Title: Outlaws

Rating: T

Summary: They are estranged lovers, they are outlaws but at the end they formed alliance. Klaroline AU week Day 2: Right time, right place.

About the story: Pirates AU. Set in Medieval Ages. Written as a part of Klaroline AU week on tumblr. Day 2: Right time, right place.

Note: I don't own characters or TVD. Everything I write is for fun and part of my imagination. No beta, no offence. Please be kind and review! =)

0o Outlaws o0

That evening sea breezes did not move much intensity, ocean seemed as still as that day.

Black Sails crew's captain did seem fazed about the adventures that were not taking in his life. His crew and brothers were craving for quest—just like him. Tapping fingers on wood, Klaus, the captain shifted his entire weight to left leg as he watched the sun going down.

It was then Finn, one of the crew, one of his brothers announced from crow's nest.

"Royal ship is sailing diagonally in north-west region!" He cried abandoned the monocular and compass before he looked down at every single member on the ship and finally fixed his gaze on their Captain. "Less than a landmil."

"Capacity?" Captain Klaus clasped arms at his back, appeared as composed as ever.

"Average." Finn replied and pulled the monocular once again to see.

"Which means we can take them down." The youngest of Captain's brothers, Kol suggested cheerily from forecastle.

"What about the number?" the older Salvatore brother, Damon raised a brow encountered Kol. Like always.

"What do you suggest Klaus?" Elijah asked for Captain's opinion.

"—But we have a problem here." Finn grabbed everyone's attention. "The soldiers held captive of another pirate crew. It is the Sirens." Immediately the Captain's eyes widened to the slightest. His heart would have stopped for a moment, he was not completely certain. "Rebekah is in there!" Finn cried.

"We should attack them." Kol's suggestion was a bit harsh as he turned around to face them all.

Klaus made his decision already: There is no hold back. Getting down from quarter-deck, the Captain of Black Sails passed an order: "Prepare for the attack!" The smirk on his face turned callous and darker than ever before. "We have a ship to sink."

And promises to keep. He did not voice those words.

The men of Black Sails crew cheered as their Captain paced toward the helm. Damon, the oldest of Salvatores went into the basement along with another two.

Klaus maneuvered the ship as he glanced at compass.

He would not give a damn if it was another soul but the Sirens crew was having two women. Two important women in his life.

One—his sister.

Two—his estranged lover.

"Please don't leave, Nik." A sixteen-year-old Rebekah sobbed, tucking his arm. Niklaus was banished from their home, for opposing their father who tried to arrange Rebekah's marriage with some older and callous man in their town in exchange of wealth.

Of course, the exile was on temporary basis.

Niklaus did not wish the marriage to happen at any cost—as Rebekah was in love with another peasant, Matt— which was the reason he asked Mikael, their father to give him some time to earn a good number of gold coins. In that way, he wanted to save his sister from this doom.

He packed enough supplies and was at the entrance when his loving sister stopped him and cried over his shoulder.

Niklaus was shattering from inside; his older brother's distressed stare from a distance, his sister's tears were too much handle.

"It is not like he would be gone forever, Rebekah." Kol purred from a corner, displayed nonchalance. Though, everyone knew he was not appreciating the current situation.

Niklaus shot him a bit of smile and nodded at him curtly before he patted on Rebekah's head. "Listen to me, dear sister. This is for a better tomorrow." Rebekah's bottom lip quivered but did not seem convinced. Her face turned pink from suffering, her eyes swollen. Her brother sighed as he wiped tears from her cheeks. "I want you to believe that I would return before it is too late. I will save you, Rebekah." He sounded truthful. "Not matter what."

"—Please brother"

Niklaus looked at Elijah expecting him to take the responsibility of consoling their sister.

Elijah walked to them and held her in place while Niklaus kissed on her forehead before he left. He took his cart and began to ride it through the forest. In the mid way he found a familiar figure standing.

Caroline.

Her brows formed into a slightest frown by the time Niklaus could get to see her face closely. The only burden he felt from the moment he set foot out was vanished all of sudden, after looking at her face.

"Caroline?" He smiled lightly as he got down from his cart. The horses whined as he moved past them and stood in front of the girl he tried hard to flatter from their childhood.

She folded arms, squinted at him, waited for him to say something.

"I have to go," was all he could say.

The silence between them was neither pleasant nor unbearable. He grew uncomfortable thinking how she would perceive him. And then she ended that silence.

"So, that is it?" she asked, quirking a brow. "All the sweet talk, all the silly things you did for me in these years are just to pass your time?"

