A/N: At this point in time, the only thing that I have is a hangover, and work in twenty minutes. You're welcome to both.
This is an AU Klaroline fic, wherein Caroline meets Klaus and falls for him, not knowing that he is, in fact, Klaus. Oh, the drama.
All chapter quotes go to Spring Awakening (a brilliant rock musical ala Broadway).
Nb: Thanks for all the amazing reviews thus far. I CAN'T believe, I'm only uploading chapter ten now, and we're already past 300 reviews.
I've been thinking about writing another Klaroline multi-fic, but I'm a bit upset because I've been thinking about it for weeks, but two days ago I found the same plot line in a photoset on Tumblr. You guys still interested, or is that plagiarism? (It's the idea that Caroline was an original along with Klaus etc?—could even just be a oneshot...)
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"And whisper some silver reply,"
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The ride home is tense to say the least. Despite the fact that Caroline has already been told about his eating habits, she finds witnessing it an entirely different thing. They leave early Saturday morning, and Caroline finds herself practically itching for some time away from him (which upsets her, because she can see that her reaction isn't making him happy by any accounts). He grumbles through their encounter in the morning, and their run to the car is filled with silence, and terse instructions. And if that was awkward, now that they're in the car, it feels like they haven't spoken in years.
In the end, he's the one who breaks the silence.
"I didn't kill her, you know." He says his voice low and hoarse. He's less focused on the road than he was on the drive up, turning to face her with one hand on the wheel. Said hand is tight and stressed, and it makes her a little nervous.
Caroline barely leaves a pause.
"I know," she says quickly.
He does leave a pause. The silence feels as though it's going to crush her, and she looks to her hands to avoid it.
"Then why are acting like this?" he asks. He is trying to keep his voice even, but his crushing grip on the steering wheel suggests he's struggling. He's angry, she can tell.
She's not angry. That much she knows for certain. She's not disappointed either, or worried, or nervous or, even, scared. What she's feeling right now is a mixture of things that she can't quite put her finger on. It's like something is trying to tell her that this must be it: The big thing that he'll do wrong. Because so far, everything else that's he's done has been perfect, and no one's perfect—so this must be the one fault that could break them apart.
His hand moves to shift gears and Caroline remembers that on the way up, that hand was wrapped tightly around hers.
She suddenly doesn't want this silence to continue.
"It's just," she says quickly, not knowing at all what she should do with her own hands. She flails awkwardly for a second before she rests them stiffly in her lap.
He looks at her. Obviously. Because you can't just say 'it's just' and expect that to be the end of it. He's waiting for her to continue.
She sighs.
"It's just what, Caroline?" he asks, his voice soft and serious as he peers across the car at her.
Okay. Right.
She takes a deep breath and tries again.
"It's just," she begins, her voice laced with nothing but pure determination. "Why did you make her blonde?"
There is a pregnant pause.
Then,
"I didn't make her blonde, Caroline." He says, the sound an audible scoff in her ear. For a second, Caroline feels small and a little bit smaller than she has around him and she decides very quickly that she doesn't like that feeling at all. "I was thirsty, and I'm a vampire. What do you want me to do?" He's angry. Not as angry as Tyler would have been in his douchier days, but definitely more angry than she'd ever seen him before. Caroline starts to consider ways of calming down the situation. Maybe she could ask him to stop the car, or tell him that she'd like to sleep now and that they can talk about it later. Before she can really think about her options though, he's talking again.
"I didn't make her blonde." He repeats himself. "She did. And not very well, I might add—you could see the natural colour beneath." He looks across at her for another second. "Please don't ever dye your hair."
His mood swings takes her off guard, but she can't pause to think about that.
Instead, the words make her tense, and she feels all her muscles constrict. There it is again. There's this girl, who had been nothing more to him that lunch, and then there's Caroline. And he's pointing out the similarities—likening them in a way that makes her skin crawl.
