"I'd love to read a time travel story where Caroline gets sent to the past and befriends and falls for kol.." –AngelinaGuerin
""Well, that's a long story. But rest assured, it was worn by a princess almost as beautiful as you." The princess was an ancestor of Caroline's - or a past life of Caroline - and Kol loved her greatly." –brighteyescoldheart
"Have you ever though of a Great Gatsby AU?" –QueenVamp
"could you do like a caroline/kol relationship? dating in secret for a while then the friends find out?" –catnipawthorne
"Okay, I'm going to give you a prompt - the next song that plays on my ipod. Which interestingly turns out to be Summer from the Four Seasons of Anton Vivaldi by David Garrett! Have at it dear.:)" – shedreamsincolour
Plot is from Doctor Who, I took a little dialogue there as well.
More fics to come, just be patient.
I – The Princess
Kol for one is bored at English court but Nik being the insufferable bastard that he is, drags him away from the East (where he may have been getting bored but he doesn't enjoy Nik pulling him from where he wants to like a dog on the leash) and makes him journey for weeks before arriving just in time for Henry VII's coronation.
Nik is one of the guests of honor having helped the new King win his crown and Nik's family are all very much welcomed to join in the celebrations. Rebekah is over there mingling with the yet to be crowned Elizabeth of York who looks martyred if anything else.
Elijah and Nik are sitting in front of him and Finn is off somewhere (probably drinking his mood swings with ale). Kol is bored stiff and he weighs in his mind how much trouble he'll be in if he decides to just off everyone in the room. England would probably have another war on their hands and at least Finn would be too busy killing again to be depressed.
Kol spies a vision of golden silk and long hair. He blinks and scrutinizes the blonde woman at the back of Bekah. She looks young, no older than seventeen with childlike roundness to her red cheeks and eyes bluer than Bekah's. The hint of curve in the golden gown she wears intrigues him though.
He taps Elijah on the shoulder to get his attention and inquires about the girl.
"Princess Caroline of House Forbes."
Interesting.
Kol's always had a fondness for princesses. And corrupting them.
They are always expected to be pure, chaste and innocent of carnal pleasures which is why seducing them is such fun. T
hey would protest and whine about virtues and sin and yet flush when he'd smile wickedly at them with promises of nothing but pleasure and sweet damnation before he has them in his bed, unraveled and unbound.
Kol loves princesses.
And he hasn't quite met one that intrigues him as much as Princess Forbes who merely throws a cold glance his way when he kisses her hand the first time they are introduced. She thinks herself exceptional does she, immune to his charm. She would find herself dearly mistaken then.
When he asks her to dance she agrees but with disdain carefully hidden under layers of practiced composure. She moves with fluidity and grace borne from her station and he takes every advantage to touch and feel her.
She doesn't squirm not once.
When the dance is over, her face is neutral but the flush in her cheeks tells him otherwise.
She excuses herself from the hall immediately and he follows. She must hear him because her steps quicken but he's an Original, he can corner her without even trying.
She stops at the end of a hall and tries to open the door but it won't budge. She lets out a sigh before slowly turning around to face him, expression begrudged. "Yes, my lord?"
He grins, all wickedness and sin. "Leaving so soon, princess?"
"I'm afraid I'm not feeling very well." She replies. "I thought it best to retire."
"Let me escort you to your rooms then."
"No!" She protests too quickly but tries to recover. "I'll be fine, my lord. No need to bother."
"I insist." He says with conviction, allowing no refusals.
She acquiesces with a look of resignation, not even reacting when he hooks her arm underneath his.
Kol could've compelled her but what would be the fun in that? He much rather liked his prizes with some effort put into it. Compulsion is only a last resort in seduction after all.
Of course now, he is seriously considering it because Princess Forbes treats him like the plague and has made sure to keep her distance since the night he escorted her back to her rooms. She had bid him farewell at the door and the rushed in far quicker than he wanted.
She has decided to keep herself surrounded by her ladies wherever she goes and refuses any situation where she has to be alone or even be near him. It'd maddening and yet exciting. He has to work for her and he's never wanted anything more before.