Her voice was full of angry, sadness. But the way she made out of him had Niklaus hurt.

"You doubt my feelings for you, Caroline?" Niklaus posed before he gulped his sorrow.

Caroline let out a scoff as she momentarily glanced at those trees beside. "Don't you dare tell me that, Niklaus." Giving him a venomous glare, she spat at him. "You did not even think of me at least once." As soon as her words sink into his mind, he was relieved and slowly a smile crept to his lips. "Don't you smile, you moron!" Caroline growled as a tear slipped to her cheek, she unfolded her arms and raised her index finger warningly.

Grasping her elbow, he pulled her close enough to take her by surprise. Niklaus then wiped her tear with his thumb before he pressed lips to the corner of her mouth. Her skin was soft, just like the way he was dreaming. The floral scent radiating from her, and richness in her clothes reminded him of her comparatively higher class.

He peeled merely away from her but she brought his face close to kiss him back. Niklaus met her tongue, met her strokes as he smiled into her mouth.

"You can take me with you." She said smiling, pressing her forehead against his. Her bold suggestion did not surprise him for he knew the boundaries of her bravery. She had never given a damn about the society and never bound herself to rules unless she wanted to. "I will help you to earn more gold."

Of course, she was aware of his situation keenly.

Kissing her again, savoring the feeling he got from it, Niklaus smirked, caressing her upper arm through bushy sleeves.

"A tempting offer but I am afraid I have to turn it down." He replied softly and pushed himself away to capture the smile on her face. But it faded as soon as those words slipped from his mouth. "I hope you really would understand me."

Barely she blinked eyes and nodded at slower pace. "I did, Niklaus and so I am letting you go now." Niklaus chuckled despite the agony flowing inside him. With much difficulty, he separated from her and walked to his horses. Rubbing muzzle of one of the animals, he turned to meet her pale gaze.

"I will miss you." He stated sadly, his voice came out as a whisper.

"But I won't." She pressed her lips into a thin line. "I will remember this day and every other day we spent together. On every night before going to sleep, I will ask you to come to me." Another water drop fell down as she smiled. "I will wait."

"For sure, I will come for you."

"I love you, Niklaus."

Niklaus did not understand why he was experiencing in such a way. Those were the words he longed to hear from the girl he loved. He had not felt like this before now, no. The situation he was in gave pleasure and pain to his heart. Equally.

The girl who loved him with passion.

Klaus smiled at the memory fondly as he directed ship toward the huge rock in the middle of ocean, carefully. It was big enough to hide and attack. According to Finn, the royal ship was still far away from them.

"Cannons, are they loaded?" Klaus snapped at his first mate.

"Aye, Captain." The coldness from Stefan's green eyes was emitting strongly. "Pistols are set up and waiting for us."

Stefan was the first person he met as soon as he stepped out of his town. Klaus had learned the entire trading business from Stefan. Everything went fine and one day Stefan had to leave him for some reasons. And then—Klaus's life turned upside down.

He made alliance with another tradesman because of whom he was blamed as a criminal. Put in jail for almost a year. He was not given a chance to prove himself.

Klaus passed every day living in his memories. And that did not last forever. After that year, someone attacked the main prison and let the other criminals on loose.

Klaus had taken a chance to get back his hometown.

All his excitement, happiness destroyed at once when he had learned both Rebekah and Caroline were married to others. First Rebekah and then Caroline.

He had failed two people who trusted him more than anyone.

That's it. He had not wished to show them his face for he broke his promises. And simply returned to Stefan who was as ruined as him. Klaus changed his name and soon they started to rob people from higher class. He was not even sorry for what he became.

He lost everyone he loved.

He lost the girl who loved him with passion, Klaus thought again.

But that was not the only side of her.

She was broken so bad that made her an outlaw. Like him. The girl who loved him started to hate him. For many reasons.

He found his brothers in a tragic state. With their father and mother dead, his brothers decided to join them as they had nothing better to do.

He came to know that Rebekah had stopped talking to all of her siblings for they simply sat back and let their father do whatever pleased him. Mikael had sold her to that older man in the name of marriage, and when Matthew alias Matt stood in the way, he was killed.

But Caroline's case was entirely different.

She refused to marry anyone and when she was forced to do as per her father's command, she simply ran away.

She would do right by her. He knew it. But her father crafted a story that she was married to someone from other kingdom.

He wanted to see her one day but did not believe himself when he got a chance to look into her ocean blues once again.

"An abandoned ship?" Kol raised his brows. "In the middle of ocean?"

