Chapter 1 – Find My Way
A/N: Hi guys! So this is my first ever fanfiction and it's been racking around my brain for months now so I just had to get it out. The setup is a lot of back and forth between flashbacks and the present since we're in a post-apocalyptic world and I think that it will make things more interesting, the flashbacks are in italics by the way. It is 100% Klaroline and is super angsty, but don't worry there will be tons of fluff in the flashbacks.
Page breaks are symbolized by the hashtags, and I'm usually pretty uptight about my spelling and grammar, but if you see a mistake PLEASE point it out to me. Reads and reviews are of course always appreciated. Okay this was too long of an author's note, off to the story! Enjoy!
#######
"You've got to be kidding me, right?"
"Kidding about what, love?" He asked, that smug smile still on his stupidly attractive face.
She rolled her eyes, barking out a sarcastic laugh as she turned her body back towards him and put her hand on her hip, the skirt of her white dress twirling in the process, making her look like some sort of sassy angel.
"Is this how you hit on all the girls? Get them to embarrass themselves then use the whole 'a beautiful girl like you must have a beautiful name' line? Well guess what, that won't work on me mister, I'm too smart for that load of crap."
He stared for a minute, the smirk never leaving his face before he burst out laughing, eyes twinkling bright. She couldn't help but stare at the man. He may have embarrassed her profusely and he had an annoying arrogance about him, but in that moment he was just a stunning man that was for some reason intrigued in her.
"Alright, alright, I apologize, love." He finally said, still smiling at her. "It appears that I mistakenly mistook you for someone that could easily be fooled by my charm. It will never happen again, I promise."
She paused for a moment. "Well good." She finally said, turning again to lean her forearms against the balcony railing. A few seconds passed and he followed suit, their arms brushing, sending a bolt of electricity against her skin.
"But I'd still like to know." He murmured after a moment of the two of them just watching the people dancing below. "Your name, that is. If you'd allow me the honor."
She chuckled, ducking her head and looking at him from under a few strands of hair. He was already looking at her intensely, his gaze never faltering.
"Caroline." She finally whispered. "My name is Caroline."
Klaus smiled widely, all of his teeth showing. "Caroline." He said slowly, tasting the name on his tongue. She couldn't help but shiver at the way he made her name sound like a prayer. "I quite like that name. Caroline."
#######
"Caroline. Caroline! Hey, Caroline!"
She woke with a start, sitting up and pulling her knife out of its sheath on her pants leg within seconds, immediately scanning her surroundings for any Infected. Her eyes were wild, she looked manic.
"Woah, woah, easy!" Katherine shouted, scrambling away from her skittish friend and holding her hands up to show she was a friendly. "It's just me, Caroline, it's Katherine. Look around you, look at where you are." She said slowly but firmly, bringing Caroline back to the present.
Caroline gasped for breath, still holding the knife handle tightly in her fist as she looked around, blonde hair whipping around her dirt smeared face. She looked to her right first, where Katherine was crouched beside her, hands up and a concerned look on her heart shaped face framed with curly brown hair. Katherine. Katherine is her friend, Katherine is not an Infected, Katherine is here right now.
Looking past Katherine, Caroline saw three figures sitting around a small fire where they were cooking something in a pot. Beans, probably. The first figure she focuses on is tall, with dark hair, a strong jawline, and leaned against someone who looks like Katherine. Damon, that's Damon, her friend. The Katherine lookalike is Elena, Katherine's twin sister. She's known Elena since she was six years old, she does not have to be afraid of Elena. The third figure is Alaric, he is stirring the beans. Alaric would never hurt her, Alaric is her friend. None of them are an Infected, they are all here right now.
Jerking her head to the left when she hears loud laughter, Caroline's fist tightens on the knife so much it hurts her knuckles.
"Relax," Katherine says calmly, edging towards her friend, "It's just Kol being Kol."
Kol. Caroline sees Kol, he is throwing a stick at Bonnie and laughing loudly. Bonnie, Kol's girlfriend. Bonnie and Kol are her friends, they are not an Infected.
"You with me, Care?" Katherine asks after a few seconds when Caroline does not let go of the iron grip on her weapon of choice. "Caroline, come back. We're all right here, you're safe."
