Caroline Forbes is full of light (miss_mystic) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-06-03 18:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caroline forbes, peeta mellark, tyler lockwood |
Who: Tyler, Peeta, and Caroline
When: Recently!
What: Tyler comes over to study for finals and realizes he is a dick to Peeta
Where: Peeta's and Caroline's place
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete
It was a beautiful day. Nice and hot, but not too hot. Not that there was a too hot for Tyler nowadays. The werewolf curse made sure that he always ran extra hot. Either way, this was the perfect day to call some friends, and a case of beer and play some beach volleyball on his family’s private beach.
Instead, he was making his way to Caroline’s apartment so that they could study for finals. It wasn’t how he wanted to spend the beautiful midsummer's day, but it was how he had to. Especially if he wanted to do well on the final. With all the werewolf stuff, he’d fallen behind in his class with Caroline and he really did need her help.
So no beer, no beach, no sand. No beach volleyball. Just textbooks and the great indoors. It was with some remorse that he knocked on the door.
Caroline wasn’t too behind in her classes this semester. Sure she had missed a few to help with Tyler’s werewolf thing, and with helping Regina. But it was better than other semesters. Still as usual she had a shit ton of studying to do right before finals. There were books and notes all over the apartment. It looked like chaos but it was organized chaos. Caroline had a system, and she was always organized.
She was currently at the kitchen table reviewing her notes for her class on Shakespeare when there was a knock at the door. Tyler was coming over to study for their English class. She hadn’t forgotten but she thought she had more time. Must have been wrapped up in studying. “Babe,” she called to Peeta. “Can you get that?” she wanted to finish reviewing this page of notes before switching topics.
Hurricane Caroline was descending upon their apartment and Peeta had thought he was prepared for it, but he realized he truly wasn’t. He was making sure not to move anything or else Caroline would probably snap at him. It was only a couple more weeks until the finals were over and he was looking forward to that because he had a trip planned for her when it was all over.
He was sitting in the armchair looking at Pinterest when he heard the knock on the door and lifted his head when Caroline asked it he could grab it. It had forgotten that Tyler was coming over, but he set his computer down. “You’re lucky I like you,” he teased and reached over to playfully muss her hair as he passed by her and went to open the door. Once upon he looked at the man on the other side, “You must be Tyler. Come on in.”
Tyler was rather unpleasantly surprised to have the door opened by some guy. He stiffened, shot a wary look at the guy, and then looked past him into the apartment as if to make sure that he’d managed to ring the right bell. But the guy addressed him by name, and from what little he could see of the apartment it did look like Hurricane Caroline had struck hard.
“Yeah, I must be,” he said, not bothering to pretend to be cordial. “And you’re Peeta.” It wasn’t a question. He stepped inside the apartment. “I’m supposed to be studying with Caroline. She here?”
Although Caroline was busy with her notes she could still hear the tone in Tyler’s voice. Weird. He wasn’t usually so... tense. At least not with her. She remembered him being somewhat of a dick in high school but he was a jock. She was also a bit of a mean girl in high school so it wasn’t like she held that against him now. She wasn’t quite sure what his deal was. Maybe it was finals. That was making her tense and a little pissy as well. She had even snapped at Peeta a few times.
“Right here,” she piped up from the table. “Just give me a sec,” she added still focussed on her notes. “You guys haven’t met?” She couldn’t remember them ever interacting before. At least not with her there. She had just assumed they had because they were both such a big part of her life. More so Peeta, obviously. But Tyler was still her friend and she was determined to always be there for him especially on full moons.
Peeta was about to answer that Caroline was here, but her voice called out instead. He moved to shut the door behind him and rolled his eyes behind Tyler’s back. He could hear the tone in his voice, but he honestly didn’t really care. He was more than happy to be ignored while they studied and he wasn’t here to make friends with every single one of Caroline’s friends if they weren’t going to be civil in the beginning.
He followed behind Tyler and shook his head when he heard Caroline’s question. “We did just now,” was his simple answer as he moved to grab an apple off of the table where Caroline was and leaned over to kiss the top of her head, “I won’t bother you since you’re in full on study mode, so feel free to get going on that. I’ve got a couple clients to call back anyway.”
