"Niklaus, tell me you at least plan on informing her." Elijah pestered, the two of them standing in the town square, trying their best to avoid partaking in the festivities.
Mystic Falls has always been quite the place for holiday celebration, and that just about doubled when Caroline and Rebekah became teenager's and joined every committee imaginable. Their do it all attitude has yet to waver even now that they no longer reside in Mystic Falls, but attend their respective universities in New York City.
"Of course he's gonna tell her, he's gonna have to if he wants to prevent a meltdown." Kol teased, walking up to the two brother's holding a cup of coffee.
Klaus grumbled under his breath at their incessant taunting of his current situation.
"Would you believe me if I said I was nervous?" He spoke softly, rolling his eyes as Kol choked back a laugh.
"Of course I believe you, because you should be." Kol started. "You guys having had a falling out was your doing, and now three years later, you're starting graduate school at her university. If you weren't nervous, I'd have asked what sorcery was at play."
Klaus ran his hands over his face and mumbled. Sadly, everything Kol was saying was true. He and Caroline had been great friends-best friends, actually-since they were kids. He was a year older, and in High School they had quite the nack for dancing around their feelings, neither having acted on them.
At least that was the case, until he came home for the holiday's after his first semester at Stanford while Caroline was a senior in High School, and they'd taken quite a few leaps in one go, sleeping with each other being the end result.
Truth be told, he doesn't at all regret having done so, but his course of action's shortly after could've certainly been far more calculated-humane even. Caroline was an all or nothing kind of person, which he explicitly knew after having known her for so long. He was an asshole to her, that much was known, by pretty much the whole town.
So when at the end of break he told her he didn't think starting a full relationship, as he was all the way in California, was a good idea? Needless to say she wasn't at all happy with him. It was that day almost three years ago to the date, that she ceased speaking to him.
A few month's later she began attending Columbia University, thus making her lack of concern with him far easier as they were on complete opposite side's of the country. A fact that was just about to change, seeing as he just achieved his B.A after four and a half years (due to one semester he spent studying abroad in Rome) and was now set to begin Graduate School...at Columbia.
Now that he was back home visiting for the holiday's before relocating in the spring, he still has one matter to handle-telling Caroline.
"Yes, I surmise Caroline won't handle this information well. However, I've always known her to be a fairly reasonable person." Elijah added.
Klaus rolled his eyes, his brother's situation with Caroline was far different than his.
"Easy for you to say, she has dinner with you, Kol, and Finn once a month." He mumbled, blowing air into his cupped hands for warmth.
"And with their wives every other week. Sage and Katherine adore Caroline" Kol noted. "Plus, Rebekah is her roommate now that she goes to F.I.T." He concluded.
Klaus groaned once more, not having fully comprehended just how much she was involved in his family's lives outside of Mystic Falls. His groans continued as he caught a glimpse of that all too familiar blonde head of curls. He couldn't help the small smile that etched onto his face, one that quickly fell as he took in the dark haired man whose arm she was latched onto, his younger sister trailing behind them.
"Nik!" Rebekah yelled out from across the square, leaving Caroline and this man behind as they trotted towards Liz Forbes, Caroline's mother, who was stationed at the Mystic Falls P.D booth.
He held his arms out, catching his sister who flung herself into hugging him.
"Bekah, eager as always." He teased, taking in her red peacoat, a black wool hat resting atop her straight blonde locks.
"Don't be an ass." She retorted, stepping out of his embrace and gravitating towards their older brother and embracing him.
"Rebekah." He greeted, "How was your flight?" He said, watching her move on to hug Kol.
"Well, unbeknownst to me, Caroline had booked our flights in coach." She began. "Thankfully, I found out and upgraded our seats, otherwise what a nightmare that'd have been."
Klaus and his brother's all bore the same expression at their younger sister's dramatics, but yet couldn't help the smile either.
"I did offer to bring you with me on the company jet earlier this week." Elijah noted.
"Yes, and that'd have been lovely, but we're not all hot-shot executives, some of us had finals, you know." She snapped.
"What type of test's could a fashion school possibly conduct?" Kol wondered out loud, earning stifled giggles from the other two.
