate instinct their gazes slowly slide down to each other's mouths.

"Robin, I've been looking everywhere for you!" Patrice's bubbly voice carries across the roof, and Barney and Robin jump apart.

Robin glances over and sees her dreaded co-worker standing in the open doorway. She's never been so glad to see Patrice in her life; she very nearly made a fool of herself.

"They need you back downstairs," Patrice explains.

"Yeah, sure, I'll be right there." Robin turns back to Barney, forcing herself to meet his eyes. "Thanks – thanks for dinner, but um….I have to go."

Barney silently nods and she's quick to run out of there, leaving him standing on the rooftop watching her hastily retreating figure.


Present


Despite knowing it would have been a mistake to act on it at the time, they both fully recognize how alive their magical spark was that night.

Thankfully, over the next four months they finally did manage to get together, courtesy of Barney's play and proposal and their subsequent admissions of love. And that first night back together truly was magic, just as difficult to surpass as she earlier told him…..


December 2012


It's well after two a.m. but they're still going strong, positively insatiable for each other. Robin's knees are pulled up against his ribcage, her heels resting on the backs of his thighs as Barney sinks into her again. They've lost track of how many times they've made love but whatever the tally they can add one more.

He begins to move, starts the slow, sweet friction and it's already sending exquisite signals through her spine. "This is crazy," she whispers breathlessly. "How can we still want more?"

"It's us." Barney smiles, gazing down at her with that look of his that's half love and half lust and it just makes her hotter for him – if that's even physically possible.

"Yeah, it's us," Robin smiles back. "….Good thing I have you every day now. I need my constant fix."

"You'll get it; I need mine too."

She pulls him down for a kiss that turns into another and another until she skillfully flips them over so she's on top. Breaking the kiss, she sets her hands to his chest and pushes up to sit against him. For a moment Barney just looks at her tenderly, so full of love. He tucks her hair behind her ear, cupping her face and running his thumb gently over her lips. Then, with a devilish grin, he glides his hand down to caress her breast, his other hand sliding up her thigh to her hip. "We can never get enough, Robin. Not of this. Not of each other. Not of what we have together." He lets out a soft groan as she moves against him. "It's…"

"…magic," she finishes for him, smiling. After that their mouths are too busy for talking.


Present


And by now Robin and Barney know for sure that it wasn't just the novelty of that first night. Come New Year's Eve, they still couldn't wait to be together and rang in the New Year with a whole lot more than just kissing in the ladies room of MacLaren's. Then, after two whole months of being together, on their very first Valentine's Day they tried to be a "normal" couple but it didn't take long for all that magic to spiral out of control…..


February 2013


It's Valentine's night and they're engaged now and Barney wants to do the whole nine yards of romance for Robin because he never got the chance to before and she deserves that much. So they get dressed up and he takes her out to a fancy restaurant so elegantly romantic it could have come straight out of a movie, but the true surprise is waiting back at the apartment.

When they get home, Robin opens the door to find champagne poured and ready, candles lit on the table and kitchen counter, but what absolutely takes her breath away are all the roses. A sea of roses. More roses than she's ever seen in one place in her life. "My god, Barney. They're beautiful."

"1125 roses." Forty-five bouquets of twenty-five flowers set throughout the apartment. "One for every day since we broke up until we got back together, every day I should have been loving you but missed my chance."

"Barney," she breathes, tears filling her eyes. When he does big romantic gestures he certainly knows how to do them right – sweetly, intimately, meaningfully. So much better than a blue orchestra and a room full of strangers to ruin the moment.

Barney just smiles proudly, reaching around to the coffee table and presenting Robin with her next treat. "Custom-made truffles, cause every woman wants candy on Valentine's day, right?" He's completely buying into the cliché but that's the entire point, to bask in the romantic cliché for the night because it's Valentine's Day and they're getting married so they're entitled. "Your three favorites, chocolate, raspberry – and maple," he winks.

