"No, Vicki, definitely not the unitard, okay? I've seen what you look like in it. Trust me, this year you need to go for a completely different vibe—think showgirl, something really out there!"
"Maybe we should slow down the car washing moves, no~"
Kevin, hearing Caroline in his room discussing outfits for tomorrow's Sexy Car Wash with her friends on the phone, snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
"Oh! What? Sorry, talk to you tomorrow!" Caroline yelped, startled, and hastily hung up on her friends.
"Hey! Let go! I haven't forgiven you yet, you know," Caroline said, playfully slapping at Kevin's wandering hands.
"Don't be like that. You haven't spoken to me properly for days," Kevin said, shamelessly holding on tight.
"I'm serious, okay? I came over tonight to get things straight with you," Caroline said, her tone becoming heavier as she used a bit more force to push away Kevin's "big pig trotters" (his hands).
"Alright, alright," Kevin said, seeing Caroline was genuinely getting angry, and reluctantly let go, flopping sideways onto the bed.
"Don't play dead with me. What else are you hiding from me? If you really don't trust me this much, if your secrets are that impossible to share with me, then I don't think we're suitable for each other. After all, I don't want my partner to have things they can't tell me," Caroline said, kicking Kevin lightly.
"Caroline, it's really not that I don't want to tell you. This whole thing is just... it's going to be mind-boggling for you. I'm afraid if I tell you, you won't be able to accept it," Kevin said helplessly. While he wasn't a vampire himself, his own superpowers were impossible to explain rationally, and every other excuse he'd thought of had failed to convince Caroline.
"What exactly is going on with you, Sarah, Stefan, and Damon that you can't tell me? You've made up so many excuses to搪塞 (tángsè - fob me off/put me off). And where is Sarah anyway? I haven't seen her for days," Caroline said, looking at Kevin's half-dead anemic look on the bed, feeling a surge of exasperation and kicking him again.
"You really want to know? No regrets?" Kevin, figuring what the hell, sat up abruptly and asked Caroline.
"Duh! Why else would I be here?" Caroline retorted, sitting down on the bed to face him.
"You have to promise me first that what I'm about to say, you won't repeat it to anyone. Not a soul," Kevin said to Caroline, his expression serious.
"Fine, fine, fine! Just hurry up and tell me!" Caroline said impatiently, swatting Kevin's arm.
"Actually, I'm someone with superpowers. I can do magic," Kevin said, looking seriously at Caroline's... feet.
"Pfft! Even if you don't want to tell me, you can't just make up such an absurd reason!" Caroline said, clearly not believing him.
"First, have some water. I'll explain it to you slowly," Kevin said. He then used the Rabbit Talisman, zipped downstairs, poured a glass of water, and was back in an instant, handing it to Caroline.
"Ah—ooo!" Caroline screamed, completely freaked out. Kevin quickly clapped his hand over her mouth.
"Shhh! What are you yelling for? See why I didn't want to tell you? And this is just one of my superpowers," Kevin said, signaling Caroline to keep quiet.
'Oh. Right. It's actually not that scary, is it? So what if my boyfriend is a superman? He's not a monster, what's there to be afraid of?' Caroline thought, blinking her big, beautiful eyes as the reality began to sink in.
"So, Stefan and the others... they have superpowers too?" Caroline asked, removing Kevin's hand.
"They're different. Stefan and his brother are vampires," Kevin said, deciding to just spill everything, consequences be damned.
"Vampires?! Ooo—" Caroline, hearing "vampires," didn't react at first, but when it registered, she was about to scream again when Kevin, quick as lightning, clapped his hand over her mouth once more.
"Okay, okay, don't be scared. Vampires can be good or bad, just like anyone," Kevin said, trying to calm Caroline down.
Subsequently, Kevin waited for Caroline to slowly process everything, then told her the whole story about Stefan and Damon, about trying to desiccate Damon, and about Sarah being compelled and expected back in a few days. He didn't hide the part about Bonnie potentially being a witch either.
"Besides being super fast, didn't you say you also have some kind of magic?" Caroline asked, after understanding the gist of the situation, now curious about Kevin's other abilities.
"Right now, I have powers that can heal injuries and make me immortal. There should be other abilities, but they haven't been unlocked yet," Kevin confessed, laying all his cards on the table regarding his own powers.
"Immortal? Does that mean... when I get old, you'll still look like this?" Caroline asked, absorbing the implications of Kevin's abilities.
"I guess once I reach eighteen or nineteen, I probably won't age anymore. All I know for sure is that I can't die," Kevin said, unsure about the full extent of the Dog Talisman's effects. After all, besides Shendu, no one had possessed the Dog Talisman for long, and with Shendu being a demon dragon, who could tell what age he was supposed to be?
"Kevin... maybe we're not right for each other," Caroline said suddenly, out of the blue.
"Caroline, don't scare me like that!" Hearing this, Kevin immediately lost his composure, cupping Caroline's face in his hands.
"It's not that, Kevin. I'm only sixteen right now. We don't look that different in age. But what about later? And... I'm going to die eventually. The gap between us will only get wider and wider," Caroline said, looking into Kevin's eyes.
"No, it won't! I'll find a way! Look, this world has people with superpowers like me, it has vampires, and your best friend Bonnie is probably a witch. I can definitely find a way for you to live a long life with me!" Kevin said, pulling Caroline into a tight hug.
"Kevin, let me go home and think about this properly, okay? This whole thing is just... it's too much of a shock for me right now," Caroline said, raising her hands to hug Kevin back for a moment before gently patting his back.
"Alright," Kevin said, reluctantly letting her go.
"Kevin, I'm going home first tonight. I need to seriously think this through before I can give you an answer," Caroline said, standing up.
"Okay. No matter what you decide, I'll respect your choice. But please, don't tell anyone about what we discussed tonight. We've pretty much dealt with Damon for now. As for Stefan, I feel like he won't be able to hide it from Elena for much longer; he can tell her himself when the time comes. Come on, I'll take you home," Kevin said, standing up as well, seeing Caroline was about to leave.
"Okay," Caroline replied, offering Kevin a sweet smile.
After dropping Caroline off, Kevin drove back to his house and lay on his bed, unable to fall asleep for a long, long time. He already didn't know how to unlock the seals on his remaining Zodiac Talismans, and now he also had to find a way to achieve longevity for Caroline. And it wasn't like finding this method was optional. If he truly lived forever, would he be condemned to live on, all alone?
Actually, there was one very simple solution: turn her into a vampire. But both Kevin and Caroline would likely reject that option out of hand. Kevin had seen Stefan's struggle with bloodlust and knew that being a vampire wasn't as perfect as it might seem. At the very least, the side effects were significant, and feeding on human blood essentially meant becoming a different species, which Caroline probably wouldn't accept. And who knew, if they had a baby then, would it be human, or a 'ghost' (vampire)? (Author's/Translator's Note: At this time, Kevin still didn't know that the condition for becoming a vampire was to die once, which also rendered one infertile. After all, in another vampire movie, a human and a vampire even had a daughter, right?)
Kevin lay there, his thoughts racing, until sometime in the middle of the night, when exhaustion finally overcame him, and he fell asleep.