A/N Hello all! Sorry this update has taken me a little longer, it was a doozy to write. It's also a tiny bit shorter than the first two chapters, but I digress. Hope you enjoy it all the same!
Chapter 3: The Approaching Curve
The morning rose bright and swift for Caroline. The east facing window that dominated one wall of her room let the sunrise in gently. The blonde woke up peacefully, so unlike how she had while staying with Elena. More often than not, her friend's smoothie blender had acted as an alarm clock in the morning.
Caroline sat up in bed, stretching fully, and enjoyed the feel of the sun on her face. She got up with a contented sigh, and managed to make her way across the hall and into her bathroom. She poked under her eyes; the bags were still there, but they were less prominent. Caroline rustled around in the relatively empty drawers. Her makeup, curling iron, and clothes were all at Elena's flat.
Resigning herself to re-wearing the clothes she'd arrived in, Caroline made her way down the giant stairs and into the laundry room, where her clothes were awaiting her in the dryer. She grabbed them and shut the door, changing quickly into the leggings, button down, and camisole she'd worn in the rain.
"Klaus?" she called out, walking into the kitchen.
Her boss was seated at one of the three stools that occupied the counter, head bent over something that he was furiously writing on. A mug of some steaming liquid sat on the counter next to him. He raised a hand to acknowledge her, and Caroline saw the phone at his ear. Clearly, the person on the other line had a lot to say, since Klaus began scribbling again.
Caroline moved around the kitchen, mentally adding coffee to her grocery list. She liked a good cup of tea, but there was only so long the blonde could go without hard caffeine.
She heard Klaus set the phone down on the counter and run a hand through his already sleep-ruffled hair.
"Anything I need to worry about?" If he needed her to pick something up for him in town, she would.
Her boss gave a small grin. "No, I'm afraid the only person who needs to worry about Rebekah is me."
Rebekah. It wasn't the first time Caroline had heard the name mentioned. She was bound to be a girlfriend of some sort.
"Oh." Caroline supplied. "Well, besides that is there anything else you can think of that I should grab? I'm about to head out."
"No, whatever you've got down should be good, love." Klaus said.
Caroline hung in the kitchen awkwardly, not wanting to ask for the keys he'd promised, but hoping he'd remember.
Klaus hit himself on the forehead gently, and sprang up. "Of course. You'll need a car."
He stood up and walked off to an area that they had left unexplored on their previous day's tour. Caroline quickly discovered that, of course, he had a garage filled with different cars to match the house. The obvious wealth left her curious as to what he had done to earn it; all she knew was that he was in finance or business or something like it.
He led her over to one of the larger cars, reaching up to slide the zipper of the car-cover down. As he reached above his head, Caroline studiously tried to avoid looking at the gap of skin that was revealed by his tee shirt sliding upwards.
Focus, Caroline. Luckily, he had the car cover off in moments, and she had to catch her breath at the sleek SUV underneath. "What is it?" she asked.
"It's a new Lincoln Navigator," he replied proudly.
Caroline cocked an eyebrow. "Do I want to know how much it costs?"
"Nope." Klaus popped his lips on the 'p' sound, and tossed Caroline the keys. "When will you be back?"
The blonde shrugged. "Not too long. I'm sure I'll be back by this evening."
Klaus nodded. "Drive safe."
Caroline used a handle to jump up into the seat of the car; it was bigger than she was. "I will!"
And with that, the blonde sped away, careful not to damage the car on the numerous potholes that filled the unkempt driveway.
XXX
"Caroline!" The over exuberant voice of Elena Gilbert rang out.
Caroline smiled, running lightly to the front of the coffee shop where her friend was sitting. "Elena! What's up? You seem more chipper than usual."
Her brunette friend returned her smile brightly. "Why don't we order, and then I'll tell you," she said elusively. Caroline nodded, and the pair walked to the counter and ordered, Elena maintaining her lively tone the whole way. Caroline was shocked. Usually Elena was the friend who was always worried; an angsty, all-concerned look had been plastered to her face since high school.
The pair grabbed their coffees and walked over to a table near the window.
"So?" Caroline prosed, gently blowing on her scalding hot americano.
Elena giggled, and then, not being able to hold it in any longer: "Matt and I are buying a house!"
Caroline's eyes opened in shock. "Really? 'Lena, that's great!"
"I know, can you believe it?"
Caroline chuckled. "Honestly, no. Little Elena Gilbert, living the dream with a house of her own?" The blonde tried to keep the hint of bitterness out of her voice. Once again, Elena was getting everything she wanted.
Some things never changed.
Elena was babbling on about how perfect her and Matt's little cottage was and how it was right next to this beautiful grove when Caroline's phone vibrated loudly on the table top.
