He comes close the front door of her house, his hand slightly shaking as his finger lands on a doorbell buzzer.
A woman in her thirties, with strawberry blonde curls bouncing on her shoulders, opens the front door and he thinks how this must be her aunt.
"You must be Stefan," the woman greets him warmly, making the door fly wide open and allowing him to step into the house, "I'm Jenna," she stretches her hand out in his direction, "I've heard so much about you. I'm glad to finally meet you."
Stefan takes her hand into his and shakes it gently, "Likewise," he smiles charmingly into her direction.
"Elena will be down in a minute," Jenna informs him.
"And she actually looks decent," his look lands on Elena's cousin, April. He remembers her from chaperoning her date with his cousin Dylan. He wonders how things are going between them. Well, how can things go between two people who barely got out of diapers?
Jenna ignores her daughters words. "She looks amazing," she says with a wide smile on her face, "I helped her pick out her dress," she says proudly.
"No need to brag, Jenna," Elena's voice comes rushing down from the top of the stairs and all three of them look into her direction.
Stefan's jaw basically drops down on the floor. His throat gets dry while Jenna squeals upon seeing her niece. Even April looks satisfied, and surprised, by Elena's presence.
She's wearing a long, white dress that looks more like a gown than an ordinary Prom dress. It's strapless, and has a small cleavage, making her breasts pop out of it elegantly rather than cheap. Even though her bra probably plays a better part in it than the dress does since the material is pretty light and lose on her skin, doesn't make her look like she's going to suffocate any minute now. It's tight around her waist though, but gracefully tight, pointing out her slender figure, flat stomach and slightly curved hips.
When it reaches her hips it starts detaching itself from her body into a bell, light, natural crumbles on the downside of the snowy white dress.
Her hair is curly and lifted up into a high pony tail, only two curly strains hanging by the side of her head for decoration.
There is some make up on her face, more than usual, even though the blush on her cheeks is more natural than artificial.
When she notices the blissful expression on his face she lowers her look down, takes her dress in between her fingertips and lifts it off the ground, walking down the steps. As she lifts the dress up her silver shoes become visible under it.
He's mesmerized by the sight in front of him, trying to remember the last time he had seen something so beautiful, trying to realize how many more faces she can show to him, and which one is his favorite.
When she reaches the floor she lets go of her dress which falls back to scraping the ground with its hem. She stands in front of him, her look shyly searching for his, and after few moments he finally snaps out of his fantasy.
"You look.." he tries to find the right word, but there's not a word good enough to describe how wonderful she looks. Charming? Beautiful? Magnificent?
Angelic?
"Thank you," she replies once she notices his struggle with words. Because she knows exactly what he means, even if he's unable to say it. "I don't think I've ever seen you in a tux," she puts her open palms on his chest, feeling up the fabric of his tux, the look in her eyes giving him a signal she likes this look on him. Now when she's wearing heels she's the same height as him so there's no need to step on her toes to kiss him.
"Eww," April makes a loud noise, "I'm going to be sick. I think I liked it better when they hated each other," irritated, she exits the room.
But this time Elena doesn't react to her words, she's too content to care. But Jenna follows her daughter with a look before she turns her look back to her niece and her date, a bright smile appearing on her face.
"Pictures!" Jenna squeals, reaching for her camera.
After she takes a few million shots of the happy couple, Stefan puts a beautiful white lily corsage decorated with sea blue ribbon and snow white pearls. Jenna releases another squeal as he slides a corsage bracelet around her wrist, and Elena smiles widely.
When they exit the house, Elena stops in the middle of the porch.
"Stefan," his name escapes her mouth in the form of a gasp when her look lands on the limo in front of the house. Her hand flies for his and she grabs his fingers with hers, squeezing them tightly, wide eyed.
He brings his lips closer to her ear and whispers, "Only the best for my queen."
Caroline did an amazing job on her Prom campaign. Elena gave her complete freedom and Caroline came up with most creative things. Unlike Katherine, she tried to stay away from gifts, she said she doesn't want to buy people with which Elena was completely fine with.
She curled her arm around Stefan's and he kissed the side of her head. They stepped into a decorated gym full of people dancing and chatting away.
