Fairytale Karma

Author's Notes - thank you so much for the response to the last one. I'm glad so many of you liked it - it means a lot that so many of you are enjoying this. Again, as per - italics are from corresponding section of ATKH and again, not necessary to read that to get this. I hope you enjoy.

Every day the girl and the boy fell deeper in love with each other and every day just didn't seem long enough for them so one day the boy fell to his knee, pulled out the most beautiful ring in the entire world and asked the girl to be his forever and she said yes.

Troy Bolton rarely got nervous – he would sometimes get apprehensive and jittery but numerous basketball games and the occasional musical performance had all but cured him of the nervous butterflies that usually made people want to throw up. He had successfully starred in stage performances in front of a thousand people, and made the last minute game winning shot in a dozen basketball games and although he had a healthy fear in such instances, only one thing could ever make his palms sweat and heart race in pure terror due to nerves.

Gabriella Montez.

She was an oddity due to the extreme reactions she evoked in him. On one hand she could look at him and he would know he could do anything, that no task, no performance, no shot was beyond his capabilities and on the other hand, she was the only person on the planet that could make him so nervous that he wanted to run and hide. He didn't quite understand it as he knew that he would have to really, really screw up for her to run off and leave him, but still…he couldn't help it.

Which was why he was sitting in his truck, staring across a college campus that wasn't his own, trying to work up the courage to get out the car and go and wait for his girl to come out of class and do what he had to do. Chad had tried to tell him that he could put it off and that there was no reason to tie himself down so early, especially as it was clearly starting to stress him out. Troy had no idea why he had even tried to speak to Chad about this - the man was currently in an acquaintances' with benefits relationship with Sharpay Evans of all people and he was notoriously bad at relationship advice. He was also the reason why he and Gabriella had enforced the 'never listen to a friend's advice' rule before they moved to California, so Troy was still trying to work out why he had wasted so much time talking about this situation with his best friend. It hadn't calmed him, in fact it had made him more nervous as Chad seemed to delight in highlighting every potential flaw in the plan.

The perfect plan that he had spent weeks and months putting into action.

He had thought he had it planned out – he didn't think there was anything that could possibly go wrong, but clearly someone out there hated him. The plan was designed to be simple, romantic and fool proof and the end result would be Gabriella Montez agreeing to marry him and them both going off and living happily ever after. Simple, easy and uncomplicated. Simplicity and uncomplicated hadn't really existed in Troy's life the last few years though, so why should he have expected this to be any different? Sure enough, with ten days to go before Valentine's day, his perfect, fool-proof, perfect plan had disintegrated into a giant puff of basketball coloured smoke.

Troy loved basketball – apart from his girlfriend, family and friends, there wasn't anything in the world that he loved more than it. He was the best player in his college team and there was already talk that if he chose to pursue basketball outside of college, he could make a decent career for himself. He was never going to be a star, but there aren't many 5'11" stars in the NBA, but he was told that if he continued to improve there was always the potential to do something for some professional team. He worked hard at his sport, and gave it as much as he could and at no point did he ever regret it, until a team meeting had been called ten days earlier telling the team that there was a scheduling issue with his game, which was supposed be played at 5pm on February 14th, and as a result the game was now being played at 7.30pm just in time to be televised. Apparently, Valentine's Day and marriage proposals were not considered when scheduling occurred and at least ten guys in the team had groaned when they heard about the new game time as they all had envisioned telling their girlfriends that, actually, they were spending Valentine's Day watching basketball instead of having dinner.

Troy at least knew that Gabriella would understand that aspect, but his over-whelming disappointment came with the knowledge that his perfect, elaborate, romantic plan was ruined and he had spent more than a week trying to hide his frustration at that fact, which, sadly for him had clearly been picked up by Gabriella who seemed to have an uncanny ability at picking him up on his bullshit.

She had tried her best to be patient and understanding with him, trying to coax him out of his funk, but as much as he wanted to, he just couldn't help but be disappointed in the fact that he was so close to getting something that he was beginning to think he needed, never mind wanted, only for fate to conspire against him. He needed her to marry him - want had been and gone and was so far behind that it was a long forgotten thing, leaving him with the fundamental belief that her agreeing to marry him was an absolute necessity for him.

