fic: life gave me some lemons so I made some lemonade (1/1)
title: life gave me some lemons so I made some lemonade
fandom: the vampire diaries
pairing: caroline/elena
rating: r-ish (mentions/happenings of sex, but not in the extremely detailed/graphic kind of way. also, drinking and mentions of drug use, though no more than on the show.)
summary: Caroline doesn’t know how to act around this Elena, and when she talks about it with Bonnie, she thinks she gets the nice version of “this isn’t all about you, you know?”, and Caroline just hates everything. So she goes back to what she does know. (Set pre-series.)
a/n: written for the prompt “mean girls kiss the hardest” at the let’s make out ficathon. I don’t know if it entirely fits, but it’s what came out. (Also, this is not my het-bigbang. So I probably shouldn’t have written it.)
Elena’s parents die and the whole town falls apart. (Or that’s what it feels like anyways.) And Caroline does her best to do what she’s supposed to do, she brings the Gilberts homemade casseroles, she forces her friend to watch movies that are supposed to make her happy (there is a lot of Meg Ryan involved), and she paints Elena’s nails bright colors in the hopes to make her smile.
Mostly Elena just stares absently. Not at Caroline (never at Caroline), but at the television, out the window, at the picture of her in cheerleading uniform on her shelf. Caroline doesn’t like it, because she doesn’t know how to act around this Elena, and when she talks about it with Bonnie, she thinks she gets the nice version of “this isn’t all about you, you know?”, and Caroline just hates everything.
So she goes back to what she does know.
“Okay,” Caroline says bursting into Elena’s room and waving the bottle of tequila around, “I stole this from my mother’s not so secret post-divorce stash, and I’m thinking you, me, and some underage drinking sounds like an awesome plan.”
“Caroline…”
“Like you actually have a choice in any of this.” She says, grabbing Elena’s hand and dragging her out of the room.
Elena lets her drag her down the stairs and out of the house and into her car, doesn’t try to stop her again. Caroline had already told Jenna she was stealing her for the day, and she hadn’t put up much of a fight either.
(Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert died, and Caroline thinks the rest of the Gilberts lost all their fight. She thinks she should be happy about that, because Elena has always been her biggest competition in, well, everything. But what good is winning if it’s only by default?)
--
“We’re at the falls.” Elena says as they step out of the car.
“Well, yeah. Obviously.” Caroline says, because well, they’re right there in front of them.
“I thought we were going somewhere farther away…” Elena says and it’s almost like a wish.
“Well we have to get home sometime. And the plan is for both of us to be really drunk really soon, so I won’t be able to drive us. So we couldn’t go too far.” Caroline says.
She’s thought it all out, planned it. Getting drunk might be a spontaneous idea to Elena, but Caroline rarely does things without plans. And the things she does do spontaneously, usually happen while she was drunk. (She thinks that might be irony or something, but she isn’t really sure. She always does good in her classes, that doesn’t mean she understands everything she learns.)
“Now, come on.” She says grabbing her friends hand and dragging her closer to the water. “And take off your shoes. We’re going to put our feet in the water and get drunk. Really drunk. And if we get just drunk enough, we might even take a swim.”
Elena nods and follows instructions and Caroline hates it, because that is so not the Elena Gilbert she knows.
When she finally gets the bottle of tequila open, she takes a huge gulp, hoping to forget that.
--
“This was a good idea.” Elena says, hugging the bottle to her chest. “If this is what Jeremy feels like when he’s high, I totally get it now.”
“Like you would ever get high,” Caroline says, “You’re so not the type.”
“No, you’re not the type.” Elena says, “And I used to not be the type. Now I’m…Now I’m new. Somebody else. And that somebody might do pot. Maybe.”
Caroline giggles at the look on her friend’s face, confusion and uncertainty and it was kind of adorable. Or maybe she was just drunk. Caroline found the most random things amusing when she was drunk.
“How are we getting home anyways?” Elena asks, switching subjects suddenly. She keeps doing that and sometimes Caroline has trouble keeping up.
