Upon reflection, there were many moments that led her to this one.

"Let's get married," she blurted out, effectively bringing any further conversation about laser tag to an abrupt halt. She really didn't mean to say it like that. When Barney looked at her like he'd just seen a ghost, she considered back-pedaling.

The first time the thought crossed her mind was only two months after they got back together when she went away on assignment in Berlin for three months. After only two weeks of being there, she was incredibly lonely, but she kept it to herself. She missed her friends, New York, but most of all, she missed him. Robin was sure the long-distance thing would kill them. It destroyed Ted and Victoria. Why wouldn't it destroy them too? Sure, they emailed frequently and video-chatted almost every night, but it just wasn't the same. One day, Robin sent Barney a casual email that read "Hey, one of the networks was airing a Star Wars marathon last night. Of course, it was all in German, but I actually understood Darth Vader when he said 'Ich bin dein vater.' It was actually pretty awesome!" He never replied. He didn't even call her that night on Skype. She chalked it up to him being busy and tried not to think about it. The next morning, she woke up to someone knocking on her door at some ungodly hour. "You don't even like Star Wars in English," Barney said as soon as she opened the door, albeit a little accusingly. "I thought you sounded a little," he paused, searching for the most appropriate word, "off lately, but God, Robin, why didn't you tell me something was wrong?" Everything after that happened so quickly. She remembered pulling him into her apartment, calling in sick at work, and doing some of those things they talked about doing on Skype. After two days of staying in, Barney had to go back to New York, but it was okay because Robin felt more at ease now. There was a comfort in knowing that she had someone to go back home to, without having to stay home for. She knew now that they could handle this. It wouldn't be easy, but it wouldn't be defeating either.

Barney stared at her, completely shell-shocked, and Robin inwardly cursed herself for doing this. There was no back-peddling now. "I mean getting married wouldn't be so bad, you know? I mean when you think about it, we're practically married now, so aside from the added bonus of tax breaks, it wouldn't really change anything, would it?"

Then there was the time she moved in with him. Robin had been working later than usual, and Barney offered to pay someone to move all of her stuff for her on the night of Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, Robin entered what was now their apartment for the first time, and was surprised to be greeted not by her boyfriend, but a very excited Boston Terrier puppy. She knelt down to pet the cute dog she was already so enamored with when Barney entered the room. "I thought that was you," he said sleepily. She looked up, "Barney, whose dog is this?" He grinned."Ours." She looked up at him quizzically. "Ours?" she repeated. "Ours," he confirmed. "I didn't think it was fair that you were the only one taking this huge leap. I mean yeah, you're living here now, so technically, I am a part of it, but you're the one who did the 'moving.' You left your semi-awesome place to move here, which is obviously an upward move, but still, it's kind of a big deal." Robin just stared at him blankly. "Barney, I'm not following." He sighed. "I just need you to know I'm in this 100%. I want this to be your home, Robin. This apartment is ours, and this dog is ours too." Robin smiled to herself and continued playing with the dog. "You know, I've never been a big fan of the holidays and all that cheerful crap, but," she spoke carefully, meeting her boyfriend's gaze, "maybe it's because I've never had a Christmas this awesome before, so... thank you for that." He nodded contentedly.

He said nothing. She felt her palms sweat. "I never really understood why marriage was so important to people, and I still don't think it should be the end-goal of any relationship, but I guess, maybe, I can see why some people want to get married, you know? Like maybe when you decide you don't want to be with anybody else?" God, she was rambling now.

There was also the time they were in Canada for Katie's college graduation. They spent two nights at her parents' house, but Barney was uncharacteristically quiet for the most part. Everything was going fine until her dad asked how her job was going. She told him everything was going great. She explained how she was promoted last year at WWN, and how she's gained credibility from her coverage on the war in Syria. When her father made some off-handed remark about "still not being a real journalist," Robin finally lost it. Thirty years of pent up anger and emotions came culminating into this one night. Barney didn't intervene. He understood she needed to do this, and after everything was said and done, Robin hurriedly began to pack their things. Robin went to look for Barney, but stopped dead in her tracks when she heard him talk to her father in the living room. "You're daughter is the most amazing person I know and I don't understand how you can't see that. She's smart, beautiful, independent, and strong, and none of that is because of you. You don't deserve her. You never did. I've just never had the heart to tell her that because for some reason, you still matter to her." The anger she was still harboring towards her father had quickly dissipated at that point. She felt nothing, but pure adoration for another, more significant man in her life. She never told Barney she heard him that night, but his words left a greater impact than he'd ever intended. She had a pretty great life. Good friends. Good career. Amazing boyfriend. She didn't need her father's approval anymore.

