Old Friend | Valerie Tulle

Chapter Seven

 When the kiss ended, Valerie said, "I'm really not sure what to do now."

 Arthur shrugged. "Dunno. Will you still come by the tavern? It'd be pretty lonely without you there."

 "Of course I will. You know I love it there. What about us, though?"

 "Well, do you think you're ready to move on from this Stefan idiot, who obviously never realized how great you are?" 

 Now it was her turn to shrug. "I suppose so."

 He smiled. "Then you're just in luck. Don't tell any of the ladies, but I happen to be available."

 Valerie smiled and laughed. "Oh, Arthur."

 "I know, I'm quite the catch."

 "I suppose you are," she said, and kissed him again.

~~~~~~ 

 For the next two months, Valerie and Arthur were practically inseparable. The only company they really wanted was each other's, and all the time they did have never seemed to be enough.

 In that time, Arthur tried to talk Valerie into moving into the flat above the tavern with him.

 "We don't have to sleep in the same bedroom," he would say. "There's two. And it'll save you the trip from your flat, and it'll be easier for us to meet up because we'll already be in the same building."

 Eventually, Valerie asked him, "Do you really want me to stay with you?"

 "Of course I do."

 "Then I will," she said. "I'll take the spare room if you really want me to move in."

 "Do you mean it, Valerie?" Arthur asked her.

 "Yes, I mean it."

 So, they spent most of the next day moving Valerie's things to Arthur's flat.

 "I'll give you some time to settle in, look around a bit," Arthur said before heading back down the stairs.

 Valerie sat down on her new bed and looked around her new room: the plain white walls, the suitcase she still had to unpack. Despite that all, she felt perfectly at home there, in a way she couldn't remember feeling about any other place before.

~~~~~~

 Things seemed to go on blissfully afterwards. Valerie and Arthur turned out to be great roommates, though eventually they forgot about the whole 'separate rooms' thing and just kept all of their stuff in one bedroom. By then they knew they were in love, and anyone who saw them at the tavern or walking hand-in-hand down the street could see it.

 But maybe they weren't meant to stay in that one spot forever. Arthur brought up the subject with Valerie one evening.

 "Go travelling?" she said. "Who would look after the tavern? We can't just close down."

 "I could easily compel someone to look after it for us," Arthur said. "I've never been travelling. You've been around the world; you must know something exciting about it."

 "Of course. There are plenty of exciting things all over the globe. I'm just surprised you brought it up. I didn't take you for the globetrotting type."

 "I'm not, actually. But lately, I've begun to feel like we were meant to do something more than hang around here for eternity, like we could go out into the world and do great things."

 Valerie smiled. "I like it. But that's something that might take some planning ahead of time."

 "But you think we definitely should?" Arthur asked.

 She nodded. "I think we definitely should. A new adventure that's all our own."

~~~~~~ 

 Valerie lay awake, thinking about the last several months. When she first departed from Mystic Falls, she had no idea what she was doing, what was in store for her. Now she looked over at Arthur, who was already asleep, and wondered if fate had simply chosen to cross their paths once again. It certainly had been a chance meeting.

 She loved the idea of exploring the world with him. She had already seen it all with Stefan, but with Arthur she could have an entirely new experience, their own adventure. But she did hope they wouldn't be going anywhere just yet. She thought it was romantic that Arthur wanted to take her to see the world, but Valerie didn't want to leave their tiny piece of the globe just yet.

 This had become home.