When she'd asked him what was wrong, he had planned on lying, but he knew that she would pick up on it, and regardless, it was not something that he wanted to do to her. He just couldn't exactly come out and tell her that he was pissed that his plans involving her had been ruined so he settled for a half-truth about being nervous about the game knowing that she would probably see right through him, but that she would be too kind to make a massive issue out of it. Her understanding and tolerance of his occasionally funny moods was just one of the reasons that he managed to fall even harder for her in the year and a half they had lived together.

Moving in with her had been the best decision he had made in his life - up until that poin the had naively believed that he knew everything about her, yet having her around him all the time had unveiled many aspects of her to him that no one else knew about. Her tendency to dance around the kitchen singing Motown songs when she cooked breakfast at the weekend came as a slight shock to him at first as she had pretty much always preferred more modern wide-ranging music normally, but sure enough, every Saturday at 11am she could be found dancing around, wearing his shirt, singing lines from The Supremes, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations as she twirled from the sink to the stove and back again.

Another thing he hadn't seen coming was her tendency to wear character underwear pretty much every day. He had tried not to point it out but, being a guy he couldn't quite help but mention it when she was getting changed and he noticed her Count Von Count panties were on. She had giggled and shrugged, telling him that she had underwear for date nights and ones for every day and she always used to change when he came over, just in case but, as they were now living together, the everyday norm would generally involve Sesame Street, Peanuts and Sponge Bob as opposed to silk and lace unless he gave her prior warning that they had something planned. He didn't actually have any problems with the 'everyday norm' to be honest - there was something oddly alluring in the fact that his girlfriend was such a goofball underneath it all and he did get a lot of mileage out of teasing her about that little fact.

She actually had lots of little quirks that he hadn't known about despite spending so much time with her in the past, and he revelled in the prospect of finding them in the first few months. Putting the milk in the bowl and then topping it up with cereal was strange, doing yoga on the wii while on the phone to Kelsi or Taylor was odd and her collection of books that's only purpose was to make her cry was baffling to him, but despite the fact that he rarely understood any of these hidden quirks, he loved the fact that even after all this time, she could still surprise him.

The 'moving in escapade' as his parents had dubbed it, was supposed to have finished them off as a couple. Once they were living under each other's feet, once their 'freedom' was curbed they were both supposed to run off kicking and screaming but it had not turned out like that. They had actually taken to it pretty quickly – sure there had been some teething issues (TV watching schedule, whose turn it was to restock the refrigerator, whether it was necessary to study while Greenday blared out from the stereo, whose job it was to clean the bathroom, and the stove...) but those were soon rectified. Gabriella was nothing if not a diplomat and they quickly found a system that worked. CSI could be watched providing the same courtesy was extended to Grey's Anatomy. Shopping and cleaning got done on rota depending on who was less busy while cooking was, for the most part and purely for health and safety reasons, handled by Gabriella, although Troy did attempt to cook at least a couple of times a week - even if his meals consisted of Mac & cheese or salad - effort was everything in their home.

Apart from one time when they had had a proper argument there had been no screaming fights, or awkwardness, or storming out – it had been perfect and everything that he had hoped for when he had asked her to move in with him over a year ago. Why then was he going to upset the apple-cart? They could be very happy like this for the next sixty years, right?

The thing was though...as happy as he was, and as content as he was with his life, there was one small, nagging little thing that kept eking into his thoughts - thoughts like 'wouldn't it be even better if she was officially yours?' It was borderline pathetic how his thoughts had formed the past six months – he would find himself thinking about their future, and then, by accident he would start to think about how nice 'Gabriella Bolton' sounded. He would find himself spending too long gazing in jewellery store windows looking at rings and picturing how much better everything would be if one of those rings magically appeared on her ring finger, how he got this almost animalistic surge of possessiveness when she would go to his games and wear his name on her back, and how cool it would be to introduce himself to the guys who checked her out and instead of saying 'hi, I'm her boyfriend, Troy' saying 'hi, I'm Troy – Gabriella's husband, so how about you back the hell up?'

