AN: So I realized I love to play in this universe whoops. The darkest timeline happens to be my favorite of all the storylines in that oneshot. Anyway, confession time: I haven't actually seen season six yet, I'm technically still in season five. I just got super inspired by Caroline's no humanity arc and started to imagine how it would play out in my darkest timeline storyline. Thus this fic was born. The first part is both funny and sad. Please enjoy
Ms. Steal Your Girl
Part One: I May be Bad But
"Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new
I've been crossing all the lines, all the lines
Kissed your girls and made you cry, boys
Saw your face, heard your name, gotta get with you
Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new…"
-Hayley Kiyoko
"Girls Like Girls"
"I really don't care if you never change back, but it bothers Elena so it bothers me." Damon flashes Caroline his most charming smile. She blinks long eyelashes at him, and then smiles a slow, lazy smile.
"It bothers Elena," she repeats, tasting the words on her tongue, something like satisfaction in her eyes. Damon is instantly wary. Stefan cuts in.
"Elena's not the only one who is worried, we're all worried about you, I'm worried about you," Stefan implores. Caroline looks at him, a secret dancing in her bright eyes.
"You shouldn't be worried, I'm just fine, I haven't killed anyone, haven't burned down any houses, it's all good on the home front, so back off." Caroline smiles disarmingly. Sprawled on her dorm bed, the Salvatore brothers are standing in front of her, attempting to get through to her; she's contemplating life without humanity. She likes it.
"Caroline you can't live like this," Stefan argues. Damon stays quiet and tries to look like he agrees. Caroline stretches and sits up, looks over at him.
"Elena's kind of a heartbreaker, isn't she?" Stefan blinks at the change of subject. Caroline smiles. "Elena keeps breaking boys' hearts, I guess it's my fault," she says casually, standing up and wandering over to the mirror. She plays with her hair idly, turning back to look at Stefan, she positively glows.
"I broke hers first."
Damon inhales sharply and chokes on his saliva. Stefan pats his brother's back while he hacks up a lung and tries to make sense of what Caroline revealed. Caroline brushes her hair up into a perfectly tousled ponytail.
"Excuse me?" Stefan finally asks. Caroline smiles.
"It's really not that hard to imagine, Elena loved me—well actually she still loves me, but that's beside the point—Elena loves me, and I love her, but I was scared. I broke her heart and she went off and dated Matt to try and pretend we didn't happen and I had a big fat gay panic and fucked any guy I could find. Tragic really, we make a hot couple."
Caroline does her makeup artfully as she tells her story, painting herself into a better girl, one who isn't insecure, who is never afraid, one who doesn't feel. Damon has finally stopped coughing but Stefan has lost his breath. Caroline puts down her concealer, turns to smile at him.
"Who else knows?" Damon croaks. Caroline smiles.
"Hardly anyone, surprisingly." She brushes the flush of youth onto her cheeks, hiding the pallor of death that rests in the hollows of her face. "Bonnie, of course. Jeremy knows—which totally explains why he doesn't like me very much—I hurt his precious Elena. He still likes me better than you both, though. And my mom. She knew." She reaches for her eyeliner as if she isn't blowing holes in their chests.
Stefan sucks in a breath of air, forcing himself to breathe, to think. He remembers the awkward stilted distance between the two girls—the distance he always mistook for simple rivalry. The desperate way Caroline had thrown herself at him when he first came into to town. He'd thought her another vapid girl; he hadn't realized how desperately she was trying to mold herself into the kind of girl she thought she should be.
Elena. The way Elena looks at her sometimes, when she doesn't realize anyone is watching. Before, he hadn't been able to place the expression, but now he knows. Heartbreak, longing, and more love than she has ever looked at him with. More than she has looked at Damon with. Was any of it real?
"I bet you're second guessing your whole relationship right now." Caroline sounds almost delighted. "I'm sure she really did love you, just not the way she loves me." She shrugs and picks up her mascara.
"Me on the other hand—any feelings I might have had for you were purely based on the fact that you've fucked Elena Gilbert, and so have I. Back when I was the poster girl for humanity, I could never decide if I wanted to be you or fuck you. Mostly, I just wanted to be you, but sometimes, Elena would kiss you, and I'd imagine what it would be like to just walk up to you and kiss you, lick her lip gloss from your mouth, taste her on your tongue. She was mine first, you know. She'll always be mine," Caroline says bitingly. Stefan sits down heavily. If there hadn't been a bed behind him, he would've landed flat on his ass.
Caroline turns back to her mirror, picks up her eye shadow, and proceeds to destroy Damon, too.
"You on the other hand? I used to dream about killing you. I dreamed about setting you on fire, about ripping out your heart and making you eat it. God, I hated you so much for what you did to me but I hated you even more once you had Elena. You never really had her though. The whole time she was with you—both of you—I was the one she really wanted, I'm still the one she really wants. Face it, you've never been good enough for her, and you know it. Me on the other hand? I'm practically perfect." She paints her mouth cotton candy pink and flashes them a sweet smile. Damon sits down next to Stefan. She spritzes the back of her neck with perfume.
"I broke Elena's heart because I was scared, but I'm not scared anymore. I know what I want, and I want her," Caroline says simply. Addressing Damon, "I'd watch your back, Salvatore, everyone knows a girl's first love is the most important." With one last smile, she grabs her purse and leaves them gutted and reeling.
AN: What can I say, Caroline knows how to hit 'em where it hurts. Part two is gonna be pretty sexy, so be warned.
xoxo
-Pixie