Fic: "Singing Songs On The Eve Of Destruction"

[redbrunja]

Title: Singing Songs On The Eve of Destruction
Author: redbrunja 
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Stefan, Caroline.
Summary: "I don't even know how to act when I actually am the center of the tragedy."

Caroline sucks at being comforting.

When her dad left her mom, the two only things that Caroline did were a.) be a total bitch, like her mom wasn't miserable enough and b.) pretend like nothing was wrong. And seriously, she can pretend nothing is wrong like nobody's business.

When Elena's parents died, Bonnie was the one brushing Elena's hair and saying the right things, and Caroline was the one cutting the crusts off sandwiches and cracking thoughtless jokes. And it wasn't that she was thoughtless it was just that her brain would come up with something that was perfect and cheering and when it came out of her mouth she sounded like a careless ditz.

It was no surprise that when Vicki's body showed up, Matt wanted Elena and not Caroline. Even Caroline wouldn't want Caroline, if there was an option.

"I don't even know how to act when I actually am the center of the tragedy," Caroline drawled and turned the music up loader.

Stefan rubbed his hands together, brow furrowed. "You don't have to act a certain way, Caroline," he said, staring down at the empty bottles that she'd carefully arranged across her desk. "Everyone grieves differently."

"Not me," Caroline contradicted him brightly, jumping onto her bed and swishing her hips. "God, I love this song."

"No, when I grieve, I do it wrong," she let herself flop back onto her bed. "I know I do it wrong. I know it's wrong, right now, but Stefan, I don't think anything will ever be right so-" she had more to say, a continuation of that line of thought, but she was crying, suddenly, tears forcing their way out to matter how tightly she closed her eyes and Stefan's arms were around her while he murmured perfect, comforting things and it didn't matter, because there were no words perfect enough, comforting enough, to make it stop hurting.

Comments

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

This was really sad but very true to Caroline's character. Well done.

[earnmysong.livejournal.com]

Thank you again for filling my prompt.

As I said before, this is lovely! :D

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

It was my pleasure!

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

So, so awesome. And so Caroline, that she feels all the right things but somehow the right words get mangled on the way out of her mouth. And love the callback to 1x17, even though it was painful.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!