"Get out of my car, Klaus. Better yet, I'm about to leave, get under it!" She yelled at the Hybrid that sat next to her with a mock-hurt expression on his face.
"Sweetheart, you aren't still mad about that whole wolf bite business? I did save you in the end, didn't I?" Klaus turned in the seat facing her blinking water from his eyelashes and quirking his mouth in a smile. The rain had turned to a full downpour, and he was the soggy mess to prove it. Drops of water fell from his dirty blonde curls and curved their way down his face and neck.
"No! I'm mad about the whole you-want-to-kill-my-boyfriend-and-so-he's-left-me-to-run-for-his-life business. Not to mention previously discussed atrocities!" Caroline's fingers dug into her steering wheel, and she stared straight ahead hoping to avoid eye contact with the man she would very much like to see in a ditch somewhere.
"Don't be like that, Love," Klaus crooned playing up his dimples. The vampire let out a frustrated sigh. She could only glimpse his smile in her peripheral, but it was enough to spark a mental image of the smiles he had shared with her at the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant.
Gah! Bad Caroline!
"Get out of my car, Klaus!" She yelled. Caroline turned to him, her eyes shining with annoyance and a few sizes larger than normal.
Is he serious?! Leave me alone! He can't possibly think the charm is going to get him anywhere! He breaks what little faith I had in him by not letting Tyler go and now he thinks I'll melt like butter for a smile. Hell no!
Klaus said nothing. Looking at her he leaned into the passenger seat as if he was getting comfortable for the long haul.
She could just strangle him. Sitting there looking incredulously at him, she was half tempted to lean over, open his door, and literally kick him out with her three and a half inch boot heals.
"I want you to leave Mystic Falls with me," Klaus piped in disrupting Caroline's irritated thoughts. Bursting into a loud, obnoxious fit of laughter, guffaws shook her and made her eyes water. He was thrown by her outburst and more than a little annoyed. He made a show of waiting for her to stop.
She was able to muffle her laughs long enough to shoot the Hybrid a pitying look. "Oh wow. Please go drown in a puddle." Caroline couldn't handle him right now. She pulled on the door handle and braved the wet outside. She didn't really know where she was going. She only knew she needed to get away from him.
Klaus watched her leave the car. She was beautiful. Even as she threw insults at him, he hadn't missed the glow in her eyes and how she puffed up her chest like a tiny bird trying to appear bigger. He had to get rid of Lockwood if there was going to be any hope for him and Caroline, and, therefore, would not apologize for sending him away.
Sighing at the thought of going after her in the rain, Klaus reached for the door handle. He stopped when he noticed a flicker of multicolored light glinting off of his hand. He traced the light to a small crystal dangling from Caroline's rear view mirror. Smiling to himself, he reached up to inspect it a bit more. A horse. He turned the sparkling form of a running mustang in his hand; Memories of the night of his mother's ball played through his mind. She had looked so unreal, so enchanting as she stood watching the horse outside his home. He remembered the way her eyes had changed when he had said that he fancied her. As if his words were so far from what she had expected him to say. Pulling himself out of the car, he hurried to catch up with her.
Caroline had instantly regretted her decision to leave the car. The rain came down in sheets, and she was soaked from her white military jacket to her dark skinny jeans. Ten seconds in the rain and the wet denim already felt restricting. She huffed and whined a little when she heard his approach. Caroline glanced around quickly looking for an exit strategy, but seeing as she had walked herself in the opposite direction of The Grill, she currently found herself entering the small park that separated the central town from the residential part of Mystic Falls. "Shit," she breathed.
His voice sounded from a few feet behind her, "I'm going to London. Come with me."
"You really can't take a hint, can you?" She quipped, quickening her pace.
"Come on, Caroline." Klaus sped in front of her grabbing her hand and pulling her under the branches of a nearby Butternut tree. It was going to be hard enough to convince her to come with him, let alone trying to persuade her when he could barely see her through the rain. "Let's not forget that I am not the only one guilty of an atrocity or two. I'm going to London for a few days. Come with me." He still held Caroline's hand, but she pulled it from his soft hold and crossed her arms across her chest. Klaus felt the rejection behind the motion. "Give it a chance, Love," he tried in a last ditch effort, stepping closer to her.
The familiar sentiment rang in her ears. "Get to know me," he had once said. Caroline wanted to spit out that they had already tried that but stopped herself when she realized she would just be shooting herself in the foot. She had only sat on that bench that night to distract him. Hardly a fair shake.
