A/N- Here we go everyone, the sequel I've been promising for a while and waited until the last possible moment to start delivering on- whilst writing several chapters of another story that I won't publish for a while.
For those of you following Moving In- there's quite a few more chapters to go there but there won't be any spoilers here that I didn't already throw into the epilogue of New Paths (read it again, hint: red)
For those of you following Darkness to Half-Light- STOP, there will never be any more chapters there, it is complete as it will ever be. I'm sorry but that is all there is to it, favourite but don't follow please you make me feel so guilty.
Anyhow, I own nothing associated with Vampire Diaries or the Originals.
Please enjoy.

'WINTER IS COMING!'

Caroline rolled her eyes at the ridiculous poster hanging in the stairwell of her dorm building as she finishes the trek from across campus to her room. Pulling her cardigan tighter over her chest as it once again slips down and exposes her bare shoulder, she steps away from the well-lit path to cut across the grass that turns silver in the twilight.

She'd had her last tutorial of the semester, half the class hadn't decided to show up so the lecturer had reconvened the students to one of the quieter cafes on campus. She and ten other students had sat around on old leather couches, drunk coffee with their professor and casually discussed the influence of society and world politics had on the performance of Shakespearean plays.

All she'd needed was a beret and it would have been a dream come true.

She'd felt so mature, so grown-up in that café.

But now, she was stepping into the fourth floor of her dorm building, where she, Elena and Bonnie had the best room and remembered that she was only nineteen.

The overhead lights cast a golden glow along the wooden floors and plastered walls. The darkening twilight outside gave the hallway an even warmer feel.

Dozens of students occupied the hall, chatting and laughing, making their way back from the showers, holding dinner plates in their hands- or more commonly alcohol.

Caroline smiled and greeted the people she knew, stepping over the legs of the people propped up on the floor. So many humans in such a small space filled the area with heat and the scent of life, the scent of blood and reminded her that she hadn't fed since last night.

So she feels a small sense of relief when she sees her dorm room up ahead, the door decorated with a poster that she herself had designed and been complimented on many times,

Bonnie, Caroline, Elena

Below it was a whiteboard and marker for people to leave them messages, she checked as she slid her key into the lock and saw Stefan's messy handwriting,

"True Friends Stab You In the Front- Damon says Hi!"

She laughed and stepped into the dorm room, glancing around and making sure nothing supernatural was standing out before leaving the door open and dropping her books on her bed.

She falls onto her bed with a loud sigh and simply enjoys the moment.

She'd made it.

They'd made it.

One successful semester at Whitmore College.

Who would have thought?

Certainly nobody who knew their backstory.

Death, destruction, torture- both physical and psychological, and the frequent threat of supernatural apocalypse hadn't been the healthiest setting for them.

Some of them had barely managed to graduate high school considering all the days they'd had to miss or all the times they'd had to redo their homework because the papers had been blood stained.

Yet when summer had turned to fall, and they had gone a few months without people trying to kill them, they had breathed a sigh of relief and properly considered the option of enrolling at university.

They could have gone to any university they wanted in the world but Whitmore had made top of the list, beating the Ivy League colleges with its proximity to Mystic Falls.

After all, Jeremy Gilbert still had a year of high school to finish and Damon had volunteered to stay behind and make sure both Elena's brother and the town made it through the next twelve months.

So they'd packed their suitcases, thrown them into their various cars and taken the two hour drive up to the campus where Caroline had compelled the girls the best dorm room available. She'd even found a single room with ensuite for Stefan but he'd decided to switch out for a regular two room, having never shared before.

And now, after endless essays, exams, project deadlines, in-class tests and group presentations, the winter break had finally come to Whitmore College.

It was six o'clock on a chilly, dark evening and the mood around campus was a mixture of utter exhaustion and elation at the upcoming holidays. Staff and students alike were preparing to abandon the campus in a mass exodus, eager to get back to their hometowns as soon as humanly possible.

Caroline however wasn't heading home for this break.

Instead, she was driving down to New Orleans, where Klaus Mikaelson- the Original Hybrid- ruled over the French Quarter and was waiting for her.

She exhaled and thought on that.

She had made the promise to visit him last summer after she'd finally given into her desires and made love to him, he'd had to return to his kingdom but hadn't wanted to leave her so this had been their compromise.

It was strange but the thought of living with a guy for two weeks, sleeping in the same bed, eating meals with him seemed so grown up it freaked her out.

She was going to see Klaus Mikaelson and the thought of sharing a bathroom freaked her out more than the thought of throwing herself into a kingdom of vampires, witches, werewolves and Katherine Pierce.