Even to the newest of pirates, the circumstances seemed rather suspicious. They arranged boards to get into the empty ship. Klaus scrutinized everything and understood something was not right. Everything seemed like they were still in use.

Men from his crew dispersed to check things in detail.

And that's when they got surprise.

All of sudden people—women started to attack them. With swords. Klaus and his crew did not possess pistols yet and began to defend themselves with their own swords. It did not mean they were coped up from this astonishment.

Klaus, from the corner of his eye, found his a face similar to that of his sister. No, it is Rebekah!

"Rebekah?" he gasped, making her to look at him.

What surprised him more was the callous look on her face. Was she not delighted to see her brother?

Instead she brought the tip of her sword to his chest as she closed him. "Fancy a fight—" she purred softly, "—sire."

"We are siblings, we don't fight." Klaus slightly frowned at her cold demeanor.

She said bitterly. "My siblings are dead."

"—What in the world?" Klaus then heard to a stunned Kol.

"—Rebekah?" That was Elijah.

"Everyone stop at this instant!" Klaus snarled loud enough to halt people on deck.

"Women," Damon smirked, scanning females around, "A complete deck of women pirates?"

"Of course," a familiar voice purred from crow's nest. Klaus was not certain about the person but he wished she would show up quickly. As she climbed down from there, he could only gape at her.

Caroline, it was.

"Did you forget the history, lad?" Her eyes twinkled with that smugness he used to find from their childhood. "The first pirate, Qetsiyah is a woman too." At last she locked her nonchalant gaze with the Captain of Black Sails. "The peasant woman who was betrayed by a king."

Klaus became too blank to absorb her words.

"Mind telling me why did you stop this battle?"

She and her sister only proved that a woman could love someone without boundaries but if things went wrong the same woman could hate in the same way.

But what confused him was Caroline had told him she would wait and then—she changed into a complete different person.

He tried to know the reason. He sincerely did, many times.

His eyes lazily inspected the chamber of pirates and other wrongdoers in that tavern.

Someone pressed their tip of sword to the curve of his neck and made him frown, there was alert in his posture, ready to pull out his sword. "Not so vigilant, Captain." A soft voice purred behind him. The familiarity in that voice had him smirking at the ground.

"Captain Caroline." His voice hinted tease, and he turned to his left to see the beauty he longed to see for more than three months. "What an unexpected surprise." Klaus stated as he drank in her appearance.

"Is it, Klaus?" she raised a brow, placed her sword back into her belt. The most favorite thing about her eyes was the color of them; it reminded him of ocean. "I still don't understand how people look up at you as a pirate. Some men take you as their idol." She scoffed placing her hands on her hips. Momentarily her eyes darted to her left as she said in a low voice. "You have a couple of tricks, I agree—" she tilted her head to right, scrutinized his body, twitched her lips and seemed unimpressed with him, "—but not watchful which is an important aspect."

"Perhaps you should teach me," Klaus replied readily. His suggestion made her to roll eyes toward ceiling. She would avoid his gaze, most of the time, which he completely did not appreciate. "I can make a good student, Captain." He mumbled closing that little space between them. A ghost of smile appeared on her lips as she turned showing her back to him. Klaus pushed, the tease in his voice did not leave. "What do you say, love?"

Facing him with that composed expression of hers, Caroline shifted on her left leg. "You already knew the answer, Klaus." And then an arrogant smirk graced her angelic features. "I would like to keep my crew free from men. And you can have chance—" Klaus let out a huff of smile when she had his accent in the latter part of her sentence, " – if you are a woman."

"So hostile, love." He said, following her to a corner table.

"I don't loathe you but I do not feel for you anything either." Caroline said nonchalantly. "Like I did before." This line, she said in a low voice.

His smile faded. "I see, you turned as cold as my sister."

"She is no more your sister but my first mate." Caroline shrugged her shoulders to the slightest as if she breathed. "I bet she made it clear a year before now. Every time we meet she tries to avoid you and your brothers."

Klaus frowned at the table as he fell in world full of thoughts.

"I was the one to save her from her wretched husband who was forcing himself on her for days." Her voice brought him back to the land of living. His stormy blues reflected surprise as he watched her. But Caroline's gaze was on Rebekah, who was cold while Elijah confronted her at a corner. "I came to her after a few days and asked her to run away with me. At that point, you should have seen the expression on her face." She smiled proudly as her eyes did not peel from her friend. "And then we found a few like us. Take Bonnie." She pointed at a dark skinned lady from her crew. "She was sold as a slave for the fifth time but she was trying to fight it when I met her." She paused looking for other cases. "There are Elena and Katerina, the twins who were abandoned during childhood, for being born as women." Her face turned darker as she said. "They were told that their father was the person who sold them to brothel house. Before now, they only knew to sell their bodies to make living. Not willingly though."

