PLEASE DO NOT SKIP THE AUTHOR'S NOTE! VERY IMPORTANT STUFF!
A little forewarning about this story. This has a very small amount of smut, nothing that I would deem NSFW by any means.
BUT that being said, I suggest sitting down with this baby, this 10k+ baby, somewhere alone, somewhere you will not be interrupted, somewhere you can scream, somewhere that (if I did my job correctly) you can go through a box of tissues without fear of discovery. The prompt asked for angst with a happy ending. I'm feeling confident that I have delivered! Now please excuse me while I run away and hide as I wait in nail biting anxiety at how this emotional roller-coaster will be received. So without further ado, I give you….
Prompt: Caroline goes to NOLA, sees Klaus' new life, unicorn baby and all, and decides to do Rome, Paris and Tokyo on her own? Angst with happy ending please? Thank you! :)
Even Though.
"So, is this everything you wanted to show me?"
Klaus felt his heart stop at the sound of her voice, hope filling him even as he heard the scratchy quality to it. Even as he spun around to find her standing within the shadows of the floor to ceiling open window of his New Orleans home, knowing once she stepped further into the light spilling out from the room, her face would show the same evidence of her tears as her voice held.
"Caroline." He uttered reverently, still holding out hope that his senses were not playing tricks on him. That she had truly come for him, even though he stood so close to Camille that he could hear the hurt hitch in her breath and feel her body give a painful shake against his side at how he worshiped this other woman's name.
"Is it?" Caroline sneered angrily in attempts to reign in her pain as she came into full view.
His heart began to crack and fizzle. He had seen her in different stages of pain, some caused by him, some caused by others. And yet the force of her pain there in the open now was of the likes of which he had never seen on anyone. The devastation nearly equal to, if not more so, than that dreadfully, fateful day that changed the course of his family's entire history.
His mouth floundered open and closed, like a fish chasing a hook, searching for it even though knowing all the while it could be its last move and that death awaited at its sharp and twisted end.
The room was filled with others, none of which uttered a word. Some looked between the heartbroken blonde and the quickly shattering Original Hybrid in confusion. Others with menacing glee, others with sympathy at what they knew was about to come.
"Answer me dammit!" Even the hitch in her voice due to her pain didn't take away from the pure viciousness of her snarl.
She stalked her way to him and like the glutton he was for pain and anything Caroline, he still didn't utter more than a croak as he stepped to meet her in the center of the room. The center of the audience that all waited with baited breath, in stunned silence for what would come.
Her head lowered, her eyes a blazing fire that cut him more than any knife or sword ever could as she growled with her demand, "Is. It."
"No." His voice trembled over the single syllable word.
His eyes widened as hers narrowed. The entire room sucked in a soundless breath, holding it as the only sound that followed his reply was a resounding crack as her palm met his cheek. The force of it twisting his neck to the side, nearly stumbling before he righted himself. Not caring that everyone waited, some expecting him to draw blood, some expecting him to meet pain with pain. But none knew just how deeply his own pain was in the face of hers.
None expected the stuttering broken sounds to be released from his shattering chest, "Ca-Caro-Caroline."
This time his face was met with her fist. Her enraged snarls beginning even before he could right himself again.
"You don't get to talk! You don't even get to breathe!"
A stunned gasp was vaguely heard echoing around him as he sucked in a breath and held it. Obeying her command. Even that only served to enrage her more. Tears flowing down her beautifully, heartbroken face.
"Art, music, genuine beauty. Rome, Paris, Tokyo. Food, music, art and culture."
Each word like a stake to his crumbling heart.
"That's the line of bullshit you fed me. Those are the things I thought you meant. But like a god damned fool I actually believed you. I actually believed that just two weeks ago all those sweet nothings you breathed, thinking I couldn't hear you as you made lo…" She gagged, "No. Not that. Never that. As you fucked me like some worthless piece of trash, were real."
Even in the face of all the agony, he felt the tattered shredded of his heart race with the knowledge that she had heard him. Heard him whispering breathlessly of how much he adored her, how much he craved her, how much he loved her. Those secret words were what brought her here. To him. The miracle of that alone was enough to give him a small amount of strength. To stand back up and deny what she so carelessly, so disgustingly, so very wrongly said. To reduce their time in the woods to a mere fucking was to spit on all that he felt for her.
"Don't you dare disregard what happened between us. Claiming it as some random fucking is not even close to…"
Her eyes flashed red, her fangs dropping as she launched herself at him, knocking him to his knees in all her anguished glory.
Towering over him, he could do nothing but stare at her in awe. Even with her chest heaving, and her throat cracking under the strain of her screaming she was a glorious sight to behold.
"I told you not to speak! You stupid son of a bitch! You think I can't see what's in front of me?! You used me, played me just like everyone else! You plied me with pretty words and touches to keep your damn options open all the while, never even uttering a word that you had a fucking baby, a baby, on the way! With Hayley. Hayley! The one person who not only betrayed you but also me and her entire pack of mutts! And for what?! A little hint of where her family was. And you slept with her while giving me dresses and asking for dates?! Then you come and fuck me, knowing full well that not only do you have a slut of a baby mama but also a little human chew-toy girlfriend back home waiting for you!?"
No one moved as she closed her eyes, her breath rushing in and out of her fire filled lungs as she tried to calm herself.
Eyes flitted from her to Klaus, even though he paid no one else any mind. His eyes waiting, watching, wondering what would come next.
Would she be finished?
Would she allow him to find some way to explain?
Would she understand and listen that the Brave Bartender was nothing more than the friend she herself had inspired him to gain?
Would she listen with her trusting and loyal ears to his woes?
How he, in a moment of pure and utter weakness, a moment of crippling loneliness, had felt the despair of ever gaining her for himself and caved to the weakness of his flesh with a woman who was every bit the opposite of the one he truly desired?
