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A/N Here's a story that I just dreamt up that I wanted to share with you all before I forgot it all. Hope you enjoy it.
Prologue
Klaus POV - London 1503
I run my hand nervously through my hair as I pace in her garden. The sounds of her birthday party are in the air but none of that mattered. All I can think of is her.
And the small, velvet box that is in the pocket of my trousers, which I swear is growing heavier and heavier every step I take.
I let out a huff. I can't BELIEVE I'm getting this wound up over a mere human. If everyone can see me now! My enemies would mock me and my siblings would die of laughter. Why? Because I, Niklaus Mikaelson, an Original, a potential Hybrid, had fallen for lowly mortal.
A lowly mortal who is by far the most beautiful, entrancing creature I ever met.
I sigh, my heart skipping a beat as I recall her smile, her spirit so full of light that it conquers my darkness with no effort. I smile as I remember our endless banters, the way she tucks her mass of blond curls behind her ear when avidly listening to me before interjecting her own opinion.
She's definitely before her time, with her vast array of knowledge under her belt. Knowledge that made her powerful and influential in ways that those looking at her at first glance would never believe.
She didn't flaunt it, but her subtle confidence and that FIRE! That FIRE that made her, HER. That made her unique, more special than any woman I encountered in the last 500 years.
Yes, she was the leader of mistresses, whores, escorts, a whole underground world that society would look down upon but all that only made me admire her.
Want her...
Love her...
I put my hand in my pocket and pull out the velvet box. I open it, staring at the brilliant blue diamond ring that reminded me of her eyes twinkling with laughter.
She's so innocence compared to me whose killed hundreds. I, who was vampire.
A monster.
But she didn't know that. She would never know. Not any time soon anyway. What would be the harm in being just Lord Niklaus a bit longer? She would be mine first and then everything would resolve itself later, including my non disclosure of vampirism.
Much, MUCH later.
With a deep breath, I start to stride back towards the party, my heart thundering with anticipation and doubts multiplying in my mind the closer I get.
Will she say no? Does she care for me nearly as much as I care for her? What if I was nothing more than a job to her? What if...
The sound of musical laughter stops me dead in my tracks.
I would know that laughter anywhere.
I slowly make my way towards it till I stop behind a bush before a wide clearing containing Caroline and some man who was laughing freely with her, resting a hand on her shoulder.
On MY Caroline's shoulder.
"I really cannot believe they gave you such a hard time about the materials!" she manages to say in between chuckles.
"Yes, they did, but it is done, as promised. I believe he will enjoy your gift."
She suddenly jumps into his arms, holding him tightly.
"Thank you my lord," she whispers.
He sighs contently, making me clench my fists in anger when he embraces her tightly against him.
"There is nothing I wouldn't do for you my dear."
She pulls away slightly from him, frowning when he reaches up and caresses her cheek.
My blood boils at this point as I watch him lean in...
"Richard, no. I..."
Her words cut off when he collides his lips with hers.
In a millisecond, in a haze of red, I move, yanking the bastard's heart from his chest. He falls in a heap on the ground, blood pooling on the ground.
Even in her shock, my Caroline doesn't react like the typical female and screams her brains out. She covers her mouth, taking a step back away from the body.
"You...You killed him," she whispers. "You KILLED him!" she says again strongly, looking up at me in fury, before she gasps in shock.
"Your...Your eyes..." she says in awe. "You are..."
I flash to her, startling her further. "A what sweetheart?" I snarl, my heart clenching at the fearful expression I see on her face that I never, ever wanted to see directed at me. "A demon? A monster?"
To my amazement, her fear dissipates. Instead, her eyes narrow dangerously, taking one step in defiance towards me. "A murderer." she utters coldly. "A LIAR."
It is her last statement which pains me most, the betrayal that it implies.
But I wasn't the only one betrayed here. I think, my anger flaring up again. I hiss at her, flashing my fangs in intimidation as she glares back at me. I smirk evilly when she takes a step back and I a step forward. She then decides to give me no more ground and stands tall, not flinching or blinking. The Caroline fire I love so much flowing from her in waves and I can't help but revel in it.
"I'd watch how you talk to me love, lest you want to end up like your tragic lover over there," I say coolly.
"You wouldn't dare!"
I grab her roughly by the neck, her eyes widening.
"You were saying?"
For the first time since we met, I watch her eyes fill with tears, knocking the fight out of me. I release her, withdrawing my fangs, but she barely notices.
"I knew it...I knew it. Here I thought that maybe, that MAYBE you and I..."
I hang on her every word, hope entering my being the minute she mentions the words you and I.