There prevailed a moment of silence and he was uncertain where her words were heading.

"Every single of them was poorly treated by a man, in one way or the other." She muttered as she brought stein to her lips.

"What about you?" Klaus asked as soon as he found his voice.

He could swear, a mixture of emotions flickered in her eyes. Caroline met his gaze gradually. But she did not reply.

He waited but she did not reply at all.

"Fire!" Klaus ordered his men. All the cannons were in work. They made sure that they were not hitting women on the ship but obvious they were affected by this mode of attack.

Luckily, the royal ship was not a military one. Regular, trading ship it was. And the pistols in men's hands were of no use until Black Sails were at an acceptable distance. The royal guards were trying not to let go of their prisoners.

As if it was possible.

Klaus waited as they pulled boards while avoiding from being shot. Shooting while traveling—well, at this bizarre moment— on the water was no ordinary.

The guards were startled and retrieving to the basement.

Klaus managed to take a special care of every enemy that he came across with, for holding captive of the women he love.

Elijah did not show any pity this time. Like a wild hunter, he was unleashing on every man. He was followed by Salvatores into the basement to attack the rest.

From the corner of his eye, Klaus watched as Kol, on the quarter-deck, undid ropes of Rebekah, who shot him a pale glance before she went in rescue of others. Then his gaze found Caroline's, whose lips were bleeding and a weird look was spread on her face. Rebekah helped her to stand on her feet and removed her ropes. Caroline, still, only observed Klaus as he walked to them.

"Are you—?" he paused and scrutinized her body. Minor cuts on her arms, split lips and beyond exhausted eyes—that's what he found.

She was not at all fine.

With a flipped stomach, he moved barely when Stefan yelled from his behind. "Ship is going to sink!" He said, making the Captain of Black Sails to turn around. The Salvatores and Elijah were helping women out of basement. "We cannot make it if we don't move at this instant. Basement is filled with water."

"Vacate the deck, everyone!" Klaus roared soon after that. "Get onto that ship." He told pointing at theirs. While Kol walked Rebekah toward one of the boards, Klaus turned around to take Caroline.

"That is fine, sire." She snapped at him. "I can do it by myself."

Of course, she did not lose her ego and Klaus was utterly uncertain of how to react then. He let out an annoyed huff as she limped on the stairs, to get down.

The ship was barely standing, they understood when all the water was evidently floating on deck.

They made it before the royal ship sank into the massive water body.

Caroline's shifted her glance to her crew who were witnessing everything. They seemed tired as well. Klaus leaned front on the wall as the bowsprit became invisible while going down. He turned to look at his sister who clutched to Elijah and met his gaze. Klaus saw as a puny smile graced her features.

Beaming at her and then at everyone on the ship, he told. "Well, that should be an adventure added to our list. And let us welcome new members to our crew." He nudged Caroline's damaged arm and made her flinch in pain and frustration. "What do you say?"

"Oh, that is fantastic thought, Klaus." The Sirens Captain rolled her eyes toward Rebekah who just smirked at her. "We are going to find another ship and save ourselves from you people."

"We just saved your lives. Be grateful." Damon scoffed, winked at Elena, who sighed in disgust.

"And want us to kiss your feet?" Bonnie said trying to get to her feet and growled when Kol tried to play helping-hand with a flirtatious smirk. "We should have stayed back, Captain."

"Why don't we occupy this one?" Katerina suggested, checking all the facilities one by one. "By pushing these pathetic creatures into ocean." She waved hand at men beside her and earned deathly glares which, of course, she ignored.

"—You chose everyone like you." Klaus murmured to Caroline. "That is not at all unpleasant." He added sarcastically.

"I suggest you to start being an open-minded person if you are planning to collaborate with me and my crew."

Klaus elevated his brows, surprised to have her accepted soon. Calculating inwardly, he shook his head. No, not soon.

It took him more than a year. And let us not forget the time Klaus literally died to receive a proper response from her side, in their town.

She gave him a hard time, to be exact. Even though, he would say it was worth.

She limped toward Rebekah and ceased to move to look back at him from her shoulder. A strange smile crept to her lips that passed to her tired eyes. "Thank you." She said softly. "For coming today."

Klaus smiled back at her as he gave a curt nod. Of course, she remembered everything.

0o Outlaws o0