"Caroline please try not to look so bored." The Queen commanded of her granddaughter. The blond sighed heavily, pulling herself up so that her back was straight and she looked elegant. She'd been taught to sit that way since she could climb up onto a chair for herself, but that didn't mean she enjoyed it.
Caroline Forbes, Princess of Whales had been primed and pampered for the roll of a royal but to put it bluntly, she was a horrible Princess. It wasn't that she was mean or anything it was just that she always forgot that swearing in public was not okay, she found it hard to follow the rule that she had to look perfect in every social gathering -one time she forgot to shave- and everywhere she went young girls would look up to her when she had no idea how to be a roll model.
For a long time Caroline shadowed her Grandmother Alexandria in her daily tasks and found that being Queen was well within her capabilities (that's why she was next in line. Well also, her father had passed away when she was younger and her mother Elizabeth didn't want to be Queen. She was also an only child) and so she wasn't afraid to take on the part someday.
However it was required of her to marry somebody before becoming Queen -ridiculous in her opinion- so she was being shown off to every eligible bachelor in Europe (some even from North America). It wasn't like a pageant in that sense but Queen Alexandria was dragged Caroline to every social event of the year in an attempt to find her a husband so that she could retire in two years time. Caroline was only eighteen -turning nineteen the next week but still- she didn't want to get married. This wasn't the olden days, this was the twenty first century.
Anyways, that's how she ended up trying to sit up straight in her chair watching as a band played a boring tune. The city of London was having a festival to celebrate the beginning of summer and the Queen thought Caroline should sit through the whole concert just so some single guy might see her and try to win her over.
"Sorry Grandmother but it's boring." She spoke lowly, hoping that nobody could hear her disrespect the music. The Queen pouted at her. "I don't need a husband right now, I'd rather have a dog." Soon the song ended with a gleeful clap from Caroline, which merited her a scowl from her grandmother. Honestly if she didn't want Caroline to act out, she shouldn't force her into awful situations.
Ever since Caroline was little Alexandria had treated her as if she were her own daughter, and the bond between them was unexplainable with words. It was odd to her that her own mother Liz could leave on vacation for weeks at a time but she wouldn't miss her nearly as much as if Alexandria went away for only a couple days.
After the band ended the whole crowd began to socialize. Caroline headed straight for the food table seeing as she'd been eyes the eggs on top of the potato salad the whole concert and wanted to be the first one in line. She could only picture her grandmothers disproving face. Too bad.
"Hungry are we Love?" A voice asked from behind her.
Caroline had never liked those British terms of endearment. She was British but that didn't mean she enjoyed her own language quirks. However, rolling off of his tongue the name didn't sound so cheesy. She turned towards the voice, her mouth stuffed with egg, "What are you the food police?"
The man was breathtaking. Sandy coloured, curly hair that barely reached his ears, eyes so blue that could have blended into the brightest ocean, and smile that raised higher on one side then the other. Oh yeah, and dimples. When he laughed at her comment she saw them both shining against his skin, "Well no I'm not. I'm working on a degree in architecture, not food crime."
She swallowed before she spoke again hoping he didn't find her too rude because damn, he was gorgeous. "That's upsetting to hear, the food crime rate is going through the roof." They shared mutual laughter at her horrible joke, which may have proven just how beautiful they found each other.
The man began to clear his throat, "So where do you go to school?"
She twiddled her thumbs together in front of her trying to remember her Princess training. The goal was to not make a fool of herself but she had never been good at that. "I just graduated high school, not planning on post secondary education."
He furrowed his brow, "Why's that?"
She didn't want to admit it was because she was in training to become the next Queen of England because the second the information got out, he was going to act like an idiot trying to win her over. Though she supposed if he didn't already know who she was there was a problem with his socialization skills.
So Caroline chose to brush it off, "personal issues." He decided to take her answer, and Caroline was thankful for it. "So do you usually come to these kinds of things?"
He shrugged, "Not so much, I was forced into this one. Though I can't say I'm too disappointed," his eyes roamed up and down her body making her skin crawl in such a fantastic way, "i got to meet you."
Caroline felt her face burn red, "Wow you sure know what to say to a girl." He smirked, it made her want to slap it away but at the same time she wanted to stare at it forever. "I was dragged here as well, and as long as we're admitted our feelings, I'm glad I came too." She felt herself leaning towards him.