Has any phrase ever sounded so sweet?
Yet, I crush that hope, refusing to feel anything after what I just witnessed: Two lovers, sneaking away, embracing in the moonlight...
There are no words that can express how much that visual felt like a stake to the heart. After all the nights we shared in each other's arms, after all the gifts and stolen kisses she would repay with me betrayal?! To think I was about to ask for her hand! That I was seconds away from professing my undying love and loyal TO HER! I even shared with her my family album from when my siblings and I were human! No one, not even my siblings had known of it. And they would never know of it, especially now it was lost in the fire that Mikael sparked in our last home chasing after us.
"That you and I...what?" I snap heatedly at her last comment. "Can have a sordid threesome with your now dead beau? You are truly the Queen of all Whores!"
She slaps me roughly. There is a tingle on my cheek where she hit me. Any other person who would dare strike me would be dead by now, but I find myself transfixed on the woman before me, whose tears that are now flowing freely, are drowning me with their sorrow. "Now it comes out!" she shouts in my face. "Is that all I will ever be in your eyes? You were supposed to be different than all men and here you are, belittling me like all the rest!"
Before I can say a word, she spins away from me furiously, running back to manor where the cheery music makes a mockery of the breaking of two hearts that but hours ago belonged to each other.
Or so I wanted to believe.
Still angry, I do not go after her. Instead, I dispose of the body of the man that ruined my one chance at happiness and drown my sorrows with 20 bottles of liquor of various kinds.
Some time during the night, I pull the velvet box out of my pocket, staring unblinkingly at it for the longest time, ignoring the tears that prick behind me eyes...
*In Need of Comfort*
When I awaken the next morning, I hear the chattering of my siblings downstairs. As I make it down the stairs, I hear Elijah.
"Who could of possibly sent this?"
"These drawings..." says Bekah. "They look like Niklaus' work."
I flash to the bottom of the stairs then, taking in Kol, Elijah and Rebekah that are crowded around the head of large dining table in the room, staring at a dark brown, leather book that looked familiar.
Too familiar.
My mouth almost drops when I see the family album my siblings are pouring over that I drew in my own hand. It was marvelously restored, no trace of fire damage whatsoever. It looks exactly like the way it did when I made it 500 years ago. The leather is made out of the same material that could only be found back home, meaning that someone went through some pains to find that and a bookmaker who can reproduce my drawings on the same paper it was drawn on, flawlessly.
Rebekah turns a page, gasping. Elijah's eyes well up with tears while Kol smiles softly, looking down at a smiling Henrick staring up at us.
"It looks just like him," whispers Elijah. "You captured him well Niklaus."
"Where did this come from?" I say awed.
Kol pulls an envelope out of the brown parcel the book must have been wrapped in and hands it to me.
I recognize the handwriting on it instantly:
Hello Twin -
I know your birthday is next week, however, I called in a few favors and got this done ahead of time. You do know how enjoy pulling strings!
I digress. Enclosed is something that I know you believed you lost. There is nothing in it that is not original to the first. Even your drawings (courtesy of Bonnie)! Please refer to it whenever I am not near and you feel yourself in need of comfort. For that is one of the many magics that family can conjure.
Yours,
Shame on you if its not bloody obvious by now!
P.S I still think you should share it with your siblings. They might want to see him too...
I swallow down a lump on my throat, my mind recalling the words shared the other night between Caroline and that man...
"I really cannot believe they gave you such a hard time about the materials," she had said.
"...I believe he will enjoy your gift."
"Richard, no..."
And then what she had said to me:
"Here I thought that maybe, that MAYBE you and I..."
I feel sick, slowly realizing that last night wasn't a betrayal at all.
Kol's hand on my shoulder brings me out of my revelry. "I guess our dear Caroline fancies you after all," he chortles.
Without another thought, I spin on my heel and flash out of the house.
Why didn't I see it? Why was I so foolish?
"Nobody loves you boy!" Mikael's voice shouts at me.
He was wrong, wasn't he? He was so wrong for why else would a mere mortal care enough to bring back to him something that was precious?
I burst in her manor, wanting, NEEDING to see her, praying it wasn't too late to make things right.
Kol comes up behind me a few seconds later as I stare blankly at the empty foyer.
No trace of the numerous mistresses that resided there, not a stitch of furniture anywhere.
If not for the faint, lingering smell of vanilla and lavender in the air, no one would ever know of the blond beauty that lived here, who burn through my life and gave it meaning.
She was now gone. Nothing but a dream that once comforted a monster who had nothing left to do but leave what was left of his heart at his former lover's doorstep.