Hello my dears :) Here we go again. Have fun reading!
Context: February 2011
Prompt: #031 Innocence
Word count: 200
Ted always thought that what Barney and Robin had was all based on physical attraction. It is impossible that there actually was more than that, right?
Well, apparently he's wrong.
When they're watching the Super Bowl over beer and chicken wings, Ted witnesses something strange. Robin is complaining about a stiff neck during the commercial when she asks Barney, "Can you maybe massage me for a sec?"
Ted expects him to wink lecherously at her, to make a smart comment about it. But he just puts his phone away and starts kneading her shoulders and neck.
And the innocence of this scene makes Ted look away in wonder. Them, sitting next to each other like this… It's innocent and yet loaded, intimate in a way that speaks of something more. There definitely is something in the way his fingers gently rub against the back of her neck, in the way she sighs contently.
It's that something that's connected with the funny feeling you get when you're on the rollercoaster. That something that he thought he's had with Robin, all these years before. It makes him look away.
"Another beer, anyone?" Ted asks, ducking into the kitchen to escape the scene.