12. The Devil Inside

A humming Damon and a smirking Brayden entered the boarding house, they placed the two shovels in their hands by the entrance.

"Where have you two been?" a curious Stefan asked, walking over to his brothers.

"Just out" Damon replied.

"Define out" Stefan asked, wondering why did his older brothers look so smug and happy with themselves today.

"One who hovers and sticks his nose in other people's business" Damon said.

"That's not defining out Damon, that's defining annoying, who currently our little brother is being" Brayden teased, wiping his muddy shoes on the carpet.

"Funny" Stefan commented, looking down at Damon and Brayden's dirty shoes.

"Katherine's rotting corpse was stinking up the house, we got rid of it" Damon finally revealed.

"Could be a bit of a problem" Stefan informed.

"For who?" a confused Brayden asked.

"For me" Nadia replied, appearing behind Stefan, "I'm here for Katherine's body".

"You're out of luck, you ain't getting it" Damon stated, walking over to the bourbon in the living room.

"My mother asked to be buried with her family in Bulgaria" Nadia snapped.

"And we don't care about what your mother wants" Brayden retorted, "If you didn't know, then let me inform you that the people in this house despise your mother, especially me and it gives me oh so much joy when I realise that I denied Katherine her dying wish".

"Brayden, who cares?" an annoyed Stefan asked, "Katherine's dead, just give her the damn body".

"Bitch ruined our lives" Damon reminded, he then turned to Nadia, a glass of bourbon in his hand, "Nadia's known her, what, five minutes?".

Just as Damon was about to drink his drink, Nadia speeded over to him and grabbed him by the throat, causing the glass in Damon's hand to fall to the ground and shatter, "Tell me where she is" Nadia demanded.

Brayden speeded over to Nadia, he grabbed her by her hair and separated her from his brother, he then slammed Nadia's head on the table, "Listen here devil's spawn" he said, glaring at Nadia, who was now on the floor, holding on to her head, "You're not getting Katherine's body, she's doing the maggots a favor by letting them have a feast on her dead flesh, I mean you should really be thanking us, we're helping your mother do her first ever good deed, now, get the hell out of my house, Nadia!".

***

While Fae had gone to her class and Kaitlynn had been missing all day, Caroline decided to deep clean their dorm room, it was her way of stopping herself from thinking about Brayden, but so far, it wasn't working.

"It's open!" Caroline yelled, hearing the knock on the door.

"Hey" Aaron greeted, entering the dorm room and seeing Caroline kneeling infront of the fireplace, "Are you cleaning the fireplace?".

"Yeah" a sheepish Caroline confirmed, "You know, all those carcinogens, I'm stress cleaning, I'm stressed, no actually I'm not stressed, I just my ex-boyfriend too much and I'm trying to distract myself by cleaning, not that you care".

"I was here to talk to you, Kaitlynn and Fae" Aaron informed.

"About what?" a confused Caroline asked, taking her cleaning gloves off and standing up from the ground.

"I just wanted to let you three know that Wes isn't gonna be a problem anymore" Aaron informed, "My family's trust came through and I was able to cut off Augustine's funding".

Caroline smiled, "So no more vampire experiments?".

"Yeah, it's over" Aaron assured, "And can you tell Kaitlynn that I'm sorry about what Wes did to her, I'm really sorry, for everything".

"I will" Caroline promised, "And Aaron, I'm really sorry for everything as well".

Aaron gave Caroline a small and walked out the room.

***

After Aaron left, Caroline continued her cleaning, but she was forced to stop, when her phone started ringing and she saw that it was Brayden calling.

After taking a deep breath, a slightly panicked Caroline answered the call, "Hey".

"You can stop panicking, I didn't call to talk about us" Brayden clarified straight away.

"I wasn't panicking" Caroline defended, a small smile forming on her face after hearing how much Brayden knows her.

"Sure you weren't"  Brayden teased, "Anyways, I called because I need a favor from you, remember the time Damon was being all selfless by breaking up with Kaitlynn?".

"Of course, Fae brought champagne for both me and Kaitlynn" Caroline remembered.

"You celebrated our break?" an amused Brayden asked.

"Fae did" Caroline retorted.