Caroline did an amazing job with the decorations as well. There was a whole team included but Caroline was on the head of it, as usual. Caroline is always on the head of everything.
There's a big arch made out of white and sky blue balloons on the entrance, and the ceiling of the gym is full of the balloons as well.
Artificial snow is placed on the sides of the gym, and there are plastic, silver snowflakes hanging from the ceiling.
The DJ is placed in the back of the room and in front of him there's a dance floor with few people already dancing. Majority of them is still sitting by round tables covered in ruffled table cloth, and on chairs covered in silky vanilla color material with big bows tied around the chairs.
In the middle of the gym there's an ice sculpture, of which she can't tell from such a distance.
Where the most people are at must be where the punch bowl is. Elena wonders has Caroline actually went with punch or something else since punch is so cliche and Caroline hates anything and everything that is cliche. Or maybe it's tradition.
Sometimes it's hard to make the two apart.
People keep telling them how they're going to win, for sure, and girls keep losing their breath over her dress. She blushes even more because she's not used to that much of attention. Stefan finds it adorable so he keeps kissing her burning cheeks over and over and over again until he remembers they have to get their photos taken.
"Elena!" they hear Rebekah's voice as they step down from the photo stage.
Rebekah is basically running towards them, pulling Damon behind herself. He has an annoyed and confused expression on his face.
Guess Rebekah found enough courage to ask him to come after all. He probably did it for her, not kids five years younger than him who are trying to spike the punch.
Love is loving something other person love just because they love it and you love them. And it's so simple a child could understand it. After all, children love most beautifully.
They don't love for profit or superficial reasons. They just love. Innocently and with their whole heart, not worrying about getting hurt.
Maybe because they don't even know than love includes pain, or because they know it all too well.
"Your dress!" Rebekah squeals, taking the bottom of her dress in between her fingertips and taking a closer look.
Rebekah is wearing an icy blue dress with bits of silver on it and, to Stefan's surprise, it's long rather than short.
Stefan engages into a conversation with Damon since he's one of the few people Damon can talk with.
"It's not like the one from the magazine.." Elena wiggles her lips, waiting for Rebekah's judgement.
Rebekah raises her look from the dress to Elena and smiles widely. "It's better," she lets go of her dress and her hand instantly flies to find Damon's, "It looks perfect on you. Don't you agree, sweetie?" she nudges Damon with her elbow.
Sweetie. They sound like a married couple.
Sometimes Stefan calls her nicknames as well. Rarely in public, though.
"What?" Damon asks confused, disoriented, pulled away from his conversation with Stefan, "Oh yes," he replies once the question sits in with him, "Both of you look like you fell out of some fashion ad," he compliments them, a smirk present on his face. He pulls Rebekah closer to him, planting a kiss on her cheek, "We got lucky, wouldn't you say so little brother?" Damon says those last two words with a certain amount of affection Elena never heard come out of his mouth before.
Stefan smiles and walks over to Elena, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Very lucky," he continues smiling against the skin of her cheek before planting a kiss there, making her smile as well.
"Come on," Rebekah's fingers wrap around Damon's tie and she pulls him gently by it, "Let's go dance," Damon protests, but Rebekah whispers something into his ear that makes him stop moaning right that instant.
Stefan pulls his arms away from her body, "My lady," he puts his hand before her, "Would you honor me with a dance?" he asks, smiling into her direction.
She blushes, putting her hand into his, feeling his fingers wrap around hers. "With pleasure."
Stefan wins the Prom King, which doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. Everyone were expecting it, but they clap excitedly anyway, faking surprise.
He fakes surprise as well, looking content, but Elena knows that he doesn't care about these things any more than she does. He's just being polite.
He never needed anyone's recognition. But he's still open enough to accept it when offered.
Caroline came running to them, pushing people in front of herself away, Tyler one step behind her, yelling they finished counting the votes. Elena ends up calming her down, not the other way around.
If she wins it will be more of Caroline's victory so she hopes she does win for Caroline's sake. Because, for some reason, these things mean the world to Caroline.