He immediately notes her stress. He seems to know that touching her at this point isn't the right idea, because he keeps his hand to himself—but Caroline watches as his fingers inch slightly towards her before he takes care of it—by grasping both hands to the wheel tightly. She's comforted by the fact that he's respected her boundaries, and that must mean something right?
"Caroline?"
"You need to stop making her like me!" She ends up suddenly snapping shrilly. "I don't want to see you do that to girls. I don't want you to do that to people, period. And I really, really don't want them to look like me!"
Again, a pause fills the silence. It swirls there for a moment, and Caroline feels like she's almost watching it—until it's banished with Nick's next words.
"She wasn't supposed to be you." He says. "She was just there."
The phrase is so casual, so callous that Caroline's stomach rolls. Her face contorts in a grimace and she groans at his words. "She was just there? She was convenient?"
Now, with Tyler and Matt she was good at predicting the response this would have gotten. Matt, the bumbling young man with the great smile, would have backtracked. His eyes would have widened and he might have even taken a physical step backwards if she sent that question at him. He isn't a bad guy—in the end. Matt is the nicest guy she'll ever meet—even compared to Nick. The idea of him hurting any person is ridiculous—and the suggestion that Matt might use a girl in any way?
Any one saying it just clearly doesn't know the guy.
As for Tyler? The idea of him using a girl wasn't too far out there for the young hybrid (hello, Vicki Donovan, anyone?) But still, it isn't something he boasts about. He hadn't then and he doesn't now. Caroline actually thinks that there's a good chance he didn't even know what a jackass he was most of the time back then. But now? He would be offended to hear the accusation reeling at his ears. He'd pause for a moment, before coming back angrily. ("What does that even mean, Caroline?" he might fire back at her. "Of course I'm not doing anything like that.")
Both were good first lines of defence.
Nick opted to choose his own, third option.
For starters, he instantly pulls over the car. Still tense, Caroline's eyes only widen as the machine quickly veered to the right and off the road, slowing down under his control. When the car finally comes to a halt, there is a rigid silence as Nick undoes his seatbelt and twists in his seat to look at her.
"She was a meal to me, Caroline," he says icily. "So yes, she was convenient."
Yeah. Sure. This is it. She realises. This is the only imperfect thing about her otherwise charming prince. This is how he views the human race and that contrasts too starkly with her own views. All of a sudden, scenarios about break ups and their fights and their arguments spin chaotically through Caroline's head—so fast she almost feels dizzy.
She is only grounded when Nick turns again, pushing out of the car and slamming the door behind him.
Right, she thinks, jerked back to reality by the sound of metal on metal. This is a thing that's happening right now. Neurotic, crazy Caroline could wait to theorise. She'd have to, because right now, she notes, Nick is out the front of the car, somewhat patiently waiting for her to follow.
She tentatively undoes her own seatbelt and then copies his actions, slipping out of the car. She makes a point to close the door with less force, though, before hesitantly approaching him.
Her slow approach makes him frown.
"Are you afraid of me, Caroline?" he asks.
She notices at about this point that the pet names seem to have vanished. It looks like his terms of endearment for her were only to be used when they were in a harmonious place. For now, all she's getting is 'Caroline' and she kind of really hates the way that he's saying her name, because it's making her ache to forget that their fighting. She just wants to forgive him, and then have her nasty way with him.
She is really not good for the feminist cause, she thinks. Or for the Caroline Forbes cause, either. How can she be expected to be taken seriously if all she can think about is sex now that they've jumped that hurdle?
Not that jumping that hurdle was difficult. No, indeed, jumping him was (brilliant, amazing, fulfilling, blissful, magnificent—)
—Goddamn, she's supposed to be furious with him.
She can't quite bring herself to tell him that she's scared of him though. She's not. She's scared of what their inevitable argument will bring. She's terrified that the result might be him yelling at her. ("You're too crazy for me, Caroline. I'm not putting up with you anymore, Caroline.") She shakes her head, and then clears her throat. "No," she says, slightly hoarse but still desperate to make sure he understands. "I'm not scared of you."