"Clearly me and Fae need to have a word" Brayden said, "Anyways, back to the whole Damon and Kaitlynn situation, I told Damon he was an idiot and convinced him to go talk to Kaitlynn".

"That's great" a happy Caroline said, "I know Kaitlynn has been miserable without Damon, this will be so good for them".

"That was exactly what I thought, except Kaitlynn has been avoiding all of Damon's call" Brayden informed, "Which obviously has put him into an extremely bad mood and I'm so close to ripping his head off, so please can you help me in getting these two idiots to talk?".

"Brayden, I would love to help but Kaitlynn's not here, I thought she was with you" Caroline informed.

"She told she was staying at Whitmore" Brayden recalled.

"Okay, that's weird" Caroline pointed out, "Where the hell is she?".

***

Damon, Brayden and Stefan stood in the Grill, playing pool and getting drunk.

"Oh come on, Katherine is exactly where she's always belonged" Damon told Stefan, "I'm not giving the body back, quit giving me the damn pouty face".

"I'm not giving you the pouty face, it's my you're being a dick face" Stefan retorted, "Kaitlynn hasn't called you back, it's making you completely miserable".

Damon downed his drink and slammed it on the table, "Yeah, I'm completely miserable" he admitted, walking over to the pool table, he then turned to his twin brother, "It's your fault, telling me to get her back".

"Wrong" Brayden stated, as Damon lined his shot up, "Your misery is no one but your fault, you did the classic Damon thing, see a problem and instead of dealing with it, let's run for the hills".

"You're enjoying this a little too much" Damon said, hitting the shot but missing the hole.

"Okay, so Fae has been stuck in classes all day, she hasn't talked to Kaitlynn either" Caroline informed, walking over to the brothers.

"Who invited you?" a confused Damon asked, "Scram".

"She's here to help" Brayden replied, "She agrees with me that you and Kaitlynn need to just get back together and end all of our misery because seeing you both being all mopey is honestly depressing for all of us".

Damon threw his pool stick to the ground, he then pointed at Caroline, "You?" he asked, "Ever since I broke up with Kaitlynn, you've messaged me so many hate messages, one of your messages even said that calling me satan was an insult to satan".

"Good one" Brayden praised, patting Caroline's shoulder before going to line his shot up.

"In my defense, you broke my best friend's heart, I was angry" Caroline defended, a sheepish look on her face.

"And you broke my brother's heart, you don't see me calling you satan, even though I definitely believe it" Damon said.

"Damon" Brayden warned.

"This what it's come to?" Damon asked Brayden, "You brought me love advice from prudy trudy?".

"I can be unpredictable and incredibly reckless" Caroline stated.

"Was breaking up with my brother one of those incredibly reckless moments?" Damon asked.

"We're on a break!" Brayden and Caroline said stimuteanously.

"Yeah, you two keep telling yourselves that" Damon mocked, he then looked at his two brothers and then at Caroline, "Wait, what's going on here? Are you guys babysitting me?".

"We're just hanging out, chatting" Stefan defended.

"I don't need this" Damon said, he turned to Caroline, "And I don't need your help, first fix your relationship before you try to fix mine".

Once Damon had walked away from the trio, Brayden looked at Caroline, "Try Kaitlynn again, the longer Damon doesn't speak to her, the more meaner he's going to get".

***

After calling Kaitlynn multiple times was a failure, Caroline convinced Brayden to attend Tyler's party, she was sure Kaitlynn will show up at this party eventually.

Currently, Brayden stood at the beer keg, pouring himself a drink, and being absolutely miserable, he came to this party to spend some time with Caroline, but the Forbes vampire was no where to be seen.

"Hey".

Brayden looked up from the keg and saw Kaitlynn approaching him, "Look whose alive".

"Of course I'm alive" Kaitlynn said.

Brayden frowned looking at Kaitlynn, something about her seemed off, "Are you okay?".

"I'm perfectly fine" Kaitlynn assured, she then looked down at the cup Brayden was holding, "Wow, Brayden Salvatore is drinking beer out of a cup", Kaitlynn grabbed the cup from Brayden's hand, "Do you want me to show you where Tyler keeps the bourbon?".

"First of all, that's mine" Brayden said, taking his cup back from Kaitlynn's hold, "Since when do you take my drinks? Second of all, how would you even know where Tyler keeps his bourbon, you don't even like him".

