Desperate Times : This is my first time robbing a bank, and I've never done anything like this, I jsut really need the money, and you're the cute employee who's giving me tips under your breath while I improvise this hostage situation' klaroline au
It was Bonnie who had suggested it. It'd been a joke but…the second the thought was out there, it latched into her brain and wouldn't let go. She was jobless, loveless, and now apparently sane-less. Because she was actually considering this. No, not considering, she was planning it in her head.
She watched all the movies, and good news, most of the time the robbers got away, lived somewhere on a beach that was warm and sunny bathing in their millions of dollars. The thing was though, they were all professionals and she was just…her. One, lowly unemployed blonde who'd never even stolen a piece of gum before.
The other catch was that in the movies she watched, when they didn't get away they usually died. In violent, violent ways at the end usually involving a police shoot out. But, after a few hours of research, and by research she meant watching Oceans 13 about four times, she was ready.
For the first time in her life, she thanked god that Elena was trying to become a stage actress. The girl had some serious make up. And wigs. Which would come in handy. So a half hour later, her lips were redder than she'd ever seen them, her eyes were covered by over sized sunglasses and her hair was now a long brown do, thanks to Elena's wig. She covered the ensemble with a pair of jeans and loose plain t shirt and hat.
Well, she'd officially gone crazy, because she was actually going through with this.
The teller at the bank was a tall man with sandy hair and he seemed overly bored with what he was doing. Caroline gave her self a moment to compose herself before she walked up to him, giving him a sultry smile. "Hi," He did a double take when he saw her, his bored look changing into a sly smirk.
"What can I do you for sweetheart?" He tilted his head to the side slightly, giving her what could only be described as bedroom eyes as she pulled the oversize bag she'd brought with her onto the counter.
"I need you to put the money in the bag." She pulled out a gun she'd bought a few weeks ago from a superstore. Granted she couldn't afford ammo but he didn't have to know that. It took him a minute to realize and his eyes went wide before he sighed.
"You've got to be bloody kidding me." He gave her an incredulous look, shaking his head.
"I'm not fucking around okay? Put the money in the bag. I will shoot." She was proud that her hand didn't shake as she said it but when he leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice, she felt a shiver go through her.
"Don't you think you should do something about the hostages first?" He raised an eyebrow, nodding to the people behind her who were still none the wiser. Caroline's eyes went wide as she looked over her shoulder at the five or so people that mulled around the bank. She had completely forgotten about potential hostages. There hadn't been hostages involved in Oceans 13.
"Fuck." She turned her back to the people, biting her lower lip.
"First timer?" He quipped, and she shot him a glare even though he couldn't see it. "I would recommend you threatening me to close the emergency gates on the windows and doors. Prevents break ins. Or," He leaned a bit closer, "Break outs."
"Oh," She gnawed on her lower lip, turning back to face the people and pointing the gun at him, a few people screamed, seeing to realize the situation. The teller hit a button under the counter and a beeping went off as the gates descended over the windows. "Alright everyone," Her voice was steady as she turned to face the people, "If no one does anything stupid, no one gets hurt. Got it?" They all seemed to huddle together, and she pointed the gun to one of the more secluded corners of the bank. "All of you get over there now."
She watched them go, turning back to the teller and still keeping an eye on them. He was calmly opening the cash drawer, taking out piles of cash and setting them into her bag. Caroline watched him do it, noting the small smile on his lips.
"First timer?" He asked and she blushed a bit, adjusting her glasses.
"That obvious?" She kept the gun trained on the hostages as she watched him.
"A bit." He snickered and she rolled her eyes. He finished loading the money in the bag and she froze, not sure what to do next. It wasn't millions of dollars but it would be enough to cover her rent for quite some time. Her mouth hung slightly open as she gaped at it and he sighed. "Klaus," He held his hand out and she took it.
"Uh…" She tried to think of a name and he laughed.
"Caroline." She froze, staring at him.
"Its written on the tag of the bag," He slid the bag over to her and she blushed. She was really, really bad at this.
"Yeah…" She shook his hand giving a shy smile. "So uh, you haven't called the cops?" It was then that she noticed how weird the situation was, I mean he was basically helping her rob the place. Which was not usually what a bank teller did.
"No, that would be…counter productive." He gave her an almost coy look before the back door to the bank flew open and she flinched. Three more men came in, this time, they were holding machine guns and she let out a small squeak as she trained her embarrassingly little hand gun on them.
"Uh, Nik?" One of the men came towards her and the bank teller. They were, as was a complete movie cliche, in all black with ski masks covering their faces. She noted Klaus moving behind the counter, hopping up and sliding over and onto his feet next to her.
"She's uh," He looked at Caroline, grabbing a gun from the guy who had just walked in, checking to see if it was loaded before he grinned at Caroline, "She's robbing the place."
They both looked at her as she gaped back, looking between the two men, "Lovely." He turned away and she turned to Klaus, who was taking her bag off the counter.
