The words are on the tip of his tongue, a mere second from passing through his lips as a wave of awareness settles over him and his gaze is drawn to the door of the church. Robin's breath stills in his throat the moment his eyes meet those enchanting brown of hers (the ones that have haunted his dreams far longer than he'd care to admit, those passing glimpses of her through the forest never enough until today when he'd been granted the opportunity to admire them up close), his own words a phantom echo through the recesses of his mind.
Have you ever met someone that you would change your whole life for?
Someone whose eyes you just knew you were born to gaze into?
He'd felt that. Earlier today in that tavern before Zelena had come bouncing in. Robin had always thought her to be the woman he was meant to be with, since the moment they'd met, but one afternoon in Regina's company has given him pause.
His thumb instinctively rubs over the cool metal of the coin still grasped between the pads of his fingers, the one that he hadn't quite been able to part with, even as his fiancée had journeyed down the aisle, as she stands across from him ready and eager to become his wife. None of that stops the leap his heart takes as he catches sight of Regina Mills peeking through the door at the back of the tiny church, the way his blood pounds and pulses in his ears nor Robin's sudden quickness of breath.
This is a mistake.
Clarity floods through his veins. Suddenly, in the span of a heartbeat, Robin is utterly certain that all of this is wrong. He and Zelena, giving up his position as the leader of the Merry Men. Nothing about it feels right anymore and why he ever thought this was what he wanted escapes him.
Regina still stands unmoving in the doorway, just barely peeking into the church, gaze locked on Robin's, seemingly as incapable of breaking that connection as he until a slow smile spreads across her face, almost coyly with a hint of shyness that he finds utterly endearing, and Robin's heart picks up that pitter patter rhythm at a faster pace.
"I'm sorry," he exclaims, interrupting the minister mid speech about love and commitment as they say their vows, and Robin's brow furrows as he forces his gaze away from Regina's stunned expression to face his fianceé's puzzled frown. "I can't do this," comes his quiet omission.
"Robin?" Zelena questions, tone confused and yet there's a hit of anger beneath it as her head turns to follow where Robin's gaze has flickered over to yet again and the moment she spots Regina her whole body stiffens. "What is going on?"
Sighing, Robin turns back to Zelena, slipping the coin Regina had given him back into his pocket discreetly and gathering the redhead's hands in his grasp. "Zelena, I am sorry, but I can not marry you."
As if drawn by some magnetic force in the universe, Robin's blue eyes lock with Regina's stunned brown ones as she stares slack jawed at him. But the expression only causes his lips to quirk into a slight smirk as he reveals, "I've been lying to myself, but I'm afraid my heart lies elsewhere and it would be unfair to continue such a deception." Looking back to the woman standing across from him, Robin continues, "You deserve someone who loves you with their whole heart and I'm afraid mine has been stolen by someone else."
With that, Robin leaves no time for her to argue this sudden revelation, lifts Zelena's hands to his lips and presses a light kiss to her knuckles. Before the rage he sees brewing in the depths of her gaze can spill over, he's releasing her, jogging down the aisle of the church toward the woman who'd blown into his life and changed everything.
"Are you insane?" Regina asks immediately once he's reached her. True, this had been exactly what she'd hoped for, but it had seemed like a futile wish beyond her wildest dreams that he might feel an inkling of what she does in her heart for him. If life on the run has taught her anything, it's that that's not how the universe works, especially in regards to herself.
Robin simply chuckles, stroking the tips of his fingers down the side of her face, tracing a line along her jaw. "Perhaps, milady," he acquiesces and the depth of affection Regina sees as he gazes down at her makes her heart flutter, butterflies she's unused to erupting in her stomach. What has this man done to her? "But I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I didn't listen to my own nonsense." His voice grows softer, intimate in a way that shouldn't be possible while they are surrounded by onlookers and throwing caution to the wind. "And you, Regina Mills, are someone I would happily change my entire life to be with. If you'll have me."
It's insanity. This entire situation. She hasn't a clue what is happening, but it feels right. Feels like she and Robin might just belong together, as unlikely a pair as they may be, and Emma and Henry's words echo through her mind, encouraging her to take a leap, to believe that true love can exist.
So she takes a deep breath, gathers her courage and nods almost imperceptibly.
Robin's mouth swoops down then, capturing her own in a soft kiss, lips pressing firmly but gently as he angles his head over hers. Her own is spinning, both from the sensation of his mouth on hers for the first time and his murmured confession. The din of confusion around them, people muttering to their neighbor, Zelena's angry huff as she storms out, the Merry Men's cheers, is completely drowned out as they drown in each other.
As the kiss spins out, the world around them reduces to nothing more than a buzzing haze as Regina wraps an arm around Robin's neck and presses her body closer to his, hungrily sucking at his lower lip now that she's had a taste, and they each have the fleeting thought that perhaps they just might be each other's happy endings after all.