This one isn't set in any particular time but before either of them realizes their feelings for each other but after Stefan and Elena broke up. So s4-s5 ish.
There's a First Time for Everything
"Come in!" I shouted. I was alone at the house, frosting cupcakes I had made for the upcoming birthday of one of mom's deputies. Another officer and his wife had just had a baby so I was also making a chicken pot pie casserole that I had just put in the oven after taking out the cupcakes. I heard Stefan walking in, the sound of his boots a familiar one. He stayed here most nights and though he hadn't been here in a day or two it wasn't odd for him to show up without calling. I gave him a smile as he came in and sat down at one of the stools on the other side of the counter. He returned it meekly but didn't speak, which was fine because I was concentrating on making these cupcakes perfect. I finished squeezing the frosting through the drop flower tip, checking the design of delicate and ruffled white flowers over the perfect mound of homemade confetti cake cupcakes. Pleased with what I saw, I plopped the first cupcake down in front of Stefan, without looking up at him, and then continued with the next one. There were plenty after all. After a few more cupcakes I became aware of Stefan's eyes on me.
"What? What's wrong?" I asked him but he just shook his head. He hadn't even picked up his cupcake. "Are you too manly to eat a cupcake?" He rolled his eyes at this and I smirked as he picked up his treat before turning back to frosting. A dozen cupcakes later the oven beeped signaling that the foil needed to be taken off of the chicken pot pie. I opened the oven and the delicious comfort smell filled the kitchen, mingling with the homemade frosting mouthwateringly. I removed the foil and then turned back to frosting only to find Stefan staring at me again. He had finished his cupcake and folded the wrapper into a neat little triangle, the light blue paper sitting between his fingers. I raised my eyebrows at him.
"I didn't know you could cook," he said.
"You've seen the hours my mom works. Prior to popular opinion, teenagers can't survive off of frozen pizza," I explained airily. Truthfully, it hadn't taken me that long to learn how to cook after dad left and mom started increasing her hours. In cooking and baking, there were set rules and instructions. When you did everything right it turns out how you want it to. There was an order about it and my control freakiness loved it. I wasn't the most fun person to cook with, my attention to detail making it hard for me to accept any sloppy work. As it was, all of my cupcakes were uniform, perfect in every way, and my chicken pot pie had an equal ratio of chicken, carrots, and peas throughout the whole dish.
"Well, your cupcakes taste like rainbows," Stefan said seriously. "They're so delicious they should be fictional." He was still staring at me, in a way that made me think something really was wrong. But before I could say anything he continued. "So, are you expecting company or are we planning to eat this all by ourselves?" he asked, eyeing the two dozen more cupcakes left to be frosted. I liked the way he automatically included himself. After being kicked out of his house I wanted him to feel welcome here. We were partners in crime after all. A team.
"No, we are not," I teased with a chuckle. "I make cupcakes for the officers on their birthdays. And the casserole is for one that just had his first baby. Mom said he's been picking up takeout everyday on the way home," I explained.
"Everyone at the station gets rainbows on their birthday?" Stefan asked his lips quirking up teasingly. I rolled my eyes at him in the afternoon light of the kitchen. His green eyes looked more focused than normal, but maybe it was just the lighting. He was wearing a grey v-neck t-shirt like the day that he taught me how to hunt bunnies.
"No, everyone gets their favorite. It just so happens that Deputy Lancer loves confetti cake with cream cheese frosting," I said and finished another cupcake.
"You know and remember every employee's favorite cupcake?" Stefan inquired in an amused, but unsurprised, tone.
"Yes, but just in case I forget…" I trailed off turning to open a cupboard with a flourish, revealing a list taped on the inside of the door detailing the police station birthdays and corresponding flavors. Stefan shook his head with a smile as I smirked and then went back to work.
"When did you start doing this?" I was a little thrown by all his questions. He seemed awfully curious about my activities today, as if he had never seen someone bake cupcakes.
"Since I was 9 or 10," I answered. Stefan nodded before lapsing into silence again, following my movements as I continued to frost the remaining cupcakes. He sometimes did that when he was worrying, following my movements but not really paying attention to what I was doing.
"What are you brooding about?" I asked with a frown. Stefan looked up at my eyes and tilted his head to the side like an adorable puppy. "Come on, spill."