Kaitlynn let out what seemed to Brayden a nervous laugh, "Of course I like him".

"No Kait, you don't" Brayden stated.

"Maybe I'm just trying to be a better person" Kaitlynn defended.

"Why?" a confused Brayden asked, "Actually, you know what, I don't even want to know, just tell me where have you been this whole time? You got Caroline so worried that I'm pretty sure she was about to organize a search party".

"Around" Kaitlynn replied, "Thinking, processing, trying to figure out how to deal with this whole Damon thing".

Brayden sighed, "Look Kait, we all know that Damon made a mistake, and now even he's realised it, he's been trying to get a hold of you so he can get you back".

"Yeah, I know" Kaitlynn said, "Hang on, isn't this a little weird for you?".

"Why would this be weird for me?" Brayden asked.

"I just mean because of our past and all" Kaitlynn replied.

"Kaitlynn, we've had this conversation before" Brayden reminded, getting more and more suspicious of Kaitlynn, "Whatever we had, was in the past, I'm madly in love with Caroline and you admitted to me that you've never loved anyone the way you love Damon".

Kaitlynn gave Brayden a forced smile, "Just making sure we're still on the same page" she said, "So hey, how are you? How are you dealing with the whole Katherine dying thing?".

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Brayden asked, "She was your sister".

"She was your complicated friend" Kaitlynn reminded.

"No, you're my complicated friend, Katherine was a complication I was taking care of because of you" Brayden retorted.

"Really?" a slightly hurt Kaitlynn asked, "So not once did you take care of Katherine because you cared for her?".

 "Me care for Katherine?" an amused Brayden asked, "Good joke".

"Come on Brayden, you knew her for, like, a hundred and fifty years" Kaitlynn reminded, "You're not even a little heartbroken?".

"Are you high?" Brayden asked, "Why will I be heartbroken over someone I spent over a century hating?".

"I mean, even I feel a little bad" Kaitlynn said.

"Once again, that's cause she was your sister" Brayden retorted, this conversation with Kaitlynn starting to really frustrate him.

"Maybe we should give her, like, a funeral, or something" Kaitlynn suggested.

"I'm sorry, what?!" Brayden asked.

"At least tell me where she is buried?" Kaitlynn asked, "She's my sister, the least I could is drop her some flowers".

"Me and Damon buried Katherine at--".

"Brayden!" Fae yelled, rushing over to the middle Salvatore and pulling him into a tight hug.

"Oh thank god" Brayden mumbled, glad he could have a conversation with someone else, having a conversation with Kaitlynn was doing his head in, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really missed you Fae".

"Aww, I missed you too brother of mine" Fae said, breaking the hug and looping her arm with Brayden, "Now come on, I forced Tyler to tell me where he keeps his bourbon".

"Thank god, I was not lasting this party without the hard stuff" Brayden said, walking with Fae, leaving Kaitlynn standing by herself.

"I know" Fae teased.

"By the way, where's your boyfriend?" a curious Brayden asked.

"With the girl you're on a break with" Fae informed, "Those two are being boring together, so I decided to join you, knowing only you will agree to join in my craziness".

Brayden chuckled, "I'm down for anything crazy".

"I know" Fae said, "That's what makes us party buddies and our partners boring buddies".

"Couldn't agree more" Brayden laughed.

***

"Really bad timing blondie, I'm dealing with a blast from the past" Damon informed, answering Caroline's call.

Caroline, who had stepped out of Tyler's party after Stefan told her Kaitlynn was here, said, "Then deal with it quickly and get your ass over to Tyler's, Kaitlynn's here".

"Dammit" Damon said, before hanging up on Caroline.

Caroline looked at her phone and shook her head, "Please for once don't be an idiot, Damon" she whispered, she then turned to go back into the party, but stopped when her eyes landed on Brayden and Fae.

The two were sitting on the ground, a bottle of bourbon being passed between them, the two were laughing at anything and everything either of them said or did.

A smile formed on Caroline's face seeing her best friend and soulmate like this, she always knew these two shared a special bond between them, for Brayden, Fae was the sister he always wanted but never got, while for Fae, Brayden filled in the void she had in her heart of being an only child with no siblings to have her back.