(Earlier Elena had asked her if getting drunk and sleeping with boys was her way at getting back at her parents for their divorce. Caroline had thrown grass at her in response.)
“Matt or Bonnie.” Caroline says, “But probably Matt. All I’ll have to do is mention your name and he’ll come running and as long as he drops me off first, I totally won’t have to listen to the lecture.”
“Matt hates me.” Elena says taking another (larger) drink of the bottle.
“Matt can’t hate you, like literally can’t.” Caroline says, “I’m starting to think no one can.”
“Bitter much?” Elena’s eyebrows rise.
“Bitchy much?” Caroline asks and then she regrets it because she was supposed to be making her friend feel better about herself. But well, she has no filter; it’s not entirely her fault.
Elena just giggles, “We should totally do this more often.”
“Insult each other?” Caroline asks confused.
“Forget.” Elena says, “Forgetting is nice.”
--
“We’re running out of alcohol.” Elena pouts, and Caroline totally understands how Elena gets all the boys to do things so easily for her.
(Truthfully, Caroline has always understood. That’s what makes it worse.)
“Well we’ll just have to enjoy the buzz while it lasts then.” Caroline says. “What should we do?”
“I don’t know…something fun.” Elena says, and it’s almost like she’s the old Elena again. Carefree and careless and just buzzing with energy.
“Well, it’s your day, you get to pick.”
“My day.” Elena smiles (actually smiles, not one of those fake ones she keeps giving people that Caroline recognizes all too well), “So I can have anything I want?”
Caroline doesn’t understand the question, because wasn’t that what she just said? But she nods her head anyways.
“Then I want you to help me forget.” And suddenly Elena is on her hands and knees and she’s crawling closer to Caroline, which is weird because they were already close, and she has this predatory look in her eyes, like Caroline is a pair of shoes she really wants to buy. Only Elena doesn’t even like shoes all that much, she wears her converse almost all the time.
“I thought that was what we were do-”
And then Elena has her flat on her back and is hovering over Caroline with a smile.
“Remember when we were fourteen and we played spin the bottle and we had to kiss in front of everybody?” She asks.
“Duh.” Caroline rolls her eyes, and suddenly it’s not weird that Elena is above her, that her hands are wrapping around Caroline’s wrists and holding her down, and her body is just inches away from hers. (Caroline is so very easily distracted when she’s drunk, something Elena apparently hasn’t forgotten.) “Tyler still talks about it sometimes. He liked it way too much for someone not involved.”
“You were a good kisser,” Elena continues, “It was a nice kiss. We should do it again.”
“I…”
“You did say it was my day, right?” She smiles, and it’s just a bit wicked and just a little bit sad, and Caroline is just like everybody else in town, impossibly besotted by Elena and unable to tell her no.
“I did.” Caroline nods.
“Good.” And then Elena’s lips are on hers, and it’s different from last time. It’s not soft and sweet and giggly, instead it’s harsh and hard and something she can’t put her finger on, and Elena’s nails are digging into her wrist but it doesn’t hurt like it should.
Elena pulls away and Caroline might have let out a little bit of a gasp, but she wouldn’t admit to it outloud, and grins down at her.
“I think we’ve gotten better at this.” She says.
And then they were kissing again and Elena’s body was touching hers (grinding against hers) and her tongue is in her mouth, and oh god, why had it taken them two years to do this again?
--
Caroline’s had drunk sex before, (not enough times to make her feel bad about herself, but enough times) but it had never been like this before. The clothes came off easily enough and the sighs and gasps sound the same but this, this was different. This Elena was different.
(She didn’t think sex between Matt and Elena had ever been like this. But she thinks, hey, maybe that means she gets to have something that no one else does, and she’s Caroline, so she’s happy about that.)
This Elena never stops moving, kisses her like she’s trying to prove something to the both of them, and despite her best efforts, she won’t let Caroline switch positions and be on top. It makes Caroline huff into Elena’s mouth and Elena giggle into hers, and then oh, they’re both gasping, because Elena’s mouth has moved and it’s found just the right spot and so has Caroline’s hand.
