Rantipole | THE VAMPIRE DIARIES [COMPLETED] (1)

ninety five | where you left your heart

7 years later

With a sigh, Annabelle said, "Remind me again why you decided to bring me here?"

As he went to wrap his arms around her, Joseph replied, "Because, Annabelle, there is no better way to move past the wrongdoings or any of the hell in your past than by revisiting the countries and cities you had once been to when you and your siblings were on the run from Mikael. Besides, you can't tell me that you haven't enjoyed all the traveling we've been doing since Kai and Dorothy went back to America two years ago just so you could be updated on how Kol is doing." When Annabelle only raised an eyebrow in response, he told her, "Besides, all the traveling we've done for almost a year now is the happiest I've ever seen you. I have never seen you smile as much as you've been doing since we started to see all of the places you once traveled to hundreds of years ago."

In turn, Annabelle only said, "Hmm."

As he went to rest his head on top of Annabelle's, he said, "I mean, we've been to Spain, we've been to Copenhagen– you know, the very place where you spent at least five years being known as a serial killer in the eyes of the public until Klaus daggered you and left you daggered for, like, forty-five years. We've also been to England and Italy. And now, we're in Southern France, where your constant hell and torture had started for you." As he started to lightly run his fingers up and down her side, he said while she closed her eyes and smiled to herself, "And even though you won't admit it, you know that going to all of your old haunts and any place that brought you nothing more than hell is helping with the healing process and is also helping you with coming to terms about just who you are as a person. And you know it."

With an eyebrow raised, Annabelle asked, "Do I really know that, Joseph?"

Joseph replied, "If you didn't, would you have come with me, Annabelle?" As he looked over at the ring that was wrapped around her left ring finger, he said, "Or even said yes when I asked you to marry me last year."

The most Annabelle did in response was shrug to herself before she started to grin when Joseph pulled her even closer to himself and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

After opening her eyes and seeing how Joseph was staring down at her, she asked him, "Would you believe me if I told you that the past couple of years that we've spent traveling around Europe with one another in an attempt to help me find myself is the happiest I have ever been in all the years I had spent as a vampire?"

In turn, Joseph asked her, "And what about Atticus?" When she didn't respond, he said, "You once told me that aside from Kol, Atticus was the one man that made you feel the happiest when you were still human."

After sighing to herself, she said, "Yes, Atticus did make me feel happy when I was human, but the way he cared for me was different. He loved me, and he loved the children we had, but he still didn't understand everything there was to know about me. He didn't understand how I could still be protective of my siblings and care for them, when most of them turned away the moment I really needed their help with something. But you're different. You accept me for who I am. Even when we first met sixteen years ago and I had the dagger pulled out of me for the first time in almost three-hundred years, you didn't judge me. You saw how I was, and you accepted me for who I was, even though I was selfish and cared for no one but myself and my family. You are the only I have ever been romantically interested in for over a thousand years that has ever made me feel this happy."