A/N: Shout out to: DelaneyDay, zalmx'z 1ArX aLeXanDrX, Evalunna, fangler, Lynn, dustflare, CarelessLove91, MissK, EyesLikeLiquidFire, and the 1 guest, thank you all so much for leaving such kind reviews!
To everyone who Fav/Followed! Hi! Welcome and I hope you enjoy the update!
P.S: This chapter is dedicated to NorwayGirl95 and DelaneyDay. I had no idea how to begin or end this chapter…but thinking back to a PM/Review they had both delivered, I knew exactly what to write. Thanks so much for your unknowing part in this chapter!
I'm sorry for any typos! I'm just one person who can't see small letters all that clearly.
Change
"Sun take my pain today, give the devil back his heart.
Do not pray for us, we are not sleeping while the others are sleeping.
Oh he's sleeping, the devil is sleeping."
–Give the Devil Back His Heart by Barr Brothers
Chapter Six
"Um… what the hell is that?" Caroline pointed at a hunk of rusted metal and rotting wood peeking out from under a grey sheet off in a dusty corner of his otherwise clean and neat basement.
He had given her a more intimate tour of his house that early Sunday morning, preparing for the arrival of his brother and the ruse they had to keep up.
He showed her every nook and cranny of his place; where the silverware was kept, linen closets, where wood for the fireplaces were kept, where to find the hidden torture champers ("just in case," he had said with a cool glint in his eyes), where the spare blood bags were kept.
You know, the little things that random house guests don't really pick up on or get the privilege to know unless they've been there a while.
It was all moot though because after the first four or five linen closets he pointed out to her she had been lost within the mental map of his disgustingly overzealous mansion.
Their last stop had been the basement, where he kept all the possessions he's hoarded, like only a lonely old lady would do with cats, but had no place for within the pristine museum he called "home."
"What the hell is what?" he asked without looking up from the inspection he was giving an ugly old, puke colored, moth eaten robe… or well, the remains of it.
Gross, dude. Just. Gross.
"This" she pointed, lifting the grey sheet carefully to inspect the moldy wooden platform connected to a dilapidated metal contraption. Corroded rust gave way to small holes and dents all over the body of…whatever it was. Rust colored flecks of iron, more frightening than her uncle Bob after a week without showering, rained down onto her bare feet as she lifted the sheet completely off the contraption.
"Belle's father called, he wants his invention back," she mocked, staring at the ugly death trap in front of her. She was startled when a loud tinkling laugh met her ears, signaling that Klaus heard her offhand comment and actually found it funny.
"That's the world's very first attempt at an automobile." He grinned, patting down onto the heap affectionately, sprinkling more magical fairy dust onto the floor. Again… gross.
"That's a car?" she exhaled, staring at the thing in aghast. It really did look like a real life version of the wood-chopping invention Maurice created from Beauty and The Beast. "How in the world is that a car?"
"It's a combustion steam engine from the early eighteenth century."
"It looks like a bear trap. Why do you have it?"
"Sentimental reasons," he smirked, covering it back up and patting it again with the same affection an absentee father would do to his eager child. He turned to look at her and she almost rolled her eyes at the familiar look in his eyes. He was about to tell her a story she really didn't care for. Seriously. Guys and their "cars" what's up with that?
She took a seat on a tacky tie-dyed beanbag chair- which curiously smelled like stale marijuana- preparing for the long spiel she knew she couldn't prevent.
"Rebekah and I traveled into the old village of what is now New Orleans riding on little Bertha. She could barely crawl faster than three miles an hour. The ride was slow and utterly unbearable, but she was something no one else had back then. She was a flash of wealth to an underprivileged society. She was the "ns-5" to a land that still employed slaves and used homemade plows made out of spare driftwood and twine."
She blinked at the insinuation that he's seen the movie iRobot and that his car's name was Bertha.
"Bertha?" She spit out, cackling at the ridiculous name for the humorous attempt at a car... but then she remembered the look of it and figured such a granny name wasn't that off base to the hunk of wood and metal crashing in the dark corner of his basement.
How did he even get that shit in here, she wondered curiously.
He glared at her, warning her to shut up.
"Owning the big house on the top of the hill was one thing, but having the gall and supremacy to actually have a machine in a world of men's blood, sweat, and tears… I was instantly denoted their equivalent of mayor to their land," he boasted, signaling the end of his happy story.
