#sma kai

So I came up with this little one shot at like 4am the other day, (cause what else would I be doing during that time during a quarantine), and I just had to write it down.

I present to you…. And They Were In Quarantine (Oh My God They Were In Quarantine)

——

“No, no, no, no, no! This isn’t happening! This can’t be happening!” Caroline frantically rushed into the living room of the Salvatore house, distraught by something on her phone.

Damon looked up from his book. “What’s going on, Locks?” He set the book down on the coffee table as soon as he saw her face. She looked like a ghost.

“I just got an email from work. They’re closing the offices due to COVID. They said they’re going to try and get us to work from home, but considering that the Fashion Advertising industry isn’t exactly a, quote unquote, ‘essential service’, I shouldn’t hold my breath.” Caroline plopped down one the couch next to Stefan, across from Damon and Bonnie, the other half of their weird Scooby Gang.

The group had decided to take an impromptu trip down to Mystic Falls to surprise Lexi for her birthday amidst all the Corona craziness. Stefan said she could do with some friendly faces, so they had invited Tyler and Kai to tag along with them. Well, they invited Ty, whereas Kai just appeared on the plane in the seat next to Bonnie and Damon and no one questioned it.

Bonnie quickly glanced at Damon, who shrugged. “Well, I mean it could be worse. At least you’re getting paid,” Bonnie said, trying to comfort her best friend.

“Yeah, for now! I mean could this get any worse!” Caroline threw her hands in the air.

As if on cue, both Damon and Stefan’s phones buzzed.

“Kay, that was creepy,” Bonnie said, pointing at the phones.

“It’s probably just Kai in the other room trying to freak us out,” Damon said, placing a reassuring hand on Bonnie’s knee as he reached for his book again, when he looked at Stefan. “I don’t like the look on your face there, brother.”

Stefan looked at the others. “It’s work. The offices are closed until further notice.” He threw his phone down into the table, “Apparently a coworker had a confirmed case.”

Bonnie rubbed her hands down her face. “Oh my God.”

“I just had to go and open my big mouth,” Caroline said, staring blankly at Stefan’s phone.

“Do I even want to look at my phone?” Damon said sarcastically as he read the text from his boss.

“Well?” Caroline and Bonnie said in unison.

Damon looked between them. “Give you one guess,” he said, putting his phone down after sending a reply.

“Corona,” they all said together.

“Yup!” Damon punctuated the P with a pop.

“So only 1 out of 4 of us is working,” Bonnie said, “and that 1 is me.”

“You just had to go to medical school, didn’t ya kid.” Damon picked his book back up and continued reading.

“At least you’re working,” Stefan said, draping his arm over Caroline’s shoulders. “Bex has been going crazy since they closed campus for the year.”

“Yeah,” Caroline agreed, placing a hand on her boyfriend’s knee, “at least we aren’t fully trapped indoors.”

“I could not do that again,” Damon said, not looking up from his book.

“Agreed,” the other three said in unison.

And as if the world was playing some sick twisted joke on them, Stefan’s parents walked through the door.

Stefan’s parents, who had just been on a work trip to Italy.

“Mom! Dad!” Stefan shot up out of his seat at lightning speed, rushing to the door to help his mother with her bags.

“Aren’t you guys supposed to be in Italy for another 2 weeks?” Bonnie looked nervously at Damon and Caroline.

“Oh, we got home as soon as we could before they closed down the country,” Marie Salvatore said, shrugging her coat off.

“Got on the last flight out of there,” Joe said as he set his keys down. “Where is Lexi? I need some help with the bags.”

“I can help you, Joe.” Damon stood up quickly, walking over to where Joe was lugging in another large suitcase.

“Oh, thank you son, the rest are in the car.”

Marie stepped further into the house. “Well, I hope you four have made yourselves comfortable, because you’re going to be here for the next little while.” She took a seat on the couch next to Bonnie.

“What do you mean?” Caroline fired a quick glance at the others.