Holding up the heart-shaped box for her, a broad grin on his face at the knowledge that he's pleased her, Robin sees so clearly the mischievous young boy who only ever longed to be loved. "Thank you, Barney. This is perfect," he says, kissing him tenderly.

He sets the truffles back down, reaching for the envelope she hadn't even noticed lying next to them. "But you haven't seen your real gift," he tells her, opening the flap and pulling out two tickets, which he lays in the palm of her hand. "I booked the resort in Belize."

Robin gasps and her face lights up. "The one from the brochure?"

"Yep." The Turtle Inn seafront villa they fell in love with while looking at pictures on the Internet one night in bed.

They – well, really, she since with her love of travel Barney was letting Robin pick between the two – couldn't decide between honeymoons. There are still several places in Europe she wants to visit and hasn't yet been: France, Spain, Italy. This could have given her a chance to get another stamp in her passport as well as see her friends one last time for a year. But Belize looked incredible, and she was having an excruciatingly difficult time choosing between sightseeing in Italy, the more refined honeymoon, or the traditional tropical Sandals-type honeymoon – only not like Sandals at all. This was so much more intimate, with a private villa and their own stretch of beach where they could sunbath and make love in the sand and sea uninterrupted. In this case, Barney making the choice for them sets her mind at ease and makes her realize how much she desperately wanted Belize.

But then he tells her the best part: he didn't choose for them at all. "We'll still have Italy too. We'll go to Belize right after our wedding night; I have us booked for two weeks there in our private villa. Then we'll come home for a week. I can see to that big merger that's going down at GNB, you can catch up on things at WWN, and it'll give us time to repack for Europe instead of the beach. And then we'll leave for the final week of our honeymoon in Italy. We can go to Florence and the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze just like you always wanted. That'll give Marshall and Lily more time to settle in too so we can all have dinner on the final night before we fly back to New York."

"Barney, that really is perfect! The best of both worlds. And you know how much I want to go to Belize too. It'll be the perfect start to our marriage. Plenty of booze, sun, sand, sex, and an allover tan."

He wraps his arms around her. "Yes, yes, yes, YES, and yes," he answers and Robin giggles happily. "But I do have another motive in mind."

"Barney, it's our honeymoon. Yes, you're going to get – "

"No, not that. I want you to show me how to have sex on a windsurfing board."

Robin laughs. "You're still hung up on that?"

"Yes! If there's a way to have sex Barney Stinson has to know it and try it." Tonight was supposed to be all about love and romance but he can't help himself and he slides his hands down to her hips, pulling her flush against him. "Just imagine it: the board rocking beneath us to our rhythm as I pound into you again and again and again, a little bit harder, a little bit faster – and with that pole right there in front of you, conveniently located for you to rub against." He shots her a sly, naughty look. "That figures into it, doesn't it? I know it does. It's going to be legen – I'm gonna take you out on the ocean and make love to you on the open waves till you scream my name and it'll be way better than that Gail ever could give you – dary."

"His name was Gael and you know it." She loops her arms around his neck, pressing closer. "But it will be better with us, Barney. Not even a contest. It'll be fully legendary. And we'll be married by then too."

"Which makes it even more legendary. Honeymoon sex is the most legendary kind. A free pass to take an extended vacation and do nothing but bang each other as many times in as many ways as possible. How could that not be legendary?" He leans in to kiss her, a kiss that quickly grows heated as his hand moves down to grip her rear end. She nestles her hips into him, but he makes one last attempt to be a Ted-like gentleman before going all Barney on her. "Here," he says with effort, reaching down and grabbing a chocolate from the box. "At least eat one of your candies before I ravage you."

Robin laughs and lets him feed it to her, purposefully licking his finger in the process. "Mmm," she sighs when the maple flavor hits her tongue, because it really is scrumptious. Leave it to Barney to find a first-rate chocolatier; they probably cost more than the average daily salary. But all she's really interested in is more of him, and as soon as she's swallowed the candy she immediately brings his mouth back down to hers.

