Title: Yeah, you and I will be a tough act to follow.

Summary: He isn't even wearing a suit. That's how much they've changed.

Pairings: Barney/Robin

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How we got into this mess; is this God's test?

Someone help us because we're doing our best.

Trying to make things work, but, man these times are hard.

[The story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now.]

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It's six-oh-five pm and a couple in love are just meeting for the first time.

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The clock ticks and as the moments pass by they both sit there, just waiting. Its love chicken all over again but this time there's no love left to hold it together. It's a tragedy; it really is, because they were so in love, once upon a time. In another life they wouldn't just fall out of love; they'd get their happily ever after, they deserve it, don't they? But this isn't another life, this is their one. It's not fair or just and it's sad, so sad that she wants to cry because she loved him once and she just can't anymore. It's a messed up world full of messed up people and we learn how they start out alive then they die

(Alone.)

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"Barney?"

Don't do it/ don't do it/ don't do it.

Her heartbeat begs her.

"I'm not happy anymore."

Break. Breath. Repeat.

"Barney, you're not happy either."

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She doesn't know him anymore she muses. My god, she sued to know everything about him; could sense his movements before she saw them. She used to notice everything about him because she just cared that damned much, robin closes her eyes and hates that she wouldn't even be able to tell you what suit he was wearing right now. She opens her eyes to realize that he isn't even wearing a suit. That's how much they've changed.

They're trapped.

(But they built their own cages.)

It's become a relationship designed to survive, not to love.

It wasn't cruel, it was practical.

(No, scratch that; it was cruel.)

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He pulls her towards him into a hug and she rests her head against his chest like normal, even though they're both very aware that this is the last time he will ever do this. She can't feel his heart beating and she wonders when it stopped and why it's taken her so long to notice.

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And so; they die. They knew this was coming. It's not a shock or a surprise or a dramatic all out battle; rather, like drifting away in their sleep. With daddy issues and womanizing and commitment issues and drinking and broken hearts they never really had a lot to go on from the start. She's amazed it took them this long to admit it.

[They've been kidding themselves for days that love is real, but what's the point?]

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"We're different now."

(what she means is don't hold your breath because I don't know how or when we got this way and I miss you and I'm sorry and I don't know how to love you anymore.)

She turns to leave; to walk out of his life forever.

"Hey."

She stops and finally looks at him, really looks at him and he's broken. They both are, they broke themselves and each other in the process. In another world he'd beg her to stay and she'd remember how he used to give her butterflies. But instead,

"Was it ever really worth it?"

Well; was it?

She smiles, "yeah, it was."

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There's no happily ever after, no fairytale ending. They're nothing epic. They barely even qualify as a real love story.

Not all love stories are epic novels. Some are just about two people who forgot how to be happy. But they are love stories all the same.

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