From the corner of her eye she noticed her grandmother talking to somebody that she knew and loathed. "Sorry I have to go, maybe I'll talk with you later." She didn't really want to leave but family above all else. He bowed his head in understanding before she ran off.
Caroline reached Alexandria in record time, "hello grandmother, what's going on?" She linked her arms through the elder woman's arm to show the man in front of them that she was protective.
Alexandria smiled towards her granddaughter, "well I was just explaining to Mr. Mikaelson here that we're looking forward to seeing him at your birthday party." Caroline held back the growl that was within her. She hated the Mikaelson's more then she thought humanly possible. The only one she could tolerate was Elijah, mostly because he respected the fact that she didn't want to socialize with his family. Finn always treated her as if she were a child, Rebekah was a whining bitch most of the time and Kol never had an appropriate thing to say. Not to mention Esther and Mikael believed that they should be the royalty of England.
She bit back her hatred, "Yes we're very excited indeed." Mikael gave her a fake smile, not even trying to hide his disinterest in her birthday. "Will the whole family be coming along?"
Mikael nodded, "Oh yes all of us will be in attendance."
Alexandria grinned, "We're looking forward to it."
-o-
Caroline's birthday fast approached, her giddiness inside building like a small child's would. Alexandria promised the party would be amazing, she had never thrown a bad party before and she didn't plan to then. Even though the evening promised to be special she knew that her grandmother would make her dance with every eligible bachelor around the room in an attempt for her to find her match, and Caroline wasn't the least bit excited for it. However, she kept on a smiling face and dressed herself for the evening.
It was a gown fit for a princess, a tight corset was around her stomach and chest, with puffy blue material around her legs. Her hair was pinned into a bun with tiny white crystals all throughout her hair. She looked gorgeous in her opinion.
Her grandmother walked her into the ballroom by the arm, the moment the doors opened a thousand voices screamed happy birthday at her. Caroline smiled and waved to them all, like a Princess would. "Thank you Grandmother!" She kissed the woman on the cheek.
The happiness was short lived seeing as moments later Caroline was dancing with some Lord from some place that had bad breath and stepped on her toes. She would have given anything to be on the other side of the party, snacking on the food table.
It felt like hours later when Caroline finally spotted her friend Bonnie and broke away from he line of men her grandmother had set up for her and ran towards her. "Bonnie!" She called out with terror in her voice. "Save me from all the men."
Bonnie laughed, "never thought I'd hear somebody say that." Caroline swatted at her playfully, "your grandmother still trying to find you a match?"
Caroline nodded. She loved her grandmother to death but she didn't understand that Caroline didn't want a husband. From the corner of her eye she spotted her mysterious stranger from the other afternoon standing against a wall. "Excuse me Bonnie."
She felt as if she were in a trance like state as she made her way over to him, he hadn't seemed to notice her yet which she called having an advantage. He looked drop dead gorgeous in his suit and it took Caroline's breath away. "We meet again." She surprised him, watching him flinch whenever he noticed she was there. "Sorry!" She apologized.
He chuckled, "It's alright Love, you just gave me a fright is all." Their eyes met and Caroline felt all of the air in her lungs dispensing out. Something about him was so captivating she couldn't even comprehend it. Maybe it was the endlessness of his eyes, or the way his dimples appeared every time he smiled. "Having a good time?"
She nodded, "Yeah I danced with a bunch of strangers, it was awesome!" Caroline prayed the sarcasm was easily detected. "I'm Caroline by the way." She greeted with her hand outstretched.
"Klaus." He shook her hand, smiling down at her. Caroline couldn't help but want to roll the name off her tongue forever. "So dancing with strangers?"
"My grandmother is kind of trying to set me up with anybody that's breathing." She explained awkwwardly.
He titled his head, "She's really that invested in your relationship?" Caroline thought that perhaps this man was incredibly clueless as to what was going on around him seeing as Caroline was the Princess.
She laughed, "Yeah only the best for England."
He raised an eyebrow at her, "England?"
Caroline opened her mouth to respond but was cut off when Alexandria appeared and caught her elbow, "Caroline Dear, you're leaving the men waiting." Biggest cock block ever. Whenever she turned to look at her grandmother she noticed her expression wasn't it's usually softness but was instead replaced with disdain. The kind of look that she'd only seen before whenever she was talking to Mikael.