Shaking her head and looking down at the suitcase sitting open on her armchair, Caroline wondered for the umpteenth time whether or not she should pack a ball gown.

It had actually been a rude awakening for the Mystic Falls girls to leave their small town and discover that the rest of the world didn't host weekly formal dinners, masquerade balls, fancy picnics or charity balls.

Of course they were in a university town so they had parties from Thursday to Sunday but these were the kind of parties where short dresses was the suggested attire, not full length gowns accessorised with family jewellery.

So Caroline, Bonnie and Elena had packed up their gowns- which had only been gathering dust in their closets and shipped them home a month into semester.

And of course, Caroline hadn't even considered needing a ball gown until she'd begun packing, but now that she thought about it, it seemed more and more likely that she'd be attending an event in the not too distant future where she'd have to wear one.

So it looked like she'd have to stop off at home tomorrow after all.

Great.

To say her mom had been unhappy when news of her winter plans had reached her would be a colossal understatement.

It had been one prolonged shouting match that had begun in person in Mystic Falls when Caroline had gone home for Sunday lunch and continued via calls, email and text until she had turned her phone off and refused to speak to her mother until she calmed down.

Another three days and they'd met up for lunch while Caroline had explained that she wanted to go to New Orleans and see Klaus on her own volition, she wasn't compelled or blackmailed.

She had complete control of the situation, she had been the one to suggest when she would visit and he wouldn't and couldn't pressure her into any emotional or physical commitments.

She had then sat quietly and listened while her mom listed every single bad thing Klaus had done since the day he'd stormed into their lives in Mystic Falls and afterward had just said,

"I know mom, believe me I know and I won't forget no matter how much I want to but…I can't ignore that he is trying to change. His father beat and tortured him his whole life, his mother cursed him and he felt that could never trust his siblings. He spent one thousand years being chased by Mikael and unable to break his curse. That would turn anyone into a monster and he never had to but he's trying to become a good person and I have to figure out what it is I feel for him because denying that I feel anything at all for him just hurts me and those I love"

Her mother hadn't been convinced and they'd reached a stalemate before eventually deciding not to discuss the matter further with each hoping the other person would come to their senses.

Caroline had been planning to set off early tomorrow, arrive in New Orleans as soon as possible at which point her mom would have to accept the fact that she was spending her holidays with Klaus.

Maybe she could just risk it, turn up in NOLA and if there was a ball, Klaus could buy her another ball gown.

No, that wouldn't be fair. Not that he would mind, hell he'd probably jump at the chance to buy clothes for her, jewellery too, but if her elective in Gender Studies had taught her anything this semester it was that she would never be content to be a man's trophy girlfriend.

The next diamond bracelet she owned she was going to buy herself dammit.

This was not getting her toiletries packed.

She pulls herself to her feet just as the bedroom door flies open and Elena bursts in, kicking the door closed behind her and jumping across the room, landing on her bed with enough force to make it slam into the wall and the wooden slats creak in protest.

Stefan arrives seconds later, breathless and pushing his way through the door, "Elena, I swear to God I will break up with you!"

Caroline snorts and sees the bundle of cans in Elena's arms, it looks like her best friend has got into the energy drinks again.

If there is only one piece of knowledge that the Mystic Falls coven has attained this semester it is that Elena Gilbert has a shockingly low tolerance for energy drinks matched only by her quickset addiction to them.

"I call your bluff" the spritely brunette teases as she cracks her first can and starts sculling, dancing off the bed as Stefan lunges for her and jumping clear across the room to perch on the top of the bookshelf, balancing on tiptoe, bringing to mind a ballerina.

Stefan eyes the bookshelf, clearly contemplating tackling her down to the floor as Elena tosses a now empty can at his head and starts on her second drink.

Caroline is laughing at the scene when she hears a loud throat-clearing, Bonnie is hurriedly closing the door and pointedly locking it before hurrying to the window and drawing the curtains closed.

"Have you all completely lost your minds?!" she demands angrily, "Anyone could have seen you!"

The three vampires belatedly remember that they aren't in the Salvatore Boarding House but in their dormitory at Whitmore where gravity-defying movements were worthy of notice.

Stefan grimaces and holds out his arms for Elena who drops down, wrapping her legs around his waist and looking over his shoulder to their friend,

"We're sorry Bonnie, we got carried away, end of semester and all. Plus Damon's driving down tomorrow and…"

Caroline suddenly takes avid interest in checking her suitcase, making sure everything is packed as neatly as possible and picking up a few things just to put them back down again so she can at least pretend she is busy. But while she might be physically idle her brain is repeating the same mantra at a million miles an hour,

'Please don't get into this argument again. Please don't get into this argument again. Please…'

Six months ago, in the midst of the Silas debacle, Elena had decided that she was sick of choosing between the two Salvatore brothers and offered them an alternative.

