The feeling of content flowed through her in waves.
The sun was just peaking over the horizon, shadows of the New Orleans skyscrapers tall buildings blocking the warm rays. Although, on the other side of the Big Easy in a particular house in the Quarter, sunlight cascades into the silent room, a lone antenna wire from a neighboring building leaving a shadow into the room that stretched across the old, yet well kept wooden floor. The shadow made its way up the far corner of the bed, over dark expensive covers and bulges where feet were.
The warm rays of orange heat made one of the bodies in the king sized bed stir. A long inhale and her lungs took in the sweet New Orleans air as her lips twisted into a smile. Shifting, the body under her murmured sleepily before settling back into the silence of sleep.
She moved her head to rest her chin against his solid chest, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the bright rays of sunlight the streamed in through the French doors of his room. Unable to help herself, her eyes wander the handsome face before her.
The sunlight had managed to barely reach his face, cutting his face diagonally up, one side in the shade of the dark room and the other lit up from the natural rays of the sun. His lips were relaxed in an almost ghost of a smile, forehead wrinkle-less, and eyelids closed, a once in a while motion under his eyelids would indicate of some sort of dream he was currently having. A sharp jawline was only intensified by the exceptional lighting, as well as all of his other overly handsome features; high cheekbones, strong chin, perfect neck, muscled shoulders, creamy skin, and all.
Normally, he'd be the one to wake up first. In some cases, he'd even be already out of bed. Most times it would be for business matters. 'The expectations of ruling over a city,' he would call his responsibilities. But in those other than often instances, he'd sit himself in the chair on the other side of the room and sketch. During those special mornings, she'd wake up to see him clad in the black boxer briefs that he seemed to favor as he peeked up at her every once in a while, most likely sketching her. She'd call him a 'stalker', he'd reply with an explanation along the lines of how it was the perfect lighting. Now, she understood the meaning to his words because, right now, he looked like he was glowing in the bright sunlight. He looked absolutely gorgeous, even though he already did, but she'd never admit that to him. He already had a big enough ego, no need to add onto it.
"What is it?"
His voice slightly startled her but she ended up smiling. She shouldn't have been surprised, he always knew when she was looking at him. Hell, he absolutely knew her. Knew when she was upset, disappointed, mad, sad, happy. She enjoyed his special ability to read her emotions even if it was a pain in the ass when she was mad at him and was choosing to try, and unfortunately fail, at punishing him.
She shook her head. "Nothing."
It was a lie. She could tell that she wasn't telling the truth by the small hesitation before she spoke. And if she could tell he could definitely tell.
His lips quirked up into a smirk, eyes still closed. She knew that smirk. In fact, he had all different kinds of smirks and she knew most of them. Like his 'I'm-Going-To-Kill-Someone' smirk, 'I'm-Going-To-Seduce-You-And-Then-Rock-Your-World smirk, 'I'm-Going-To-Do-Something-You-Don't-Like smirk, 'You're-Going-To-Die-Slowly-And-Painfully' smirk and his 'l-Know-Exactly-What-You're-Thinking' smirk. Right now, he was wear his 'I-Know-Exactly-What-You're-Thinking' smirk. God, did he look hot with that sly smirk.
"Liar." His accent drawls the word perfectly.
Caroline smiles. "Maybe I'm a little surprised that you're still here." She says. It's true. She was surprised to see him still in bed with her considering him and Marcel were still in the middle of a tug-of-war battle with the human faction and their leaders. In fact, he had been out every morning this whole week and had came back late some nights. Even Elijah saw how long Klaus was out and offered his services even though the two brothers were at odds for the moment.
As much as Caroline enjoyed having him here, in their room, in bed, she was suspicious.
Klaus opens his eyes and turns his head towards her, eyebrow raised. "I do live here, do I not?"
Caroline gives him a knowing look. Apparently, he was playing his favorite game of 'Let's-Be-Deflective'. God knows he's the best deflector in the world but, fortunately, she knows how to get through his mind games.
"You know what I meant."