Those thoughts, those desires were why he was gripping his steering wheel, staring fixedly at his target and hyper aware of the presence of the box in his pocket. He needed her to agree to marry him, and he couldn't wait any longer. His plan had been perfect, and he was not waiting any longer to get his answer so…

He nodded his head determinedly as he opened his door, grabbing the flower he had placed on the seat before he marched over to his normal tree and looked at his watch, checking the time. He knew he could back out, he knew he could take a week and re-plan his perfect evening, but he also knew that he would go insane before that so he had no choice.

He took a deep breath before he shot one look at his truck, and the building his girlfriend was in, trying to decide whether or not to back down. "Come on Bolton - man up," he muttered to himself as he tried to focus his thoughts enough. "It's just the rest of your life that you're messing with…"

His mini pep-talk doing the job, he took one last longing look towards his truck before hoisting himself up onto the low lying branch that led to his usual perch, ignoring the fact that he had a game in less than seven hours, or that his coach would personally kill him if he knew he was climbing a tree, and even managing to ignore the fact that if he had his way the initials carved in this tree and the tree in Albuquerque would need changed. All that mattered at that exact moment was the seconds that were counting down until his girlfriend appeared in front of him again. He was ready, he was focused and he was going to do what he had planned to do today, fancy dinner and perfect plan or not. He was not spending one more day without knowing. If she said no, then he would just ask her again one day, but if she said yes…if she said yes he knew it would be the best thing that would ever happen to him.

Gabriella walked out of the Stanford library at 1.30 on Valentine's Day, trying to work out if it was worth her while to pick up a late lunch for Troy before heading home or not. She knew something was bothering him, and contrary to his insistence, she doubted that it was purely the fact that they were going to miss going out for Valentine's day. Kelsi had assured her that it was probably nothing, whereas Taylor, coming off a bad break-up, had tended to take a more cynical viewpoint on things and threw out everything from drugs to affairs, to boredom. Needless to say, Gabriella was tending to favour Kelsi's more balanced advice slightly more.

She figured he was torturing himself over having to cancel their plans, which she couldn't really understand. She had tried to make him see how proud she was of him, and how she didn't mind spending the night in a gym instead of a restaurant or hotel but it all seemed to flit through his brain as he moped. She had wanted him to know that she didn't need Valentine's Day to know that he loved her, and she didn't need pretty much anything else apart from him to make her happy. To her, he was definitely embracing his inner drama queen persona a little - it was one day afterall, and it wasn't like he was ditching her for something that wasn't important. It was a televised game - sometimes she thought that she was more excited about it for him than he was. That was Troy all over though and although she loved that about him, she still wished he would just cut loose and enjoy this - he had earned it and she just wanted him to be as proud of himself as she was. She couldn't help but blame herself slightly - the summer between junior and senior year had seen him lose his priorities a little as he chased success and she hadn't handled it well when she was pushed to the side, so perhaps that was a factor now. She was far more secure in herself now though and she hoped that he knew that because as far as she was concerned he was definitely worrying too much, but she knew enough about Troy to know that pushing him was not the way to get him to respond. He would come around in his own time and when he came around he would general do the right thing, so she wasn't worried.

"You know, one of these days you are going to be concentrating so hard on your thoughtsvthat you're going to fall over your own feet."

She jumped slightly at the familiar voice and spun around, but hearing the low chuckle she stopped and felt a wide grin come to her face in realisation. Of course, where else would he be? "You know, you definitely have an unhealthy obsession with trees, Wildcat."

"Oh come on, you had to have seen this coming. You are supposed to be a genius and all, Ms Montez and I have only dropped out of this tree to see you, oh...seventy times in the last three years," he laughed as he jumped down, landing easily beside her, his face relaxed, his eyes glinting and looking suspiciously like he was up to something. "You know, I have plans to make it at least a hundred before we graduate, right?"

"You might not make it to graduation if your coach finds out you were tree-climbing before a big game," she whispered as she stepped closer to him. "I doubt he would appreciate the romance of the gesture."

"But you do appreciate the romance," he replied softly as he ran a finger over her lips before he stepped back and reached around his back and presented her with a flower. "And that's all I care about."