She looked at it in confusion. She hardly ever received messages, and Elena knew it. The brunette girl's brow arched as she spoke. "Who is it?"
Caroline grabbed the phone, curious.
Caroline- I got your number from Elise; actually there are a few things that you can pick up for me. Call me when you get to the store, please? –Klaus
Her lips quirked. She wasn't surprised he'd gotten her number, not really. It seemed like a very Klaus-ish thing to do.
"Who was that?" Elena asked curiously.
"Ah… my new boss. He wants me to pick some things up for him."
"He? Your boss is a man?" The brunette cheeked.
Caroline sighed, knowing where this was going, but not wanting to play along. Her friend was notorious for ruthlessly teasing Caroline whenever she could.
"Yes, he is a man."
Elena waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Is he cute?"
Caroline didn't answer, though she could feel Elena's judgmental gaze on her cheeks.
"Okay, you don't have to tell me, but that blush is giving you away more than you think." Elena stated. "What's his name?"
"Klaus Mikaelson."
"Oooh, how manly." Elena faked a swoon. "What does he do?"
Caroline shrugged. "I'm not sure really. I know he works in finance or something like it." The blonde sipped her coffee as Elena scoffed.
"Caroline, really? It's the twenty-first century. Have you never heard of Google?"
"It had never crossed my mind," the girl said genuinely. Klaus really didn't have that creepy vibe that would have warranted her searching about him.
Elena reached over to pat her shoulder. "Well, consider yourself fortunate that you have me!" The brunette quickly whipped out her smart-phone and began typing his name into her search engine.
"Any idea how to spell Mikaelson?" Elena asked.
"Not a clue." Caroline continued to sip her coffee in relative silence until…
"Ah-ha! Found him. At least I hope so…God, Caroline, he's a little past 'cute'."
Caroline grabbed the phone from Elena's hand to check. Sure enough, there was a small, wallet-sized picture of Klaus staring back up at her, with a facial expression that looked as if someone had just walked in on him daydreaming and snapped the shot. More interesting to Caroline was the blurb underneath the picture:
"Considered the J.P. Morgan of our time, Niklaus Mikaelson is an English-born financer, philanthropist, and investor. He is the financial director of Mikaelson Financial Corporation, which he co-owns with elder brother Elijah. Niklaus has been at the forefront of modern economics for the past five years. He has several residences across the globe, but lives permanently in his home country. Niklaus is unmarried, and spends his free time with his four siblings. Forbes Magazine estimates Mikaelson's net worth at £23.8 billion. At age 31, this makes Niklaus Mikaelson the second youngest person to ever rank amongst the top ten wealthiest individuals."
"You've got to be kidding me, Caroline!" Elena burst out. "The man probably shits gold, and you're scrubbing his toilets?"
Caroline sat back in shock. Sure, Klaus was rich; he couldn't be anything other than that with the multiple cars and the huge house, but she never would have guessed that he was that rich.
"It never really came up…" Caroline deflected, while Elena shook her head.
"Caroline. You are impossible. If I was in your spot…" Elena smirked coquettishly, wiggling her hips. "Well you know what they say: marry rich, learn to love."
Caroline leveled a glare at Elena, who threw her hands up in self-defense.
"You're horrible." Caroline settled for, downing the dregs of her now lukewarm coffee.
Elena shrugged it off. "At least I'm honest!" The brunette said, rising from her chair. "Now let's go get your stuff, alright?"
Caroline nodded her head in agreement and rose, still pondering the mystery that was Klaus.
XXX
As the pair walked into Elena and Matt's flat, the only thing Caroline noted was that she hadn't missed it much. The blonde made her way to her room, making quick work of all the things she'd brought with her from college.
Caroline was a folder. Everything she put in her oversized suit case was placed there neatly, and with care. She stacked her socks into pyramids, and folded her pants in exactly three sections.
"Wow, OCD much?" Elena's voice came from the doorway as Caroline was hunched over her clothes.
"I've seen your closet, Elena. Believe me; it could use some of my particular breed of OCD."
Elena tut-tutted. "I work on a principle of organized chaos."
Caroline conceded, grumbling as she walked into her bathroom, shoving her toiletries into a bag, so nonchalantly that Elena raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Some housekeeper you'll make," the brunette scoffed. "Sure, his clothes will be color-coordinated and chronologically organized, but alas, the poor bathroom!" Elena faked a swoon, and then had to hurry and dodge the shoe that Caroline threw in her direction.
The blonde laughed at Elena's fake cry of pain, and then pulled the zipper on her luggage closed, standing up.
"So…" Caroline started, knowing that she needed to get to the grocery store and back to Klaus.
Elena dropped her joking smile and looked at Caroline with a hint of nostalgia.
