Challenge Accepted(A Barney Stinson/HIMYM Fan-fiction) BOOK ONE

Chapter Five: Game

"So I had been dating Aunt Lauren for about a month. It was Saturday night in New York City, and the young metropolitan set was out on the town, living the kind of crazy lifestyle that you can only find in the big apple..."

~~~

"97, 98,99, 100!" We all cheered as Marshall caught one-hundred pretzels in his mouth. I laughed, coming back from the kitchen with Lily with the beers. We set them down on the table and Ted pulled me into his lap.

"A hundred? We only got to eighty-two on our honeymoon." I turned sideways, slinging my legs over the arm of the chair, and Ted's arm wrapped around my legs. Things had been going great. Ted was great. He was sweet, and cute, and could always make me laugh. "So, Robin, I've got a guy for you. He's cute. He's funny. He's smart."

"Mmm. What's his 'but'?" Ted asked.

"Yeah, good question." I said, taking a sip of my beer.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

"When some one wants to set you up, they tell you everything that's good about them, but they leave out the bombshell relationship ender." I explained.

~~~

"She's so cute, and she's so smart." But her last boyfriend had to get a restraining order against her, and then his cat and his vacuum cleaner both went missing.

"Wow! Set it up!" Ted said enthusiastically.

~~~

"I'm still convinced she killed my turtle." 

"You two are so cute together." Lily cooed. I smiled, leaning my head on Ted's shoulder.

"Hey, you know what? Not every setup has a 'but'. What about um, Jamie, that girl Lily set you up with? She was really nice." Robin said.

"If memory serves me correctly, she had a huge 'but'. Her huge butt. Nailed it!" Barney held his fist out and I bumped it.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with this guy. He's really nice, and he's really cute."

"But?" Ted and I asked in unison.

"Fine. But, he has a kid."

"Oh!'

"Ah! There it is! Robin's not going out with a guy with a kid." 

"But this guy is really great, and his kid's sweet. He's in my class."

"It doesn't matter. Robin hates kids." Ted pointed out.

"Yeah." Barney agreed.

"I don't hate kids."

"You said you hated kids when you were one." I reminded her.

"Ok, yes, kids are not my favorite thing in the world, but I like them."

"Well, you don't want to have them." We said together again, high-fiving afterwards.

"Aw!" Lily said again. "They're talking at the same time!"

"Well, I like sports cars, but it doesn't mean I want to push a Ferrari through my vagina."

"Shotgun." Barney called. I rolled my eyes.

"You can't blame us for thinking that the kid would be a problem. I mean, if we were friends with Garfield, we wouldn't set him up on a date with Mondays." We all laughed.

"Nice." Barney told him.

"You know what, the kid is not a problem. I want to meet this guy."

"Ok, that's awesome!"