HIMYM Preferences

Not Lily (Marshall Eriksen)

You and Marshall had been cuddling the night before and you woke to find his arms still wrapped around you. You smiled slightly, laughing as he made a face in his sleep. The sunlight danced through the curtains and you yawned loudly, wiggling out of Marshall's arms so you could open the curtains. Feeling your warmth leave his arms, Marshall groaned loudly, covering his eyes from the light of the room. "Get back in bed, Lily" he rasped.

You were about to comply when you realized what he had called you. "Did he really just call me Lily?!!!" You asked yourself, knowing full well that he had. Your temperature rose in anger and disappointment, and you stomped out of the room without another word.

Your leaving form left Marshall feeling both groggy and confused, as he pondered what he could have done wrong. When his sleepy mind finally realized his error, he bolted out of bed quickly, and all but ran to the bathroom, where he knew he could find you.

He jiggled the door knob, only to find that it was locked. "Baby, let me in, I'm sorry" he told you through the door.

You sighed internally as his voice drifted under the bathroom door. "It's not that it's a one time thing" you told him.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You always compare me to her," was your response. Here, Marshall tried to cut in, but you continued talking, quieting him effectively.

"Just last night you said to me, 'y/n, you look so cute in my shirt, I can't believe that it fits you just like it did Lily", and that wasn't the first time either. You always compare me to Lily and I'm sick of it Marshall, I really am."

Once you had said what you needed to say, the tears you had been holding in flooded out, as you broke into a fit of crying full of disappointment and anger. Hearing your crying through the door, Marshall tried to comfort you, jiggling again at the door knob so that he could come in and take you in his arms. Your crying sounds broke his heart, and he wanted nothing more to come in and hold you.

"I'm sorry," he said through the door. "I'm sorry that I'm always comparing you to Lily. It's just that she is the only woman other than you that I've had a relationship with, and that's just not something that I can let go of so easily. I didn't think that me comparing you to her would make you so uncomfortable, it's just that for a while she was the light in my life, and I'm still not accustomed to having an even brighter light."

You smiled lightly at this, but still kept the locked door between the two of you. "How do I know I can trust you to not call me by her name again if I come out here?" You asked.

"I won't," he promised, "you are you and I respect that, I love you for being you and not for being like Lily."

Hearing his promise was all you needed, and you opened the door, running into his open arms.