“We should have thought of this earlier.” Elena says, kissing her way down Caroline’s stomach, like it had been their idea and not just hers. And Caroline likes being included, but she knows they never would have gotten here if it wasn’t for Elena.
(Elena’s always been braver, more adventurous, more everything.)
“So much sooner,” She whispers against her skin. And she seems so in control, like she knows exactly what she’s doing, like maybe she’s done this before. And Caroline can’t stop her mind from wandering, because Elena and Bonnie always end up excluding her from things and maybe-
“Oh.” Caroline breathes out.
Elena moves her finger just right, and suddenly it’s Bonnie who?
--
They end up sprawled in the grass, Caroline still in her panties and bra and Elena’s managed to dig up her shirt from somewhere, but they’re pretty sure her bra ended up in the water. But their tired (the good kind of tired for the first time in forever) and they’re not going to bother to search for it.
“If a kiss made Tyler so excited what do you think he would say about that?” Elena asks.
And then they’re both giggling. Laughing and laughing, and it should be weird, but there’s still too much alcohol in Caroline’s system for her to really think it through, and it’s not. Mostly she’s just glad to have this Elena back. The one that smiles and laughs and thinks about things that don’t matter, who sometimes does things just to get attention just like Caroline, who drinks tequila like its water, and dances even when there isn’t any music to be heard.
(She’s selfishly missed her friend, despite Elena never having really disappeared.)
“This is going to make the ride home with Matt weird isn’t it?” Caroline says and this time it’s only Elena who laughs. “Do you think he’ll know? That he’ll like, be able to tell?”
She turns her head to look Elena in the eye, and the other girl moves, linking their fingers together, bright orange nail polish and dark pink lining up side by side. And for a moment, just a moment, she feels like maybe Elena’s looking at her like she’s the whole world and no one’s ever done that before. Elena’s never come close to looking at her like that.
“Caroline Forbes and Elena Gilbert, golden girls of Mystic Falls, having sex where anyone could see it,” Elena smiles, “I don’t think it would ever cross his mind.”
fandom: the vampire diaries
pairing: caroline/elena
rating: r-ish (mentions/happenings of sex, but not in the extremely detailed/graphic kind of way. also, drinking and mentions of drug use, though no more than on the show.)
summary: Caroline doesn’t know how to act around this Elena, and when she talks about it with Bonnie, she thinks she gets the nice version of “this isn’t all about you, you know?”, and Caroline just hates everything. So she goes back to what she does know. (Set pre-series.)
a/n: written for the prompt “mean girls kiss the hardest” at the let’s make out ficathon. I don’t know if it entirely fits, but it’s what came out. (Also, this is not my het-bigbang. So I probably shouldn’t have written it.)
Elena’s parents die and the whole town falls apart. (Or that’s what it feels like anyways.) And Caroline does her best to do what she’s supposed to do, she brings the Gilberts homemade casseroles, she forces her friend to watch movies that are supposed to make her happy (there is a lot of Meg Ryan involved), and she paints Elena’s nails bright colors in the hopes to make her smile.
Mostly Elena just stares absently. Not at Caroline (never at Caroline), but at the television, out the window, at the picture of her in cheerleading uniform on her shelf. Caroline doesn’t like it, because she doesn’t know how to act around this Elena, and when she talks about it with Bonnie, she thinks she gets the nice version of “this isn’t all about you, you know?”, and Caroline just hates everything.
So she goes back to what she does know.
“Okay,” Caroline says bursting into Elena’s room and waving the bottle of tequila around, “I stole this from my mother’s not so secret post-divorce stash, and I’m thinking you, me, and some underage drinking sounds like an awesome plan.”
“Caroline…”
“Like you actually have a choice in any of this.” She says, grabbing Elena’s hand and dragging her out of the room.
Elena lets her drag her down the stairs and out of the house and into her car, doesn’t try to stop her again. Caroline had already told Jenna she was stealing her for the day, and she hadn’t put up much of a fight either.
(Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert died, and Caroline thinks the rest of the Gilberts lost all their fight. She thinks she should be happy about that, because Elena has always been her biggest competition in, well, everything. But what good is winning if it’s only by default?)
--
“We’re at the falls.” Elena says as they step out of the car.
“Well, yeah. Obviously.” Caroline says, because well, they’re right there in front of them.
“I thought we were going somewhere farther away…” Elena says and it’s almost like a wish.
“Well we have to get home sometime. And the plan is for both of us to be really drunk really soon, so I won’t be able to drive us. So we couldn’t go too far.” Caroline says.
She’s thought it all out, planned it. Getting drunk might be a spontaneous idea to Elena, but Caroline rarely does things without plans. And the things she does do spontaneously, usually happen while she was drunk. (She thinks that might be irony or something, but she isn’t really sure. She always does good in her classes, that doesn’t mean she understands everything she learns.)
“Now, come on.” She says grabbing her friends hand and dragging her closer to the water. “And take off your shoes. We’re going to put our feet in the water and get drunk. Really drunk. And if we get just drunk enough, we might even take a swim.”
Elena nods and follows instructions and Caroline hates it, because that is so not the Elena Gilbert she knows.
When she finally gets the bottle of tequila open, she takes a huge gulp, hoping to forget that.
--
“This was a good idea.” Elena says, hugging the bottle to her chest. “If this is what Jeremy feels like when he’s high, I totally get it now.”
“Like you would ever get high,” Caroline says, “You’re so not the type.”
“No, you’re not the type.” Elena says, “And I used to not be the type. Now I’m…Now I’m new. Somebody else. And that somebody might do pot. Maybe.”
Caroline giggles at the look on her friend’s face, confusion and uncertainty and it was kind of adorable. Or maybe she was just drunk. Caroline found the most random things amusing when she was drunk.
“How are we getting home anyways?” Elena asks, switching subjects suddenly. She keeps doing that and sometimes Caroline has trouble keeping up.
(Earlier Elena had asked her if getting drunk and sleeping with boys was her way at getting back at her parents for their divorce. Caroline had thrown grass at her in response.)
“Matt or Bonnie.” Caroline says, “But probably Matt. All I’ll have to do is mention your name and he’ll come running and as long as he drops me off first, I totally won’t have to listen to the lecture.”
“Matt hates me.” Elena says taking another (larger) drink of the bottle.
“Matt can’t hate you, like literally can’t.” Caroline says, “I’m starting to think no one can.”
“Bitter much?” Elena’s eyebrows rise.
“Bitchy much?” Caroline asks and then she regrets it because she was supposed to be making her friend feel better about herself. But well, she has no filter; it’s not entirely her fault.
Elena just giggles, “We should totally do this more often.”
“Insult each other?” Caroline asks confused.
“Forget.” Elena says, “Forgetting is nice.”
--
“We’re running out of alcohol.” Elena pouts, and Caroline totally understands how Elena gets all the boys to do things so easily for her.
(Truthfully, Caroline has always understood. That’s what makes it worse.)
“Well we’ll just have to enjoy the buzz while it lasts then.” Caroline says. “What should we do?”
“I don’t know…something fun.” Elena says, and it’s almost like she’s the old Elena again. Carefree and careless and just buzzing with energy.
“Well, it’s your day, you get to pick.”
“My day.” Elena smiles (actually smiles, not one of those fake ones she keeps giving people that Caroline recognizes all too well), “So I can have anything I want?”
Caroline doesn’t understand the question, because wasn’t that what she just said? But she nods her head anyways.
“Then I want you to help me forget.” And suddenly Elena is on her hands and knees and she’s crawling closer to Caroline, which is weird because they were already close, and she has this predatory look in her eyes, like Caroline is a pair of shoes she really wants to buy. Only Elena doesn’t even like shoes all that much, she wears her converse almost all the time.
“I thought that was what we were do-”
And then Elena has her flat on her back and is hovering over Caroline with a smile.
“Remember when we were fourteen and we played spin the bottle and we had to kiss in front of everybody?” She asks.
