Until Never Means Forever

Chapter 2

Lily was spending the night. She had argued that if they weren't going to spend all weekend with her, then they had to let her stay Friday night. She was very persuasive, having called her uncle and explained how very sad she was going to be if she couldn't see them before they went camping. She didn't have to cry – she could just look at Stefan and get whatever she wanted from him. Sometimes she cried for dramatic effect. Not this time though.

Elena just laughed. She knew how it was between them. Lily was incredibly smart. She could charm her way into getting whatever she wanted from the men in her life.

"She's asleep" Stefan whispered, crawling his way into bed and wrapping his body around Elena in the process. He kissed behind her shoulder, his hands reaching up under her shirt, caressing her stomach.

Elena groaned. "Not tonight" she mumbled. "I'm too tired." She felt him sigh long and hard against her neck, clearly disappointed. "Love you" she added, grabbing onto one of his hands and holding it.

"Love you too" he said, placing one last kiss on the back of her neck before drifting off to sleep.

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It was around 1 AM when their bedroom door slowly opened. Quiet little feet tip-toed to Stefan's side of the bed. She poked him in the forehead. "Uncle Stefan" she whispered.

Stefan stirred, his eyes adjusting to the dark room and falling on her little face peering down at him. "Lil?" he asked sleepily. "What's wrong?" he asked. By now, Elena had woken too, leaning over Stefan slightly to look at Lily.

"I had a bad dream" Lily said sadly. "Can I sleep in here with you?" she asked.

Stefan felt Elena squeeze his shoulder. "Yeah, come up here" he said, grabbing her and pulling her into bed with them. Lily squeezed her way in between Stefan and Elena, getting under the blankets and sharing their pillows. Stefan and Elena both turned to look at her. Elena brushed some of her messy hair out of her face. "What was the bad dream about?" he asked her.

Lily sighed. "A monster was hiding under my bed and was trying to get me" she said quietly.

Stefan smiled at her. Bad monster dreams were his specialty. "What did the monster look like?" he asked her.

Lily seemed to falter for a moment before remembering. "It was yellow and had purple hair" she said.

"That sounds like one ugly monster" Elena said sleepily. Lily turned to face Elena and nodded. "Did you tell the monster that your Uncle Stefan was going to come and chase him away?" Elena asked.

Lily shook her head no. "He was too scary" she told her.

"Ah. Well, if you ever see that monster again, you tell him that your Uncle Stefan doesn't like monsters, and neither does your Aunt Elena" Elena said, smiling at Lily. "We can be very scary if we have to be" she added.

"Yes we can" Stefan agreed, liking that Elena was taking over.

Lily giggled. "You're not scary Elena" she told her. "You're the nicest, prettiest person I know."

Elena's heart swelled. What a beautiful, perfect loving child. She wanted one just like her. Well, minus the temper tantrums and bouts of manipulation. "Elena can be scary if she had to protect you" Stefan informed Lily.

Lily seemed to think about this for a moment. "Scary like you say she is when she doesn't have her coffee in the morning Uncle Stefan?" Lily asked innocently. Elena glared at Stefan and quickly kicked his foot with her own. "Cause you said when Elena doesn't have her coffee, she starts to be really ..." she said, but Stefan covered her mouth with his hand.