Would she hear him out when he muttered his deepest, most secret fantasy?
That when they made love, yes it was that, always and forever that, that day a wishful dream began to sprout, growing wings and taking flight that she would appear to him with rounded belly stating to him and the world that it was she that carried his true child and the one the mutt carried was a farce?
But even prayer, even hopes and dreams and everything he wanted out of life could not stop the crushing painful blow that her next hollow words wrought.
"I'm done."
With that she spun on her heels, her head held high and proud as her body trembled in embarrassment and suffering.
Seeing her back, seeing her walking away from him, knowing if he did not stop her it would be for good, sprung him into action.
"Caroline!" He called through quivering lips, his knees crawling across the floor as his hands pushed to help raise his battered body and soul to his numb feet.
Not enough! Not enough! His mind shouted and screamed as she continued moving farther away from him.
"Please sweetheart, my darling love, please. Don't leave me. I'm sorry, so sorry for how you found all that out, for the things you think and feel. If you would only allow me time to explain. I swear I can make it right, even if it takes me till my dying day, I will make this right."
His feet stumbled as he staggered towards her, his rushing words trying to form and discover what he could say that would make her halt in her progress to be rid of him.
She's almost to the door you fool! Say it! Say it! SAY IT!
Every ounce of hidden emotion, every fiber of his being, every piece of who he was flowed into his next words even as tears threatened to clog his throat.
"I love you Caroline Forbes. I love you more than I ever thought possible for one to love another. I need you. Need you more than air, more than blood, more than my own family."
Her steps faltered, a croaking groan left her throat, her shaking arms wrapped around her stomach as she swayed and bend over.
She stopped! It worked! Keep talking you blithering idiot! Almost to her! Just a few more steps and you can touch her, hold her.
"I love you more than my own life, more than any power I could ever hope or force to gain. Let me heal you, let me comfort you. Let my love for you be enough to sustain you."
He could see her body trembling, could see the hairs on the back of her neck stand as his puffs of breath slid over her, warming her. Even though she was turned away from him, even without the sobbing he could hear, he could feel her scolding tears race down her exquisite face. Not taking notice as his trembling hand slowly reached out to touch her, feel her, turn her into his arms, that those scolding tears were his own tracking endless down over his face.
He almost sighed as his fingertips brushed the skin her shaking arm, instead he choked as if wounded as she jerked violently away from him as if he had burnt her with that single soft touch.
Numbly she turned her hunched over form, that exquisite body that he had once had the honor and privilege or holding, of touching.
When her devastatingly beautiful, tear-soaked face turned to him fully the force of what he had done to her was enough to send him to his knees.
Pain shot through his body as his knees hit the floor. Nothing was as painful as when she spoke to him once more. Her voice hardly above a strained whisper.
"I wanted to believe you. I wanted to believe that you would be the only one who really meant all the things you said. That you loved me," her voice cracked, the echo of it felt deep with his breast. "That I could believe my own heart, even though my mind was scream no, as it spoke of things I never thought possible. That I had been in love with you."
Those words should have been the most beautiful, extraordinary thing he had ever heard. Love. Had been. Not in love- but had been. Instead they were worse than any beating, any curse placed upon his head.
"But my heart lied to me just as you did."
He couldn't even name the sound that escaped from his throat. And then she spoke the words, her voice a trembling mess, a ghost of the joy and laughter, the heat and fire he had been blessed to hear before, that placed the worst curse imaginable upon his soul.
"Goodbye Klaus. Forever and even after that."
His hands fumbled, his body falling forwards as he rushed to try and keep her, to grab ahold of her legs and clutch her to him like a child, to beg and plead with her to stay.
Let me fix this Caroline. Please my love! Please. Don't. Leave. I'm yours until the end of time. Always and forever. Please…
But he missed. His face falling flat to the ground. His upper body outside the house, laying where she had last stood, his legs curling into himself as he rolled to his side. Those words never left his lips. Only bellows of the greatest, most intense agony he had every felt leaving him in broken sobs.
Some things cannot be fixed.
Her word came back to haunt him. The whisper of them and all that he had destroyed between them.
Friends, then?
Friendship 101: Show me that I can trust you.
She could not. He had lied to her. Lied to her by withholding the truth. If only he had told her everything that day in the woods. If only he had opened up to her. She would have listened, she would have understood. He knew that. He had known that. For she was Caroline. Caroline, loyal, trusting, loving, honorable Caroline.
And he had soiled it all.
Mikael's fists.
Mikael's whips.
Tatia's betrayal.
Henrik's death.
Finding out his true parentage.
His Mother's betrayal.
Killing his own Mother.
The Hunter's curse.
Friends and family stabbing him in the back, leaving him alone time and time again.
None of that, all of that, had nothing on this.
For even though he was in love with her, even though she had been in love with him, it was not enough. Never even close to enough.
He wasn't aware that the room had emptied, wasn't aware that he had sobbed and scream until his throat bled and healed only to bled again. Wasn't aware of his siblings' concern, of Rebekah's arms wrapped around him, of Elijah placing his head upon his lap, stroking his hair as he once did oh so long ago after every whipping and beating.
He was only aware of the pain. The pain he caused. The pain he deserved for daring to dream. Daring to dream that a woman such as her could survive a man such as he. Daring to hope that he could be enough, even though he knew better. Daring to think that he loved her enough to never hurt her as he so violently had.
He's your first love. I intend to be your last.
Even though he loved her, he still broke her.
XXX
He didn't recall how much time had passed. Hours, days, weeks? It didn't matter now, and it hadn't mattered then. But the conversation of those around him finally slid through his ears, waking up his brain.
