Note: Made for bubbly fics on LJ prompt by lunasoltierra - Whenever I think about Katerina's green eyes I think of emeralds.
Of the four years Damon and Bonnie had been together, it didn't take long for Bonnie to realize that, surprisingly, Damon was a doting boyfriend. He'd frequently surprise her with gifts, romantic dinners and trips all around the world for no apparent reason. So, when Bonnie woke from a long day spent in bed with Damon to find him gone and a note on her pillow telling her to wear her one shouldered emerald green dress and meet him at her favorite Italian restaurant at 8 that night, Bonnie thought she need not stress herself trying to find a reason behind the sudden dinner.
She glanced over at the clock, which read 6:49 PM, as her cell phone began to ring.
"Hello." She said, not bothering to check her caller ID.
"Hey Bonnie." A chipper voice intoned on the other end.
"Caroline, what's up?" She asked, pushing herself out of bed towards the bathroom.
"So, I know I said I wouldn't ask—"
"Caroline." Bonnie started, cut her off.
"Come on, Bon Bon. This is really important. I need your opinion. I'm getting married, I need to know which dress you think Stefan will like better."
"Care Bear, I'm sure Stefan won't care if you show up in a barrel. All he wants is to marry you. Besides, I'm meeting Damon at the Porta Bella tonight. He surprised me with a note, told me to wear this beautiful emerald dress he got me." Bonnie pulled her cell phone from her ear as Caroline started squealing loudly.
"Finally. You and Damon have a whole year on Stef and I and were getting married in 3 months. It's about damn time Damon popped the question."
"What? No, Caroline. Damon's not gonna propose to me. Are you crazy?"
"Why not? He's waited this long, what's stopping him?"
"You really think he's gonna ask me?" She asked, a little weary of her best friend's answer.
"DUH! I bet you a hundred bucks he will!" She replied excitedly, not catching on to Bonnie about to fly in full panic mode.
"Oh my god, he's been talking about our future a lot lately: kids, marriage, whether or not I would turn. Oh my god! Oh my god! He's gonna propose to me! I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Caroline, help me!"
"Whoa Bon, calm the hell down! Take slow deep breaths." Bonnie went back to the room and sat down on the bed, taking slow breaths and waiting for her heart rate to slow down.
"Okay, you good now?" Caroline asked.
"Mmhmm." Bonnie replied.
"Why are you freaking out? You love him and he clearly loves you, there's nothing to worry about. I promise everything is gonna be fine. Besides, he might not even propose."
"Okay, I can do this and you're right he might not propose. I'm probably just overreacting."
"Exactly, there's no need to have a Caroline moment. You just go get ready, you can help me plan more later. And the bet's still on. Bye."
"Okay." Bonnie said slightly giggling.
"Bye Care."
Bonnie hung up the phone and flopped back on the bed below her. She didn't know how to feel about that conversation. She had been ready for a run-of-the-mill date with Damon and now Caroline had her mind spinning, wondering if this was really going to be the night that Damon proposed to her. She didn't know how to feel about that, didn't know if she wanted it or not. But she loved him. They had come a long way from the days when he wanted to use her for his own ends and she wanted to burn him alive. It wasn't easy to get to where they were now but they had done it and if they could get through all of what they had, then surely getting married wasn't an illogical step forward.
Bonnie sighed to herself, perhaps she was overthinking all of this. She had no way of knowing that was what he planned to do tonight. The best thing for her to do is get ready to go so she wouldn't be late.
LATER THAT NIGHT
Damon sat alone in the Porta Bella awaiting Bonnie's arrival. He took the black box out of his pocket again as he had done countless times before. He opened it and took the ring out. It was a beautiful, round emerald set in the middle of small diamonds. He observed the way the light shone off the flawless piece, trying to get his bearings and the speech that he wanted to be of epic proportions ready in his head.
"THAT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!" A woman, the waitress he presumed, screeched in his ear.
"You got a special girl you giving it to?" She asked as she smacked her gum obnoxiously.
Grin and bear it. Just think about Bonnie and you won't snap this lady's neck.
"Yes. My girlfriend. We've been going for four years now and I'm proposing to her." He answered, plastering a wide fake grin on his face that turn tender and real as he mentioned Bonnie.
"How adorable. Are you doing it here?" She asked as Bonnie walked into the restaurant. Damon quickly put the ring away.
"We'll see how it goes tonight." He replied a little dazed as he took in how stunning Bonnie looked in the dress he bought for her. She scanned the place quickly before spotting him. The waitress noticed the twos' eyes locked on each other like no one else was there, the goofy grins that suggested they were in that stage where they just got together.
