(no subject)

[wholeworldoutthere]

It's all at once the shortest and the longest walk back to his room. Her head is on his shoulder and her hair tickles his cheek, her fingers are intertwined and he never wants them to get there. There's something perfect about just this moment, but no matter that they're walking slowly enough, eventually they get there.

The door slides open for them and she hasn't been here since that first day, her arrival, and she's here now for reasons so entirely different - or so he hopes, a voice at the back of his mind says - not because he's the only person he knows, but because she chose to come here, to be here.

"Would you like a drink?" he asks as the door slides close behind them, and his fingers gently brush her cheek.

Comments

[brightestlight]

Caroline isn't letting herself think, because if she thinks about where she's going, she's going to start thinking about other people, and she doesn't want to think about other people. Because if she thinks about other people, she's going to stop, and she honestly feels like this is good.

Because what has he done, or said, or anything that they haven't done? That's the problem. It's all sides and politics, and she's done it all before, she's done it in high school and with her parents and with Matt and Tyler and with Bonnie and Elena, and even with Stefan and Damon, and she sort of wants to be done, and there's this guy that for some reason thinks she hung the moon in the sky, and maybe she wants to talk to him and kiss him and let him fancy her, whatever that means. Maybe it's her story, instead of Elena's cyclical do I or don't I about the two guys who love her more than anything in the world.

So she holds his hand, and they walk slow, not talking, her leaning against him, her eyes not closed but it's close, and it's sort of like the things you see in movies, but when he turns she just smiles, and it's real and not fake. Because she's not letting herself be nervous yet, even though she would be later. She bites her lips together when he asks her about a drink, and she thinks for a second. "Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be nice." And when he goes to get it, she sits on the edge of his bed with a sort of flump that makes her skirt rustle, and she's slipping out of her shoes and tucking her feet under her, forcing herself not to just look around his room even though she's curious.

[brightestlight]

She's not a victim.

That's what changes, that it's not Are you going to kill me?, it's not running, it's not Daddy please don't do this. It's not Caroline being trapped and useless and mindless because she's compelled, it's something else. It's her hitting Damon in the head with a fire extinguisher that makes a sick, gross noise when it hits him, it's her getting away from Bruce before he turns, but she still can't stop it.

Because in the end, she hadn't let what Alaric did happen to her. She fought him, they staked him - and they tried to get away, before he snapped her neck. Before she came too, and she's still trapped at the desk and she can feel it, feel all of it, and she's crying and he lied, because he's not here to save her and it's all she can think as Alaric tortures her.

And Elena doesn't do it, she doesn't stake her, and she's so relieved because she knows what's going to happen now, because she lived it.

And then Alaric snaps Elena's neck and the stake, the metal chased wood digs into her chest and he kills her, and it's blinding pain, and then-

She wakes up with a gasp, and the sound she makes is one of terror and she's trying to clamber away from whatever is holding her and she doesn't realise it's Klaus, and the wave of pain from her head doesn't help at all. "Oh god," she breathes, and she's sort of crying even though she doesn't want to, and she's somehow fallen or climbed from the bed and she's sitting on the floor, her back against the wall.