"…looked no better than him. It was hours before something seemed to snap within her. Drove like a bat out of hell, it was almost difficult for me to follow her, but tasty little things can never out run me."
"Kol," The exasperation had rung clear in Elijah's tone, "Now is not the time for your wit."
A muffled forlorn sigh crackled oddly. Elijah was on the phone with Kol, Klaus's pounding head had pieced together.
"I know. I know." Kol cleared his throat gruffly, as if he too knew the effects of the ache and devastation. "She stopped at an airport. Compelling anyone who sought to interrupt her manic searching of the flights away. I stayed far enough away that she couldn't tell I was there, but close enough to see what she was searching for." Another sigh crackled through the line. "It didn't make sense at first. Until I remembered something she had said back at the house."
Don't say it! Don't! Please brother! His mind had screamed.
"She was searching the manifest for flights to Rome, Paris and Tokyo."
Agony ripped through him sharper than if his every bone was breaking. But still, even through the suffering, his ears strained to catch just where his lost love had gone.
"…scheduled to leave in four and five hours from now. She took the longer of the flights, even with the layovers. I think she chose it because it was the soonest to depart. Like she couldn't get out of here fast enough yet still was determined to stay her course."
"I agree." Elijah had sighed heavily. "Ready the jet and have the pilot on standby to secure a flight plan to Tokyo. I'm sure if…when Niklaus comes to, he would like the option to follow after her."
"Do you think he will?" Rebekah's whispering words had floated over him.
"I don't know sister. I don't know. I had thought I knew a great many things about our brother, but I find myself at a complete loss after what we bared witness to."
Klaus had come too shortly after and had in fact gone after her. Was following her still. Even with Elijah's worried glances, Kol's desolate demeanor and Rebekah's fretting that he needed to be with family, he had gone alone. Allowing them to only see him to the airport. As at the time all his power, all his strength, even his immortality could not help him function.
He had taken nothing from home. Simply went through the motions of showering and changing before his pale face and husky broken voice demanded they take him to the jet.
He first found her at the base of the Tokyo Skytree, staring up at the more than fourteen-thousand-foot-tall skyscraper. He had studied her face, hoping to see the awe he had known should be there at such a wonderous sight.
But there had been none. Only a passing respect for such a wondrous structure.
He had watched from a distance as she rode the lift to the upper deck, wondered if she enjoyed the breathtaking view of the city from the towering heights. He had wished he could have been standing next to her, taking in her expressions. But such a privilege was barred from him and would not be welcomed, so on the ground he stayed.
He trailed far behind her as she wandered through the cherry-trees of Ueno Park, tasted the food and culture of the busy streets, as she mingled with the people of the downtown night scene. Never truly a part of any of it, her paler than normal skin, her curled to perfection hair duller, her blue eyes lost and haunted.
Every night she cried herself to sleep. Her anguish adding the only color to her cheeks as he watched her like a stalker from the balcony window.
It cut him like tiny shards of glass with each and every cry. Even though he knew he should leave, he stayed. Wishing, hoping for things that would never be the same, that would never come to be.
She left Tokyo after only three days.
His best guess as if why, not that he could claim to know her any longer, was that the richness of the colorful surroundings was too bright even for her. That had been his best guess since it was for him.
Rome was next on her list, though why she had skipped Paris when it was the soonest of the two flights had escaped him.
Until he had saw the brochure she had crumpled and tossed in the trash. Reaching in to smooth out the wrinkles before he paled and tossed it back in as if it had burnt him. Bright cheery letters proclaiming; Paris: The city of Light and Love awaits for you!
He had still felt the fire as he boarded his private jet.
In Rome she had rented a room in the heart of the bustling city. He rented the two rooms to her left, as he had done in Tokyo as well, taking the furthest one from her to mask his presence while still being near enough to see her.
She had taken in the sights and soaked in the history. Still he had followed her. It was his punishment, his due for daring to hurt one such as she. To always follow, to be close at hand but never to touch. Sometimes he thought she knew he was there, but maybe that was just his wishful thinking. He liked to think, since he had become such a masochist, that when she whispered his name between her cries in the dark of night, that she was sharing her pain with him, merging their agony together as one.
Her smile was dim, her eyes a lackluster imitation of what they once were as she took in the temples, the Colosseum.
Your fault!
One evening in Rome she had stomped back to her rented room, fury and rage radiating off her in waves. An hour later she emerged, curls shining in all their glory down her back, the short red dress clinging to her breasts and waist, her cheeks a matching flush that had him gulping in arousal and doom.
He had followed on shaking limbs as she immersed herself in the center of the dance floor of a local nightclub. The music thumping as she swayed and dipped to the beat. And like the siren she was, calling and drawing a flock of males to her side.
The glass that had been in his hand shattered as his iron will held him in place, the call was not for him. And he had had a sinking suspicion of what would transpire next.
He was not wrong.
She had chosen a man that was as far away from his own looks and charms as she could find. Dragging the lucky bastard to the alley on the side of the club.
He tried to stop himself, tried to not follow after them. But the whispered urgings and the burning curiosity had been too much to bare.
Hidden deep within the shadows he had watched as the soon to be dead man petted and pawed at her with his disgusting lips upon her neck. The man was saved, for a little longer, when Caroline stopped him seconds before his lips attempted to fuse with hers.
Her shaking hand had covered her lips, her curls bouncing as she shook her head in denial, her gagging moans had echoed off the brick walls as her heels rapidly tapped with the quickness of her fleeing.
He had wanted to follow after her, nearly had, until the wretch had scoffed the word, bitch, had fury had overtook him. This man had been graced with the chance to hold what Klaus himself could only dream of touching once again and yet he dared to defile her very character?!
Once the body was drained and mutilated beyond repair, he had left the dried husk on the dirty ground, opting to head back to his room for a shower before he checked in, spied on, Caroline.