"And our Prom Queen is," Dana opens the envelope with the winner's name in it. Elena looks over at Mindy who's biting her lip, then at Katherine on whose face, she swears, she can see drops of sweat, and Sally is nowhere to be found.
Well, it's pretty clear what Sally is doing, they do not call her wide legs Sally for noreason at all.
"You guys have to know this has been a pretty tight fight," she pulls the folded paper out of the envelope, "Only few votes apart," she unfolds the paper, wiggling her lips, "But few votes are enough," Katherine's fingers clench into a fist, she's clearly tired of waiting, "This years Prom Queen is Elena Gilbert!"
Of course it's Katherine.
Wait. What?
She won?
People start clapping and shouting, and Caroline squeals loudly.
The light falls on her, blinding her for a second, but she starts moving anyway. She wants to see Katherine's reaction but she can't from the sea of people surrounding her.
The victory took her by surprise. After Dana read her name she realized she never expected to win. Despite her threats to Katherine she never believed she stands a chance.
She can hear Caroline squealing even after she moves away from her, and she's glad that she won because that means Caroline had won as well. This whole campaign has been her idea and she probably got a lot of people into voting with her ideas.
She climbs on the stage, people still clapping and cheering, tirelessly, and her look meets Stefan's. His hands are behind his back, the crown already on his head and he's smiling at her. He's smirking more than he's smiling.
Dana gives her a bouquet of flowers and puts a tiara on her head, gently and slowly, careful not to mess up her hair.
She gives her a warm smile before taking a microphone back in her hands and speaking to the crowd once again. She doesn't hear a word Dana says because her look keeps playing with Stefan's. He's teasing her.
The next thing she knows he's making few steps towards her, putting her arm on her back and bending her a little before pressing his lips against hers. As he does so, everyone cheer and shout more loudly. He detaches his lips from hers, takes her hand and leads her to the dance floor. Caroline rushes over to take the bouquet out of Elena's hands so she's able to dance.
Stefan puts one of his hands on her back. Her skin trembles when she feels his fingertips pressing onto her skin through a light material of her dress. Her hand flies instantly to the side of his waist. He reaches for her other hand and intertwines their fingers, bringing their joined hands in the air.
And as the song starts playing, they start dancing.
Heart beats fast, colors and promises, how to be brave?
"So," he says casually, holding her look with his, "Elena Gilbert, a Prom Queen," he lets it all sink in.
"Apparently," she says, rolling her eyes at him, subtly so no one notices. She can feel all of the eyes on them.
"I bet that, somewhere deep inside of you, there'a an angry nine year old screaming at you, commanding you not to enjoy this moment," he pulls her closer to him, desperate for their bodies to touch. So she allows him, so she melts into him. "Because this moment is everything you stand against."
Elena chuckles. "There are no angry nine year old's inside of me," she tries to convince him, but she can hear her voice failing.
How can I love when I'm afraid to fall, but watching you stand alone, all of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure I've seen her every now and then," he nuzzles his nose against her cheek, "Don't you know darling? I know you inside out," he whispers into her ear and she shivers. "I can see her now and she's extremely annoyed because I'm right," his fingertips travel up and down her back, sending delicious shivers down her spine, making her tremble in his embrace like a butterfly with broken wings, "Her long, brown hair is tied into a tail, there are bruises on her naked knees, always present from climbing into that damn tree house. She has her arms crossed on her chest and there's a pout on her face," his leans his cheek on hers, their skin touching, "Because she hates how I'm always right."
One step closer..
He knows her. He knows her so well it scares her. It makes her want to jump out of her skin and run away because there's another person who knows her as well as she knows herself. Maybe even better.
He's living inside of her head, not only occupying her thoughts, he's becoming part of them, giving them an ability to decide for themselves even if everything else in her body is screaming no.
He owns one part of her. Or every part. He's holding that nine year old girl who believes in dragons and princesses trapped inside of a tower on the palm of his hand, and he's holding an eighteen year old girl who is letting herself enjoy this moment on the palm of his other hand. And both of them got comfortable there.
She wants to run, but she doesn't. Because when you love someone you stay even when you want to run.
Especially when you want to run.