"I'm not brooding about anything," Stefan laughed and gave me an innocent face. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion and slight disbelief. Stefan was always brooding about something, especially when he was being quiet.
"You're being too quiet to not be brooding," I pointed out and Stefan laughed again in disbelief.
"You're being quiet, too!" he protested. It was true, the atmosphere in the kitchen and the warm smells and soothing repetitive task had made me take a break from my usual rambling. I still scowled at him expecting a better answer.
"Yes, but I'm focused on what I'm doing, you're just… I don't know what you're doing," I argued. Stefan tried to hide his smile at my annoyance.
"I'm just—sitting here, Caroline. I was actually thinking about a little 9 year old you walking into the police station with a clipboard, writing down everyone's favorite cupcake flavor," he said with a smile. I narrowed my eyes at him again and he just seemed more amused that I didn't believe him, and something about the way he looked at me then alerted to me to what felt off about the situation.
All of Stefan Salvatore's attention was focused on me. Most of the time, even when we were alone, we were talking about Elena or Damon, or we were trying not to think about Elena or Damon. Or we would be trying to solve the latest supernatural dilemma that had popped up in Mystic Falls. And even if we weren't actively doing any of those things, even if we were watching a movie or talking about high school or hunting or Stefan's past, I could tell that he was thinking about them. About how he wished he could share these things with them. And it's not that I hadn't gotten Stefan's full attention before, I had, many times. When he taught me how to hunt rabbits, when he was rescuing me from werewolves (which happened too often), when he was assessing my injuries, when he was comforting me or telling me I wasn't crazy. Stefan was one of the few people that I felt that listened to me with his full attention. But somehow this moment felt different. There wasn't any fear, or worry, or responsibility to feel. It was just a peaceful moment in a kitchen where Stefan Salvatore was thinking about nothing else but me.
There's a first time for everything.
"So are we starting an 'I was dumped by Elena Gilbert and may or may not be over her' club or what?" Matt asked me as I tossed him the football across the living room of the boarding house. I frowned at that, even though he was kidding.
"You aren't over Elena?" I asked. He rolled his eyes at me.
"I love Elena, but I'm no longer in love with her. Does that mean I'm over our relationship? I don't know. I'm definitely not over Caroline," he answered, tossing the ball back. I frowned even more but I figured Caroline would be really hard to get over. She was probably an amazing girlfriend and the only reason their relationship ended was because Caroline was protecting him from herself and Matt hadn't come to terms with her being a vampire. By the time he had she was already falling for Tyler.
"Well, no we're not forming a club. I just so happened to have the house to myself today and I've been spending all my time in Caroline's house with Caroline and I think she needed some space," I grimaced as I thought of all the time I had been taking from her.
"Nah, man you're her best friend. She loves spending time with you," Matt assured me and I felt a bit better. Caroline was the only reason I was surviving and not a ripper at the moment so it felt good to know that she at least tolerated me. "She should be here with lunch any minute. But I'm sure she appreciated the morning to herself. Have you ever seen her in productivity mode? It's like a hurricane, but backwards." Just then, Caroline burst in through the door, messy curls swinging around as she closed the door.
"Hey, Caroline!" Matt and I said in unison. She gave us one of her blinding smiles and put her bags of what smelled like homemade turkey bacon wraps and some cut up fruit and vegetables on the entry table.
"What have you guys been up to? Anything interesting?" she asked, her simple jean shorts and old cheerleading shirt giving away that she'd been either cleaning or studying in a frenzy this morning. She was still beautiful and looked adorable, of course, but I'd come to know how telling her outfits were. It was very rarely that Caroline allowed herself to be anything other than exceptionally stylish at all times, and this laid back outfit meant she had gotten some serious work done and wasn't planning on seeing anyone but the two of us today. If she had been seeing the girls or going into town she would have changed. Matt and I exchanged a look at her inquiry.
"Guy stuff," Matt replied and Caroline narrowed her eyes at us.
"Oh, I see, I don't get to hear the guy talk?" she teased.
"It's privileged information, Care," Matt said and threw the football to her. Caroline caught it with a surprising amount of skill even as she rolled her eyes and tossed a perfect spiral back at Matt.
