KINKY!; Goodbye✓

Stefan Salvatore // Dream

It seemed as though Stefan Salvatore had planned this from the beginning.

Although it may not have been obvious to most, but Stefan had been planning his death for quite some time. He had been wishing for the sweet release of death to take him away from the horrors of the world. Stefan wanted more than what life had to offer him. Afterall, what good had life ever brought him anyway? The only thing that life had ever given him was you, but it seemed that fate did not plan on keeping the two of you together for very long.

Years ago, Stefan Salvatore had been the love of your life. The two of you had gotten married under the stars and traveled the world together before settling in Mystic Falls. However, once Elena Gilbert came along, things began to change.

Life became rougher and it became difficult for you to survive. Even as a vampire, you had always had a little trouble keeping up. This was primarily due to the fact that you were on "the bunny diet" as Damon liked to put it. Because you only fed on animals, your body would never be as strong as other vampires.

As fate would have it, a few years after you met Elena Gilbert, you were killed.

They never discovered who had been the one to commit the crime, there was no evidence, no witnesses, just your broken, mangled body and your heart lying by your side. Stefan had found you after not hearing from you for a few hours. Worry had wrecked his body for hours on end before he finally found your car near the entrance to the forest. It was not unsurprising, you had most likely been hungry and wanted to drink. When Stefan tracked your steps into the woods, he was heartbroken to find your torn corpse waiting at his feet.

Stefan had immediately dropped to his knees, not being able to maintain his body weight with the sight before him. His jaw went slack and tears already began falling from his tired eyes. Not caring about the blood that may soak his clothes, he gathered your body into his arms and pulled it tight against him. He tried to feel for a breath, a sign, anything to show that you were still with him, but he knew it was futile. Your heart had been ripped from your chest, there was no way for you to still be alive.

Horse sobs filtered from the back of his throat and out of his lips as he cried. Stefan clutched your body to his chest, his head placed in the juncture between your head and your shoulder as he whispered futile pleas against your cold skin.

"Please, please no," he muttered, heart clenching in his chest, "you can't do this to me - not now - not when I need you most."

The way you had been killed almost seemed ironic to Stefan. It may have been your heart that had been ripped from your chest, but it still seemed like it was Stefan's heart that had been torn to shreds.

He stayed beside your body for hours it seemed, continuing to rock you back in forth in his arms as if there could be some miracle in all of heaven that would bring you back to him. After a few hours, after the sobs had ceased and his hands were covered in crimson blood, Stefan managed to shakily bring himself to his feet and drag himself back to his house, with your body still dangling in his grip.

Stefan had made his way back to the Salvatore boarding house, where he knew the rest of his friends would be. After crossing the threshold of the doorway, Stefan fell back to his knees and let out another sob. Damon and Elena were the first to burst into the room to identify the source of the noise. When they saw what sight lay before them, they almost wished they hadn't.

Damon reacted first, seeing as he had been your brother-in-law and one of your closest friends. He dropped beside his brother with a small noise leaving the back of his throat. Tears welled in his eyes, and he laid a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, brother," Damon whispered.

Although the words were short, it was still enough for Stefan to let your body rest against the floor so that he could turn and grip his older brother. It had been a while since they shared an emotional moment together, but Damon still managed to squeeze his little brother tightly to him as he sobbed for his lost love.

As Stefan cried, the rest of the group filtered into the room to witness what had occurred. They had been shocked and grief-stricken at the sight of you and the Salvatore brothers at your side. Bonnie Bennett had immediately let out a sob and gripped onto Enzo's arm as he attempted to comfort her. The two of you had been great friends, and it was like a knife to the heart when she laid eyes upon your dead body. Caroline and Matt Donovan simply watched with heavy hearts as one of their friends left this world for another. The rest of your group of friends lowered their heads in indication of their fallen friend.

A few weeks later, your funeral was held and Stefan placed your body in his family tomb, knowing that it was what you would have wanted. It was a small ceremony, just the Mystic Falls gang gathered together for one final goodbye one of their greatest friends. Bonnie and Damon gave beautiful speeches about how your laugh always managed to light up a room and how you always seemed to be able to drag a smile out of even the saddest person.

When Stefan stepped up to give his speech, his eyes were red and swollen from all the crying he had done over the past few weeks. He attempted to pull himself together by rubbing the skin beneath his eyes, but all it did was make them ache.

