A/N:- I re read my first two chapters, and they seem really rushed and poorly written, so please do not judge my sorry by the first chapter, i do have a plot and an ending in mind, i just have a little trouble putting it down! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please, please leave reviews and don't forget to follow! Constructive criticism is highly welcomed. Enjoy.
It's not thanksgiving, but Ted continues with his tradition of stuffing a dead bird into another dead bird. The chicchickenken sits on the centre table, glorious and brown. Robin makes a little puking noise as she spies it the first time walking in, and hangs her coat on the hanger near the door.
"You're gonna kill the dinner , Ted, don't kill the dinner." She says, making a face. Her eyes scan the room for any sign of Barney.
"Fine, next time i'll stuff a live bird." Ted jokes, chuckling. Lily rolls her eyes, and waddles over to give Robin the biggest bear hug.
"It's called beastiality, Ted." Barney pipes up, coming from the kitchen to stand near her, beers in hand. His tie is a little askew, and Robin wants to straighten it, reaching out on instinct. Then she takes one look at the consternation on Barney's features, eyes wide and unblinking, and drops her hand faster than you can say zip.
"Old habits." She mumbles, smiling tightly.
His face relaxes, and he nods. They've mutually agreed since the previous night to keep at their brolationship like nothing ever happened, and a few slip ups were allowed every now and then. It's Rule no. 4.
"I find it cute." Tracy says, smiling at Ted and Robin's stomach drops until she realises she's talking to Ted. She settles down on the orange chair and whips out her phone.
"Trace, you're still in the first month of your marriage, 75% of everything you say is a lie. Your man ain't perfect." Robin says, mentally wondering when she started sounding like her ex husband and his fake statistics. Tracy only gives a bubbly giggle, and Ted stares at his wife hotly. Tracy goes still. Robin continues texting.
Ted whispers something in Tracy's ear.
"No honey, i swear i liked that." Tracy says, crossing her finger over her heart.
"How much do you wanna bet that was a weird sex thing?" Barney whispers in her ear, on the stool next to her, his warm breath washing pleasantly over her, her entire face being numb from the cold, brisk air outside.
"20 bucks says it's bland, boring and vanilla. I'll interrogate Tracy later. That woman's as bad as Lily." Robin says, shaking his outstretched hand. She feels something clink against her platinum i bought this because i got a huge ass salary ring, and only then does she notice Barney's wedding ring glint against the overhead light. Her eyebrows raise for a millisecond, and a thousand questions race through her brain at the speed of light. Barney doesn't seem to notice her stunned predicament, and extracts his hand from hers, taking a huge gulp of his beer. She hears Lily yell something from somewhere, god knows where, but all that's present is, he still wears his wedding ring, why does he still wear his wedding ring, what's going on, holy sh-
"ROBIN!"
Lily's tiny, if whale like, appearance registers finally. She has no idea how the woman can still look so petite, despite carrying a baby giant spawn in her stomach.
"Did you bring twister?" Lily asks, annoyed, because it may just be the third time she's asked Robin. Robin's face contorts. "Twister? Lily, honey, we're verging on on 40. Some of us, 45." She says, glancing at Barney at the last part, who blanches, and squeaks out '35'.
"-anyway, you didn't ask me to bring twister." Robin finishes, taking a sip of her beer. Lily glances up to Marshall for support. Marshall only shrugs, and Lily murmurs "damn pregnancy brain" and shuffles of into the kitchen, not adorably at all. Robin feels a little rush of affection for everyone, and she feels a little less nervous for what she's about to say.
"Guys, i hope you don't mind, but I-uh, invited Dan."
Everyone had already known about Dan. Lily was the first to know, getting a phone call a day after Robin had met him. She had gushed about how tall, and how very Canadian he was, and Lily had hmmed and oohed and aahed, internally sympathetic for Barney and what this would do to him.
Marshall was informed by his wife immediately, then later by Robin when they met up to watch the hockey semi finals. Ted and Tracy were told the previous day, and all she said was that she really liked him. Even though Ted's married now, Robin still feels the need to keep the description of her boyfriends PG rated. She later tells Tracy though, that she'd like to spend all day licking his abs.
And Barney, well, Barney found out. That's all. She hadn't planned on telling him at all, maybe to see the shock on his face, to make him hurt the way it hurt her last year at the halloween party. His placid face, and relaxed smile as he shook Dan's hand were hardly close to what she was expecting. To say it disappointed her would be an understatement.