"Wow. You'd think after so long living one way that they'd be a little cautious around modern devices," she noted, amusing him with her apathy and immediate opposition to anything he's ever done.
"Anyways," she changed the subject before he could start again, "Kol will be home soon so we need to get back upstairs, Caroline."
Klaus pursed his lips, "yes, I believe you're right… Klaus." He muttered, playing along as they walked back into the living room.
"No need to wait about, brother," a taunting voice called from around the corner. Caroline's eyes widened as a familiar man sauntered over to her. "I've already arrived."
Kol embraced her, crushing her into a weird brotherly hug she's seen Stefan and Damon do sometimes. Her arms hung awkwardly at her sides, over thinking about how exactly brothers clasp each other without it getting weird. As she was about to lift her arms to embrace him back, he had already pulled away and was eagerly staring at Klaus.
"And who is this?" he purred, eyes grazing over Caroline's body predatorily. She choked on a surprised cough as Kol flashed over to Klaus and took his hand in his own. "I'm Kol, the better looking Mikaelson, at your service, darling." He kissed Klaus' hand, lingering a little too long to be proper.
Klaus' eyes were flashing in barely surpassed disgust as Kol's wet mouth touched the skin of his hand.
Lowering the tone of her voice to the way Klaus does sometimes, "that's Caroline," she piped up before Klaus could attack his own brother.
"Hi." Klaus snapped fiercely, openly wiping his brother's germs on his jeans. If he had thought about it, maybe he should never have done that knowing that his brother's blatant enjoyment for a challenge coming from the opposite sex greatly rivaled his own.
"Hi." Kol simpered back, winking at her lasciviously.
"Why don't we all sit down!" Caroline piped up, trying to keep her awkward fumbling to a minimum as she tentatively steered Kol to the far side of the room, away from Klaus.
Kol sat down, reaching to the coffee table where she had earlier paced an assortment of alcoholic drinks on display. The clock read eleven in the morning, but the situation called for it desperately.
"So," she began once Klaus was seated a safe distance away from Kol's seedy eyes, she felt dirty just having the grubby dude look at her body like that. "What have you been up to, love?" putting uncomfortable emphasis onto the uncalled for term.
She didn't catch Klaus' inaudible groan at her complete and utter failure with using the term "love."
Kol looked at her strangely before visibly shaking his thoughts off. "After the lot of you killed Esther I took the time to explore the modern gadgets of today's century. Very interesting this iPod contraption." He held up the small device, grinning at it wickedly.
The look reminded her of a young kid burning ants with a magnifying glass… that first step one takes before growing up and becoming a serial killer.
"Yeah, the music industry throughout the years has changed too," she supplied, keeping him talking and diverting his attention away from Klaus.
Klaus rolled his eyes at the tattle, too bored to engage in their semi-frivolous chat and too bitter of the easy conversation to tell Caroline she was behaving nothing like him whatsoever.
"So…" Kol said, finally starting to hint at a conversation that perked Klaus' ears. Kol looked over at him, hesitant to speak freely in front of a new female.
"She's fine, brother, she is in the inner circle now." Caroline said ridiculously, attempting to imitate Klaus' gruff no-nonsense tone.
Kol gave Klaus a reproaching look and Klaus knew exactly what his younger brother was seeing. A dainty baby vampire, frail and blonde, baby faced and innocent to the world's treachery. "Whatever was she doing here with him?" Kol was probably thinking.
"I didn't stop by here to this dreaded town on my own whim. I've brought some interesting news…about Marcel." Kol taunted giddily, waiting with baited breath for Klaus' imminent reaction. Caroline had no idea who this Marcel guy was, so she kept her face neutral, disappointing Kol for the crazed outburst he was hoping would happen.
Kol didn't notice the other occupant at the other end of the room completely tense up, face squeezing tightly with the effort to not growl out an obscenity.
"What do you know?" Caroline asked tentatively, quickly glancing at Klaus for some sort of sign he knew what was going on.
"Word on the street says Marcel's been plotting something big. He's been seen gathering some witches within one of the upper level portals and tucking them away under his belt. Seems he's gathering some sort of army to hide behind. What for? I don't know. But I came here to assist in his demise. You know how much I enjoy a good battle." Kol said seriously, sitting back with a cautious look, wholly prepared for his brother to lash out and destroy the room at that news.