He smiles and sets his head back on the pillow, hand creeping down her side.
"Can't I enjoy a morning with my beautiful blonde vampire?" His eyes hold a knowing gleam in them as his hand pauses on her upper thigh, thumb caressing her in light circles.
He was up to something, she knew it. She didn't know what it was, but she had to guess it would be at least a little dodgy considering it is him after all. "I'd believe that, except for the part where you're in the middle of a Whole-Owns-New-Orleans' fight with the mayor and the humans, in which is why I've been waking up alone every morning this week."
She satisfied when he sighs and swipes his tongue over his lips. Yup, she cornered him. It took the whole ten years that they've been together to learn how to, but the results make up for it. Of course, she needs to fine tune a few things to get the exact answer she wants out of him.
Giving in, he mutters an, "as you wish."
He begins to turn himself towards the side of the bed but looks back skeptically at her as if he was making sure she wasn't going to move from her place. Then, he reaches over to his wooden nightstand, one in which he always held his sketchbook and a few extra pencils for when he decided to wake early and sketch her, and pulled the drawer open.
Caroline watched as he grabbed something small from it then closed the drawer and settled back into his spot next to her. He pulled himself up a little and she did the same, making sure to hold the covers close to her body -not because she was embarrassed to be naked in front of Klaus (hell, she had come accustomed to his 'I-Like-You-Better-With-Nothing-On' attitude) but because of the slight cool morning breeze that came from the open French door in their room graced by what the Louisiana winter gave.
She thought it vaguely unusual when she saw the black velvet material of the small jewelry box in his hands. It was hardly rare of him to purchase her gifts every now and then or after a fight when he felt bad when his pride wouldn't allow him to properly apologize. Although, the difference between those instances and now is that he'd always leave them somewhere. Her vanity, her pillow, her nightstand. He never made a show to give her a present, so what was so different about this one that garnered the special occasion?
He cupped the top of the box and opened it so she could see what was inside.
Her eyes went wide and a hand went over her mouth in shock.
Sat in the pocket of the jewelry box was a ring. Not any kind of ring, but a vivid pink diamond ring with a an engraved silver band. It was the most beautiful rings she had ever seen in her life.
"Oh my, God."
Her eyes parted with the ring and connected to Klaus' blue orbs. His eyes danced around her face, picking up on how she was reacting, but they stayed on her eyes. When he spoke, his voice was soft and had a tinge of nervousness to it. She had never known him to be nervous.
"I'd planned to do this over a romantic dinner in an even more romantic city with a little more flair, but I felt lamentable and couldn't continue omitting to you." Klaus admits with a slight wavering look in his eye like he was contemplating on doing something.
His Adams-apple bobbed in his throat after a hard, nervous swallow. He pulled himself up a little farther making the expensive sheet slide down his torso and crumpled up at his waist leaving his toned chest on display unintentionally.
"Caroline Elizabeth Forbes," he begins to say. Caroline is just in pure shock with her eyes wide as his lips continued to move. "Marry me."
Her heart skipped a few beats or maybe a dozen. It was a statement. Of course, it was a statement. Klaus always had a finite way of saying things and 'asking' for things. In fact, he hardly ever asked for anything, because that was how he was. He didn't ask for permission, he took it and did with it what he wanted. Although, this time was difficult. Caroline knew it and Klaus knew it. This was a symptom, if you will, of who he was and how he spoke. He wasn't traditional. He was anything but. That's why Caroline loved him.
He sat there for a moment, barely breathing in anticipation as she looked wider eyed at him. Then, she snapped out of her shock and let out a joyful noise that was close to a laugh. "Yes! Oh my, God! Yes!"
Klaus hardly had time to move the small box from his hand and to his lap before Caroline was in him. Lips smashed against his and he gladly and happily reciprocated. He let out a delighted hum as his hand dove into her messy, sex-rumpled, blonde locks.
A wetness on his cheek had him pulling away to see happy tears leaving an even happier Caroline's eyes. Her smile was bright as overjoyed, short, laughs escaped her lips. Klaus' eyes softened and his lips turned into a wide smile as his heart leaped in his chest.