"Thank you." She brought her nose down to the flower and grinned at the sweet fragrance. "It's beautiful, Troy – thank you."

He shrugged as he reached over and took the flower from her again, before he took it and put it in her hair, his hand trailing down the side of her face as he finished before he placed a soft kiss on her lips. "You really are beyond beautiful, you do realise that, right?"

She took a deep breath and leant into his embrace, her heart still racing at the proximity even after all this time. "Troy..." she mumbled, trying to hide her blush from him.

"I'm not saying anything that isn't true," he insisted. "Happy Valentine's Day, baby."

"Happy Valentine's to you too," she smiled as she reached up and kissed his lips.

"So..." he began after a moment as he pulled back, not letting go of her hand as he did so though. "As you know, I had big plans for today...like, insanely good plans that would top just about anything that could ever be done for Valentine's day but with the game getting moved I had to put them on ice."

"Troy, I told you – I don't mind..."

He cut her off as he spun her around and brought her hand to his lips before he led her towards the fountain. "Now...I pouted a little, which you may have noticed but then I got to thinking that actually, you were right. As long as we were together then the day wouldn't be a total bust, and the main thing I wanted to do today I could still do. See, I had this all down perfect but it would have been forced and...well, not us so...what better thing to do than to drop out a tree, right?"

She giggled and nodded. "Right."

"So...here's the thing," he began slowly as he took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of the fountain beside her, his hand slowly caressing hers. "Do you remember the argument we had like a year and a half ago? I stormed out and you threatened to give my Lakers basketball to the little kid next door because I was being a jackass?"

"I did give the basketball to the kid next door," she whispered. "Then like ten minutes later I felt guilty and bought it back off him for a hundred dollars."

His eyes widened as he looked at her. "Babe, I could have replaced it for fifty bucks – he totally fleeced you."

She shrugged and didn't bother to explain that it wasn't the fact that the basketball was replaceable, it was the fact that she had given it away in the first place. "I felt awful. I would have paid more to get it back."

He shook his head and leant over and kissed her. "I had been a jackass so losing the basketball was the least I was expecting – but," he pressed his lips to her ear and whispered, his breath tickling her skin. "Thank you for getting it back anyway."

"You're welcome. Why are we talking about that anyway?" The fact that he brought up the one serious argument they had suddenly registered with her - that was not good Valentine's Day conversation. It had been ridiculous as well – he came home after a practice and had ran into some of the people she had brought over for a study group on the way out of their apartment. His practice hadn't went well and his coach and dad were teaming up to pressure him to make some decisions he wasn't ready to make, and she was stressing after arguing with her mom over something silly and they just exploded, unfortunately they exploded against each other. He was apparently annoyed that she had studied with a guy who had apparently blatantly hit on her at one point, whereas she was annoyed that he would even consider any other guy a threat. The whole thing had escalated until he had stormed out and she had thrown the nearest object, namely his Lakers basketball, at his retreating figure telling him that she didn't want to see him again until he stopped being a paranoid jackass.

The whole 'event' had lasted about two hours where she had successfully retrieved the basketball from the neighbours child and waited on him and he slunk in the door two hours later with flowers and an apology and that had pretty much been it. "You know – Valentine's day is supposed to be happy memories and the like. Not arguments."

He laughed and looked down before he took a deep breath. "I do actually have a point, you know. We're not natural – we're the freaks of the dating world. We were supposed to get bored, or curious, or sick of each other once we got out here. I was supposed to have driven you crazy and you were supposed to have driven me insane after we moved in together, and none of that happened. We had one argument that could even be classed as an argument and even that was over in two hours. We're freaks. We're one step from being captured and put in a science lab and studied due to our freakiness."

"Okaaay..." she began slowly, still failing to grasp the point of the conversation but not wanting to point out that he wasn't making any sense. He did have a tendency to ramble when he got nervous and she had no doubt that he was nervous about the game tonight but, as understanding as she was about it, she still had absolutely no idea what on earth he was trying to say.

"Okay, that...that's not exactly how I wanted to go about this," he said in exasperation as he rubbed the back of his neck before standing and spinning around. "Um...okay, here's the thing...you and I...we're..."

