Klaroline Prompt: Klaroline as Harry and Megan. Maybe show them being interviewed after the engagement announcement?
Thanks Miranda and yes a Harry/Meghan drabble! Which, by the way, is so my jam right now : ) I hope you don't mind but I changed it to their first meeting. Hope this works okay too. I've read a few vague things about how they met and definitely added my own Klaroline spin!
The Prince and the Showgirl
Byron Burger, High Street Kensington
Caroline Forbes never considered herself to be the blind dating type but for some ungodly reason she'd agreed to tonight. Being an actress, Caroline rarely got nervous but, standing outside the low key burger establishment, she was struggling to breath.
After all, it was just a date, she'd been on many in her lifetime but this one was different and she knew it, hence the anxiety she felt. She wondered how angry her friend would be if she decided to turn around and leave?
Her close friend from Ralph Lauren knew she was going to be in London for fashion week and had suggested she meet up with another friend. She figured it would be just another awkward set-up with some incompatible guy, but boy was she wrong.
3 days earlier, Connaught Bar Mayfair
"Why are you still single?"
"Nice to see you too, Belle," she drawled, placing her coat on the back of the chair and taking a seat across the table. Annabelle Crawford was not only one of her best friends, she was also Head Designer at Ralph Lauren and married to rock 'n' roll royalty. "You know if I wanted to be lectured about my relationship status, I could have just dined with my mother."
"I do miss Liz, but I mean it, Care," she insisted. "You're a beautiful, intelligent, successful actress but as long as I've know you, your love life is probably the least successful part."
"We can't all be loved up and married to the drummer from The Strokes with the perfect white picket- fence housing complete with the obligatory and adorable English bulldog."
"My life is pretty perfect," she sighed contentedly. "But that's why I want the same for you. I know you went through a lot in the divorce…"
"I'm going to need a martini if we're going to dredge up that whole marriage debacle," she groaned, gesturing to the waiter.
"I have no intention of talking about your ass of an ex," she began. "I just think you need to broaden your horizons and meet someone new that's much less of an ass."
"How articulate, but like it's so easy, Belle," she scoffed. "Anyway, I try to date between filming." Caroline was starring in supernatural drama, The Vampire Dairies, which was shot in Georgia.
"Hardly, give me a break, you are married to that job," she growled. "And even if you weren't, I think we could do slightly better than those questionable guys you call dates."
"If you're going to set me up with that stockbroker from your wedding then forget it, I nearly fell asleep during all that finance terminology."
"I had someone else in mind, actually," she offered, a devious grin spreading across her face. Caroline knew that expression all too well from past experience. "Someone more local."
"I really should have known," she huffed. "I'm not interested, Belle." Her friend didn't respond just produced a folder from her Birkin and pushed it across the table mysteriously.
She opened it up, confused as the familiar face in the picture looked up at her. She couldn't mistake his cheeky grin, sexy stubble and toned physique housed in a smouldering, grey Armani. She looked at her friend wordlessly.
"This is your date."
"Oh, I get it, this is a joke? Haha, very funny," she laughed. But when her friend's expression remained stoic she wasn't quite sure anymore. "You can't be serious?"
"I'm deathly serious," she confirmed. "He's a mutual friend and I happen to think you'd be perfect together." It was then Caroline decided Annabelle Crawford had gone completely crazy and she had no intention of entertaining such madness .
Unfortunately, she was also damn convincing.
Present Day…
"Ms Forbes, I presume?" If she was having trouble breathing before, Caroline was fairly certain all the wind had been knocked out of her. Sure, she'd seen him in formal pictures but nothing compared to the real thing. Dressed casually in jeans and a grey Henley, Caroline didn't think he'd ever looked (or in fact smelled) that good ever.
When her friend Anabelle had insisted she dress casually Caroline wasn't so sure but looking at him now she was glad she'd chosen jeans, a maroon sweater, tan ballet flats and her favourite Burberry trench.
"Don't you mean Doctor Livingstone?" She joked, noting his bemused expression and a slight tug at the corners of those crimson lips. The pictures certainly didn't do their rich hue justice. She mentally chided herself for using bad humour to cover her ever growing collection of nerves. "You know, the medical missionary and African explorer…"
"I get it," he clarified, those lips curving upwards. "Have you been to Africa, Ms Forbes?" She was taken aback by his impromptu question.
"I haven't yet, unfortunately."
"I'll be heading to Botswana in four week's time, you should join me."
"I don't know what kind of girl you think I am, buddy, but I don't just go on trips with strangers who think it will somehow get me into bed with them."
"You could have just declined," he grinned, knowingly. "I'm actually going to check on some of my aid initiatives but suit yourself." Caroline was hoping that the heated blush she could feel crossing her face wasn't as red as it felt. Not only did she insinuate the charitable Prince of England was trying to get into her pants, she called him buddy. "And, between you and me, I know you're not that kind of girl."
