AN: I decided I wanted to write a bunch of interconnected one shots following the Carenzo friendship, from fledgling stage to having each other's back against the world. Because I ship this friendship harder than any romantic ship in the TVD 'verse.

When it's right

"So, are you signing up for classes again? Glad you're taking my advice, Gorgeous."

Caroline freezes for a moment when she feels the presence at her back, words whispered a little too close to her ear. She's standing at a desk at the Whitmore registration office, compelling herself back into school, but she knows that voice.

"Stefan said he saved you," she states, going back to filling out the form. "I thought you would be halfway to the hell away from here by now."

"I considered it, but road trips are so boring when you're along. Want to come along?"

His expression is keen and cajoling and it makes Caroline roll her eyes and smile at the same time. She's glad he's alive, she realizes. Even feels relief, that he's there, flirting with her and calling her Gorgeous. She wonders what it says about her, that she would miss him, homicidal tendencies and all, if he were to die.

"It sounds very tempting," Caroline informs him dryly. "Except that someone once told me that I can't get by on my good looks forever so I'd better go to school."

"Sounds like a smart someone," Enzo replies, moving from behind her to lean on the counter next to her. She can feel him reading the forms, but ignores him to concentrate on writing. Until he tugs the papers away from her grip, and she lets out an indignant sound and tries to get them back. "Although I'm pretty sure that someone didn't mean for you to sign up for drama. What are you going to do with that?"

"The same thing Elena will do with her medical license, I imagine – absolutely nothing" – Caroline stops trying to get the forms back and takes a step back, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently – "it's difficult to get a job when you look like you're eternally seventeen. So I'll get a degree, just to say I have one and then live my life like every other creature of the undead."

"By travelling the world in class and feeding on the very freshest blood you can find?" Enzo replies, forms still dangling from his fingertips. But he's not focused on them anymore, and with a quick lunge, Caroline manages to grab them back and gives him a smug look.

"Nope," she replies. "By sitting in a bar and drinking like I want liver failure."

She begins to fill out the form again, but then pauses after a moment. She's re-registering for Elena. Because Damon is stalking her, and Elena still has no memories of him, and they're both mourning Bonnie all over again, so Caroline is coming back to be with her friend, and it was pure instinct that had her signing up for the same major. But she dropped that so easily once…

"What would you take?" she asks suddenly, and Enzo looks almost surprised by the question and says nothing. She lets out a sigh of annoyance, because of course he was all vocal until she actually asks for his opinion. She's about to make a snarky comment, when Enzo grabs the guide of courses from the shelf in one hand and her wrist in the other and all but drags her to a pair of chairs against the wall.

"Let's see… pre-med is out of course. Elena is already taking that, and you don't strike me as the type to enjoy being vomited on."

"You are correct," Caroline deadpans. "Plus hospitals give me the heebies. I died in a hospital. So did my dad. So, no. No medicine."

"Wouldn't be of much use to you anyway. You're a vampire. Knowing how to perform open heart surgery is only important if you have a heart, and losing ours is the only heart damage that we can't heal. Have you ever thought about accounting?"

"That sounds wonderfully boring. What exactly about me screams accountant to you? I'd like to know so I can change it."

"It's the grandmother cardigans," Enzo replies without even bothering to look up, flipping through a few more pages of the book. Caroline looks down at her cardigan. It's pink and lovely and warm. Absolutely nothing grandmother-ish about it.

It gets discarded on the seat of the chair next to her, and Enzo looks up just long enough to eyeball her cleavage and earn himself a slap upside the head.

"Well that was rude," is all he says before jabbing his finger at the pages. "English? Perhaps you'll be the next great novelist?"

"My taste in books runs more to Twilight and The Hunger Games than Hemingway and Wilde. Anything older than I am is boring."

"That is blasphemy, Gorgeous," Enzo states, meeting her gaze. She just quirks and eyebrow and he shakes his head sadly. "It's downright sad, in fact. I'm sad for you."

"Ooh, the psycho murderer is sad for me. I think I've hit rock bottom. Now I'm sad for me."

"We'll be sad for you together."

"Oh shut up" – Caroline reaches out and pulls the registration book away from him – "honestly, what in here is actually useful to the vicious undead? You learn absolutely nothing practical at university. I'd be better off getting my plumbing papers."