She smiled softly as she stood, thinking that she should stop him because he was starting to get agitated. She had barely moved a step towards him before his eyes widened in horror and he shook his head at her. "No, you have to sit there and wait – I have this all...just, sit and listen and I promise I will make a point worth listening to at one point. You just have to sit right there and stay there."

"Troy – whatever it is, why don't we leave it until later? We can talk later and if you're nervous about your game we can go do something to loosen you up so you're nice and relaxed. You know, I may have in my possession the new Guitar Hero game that I was going to keep as a surprise until after your game but this seems like an emergency..."

"You got the new Guitar Hero for me?"

"Well, I have other things for you but...yeah," she shrugged, biting her lip coyly. "Nothing says 'I Love You' like buying your boyfriend a video game apparently," she smiled as she looked at him. "Maybe it would help you relax before your game because I don't think I've ever seen you look so nervous, even last year at the Sweet Sixteen."

"Trust me, this is nothing like this…"

"Troy - you guys will win tonight. You've beaten them the last three times, and you have been amazing in every game. You will do great tonight so please, don't be nervous about a game like this. Save your nerves for three weeks when you guys go to Michigan," she gave him a small smile, trying to let him know that she would be there regardless, and she knew he could do it.

"The game?" he gave a laugh and shook his head. "I wish I was this nervous about a game..."

"I don't...I don't get it," she admitted in confusion. If he wasn't nervous for the game, if that wasn't what was causing his odd behaviour, then she was stumped "If you're not nervous for the game then what...?"

"Okay, the thing is..." he came over and sat down beside her again, his hand running through his hair as he seemed to be trying to regulate his breathing. "Normal people don't do what we did – they sleep around, they look for better fits and..." he stopped having seen her horrified face and cringing as he quickly continued. "Which is something that I've never even thought about, ever, I swear. It isn't even a consideration that I have...considered, at all. Like even the thought of someone else is just wrong and I... I just...God this worked much better in my head...right, here's the thing..."

She tried to not interrupt him, even though he was going round in circles but...she was didn't want him working himself up over something. It was actually a little disorientating for her to see him so nervous – he was usually the one who stayed calmer, who kept calm so for the roles to be reversed over something as innocuous as a basketball game was a little jarring. "Troy...relax, please. You can tell me anything, okay? I don't care if it sounds stupid or rambly, or if it sounds better in your head – just talk and I'll work it out, okay?"

"Okay..." he said as he stood again. "I'm just going to say it and you can't say anything until I'm finished. Um...okay. You see I…and you…and…" he growled as he tugged a hand roughly through his hair. "Okay - Once upon a time there was this guy who met this girl and fell insanely in love with her. They moved far, far away to be together and they were pretty close to their happily ever after, but the guy needed something else to be really, really happy. He needed the girl to agree to be his forever. He needed her to say yes about loving him for forever."

Gabriella's eyes widened as he took a deep breath and dropped to one knee in front of her and reached for her hand again. "I need you to be mine forever. I get that we're young, I get that the odds are against us, I even get that this is the worst proposal in the history of the known universe but I had big plans which involved a fancy restaurant and mood music and a candle-light dance on the balcony as the sea lapped against the shore which would have been perfect, but I'm greedy and I can't wait any longer because it has been driving me insane for weeks, months and I can't wait any longer. I love you, Gabriella – it's only ever going to be you."

Her heart was racing so quickly in her chest that she was sure everyone around them could hear her. She was almost scared to breathe in case she woke up from what must have been the most wonderful dream.

"Say that you'll be mine forever," he murmured as he pulled out a box and opened it to reveal a beautiful solitaire diamond ring. "Marry me."