Oh, that he had not waited.
For when he arrived silently on her terrace he was shocked to find that the room was emptied. The only things that remained to even hint that her presence had been there was the table filled with the gifts he had been sending her.
At first when he had begun, she would find new and inventive ways to destroy them. The flowers he sent, cut up and tossed in the trash. Drawings crumbled, the envelopes never even opened.
Apparently, her efforts to demolish his gifts had proven to be too much. There they sat, left behind in the empty hotel room, a statement of how empty and hollow she found them to be. Of how she found him to be.
His fretting over her abrupt departure slowly died from the soul deep anxiety to a mild burn. He had not lost her, not yet. For he knew where she would be heading next.
Paris.
But as he boarded his plane his anxiety reached new unfathomable heights.
Caroline was strong, Caroline was determined. What she had failed at that night had sent her running. But, as he very well knew, Caroline never ran from a challenge.
His breath had rushed in and out of his stinging lungs.
Paris. The city of Light and Love.
What better way to prove to him as well as herself that she was over him than to go to the one place built of love and take another man to her bed?
XXX
She had been crafty this time. It had taken him nearly a week to find where she was staying. Another few hours still to track her down.
Once he had, he nearly wished that he had not found her at all. Her back pressed against a railing of the upper floor of a club, a dark haired man's hands slithering over her curves.
Again she stopped it before he kissed her.
This time the disgusting flop had saved himself, he smiled and sighed wistfully as she ran away.
He watched in rage and despair as night after night she attempted to take a lover again and again. But never quite able to follow through. Even though he wanted her for himself, he also wanted her to be happy and heal. As much as it slaughtered him to even think it, if taking another into her body was what she needed then he could not fault her for that.
At least that's what he tried to believe. Until the following night.
He watched her take in the sights in the light of day once again. Following dutifully behind her, safely and undetected. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon when he watched her pull a folded sheet of paper from her purse, clutching it close to her chest before letting it fall from her fingers as she walked away.
His curiosity had gotten the better of him. He waited until she was just out of sight before flashing to the paper, scooping it up in his trembling hands. Unfolding it to discover the drawing he had not known she had kept from the night of the Ball, tear stained and worn as it was, left on the ground next to the Eiffel Tower.
XXX
Klaus wandered aimlessly, not following her for the first time in weeks. A few hours later and he found himself back at the hotel. He could have gone after her, but his heart couldn't take watching yet another man's hands fondle and touch what he wanted for his very own.
He made it to the lobby just in time, for better or worse, to see the elevator doors slowly close, shielding Caroline and man, a man who was wrapped tightly around her, from view.
Bile reaching, biting his throat as he realized she was finally brave enough to bring one back to her room. Even worse still, this man was different, unlike the others looked who had looked almost eerily similar and the complete opposite than him. This man who was right now holding and touching her as they rode up the lift had sandy blond curl, a lean yet muscled stature, thin yet welcoming lips, a grayish tint to his blue eyes. And if Klaus's mind was correct while it ran over the details as he took to the stairs in a rush, the hint of a British accent could be found layered within the man's groan.
Klaus made it to his room, out the open window and jumped silently to a darkened corner of her terrace.
His ears picking out the sounds of her giggles, the gruff answering chuckle, the door creaking open and slamming closed. The rest of the sounds nearly killed him.
Fabric hitting the floor, lips smacking and tasting. A masculine moan. A, he tilted his head as he questioned, possibly forced feminine sigh.
Bile choked him.
He knew her sighs of enjoyment, of rapture when she was touched and caressed. That she was now forcing herself to go through with this, even though she clearly did not want to, just to prove something to herself and to him. It made him sick. Made him want to beg her to stop. To not do anything she would regret just to spite him. He was not worth it. Not worth soiling herself over.
The long, slow pull of a zipper sliced through the air making his ears bleed. The very length of the one he knew rested in the center of the back of her dress.
He should leave. He knows he should leave. But the torture of it all reminds him of how he had once, for the briefest of times, even though he had not known it, he had had her love.
Part of him thinks that if he can know for sure that she will follow through this night then maybe, just maybe, it can put them back on track. Track to what, he does not know. He only knows that they need to find a way to move forward. He needs her to begin to heal. He needs that as much as he needs blood to survive just so he can rest his head at night and know that maybe, someday, he might just be able to have her again. It's wishful thinking, hopeless thinking on his part but still, what is life without an impossible dream?
"I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore. You need to leave."
At first Klaus thought she has found him out, only to then feel the relief that should not be allowed to flow through his body as her whispered plea is not for him, but for the man who hasn't even made it to her rented bed.
The man didn't even put up a fight. Just a swish of fabric and the closing of the door followed her denial leading Klaus to believe that she had compelled him to go.
Klaus sank and slid down against the wall of the terrace, his body running hot and cold with the riot of emotions running amok through him.
The shower turned on and off, a rustling of clothes and bedding is heard before he finally regains a small semblance of control. Readying to head back to his own room for the night.
"Klaus."
His eyes fall closed at the sound of his name falling from her petal soft lips. He tried to ignore the telltale signs of her tears she must have shed within the shower. His mind floats through the imaginative dream that she knows he is there, is calling him to her. Touching, holding, comforting each other in a sweet embrace.
"Please Klaus. Just come in."
His eyes fly open. In his mind's eye she would speak in nothing but husky, loving tones. Her pleading, rough voice could only mean one thing. She knew he was here. Was actually calling him to her.
Klaus treads slowly through the door of the terrace. He can smell faint hints of the man's lingering arousal as he walks into the main room. Bile rising. But not even a tiny whiff of her honey sweet scent can be found. Body calming.
Pausing before her open bedroom door he gulps. His heart racing, wondering why she had called to him. Why she had invited him in.