Speak of the devil. "Hello again Alexandria, what a pleasure seeing you." He smiled wide but it was so fake Caroline was afraid it would fall off.
Caroline moved away from her grandmother to stand closer to Klaus in the background, watching as Mikael tried to appear kind in front of Royalty. Klaus was standing stiffer then he had been before which made Caroline curious as to what was going on.
"Mikael so glad you could make it! Please tell me you've brought along the family." Caroline could feel the hatred radiating off the old woman. It made her nearly shake with fear.
The man nodded, "Of course I have, Esther, Kol, Finn, Elijah, Rebekah and I see you've met my son who's been overseas for post secondary." Mikael raised his arm and pointed past Alexandria and directly at... Klaus.
Caroline nearly threw up.
"You're a Mikaelson?" She turned on him, her mouth wide open with shock. "You didn't tell me that!"
He was watching her with an incredulously expression, "Well you're the Princess and you never thought to bring that up"
"Because I thought it was obvious!" She growled, "are you living under a rock?!"
Klaus's eyes narrowed down at her, far from the kindness he'd been showing her earlier. "Pardon me for actually studying at University instead of being lazy and waiting for my grandmother to hand me the crown!"
"You're horrible!" Her voice escalated, their faces only a couple inches from each other.
There was a hand on Caroline arm as she pulled her granddaughter away from the rival family. "Caroline that is enough!" She scolded, "Go outside and get some air."
Caroline managed to pee her glare away from Klaus so she could stomp off and let herself cool down.
-o-
She couldn't believe the nerve of Klaus. He probably knew who she was the entire time and just wanted to make a fool out of her and her grandmother. What a huge jackass. The air outside was supposed to calm her down but the more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
It only increased whenever she heard his antagonizing accent from behind her, "Feeling angry Love?"
Caroline scoffed, "Come out here to make a fool of me again?" Klaus approached her slowly, his feet dragging along the grass as he walked.
"I never meant to make a fool of you Caroline." He took a seat. Caroline stiffed at how close he suddenly was, mostly because her body was screaming that she should shuffle closer while her brain told her to run and she had no idea which one she should listen to. Wasn't there a pop song about this? "To be honest I didn't know our families had a quarrel going."
She rolled her eyes, "You had to have known I was the princess, you came to my party after all."
Klaus shrugged, "To be honest I didn't know what the princess looked like." She met his stare then, curious as to why he didn't recognize her. "I was just hoping to meet a pretty blond girl again."
Caroline felt her heart pounding out of her chest. He didn't seem to be joking -God she hoped he wasn't- and those damn dimples were making it hard for her to control her breathing. "You know," she began, "my grandmother told me that I had to dance with all the eligible bachelors." Klaus's smirk reappeared on his face, obviously understanding what Caroline was getting at. "I haven't seemed to have danced with you yet."
He chuckled at her before offering her a hand, "Would you do me the honour of a dance?"
Caroline accepted his offer, meeting his height as they faced one another. The sky had dimmed and even though Klaus's face was covered in shadows she could still make out the delicate curve of his lips and the smile in which he held. "You look handsome." She told him.
He twirled her then before bringing their bodies back together. She could feel his hand on her waist, burning through the fabric of her dress. "Well you look stunning."
Her smile was so bright it challenged the sun. "I was going to say this is kind of like Romeo and Juliet but they both thought they were in love and then they died." She winced at how stupid that sounded.
Klaus raised a curious eyebrow, "Well at least the feuding family part was right, and the romantic emotions behind it all. They were infatuated but they still felt some form of caring."
Caroline almost lost herself in the way he swayed her back and forth, "So are you saying you care for me?"
He shrugged. "Why deny things that are becoming blatantly obvious?"
-o-
Queen Alexandria watched from her step as her granddaughter Caroline danced with the son of her enemy. She'd been a fool thinking that trying to throw her into the arms of every man she met would work when obviously Caroline didn't want to be anywhere but Klaus's arms.
Mikael appeared beside her with a smug grin, "Seems we'll be closer to your money then you wanted." He bragged.
Alexandria merely chuckled, "Oh Mikael, you'd be daft to believe Klaus would give you a single cent." Mikael seemed surprised, "I don't know if you've just been caught up in your own appearance but there's no denying the fact that your children hate you. Ask anybody."
She turned back to the dancing adults on the grounds, smiling and laughing together as if nothing else in the world mattered. Which, Alexandria supposed, it didn't.