I have died everyday waiting for you, darlin' don't be afraid I have loved you for a thousand years, I'll love you for a thousand more.
"So," she clears her throat, "We never talked about how you feel like about us going to the same college," she asks, using her half serious, half teasing voice.
"I'm ecstatic," he answers instantly, honestly, "If I could, I would live in the same room as you."
"That would have its perks," she teases him, and he growls right back at her.
"There would also be down sides," he concludes, "Like both of us failing exams."
"Plus, you wouldn't even have the freedom to glance at those overly attractive college girls."
"I don't need to glance at other girls."
"No?"
Time stands still, beauty in all she is, I will be brave, I will not let anything take away what's standing in front of me.
His grip on her back tightens and he tips her down, their noses touching as he brings his face closer to hers. She keeps her look locked on his, looking at him with a mix of surprise and adoration, and he returning her the look of pure love and happiness, something you rarely see in the eyes of a grown person.
Which is when Elena realizes there's no nine year old boy locked inside of him.
He is that nine year old boy.
He always has been, and probably always will be, only adjusting to life as time goes on.
His lips scrape against hers, but he doesn't kiss her, he only gives her a taste of what they have, and the taste is..
..heavenly.
She feels like they created something out of this world and she decides to protect it with everything she is and everything she has for as long as she can. She decides to keep him for as long as time allows her, worrying it's a little selfish to ask life to let her keep him forever.
He props her back up which is when she notices other couples have joined them for a dance now.
Every breath, every hour has come to this.
He shakes his head slightly, clearly planning to continue where they left off.
"I'm irreversibly, catastrophically, eternally in love with you," he says silently, through a whisper, treating those words as a gift for her ears only, too afraid someone will try to steal them.
One step closer..
He can feel her get still, and tense, in his arms.
"Irreversibly," he repeats the word, "Because there's not a thing in this world that could make me stop loving you," his fingers play with the material of her dress on her waist, "I'm always going to love you, even when you're grey and old, even if you're not mine anymore, you have to know that I'll be sitting in my armchair on a Sunday afternoon, watching the game and I'll be thinking of you," her heart starts beating faster, and as he breathes out she breathes in, hiding her face in the collar of his tux to stop the tears.
"Catastrophically," he moves to the next word, "Because you ruined me, Elena," a light chuckle escapes his throat, "You ruined me physically and mentally and emotionally for everything that may come in the future because nothing and no one will ever compare to you."
I have died everyday waiting for you, darlin' don't be afraid I have loved you for a thousand years, I'll love you for a thousand more.
"And eternally," he says the last word gently, "Because screw that 'even if you're not mine anymore' I've said earlier. I'll be watching a Sunday game in my armchair and you will be sitting right there next to me, reading your favorite book to our grandchildren and I won't say a word because when you read," he inhales deeply, "I fall in love with you a little bit more."
She lets go of his hand and clings onto his tux, tears soaking the black material her face is pressed onto.
He moves his hands to her back and wraps her into his embrace.
She wants to say something in return but she knows that whatever words come out of her mouth won't be good enough.
She wishes she can offer him more, not knowing she's offering him more than enough.
How can he think about eternity, when she can't even think about a month ahead. And she's the only who has to plan ahead.
His words are so sweet she lets herself soak in them even if there's a big chance they will never become reality.
Eternity. Not unless eternity is tomorrow, and day after that, and day after that, and so on..
Maybe she does understand eternity after all.
And all along I believed I would find you, time has brought your heart to me..
They stay in that position for few minutes before her arms fly around his neck and he moves his hands down to her hips.
She raises her face to him, her eyes glossy and her cheeks puffy from crying.
"So, now that I'm officially your Queen," she teases him, "How can I make my King happy?"
"Well, there is one thing.."
I have loved you for a thousand years I'll love you for a thousand more.
"Let me guess," she rolls her eyes, "Limo sex?"
"How did you know?" he cocks his eyebrow in her direction.
"I thought, it's so movie cliche, it must be on Stefan's to do list."
"So," he rolls his eyes, "How does the Queen feels about it?"
She laughs out loud.
"Queen feels very positive about it."
AN: I like to think this is the Prom they deserved to have.
The song I used is A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.