"That's, GREAT!"
"Awesome."
"Ooooh, can i see his abs today?"
"Tracy!"
"Sorry."
Their reactions are as expected, and Robin relaxes, until she feels a vice grip pull her off her chair into the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" Lily says, through a gritted smile.
"I'm drinking beer. God Lily, i know i agreed to the 'no drinking till we have the baby' pact with you but -"
I know you like this guy, but isn't it a little soon to bring him to our group things?" Lily says, in a chiding voice and suddenly Robin notices how Lily's eyes keep drifting away toward the blonde man in the living room trying to conjure up a fireball. She knows he is because the tell is all in the way he rolls his shoulders, bends back and wiggles his fingers just slightly, before his hands erupt into flames. Like the fireball, Robin's vexation sparks and grows towards Lily's postulated question.
"You think i'm bringing him here to make Barney jealous, don't you?" She inquires coldly. Lily goes a little pale and stutters, recovering in only a second.
"No." She says determinedly.
"I'm not, Lil, i swear. I'm trying to-" Robin sighs, losing her anger, and fiddles with the salt holder, pouring some of the grains in her hand. "-i'm trying to move on. Barney and i are doing this stupid bros thing again, and i'm playing along , i mean, it's real, but in the end, the only thing that's going to help me get over him, is someone else."
"Are you saying you're still in love with him?"
"I probably always will be." Robin says, in a resigned tone. She half hopes Lily will tell her that she should go for it again, that Barney recently poured his heart out to Lily and admitted he wants her back.
"You deserve to be able to move on." Lily says quietly, laying a hand on Robin's salt filled one. "-because, i hate to break it to you, Robin ,but, he's doing okay."
Robin knows for a fact he's not a 100% okay, but if Lily claims he's okay, then he must be. "Okay." Her hand clutches around the grains of salt tightly, a vague grinding noise emitted from her palm. Lily lets go of her hand and smiles softly, patting it twice and reaches forward to snatch the salad tongs.
"You mind?" Lily asks, pushing the kitchen equipment towards her. She takes it almost immediately, relieved that Lily chose to not harp on the fact that Robin just admitted her most recent deep emotions. She almost wishes she could pay Lily sometimes for these little therapy sessions they seem to keep having. Well, it's mostly Lily giving her 'the look' and Robin word vomiting all over herself. Word vomiting land was usually and do not enter for one Robin Scherbatsky. But she seemed to be doing alot of it these days.
Tossing the salad keeps her occupied for approximately seven minutes, and by then the salad is pretty tossed; anymore, and she'd toss it all the way to the Great White North. Barney and Marshall are on the couch, fiddling with the xbox controllers. "Whatcha guys doing?" Robin questions, in an effort to stay nonchalant. Barney's tongue is sticking out as he swerves to the side.
"Mario kart." Marshall says, tossing the controller in defeat.
"Barnacle for the WIN!" Barney bellows, shoving his fist up in the air and hooting. "This, is proof of a real man, Marshall Erikson, only a true, warm blooded, MAN, can win at -"
"A game my four year old niece took first place for at the little league for video game championships?" Marshall offers. Tracy slaps his outstretched palm.
"Lawyered!" Tracy yells.
"That's not how you use the term, sweetie. Actually, the term lawyered refers to when you try to justify a certain-" Ted starts, just as the oven timer dings, and Robin swears Lily's never been so relieved that a pie was done baking.
The doorbell rings when Barney's in the bathroom, and Robin opens it with some excitement now. Dan stands in the doorway, with a dopey grin on his face, and a cling wrapped bowl of yams. Robin's heart flutters a little, and she feels a jolt of something she hasn't felt in a really really long time.
"Hey! I brought yams!" He cheerfully says, raising the bowl up. She pulls him in by the wrist and takes the bowl from him.
"Everyone, this is Daniel. He's canadian AND he plays football." Robin says, rubbing his arm. "The rough kind." She adds dreamily. Dan looks a little confused, and she realises soon she'll have to explain her turn on. Thank god she never had to explain it to Kevin, who would have analysed it to a point where he'd figure she needed to be in a straight jacket.
"Dan, this is Tracy, Ted, Lily, Marshall, and, Barney's somewhere around, but you already know him." Robin says.
"When did you meet Barney?" Marshall asks Dan, his large eyebrows furrowing. Robin's heart thuds. She didn't tell anyone about Barney and her little secret brunch meeting she had, to see if he was okay with Dan.