"What the hell? What the fuck?" This hadn't happened in Oceans 13. Or any other movie she watched. This was…what? He took the gun from her hand, his back to the hostages as he checked it, laughing to himself.
"Not even loaded," He tsk'ed a few times at her, shaking his head and giving her a look, "Amateur move Caroline. And I'm guessing you don't have a getaway planned either?" She swallowed, shaking her head slowly.
"Lijah?" Klaus called over his shoulder and one of the other men came over slowly, keeping his gun trained on the hostages, "We're taking this one with us. She's…not all that prepared." The man nodded and she felt Klaus take her arm. "Come with me."
"Holy shit you're like leading these guys," He led her to the back room where there were another two men working on a safe, they had all the kind of stuff she'd seen in the movies.
"That's my job love," He winked at her, stopping when they were out of sight from the hostages. "I will admit though, this has never happened before. I've never been robbed during a robbery." He grinned, slipping the hat from her head, and the wig following it. Her blonde hair tumbled down over her shoulders as he slid the sun glasses from her face. He shoved her disguise into the bag, and handed it to her.
"You're not…you're not taking this?" she looked down at the money in the bag, and he shook his head, smiling at her.
"You worked hard for this Caroline. Besides," He looked over to where the other two men had gotten the safe opened, "There's more for me in there." The large door swung open and her jaw fell open as she stared at the cash inside.
Not even twenty minutes later she was sitting in the back of one of the armored cars she assumed these guys had brought with them, Klaus settling next to her. Piles of cash were in the back of the truck with them as three of the other men slid back there with them. The other two went to the front of the truck, pulling off their black ensembles to reveal guards uniforms. Caroline's eyes widened and Klaus leaned in to whisper in her ear.
"You might want to be quiet," His breath was hot against her skin as he positioned a gun on his lap, pointing it to the back doors of the truck. She groaned, leaning her head back against the wall.
"Oh my god," She was so screwed.
"Relax love, we're experts at this by now." She watched as the three men across from them took of their masks. The three of them watched her cautiously, but they didn't dare ask. "Damon, Kol, Elijah, this is Caroline, Caroline Kol and Elijah and Finn up there driving are my brothers, Damon and Stefan, are family friends."
"Hi," Her voice was so small as she replied. They each nodded to her, slipping their outer garments off to reveal more casual clothes.
They got away without a hitch but Caroline's heart hadn't stopped beating the entire time. "Look you'll have to lay low for awhile. They had security cameras in that bank and your disguise wasn't all that good." Klaus was speaking to her as the truck rolled to a stop and the other men hopped off. "So, after a while we'll let you go, say you were a hostage or something. Or, we could fake your death, give you a new identity and you could live where ever you wanted."
She thought he was kidding, but when she looked at his face he was serious. Her eyes were wide as he hopped out of the back of the vehicle, holding his arms up to help her down. She slid the strap of her bag over her shoulder and jumped off the back of the truck, feeling him catch her and lower her safely to the ground.
He stood impossibly close to her, his hands still on her waist as she tried to take it all in. There was a huge mansion behind him, and the other five of the men were now unloading the enormous amounts of money from the back, setting it on the barn floor where they'd pulled in.
"You're serious?" He shook his head at her smiling.
"Yes. I'm serious. Should I be aware of any friends? Family? Husband that will come looking for you?" She shook her head.
"No family, definitely no boyfriend or husband, and my friends…" She trailed off, how would they react? They'd always been so focused on Elena's life to pay much interest in hers but she'd never exactly gone missing before. "I'll text them and tell them I went away for awhile." Klaus nodded, taking a step back and grinning.
"Excellent, well then, allow me to show you around."
The Interview : Celebrity AU "You were doing an interview on late night and have accidentally revealed that you're ready to 'settle down' but WHAT DOES SETTLE DOWN MEAN and also SERIOUSLY KLAUS YOU HAD TO DO THAT ON NATIONAL TELEVISION?"
It was not his fault that they made him do interviews when he was dog tired in the middle of the night after a long day of shooting his newest movie which, of course, was all stunts and running from explosions. It wasn't his fault. And they'd have to put that on his grave because he was so fucking dead.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, please tell me it wasn't as bad as it seems." He walked off the sound stage and almost straight into Stefan.
"For your playboy, bad boy image, yeah you're pretty screwed." Stefan gave him a pitying smile, "But as for your relationship, I'd say congrats are in order." His manager slapped him on the back, and Klaus just knew he was biting back a smile.
Of all places. Of all times. Of all shows, he had to choose the one that taped live to open his mouth on. It took all he had in him not to repeatedly bang his head against a wall. He was dead. About 5000% dead. So dead that they wouldn't even be able to find his body. She would crush him into dust.
It had started so easily, so relaxed. He should have seen it coming, they always asked him about his previous days of partying and using and getting into all sorts of trouble. And then it had just come out and it wasn't his fault. But like he said before, put it on his gravestone because he was so. Fucking. Dead.