The sight he finds when he enters is a crushing blow. Hair still damp from her shower, her slight frame cocooned within the blankets. Her eyes welling with tears as a flurry of emotions roll though them; pain, sorrow, embarrassment, a slight flicker of hope that he doesn't fully understand, and her lips quivering the closer he comes. He bites the inside of his cheek in a failed effort to stop his own from doing the same.
He doesn't speak, neither does she, and yet just standing before her and watching as a tear spills over her lid and down her cheek is enough to knock him down.
His knees hit the floor, his arms traitorously sliding across the mattress, wishing to touch her but stopping just short of her now trembling body.
Their eyes never leave the other's, even though the tears continue to fall.
He watches in awe as her features shift slightly, hesitantly. Her hand and then her arm pushing the blanket loose before offering him her hand like a lifeline. A lifeline that he latched onto, clutching it delicately between his own, lips brushing over each finger with worshiping devotion.
Her hand pulls, he panics thinking she means to take such honor away from him once more, to leave him battered and broken after such a small yet massive gesture.
Astonishment and wonder cloud is heart and soul when he realizes that she is not pulling away but pulling him in closer.
His body has a will all its own, frantic in its need to be near her, to make things right. The blanket is thrown from her body right before he allows himself to fall upon her abdomen, arms reaching around her to keep her near him. He can feel and hear her sharp intake of breath, the fear skyrocketing through him that she would lower her arms and shove him away.
This night was full of wishful dreams it would seem.
For her arms did the opposite. Tentatively they lowered, one draping over his shoulders, the other sifting trembling fingers through his hair.
A sob choked his throat. A tremor wracked his frame. His face pressed against her flat belly as he whispered brokenly, "I wish it was you. I wish it had been you. Why couldn't it have been you?"
His meaning, his deepest fantasy whispered brokenly in the dark of her bed must have come across to her. In the next moment she squirmed, arms and hands shifting from soft touches to hard shoves.
"No!" He groaned, holding her tighter, pressing and willing his body deeper into hers. Wishing and hoping to fuse them together so tightly she could never leave him or cast him away. "Please."
His broken plea gave her pause. Her struggling stopped, and she gave into the need to cradle his body to her. Which only served to up his anguish more.
His body trembled, the bed shaking under the force of his sobs. He worried he would hurt her, that his uncontrollable, riotous emotions would sicken her. His face turned, enjoying the feel of her skin as her shirt rode up her stomach. Gazing up at her, tearful face meeting tearful face, he found pain and sorrow. But mixed in with that there was no disgust. No. Instead he found things he had only dreamed of finding there again.
Hope. Understanding. Confusion. Even the start of a softer emotion he dared not name for if he was wrong he would rather die by her very hands.
They stared at each other. Tears still falling slowly and unchecked, but their trembling had tapered to an end leaving an oddly comforting calm in its wake.
His palms and fingers moved in tiny circles over the silky skin of her outer thighs, her hips, her sides. Hers softly, gently skating up and down his shirt covered back, over his neck and through his hair.
He gasped at the first hint of need and want and heat creeping into her eyes. Groaned as the hint of her honey sweet scent, that only poured off her when she was aroused, filled his nostrils.
Her heart began to pound to the same note as his. Her beautiful lips falling open with a sharp gasp as he turned his head, eyes never leaving hers as he licked his lips before placing a single soft kiss near her navel.
She didn't utter a word, nor did she have to, as her hands gripped his shirt, pulling him up. Her body rolling to fully lay on her back, her legs widening to cradle his body as he fell gently on top of her. They both sighed, shivering as the cold that haunted them for weeks fled their bodies leaving only the heat of the other behind.
His forearms rested beside her head, fingers brushing over her face and hair. His eyes wide as she traced her hands up his chest, over his shoulders, to the back of his head to slowly bring him down closer, closer.
Their eyes locked together, shaky breaths mingling as their trembling lips met in a soft tentative touch. Gasps leaving the both at that first meeting of lips. Sighs at the second. Low moans as their tongues brushed and began to roll and dance.
Hands clutched, hips rolled and dipped. Fingers dug and soothed. The heat and fire between them consumed them both. Frantically they both rushed, ripping and tear the clothes that barred them from full skin to skin contact.
Both groaned as their bodies met, heated skin to heated skin, softness to harness. The frantic pace that had their clothing shredded and forgotten to the floor left as quickly as it came.
Slow thrusts, lazily drifting hands and intertwining bodies, hearts beating in sync to a pleasure and rhythm only ever found when they were together.
This was not about completion, not about the pleasure. This was about emotions and healing. Easing the suffering placed upon their shoulders by merging themselves as close as they could get.
Their eyes never left the other's as their bodies swayed slowly and firmly. Both feeling the humming force of the passion between them. Rising, lifting until with a keening cry and a hoarse grunt, it washed over them from head to toe. Lifting their hearts and souls to heights unknown. Leaving behind a sense of belonging, a sense of peace neither had ever thought to feel again.
His arms were shaking, ready to give out at any second, and even though he loathed to be apart from her, Klaus worried he'd crush her under his weight.
Gently as he was able to, he slowly pulled away from her, rolling to his back and pulling her with him, tucking her tenderly against his side.
Still they did not speak.
Klaus allowed himself the moment to revel and bask in her presence. Tracing the soft line of her spine until he felt her body relax into the arms of Morpheus. He tenderly kissed the top of her head, taking in the wonderous glory of being the one to give her the rest she desperately needed for the first time in weeks. He carefully pulled the blankets around them then placed his hand atop of hers that rested over his hopeful heart and allowed himself to do the same.
XXX
Klaus awoke slowly the following morning. A smile gracing his lips, his eyes still closed, as he replayed the events of the past night. His arm stretched out, searching the bed for Caroline. His eyes flying open when he encountered only cold sheets.
