Disclaimer: I own nothing from The Vampire Diaries. No copyright infringement intended.

Fifty Shades of Caroline

It all started one night, at one of the parties Caroline organized. She and Damon had moved from Mystic Falls to New York five years ago, and she had since established herself as one of the most notable event planners in the city. She first started out as an intern at an even-planning company based in Manhattan, and she had strived her way to the top pretty quickly, because she did have the natural talent in planning events (the parties, dances, and charities she had hosted back in Mystic Falls were nothing compared to the ones she had been organizing in New York). She always came up with the best ideas and all of the events she was assigned in always ended up as a big success.

So, that night, she was in a birthday party for a socialite, supervising the event she had planned and organized for the past few weeks. It was held in a club that was a hit during that time, but of course Caroline couldn't exactly enjoy her time there and party away. Instead, she was in the kitchen, making sure enough food goes out and a lot of cocktails get served. While ordering a waiter to bring another tray of bruschetta out, she overheard two employees talking in the other side of the room.

"Did you see Caroline's boyfriend yesterday?" one, a brunette, said.

"You mean the dark-haired hottie that picked her up?" the other asked.

"Yeah, that would be him. I heard his name's Damon. And did you see his eyes?" the brunette gushed. "Oh, gosh! I can't even form coherent words to describe those dazzling blue eyes!"

"I know, right! Damn, I wish I were Caroline."

"Maybe if we were blondes we could snag him."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

"Bet he only thinks she's hot because she has pretty golden ringlets. What a stereotype. The hot guys and the blonde bimbos," the second girl commented, jealousy laced in every word she spoke.

If looks could really kill, the two girls would have been long dead. They were lucky Caroline got a pretty good self control, because if she didn't, she would have raced across the room and ripped their throats by now. Caroline instead took a deep breath and calmly approached them. They apparently didn't notice Caroline coming. Their attention was divided between preparing prawns and fangirling over Damon.

"Jenna, Dawn?" Caroline called them in a sweet tone (Damon could have recognized it as the one that screams 'danger!', but those two girls didn't know Caroline as well as he did).

The girls—Jenna and Dawn—both froze. They held their breath as they turned around to face Caroline, their eyes wide and cheeks flushed in embarrassment at the thought of being caught talking shit about their boss.

Caroline smiled (again, Damon could have seen that it was fake, but these girls didn't know Caroline and they are stupid). "Are you guys done with the prawns? We need to get them out immediately. Don't want to upset the client, do we?"

"Y-yes, Caroline," both of them stuttered. They hurried back to finish their job.

Idiots. They were trying so hard to keep their voices down, but even if they were whispering to each other, Caroline would still be able to hear them. Nothing could escape a vampire's advanced hearing.

"So people think I'm only pretty because I'm blonde, huh?" Caroline muttered, gritting her teeth as she tried to keep her composure. "Well, let's test their theory, shall we?"

Damon was fixing some dinner, knowing that Caroline would likely want them to sit down and eat something as they talk about her long day at work. Even though they didn't really need to consume solid food, Caroline still enjoyed 'humanly food' because for one: she had always loved to eat (she wasn't quite ready to never taste good food anymore for the rest of eternity), and for another: it did help to tame the blood craving.

One would never guess Damon Salvatore had the skill when it comes to culinary, but he did. He was even better than Caroline, and the girl had been cooking meals for herself and trying out Martha Stewart's recipes since she was ten. The menu for that night was chicken parmesan and molten cake, and Damon was making the batter when he heard the front door opened. He could tell it was Caroline from her scent.

"I'm making some chicken tonight, hope you're hungry!" he said when he sensed her entering the kitchen, not even looking up from his current task.

When he finally glanced over his shoulder to see her, his jaw dropped at the sight before him.

Damon gulped, turning around to take a second look to confirm that he was not seeing things. His eyes raked over Caroline, eyeing her up and down.

Nope.

Definitely not seeing things.

"So…" Caroline began, "Do you like it?" she asked, fidgeting under his gaze. Of course she was nervous. What if everyone was right? What if she were really ugly had she been anything but a blonde? What if—

"Damn," Damon cursed under his breath. "Now I'm hungry."

