Klaus never believed in soulmates.
He'd heard about them as a child and watched as the people in his village developed their marks. Over the course of his life, he found the marks across people from all walks of life. Words permanently etched into their skin. The first words that they would hear their soulmates speak.
Klaus watched, year after year, as the people around him became branded with their marks. Some were born with them. For others, they appeared later in life. Some never developed a mark.
Klaus never got a mark. He hoped that he would. He witnessed his brother Finn develop his mark. They were hunting when Finn dropped to the ground in agony, clutching his side. Klaus rushed to help him and lifted Finn's shirt to find words being carved into his skin. Later, when Finn was able to walk again, they returned to the village where Finn was thrown a celebration for being blessed with such a mark.
After Finn's mark, Klaus spent time hoping that his would come. He waited, year after year, and year after year nothing appeared. His mother told him the mark would appear when his soulmate was born. Klaus didn't believe her.
Soon after he turned into a vampire, and the absence of a mark became a blessing to him. Love is, after all, a vampire's greatest weakness. Hundreds of years went by, and Klaus' list of conquests grew bigger. He aspired for more – he wanted absolute power. He wanted to rule.
He had seen people with these same goals defeated by love. Without someone tying him down, Klaus would be unstoppable.
In 1992, rumors that there was a descendant of the Petrova bloodline resurface. There had been many of these rumors after the death of Katerina Petrova, none of which Klaus has found to be truthful. But still, each time he is made aware of the possibility of a doppelganger, he does his homework. Thoroughly. If there is even the slightest chance of a descendant, he wants to know.
Klaus' homework brings him to an empty bar in Manchester. He's persuading yet another witch to help him locate the rumored Petrova when he feels it. The burning. It starts so slowly, he misses the warning signs. Not that he had been looking for them for a long, long time.
He's talking to the witch when his forearm starts to heat up. The heat grows until his blood begins to boil. He feels it, from the inside out. The fire. The heat of a thousand suns carving themselves into his forearm.
It takes him a minute to work through the pain and get his brain to function again. His first thought is that the witch was responsible. His eyes are feral as he glances up from clutching his arm to see her backing away, frightened. Klaus strides over to her and wraps his hand around her windpipe.
"What are you doing?" He says quietly. Deadly.
The witch is crying and shaking her head. Klaus looks for the truth in her eyes and he sees it – she doesn't know what's happening to him.
Klaus breaks her neck for good measure. The pain doesn't stop.
He throws the witch to the side, and white-hot heat opens up inside his forearm. Klaus falls to his knees and pulls up his sleeve to reveal his forearm. There are scratches being formed along it, deep and black. Words that had yet to fully form. For the first time in a long time, Klaus thinks back to Finn. In the back of his mind, he realizes what's happening to him. He'd seen it happen before.
He has a soulmate.
"No." Klaus whispers. His soul is on fire, his body burning. The pain burning in his arm travels throughout his whole body like fire licking at every part of him.
He can't see straight and finally, he passes out.
When Klaus wakes he's lying on the grimy floor of the bar. The witch lies dead several feet ahead of him. The room looked otherwise untouched.
His arm is sore.
Klaus sits up slowly and makes his way behind the bar. He pours himself a glass of whiskey and downs it. The heat is still in his arm, low, but burning. It's a comfort.
He pours himself another glass of whiskey and pulls up his sleeve. "Are you going to kill me?" is etched into his arm in deep, black letters.
Klaus almost laughs. What a way to narrow down the potential soulmate. He heard that from people on a daily basis, and that thought alone made him sick. There would come a time that he will almost kill his soulmate. Maybe he would succeed. He is a killer, after all.
Klaus downs his second glass of whiskey and turns to the wall behind the counter where a calendar is pinned up. October 10, 1992. His soulmate, wherever they are in the world, was just born.
Klaus throws his empty glass on the counter and leaves the bar without another thought.
Unlike Klaus, Caroline had known about her soulmate her whole life. She came into the world with a dark, blurred mark on her forearm. Liz's worries were quickly put to rest when the doctors told her that Caroline was developing a soulmate mark. Not common, but not unheard of. It was something Liz never had.
The doctors told Liz that Caroline's soulmate mark will eventually show the first words she will hear her soulmate speak. Eventually. They said that it would develop as she aged.
And it did.
The burning in her forearm was dull, but it was constant. By the time Caroline was thirteen, the mark on her forearm read "Well the verdict's in,". She liked to speculate with Elena and Bonnie that she was going to end up marrying a hot lawyer and have a great life. But there was that pesky comma at the end of it. There was more to be formed.
By the time she was fifteen, Caroline could read the whole mark. "Well the verdicts in, the original witch says the doppelgänger should be dead." Caroline couldn't make sense of it. She tried asking Bonnie, and Elena, and her mother, but nobody could understand what it meant. They couldn't decipher anything about the words into something that would give her the smallest hint of what her soulmate would be like. After some scary internet searching, Caroline became convinced that her soulmate would have to be the biggest geek of all time. Witches… doppelgängers… they were only terms used in creepy fantasy sites. Caroline was mortified. After that, she started covering her mark.
