kissed me quite insane. two
.
i am terrified of this dark thing that sleeps in me
.
.
.
Caroline Forbes is born with a certain determination to prove everyone wrong. She's unsure when it first originated or that she was simply born with this fire inside her, but regardless, it's there and it's not going anywhere.
This determination births a rigorous study schedule so she can rub her A* in Biology in Tyler Lockwood's smug fucking face and getting babysitting jobs as thirteen so she can buy her own clothes that are far better than Hannah Morris', as much as the spoiled brat thinks otherwise.
Caroline Forbes is here to prove everyone wrong, come hell or high water.
They look at her blonde hair and hear her high-pitched laughter and smirk and shake their heads and think oh, she's not a threat and oh, she's just another ditzy blonde girl. Caroline is neither. Caroline is all teeth and claw and fang — a certain precision when she strikes that tears arteries wide open and bleeding.
And she delights in her massacres.
But Caroline Forbes is caught completely off-guard by Stefan Salvatore. One look of that romance novel worthy stare and Caroline was gone. Hell would freeze over before she let that golden boy with that angel stare and halo hair slip through her fingers.
( A larger part of her than she would like to admit was prepared for it, though. Boys like that usually can't keep their eyes off Elena. Who can blame them? )
( The dark part of Caroline does. )
Somehow, Stefan Salvatore places himself right in her hands. She catches him stealing glances at her throughout their lessons together and for a moment, she's terrified her heart's going to burst right out of her chest. The euphoria flowing through her is unmatched.
( If only she knew. )
( If only they all knew. )
She can't unpick him from her brain even after school ends for the day. Somehow, Stefan Salvatore has stitched himself to her synapses, imprinted himself on her nerves and carved his angel eyes into the flesh and Caroline's wondering if that's a good or bad thing.
Her young heart thunders in her chest at the thought of him, igniting a smile so wide on her young face that it hurts her cheeks. If her mother was home, she'd question her daughter on the undeniable bounce in her step.
( Finally, finally, she is someone's first choice. )
Bang.
Caroline can't help the scream that claws free of her throat as something slams into her bedroom window, flinching and curling into herself. When nothing but silence follows the heart-stopping thud, she slowly unspools ( something inside, something ancient, something that has been through this two times before whispers run ) and slowly, hesitantly trudges towards the window.
Caroline really shouldn't be doing what girls in horror movies do — girls that Caroline screams at through the screen on movie nights with Elena and Bonnie — but she just can't help herself, the slam of her heart against her ribcage exhilarating and addicting as she peers out the glass. There's nothing but green grass and quiet brick houses to be seen.
A black blur whips past the window and another yelp slips past Caroline's lips and she realises it's a crow.
It caws as it slips into the clouds.
( It's trying to tell her to run away before it's too late. )
( It was too late the moment she breathed her first. )
—
He just can't stay away. He knows he should; should run far, far away from Mystic Falls and the trouble it has wreaked on his blood and mind and heart, the ghosts that haunt him with blonde hair and blue eyes that hide the violence and devastation that she brings.
But then Stefan Salvatore saw Caroline Forbes and he was doomed.
When he saved the girl — Elena Gilbert, he's learnt — from the car, he'd done it through the goodness still shining in his rusted-gold heart. Barring the death starting to cling to her skin, she'd looked like something angelic — an angel who's clawed herself out of hell — but she was nothing in comparison to Caroline's godly smile.
He only just glanced her, lost in the crowd, but it was enough.
Just a glance and his fate was sealed.
And that's when history was made.
( It was really made when a girl and a boy fell in love. But that's a story that's been told a thousand times over. )
He swings by her house, casual and mysterious, with a charming grin on his face that feels more real than the past century has as Stefan knocks on her door. He savours the sweet sound of her heartbeat — real and alive — and the cadence of her sugar-syrup voice as she yells, "Coming!"
There's a scuffle of feet over the floor before the door swings open and Stefan is greeted by the sight of Caroline Forbes. He gobbles down the sight of her: red cheeks, red lips and blue, blue eyes that spell compassion and hope in a concoction that's more powerful than compulsion could ever hope to achieve.
"Oh! Stefan!" Caroline chirps and her smile grows wide and true, leaving Stefan dizzy, his palms sweaty, "I didn't expect to see you."
"Yeah," Stefan chuckles, reduced to nothing more than the seventeen-year-old boy he appears to be, "I, uh, found this on the floor of the classroom. I assumed you wanted it back?"