Caroline stares up at Katherine for about three seconds before she finally relaxes, releasing her knife and letting out a deep breath as she puts it back in its sheath.
Katherine let out the breath she had been holding too, sitting on the ground beside Caroline.
"Jesus Caroline, I thought you were gonna throat stab me there for a second." Her friend grumbled, wiping off the dirt from her hands on her jeans leg. Which is futile, because her jeans are just as dirty.
"Oh shutup, you know I wouldn't do that." Caroline murmured, running her hands through her grimy hair and resting her elbows on her drawn up knees, taking deep breaths to calm down. "I just…"
"Had to be brought back to the present?" Katherine finished for her rudely. Caroline glared at her. "Hey, don't look at me like that, everyone knows it's true. You space out, go somewhere else, and then get this crazy look in your eyes like we're all an Infected and you have to slit our throats."
Caroline sighed heavily, pulling out some dead grass from the ground. "I would never hurt any of you guys." She said quietly.
"I know that, Care, we all know that." Katherine said. "At least not in your right mind. But when you space out like that, there's no telling what you could do. You've got to get over this thing of yours Caroline." She said firmly, taking Caroline's chin and turning it towards her, a fierce look in her deep brown eyes. "We need you to be on top of your game. If any of us isn't focused enough, it could mean we die."
"I know, Katherine." Caroline snapped, jerking her chin out of her friend's hold and glaring before looking back down. The permanent blood stains on her brown combat boots caught her eye.
"Look," Katherine said in a much softer tone after a few tense seconds. "I miss them too."
Caroline sucked in a breath at the flash of pain that radiated across her chest as Katherine mentioned them.
"I think about Elijah every single day." She continued. "I wonder if he's alive, if he's an Infected, if he's looking for me. And it hurts, Caroline. He's my husband for God's sake, and we only got to be married for two months before The Outbreak and now I don't know if I'll ever even see him again."
Caroline ached for her childhood friend who was actually showing emotion for once. Ever since The Outbreak, when everyone was separated with no way to contact one another, Katherine had become fiercer than usual. She never talked about Elijah, which was fine with Caroline because it kept her from thinking about him. Katherine simply focused on survival. And that's what she was: a survivor.
But now Katherine was talking about the one thing that hurt her the most because Caroline was slowly losing it, and she knew it too. It had been eight months since The Outbreak and they had no idea if they were any closer to getting back to New York, or even if their loved ones were even still in New York. They were currently somewhere in Indiana, the journey from Chicago taking so long since they had to stop every night and hide from the Infected when they came out to play. Daylight was the only safe time to travel, when the Infected were hiding from the sun.
"Look," Katherine started again, "All I'm trying to say is that you're one of our best fighters Care." She said sincerely, taking Caroline's hand in her own. "And we need you, all of us do. You've saved each one of us from becoming a raging, murderous, skin-peeling-off, red eyed zombie multiple times."
Caroline couldn't help but chuckle at that, turning to look at her friend. "You forgot cannibalistic."
"Oh of course!" Katherine shouted sarcastically. "How could I ever forget cannibalistic?"
Caroline laughed even harder at that, shaking her head. Katherine had a way of doing that, making her laugh when she just wanted to scream, or cry.
"So get it together." Katherine said quietly after they finally stopped laughing. Caroline looked at her friend, noting the bags under her eyes, the dirt smear on her forehead, the cut on her chin from where she fell a few days ago running from an Infected whose head was eventually cut off by Katherine and Elena's brother Jeremy. "We need you. And our boys need us too."
Caroline closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Don't, Katherine, don't go there."
"I will go there, okay? The only way we're going to make it to Klaus and Elijah is if-"
"Don't say his name, Katherine!" Caroline begged, eyes wide and crazy. "I can't hear it okay, it hurts too much. You yourself just said that you don't even know if Elijah is alive or an Infected or what! So why bother?"
"Because we have to have hope." Katherine said firmly, lips pursed. "I have to believe that my husband is looking for me just as hard as I'm looking for him. And you have to believe that about Klaus too."