Nick gives a tight shrug of the shoulders. "Then what is it?" he asks. "What is it that I've done wrong?"
Caroline can't quite articulate it at this point, for the most part because she doesn't really know the answer. It's a bit stupid, if she thinks hard about it. Can she be truly angry with him about this? She can't expect every vampire that she meets to hold the same views and be totally against death and killing.
"The girl," she says – her voice small. "You just bit her."
Nick is silent for a few short seconds before he directs his eyes to the sky – like only divine intervention could get his point across. Caroline, somehow, finds herself half-insulted and half-amused at his action.
"Caroline," he begins, and she winces because he really needs to stop saying her name like he's licking it or something. Not if he wants her to focus, that is. "I'm a vampire. That's what vampire's do."
Caroline shakes her head defiantly. "Nuh-uh," she says petulantly. "I don't."
Nick shrugs, helpless. "You're a unique kind of person," he says simply. "And you're in the minority." He pauses again. "I didn't even kill her." It's clear in his tone he considers that important and that very fact alone should enough to end the argument.
Caroline shrugs, mostly because she doesn't know what else to do.
Nick sighs loudly in frustration. He moves forward quickly (not blur quickly, but a moderate pace for a fast walking human, shall we say?) and grips her by the shoulders. His grasp isn't tight or painful, but it's sturdy and it's all so that he can look right into her eyes as he can speak next.
"Caroline," he says her name again. "I understand how you feel about drinking from them, and I'm happy to let you keep doing your thing with the blood bags. But you need to understand that I don't have a moral conscience that's as annoying as yours, and this is how I live my life."
She is silent.
He waits for a moment before deducing that she doesn't have a response. He moves his hand (the one on her left), and tucks a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear, letting the soft strands move through his fingers.
"Caroline." (Right, that's it. One more time and she's either going to stick her foot up his ass, or she's going to make him stick something of his in something of hers). "Love." Okay. The pet name is back. Is that good? (She can't really tell if it's brilliant, or just a little patronising).
Nick cups her cheeks in his hands and steps a little closer to her. He runs one thumb along her cheekbone, looking down at her fondly. "I love you, and I'm not going to let this ruin us. But you can't ask me to change who I am for you."
Huh.
Right then.
That's fair enough. Caroline really shouldn't keep to a double standard. She wasn't out to change who he was – he is her perfect man. And Nick has never tried to change her, so she can work to do the same. It's just the one thing.
She lets a small smile creep onto her face as she looks into his eyes. Her expressions often directly affect his, and so a wide grin greets her back. It quirks into a smile when he turns and rests his arm over her shoulders as they stroll back to the car (it's only a couple of steps, she notices. Funny. It had felt like longer than that).
It's only when he's pulled back onto the freeway that she finally decides to process the beginning portion of what he's said to her.
Wait. What?
She jerks in surprise as she recalls his words and turns to look at him incredulously. "Wait," she says out loud (embarrassingly, her voice has risen a few shrill octaves). "Did you say that you love me?"
There's his trademark smirk on his face—she can see it from where she sits, as well as in the reflection on the windscreen of the car. Still, his shoulders hunch back slightly, but apart from that, he appears perfectly calm.
"Take it or leave it, love," he says simply. "But I think you're a bit stuck with me."
.:.
They end up getting back to Mystic Falls much later than they'd anticipated. Mostly, because directly following his unconventional declaration of love, Caroline had literally climbed into his lap to kiss him. He'd been laughing as he pulled over for a second time, and she giggling, but their amusement soon turned to desire as things progressed. Moans and groans filled the car and their body heat made the windows foggy.
It had taken them around forty five minutes (two trips each to la-la-land in their bliss) to get back on the road.
But she holds his hand tightly in hers for the rest of the ride home. She keeps their entwined hands on her lap, and his thumb is pleasantly moving across her thigh.