He can trap her into dances because refusal would be much too impolite and he's found ways around her ladies and the gentlemen that surround her but getting her alone again is his next big move.
He decides he needs help so he gets Rebekah's. His brothers never quite got on with his need for games but Rebekah plays them expertly like a true Queen.
Rebekah merely invites Princess Forbes to their room for a private 'chat', conveniently when none of the other Mikaelson brothers are around and Kol interests her into a game of chess. When Rebekah decides to retreat as she's "feeling faint all of a sudden. Please don't mind me and continue your game", Kol ups the ante and offers a wager to the princess.
"If I win, I get a kiss."
Her blue eyes widen a fraction at his boldness but she quickly schools her expression. "And if I win, my lord?"
"What do you wish, my princess?"
"Surrender."
He makes no question to what she means.
"I plan no such thing." His dark eyes stare her down. "That is not a known word to my family."
"Withdrawal, then?"
Cheeky little thing.
"How about temporary relief?" He grins at her. "For a day."
"A day?" She raises a golden brow. "So be it."
He lets her win.
She doesn't avoid him anymore. Probably realizing it is futile. 'Surrender' really isn't a word known to his family and he keeps his promise of giving her 'temporary relief' for a day before returning full-force.
She merely gives him an aggrieved sigh when his attentions return but does her best to keep him at bay.
Things take a turn when he spies her sneaking out into the gardens at night, lamp in hand and shivering underneath her dark cloak. He follows her and she gasps in shock, covering her mouth to stifle a scream when she sees him.
"What are you doing here?" She whispers in panic.
He cocks an eyebrow. 'I should be asking you that question, princess. Running around the grounds in the middle of the night is not your usual pastime, I know."
She scowls, showing more spirit than he's ever seen in her, out of her cool. "And how would you know of my usual pastimes?"
"I devote myself to know everything about you, my princess." He inclines his head. "Everything."
Her eyes widen and she takes a step back. "That's disturbing."
He shrugs her off and takes the lamp from her cold hand. "Were you planning on going somewhere, your highness? At this time of night?"
"No." She denies but he sees right through her and she acquiesces at his dry look. "Yes. I have received word of my father's passing. I am to return to France in the morning and marry my cousin to secure for him the throne and-"
"-you don't quite enjoy being a chess piece and decide that running away is the only solution." He finishes for her.
"Well, yes." She presses her lips together. "I refuse to marry a man that does not love me."
He finds himself laughing, more like a bark really. She hushes him but he waves her off.
"Oh, princess, I didn't take you for a romantic. Do you dream of knights saving damsels and princesses saved by princes from their towers?" He laughs again. "What dung."
She bristles at his mockery. "If you have had your laugh, my lord, I simply must go. I have an engagement to abandon, you see."
She tries to walk away but he grabs her arm and pulls her back easily. "Do not mind my insensitivity, princess. I am merely amused."
She glares up at him with the childlike eyes of hers and for a moment, he can see the little girl still there. Barely old enough to be queen, wife or mother. She is much too young. And apart of him wants to hide that innocence, keep it perpetually alive but his blood would just do the opposite and he could not bear to wreck such a lovely thing.
She is much too lovely for him to ruin but he will just the same.
"Come with me." He finally says. "It's much better to escape in company and style."
They are on a ship heading back to the East when the court gets word of Caroline's escape with Kol. They call it an 'elopement' and he does not bother to correct them. Nik and Elijah send him letters to bring back the princess and stop acting like a fool but he refuses.
Caroline is his now and he will make sure of that.
The seas are unforgiving in the nights and Caroline can't sleep with the boat rocking like it is. She stands at the side of her room at the lower deck, holding on to a table for dear life when he sees her.
"Enjoying yourself, princess?" He gibes.
She throws a dirty word at him which he gathers she adapted from the crew. It amuses him to no end.
"Come on now, I'm sure your sea legs will kick in soon enough."
She throws another dirty word. This one makes him grin even wider.
He approaches to where she's standing. Her fingers are bone white as she holds on to the wood. "Go away." She murmurs when he's behind her, his breath on her clammy skin. "Leave me to my misery."
