Chapter Text
1. While he waits to board his plane
Their relationship isn’t defined yet, so they just go by Robin and Barney. None of the honey, babe, sweetheart mushy gushy stuff as they like to call it. Not boyfriend and girlfriend, but Robin and Barney. Just Robin and Barney.
She was hurriedly getting her to make up on, preparing for her morning show. It’s not as early as her Channel 12 “Come on, Get Up New York!” 4:00 am show, but she would usually rush into work in the morning, leaving a half-naked Barney in bed, strewn across white sheets. She wasn’t the type to leave a note, but Barney knew she had to get in for her show, so he never really minded getting up by himself in the morning.
For that particular day, however, he had left earlier than her, giving himself ample time at the airport. He left a good pot of coffee in the open kitchen, knowing that it would help speed up her day.
He had been ready to go on this trip for GNB to Hong Kong to meet with their business partners in order to execute a contract between the two banks. He was just preparing for his 16-hour flight when he had received a call from Robin. He had been sitting next to the gate, waiting for them to call for boarding. His laptop open in front of him on his lap, fingers flying across the keyboard as he did last minute preparation for the meetings tomorrow. The familiar “Let’s Go To The Mall” tune started ringing, earning him a few odd looks from nearby people.
She hoped she wasn’t too late since she never actually found out the time he was flying. But since someone had picked up - she desperately wanted it to be Barney on the other side of the line, not a raccoon who once had picked out his tossed out phone in the garbage. “Barney?”
“Hey, Robin.” He thought she’d be on the show now, seeing that it was 8:55 am. He didn’t hear her sigh of relief, or her lips curling upwards at hearing his voice, while his own face reflected hers. “What’s up?”
“I…um…I just wanted…nevermind, safe flight Barney”
“Yeah, thanks, Robin.” He never thought himself, the Barney Stinson, would trip up over his own usually smooth words. “I’ll… I’ll see you soon. Did you get the coffee this morning?”
“Yeah, yeah I did. Thanks for that.” She says as Mike calls for her to get in her usual seat in front of the camera as the lead anchor. Somehow, Mike also became the cameraman for the network she was currently working for. ”I…got to go. Talk later?”
“Yeah, of course.” He shut off his phone, glancing up at the TV screen in the waiting lounge, and as he lines up to board, he catches a last glance of Robin Scherbatsky delivering the morning’s news. “Bye Sparkles.” He says to TV Robin, a smile creeping up on his face, as she details a story on a robbery last night. He's proud of her, proud that she was once a journalist who started out doing pieces on a monkey who could play the ukulele and a singing dog.
TV-Robin is professional, dedicated, and hardworking. And, real Robin can handle her scotch, is a great laser tag partner, is funny as hell, and as an added bonus, well, his Robin Scherbatsky.
2. While he’s on the plane
GNB doesn’t spend much on business trips, even on high ranked employees such as Barney, so he finds himself sitting in the business class section of the ride. He’s grateful he isn’t sitting in economy, however (They could have gone for first, he thinks as he rolls his eyes). He thinks about the space he has in business, without having to breathe the stale air. Barney enjoys his freedom, without having to be tied down, by kids and a wife.
The captain announces that the plane is going through turbulence over the intercom just as lightning strikes outside his window (Thank you captain obvious, and he sniggers at the joke, because like captain, yeah you get the joke). He can’t tell how far it is, though the clouds are illuminated by every strike. He is very much comfortable with planes, thank you very much, but the thunder and the lightning and the loud crashing outside his windows makes him uncomfortable, and frankly, scared for his life.
Over on his left, he sees a woman clutching at the armrests, her husband next to her with his hand covering hers - it doesn’t do anything to calm his nerves, in fact, it just makes him more scared and filled with uncertainty. The plane gets bumpier now, and every dip feels like he’s on a never-ending roller coaster. His heart drops at the next dip, and he whips a bead of sweat off his face - he can't let it touch his suit!
A baby’s wail escapes from the economy section, and he whips his head around. The curtain that usually divides the two sections has slid open, and he catches sight of a mother with her child in her lap. Her husband, Barney assumes, is the man on the opposite side of the aisle, arm stretched across the aisle space with his fingers intertwined with his wife’s.
It hits somewhere a little close to home, knowing that his mom had to deal with two screaming babies when he and James were kids, without a father. He knows he'll never abandon Robin, he'll never leave her behind, because wherever he or she goes they'll go together. They made a pact - to go through everything together, to deal with it as them and us and to pour out their feelings to each other even if they're both scared to.
He is thrumming with nervous energy, and yes, he’ll admit it, he’s scared so he runs his hand over his tie to calm his nerves. The tie is one that Robin, Robin, picked out for him the night before, hanging it up with his travel suit (yes, yes, he has a travel suit, because what do you expect? It’s extra wrinkle resistant,) by the side of his, no, their, yes, their bed.
The loneliness creeps up and onto him like a chill of the wind, and he shivers, pulling his suit jacket a little closer. His thoughts drift closer to Robin, to New York, to the gang, to MacLaren’s, but mostly, Robin.
He wants to walk home, to their home, to hold her hand as they take the lift and press kisses to her forehead. And at night they’ll crawl lazily into bed, her head just under his chin, one of his arms draped across her as they fall asleep together. He shakes away these thoughts because bachelor, old Barney can’t think like this, he can’t be the one that wants to settle down and not live a crazy life - he can’t be Ted. But he knows, just as he knows Robin inside and out, that they can only be Teds with one another.
Suddenly, he doesn’t feel so free anymore, he doesn’t feel like a bird with the wind beneath his wings, he feels lonely, ten thousand feet in the sky, with the lightning crashing outside his window.