“Haven’t you heard dear? Anyone who has travelled outside the country has to self-isolate for at least two weeks. And since you dears have been in contact with us…”

“That means we’ve been exposed,” Bonnie finished, exasperated.

“That’s right,” Marie said, placing her hand in Bonnie’s knee.

Damon and Joe walked through the door with the last of the bags. “Well, that’s all of them,” Joe patted Damon on the shoulder. “Thanks again there, son.”

“No problem, sir,” Damon said, waving Joe off.

“Well!” Marie stood up, clapping her hands together. “As of now this house is officially under quarantine!” Her tone made her sound almost excited. “It’ll be a wonderful chance to get to know you two better,” she looked at Damon and Caroline, smiling. “Now, where are Lexi and Bekah? I brought them back something I think they’ll love!” And with that, she walked away.

“That wife of mine,” Joe smiled. “I am sorry about this kids.” Joe patted Damon on the shoulder one more time, and went to follow his wife.

“What did I miss?” Damon looked at the others, hoping for answer.

“It’s happening again,” Caroline said, staring blankly into nothing.

“We’re stuck inside for the next two weeks,” Stefan added, sitting down next to Caroline.

“Why?”

“Self isolation.” Bonnie put her head into her hands.

“But why? We didn’t leave the country.”

Damon placed his hands on his girlfriend’s shoulders, rubbing soothingly.

“No, but my parents did,” Stefan threw his head back.

“And we’ve been in contact with them,” Caroline added.

Damon’s eyes widened as it fully hit him. “No.”

“Yep,” Bonnie said, placing a hand overtop his. “We’re trapped inside together, again.

“Only this time with my sisters,” Stefan grumbled.

“And your parents,” Caroline pointed out.

“And my brother,” Damon added.

“And Kai,” Bonnie finished. “Where is Kai anyways? I get nervous when I haven’t seen him for a few hours.”

That’s when the house shook, as an explosion from the far end of the house rocked down the halls.

None of the four even flinched; they had all gotten used to it by now.

“Well,” Damon said, making his was over to the drink cart, “if we’re gonna do this again, I’m going to need,” he popped the lid off the decanter, “a drink.” He looked up at the others. “Anyone else?”

Three hands immediately rose into the air.

“Thought so.”

——-

“You missed a spot.” Bonnie slid a sharp, humorless stare to his profile. “Right in the middle.” Damon held the wet plate up in front of his chest to show her. “See?” He glanced down over the edge. “Still pretty soapy—” A harsh spray of water cut him off from the pull-out faucet she’d swiped up and shot straight at the plate. He sputtered under the sudden onslaught, hand shooting up to block his eyes, and she held the faucet there for a long, steady beat before dropping it back to the sink. “Fixed it.” He wiped a slow hand over his sopping features, expression caught somewhere between resignation and amusement. 

He probably deserved that.

Damon might want to work on his apology skills. 

“We kind of got around, didn’t we?”

Caroline burst out laughing, the sharp kind that sprang free after trying to keep itself in, and Stefan felt his mouth slip into an instinctive curl.

“I was honestly,” she waved a hand to try and stymie her laughter, “trying so hard to come up with a neutral place and—”

He shook his head as she devolved into laughter. “Nothing.”

“Nothing.”

Her laugh was infectious and he felt it twitching at his lips. “Told you I was the class skank.”

“Oh, God.”

“You think covering a whole apartment in a few day is easy?” he asked, smile widening as her laughter intensified. “It takes years of training.”

“You were not the class skank.”

“I was!”

Stefan really needs his skank cred validated.

Damon watched Bonnie walk off with a narrowed look, absently chewing the inside of his cheek. His skin was buzzing with a strange blend of irritation and unease, and it took him more effort than he liked to cast the feeling off.

“Is this like… foreplay for you guys?”

He glanced over at Kai, who was peering at him with a curious look.

