Author's Note:
Inspiration comes in the strangest forms. I just never foresaw writer's block and song lyrics deciding to clasp hands and run away with me. But with Klaroline, I suppose all's fair in love and war.
It's set post-Klarosex and it's written almost exclusively in song lyrics from various songs. (If you're curious, I listed them all at the end.)
Happy reading!
Sometimes Klaus felt the fear of uncertainty stinging clear—he let it hurt, he let it bleed, he let it take him down to his knees. Their sex was on fire; her love, the sweetest sin. Like a curse, like a drug, he'd gotten addicted to her love. It had a vague, haunting mass appeal.
He let the fear take the wheel and steer. But was it just another perfect mistake, just another bridge to take on the way of letting go? Hadn't Caroline told him to move along, that all hope was gone?
"I know you can't be mine," he said, handing her back the remnants of her shredded top, "but this isn't goodbye—it's not where our story ends."
He'd never bring himself to say goodbye, girl. With a heart crippled by the vein that he kept closing, Klaus would give up forever to touch her…and bleed just to know she's alive. Yes, he'd keep bleeding. Keep, keep bleeding love. After all, wasn't she the closest to heaven he'd ever be?
Caroline rolled her eyes and shoved the fabric scraps of her shirt into her jacket.
"I knew you were trouble when you walked in. If I didn't know better—" she paused to glare at the smirking hybrid, "—well, dammit, I do."
Klaus sighed, shaking his head.
All Caroline had wanted was a white knight with a good heart, soft touch, fast horse—someone to kiss beneath the milky twilight and to lead her out onto the moonlit floor. And in he came: the devil blowing through her door. The one man who was always coming back for more.
Couldn't she see? She was his candy-coated misery.
A devil in disguise, a snake with blue eyes, he stepped forward and lifted Caroline's chin with his index finger.
"Don't fool yourself, love."
He spoke with the lips of an angel: his mouth was poison; his mouth was wine.
"There's a little bit of devil in those angel eyes." Quirking an eyebrow provocatively, he traced her exposed skin with his rough, tender hands, fingers tracing every outline. He painted a picture with his hands. "You're a little bit of heaven," he added, "but with a wild side."
Klaus couldn't stop. No, he wouldn't stop.
"I'm drowning in your dizzy noise," Caroline scoffed, hands in the air like she didn't care.
Klaus stepped forward, watching with eyes like sky.
"You're monochrome delirious. You're nothing that you seem—" he tucked a curl behind her ear "—and I'll tear at your defenses, until there's nothing there but me."
Caroline gulped.
The same man with sunken eyes saw her—so cynical and beautiful—how she became yellow so perfectly, how she always made a scene. Caroline was sunshine, his only sunshine. Deadly, she could rip his world apart. The beauty was there…but a beast was in the heart.
"What you're saying," she said, her laugh like a disease, "is that although I'm riding solo, and that I'm finally doing me—" it was her song, and she'd sing it like she wanted "—I'm inevitably following a map that leads to you?"
Klaus nodded, waiting for her to chew him up.
"And there's nothing I can do?"
"Following, following, following…" he said with a smile.
As he spoke, he drew an invisible line between them—their love on a string—and wrapped it around his finger. Klaus liked to think they had it all.
"All the roads you take come back to me."
Desperate for changing, starving for truth, he was standing there until she made him move.
"What do you want from me?" Caroline asked, deflated. "I'm just a small town girl living in a lonely world…you're all bright lights and big city."
He could see her there with the city lights—fourteenth floor and pale blue eyes. With his eyes closed, all he could feel was the electricity in the evening air, all he could see was the skyline through the window…with the moon above her and street below. For a smile they could share the night, and then swing their hearts across the line.
"Why act with such chagrin?" he replied. "You know I could show you incredible things…"
Perched on a log nearby, Caroline wrinkled her nose at him.
"Like what? Magic? Madness? Heaven? Sin?"
Klaus sat down next to her. It was Sunday morning and rain was falling, clouds shrouding them in moments unforgettable.
"Grab your passport and take my hand," he said, indicating that they hit the road, "I can make the bad guy good for a weekend."
She looked at him with a poker face, waggling her finger.
"You can't just twist to fit the mold that I am in."
Don't put dirt on his grave just yet. Klaus played the game with Spades to start—but he wasn't afraid to play the one that was on his heart.