She took a deep breath as she looked at him, before she looked down at the ring. This couldn't be happening to her, could it? There was no way that something so perfect, something she had dreamed about could be happening to her already, surely? She tried to discreetly pinch her thigh with her free hand just in case she was still sleeping, but as she locked her eyes on his mesmerising blue that were begging her to put him out of his misery, she knew that this was real. She really was sitting on the fountain, Troy really was kneeling in front of her and he really was asking her to marry him. She felt the tears stream from her eyes as she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly round his neck as she proceeded to press small, feather light butterfly kisses all over his face as he fell back after losing his balance at the sudden impact. As he hit the ground he somehow managed to get his hands up to hold her head still as he pressed his lips to hers, the kiss deepening as she completely forgot that, in fact, they were laying on the grass in the middle of her campus surrounded by lunching students and faculty. None of that mattered to her though – all that mattered was that in that second, everything she had ever dreamed about was coming true.

Troy pulled back eventually and cradled her head in his hands, his grin wide as he used his thumbs to wipe her tears. "That was either a yes or one hell of a way to lessen the pain of a rejection."

"Like I would ever say no to you," she sniffed as she ran her hand down his chest and lay it against his heart. "Yes – a million times yes. I love you more than anything – I want nothing more than to be yours forever. Yes, I'll marry you. Yes, I'll love you forever. Just...whatever way you want to ask it, just yes...yes."

His eyes closed in bliss as he took a deep breath and lay his head fully against the grass. "God, I knew if you said yes it would be the best day of my life, but it should be illegal to be as deliriously happy as I am just now. How the hell am I going to go play basketball tonight when all I want to do is spend the time with my beautiful fiancée?"

She giggled as she adjusted herself so she was sitting beside him instead of on him. "You know, I don't think you can call me your fiancée until you actually put the ring on my finger."

"Holy shit - the ring!" his eyes snapped open as he began groping around the grass for the box he had dropped instinctively when she had launched herself at him, only relaxing when she handed it to him with a smile. "Okay – before I put this on you, I should point out that it's not...ultra extravagant or...impressive but, if you hate it then I promise I will upgrade it at one point..."

She pouted at him as she pulled her hand back, causing him to look at her in confusion. "What?"

"If you put that on me, you better not even think about replacing it. As soon as it's on my hand it's the whole prying from my cold, dead fingers thing to get it off so..."

He looked at the ring and then at her and then back to the ring. "Will you still get engaged to me today if I don't give you this ring?"

She shook her head, and tried to keep her face straight as she made a show of folding her hand against her chest. "Nope."

"But...what if I light up the game tonight, and some big shot team wants to sign me a year early and I get an insane signing bonus and..."

She rolled her eyes as she leant over to him, trailing her lips up his jaw until she reached his ear where she whispered. "I don't care about money or shiny things, Wildcat. I love you and I want to marry you but I'm only going to do that if you give me that ring."

That was all it took as he reached up with one hand and pulled her face round to meet his lips before the hand slid down and clasped her left hand. He pulled back from the kiss and grabbed the ring out the box before sliding it on her finger. She saw his breath catch as he looked at it, and she couldn't help but feel her eyes flood with tears again as she saw the pure joy that he radiated. She wondered if anyone looking at her would be able to see how happy she was just by looking at her like that. "It's perfect. Thank you."

"Wow – we're engaged," he whispered as he looked up at her. "We should totally get married after we finish up next year. Our trip to Europe can be our Honeymoon and it means there is zero percent chance of anyone tagging along like they were threatening to do. Either that or we can just drive off like now – Vegas is like four hours in the car away..."

"Or two days in your truck, right..." she teased, causing him to narrow his eyes playfully.

"I'm choosing to ignore the unprovoked attack on my manhood by my new fiancée..."

She couldn't stop her giggles as she leant over and hugged him. "You're far too manly and suave to get upset at some teasing of an inanimate, totally unrelated object, Troy."

"I only put up with it because I seem to have an unhealthy attachment to you, Ms Fiancée," he joked before he grinned again. "Man that is never going to get old!"

"Never," she agreed as she reluctantly got to her feet. She wanted nothing more than to stay there with him all day, but she knew the game tonight was important and there was no way she was going to make him miss it. "Come on, Wildcat. Time to head home."

He groaned as he let her pull him to his feet. "Why do I have to play tonight?"

She paused and turned round, letting him drape his arms round her waist as he pulled her hips close to his. "Because you are going to go out there and be amazing and then, once you're done – we're going to go home and spend a night just...just us, no team, no cameras, nothing...and then I'm going to listen to you try and explain to your parents how you could just throw your life away by getting engaged so early."