He still said nothing. Robin sighed. "Look Barney, this isn't a deal-breaker for me. It's just something I've thought about for a while. I love the way we are right now, and if you don't want to do this then we can just forget this ever happened. I'm perfectly happy with that." She let out a reassuring smile.

Then there was what happened just a few minutes ago. In between working all day and spending the past hour with an extremely cranky Marvin Erickson, all she wanted to do was smoke a cigarette. She didn't usually smoke inside, but it was raining outside, and she was tired, and it was just one cigarette so it wasn't a big deal anyway. She didn't have a lighter on her, but she knew Barney kept matches in his suit jackets so she made her way into the suit room, which was now basically a big closet the both of them shared, and she grabbed what she needed and discarded Barney's Armani jacket on the chair next to her. When the lighted match slipped from her fingers and fell on the jacket, without hesitating, Robin pulled one of her own shirts off the hanger and began patting away at the smoke. It was probably unnecessary considering the jacket was made of wool, and seemed to already be self-extinguishing at that point. Nevertheless, Robin was still in panic mode, and it didn't help that Sgt. Pepper would not stop barking. "Robin...," Barney said, taking in the entire scene in front of him. "What's... going on?" She turned around, startled. She considered lying, but she couldn't really explain standing next to a cigarette on the floor with a match in her hand. She thought about stripping down for him, but experience has taught her that although it might distract him for the time being, it won't solve anything. She opted for the truth. "I'm so sorry Barney!" She walked towards him, and tried to explain. "I wanted a smoke, and I didn't want to go outside because it was raining, and I couldn't find my lighter, and I knew you had matches, and I -." "It's okay Robin," he cut her off. She was rambling and he probably already connected the dots himself. He walked past her to see the damage for himself, and sighed. "It's just a jacket," he said solemnly, which was probably more for his benefit than hers. He had a forlorn look in his eyes when he realized his jacket was beyond repair. "Why don't you um order some food? I need, uh, I need to do something." His eyes were still settled on the suit. "I'm sorry Barney," she repeated before stepping out of the room. She knew how much he loved his suits, albeit a little excessively, so she didn't question him when he spent the next fifteen minutes mourning his loss in the suit room. "Are you okay," she asked tentatively when he came out of the room. "I know I get a little weird about my suits-", he began and Robin tried to stifle a laugh at the biggest understatement of the year, "But it really is just a jacket. Just please promise me you'll be more careful around my suits." She walked over to him and kissed him softly. "I promise." Four years ago, this would've been the beginning of World War III for them, but now it was different. They've really grown a lot over the past few years. They ordered pizza and Barney told her about the upcoming laser tag tournament he signed them up for, but Robin just couldn't get the thought out of her head anymore. "Let's get married," she finally blurted out.

There was finally some semblance of life when Barney reached over the table and gently laid his hand on top of hers . "Robin, please stop," he finally spoke.

So that was it. She meant what she said about this not being a deal breaker, but that didn't excuse Barney's dismissive behavior. Saying all of that wasn't easy for her. Robin pulled her hand away from him, and took a swig of her beer. She wasn't going to get upset over this.

"Tax breaks? No difference from our life now? Seriously, Robin?" he asked with a bemused look on his face. "You call that a proposal?"

Robin was getting angrier by the second. Okay, so maybe it wasn't the most poetic and articulate proposal in the history of marriage proposals, but that doesn't make it any less sincere. She had never done this before. This was a huge deal for her, and that idiot didn't even appreciate it. Before she could say anything, Barney got up from his chair and stood in front of her. "Uh...Barney," she looked at him, clearly confused.

"Let me show you how it's done, Scherbatsky" he said right before he got down on bended knee.

Robin's mouth was agape as realization quickly settled in.

He let out a light chuckle at her deer-in-the-headlights reaction. He took her left hand in his, and covered it with his right. "Robin Sparkles Scherbatsky," he began.

"Sparkles isn't my middle name" Robin interjected.

"Robin, please, I'm in the middle of something here," he admonished her playfully.