Polygamy.

Damon and Stefan had both accepted and the three of them had formed a new relationship where the brothers shared Elena.

The three of them hadn't announced this to the world, or even their friends but eventually the rest of the gang had figured it out.

Jeremy had been bewildered and Elena had sat him down and explained that this was a relationship of her choosing.

Caroline had done her best to reserve judgement, much like Matt, she wanted Elena to be happy and after climbing into bed with Klaus she was hardly in the position to be throwing stones.

Although she was curious about the logistics- how'd they handle jealousy issues? What happened when they went on dates? How did the pda's work?

Still, by far the biggest opponent to the relationship had been Bonnie, she didn't consider this polygamy to be Elena's decision but a selfish move on the
Salvatore's part, a way for them to handle the fractures in their relationship by turning Elena into a toy they could both share, a removal of her personhood and objectification of the worst degree.

Bonnie and Elena had argued about this a few times already, going around in circles- sometimes literally- in their bedroom while Caroline sat on her bed and tried to mediate.

Occasionally Stefan would try to soothe the situation over but with his guilt complex and easily activated self-loathing, Bonnie's words would send him into a spiral of depression that turned him into a hermit or risked driving him to turn off his humanity and then Elena would be making an emergency call to Damon who'd come roaring up to Whitmore and the three of them would take refuge in a hotel room for a night and emerge the next morning with their devotion to one another reaffirmed.

Caroline hated those nights, because when Bonnie realised where Elena was she got all worked up and then took her frustration out on her for her longstanding plans for winter break and the fact that she and Klaus were in frequent contact.

Nothing too intense or committed, just casual texts to one another, keeping in touch, flirting, comparing wild nights which he typically won through virtue of long experience and wilder imagination.

She'd been the one to text first, it had been the morning after her first college one night stand, she'd been doing the walk-of-shame back to her room, disappointed by the lacklustre sex and impulsively sent a message to Klaus asking how he was enjoying life in New Orleans.

He replied with a photo of Bourbon St looking worse for wear, coloured streamers strewn across the road, smashed bottles and decorations limply hanging on to the walls and lampposts,

'Festival last night' he'd written, 'Lost a drinking competition against a priest'

She'd laughed at that and with the easy, friendly mood established they had begun their every-other-day, few times a week texts to one another.

So Caroline is hunched over her suitcase, praying that Bonnie's disappointment or wrath won't land on her, Elena is easing her way down Stefan's body, landing on her feet but keeping a firm grip on the collar of his shirt whilst he pretends to be fascinated by the pink streak in his girlfriend's hair.

But their luck is with them tonight because Bonnie just sighs, "Right, well I have somewhere I have to be so I'll see you guys back in Mystic Falls"

She grabs her gym bag and holds her keys in one hand before giving them a brisk wave and backing out the door, the vampires waiting until her footsteps were out of their advanced earshot before letting their shoulders sag in relief and almost instantly feeling guilty about it.

After all, Bonnie was their best friend and she was dating Elena's brother, a small difference of opinion shouldn't get between them.

Still...

"All packed?" Elena asked loudly, the caffeine clearly hitting her as she bounced over and sat cross-legged on Caroline's bed,

"Got everything? Every little thing? All the knick knacks and….mfff!"

Stefan placed his hand over Elena's mouth and straddled her from behind, "I can ship something to you when we get home tomorrow" he offered and Caroline grinned,

"Thanks…I'm thinking I might need a ball gown but I'm not sure which one to take…the blue, the green or the gold?"

"The green" he announces decisively, "Because you wore the blue one to the last Mikaelson ball and I was planning to borrow the gold one for whatever Founding event they manage to scrape together without you and you should pair it with the pink shoes because I've already tried them on and they don't fit me"

Caroline laughed as Elena rolled her eyes lovingly.

Now that someone new wasn't trying to kill them each week, Stefan had lightened considerably and found a sense of humour that the girls hadn't realised he possessed.

"Right" she grabbed her toiletries bag from the bathroom, "Well…I think that's everything so…"

There was a knock on the door and Elena wrestled out of Stefan's grip so she could go to answer it, pulling it open with a big smile,

"Oh…" she faltered but then recovered, "Hey Jesse!"

Caroline winced, she'd been hoping to get away clean for the semester break and had been avoiding any and all potential love interests for the last week.

Jesse was a third year biology student who'd invited Caroline and Elena to a frat party in their first week, they'd hooked up at a bonfire night and been friends-with-benefits ever since. Unfortunately she'd come back to her dorm a few times to find him waiting, making pleasant conversation with Bonnie and figured out pretty quickly that he was way more interested in her than she was in him.