He holds out her pencil case and the simple joy that overcomes her is breathtaking. The brush of their skin as she grabs it is intoxicating.
"Thank you so much," Caroline says, her voice echoing as she pads into her hallway before returning, pencil case free, "I don't even know what I would do without it."
Stefan chuckles and a short, easy silence falls for a moment, backdrop to how they stare at each other — all young love and fiery desire.
( A desire that could burn them alive. )
Caroline stomps through the silence with a certain power that Stefan is beginning to associate with her. It's electrifying. ( It's nothing like her. ) "So, I'm meeting some friends at the Grill in town later today. Do you want to join us?"
"Yes." There's an eager quality to Stefan's voice: an eagerness that would make Damon laugh in that cruel, vicious way only Damon can, but Stefan casts the thought aside. "Yes, I would love to. What time?"
"Oh, say around seven? Just meet me outside and we can walk in together."
Stefan would walk anywhere with Caroline; right off the edge of the world.
—
The Grill is loud with blood and pulse. It threatens Stefan's control, brings the bloodlust rising up his throat with a fiery vengeance that leaves the memory of drained corpses imprinted behind Stefan's eyelids, but the sight of Caroline's blonde curls soothes the beast inside.
Her sunshine light has always soothed the monster that hides in his bones, no matter which name she carries with her.
Stefan meets Bonnie, dark and soulful with an earthy tinge and petrichor scent. There's a spark when they touch and Stefan smells the potential of an unripe witch.
He keeps an eye on her.
Eventually, Caroline and Stefan steal away to the corner of the Grill, coil into each other and their own little world, leaning closer and closer until Stefan fears he may very well lose his mind if he doesn't brush against Caroline's lips with his own, even just a graze.
But he holds back. He has all the time in the world.
( He has none. )
—
There's a bonfire in the woods and the crackling flames ignite Caroline's skin, leaving her flushed and holy in the light. It only cements Stefan's conviction that he would burn alive if he only just got to kiss her; kiss her through the flames.
They drink and they laugh, stealing away into the forest, the trees and their leaves the witness to the budding love that should be so simple and sweet, but is so deadly and devastating.
"I like your ring," she says and Stefan pulls back the urge to shove his hand into his pocket, "Where'd you get it?"
"Uh, family heirloom," Stefan replies and he's quickly coming to learn that he can hold nothing from this girl, "Kind of stuck with it."
Caroline hums and Stefan breaths a quiet sigh of relief as she changes topic. He'll hold onto the delusion a little longer. Pretend like he's normal and that he doesn't dream about sinking his fangs into her neck.
—
"Somebody help!"
Nothing good lasts forever.
There's blood and there's a girl and there's a boy who knows a bone-deep grief all too young.
And there's Damon, his mark and bite torn into the neck of a girl all too young.
Stefan says goodbye to his delusion.
—
"Well, I was talking to Grams and she said the comet is a sign of impending doom. The last time it passed over Mystic Falls, there was a lot of death. So much blood and carnage, it created a bed of paranormal activity."
"Mmm, yeah. And then you poured your Grams another shot and she told you about the aliens," Caroline scoffs, giggling slightly. Elena joins her. Ah, Sheila Bennett. Always a go-to for pick-me-ups when alcohol isn't at hand.
Elena waves her hand, "That's interesting, Bon, but I'm much more interested in what happened between Care and mystery boy last night."
There's a laugh to Elena's voice and she likes to think she disguises her aching heart well. Caroline's cheeks flush and even Bonnie is caught under the spell. She leans forward, mischief dancing in her eyes as she coos, "Ooooh, Care's got a crush!"
Caroline strikes, whipping at Bonnie's wiggling hands. "I do not. He's just . . . pretty."
Elena and Bonnie exchange dry stares.
Caroline squawks in outrage, "Seriously, nothing happened! No sloppy first kiss or touchy-feely of any kind!" Her voice holds a wistful quality as she tapers off and Bonnie's smirk only widens.
"Wasn't it you who once said: boy likes girl, girl likes boy: sex?"
A good-natured frown tweaks at Caroline's lips. "I take it back."
Elena waggles her finger. "You also said no take backs. So, what's stopping you?"
"Because . . . oh, I don't know!" Caroline groans, "He's different from all the other guys. I want to do this properly, you know?"
He is different. So, so different.
( Elena should be better than this. She shouldn't feel this envy for her best friend's happiness. )
( What she would give to be a better person. )
—
Caroline doesn't quite know what she's doing at the Salvatore Boarding House, but she's much too stubborn to back out now. She raps on the door, heart hammering with teenage nerves, brows raising as it swings open at the touch.
