"Caroline, can I ask you a question?" Stefan asked, strolling into their bedroom with his iPad in hand and eyes glued to it. Humming in reply as she focused on applying her mascara, Caroline watched him absentmindedly through the mirror as he stopped a few feet behind her. "What is 'fanfiction'?"
Freezing with the wand halfway through her left eyelashes, she cleared her throat and stared harder at her own reflection when she spotted him smirk in an effort to remain as nonchalance as she could about her guilty pleasure (though it was more of a pleasure and she barely ever felt guilty about it).
"What? Where did you even learn that word from?" she asked with a forced chuckle when she was done with her mascara. They were heading out to a party, and Caroline had slipped into a black dress with a sparkly silver design and black ankle boots.
"My iPad. Perhaps next time you won't leave the internet app open on the page you were last reading," he informed her dryly, holding up the said tablet and shaking it lightly. "Although, perhaps next time you'll just buy your own iPad."
Furrowing her brow, she caught his eyes as she pulled out her lip-gloss wand. "I already have an iPad," she reminded him slowly, causing him to smirk.
"Oh, good, so you do recall that. Whatever happened to it?" Stefan replied sarcastically, tossing his own onto the bed.
"It died and yours was closer than my charger," she replied with a saccharine smile, pressing her lips together to spread the lip-gloss evenly. He rolled his eyes at her but kept quiet. It was his own fault for allowing her to know the passwords to his belongings and she knew he knew it too. Instead, he dutifully stepped up to her and zipped up her dress when she lifted her hair to show him her open back. "Thanks," she said when he took her hair out of her hands and let it down again, turning to kiss him chastely before turning back to for a final onceover.
"Caroline?" Stefan said pointedly, brows raised with a teasing smirk when she looked at him questioningly. "Fanfiction?"
Shrugging, Caroline picked up her bag from the vanity table and faced him, finally ready to go. "They're just stories based on other stories," she explained vaguely, sighing when he simply replied with an expectant look and smirk still in place, prompting her to carry on with a wave of the hand. "Like TV shows, movies, books."
His mouth dropped open in a soundless 'oh', holding up a finger as he added to her explanation, "I assume its the fans that write these, based on the terminology?"
"Nothing gets past you, does it, Sherlock?" she snarked with a tilt of the head and a teasing glint in her eye, hooking an arm through his when he held it out to her to make their way out. "Its why its so much fun to read, though it can get addictive."
"Wait; is this what you've been reading endlessly for the past three weeks?" Stefan questioned suddenly as they walked down the corridor.
Smiling innocently, she nodded at his correct observation. Though she had always enjoyed reading books, recently, she had been reading almost non-stop if there was nothing else pressing at hand to do. Hell, she even had her laptop, tablet and phone all synced up so she could carry on reading no matter where she was for whenever she had the time.
"Yeah, I'm kinda obsessed with this one pairing from a TV show I watch and so are, like, thousands of others so there is so much to read and enjoy. You'd like them, actually. She's a 'hell-hath-no-fury kinda girl and he's a 'do-no-harm' kinda guy, and they totally belong together and they're obviously attracted to each other but the writers are just drawing it way out," Caroline gushed, clutching tighter onto his arm to pull herself closer to him and shaking her head when he laughed lightly at her. "No, seriously though, Stefan. It's getting to the point where I'm more into the fics than the show, but I love it."
"Right," he replied steadily, squeezing her hand affectionately with his free one as they left the house and began their way down the street.
"What?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously before letting out a sigh of despair. "You think I'm insane."
She felt him press his lips to her temple, closing her eyes momentarily at the gesture and inhaling his spicy yet fresh scent that was simply him. "I think you're cute," he murmured, smiling at her adoringly when he retreated and she glanced up at him. "I can't say I'm surprised, though,. You're a naturally obsessive person. Be it the details, planning or this TV show of yours."
Caroline came to an abrupt halt at his words, incredulity written all over her face as she brought him to a stop a half step in front of her. "I'm a naturally obsessive person? That's rich coming from someone who followed me obsessively like a lost puppy with his humanity off," she retorted, allowing him to tug her along to get moving once again.
"Hey, It was merely an observation, not an accusation," Stefan said placatingly.
"You're not denying it," she remarked, gazing at him from the corner of her eyes. They were nearing the location of the party.
"No, I'm not," he simply agreed, grinning widely.
"Just a couple of obsessive people, huh?" she sighed dramatically, revelling in the cool summer breeze as they turned the corner into the small road where the club was located. "Considering I'm your obsession and I like to think I know all about myself, can I tell you more about mine?"
There was a beat of silence where all she could hear was the music pounding from the building they were heading to and the mix of various voices chatting away around them before Stefan exhaled deeply. "If you must," he finally told her, a tone of amusement and slight apprehension underlying his words.
Practically bouncing on her toes, Caroline beamed and made a mental note to really get into it later on after the party (if only to irritate him to the fullest that she could). "Oh, I must!"
