Caroline jiggled her foot on the carpeted floor of the 747, ignoring the glares of the other first class passengers as the soft tak tak tak sounded through the cabin like persistent raindrops. Finally, after Klaus' pointed look, she halted her movements, resuming them through her fingers only moments later. The staccato drumming of her fingernails on the armrest between them prompted Klaus to stop her.
"Planning a routine for the cast of Stomp?" He asked, covering her small hand with his considerably larger one to cease the sound.
"Very clever, that was almost a mile off being funny. You're improving." She retorted sourly. He could feel under his hand how her entire body was thrumming with nervous energy.
"Would it help if I just compelled you?"
She finally turned her full attention to him sharply. "No. That's just cheating."
Klaus shrugged, turning his attention back to the newspaper.
Caroline bubbled like a pot on the stove for a moment more before snapping.
"Any help would be nice."
He exhaled through his nose, folding up the paper meticulously.
"Do you know how many airplanes crash a year?"
Caroline sent him a look that was caught somewhere between a glare and pure fear. He would have found it comical if they had been in any other situation.
"That's your idea of help?!"
"Patience, love." Klaus said levelly, and she scoffed, but was otherwise silent.
"Thirty-six. That's out of the nine million, seven hundred and forty-eight thousand, five hundred and fifty-one flights a year. That gives you a one in two hundred and seventy thousand, four hundred and seventeen chance of being in a plane crash. So there is a ninety-nine point nine nine nine six three percent probability that the plane wont crash. In all my years, I have only been in one. And planes used to be made out of wood and fabric. People used to get them started by pushing them and waiting for the wind to catch the wings correctly like a kite. It's only been in the last hundred years that they've perfected air travel to be what it is today."
The conversation was cut short by an invisible force pushing them back slightly into the soft first-class seats.
"What's that?" Caroline asked, the anxiety no longer present in her voice.
Klaus glanced out the window behind Caroline with a bored expression.
"The plane is taking off."
"Oh. Oh!" Caroline swooped towards the cabin window with the wide-eyed curiosity of a child, all fear forgotten. Klaus watched her as she watched the world fly out from beneath them. Her wonder was contagious.
Once they were above the clouds, she sat back with a sigh, loosening her gripped hands. She hadn't realised one of them had been wrapped around Klaus' but they let it pass by wordlessly. That seemed to be the new rule: not talking about any moments where Caroline actually seemed comfortable with him.
Klaus returned wordlessly to the paper, while Caroline settled herself in with all that the plane had to offer for the flight. Upon boarding, she had recognised that they were going to Russia, but that was about it. She was surprised to say the least, after Klaus' whole spiel about 'Rome, Paris, Toyko', but then again, he was full of surprises. Some serious, nasty surprises too, but still.
"You realise I'm never going to be able to travel any other way again after this." Caroline observed to an impassive Klaus. "I may not have been anywhere, but as far as I know, economy is nowhere near as nice as this." She gestured to the space and champagne-bearing air hostesses of the first class cabin.
"As far as I'm concerned, love, you wont ever need to travel economy." He replied in the most blasé tone he could, trying to gloss over the fact that if he had his way, she would receive every luxury for the rest of her eternal life. She deserved all of it and more, she was worth all of heaven and Earth after all. And he especially would know, being a proud creature of hell himself.
Caroline blinked sagely at him, perceiving more than she let on. She let her gaze drop to her fingers, knotted and folded in her lap, her perfect curls swinging forth like a curtain to hide her face.
"I suggest resting. The time difference between New York and our destination is a little disconcerting, and we'll be taking in the city once we arrive." He fell back into his cocky mask. "That is, unless you're feeling peckish."
Caroline looked up, appalled. "You wouldn't…not on a flight like this."
"We both know I've done far worse." He seemed resigned in this fact.
"But not now."
Klaus studied her, brow puckered ever so slightly. She licked her lips uncertainly before continuing. She may as well be honest.
"Not with me here. Please. I get that we need it to live, but there has to be a better way. Especially on a nine hour flight. You're better than that."
He was stunned by the fact that she thought higher of him now, even after everything. But she had to know that he wasn't going to change. He wasn't one of those men who suddenly became someone else and dropped everything that the one he was pursuing detested. He wasn't one for sunshine, rainbows and puppies. It was one of the delicious things that made them different, that gave them that contrast and intrigue and attraction. He was himself, and she would have to learn that at some point.
"Perhaps." He replied. "Though I suggest you try it straight from the source once or twice on our little tour. Not killing," He calmed in an undertone so as to assure her and not alert other passengers. "You don't always have to kill, surprisingly. Honestly, did the Salvatore's teach you nothing?"
