ms_becca

Written for the Vampire Diaries Comment fic meme
I don't own any of the characters of this show obviously.

Prompt: Caroline/Matt/Tyler – the geometry of love

sin

Matt can’t pinpoint the moment he fell in love with her, but it was totally evident the minute she fell to the ground on Founder’s Day. It had been such a slow slide from friendship into more, until she was the most important thing in his life.

Really the only thing in his life, aside from his friends.

And he admits that he loves her in her bedroom, after they’ve been fighting all day and she’s been acting so strangely and the only thing he can think about is how much he wants to be with her.

She kisses him, and breathes hard into his ear. And he thinks that everything is going to be fine because this is what love is supposed to feel like.

One minute they’re making out in the woods and the next, he’s been bitten by something and then she’s getting all crazy jealous over Aimee Bradley.

But every time he sees her it’s like this ball of heat explodes out of his chest, and he wants to forgive her for all the drama and the crazy. He just wants his best friend back.

He goes over to her house after work that night to tell her that. She comes to the door, hair curled perfectly yet again, her make-up perfectly applied.

“I miss you,” he says and her face softens. Her smile widens, and she sighs his name. For just a second he thinks that everything could go back to the way it was – was meant to be.

Then Tyler opens the door.

cos

Tyler has known Caroline Forbes his entire life. They’d been in the same Kindergarten class. They’d shared crayons and played puzzles.

But they’d never been friends. Not before –

Before.

Everything is different now.

He’s different now. And Caroline is the only person who understands. Who sees exactly what he is and stands by him anyway, helping him deal with everything.

He can still feel her arms wrapped tightly around him, her soothing voice in his ear as he set up the chains, watched the video clip. So much has changed for him so quickly, and with Sarah and Matt, he really can’t talk to anyone else. No one knows as much about him as Caroline does. And with Mason gone, she’s all he has.

But seeing Matt at the door, smiling at her in that bumbling way of his, his insides burn. It’s more than anger rushing through him. It’s this possessiveness mixed with rage. Matt gave up on her. Matt will never understand her. With Matt, she’ll always be worried about killing him, the pull of blood so strong.

In Tyler’s head, Caroline is already his. It’s so strange because only a few weeks earlier he didn’t think anything of her beyond Matt’s crazy girlfriend. But now, he understands.

Her arms wrapping around his shoulders and waist are the only thing keeping him sane right now, and he needs her.

The masochistic part of himself thinks he might just be in love with her.

tan

Caroline Forbes has two choices, two different lives that she could be living right now. Two boys who care about her and want to be with her.

She’s the hypotenuse of a right triangle with a slow and predictable descent to meet Matt. The boy who cares about her above all other things. The boy who came to her out of the blue because he missed her, because he wanted to be with her.

The boy who could so easily be killed by her. The boy whose blood she craves.

The triangle flips and suddenly she’s falling hard and fast, and it’s Tyler waiting for her at the end. Tyler with his pain and mystery. Tyler, full of danger, but needing her. Tyler who never really seemed to have anyone just be there for him like she was. Someone she can be honest with about who she is and what she needs to survive. Be honest about what she’s done.

Tyler who could kill her with one careless bite.

Matt kisses her and he tastes like peppermint, winter time and teenage dreams.

Tyler kisses her and she can’t even internalize his flavour because the need is so great, so urgent, so consuming.

She leans her head against the door, holding her fingers against her lips, tilting up so that she can study the patterns in the stucco ceiling. She thinks of Elena trapped between two Salvatores, two men who love her in very different ways, and for the first time Caroline understands the pain that comes with that.

Eventually, she’ll have to make a choice. She can’t possibly keep them both. But she can’t bear to hurt either.

It’s only later that she notices the dried trails of tears on her face.