"When [Y/N] was little, she used to sleep with a dream-catcher above her head. She told me that she used it to keep the bad dreams away and she still used it, even as a hundred year old vampire," Stefan chuckled, "The day after we moved in together, I noticed that she had taken the dream-catcher down and now it laid inside her bedside table. When I asked her why she didn't have it above her bed anymore, she simply told me 'I don't need a dream-catcher to keep the bad dreams away, because now I have you and I know you'll always protect me, even in my sleep.' It was in that moment that I knew I was completely and uninevitably in love with her. It was because she not only loved me but she trusted me wholeheartedly to keep her safe. And I know that if she could be here now, she wouldn't want me to blame myself for what happened to her because it was out of my control, but that guilt still weighs heavily on my heart. I didn't keep her safe, at least in that moment I didn't. I may have kept her close my entire life, but in that moment, when she needed me, I couldn't keep her safe. For that, my love. I'm sorry - I hope you can forgive me."

From behind his back, Stefan had drawn the dream-catcher onto the casket before him, finally letting his tears take over as he cried once more. Damon ushered him away from the podium and let the others give their speeches as he comforted his brother.

After the funeral, Stefan was never the same, he went back to the brooding vampire he had been before he met you. He rarely spoke and chose to instead divulge his problems in alcohol rather than human interaction.

Months had passed, but Stefan was never the same. Your death had shaken him to the core and Damon worried that Stefan would never come to terms with your murder. He feared that Stefan would continue to be the broken soul he had become. Stefan knew that Damon was trying to help, however, Stefan was haunted by too many demons and his soul could never be repaired. The torn pieces of his heart were so mangled that no stitch could ever pull them back together. Stefan knew he was broken, and he knew that the only thing that could repair those fragile pieces was if he was reunited with you.

So when Bonnie discovered that there was a way to kill Katherine Pierce by keeping her in hell and letting the hellfire consume her as Bonnie destroyed it, Stefan knew what he had to do.

Stefan entered the empty cavern of the tunnels, letting his eyes fall upon Katherine and Damon as they argued.

"You're bluffing," Katherine replied, a smug smile falling upon her lips.

Before Damon had the chance to respond, Stefan spoke up, alerting the two as they argued, "No, he's not. And neither am I." Stefan took careful steps into the cavern, letting the two watch him as he maneuvered his way closer.

"I got this handled, bro," Damon muttered, eyes wide as he takes in Stefan. It was the first time in a long while that Stefan had gotten involved in one of the "adventures" that the Mystic Falls group tended to attract. "You need to get out of these tunnels," Damon continues.

Stefan shakes his head, "I'm not the one who's going to get out of here - you are."

"Bad time to be a martyr, Stefan," Damon growls.

"Said the martyr," Stefan quickly retorts.

Katherine turns and tries to make her way towards the exit, "I'm going to let the two if you figure this out amongst yourselves." She steps closer to the exist of the tunnels but is stopped when Damon draws his hand back and lets the knife fly, hitting Katherine in the back. She is immediately subdued, falling to the ground where both Damon and Stefan know she won't be rising from anytime soon.

Damon steps forward the confront his brother, "Fine, then we will both go."

"Somebody needs to stay here and make sure she's actually in hell when it's destroyed," Stefan replies.

"I'm aware," Damon speaks, cutting Stefan off as he tries to speak, "tell Elena that I did this for her, to pay for my past mistakes."

Stefan shakes his head, "You can tell her yourself. I need to do this Damon. I owe it to Bonnie and Enzo - I owe it to a lot of people."

Damon shakes of the hint at your name, instead choosing to try to convince Stefan out of his suicide mission, "I can't let you die here, Stefan."

"Yes," Stefan nods, "you are."

"Are you seriously going to sit here and argue with me about who needs this redemption more?" Damon cries, "You're not responsible for Enzo, Stefan!"

Stefan feels a weight in his heart as he replies, "You keep saying that but you're wrong! We are all responsible for our own actions. Every drop of blood that I have spilled, I am accountable for."

Damon paces back and forth as Stefan attempts to convince him, trying to wrap his head around his brother's logic. "Then I'm accountable too, and I have spilled even more!"

"Damon, I'm human. In sixty years I'm going to be old and I'm going to be dead. You have quite literally an eternity with Elena ahead of you-"

"Which means a lot less without you!" Damon cries.

"Do you think I want this? I lost the love of my life, my wife is dead and she is waiting for me to come home to her. In the nearly two centuries since I made you become a vampire, I have fought to turn you into the man who deserves the happiness that is out there right now. Damon, I can't have that happiness because [Y/N] is already gone. I can't be happy until she is back by my side once more, Damon," Stefan cries, tears welling in his eyes as he recalls the woman he loved. His heart, although torn and broken, could be restrung if he had the chance to see his wife again.

"No," Damon whispers, his focus not completely in the conversation as he remembers his sister-in-law.