"Sorry," she said, unable to resist the urge to smile any longer.

He looked deep into her eyes, and took a deep breath, setting all playfulness aside. "I've loved you for long time, Schertbatsky. The first time I saw you, I thought you were smokin' hot and way, wayyyy out of Ted's league." He paused, chuckling at the memory. "I even pegged you as the kind of girl who liked it dirty. I wasn't exactly wrong about that either." he said, winking at her.

"Barney," she pleaded.

"Right. The proposal," he said, getting back on track. "I always thought you were hot, but I didn't realize how completely awesome you were until the first time we bro-ed out together. The whole time I was thinking you couldn't be real. A woman who can appreciate a quality scotch, enjoy the occasional cigar, kicks ass at laser tag, and is as hot as you - there's no way you were real. So, the whole time I was waiting for the 'but', he paused briefly to say, "what up," as he raised his hand expectantly for a high-five, to which Robin reluctantly gave in. "Except I never found it. I mean don't get me wrong, Canada still sucks at being a country, but the fact that you came from there kind of makes you Canada's only redeeming quality, and if anything, that makes you even hotter." He paused, clearing his throat. "Anyway, everything just got so much more complicated after that night..."

Robin gave him a small smile. She gently squeezed his hand, encouraging him to continue.

"I knew we couldn't go back to being bros again. You made me feel... things, and at first I thought it was because you had magic lady bits, but then I got hit by a bus and those feelings only got stronger. It seriously scared the hell out of me, Scherbatsky. Every self-preservation instinct I had told me to run in the other direction, but here's what I've realized since then. Without you, it's like... I'm only a shell of what I could be, but with you, it's like," he paused, searching for the best words to describe it. "It's like I reach my full potential of awesome. I know it's probably going to sound really, really lame, but whenever I'm with you, I don't know, it just feels like that's exactly where I'm supposed to be." He smiled. "I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Robin."

Robin felt her palms sweat, and her heart beat faster as she was anticipating what he was going to ask her.

He grinned. "Robin Sparkles Scherbatsky, will you marry me?"

When Robin gets emotional, she acts in one of two ways. She was either going to cry like an idiot, or she was going to jump him. She chose the latter. She always chose the latter. She pulled him up, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him deeply. He responded, although probably a little startled at first, and pretty soon articles of clothing were being quickly removed, and carelessly tossed aside. They barely even made it into the bedroom, and if it weren't for Sgt. Pepper sitting quietly in the living room, they wouldn't have even bothered. Robin finally pushed him down on the bed, and removed the last piece of fabric clinging between them. She shifted herself on top of him until she felt him deep inside her core. "God, I love you," she hissed as they moved in an ever-increasing rhythm.

She rested her head on his chest, as they lay on the bed, post-coital. Robin was tracing patterns on his chest as the thought finally occurred to her. "You know you totally hijacked my proposal right?"

"Yeah I know, but let's face it, Scherbatsky, your proposal needed saving." She swatted at him playfully. He chuckled. "Speaking of which, you never answered me. I mean I heard you say 'yes, yes, oh god yes,' a few times, but I somehow don't think that was related to anything I asked you." He grinned sheepishly.

"Well maybe if you ask me again, I can give you a more clear answer," she said coyly.

He turned to look at her quizzically. "Okay then, Scherbatsky" he obliged. "Will you marry me?" he asked her again, flashing her a smile.

She rolled on top of him and kissed him on the mouth. "Yes," she said. She kissed him again, a little harder this time, "yes," she said again, and then she kissed him again with even more intensity and urgency than before. "Oh God Yes."

He smiled against her mouth. " Mmm 'engaged Robin' is sexy as hell," he said, giving her another kiss.

She rolled back over to his side. "Psh like there was any doubt," she replied.

"True," he agreed. He entwined his fingers in hers and circled his thumb around her bare finger. "I uh, I have something for you," he spoke slowly, almost tentatively, while getting up from the bed.

"Um... Okay," she said, as she watched him put on his boxers and leave their bedroom to retrieve whatever it was that he had for her. It was probably some sexy lingerie. Or maybe that expensive bottle of scotch he's been saving for the past several years. Or maybe it was a -"Oh My God." All thoughts seized when she saw him hold a solitaire diamond ring in one hand, and the royal blue velvet Harry Winston box that it came in, in the other.