"I'll remember that the next time you want me to design a one of a kind dress for whatever conquest your infatuated with so that you can impress her." She threatened, her eyes narrowing in seriousness.
"Now Bekah, there's no need to be hasty." He pleaded.
"Rebekah, who is that bloke that Caroline is presenting to her mother?" Klaus interrupted, having snapped out of the conversation with his siblings by the sound of Caroline laughing.
"The lot of you will never change, will you?" She asked. "I-your sister-have been here for five minutes, how about you bloody well ask me how I'm doing." She said, frustrated but not at all surprised. "Not that it's any of your business, and it isn't, that's Enzo. He's our roommate, goes to school with Caroline. His family is in England for the holidays visiting relatives, and you know Caroline, a southern belle to the core, so she offered her hospitality for Christmas." She informed, attempting to hide the tone of fondness in her voice when she spoke of him.
Klaus grumbled, a sultry look now on his face.
"Speaking of Caroline, when are you gonna tell her you're invading her life?" She continued, receiving an exasperated sigh from Klaus.
"I'm not invading it-"
"Oh, I beg to differ." Kol teased, his laugh cut short at the look his brother shot him.
"Columbia has the program I need for graduate school. Beside's you're all there in New York, Kol's transferred from Tulane to NYU last fall, is it hard to believe I want to live closer to my family?" He tried.
"Yes." The three of them agreed, proceeding to erupt in a fit of laughter soon after, watching Klaus stare longingly at his childhood crush.
Caroline stood in the line to buy some kettle corn, looking around for her co-pilot, when the very reason she needed one, creeped up on her.
"Hello, love." She heard Klaus say softly, her entire body freezing for reasons other than the weather.
Turning around slowly she couldn't help how her breath hitched at the sight of him. It's been years since she's fully faced him, and truth be told, she could have maintained such circumstances for several more years.
After regulating in her mind what she agreed her stance on his appearance should be, she composed the expression on her face.
"What do you want, Klaus?" She asked, trying not to get caught up in how much of an effect on her he still had. The circumstance between them be it that they may, she'll never forget how tender and loving he was during their tryst. It was in part why she had such a difficult time grasping how they ended up the way they did. That, and that he was supposed to be one of her best friend's, yet he was all too willing to forget and ignore what had transpired between them.
"To greet an old friend, I suppose. After all it is Christmas time." He eased into, wincing at her total deadpanned expression.
He didn't know how he was gonna tell her that she'd have to see him weekly, when it was exceedingly notable she could hardly look at him now.
"We haven't been friend's in a long time. You made sure of that." She noted bitterly.
"If I recall correctly, it was you who ended all contact with me." He tried to pointlessly defend, earning a loud scoff in return.
"Seriously?" She gritted out, moving closer towards him. "I'm not the one who used their supposed friend and then tried to gloss right over it. Ending contact with you is something I did for me, because everytime I look at you, I-you know what? I don't owe you any explanations." She said, turning around to face the front of the line.
"I'm starting grad school at Columbia in the spring." He blurted out in a panic.
Klaus could see Caroline's shoulders tense up, her body quick to whirl back around, a wicked smile on her face.
"Columbia is a large campus, and New York City is one of the busiest cities in the world, to be honest I'll doubt I'd even see you around." She said. "Is that all?" She dismissed, trying to peek over his head at the sight of Enzo waiting in line for coffee.
Klaus nodded somberly, his insides churning at her reluctance to give him the time of day, even though that he deserved as such.
"Great. Happy Holiday's, Klaus." She extended to him before side-stepping around him and out of the line to catch up to Enzo. Leaving behind a decimated former friend.
Caroline sprinted in her heeled boots up to Enzo who was aimlessly failing at not trying to look suspicious.
"Where the hell have you been?" She whispered, ignoring the slight jump he gave at the sound of her voice.
"I was-with Bekah, I'll save you the details." He said, smiling at Caroline's grimace of disgust seeing as how she clearly knew what he meant. "Saw you talking to your guy. I thought the plan was the exact opposite of that?"
