#If anybody is still reading this story, it would be wonderful if you could tell me what you think! This is a work in progress, so it would mean a lot to get feedback. Thanks.

Saturday

"Dude, walk of shame!" Robin laughs, as Ted drags himself over to the sofa and collapses bleary-eyed. She holds out her hand for a fist bump but he shakes his head.

"Nope. Not even a little." He grimaces and kicks off his shoes, pulling his legs up onto the sofa. "Crashed at Barney's last night."

Robin's not sure she heard him right. "Barney's?"

"Yeah, we did that Independence Day movie marathon thing last night. I told you about that!" Grabbing a cushion, Ted buries his face in it and groans. "Momma! Whiskey is bad."

"You didn't tell me," Robin says lamely. "I would have been all over a movie marathon." Feeling a little weird - excluded, hurt, maybe even jealous - Robin heads for the kitchen. "You want some water, Teddy-boy?" She asks him with a brittle smile.

"Fleeble flob," Ted mumbles, and Robin considers bringing him a beer. But then she's never been great at passive-aggressive attacks; she prefers the overtly aggressive.

Thing is, she is angry with Ted. She's been agonising over that kiss with Barney for a day now, acting like a total girl, and in the meantime Ted's been out at Barney's having fun. It's just insulting, somehow.

She's Robin Scherbatsky. She doesn't agonize over boys. She's never agonized over Barney. Oh sure, she acted up a little after the split. But there were unpredictable emotions at work. Maybe she'd even some self esteem issues left over from her crappy career choices. Maybe it was nothing to do with Barney at all. It was all easily explained away, in fact.

Yeah, all easily explained away as guilt, maybe.

The thing is, in her heart of hearts, Robin knew that getting into a relationship with Barney was like a kind of surgical strike on her fickle heart. She's known there was all this unresolved sexual tension between them. She'd known that he had all these confusing feelings. And she figured that if they got together, she could prove to him that they would make a horrible couple. He'd see they weren't compatible and that he'd realize she wasn't what he wanted.

Actually, that had worked pretty well.

Only afterwards, Robin realized that she hadn't escaped quite as unscathed as she'd hoped. She'd felt way more pain than she'd expected. And there was no reason! They're still friends, despite the random drunken kissing. Barney's okay now obviously.

"Ted," Robin says, heading over to the couch to hand him his water. "Barney was okay last night, wasn't he?" Robin wishes her voice didn't sound so damn uncertain.

"What? Yeah, sure. Thanks." Ted reaches out and takes the water, gulping it down thirstily. "He said something about you. Can't remember much - Jeez that guy can drink!" Ted laughs and clutches his sides in pain. "Think he was just looking out for you. I don't know. Maybe he felt bad that we abandoned you on a Friday night. But hey, you're a pretty girl in New York. Bet you had a great time, huh?"

Robin nods, annoyed at the way that her heart skipped a beat when Ted said Barney talked about her. It's like there's an itch beneath her skin, like she's got some schoolgirl crush. But that's what you're supposed to feel before a relationship, not when it's dead and buried. This isn't what you're supposed to feel for a friend.

This isn't something she's felt in a long time either, not even for Don. It's a weird tingle, like a Simon-tingle.

Crap.

#~- #~-

For Barney, waking up this morning was a novel experience. Sober and in his own bed - his own empty bed - that was something he didn't particularly want to get used to. But when he'd really thought about it, and after he'd scraped Ted off the sofa and sent him packing, he'd had an attack of introspection. He'd spent a little time on his computer.

Now, back at the MacLaren's, he's sipping gin-less tonics and making notes on his iPhone. He looks up to see Marshall walk into the bar. "Where's Lily?" He asks Marshall, idly.

Marshall gives him a half-hug and flashes him a grin that's probably supposed to look innocent. But really, Marshall is the worst liar in the state. Possibly the country. You'd think that would make him a terrible lawyer, but weirdly it just gives him a unique selling point.

"Yeah," Marshall huffs uncomfortably. "Lily had to… go shopping. Yeah, that's it. Shopping. Very important shopping. So I thought I'd come see if you were here. So we could, you know, talk. Not talk about anything specific. Just talk about general things. Not that there are any general things to talk about! Oh I'll-have-a-beer," that last comment is a directed at Carl, who's standing behind the bar, grinning from ear to ear and cleaning a glass.

Barney tries to mentally unpick Marshall's rambling sentences. "So Lily wants you to talk to me about something?"

"No!" Marshall says, mock-offended, hand over heart. "She definitely didn't ask me to have a man-to-man talk with you about Robin." He winks solemnly.

"Okay," Barney shakes his head in bemusement. "I guess this must be about the other night. Robin told Lily she kissed me?" Damn it, Scherbatsky! That girl has some serious confessional issues. Why didn't she just become Catholic and work it all out on a priest like regular people?

"Robin kissed you?" Marshall at least tries to sound surprised.

Laughing, Barney slaps him on the back. "It's okay. I'm okay. It's probably the best thing that could have happened. I needed a wake up call. My mojo's been seriously off all year. And you know what? I think I just need a new challenge. I think it's time for me to spread myself a little more widely."

Marshall nods sceptically. "Dude, if you're gonna go for the five-way again-?"

"No," Barney interrupts him with a chuckle. "Although that would be awesome. Nope, nothing like that. I mean a real challenge. Something to shake me out of my comfort zone." He smiles, takes a sip from his drink and winks at somebody girl-shaped across the bar. "Marshall Eriksen, I'm about to embark on the legendary adventure to end all legendary adventures. I'm moving to- wait for it!"

He watches Marshall's expectant face and Barney's heart beats double-time, because if he says it out loud, the idea becomes real.

"- Washington DC," he says.