Number Sixty Six (13/14)

[stablergirl]

Title: Number Sixty Six
Author: Stablergirl
Rating: MA
Pairing: Barney/Robin
Author's Notes:  I am so sorry that this took me so long.  Many thanks go out to roland44 for the beta work, and many thanks go out to you guys for reading and commenting all the time.  I could not be writing this story without all the encouragement you've given me!  Amazing group,

Comments

[idle_class]

Fucking hell, I missed this a lot. This was simple and pretty and honest for these characters. I love the allusions to the Fairy Tales with the lack of quotes from them, Robin is finally letting go, not letting what happened in her childhood control her. I love her laying down roots, I love so many things about this story, it's truly been a treat.

She’s been this dead and rootless thing, until now.

There are piles of her past scattered all over the place and he just steps around them, easy, like they’re nothing. Like they’re molehills instead of mountains. He just steps around them and he says the right things.

God damn, kid.

You are awesome and amazing.

Thank you.

[stablergirl]

Thank YOU! As usual, an amazing comment from you that makes my entire life worth while ;-)

Aren't they just a lovely pair in this? I wrote and re-wrote and made notes and transcribed Sandcastles in the Sand to try to figure out what's so great about Barney/Robin - in all seriousness - and I decided it's that big things happen and they kind of shrug and say "You were totally TOtally lame back then." but really they mean "You are amazing don't ever change." Magical. I tried my best to get that going here, but I'm pretty sure it just turned into my usual literary epic ridiculousness.

Ok this has now been a dissertation on why I ship BrOTP so hard, which is not supposed to be the point. The point is supposed to be - thank you for the compliments, you have no idea how great it is to hear. You honestly have no idea. A million times thank you.

[idioticonion]

You made me cry.

I thought that your style, the beauty of repetition and deepening and the poetry of your prose, I thought that was all tied to the pain and the angst and the heavy feeling of fear and forboding. But with this part you have us enlightenment and hope and a floaty feeling and STILL you knocked it out of the park.

But she knows that they both know something else is true here and if anything has ever been adult-type love, like honest and soul-deep and more than just 'I love you,' it is this, them.

I loved that phrase, honest and soul-deep, it just rang very true after last chapter's confrontation.

And the end. The end made me cry.

I'm truly humbled by this story. I'm an utter hack compared to you.

[stablergirl]

YES! I love making people cry! That is my goal in life.

It was definitely a lot more difficult for me to make the softer version of this happen properly, hence the long delay, and I think I wrote about seven different versions (poor roland44) but ended up combining them somehow. I'm glad it seemed to work as far as the prose and repetition goes, so thank you so much for mentioning it and being so kind in your comment. I had to light a lot of candles and drink a lot of tea and think to myself "take a deep breath" to get this to work.

Ugh they're just so cute, I couldn't help giving them a little romance on the fire escape and a chance to be in love. I could not stop myself ;-)

I am constantly and consistently humbled by you and your creativity and your grasp on the characters themselves, so really in the end this is a draw, I guess. Thank god for livejournal so we can root each other on! lol. I will forever be in camp idioticonion!

[idioticonion]

Well, you see, the great thing about being on team Stablergirl, is that I know I'm going to get one more part of this story.

Heaven knows when you'll get any more fic out of me. I'm being utterly rubbish.

[snogged]

This was remarkable.

I love the use of the poem threaded through the fiction. I like the use of repetition in their thoughts. I like the thoughts of love, the way Barney and Robin respond to each other, the hope that you've left for them in this penultimate chapter.

Brava!

[stablergirl]

Thanks snogged ;-) Glad you liked it and felt the vibe of love I had going on here. Barney and Robin are so great I can't even stand it (premier! oh my god!)

The comment as always is beyond appreciated. Hopefully the final chapter won't take me nearly as long.

[andrea198]

This was beautiful and, as always, worth the wait. I'm just bummed that there's only one chapter left. ;)

Keep up the awesome work!

[roland44]

I have to say this again - I simply love how Robin asks him twice about what would happen if she fell in love with him, and both his answers, especially the last one. And falling in love should always be like landing.