And that's all the more effort Barney came make at innocent sweetness when she's kissing him this way. She tastes like chocolate and Robin and he can't resist tangling his tongue with hers.

"Let's practice now, minus the board," she suggests eagerly, pressing the backs of his legs against the sofa and them tipping him down onto the cushion.

"So basically you just want to nail me on the couch?" Barney grins.

Robin smirks right back. "Pretty much." She unzips her dress, letting it fall to the floor unheeded. "You have any objections to that?" she asks enticingly as she eases down to straddle him in just bra and underwear.

"Objections? I'm gonna be inside you in less than five minutes," he answers gruffly, tugging her hips closer to his and bringing his open mouth to her neck.

Her hands go up into his hair, ready to lead his lips to just the right spot, but he anticipates her and gets there all on his own. "Five minutes? That's all the foreplay I get?" she teases, though she's already reaching around and unfastening her own bra, clearly just as impatient to get to it as he is.

"This first time. But it's gonna be a good five minutes, Robin." Then he hooks his fingers into her underwear and tugs them down….


Present


Months after that, they were just as unable to keep their hands off each other when Robin met Barney as he came through the door, welcoming him home in her puffy coat and nothing else. Then there was their amazing night of sex after his Bro Mitzvah. And on and on.

Looking back on their history this way, just like that, the bubble of paranoia clouding their minds bursts leaving a serene clarity behind. Because it all goes to show that time after time, year after year, even while others came and went, one thing remained as constant and true as their love for each other and that's their lust for each other – their chemistry, their driving passion to have one another, their deep intrinsic need to come together.

It makes them both realize in a rush that Robin was right down at the bar. This is us. And that says it all. All this time and through everything – and they've been through a lot – that spark is still going strong. The magic hasn't faded. It's only enhanced and grown deeper. Because the magic is never going to fade. Their love and their magic already have and will continue to endure.

Barney turns back from the two octogenarians still going at it behind closed doors to face his fiancée with the profound and certain realization, "In sixty years, that'll be us. Right?" They're never going to be the stereotypical old, bickering married couple, not the two of them. They'll always be just as hot for each other as ever.

"Yeah," Robin smiles lovingly. "It will." He gives her that naughty snicker and grin combination that always got her right from the start and she laughs happily, bringing him in close for another kiss.

With that issue settled they now realize that postponing sex isn't any indicator of a fading magic level. It simply means they can wait until later because they actually have a later now. There's no hurry anymore. They have forever. And that's a truth to be celebrated. So, holding hands, they accept their fate and greet the relatives who came from near and far just for that very purpose, to celebrate their love and marriage and their new life together.


Remarkably, after only fifteen minutes Barney manages to break away, smelling something like a gift shop from all the sickeningly sweet old lady perfume that's rubbed off on him from nearly being hugged to death and with a pocketful of butterscotch candies from all the old men, but in one piece all the same. Robin, however, is still stuck talking to a third cousin. There's no escape for her just yet….which means there's something else he needs to attend to now.

Coming up to her side he slides his arm around her waist, taking the opportunity to discreetly whisper to her, "I'm going downstairs to have a drink with Ted."

Robin grimaces at that, but since he's clueless as to her role in running the $600 of toasting scotch he could be enjoying right now, she merely nods and smiles sweetly.

"Come meet me when you can break out of King County," he quips, and he can feel her silent laughter against his lips as he bends to kiss her temple before heading to the stairs.

Taking a deep breath, Barney starts down towards the lobby where he spotted him earlier. Because it's that time. Time to see what Ted has to say for himself about breaking the Bro Code.


AN: I know I'm behind in episodes and with the updated HIMYM schedule showing they're going to keep airing new episodes through mid-December I know I'm likely to stay behind until the hiatus and the new year when they start showing some repeats in between. But thanks for sticking with me and rest assured I'm always still writing and working on it. It just take a bit of time to catch up when they keep airing so many new episodes at once!