As the days passed following their evening of laser tag, Barney began to feel that Ted was indeed running out of steam when it came to his little game. Nearly a week passed, and Ted did not come up with any new tests for Barney to perform. In fact, Ted began treating Barney in the same easy, comfortable manner he always had in the past, before the whole unfortunate incident with Robin.
Better, in fact.
Although he would never have admitted it before, Barney had always felt like a little bit of a second-rate friend as far as Ted was concerned. Ted made a point of declaring at every opportunity how Barney was not on equal footing with his real best friend, Marshall – and the way they'd all reacted to Ted's decision to disown him had only served to reinforce that unsettling feeling of insecurity. It made him feel foolish and pathetic, but Barney had all but resigned himself to the fact that that was simply how it was going to be, and that was at best, if he could convince Ted to forgive him at all.
But resignation gave way to a cautious sort of hope, as Ted began to go out of his way to spend time with Barney, even when the others weren't available. Several times that week, Ted called Barney up and asked what he wanted to do – something he'd rarely done in the past. Yeah, he'd call and ask if Barney wanted to go along for the ride, if he happened to be particularly bored by whatever he happened to already be doing and want the extra entertainment factor that Barney was so good at providing; but this particular brand of consideration was something entirely new.
He showed up at Barney's office twice that week, offering to treat him to lunch – and Barney had eagerly accepted, rescheduling whatever he'd had planned to happily go off and spend time with the friend he'd almost lost.
But I didn't lose him, after all, Barney reminded himself with a sense of relief and contentment. Maybe this means he really has decided to let it go – that I've been punished enough already.
Maybe... things can finally get back to normal.
Except – they weren't normal, Barney had to admit. Barney had blown off several important meetings and other work-associated responsibilities that week, in order to spend time with Ted. He rationalized that they hadn't spent any time together in months, and that it was only natural that they'd want to hang out a little more than usual. Still, he felt a vague uneasiness with the realization that if he kept up at this rate, he'd be losing his job in place of his friend.
That was why when Ted called him the following Monday, he knew that he couldn't respond as he had to all of the invitations the previous week.
"Hey, I'm in the parking lot. Where do you wanna go for lunch?"
Barney swallowed hard, closing his eyes for a moment and forcing back the automatic affirmative answer he wanted to give. Instead, he shook his head slowly, though he knew Ted couldn't see him, and answered with very genuine regret.
"Sorry, dude. I've got a really important meeting today."
It was only half a lie.
In truth, Barney had had a very important meeting scheduled for twenty minutes from then, but the client in question had called to reschedule earlier that morning. Barney knew that, even if they hadn't cancelled, he'd still have been faced with the very real temptation to bail on the meeting to go hang out with Ted.
And that's a habit you can't afford to make, he told himself sternly. Gotta learn to tell him no...
"Eh." Ted's voice was dismissive, and Barney could almost see his careless shrug. "You can reschedule it, right? Come on, let's go."
"No." Barney forced the word past his lips. "I'm, uh... in the meeting right now, actually, so... I'll just see you..."
"I'll be right up."
Ted spoke over him, and then disconnected the call before Barney could object. Barney stared at the silent receiver in his hand for a moment in indignation, before setting it down a little harder than necessary. His jaw set with stubborn determination, and he shook his head.
No. No, I'm not going to let him do this. For all he knows, I do have a very important meeting today – and I have to draw the line somewhere.
Barney felt an uneasy fluttering in the pit of his stomach as he stepped out into the hall, aware that Ted would be there within moments, and would find him not in a meeting, but alone and having just very obviously blown him off. He looked frantically left and right down the hallway until he saw a young male intern who was dressed reasonably well.
"Hey, um... you..."
The kid looked up, startled, meeting Barney's eyes for a moment before looking around himself uncertainly, then back to Barney again.
"Me?"
"Yeah. What's your name?"
"Peter Biggs?"
Barney let out a rather childish snicker at his answer, before shaking his head and quickly composing himself. "Hey, come in here for a second, dude." He nodded toward his office, then returned to his desk, not waiting to see if Peter would follow.
He did.
"Lock the door and have a seat, okay?"
Peter complied, looking mystified as he sat down in the chair across from Barney's desk.
Barney waited, tapping his fingers together impatiently, as awkward silence filled the room.
"Sooo... Peter Biggs..." Barney smirked again at the name, even as he tried to come up with some attempt at lame conversation to fill the silence. "What do you do here, exactly?"
"Mostly paperwork, and taking out the garbage sometimes, and... and sometimes I get to take stuff to the mail room..."
"Fascinating."
Barney cut him off, no longer listening – not that he really had been in the first place – as he saw Ted approaching down the hall. Ted was smiling, and gave him a little wave as he reached the door and tried to turn the handle. His smile faded to a frown of mild irritation, however, when he found it locked, and he gave Barney a questioning little shrug through the glass.
Barney returned the gesture with a helpless grimace, mouthing, "Meeting," to him, then miming holding a phone to his ear and adding, "Call me."
Ted looked stunned to have actually been turned down – and that made Barney even more certain that he was making the right call. Still, the look of indignation and rising anger on Ted's face started a now-familiar quivering sensation in his stomach. As Ted visibly drew in a breath, clearly gearing up to protest somehow, Barney sort of just... panicked. Before Ted could make any kind of a scene, Barney hurriedly opened the top drawer of his desk and pushed a button on the remote control there, feeling a sense of relief as the blinds that covered the glass walls and door of his office automatically fell shut.
Peter Biggs was staring at Barney in utter confusion, with just a hint of wary suspicion, as if it was quite possible that he'd caught Barney in the middle of losing his mind. Barney gave him a bright smile, waiting a few moments, still tapping on his desk, before cautiously pressing the button to open the blinds again.