Caroline didn't speak for a few seconds. She listened to the sounds of the camp they had briefly set up before they had to move again to avoid the Infected at night. Damon was saying something snarky to Alaric and Elena laughed. Kol was climbing a tree and Bonnie was scolding him for it. Jeremy was sharpening his new sword that he stole from an abandoned pawn shop a few days ago. And Katherine was sitting beside her on the ground, the both of them with hearts heavy over the men they loved, the Mikaelson brothers who had taken their broken pieces and put them back together.
And neither of the girls knew if they would ever see them alive again.
#######
"Now Stefan tell me, who is that lovely creature in the white dress?" Niklaus Mikaelson asked his business partner Stefan Salvatore as they both got their Bourbons from the bartender.
"Who?" Stefan asked, looking in the direction Klaus was gazing. "Oh, no, no, no." He shook his head, throwing back his drink. "You don't get to talk to her, just stay away from that one."
"Excuse me?" Klaus asked indignantly. "I'm your boss, you don't get to tell me what ladies I can and cannot accost."
"Okay first of all," Stefan said, "No one says accost anymore. Second of all, you're not my boss, you stole me away from my brother's law firm to be your partner, remember? And thirdly, I will tell you not to mess with that girl." He pointed his glass at the blonde beauty Klaus had been eyeing for the last five minutes, leaned against the balcony railing and staring down at the people dancing below with a rather venomous gaze. "She's a friend of mine, and trust me, she's not your type."
"Oh and what's my type?" Klaus asked with a roll of his eyes.
"Oh I don't know, stupid, fake breasts, runway model, doesn't stay for breakfast, that type."
Klaus scoffed, looking back at the mystery girl. She was downright stunning, her modest white dress accentuating her curves, high heels showing off those long, sinful legs. He hadn't got a glimpse of her eyes but he would guess that they were blue to go with her fair skin and wavy blonde hair. She was absolutely divine, breathtaking even. And he wanted to talk to her.
"Alright, let me put it this way," Stefan spoke, pulling Klaus away from his thoughts, "I organized this Christmas party for all of our clients, I pulled it all together myself with no help from you. So I am asking you politely to please not hit on my guest who is very dear to me. Got it?"
Before Klaus could respond, Damon Salvatore sauntered up behind his brother, putting his hands on Stefan's shoulders roughly.
"Stefan! So glad I could find you, quick question, why didn't you tell me that Lexi would be here?"
Stefan rolled his eyes, turning to look at his brother, eyebrows furrowing at his unstraightened black tie.
"Because, Damon, I didn't think I had to. Lexi's my friend, and just because you broke her heart and made her hate you five years ago doesn't mean I'm not going to ask her to come to my business's Christmas party."
Damon wrinkled his nose. "Yeah okay, whatever Mr. Holier Than Thou. But you see, your 'best bud' has taken it upon herself to try and be friends with Elena, and I'd rather the love of my life not hear even more about my not so fresh past if you catch my drift."
As the brothers continued their bickering, Klaus downed the rest of his drink and very quietly slipped away from the bar and towards the balcony where the blonde beauty was still standing. His eyes travelled over her slight yet curvy frame as he approached her.
"Now what did that railing ever do to you?" He asked teasingly, making the girl jump and release her tight grip on the railing.
She turned to look at him with wide eyes, her curled hair framing her lovely face. Klaus was momentarily stunned, she was even more beautiful up close. He had been right about her eyes, blue with flecks of gold and absolutely captivating. Her cheeks were flushed red and her lips covered in some sort of pink gloss. She was divine.
"What? Oh, nothing." She said quickly, her voice like a bell. She looked back down at her freshly manicured hands sheepishly. "I just uh, not having the best night, you know?"
"No actually I don't know." Klaus replied in his smooth accent, leaning against the railing beside her. "Care to explain?"
The beauty bit her lip for a second before sighing. "Well okay, see I didn't even want to come to this stupid party but my best friend Stefan asked me to, he's like, partners with the guys who own this company. I've never met any of the actual owners but if you ask me they seem like snobs since this party is in a freaking mansion of all places. I mean when I hear Christmas party I'm thinking hot chocolate and sugar cookies, not champagne and baked salmon."
Klaus had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing, this girl obviously had no idea that he was one of the 'snobs' that owned this company, along with his brothers and sister. Well, brothers minus one, Kol didn't count since he moved to Chicago.