Caroline tried to keep her mind off of it after that. Screw soulmate marks – she's going to control her own future.
Two years later, she's dead. Well… she's turning. And she finds out about all the crazy stuff going down in Mystic Falls that she was unaware of before. Elena's a doppelgänger, Bonnie's a witch. Vampires. Werewolves. All of it.
The first time Caroline hears the word doppelgänger, her throat grows thick. Maybe her soulmate isn't some pimply kid in his mom's basement, but it also means that they are connected to Elena somehow. Of course. But in the craziness of the year, trying to avoid Katherine and then Elijah and then Klaus, everyone had forgotten about Caroline's soulmate mark. She nearly had as well. She keeps quiet about her revelation and doesn't mention anything to anyone. It's something she holds onto. It's a secret for herself. This news means that her soulmate could be someone involved in her world. In the supernatural. Suddenly, Caroline finds herself open to the possibility of a soulmate again.
They get through Katherine, and then they get through werewolves, and then Klaus. They are done with all of it, and suddenly it's their senior year and Caroline feels invincible.
And then senior prank night happens.
Caroline is bitten by Rebecca, and Klaus kills Tyler. Caroline sits next to Tyler as he wakes up in transition to become a hybrid and waits patiently. She comforts him as best she can, but there's nothing she can do. It's a waiting game to figure out whether or not he's going to die. There is so much waiting.
Suddenly, Klaus storms into the room. It's the first time Caroline has seen him in person. He doesn't look nearly as scary as he sounded, but she also isn't a fool. Caroline is guarded, and she waits for him to speak. When he does, he speaks the words Caroline has been waiting her whole life to hear.
"Well the verdicts in, the original witch says the original doppelgänger should be dead." Klaus says. He isn't paying any attention to her. Doesn't so much as glance her way.
Caroline's stomach drops. She can't breathe. She doesn't resist as Rebecca pulls her away from Tyler. She doesn't say anything. She feels sick to her stomach, watching as Klaus gives Tyler Elena's blood, seeing the power dance behind his eyes. This can't be happening. Even in her worst imaginations of what her soulmate would be like, it was never like this. But it is what it is.
Klaus is her soulmate.
Caroline feels Rebecca dragging her away from Tyler. It's like she's outside of her body, looking down on the scene like a fly on the wall. She can't seem to wrap her head around it. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Caroline realizes that she's in shock. Caroline watches Klaus study Tyler as he takes the blood. Klaus doesn't look at her at all. Not that she wants him to. Caroline stays silent. Once Tyler successfully transitions, Klaus leaves. He didn't look her way once the entire time. She's thankful for that.
Once he's gone, Caroline feels like she can breathe again.
Caroline leaves school that night and goes straight home. She's thankful to find out her mom isn't there. She takes a shower for an hour and tries to scrub away all of her memories from the night.
Caroline spends the next month avoiding Klaus. She's pretty successful at it, too. To be fair, it isn't hard once he leaves town. Most of the time she can even pretend like nothing ever happened. Most of the time. But every morning she gets in the shower only to spot the mark on her arm, taunting her. As soon as she gets out of the shower she covers it up. She hasn't told anybody about it.
A few weeks later, homecoming is moved to Tyler's house. Caroline's determined to still enjoy herself - it is her last homecoming dance after all. And she has a good time until Klaus appears on stage.
Caroline's forearm grows hot at the sight of him and she feels sick all over again. And then he's gone, and she can breathe. Caroline can tell that a plan is brewing. Elena and Matt won't talk to her, and Tyler seems suspicious.
She wakes up later that night in Tyler's bed, confused. She'd been vervained. She hears about how Klaus almost died and feels her stomach churn. She likes to think that she doesn't care about what happens to him. But she does. For some reason, she does.
Caroline had heard about the repercussions of a soulmate dying. After the near-death incident with Klaus, she starts to research it. Pain, pain, and more pain. Of course. If Klaus dies, her life will become a living hell.
As if it wasn't already. Still, Caroline manages to avoid him. She comes to the conclusion that killing Klaus is for the best, even if it will be the worst thing to ever happen to her. His hellish control over her friends won't stop until he's six feet under. So, she stays out of it and lets Damon and Stefan play out whatever master plan they have cooked up to kill him.
Tyler bites her and suddenly she's dying. Again.
She heard about what happened to Rose. She saw what the werewolf bite did to Damon. Caroline knows that there's only one way she can make it out of this. She needs Klaus' blood. She also knows that she will never get it. She has no plans of asking him for it. Besides, after her death, Klaus will feel nothing but pain. That ought to help her friends stop him.
Caroline spends her birthday in bed. She's weak and feverish. Matt and her mom are with her, but there is nothing they can do. Still, she appreciates their company.
That night there's a knock at the front door. She can barely hear Matt answer it. She hears it shut, and she turns to find Klaus standing at her bedroom door. He looks down at her almost sadly. If she didn't know any better, she'd have thought he felt bad for her. But she does know better.
