Notes: More tropes!
Time Capsule
(Prompt: Scars + The Missus and The Ex. Rated K+.)
She's known Klaus for a year few years, is enjoying the third of a recent series of excellent dates, when she's told about his deep dark secret.
She might have been pissed to be kept in the dark but had his secret been anything else. It's just too freaking hilarious for her to work up any righteous indignation.
She's disbelieving at first but Klaus insists it's true. One quick Google and Caroline gets why he'd kept his mouth shut. She'd made some questionable choices at nineteen, judgement calls that she's really glad aren't immortalized on the internet forever.
Klaus isn't so lucky.
Because Klaus Mikaelson, uber snob about popular culture, prickly unless sufficiently motivated, and scornful of vast swathes of humanity, had once starred on a reality TV show.
Not just any reality TV show. He'd been on what looked to be essentially a Jersey Shore rip-off. Just set in a swanky London apartment and with fancy accents. The partying and drunken fights and hookups appeared to have been pretty much the same.
It had only lasted one season.
In the promo pics and screengrabs Caroline scrolled through Klaus had sported highlights and worn baggy t-shirts and baseball cap. He'd belted his pants to show off his boxers. Teen!Caroline probably would have thought he was hot but present day Caroline is gleefully planning to slip some cheap ribbed tanks and self-tanner into Klaus' birthday gifts.
His exasperated face is super cute.
He'd dropped the bombshell over their post-movie coffee and Caroline had taken it well. Klaus had endured her giggling over old pictures (to a point but Caroline wasn't going to complain about him kissing her as a distraction).
When she'd gotten home, lips tingling and her face still feeling the after effects of being scraped by Klaus' stubble, it had been impossible to resist pulling out her laptop and looking for clips. Pics were one thing but she thought she really needed to get the full effect.
And when it turned out the series was all online? Well, she'd ordered takeout and settled in for a marathon.
Six episodes in and she's kind of obsessed. The version of Klaus on her screen is fascinating. She sees tiny glimmers of the man she knows but he also seems to be a bit of a jerk. He sneakily leaves little sketches of his roommates on their beds. The not so flattering ones cause drama and he never fesses up. The good ones end up pinned in the communal kitchen and he definitely when he sees them. He oozes cockiness and has a tendency to flex when he's shirtless, sometimes walks in a way that could only be called a swagger.
He flirts shamelessly but his interest in one of his housemates seems genuine. Unfortunately, she's already in a relationship.
Caroline has a million questions, starting with why in the world had he ever even auditioned, and she's considering making a list.
Caroline (9:14 PM): I can't believe you didn't tell me you were involved in AN ACTUAL LOVE TRIANGLE!
Caroline (9:14 PM): I'm kinda jealous.
Caroline (9:15 PM): I'm think I'm rooting for Lucien though. Sorry. He's just so freaking into her.
Caroline (9:15 PM): Making out with Aurora's BFF who came to visit was a dick move, btw.
Klaus (9:17 PM): Sadly, that was far from the worst of my poor decisions.
Caroline (9:18 PM): Oooh, ominous.
Caroline (9:18 PM): I'm excited.
Klaus (9:19 PM): I don't suppose I could convince you to stop watching?
Caroline (9:20 PM): Are offering me sexual favours? ;)
Klaus (9:20 PM): Obviously.
Caroline (9:21 PM): Sorry, I've gotta pass. Something tells me you're going to be pretty easy.
Caroline (9:22 PM): But don't worry. I promise not to hold anything you did 9 years ago against you.
Klaus (9:23 PM): I appreciate that.
She starts up episode seven. It opens the morning after Klaus' attempt to make Aurora jealous, the camera lingering on him in bed, very naked under a single crumpled sheet.
Is it pervy that she's ogling him? Probably, since he'd been practically a baby.
Klaus is awakened rudely, by Aurora upending a large-ish bucket of water on him, and he leaps from the bed, shouting slurred profanities.
Screw it, Caroline thinks, as she turns up the brightness on her screen and leans in, eyeing the areas where the wet sheet now clings. No one has to know about the ogling.
Aurora and BabyKlaus engage in a fight that is loud and rambling and Caroline thanks whatever production grunt had been tasked with painstakingly subtitling it. Aurora tries to cite friend code, Klaus counters that she has a boyfriend so it really isn't her business what (or whom) he does. He scoffs at her assertion that he'd been trying to hurt her, smiling cruelly and informing Aurora that she's just not that important.
Caroline winces when Aurora bursts into tears. Klaus' regret is plain but he storms away without apologizing.