He licked his lips, and raced to where Caroline stood. Taking her in his arms, he cradled her face and pressed his lips against hers, taking her mouth in a deep kiss.

"You know," he said once they pulled apart, "I never really liked red heads. They're too fiery, too excited, they're just…too much."

Caroline nervously bit her lips as her hand unconsciously ran to her now ginger hair. A million thoughts began to run in her head. 'See? They are right! Damon doesn't like it! I am ug—'

"But you look so sexy I could take you here, on the counter," he continued, his eyes were full of lust and passion that it sent shiver down her spine.

Her lips parted in a wide, mischievous smile. "Well," she tilted her head to the side, "why don't you?"

Damon grinned, and soon Caroline found her back hitting the linoleum kitchen counter.

Caroline had dyed her hair more than a dozen of times after that. Dk brown, Med brown, Light Auburn, Med Auburn, Dark Auburn…you name it, she'd had that as the color of her hair. Sometimes she'd only dye it a few shades darker or lighter than how it was before, or maybe add some streaks, and sometimes she'd make drastic change. She even had tried blue and green, though those didn't last more than a day. But she managed to pull it all off. Whatever her hair color was, Caroline always looked as lovely as ever. She succeeded in proving people wrong. Their theory was bogus. She wasn't just some unremarkable blonde. She was Caroline Forbes, and she was nothing but unremarkable.

She had felt nervous a few times during the change of her hair color, nervous that Damon might not like it (even after almost half a century of being a vampire now, a little bit of the insecure part of her remained), moreover when she decided to dye it dark brown. She was afraid it would remind Damon of Elena, and that was the last thing she had ever wanted—to become Elena's shadow. But her worries had proven to be unnecessary. Damon loved her—truly loved her—and only her. He had proven that throughout the years.

Her hair was pink that time (what can she say? Dying her hair got fun overtime), and Damon had cocked his eyebrow when he saw her for the first time. Of course he thought she was beautiful and sexy as hell. It was Caroline, his Caroline.

"You know," he said when they laid in their bed later at night, Caroline cuddled up against his chest as he stroked her new pink hair, "You are beautiful, Caroline," he told her.

She looked up at him, her amplified vision allowing her to make out his gorgeous face even in the dark. He was looking down to her, his eyes shining with so much love that it sent a flutter to her chest.

"Either you're blonde, brunette, or dark-haired, I could care less. I fell in love with you not because of your hair. And I don't think it's entirely because of how you look either. Yes, you are the most gorgeous girl I've ever met. But looks are not everything, Caroline. Not really. You know that, and I know that."

He put his hand on her cheek, running his thumb against her skin softly in a loving manner.

"I fell in love with you because you're amazing; because you're one of the strongest people I've known, but you're also sweet inside—you care about everyone around you and you never hesitate to do everything in your power, in your own way, to make them happy. I fell in love with you because you can always keep your head up even in your misery; you see the good in things and even if you can get annoying at times, you always mean well. And you have probably the kindest heart in the whole universe—because you forgive me. Me, who had hurt you so much in the past. And you can still love me."

Caroline smiled as she wiped the tear that formed in her eyes. "That's…very sweet, Damon," she sniffed. "But I did kick your ass a few times. So I guess we're even?" she giggled.

"Nah, it was nothing," Damon replied grimly. Caroline sighed.

"To be honest," she said, sitting up. "Sometimes you being so sweet and romantic scares me. It's almost so out of character of you. And you feeling all guilty about what happened like, five decades ago, freaks me out," she pouts. "So is there anything we can do to make ourselves even?" she wiggled her eyebrows.

A smirk played around Damon's lips. "Well," he said, pulling Caroline onto his lap. "I can think of some ways."

A/N: No offence to all red heads out there! I'm sorry if I have offended you, I never meant to. I thought it was something Damon would say.

I love red heads. I think you guys are cool and look so lovely. Even The Doctor wishes he were ginger. I wish I were ginger. But I'm Asian, so yeah, that wouldn't really work, would it?