Who: Caroline and Stefan What: The cute married couple gets a puppy When: Tonight Where: Caroline's Warnings: Fluff; so much fluff and cuteness
Caroline didn’t really know what made her go out to the dog shop. She had remembered passing by it the other day and today she had gone in and purchased a dog. A legit dog. It was done on a whim and Caroline really didn’t know what had gotten a hold of her but she knew that the next step after marriage was taking care of some sort of animal with a spouse. Caroline got the cutest dog that was available, one that she figured Stefan would like because every time Caroline looked at the puppy she melted and Caroline didn’t want to take it back if Stefan didn’t fall in love with it like she did.
They never really talked about dogs that much. Did Stefan like dogs? Caroline hoped that Gunn wouldn’t mind. It really didn’t matter who wanted what because Caroline already had the puppy and she was all wrapped in a cute little pink bow. There wasn't anyone home and Caroline was playing with the Maltese pup on the couch, Caroline’s playing with its tiny little paws. Caroline didn’t have a name picked out yet but she figured that was something Stefan could help her decide on.
“Oh, baby - Gunn is going to call you little runt. Yes, yes he is.” Caroline laughed at the thought, knowing that Gunn probably wouldn’t approve. “We’ll just have to train you to not eat up his Nikes or his socks when you get bigger. He’ll shoot you and then I’ll have to kill him.” Caroline was joking, mostly.
The last thing that Stefan expected to see when he walked in the apartment after work was Caroline on the sofa playing with a dog. The sofa. With a dog. Stefan closed the door behind him and looked confused for a moment, “I’m sorry, have you seen my wife? Because I know my wife would never let a dog on the sofa. Just saying,” He smiled a little as he walked over to the sofa and sat down. The dog didn’t look abandoned and it didn’t look malnourished, which led him to believe that Caroline went out and actually purchased a dog.
He glanced over at Caroline and stuck his hand out, letting the dog get his scent, but his eyes were on Caroline.
“What is this?” He asked, not wanting to get attached to a dog. They couldn’t have a dog here. “And how much was it?” Raising his eyebrow, his gaze shifted from his wife to the dog as it was now licking his fingers and then the palm of his hand. It tickled a little and he turned his hand over.
Caroline let the puppy go so that it could play with Stefan, the blond watching in awe as the puppy yelped and pawed at Stefan’s pant leg before trying to chew on Stefan’s boot laces since Stefan had one of his legs up and folded across the other. “She didn’t cost much,” Caroline said, not about to say anything since Stefan could always just look at his bank account later. “Besides, this isn’t about money. This is about...our new dog.” Yes, their new dog, Caroline eyes catching Stefan’s to see his reaction.
“She was adorable and I couldn’t just let her go. She was the last one and I was afraid that if I talked to you first and came back she would be gone so I just got her.” And Caroline had no regrets because she was playful, cute and Caroline just wanted to put a pink little bow in her fur. “Do you like her?” Caroline asked, hoping that her husband wasn’t turned off by the idea of having a dog. “I mean, I know I have to talk to Gunn but he’s already told me how he likes my ‘white girl ass’ so he should be fine. If he’s not then you tell him that he can’t have anymore of your cooking.”
There was no way that Stefan would tell Caroline that she had to take the dog back. He wouldn’t do that. So, obviously they would keep the dog. He just liked to give Caroline a hard time as always because if he didn’t do it at least once a day, then something was clearly wrong. “Hey, stop that,” he reached for the puppy and moved her back in between the two of them but she went right back for his pants.
“Great. Maybe your white girl ass will get him to walk the dog too.” He looked from the puppy to Caroline as he smiled a little. “Yes, we can keep the dog. I like her. She’s cute. But if she tries to bite through my pants, we’re going to have a problem.” He reached for the dog and lifted her up, holding onto her in front of him.
“Does she have a name?” He asked and brought the puppy to his chest, holding onto her.
“Oh my God,” Caroline smiled, leaning over to smack Stefan’s arm when he mimicked Gunn. Caroline’s roommate was a good person. She didn’t doubt that there would be any real harm with the dog and Caroline hoped that maybe the badass gangster would fall in love with the puppy. All men had a soft spot with dogs, or at least the men who weren’t complete assholes.
