Brianna
I climbed into bed and was immediately hooked around the waist and pulled into Barney's warm, hard, muscular form, covered with only a pair of boxer shorts.
"How was your date?" he mumbled lazily into my neck, where his face was tucked.
"Mmm, better than expected," I answered, burrowing myself in closer, reveling in my hot nest of safety.
His arms tightened for a second reflexively then loosened again and I felt his lips press into a barely there kiss on my neck before he spoke again.
"Yeah? How so?"
He was being super affectionate tonight. I mean, he always was. He liked to be near me, touch me, hold me, and because I loved it probably more than him, I allowed it. But tonight he was even more than usual.
"I mean, Jesse and I ran in the same circles in high school, but we were never really close, and for a reason. We didn't have a ton in common. So I guess I was expecting a lot of awkwardness, and there wasn't," I answered.
"Hmm," Barney hummed, the vibrations ticking my neck, making me giggle softly. "Will there be a second date?"
"I gave him my number. So, it's up to him," I said.
"There'll be a second date," Barney immediately said.
"By the way, mister," I said turning in his arms and putting my hands on his bare chest, "what the hell was that with the whole dinner thing?"
He grinned and moved his head so his forehead was touching mine.
"It was a sincere offer," he defended. "If you two are going to..." his face darkened for a split second then the shadow passed as quickly as it came, "you know, get serious, then I want to get to know him better."
I stared at him for several long seconds, trying to gauge whether or not he was serious, then nodded.
"Okay, I'll invite him over for dinner," I agreed.
"Tomorrow," Barney quickly said, "dinner. It's done."
"But-"
"Sh sh sh sh sh," he cut me off, putting his hand over my mouth, "just let this happen."
I laughed and licked his hand, but he didn't move it. Instead, he somehow flipped me around so we were spooning again with his hand over my mouth and nuzzled his face back into my neck.
"Tomorrow," he whispered, "my place, six o'clock. It's done."
I sighed loudly against his hand, but he ignored it.
After no protests from me for several seconds, his hand became an arm around my waist and I snuggled deeper into him.
"Night, baby."
______________________
Jesse pulled up in front of Barney's house and whistled softly.
"Wow," he said under his breath.
I remained silent.
Yes, it was in impressive looking house. But it wasn't ostentatious, it wasn't overtly showy, it was just...very nice.
Bentley, who had been to Barney's place many times, no longer became awed every time he saw it, so he simply took my hand and pulled me to the door.
Incidentally, my little monster was excited for this dinner.
When I told Bentley that him, Jesse, and me would be having dinner over at Barney's apartment, his mouth had spread into an evil little grin that I just knew he had picked up from Barn. We only had to knock on Barney's door once before it opened to a smirking Barney dressed in jeans and a black tee shirt that somehow set off his light baby blues even better than a blue shirt would.
Jesse had, for some reason, dressed up, even though I told him it was casual, and had worn a large marvel t-shirt some jeans and combat boots.
"Hey, Barn," I said softly, reaching up on my toes to kiss his cheek.
"Hey, baby," he muttered, grabbing my chin and making a big show of kissing my nose loudly which made me chuckle and Bentley grin widely with delight.
Now, Jesse had picked me up from work and went with me to get Bentley from after school care, which gave Jesse about an hour just him, Bentley and me, which he had spent trying to win Bentley over.
This endeavor was not successful.
Every time Jesse had tried to engage Bent in conversation, asking him about his day, or simple personal questions like age or grade, Bentley would say that not much had happened that day or give the shortest answers possible.
So, as you can imagine, Jesse was a tad bit frustrated when Bentley raised his arms for Barney to pick him up and, when he did, immediately launched into an in-depth description of "the best day ever!".
Barney nodded enthusiastically and avidly listened to Bentley's adventures while he guided us to his kitchen, where a covered pot was filled with pasta and a pan had some sort of creamy sauce boiling, and something garlicky was in the oven.
Bentley paused in his tale only to shout 'that smells awesome!' then immediately continued. Jesse and I sat in the stool seats beside the tall island in the middle of the kitchen.
"So, Bentley really likes Barney, huh?" Jesse asked with a wry grin on his face.
I bit my lip and nodded my head slowly.
I tried to look like I was sorry, but it was hard because...I mean...I wasn't.
"That's good. I mean, him being such a big part of your life, it's good that Bentley likes him," Jesse said, his expression not at all backing up his words as he sort of just glared in the general direction where Barney was still holding Bentley with one arm and stirring the pasta with his other.
Bentley, for his part, was still chattering away like he hadn't seen Barney in four years when it had been less than twenty four hours.
Jesse and I sat and sipped the wine that Barney had pushed on us, listening about Bentley's day, until he finished the last story with a deep breath and a 'Then Jesse and Brianna picked me up and we waited for Brianna to get ready, and now I'm here!'