"He's not my guy, Enzo." She hissed out. "Did Rebekah tell you he was starting at Columbia in the spring? There's no way she didn't know, I'll kill her." She continued, while nervously glancing around to make sure there were no signs of him reappearing.
"Ouch, what'd you tell him?"
"I acted like it was no big deal, obviously." She quickly answered.
"Even though you're in love with the very man you hate?" He poked.
"You know, I don't tell Rebekah these things so that she can blab it to you!" She yelled, giving him a whack on the arm.
"Come on gorgeous, acknowledge good ol' pillow talk." He defended,"And I don't see you hitting her over this." He whined.
"Enzo, will you shut up? Also, if I were you I'd act just a tad bit more concerned about this." She realized, smirking at the confused look on his face. "Now that Klaus is moving to New York, Bekah will have all her brother's living in the same place again, and that means, it's time to spill about the two of you. Not to mention the fact you already live together." She said.
"Oh damn." he uttered in realization.
"Time to face the Mikaelson family firing squad, aka all four of Rebekah's brother's." She said smugly.
"Can't you drop some hints about what a delightful bloke I am?" He asked, rolling his eyes at her giggles that preceded his request.
"I'm not using my monthly dinners with Finn, Elijah, and Kol to butter you up to them. Besides, they already like you."
"Yeah, they like me as your friend. Doubt the same sentiments will apply when they learn I'm dating their only sister." He gritted nervously.
"Will you relax? You know, you better not let your girlfriend hear you talk like this. She's always struggled to find a guy that wouldn't run at the sight of her brother's, she thinks she's finally found that in you. So don't screw it up." She lectured. "Anyway, the only one you really need to worry about is Klaus." She revealed, much to his dismay.
"The one who probably thinks I'm dating you?!" He half-yelled.
Caroline grimaced in her nod.
"Yeah...we really should've thought this through better."
It was Christmas morning in the Forbes household, Caroline was curled up on her couch with hot chocolate, Enzo sitting across from her. Almost all the present's having been opened, a mess of wrapping paper all over the living room.
"Oh, there's one more left, and it's got your name on it, gorgeous." He said, an eyebrow raised at the odd looking present, even though he remembered Rebekah having snuck it in last night during dinner.
Caroline's face contorted in confusion, taking in the battered and stained wrapping paper that surrounded the square shaped box. The paper tore away easily, revealing a mahogany box with a see-through lid, through which she could see rolls of paper, and in the center-an envelope. Slowly reaching down she took in the worn edges of the paper, the running ink in the print of her name on the front, flipping it over she peeled it open and unfolded the paper inside. Letting out a shaky breath she read slowly.
Dear Caroline,
I'm sitting in my dorm writing this, took my last final in my first semester of college this morning, I'm immensely relieved. I get on a plane to come home tomorrow, and I'm exceedingly anxious.
I miss picking you up for school every morning, and dropping you off in the afternoon. I miss seeing you at cheerleading practice. I miss you helping me study because we were in the same classes. I miss everything about you.
I've spent quite a bit of this semester sketching you, I'm hoping by Christmas I'll have worked up the courage to show them to you, as well as this letter.
Fondly,
Klaus
Caroline placed the letter down in front of her, looking at the dozen's of rolled up pieces of parchment, her shaky hand reaching into the box and pulling one out. Untying the piece of string she eagerly unrolled the paper and gasped.
There etched beautifully onto paper was her face, she reached in and pulled out another after another, her breath catching as she took in each drawing, the tears she'd been holding back finally pooling around her eyes.
Enzo looked at her questioningly, before standing up to look at the contents that lay in her lap. He whistled softly, glancing eerily at the stunned blonde sitting with her legs crossed and motionless.
Grasping one of the drawings and picking up the letter, Caroline raced to the door, threw on her coat and grabbed her car keys before she exited her house in a sprint.
Enzo quickly pulled out his phone, sending a text to Rebekah.
'Whatever you did, it worked.'
Klaus was sitting in the study by the entrance to the Mikaelson Mansion, a glass of bourbon in his hand, apartment listings in the other. After opening present's with his family, they seemingly dispersed, never having been one's to spend the entire Christmas day together.