"But anyways," she continued her rambling, "My ex-boyfriend is down there on the dance floor with his new girlfriend, over there on the left side. He's in a black suit, duh, and she's in a green dress, the blonde haired one wearing way too much makeup." She pointed and Klaus looked down. He wanted to laugh yet again, she was pointing at none other than his sister Rebekah and her new beau Matt. Huh, interesting. He hummed, tilting his chin down.
"Right?" She said in a disgusted tone, mistaking his reaction for intrigue rather than amusement. "She's actually one of those snobs that owns this place, rich brat. But the guy is my ex, Matt We dated in high school but broke up when I came here to go to NYU – I'm an interior design major – and now that he's moved to the city and opened his own bar we tried to date again but he dumped me for her! But I mean it's not that big of a deal because I was going to break up with him anyways, but seriously? Her? A spoiled rich brat that has really good fashion taste and is actually kind of nice? Ugh! I'd rather he date some sleazy hag so I could really hate her."
She crossed her arms and pursed her lips, burning holes into his sister's back. Klaus was stunned for a moment before he started laughing, shaking his head. The girl turned to him quickly, an annoyed look on her face.
"What?" She asked incredulously.
"Oh, nothing, darling, nothing. It's just that when most people talk about my sister, they hate her for reasons other than being likable." He teased, smirking as he waited for her to figure it out.
"Wait, what? Sister? I don't…" She trailed off, looking down at Rebekah for a moment before her eyes got wide and her jaw dropped. "Oh my gosh!" She shouted, taking a step back and covering her mouth. "I'm so sorry, you must be one of the Mikaelsons, I didn't mean to offend you, and I was just kidding about Rebekah wearing too much makeup, and oh my gosh I just trash talked your baked salmon."
Klaus chuckled yet again, smiling wider than he had in a long time. "It's alright love, really. Honestly though, if it were my choice we wouldn't be having this party at all, it's more my brother Elijah and your friend Stefan's doing."
Caroline gulped, biting her lip as Klaus stared at the flush in her cheeks. She truly was beautiful.
It was quiet for a few seconds, Caroline mulling in her embarrassment and Klaus staring at her unabashedly. He decided right then and there that this blonde beauty who rambled and saw the good parts of people she had every reason to dislike, this girl was the kind of girl he wanted in his life. He wanted to know her.
"So love, tell me, a beautiful girl like you must have a beautiful name."
"You've got to be kidding me, right?"
#######
"Dammit Rebekah, what were you thinking?" Klaus shouted, throwing his empty gun to the ground in a rage.
"What was I thinking?" Rebekah scoffed, trailing after him through the abandoned streets, tripping over a pothole in the road. "I was thinking that Lexi is sick and needed that medication! What else was I supposed to do, just sit and-"
"Yes." Klaus interrupted her, spinning around and stopping her in her tracks, glaring down at his little sister. "You were supposed to just sit and let us take care of it. Not go running inside a damn pharmacy on a rescue mission by yourself without telling anyone! Did you not even think that those creatures would be in there ready to tear you to shreds? They hide inside buildings just like that during the day!"
"I know that Nik!" Rebekah shouted back at him, tears welling up in her eyes as they always did when she was angry or hurt. In this case, both. "We've been running from those things for eight months don't you think I know how this works? But you nor Elijah would have listened to stupid little me and I won't watch another person die! I can't! Especially not Lexi, you see how much she means to Stefan!"
Klaus sighed, turning away from Rebekah and rubbing his hands over his dirt covered face. He loved his little sister with all his heart, but she had a tendency to put herself in particularly life threatening situations too often for his liking. A few months ago she had run after a child that was obviously carrying the virus and Elijah had to tackle her to the ground before killing the child himself and dragging her away. Or like two weeks ago the group had traded supplies with a man whose nose had just started bleeding – the first sign of the virus. Rebekah pleaded with the man to join them, and Matt had to pull her away and console her when Klaus cut off his head.
And now this. Lexi is sick, and Rebekah took it upon herself to go running into a pharmacy – abandoned, like everything else – to try and find medicine for her. Seemingly uncaring of the fact that the Infected hide in places like that during the daytime to avoid the sun burning their flaky skin.