"I wouldn't go by that Wikipedia page…"
"When you run in the circles I do, Ms Forbes, it's more like MI6 files than inaccurate websites."
"It was only one time and I gave his underwear back, I promise," she stammered, her past college adventures flashing before her eyes. He cocked his head to the left, a stray dimple making an unhelpful appearance while she was confessing one of her greatest embarrassments. "I was pledging Pi Beta Phi and I had to steal the quarterback's underwear."
Caroline was wondering if this night could get any worse, she was trying to be cool, calm and collected but that flew out the window as soon as His Royal Hotness had appeared.
"Obviously, I went to the wrong college," he chuckled. "Any chance you'd like to go inside? If I stay too long out in the open there tend to be swarms of unwanted advances but I'm sure you know all about that."
"Fine, uh, Your Royal Hotness," she blurted out, only realising her mistake when a telling smirk lit up his fine features. "Highness," she coughed. "But I'd prefer you call me Caroline, it's a little too formal for my liking."
"Okay, Caroline," he smiled, and she was struggling to concentrate given just how well her name sounded rolling off his tongue. "But then you have to call me Nik or Your Royal Hotness, whatever you'd prefer."
"I'm never going to live that one down, huh?"
"Never is a long time, let's see how tonight goes, shall we?" She looked around wearily, noticing his security detail that had appeared from nowhere. "Don't worry they don't bite, myself on the other hand."
She gave him an unimpressed glance as he led her towards the entry. "Hamburgers huh?"
"They're my favourite, unless you'd prefer a salad or something?"
"Are you kidding? I'm starving, Mikaelson," she shot back, thinking she wasn't quite ready to be so intimate by calling him by his first name.
2 hours later
"When you said you were hungry, you weren't joking," he teased, noting her empty plate. "I'll remember to order an extra serve of fries next time."
When they'd entered Byron Burger, a well known chain, Caroline expected it to be bustling with people but instead there was a solitary table for two set up in the middle.
After she'd teased him about scaring people away, Nik explained that it was difficult to enjoy any semblance of conversation while dining out and he was too interested in what she had to say to risk it. She wanted to scoff at the lines he was coming out with but for some reason he seemed entirely genuine as he uttered them.
"Next time?" She asked curiously, wiping her hands on the paper napkin. "Someone obviously thinks highly of their chance for a second date and between you and me, Mikaelson, your teetering on a knife edge."
"You have this habit of saying exactly what you think, don't you?"
"I tend to say what I think, my mother thinks it's the reason I can't find someone to settle down with, so too Annabelle. Between you and me I think they're working together on trying to matchmake me."
"I don't know, I happen to think it's extremely endearing. Well, that and the fact you call me Mikaelson. You would have to be the first to ever do that."
"Your polo buddies don't yell that across the field when you're letting the team down?"
"You've obviously never been to one of my matches then," he quipped.
"Probably a good thing, I'm sure there's only so much oxygen available with that overinflated ego," she shot back.
"Says the girl who called me His Royal…"
"No need to rehash the past," she interrupted. "Anyway, I have every intention of blaming that initial conversation on temporary insanity, you know if anyone asks."
"Now who's being presumptuous?"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, if we get engaged you realise we're going to have to rehash our first meeting? Things could get really awkward."
"Well, lucky we won't need to entertain that scenario then, isn't it?" She asked, but even as she uttered those words, Caroline wasn't quite sure she was ready to say goodbye to him just yet.
"Ouch," he joked. "I'd bought the ring and everything."
"Maybe I was a touch hasty," she offered. They held each other's gaze and Caroline felt herself becoming increasingly lost in his dark, blue eyes.
"In all honesty, I was interested in the charity work you've done with the United Nations on water quality and gender equality. If you're interested, there's a program I'm overseeing in Botswana that I'd like you to see, Caroline." She was momentarily silenced, something that took a lot for her. She'd spoken about it during dinner and it was no doubt in her MI6 file but the fact he cared meant so much. "And no, I"m not trying to get into your pants, I promise. Separate tents and everything."
"I suppose that might work," she answered nonchalantly, finally finding her voice. "But I think my mother might have reservations if I travel to another continent with a stranger after the first date."
On the contrary, Liz would be more than okay with that revelation but Caroline wasn't quite sure she could wait four weeks to see him again.
"Fancy a date tomorrow night then, love? I wouldn't want to upset your mother given she and I might be related one day."
"Cocky much?"
"I was always brought up on that motto about being 'in it to win it,' what can I say?"
"You have a long way to go to impress me, Mikaelson."
"I'm more than happy to go on this journey with you, Caroline, however long it takes."