A/N- Hey guys! My first TVD fic. Been wanting to write one for ages but thought I'd wait for the holidays. They're here! Yay!
I realise that Caroline and Alaric are kind of an odd pairing... kind of a really odd pairing... but they're my favourite characters so why not? Who cares if it's a little wrong, haha. If it makes you uncomfortable you are free to leave. I'll allow you that this once :P
I also realise that Alaric is a bit ooc in this first chapter but that's because Caroline talks so much and he barely gets a word in. This will only be a short fic, probably two more chapters.
I own nothing!
*May change rating to an M later, I'll see how brave I am first.
Alaric came out here a lot since Jenna. To think, but mostly to get away from everyone else. Not just the bad stuff- the murderers and the murdered. Sometimes It was to get away from his job, or worse; Jeremy and Elena. He loved them, but he was broken too. He couldn't be what they needed.
No one came out into these woods much in the day time. Not since that little werewolf problem had been solved. Occasionally he'd see teenagers out here getting drunk or awkwardly trying to get it on, but as soon as they saw their history teacher they were out of there faster than he'd ever seen anyone move. Including vampires. Which was why he was suprised when he the back of a young girl, curled up next to a tree, her sobs audible and her blonde curls rustling in the wind.
"Caroline?"
Caroline squeeked. She felt silly. On top of crying like a little girl she was jumping like one too. Wasn't she supposed to be some kind of deadly monster? You know, immortal creature of the night and all that.
She used the back of her hand to wipe stray tears away. She quickly jumped up and spun around, met with the face of her history teacher. She was more than embarrassed now. She didn't want to be seen like this by anyone, but especially Alaric who was older and would probably think she was pathetic in her little school girl heart break.
"Hey!" She said too enthusiastically, forcing a smile on to her blotched red face. "What's up Mr S?"
He looked warily at the girl who was at present trying to put on a brave face.
"Everything okay, Caroline?" he asked sympathetically with a comforting smile.
"Of course! I'm just getting some fresh air. They say it's good for the skin."
Alaric nodded, waiting to see if she would say anything else. She felt the need to fill the silence. Caroline wasn't big on silences.
"It's Jenny's party tomorrow. You know, Jenny Stewart from school?" Caroline announced in her usual perky manner.
Alaric once again nodded. He was aware of the red headed girl.
"So I said I'd throw the party. Like a week ago. But I've been so busy with... stuff... that I just, like, totally forgot. So basically I've got one night to organise and then throw the perfect party for some girl who I don't even like that much. Jenny wants a Paris theme. I know right... so 2009." She looked at Alaric who continued to say nothing, only looking perplexed that someone's mouth could move that fast. "I was like... Paris? In Mystic Falls? Yeah right. Where am I going to find all the stuff I need? I mean I've got some berets left over from a few years ago when the cheer team dressed up as sexy mimes to raise money for blind kids in Africa or something. Or was it deaf kids in Asia? I guess deaf kids would make more sense, since, you know... mimes." She took a breathe, for the first time in Alaric didn't know how long. But she wasn't done. "The bakery on Third Street won't even make me blue, white and red cupcakes. Hello! This is America and I can't get some God damn red white and blue cupcakes? That's just unpatriotic. And rude! So, so rude-"
"CAROLINE!" Alaric said loudly, causing her to stop. He put his hands on her shoulder to keep her in place and lowered himself just slightly so her was directly in her line of sight.
"Are. You. Okay?" Alaric asked, making sure to emphasise each word. Caroline suddenly looked unsure of herself.
"Yeah," she said quietly. "I mean... I guess..."
Alaric just continued looking at her, not breaking her stare.
"I think... I'm not..." Caroline's voice wavered and her lip started to quiver. Her eyes started to well and Alaric's previously stern expressioned turned to hopeless concern.
"Come here..." He said comfortingly, taking her in his arms and pulling her close to his chest.
That was it for her. She broke into a sob as her face pressed into his chest, wetting his blue shirt with her tears.
"I'm sorry.." she managed to choke out between sobs. "I'm so stupid..."
"Shhh..." Alaric said comfortingly, one hand around her back, the other tangled in her blonde locks. He realised how inappropriate this would look to anyone who wandered by, but he cared more about Caroline than his reputation. If he even had a reputation anymore.
"You're not stupid, Caroline." He whispered into her hair.
"I am. Everyone hates me" She said in a soft voice, her breathing eratic.