I thought he said four years. She thought as she walked away when Bonnie got to the table.
"Hey."
"Hey," he replied, pulling her chair out.
Dinner was mostly uneventful. They ordered food and flirted and generally enjoyed each other's company.
"You know, I think I'm getting better at this whole predicting-Damon thing." Bonnie said about 30 minutes into dinner. Damon quirked an eyebrow in normal Damon fashion.
"Are you now? And what makes you think so?"
"I just had this feeling this morning and when you came home that something would happen, and surprise: something happened." She said slightly trembling inside as she remembered the events from earlier.
"And so you were right." He replied with a grin before returning to his food. Bonnie was slightly disappointed he didn't take the opportunity she just gave him but decided to move on.
30 minutes turned into 45 minutes which became an hour, an hour into an hour and a half with Bonnie waiting on baited breath for Damon to propose or do something. He didn't, nothing happened.
The silence in the car between Damon and Bonnie as they drove home was deafening, and the atmosphere was slightly tense.
You had your chance so many times. She unknowingly gave you so many openings. Why didn't you just take the plunge? Damon thought, berating himself for not just doing it. Suddenly the box in his pocket had gained a weightiness it didn't have before.
Maybe Care Bear was wrong. Maybe he just doesn't plan on proposing to me, at all, ever. I should be happy, I was damn near hyperventilating when I thought he would do it today. But what if he still has lingering feelings for Elena or even Katherine? We all know what happened there. He loved one of them for 145 years and found himself again with the other, what the hell did he find with me? Bonnie brooded.
Noticing the change in the atmosphere and immediately attributing it to Bonnie, Damon felt compelled to ask,
"Are you ok, Bon?"
"What? Oh, yeah I'm fine." She said as she realized they were home. She stepped out of the car and walked briskly to the house, not sparing Damon a glance as she went inside and straight to the bathroom to shower.
Did I do something wrong? Damon thought.
She can't possibly know, can she?
They went to bed with the tension still hanging in the air between them. Bonnie and Damon lay side by side, in their king-sized bed, backs towards each pretending to sleep. However, how Bonnie acted once they got home was on both of their minds.
Maybe I was too harsh on Damon, he doesn't know that I may have an inkling towards what he may or may not ask.
"You up?"
"No."
Damon sat up and flicked on the lamp on his side.
"Ok seriously Bonnie, what's the matter? Did I do something wrong?"
Bonnie stood up from the bed and Damon followed her suit.
"No Damon, you didn't do anything wrong. I just thought something was gonna happen and I didn't want it to happen but now that it hasn't, I want it to."
"And what's that?"
"Nothing, it doesn't matter."
"Come on, tell me" He said with his imploring eyes that always got her. She turned around so he couldn't break her.
"No Damon, I mean it."
"It wouldn't happen to be this, would it?"
"Be what?" Bonnie asked turning around, only to see Damon on bended knee, a velvet black box with a beautiful emerald and diamond ring in it.
"Oh my god." Bonnie whispered.
"Yup, I'm doing it. Bonnie, these four years have been a whirlwind and I've pretty much gone from hating you to respecting you to being partial to you to caring for you to semi-liking you." Both Bonnie and Damon laughed at that, their relationship had certainly progressed at a snail's pace.
"Yeah, you get the point. Somehow I ended not being able to see my life without you in it, every day for the rest of forever. I want to marry you. I would happy if you would become my wife. So, what do you say, Bonnie Esmeralda Bennett, will you marry?"
"Huh, wow it's so sudden I'm gonna have to think about it." Disappointment welled up in Damon's chest.
"If that's what you have to do then –"
"Yes."
"What?"
"Yes, I will marry you." Bonnie said, her voice breaking as tears welled up in her eyes. He slipped the ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit. He got up and kissed her passionately to which she responded with just as much fire as he exhibited, her tears intermingling with their tongues as each fought for dominance. They broke apart only when they both thought it was high time Bonnie got some fresh oxygen.
"You know, I kinda owe Caroline a hundred dollars." Bonnie suddenly stated breathlessly. Damon raised an eyebrow, as if to ask 'why?'
"When I told her we were going out tonight, well yesterday, whatever, she immediately thought you were gonna propose to which I denied it and come to find out you did. Care to loan me $100 dollars?"
"Well, Caroline is annoyingly perceptive but we can't help but love her." He stated about the blonde vamp who had become the sister he missed from his human days.
"Besides, what's yours is mine now and vice versa, right?" He replied smiling. Bonnie smiled as well.
"Yes, welcome to the beginning of the rest of our eternity, Mr. Salvatore"
"Same to you soon to be, Mrs. Salvatore."