"I won't apologize Nik." Rebekah's voice trembled. Her brother stopped in his tracks, not turning around to look at her. "I won't apologize for trying to save our friend's life."
"She is not our friend, Rebekah!" He exploded, rounding on her once again, ignoring the pang in his chest when she stepped away from him out of fear. "This is the bloody apocalypse, we don't have friends! We can't trust anyone, not even ourselves! In five minutes she could have the virus and be trying to kill us for all we know!"
The tears finally started running down Rebekah's face and Klaus immediately softened.
"Bekah –"
"Niklaus? Rebekah?" Elijah's voice rang out, and the two turned to face their older sibling as he walked up to them on the street, his face rugged and worn, upper arm wrapped in a tourniquet from where an Infected had thrown him against a wall with nails sticking out of it. It would never cease to be odd to Klaus seeing his older brother rugged and worn down and not so put together like he always was before The Outbreak, wearing cargo pants and combat boots and a ripped shirt instead of an Armani suit and tie. But his sophisticated posture and speech had never changed despite the times.
"What is going on here?" Elijah asked calmly, coming to stand in between his always feuding siblings. "What happened?"
"I'll tell you what happened 'Lijah." Klaus said all too cheerfully. "Our beloved sister here almost got herself killed yet again! This time she ran into that old pharmacy by herself, if I hadn't heard her calling for help she would either be dead or have the virus so just be glad –"
"Oh shut up Nik!" Rebekah interrupted. "No one else is doing anything to save Lexi, and I am not some incompetent child!"
"Really now? Because it certainly seems like you're throwing a child-like temper tantrum Bekah!"
"Enough!" Elijah silenced them both, his authoritative voice making Klaus and Elijah both look down. "You're both acting like children. Rebekah, how many times do we have to tell you not to go into buildings without someone else? You know better, that's where they hide. Did you even think about what would have happened to us if you were infected?" Rebekah looked down shamefully. "And Niklaus," he turned to his brother, "Rebekah is fully capable of taking care of herself despite her occasional rash decisions, lest you forget she's saved your life a time or two."
Klaus turned away, not making eye contact with Rebekah. Elijah was right, his sister had saved his life from an Infected more than once, many times actually. The Outbreak had hardened her, made her strong where she had previously been weak. But her tender heart was still there where his has blackened, and that's what got her into trouble so often.
"So I suggest you not reprimand her so." Elijah continued. "We are all wearing thin, Matt, Stefan, and Lexi included. But we have to keep our end goal in mind, finding our family."
Klaus visibly tensed as he thought about Caroline. Elijah was obviously thinking about his wife Katherine and of course their brother Kol, both whom Klaus loved also – well, he loved Katherine sometimes. But there was never a time that Caroline was not on his mind. His right hand instinctively moved to touch his left wrist, where a plain white string was resting like a bracelet. It was all he had to remember her by, not a picture or any other item. He had tried to go to her apartment a few days after The Outbreak initially happened, but it had been completely destroyed by one of the government bombings. Before the government collapsed, of course.
"You're right, Elijah." Rebekah said softly, bringing Klaus out of his thoughts. "I wasn't thinking clearly, I'm sorry. I just…we have to do something for Lexi."
"And we will." Elijah assured her immediately. "But we will do it the right way, the way that no one else gets killed. We'll travel towards the city tomorrow, and find someone that we can trade with."
"What do we have to trade?" Klaus asked in accusation. "I just used our last bullets on Bekah's friends at the pharmacy! We can't give anyone any food because we haven't any ourselves and oh – I forgot, we traded our last gallon of gasoline for the food we had to leave behind when our dear sister's boyfriend had us running from a group of bloody zombies for two miles!" He growled.
"That was not Matt's fault and you know it!" Rebekah screamed.
"Enough!" Elijah shouted yet again, even louder than before. "Rebekah, go find Matt."
"But –"
"Now, Rebekah."
Their sister knew that there was no arguing with Elijah at that point, and she huffed and stomped off, but not before throwing the finger to Klaus.
"Oh very mature, Bekah!" He shouted back at her, to which she just turned around and stuck out her tongue. "What was it you were saying about her being an adult now, 'Lijah?"
