Notes: A short bit of AH fluff! This was for Day One of the 25daysofklaroline event that's happening on Tumblr. The theme was Klaroline + First Meetings.
You Walked Into Mine
(Prompt: Au/Ah prompt :) Caroline after hours of walking around upset walks into a frozen yogurt place but is told by the owner working there (Klaus) that they are closed and apologises for leaving the open sign on. Caroline becomes emotional again and Klaus is all like "Please don't cry, here have some fro yo on the house." Then they spend the whole night talking whilst eating fro yo and get to know each other. Fluffier the better. Rated K+)
Klaus is in the office at the back of the shop, trying to decipher a note Kol had dropped in the till. It's something of a habit of his brother's, offering free cones to pretty tourists in hopes of coaxing them to linger in the shop a little longer so Kol can attempt to deploy more of his dubious charms. It had taken Klaus a while to catch on, several months of wondering why they were always running out of the brownie bites and chocolate sprinkles before all the other toppings when he did the ordering. He and Kol worked opposite shifts, overlapping during the day though one or the other of them was usually cooped up in the office dealing with the more mundane tasks associated with owning a business while the other was out on the sales floor with their part time help.
Klaus preferred the office. Making nice with impatient or indecisive customers was not his strong suit.
It might have taken even longer for the filching to be revealed but Klaus had left his cell phone behind one day, had returned just before closing to retrieve it.
He'd managed to catch Kol red handed, had leveled an unimpressed look at his brother but had refrained from giving into the urge to embarrass his brother in front of the petite brunette Kol had been chatting up.
Several days of frosty silence coming from Klaus' end, with Kol doing his best to alternately annoy and cajole him into breaking it (he'd never been particularly fond of quiet), resulted in Kol agreeing to actually pay for the product he passed out while flirting. Kol had taken to leaving little notes to remind himself of exactly what he owed. Klaus pointedly tacked them to their shared bulletin board when Kol forgot to settle his tab. Today's particular scrap of paper had several annotations but Klaus couldn't make out his brother's chicken scratch. He only hoped that Kol could. Feeling a little mean he scribbles another line, adding £5 to Kol's total, planning on treating himself to a bowl of spiced chai frozen yogurt and a load of toppings.
Really, it was the least Kol could do for him. Klaus was nearly certain that the, 'last minute emergency' Kol had claimed to get Klaus to come in and cover the closing duties was not at all urgent and just an excuse to meet up with whoever he'd been slyly texting all day.
The goofy grin his brother had worn every time he'd tucked his phone back into his pocket was the opposite of subtle.
He stands from the desk, tossing down his pen and stretching out the kinks in his back. Klaus starts when he hears the familiar tinkle of the bells at the front door. "Damn it, Kol," he mutters, turning swiftly and making his way towards the front of the shop. Kol had waved of Klaus' reminder to lock the door and flip the 'Open' sign as he'd hurried out of the office. Silly Klaus for assuming his brother had actually done the tasks.
He's got a smile pasted on his face but pauses when he catches a glimpse the woman who'd walked into the shop. She's lovely, he first notes, with her tousled blonde curls and creamy skin. He instantly feels a touch guilty when he takes in her expression. She looks miserable, damp from the ever present rain, blinking furiously in a way that makes dread settle in Klaus' stomach because he suspects it means that the drops of moisture on her face hadn't come just from precipitation.
He's always been completely useless in the face of tears. Something Rebekah still exploited though, after years of practice, Klaus could usually discern between genuine upset and that which she feigned to get her way.
"I'm sorry. We're closed," Klaus tells the woman apologetically.
She deflates further, shoulders slumping. Her reply is tremulous, "Oh, sorry. The door was open and the sign…"
Klaus offers what he hopes is a warm smile, "My brother's not the responsible type, unfortunately."
She returns the smile though hers is wan, "Sorry to have disturbed you," she murmurs, her eyes dropping as she turns on her heel.