Klaus' eyes twitched wildly as he gripped the black shirt he was wearing. Marcel. That bloody idiot, always ruining his life. He shot up from his seat and began to pace so he could think a little clearer.
Kol's eyes focused on the pacing woman in confusion before turning back to look at his brother.
"Oh no…" She said lamely, red faced and embarrassed. She was a shitty actress, and a horrible liar to boot. What the hell was she doing? This was a stupid idea to keep Kol in the dark after just revealing something that seemed pretty big to Klaus.
"'Oh no'?" he reiterated in shock and agitation, "Niklaus, the bloke's a cackhanded wally and he's been out to overthrow you for centuries and you say 'oh no?'"
What the fuck is a cock handled wolly, Caroline grumbled internally as she shifted around in her seat for something to say that wouldn't be deemed suspicious to him. This was a stupid, dumb, idea.
Why couldn't they just tell Kol what's going on, he seemed nice enough wanting to help his brother out. Klaus was more paranoid than a slut at church over his brother. The dude can't be that bad if he's warning Klaus of something seemingly important.
"I'm not—" she was about to say it, she was about to go right out and tell the dude she was wasn't who he thought she was, but then the annoying whisper in the back of her head piped up and she remembered conversation from last night.
They were teammates, and Klaus needed her to play her part in this. She had to trust that Klaus knew what he was doing and that Kol needed to be kept in the dark.
"—I mean, that bloody dolt!" She growled, standing up and attempted to muster every bit of the bad ass acting skills she did not contain.
She got up with a roaring growl, quickly throwing the first thing her hand came in contact with onto the floor. A crystal glass shattered loudly, they all stopped to turn and stare at the shards littering the floor.
While he was distracted, staring at the falling droplets of whiskey on his pant leg, she grabbed Kol by the lapels of his dark green wind coat and growled into his face, attempting her very best to channel the evil Klaus she knew.
Shit was harder than it looked.
Kol's eyes widened, before a knowing look fell upon his gaze and he relaxed in her hostile hold. "There's the brother I've grown to love and hate."
"How do you know?" she growled in his face, shaking him roughly all the while shooting out apologizes for being so rough with him.
Klaus stopped his angry pacing and watched Caroline play finally own up and her part to a T. She was magnificent, he thought proudly. He was almost compelled to applaud her performance at getting a few answers out of her brother.
"Now, now," Kol groaned, peeling her hands away from him and quickly dashing to the other side of the room before she could try to fake-attack him again. "Not while a lady's present," he nodded over to Klaus.
"Tell us what you know. Enough with the theatrics, Kol and get on with it." Klaus demanded, forgetting his role as submissive bystander. Kol rounded back onto him, pushing Klaus onto the furthest couch and forcing him to sit.
"Do not move a muscle. Stop listening. Don't speak, darling." He compelled roughly.
Caroline gasped at the sight of Klaus loudly snapping his mouth shut and still all movements under the compulsion.
His eyes were dazed as he attempted to fight off the cloud of compulsion his mind was suffering. Is this what it was like? He wondered, feeling his mind fighting against the abnormality attacking his subconscious.
He felt like he was throwing his body in each direction, hoping for his skin to budge an inch but nothing complied.
Is this what it feels like to be buried in concrete? He idly wondered as he watched Caroline yell at Kol, presumably to bring him out of the compulsion. Everything was deathly quiet as he numbly watched Kol and Caroline verbally spar. The hands on her hips notified him that she had wavered in her role as she attempted at berating Kol.
That's my girl, he boasted, watching Caroline slap Kol's shoulders with both hands, throwing him back a few feet as they argued. Caroline pointed at him, jabbing her finger in the air in emphases for whatever she was saying.
Kol finally rolled his eyes, throwing his arms in the air as he stormed back over to Klaus. Klaus watched with hard eyes, attempting to narrow them in anger, as Kol brushed a blonde curl back behind his ear.
"You're free from my compulsion." Muddled words broke through his ears as his body slumped forward unconsciously from its unnatural freeze.
Klaus glared at his brother, but did not bother attacking him, knowing he was weaker at the moment and would lose any fight against Kol.
"Now." Caroline finally snapped, sitting next to him a little too close to be amicable. "Back to what you were saying."
Kol rolled his eyes, falling back on the couch across from them childishly. "I heard from Sophia. You remember beautiful Sophie don't you, Nik? She asked for your help specifically." Kol taunted at 'Caroline,' knowing something the beautiful blonde female didn't.