“Duh.” Caroline rolls her eyes, and suddenly it’s not weird that Elena is above her, that her hands are wrapping around Caroline’s wrists and holding her down, and her body is just inches away from hers. (Caroline is so very easily distracted when she’s drunk, something Elena apparently hasn’t forgotten.) “Tyler still talks about it sometimes. He liked it way too much for someone not involved.”
“You were a good kisser,” Elena continues, “It was a nice kiss. We should do it again.”
“I…”
“You did say it was my day, right?” She smiles, and it’s just a bit wicked and just a little bit sad, and Caroline is just like everybody else in town, impossibly besotted by Elena and unable to tell her no.
“I did.” Caroline nods.
“Good.” And then Elena’s lips are on hers, and it’s different from last time. It’s not soft and sweet and giggly, instead it’s harsh and hard and something she can’t put her finger on, and Elena’s nails are digging into her wrist but it doesn’t hurt like it should.
Elena pulls away and Caroline might have let out a little bit of a gasp, but she wouldn’t admit to it outloud, and grins down at her.
“I think we’ve gotten better at this.” She says.
And then they were kissing again and Elena’s body was touching hers (grinding against hers) and her tongue is in her mouth, and oh god, why had it taken them two years to do this again?
--
Caroline’s had drunk sex before, (not enough times to make her feel bad about herself, but enough times) but it had never been like this before. The clothes came off easily enough and the sighs and gasps sound the same but this, this was different. This Elena was different.
(She didn’t think sex between Matt and Elena had ever been like this. But she thinks, hey, maybe that means she gets to have something that no one else does, and she’s Caroline, so she’s happy about that.)
This Elena never stops moving, kisses her like she’s trying to prove something to the both of them, and despite her best efforts, she won’t let Caroline switch positions and be on top. It makes Caroline huff into Elena’s mouth and Elena giggle into hers, and then oh, they’re both gasping, because Elena’s mouth has moved and it’s found just the right spot and so has Caroline’s hand.
“We should have thought of this earlier.” Elena says, kissing her way down Caroline’s stomach, like it had been their idea and not just hers. And Caroline likes being included, but she knows they never would have gotten here if it wasn’t for Elena.
(Elena’s always been braver, more adventurous, more everything.)
“So much sooner,” She whispers against her skin. And she seems so in control, like she knows exactly what she’s doing, like maybe she’s done this before. And Caroline can’t stop her mind from wandering, because Elena and Bonnie always end up excluding her from things and maybe-
“Oh.” Caroline breathes out.
Elena moves her finger just right, and suddenly it’s Bonnie who?
--
They end up sprawled in the grass, Caroline still in her panties and bra and Elena’s managed to dig up her shirt from somewhere, but they’re pretty sure her bra ended up in the water. But their tired (the good kind of tired for the first time in forever) and they’re not going to bother to search for it.
“If a kiss made Tyler so excited what do you think he would say about that?” Elena asks.
And then they’re both giggling. Laughing and laughing, and it should be weird, but there’s still too much alcohol in Caroline’s system for her to really think it through, and it’s not. Mostly she’s just glad to have this Elena back. The one that smiles and laughs and thinks about things that don’t matter, who sometimes does things just to get attention just like Caroline, who drinks tequila like its water, and dances even when there isn’t any music to be heard.
(She’s selfishly missed her friend, despite Elena never having really disappeared.)
“This is going to make the ride home with Matt weird isn’t it?” Caroline says and this time it’s only Elena who laughs. “Do you think he’ll know? That he’ll like, be able to tell?”
She turns her head to look Elena in the eye, and the other girl moves, linking their fingers together, bright orange nail polish and dark pink lining up side by side. And for a moment, just a moment, she feels like maybe Elena’s looking at her like she’s the whole world and no one’s ever done that before. Elena’s never come close to looking at her like that.
“Caroline Forbes and Elena Gilbert, golden girls of Mystic Falls, having sex where anyone could see it,” Elena smiles, “I don’t think it would ever cross his mind.”