He followed behind Tyler and shook his head when he heard Caroline’s question. “We did just now,” was his simple answer as he moved to grab an apple off of the table where Caroline was and leaned over to kiss the top of her head, “I won’t bother you since you’re in full on study mode, so feel free to get going on that. I’ve got a couple clients to call back anyway.”
“This was the first time,” Tyler confirmed, in a way that very obviously said that he wasn’t impressed. He was more than okay with Peeta going off to chat with his little bread buddies. Honestly, if Tyler had known he might have suggested that they study at his place. Or even outside. This would have been a great day to go out to a park somewhere to study.
Of course Caroline appreciated her boyfriend letting her study. But she was not a fan of how cold Tyler and Peeta were being with each other. It brought a frown to her face. She set her notes down. “No,” she said plastering a smile on her face. “That’s okay. I’m ready for a break anyway. You don’t have to go hide just yet,” she teased Peeta. “Unless you wanted to get right to studying?” she asked Tyler. She had a feeling he would rather do anything than study, except maybe talk to Peeta. So if he did say he wanted to study right now it would be beyond obvious to Caroline that Tyler didn’t like her boyfriend.
Peeta was only reading the situation and he wasn’t going to be overly friendly if he wasn’t going to get that in return. Tyler had been kinda of cold and obviously didn’t want him around. “I can stick around if you want me to. The bridezillas can wait,” because he didn’t like to just cater to their whims anyway. And if Caroline asked him to stick around then he would do it just so she was happy and if it made Tyler annoyed then so be it. He stopped here he was and waited to see how this turned out.
Tyler hesitated. On one hand, no, studying was not something he wanted to do. He equally didn’t want to talk to Peeta. But Caroline was his friend. He might even go so far as to say that Caroline was his best friend, as weird as that might be given the fact that they’d slept together in high school and he was pretty sure he was in love with her in his dreams. He might as well make an effort to not dislike Peeta for nothing more than the crime of existing.
“Yeah, okay,” Tyler said, taking a seat at the table. “A short one. I’ve got a lot to catch up with.” That, at least, was true. “Caroline tells me you’re a cook or a baker or something?”
“Of course I want you to,” Caroline replied motioning for Peeta to take the seat next to her. “Plus it’s about time you two got to know each other.” Especially with Caroline spending one night a month with Tyler. It was just weird that Peeta didn’t know him. That needed to be fixed.
“Baker,” whoops maybe she should have let Peeta answer that. Oh well. “You’ve had some of his food,” as in the cake she had helped Peeta bake for him.
When the seat was motioned Peeta moved to sit in it and and got comfortable. He guessed it was time for them to get to know each other. It was strange to have Caroline running off to help someone once a month, but that was how she was. He would never try to change that about her . He was about to answer Tyler’s question when Caroline did instead and he let out a chuckle, “Ah yes, the cake. I hope you enjoyed it. I even managed to get Caroline to help out with that one. But yes, I’m a baker. I own my own shop and I’ve been on a couple of Food Network competitions.”
“She told me that you helped her,” Tyler said, giving a pointed look to Caroline. It really had been a good cake, and the icing art had actually been pretty cool. There was a small part of Tyler that thought he should thank and compliment Peeta on that. The vast majority of him opted to not. “So did your name help you choose a career or is that just a happy coincidence?” Tyler asked politely.
What the fuck was that look for? Tyler had gotten a very nice cake and it wouldn’t have been nice or delicious without Peeta. Why did it matter who helped who? And then came his question about Peeta’s name. Rude much? “Tyler!” she practically gasped because what the hell? This was the Tyler she remembered from high school. The one that could be a complete dick for no reason. Hell he was even reminding her of the Tyler from her dreams, the one full of anger and hate who had chosen his hatred for Klaus and getting revenge on him over her.
Peeta resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Caroline still needed assistance to make a cake and it usually turned into his work by the end of it, which the icing certainly had been. She was as good froster though, but they had worked together on it. Then Tyler mentioned his name and he couldn’t help but smirk, just keep putting your foot in your mouth. Peeta was such a mellow guy that he really didn’t let things like that get to him, so he offered up a shrug, “I think it was fully intentional on my parent’s behalf. My father is a chef, so it wouldn’t surprise me, but it’s not spelled like the bread. And it helps makes my clients remember me a lot easier, which is nice.”