After taking a quick photo of the two laughing messes, Caroline turned around and went back inside the Lockwood mansion, but not before letting her gaze linger on Brayden for an extra second.

***

After coming back inside, Caroline was roped into refilling the snack bowls, as she was doing that her eyes landed on Kaitlynn.

Caroline quickly placed the packet of chips she was holding on to the table and rushed over to her best friend, "There you are, I've been calling and texting".

"Sorry, my phone died" Kaitlynn apologised, "Um, what did you wanna talk about?".

"I did a bad thing" Caroline informed.

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad" Kaitlynn assured.

"You don't even know what it is" Caroline retorted, "Trust me, you will agree with me that it was a bad decision".

Kaitlynn sighed but nonetheless faced Caroline, "Tell me, what happened?".

"I regret asking Brayden for a break" Caroline informed.

Kaitlynn looked at Caroline wide eyed, not knowing what to say to her, but when her eyes landed behind Caroline, on Brayden who was making his way over to the Forbes girl, a small smirk formed on her face.

"Wait, you don't regret asking Brayden for a break?" Kaitlynn asked, making sure her voice reached the ears of the middle Salvatore, who immediately stopped in his step after hearing that.

Caroline gave Kaitlynn a confused look, "I--".

"Oh my god" Kaitlynn interrupted Caroline, a shocked look forming on her face.

Caroline turned around to look at what Kaitlynn was looking at, and immediately her eyes went wide seeing Brayden, and the hurt on his face told her that he heard what Kaitlynn said but not what she said.

***

A furious and extremely hurt Brayden entered the Lockwood's office and immediately started trashing it.

Stefan and Fae, who were passing by the room, heard the commotion and immediately rushed in to see what was happening, as soon as they entered the room, the duo were shocked seeing Brayden's devasted state.

"Brayden!" Fae yelled, running over to the middle Salvatore and stopping him from breaking anything else, afraid he was going to end up hurting himself.

"Bray, what happened?" a concerned Stefan asked.

Brayden looked at Fae, tears in his eyes, "I lost her" he whispered, "I lost her Fae, I lost Caroline".

"No Brayden, you haven't lost her" Fae said, "You guys are just on a temporary break, I promise that doesn't mean you lost her".

"I did, she told Kaitlynn that she doesn't regret breaking up with me" Brayden revealed.

"Caroline said that?" a shocked Stefan asked.

Brayden nodded his head, "I screwed up so badly, I don't blame her for not wanting to be with a monster like me, but it hurts so damn much to be without her".

"Brayden, relax, we're going to fix this" Fae promised, "I'll talk to Caroline".

Brayden shook his head, "No" he whispered, "No one is talking to her, I'm not going to force her to be with me, she deserves better than me".

"Brayden--".

Without letting Fae complete her sentence, Brayden speeded out of the room, just as Caroline ran into the room.

"Have any of you seen Brayden?" a panicked Caroline asked, "I've been looking everywhere for him, a huge misunderstanding has happened and I need to clear it before everything it gets screwed up".

Fae and Stefan exchanged a look among themselves, Fae then looked towards her best friend, "What misunderstanding?" she asked.

"I was telling Kaitlynn that I regret asking Brayden for a break, but I don't if it was the music or the people around us, but Kaitlynn didn't hear me properly and she thought I said I don't regret it and Brayden heard her say that" Caroline rambled, "You guys, please, tell me where Brayden is, I need to fix this".

"He just left" Stefan informed.

"But Caroline, he isn't in good shape, go find him and clear this whole thing up" Fae said, "He needs you".

A teary eyed Caroline nodded her head, "I need him too" she whispered, before rushing out the the Lockwood's office to find her soulmate.

***

Brayden was walking out the Lockwood mansion, when suddenly a body crashed into his back and arms were wrapped around his stomach.

"Kaitlynn didn't hear me completely, I told her I regret asking you for a break, but she didn't hear me correctly and said the wrong thing, please don't hate me, please don't walk away from me" Caroline pleaded, "Please Brayden".

Brayden took a deep breath, he grabbed one of Caroline's hand and after lacing his fingers with hers, he placed a kiss on her hand before turning to face her.

For a moment, Brayden said nothing but stared at Caroline, "Say something, please" Caroline pleaded.