“I can’t tell the difference between regular tension and sexual tension,” he offered by way of explanation, shoulders lifting into a floppy shrug. “Like on TV, people always go from fighting to suddenly having sex and I never understand what happened. When I get mad at people, I invent specifically tailored torture devices and elaborate blueprints on how I’d use them.” Damon merely blinked at him and he rolled his eyes. “But I don’t actually use them.” He frowned. “Usually.”

“Think it’s time for that Scotch.”

Kai’s just doin’ Kai.

“Do you think we should name her?”

Caroline scrunched her nose. “Isn’t that a little permanent?”  

Stefan shrugged. “It’d just be for now. Anything’s better than ‘cat’.”

She pressed a hand to her chest. “On behalf of Holly Golightly, I’m offended.”

“What about Holly?” he asked, and she pulled a face at the same time as the cat let out a disgruntled meow. He slipped into a chuckle. “Okay, resounding no.”

“Too derivative.”

“I was trying to be festive. You know, ‘cause it’s Christmas time? Holly?”

“Ha.”

He glanced down at the cat, who’d pointedly stopped purring, and clucked his tongue. “Tough crowd.”

Caroline and Cuddles have more in common than they think.

Things get a little tense in Kai’s living room.

A tense silence stretched between them like a long string of taffy, thick with subtext, heavy under the weight of their fixed stares. Her face was frank and unyielding. Everything about it was saying ‘I know what you’re doing’ and the presumption of it was setting his teeth on edge.

“Got the first aid kit!”

Neither of them turned when an oblivious Kai swept back into the room, waving around a white box with a bright grin.

“Not going to lie, I fly through these things like whoa, so I wasn’t super sure I had any left, but I found this bad boy tucked behind my shape-shifting cactu—”

His voice cut out as Bonnie wordlessly grabbed the kit out of his hand and flicked it open, plucking a thick tube from the top. She handed it to Damon without bothering to meet his stare. “At least put this on.” He glanced at it for a beat too long and she sighed sharply, shooting Kai a fake-bright smile. “Can you hand this to him so it isn’t coming from me?”

Damon rolled his eyes and took it from her with a thin look. “Relax.”

Her brow arched in an implied ‘oh, I need to relax?’, and he merely held her gaze in a stubborn ‘yes’ of a reply.

“Uhhhh,” Kai said after a stiff beat, glancing between the two of them and scrunching his nose, “is there like a lot of awkward sauce swirling around this room or is it just me?”

“It’s just you,” Damon said in unison with Bonnie’s, “It’s not just you.”

Kai merely stared at them, mouth parted, eyes drawing into thin, puzzled slits. “This wasn’t covered in my dinner party books.”

Ughhhh, I hate that I take so long to post new chapters ‘cause I know you guys just go months without anything to go off and I’m just sitting here with the whole dumb fic in my head trying to convince it to translate into words and aigufaheif. I wish I could share it with y’all faster, man. You’re all so rad and engaged and I appreciate it so much. 

But in terms of chapter 16, I see it as a chapter that gets shit done. Like it’s not a lead in chapter or a filler, it’s a chapter that tackles long-time-coming things and introduces big shifts and then everyone comes back together in 17+ to work through all the developments. It’s also kind of the last of the couple isolation chapters for a while, which I think is fun because by the end of it, you’ve had so much time with just Steroline or just Bamon that you’re ready to see them all crash back into each other and react to everything. It leaves a lot of room for humor and drama and brotps and group feels. I love how you asked about 16 and I’m talking about what happens afterwards, lmao, WHY AM I LIKE THIS - okay so back to actual 16, I’ve already listed like little plot point spoilers and stuff so I’m just going to do a quick glimpse into where every character is at in the chapter? Idk if that’s interesting lmao but here we go:

Damon: rattled. Not very happy with how things went down in the basement. His actions/internal monologues draw a lot of parallels to Caroline’s in earlier chapters, which gives me Daroline feels, though he tends to avoid things by playing it cool whereas Caroline avoids through frostiness. That said, though, you’ll definitely see his uneasiness flare up into a few sharp, brow-raising comments, and that kind of opens the field for Bonnie to stop dancing around his emotional state and morph into ‘alright, listen buddy’ mode. In any case, Damon’s got some weirdness to work through when the chapter opens and it introduces some definite friction to this previously frothy date. 

