The Touch Of The Obsession (Steroline AU)

Chapter 5: More History than Most People have in a Lifetime.

STEFAN

"Stefan, would you mind helping to take these boxes upstairs before you leave?" I and Liz had finished talking about the evidence and I was ready to leave. Caroline had been moving boxes upstairs and unpacking.

"I'd be glad to help Sherrif." I smiled and took a box upstairs.

"What are you doing in my room?" Caroline didn't look exactly happy to see me there.

"Your mom asked me to help with some of the boxes. You know especially since it is taking forever for you to do it alone."

"I don't need your help." She did, in more ways than one. "And plus you'll probably mess up the way I unpack. A control freak has a system of doing all these things."

"Well you have a point." I knew I wasn't the best at organisation and it's not like I wanted to be around her but Sherrif had to run to office and Caroline could really use some help. "But-"

The corner of my eye landed on something on her dressing table. "Wait." I stepped closer. "Is that the snowglobe I gave you at Christmas when we were little?" I picked it up and turned to face her. Caroline looked embarrassed.

"Yeah it is." She grinned.

"I thought you hated it?" I remember vividly, when we did secret Santa I got her a little snowglobe of Mystic Falls. She hated it and said she'll never let me be included in Secret Santa again. I had left before it got to next Christmas and I never was included in Secret Santa again.

"I did, but it reminded me of you and I grew to like it over time. Sometimes you start liking things and people you never thought I would. " I smiled. "I don't feel the best about keeping something I got when I was five. It makes me feel -embarrassed."

I laughed. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I kept Ms Cuddles." She smirked.

When I was leaving, Caroline had given me Ms Cuddles, as a 'going away' present, so that I would feel that she was always with me and to be honest, it did. Especially in all the dark times, just keeping her close to me, gave me comfort.

"You kept a teddy bear after all these years?" She giggled. "That's even worse than me keeping the snowglobe."

"Hey, in my defense, she really is very cuddly." Caroline laughed even more. "But she reminded me of you, just like the snowglobe reminded you of me." She stopped laughing and just smiled at me.

"You know I really missed you after you left. I even cried myself to sleep sometimes."

"You had cried when I was leaving." I smiled at the memory, though it was a painful one. "And I  missed you too. More than you can imagine." Caroline just looked at me, she wasn't smiling but she just looked at me in an expression of relief, it looked like. Did she think I had forgotten about her? Or was she grateful to have met me again?

"I'm sorry." I gave her a bewildered look. "About not recognising you when we met in Chicago."
Was she really worried about that? I mean a part of me wished we had recognised each other, it would've made things less awkward, but I didn't really care because I was glad that we did now. And it was necessary for us, I think, to see that we've changed. If we hadn't met before now, we wouldn't have got any awkwardness or the fact that we were both troubled, out.

"Caroline, you don't have to-"

"I know I don't need to apologize, I never did, but I don't want you to feel that you weren't important to me."

"Caroline, I know I was important to you or you wouldn't have kept the snowglobe or any reminder of me, and I wouldn't have kept Ms Cuddles if you weren't important to me."