( i'm sorry if it sucks, i tried to not have anyone seem too ooc. it's kind of au but not really. i tried sticking to the plot as much as possible. tyler and caroline are one of my otp's and they just make me want to squeal every time i see them on screen and the idea of a pre-pilot kind of thing has been floating around in my head for a while now. sorry again if anything is incorrect, i watched each and every season three times but i didn't do any intense research on it before writing this (except for stalking the cast members). a review would literally make my day! :) song is by leighton meester and garret hedlund )

...

'i'm gonna wear you down, i'm gonna make you see, i'm gonna get to you. you're gonna give into me'

...

She remembers it clearly. She was six years old when Tyler Lockwood pulled on her hair and called her ugly. It hadn't been the first time they had gotten into an argument, her and Tyler just didn't really ever get along, but this is the first one she could remember like it was yesterday. The look on his face, the sound of the wind, the smell of the grass, Elena's wide eyes.

Their parents were all in the town council and often the kids would play together while the adults discussed 'serious matters' and 'town business' which to Caroline sounded like a bunch of boring grown up stuff so she never wondered or dared to ask what they were actually discoursing.

She was in the Lockwood's backyard sitting next to Elena in a sandbox, building a castle for their dolls, which- she found out about a few days later- made it really easy for ants to nestle in the blond locks of her barbie. Her barbie spent about three days in the sink, covered in water and soap before it was even allowed to re-enter her room. Tyler was tossing around a ball with one of the Fell kids when it landed right on top of their castle.

"Tyler!" She screeched, getting up and brushing off her sundress before balling her fists and sending him a glare.

"Caroline," he mocked her, using an extra high voice as he pushed her aside to reach for his football.

She gasped, her cheeks tinting red with rage as she shoved him back. It caused him to fall over, right into the sand.

Elena giggled from beside her, but quickly stopped as Tyler stood up and shoot her a glare. He rubbed his arm before spitting out some sand. "That really hurt, Caroline."

Caroline scrunched her nose as he spit before she rolled her eyes and put a hand on her side, "Don't be such a girl, Tyler."

"Well, you're ugly," he responded, a proud smirk on his face as he wiped his hands on his jeans before crossing his arms. He was daring her to respond.

"I hate you," she bit out making him huff and scowl before retorting, "Same here."

After reaching out to yank on one of her pigtails and stick out his tongue for the extra dramatic effect (or so she likes to think) he ran away. She was about to chase him when Elena grabbed her arm.

"Someone will end up crying, Care," Elena told her, her long brown hair floating in the wind as she gave her one of those serious looks that always (and when she says always she means it never fails) makes her feel bad. It reminded Caroline of Samantha, Elena's mother.

"Ugh," she exclaimed, blowing a piece of her hair out of her face before sitting down on the edge of the sandbox, examining their collapsed castle with a sad frown. She gave Elena one final thought before the brunette wisely changed the subject, "Boys are stupid."

…

It's her ninth birthday party and if it had been up to her, Tyler Lockwood hadn't been present. It was her mom's idea. It had been her mom's stupidest idea, ever.

Sure, he gave her a really cute, pink, sparkly headband as a present but she was about ninety percent certain Mrs. Lockwood picked it out and he hadn't been acting out for the first half of the party- but that didn't mean anything.

As soon as the cake came out she promised herself she would kill her mom later because this, this disaster was totally not okay. Stupidest idea ever, get it?

She was leaning in to blow out her candles when Tyler stumbled over his own feet (and seriously, who trips over their own feet?) and pushed Bonnie towards her. This time it's Caroline who ends up with her face in a place it doesn't belong.

She cries for three days after that because it was her ninth birthday party (okay, it was a filler year because you only turned nine to get to ten, which finally made you a teenager, basically an adult, but still) when her mom finally makes her go to school. It's horrible and humiliating and Tyler and his best friend, Matt, are laughing at her.

Matt later gives her one of these smiles in the hallway. One of those smiles that in a weird way, makes her feel the tiniest bit better and it makes her hate Tyler even more. He was probably going to corrupt this sweet kid and turn him into exactly- him.

Boys weren't stupid, she realized now, Tyler Lockwood was.

...

Their group of friends do this sleepover thing once a month and this time they sleep over at the Gilbert's house. For some reason she always ends up next to Tyler. They don't really fight any more, they just have this mutual understanding that they just don't like each other but there's no need for physical or emotional violence because of that. They pretend to get along because they don't want to ruin it for their friends. But still, she wanted to sleep in between Elena and Bonnie for once, but that damn Matt wiggled his way in, right next to Elena.

Now she has to sleep next to the door. The door! She's not a little kid that's afraid of the dark anymore- please, she's fourteen- but there's something about sleeping next to a door that really freaks her out. If there's a murderer, he'll kill her first, you know? It's not like Tyler Lockwood will protect her. He'd probably help him if anything.

She has perfected getting out of her bra without anyone noticing. Elena has always been a late bloomer and Bonnie, well, there isn't much to cover up and she hadn't been able to ask her mom for advice because she was literally always at work or still managed to be working if she wasn't. She could figure it out herself- she was Caroline Forbes after all- she had figured it out herself. She gets into her sleeping bag and waits for everyone to go to sleep before carefully wiggling out of it and using her feet to bury it deep into her sleeping bag, because if anyone would find it, things could escalate quickly.

