Stefan pinches the bridge of his nose so hard she thinks he's gonna pluck it right out of his face. He's mad. He does this when he's mad.
It's all Damon's fault, really. Two weeks and he's still nursing a bruised ego from when Caroline beat his ass in a drinking game. Well, she's a 21st century girl (not that anyone's aware of that)—the lady could hold her liquor thank you very much—so she's really not to blame if the self proclaimed master turns to a mere gurgling mess only after three glasses.
Anyway, Damon swore of revenge which roughly translated to annoy every chance he got and earlier he finally decided to lay his so called vengeance upon the one thing Caroline probably cares about more than her own husband: her grandmother's necklace.
That damn Salvatore dared to snatch it from her neck while she was taking a walk by the river. She pretty much chased him through the entirety of the woods after that until—
"I'm sorry, what?" Stefan furrows his brows, not quite catching her hurried words. "Run that by me again, love."
Caroline sighs. What happened next was just stupid and sort of embarrassing. "Until we came across a wild boar—"
"A wild boar?" The incredulity in his tone is mortifying.
"Yes and then… It kinda started to chase us."
Which explains why she came home all muddy and unladylike, with a bloody gash on her left shin. Really. Sometimes she forgets she's not a vampire anymore.
"But I got the necklace." She adds, faking enthusiasm because hey this is her grandma's and this is like the only thing she kept from the present… err, future. He doesn't respond though and she swears she could see a thick vein pulsating on the surface of his forehead.
"I'm going to kill Damon." He declares then under his breath as he strides toward the door but Caroline all but hurls herself in front of his way.
"Wait! You can't pick a fight with Damon!"
"And why the hell not?"
"Because your father—"
"I don't care about my father!" He grabs her shoulders, inching his face closer to hers. She could feel all his anger seeping though his every breath. "Damon got you hurt and he's going to pay."
"Exactly. So if someone's going to do the killing, it should be me." Caroline says casually, standing tall before his intense gaze. He's dead serious but she doesn't want his overbearingness to get him into trouble. She doesn't want Giuseppe to have a reason to scold Stefan.
They battle with their eyes for a moment before Stefan groans exasperatedly, his hand again flying to the grasp the bridge of his nose as he turns his back to her.
"You are so bloody infuriating!"
"Oh you love it." Caroline giggles until he shoots her a glare.
"It's not funny." He mutters, his voice dropping to a growl. "A married woman behaving like some insolent little child. An emasculated husband who couldn't handle his own wife. What do you think other people would say—"
" Stefan, you are not—"
"Don't interrupt me when I'm speaking! I am the man, you should submit to me!" Stefan barks out of pure rage, silencing Caroline.
"Caroline?" A gentle hand on her wrist snaps her out of her trance and that's when she realizes she was shaking.
"Caroline." He says again, his voice full of concern. "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to…"
She hugs him.
She has accepted this. She has accepted him the moment she resigned herself to this fate she had definitely no choice upon. She didn't ask to be sent here in freaking 19th century Mystic Falls for a reason God-knows-what. And as a human, no less. Caroline didn't want to be human. Take away her supernatural abilities and once again she's just plain old Caroline Forbes, weak and insecure….
And yet he still end up liking her.
Seriously.
Imagine a man who will only want you and you alone even in different universes.
Who was she to resist?
Or maybe she just finally found the courage to admit what she was too scared and foolish to admit in the future—that she does feel for Stefan.
"I'm sorry." She hears him whisper once more against her hair. "It's just.. You scare me."
She scares him so much the way she speaks of forever but then sometimes she speaks as though she might leave at any given moment. How she gazes at him with wonder in her eyes as if completely taken aback of how she ends up loving him so but at times looks at him with a fearful stare, so deep-seated as though she has seen the worst evil his hands could do.
Oh how Stefan hated her for that before—the judgement in her eyes as if this blonde stranger knew it all, even things he only keeps to himself and like she knew him all his life. She was irritatingly perceptive as she was secretive. But Caroline transfixed him in the worse and best possible ways that he knew the moment he caught a glimpse of her tantalizing universe that he wanted to be in it. He wanted her and to eventually have his love be reciprocated… Stefan never thought he could deserve such a thing.
"Let's not fight anymore." Caroline tells him then as she pulls back and he sits her on their bed. With his eyes, he examines her wound before disappearing. The wife watches as he comes back with a wash cloth and a basin filled with water, and kneels to remove her muddied boots. So much for his domineering speech earlier, he is now down on his knees, worshipping her like a queen. She rolls her eyes when he dares to quirk a disapproving brow at the sight of the star tattoo on her foot. He never asks about it because he knows she's just going to dodge the question much like how she did to every other "intrusive" ones he threw at her. She's frustratingly cryptic like that, he soon learned, but he doesn't care. He loves her just as much.
Besides, who was he to judge? Caroline thinks. If he only knew of the sexy markings that will cover his body in the future . Just, oh—
And really, it's so hard not to think of it, what the Salvatores would become. Sometimes she wonders how is it fair that she is supposed to go on with her life knowing these things? While they… Oh they live in blissful ignorance whilst Caroline has to look at them everyday in the eye and bear the thoughts of the cruelty the future holds for them.
And they were all so innocent.
Of course the heartbeat and the humanity wouldn't to erase the future crimes he will commit by a long shot but it does give room for understanding. Hope. Love. And by God, it scares her just thinking how much she has come to love him.
Was she supposed to save him then? That's why she was sent back in this time? But goddammit she's not some superhero, okay? She's just a girl for God's sake, what could she do? If she could just hide him in her heart and never let the hand of fate inflict its scourge upon him then perhaps—
She kisses him.
The basin topples over from when she pulls him to the bed, her fingers threaded through his sandy curls. He settles between her legs, his hands wreaking havoc to her senses.
His kisses and touches are the most potent nepenthe to her homesick mind as much as they are nails to the coffin of her past. Her old life. Elena, Bonnie, Matt, Tyler, her mom, even herself—Caroline Forbes, cheer captain and former Ms. Mystic Falls—sometimes they just all seem to be mere characters from one of her hazy dreams.
But she doesn't want to forget.
Thump thump thump. She hears her heart beating in sync against his. Every beat is a resounding march as to when Katherine arrives. A reminder of who or what they used to be and what they will become again: Vampires. Monsters.
But even then, she knows she'll love him just as much.