"Thank you so much for this trip," she says. Caroline's exhausted from their activities, her neck hurting a little from the angle at which things had proceeded, but that doesn't hide the joy and gratitude in her voice.
He smirks slightly at that. "You've said that already, sweetheart."
She has. And she'll probably say it again before the car ride is finished—and maybe once more when they arrive at their destination. It doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter if she's just a small town girl. She's been to New York now, and that's just the first of many places that he wants to take her now. This idea—of not staying in Mystic Falls her whole life, of not becoming one of those women, who's glory days were cheerleading in high school—it's mesmerising and she can't thank him enough for being the one to put it in her mind.
So she brushes off his amused remark. "I don't care," she tells him frankly. "You took me to New York. I'm not even sure if you understand how much that means to me."
She thinks about all those people overseas, who don't have a place like New York to go to. It only took eight hours for her to drive there. Other people have to be on planes for days just to come to this country and see its successes.
"I'll take you wherever you want me to, love," he says to her. The love at the end has a whole new meaning now, and it makes her chest swell with an overwhelming amount of emotion. There is a very good chance that she may actually burst from the happiness, and she finds herself actually scoffing out loud to the idea that she'd been angry with him before. He was right. He was a vampire—that's what vampires did. He respected her enough to let her make her own eating choices, so she would have to do the same for him.
Besides, she thinks, it's not like he killed that girl. He's promised to stop finding ones who look like her, and that helps, but still. He didn't kill any one—in fact, he fed from her in a way that looked more pleasant than any way that she'd ever done it (or seen Stefan or Damon do it, for that matter).
She squeezes his hand in hers and his thumb pauses for a minute, moving to instead stroke the back of her hand. She smiles.
"By the way," she says, lifting their hands and bringing his to her lips. She plants a sweet kiss on the back of his hand. "I love you, too."
.:.
It's been a brilliant holiday, she thinks. How could she, for even one minute, have imagined not saying yes to coming away with him? It's probably been a few of the greatest days of her life (and yes, the Empire State Building was one of the high points—come on. How many other people have joined the mile high club while still standing on the ground? She's seeing it that way anyway). But even if that hadn't happened—just getting to know him, and spending all that time with him and hearing that he loves her was worth it.
She still frowns though, as the car pulls to a stop prematurely. "My house is just down this street," she says, frowning.
Nick looks at her with an odd expression on his face. Caroline can't even begin to place it. "I know," he says quickly. "But I didn't fill up the tank before we left and I'm worried I won't have enough gas to get home."
Caroline considers reminding him that this is Mystic Falls—a town so small that on something like two litres of gas, you can span the entire town—but decides against it. It's not worth ruining a brilliant end to their break like this with a joke that will probably end up sounding crazy and suspicious.
(Besides, thus far she's managed to be a little less crazy and suspicious, right?)
(Right?)
She gives him a sweet kiss goodbye as he helps her get her trunk out of the car, before he gets back into it. He waves warmly as he drives away.
It takes Caroline just under a second to speed to her front door, bags in tow. But when she arrives, she's abruptly stopped from entering her house.
"Caroline," Tyler gasps, launching at her and pulling her into a rough embrace. "Thank god."
Uhm, okay. What?
She stays still for a second as Tyler hugs her, until he makes a weird noise into her ear and pulls back a little. "You smell ..." he trails off, his brows furrowing, but Caroline's heard enough. She struggles out of his grip and frowns at him, gripping the handle of her bag tighter to keep her from getting too angry.
"Nice to see you too, Tyler," she says, rolling her eyes as she tries to sidestep him and get inside her house.
He blocks her. "Whoa, hey—where have you been? I've been looking all over for you. I thought you'd been kidnapped or something."
Caroline's frown melds into a scowl and she wrinkles her nose at her ex. "Uhm, what?"
Tyler shrugs, as though he really has no idea why she's a little miffed. "I didn't see you at school," he explained. "And I was worried about you."
