Author's Note: This is my first one shot in a long while and also my first Vampire Diaries piece. I'm still new to the show and fandom, but I wanted to take a shot at this pairing despite my lack of season two watching. (I have yet to finish season one even, but have seen a few Steroline scenes on youtube.) I figure this is short but sweet. Hope you enjoy.
Grasping at him as if he were a life line, the blonde vampire pulled the muscular brunette into herself, trying to find the warm comfort of his body against her own. It was new; this feeling of being close to someone and not feeling a comforting warmth. As his toned arms draped around her and yanked her into a tighter hug, Caroline wept in his arms, feeling entirely alone. She tried to hush her cries, not wanting to allow the threatening tears to overtake her vision and yet they rolled down her face in succession easily. She just wanted to be a normal girl again - a human teenager with her whole life ahead of her. Instead, she was forced to live eternally, entirely abandoned once her friends grew grey and old. She'd watch all of them pass before her and that was something worse than having to deal with the exhausting hunger that shook her from every fiber.
"Shhh.." Stefan tried, though he knew there was no way to comfort her any more than he had tried to. One arm was looped around her small frame, cradling her into him while his other hand ran stray through her blonde locks. The entire dilemma was heart breaking to him and he wasn't ready to admit that Caroline Forbes would have a tough road ahead of her if she kept allowing herself to sink into this uneasy feeling. However, he knew where she was coming from and he remembered all the feelings that coursed through his veins after he had turned many years ago. He swallowed a thick lump forming in the back of his throat as his eyes tried to settle on a nothingness behind her, his mind racing to make sense of this.
"What am I going to do, Stefan?" She breathed out and tried to force back the sobs dangerously pushing to control her voice.
He gripped on her tighter, not allowing her to leave his hold. "You're going to continue to let me help you." His voice was soft and the underlying tone behind it held truth. He wanted nothing more than to help the girl through this; through life. How he managed without that type of help still had him question his own ability to help her. Only, he knew it would be easier with someone at her side.
"Please don't give up on me." Caroline almost pleaded, her voice softening to an almost whisper.
Lacing his fingers through her hair once more, he cushioned his hand against the back of her head gently and leaned his own head against hers. "I won't." He promised, fully aware that she would be on her own eventually, once she had gained more control over her urges and changes. Stefan wasn't sure just how enthralled he was with the idea of her leaving on her own eventually. He had begun to grow accustomed to having the perky blonde girl around, seeing her in school and watching her bounce around town.
Slowly, she placed her hands on his chest and pushed herself against his tight grasp, signaling that she wanted to look at him. Once his grip on her loosened, her head rose and her eyes connected with his, causing her to almost succumb to a trance as she peered into his green hues. Pursing her lips into a thin line, Caroline allowed the last few stray tears to drop from her face before they diminished on the hard wooden floor beneath her. She tried to search his eyes for answers, though she was sure there would have been nothing. "Really?" Her question not really asking for reassurance, but it felt nice to hear someone say they weren't going to let you go through something alone.
"Yes," the brunette responded, his eyes staying entirely locked with her own. It was hard to look out for someone all the time, but Stefan knew she would have needed it for now.
Nodding her head gently in agreement, she finally looped her arms around his neck and brought him into a hug with a squeeze. She still didn't know what to make of everything. She wasn't sure how to go on with the enhanced senses that were beginning to drive her mad, the hunger that seemed to overrule her body if she allowed it to. All she knew was that she was scared and she couldn't have even wondered how Stefan had lived with it for over a hundred years. "Thank you."
Looping his own arms around her before they settled against her lower back, he nodded his head softly as well, breathing in her scent as he did so. If she were to leave in time, he would miss her but he was glad for now she would remain rooted in Mystic Falls. "You're welcome," Stefan's response just as quiet as her voice while he found himself getting lost in the hug they shared.
Word count: 813