Jumping from the bed he glanced around in a panic finding no signs of her in the bedroom. Even though her things were still scattered around the room it did little to quiet his frantic fear that she had left him. Things could be replaced after all. And as this was the last stop on the list he had promised her, she could flee to places where he wouldn't even know where to look.
His eyes latched on the large masculine robe that was draped over the foot of the bed. Bypassing his tattered clothing, he snatched it up, quickly wrapping it around his vibrating frame and rushed out of the bedroom, fully intending on searching the world for her in a damned hotel robe if that's what it took to lessen her head start.
"What happened?"
Caroline's sweet voice surrounded him. Freezing him in place in front of the terrace door.
Spinning in shock he faced her, taking in the details he failed to pick up on in his terror of losing her and determination to find her.
She sat at a small breakfast table wearing a robe smaller yet similar to his own. An empty and inviting chair sat across the food laden table from where she was perched. The aroma of fresh coffee and Caroline filled his nose as he walked, first with stilted steps, then with purpose as he crossed the room to sit in the chair she had obviously left pulled out for him.
Klaus ran his tongue over his lips, his eyes searching her face for any clues as to what she was thinking before he sighed and admitted, "I thought you had left."
She hummed thoughtful as she took a dollop of jam from one of the many colorful jars, spreading it over the breakfast pastry on her plate. "I thought about it." She stated as a simple fact. As if it did not have the power to cut him open and bleed him dry.
Klaus opened his mouth, wanting nothing more than to ask her what had changed her mind but not able to work up the courage to do so. Thankfully she took pity on him and furthered her explanation.
"I must have picked up my phone a hundred times. Tried to pack my things a hundred more. But I could never make it past putting this damn robe on." She huffed with a shake of her head, "Do you want to know what stopped me?"
Her vivid blue eyes, filled with a delightful teasing even as her lips curving in a perturbed frown, stole his breath as they gazed at him. Reminding him of days from their past. He could do little more than nod his head.
"You."
He frowned, knowing damn well if he had awakened to her leaving he would remember. He would remember his arms around her legs, forcing her to drag him along. His pleas of denial that would have undoubtedly left his lips. He would have woken up this morning drenched in sorrow at losing her again instead of the cloud of calmness and rightness the night prior had placed upon him.
"I don't understand."
Caroline scoffed, "Of course you don't. You with your stupid face, your stupid happily peaceful smile while you slept and your stupid boyish charm. I tried to leave. I wanted to leave. But one look at you sleeping in my bed with your arms out like you wanted nothing more than to hold me in your sleep and I was stuck."
She ended with an adorable huff, folding her arms over her chest with a pout making him chuckle.
"What's so funny?" She growled at him.
"You're adorable when you pout, Caroline."
"Oh, shut up." She scoffed with a roll of her eyes.
He smiled at her fire, at how the easily they fell back into their old bantering pattern even though there were still mountains of issues between them.
Her face fell, her forehead creasing as her mind whirled with thoughts he wished he could know.
"What is it, love?" He asked carefully.
"I really thought I could do it. I tried over and over again to sleep with someone else. To even some score I thought you'd racked up against me." She laughed humorlessly. "But there never was any score to settle was there? It's not like we were dating. It's not like when you slept with…her…I wasn't dating Tyler."
"True. But I should have told you."
"When exactly? When exactly would you have told me?" She argued back against his understanding tone, "Were you just going to drop that bomb when I was looking for Matt? After I kissed you? After we got dressed after knocking down a few trees? You were just going to say, That was fun Caroline. Look me up when you'd like to have at it again. And oh, by the way love, I have a baby on the way, bye now."
Klaus chuckled at her poorly made impression of him before admitting, "No, you're correct. Those would not have been the most constructive moments. But, if I was any stronger of a man where you are concerned, I would have stopped us at that first tree and sat you done to explain everything."
Her body was bathed in the sunlight pouring in through the window, her eyes glittering, beseeching him to try and explain now. To try and help close the gap that still remained.
Klaus ran a hand through his tangled hair, "Where to even begin." He muttered quietly before sighing as Caroline folded her hands on her lap, waiting for him to try, "Somehow an easily forgettable night, brought on by loneliness and alcohol, came back to haunt me the day I went to New Orleans after receiving a curious letter from Katerina, pointing me in that direction. I wanted nothing to do with the child or it's Mother. I only caved under Elijah's behest. And even still, with the threats to the child's life, even though there are moments that I enjoy the idea of being a Father, I find myself hoping that it will not come to pass."
Caroline opened her mouth to speak but snapped it shut as he didn't notice and continued to explain the happens of the New Orleans war. His guilt over his darker feelings towards his family and the child. What he had done, what was done to him. His confusion and feelings that maybe he only wanted what he had built decades ago because someone else had it now and had done it better. It wasn't until later, when he tapered off that he looked at her. Willing her to believe his words and honesty.
"As far as Camille is concerned, the woman you saw me with." Klaus sighed, "Yes, I enjoy her company. Yes, she holds some sort of torch for me. And I will admit that I sometimes use her feelings towards me to my own advantage. But each time that I do, I think of what you had said. About me and having friends. So, I tried, in my own twisted way, to build a friendship with her. But I swear to you Caroline, nothing has or ever will happen between her and I, and there have been no others since I was with you in the woods."
"I believe you." Caroline replied with a shuddering breath, "But even as hurt and angry and embarrassed as I was, we weren't dating. I don't have any claim of hold on you. So even if you did, there wasn't anything I could do about it. I started to realize over these past few weeks that I let my emotions get the better of me. I acted impulsive and rash, letting my hurt and jealousy control my actions, just like I used to do when I was human. I hated that part of myself. I vowed to never let that happen again after I was turned." Caroline smirked with a hint of remembrance and a hint of being upset with herself for what she had done, "I guess you were right, we really are the same, huh? Acting with our hurt first and regretting those actions later."
