What I can’t live without is you. Who: Forwood What: Tyler dumps Caroline. Thanks a lot Klaus. When: Today - after this Where: Caroline's place Rating/Warning: Low. Just some heartbreak. Status: Complete
Tyler was still mulling over his conversation with Klaus in his mind. He had refused Klaus’s request point blank, but as he walked over to Caroline’s, he wasn’t sure if that had been the greatest idea. Who knew how Klaus would retaliate if Tyler refused to break up with Caroline? Would Klaus bite her, or force Tyler too? He’d already proven that he didn’t care about whether Caroline lived or died in this reality, and Tyler couldn’t rely on Freya having yet another vial of her brother’s blood just conveniently lying around.
But he couldn’t just give into Klaus’s demands, either. It was easy to blame the sire bond, but despite Klaus’s demand that he stay sired to him for eternity, Tyler didn’t think he could stand a millennia of doing Klaus’s bidding. Eventually, he was going to have to put his foot down. Being sired was one thing, but making Tyler break up with Caroline…
He didn’t realize that he’d made it to Caroline’s house until he was standing on the front step. And even then, he couldn’t quite bring himself to let himself in.
Caroline would be lying if she said she wasn’t sick of the sire bond. No matter how good things were with Tyler he wasn’t completely hers. He would always put Klaus first. He would always be at Klaus’s beck and call. It was a difficult thing to put up with. But she loved Tyler, more than anything, so she did her best to be understanding about the whole thing. It wasn’t like Tyler could help it.
Now that Klaus was back in town Caroline figured Tyler would be pretty busy with him. The last thing she was expecting was him to show up at her place. If it wasn’t for her vampire hearing she wouldn’t have even known he was there. He was just standing on her porch. She could hear his breathing, his heartbeat. Caroline didn’t think too much of it though. Instead she just opened her front door and joined Tyler on the porch, greeting him with a kiss.
Tyler returned the kiss, though with obvious hesitation. It didn’t feel right, and it only took a moment for Tyler to figure out why. He was going to have to break up with her, not because Klaus had told him to, but because it was safer for her if she stayed far away from him. He knew that Caroline wouldn’t accept that, but it was the truth. So long as they were together, she would be in constant danger from Klaus.
“Listen,” he said. “We need to talk.”
Something was… off. She felt Tyler’s hesitation. And then he said those words. Nothing good ever came after those words. Caroline’s stomach sunk. She didn’t like where this was headed. Still, she gave her boyfriend a small nod leading him inside her house. “What’s up?” she asked softly taking a seat on the couch.
Tyler hesitated a moment before stepping into Caroline’s house, briefly wondering if he shouldn’t just break up with her on the front step where he could make a clean getaway. But no, Caroline deserved better than that. Caroline didn’t deserve to be broken up with at all, but if she was going to, she deserved a proper one. Hell, she deserved a far better boyfriend than Tyler ever could be.
Tyler sat in the chair opposite Caroline, and frowned to himself, wondering how to start. But, well, there really was only one way to start something like this. “I think we should break up.”
Caroline knew something bad was coming. But she thought it would be like ‘Klaus is making me spend the next five weekends at the gallery.’ Not that they should break up. A lump formed in her throat. She tried her best to swallow it but her words still came out strained. “Wh- why? Where is this coming from?” Caroline asked tears making her eyes glassy, but she refused to let them fall.
It killed Tyler to see Caroline, hurt and confused and on the brink of tears; it felt like he’d been stabbed in the heart, especially with the knowledge that it was him doing this to her. “You deserve better,” he said. “You’ll always come second to Klaus; I’m always going to be his bitch. I can’t give you what you need.” I can’t protect you, he thought, but he didn’t say that out loud.
Despite her efforts to hold back her tears, one fell. Caroline quickly wiped it away. She couldn’t believe this was happening. After everything they had been through. “Tyler,” she began her voice still shaky. “I don’t care about that.” Okay that was a bit of a lie. Tyler knew perfectly well how much his sire bond bothered her. But it wasn’t enough to break up over. Not to Caroline at least. “I can live with coming second to Klaus,” she paused taking a deep shaky breath. “What I can’t live without is you. I’ve already done it. I’m not going to again.”
Tyler took a breath. Break her heart, Klaus had said. “And what I can’t live with is you,” he said, coldly. More coldly than he had wanted to. But this was the only way he could protect her from Klaus, the only way he knew how. “I’m sick of it, Care. I’m sick of needing to figure out how to balance my time between you and Klaus. I’m done.”
Caroline’s heart sunk. How could he say that? She had been doing her best not to be so demanding of his time. But she couldn’t help that she wanted to actually spend time with her boyfriend. With the man she thought was the love of her life. Well if that was how he was going to treat her, after all she had put up with, all she had done for him? Caroline wasn’t going to sit around and cry about it. At least not in front of him. “My apologies,” Caroline replied her own tone growing cold. “How dare I actually want to spend some time with you. Fine, Tyler. If that’s truly how you feel then go. But if you leave, if you walk away from me, there is no turning back. If you truly want to choose Klaus over me…” she had to pause again. Her resolve was already fading and Caroline was finding it difficult to get the words out. “I’m done. If you leave, there’s no coming back. No second chances… no more us.”
There was a part of Tyler that wanted to take Caroline in his arms and comfort her, to tell her that there’s no way that he would choose Klaus over her. Not again, not in this world. But the larger part of him knew that wasn’t true; it would never be true. It hurt, but that’s how he knew he was doing the right thing for Caroline. Doing what was right was never particularly easy. He stood, and looked at her for a long moment, trying to drink in every line on her beautiful face. It was, hopefully, the last time he’d see her, and he wanted to burn her face into his memory.
“I know,” he said, and then turned to leave.
Caroline watched as the love of her life walked away holding back tears. She fought every urge to ask him to stay. He made up his mind. He knew what he was leaving behind she made it perfectly clear. There was nothing more she could do. Once he was gone the blonde broke down and cried.