The heel that snaps with a sharp crack sending her stumbling into one of the tables that line the window.
Klaus lunges but he's too far away to catch her and she lets out a sharp cry of pain as her hip bumps the corner, hands slapping down to catch herself. He strides quickly across the shop, a hand hovering over her back concernedly. "Are you alright? Why don't you sit down?"
She starts to protest, "No, it's fine. I'm…" but Klaus is already pulling out a chair, urging her to settle onto it and kneeling at her feet.
"Nonsense, sweetheart. I am a responsible business owner, can't have you getting seriously injured on my watch. You Americans are a litigious lot from what I've read." He smirks up at her as he says it, making it clear that he's kidding.
Her eyes roll but she lets out a hiss when he wraps his hand around her foot and Klaus' forehead creases in concern and he bends to study it. He's no doctor but he's certain it's beginning to swell, already slightly larger looking than her uninjured ankle. As delicately as possible he undoes the strap of the broken shoe, easing it off of her foot. "I'm going to get you some ice."
She shakes her head, her embarrassment plain, "You really don't have to. Seriously, my shoe breaking is in no way your fault. It's probably a sign that I should consider quality over quantity in future shopping trips."
Klaus stands, "It's really no trouble, love. Ice is something I happen to have plenty of."
She cracks a smile at that, "Probably useful in keeping things frozen, huh?"
"Precisely. Give me one moment." Klaus darts off to the kitchen and grabs two towels. The first he fills with ice cubes before finding an elastic band to make a makeshift pouch. He tucks the second in his pocket and a bottle of water under his arm before he makes his way back out. She hasn't moved, not that he'd expected her to be able to with one shoe strapped on and injured as she is. She smiles gratefully as he sets the bottle in front of her. He pulls out another chair, props her foot on it and lays the spare towel across her leg before situating the ice pack over the worst of the swelling. "There," he murmurs in satisfaction before reaching for a chair of his own. "Now, why don't you tell me your name?"
She's fiddling with the cap, flicking it in circles, "Caroline."
"I'm Klaus," he says, offering his hand.
She shakes it, her grasp light and tentative. "Sorry for all… this," she says, gesturing helplessly around the shop. "I've had a day, you know? I was just walking and thought hey, maybe eating my feelings would help, and then boom disaster."
"I don't know that I would say disaster," Klaus teases, disliking the hint of bleakness that had crept back over her features. "The shop's still standing and I think you'll live. Nothing so dire as to warrant such a title."
She sighs, "You are being way too nice to me."
"I'll have you know that I am never nice. Ask anyone. I glare at children who leave sticky fingerprints on my windows and just before you dropped in I was giving serious consideration to how to make my brother slightly miserable tomorrow."
A smile tugs at the corner of her lips and Klaus considers it an accomplishment, "Only slightly? I think you're not quite the paragon of evil you're trying to sell yourself here as, Klaus."
He shrugs, "Perhaps you'll just have to wait and see. Can I interest you in some frozen yogurt? You can tell me about your day while you eat your feelings?"
Her head tips to the side and she seems to put some serious thought into the offer. Klaus struggles against the urge to push, really hoping she'll accept. Finally Caroline nods and leans back in her chair, "You know what? Yeah. Why not? Throbbing pain in my ankle aside this is totally the best part of my day so far."
"I'm flattered," Klaus murmurs, climbing to his feet again. "Though that is an unacceptably low bar." One he's going to do his best to soar right over. Starting with getting the Caroline a bottle of painkillers and hopefully progressing to them sharing an actual meal. He'll start with the frozen yogurt he decides, and then work to continue to coax her out of her ill temper. She's already smiling and Klaus makes it his goal to get her to laugh. The couch in the office is fairly comfortable, and there's a great Italian place down the street. It's not exactly the proper way to go about a first date but Klaus can't find it in him to mind.
He might even be generous and scratch that £5 from Kol's bill.