Caroline Forbes is full of light (miss_mystic) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-03-12 12:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caroline forbes, tyler lockwood |
Who: Tyler and Caroline
What: Visiting Tyler at work for the free drinks
When: Tonight
Where: Victrola
Warnings/Rating: Low/None
Status: Complete
Caroline had to admit the club Tyler worked at was pretty nice. Plus Midna was one of the dancers and Caroline always loved seeing her. She wasn’t sure what had taken her so long to finally go see him (maybe it was all the crazy that consumed Orange County and her life) but now that she had she was going back. Tonight though she was stopping by to visit Tyler again. It was easier to talk to him during his shift than Midna considering she was on stage.
However, the thing about Victrola was that it wasn’t just like any club. It was upscale. Caroline couldn’t just throw anything on and walk in. So tonight she had on a red dress and heels, her hair down in it’s usual curls Caroline had no problem getting into the burlesque club. And really there was always compulsion to fall back on if she ran into any problems. She spotted Tyler working in the bar and made her way over, taking a seat on one of the stools. “So do I actually have to pay for my drinks tonight?”
Tyler wasn’t exactly sure how he’d feel about needing to get a job, but he found that he rather enjoyed working at Victrola. With how much money he had, he wasn’t a stranger to upscale establishments, and while he personally prefered to drink in lowkey bars, preferably ones that had pool tables, working in a swanky place like this was comfortable and the tips were very good. He’d be able to get his own apartment in no time at this rate. More than that, the girls were great to look at when he had down time. He didn’t stare at them, and if there was a customer who wanted a drink he kept his attention focused on them, but he still had a good view from behind the bar.
When he caught sight of Caroline, he couldn’t help but smile as he eyed her appreciatively. “Hey, Caroline, you made it,” he said, leaning toward her and resting his forearms on the edge of the bar. “You look… great.” He looked over his to see if he could spot Chuck, and then turned back to her. “I think there’s a few back here on the house for you. I can’t guarantee that you won’t have to pay all night though. What can I get for you?”
Caroline was used to not paying for drinks, honestly. Before Peeta, if guys weren’t buying them for her then she just compelled herself free ones. Not the nicest thing in the world especially since she knew what it was like to work in the service industry, but she had to have some fun with her vampire abilities. However, she wouldn’t do that to Tyler. She didn’t compel her friends. She’d still take free drinks if he was offering though.
“Thanks,” Caroline replied with a small smile. “You look all right,” she teased. “I’ll take a cranberry martini,” why not have a fancier drink than her usual tequila shots and/or rum and coke. This place was classy after all. “So how’s the job going?”
Tyler straightened up and then reached for the bottle of gin at the bar. Deciding to show off a little, he tossed the bottle and caught it by the neck before he made the drink. It had been something that he’d practiced a lot in college, mostly to show off for the girls he brought back to his dorm. “The job’s actually going really well,” Tyler said. “I think I’ll be getting my own place by April.” And it couldn’t come fast enough.
Caroline raised a brow as Tyler showed off. She didn’t remember him doing that last time. “That’s great news,” she knew living with his parents wasn’t exactly ideal. Caroline honestly didn’t mind living with her mom, back before she had roommates, but she was pretty damn close with Liz. “It looks like we will both be moving around the same time,” although she had already started the moving process. She just wasn’t officially moving out till April. “I can still probably help you out though. I’m stronger than I look,” that was an understatement. “You going to get your own place or do you think you’ll have roommates?”
“Oh yeah? Not planning on living with Stefan anymore?” he asked. That was a little surprising, especially with the big house Caroline currently lived in. He garnished her drink with some frozen cranberries on a stick, and slid the martini over to her. “You know, I’m around if you needed any help moving as well. I work for pizza and beer.” The idea of Caroline offering to help him move brought a bit of a smile to his face. He knew she’d changed since high school, but he still had trouble picturing her doing any actual heavy lifting.
“I’m thinking I might give the living by myself thing a shot, at least for a while. I’ll probably end up looking for roommates though.” He’d never lived on his own before and thought it was worth a shot, but he had liked having roommates he could hang out with whenever he felt like it.
“And Anna and Lexi,” it wasn’t like she lived with just Stefan. That might be a little weird now that she was dreaming of both dating him and hating him at the same time. This whole future crap was confusing. But whatever, real life was great and she wasn’t pregnant which meant she could drink. Speaking of, she picked up the drink and took a sip. “Not bad,” she teased, it was a damn good drink actually but no need to inflate Tyler’s ego more so than he already did himself.
