Of Best Friends and Bunny Hunting
She waits a week and a half after the ball to find him, and as she trots up the steps to his room, she decides he's lucky her restraint has lasted this long. She's a fixer and a nagger and really, she should have come here sooner, but she's been oddly anxious about the whole thing. The nerves make her quieter and slower than normal, but when she gets to his room and finds him lying on his bed, one arm over his eyes, curtains drawn, her nervousness fades.
"Morning!" she chirps as she skips lightly across the room. The drapes are heavy, but when they're back she decides she likes the way the light filters through the windows and dances across all his stuff. And he has a lot of stuff. She's never really been in his room before, but it's a mess, albeit a mess to deal with another day. Today, she has a different mess to clean up.
"We are going out," she announces, "because I'm hungry."
He doesn't move.
She tries a different tactic.
"Hey." She reaches out, kicks the bottom of his foot which is dangling off the end of the bed. "Did you hear me? I said we're going out. So, get dressed."
"Go away Caroline." He doesn't move, and his voice is flat and dull sounding, which makes her heart kind of twinge, but she has a sentence at least, which she figures is enough to start with. She decides not to take it personally that he obviously doesn't want her there—she's rarely ever deterred.
"I think you should wear a t-shirt, ya know, 'cause it's kind of warm and hunting in a button down can be uncomfortable. Where's that grey one you used to wear?" She really does need to clean up his room—there are piles of crap everywhere, but eventually she spies the shirt she's looking for buried under a pile of papers, and she tosses it behind her without looking.
"I thought you were using blood bags now."
It's another sentence, which is good, although she's going to have to work on his tone. Still, at least he's giving her something she can work with.
"What!" She whirls on him and tries to look as insulted as possible. She's terrible at lying to him of course, but given the fact that his face is still hidden under his arm, she figures has a better chance of convincing him than she normally would. He was always better at reading her face.
"I do not drink from blood bags, Stefan! Okay, well, I do, but only because I hate hunting by myself." She chooses not to mention it's also because eating animals has always vaguely grossed her out (she's decided it's probably the fur) and also because the bagged human stuff tastes way better and is far more convenient to obtain. She wonders if it would be laying it on a little thick if she added a pout, but given that he's still not looking at her she decides it doesn't matter and goes back to hunting for a pair of jeans.
"Take Damon then," he suggests, but his voice catches, just slightly at the end. It's so subtle that she might not have caught it, but she's focusing on being perceptive today because Stefan has been hard to read lately and it's even harder when she can't see his eyes.
"Eww. No, I hate Damon, and you know that." She throws the jeans she finds under a table at him with a bit more force than she intended and they skid across the bed and land in a heap on the other side.
"And besides, even if I didn't, he doesn't hunt anyway, which you know. And while Tyler is technically half vampire now, he eats like an animal and it sorta grosses me out." She moves closer, cautiously, and is rewarded by a slight twitch of the hand across his face. "And anyway, I mean, I guess I sorta missed you, ya know?" She pauses, unsure of how far to go. When she speaks again, it's quieter than before. "Not everybody cared that much."
"Caroline." His voice is quieter too, but it's what she's been waiting for. That half exasperated, slightly amused, vaguely condescending tone he got whenever he dealt with her. The tone that said, "god you're annoying, but I guess I love you anyway." She holds back the triumphant grin for now. They aren't outside yet.
"So, anyway, you should get dressed and come with me. I haven't been in ages, and even though you always pretended otherwise, I think you secretly enjoyed bunny hunting with me." She turns her back on him and flounces towards the door, but stops before she closes it. "And just so you know, you have like, five minutes, or I swear I will come in here and do it myself. Bye!" She closes the door before he can say anything else, and takes the stairs two at a time to the living room to wait him out.