"So let me do this for you," Stefan whispers.

"No."

"Then let me do this for me," Stefan cries. It had been too long since he had seen you and that separation was beginning to tear him apart from the inside. It wasn't just your death that lingered over him, it was the guilt of not saving you and the horror of having no way to bring you back. He may have been human now, but there was no life for him unless you were in it. There was no purpose of living unless you were living.

"Please," Stefan whispers.

Damon's body shakes as he takes a moment to think. His body hurting as he thinks of what he is going to do next, knowing that Stefan will never forgive him, "I love you, little brother."

"I love you too."

Damon steps forward, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder shaking his head as he speaks, "And you're right - you are human. Which is why I can do this." Salty tears begin to roll down his eyes as he speaks his next words, his pupils widening as he compels his little brother, "Go, walk out of these tunnels and you are not going to stop until my death breaks the compulsion," Stefan struggles against his brother, pleading for him to stop so that he can finally be reunited with his wife, "Because I am the big brother. I'm sorry I wasn't better at it until now."

The two brothers cry as Damon compels his brother to escape the tunnels, not knowing that Stefan was already on vervain. Stefan lets out a teary-eyed smile as he turns and emotionlessly leaves the tunnels with a heavy-heart and a mission in his mind.

Minutes later, Damon is holding Katherine in front of the tunnels, waiting for the hellfire to consume them. Katherine struggles, attempting to break free of his strong hold. However, before the fire reaches them, Damon is stabbed by a syringe of Stefan's blood, transferring the cure to his body. Stefan lets the syringe hit the floor as Damon looks up at his brother in shock before Stefan throws his body out of the way of the hellfire.

Stefan grabs ahold of Katherine, knowing that he will be dead soon because he no longer has the cure running through his veins. He drags her body back into the tunnel as she cries out for him to stop.

"Stefan, please," Katherine cries.

He ignores her plea and pierces the dagger into her heart before turning to his brother who lays unconscious on the floor, "Goodbye brother," he whispers. Stefan then turns his head back to the tunnel before him and allows the fire to consume him body, his last thoughts being of his beautiful wife who he would be seeing soon.

Stefan lets his hand fall away from Elena's, making his way towards the doors before him. Anticipation fills his every movement as he moves closer. It had been too long since he had seen you, since he had been able to touch you or even speak to you. It may not have been an eternity but, God, did it feel like it.

Letting the light take over his figure, his eyes adjust against the harsh, bright sun as he steps into the parking lot. His eyes scan the area until they land on one figure. One figure who has his breath taken away the moment his eyes land on her. Before he even gets a chance to do anything, tears are overtaking his vision and he lets out a watery smile.

"I told you that I would always have you by my side, my dream catcher," you let out. Your body is leaning against Stefan's old car, arms crossed over your chest as you admire the love of your life. On the inside, your body is buzzing with excitement - he's here, he's actually here. It takes all the strength you have in your body to not rush over to him immediately,

Stefan laughs softly, "And that's where I'll be for the rest of my days."

His words are all it takes for you to rush over to him, you're feet moving as quickly as you can. You are taken into his arms, his biceps crushing you into his chest, where he buries his face in your hair. You cry out, letting your arms wind around his waist as you softly cry, letting out little hiccups as you try to laugh. Taking in his scent, your throat makes a happy noise as you bury your nose in his chest. "I love you," you whimper, "I love you so much."

Stefan lets a few of his tears drip onto your hair, "I love you too."

And then he's placing his lips onto yours, lifting you by your hips as he spins you around in circles. You let out a few giggles as you twirl with his strong arms embracing you. His lips are as soft as you remember and his kiss feels as though it's brightening your soul. In reality, your kiss is stitching back the pieces of Stefan's broken heart. Those torn and mangles pieces that had been in his heart for so long were finally being repaired. He could feel his heart becoming lighter as he tilted his head, letting his lips slot against yours once more.

When he brings his head back, he buries his face in your neck letting out a happy laugh that he had not made in a while. It doesn't take long before he places his hand on your cheek, admiring the way you gaze into his eyes. He watches as you place your hand over his own, his eyes sparkling as you smile. His eyes fall upon the wedding bands on both your fingers, his heart ringing as he is finally reunited with his wife.

(extra)

They bury his body in the tomb next to yours, hoping that if they were close here, they would be close in whatever afterlife they end up in.

Damon stands in front of the two headstones, letting memories of his two best friends wash over him for one last time. He turns his head as Caroline enters the room, watching as she approaches him.

"Do you think they found peace?" Damon whispers.

"Together?" Caroline replies, "yeah, they definitely found peace together."