Klaus allowed himself to bask in her admission, her own twisted way of saying she had made some mistakes without actually saying she was wrong. They were more alike than he had even known back then.
Parts of her speech whispered through his mind, causing him to narrow his eyes at her in contemplation, "Whether we were dating or not, I wasn't ready to be with another. Not after having you." He leaned forward in his chair, eyes pinning her so forcefully that she sucked in a deep breath and held it. "But there is something that you are completely and utterly wrong about, and I would have it out in the open now. You have more claim on me than anyone who has walked this Earth. Be it in the past or the future. Whether you want it or not, you are my last love. You are now, and always will be, the woman who owns my heart." His eyes hardened yet lit with a fire that swirled and danced through her lower body, "There is one other thing you are wrong about Caroline. No matter how I take you, no matter how you take me. Knocking down trees with the strength of our passions or a slow soft melding of our bodies, it will always be something remarkable and memorable. Never can it ever be classified as something as distasteful as a mere fucking."
He let his words sink in but gave her little time to think it over before he attempted to move them onto something light. "This is quite the arrangement of foods and jams you have here, love."
"I didn't know what you would like. So, I ordered a little of everything." She squeaked, still caught up in the effects of what he had said.
The more time he spent in her presence, the longer they actually spoke, the more his senses and mind came flooding back to him. Easing some of the pain and fear from these last few weeks and filling him with the hope and determination to set them back on the track he felt they belonged.
Together. Always and forever.
She was here. She hadn't fled. Meaning she too had hopes that they could somehow muddle through all this together and come out on the other side all the better for it.
"I've always been a sucker for all things strawberry." He told her with a boyish grin. Watching in delight as she fixed him a plate filled with anything containing strawberries that she could find.
Both her hands held the plate out for him to take, a soft smile on her lips that nearly melted his mending heart.
Testing the waters, he slowly feathered his fingertips along hers before taking the plate with a husky murmur, "Thank you Caroline."
Her pupils dilated, and her breath hitched bringing a self-satisfied smirk to his lips.
She rolled her eyes, ducking her head to hide her grin as she busied herself with her own plate.
"You do make an excellent point though, love."
She pressed her lips together, tilting her head to the side with her brows furrowed, "What do you mean?"
"Gods, you're absolutely adorable." He breathed aloud without his consent, bringing a blush to both their cheeks. Clearing his throat, he snapped himself back into focus. "There are many things we do not know about it each other." A travesty in his opinion and one he planned to rectify as soon as possible.
If she was agreeable.
"I see you have your, I'm an evil mastermind and I'm devising my brilliant plan, face on." She batted her eyelashes with a cheeky grin. "See? I know things."
"Yes, you do." He conceded, "As do I. But still," His voice rumbled lowly, tongue curling over the words seductively, "I want it all."
Caroline inhaled sharply, hesitation clouding her features, "Klaus…"
"Here me out." Klaus reached across the table, placing his hand gently over hers, adding softly, "Please."
"Okay."
"I know we have much to discuss, much to weed through and discover about the other. And if you are amicable I'd like…" He cleared his throat, licking his lips and pulling all the strength from within he could muster to continue on, "I'd like us to start anew. To date, to move slowly or at whatever pace your heart desires. I'd like you to give us a real chance."
His eyes searched her face for any clues to what her mind and heart were thinking. Waiting for a single idea of which way she would lean, giving him time to decide what his next course of action would be.
He would not be giving up on them.
"Okay." She said softly with a smile.
"Wh-what?"
"Okay. We will give this, give us, a chance."
His eyes widened, his mouth fell open not believing what he was hearing. He had assumed, had been preparing to fight with every weapon in his arsenal to convince her to even think it over. Yet here she was agreeing without even a shred of doubt. An elated smile lit his face as she giggled.
"But now you have to leave."
His smile fell to a frown, "What do you mean I have to leave?" Panic rolled through him with the thought that, even though she looked happy, she could be trying to hurt him. That she would take it all back and laugh in the face of his agony.
"We both really have a lot of ground to cover on the trust-front, don't we?" Caroline stood and moved to stand beside him, her hand cupping the side of his face as she explained in a gentle tone, "If we are going to do this, we do this right. We have a lot to talk over Klaus, a lot to figure out. Years of trauma and insecurities for us both. You have things you'll have to come to terms with towards with me, just like I have things I'll have the same with you. We have all the outside influences that we will have to deal with at some point, but here's a news flash." Her voice became even more serious, "Relationship 101: We need to build a foundation between just us before we can move on to the icky-sticky stuff that others bring with them."
His hands drifted up the back of her thighs, yanking her in closer as he leaned up to press a kiss to her waiting lips. She melted within his arms as he gloried at being allowed to kiss her freely and as often as he'd like.
Relationship, she had said.
Caroline pressed a hand to his chest, pushing him back gently, her breath racing, "And there is reason number two of why you have to leave." She smiled as his eyes danced in awe over her flushed face, "I don't want to just fall in bed with you. Again anyways. Obviously last night was needed to get us back to normal again. I want to take this slow and build up to beds and knocking down trees." She smirked before sobering, admitting to him tenderly, "I don't want to treat this relationship, treat you, the way I have all the others."
Klaus closed his eyes with a sigh as her fingers combed through his hair as he let his head fall against her stomach. She deemed their relationship, deemed him, in a higher regard than anyone else. Wanted something entirely new when it came to him, to them.
Opening his eyes, he looked up to her, "You said reason number two, so what is reason number one if I may ask?"