"Right, well, you can stop that right now." Caroline says with another roll of her eyes. "You don't get to be worried about me anymore, Tyler."
Again, she tried to step around him, but he catches her this time. He grabs her shoulders, similarly to the way that Nick had held her when he'd told her that he loved her. This time the hold is uncomfortable and his grip is too tight.
"What? Caroline—don't be like that."
She shrugs him off again, scowling at him. "Just leave me alone, Tyler," she says, this time finally successful in getting around him. She pulls her keys from her purse and jams them in the screen door, unlocking that first.
He pulls at her arm again and turns her to face him.
"So what?" he asks aggressively. "Just because we broke up, we can't be friends anymore?"
Caroline thinks that much would be obvious.
Besides, "we didn't just break up, Tyler," she says snarkily. "You dumped me."
"You were convinced I was going to sell you out to Klaus!"
"Only because you were."
"I would not have," Tyler protests. "I wouldn't have done that to you, Caroline."
Caroline just shrugs her shoulders. "You wouldn't have had a choice, Tyler."
Tyler lets out a groan, but drops her arm. She moves to the next door now, unlocking it and stepping inside. Of course, Tyler has already been invited in, so there's not much she can do to stop him following her.
He's on his way to arguing with her again when she holds up a hand. "I don't have time for this, Tyler." She says tiredly. "I just want to go and lie down and sleep. I'm exhausted."
She hopes that he can't smell exactly what activities have gotten her so tired. It looks like for once, fate is on her side and Tyler doesn't even mention it, instead asking more of his own questions.
"Can you at least tell me where you were?" he says. "I'm allowed to still be concerned about you."
Caroline sighs.
"If you must know," she says, placing her purse down on the coffee table, while she wheels her bag to the side of the couch. "I was away with my boyfriend. He took me on a surprise trip to New York."
She can't deny that she feels a tiny thrill watching his face when she tells him that she has a boyfriend. It isn't the pure devastation that an earlier form of Caroline would have been waiting for, but it's enough surprise to let Caroline know that she's certainly beaten him (you know, in that game exes play to hook up with someone else first).
"Oh," Tyler says, suddenly awkward. He lifts a hand to scratch the back of his neck as he avoids her gaze. "Right then—sorry."
Caroline smiles back awkwardly. "Not a problem. Can I sleep now?"
Tyler doesn't respond straight away and she had to say his name again to get his attention. Once she's got it though, he nods hastily. "Oh, yeah, right." He says, nodding his head a little too enthusiastically.
She's just managed to get him out of the door when he pauses on her doorstep and turns to face her. "When do I get to meet him?" he asks, apparently having snapped out of his little moment.
Caroline frowns. "What?"
Tyler grins cheekily. "When do I get to meet your new guy? Everyone knows that you have to get your ex's seal of approval before you start dating again." (He's still laughing when she closes the door in his face. As a matter of fact, she can hear his good natured chuckles as she walks further into her house).
The sound leaves her wondering... When is a good time to introduce Nick to everyone? He loves her, doesn't he? She'd talk about it with him, of course, but Caroline's beginning to think it's about time that Elena and Bonnie meet her new boy.
.:.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter you guys. The whole process has been a bit problematic—I had huge troubles with Klaus's character this chapter, then the internet was down for me, and when it wasn't down for me it was down for my beta. So yes, BIG apologies, and I hope this chapter makes up for it.
On the Brightside, it's my eighteen birthday today—and because I live in Australia, that's a pretty big thing meaning I was able to go clubbing last night. So I'm a little (A LOT) hung over, and staring at this screen is making my head hurt a little, and I have to go to work in about twenty minutes, SO I WAS THINKING, maybe EVERYONE WHO READS THIS LITTLE AUTHORS NOTE could give me a review? As a very awesome pick me up and brilliant B'day present? YES? :D
PS. Guys, Julie Plec says someone is going to die in todays episode of TVD. I have to wait til I get home from work to watch it, so I'm FREAKING OUT. :S