He couldn't believe he was here right now – sitting in the middle of a woman's department store – but if anyone was able to convince him of doing anything it would be Caroline Forbes. All she had to do was blink her eyes and look through her eyelashes a certain way and he was all but putty in her hands.

Ever since that night he turned into a hybrid he could see the worry in her eyes whenever he looked into them and he couldn't exactly blame her either.

He was scared himself; scared what could happen to him because he was in fact sired and because of that he felt his loyalty was mainly with Klaus. He didn't know what that meant for him; if that would inevitably get him killed.

He tried to forget about the new heightened urges – the blood urges – but the need was too much. It definitely wasn't the same as being a werewolf and to be honest with himself he still wasn't used to that part of him. He was now a new person, a new species, and despite that he tried to act as normal as he knew how.

Weirdly enough, things have been peaceful in Mystics Falls for the past week and he hoped it would stay that way, for the weekend at least. The Homecoming dance was this weekend and he knew just how important it was to his girlfriend. She had been talking about it for the last week non-stop and the only way she stopped was when he kissed her until she forgot what she was talking about.

"What was the point of you dragging me here if you're not even going to let me in your dressing room?" He asked her as the sound of the dress she was trying on ruffled and distracted him from his thoughts.

"Can you stop being a pervert for one second of your life?" She huffed in frustration as she finally got the dress on. She waited for his response as she twirled in front of the mirror. She had to pick the most perfect and beautiful homecoming dress.

"Do you know whom you're with?" He chuckled as he stuck his hand through the curtain that was separating them from seeing each other. "Tyler Lockwood, pleased to meet you,"

She growled as she shoved his hand away, "I should have left you at your house doing whatever you were doing,"

"But this is so much fun," He said before he bit his lip to stop the laugh that was threatening to escape.

"No wonder your mother said you were always a pain to take shopping,"

He stopped laughing. He was surprised to find out that his girlfriend and mother actually talked to each other, especially since they didn't have the best history ever since she sneaked out of his house that night, "You and my mother have talked to each other? About me?"

"Mhmm," She replied absentmindedly as she changed into another one of the dresses she brought into the room with her. "A lot happened yesterday while you went to that football game with the guys,"

"Like what?" He prompted her. Maybe things in Mystic Falls weren't as peaceful as he previously thought.

"You probably won't believe me because it does sound a little on the crazy side, but you could actually see and feel the ghosts of people that have died,"

He didn't know what to say. How was it even possible for anyone to see let alone feel ghosts? All these thoughts invaded his mind: Did his dad or his Uncle Mason come back and what did all of this ghost business have to do with his mother?

"How's that got to do anything with my mom, though?" He finally asked.

"I was in the car with Bonnie when I saw your mom's car on the side of the road. I saw this guy walking towards her car and it was obvious what he was. I couldn't just sit there and let Bonnie drive by, you know that. So I told Bonnie to stop the car and I got out. As I was fighting them to keep them away from your mom they just disappeared along with the other ghosts,"

He opened the curtain as she protested and he completely ignored them before softly kissing her on the cheek. "Thank you for doing that. For helping her,"

"She's your mom, Ty," She replied simply.

"I think that's your Homecoming dress, Care," He told her as he looked at her reflection in the full-sized mirror in front of them.

She continued to twirl as she critiqued the dress before she felt his strong hands on her waist, "Stop it. You look great. Plus it will match perfectly with the suit I have,"

"Are you that confident that I would go with you?" She teased.

"I'm fairly confident," He said before he turned her around to face him and planted his lips onto hers.


Later that night, Tyler was standing in the middle of the backyard and was talking with a group of guys that were on the football team as he laughed at the joke one of them just told.

He quickly stopped though when he saw her walk out of the back door of his house and into the spacious backyard. He left the group of guys, without saying a word to any of them, and walked towards her.

"You look great," He complimented Caroline before he kissed her on the cheek.

"So do you," She replied as she played with the lapels of his jacket.