"I don't get it. Why would I want to go to London with you?" The vampire flung out her arms to either side. "Please, Klaus. Explain it to me. Why would I want to go anywhere with you?" Caroline felt like a drenched rat; all she wanted was to go home, get into sweat pants, watch Gone With the Wind for the thousandth time, and eat a ridiculous amount of leftover spaghetti and a bag of B+. She was already tired of this game. She just wanted to go home and be properly depressed.
Her energy waning; he could see it in her eyes. "You would love London, Caroline."
Breathing out a long sigh, she perked, "Next!"
Klaus knew that spouting lofty words would not reach Caroline in her current mood. Her track record seemed to imply that pretty compliments in these situations would only grant him an eye roll. Deciding to take another path, he lured, "Come with me to London, Love. Give me a few days, and I will hear your plea for Tyler's reprieve."
"What?" Caroline's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but her question came out softer than she would have liked.
"I will listen." Klaus granted these words to her as if he was handing her a lavish gift.
"You'll listen?" Her face and body were still, and his smile, which was nothing more than a flirty smirk, widened. He had her.
Or not . . .
"Oh good! Cuz I would hate to travel all the way to London to be ignored! Seriously! You'll 'listen'?!" Caroline's fingers flew up in quotation marks. "You aren't promising me anything, Klaus. You think I'm naïve. I see you. You think you can manipulate me with empty promises! Did you really think that would be the best way to convince me! Who do you think I am?! Could you insult my intelligence more?" She could not believe him. Out of all the things he could have said. She didn't understand how a man of his age and experience could be so clueless. Listening is easy. Did he think she would be dumb enough to assume he was promising to let Tyler off the hook?
Caroline walked closer to Klaus stopping only inches from him, her chin lifting as her blue eyes locked with his. The sounds of thick rain drops making their way through the tree's leaves was a steady white noise. Her voice was softer now as if explaining something very carefully, "You can't see it, can you? You look at the road less traveled in the woods. You know deep down that's the road you want to take," Caroline gestured to a non-existent road. "But you don't take it," Caroline shook her head exasperated as her voice grew in volume. "You call in your minions to level the trees and you stomp on the grass. Eventually you are going to run out of roads to overlook and woods to destroy."
Klaus looked everywhere but Caroline. He had no desire to see the incredulity and disappointment in her eyes. He felt the anger and indignity prickling at his mind as if inviting him to indulge, but he only just stood there with a clinched jaw and a tense stance. Sensing that the Hybrid was done talking, Caroline walked back toward her car. "Goodbye, Klaus. I hope you find what you are looking for in London."
Taking a breath, Klaus followed her with his eyes. They burned with a horrible mixture of anger towards Caroline and shame. He shook with the hatred he had for the pain in his chest. He was done humiliating himself. He was Niklaus Mikaelson. The Original Hybrid. He was done pining for the affections of a girl like a lonely school boy.
Caroline was just settling in on the couch with her bowl of pasta and a pillow when she realized she had left her phone in her bathroom. "Noooo," she moaned out.
Whatever. I don't care. If anyone wants to reach me they can come get me. No one is going to call anyway.
Caroline sighed sleepily as she chewed an oversized bite of pasta watching the title for Gone with the Wind shine across the television. It took her a few moments to think about it before she choked on her bite.
Tyler could call!
Since the day Tyler had left, she had always had one ear out for her phone, never letting it out of her sight and never for one second believing that he wasn't about to call. Her conversation with Klaus had thrown her off and distracted her.
"Oh my god," She blew out. Klaus had distracted her from Tyler. In a fit of guilt, Caroline jumped up from the couch and sped to her bathroom for her phone. Turning on the screen she muttered, "Of course." No missed calls. She dropped her hands to her sides and trudged back to the living room with her phone. She was just reaching for the couch throw when she felt the familiar buzz of her phone and the jazzy opening to "All the Same to Me" by Anya Marina.
Caroline's heart jumped into her throat. Looking down at her flashing screen, she read "Restricted Caller."
Taking a deep breath, she moved a shaky finger over the answer button. Quickly pulling the phone to her ear, she peeped, "Hello?"
"Caroline?"
She couldn't breathe. The phone was crackling and the voice was jumpy, but she would know that voice anywhere. "Tyler?"