Klaus cleared his throat as Kol kept staring at his female body maliciously, "She's still in Louisiana?"
He raised a brow at that, searching his brother's blank gaze before turning back answering Klaus, "Klaus told you, dear little lass, about Sophia?" he accused 'Caroline', bewildered and more than a little shocked the baby vampire knew that tidbit.
Caroline had to cool her features to keep from looking confused.
Klaus answered informally, "yeah."
Kol sat up on the couch, sitting forward to lean on his knees. "Huh. Well that's a surprise… maybe you are in the inner circle then. Apologies for the compulsion, Caroline darling, no hard feelings."
Caroline watched confused as he apologized, Kol grinned, almost kindly, at Klaus in her body; a completely three-sixty to the vulgar way he had been treating 'her' before.
Klaus ignored his brother and looked up to his own face. "Looks like we're needed in New Orleans, Klaus."
Later that night, after Kol had left to torment the unsuspecting town of his pestering, Caroline snuck into the guest room Klaus will be occupying to keep up the pretense.
"What the hell was that all about earlier?" she asked as she watched Klaus awkwardly pile long blonde hair into a high pony tail. Seriously, the guy lived in the twelfth century, surely he knew how to handle long hair!
"What about earlier, love?" he asked, mastering the hairdo and sitting down on the high top bed with his cell phone.
"Marcel? And this Sophie person, everything? I'm so unprepared for this whirring world of yours Klaus. I feel like I've been dumped at sea with no life jacket, you know?" she complained honestly, falling back onto the bed next to him.
She looked up at him hoping for one second he didn't have to be all secrets and mystery and just tell her what the hell was happening to them. "We already have important stuff on our plates, Klaus. Don't tell me the crap your brother dumped on us is going on the To Do list too."
Klaus remained silent, staring and typing away at his phone as if he didn't even hear her.
"Hello? Are you even listening? I'm trying to have heart-to-heart again and you're not even—"
"Caroline." Klaus growled, smacking his hand loudly onto the bedspread between them. "I always listen to you, sweetheart, but for one moment, can you just give me a minute to think?"
She pressed her lips together in annoyance but huffed anyways, letting it go as she gave him his precious minute to "think."
After a few minutes in festering silence, she couldn't take it anymore and let her thoughts bubble out loud again.
"I left my mom for the time being because I woke up in your body. Then a little bomb is dropped that I've got your hybrid abilities… which by the way, really creeps me out because I almost blew up and killed your brother when he compelled you today. I've never been that angry before, and that's pissing me off just thinking about all this shit." She took a deep breath, "now we need to go to New Orleans to find help over our curse" she spat the word out, "and defeat your weirdo protégé who's trying to take over your city? Honestly Klaus. How do you have time to do anything."
"We seem to have more problems than answers to our long list of questions." He murmured, unconsciously patting her on the leg that had begun twitching in nervous agitation. Her leg stopped twitching immediately at his touch.
"I'm so confused," she cried out, burrowing into her familiar back as Klaus sat up straighter, still typing away on his phone. "Things are happening so fast, I feel like I've been trapped in here for years not three days."
Klaus sighed, reaching out to hold her hand in his. He looked down, inspecting his own callused hand, familiar in every way to him. Caroline sat up and leaned down to place Klaus' giant head into the small crook of her own thin neck. Kinda like a puzzle piece, she thought grimly of their strange bodies molding into each other's kinda perfectly.
"You know, it's easier to hug you when you're in my body," she said after a few quiet moment of miserable silence. She didn't notice the subtext within her sentence. Klaus didn't bother acknowledging it.
"It's because we're familiar when staring back at our own skins."
"Yeah, maybe."
"I don't have any answers, Caroline." Klaus admitted finally, the soft confession so very unlike him. "I don't know what we did. I've never heard of body swapping such as this, but we'll figure it out. Stop worrying. Take a page from your book and just 'go with the flow.' Tomorrow we'll be in Louisiana and we'll figure out how to get back to our proper selves first and foremost," he said.
"What about that Marcel dude? Kol seemed pretty worried about that." She looked up at him, worrying her bottom lip and chewing it raw.
"I can't defeat a new enemy in a cheerleader's body can I?" he rolled his eyes mockingly. She snorted pulling away from the arm wrapped loosely around her. She crawled her way to the headboard and leaned against it.