Everyone paused for a second, not quite knowing how to fill the silence now that the six year old was out of words.
"Where's the bathroom?" Jesse blurted.
Barney gave him directions and, with a quick smile to me, Jesse hurried there.
After a few seconds Barney spoke, his voice trembling with laughter.
"Can I just say," he started, his eyes darting up from the pasta to mine, and I saw they were twinkling in amusement, "how much I love that you wore one of my shirts to this dinner?"
My eyebrows furrowed together.
"I didn't-"
My voice cut off as I glanced down at the shirt I was wearing and realized that I had, in fact, stolen one of Barney's.
"Oh my God," I muttered, my eyes going back to him in horror. When he saw my expression, he busted out laughing and Bentley, not knowing what was funny but wanting to be like Barney, joined in. I pressed my lips tightly together and looked back down at the shirt.
"I'm a horrible person," I whispered.
Barney's laugher slowly died to a quiet chuckle and he set Barney down and walked over to me.
"You're not a horrible person," he said, cupping my face in his big hands and leaning his forehead against mine, "you're just...my girl."
I sighed and twisted my lips.
"Are you okay with sharing me?" I asked softly.
His eyes flashed with pain and more than a little anger, but he took a deep breath and closed them before he spoke.
"If that's what it takes to keep you."
I was about to speak, but someone cleared their throat. Barney and I both turned to see Jesse watching us with a cold expression, though Barney didn't let go of my face.
"I should probably go," Jesse said, turning and walking towards the door.
"Jesse wait," I said hopping off the stool, giving Barney a 'one minute' look and walking after him. I caught him when he was almost to the car and he stopped and whirled around on me.
"Why did you say yes?" he demanded in a hard voice.
"What?" I asked, stopping a couple feet in front of him.
He took two steps towards me then stopped.
"When I asked you out," he clarified, "why did you say yes if you knew nothing would come out of it?"
"I didn't know-"
"How long have you been in love with him?"
I froze.
He hadn't asked that one in a hard or cold voice. It had been delivered softly, gently but it hit me harder than anything else could have.
"Barney?" I asked stupidly, as if he would be talking about anyone else.
He chuckled with zero humor and look to the side, taking a deep breath as if for patience, before looking back at me and meeting my eyes.
"Yes. Barney."
I swallowed.
"I'm not in love with Barney."
That was whispered.
He searched my face for something and apparently found it because his mouth twitched up on one side.
"Apparently you've convinced even yourself of that," he muttered.
"I'm not in love with Barney," I said with more conviction.
He shook his head and looked at me like he pitied me.
"Yeah," he said in that same soft voice, "you are."
"I think I would know," I bit back.
"Brianna, you're gorgeous. Absolutely fucking gorgeous, and funny, and smart and I'm really tempted to pretend you're not in love with another guy and stay with you just because I know I'll never find another girl like you. But as long as Barney is in your life, I can't be with you because it is so fucking obvious how in love with him you are and how in love with you he is. I just couldn't deal with knowing that my girlfriend would leave me for her best friend in a heartbeat. And just an fyi, any other guy you date is going to feel the same way. No guy would be happy sharing your heart with some other guy, especially one as intimidating as Barney."
I was silent for a long time, and one line kept repeating in my head.
"He's...Barney's in love with me?" I asked in a soft voice.
Jesse looked at me for a second before nodding.
"Yeah, he is. By the way, it's very telling that that's what stuck with you out of everything I said."
"Jesse, I don't-"
"Look," he said in a gentle tone, "because you look really conflicted right now, I'll give you a choice. You can either explore this thing with me, putting your friendship with Barney on the back-burner, or I'll walk away, right now, and you'll never see me again. Now, I know he's your boss so you can't completely put him out of your life, but minimal contact only. It's up to you."
Barney
Barney watched as Jesse and Brianna talked beside Jesse's car and he would have given anything to have heard that conversation. When he realized that Bentley had joined him in eavesdropping, he scooped up the six year old and slung him over his shoulder.
"C'mon, kiddo, spying is bad," Barney said.
"But you were doing it," Bentley argued.
"And I was very wrong," Barney said as sincerely as he could, wishing that he could keep watching without setting a bad example. He set Bentley down on one of the tall stools and stirred the pasta, waiting impatiently for Brianna to come back.
The door opened about thirty seconds later and Brianna walked in with a guarded expression on her face.
"Bentley, baby, I need to talk to Barney, okay? It'll just take a minute," she said.
Bentley nodded easily, but watched them warily.
Barney noticed as he was walking with Brianna into the office that Jesse was leaning against his car as if waiting for something.
Brianna shut the office door and turned to face Barney, a nervous expression on her face.
"We need to talk."