"I love you."
"And I, you."
A joyful half-sob half-laugh tumbles from her lips.
Klaus breaks the strong connection that is their gaze and looks down to the small velvet box in his lap. He picks it up and displays it to her again. "Shall I?" He asks with a smirk and she excitedly nods with a few tears flowing down her cheeks.
The Original plucks the ring from its pocket and discards the empty box to his nightstand a little carelessly. He then pulls Caroline's left hand up and slide the silver band over her ring finger. Klaus allows her to pull her hand away to inspect the beautiful piece of jewelry. Her eyes take in the deliberate and precise cuts of the pink jewel until they land on the small, delicate engraving that was so subtle it would hardly be noticed.
"Your Last." She whispers, finger tracing over the italicized letters. Caroline almost chokes up at the sentiment, remembering the exact words -no, promise, that he had murmured at her graduation.
Klaus' hand settles on her thigh under the covers, fingers tracing delicate, imaginary lines that only seemed to soothe her. "The diamond, Liz Mundi, was about to be swiped off the auction floor in November before I pull a few uncongenial strings." He then nods to the ring and takes her hand in his to feather his thumb over the silver of the ring. "The band, however, I had made. I won't fault you for not recognizing it being that the last time you held the ring it had nearly been half decade ago."
Her eyes widen. It was January and he has had this ring since November. He'd had it for nearly two months. Normally, it wouldn't be that long for a normal man who was going to propose to his girlfriend. Granted, they were no conventional couple. In fact, he refused to be called her 'boyfriend' and call her his 'girlfriend'. Instead, he would refer to her as 'his' and she'd finally caved and called him 'hers'. As well as that, she knew he hated lying to her, he had only done it a couple of times, and he could be extremely inpatient and impulsive. It wasn't quite like him to keep something under wraps for a week from her, no less a couple months. That is how she knew it had been extremely important to him to make sure that he proposed at the right time. Also, he had used his thousand-plus year old daylight ring. He had the lapis lazuli torn out of it and resized just for her. She knew how much the ring meant to him and she could barely understand how he could do that for her.
"You had this in your nightstand for two months?"
"Well...," he begins with a self-satisfied grin. "At first I had kept it on my person but I thought twice of it."
Then, Caroline goes quiet. Her eyes wandering to the material of his pillow behind him, her mind clearly focused on something else. Klaus tilts his head about to ask her if there was something wrong but she opens her mouth hesitantly.
"Why?"
"Well, as of keeping it on me, you do have a tendency of having wandering hands and-," he's cut off when she shakes her head.
Her eyes return to his. "No, what I mean is, why ask me to marry you?"
The Original blinks. "I was under the impression that this is what couples in love do, is it not? Do you question my solicitude for you?"
Again, Caroline shakes her head, putting her hand on top of forearm. "No, I don't have any doubt that you love me. It's just whenever I brought up marriage or regular human relationship stuff, you'd dismiss it and call it 'trivial human traditions'. It makes me wonder if you know the weight of what you are doing. I mean, this is it. Once you do this, you can't exactly go back."
It's true. She had an inkling of a fear that this was one of Klaus' acts of impulsivity and that after a year or so, he'd find out that he no longer felt the same way. He wouldn't really be that trapped by marriage because she doubts that he'd officiate it through the government considering they are immortal. But, there could be a possibility that he'd be hesitant to call things off with her or that he'd be miserable because of the weight of being a married couple.
"Caroline." He calls, bringing her out of her thoughts, a small sighs exiting his lips.
"When I spoke those words, nearly four years ago, I had no vision of what truly being with you meant. It was different going from country to country than residing here, in New Orleans -our home, with you by my side, in our room, our bed, the large amount of time that we have granted together, in which gave ample moments to fight over trivial things like my unscrupulous tendency to leave you in the middle of the night or your habit of over analyzing every bloody thing." She arches her brow at the last part of his small speech and he lets out a short chuckle before raising his arm, pulling a stray curl behind her ear. "You worry that I haven't thought this through quite enough, perhaps your right. But, I am not mistaken when I tell you that I will not bore of you. Never."
