Anonymous asked: Klaus/Caroline exes fake dating!

Caroline glanced around the restaurant, far fancier than their usual dates. Butterflies danced in her stomach as the waiter appeared with champagne. "Klaus, what's going on?"

Smirking, Klaus reached across the table to take her left hand, and she stopped breathing. "I have good news," he promised, playing with her fingertips. "I got the job. They want me to start on Monday."

"That's amazing!" She wanted to leap into his lap and hug him, but settled for squeezing his hand. If she could bottle the happiness on his face, she'd keep it forever. "You've worked so hard for it, I'm so proud of you. The museum will be so lucky to have you, curator."

He smiled, only for a flash of nerves to cross his face. "And I was thinking, in terms of moving forward in our life, that maybe it's time to- Hold on. I want to do this right." Reaching for the freshly poured champagne, he handed her a glass with a slight tremble.

Beginning to feel lightheaded with excitement, Caroline glanced down into the flute, confused when it just had the drink. But she shook it off, giving Klaus her full focus.

"I love you, and I think it's time for us to take another step in our relationship." With a deep breath, his thumb ghosts over the edge of her wrist. "Let's buy a place. Together. We can be closer to both the museum and your work, not to mention Bonnie lives clear across town, and I know you'd like to see her more. I've called a few realtors to have some profiles for you to look at before we pick one to work with, but I'm sure you'll have a hundred more names to consider once we go home and-"

Klaus broke off at the blank look of shock on her too pale face. "Sweetheart, please say something."

Her voice was quiet, almost faint. "That's what you're asking," she said, to herself really. "That's why the fancy dinner, the champagne. You want to buy a house."

Brow falling, he gave a helpless shrug. "I want us to buy a home, for our future."

Though Caroline nodded, it didn't feel like she was saying yes. "I-" She pressed her lips together, eyes watering, and not in the joyous way he'd imagined. "I thought you were going to propose," she admitted, looking down to her lap. "It's dumb, I'm sorry, I just- New job, maybe moving. Great!"

"Propose?" Klaus blinked a few times, and suddenly Caroline felt even stupider. "That never even occurred to me."

Heart dropping all the way through the floor, her tears were falling before she could even try to stop them. "Oh," she sighed, visions of what she thought they were building toward crashing down in her mind. "Oh."

She slipped her hand from his, and Klaus seemed to panic. "Love-"

"I just need a minute," she said, hurriedly standing from the table. He looked ready to follow. "Bathroom."

Reluctantly, he sat back down, confusion still clear in his expression even as he nodded. Caroline fled to the front of the restaurant, truly intent to freshen up and do her best to enjoy the celebration Klaus had planned. Just not the one she wanted, she thought bitterly to herself. But the hostess gave her a look of pity, already moving toward the coat check for her, and she found herself sliding into the heavy wool. The weight of it was grounding as she pressed her arms tight to her stomach, not at all ready to face the cold waiting for her outside.

Grinding his teeth, Klaus forced himself to remain seated as the weight of Caroline's tears and expectations crashed over him. A proposal. She was expecting a proposal.

How stupid could he be?

As the gossipy whispers and pitying looks sank in, he realized she was taking a long time to collect herself in the bathroom. Lurching up from the table, he dropped a couple of large bills for the abandoned meal he'd pictured going so differently. Like she'd been expecting him, the hostess had his coat ready for him, all but tossing it at him on his way out of the restaurant.

His heart clenched when he found Caroline waiting on the sidewalk. She was shivering in the frigid winter weather, and he didn't hesitate to drop his coat over hers. "Sweetheart, let's go home," he urged, rubbing his hands along her arms. "We can talk things through." Figure out where he'd went so wrong.

When she nodded, he sucked in a relieved breath. Her voice was so small, though, and so sad. "I think I should go to Bonnie's tonight, get some perspective," she said, not quite looking at him.

"Whatever you need." It felt like ash in his mouth, but Klaus was sure making her stay with him would only drive her further away. "Let's get a cab."

"She lives on the other side of town. You don't have to go out of your way for me."

Frowning, he had to fight the urge to pull her into a hug. Caroline was right next to him, but he could feel the brick wall he hadn't meant to build between them; worse, he didn't think she would let him cross it. "It's not out of my way, not if it's you."

She smiled up at him, a wan thing that didn't come close to reaching her eyes. He saw that she didn't believe him, and the pain of that left him numb. "Thanks, but I don't want to ruin the rest of your night." Leaning up, she pressed a light kiss to his cheek. "I love you."

Before he could react, a cab had slid in front of them, and she was gone - just when he'd finally start hoping she would never leave.

"I can't believe you're scared of your sister. Coward."