"Stefan taught me a great deal in regards to morals. He had a heart." Caroline replied protectively.
Klaus merely chuckled. "We all know I'm heartless, my dear. But of course, you learnt at the hands of the reformed Ripper. Perhaps you should take some advice from someone with much more experience; you can have control as well as pleasure." He practically purred the last word, and her lips parted in response, the breath escaping her lungs and not returning for a moment. Then she snapped back to attention, raising her eyebrows at him in a look of exasperation.
"I'm going to sleep." Caroline stated firmly, avoiding further conversation with him. He nodded, still with that infuriating half-smirk on his face, and she extended her seat to a recline, settling in and closing her eyes and falling…
They were underground. She knew she wasn't alone because she could hear someone else walking in endless circles around her, slow, purposeful footsteps. She was strapped to a chair.
Caroline became aware that it was the same dungeon her father had tortured her in. She twisted, trying to see the predator walking around her, but she only saw darkness. She heard a cold chuckle and knew who it was.
"Alaric," Caroline breathed, and he came into view in front of her, carrying a bucket of water.
"Hello Caroline."
She shuddered. This was not her friend. This was a monster. And monsters shouldn't know her name. Monsters shouldn't use her name.
"Let me go." She tried to state with authority, but he didn't even register that he had heard her words.
"Head up, Caroline." He ordered.
She didn't move, and he was suddenly at her side, glaring down at her.
"I said, head up." He said, compulsion weighing every word. Her head tilted up of its own accord, and he grinned, the action marring his face and changing it into something utterly petrifying.
"Eyes open. You're about to truly suffer." Alaric raised the bucket and poured it over her.
It was vervain.
She let loose an involuntary scream, clamping her mouth shut as she realised it would only let more vervain into her system. Already she felt it cutting her flesh, burning her eyes as they remained open without her control, the compulsion doing its job.
Caroline thrashed against her restraints even as she felt some of them unbuckle, since others began to take its place.
"Shh, love, wake up now, its alright," A soothing British voice sounded, and she leaned towards it, away from Alaric's sneer, falling through darkness towards calloused fingers that combed damp curls away from her temple. Klaus' cheek was pressed comfortingly against her hairline, the stubble ticking her scalp like a welcome distraction.
"Its okay now, you're stronger than such things, little one." His never-ending murmurs of comfort swirled in the shell of her ear, and she let herself be held for a moment or two, registering how it made her feel.
Klaus was just as much of a monster as Alaric in some ways. Yet she could find any fear in her body as she sat half curled into his chest. Nor was there any repulsion. She wanted to snuggle further into him and his earthy scent. However she couldn't bring herself to move away from where her ear currently rested, directly above the heart he claimed he didn't have, which despite his calm words and soothing manner was racing like a horse, almost indenting onto her cheek with every beat.
It was so human.
And at that, she wriggled out of his grasp. Despite his steady hold and strength, he let her go. Caroline couldn't bring herself to look at his face as she left, though she did notice that the other passengers were soundly asleep. At least that meant her night terrors weren't making her scream in real life.
She made it to the bathroom and put the top seat down, sitting and trying to steady her breathing. She raked her hands through her hair, potentially ruining the spiralling curls, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror and scoffed. She looked sleep deprived, teary eyed, rumpled, deranged. Very enticing.
Why did she want to be enticing right now? Caroline tried to ignore that thought. She was Miss Mystic Falls. She was always meant to be enticing. She was expected to be enticing, at all times.
Caroline sighed, pulling herself together and smoothing her appearance. She returned to her seat, holding herself upright like the poised, perfect debutant she was, up till the very last second as she half fell over Klaus with her unaccustomed plane legs.
He smirked.
She scowled.
His smirk grew.
Then his smug face faded to concern. "Are you – "
"I'm fine, thank you." She snipped, and the caring face retreated back into his very skin, a look of blank arrogance taking its place as if it were set in stone. It most likely had been.
"You don't look so good, sweetheart. How about a drink?" He gestured to the other sleeping passengers.
Caroline shot daggers at him. "Not thirsty. And even if I was, I'd rather jump from the plane."
"No need to be so appalled. It's your nature. Embrace it." He challenged.
She began to doubt herself, glancing towards the passengers again. It had been a while since her last, and that had been a deer in the forest. Not as filling as it should have been. The longer she went without, the more unstable she would be. But it was like trying to tempt a reformed alcoholic. Caroline was stronger than that, at least for now. She set her jaw and shook her head.
