A/N: This is my collection of TVD drabbles I'm writing this summer. Central character as well as pairings will change to fit the prompt.
If you've got a prompt, feel free to send it my way (like a line from a song, an object, if it's more specific I will try my best)
Title adopted by a line in "Season" by The Academy Is...
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Prompt: Anchor
Characters/Pairing: Caroline, Stefan
Rating: PG
Summary: They have always been each other's anchor
Timeline: Set in the future
Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries isn't mine
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"I'm going to get us some drinks," he says, leaning down to place his mouth next to her ear.
Her hands unclasp from their place around his neck and she moves backward slightly, allowing him slightly more space to move.
Stefan turns and heads for the bar, making his way through the sweaty, pulsing crowd of bodings dancing impossibly close together.
He catches the bartender's attention, and he immediately makes his way towards him, no doubt due to the large sum he and Caroline had spent here within the past three nights.
"Two shark bites," Stefan orders and the dark-haired bartender nods in acknowledgement before he shuffles down the bar to retrieve the rum for the drinks.
Stefan pivots so he can see the dance floor, his back leaning against the bar. The DJ is playing one of Caroline's self proclaimed "songs," and he searches the floor for her, eager to see her smiling face and body swaying to the beat of the newest house song.
He can't seem to find her in the crowd of writhing bodies on the dance floor, and he quickly begins to scan the outer walls of the club.
Then he spots her: she's leading a blonde-haired guy by the hand to the exit that leads to the back alley. She's looking around and when he catches her eye, Caroline tilts her head towards the direction of the door and smiles.
If she was thirsty she should've told him before he went and ordered them real drinks. He turns back to the bar just in time for the bartender to place his drinks in front of him. Stefan hands him a twenty and the bartender walks off towards the register. Stefan grabs one of the glasses in front of him and downs it in one shot. He takes the other one in his hand and as he's leaving his spot at the bar, he hands it to a girl with too much eye make-up on that's just walked up to order a drink.
The crowds are thinner at the edges of the club, save for the couples that are pressed up against the neon-splattered walls making out, but Stefan easily sidesteps them as he finds the door that Caroline left through.
He opens the door and walks through to the dimly lit alley but he can see Caroline and her snack just fine. She has him pinned between herself and the brick wall of the club's exterior. The door closes behind him and Caroline's face turns towards him.
"Just in time," she grins as he fangs descend and her veins darken around her eyes.
There's a whimper from the boy, and then Caroline's mouth is on his neck, sucking his blood greedily.
Stefan can smell the warm blood that's trickling down the boy's neck, and he takes a deep breath. It's Caroline's turn, not his.
He pretends to check out the alleyway's entrance over his shoulder for trespassers but it's just so he can keep himself in check. No one has ever bothered them in this alley.
After a minute he forces himself to focus on the boy's heartbeat. It's growing slower, fainter and he knows it's time for her to stop.
He takes two steps towards Caroline and her meal and she tenses, but does not stop drinking. His own thirst is intensifying and his fingers involuntarily flex, getting ready to shove Caroline off to drain the boy himself.
"Caroline," he warns.
She pauses for a second at the sound of his voice but does not stop.
Stefan takes a calming breath, then is at Caroline's side instantly. "Caroline," he repeats, bending down to get closer to her ear, as he pulls her away from her meal with one hand.
Caroline takes a step backwards from the force. She wasn't prepared to be torn away from her meal, but she quickly regains control of herself as her fangs disappear and she props the slumping body up with one hand. She turns so she's half facing Stefan, who's taken a step backwards. "I'm so sorry. I should've stopped the first time you said-"
"No it's okay. You did better than last time."
Caroline nods, then a small smile escapes her lips, "You didn't have to throw me across the alley tonight."
Stefan can't help but smile back at her, "No. And tomorrow you'll stop all by yourself. You just have to listen to their heartbeat, okay?"
"Okay," Caroline repeats. She looks back towards the boy whose color is almost gone. "Oops," she says and bites into her writs. A steady stream of blood appears from the wound and she holds it above the boy's face so a few drops of her blood drip into his mouth. Almost immediately his color returns and his eyes open. He begins to move but Caroline easily restrains him. She captures his eyes and tells him, "You were in a fight with a guy in the alley. He had a knife but you got it away from him and used it. That's why there's blood. You won. Now go back inside." Caroline releases him from her grip.
His pupils dilate with the compulsion. "There was a fight, a knife. I won," he responds monotonously before turning and heading for the front of the building.
Caroline turns toward Stefan expectantly.
"Well at least he won the fight," Stefan says with an approving nod. Caroline just laughs as she links his arm through his as they walk off into the night.
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Reviews & prompts are always appreciated.