He chuckles and the vibrations course through her. His fingers reach down to touch the platinum bracelet on her wrist. "An heirloom" she answered when he asked her about it, passed down from one generation to the next, a pretty bracelet for pretty princesses. He wants to both break it off her wrist and crush it in his hands and also just watch as her nimble fingers drum on the diamonds.
She lets out a breath when his other hand steadies on her hip when the rocking of the boat almost topples her to the side if not for him. "Kol…" She only uses his name in private. "Please go."
His mouth is at her ear and she shivers when he speaks. 'Do you really want me to?"
She's quiet for a heartbeat. Two, three and then – "No."
His mouth presses to the petal soft skin of her cheek before making his way, slowly to her mouth where she surrenders sweetly and all innocence is gone.
They arrive in a week's worth of time and he's greeted by vervain in his drink and a dagger to his heart except the dagger never quite makes it when Caroline jumps in front of him and goes straight for her fragile, mortal heart instead. He is weakened by vervain but not enough to stop an Original, he merely pulls out the heart of the attacker in one swift move before taking the dying princess in his arms.
"Don't forget me." She says her eyes still so blue before her heart beats three, two and then-
He bites into his wrist and tries to make her swallow but she's gone.
He weeps for regret and loss.
And love, maybe.
He was on his way but now-
Now he destroys.
II – The Singer
Nik coaxes him back into his company in Chicago. Elijah and he have long been distant with each other and Finn is idly sleeping in a box. Rebekah is still Rebekah and she greets him with a kiss on the cheek when he arrives in town.
The days are for sleeping and the nights for drinking, dancing and women. There are many beautiful women but he chooses the attention of the dark-eyed brunettes to the blue-eyed blondes. He likes them mouthy though, can't seem to get over that.
He enters the club on a night like any other when he hears a different voice singing. Instead of Gloria's raspy vocals is something smoother like the champagne that keeps on flowing. He sees a vision in red. Pinned up blonde curls and red lips signing into the microphone. Her red dress accentuating curves as she dances to the jazz beats.
All he sees though are those blue eyes that enraptured him centuries ago. Like a sucker punch to the stomach, he feels winded all of a sudden but he can't seem to look away from the mirror image of the princess who died in his arms.
"Like what you see?" Gloria asks as she appears beside him. "New girl, new to the city. I thought I'd help her out."
He can barely talk but gets the words out. "How…old is she?"
"She said she was twenty-one but I know better." Gloria smiles, shaking her head. "Probably not any older than seventeen. Don't let anyone know that though, she brings in good business."
An ache is so strong, it overcomes him. He can barely focus on anything but the girl on stage. "What's her name?"
"Caroline Forbes."
The ache consumes.
He sneaks into the dressing rooms after her shift. Caroline's sitting at one of the many vanity tables and changed out of the red dress and wearing a dark blue robe with embroidered red birds on it.
She notices him and doesn't react except to stare at his reflection on the mirror. "May I help you?" She asks.
"Maybe." He doesn't step closer, keeping those few feet between them right where they are. "Maybe I can help you."
'I doubt that." She starts pulling the numerous pins out of her blonde curls. "So, what's her name?"
"Name?"
"Of the girl I remind you of," She explains. "I always remind them of someone."
He feels his heart stutter in his chest to beat along with the syllables of her name. Ca-ro-line.
"Does it matter?" He merely replies and she shrugs.
"I guess not." She turns around finally to look him directly in the eye and the focus of her blue eyes on him makes him shiver with familiarity and newness.
This is not the same girl, is she? It can't be. And yet, Kol has lived for a while. He's seen many impossible things that man has decided to keep locked up for their sanity. He knows better than to question magic or whatever this is anymore.
"What's your name?" She asks.
"Kol."
She grins, all sweetness and bright eyes. "My name's Caroline."
"I know."
She nods, as if expecting that. "What do you want, Kol?"
"How about dinner?" He suggests.
She looks to the clock on the wall that clearly says five past six. "How about breakfast instead?"
Caroline's removed her make-up and changed into a more modest dress, covered by a beige coat. Her heels make noise on the pavement as they go into the diner. Caroline's familiar with the place as she takes a seat near the back and greets the waitress by name when she comes to take their order.