Caroline didn’t think it was such a good idea for Tyler to help her move. The idea of him and Peeta together was a little awkward for her. If she was going to stay friends with Tyler which she really hoped she would, they would have to meet at some point, but moving her into Peeta’s place didn’t seem like the best option. “I’d take you up on that, but I’ve been slowly moving my stuff into Peeta’s already. There wouldn’t be much to do. So it looks like I’ll just have to help you move and you can pay me in pizza and beer.” Yes she knew that she had told Tyler it would be a long time before she moved in with her boyfriend, but seeing Peeta almost die changed things.
“Roommates are fun. You have to find the right ones though. You don’t want to be stuck with people you don’t get along with,” but then he probably knew that already. She was sure he had roommates back at Duke.
“Right, and them.” He knew that she lived with a couple of other people, but he had no idea who they were and didn’t really care very much.
He had smiled when she told him that her drink wasn’t bad, since he was pretty sure it was great, but the smile slipped when she mentioned that she was moving her stuff into Peeta’s place. He busied himself by polishing a glass with a rag. “Oh. So you guys have decided to move in together then? You don’t think it’s a little… fast?”
“That’s part of the reason I think I’m going to try on my own,” Tyler said. “Most of my buds from high school already have places they live, so I don’t really know anyone who I’d want to live with right now.”
Caroline kept forgetting Tyler didn’t know Lexi. But then Caroline didn’t know her or Stefan all that well back when they were in high school. And Tyler was also so early on in the dreams still, she didn’t think he ever met Lexi in them. She had only met Lexi briefly in the dreams herself and it was after Lexi was already dead.
“Maybe,” she admitted honestly with a sip of her drink. It was all happening fast, but it just made sense. She spent more of her time at his place than her own anyway thanks to her super hearing roommates. And watching him almost die (and saving him) just made her realize how much he meant to her. She may have forever but he didn’t and she didn’t want to waste time. It was weird to talk about it all with Tyler though. “But anyway, I’ll still help you move. I swear I’m like a pro at this point,” she had moved twice within the past two years already.
“Seems like the best plan. If you need help negotiating rent too I’m good at that.” Compulsion sure came in handy. Which reminded her of something else. “How are you doing with the whole dream thing?”
He wondered if Caroline was second guessing the move, or if the fact that she realized it was so early meant that she knew it was the right choice. It wasn’t his business, he knew, but it bothered him more than he would have expected it to. “Well, I won’t say no to an extra set of hands,” Tyler said. Even if all she did was wrap his valuables in newspaper before putting them in a box, it was better than nothing.
“Really?” he said. “Well, maybe I’ll try your powers of negotiation out sometime. You already talked me into free drinks after all.” Negotiating for a lower rent wasn’t something Tyler had ever thought about before, but it would make things easier. When she asked about his dreams, Tyler stayed silent for a moment. “Have your dreams ever kind of… made you sit down and think about the kind of person you are?” Tyler asked her after a moment.
Caroline was a pro at wrapping valuables and organizing how things went in boxes. Hell she was good at organizing pretty much everything. But she could also do the heavy lifting. However she wasn’t sure just how much of that she should do, soon enough Tyler would catch on to what she was and honestly she wasn’t sure if it would be better if she told him ahead of time or if he just dreamed it. Learning vampires were real well it wasn’t exactly easy news to take in. She was pretty sure Annie was even scared of her now that she knew.
“See? I’m very valuable. You’re lucky you’re friends with me.” More teasing, she wasn’t that conceited. Okay maybe a little bit. But then Tyler suddenly got serious. “A little bit,” she admitted. “I’m so shallow and insecure,” at least where Tyler was at in the dreams. “It made me not want to be like that in real life,” of course she still had some insecurities. She didn’t think that would ever fully go away. “But I got better, in the dreams.” Becoming a vampire had changed her. As Klaus would say it made her strong, ageless, and fearless and according to Stefan she grew into herself when she became a vampire. “You get better too,” she assured Tyler. it wasn’t completely a spoiler but at least it would give him some hope to know he wasn’t always a complete dick.
“You’re the most organized person I know,” Tyler said. “It’s bound to come in use once in awhile.”