It's this night that when she tries, Tyler asks her, "What are you doing?" There's humour in his voice and she squirms under his gaze, quietly lowering her hands. Okay, so it might look a bit weird but everyone was supposed to be asleep. It's dark but she can feel his eyes burn into her form.

"Nothing," she answers a little bit too fast and she closes her eyes, mentally hitting herself in the head. She pinches herself in the stomach, this can't be happening.

"C'mon, what were you doing?" He sounds rather angrier than curious this time, like she's hiding something from God himself and she curses the Lockwood temper because it's really, really annoying.

"Nothing!" She snaps, her voice a little too loudly and they both freeze as Elena shifts in her sleep, mumbling something about a plant and a dress- she doesn't really remember.

"You can tell me," he whispers and this time his eyes land on hers and she resists the urge to roll her eyes, because- come on, he was.. Tyler. Whatever she said he was probably going to hold against her for the rest of eternity.

"I'm just scared of the dark- of laying next to the door opening, in the dark or..." she blurts out because at least it was half true but it was half true for eighty percent of the world's population, so it didn't really have enough significance for her to not tell him. She waits for him to make fun of her or start laughing or waking everyone up to tell them 'Caroline is a big wuss that's still afraid of the dark' but there's only silence. "Whatever," she adds quietly, mumbling as she faces the ceiling.

"Wanna trade places?"

"What?" She turns her head towards his as she raises her eyebrow, "You wouldn't let me lay next to Bonnie after I begged you for an hour, but you'll trade spots just because I'm afraid?"

He shrugs and she knows it won't take much for him to get mad or angry at her for questioning him, "You wanna trade or not?"

"Fine."

It's the most uncomfortable night she had ever had and her waist is so itchy during breakfast the next morning, but she figured out that maybe- and with maybe she means probably not- Tyler wasn't that bad.

…

One day she wakes up and she's sixteen, dating Matt because she has always had this thing for him and Bonnie is a witch, or something? She doesn't really buy into it- she just doesn't believe in that stuff, it isn't her- but Bonnie's her best friend.

Tyler dates whoever (or more like does whoever) and there's a time she actually gets mad at him for making out with Matt's mother.

Matt is awesome. He's great and sweet and honest. Really honest, but in a good way. He wants her to be better, kinder, less selfish- he's great. She loves him- she genuinely does- but sometimes she feels like he doesn't love her as much as she loves him. Or maybe it's the other way around.

But then suddenly one day she wakes up, in a hospital gown and she craving blood. It's then she knows she's not girly little Caroline anymore, and the dresses she wears or her hairstyles or the books she doesn't read or the boys she dates don't really matter anymore because now she'll live an eternity.

She breaks up with Matt because she wants his life to be better, you know? She doesn't want to drag him into this weird supernatural slash döppelganger slash evil vampire sluts slash everyone you've known since you were a little kid is now a monster or sleeps with one slash abnormal life. She wants him to be normal, he deserves to- and sometimes loving someone means letting go.

Tyler kills someone, he kills someone and it reminds her off the time she did, the worst feeling in the world and she just doesn't want him to go through this. Not alone, not at first- at least.

She helps him adapt and figure out his life and then he kisses her. He kisses her. Tyler Lockwood kisses her. The kid that used to tug on her hair and threw dirt on her and made fun of the way she dressed and called her all sorts of names. But he wasn't a kid anymore and she saw a different side of him after the whole 'you turned and I helped and then we bonded' thing and everything was different now.

It feels like home, someone who understood her, sweet, gentle- unlike Tyler but then again maybe it was exactly like him. She's startled because Matt did just kiss her also and it's just too confusing with these new feelings and new changes and, and new kisses.

But without beating around the big, complicated, dramatic bush- she was still tangled up in Matt. So she blows him off and she gets rewarded by being kidnapped by his annoying, creepy werewolf girlfriend or friend with benefits or evil slut or whatever (she's not jealous!) and he doesn't even do anything to keep them from hurting her. What is she supposed to think off that?

That is not romantic and not even near a friendly thing to do, so it basically makes them strangers- enemies- nothing they haven't been before.

Somehow she ends up back into his trap and it's probably her own fault but she convinces herself he lured her in with that smile that pulls on her heartstrings or those eyes that make her palms sweaty or his body that just- sets her cheeks on fire every time she comes even remotely close to it.

They have sex after a long case of denial (by the both them) and it's amazing, awesome, great- it leaves her barely capable of speech- that's for sure.

And he saved her. He saved her from her father, and Klaus in a way and from herself, mostly.

Tugging on pigtails slowly progresses in tugging on the bottom of her shirt, he calls her beautiful now, their hands don't fit perfectly but they're not either and instead of trading places they share beds and instead of growing up and dying, now they're going to be like this- forever. She wants to be like this forever. With him. With Tyler.

And there's one thing she's certain about right now and that is that she loves him. She loves the kid she hated, she loves the jackass that sleeps around with everyone, she loves the werewolf, she loves the Hybrid, she loves her savior, she loves the jealous boyfriend, she loves Tyler.

She loves every part of him. His past, his present and their future.

And maybe all this time they weren't meant to be, but nothing in their lives has remained the same- not since they were little and not since they turned into supernatural creatures- and they're pretty perfect together in their own way- now. And wasn't now what mattered?

Just because she talks a lot doesn't mean she knows what she's talking about and she was wrong, you know.

Tyler really wasn't that bad. As matter of fact, he was pretty amazing.

…

'my heart is set on you, i don't want no one else. and if you don't want me, i guess i'll be all by myself'

...