"Oh yeah, that's top of my priorities for tomorrow – no, wait, actually – I'm already scheduled for a full day in a permanent state of semi-undress in and out of bed with my beautiful fiancée, so I guess the latest Bolton Family 'but Troy you're too young to...' lecture will have to wait a couple of days."

"Okay. I guess I can live with that," she grinned as she nodded. She didn't think she would ever be able to get that smile off her face. "Thank you, Troy."

He looked down at her and shook his head in confusion as he brought his hand up to brush some hair behind her ear. "For what?"

"Everything," she whispered. "For not giving up on me, for moving out here, for making me so happy, for wanting me forever...just, thank you."

"You never need to thank me," he replied softly, dropping his head to lean against hers. "The fact that you're here with me...that's all that I'll ever need."

He kissed her softly as he entwined their hands. "Come on – I'll be a nice future husband and splash out on a celebratory Subway meal on our way home so we have time to get ready for tonight. Just to give you adequate warning, I fully intend to show you off tonight so..."

"Show me off?"

"Uh-huh," he grinned as he planted a kiss on her hair. "Everything is about you tonight." She cuddled closer to his side as they walked before he stopped and looked at her. "You happy?"

She lifted her gaze to meet his, and saw her wide smile mirrored on his face. "If I were any happier I worry that I would pass out," she whispered as she stepped closer. "This...it's everything I ever dreamed about, Troy."

"Me too. I mean I did have the most amazing proposal planned out," he said as he rubbed his neck. "It would have been perfect…you would have loved it, but I couldn't wait."

"You dropped out of a tree, gave me flowers, called me beautiful and then proposed to me using a fairytale – that was perfect. Nothing would have topped that," she assured him.

"Fairytales are kinda our thing," he winked at her. "I could have sung, but as I couldn't really form words, remembering song lyrics was going to be difficult. Plus, in fairytales the princess never rejects the Prince's advances, so I was hoping for some good karma..."

"In real life I never reject your advances either," she grinned as she leant up and kissed his jaw. "You could have proposed in the middle of the mall and I would have still said yes, just so you know."

"You know, if you had even given me a hint of that then I wouldn't have been a nervous wreck for the last week," he teased as he locked his arms around her. "Instead I kept imaging all these scenarios that resulted in bad things happening."

She couldn't help but laugh as she shook her head. "You never had anything to worry about."

He smirked as he leant down and kissed her, his lips soft against hers before he pulled back. "You know, I think I enjoy kissing you even more now that you're going to marry me..."

She smiled against his lips, giggling at the frustrated look on his face as she pulled back. "Come on, Mr Fiancé – you promised me Subway, save your sweet-talking until after your game where we can do it properly."

"Fine," he sulked as he grabbed her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. "I'm holding you to that."

Before they could even walk much further he had stopped them again.

"What?"

"Just...I love you."

"I love you too." She squeezed his hand and let him pull her into his body.

"I swear I'm going to make you so happy," he promised by whispering in her ear. Before she could even say anything, he had kissed her cheek and pulled back, his earnest expression fading as he began pulling her along again. "Come on then, I'm starving and we have a busy day ahead of us from this moment so eating is good."

She could only follow him as he guided her across campus, the smile still plastered on each of their faces. She could only smile as she saw girls walking around carrying flowers and bears as she looked down at the diamond glistening on her finger and felt herself float all over again. She knew there wasn't a girl who was happier than she was at that moment, and catching the mirroring grin on his face as he kept trying to sneak discreet glances down at her left hand as they walked, she knew that there wasn't a guy who was happier than him. It was like everything was leading up to this conclusion, like this was meant to happen. Who would have thought that one night in Colorado just over for years earlier would have led to this? Would have led to forever? Fate was definitely a strange thing.

She couldn't stop the giggle as she jogged a little to keep up with his stride, causing him to shoot her a shy, apologetic smile as he slowed down. Yeah, fate was strange, but she was never going to doubt it after all this. On the most romantic day of the year she was made the happiest woman on the planet – who could argue with that?