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“Charles! How long has it been, five years? Funny running into you here, at Heathrow airport,” grinned his old friend, Mark. He noticed that even after so long, the grip on his handshake was as firm as ever.

“Hilarious, Mark. I’ve missed your old japes and raw wit,” said Charles, humorously. “Where are you headed?”

“Berlin. Are you flying me?” said Mark, sitting across him in the airport cafe.

“U…

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: James T. Kirk & Winona Kirk Characters: James T. Kirk, Winona Kirk Additional Tags: Tarsus IV, Transgender, FTM Jim, Trans james t kirk Summary:

“I just… I really need this right now, okay Bonnie? I think all of us need this.”

“Ugh, fine, Caroline.  I’ll wrangle Damon and Alaric, you get Matt and Stefan, okay?”

“Perfect!” Caroline chirped as she spun on her heel and headed to her hall closet that housed all the board games.   A game night was just what their dwindling group needed after the horrible past few weeks.

“I can’t promise you anything on Ric, but I’ll make damn sure Damon will be here. Especially if I have to be here!” Bonnie yelled as she walked out the front door.

“Seriously!” Caroline hollered after her. With a huff she blew her hair out of her eyes and set to work on gathering the games and taking them to the living room.  She proceeded to head to the kitchen to start on snacks, blood bags, and, most importantly, bourbon that her future guests would require.

A few hours later, Caroline’s living room was all set. The blond glanced around one last time, a proud smirk prominent on her lips. “Not bad, Forbes. Not bad at all,” she thought to herself. Matt had an extra shift at the grill, so he wouldn’t be able to attend.  But she had managed to track down Enzo so that would be all right.

Just then there was a knock on the door and Caroline turned to answer it.  Stefan. Of course it was Stefan. He seems to always come as soon as she calls, not that she minds.  It’s nice having her best friend back, even if they are in some weird friendship/relationship limbo.

They make eye contact through the glass door, and Caroline suppresses a warm thrill as she is struck with the memory of him in the exact same position a few weeks ago, moments away from basically professing his love to her and promising that he’d wait.  “Get it together, Forbes” Caroline shakes her head to clear her thoughts. Damn, why did he have to look so attractive while she was finding herself? She would swear he wore those V-necks and flannels on purpose.

Stefan smirks at her, still on the other side of the glass, as though he can read her thoughts.

She lets him in, and Stefan, being the undoubted gentleman that he is, doesn’t press the issue of her totally checking him out through the door a moment earlier.

“Figured I’d come by a few minutes early, see if you needed any help,” he smiles warmly at her now, and it’s moments like this she forgets why she’s making them both wait.

“I’m pretty much done, but you could help me fill the ice buckets,” Caroline states, trying to get back on track.

“Sure, no problem,” he smiles and holds his arm out in an “after you” position.

“So how was your day? Anything about your mom or the heretics?” Caroline asks casually, because of course if he’d found something she would be the first to know.

“Nope” he says, popping the P. “All quiet on that front, but I’m looking forward to a night off, even if it is to play charades with my brother” he winks at her as she giggles, causing a warm and genuine smile to appear on both of their faces.

They are close, both standing by the sink transferring ice cubes from the trays to the bucket. They’ve somehow gravitated closer to each other.  They do that a lot lately, she realizes.  The air changes the longer they smile at each other, you can almost see the tension and energy bursting between them.

Caroline thinks “this is it, the moment I am going to let him kiss me.”  And Stefan seems to read her mind as he looks at her lips, then her eyes, then her lips, and Caroline is leaning up because “Damn it just kiss me already” is screaming over and over in her head, and she can feel his breath on her face and the shadow of his lips close to hers, and out of the corner of her eye she can see his hand reach up searching for her hair and…..BAM the doorbell rings.

“UGH!” escapes both of their mouths. They look right at each other and burst into giggles at thinking the same thing.

“Am I interrupting anything, I thought we were having a little soirée” Enzo yells from the front porch.

“Coming” Caroline screeches back. Stefan lets out a decidedly disapproving “humph” as she shrugs her shoulders and flees the kitchen to let Enzo in.

“OMG, I almost kissed Stefan” Caroline decides to process this information a little later, and shoves the thought not too far back in her mind.

“Right on time!” Caroline beams at Enzo as she opens the door for him.

“Known for my punctuality, Gorgeous, and I brought bourbon” he winks at her as he passes through the door.