He lets a smile creep into the curve of his lips. "We may fight and have a myriad of hinderances, but I intend to stay by your side."
Caroline's eyes search his as he sits up a little and cups her face with one hand and the other rests on top of her delicate hand. "Caroline, love, my decision is anything but rash. I want your voice to be the first I wake to, your moral compass the guidance I go to, your smile when you discover new and intuitive things. I crave you. I want all of you, always." He pauses as his gaze softens. "My love, I want you when you challenge me to be a better man, when we first wake, when we are at the most beautiful of places in the world, when you throw your fierceness and criticism my way, and when you try to impress me by putting on your best lingerie and seduce me even though you're already more bloody seductive than the God of Seduction herself." He chuckles the last part out as Caroline lets out a huff of a laugh, a tear escaping her eye.
The pad of his thumb brushes away the stray tear with a smile. Caroline's heart jumped in her rib cage. It wasn't rare for Klaus to express his affection physically but, it was indeed very rare for him to admit it vocally, as well as actually tell her that he loved her. But, it didn't ever, really, bother her, she understood that he wasn't completely comfortable with saying the words. As good as he was articulating a threat, he was lost when it came to affection, in which she doesn't blame him. So, to say it touched her to hear him say those things is a total understatement.
"Me too."
The smile grows on his lips.
"Well, then. Do you have a specific place in mind for the reception, Mrs. Mikealson?"
Caroline laughs before lightly nudging his chest making him fall back on his pillows in compliance. She hums and straddles his waist, hands gliding up his solid chest. "I was thinking... Paris. Do you have any disagreements, Mr. Mikealson?"
Klaus growls when she pulls her lip in between her teeth. He then takes hold of her waist and flips them over causing her to make an excited and shocked noise fall from her lips. "That sounds so sexy falling from your beautiful lips." His low voice whispers into The collarbone that he chooses to lay delicate kisses on.
As he continues with his journey along her shoulders, her hands roam the expanse of his muscled back, nails lightly scraping the skin on his shoulder blades.
"Does that mean I have authority to call you Niklaus?"
His body lets out a subtle shutter as his hand tightens around her hip.
"Bloody hell, woman."
"Is that a 'yes' to Paris?"
He pauses his assault on her shoulders and instead places his forehead there, most likely trying to think of his available options.
"Niklaus."
She feels his eyes close at his full name coming from her mouth and she giggles. That was the hook and sinker.
"Yes."
She gasps and he looks up. He expects to see her wide-eyes and content expression but instead his eyes close when she presses her lips to his. Her fingers tangle in his shirt curls, turning his head to gain more of him. Klaus groans as their tongues meet, his skillfully battling hers in an endless war that neither will win.
Unfortunately, she pulls away right when he was about to take it a step further. Caroline places her hands on his chest to keep him from kissing her again.
"I have to call my mom."
Klaus furrows his brows. "You can tell her later."
"Yeah, no. I'm calling her now. She'll probably already be pissed because you proposed without her here."
He cocks his head to the side. "I'm not sure she'd be quite fond of seeing her daughter fornicating with her future son-in-law."
She rolls her eyes. "Whatever." Caroline then crawls out from underneath him and stands up from the bed. Klaus falls back first onto the bed with a sigh as he watched Caroline pick up his discarded Henley and reach into her jeans for her pants. He can't help the smile from forming on his lips. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't content. For centuries he had thought his life was going to be full of trying to gain power, battling his enemies, continuing his bachelor lifestyle. He is now so bloody thankful that he met Caroline Forbes -correction, Mikealson.
Caroline Mikealson.
Caroline Mikealson.
He was in love. Happy, content -as he will ever get to be with some enemies still out there, but content nonetheless.
May God have mercy on him. He'll need it, but, by God, he will take the life with Caroline with a smile.