Caroline Forbes remembers when she had high expectations. She remembers when she'd wanted to be treated like a princess and loved liked one too. When all she'd wanted was to be truly and utterly loved. A soul-consuming, heart-twisting love.
Sometimes she lets herself wonder where all those expectations had gone. She sees them flying out her bedroom window the night she realized her parents' marriage was over. She imagines them shriveling to nothing but dust when somehow she was never the one; not for anyone. Most of all, she thinks they disappeared the night Tyler did.
Somewhere along the way, hundreds of years after Bonnie Bennett and Matt Donovan had died, decades after Elena and Damon had gotten married in an unnecessarily human way, and years after Stefan had met a vampire who he'd wanted to do more than just fuck, she had realized things had once again changed. Damon had commented on how she'd been going through guys like she'd done back in the day, which resulted in Elena cleaning his blood off the wall, because Caroline thought he should do it himself because it was his blood, and he thought Caroline should do it because she made the mess.
After that Caroline couldn't ignore the fact that every guy she'd go on a date with had something wrong with them; one didn't hold doors for her, another had a horrible fashion sense, and the list went on.
One night Caroline decided to tally up every man she'd gone out with in the past century, and ended up losing track at 689. This makes Elena laugh and laugh, and Caroline knows the number is baffling, she knows, but her circumstance is different from others', She's a vampire, for god's sake. A century is a long time.
One would think after her time spent thinking on this topic she would have come to her senses, but, alas, she didn't. This game of hot potato that mortals and supernatural entities alike played with Caroline Elizabeth Forbes went on for two more decades.
She thinks the moment it may have ended was when Stefan came to visit on Thanksgiving, a holiday which the group had never quite been able to give up. Elena had been in the kitchen of their apartment in what was now part of Mexico, making Bonnie and Matt's 'Remember us even when we're not here to cook for you, you bums' pie, Stefan and Caroline were sitting at the stools, snacking on the ingredients whenever Elena turned around, pretending not to notice. When Stefan had told Caroline he can't believe she's bringing another one of her stupid flings to their sacred holiday, and to which Caroline responded that he wasn't a fling, and Elena chuckled, and Caroline glared, and Stefan said, seriously, Care, you could be doing better. The two made a game out of it; coming up with things the right guy should do for Caroline.
"Be smoking hot."
"Gotta be rich."
"Has to have a great fashion sense, I mean, he's going to have to compete with me around!"
"He should be a gentleman."
"He should buy you pretty things, Caroline. Everyone deserves pretty things."
"Yeah, and he's gotta be into your bedroom habits."
"Well, I mean, I'm sure any guy could get behind that; I did."
"Gross. Oh, and, obviously, he should realize how beautiful, and smart, and good you are."
"Yeah! He should want to show you the world, Care."
"He should be okay with sacrifices, and he should make you feel understood."
"All that jazz, Caroline Elizabeth Forbes. None of this Brett crap. What does he do again? Solar panel maintenance?"
"Blech. Nobody even uses those anymore, Care."
Caroline had laughed it off, letting Stefan pull her up and twirl her around the room when Damon finally figured out the new speaker system.
But that early morning as she was finally going asleep, stomach full and alcohol roaring through her body, she couldn't deny the fact that piercing blue eyes, smirking, luscious lips, and tousled dirty blonde hair had pushed through her mind for the first time in decades.
It took her years to even start looking.
And when Stefan found her viciously unpacking a suitcase with an address for New Orleans crumpled in the corner of her bed, he had started repacking, started telling her that enough was enough .
"It's time, Care."
She knew that he was right, just like always. She knew no matter how much she wanted to beg him to come with her, beg anyone to come, she had to this on her own.
When she first finds where he is again, it is in a tall house on the historical Bourbon street, and the only people she sees for days aren't him. She watches for a couple of days, shocked to see a somehow still alive Hayley there, with Elijah, of all people. Rebekah was with a light skinned man who seemed to love her more than anything, and Kol with a 40 something witch, who Caroline had guessed slowed down her ageing. There's another woman, a blonde woman with choppy, wavy hair, who spent her days kissing a woman who you could hear singing from two blocks away on balconies. There's another girl, one that comes by every night but leaves; goes to an apartment down the street. One time she sees the girl hug Elijah, and for a moment, she almost thinks she hears 'Uncle Elijah', but that doesn't make much sense
The first time she sees Klaus in centuries shakes her to her core.
Happy.
So happy. Happiness in the way he calls out a goodbye into the house, happiness in the way he walks. For a second she wondered if she should leave, wondered if her arrival might end his happiness.
But before she can stop herself she's vamped across the street and behind him, following closely, matching his pace. He stops, seeming to be listening, and for a moment she thinks he has noticed her, her heart beating heavily. But instead of turning to face her, he crosses the street to a park, whose entrance is made of a wide circle of bricks, benches facing the inside, painters and musicians surrounding the area. Klaus sits on a bench and focuses on a painter who is just beginning to paint the city around them. He leans back and puts his arm along the back of the chair, and she sees his shoulders rise, breathing in heavily.
He's so relaxed, which is jarring to see. This isn't Klaus she had known all those years ago.
But she wasn't the same, either.
Caroline works up the nerve to go and sit on the other side of bench from him, within inches of his hand. He keeps his eyes on the artist and does not speak, so Caroline does.
"You don't seem surprised."
"I knew you'd been watching me." He smirked.
"Why didn't you say something?"
"And miss the one time you chased after me? Never." She laughed. "Are you finally ready, love?" She nodded, looking on curiously as he stands, moving to rest in front of her. He outstretches a hand, and seeing this, a musician somewhere begins to play a rather old tune, one nearly everyone had forgotten the words to. The rest of them joined in, and Caroline, almost mad, asked.
"Did you plan this?"
"Perhaps. How am I doing, love?" She giggled, taking his hand and standing up.
"Perfect." She admitted happily, as he pulled her close, the two dancing in a way that wasn't robotic, as it had been for them with previous lovers. No, their dance was one of naturalness, one of peace and serenity. One of pure love, one of pure lust.
"Show me the world, Niklaus Mikaelson." She tells him as the song comes to an end, and he lifts her in the air, smiling widely as she laughs.
"Took you long enough."
He takes home the painting from that day, for the artist had chosen young love for their topic of the day.
He knows it's not his place to rename another artist's piece, but he refers to it affectionately as 'Old Love.'
Caroline knew why she went through men like she went through time; her expectations had risen immeasurably due to a man with blue eyes and dirty blonde hair, who ended up fulfilling promises he made a long, long time ago.
Who ended up treating her like a princess; loving her like one too. Truly and utterly loving her- so much so it consumed him.
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