Stefan: cautiously optimistic. He’s seeing a new side of Caroline that’s open and trolly and warm, and it’s a bit of a double-edged sword because it’s both strengthening and weakening his commitment to being just friends. Strengthening because wow, look, they’re actually being functional and laughing there’s no sense of impending disaster looming over their heads, things feel easy, this is good, friends is the way to go. Weakening because wow, she’s actually super fun to be around and clearly their compatibility isn’t just physical, you know? So early on he kind of makes the call to side with the first argument, that friends is the way to go and their functionality is dependent on no physical stuff getting in the way, and you see that determination play out throughout the length of the chapter.

Bonnie: exasperated. Damon’s being distant and kind of a dick and she knows the feeling so well that it’s hard not want to smack him and go ‘dude, I know this, I know exactly what you’re doing, it solves nothing, stop’. Like she’s caught between empathizing because she knows how strong the defensive rush is and just telling him to grow up, you know? Like he literally just saw her go through a massive drunken breakdown where she arguably had way more to regret, and he told her it wasn’t a big deal, shit happens, so how is this any different? Definitely some friction between them in the first half of the chapter, but a few key moments turn that around and make it a jumping off point for new developments. Bonnie ends the chapter in like 25 different states of WTF.

Caroline: tired. So, so tired. Tired of guarding herself from everything. Tired of keeping everything so close to the chest. She needs a breather, and she’s using this ‘Just Friends’ thing as her excuse for letting her defenses down and just having a good time without obsessing over how it can all go wrong. Deep down, she’s aware of it not being the best idea, but she’s too exhausted to care. She wants to laugh and talk and be open and if it all backfires, she’ll deal with it later, she just needs this, so that’s kind of the mode you see her operating in for a lot of this chapter. She definitely makes some pretty pivotal realizations along the way, though. 

Kai: V. uncomfortable. Does not like when his parents are fighting. Shows this in a colorful variety of cute and/or horrifying ways.

Cuddles: matchmakery.

“So, Kai,” she ventured as she took a seat in the furthest possible spot from both of them, and Kai pulled his legs up and folded them against the armchair, clasping his hands together eagerly, “what, uh… what do you do for a living?”

“Oh, I work for the government.”

Bonnie’s brows flew up, alarm flickering over her face as Damon took the seat beside her. “Wow. That’s, uh… what part?”

“Pentagon.” She merely stared at him, fake smile plastered over her face. “Can’t say a whole lot more than that, unfortunately—security clearance, you know how it is.” He flashed them a toothy grin. “How’s med school going?”

She looked startled that he knew. “Fine.”

“Good! Dr. Hamidi’s a real ball-buster, so make sure you study up before your Urology rotation.”

“You—how do you… how does he…?” she trailed off as she shot a baffled glance at Damon, and he smiled pleasantly.

“Still mad I came?”

“Damon, how’s corporate life?” He glanced back at Kai. “Any progress on the Mikaelson account? I bet Alaric’s still mad af you’re jacking it from him—hashtag-move-on-dot-org, amirite?”

Damon merely blinked at him—his own boss didn’t even know he was trying to land the Mikaelson account. He wasn’t even sure Mikaelson knew.

Kai’s face flickered after a beat. “What? Was that too much? Too personal?” He sighed gustily. “They say to make light conversation, but it’s hard to know what’s ‘light’ when personal information’s so readily available these days.”

“Maybe just stick to things posted on public social media,” Damon offered.

“Oh, I got that all from your instagram.” Kai frowned. “You posted a picture of a new coffee mug, and I mean,” he snorted, “can’t really get more obvious than that.”