He set the little box down on the nightstand, and sat next to Robin on the bed. "This is for you," he said, gently taking her hand, and slipping the beautiful engagement ring on her finger.

The ring was stunning, not like she'd expect anything less from Barney Stinson. The man had taste. What surprised her was that it wasn't gaudy or obnoxiously big. The ring was modest, and the design was simple. It was exactly the kind of engagement ring she'd pick out for herself, if she could. "This is...God, Barney, this is absolutely gorgeous..."

He looked pleased by her reaction. "I'm glad you like it."

"When did you get this?" she asked, her eyes unwavering from the sparkling rock on her finger.

"Please," he waved her off dismissively. "Never say Barney Stinson isn't prepared for anything and everything," he emphasized the last word suggestively.

She eyed him suspiciously. "So you just happened to have an engagement ring lying around for a spur the moment proposal?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Pretty much."

She wasn't buying it. He was obviously hiding something. She stared at the ring, and then back at Barney as a horrifying thought occurred to her. Oh God. "Barney, was this ring for -"

"No," he cut her off sharply. "This ring is yours."

Of course it wasn't her ring. Robin saw her ring, and her ring looked nothing like this ring. Besides, Barney pawned that ring weeks before they even got back together. She remembered him donating all the money to James' father's church, mumbling something about needing better karma. Why would that thought even cross her mind? "Well then why can't you tell me when you got this?"

He sighed, frustrated. "Because it was a long time ago. Now can we please just drop it?"

"A long time ago?" she repeated, ignoring his request. "We've only been back together for a year. How long is a long time ago?"

He slumped further down on the bed when he realized she wasn't going to let it go. "Over three years ago," he finally said.

Robin's eyes went wide as realization quickly settled in. "You mean when we were together?"

"Yeah, when we were engaged," his voice was now subdued. "Look, I know we were only engaged for a day, but I thought if we were going to get married, we were going to get married right so I went out and got you this ring."

"Why though?" she asked, confused by the whole thing. "We weren't exactly happy back then." Robin winced at the memory. They never were able to find an honest way to be together back then so they both turned into two people who were completely unrecognizable, trying to mold into something neither of them ever were, just so they could fit someone else's definition of what a relationship should be like. Instead, they made themselves miserable. She would never, ever let them go back to that.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I guess for the same reason you asked Lily to be your maid of honor. I think we both wanted to believe we weren't getting married out of sheer complacency."

That actually made sense. She shouldn't be surprised though. Sometimes Barney was even more cognizant than Lily was. "Yeah I guess you're right," she nodded in understanding. "You never gave me the ring though."

"In this case," he gave her a small smile, "Not giving you the ring WAS the right thing to do. We weren't ready to be in a relationship let alone get married."

She looked at her fiancé warily. "So you've been holding on to this ring all this time..." It was a nice gesture and all, but Robin wasn't really sure how to react to that.

He sighed. "Look Robin, I wish I could tell you a Ted-like fairytale and say I've been carrying a torch for you all this time and that this ring, seeing that I never got rid of it, is a symbol of my longing for you, but to be completely honest, I wanted nothing more than to get rid of it after we broke up."

Now this sounded more like Barney. She let him continue.

"I tried to get rid of it," he explained. "On more than one occasion. You see, after we broke up, that ring was the only tangible piece of our relationship that I had. It reminded me of things," he looked at her regretfully. "Anyway, every time I tried to get rid of it, I just couldn't go through with it. Long story short, I kept it in a safety deposit box. I thought one of these days I'd be able to leave it behind."

"You never thought about giving the ring to-"

"No," he frowned at the thought. "I may not have the strongest moral compass in the world, but giving someone a ring that was meant for you just seems... wrong."

She smiled. "So when did you take it out of the safety deposit box?" she felt a little like she was playing twenty questions with him, but Barney was never very good at giving details.

"A few months ago. I wasn't planning on proposing though, and I definitely didn't expect you to do it. We never really talked about it and the last thing I wanted to do was Ted everything up by proposing. I just knew I wanted to be with you, but marriage was never a prerequisite for me. I kept it here just in case." He held up her finger, admiring the exquisite piece of jewelry he picked out for her and smiled thoughtfully. "You know, I think the reason I could never give this thing away was because it was never mine to give." He looked up at her earnestly. "It looks good on you, Scherbatsky."