Caroline beamed a smile at him as she pulled him from his chair. Leaving him to stand there as she flashed to grab his things before shoving him towards the door, "Reason number one is that you have a lot of work ahead of you today. Planning the perfect date takes time and all. And I have some shopping to do, alone, to get ready for said date."
Klaus grinned as she manhandled him to the door, sneakily placing his hand upon it to stop her from opening it further. Grinning mischievously as she glanced to him in question.
His other hand fiddled with the tie of her robe as he leaned down, running his nose and lips over the length of her neck, whispering roughly into her ear, "Are you sure you want me to go Caroline?"
"Yes?" She purred, the scent of honey swirling around them, much to his delight.
He scattered open mouthed kisses against her throat, "Even though once you open this door and I walk out of it, we won't know when we shall be ready for this again?" His hands dipped to grasp her hips, rubbing their aroused lower halves together.
Caroline melted against him with a moan. Before he was suddenly thrust out the door he didn't hear her open. Her cheeks were flushed, her chest heaved, her eyes glittered with arousal, her thighs clenched together, telling him that she wanted him as much as he did her.
"Even though." She spoke breathlessly before attempting to sound controlled, "I'll need until at least four o'clock so just text me what time to be ready once you decide what we are doing."
And with that the cheeky minx blew him a kiss and shut the door.
A couple passed by him in the hall, causing him to quickly cover his obvious erection that the robe no longer concealed with the tattered remains of his clothing.
He was dumbfounded to feel the heat of embarrassment color his cheeks as the couple snickered at the scene they had just witnessed as they rounded the corner. His eyes looked to Caroline's closed door, wanting nothing more than to break it down and toss her to her bed.
Yet he didn't. No matter how much he wanted to.
Because even though he knew the coming days, weeks and, gods help him, possibly months would damn near kill him not to have her now that he has had a taste of her, he would do things right by her. Do things right by another person and for himself for the first time in his long existence.
XXX
Three months had passed since that night in Paris, and now Klaus held a naked and sweating Caroline close to his still trembling body as the gentle ocean breeze fluttered the curtains of the small house they were staying in on the secluded beach.
This was not the first, nor would it be the last, time they had been enjoying the afterglow of their love making.
They had lasted three weeks, four days and twenty-seven minutes. Not that he had been counting, but it was a cause of pride and strength that he had endured so long with her without ripping her clothes off and throwing her over his shoulder like some caveman. The little minx had loved to tease him, he recalled with a fond smile.
Things were moving along smoothly between them. They talked, they laughed. They shared things with the other that they never spoke of outside of their own minds. Their hopes, their dreams, everything they wanted out of life. Their fears and sorrows.
Nearly a month ago Klaus had received a phone call from Elijah, letting him know that under no uncertain terms, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the baby was in fact not his. The witches, it was always the witches, had used the girl and her unknown pregnancy against her. Planning to use the baby after it's birth as a vessel to resurrect some all-powerful ancestor and take down Marcel for good. They then in turn, in an effort to find someone strong and willing to protect the girl and her child, as well as stand up to Marcel, had tracked him down, wiped the girl's memories as well as his own and fabricated their entire affair.
The thought still made him want to tear through that blasted city, as well as Katerina- for who else helped to orchestrate the entire ordeal- killing them all. They had done well, he had begrudgingly admitted. Only touching that single night with false memories. Not wishing to chance making a mistake that could be found out.
Caroline, his sweet, adorably love. She had seen to him after the news had come in, worrying over whether he was alright with not becoming a Father as he had thought. Once she was assured he was fine, she flipped from soothing lover to vengeful goddess. Phoning Bonnie, who had warmed up to the idea of them the fastest. Klaus had a feeling it had more to do with the odd push and pull relationship between the young witch and his younger brother. After discussing what had transpired, Caroline grinned darkly as she hung up.
"Those responsible will be lucky to even be able to float a feather ever again."
The avenging angel had had her friend take and bind their powers. Blocking them from ever being able to reach out to their ancestors again.
Caroline stirred from her resting place against his chest, lifting to meet his lips. Humming contently after gaining what she was after as she collapsed back down.
Klaus chuckled, ruffling her hair before pulling her closer and whispering, "I love you."
"Mmmm." She tilted her head to peer up at him, "Even though we have to leave this little love nest later tonight to fly back to Mystic Falls for the very first official, meet and greet of your girlfriend's Mother who also happens to be a sheriff," Her eyes widened comically, "who always keeps loaded guns in the house?"
"I'm sure you'll protect me." He tried to joke around the nerves that popped up every time he thought of the upcoming trip.
"Maybe I'll let her get a shot or two in first, you know, for old time sakes." She grinned as he tapped her in her nose before squealing as he flipped her over, growling at her playfully as he hovered above her.
She nibbled her lower lip, a habit that was often a tell that she was aroused or nervous. By the look in her eyes her nervousness was winning out.
"So even though my Mom might shoot you. Might even make you sleep out in my old rickety treehouse, you're still willing to go?"
"Yes Caroline. Even though." He assured her tenderly.
"Good. Even though she might hate you." She nodded before pulling his body fully into her own. Her lips kissing the sides of his neck as her legs wrapped around his waist. Her hips rolled as her legs pulled him down, sheathing his throbbing shaft into her warm silky depths as she whispered into his ear, "I love you."
Is it safe to come out after all that? I guess I will wait and see what the reviews tell me, come out and play or hide in fear of pitchforks and torches.
I'm not sure how this site will handle me updating twice on the same day. So if you missed them, don't forget to go back to Chapter 41 to read my other two stories, All Things Mikaelson and directly after that, Until Her. (The stories are not related to each other. Both are Stand Alone drabbles.)
Also thank you all so much for the pouring in of reviews for those two stories and the fabulous welcome back! I will be responding to all your wonderful reviews later on today, so keep on eye on your inbox if you have or will be writing one!