"Wow," I commented. "Vampirism did a lot for your football skills." Matt snorted.
"Caroline's always been good at football," he said incredulously and then absentmindedly checked his watch. "I've got to go pick up my shift at the Grill but you guys should stop by later for a drink." Matt started to jog out the door, giving Caroline a playful smack on her rear, mumbling something to her about 'good game' which she scowled at.
"Wait!" Caroline called. "Take some food! If you keep only eating food from the Grill you're going to get diabetes!" she chided as she handed him a wrapped sandwich and a personal Tupperware with two compartments for the fruits and vegetables she had prepared.
"Thanks, Care!" Matt said and gave her a wink before leaving. "Bye, Stefan! We'll come up with our secret handshake later!" I scoffed as Caroline turned to me curiously.
"We're forming a 'Caroline Forbes charity case' club," I lied and she rolled her eyes again, not bothering to explain again that I wasn't a burden to her or a project. She brought the food over to the coffee table and set it out for us, placing our own sandwiches and Tupperware neatly across from each other, also bringing out some recyclable bottles of what looked like cranberry juice with a shot or two of B positive. I studied her as she set everything out perfectly spaced. I guessed she had been studying this morning because if she had finished cleaning she wouldn't be acting this OCD.
"You know, I could help you study. I have gained some knowledge over the years," I said and Caroline gave me her look that said she didn't know how I knew she what I knew (that she was studying) but was amused that I did and also suspicious of my knowledge, but letting it go. I got that look a lot when I let things slip that I shouldn't have noticed about her. But it was hard, living with her, to not notice those things that had always slipped my notice before. Little things, like how she took her coffee and how she hated socks. How she never ate ice cream before ten at night or how she checked the well hidden police scanner in her room when her mom was late getting home.
"I don't think you could handle my system. There's lots of color coding, highlighters, and flashcards involved," she said with a smirk as she started picking at her strawberries.
"So football, huh? I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. You're good at everything," I continued. Caroline scoffed.
"I am not good at everything," she argued.
"Name two things you're bad at," I challenged as I started to eat her delicious sandwich.
"Math and…pool," she responded quickly.
"Those are things that you pretend to be bad at to make other people feel good about themselves. They don't count. You forget that I've seen your math tests and played pool with you when you're wildly drunk. You forget to miss your shots and then are surprised when you win," I countered. She gave me the look again. "I mean something that you're exceptionally terrible at. Not something that you've never done or something that you could get if you practiced enough but something that you really cannot do no matter how hard you try." Caroline thought for a minute.
"Fine, I'm good at everything," she huffed, as if wanting to move on to another subject.
"That's what we're going to do today."
I found myself regretting that decision a couple hours later as I stared at Caroline's perfectly manicured hand knock over my king.
"Check mate," she smirked and I gave her an incredulous look.
"I don't believe it," I whined. "I'm actually really good at chess!"
"Well I'm better at distraction," Caroline said smugly and I realized what her strategy had been. I had gone into the game too confident and played right into her trap.
"You're an evil mastermind," I whispered and Caroline laughed at my dramatics. I was being silly, I knew, but I could only ever be silly with Caroline, so I had to get it out of my system. I leaned back in my chair as Caroline sat back and comically sighed as if she was tired of showing me up. "Okay, so we've tried chess, we've tried card tricks, juggling, fencing, calligraphy, I know how good of a cook you are. We've covered all the things that I am good at. So what else should we try?"
"I don't know what does Damon do here all day?" Caroline asked. "Other than stealing girlfriends."
"He just had Jeremy bring over his Xbox," I suggested, ignoring her second comment. "Let's try it."
"I don't think I've played videogames since I was seven," Caroline said as we moved to one of the rooms downstairs with only a couch and a TV. Damon thought having a TV where people could see it was trashy so we only had them in Damon's room and closed off rooms with comfortable but ugly furniture. I set up the game and handed a controller to Caroline. We decided to play a simple racing game. Caroline proceeded to kick my ass. I groaned loudly as the game ended with Caroline as the winner.
"We are going to keep doing this until we find something," I insisted. "We are going to find something that you are so bad at that we can never do it again because you're a control freak and you hate being bad at things. You're going to find something that you fail at!" Caroline smirked confidently at me.
"There's a first time for everything."