“I’ll take that” Stefan swipes the bottle from Enzo’s hand while giving him a dangerous looking sneer while he’s at it.  I mean he did just interrupt a sure to be mind-blowing kiss with him and Caroline in the kitchen.

Caroline catches the sneer and gives Stefan a “play nice or else” signature Caroline look and Stefan is humbled for the moment.

“I have poker, Monopoly, and Yahtzee” Caroline informs them as they make their way to the living room.

“Sweetheart, I’ve been locked in a cell most of my vampire life, and then went straight to the other side.  I don’t even know what those are let alone how to play.” Enzo gives her a pointed glance.

“Oh” is Caroline’s meek reply. She’d never thought about that. Well great, now what are they going to do.

“I do however know how to play Question and Command” Enzo smirked, thinking this was clearly a wonderful idea. Stefan just smacked a palm to his forehead and groaned. Caroline looked at them both perplexed.

“What the heck is Question and Command??” Caroline asked.

“You don’t want to know” Stefan said, giving a warning look to Enzo.

Enzo just smirked at Stefan waiting for him to answer.

“I believe you kids call it Truth or Dare, Blondie.” Damon strolled in with Bonnie trailing behind looking clearly exasperated already.

“Yess!!” Caroline screeched just as Stefan and Bonnie groaned “NO!”

“Sorry Bon-Bon, but If I have to play stupid kid games just to entertain Vampire Barbie for you and Stefan, than we’re playing what I want. Plus I brought the extra bourbon.” Damon gave them his winning smirk and Bonnie sighed “fine” under her breath.

“RIc?” Caroline asked.  The room got quiet as Bonnie just shook her head no.

Sensing the darkening mood, Caroline went into chipper mode and suggested they start the game.

“I go first” Caroline called out as they each confiscated a bottle of alcohol and sat in a rough circle around the living room. Enzo took the arm chair, Damon and Bonnie took the sofa, and Stefan and Caroline took the floor next to the fire.

“Damon, truth or dare?” Caroline asked giving him a show-no-mercy smile.

“Dare, duh. Do you know who I am?”

“I dare you to stab yourself, in the eye, with a fork”

“Well that escalated quickly” Bonnie mumbles.

“Really, Caroline?” Stefan looks at her with a slightly horrified face.

“What? It’s not like he won’t heal instantly. Fine, Stefan! Damon, I dare you to kiss Enzo.”

“Really, Blondie, is that one of your fantasies? Should Stefan be concerned you get all hot and bothered by me and Enzo? It wouldn’t be the first man I kissed” Damon wiggled his eyebrows at her.  Caroline blushed profusely, obviously expecting a little more resistance on Damon’s part.

Damon leaned over the coffee table and gave Enzo a small peck, short and sweet, and clapped him on the back.

“Okay, Stefan, truth or dare?” Damon turns his eyes to his brother.

“For the record, I hate this game and nothing good comes from it. With that being said, dare.”

“Hahaha” Damon rubs his hands together in a diabolical way. “I dare you to toilet paper the neighbor’s house, and you can dare one other person to help you, even though we all know you’re going to choose Caroline.”

Well that was a lot milder than I anticipated, Stefan thought as he turned to Caroline.

“Of course I’ll help, Mr. Mac’s cat keeps pooping in my flower beds and he won’t pick it up.” Caroline gets up eagerly and runs down the hall.  She turns up a few seconds later with five rolls and a mischievous grin “Or we could all toilet paper grumpy Mr. Mac’s.”

In the end they all snuck over to Mr. Mac’s and toilet papered the yard.  Somehow they ended up with eggs and shaving cream as well. The house was completely covered and when Mr. Mac ran out of his house with a baseball bat screaming about hooligans, they grabbed Bonnie and darted back to Caroline’s living room trying to stifle their giggles.

“Ahh, that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time” Bonnie sighed as she wiped tears from her eyes she was laughing so hard.

“Me too” Damon leaned back and smiled at her clasping her shoulder, enjoying seeing her so happy. “Do your cheeks hurt, Stefan?” He asks.

“What?” Stefan asked turning away from his private laughing session in a heap on the floor with Caroline.

“I said do your cheeks hurt, I haven’t seen you smile this much since we were kids” Damon looked at Stefan with a genuine smile that melted Stefan’s heart.

“Maybe a little” Stefan confessed, and the whole group erupted into fits of giggles again.

“And to think you didn’t want to play” Caroline beams up at him with her head in his lap.

“Wrong, I was definitely wrong” he whispers to her.

Caroline was right, this was exactly what they needed. 

The end.