"If you're gonna be acting the part, then you might as well learn your role." She sighed finally, patting the space beside her.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, sitting next to her and discarding his cell phone onto the nightstand beside him.
"You, my friend, are gonna get to know me. My hopes, my dreams, so if anything like today happens again, we'll be prepared."
Klaus smirked deeply at his words from so many nights ago when he'd dared her to take a chance with him. It seemed like lifetimes ago when she had been plotting against him, now look at her, openly kind and stuck with him for the time being.
Their choices and control over their own selves were ripped away from them in the darkness of the night and she still surprised him at every turn.
"What's your favorite color?" he asked out of the blue.
She laughed loudly, and he quietly wished it was her actual laugh he was hearing and not the laugh he had grown to hate for over a thousand years.
"Of all the questions and you start with that?" she rolled her eyes. "I pick green or blue. It changes. What's yours?" She smirked.
He stared at the blank white wall on the other side of the room, thoughtfully mulling over all the colors he could possibly imagine. He thought of saying "blue" because they were the color of her eyes… but he'd rather stake himself in both knees than admit to that.
"Red." He said finally, lying to her outright and hoping that it wouldn't bite him in the ass.
She rolled her eyes, slapping him on the shoulder, "of course."
"What's your–" he began again, but she stopped him.
"Ah, ah, ah." She tisked, playfully wiggling a finger in the air. "My turn. What's up with the scary art in your room? It's so depressing to wake up to!"
Klaus thought about the art hanging on his wall, pictures from several points in time that had been painted by him. Wars he had witnessed. Bloodbaths he had taken part in… and at one particular low point, a village of men women and children he had mercilessly killed then commemorated by painting a canvas with the various shades of leftover blood.
"To remind myself." He replied monotonously, but left it at that.
"Of what?" she pressed, staring at him unwaveringly and sadly. Not with pity, Caroline was too pure and humble to ever pity anyone. But once again, as he stared into her eyes, everything around her blurred around its edges, he could almost picture her beautiful face staring back him instead of his own hard one.
"Of the destruction I always leave in my wake."
He could spit out that honest confession yet he couldn't tell her his favorite color were the colors of her eyes. It's that contradiction that made Klaus question his life's decisions.
"That's not true," she began to deny, but her bright baby blue eyes dimmed down with a worry no one had ever shown him. "I'm being detained inside of your body, there's no destruction here other than random coincidence."
"You think this is a coincidence?" Klaus snapped, sitting up and still small enough to have to look up to her from his new position. "You think whatever did this to us chose me- Klaus the original hybrid- and you- the woman he would do anything for- out of coincidence?"
Her eyes widened at his confession, she knew he liked her but it was easy to forget sometimes…
"I don't know? You said the psychic told you something like this was going to happen, but she never said it was me specifically. You could have easily woken up in Elena's body Friday morning. Or Damon's. Or April Young for Christ's sakes."
Klaus shook his head slowly, "whatever–whoever did this to us knew what they were doing, love. Since the day I first saw you when I was within Alaric's body... you were my light. Just like Gabrielle predicted all those years ago, and you've been quite literally forced upon me. Whatever is happening here," he gestured between the two, wholeheartedly putting his heart on his sleeve for just a moment, if he could only make her understand, "it's happening because it was fate. You must know that, love" he whispered hopefully.
She noted that the usually sarcastic pet name now wrapped around his lips and spilled into her like some silent declaration of loyalty and understanding.
Caroline almost gasped at the sight of his usually cold, dead lighting up with a small spark. Gone was the usual malicious glint and replaced with the softest, most hopeful look she's ever seen in his eyes.
She could almost feel his soul trying to reach out to her as she gazed at him, everything around them blurred and froze. She could have sworn on her own life that for a fraction of a second, she saw Klaus' face, his real vampire face, hopefully gazing back at her.
What could she say to something like this? Such kind words from such a cold man, her first instinct was to nod and curl into him. Hug the life out of him and squeeze his soul into her own from the very happiness he had just made her feel from those few heartfelt words she so rarely gets.
But then… Tyler.
A/N: Oh man. I went from oh-my-god-Kol to Jesus fuck, punch me in the face this is disgustingly cute... in like a split second. Don't kill me, guys. Be gentle with me.
Reviews gets me to update!
Love you all!
Kathy