He doesn't order anything but coffee )black) and watches as Caroline stirs (too much) cream and sugar into hers. She eats her meal with no care whether to his unrelenting attention and doesn't make conversation until she's finished.
"What brings you to town?" She asks, hands around her cooling cup of (too sweet) coffee,
"Family...and other things."
"Other things?" She echoes.
"Things of undecided interest."
"Undecided interest?" She blinks at him. "And what are these 'things' exactly?"
"More like a thing, a person really." He nods gravely. "A girl."
Her widens exaggeratingly."A girl? Tell me, what she like?"
"Blonde, blue eyes, about this tall…" He gestures to where the top of her head met his shoulder. "She likes to sing and puts too much sugar in her coffee and a criminal amount of syrup on her pancakes."
"The girl might think that's rich considering you seem to like your coffee blacker than death."
"You seriously think?" He grins. "I don't think you quite know the girl that well."
"And you do?" She quirks an eyebrow. "I think I know her much better than you."
"Really? You two good friends?" He leans in to whisper to her. "Maybe you can help me ask her out on a date."
"I think she'll say no." She leans down and whispers back.
He leans back, aghast. "Why?"
"Cause she doesn't know you. You might be a serial killer for all she knows." She leans back and crosses her arms over her chest and shakes her head. "She's a smart girl. She's not gonna risk it."
He reaches for one of her hands and holds it in both of his. "But aren't the best things in life worth the risk?"
She shakes her head. "You have to ask the girl her opinion on that."
He squeezes her hand. "I want yours."
She grins and this isn't the smile of an innocent princess. This is a girl who's been kissed and knows how she likes how to be. It excites him like nothing has for a while. "I say, take risks for the hell of it."
He comes to the club every night. He drinks champagne and shares jokes with the men. He sits down at a table with a good view of the stage and watches Caroline perform. It's like she is made for the stage. She is nothing but comfortable and suave up there despite her age (Seventeen, just like Gloria predicted). And he dances with her when it's not her shift.
She moves fluidly and sensually, the sway of her hips making his head spin. Her arms around him like an anchor against the tumulus ocean that is his mind. Her perfume lingers on him long after he's bid her goodbye for the night.
He can't help it but compare his bright club singer to the icy princess of long ago. Same face, same voice. They were different and yet so alike. In this Caroline he sees shades of the dead princess. In her laugh, her quick wit, her irrepressible need to challenge him. She is his Caroline no matter what.
His Caroline again?
He needs to know. He watches her sing on the stage, a vision in a white flashy dress when Gloria sits down at his table with her dark eyes intriguing. "You called?"
There was just the right hint of sass. Gloria is Nik's favorite witch after all, she can get away with a few things.
He cuts right to the chase. "Caroline," He says. "What is she?"
Gloria's white eyebrows furrow before smoothening. "A girl. Pretty and lively but completely normal."
"But how come she-" He stops himself but Gloria catches it.
"How come what?"
He decides to chance it. Even if this whole situation reaches Nik. Kol would protect Caroline and he wants – needs to know what she is and what is going on. "I met her before – Caroline – a long time ago. She died because of me."
"And you think Caroline is the reincarnation of this girl?"
"She looks the same, has the same name." Kol explains. "What are the odds, really?"
Gloria looks back at the stage and stares at Caroline before shaking her head. "I can't feel anything from her. "
"Could she be a trap, a trick?" Kol tries to swallow his doubts but they resurface like angry hot waves. "Is she just an illusion?"
"She's as real as you and me." Gloria answers before standing up. "Loving her is your choice, Kol."
Kol doesn't watch her leave but keeps staring at the girl on stage. She shines brighter than any sun he's known.
He lingers in Caroline's apartment. It's the first time she's invited him in and he marvels at how some people can live in so tiny a place and still live. Granted, he hasn't always been an Original with an endless bank account but those days were long ago and he quite enjoys taking more than three steps to span an apartment.
'How do you live like this?" He asks in bewilderment, looking up at the ceiling and expecting it to cave. Surely, such a place couldn't have a great foundation.
"With much grievance," She tsks at him from where she's seated on the tiny bed. "Not all of us were born with custom-made platinum pacifiers, you know."