He was leaning in to kiss her lips when he felt something sharp poke at his lips. He put a finger to his mouth and felt his newly developed fangs.

"You're turned on, aren't you?" She asked in a hushed whisper.

"My fangs can come out just from being turned on?" He wondered. If this was true, boy was he in trouble. Damn his new heightened senses.

"Stronger senses, remember," She told him before she moved her mouth towards his ear to whisper into it. "We can't have your fangs coming out all night," She said and before he knew it she was grabbing for his hand and was leading him back into his house.

They used their supernatural speed to get upstairs and into his room so no one would see them. Not like they cared about anyone else other than each other in that moment. That last thing they needed was their friends, or God forbid, their parents seeing them and following them up the staircase.

He quickly opened the door to his bedroom and locked it after they walked through the door. Although there was no point of even bothering with the lock. Even if they haven't locked it they would be able to hear if anyone would be walking upstairs and they would be able to use their speed to lock the door before anyone would be able to turn the doorknob.

In the next second he had her body pressed up against the wall as they passionately kissed. The fangs had come out again, but this time they weren't Tyler's.

He pulled away when he felt them thinking they were his again but stopped when he opened his eyes and saw hers.

He slowly led his finger to one of her fangs and touched it gently, "Has that ever happened to you before?"

She only shook her head in reply. She was too clouded with lust in that moment to think about anything other than Tyler.

"It's sexy," He said as he continued to look at them and she found herself blushing. Only Tyler had the ability to make her cheeks turn crimson red.

"You're sexy," She whispered into his ear as her need for him became too much and she hooked her legs around his waist for him to take the hint.

He placed his hands on her upper thighs and was about to lift her dress over her head when she stopped him.

"We have to be careful with the clothes," She warned him. "Especially if I do end up winning Homecoming Queen. I don't want my dress to look disheveled,"

"I'm betting my money that you'll be Homecoming Queen," He told her as he smirked.

She looked at him suspiciously; he only smirked when he was up to something, "What did you do?"

He said nothing and tried to kiss her when she used her supernatural speed to unhook her legs from his waist and pressed him against the wall.

"What did you do?" She repeated.

"I may have convinced a good majority of the school to vote for you for Homecoming Queen,"

"What do you mean by convinced?" She continued as she eyed his facial expressions.

"I may have compelled them," He said hesitantly.

"Tyler!"

"What? I did it for you. I wanted to make sure you won Homecoming Queen," He told her as he tried to explain why he compelled their peers.

She knew she should have been at least a little tinsy bit angry. She knew he shouldn't have been walking around school and compelling their peers to make sure she won. She should have been mad and angry, but she found herself unable to be upset. He did it for her and for that she found herself giving him a small smile.

"Well did you at least compel them to make you win Homecoming King?" She wondered.

"Of course, I did," He said as he released the breath that he didn't even realize he was holding in as he waited for her response.

"You really are the best boyfriend for a vampire girl like me," She smiled as she looked up at him.

"I don't see you as a vampire, Care," He replied softly.

"What?"

"I see you as Caroline. Just Caroline Forbes. I could care less about the fact that you're a vampire. I like you for you,"

"If you weren't about to get lucky that statement would have been your golden ticket to a night in bed with me," She said before she closed the distance between their lips and he lifted her into his arms as her legs wrapped around his waist once again.

He carried her over to his bed and laid her down softly before he hovered over her. She couldn't take the slow pace and used her vampire speed to flip them over and straddled him. She then pulled him up by his black tie so they were in a sitting position and started to take off his jacket before she reached for his shirt.

They silently moved to their knees as they continued to free each other of their formal attire. She turned around so her back was facing him before she moved all her blonde curls to one side of her shoulders, "Will you unzip me?"

He complied as he slowly lowered the zipper of her dress; her warning to be careful was still in his mind. As he dragged the zipper lower and lower he laid soft kisses on the newly revealed skin.

