These days, people in the porn industry couldn't just turn up on set, act for a few hours and then go home and relax.
Not when so many new and fresh faces- or bodies- were being piped into the industry daily.
And that was just in Los Angeles. There was also competition coming from Eastern Europe where regulations were either lax or non-existent and amateur porn being uploaded to sites every hour.
Which is why, when they'd finished shooting, stars often reached for their phones before they'd even reached for their towels.
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
Klaus is swiping his screen with one hand as he pops the lid on a bottle of mouthwash with the other, not looking as he walks and he bumps into someone.
"Sorry." He mutters, still not looking up and he hears a snort,
"No problem," his co-star Veronica sighs, "Here, pose with me, will you?"
He fixes a smile on his face, moves closer to her and looks up to the phone she's holding on a selfie-stick, it flashes and he hears the click close to one hundred times before they drop the expressions.
"I'll tag you." she promises, before heading into the female bathrooms.
He waves absently and finishes his own twitter update before liking a few pictures on Instagram, updating his Facebook and finally grabbing the towel that the crew member was holding out to him.
The bathrooms weren't luxurious. Toilet, shower and sink. Usually he just got clean and took a longer shower when he got home, but today hadn't been overly messy and he's got the afternoon off before making a club appearance with some coworkers later.
The six hundred dollars he'd just made for that shoot would pretty soon be burning a hole in his pocket.
His phone buzzes and he thinks it's a notification before he sees Caroline's picture on the messenger app.
'Free in two hours? Mason cancelled on another shoot.'
He's still reading the message when the director calls and promises to have Viagra and a thousand dollars cash waiting for him.
He quickly does the math in his head.
It was one pm now and by the time he got to the site it'd be two, he'd have to do paperwork, stills, intro scene and maybe even a soft-core version of the whole video.
Six hours gone and he'd have to go home, change and then go straight to the club.
"Throw in an extra two hundred and I'll do it." He swears, even as he's slipping into the cab.
Seven hours later.
"Oh my god!" Caroline bounces over to him with more energy than she should have considering she hadn't taken a hit of anything recently and just spent eight hours hard at work,
"I wanted to talk to you about the thing."
The amount of emphasis she puts behind those last two words is extreme to the point where Klaus wonders if they're about to talk about her business proposition or presidential assassination.
"But not here," she adds, taking his arm and dragging him from the house with more strength than her body looks like it should hold, "How about my place?"
Klaus smirks, "How about a bar? You just made five hundred bucks."
She shakes her head, "Nope, can't risk being overheard, besides" she adds, as the uber pulls up,
"I've got everything set up at home."
He ponders this as they settle into the backseat and make quick conversation with the driver.
"What is everything?" he asks as she pulls an alarmingly green smoothie from her duffel bag and offers him a sip before chugging half of it down in one go.
"Not here." she adds again and he begins to wonder whether she had taken something making her a little paranoid.
She lives in a small but neat apartment building, a walk-up to the fifth floor that has Klaus glad that he's reasonably fit. She waves at an elderly neighbor who is shuffling down the hallway, as she slips her keys into the door and Klaus looks about with interest as she invites him in.
Just standing in her living room has him feeling like he's taken a hit of caffeine.
Everything is matching, trendy and bright, even the darker tones seem to be popping against the wooden floor.
"Can I get you anything?" Caroline offers as she heads into the open kitchen, "Something to eat. Something to drink?"
"Two of whatever has you peaking right now?" he deadpans and she smiles self-depreciatingly,
"Sorry, I'm excited…hang on a second."
She pads into another room and he sits down on the couch, noting how comfortable it is and imagines taking a nap on it, but the only view out the window is of the building opposite.
He hears a squeaking noise and half-rises out of his seat as Caroline shuffles backwards into the room dragging a dry-eraser board with her.
"Okay," she claps her hands and dries them on her pants, "So, do you want me to begin?"
Klaus is staring at the board with a mixture of shock and awe, noting all the writing, the arrows and the nearly incomprehensible graphs and numbers.
He had his GED but he's not sure he'll be able to follow this.
"Bloody hell," He mutters, "Go on, but be gentle with me."
She smirks, "Never had a guy ask me that before."
"So," she points to the first part of the board, "This is our basic to-do list, things we have to achieve before we're ready to go, I've read up on production start-ups, guides for building your own business, and studied the corporation handbooks for some of the most successful companies in the industry. This is our timeline, if all goes to plan, we should be able to go live in eight months…"
She darts out of the room again and returns with a few heavy books which she sets down beside him, "You can read up on them if you like."
She turns back to the board and points to two rather large numbers, "Here's the amount we'll need to keep us afloat until we get investors and here's the amount we'll need each so that we don't go bankrupt before we can start paying ourselves a wage."
She looks at him nervously, "Um…so I factored in using interns, people who can't get work in the industry, and not having to pay them, but in keeping with the timeline, we may have to do…"
He smirks, "Gay porn?" he finishes for her, "I can handle that, and meet the targets."
His bank account tended towards the lower numbers, he liked to burn through his cash, but if he actually started working harder, four days a week instead of three and gay porn which paid more for both men and women, he would be able to fork over his half of the cash.
Caroline would have a harder time, women usually got paid two hundred less than their male counterparts, expended more energy and had more competition for the roles.
"Okay," she nods, "And we won't need an office to start with, we can use my apartment for meetings and rent houses from people willing to have porn filmed on their properties."