"This is it, huh?" The brunette asked. "Me, going to get my first house, and you, working for a reclusive billionaire."
"Yep." Caroline said. "Gosh, life is just so boring, isn't it?"
The girls broke off in a fit of giggles and Elena ran to Caroline, pulling her closest friend into an even closer embrace. "You'll take care of yourself, right Care?" Elena asked tentatively.
"Of course, 'Lena."
The pair hugged for a moment more, and then released slightly.
"You take care of Matt, Elena." Caroline said, making direct eye-contact with her friend. "He's one of the good ones, okay?"
Elena nodded vigorously, and then pulled Caroline back in for a quick hug before walking her to the door.
Caroline walked out, waving as she went. "Goodbye, Elena!"
"Bye, Care, I'll see you soon." Elena's answer came, as Caroline clambered up into the cab of the car that Klaus had lent her. The blonde drove away, watching Elena's reflection in her mirror for as long as she could.
The girls had been friends since their high school days. In small-town Virginia, the outspoken girls had stuck together, and Elena and Caroline fit the bill. They'd had their skirmishes over the years, but made up in the end. They had even gone to college together, until Elena had dropped out to follow Matt to Europe.
In a way, Caroline thought, it all worked out in the end. The girls were still friends, and Elena's connections had made sure that Caroline wasn't eaten alive in her first few days out of her home country.
Seeing a sign for a supermarket, Caroline pulled over and parked the car. She dialed Klaus as she hopped up onto the sidewalk.
"Hello?" his accented voice called out on the first ring.
"Klaus. It's Caroline." The blonde spoke into the phone.
"Of course," Klaus said. "Are you at the grocer's already?"
Puzzled, Caroline pulled her phone away from her ear to check the time. "Already? Klaus, it's almost 4:30."
Sure enough, the sky was beginning to darken, adding a purplish tint to the clouds. The sun still peeked out behind a few, but Caroline had noticed the temperature drop.
"You're kidding." Klaus's incredulous voice rang threw the cell, and she heard him get up and draw a blind.
"Been shut up in your office all day?' Caroline hypothesized, as she grabbed a basket from the pile outside the market.
"If I told you no, would you call me a liar?"
"Yes."
She heard his chuckle through the other end and smiled. "Now, what do you need? Quickly, if you could, Klaus. I'd really rather not drive back in the dark."
More sounds of rummaging and shuffling came through the speaker, along with a curse or two.
"Klaus?" Caroline questioned.
"Ah yes. She made me write a list out, I'm afraid that I seemed to have misplaced it… temporarily." The sound of her boss opening and closing the door to the kitchen rang in her ear, and then…
"Got it!"
Caroline shook her head at his triumphant tone. "Perfect. Now what's the first thing on there?"
"Kale."
"Got it." Caroline sped off in search of the leafy vegetable. She'd had it before, as it was incredibly healthy, but Caroline couldn't make herself eat it more than she had to. She found some, and bagged it. Then the girl walked over to the meat section and grabbed a few different cuts.
"Okay." She said. "What's next?"
"Second item is…chia seeds."
"Like ch-ch-ch-chia?" Caroline questioned through the phone.
"That must be some American thing, love." She could hear the skepticism in his voice. "All I'm told is that they are supposed to do wonders for your health."
Caroline found the seeds, almost dreading the next item on Klaus's overly healthy list.
"Acai berries are your next target."
Caroline sighed in relief, tossing packages of pasta into her basket as she passed them. Those, at least, were delicious. "Well, I never took you for such a healthy eater, Klaus."
A grimace graced his face, though the blonde couldn't see it. "Oh no, love. This isn't for me. These are all for Rebekah. She called this morning, and cruelly informed me that if I wanted to enjoy her company, my fridge should be well-stocked."
Rebekah, Caroline thought as she bagged various produce. There was that name again. Caroline couldn't picture the type of woman attached to the name, or as to why such a seemingly high-maintenance woman was with Klaus.
"Anything else?" Caroline asked, putting it out of her mind. His business was his business.
"Not a thing, love. See you at the house?"
Caroline nodded, heading to the checkout line. "Of course. I'm leaving right after I'm done here."
"See you soon, Caroline."
"Bye, Klaus." The blonde responded, and then clicked the phone off.
Caroline made her way back out to the car, settling her things down into the passenger seat. The dusk was turning a darker shade of blue purple as the blonde made her way out of town and into the countryside.
Deftly navigating the road, Caroline made her way back up to Klaus's estate in good time. She put a little extra metal into the gas to make it up the driveway, but the SUV he'd lent her had no problems.
Caroline got out of the car with her things, pulling the straps of the plastic grocery bags over her arms so that she wouldn't have to take more than one trip. The girl twisted around to hit the button that closed the electronic garage door.