"Stefan?" Caroline calls as she steps into the house, amazed and equally envious of the arches and panels, "Hello? Anybody home?"
The door creaks wide behind Caroline and she whirls, only to be greeted with the sight of forests and grass. Still, something prickles at her skin, pushes her forwards before the doorway.
With a too-familiar caw, a crow swoops into the house and Caroline screams and ducks, whirling and coming face-to-face with the devil.
At least, Caroline thinks it's the devil. He's tall with wide shoulders and a face crafted for evil and lust. He's the seven deadly sins wrapped in messy black hair and electric blue eyes hiding a certain maliciousness that has shudders sprawling down her back.
Caroline takes a step back and smiles. "You scared me. Sorry for barging in, but the door was . . . open?"
The question tumbles from her lips as she turns back, eyes widening at the closed door that once revealed the outdoors to her. She swallows past the cotton balls in her mouth.
"You must be Caroline." His voice is thrumming like a guitar, his tongue curling around her name like the strings of a violin. Tinged with sin. "I'm Damon. Stefan's brother."
She sees the similarities in the structure of fine bone. Sees the difference in the glow of their eyes and the curve of their mouths.
"Oh," Caroline says, slightly put-out, "He didn't tell me he had a brother."
Isn't that something he would mention? the insecure, wicked, cruel part of her thinks, birthed from the moment Caroline stepped into the vicious world of teenagedom, isn't that something he would say if he really liked me?
"Well, Stefan's not one to brag. Please. Come." His invitation feels like a threat, but Caroline brushes it off as she lets Damon guide her into the living room that is grand and opulent. "I'm sure Stefan will be along any second."
"Wow," Caroline breathes, "I'd love to live in a place like this."
Damon scoffs and Caroline's hackles rise. "Eh, it's a little kitschy for my taste . . . I see why my brother's so smitten. It's about time. For a while there, I thought he'd never get over the last one."
The last one. He says it like it means something deeper than ex.
He says it like it means the difference between life and death.
—
Even after all these years, Elena's not certain she's grown out of her pyromaniac ways. She's surrounded by lanterns and lighters and she's abruptly struck by the urge to reach out and touch the flickering flames. She smothers the urge and thins her lips, her eyes ducking to the side where Caroline and Stefan stand, lantern between them, front to back, smile on their faces and something too much like love in their eyes.
The jealousy that smoulders in the coals of Elena's heart is bitter and thick, winding through Elena like sludge.
She doesn't want to be this. But somehow, she is.
( She's not used to not getting what she wants.
She's not sure on how to deal with the sentiment. )
—
Stefan should have ran far, far away from Caroline Forbes as soon as he met her, but even by then, it was far too late. Now, he has to deal with the consequences of his actions: the sight of her, looking up at him with stars in her eyes — his North star guiding him home.
To her.
Stefan never really did have a chance.
( Neither of them did. )
He gives into his urges, leans down and catches her lips with his and lets those damned stars burst behind his eyes and nothing has ever felt so right—
( They will look back on this. And they will weep. )
—
It's night, it's dark and Elena's tired. She wants to go home.
She meets Damon Salvatore instead.
—
hi. thx for reading and the love uv given this story 3
for those who read this on ao3, there'll be some differences bc ive edited this version a bit and not the other one. :)
if ur looking for a schedule, i cant promise a regular one. as much as i love this story, its not my main priority in life rn as ive got school and im going away this weekend. it also depends a lot on inspo, so you might get multiple updates a week and then get one every couple of weeks. im fickle. sue me.
i do have a rough outline on where i want this to go, so hopefully that should help, but theres rlly no telling. and if ur here for klena, im very sorry, but thats not going to come in until much later as this is turning out to be a whole tvd rewrite ( and probably an originals rewrite if i ever get to that stage ). i promise klena will come into play, but it wont be for a while unfortunately.
final note: if stefan and caroline seem a little ooc thats bc i dont watch the episodes all the way through so i dont get a good grasp on the characters unlike if i just sat and watched it the whole way through ( thats why theres also no mention of vickie in this chapter ) and ive only watched the first four seasons and the beginning of s5 of tvd so ive never actually seen steroline in action, only clips of them in edits and that so very sorry if ive mucked up their dynamic completely :(.
enjoy and thx so much
grace :)
p.s if ur that desperate for updates, i usually update on ao3 first and then on here a day later ;)