She made it a point to watch every interview he did, at least that way she could be prepared for whatever the tabloids morphed it into the next morning. He had a knack for getting himself into trouble, that much was for sure. She'd fallen for him back when he was still neck deep in his dark days. Somehow, through all the drugs and drinking and whoring around that he did, she saw the real him. The him that he was now. According to many of the magazines, he was the Robery Downey Jr of their generation. He'd hit rock bottom and somehow managed to turn it around and become Hollywood dynamite.
She didn't like to brag but, it was technically all because of her.
So, because it had become second nature to her to be fully aware of his doings before the tabloids did, she watched all of his interviews when they aired. Including the live ones.
Caroline had settled down with her bowl of popcorn and her blanket watching Klaus chat easily with the host. They talked about his new movie, potential award buzz and right up until the end she was so proud of him. And then she wasn't all that proud anymore.
"So, Klaus, you've really made quite the comeback in recent years. One second you're being arrested and the next, here you are." The host gestured to Klaus and he smiled. "So are we all to assume that your wild party days are behind you? Or are there still some good times to be had?"
"Well," Klaus redeposited himself in his chair, shooting the audience one of his dazzling heart melting and panty dropping smiles, "I'm sure there are still good times ahead but as of now, I don't know. I think I'm ready to settle down."
To anyone else, the moment would have slid right on by but the second the words left his mouth Caroline froze. She held a popcorn kernel centimeters from her mouth, her hand just…hovering there as she wondered if she'd really heard what she thought she had.
Had he just said, on live, national television that he wanted to settle down? As if she was supposed to know what that meant. As far as she knew 'settle down' meant marriage, kids, a mortgage, more taxes, diapers, a whole list full of things she wasn't ready for. She wanted those things sure but did she want them now? Certainly not.
She could see it now, the headlines tomorrow. 'Caroline Forbes baby watch', 'Playboy Klaus ready to settle down?', 'Klaroline's secret life, details inside.'
It was one, big, giant, fat, hell no.
He walked into the door three hours later and by then he had assured himself that she would be asleep and he would be able to postpone the inevitable until the morning. But such was not his luck.
When he walked into the house he first became aware of the smell. The overwhelming and quite frankly, rather assaulting smell of lemon cleaning products coming from the kitchen. She was sitting cross legged on the floor, scrubbing grime off of the bottom of one of the cabinets when he came in.
"Caroline," He said her name cautiously and once he did it was like the spell was broken. She looked up at him, something flashing through her eyes as she stood up quickly.
"Honey. You're home!" She gave him a big grin. "How was your day at work? Was it amazing? I'm sure it was amazing. But god, you must be exhausted. You must be so ready to just...settle down." The whole thing was so over dramatic and overly peppy that under any normal circumstance he would have laughed. Fortunately for him though, this was one of the dozens of possible Caroline freak out scenarios he's imagined on the way over.
"Sweetheart I didn't mean to–"
"I mean I didn't really think there was a ring on my finger," She held up her left hand, "But I was really confused because the phone kept ringing and people kept congratulating me on the baby and our wedding. Which, was there something you wanted to tell me because I wasn't aware of a wedding. Or a baby."
He closed his eyes for a moment, letting out a breath before opening them.
"I was exhausted I didn't mean to say it it just slipped out."
"I'm all for settling down Klaus, but first of all what does 'settling down' even mean? I mean you'r jetting around the world practically every other week. Settling down isn't really possible for your lifestyle."
"Caroline I didn't mean to allude to anything and the second I said it I knew I shouldn't have but there was no way to–"
"We've been dating for two years, which seems like a lot but when you consider that the majority of the first year you were making a lot of stupid decisions, its not really that long." She was freaking out, he could see it. He could sense it. Hell he could feel it. She was hardly keeping still, every moment moving to clean some section of the counter in their apartment that was already clean.
"Relax love, I didn't mean anything by it I just meant that when I think of my future I see you. But I'm not about to go rushing into anything." That seemed to calm her slightly.
"So this isn't your idea of a surprise 'romantic' proposal or anything?" She eyed him suspiciously and he laughed, shaking his head and placing his hands on her forearms, kissing her forehead.
"I promise if or when I ask you to be my wife, Caroline, you will be 100% aware of what is going on." She breathed a sigh of relief, her arms snaking around his waist. "I do love you though."
"I love you too." She mumbled it into his chest as he kissed the top of her head once more. Her phone buzzed on the counter, interrupting the moment and Caroline turned to look at it. She sighed as she read the email. "I swear to god if I gain any weight in the next nine months people are going to be convinced that I'm carrying a little Mikaelson." She typed a response back quickly, sending it off to her publicist before turning back to him. "You have a lot of groveling to do." He grinned at her, giving her the grin he used so much in interviews. The same look he used back when he was nothing but bad boy Mikaelson. Caroline narrowed her eyes, ready to tell him off again when he hoisted her up off the ground and over his shoulder.
"Then groveling it shall be my love." Caroline sighed, swatting his back as he walked but laughing none the less.