When she felt that the zipper had been lowered completely she stood up from the bed and shimmied out of the dress. She then crawled back onto his bed and her hands went immediately for the waistband of his pants to unbuckle his belt. She pulled down his pants in a haste and they flew across the room as they heard the sound of metal clanking against his bedroom wall.

Her lips met his in a passionate kiss as his hands reached behind her back to unhook her bra at the same moment her hands went to the waistband of his boxers.

He had her bra unhooked and thrown across the room before she had his boxers off. He flipped them around so her back was lying against the comforter as she continued to lower his boxers and he lowered her underwear off of her body.

Once they were completely undressed it was a series of soft caresses and kisses between the two as they ignored everything else in the exception of them. They forgot about their friends and peers downstairs, they forgot about their supernatural problems, and they just focused on each other.

She buried her hands in his hair as he did the same with her blonde curls. They held each other close as they continued to passionately kiss each other before he sheathed himself inside her.

Neither of them were in the kind of mood to take it slow. They moved in sync, in their own familiar rhythm, as they tossed and turned on the bed; both of them wanting to be in control.

They tossed and turned so many times that their connected bodies fell onto the hard wood flooring of his bedroom. He took the brunt of their fall and she couldn't help but giggle.

"You think we would have been more careful considering this isn't the first time this has happened," She said once her laughing ceased.

"I don't think we ever will,"

Caroline looked up to push her hair back out of her face when she saw it.

"Ty," She said before she directed her attention back to him. To him it sounded like she was amazed by something.

"What?" He asked and her only reply was to point her finger behind him to the cardboard box, that had "Caroline's Surprise" written on the side of it, that was filled with rose petals.

"I knew I should have hid that earlier," He replied as he scolded himself.

"What is it?" She wondered.

"I wanted to surprise you after the dance was over and everyone left; I was trying to be romantic," He said as he tried to avoid eye contact with her before he continued. "It was supposed to be ready by the end of the night. I was hoping Elena or Bonnie would be able to distract you as I sneaked away to get it ready,"

"We could forget I ever saw this," She suggested. "In fact I don't know what we're talking about,"

"Nice try," He chuckled. "I'll just have to make your surprise ten times better than my original surprise,"

"What surprise?" She asked as a wide smile graced her face. He smiled back at her as soon as he realized she was still pretending she knew nothing about what she just found.

"You'll find out later," He replied mysteriously as he shook his head in amusement. He thought about how he was going to make his surprise even better and as he looked up at her he knew exactly what would make this night unforgettable.


They walked back down stairs, hand in hand and their bodies only inches apart, as they heard their own names being called out followed by applause.

They continued to walk towards the backyard and they saw a good majority of their peers standing in front of the stage that was put in Tyler's backyard just for tonight.

Caroline recognized the girl on stage; she was part of the planning committee with her.

"Your Homecoming Queen and King; Caroline Forbes and Tyler Lockwood!" The familiar girl said once again as she outstretched her arm towards them.

They walked through the crowd together and Caroline spotted Elena and Bonnie. She smiled excitedly towards them as they smiled back in congratulations. Just as Tyler knew, they also knew how badly Caroline wanted to win the Homecoming Queen title.

It was true that Mystic Falls was like no other town, but their homecoming was just like any other. Their peers made way for them as they walked to the middle of the dance floor for the traditional King and Queen dance.

Tyler placed his hands on her hips as she encircled her arms around his neck. They danced to the slow song as everyone watched them before more couples started to dance around them on the dance floor.

"I told you that you would be the Homecoming Queen," He whispered against her ear moments later. She giggled in response as she continued to enjoy the fact that she was dancing with him.

Ten minutes later and they were still dancing. She had her head tucked into the crook of his neck as they swayed to the music, but when she heard a hitch in his breath it caused her to move her head to look at him.

"Ty?" She whispered as she saw the look on his face; the veins under his eyes were showing.