She smiled. It was moments like these that made Robin wonder why it took her so long to notice him. To really notice him. In many ways, Barney was the most sincere person she'd ever known. He wasn't about big romantic gestures. Moments like these were never planned. They just happened organically, and moments like these were earnest, and ultimately, more real than any fairytale could ever be. She wouldn't want it any other way.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "So um now that that's out of the way -,"

Before he could finish that thought, Robin pushed herself on top of him again and kissed him languidly.

Barney rolled them over so he was now on top. "Scherbatsky, I got proposed to today," he pinned her arms down and kissed her from the neck down. He looked at her pointedly. "I've got this."

Robin didn't protest. She loved being in control, but with Barney, she loved losing control too. She let out a breathy moan at the onset of his cool tongue against the heat she felt burning inside of her. God, he was good.

So here they were again in the afterglow, with Robin resting her head on Barney's chest. He looked over to her. "So where do you want to get hitched? Atlantic City?"

She glared at him. "You want to take me to Jersey to take the biggest leap either of us has ever taken in our entire lives. What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"So Vegas then?" he counter-offered.

She grinned. "Now that's more like it," she said, satisfied.

"Getting married in Las Vegas,' he said, pondering the thought, "You really are the perfect woman, Scherbatsky."

"Yeah, I mean who needs those big church type weddings anyway? They're really not worth the trouble. I mean you remember Marshall and Lily's wedding. They spent all of this time making sure everything went as planned, and in the end, nothing went as planned. It was a disaster."

"Yeah the Larry Fine look Marshall was sporting was too painful to even make fun of." He chuckled at the memory and Robin just stared at him. "What? It's funny now."

She could only stay serious for so long before she broke out in laughter with him. "Yeah it really was."

"Although, to be fair, I'd hardly consider Marshall and Lily's wedding as the standard for all weddings. I mean, if we wanted to do a traditional wedding, ours would kick their wedding's ass."

She nodded. "Totally. Can you imagine what Ted would be like if we had a traditional wedding? He'd probably break out that god awful trapper keeper in the bar again and spend the next 6 months freaking out over his best man speech."

"And Lily would probably freak out over everything else," he added.

She shuddered. "Yeah. Who he needs that?"

"Not us," he answered incredulously.

"And Marshall would do the stupid robot dance at the reception."

"No, Robin," he quickly corrected her. "Marshall will try to do the robot. He's never actually done it."

"Waitforit is so lucky to have us as his god parents," she reflected.

"Right?" Barney said in agreement. "That kid is going to grow up to be the coolest kid in school because of us and in spite of Marshall and Lily."

She smiled. "You know," Robin considered the possibility, "Waitforit would actually make a really cute ring bearer."

"Yeah," he agreed, smiling at the thought. "Sadie* would make a cute flower girl too."

Robin nodded. "Can you imagine how everyone would react to the news? Us getting married is huge, and then us having this big church wedding too? It would blow everyone's freakin' mind!"

He chuckled. "It would be kind of fun to see their reaction." He hesitated. "Maybe an actual wedding wouldn't be so bad," he said tentatively, looking over to his fiance.

"Maybe not." She smiled. "I mean, we wouldn't have to do much planning with Lily around."

"And it would be kind of fun to see classic Schmosby again."

"Let's do it then," she said decidedly.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she confirmed.

He kissed her softly. "Our wedding is going to be awesome."

"Mmm" she agreed, as he started trailing kisses down her neck. "It's going to be legendary."

*Sadie is Barney's niece. She was featured in "The Rebound Girl" as Barney and Ted's bro baby named "Hurricane."

Author's Note: First and foremost, thank you so much for reading this story. If you have time to review, I'd love to hear what you think. To those of you who have already reviewed, I cannot express to you how much I appreciate all of your comments. I wish I could respond to all of you, but unfortunately this site will not let me respond to anonymous users. That being said, I wanted to address something on here. I've received a few reviews requesting me to continue this story. The fact that you enjoyed this story enough to want me to continue it is beyond flattering. Although I did consider it, I feel like I would be doing a disservice to you by continuing this story with pretty much no idea on where I'm going with it. I know how frustrating it is to sit through a story that has no direction. I'm not completely writing off the possibility of continuing this someday, but as of right now I'd like to leave it as a one-shot.