Klaus hid his impressed reaction from her. He admired how she clung to her humanity, pitiful and useless as it was sometimes. It would certainly be an experience to see her dark side, but he couldn't bear to see her light tainted that way. He shrugged at her refusal, rolling up a sleeve himself.
"A stronger substitute?"
"What is it with you and blood? More so me feeding from you?" She hissed in an undertone.
"Its an experience, Miss Forbes. You need to have more experiences, otherwise you aren't living." His eyes grew darker, their close proximity in the dimmed lighting of the cabin mixing with his darker ideas. "Not to mention how easy it is to reciprocate and allow me to feed from you. Hybrid bites are nasty things, but your blood is the most interesting thing I have tasted for centuries."
Caroline knew she should have been disgusted by all of this talk. Her seventeen-year-old self certainly was. But the new part of her, the sassy vampire part, was drawn to it. The very thought of exchanging blood with Klaus again brought a buzz to her body that she couldn't deny was bordering on lustful. She realised her lips had parted, and she snapped them shut.
"It's a bit risky, what with all the potential wrist make-outs. What would the air-hostesses think?" She said in an attempt to back out.
"What's life without a little risk?" He shot back with a grin, and leaned closer to her as if he was about to confess a secret. "Or if you want it from a more direct source, all you have to do is ask."
Caroline furrowed her brow in confusion until he tilted his head ever so slightly and she knew that he meant his neck.
She scoffed, half embarrassed. "Seriously?"
He rolled his eyes – clearly something he was starting to pick up from her to get to her level – and looked up at her through his lashes. "You need to live a little, love. Its not every day that the Original Hybrid offers you a drink from his own neck."
Her eyes strayed down to his lips, lingering there for a while before tracking down his jaw line to his throat. "Your ego needs deflating." She said, but without the force needed for him to take it seriously.
He watched her head tilt ever closer, and he pondered what her soft lips would be like against his throat, then his jaw, then his lips. He wondered how his mouth in return would be along the smooth column of her throat, and if given the choice, would he rise to meet her lips or fall to dust her collarbone with his hot mouth, dipping lower…No. He would meet her lips, if only just for that soft taste that he was craving every second after that stolen kiss in the cellar. He needed to kiss her with his own body, just to prove to her that he was infinitely more memorable than that hybrid boy, than the quarterback, than the infuriating Damon Salvatore, or any of her pathetic past lovers.
And then she'd be his, caught, and the game would be over.
Klaus was brought back from his musings by Caroline's pixie-like nose brushing against the underside of his jaw. His breath caught slightly, and he wondered if she really would give in.
"And I'm still not thirsty." She murmured, her sweet breath hitting his skin in a way that sent electricity racing through his skin. Caroline made to lean back away from him but Klaus turned to face her, their noses catching in a brush, their breath mingling in the small amount of air between them. His eyes were on hers, and it caught her for a moment. She found herself waiting, wanting, for him to close that inch between them. Of all the boys she had ever kissed, this man was the one who had never initiated it with her. And he still didn't. So they remained caught in this moment, every inhale blending with another exhale. Caroline's eyes closed, heavy with the weight of such a moment. It brought some clarity to Klaus.
"Open your eyes," He said, his voice a low rasp with its huskiness. "Please," He added, when she didn't do so immediately.
Her sky blue eyes rose up to his again, and he finally moved. Klaus brushed his mouth across her cheekbone.
"Tell me when." He whispered against her satin soft skin, the hum of his dark voice sending vibrations across her skin that made her shudder. She didn't know whether he meant for her to tell him when she was thirsty or when she wanted to give in, but she knew that he awoke something within her that made her breathless and desirous and hungry.
Hope you enjoyed it. My oddball favourite part was the plane statistics one, since I figured that the guys been alive for a thousand years, he'd probably like a chance to show off statistic style. But yeah, try writing that while on a plane...feels like you're tempting fate.
Thank you to the lovely favoriters and story alert people :) Special thanks to the reviewers, Originals-Klaroline (stalk my story as much as you like, I'm loving it very very muchly, particularly when you make me think), Lauraxo13, April, and patie (your musings continue to help me with the characters I write, and thank you for remembering about Elena: yes, neither Caroline nor Klaus know of her being a new baby vamp...but that will be changing of course).
Review if inclined, critical reviews help improve the story, 'i like this' reviews drive it like gas for a car, favourites make sunshine.
And if you have any suggestions as to where they should go on this little world trip (eg. Paris, France, to eat crepes) then please tell me! I've got a few ideas but I'd love to hear where you guys think they should go and what they should get up to :)
xx
