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The day had been exhausting, even for him. He wanted to set up a proper studio, meaning top of the line items, lights, cameras. Picking them had been easy.

Dealing with the sales assistant who smelt money had been harder. Compared to them, adjusting the layout of the house and setting up the corner as the studio while creating a space for Blair’s design workshop was trivial, just physical strength.

Once they were done, he moved to his next location. The gun range.

When he arrived at the range ten minutes earlier, he found Robin was already there, pacing. “You look tense.”

“I’m not,” she automatically refused, then paused. “Fine, I am. My friends are getting on my nerves.”

“Really?” he asked.

She sighed. “It’s already a little messy with Marshall still dating that crazy barista.”

“Tension about the broken-up dream couple.”

“At some level. Ironically, neither Lily nor Marshall seems to care, but Ted and Barney are getting obsessed. Barney, in particular, is getting really annoying about it, which is a surprise.”

He sighed. “They probably idealized the relationship too much, and now they are having trouble processing it. Think of them as divorced kids.”

Robin laughed, though it was not a joyful sound. “It sounds like them. It doesn’t help that Ted is on my case, digging and digging about why I hate malls.”

“Ah, someone slipped about Sparkles.”

“Just my hatred of malls,” she sighed. “Now, he’s digging without stopping. He’s being nice and charming, but it’s getting suffocating. Like he suddenly decided that I was a mystery that needed to be solved. I’m avoiding; he’s asking. It doesn’t help that he’s getting on my case about my dogs because they are gifts from my old boyfriends, asking me to get rid of them just because I asked him to get rid of a stupid lamp,” she started, then took a deep breath. “I mean, who does that?”

Well, Ted, often. Never with bad intentions, but Ted believed that life should fit the story in his head, and not the opposite.

Still, he was surprised, as the fight about the mall and the fight about the dogs weren’t supposed to be happening at the same time. He couldn’t help but wonder Lily was meddling to avoid heat. He decided to leave that unexamined for now, even though he suspected that it might not be a coincidence.

“I think you need less talking, more shooting,” he said. “We just need to wait for our last member.” She looked unhappy about it. “Hey, since I beat both of you, it’s only fair you have your little competition.”

“You know if I shoot you, no one will arrest me, right?” was the response he received. One that came from behind.

Rosa.

“Oh, I like her already,” Robin said. “Robin Scherbatsky," she said.

"Rosa Diaz," Robin said. They shook hands. “Let’s shoot stuff.“

&&&

They didn’t talk while they had their little competition. Robin was not in the mood, and silence had always been Rosa’s preferred method of communication.

He was fine with it as well. He liked talking, but his last week had been mostly occupied by Annie, Blair, Georgina, and Britta; each of them chatterboxes in their own way. A change of pace was appreciated.

Each bullet drained more of Robin’s stress, even though she lost pretty convincingly. Rosa was that good. Robin was too happy finding people who shared her hobbies rather than dismissing them out of hand.

It helped that Rosa was not a smug winner. Seeing them getting along, he even invented a fake business call to disappear for fifteen minutes. When he returned, Rosa was correcting some of the mistakes in Robin’s stance to help her improve.

He didn’t interrupt. Rosa, for all her claims of hating people, was a good teacher to anyone who genuinely wanted to learn. She was too abrasive for most to handle, but Robin could keep up with her energy.

And, as they interacted, Robin’s tougher side, the one that treated bar fights as an acceptable passage of time and cheered when someone broke a bone during a hockey game, started to show.

Watching them trash-talk was fun. Robin was eloquent and aggressive; but Rosa’s one-liners, often one or two words, had always been devastating.

It was especially amusing when he noticed them checking each other’s asses when the other was not looking. Not that he blamed them. Rosa was wearing tight jeans that showed all the benefits of years of dance training, and Robin’s slightly more formal slacks still highlighted her best features.

He had a feeling that all he needed was to drop a line about showing off his new apartment to turn it into a threesome. Rosa’s interest was even clearer.

Yet, he decided to change his plans. He was curious. Instead, he made a few calls, and arranged three tickets.

“Let’s get moving; we’re late,” he said.

“For what?” Robin said. “We don’t have plans.”

“It’s a surprise, of course. You’ll like it, trust me,” he said. “I have the perfect event for you to enjoy.”

“Event? With people?” Rosa growled.

“I have the same opinion,” Robin answered. “Ordinarily, I wouldn’t mind it, but today is not the day. I’m in the mood for silence.”

“Don’t worry. I have the perfect event that both of you will be very happy with,” he said. He smirked at the disbelief on their faces, knowing that it would soon turn into happiness.