Without saying a word he leaned his forehead against hers as he tried to get himself under control. Just as silently she brought her hands down to his face and held his cheeks, "Just breathe. You'll get through it,"

It took all his might to not think about the hunger and it took even more of his might not to think about the urge to just drain the blood out of one of his classmate's bodies, but eventually he got through it.

With his forehead still leaning against hers he pushed back her blonde curls behind her ears when he felt he had the urge under control.

"You okay?" She whispered so no one close to them would be able to hear them.

Was he okay? He didn't know. He just contemplated killing someone to have his blood urge filled and from that he knew he was definitely not okay.

He pulled his head back from her forehead and shook his head slowly. The moment she saw him start to shake his head telling her that he wasn't okay she took his hand and pulled him with her through the crowd.

"Where are we going?" He finally asked when they were walking out of his front door.

"My house,"


Once they were at her house she led him to her room where she left him while she went to go get one of her blood bags. She laid down on her bed and rested her head on her extremely comfortable pillow as she watched him, from where he was sitting on the bed, drink from the bag.

"Care," He called out to her to get her attention once he felt better.

"Hmm?"

He laid down next to her on the bed and faced her. He lifted his hand to her cheeks and lifted her head so she was looking at him.

"I have to tell you something. When you left that night after we found out about me being sired, I fed on someone. I didn't want to. I tried to stop, but I couldn't. The hunger was too much for me that night,"

He waited for her to start yelling at him, but she didn't. "Do you remember the carnival we had last school year?"

"Yeah," He said hesitantly. He was surprised not to see her angry. He didn't know what to expect from her but he sure wasn't expecting a talk about the carnival when he finally told her what he had been keeping a secret from her.

"That was right after I turned and the night of the carnival was my first time out since I became what I am now. That night I killed a man. He had a cut on his hand, I think, and all I smelt was the blood. It overtook my senses and I just couldn't stop,"

"How did you learn to control it?" He wondered. "I don't want to be like this. I still want to live as normal as I can despite all this supernatural crap,"

"Stefan helped me deal with those urges; helped me to control my hunger. It's just something you have to adapt to. I know it's not easy, but I'll be there to help you through everything. I do know what you're going through,"

He closed the distance in between them as he scooted closer to her so his forehead was laying against hers, "Would you really help me?"

"Of course, I would. I've done it before and now that you're my boyfriend I would, without question, do anything for you,"

"Thank you," He told her gratefully when he pulled his forehead away from hers and kissed her there instead.

As she watched him lean into her she saw a hint of hesitation in his eyes, "What else is the matter?"

"I thought you would be furious with me after you found out what I've done, especially since I kept it from you for so long,"

"I can't be mad. I know what it was like when I first turned and I did the same exact thing you did, but like I said that night of the bonfire you have to be careful,"

"I know," He told her as he nodded his head.

"How are you feeling about being a hybrid?" She finally asked. She had wondered ever since that night, but had yet asked him. "I wish this didn't have to happen to you,"

"I don't," He said and as soon as he did he saw the look of shock in her eyes by what he just said.

"Those transformations were something I never looked forward to and you know what it was like for me,"

She absentmindedly nodded her head. She knew he hated them. Well, hated, would be an understatement.

"I'm scared for you, especially since you're sired," She whispered. "I don't know what that means for you; for us,"

He grabbed her cheeks gently with his hands, "Me being a hybrid now has nothing to do with us. We're still us; we're still Tyler and Caroline,"

"What happens when Klaus comes back because you and I both know he will,"

"We'll deal with all of that when it happens. Let's not worry about that now," He told her.

She leaned her forehead against his, "I just want you to be okay," She said softly.

"I am and when I'm not I have you,"

"Will that be enough?" She wondered.

"It's already enough,"


"Are you feeling better?" She inquired once the blood bag he was drinking from was empty.

"Yeah, I am. Thanks for dragging me out of there before I did anything I would regret,"

"That's what I'm here for," She said before she kissed him lightly on the lips.