"Be quiet, Niklaus." Elijah replied. "She is 21 and you treat her like an adolescent. A 21 year old, mind you, that is going through the same hardships that we are."
"You know that isn't true just as well as I do, Elijah. She has her little quarterback, we are the ones missing someone."
"You think she doesn't miss them just as much as we do?" Elijah asked rhetorically. "She adores Katerina, looks up to her even."
Klaus rolled his eyes. He used to think Elijah called Katherine by her birth given name just to irritate her – because it did – but even after being separated for eight months he still referred to her as such.
"Not to mention that she had finally started to think of Caroline as family, even said so much many times."
"It's not the same, and you know it." Klaus mumbled harshly.
"I do know that." Elijah said, ever the calm one in their arguments. "But it doesn't make her pain any more insignificant. It would do you well to remember that."
Klaus was silent, sighing as he looked at his older brother. For the past eight months Elijah had never wavered, he had always been strong, he had always been collected. Every other one of them had broken down multiple times, screaming, crying, shaking their fist at the sky over this apocalypse and the tolls it had taken on their lives. Seeing death and destruction at every turn, not knowing if you would make it another day, it tore at their very souls. Yet Elijah had never fallen apart.
"How do you do it?" Klaus asked quietly. Elijah cocked his head to the side in question. "How do you make it every day? How do you keep that damned level head of yours when we could all die tomorrow?"
The corner of Elijah's mouth pulled up slightly as he put his dirty hands in his pockets, rigid posture never slackening. He looked down at his feet for a moment before looking back at Klaus.
"I think of her." He said with brutal honesty. "I think of how much I have to get back to her. I think of how much I love her, how much I need to see her again. And I do what I must to find her because I know she's doing the same for me."
Klaus scoffed. "Oh please, Elijah, you don't even know if she's alive."
"Oh I know." He said, not even a hint of doubt in his voice. "Katerina Petrova is fierce in every aspect of her life, and I know survival is no different. I am sure of her well-being."
"And yet you worry for her still?"
"Of course I worry, she is my wife. I worried for her before all of this," he gestured to the crumbling town around them, "happened. I will always worry for her. But Katerina is capable of anything. She's headstrong, she won't be going down without a fight. And that's why I also know that Caroline is alive as well."
Klaus snapped his head up to look at his brother when her name was mentioned.
"You're so sure?" He hissed. "You nor I were there to protect either of them, she could be dead or an Infected right now!"
"Katerina would sooner die than see anything happen to Caroline, you know this. And because my Katerina has no desire to die anytime soon, I can safely say that Caroline is alive." Elijah said, not affected by his brother's outburst.
Klaus went silent, thinking about Caroline. His sweet Caroline, so optimistic and bright, always finding joy even in the bleakest of situations. If she were with him now, even the apocalypse wouldn't be so hard to handle. But curse his misfortune, of course she had flown out to Chicago the day before The Outbreak with Katherine and Elena to see their Aunt Jenna. He briefly wondered if she was with his brother Kol. Then he wondered even more briefly if it made him an awful human being if he thought of his girlfriend more than he thought of his youngest brother. Because the answer was probably yes.
"Have heart, brother." Elijah said seriously, stepping up to Klaus and placing a hand on his shoulder. Klaus glanced at the blood soaked tourniquet on his brother's arm, the dirt smeared on his face, the scars on his chest from where his shirt was ripped. "We will find our way back to our family. All of our family. Have faith."
Klaus looked up at his older brother, remembering all the times that he had heart that phrase as a child, when Elijah would comfort him every time their father – no, Elijah's father – would give him yet another bruise, or battle scar. Elijah would always say to have faith, things would get better. And they did. Elijah had never failed him, never left him. They stayed together, always and forever.
Suddenly, the two brothers heard inhuman shouts from what seemed to be a few blocks east of them. The sun was about to set, and that meant the Infected were bound to be out soon. They needed to find somewhere to hide, stockpile what weapons they had to make it through the night.
Klaus absently thumbed the white string around his wrist again, remembering the promise he had made to someone very special what felt like very long ago, but actually wasn't.
"I'll find you, Caroline." He whispered to himself, not caring if Elijah heard or not. "I'll always find my way back to you."
#######
A/N: Read and review! Please!