"Oh, Robin and I ran into him at the Pop-over Pantry." Dan says nonchalantly, and Robin puffs a breath out in solace.
"Let's eat some ChicChicKenKen and get to know more about Dan!" Ted says, clapping his hands and hopping off the couch. The others follow suit as Dan, mouths, "ChicChicKenKen?" to Robin.
"It's a chicken stuffed in another chicken. Just smile and pretend to chew, then throw it into the big vase at the side." Robin whispers back to him, guiding them both to the table. Barney walks out of the bathroom, whistling, all cheers, until he sees Dan.
"Oh HEYYYYY Canadian dude! What's shaking?" Barney says, in a feigned nonchalance that Robin sees right through. His nostrils are flaring and his forehead has three lines, and he only looks like that when he's concentrating very hard or he's jealous. Before she has time to analyse it however, the look is replaced with a grin. He opens his mouth, no doubt to start with some Canadian mockery.
Robin's grateful when Lily intervenes.
"Barney, give him a break, we just met him!"
"But I can start from scratch!" Barney whines.
"Barney." Tracy says.
"Come on Lady Mosby, you love my jokes!" Barney says.
"True, but Lily's right." Tracy chides. Barney settles down with a pout and Robin wishes she could sic the two women on him every time he got out of hand. She could hire and pay them by the hour, if she needed to. But, she didn't anymore.
"Well, sore-y Dan, you don't get to see this display of magnificent humour today." Barney grumbles, but doesn't miss over pronouncing the 'sorry' while saying it.
Everything settles into quiet for a while, as everyone digs into Lily's backup shepherds pie that Ted is extremely miffed about. ("I can't believe you had no faith in my ChicChicKenKen." He whines.) Robin's impressed at how well Dan charms every single one of them. They're all half in love with him by the end of the night. Well, all of them except Barney, who can't resist a dig at him here and there. But it's not entirely unexpected, and Dan is a gentleman, only laughing politely at his digs.
When he's at the door, he kisses her and it leaves her with a giddy smile on her face.
"Hey, you owe me one for having to put up with your ex husband all night." He says, light heartedly. Robin had felt no need to lie about Barney, and he'd completely understood her angle to still be friends with him.
"Sorry, one can only take Barney in small doses." She jokes. He kisses her one last time and heads out the door.
She sighs and turns.
"So?" Robin says expectantly, to everyone.
"Love him!" They all coo in unison, even Barney, but his seems a little forced, and Lily's pinching him, so there's that.
"Well, Cana-duh! He's only awesome!" She croons, and her smile only falters a little as she watches Barney's face fall. Awesome is a pristine and precious word in his thesaurus. She wants to back pedal, but because she needs to stop factoring Barney into every decision she makes, she doesn't.
"I'm going up for a smoke." Barney announces a few minutes later, and clambers out the window.
Both Marshall and Tracy give her meaningful looks, and she rolls her eyes.
"He's fine!" Robin protests.
"It must've been a little tough for him." Ted offers. "I know i felt that way after we first broke up."
Robin climbs up the fire escape, grumbling.
Her anger dissipates once more when she catches sight of Barney, blowing smoke rings with a coup de grace only he can manage. In moments like this, she likes (liked) to memorize the way he focuses on it. The way his nose scrunches up and his lips curve over his rolled tongue.
"Hey." She says, her greeting forming a mist in the air.
"He's a nice guy." Barney murmurs, smoke wafting from his mouth.
"Is that why you gave him such a hard time?" She says, cocking an eyebrow, challenging him to say something he shouldn't.
"Yeah." Is all Barney manages, shoving his hands into his pockets. "A bro's gotta look out for his fellow bro. If he can take the Barnacle's prodding, he's fit to date you."
Robin grins, feeling a friendly warmth of affection, different from the heady heat she usually feels around him. She tells herself that it's hopefully her heart turning him into a friend.
"Thank you." She says, pulling a smoke from the pack in his hand.
"For you Scherbatsky, anytime." He says. "Anyway, it wouldn't be fair to Jamie if i acted like a jealous idiot upon meeting my ex wife's new boyfriend."
"Jamie?" Robin curiously questions. Barney hesitates a little, as if deciding whether to say more or not.
"I met someone."
"Good for you."
She already hates this Jamie for some absurd reason. Robin closes her eyes tight and tries to relive the feel of Dan's lips on hers, and the coil of jealousy dissolves a little enough for her to crack a small smile. He deserves to move on, she repeats as a mantra.