She suddenly squealed out loud when she felt him pick her up in his arms before he walked over to her bedroom door.

"Where are we going?"

"I have a surprise I still have to show you and I need someone to distract you. Since everyone is still at the house we're going back to the party,"

"You sure? What about your hunger?" She asked as she felt his hold on her tighten as he began to walk downstairs.

"I feel more in control with it now. You helped me see it is something I can control and that it doesn't control me,"

"See. I'm already helping you," She smiled.


An hour later Caroline found herself being lead up the stairs in the Lockwood mansion for the second time that night. She was standing in front of Tyler but he was the one leading them both up the staircase; he had his hands over her eyes so she couldn't peek at the surprise that was awaiting her.

Everyone that was at the house earlier was long gone and moved along to the after party so it was just the two of them in the huge house.

"Can I see yet?" She asked impatiently.

He couldn't help but chuckle as they entered his bedroom, "One more minute," He said as he looked over the room to make sure it looked perfect one last time.

The petals that she had found earlier were scattered all around the floor and bed and there were lit candles that were placed strategically around his room. The lights were completely turned off but the glow of the candlelight gave the room enough light so he could see her.

She felt his hands move from her eyes to her waist and she opened her eyes.

"It's beautiful, Tyler," She said as she turned around to face him. She looked into his eyes and she could tell something else was occupying his thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?"

"That night of the bonfire; when you brought me here and when I told you that everything that I actually like about me is you, but I didn't tell you the whole truth,"

"What?" She asked in shock as she tried to keep the tears at bay.

"Everything I do like about me is because of you, but your ability to make me love you is what I like the most,"

"You love me?" She asked in awe. The tears were still coming, although now they were for a completely different reason.

"I do," He said before he brought his hands up to her face to caress her cheeks. "You're the one person that has always been there for me when I needed someone the most. When I triggered my family's curse you were there for me and the amazing part is that you were willing to help me and I honestly don't even know why you did. And even though you knew I could kill you with just one bite you still stayed with me through my first full moon and now with me being a hybrid you're still here. Despite everything that has happened since, me being sired and dealing with all these new urges, you still haven't left like everyone else in my life has,"

"No matter how tough things will get I will always be by your side," She said convincingly as she looked into his eyes. She saw how vulnerable he looked and she knew it was because he just expressed all his feelings that he had for her. She knew Tyler wasn't one to openly express his feelings too much, but he just did; for her.

She leaned into his body to kiss his lips and he kissed back gently and slowly. This wasn't about filling his urge of her, she realized, this was him just kissing her because he wanted to; because he damn well could.

She felt so loved and so cared for in this moment and she realized no one had loved her like he has. No one told her that everything they liked about themselves was because of her. No one expect Tyler.

She knew he never felt like this before and she knew he sure as hell would have never admitted it if he wasn't so sure of his feelings.

That's when she came to the realization that she loved Tyler back. And it just wasn't because he just said those words to her. She loved him because of the way he would look at her whenever she caught him staring at her like she was the only woman on the planet, because he was the one who ultimately saved her from her father trying to "fix" her, because he didn't care that she wasn't human, and because of the butterflies she felt every time he would grab her hand and when he kissed her.

She pulled away slightly from their gentle kiss. He could see the tears pooling in her eyes, but the smile on her lips threw him for a loop.

"I love you, too," She whispered as he just stared at her. He didn't expect to hear those words back. He told her because he wanted her to know his true feelings towards her.

She watched his face as a smile – her Tyler smile – appeared on his face and in the next moment she felt his hands sink into her blonde curls. He kicked his bedroom door close as he planted his lips back onto hers.

Without breaking their kiss they walked over to his bed where it was a flurry of sighs and soft moans. He kept kissing her as they sat on the bed and he didn't want to stop anytime soon; he loved the feeling of her lips against his.

Minutes later she was the one to separate their lips from each other's even though that was the last thing she wanted to do, "I think you just earned your overnighter,"