Tyler glanced at Caroline when she exclaimed his name, for the moment annoyed. After all, why the hell was she defending Peeta over some innocent question? It wasn’t as if Tyler meant anything by it, and Caroline was obviously too sensitive over her boyfriend. And then Peeta answered Tyler’s question, not acting even remotely offended, and after the original rush of annoyance at that Tyler realized he really had been trying to get a rise out of Peeta.
He was being a dick.
“Runs in the family, huh?” Tyler asked, reminding himself that Peeta wasn’t his enemy. He and Caroline had been dating before Tyler had even come home from Duke. Besides, if he kept trying to get a rise out of Peeta and Peeta kept failing to do even that, it would only make Tyler look bad.
It was times like these that Caroline realized how lucky she was. Peeta didn’t have to stay around and talk to her friend, especially when Tyler was being such a dick. But she knew Peeta was doing it for her. She reached out and grabbed his hand giving it a squeeze. “His dad’s an amazing cook.” Obviously since he was a chef and all but Caroline had also eaten the food before. And even with her dulled vampire tastebuds it was beyond delicious.
“It does, but I avoided that fate for a while by going into the Army. Once I was medically discharged I decided to just embrace it and give it a shot,” Peeta commented. At least Tyler had realized that he needed to not be on the defensive around him and he returned the squeeze to Caroline’s hand, “So, what are you majoring in?” At least that was an easy question for Tyler to hopefully answer and shouldn’t bring up any major issues.
Hearing about Caroline apparently having dinner with Peeta’s parents didn’t do much for Tyler’s mood. But now that he was aware he was being petty for no reason, he was a little more careful not to let his annoyance show on his face. He really was making an effort not to be such a dick. For one, Blossom deserved a better boyfriend than some posturing asshole.
“You were in the Army?” Medically discharged too. Tyler checked out Peeta, and he supposed he could see something of a military man. Nothing that suggested he was unhealthy though.
“Kinesiology,” Tyler answered him. After a moment, he added, “Though, I’m mostly just there to play football.”
It wasn’t just Caroline that had eaten with Peeta’s parents. Well at first yes, but both her and her mother had also spent Easter with his family. She and Peeta were definitely serious, which Tyler should have figured out already considering they lived together and now had a pet hedgehog. That was some serious commitment right there.
“I already convinced Peeta to go to some of your games next year.” So Tyler would have the both of them there for support. “He might even cheer,” she said proudly.
“Yeah, lost my leg in an IED blast,” Peeta explained. He knew the question of why he was medically discharged usually came up when he let that fact slip, so he was so used to explaining what happened to him.
“Kinesiology is pretty impressive because I know how important physical therapy and that field of study can be. And I have to say I haven’t been to a football game in a long time, so that’ll be interesting,” he wasn’t the biggest sports person, but he could get into it if the game was good.
“Oh yeah? With Caroline’s old pom-poms?” he asked, flashing Peeta a teasing smile.
Tyler started a little, and before he could really help himself his gaze flashed toward Peeta’s legs before switching back up to his face. His father was a senator, which meant that Tyler had come into frequent contact with veterans. He’d learned quickly not to stare. “Shit,” Tyler said. “I’m sorry to hear that. Kinesiology’s alright. I’m thinking I might lean more towards being a fitness trainer over a physical therapist though.”
Caroline smiled in relief when Tyler seemed to soften towards her boyfriend. Of course she wanted everyone in her life to get along. Now that that was taken care of. “We should probably get to studying?” Caroline suggested. “I’m just going to check on Sonic then we can get started.” That way if Peeta and Tyler had anything else they needed to say they could. She got up from her seat giving Peeta a quick peck, there was no need for full on PDA in front of Tyler. She’d show him her appreciation for being a good sport later.
“She can handle the pom-poms. And fitness trainer would be a good path to go down. And don’t worry Care, I won’t keep you guys much longer. I need to start making some calls or else the bridezillas will start breathing down my neck,” he was getting up just as Caroline came by to give him a peck on the cheek, “Good luck with the studying, Tyler.”
“Yeah, good luck with your bridezillas too, man,” Tyler said. Anyone who had to deal with baking a crazy bride’s cake for them warranted Tyler’s sympathy, even if he really wasn’t sure if he even liked the guy. At the very least, at least he didn’t seem like a dick.