AN: I'm back! This one is dedicated to give-me-tvd for pulling me out of my funk. I've been meaning to write these two again but my feedback wasn't too good and I was struggling with the pressure of having to update my pending stories.
Anyway, here is a little drabble that I admit might be a little too fluffy.
Again, no beta. Standard disclaimers apply. REVIEW!
"Oh my god, Care, could you stop fumbling with the radio already?!"
Stefan has always prided himself with being an incredibly patient person. After all, he's survived an impressive eight years of alternating stretches of supernatural misadventures and uneventful weekends.
He's dealt with werewolves and hybrids and rippers and prison worlds. He survived an entire day with Kai.
If that doesn't make him patient, he doesn't know what will.
Caroline has constantly been fumbling with the knobs on his car radio for the most of the last three hours, sighing when she couldn't find a station that plays Taylor Swift.
When he hikes a single eyebrow, she confesses she prepared an entire playlist but somehow forgot it.
"How exactly do you forget a playlist? If you have it on your phone, you know you can sync it, right?"
"Alright fine!", she says, slumping back in her seat, her golden locks bouncing on her shoulders wildly.
"I forgot to make the actual playlist, but I listed everything in my head as I was packing," she confesses reluctantly.
For the life of him, Stefan can't contain his laughter.
Leave it Caroline to have actual lists in her head. And leave it to her to forget that but never fail to remind him to call his mother at every stop in their road trip, silencing his arguments with a stern she made me promise.
His laughs die in his chest when he finds her squinting her eyes and crossing her arms at him.
He knows that face and he knows that there a few things that can get him out of this current predicament but he can't help but smile at the way her perfectly shaped eyebrow is raised and how her pink lips are pressed into a tight line.
Stefan shakes his head and releases a sigh as he pulls up in a relatively quiet diner a few minutes later.
"I refuse to be bribed with food again," she says, pulling her knees to her chest and turning away from him.
By now, he's fully aware that he's testing dangerous waters but another small laugh escapes.
"What about this is funny, Stefan! Please let me know so I can join in your merriment."
He proceeds to tuck his legs under him, twisting his body so he can face her fully. His smile remains plastered in his face and his eyes are that weird shade of green that usually means she's actually happy.
Understandably, this irritates Caroline even more.
"I swear to god, Stefan Salvatore, if you do not wipe that grin off your face," she retorts, an entire arsenal of verbal warfare ready to be engaged.
He interrupts, smile not faltering despite obvious reasons. "I asked mom once, how she knew dad was 'the one'," he begins, raising his hands to put up air quotes by his temples.
"She says to count the times you shake your head with a smile when you're with them."
He looks to her then, her hair slick from the heat and her eyes full of passion.
For a moment she feels her heart skip. They've already said the words, but she always knows to pay attention. Stefan has entirely different ways of saying Iloveyou.
"Today, when I woke up, I shook my head with a smile as I watched you order my older brother to load our car.
"While I was having breakfast, I shook my head and smiled when you hand picked garden flowers for my mom.
"When we were about to leave, I did it again as I watched you check six times whether our tank was full and if we'd packed enough chips.
"I've done it eighteen times. Mom says I only need ten."
He looks up then, watches her lips uncurl and open into a smile that smile. The one that tells him all he needs to know.
He's out of the car and in front of her in less than two seconds, wrapping his shaking hands around hers.
"Caroline, I've known hurt and pain and suffering and death. I've felt love and lust and passion.
"But you," he laughs and shakes his head again, his eyes never leaving hers.
"My god, you're an entirely different kind of love.
She watches him slowly bend down on one knee, tears threatening to spill down his perfectly chiseled face.
"You can light up a room with your smile. You can silence my brother with a look and win my mother over with chocolate chip cookies. And me," he sighs, looking up to her face.
"You make me feel like forever's not enough."
He pulls out the right then, an old European cut diamond whose band was infused with his first daylight ring her mom had kept and gifted him after her return.
"Caroline Forbes," he begins again, all shaking lips and dried throat.
"Will you marry me?"
Her hands fly to the sides of his face, mouth pressed tight to his in a long, passionate kiss.
She pulls back a little when they come up for air, lips still touching.
He mouths a yes to his lips and plants another lingering peck, snaking her arms around his neck.
When she watches him slip the ring into her finger, tears now running freely down her cheeks, she realizes that all this came from her annoying radio preference.
She shakes her head and smiles.
AAN: Made much more sense in my head than it does now that I wrote it but I wanted to share this little piece with you guys. Let me know what you think, please! XO