"I wasn't either." He counters. Pacifiers weren't even made yet at the time. "I don't know of anyone with a platinum pacifier. Do you?"
She rolls her eyes. "I was trying to make a point."
'Well, it was a shit one."
She sticks out her tongue at him and tries to ignore the rest of his quips about her apartment and fails. Kol Mikaelson is not made to be ignored. You'd have a better time trying to ignore Big Foot dancing on your front yard while declaring his engagement to the Lockness monster.
Kol finally gets bored though of his 'perusal' and joins her on the bed, sitting at the foot of the bed and grabbing her ankle. Her bones are delicate and her skin soft and he remembers how fragile she really is despite that sharp tongue of hers.
She tries to kick him with her ankle in his hands and he retaliates by grabbing the other. She shrieks when he pulls her down to her back and pounces on her to tickle her until she's crying and gasping for air.
"S-Stop it, Kol, stop!"
He grins when she tries to roll away and pulls her back to him until he's on top of her and her warm breaths are fanning his face. She lets out a gasp of relief when he stops torturing her, blue eyes focusing unto his and she stills.
He can't look away from her glassy eyes and flushed cheeks and that ache inside of him that he keeps at bay (because he doesn't really know what to do with this whole mystery incarnation thing) is just consuming him he might combust.
"Kol?" Caroline's eyes are bright and she's smiling. "Kiss me."
He doesn't disobey and her breaths are warm as he kisses her, all warmth and softness and he is consumed once more.
It's a night like any other at the club and he's dancing with Caroline in his arms when the world goes to hell. Gunshots are in the air, bullets almost grazing him and he thinks for one bitter second, Goddamn it, Dad.
Nik and Rebekah are rushing out and he watches them go, Caroline is shaking in his arms and he tries to get her to safety but she suddenly stiffens and he knows-
She collapses in his arms, her blue eyes still bright and the bullet wound staining her dress red. "Don't forget me."
She's gone.
Not again.
"Kol!"
Nik is behind him and dragging him away and he tries to fight but Nik has always been stronger. He still fights and Nik lets out a curse before he plunges into Kol's shredded heart.
III – The Cheerleader
Elijah greets him decades later. He blinks up at his older brother who's holding the dagger that used to be an accessory in his chest.
After the 'nice' little reunion with the family, Kol decides between staying here in freaking Virginia or leaving to find some place more interesting but his mother wants to rebuild the family again and really he could never say no to the woman. The "I brought you into the world!" card just can't be beaten.
So he agrees to stay.
And on his second day in the 21st century there is going to be a ball, a 'little' get-together for the town so they would know the family. Though Kol thinks it's just their mother's way of frivolously spending Nik's money to get back at him for, you know, killing her.
Whatever the reason, Kol likes the chance to get the town under his thumb. Here is a whole new generation of girls. And he's staying away from blondes for good this time. No more ones with sharp tongues and bright eyes. He's learned his lesson.
Or so he thought.
It's not until later when he sees Nik dancing with an all-too familiar blonde– and no, not again – that he realizes that there are just some things you apparently cannot escape, no matter how much you try.
"The last one was prettier." Rebekah tells him as they watch their brother twirl that unavoidable blonde girl in his life around the dance floor. "This one seems a bit uppity."
"Look who's talking." Kol retorts, eyes not leaving the dancing couple.
Rebekah ignores his quip and asks, "Are you going to do this to yourself again, Kol?"
"Do what to myself?"
"Get involved with that girl who you keep running into and who keeps dying." Rebekah rolls her eyes when he stares at her, incredulously. "Yes, I know about that. I'm not oblivious, you know. You don't think I wouldn't notice you falling for two identical-looking girls?"
She scoffs. "Give me more credit than that, Kol Mikaelson."
His eyes returned to the dancefloor. "Nik knew as well, didn't he?"
Rebekah nodded. "Look at the bracelet she's wearing."
He narrowed his eyes and saw the platinum bracelet with diamonds on her wrist, the pretty bracelet for a pretty princess. "I'm going to kill him."
"Can I watch?"