"Would you start sporting the plumber's crack? Because I'm not sure you can pull that look off, Gorgeous."

Caroline rolls her eyes again, and Enzo just dodges another slap to the head, grasping her wrist with a laugh. She meets his gaze for a second, then finds herself chuckling as well. This is so ridiculous, two vampires debating college education and its benefits.

It feels good, she realizes with surprise. It feels carefree. She's been so caught up in the drama of Elena and Damon, and her own dying friendship with Stefan, and mourning for Bonnie, that she's forgotten what it feels like to laugh.

And it feels good.

"If you could be anything," Enzo says as their laughter finally dies and they can breathe again. "What would it be? Absolutely anything."

"Ruler of the world," Caroline replies immediately. "I would own that bitch. But that's not exactly an option."

"No, it's not," Enzo agrees. "But it is what you do best. You're a leader, Gorgeous. And even vampires need leaders."

"So what? I drop school to go take over some city?" Caroline scoffs, thinking of Klaus and his siblings and how the last she heard, he was King of New Orleans or some other bullshit like that. Caroline didn't want to be a king (or queen). She wants… she just wants…

"I want to be respected," she says at last, tapping her fingers on the book. "I want to people to say my name with a little fear and a lot of awe. I don't want to be anybody's victim anymore."

Enzo considers her, and she wonders if he's thinking of his own experiences, with Tripp and Augustine, because if anyone knows what it is to be someone's victim, it's him. He pulls the book back, looks quickly at the table of contents, that rapidly flips through the book.

"There's your answer," he states, placing the book pages up in her lap. Caroline frowns at him, then looks down at the pages.

Political Science.

"You want something practical for vampires, Gorgeous? Learn how the game works. How powers rise and fall, and how the humans involved in those rises and falls tick. We were all humans once, after all."

Caroline looks at the paper, at the requirements and the courses.

"History or psychology minor?" she asks after a moment, as he flashes up and grabs her a new registration form. She accepts and begins to fill out the slots.

"Double major," Enzo replies, and she pauses in her writing to stare at him. He shrugs easily. "Why not, Caroline? Don't tell me you don't have what it takes."

It's a dare, a challenge, and it makes her scowl. Because she has to prove him wrong now, and he knows that, dammit.

"History and Poli Sci," she mutters darkly, neatly printing the info. "You're coming to all the classes with me."

"I'm not registering for college at my age-"

"Who said anything about registering?" she demands, looking up to glare at him. "You're coming so you can help me study. Don't tell me you have anything better to do."

"I do actually… I just can't remember what it is at the moment."

Caroline smirks and looks down once more.

"Hey, Enzo?" she says after a moment.

"Yes?"

"Why are you still here?"

She doesn't look at him, and for a long time, the only sound is her pen on the paper. Finally he sighs and readjusts himself in his seat.

"Have you ever met someone, and known that they would be important?"

The Enzo.

No, the other one.

She hadn't liked him, he reminded her far too much of mistakes made in her past, but even then, something had told her he was important. She could still remember feeling as though she had lost something indefinable when she'd thought he was dead. Her whole life, her friends had been chosen out of proximity. Enzo was the first time she thought it might be simply because they were meant to be friends.

"Yeah," she says, looking up to meet his gaze dead on, hoping that he would understand what she was saying without having to actually say it. He met her gaze, and then gave the smallest of nods. He understood. "I'm glad you're safe, Enzo."

Enzo hums and grabs the form from her, scrawling another class down. He hands it back and Caroline rolls her eyes.

20th Century Lit.

"You need an English option, and we'll get you civilized yet."

Caroline snorts at the idea of Enzo of all people teaching her how to be civilized and nudges his shoulder with hers. They lean over the book, flipping through the pages and arguing about every course for at least ten minutes before it gets written down.

By the time she hands in the form, compels the clerk to accept it, she's made Enzo promise to come to class with her. He's rolled his eyes repeatedly, but Caroline was ruthless.

It feels right, she thinks. The courses, her new path, even Enzo.

Like her laughter, she can't remember the last time anything she did felt right. She thinks she could get used to it.

AN: And there is the first one. I'm open to suggestions of things you would like to see. Let me know here, or through tumblr where I am lynyrdwrites.