Ted was nowhere to be seen.
"Right. Okay, then. You can go."
Peter rose slowly from the chair, backing toward the door, seemingly more than happy to comply. As he left Barney's office, Barney let out a shaky sigh of relief.
Well. That was... easier than I thought.
And... Ted will understand. It's work. It's not like I really had a choice – or, I wouldn't have, if my meeting hadn't been canceled. Ted has to understand that I can't just – just drop everything because he happens to call. If things are really getting back to normal between us, then... then he will understand that.
He's done with the stupid tests, and we're friends again. So... he'll understand... right?
Deep down, despite his self-reassurances – Barney wasn't quite sure.
Ted's steps gradually quickened with anger as he made his way back out to the street.
He blew me off. I can't believe he... he just blew me off.
Some rational part of Ted's mind that wasn't caught up in his hurt and indignation reminded him, quiet and insistent, that Barney was at work. It wasn't as if he could just drop everything, every time.
Even if he always has before...
As Ted tried to go about the rest of his day, he couldn't shake the unsettled, agitated feeling, couldn't stop thinking about the way that Barney had so totally dismissed him. And Ted knew that he'd had a valid reason. It wasn't that it was unreasonable, or not something he could understand.
It was just... that it had never happened before.
And I've been going so easy on him lately, too, Ted fumed. He was doing so well, I thought I'd give him a little breathing room... let things just be normal for a while, remind him what it is he's working so hard to earn back – and this is how he repays me!
He's getting too comfortable, Ted decided that evening, after Robin had left for work. Settling in too much, thinking everything's back to normal – well, it's not. Time for another test, maybe. Keep him from getting too sure of himself...
He walked out to the street and hailed a cab, then headed across town to Barney's apartment.
The first two rings went unanswered, but Ted was persistent. He could hear music – low and sultry and enticing – coming from beyond Barney's door, and knew that he was at home, and probably not alone.
That particular thought only served to increase Ted's agitation, and he pounded on the door, hard enough to rattle the hinges.
Finally, Barney answered the door, wearing a dark blue silk robe that, despite its length, left very little to the imagination. "What?" he demanded, irritated – before his eyes went wide with surprise, and his expression of annoyance faded to an anxious, uncertain look of vague guilt. "Ted. Hey. What... what's up?"
"I should ask you the same thing." Ted grinned disarmingly, raising his eyebrows and glancing past Barney into the apartment, though from the doorway, there was no sign of anyone else inside.
She must be in the bedroom...
Barney's expression softened with relief at Ted's smile, and he met it with a leer, rolling his eyes pointedly toward the bedroom and explaining, "Got company. Make it quick, bro."
"Is she hot?"
"Smokin'." Barney nodded, shifting impatiently from one foot to the other. "Dude. Don't make me make her wait..."
"No, I wouldn't do that," Ted insisted, his voice deceptively mild, before his smile faded completely and he met Barney's eyes with a deliberately hardened gaze. "I'm gonna make you make her leave."
"What?" Barney stared at him in shocked outrage. "No!"
"No? Really?" Ted's tone was pointed, his eyebrows raised in a challenge.
Barney swallowed hard, biting his lower lip anxiously as Ted's unspoken meaning sank in. He glanced longingly toward the bedroom, then back at Ted. His voice was less defiant, more uncertain, when at last he broke the silence.
"But... I thought..."
"No one ever said our arrangement was over, Barney," Ted reminded him. "So... I guess you have a decision to make."
Barney's jaw set stubbornly, and he crossed his arms over his chest in a weak display of defiance that Ted already knew would fail. He could already see the defeat in Barney's eyes, even as he voiced his protest.
"You can't tell me who I can sleep with."
"So... you're going to trade our friendship for one night of sex? Really?" Ted paused a moment, lending more weight to his final, pointed word. "Again?"
Barney flinched slightly, and his voice was hushed and a little wounded. "That's not what me and Robin were. It was... more than that."
Ted felt a smoldering heat of anger building within him at those words, and Barney's eyes went wide in alarm at whatever it was he saw on Ted's face, as he hurried to clarify.
"No, that's... that's not what I mean. It was... it was comfort. Solace."
Ted let out a derisive sneer, rolling his eyes. "Maybe for Robin it was. We both know what it was for you." Barney opened his mouth as if to protest, shaking his head slightly – but then abruptly changed his mind and lowered his gaze to the floor, offering no argument as Ted continued, "Make up your mind, Barney. Lose her – or lose me."
It took every ounce of his will to turn on his heel and walk away, without waiting for Barney's decision. He waited on the sidewalk across the street, however, pacing back and forth for a few minutes, until he'd almost decided that Barney had chosen the girl over him.
Then, he saw a beautiful blonde come storming down the steps of Barney's apartment building, pulling on a jacket as she went, her hair messy and disheveled, flustered and furious as she tried to hail a cab.
There was little question as to what had her so upset.
Yep. That would be her, then.
Satisfied, Ted began trying to flag down a cab of his own, and made his way back toward MacClaren's.
He couldn't quite explain the little thrill of victory he felt at the knowledge that Barney was alone and frustrated up there in his own apartment – at the knowledge that he was willing to do so many things that he didn't want to do, just because Ted wanted him to. He just knew that it gave him a rush of satisfaction to know that when it came right down to it, Barney had chosen him – and would, every time.
The questions aroused by Barney's rejection earlier that day were laid to rest, and Ted felt that all was right with the world again – because Barney had proven that now, as always, there was one person who came first in his life.
Ted.
An uneasy feeling began to settle in the pit of Ted's stomach as a new question occurred to him, one to which he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
Robin and Barney together made you jealous, yeah... but why?
Because he was encroaching on your territory... or... because she was?