"What are you talking about?" Alaric asked, genuinely suprised she would say something like that. "Everyone loves you."
She laughed, but their was no joy in it.
"Everyone just thinks I'm some stupid girl. Or worse. My dad hates me. He wants me dead. I don't want to be a monster..." her crying started up again as she sobbed more in his arms.
"You're not a monster Caroline." he whispered. "You're father just doesn't know you... the real you."
"The real me IS a monster, Ric." She commented, using his first name in a way she should be used to by now, despite it feeling kind of out of place. He noticed it too. "I don't want this. I never wanted to be this way." she whispered.
"I know." Alaric said, stroking her hair as the teen pushed against his chest for some sort of human contact.
"And Tyler..." she sniffled. "The one person in this stupid town who doesn't think I'm a freak and I ruin it."
"You didn't ruin anything, Caroline." He said soothingly. "Tyler was... Tyler is dangerous now... with Klaus... you did the right thing."
She didn't say anything as she listened to his heart beat. She missed the sound of her own.
"Besides," Alaric continued. "I don't think you're a freak."
"Yeah." Caroline sniffled again. "I'm just a neurotic, insecure teenage vampire crying to her history teacher in the middle of the woods. Totally normal." She said bitterly, but Alaric couldn't help but smile. He kept his hold of her.
"I'm just... I'm sick of everything! My parents think I'm evil. Elena thinks I'm a nuisance. Matt hates me. Bonnie can't decide whether she hates me. Stefan's gone crazy and Damon is... Damon. And now Tyler is some psycho's bitch, but, I'm just Caroline, what would I know about that? Why even bother to tell me what's happening right under my nose? To my own boyfriend? And on top of that..." her resolve that she had built up for a second in time for an angry outburt had broken. She whispered "I just wanna go back to normal. When I was just a girl who was friends with other girls who liked to shop and talk about boys and go to parties. I don't wanna worry about who's going to try and kill me. I don't wanna have to lie to everyone about who and what I am. I don't want to think about... being hungry. But I'm here and everything's different and everyone is going to get older and leave me. And I'm going to be here. 17. with Damon." she added the last bit with disgust.
Alaric couldn't help but laugh at that bit. At first he felt bad until he heard Caroline giggle into his chest too.
"Caroline." Alaric said, once again, pulling her away from him and putting his hands on her face so that she was looking directly at him.
"You don't have to pretend to be strong, Caroline. You are strong. After everything you've been through, we all still rely on you." Caroline looked up at him, blinking some of her tears away, the remnants of which were still falling down her face, onto his fingers which graced her cold cheeks.
He lowered his voice.
"I've watched you grow from a naive teenage girl into an incredibly brave, intelligent young woman. Maybe this isn't what you planned. God knows I didn't plan any of this either."
Caroline felt a pang of guilt, complaining about her life to the man who only recently lost his girlfriend. She looked away, but he caught the look and knew what she was thinking. He forced her face to look back at hers
"Hey. Don't do that. Don't worry about everyone else. We need you Caroline. You're good." He moved his hand down to tap on her heart, his two fingers tapping slightly above her breast. "You have a good heart." he whispered, one hand still on the side of her face. "We all need you. I need you. So don't ever think otherwise okay?" he looked at her earnestly. "We'd all be lost without you."
Caroline looked into his eyes, deeper than she had previously. Her eyes were blotchy from all her tears. Her face was cold, wet, and stained with her previously perfect makeup. She was suddenly aware of the position of the hand caressing her cheek and the one which sat on her not-beating heart. She felt his words warm her, comforting her like she had needed for so long. Before either of them knew what was happening she had launched her face towards his, her hands on his face as his had been on hers. Her lips eagerly crashed against his, not sweet and romantically but frantic and desperately. It only lasted a second, his hands in the air, not knowing what to do with them. For a split second she could have sworn he kissed back before he pulled away with a look of total suprise on his face. She could have only imagine hers was painted just the same, with horrified humiliation to boot. He bought one hand to his head, scrunching his hair in his hand, shocked with what had happened. She took a few steps backwards.
"Caroline..." he began, not knowing where he was going with it.
Her hand hovered over her mouth. "Oh my god." she said in the tiniest voice he thought he had ever heard.
"I..." he started again, but by that time, Caroline was already gone.
He looked around the woods, but she was nowhere to be seen.
What am I going to do?