That wasn't to say that she didn't like him, he was hot and she enjoyed the sex and the maturity of the casual hook-up but it felt weird to commit to something more when she had Klaus waiting in New Orleans.

Not that she thought for one second that he was being abstinent during the semester, hell he was probably having more sex than all the freshmen combined but she wasn't about to set foot in the French Quarter to find him with a girlfriend and she could hardly have a boyfriend and then head off to spend her holiday with another guy.

So she winced but came to the door, "Hey Jesse…I heard they've got jello shots in the common room, want to grab some?"

He grinned and shifted back, allowing Caroline to step into the hallway where she almost immediately tripped over two guys sharing a bottle of vodka. Jesse caught her arm to steady her and she thanked him brightly, pretending not to notice as she moved forward quickly enough to break his hold.

"So" she looked over her shoulder, "Any plans for the break?"

He shrugged, "Nah…just heading home to Jackson…see my folks and family, but you're headed to New Orleans right?"

Caroline tensed and, out of habit, her brain went into panic mode before figuring out that Elena or Bonnie had likely mentioned it to him. But this was the perfect opportunity,

"Yeah, actually I'm meeting a guy there, he lives in the French Quarter and invited me to spend a few weeks with him"

"Oh" Jesse mumbled, "Uh…is he a student here or…?"

"No, we met in back Mystic Falls, he's an artist"

And a King, Dictator, General, Revolutionary and Father but that would require far too much explanation.

"So…are you and he…?"

"We aren't exclusive, we haven't even…" she breaks off because Jesse doesn't need the gory details of her and Klaus' up in air relationship.

"We've been taking things slow"

Which was technically true, they'd had one day of mind-blowing sex and then barely a kiss before he'd headed home and she'd returned her focus to Silas and his desire to destroy the remaining shreds of happiness in Mystic Falls.

"Uh…okay" Jesse scratched the back of his head as they found the common room and Caroline grabbed them two bright red shots,

"So…does this mean I'm completely out of the running or…"

Great. The one time there wasn't loud music blaring in the typically alcohol soaked room and Jesse decided he wanted to define their relationship.

Caroline threw back the shot and ran her tongue along the plastic to pick up any leftovers, she wondered if maybe she couldn't grab another two or twenty before having this conversation but a line was starting to form and Jesse was waiting patiently and she hated when she was left hanging…

Seriously, she needed to get this over and done with so she could get started on her holiday without feeling any guilt.

She led Jesse out to the stairwell which was typically quiet this time of night due to the cold draughts and bad lighting. She leant against the wall beside one of the windows that looked out onto the green.

"Honestly Jesse," she began, crushing the plastic in her hands and letting it reform a shape only to crush and twist it another way,

"I don't exactly know what's going to happen over the break, I may come back single and we can go back to what we had before or try something new or I might come back in a relationship, but you shouldn't wait around for me in either case because it wouldn't be fair"

There.

She'd said it.

Kind of.

Maybe?

Jesse grinned and stepped forward until he was pressed up against her. This was uncharacteristic of him and she blushed, lowering her gaze,

"What if I want to wait around for you Forbes?" he asked in a husky tone, "What if I think you're the kind of girl worth waiting around for?"

She turned her face away but he caught her chin in his fingers and brought her back up to stare into his eyes, he caught her with a hard kiss, wrapping his arms around her so that there was no space left between them. Caroline floundered, enjoying the sensation and used to making out with him but not wanting to lead him on, she pushed him away with her human strength and when that didn't work, added a little vampire strength to the mix,

"I really like you Jesse" she told him as she tried to catch her breath, "But I know that your last girlfriend kept you waiting around for her and it's not fair of me to do that…I'm sorry…I'll uh, call you when we get back"

She moved around him and hurried back up the stairs and straight to her room, closing and locking the door behind her with a sigh of relief.

Elena was now sitting on her own bed, finishing off the last of her energy drink while Caroline's suitcase was now on the carpet and Stefan sitting in the armchair, unwillingly apparently because he was tied up with bras and old t-shirts and gagged with red lace panties that Caroline really hoped were Elena's.

Her friend raised her head, "You okay?"

She nodded, "Yep, all I need is to shower, double-check that I've packed everything and I'll be good to go"

"Well" her friend clambered off the bed and held out her arms, "If I don't see you tomorrow morning…"

Caroline stepped into her embrace and squeezed her tight, "I love you Care bear"

"I love you too Lei-Lei"

"Mhhhfff"

"Shut up Stefan"

A/N- So there's the opening chapter, I was trying to go for a happy and carefree Stefan, although that's not exactly canon, read and review my lovelies.