“She’s not going to bite through anything,” Caroline said, her head leaning into the sofa as she watched Stefan play with the puppy. “And no, she doesn’t have a name. I thought maybe the two of us could decide together.” Caroline had already thought of a few names but she wanted to talk to Stefan before actually choosing on. “Penelope - I thought maybe we could call her Penny.” It was a cute name but it wasn’t what Caroline had decided on.
Stefan was barely paying attention for a second, the having captured all of it. She was on his chest, enjoying being petted and he sighed, looking over at Caroline. “Penelope?” He shook his head and shrugged. It was fine with him. He didn’t care what her name was he guessed.
“Penny’s fine.” He decided, but he he could see that look on Caroline’s face.
“Okay, Penny’s not fine. We’re not naming this dog Penny.” He nodded at that and looked down at the puppy. The dog was white, fluffy and small. He doubted that she could pull off ‘Killer’ or something intensely hard for such a cute puppy. “What about Lola? She could pull of a Lola. What do you think?”
Caroline was falling in love with what she was seeing. Stefan and a puppy. Caroline didn’t hesitate to bring out her phone to take a few pictures. “I like Lola,” Caroline admitted, putting her phone away as she smiled at Stefan. “I promise I won’t be posting these photos anywhere. Well, maybe on Instagram.” Caroline knew that a lot of people would love the pictures. Caroline knew exactly where some of them would be going. “So, we decided on a name. Are you going to train her?” Caroline fluttered her eyelashes, her hands reaching out to take their baby Lola so that she could bring the puppy to her chest.
“We can do this, right?” Caroline asked, looking at Stefan somewhat seriously. “A puppy. It’s a big step.” It was one step down from actually starting a family but that was something that could come later because that was an even bigger decision.
“I have to train her?” Stefan asked, handing the puppy over and he leaned back against the sofa and just watched her with the puppy. How could he resist Caroline at all. He couldn’t so he just nodded, “Yeah, I’ll get her trained. But you owe me.” He raised his eyebrows before he leaned over and gave her a kiss.
“I think we’ll be okay. It’s a puppy.” He tilted his head, his face close to hers wondering just how big of a step this actually was until it dawned on him. Alright, so maybe it was a big step. Instead of just looking out for her, they were now looking out for this puppy and sure, it was a big deal.
“We can do this. We’ve handled a lot,” he leaned back again against the sofa and reached over, giving her thigh a squeeze. “We’ll be okay.”
“We can both train her,” Caroline said, smiling as she leaned in to kiss Stefan again, laughing then when she felt Lola lick at Caroline’s chin, suddenly in need of all the attention. “Uh oh, I think she’s going to be a jealous one.” Caroline scratched Lola behind the ears a bit, smiling as she let her go so that she could go back to Stefan. “And I think she likes you more than me.”
Caroline knew that they could handle it. It was just a puppy and if they trained her then she was going to be a good dog. She was tiny enough that an apartment would be alright although Caroline wished that they had the room for all of the dogs. “Yeah, I think we’ll be okay,” she confessed, looking at Stefan with her usual fond eyes.
“And I think that tonight I’ll cook dinner,” Caroline said, standing up to stretch a little as Lola was chewing on one of the buttons of Stefan’s shirt. “Because you playing with that dog is too cute, babe.”
“Yeah, give her a few days, she’ll probably hate me,” he said, looking down at the dog as she went on with trying to bite his buttons off. “Because this isn’t going to happen.” He pulled Lola away from his shirt and watched as Caroline walked toward the kitchen. But he wasn’t far behind and not far behind Stefan was Lola, following them. He grabbed a bowl for her water dish and filled it up before setting it down. She drank a little bit but then she was right next to Stefan again and looking up at him.
“You’re evil, you know that?” He was really talking about Caroline, but he was looking down at Lola. With a sigh, he reached down and lifted her up so he was holding onto her only to get kicked out of the kitchen so Caroline could cook dinner. Yeah, he knew as far as the three of them went, they would be okay. It was just everything else that they had to worry about. Luckily, Lola was incredibly distracting for the time being.