Brayden sighed, "I was terrified, I was so terrified Caroline, I thought I lost you".

Caroline shook her head, "You haven't lost me" she said, she cupped Brayden's face with her hands, "You will never lose me".

"Don't promise something that you have no control over" Brayden said, "I'm impulsive, I have anger issues, I have control issues, I kill, I cause chaos, and there's going to be a lot times when you're going to be put into a position in which you're gonna have to chose between me and your morals, and I don't want you to be put in that position".

"Brayden, I've known the type of person you are since the moment I met you" Caroline said, "You've never hid yourself from me, I knew who you were since day one, and despite that I still fell in love with you, yes, there's going to be times you and I are going to clash, but that's just the way we are, and I don't want us to change, I like how messy we are, because despite the mess, we are real, we are forever".

Brayden smiled at Caroline, he opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, his attention went behind Caroline where he saw Damon and Kaitlynn having a serious conversation.

"I love that I make you a better person" Brayden heard Kaitlynn tell Damon, "I love that I make you happy but I don't wanna be the only thing you live for".

"Brayden?" a confused Caroline asked.

"Something's happening" Brayden informed.

Caroline followed Brayden's eye sight and saw Damon and Kaitlynn standing together, "I think they're getting back together".

"I don't think so" Brayden said, "I think Kaitlynn might be breaking up with Damon this time".

"What?!" a shocked Caroline asked, "No, no way, Kaitlynn wouldn't do that".

"I think she would" Brayden whispered, as both him and Caroline listened on to Damon and Kaitlynn's conversation.

"I don't wanna worry about what's gonna happen every time we get into a fight or if we break up again" they heard Kaitlynn say, "Or who you're gonna take it out on".

"Wait, what are you talking about?" a confused Damon asked.

"I know what you did to my sister, Damon" Kaitlynn revealed, "She was weak and dying, and you still tortured her".

"How is this about Katherine?" an annoyed Damon asked.

"It's not, it's about you" Kaitlynn clarified, "It's about you, about the person that I can't change, and the person that you really are, that person was right to let me go", Kaitlynn's eyes landed on Brayden and Caroline, both of them had walked closer to the couple after realising that Brayden's suspicious was right, "I'm sorry Damon, but it's over, we're over", Kaitlynn turned away from Damon and walked away.

"Damon" a concerned Brayden called out.

"Come on" a devastated Damon said, "Deep down, you knew this was going to happen, a guy like me can never get a girl like her", Damon looked at his twin and saw Caroline standing behind him, "And neither can you Bray, you and I have a tendency to destroy the things we love".

After Damon walked away from them, Brayden and Caroline looked at each other, Caroline worried that Damon's words had affected Brayden, while Brayden wondered if his brother was right.

***

Caroline entered the boarding house and immediately breathed a sigh of relief seeing Brayden sitting infront of the fire place.

"You left without telling me" Caroline said, announcing her presence to the middle Salvatore.

Brayden looked down at his glass of bourbon that he was holding, "Yeah sorry about that, just had to clear my head".

Caroline sighed, she went and sat next to Brayden, she knew why Brayden needed to clear his head, it was because Damon's words had actually gotten to him, "You're not going to destroy me, Brayden".

Brayden looked at Caroline, "How are you so sure about that?".

"Because I know that I'm stronger then most people give me credit for" Caroline replied.

"You are" Brayden confirmed, "But sometimes even the strongest people fall weak".

"Damon was heartbroken, you can't take his words seriously" Caroline said.

"I can't help it" Brayden whispered, "I guess, he just said what everyone thinks when they see you and me together".

"Which is what?" a curious Caroline asked.

"How can I monster like me be with a angel like you" Brayden said.

"Because we love each other" Caroline said, "When we fell in love, we both knew people wouldn't understand us, it's because they don't about about us Brayden, they don't know how much I love you, they don't know that when you're not near me I find it hard to even breathe, they don't know that we both are stronger together, not apart, we won't let each other or the world break us apart, it's against the world, remember?".

A small smile formed on Brayden's face hearing Caroline, "Against the world?".

"Against the world" Caroline repeated, before leaning in and placing her lips on to Brayden's, who didn't waste even a second in kissing her back.

***

Presenting 5x12 of They Don't Know About Us!

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