"That may be," he replied, "but back and forth we sway like branches in a storm."
Caroline looked like she thought it was goodbye trouble, like things couldn't get worse.
"Tell me about this change in weather," she said, done playing nice, "what is the light at the end of this tunnel?"
Nothing on Klaus said defeat. Come hell, come high water! If she pushed on him, he'd only push back…harder.
"Come and rest your bones with me," Klaus persuaded. "You'll see—" he got stronger with every step "—you'll see that I can be a nightmare dressed like a daydream."
Caroline probably thought a little gambling was fun, but Russian Roulette was not the same without a gun.
"Like—" she put her arms around him, but it was all for show "—you're the King, baby, and I'm your Queen?" she asked with a laugh.
In Klaus' face was flashing signs. He blew kisses down the wishing well again. All she had to do was seek it out and she should find…
Wait, couldn't she hear that hope was his four-letter word?
"Be reckless," he said. He encouraged her to listen to the music of the moment. "It'll leave you breathless."
With this, Caroline seemed to fall right through the cracks. But oh, how hard she struggled to get back.
"Why do boys only want love if it's torture?" she sighed, rolling her eyes.
Klaus drew a new face and laughed. He knew that sarcastic color on her lips too well.
Leaning in he whispered, "Because I can tell you that when it's over, the high is worth the pain."
Shivering, Caroline seemed nervous. But on the surface, she looked calm. More than ready to drop bombs.
"You've got my head spinning!" she exclaimed.
Klaus' palms were sweaty, knees weak, and his arms were heavy. Was that her soul escaping through a hole that was gaping?
"All of the things I want to say—" Caroline continued, vexation creasing her forehead, "—just aren't coming out right."
He smiled. What day was it? And in what month? Because this clock never seemed so alive!
"Tripping on words, love?" he asked with a smirk.
She collapsed into him here, giving in one last time, letting him rock her strong in his arms of crime. Caroline seemed to forget all the regrets that were bound to follow. Tomorrow, Klaus wondered, would they bring her nothing but sorrow?
She laughed at her lack of words like they were fire and gasoline.
"All that's left to do is run, Romeo."
Wrecking his whole world, her words felt like a swinging vine that dragged his heart across the line. It was tearing out his heart. Caroline scattered in the wind just like a dandelion and it was hard—so hard—letting her go. It just reminded him that she wasn't ever his for long.
"Remember, if you've got a blank space—" he whispered into her hair as they stood up "all it takes is that one midnight train—"
"—for me to write your name?" Caroline interrupted, running her hand across the stubble on his chin.
Klaus kissed her forehead and prayed for the love story, for the day she finally said yes. Please, just one more hello. She can never be his goodbye, girl.
"Time after time, you will find me," he breathed, "I'll be waiting."
Probably caught up in confusion (nothing new), Caroline pulled away from him. Blonde tendrils twirled between her fingertips as she nibbled on her bottom lip.
"Are you really willing to wait for me…ever so patiently?" she asked.
He held his breath, moving in. But he would hesitate no more.
"There's no need to complicate, sweet Caroline." He was her scarlet letter, reaching out. "This is our fate."
With his hands touching hands, Klaus had been inclined to believe they never would, that they never could. These good times never seemed so good.
"So much for checking your tongue in the mirror," Caroline said, smiling.
He scooched on over. Closer. Little did she know that he was Romeo throwing pebbles.
"Can't you open up your mind and see, like me?"
Squinting, she bent over backwards just to try to see him clearer.
"I think my breath fogged up the glass."
Klaus quirked an eyebrow.
"Is it really that hard to see?"
It'd been one thousand years of perfectly lonely and love lockdown where Klaus tore up his heart, where he shut it down. Nothing to do, no one to be…it was a simple kind of free.
Until Caroline, he'd never hit so hard in love. She came in like a wrecking ball—and now, he's nothing but ashes on the ground. Klaus clawed…he'd chained…his heart in vain—he'd jumped, never asking why. He fell under her spell and now all he wanted was to break her walls. Wide open.
With his hands shaking, his eyes almost closing, could he do it with a wide heart? A heart wide open?
Caroline got tired of waiting. She tapped her foot in rhythmed annoyance.