Klaus wanted to argue, half out of habit and half to refute the absurdity of such a notion. But with Caroline smiling through her teeth while pressed against his side like before, he could hardly take issue with the very excuse that brought them to Rebekah's wedding, his family none the wiser that he'd moved out of their shared apartment just the week before.

He licked his lips, hand squeezing her waist with the familiarity he'd yet to lose since the disastrous dinner where he utterly destroyed her hopes at a proposal of her own. Heart aching at the loss of her despite the warmth of her underneath his palm, all Klaus could see in that moment was what Caroline would look like dressed in white, for him.

Coward, indeed.

Caroline sighed as Klaus drunkenly fell into bed. He snuggled almost immediately into the pillow, and she was greatly tempted to both snap a photo he'd find embarrassing and settle right in beside him. Their breakup was too fresh for this intimacy, and it hurt to deny her instinctive need to cuddle against the stark lines of his triangle tattoo.

Allowing herself a moment of the tender feelings she'd yet to purge, she tucked him under the covers of the ridiculously fancy hotel bed and brushed back the curls hanging down over his forehead. When she noticed his eyes open, though, she yanked her hand back. "Go to sleep."

Klaus gently reached for her wrist, bringing her hand to rest over his heart. "Stay. Please."

"Klaus-"

"Just to sleep," he promised. "I miss holding you, and it's hard to rest without you there with me."

She shook her head. "That's not fair."

"I know." His voice was just so sad, and she didn't quite know what to do with a sad Klaus other than to love him. "And I know we'll probably fight about the marriage thing again in the morning, and I'm honestly looking forward to it because it means we aren't done. Broken maybe, but not done. But for now, can we please just sleep?"

Her heart broke a little more, even as the traitorous optimist living in her brain perked up at the hope of repairing what's broken between them. Still, she was helpless but to slide under the sheets next to him, party dress and all.

They could figure things out in the morning. Together.

His head pounded with the hangover, but the cool fingers running through his hair were too soothing for him to care. Klaus opened his eyes slowly, praying the image of Caroline next to him wouldn't disappear. "Hello, love."

Her hand didn't even pause, and it gave him the confidence he needed to reach out with his own. He traced the edge of her jaw, letting his palm settle over her neck to convince himself she was really there. She kept her breaths deep and even, which he recognized as her trying to keep calm. Face flushed with shame, he gently pulled away and tucked his hands to his chest, relieved when she didn't move from the bed where they lay. "You stayed."

"I love you," she answered plainly, like it was a fact that never wavered despite her walking out on him and their life. "And you drank yourself silly last night so we couldn't talk about the elephant in the room."

"You thought I was going to propose."

"I thought you were going to propose," she agreed, "only to find out you had no intention of doing so. Ever. I guess I'm confused why you wanted me to come to your sister's wedding knowing you never wanted to marry me."

His whole face scrunched in pain, both with the throbbing headache and the hurt in her voice. He wanted to reach for her, but took solace in the way her fingers began to scratch through his hair again. "Marriage isn't the goal, in my mind. I've seen it go so poorly, and I never want you to resent me for trapping you, as my mother did with Mikael. For me, our love is about building a life together, one we choose with each other every day."

Caroline frowned in thought. "So…you were essentially proposing. In the worst way."

"If you'd like," he laughed, his voice hoarse with hope. "Is it the wedding that's important to you, or the paperwork involved?"

Blinking, she seemed like her whole world had tipped on its side. "I guess it's the commitment, which you seem open to."

"More than. Insistent upon, really, if I'm allowed."

She tugged on his hair, silently working through the emotions flitting across her face. "But you don't want to call me your wife."

With a deep breath, it felt like his whole body reacted to the word; he'd never quite considered that before. If they married, Caroline would be his wife. He wet his lips, wondering if he was only wishing for her gaze to get caught on them. "I…I want you to be free, sweetheart. It's why I let you go in the first place," he remembered for them both.

Her nails dug into his scalp as her other arm wrapped around him, tangling them together on the bed. "And I want to be free to choose you. I just thought choosing each other, for good, in name and spirit and law…I want to marry you, but I don't want to lose you, either."

"You can't," he promised, finally tucking her into his arms like he so desperately wanted. "If it's something you really want-"

"We keep talking about it." She held him tightly, her thumb rubbing gently over his temple where the ache hurt worst. "And I move back in. That was maybe a rash decision, and I'm sure Bonnie wants her couch back."

His eyes drifted shut, his heart near to pounding out his chest. "Yes, please," he sighed, nuzzling into her. "Please come home."

Softly, her lips met his, only briefly. Pressing her forehead to his, she gave a small smile. "I'm already home."