Rebekah distracts Nik so Kol can get Caroline alone. She's admiring Nik's paintings when he approaches her. Her superior senses alert her to him and for a moment, a pang of something aches again.
She's not human this time. She's not fragile, breakable. But at the same time, she isn't the same as the girls before. She's different and yet the same.
"Um, hello?" She says when he stops in front of her, a polite distance away. "I don't think we've met."
He winces at that. But we have met, darling. Twice and you died each time because of me.
Maybe he should just walk away. Somehow his own centuries-molded paranoia tells him that maybe he should just stay away from her. Maybe she would live this time if he doesn't fall for her. Maybe this time he can save her.
He shakes his head at her and tries to walk away but he glances at the bracelet on her wrist and remembers the princess who explained to him stories about that bracelet, of the singer who wore that bracelet as she sang on stage every night and he remembers how he loved each one.
He can't walk away from the possibility of feeling that again. That ache and yet soothing calm that made him completely and utterly mad. That made him tear cities apart in his anguish and have his brother keep him in a box so he wouldn't feel the pain again.
He wants. He craves it. He fears it.
He would love her to her death and his ruin.
But he can't stay away. It's how it's supposed to be.
He looks up at her and smiles, resigned. "My name's Kol."
Caroline drives him insane, possible even more than the previous versions of her. Wait - yes she does because she is fucking impossible. How can someone be so annoying? Seriously?
He does everything she asks for. He lets her have control of their relationship and she abuses it to extremes.
Can we keep our relationship a secret because I fear the judgment of my stupid asshole friends?
Alright!
Can you not kill Jeremy Gilbert even though he annoys you like the damn fucktard he is?
Okay! Whatever you say, my love!
Can you help us find the cure to resurrect the scariest monster to grace the earth AKA Silas because I feel the supreme need to please me friends?
"No."
She gives him a look.
He shakes his head. "No."
"But Kol!"
"No!" He starts ranting. "How does 'extremely dangerous immortal' not make you think twice? The world doesn't just revolve around Elena fucking Gilbert and her adjustment problems, you know!"
She glares at him and pokes him in the side until he grunts and swats her hand away. "You will help us because I want you to and you will be happy about it!"
"Listen here, you crazy bint," He starts. "I will not literally raise hell just because your friends are too dumb to listen to common sense!"
She growls and whines, "Kol!"
"NO!"
Caroline can't seem to find it in her to move.
Shock. That's what they would say it is.
She's in shock. The boy she loves is now a burnt corpse and she can't seem to take in this information coherently.
Klaus is at the living room, glaring daggers at anything that can keep still which at the moment is her. She wants to cry to him, "I didn't want this!" but she did, didn't she? In a way.
Her friends didn't know about her relationship with Kol. They thought she'd still been pining for Tyler, being romantically harassed by Klaus. But Kol? No one knew.
That was what she wanted at the time. She thought they wouldn't understand, would think she was under compulsion. But how would she even begin to explain that pull she had felt towards him the moment he talked to her at that ball? The look in his eyes as if he knew her and expected something bad to happen.
"You're something else," He kept telling her. "And I'll never forget you."
And now he's gone.
She stared at Bonnie with sorrowful eyes, her shredded heart still beating in her chest. "Bonnie, please…"
"This is really dangerous," Bonnie shook her head. "It's suicide."
"I don't care. I just…I want- I need to save him."
"You barely knew him." Bonnie protested. "How can you say you love him?"
"How can you say I didn't?" Caroline grabbed her friend's hands and let herself cry. "Please."
And Bonnie relents.
*"The spell will tear you apart. A million versions of you scattered all over time and space like echoes. They won't be you. The real you will die."
"I never forgot, you okay?" Kol's last words.
"But this will save him, right?"
."I never did."
"Yes."
Kol awakens once more on the floor of the Gilberts' kitchen, no longer burnt to a crisp and very much alive. He takes a moment to marvel at this incredible fact before he notices the blonde bleeding at the floor near the island.
He crawls to her and feels that familiar dread and fear overtake him again.
Not again, not again, not again….
He cradles her to him as those bright, blue eyes stare up at him one last time. "Don't forget me."
Not again, not again….
"I never did."
And never again.