She fast forwards through some plot involving other housemates, pauses when she sees Klaus again. He's at the club they seem to hang out at most, the kind with pumping music and flashing lights. Caroline assumes the venue had some kind of deal with the producers and that's why the cast spent all their nights out there. The camera catches Klaus slamming back shots, his mood less than festive, and Caroline assumes he's about to do something dumb.
Approximately thirty seconds later the camera captures him punching Lucien.
Angry drunk boys, so predictable.
It's chaos on her screen, other people seem to pile, on and the cameras are constantly jostled. Caroline can barely make out who is who. Aurora's red hair is distinct, and she's in the corner of the frame, yelling, having climbed on the bar.
When things calm down and the bouncers disperse the crowd Klaus is bleeding. His right hand clutches his opposite arm and the sleeve of his shirt saturated and dark red.
Caroline pauses and shoots Klaus another text.
Caroline (9:45 PM): No fair. You totally have a way cooler how I got this scar story than I do.
Caroline (9:46 PM): I hadn't even realized you deflected that time I asked about it.
Caroline (9:47 PM): Well played.
Klaus (9:48 PM): So you've never needed a dozen stitches after a bar fight?
Caroline (9:48 PM): Nope. But I guess I've still got time.
Klaus (9:49 PM): It's good to have goals.
She feels a little anxious watching Klaus get loaded into an ambulance, seeing him in pain and struggling to answer the EMTs questions. Silly, since he's perfectly fine and joking with her via text, only a few blocks away.
The episode ends with the ambulance door closing, his roommates huddled together for warmth on the sidewalk watching it drive away. Lucien's got his arm around Aurora and she's sobbing.
Caroline checks the time, debates moving on to another episode. She doesn't actually have to go to bed for another hour so she could watch some more. She knows Klaus and Aurora must hook up at some point, that there had to be a payoff to all the buildup. Caroline's watched plenty of reality TV and Klaus' show is less subtle than most.
She hasn't felt jealous yet, doubts she will. She'd lose her shit if Klaus were to up and get weird about her high school or college boyfriends. They weren't any of his business and Caroline's not going to make a fuss just because she can see one of Klaus' past relationships with her own two eyes thanks to the magic of technology.
Veering in a more romantic direction with Klaus has been really good, and he'd made it clear it's something he's wanted for a while. His past has no bearing on their present.
Besides, Caroline kind of likes Aurora, or at least the version the cameras capture. She's a little dramatic, sucks at any and all forms of housework, but is at least willing to laugh at herself. Plus, the poor girl's family seems nuts and not the fun, eccentric, kind. A phone conversation with her parents had been icy and her brother had appeared onscreen only to lecture her about how unbecoming it was to associate with people beneath her and how Aurora was shaming the family.
Caroline doesn't have siblings but her knee jerk reaction had been a big fat yikes.
Plus, it's not hard to see the behind the scenes manipulations. Aurora's confessionals often having her comparing and contrasting Klaus and Lucien, waffling about her feelings, and Caroline can easily envision the leading questions that she'd had to deal with.
The results of shoving attractive people together, forcing them to interact, and supplying copious amounts of booze, are pretty predictable.
See: the bajillion varieties of Real Housewives.
There's no way Caroline's curiosity will survive not knowing how things end but she can wait a bit. She shuts her laptop and stretches out the kinks in her back, grabbing her phone once more.
Caroline (9:56 PM): Do you want to get lunch tomorrow?
Klaus (9:57 PM): So you can interrogate me, I presume?
Caroline (9:58 PM): Yep. You don't have to answer anything if you don't want to though. I'm just super fascinated by how that guy became, well, you.
Klaus (9:59 PM): Not sure how to take that, love.
Caroline (9:59 PM): I mean it in a good way. I like you. The you I know.
Caroline (10:00 PM): Past you seems kind of exhausting and I want to reach into my laptop and shake him sometimes.
Caroline (10:01 PM): Mostly because his commitment to hats is out of control.
Caroline (10:01 PM): Please tell me you got rid of those. Especially the fedoras.
Caroline (10:02 PM): But to be honest I was no picnic at that age either.
Caroline (10:02 PM): There are totally some pageant videos somewhere.
"Oh my god, I need to stop," Caroline mutters. She closes her eyes, huffs out a laugh. Maybe she should have just gone to bed. She resists the urge to apologize for rambling. No need to call attention to it.
Klaus (10:03 PM): The only hats I own now are functional, designed for warmth
Klaus (10:03 PM): I like the you that you are now too.
Klaus (10:04 PM): I can meet you at 1. Does that work for you?
She smiles down at her phone, taps out a quick affirmative. Retro trashy reality TV can wait, she's got a fourth date outfit to put together.