"Stop walking like a one-man army," she'd lectured at last, "Stop fighting with the shadows in your head."
Like restless hearts, wheels went round and round in Klaus' mind. He'd just take a deep breath and look in her eyes…
"You could break me apart," he admitted in a whisper.
She looked so surreal.
"It's why you keep a sinister smile and a hold of your heart," she said.
Caroline stood there on a balcony in the summer air when the moon was right, and pulled him in just like a song. She didn't try to philosophize the closet filled up to the brim with the ghosts of his past, his skeletons. It felt strange and so familiar, where nothing could go wrong.
Klaus felt like a hero; and Caroline, his heroine. Could he want her more as he did right then? As their heads leaned in?
"Don't keep sending all your love along the wire," she encouraged.
"If you're wondering where I am, through space and time—" Klaus felt a weakness coming on"—I'm—" his voice cracked "—I'm lost without you..."
Like a highway headed his way, Caroline was moving in—he could almost taste her lips and feel her skin. Voices calling all around, his heart falling down, he didn't care about the past frustrations. In fact, he put them in quotations.
"I'm forever yours," he added, "ever yours…faithfully."
He took a bow.
While Klaus saw a million different ways to never leave this maze alive, Caroline believed in the sweetest goodbye. She was all about outstretched arms and open hearts as far as an eternity. But if it never ends, then where did they start?
Pushing forward, arching back, she brought him closer and closer to heart attack.
"Tonight," she pleaded, "don't leave me alone." Caroline pulled him close. "Just kiss me…slowly."
Klaus tried so hard to disregard the rhythm of rain drops that coincided with the beating of his heart, but he was shot down in cold blood. He was shot down by her love. By who? That sweet, candy-coated misery. It was that angel in blue jeans.
Additional Note: I'm not quite sure if I'm satisfied with how this turned out (am I ever?) because it felt clunky in spots, even after sufficient editing. That being said, I liked the idea of exploring Klaus and Caroline and their relationship through layered, and often intermingled, lyrics. Let me know what you think! Should I continue?
Reviews would be wonderful. :)
Songs Used:
-"This Kiss," Faith Hill
-"Kiss Me," Sixpence None the Richer
-"Wait for Me," Theory of a Deadman
-"Iris," Goo Goo Dolls
-"Goodbye Girl," Luke Bryan
-"Move Along," All-American Rejects
-"Sex on Fire," Kings of Leon
-"Hero/Heroine," Boys Like Girls
-"This Ain't Goodbye," Train
-"Drive," Incubus
-"Let It Hurt," Rascal Flatts
-"Maps," Maroon 5
-"I Knew You Were Trouble," Taylor Swift
-"If I Didn't Know Better," Nashville Cast
-"Cowboy Casanova," Carrie Underwood
-"Poison and Wine," the Civil Wars
-"Lips of an Angel," Hinder
-"Sunday Morning," Maroon 5
-"Wrecking Ball," Miley Cyrus
-"Perfectly Lonely," John Mayer
-"Love Lockdown," Kanye West
-"You and Me," Lifehouse
-"Ridin' Solo," Jason Derulo
-"Dizzy," Goo Goo Dolls
-"He Can't Stop," Miley Cyrus
-"Eyes Like Sky," Frank Ocean
-"You Are My Sunshine," Copeland
-"Maneater," Hall and Oates
-"I've Got the World on a String," Frank Sinatra
-"Hanging by a Moment," Lifehouse
-"Devil Song," Beth Orton
-"Don't Stop Believin', Journey
-"Bright Lights, Bigger City," Cee Lo Green
-"Blank Space," Taylor Swift
-"Tomorrow," Chris Young
-"Kiss Me," Sixpence None the Richer
-"Angel in Blue Jeans," Train
-"Faithfully," Journey
-"I'm Yours," Jason Mraz
-"Kiss Me Slowly," Parachute
-"Sweet Caroline," Neil Diamond
-"Poker Face," Lady Gaga
-"Don't Put Dirt on My Grave Just Yet," Hayden Panettierre
-"Lose Yourself," Eminem
-"It's Hard (Letting You Go)," Bon Jovi
-"Love Story," Taylor Swift
-"Say What You Need to Say," John Mayer
-"Sweetest Goodbye," Maroon 5
-"Bleeding Love," Leona Lewis
-"Take a Bow," Rihanna