Who: Tyler & Caroline What: Tyler goes to visit Caroline at work... with his humanity off When: January 25 Where: A fancy charity gala Rating/Warning: Fairly low for a vampire with no humanity Status: Complete
As far as Tyler was concerned, the best part about turning off his humanity meant that Klaus, and his decrees, no longer had any bearing on Tyler and how he lived his life. He could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
And if that meant he wanted to see Caroline, he could. It wasn’t hard to figure out where she was, even without contacting her first. He just needed to know which party she was working on, and go show up there. As he walked around, he realized he was underdressed for the occasion, but he couldn’t care less.
He spotted Caroline from across the room, and made his way over to her. “Hey, Care,” he said, grinning at her.
Caroline had thrown herself into her work. It was the only thing she really could do. Otherwise she would just continue texting and calling Tyler. Which of course she still did, at least once a day, but it would probably be every hour if she didn’t have work as a distraction. She got the message, she really did, but after everything with his dad? She couldn’t stay away even when he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her. It was killing her not to be able to be there for him. And hey, at least her messages weren’t begging him to talk to her like he had done at the funeral. It was more of her just checking in and gentle reminders that she would always be there for him.
Still, work helped. Which was precisely why Caroline was at her third event of the week. She usually only did one or two per week because of all the work that went into each one. They took months of planning. But Caroline told her boss she would take extra events. Her boss had been skeptical at first to put that much work on her, but she knew how organized Caroline was and trusted her judgement. So far the blonde had yet to screw anything up.
Tonight she was at a charity gala, black tie of course. Not only was the price to get in pretty high, there was also a silent auction for extra money. Caroline was checking in with the band when she saw him.
Tyler.
She blinked, was he really there? Before she could fully process he was walking over to her. The second she heard him say her name her heart stopped. It had been so long since she had heard his voice, let alone her name come out of it, she almost couldn’t believe her ears, or her eyes for that matter.
“Tyler,” she said softly, probably inaudible to anyone without vampire hearing.
There she was, and the surprise on her face made being around all these humans almost worth it. He closed the distance between them, and wrapped his arms around Caroline. “Care,” he repeated. “It’s good to see you.”
Caroline momentarily let herself be wrapped up in his arms. Even wrapping her own arms around him. It felt so good to be held by him again. But then she remembered what he had put her through. Yes, she knew he was going through a lot. And she wanted to be there for him more than anything. But he couldn’t just come wrap his arms around her like everything was fine. Especially after not talking to her for weeks.
“What are you doing here?” She asked pulling away from him, not meaning for her tone to sound as bitter and hurt as it did.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Tyler asked. “I came to see you. I thought I’d come whisk you away from all of this,” he said, and then he leaned down and crushed his lips against Caroline’s.
Caroline couldn’t help but kiss him back. Only a few hours ago she thought she would never kiss him again. She couldn’t help the passion that poured out of her. It was only after a few moments that she remembered where she was. This was so unprofessional. Not to mention she had meant it when she said if he left she was done. She would still be there for him but she wasn’t going to let him put her through anything like that again. He made his choice. He didn’t get to just suddenly change her mind and come sweeping her off her feet.
“What the hell, Tyler?” she demanded when she broke the kiss. Dead father or not, Caroline deserved answers.
“I thought you would want this, Caroline,” Tyler said, pulling away and glaring down at her. Only a moment later, did he think about what her hesitation might be. “You don’t have to worry about any of these other people, Caroline. Who cares what they think? You and me, we can be together, forever. All you have to do, Care, is turn it off.”
To say Caroline was confused would be an understatement. Just a few hours ago she couldn’t even get Tyler to talk to her. And now he suddenly wanted to make out with her at her job?
And then he mentioned turning it off. Well it made sense why he was acting so reckless, but it didn’t make any sense that he wanted her again. Not after he had broken her heart just a few weeks ago. But the whole turning it off thing definitely took president at the moment.
“You turned off your humanity?” She demanded in a hushed tone so the guests wouldn’t hear. Tyler might have thought she didn’t need to worry about them, but she did. This was her job after all.
“I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner,” Tyler said. “It’s great, Caroline. We always made it out to be such a bad thing in the dreams. I don’t know why I never tried it there.” It would have made a lot of things, like the death of his mother and Caroline sleeping with Klaus, so much easier to bear.
“Because you don’t feel,” Caroline replied through gritted teeth, her tone still hushed. “Why are you even here? If you don’t care about me…” Even if his humanity was on he made it clear he didn’t care about her. “What are you doing here, Tyler?” She could feel the anger rising in her tone. She grabbed Tyler by the arm and led him to a private room where they could talk without her having to worry about her job.
“I told you what I came here for, Caroline,” Tyler said, pulling his arm out from her grasp when she pulled him into the other room. “But if you don’t want that, then I guess I’ll just leave.”
Caroline was torn. She hadn’t talked to Tyler in weeks. She wasn’t ready for him to just leave her again. But she also wasn’t going to be the weak girl that melted every time he came back. “Go then,” Caroline replied sternly. “It’s what your good at.” Yes, there was a hint of hurt in her voice. But again Tyler wouldn’t even care. Even if his humanity was on he had no problem leaving her before.
Tyler sighed. “It’s too bad, Caroline,” he said. “We could have been great.” He looked out the door, contemplative, and then turned back to Caroline. “Consider it a favour that I’m not going to kill any of your guests on my way out.”
For a second Caroline wondered if he was going to turn around, come back to her. But of course her hopes were squashed only a moment later. “Just go,” Caroline got out her voice a mixture of hurt and anger. If Tyler made a move for any of the guests Caroline would be on him in an instant. But right now, she just wanted him out of her sight. Being ignored was actually easier than seeing him. Especially like this.
“Gladly,” Tyler muttered, raising a hand in a flippant good-bye. “I’m better off without the ball and chain,” he said, and then, faster than the human eye could follow, he was gone.