He kept getting slightly distracted at the sight of the snow falling outside. He'd become unaccustomed to snow since having lived in California, but he was looking forward to becoming reacquainted with it now that he'd be moving to New York.
He frowned when the doorbell rang providing a further distraction. Sighing in annoyance he begrudgingly stood up and made his way to door, hurling it open, wondering who could possibly be visiting on this day.
At the sight of her, his anger disappeared. For there at his front door stood Caroline, coat unbuttoned, her Christmas PJ's visible underneath, her cheeks pink from the cold, and her hair damp from the snow.
Klaus gaped, not knowing what to make of the situation.
"Caroline wha-"
"Why didn't you give this to me four years ago?" She interrupted, shoving the pieces of paper in her hands into his face. The anger in her eyes evident.
Klaus took the paper's she was holding out, his mouth dropping at the sight of what they were.
"How did you get these?" He wondered, his chest tightening as her face fell apart.
"Oh god, what does it matter?!" She yelled. "I want to know why you wrote and drew this, but yet things between us went the way they did. Because the whole ride over here I've been trying to make sense of it, and I can't." She sobbed, tears falling freely down her cheeks. "You hurt me, Klaus. More than I ever thought you'd be capable of. And after reading this, I want to know why." She demanded, wiping at her tears.
Klaus looked down in shame, amongst many other emotions.
"I love you, Caroline." He blurted out, her eyes widening in surprise. "I always have." He continued. "When I came back from school, and we'd fallen back into our pattern, I had every intention of telling you. But then I realized that it would've never worked. I was all the way in California, I knew you hadn't applied to any school's there. I was terrified, Caroline." He said.
"I was terrified that if we'd attempted to do this at long-distance it would've been over before it ever began, and that scared me more than not having you at all." He revealed.
"So what, you just made the decision for the both of us?" She asked. "You had your go at me and that was all you needed so why bother with a relationship, right?"
"No." He whispered, defeated.
"So then what, Klaus?!" She screamed. "Why not even give us the chance to try?" She asked softly.
"It may not have panned out, and I'm a coward who wasn't willing to take the risk." He answered. "I always knew that if I were ever given a chance with you, I'd give it everything I had, and I just couldn't do that all the way in California. It wouldn't have been fair to you." He finished, reaching up to wipe the falling tears from Caroline's face.
"What you did do wasn't fair to me either, you know." She retorted.
"I know." He acknowledged. "And I'm sorry. Once I made my decision I hadn't intended for us to go down that route. But I'm not sure if you're aware, you're quite irresistible, sweetheart." He said, his heart fluttering at the small smile now etched on her face.
"So I've been told."
Klaus scowled, remembering that she did come home with someone this time.
"Not by that Enzo bloke, I hope." He eased into.
"And how is it that you know his name?" She asked, pulling her face out of his hands.
"Rebekah was quite the informant on him." He said, eyebrow raising at her giggling soon after.
"Well I should hope so, seeing as how he's her boyfriend." She revealed, taking great pleasure in the dumbfounded look on Klaus' face.
"Quite the Christmas full of truth's, isn't it?" He said lightly.
Caroline pondered what she was about to say before getting straight to it.
"Did you mean what you said, about loving me?" She asked bluntly.
"I may have omitted several things to you in the past, but you can trust that I'd never lie to you." He confirmed.
Caroline took a deep breath before leaping up and pressing her lips to his, her arms lacing their way around his neck.
Klaus stood frozen for a mere moment before wrapping his arms up her back, pressing her tightly to his chest, his tongue pushing for entry into her mouth.
She moaned softly before granting him access, her hands moving into his hair, grasping at his curls repeatedly. Their mouths fused together, never missing a beat.
Caroline pulled away first, looking down to hide the non-cold related blush to her face.
"Good, because I love you too." She said. "And you better treasure that kiss for quite sometime, Klaus. It's the last one you'll get, at least until you've earned the prospect of a relationship with me back." She challenged. "Because when you get to New York, we've got many date's to go before we get there." She concluded, her terms not at all surprising to Klaus.
"Can't wait, love."