He nodded at what Caroline said. “I just dreamed about making out with Matt’s mother,” he said after a moment. He didn’t think he had to go into to much detail about it, and he didn’t really want to. Caroline had been dating Matt at this point in the dreams, and she no doubt knew exactly how shitty that had been. And while he didn’t know Vicki here, and didn’t feel any particular attachment to her like he did in the dreams, he really did feel kind of bad about how shitty he had treated her, and how he’d tried to deny that he’d treated her badly while she had been buried in a shallow grave somewhere.
“Try everyday,” Caroline replied with a smile, taking another sip of her drink.
Right, Matt’s mom. That lady was barely around. Although of course she managed to walk in on her and Matt once. Made out with Tyler and Damon and then left town. At least as far as she knew. She hadn’t seen the fight between Tyler and Matt but she heard about it. “She was kind of a slut,” Caroline replied with a shrug. Sure she shouldn’t really be excusing Tyler’s behavior but she could tell he felt bad about the whole thing. “She made out with Damon too. That was not fun to walk in on.” Though that night had already been horrible enough with Matt pretty much pining over Elena the whole time. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s not like you’ve done that in real life… right?”
“I’m not sure if that helps make me feel better,” Tyler said. Though, he wasn’t sure it made him feel worse, either. Maybe Matt’s dream forgiveness would be easier to come by if his mother had made out with half the guys in Mystic Falls. It probably couldn’t hurt his chances, at least.
He didn’t immediately answer Caroline’s question, but instead fixed a couple of drinks for one of the serves to take back to her customers. When he did turn back to Caroline, he was frowning thoughtfully. “I want to say no,” Tyler said. “I don’t really know, Caroline. I’ve never done anything like that in real life, and I want to think I wouldn’t, but I could see how it made sense in the dreams.”
Caroline finished off her drink while Tyler was off serving other customers. She could tell him Matt would forgive him but she figured it was better he learned that on his own. Besides it was probably for the best that he felt bad about his dream actions and worried about the outcome for a bit. As difficult as it was not to tell him things, like their whole relationship or the fact that he would turn into a werewolf, she knew it was probably for the best. She didn’t really have anyone to tell her things ahead of time and the one person that did wasn’t exactly delicate about it. Even if he had been, Caroline preferred learning things on her own.
“Let’s keep you away from my mom then,” she teased. But really the idea of Tyler and her mother was so gross. She didn’t think it was an actual possibility though. Even if he had been with a mother and daughter in the dreams he wasn’t like that in real life. “Don’t worry about it,” she added softly because she could tell this all upset Tyler. “If you are realizing these things about your dreamself, chances are you won’t make the same mistakes in real life. It’s one of the good things about the dreams.”
“Me and Ms. Forbes?” He had to bite back a laugh, because out of all his friends’ parents, he was pretty sure Caroline’s was the least likely to do something like that even if Tyler had wanted to (which he most assuredly did not). Not that he had actually thought that Caroline had been remotely serious about it. He did feel a better talking about it with Caroline though. “I think I like this idea of learning from my mistakes without actually needing to make them. Next time I think about hooking up with my best friend’s mother and then beating the shit out of him, I’ll go over my options. You want another?” He asked, nodding toward her empty martini glass.
Caroline beamed when she noticed Tyler attempting to not laugh, pleased with herself for cheering him up. “I’m not sure if I should be offended by that response, or relieved,” she replied with a genuine laugh herself. “Next time? Please don’t tell me you’ve thought about hooking up with any moms outside the dreams,” her tone was still light. And of course she wouldn’t hold it against him if he had. MILFs were a thing she wasn’t out of the loop on that. But really? “That depends? Is it still free? I feel like that pretty amazing advice I just gave you should more than pay for it.”
“None that are old enough to be my mom,” Tyler said. He looked over his shoulder again for Chuck, but not seeing his boss he smiled again at Caroline. “You do, do you?” Tyler scoffed, though he had already started mixing the drink. “I think I can swing another one on the house. Since I’m such a nice guy,” he added with a wink.
Well that was progress at least. She wasn’t about to judge him for that. She couldn’t help but laugh at his nice guy comment. “Words I’d never thought would be used to describe you,” she teased. Now that the dream talk was out of the way they could have a pleasant rest of the night. Well at least she could, she wasn’t the one working. And maybe she would even start paying for her drinks.