Caroline feels equal parts relief and frustration at the sight of him. Her eyes well up, and she thinks for a moment that she is going to cry. This has to be the universe playing some cosmic joke on her.
"Are you going to kill me?" she asks quietly. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wonders what it must be like for Klaus, to have that tattooed somewhere on his body. It's probably something he heard every day. His expression doesn't change at her words. She doesn't expect it to.
"On your birthday? You really think that low of me?" He asks innocently.
"Yes." Caroline replies. Her voice drips with as much venom as she can muster.
Klaus steps back and examines her quietly for a moment. He pulls back the blanket that covers the bite. It's getting worse with each passing minute. At this rate, she'll be dead by sunrise. Caroline inhales sharply at the sting of the movement.
Klaus draws back his hand slowly. "That looks bad. My apologies. You're what's known as collateral damage. It's nothing personal"
Oh, but it is. It's extremely personal. But he hasn't connected the dots yet, and Caroline isn't going to give it to him.
Klaus reaches out and touches the charm bracelet Tyler gave her. His fingers gently flick at one of the charms. "I love birthdays."
"Yeah. Aren't you like, a billion, or something?" Caroline looks at him closely for the first time.
He chuckles. The sound of his laugh makes her breath catch in her throat. It's somehow a sweet relief.
"You have to adjust your perception of time when you're a vampire, Caroline. Celebrate the fact that you are no longer bound by trivial human conventions." She breaks eye contact with him. It's too much. "You're free."
"No," she says weakly "I'm dying."
Klaus simply stares at her and slowly eases himself onto her bed. She finds herself staring back, transfixed. She forgets, momentarily, what's happening. His eyes are a comfort and looking into them feels like coming home.
"And I could let you. Die. If that's what you really want." He speaks softly, and for a moment Caroline can pretend that he cares. Like the mark on her arm, and the one on his, means something. But he knows nothing of that. It doesn't mean anything to him. Especially if he doesn't know about it. "If you really believe your existence has no meaning. I've thought about it myself, once or twice over the centuries, truth be told."
He leans closer to her, and all Caroline can do is stare back as tears begin to fill her eyes.
"But I'll let you in on a little secret. There's a whole world out there waiting for you. Great cities, and art, and music." He brings his hand up to touch her bracelet once more. "Genuine beauty. And you can have all of it. You could have a thousand more birthdays. All you have to do is ask." His voice is honey, and she wants to sink into it.
Caroline stares into his eyes, blinking rapidly as hers grow watery. God, the universe is sick.
"I don't want to die." She whispers softly.
Klaus smiles and rolls up his sleeve. He moves behind her, lifting her head to lay it on his chest. He supports her head as he brings his wrist to her mouth. "There you go sweetheart, have at it."
Caroline glances at him once more before sinking her teeth into his wrist. There's a soft pressure on the top of her head as he let his chin rest on it. He caresses her hair softly. In that moment he is so soft, and she wants nothing more than to burrow into him and stay there, wrapped up in him.
"Happy Birthday Caroline." He whispers.
Caroline drinks and her wound starts to heal. She feels her wound close, and she feels herself grow tired. Deep in her bones tired. All of a sudden, it's too much. His blood is in her, and his scent is all around. It makes her heart ache for a love she knows she could never have. Not with him.
She lifts her hand to draw Klaus' wrist from her mouth, not fully realizing what she's doing. He grabs her wrist suddenly, and she realizes that he's seen it. He's seen her mark.
"What's this?" He aks, looking straight at her mark. Caroline says nothing. She can't do this. Not now.
Caroline realizes that she's still leaning back against his chest, and she takes a deep breath to sit up straight. She lets Klaus keep hold of her wrist.
Klaus' eyes roam over the mark and he reads it out loud. "Well, the verdict's in. The original witch says the doppelgänger should be dead."
His eyes flash to hers, wide and alarmed. She just feels tired. She's thought about this moment her entire life, and she never once thought she would have met her soulmate after he tried to kill her.
Klaus stands up from the bed quickly and walks over to a calendar on her wall. October 10. He rolls up his sleeve up to look at his own soulmate mark. Caroline feels like she's going to be sick.
Caroline watches silently as he puts it together. When he finally raises his eyes to meet hers, she holds his gaze steady for a moment before lying down and turning to face the other side of her bed. She doesn't want to do this with him, especially not now. It all feels like too much. She can't even look at him.
"Caroline-" He starts
"Go away." She says firmly.
Caroline feels him walk up behind her, but she still doesn't turn to face him. Thankfully, he has the sense not to force her to. Klaus drops his hand to her hair and runs his fingers through it once slowly before pulling away. The simplicity and comfort of the movement draw another set of tears to Caroline's eyes. She feels her throat growing thick, and she knows she has to get Klaus out of there.
"Please. Go away." She says firmly. She knows he is able to hear how unsteady her voice is.
Klaus stands silently for a moment and leaves without a word.
Caroline pulls the blanket tightly around herself and cries.