AN: Thanks for the reviews! Please keep them coming and tell me what you think about the latest chapter :-)
"Robin, could you come with me for a sec?", Barney enters the room again, after he accidentally answered Robin´s phone and scoots her away from his mother and brother.
"What´s wrong?", Robin asks as soon as she sees how pale Barney suddenly looks.
"I think Ted knows you´re with me now."
"Oh", Robin is surprised and immediately asks, "How did that happen? Did Ted call you? It´s fine by me, but why did you suddenly decide to tell him?"
"I didn´t tell him intentionally. And he didn´t want to call me. He actually called you, but I thought it´s my phone and so I answered that. As you can imagine Ted was pretty confused."
"I see. What exactly did you tell him?"
"Nothing. I just answered your phone and he recognized me, which is not that surprising because I answered with my name. Anyways, as soon as I heard his voice I was startled and let the phone drop."
"Okay. So he doesn´t know anything at all."
"Not really, but Ted sent you about a thousand messages when I didn´t answer the phone anymore and I think he wants answers."
"Fine", Robin sighs, "I talk to him."
"What are you going to say?"
"The truth."
"What truth do you mean? The truth about our friendship or the one about how we met or the one about how you helped me with my family after a terrible accident or the one where we both have amazing sex all the time or the one where we kicked ass at laser tag or the one where we visited my mom and she kinda liked you at first, but then not so much, but then she liked you again because you helped me, or…"
"Barney stop!", Robin interrupts him because Barney started rambling.
"I´ll tell him about the accident and that I came here to help you. I won´t say anything about our first meeting or our friends with benefits stuff."
"Sure", Barney´s mood shifts and all of a sudden, he seems to be annoyed.
"What?", Robin asks.
"What what?"
"Your tone. What´s wrong now? Do you think it´s that terrible that your friends get to know about your mom´s and James´ accident?"
"No, that´s not it. But you seem quite eager to tell Ted that you helped me while you want to withhold all the other truths we should tell them."
Robin takes a deep breath now, "Where is that coming from, Barney?"
"It´s coming from me. The awesome guy standing in front of you."
"Barney, we both agreed that it´s better not to tell that we´ve been friends before and that we´re occasionally hooking up. Why are you mad about it now?"
"I´m not mad about it. It just seems you want to avoid that Ted knows about our special friendship."
"That´s bull"
"Whatever you say."
Robin is getting angry now, "Why can´t you admit you´re jealous?"
"Jealous. Jealous of Ted?", Barney fake-laughs, "Please."
"You don´t seem to be quite fond of the idea that I care about what Ted thinks about us."
"I don´t care what he thinks, but I know he wants to bang you and I start to believe you might want that too."
"I don´t! And even if I wanted to bang Ted, what I absolutely don´t want to, why do you care? As you said, we are friends with benefits, but we are not exclusive. I´m pretty sure, I´m not the only girl you sleep with, so you´re not entitled to tell me with whom I´m allowed to sleep with!"
Barney would never admit it to Robin, but her words sting. She´s right - they are not exclusive, but he hasn´t banged any other chicks for a while because it always ends up in comparing all the women to Robin. It hurts, that she is clearly thinking about sleeping with other guys and reminding him, she´s not in a relationship with him. However, for his own sake, he could never admit to himself or to Robin that he wants more than what they have now.
"You´re absolutely right. We´re not exclusive. Sleep with whomever you want. Knock yourself out. I don´t care", Barney snaps, turns around and walks upstairs into his childhood room.
If he had turned around, he could have seen that Robin tries very hard to hold back her tears. She gulped and forced herself to think about something else. She learned to distract herself in order not to cry when she was a child and she surely doesn´t start crying again just because one Barney Stinson acts like an ass. Robin doesn´t even realize that Loretta enters the room until she hears Loretta clear her throat.