This is set in the wonderful world where Klaus went to New Orleans just to claim back the city, not because of any other silly nonsense.
A repetitive knock on the door at 6am woke up the three girls slumbering in their dorm room. None were eager to get out of bed so early on a Monday morning.
"Will somebody get that?" Bonnie finally broke their silence after the third knock. When neither of the other two replied, Caroline smiled to herself from under the covers that she had pulled up over her head at the first knock. The first to speak was always the one who answered the door.
She could hear her gentle footsteps and muttering about lazy vampires with her sensitive hearing before the door was unlocked and opened.
"Delivery for a 'Ms. Caroline Mikaelson'?" an unfamiliar male voice asked. The blonde froze in her bed; she could hear Elena sit up in her bed at the announcement.
Letting the words sink in, Caroline finally reacted. "Seriously?" she groaned from her her covers. She didn't have to peek out to know that the other two were staring incredulously at her.
They were barely even together! The last time they had seen each other had been that day in the woods, the day which she had tried to put out of her mind but failed miserably. The two of them had carried on with a mild form of friendship; texting mailing with a few phone calls in between. Until one day they had stopped and Caroline came to realise how much she had depended on Klaus to make her day complete.
So she called him. Told him very determinedly and fiercely that she didn't appreciate being left in the cold all of a sudden (turned out he had been captured and tortured by some witches; how was she supposed to know that?) before asking if he was ok. When he had assured her that he had suffered more at the hands of her friends, she rolled her eyes and collapsed on her bed, huffing at his very sarcastic apology about 'leaving her out in the cold'. Klaus repeating her own words in his husky voice, tinged by his accent, was all that was needed for her to come to her conclusions that she needed him in her life.
Which is what she told him.
At Klaus' silence, Caroline had smirked to herself and added that if the offer still stood, then she would love to see the city he called his favorite, and the rest of the world for that matter, with the man who had promised to be her last love not so long ago. She wanted to know that their forever could still be waiting for her. He had promised her that the offer would stand for as long as she wanted, so they brokered a deal. They kept in touch, occasionally meeting up, but he didn't pressure her into leaving her life behind just yet. She still had college and her human life, or what was left of it, to finish. She owed her mother that much before she ran off to New Orleans to be with the hybrid she inexplicably ended up falling for.
He had complied without much of an argument. She should have known there and then that meant something. Because somehow, saying she'd like to try 'forever' with him had translated into them being married. Go figure. Stupid pretentious jerk. And yet, Caroline couldn't stop the grin from pulling at her lips. Even from nearly a thousand miles away, he was still as charming as he had been standing not a step away from her. Caroline Mikaelson. Oh, please.
The mere joining of two names shouldn't make her stomach flip and butterflies flutter. Its not like it was the first time she had thought it. But she guessed hearing it was something different.
"Come on in. I guess," Bonnie invited in the man at the door with some hesitation and Caroline had to look to see what the cause of it was. Pulling down the sheets to give her a view of the room and front door, she realised why. There wasn't one man, but 3. All with flowers in their hands.
"Wow," Elena exclaimed in amusement. "That's a lot of roses."
Pushing herself up in her bed, Caroline exchanged curious and surprised looks with her two best friends, wondering what was going on when the men left and reappeared once again.
"Oh, there's more," Bonnie said dryly but with a smirk, leaning against the wall near the door. Sighing, Caroline pushed aside her covers and got out of the bed to see if any of the huge bunches of roses had a card in them. "I'd ask who's sending us a whole orchid but I guess we already know that."
Caroline threw her a sarcastic smile, still rifling through the bouquets to find the correct one. If she knew Klaus, and she liked to think that she did, then there would be something waiting for her.
"That's it," one of the delivery men told them, placing the last vase on the one remaining space in their room.
"Thank you," Caroline said before Bonnie closed the door behind them. Glancing around the room with rising glee, she counted the flowers. "12 dozen. 144 red roses. Wow. I mean… wow,' she exclaimed, clapping her hands happily and practically bouncing on her toes.
"I have to admit; I'm kind of jealous," Elena mused, watching as her friend went through each bouquet with a scrunched up nose and on a hunt for something. At both hers and Bonnie's questioning look, she shrugged. "What? No one has ever sent me 144 roses to declare their love for me."
Huffing, Caroline pouted. Her mood was ruined when she spotted the little card in the fifth bunch she inspected, only to find one line written on it. It wasn't even in his own handwriting.
"That's not all he's declaring," she muttered, reading the message, 'Have a wonderful day, love', again, this time bitterly and in a mocking tone in her head. She couldn't deny it, she was disappointed. He was an artist, for goodness sake. A thousand year old artist with, if the name he had addressed the flowers to proved anything, a possessive trait. And that's all he left her with? Was he freaking kidding her?!"Stupid hybrid!"
"When are you going to tell him that you hate roses?" Bonnie asked casually as she climbed back into her own bed.
Throwing the message card to the side (making sure to see where it landed because she knew she would want to keep it when she got over her irritation), Caroline followed suit and climbed back into her own warm bed. "About the same time that I tell him that I'm not his wife," she grumbled, already reaching for her phone to text him as her head hit her soft pillow.
"I dunno, Caroline. You guys do message and talk to each other far more than anyone else," Elena comment teasingly and though a part of her was glad that her friends weren't given her such a hard time about her choice in men anymore, the other part was upset that they weren't irritated as she was.
"And don't you have a credit card in your purse with his name on it?" Bonnie added, peering at her from her own pillow. Caroline shot up and glared at the two of them, using her phone to point at them.
"Firstly, no, we do not. Its just the distance that makes it seem like we do. Secondly, that's for emergencies. And post exams shopping therapy. And maybe some new shoes. And those shades, but it was really sunny that day and vampire sight is like extra sensitive to sunlight. I mean, its meant to kill us really, you know? But he owes me that for practically stalking me for like 3 years! And thirdly, aren't you meant to be on my side?" she finished her rant with a pout, eyes still bouncing from one to the other sharply as they exchanged their own looks.
"We are on your side. You know our opinion on you and Klaus loud and clear, Caroline," Oh, she truly did. What else could she have expected after making her own opinion about Damon just as loud and clear? "But we're just calling it as we see it." Elena laughed to which Caroline merely grumbled a 'leave me alone' before finding refuge by pulling up her covers over her head once again. Alone in silence, her thoughts started to wonder and she pondered their words.
Wait, had she somehow fulfilled the role of 'wife' without even knowing it? Sure, they spoke all the time, about how their days were going, and planned the future without any hesitation, but that didn't mean anything. It was mere certainty in their relationship.
Caroline frowned. A relationship that hadn't even technically started yet. With a man that she had barely spent any meaningful time with outside of the few hours they had spent together in the woods. And yet, her future now only included him. College and then Klaus. He had began opening up to her, and she had reciprocated in a way that she was sure they hadn't done before with anyone else.
Ok, so maybe they were in a relationship. Just a long distance one. Which had virtually no physical benefits whatsoever at the time being. But they were definitely not married. At the very least, a husband would know his wife's favorite flowers.