The only shock was just how intense it had been.

After all, it was just a hockey game.

There was nothing to say about Robin and hockey. She loved the sport, she loved the violence, and she loved the fact that it reminded her of home. And, her attitude made it clear that it had been a while since she came to a match.

Not because hockey tickets in New York had been particularly difficult to get her hands on, but Robin was too determined to reinvent herself as the cool, impressive reporter that she avoided it.

Or maybe she just didn’t want to go to the games alone. She didn’t have the most vibrant social circle, and none that would enjoy hockey. Maybe Marshall, but two of them were never clicked.

Together, she enjoyed the game.

Interestingly, it was Rosa who surprised him. Previously, he had just assumed Rosa didn’t care for hockey, but apparently, it was more out of ignorance. Being a Latina, her knowledge of sports had skewed more towards soccer, with general osmosis about football and basketball, none of which she particularly cared for.

Hockey was more of a northern sport, which meant Rosa never got into it.

Which meant she was caught surprised by how much she enjoyed it. Violence, speed, and the surprising amount of coordination required for doing all on skates appealed to her once Robin started explaining the intricacies of it.

Thanks to his figure skating skill, he could have explained some of the details even better than Robin, but it would ruin the chemistry Rosa and Robin had been building all along.

It was also funny to see Robin try to explain about two hockey players fighting, only for Rosa to eviscerate their technique by pointing out a dozen mistakes. It turned out that, while she didn’t know hockey, she knew ice skating, probably a leftover from her days as a ballerina trainee; and she had opinions about how the fighters were managing their center of gravity on the slippery floor as they threw punches on the ice.

He even used the excuse for leaving to get drinks to change the seating arrangement, putting Robin in the center.

“Yes, that's what I'm talking about! Did you see that angle of the hit? It took two men down, cleared the space, and enabled the assist at the same time. Genius!” Robin cheered.

He decided Robin was more beautiful that way, dressed in her stylish reporter style, yet not hiding her great anger. He guessed that was the problem with Robin. She always tried to be something to make others happy. The son her father always wanted and never had, the cute teenage popstar that tried to be the exact opposite of a tomboy before taking a heel turn and ‘inventing’ grunge, then throwing it all away to become a calm, sophisticated journalist.

Even her relationship with Ted was a part of her desire to reinvent herself, but this time turning into the ideal cool girlfriend, trying to keep up with Ted’s manic pixie romance energy.

Then, the kiss cam was on, showing him and Robin. A reasonable call, as they would have made a fine-looking couple. Robin noticed, her eyes widening. He could have leaned in to steal a kiss. Instead, he caught Rosa’s gaze and winked.

Rosa blushed and gulped. She knew her tendencies, of course, but there was a difference between over-indulging in a threesome and making a move on the kisscam.

But, Rosa was never a coward. So, she caught Robin’s chin. They shared a glance, and went for it. The crowd cheered.

[Achievement complete. Help Rosa make a public move for the fairer side of the equation.

Challenge: Hard]

[+10 Strength

1 Random Gold Skill

1 Random Gold Reward]

Rosa was tense, but tense didn’t mean scared. Though, the kiss was still more playful, as if she was playing it for Kiss Cam rather than a declaration of intent.

Baby steps.

The kiss cam didn’t stay focused on them for long, leaving the crowd to cheer about others.

"Okay," Robin said, looking as if she was hit by a sledgehammer. Rosa opened her mouth, but he caught her gaze and shook his head. Robin didn’t react well to being pushed. Luckily, Rosa could do silence perfectly well. She wasn’t impatient.

Robin started cheering in the last minutes of the match with extra passion, while Rosa was halfway between relieved and disappointed, thinking she had kept both hidden.

He disappeared for ten minutes, and a quick chat with the operating staff. A combination of sweet-talk and a nice, hefty tip meant that they were happy to allow them to stick around, even dropping some equipment to their size.

It helped that the cleaning crew was scheduled for the morning.

&&&

“What do you mean we can stay after the game?” Robin asked, floored. Rosa was temporarily ignored, but if her small smile was any indicator, she didn’t mind it.

“That’s exactly what I mean. We have an hour on the premises, where you can have your chance for revenge for the shooting range.” He smirked. “I mean, you’ll fail, of course, but still.”

“No chance,” she growled. Then, she turned Rosa, her smirk of challenge tinged with something else. “I’ll take both of you down.”

Rosa didn’t say anything. But, the way she grabbed the hockey stick was response enough. They put on the blades and grabbed the sticks, but they didn’t put on any pads.