Making her way inside, Caroline half-ran to the kitchen before her arms gave way underneath all of her things. The kitchen was just as she left it; the only sign that Klaus had been around was the empty mug and teabag on the counter. She put it in the sink. The old house didn't have a dishwasher, so she'd taken to waiting until she had a few dishes to wash at a time.
Klaus's muffled voice came through his study room door, and Caroline shook her head. He was probably dealing with immense amounts of money, and she was left swimming in student loans and overdraft fees.
The blonde hurried to put away the groceries she'd picked up at the store, giving the fridge and pantry a little more life. After that, she wiped down the counters and decided to take a lap of the house to see if anything needed tending to.
Of the rooms on the first floor, only three had messes that required her assistance. She vacuumed the library's carpet; she highly suspected it hadn't been done in years. Caroline then wiped down all of the mirrors in the bathroom, and scrubbed the tub. After making her way to the other side of the house, she decided to dust the billiard's tables in the game room.
Caroline made her way upstairs with weary feet. The sweep of the house had taken her at least an hour, and it was getting dark. She couldn't believe that Klaus had never hired anyone before this. I'll ask him about it tomorrow.
Making the executive decision to postpone her cleaning of the upstairs until the next day, Caroline grabbed her suitcase and started to unpack. She folded all of her clothes neatly, save the ones that were better off being hung in the closet. She sat all of her shoes against the wall at the bottom of the closet, and the stored her suitcase inside as well.
The blonde collapsed on the bed with a sigh, running her fingers against her tired scalp. Caroline took a moment to reflect before going into the bathroom across the hall to throw her things in a drawer there. She brushed her teeth as soon as she was done unloading, and took her hair down.
Heading back into her room, Caroline changed quickly into the shorts and tank top that made up her pajamas. She was just starting to turn down her covers when she heard Klaus's feet padding down the hallway.
He stopped outside her doorway and gave a gentle knock-knock on the frame.
"Yes?"
Her boss's tired countenance poked through the doorway. "Thank you for picking up those things today." He spoke.
Caroline shrugged. "Of course. It's part of my job, right?"
Klaus gave a tired grin. "Right. Anyways, I appreciate it."
She nodded, unintentionally letting a yawn slip out.
Klaus laughed at Caroline's embarrassed grin. "Long day?"
"You could say that." The blonde replied, looking expectantly back at Klaus. She was tired.
"Well I'll let you get to it, then." He said, and moved to leave.
"Goodnight, Klaus."
"Goodnight, Caroline. Sleep well." He responded, and then left, closing the door gently behind him.
Usually, when Caroline went to bed, she would stay awake thinking for a while before she could actually fall asleep. That night, it wasn't the case. The young blonde fell asleep nearly as soon as her head hit the pillow, any thought she'd had disappearing immediately.
XXX
In his room, Klaus stayed up reading until he was almost certain Caroline had fallen asleep. Rubbing a hand across his tired face, the man left his room and started down the hall. He passed the door to the sunroom, left slightly ajar, its walls bathed in starlight.
Klaus fiddled with the keys in his hand, finally fitting one to the lock on the door he'd stopped in front of. 'Storage from my past houses,' he'd told Caroline. It was a knee-jerk reaction, really. He'd never like it when people knew about what he really kept behind that door.
He slid in, closing the door gently behind him. He groped about on the wall for the light switch, the smell of turpentine and oil meeting his nose in a familiar combination.
Finally, Klaus found the light. He sighed in contentment when he saw what the bright bulb revealed. Hundreds upon hundreds of canvases in various states of completion littered the room; some in neat stacks along the wall, some thrown about as if a tornado had swept through.
He grabbed the waiting bottle of scotch he kept at a side table and poured it into a glass. Taking a fortifying sip, Klaus pulled the drop cloth away from the last canvas he'd been working on and smiled. The man sat down, pulling the palate of colors closer to him.
Picking up a brush, Klaus began to paint as he did every night, all night, letting the world fade around him. Eventually, the sunrise would come and send him to bed for a few restless hours of sleep, but anything was better than being plagued all night long by nightmares that had failed to disappear even after nearly twenty years.
Applying the paint was a dance as common as a well-known song to him, and like always, Klaus began to hum, letting the familiar rhythmic graze of brush against canvas lull him into the night.
XXX
A/N What oh what does Klaus have nightmares about? Hope you enjoyed, despite the lack of Klaroline bonding in this one. A girl's got to have some background, no?
A special thank you to all of you who reviewed, it means a lot to me! Drop me a comment, or hit the favorite button, but only if you want to. Your support means the world. Xo.
And to the Guest who wanted to see the sunroom, don't worry: you will. ;)