Klaus stepped out onto the balcony with a glass of scotch, sitting down and idly flipping through his phone before returning to his texts for the 300th time in the last half hour.
Caroline 1:30 a.m.
whatcha doing?
Caroline 1:32 a.m.
bartender is annoying
Caroline 1:32 a.m.
please come eat her
Klaus 1:33 a.m.
I believe your exact words before you left with Bonnie were 'don't do that creepy stalker thing' so i've found other entertainments for the evening
Caroline 1:34 a.m.
"other entertainments" really? you sure you dont wear a monocle?"
Caroline 1:37 a.m.
k well missed your chance to eat a person and me be totally cool with it. Have fun with your "other entertainments"
Caroline 1:45 a.m
Klaus?
Klaus 1:50 a.m.
Sorry love, Kol stole my phone and barricaded himself in the upstairs bathroom.
Klaus 1:50 a.m.
To note, we no longer have an upstairs bathroom.
2:20 a.m. now, and Klaus' restlessness was past the point of irritation. His mobile screen was shattered, the result of pulling out his phone for the 301st time, positive he had felt a vibration. Kol was banished from the mansion with the requisite dagger threats and Klaus now had only his mind for company. He wondered if she was enjoying her night, picturing her laughing with Bonnie, captivating every man in the bar. Occupying himself for a few minutes imagining the different ways he would kill her various suitors, he ended up spending a good thirty seconds on the logistics of scalping. The idea had merit.
Klaus wasn't quite sure at what point Caroline had become a permanent fixture in his thoughts. As with all things involving time and proximity, it had been a subtle shift, surprise turning to anticipation, to craving, to need. Would this warm ache in his chest return to form if time and distance were applied in reverse?
For that matter, was love the same as an appreciation of beauty? For it felt the same, and he had appreciated that since the dawn of the age; art and dance and literature, aesthetic pleasures that calmed the beast in his skin when he most wished to crawl out of it. That stutter as the heart constricts, squeezing in with the pleasure of almost-pain until it releases, spreading across the limbs, flowing through the veins, spilling out of lips in a sigh.
It is the same, this feeling, when he considers her. He would think it simply an appreciation, if it wasn't in response to things that didn't quite fit in the spectrum of beauty. How else to explain the feeling arising when she actually had the audacity to make fun of him? Or when she stood up to him without backing down? Or how the hollowed-out feeling of shame twisted his gut the night of the battle in the city, when she looked at him with fear and disgust?
Whatever this was, it was not something he wished to lose anytime soon. Klaus checked his phone for the 302nd time, saw the shattered screen, roared and dashed the phone to pieces on the asphalt below.
On his way out the door, committed now to find her and eat whomever she was talking to, Bonnie included, he heard her voice.
"Bonnie! That bitch served me vervained vodka and smirked when I choked on it."
"Yeah, I know. But you KNOW Klaus will do anything you ask, so… "
Bonnie trailed off as Caroline made the exaggerated shushing noise of the super drunk, one finger to her lips.
"SHHHHHhhh He can HEAR you." Klaus felt his lips twitch as Caroline's voice dissolved into a combination hiccup giggle.
"Who says vampires (hic) can't get drunk? NOT ME!"
Bonnie wrapped her arm around Caroline's waist and tugged. Nothing. Blowing air out through her lips she stopped, repeated the noise for her own amusement.
"Hey Klaus? Caroline's just picking her feet up and down instead of walking now and I'm too drunk to - tooo druuuunk tooooo. too drunk to. two drunk two" Bonnie and Caroline were both laughing and following Bonnie's hand as she held up two fingers and waved them back and forth in front of her face.
Klaus gave a long-suffering sigh that felt foreign in its affection and sped to the two girls, picking up a squealing Caroline over one shoulder and offering a gallantly crooked elbow to Bonnie.
~The next morning~
"He didn't tell you the best part! I performed your texts as a dramatic reading. It was a performance worthy of the Globe." Kol's grin was spread wide with his arms as he dipped into a curtain call bow, Caroline playing along with a snooty expression and golf clap while Bonnie rolled her eyes.
Klaus lifted his head from where he been pinching the bridge of his nose and snorted. "Ahh the same stage to grace us with "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Such quality work."
Kol pointed a finger at Klaus. "Exactly, you get it! Rebekah doesn't give you enough credit, I think the stick is far less up your ass than Elijah's."
A muscle in Klaus' jaw twitched and Caroline and Bonnie clamped their lips shut. Truly, no one was a better troll than Kol.