Rosa adapted to it quickly. Her balance was too perfect for her to be bad on the ice, and while she didn’t have any advanced tricks and ice skating wasn’t as easily transferable to hockey, she was doing amazing for a newcomer.

Especially since she was distracted watching Robin.

Robin was a different person on the ice. A combination of sharp violence, elegance, and control, certainly, but there was a sense of freedom he had never seen on her before. It was why he chose to assist her while she was pulling some aggressive tricks rather than turning it into a competition.

It turned into a fun time, so much so that he changed his mind about making a move. He could, but it would destroy the energy between Rosa and Robin. And, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t curious what would happen.

"You've got great balance," Robin called, impressed, skating circles around her. "Terrible skating, but great balance. If you'd played as a kid, you'd have been scary."

“I had other things,” Rosa said, her tone back to her usual scary tone whenever someone tried to pry something about her past. Robin’s face was alight with curiosity, but she didn’t ask. The interesting part, she didn’t do the usual way most people did, silently judgmental, as if they were doing a great favor just by not prying someone’s past with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

She saw the line, accepted it with a nod, and let the comfortable silence return. No expectations.

“Ballet…” Rosa admitted, half embarrassed, half proud.

“Embarrassing,” Robin said. “Not as embarrassing as being a pop sensation in Canada embarrassing, but embarrassing.”

That revelation earned a real laugh from Rosa, which was about as rare as an eclipse.

He smiled at the absurdity of it. Two of the most closed people he had ever met, sharing their embarrassing secrets. It should have surprised him, but then he realized why it was different.

Ted had always been open about his secrets, but that came with a silent obligation, one that asked Robin to pay back the same way, forcing her to share her secrets following an imaginary schedule.

Because, in Ted’s mind, there was only one way for a real relationship to go, a predetermined roadmap, with five-year targets, which had included achievements of emotional closeness.

It wasn’t evil, but it was toxic. There was a reason that all of his relationships failed until he learned to change…

He had another imaginary call, leaving Rosa and Robin alone. They didn’t suddenly start kissing, or even making real moves, still in a zone that could be called friendly. But, he had a feeling that Ted would have treated what happened as even more of a cheating.

Because Robin opened up.

They just circled the ice rink repeatedly, and talked about ballet training and pop stardom. At first, it was simple stories, like an embarrassing fall that made Rosa laughingstock for a day until she decided to teach the other girls why it was a bad idea to do so, and Robin responding by her own story of how fed up she got touring every mall, living off horrible snacks.

Then, the nature of the talk changed. Rosa started telling about how much she loved dancing, but under the harsh control of her teacher, that love disappeared until it turned into hatred, one that spilled into all aspects of her life because dancing had been her life, forcing her to reinvent herself.

Robin responded by telling her that she hated her first reinvention so much that she had to invent herself again, this time in a whole different country, trying to make her life as a journalist, in a way that made a mark in the world in a way that mattered, yet still brought fame.

He let them have their heart to heart, but he watched carefully. Because neither had the practice of being open to a degree, and at one point, it needed to be interrupted.

Not because he was mean, but because at one point, they were liable of pulling a Ted Mosby. Not necessarily by confessing their love, but revealing a secret too deep, like how Rosa’s biggest fear was revealing her bisexuality was rejection from her family, or how Robin had always been deadly afraid that her father had never loved her, which poisoned her relationships.

If any of them slipped something like that, they would avoid each other for weeks, maybe forever.

Which was why he entered with a boisterous laugh. “I can’t believe you’re already being lazy,” he shouted, ‘ruining’ the mood. “Let’s see which of the slowpokes will be able to catch me,” he declared.

That started a weird game of tag, where Robin and Rosa had become a team while trying to corner him. He probably could have avoided them if he had truly let loose, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun.

Instead, it turned into a weird, competitive chase. When they left the stadium, they were flushed and breathless, but also calm.

For once, he decided not to intervene, curious how it would end…

However, he also wasn’t sleepy. Luckily, one advantage of his unique arrangement, that he didn’t have to keep himself limited. He sent two texts with relatively simple ciphers, one to Caroline, one to Amy.

Amy’s puzzle was language-based, and Caroline’s was math-based.

Then, he trusted them to solve it, and spent half an hour driving near his apartment, setting up a fun scavenger hunt. For Amy, it would be a fun break from work, and while Caroline wasn’t as obsessed with puzzles as Amy, she still would enjoy the intellectual challenge.

After everything was done, he went to the bar, tipping the bartender heavily to allow him to step onto the bar for a moment.

And he waited.