She has finished half of Damon's latest expensive bottle of alcohol by the time he comes down (some she drank and the rest she dumped in the plant by the window, just to be irritating). It took him longer than five minutes (she's feeling generous today or she would have been up there after three), but when he comes down he's dressed and vertical so she supposes she'll take what she can get. And she'll say nothing about the very slight something in his eyes that is more than the pain and apathy he's been showing lately.
On their walk to the woods she talks endlessly, a non-stop stream about everything and anything she can think of. She talks about Tyler and her mom and her calculus homework and her new pair of boots. She doesn't talk about Elena or Damon or Klaus or anything heavy because now is not the time. She's gotten better at that, talking about certain things only when it's appropriate. She thinks it all connects to the discipline and self-control she's always conscious of now (she can't afford to slip) but it makes her a better friend, so she's not complaining.
Stefan doesn't say anything while they walk, but she wasn't really expecting him too. He was always a good listener, and usually he'd let her talk until she had to pause to breathe before he'd say anything anyway.
She misses her first rabbit and goes skidding into a tree trunk, half on purpose and half accidently. She thinks it's her subconscious sometimes, rebelling against the eating of innocent forest creatures, that prevents her from getting it first try. She doesn't question why her subconscious never rebels against the eating of innocent human creatures. (She decides to save that question for when Stefan is in a better mood or when she wants to piss off Damon.) He snorts, quietly behind her, but when she turns, his face is impassive. That's when her patience snaps.
Her leap takes him by surprise (and she silently applauds herself because he always seems to be one step ahead of her—she guesses its age) and so he offers no resistance when she bowls him over. They turn over once, twice, three times before their progress is slowed by a downed tree. She lands on top of him and he is furious. Full on, pissed off vampire. She glares right back, just as hard, and growls in his face when he snarls, but she only lasts a minute before she loses it.
She's never seen him angry and baffled before and the combination is nothing short of hilarious. It sends her into another round of breathless laughter and by then she's too weak to even bother to keep him pinned. He shoves her off and she lands next to him in a pile of leaves, gasping. When she glances over, his eyes have cleared and he is standing up against the tree but he looks no less confused and it threatens to set her off again. When she finally calms down, he reaches out a hand to swing her standing, and the forest spins in place. She grabs his arm to keep from falling, but she can't stop smiling. He is trying not to, she can tell, but the right side of his mouth is tipped up, just slightly, and his head is tilted just enough and his eyes are almost, almost dancing.
She sucks in a breath that tastes of dirt and leaves and possibly something small and furry she will have to eat later, and grins.
"What?" he asks, and now she knows the amusement isn't in her mind—he sounds different.
"Nothing. Sorry, I just—" she breaks off, trying not to laugh. "I just totally bounced you. Like, I don't know, like Tigger or something." She reaches forward to pat his head, as patronizing as she can possibly be. "Poor little Eeyore."
His eyes narrow, but the amusement is stronger now, she's sure of it. "Eeyore?" he questions, and when he raises an eyebrow, she knows she has him.
"Yeah, you know, sad, pathetic, gloomy, grey donkey? Friend of Pooh?"
Before he can respond she darts forward, wraps her arms around his neck and then shoots back before he can move. "I missed you," she says. "It's not easy finding a new best friend, ya know?" Because for all she loves Bonnie she will always be a vampire first in her eyes, and she loves Elena but the girl has enough to deal with (four dead parents and a dead aunt, plus you know, doppelgangers and two Salvatores), and she loves Tyler but he's Tyler, which means he doesn't necessarily get her. But Stefan, partly because he is Stefan and partly because he has more patience than anyone she knows, has always, always been good to her. She can be Caroline with him, and while she's 100% positive that she occasionally annoys him, she also knows he loves her, and he gets her, and he needs her, really, even if he will never admit it. (Elena told her about Lexi, and she knows what it's like to need a best friend.)
When his eyes widen, she just grins, takes two steps back, and tries to look innocent. "Race you?" she asks, and she doesn't wait for an answer before she runs. She doesn't need to, because she knows he'll be there. After all, she's his best friend too.