He looks around her apartment, thinking for a moment before speaking,
"You said that our female fan base likes us working together, right?"
"Uh huh," Caroline nods and scribbles a note on the board, "They 'ship' us!"
Klaus is never going to use that word, "Right, well, not to be a sexist pig but women tend towards storylines and men don't really care about décor unless it's bdsm, so can we not use the one apartment and just film in different rooms?"
Caroline blinks as she catches his drift, "Oh, you mean my place?"
He shrugs, "Or mine, it'll cut down on the cost and…"
"I can organize everything!" she claps her hands with an alarming amount of delight at the thought.
It's the final nail in the coffin of doubt that he might have had about Caroline being a control-freak, but considering that they were going to be building a porn production company- or adult entertainment production company, as he's sure she'd prefer to call it- from the ground up, he's more than happy for her to be in charge, especially because she seemed to have planned everything down to the last detail.
She darts out of the room again and he glances down at the books she'd left him. He wasn't much of a reader but if he was going half-in on this, with their immediate futures on the line, he could make an effort.
He opens the first book, reads the first page and immediately wonders whether an espresso or cocaine would be better for getting through it.
He flips it closed as Caroline settles down beside him on the couch, putting her laptop onto the coffee table and tapping away,
"So, I've also been doing some research into some smaller porn sites," she explains as she types,
"Ones more catered to what we have in mind, which is gentler porn, and I figured we could take a look at the videos…"
"Together?" Klaus asks, raising his eyebrows and she nods in affirmation before turning to him in surprise,
"Wait, seriously?!" she says, "You can still get turned on watching porn?"
He holds a serious expression for about thirty seconds before the smile creeps up his face and he turns away chuckling, earning a whack across the shoulder blade for his effort,
"No," he admits, "I used to but after a while you either recognize the actors or spend the time analyzing the scene and figuring out how long the shot took or where exactly the camera man had to be positioned to catch the moment."
"Urgh," she sighs, "Me too, and the amount of effort you have to go to just to try and find porn that doesn't do anal? Honestly, I just read erotic novels now."
She pauses, pursing her lips, "Was that TMI?"
He shrugs, "We've worked together many times now, we're about to go into business together, I'm pretty sure we should be close enough to share details like that."
"Right."
She opens a few sites and he notes the design and the titles, and then the videos.
Porn typically isn't supposed to be humorous, but Caroline has a notebook on her lap, a pen in hand and Klaus can't resist making a running commentary on the videos they watch, some of it being helpful, but the rest are jokes and quips about the performances or the settings that has Caroline poking his arm and shushing him before cracking up laughing and joining him.
When his phone rings it surprises him and when he picks it up, not having checked it in five hours- a record for him since he became a social media slut- and realizes that he's late to the club appearance.
And it's pitch black outside.
"Bloody hell," he curses, "I have to go."
He types a message and tries to figure out how much time he would need.
Honestly, he'd much rather keep hanging out on the couch with Caroline, but this event is good publicity for him.
"Want to use my shower?" she offers and he shakes his head as he hurries to the door,
"I still have to change."
He pauses in the hallway and turns back to her, "When should our next top-secret meeting be?"
She bites her lip as she thinks and looks adorably focused, "Next week?"
He grins, "It's a date." he throws over his shoulder as he rushes down the stairs,
"No, it's not," she calls down the stairwell, leaning over the railing slightly, "It's a business meeting!"
Four months later
"Where are you?" Caroline demanded angrily as she parked her car, "Seriously?! You suck at punctuality."
On the other end of the line, Nik sighs, "I'm sorry, sweetheart, the shoot is running overtime, something about one of the cameramen's wife finding out about his career and threatening to leave him."
"Urgh," Caroline smacked the wheel, "How much longer will you be?"
"If you see me before next week it'll be a miracle." He groans before being interrupted.
She hears shouting in the distance and looks through the window to the building where they were just about due for a meeting.
It was in a less-busy part of L.A but with two entrances, one on the street and one more discreetly leading into a parking lot that was almost entirely shielded from the road by leafy trees.
The street-facing front was brick wall with 'Katerina's' written elegantly in metal to the left of the doors.
Nobody who walked past it could have guessed that it was a sex-toy store.
Owned by one Katherine Pierce, who had emailed Caroline three days ago, asking her to meet her.
"Listen, love," Nik says hurriedly, "I've got to go, but Katherine hates me anyway, so it's better that I'm not there."
Caroline frowned at this news, "Wait, why does Katherine…"
He'd already hung up.
She imagines kicking him in the shins and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down before climbing out of the car and striding across the parking lot.
She'd never been into Katerina's but it was hardly her first adult-toy store, however, when she does step inside she's presently surprised.
It wasn't tacky.
In fact, it was almost classy.
The floor and shelves were the same dark wood and there was black leather ottomans and armchairs scattered across the space. Everything was neat and sorted by category, ranging from beginners to advanced and the clothing section wouldn't have been out of place in a regular mall.
There was also a steady stream of female customers considering it was the middle of a workday, being served by young women in heels and simple black dresses, one of whom came up to her with a polite smile,
"May I help you?" she asks pleasantly and Caroline's smile is automatic,
"I have a meeting with Katherine." She explains and the woman nods, "Of course, right this way."
Katherine is standing at the registers in the center of the store, finishing up with a customer and she holds up a pointed finger as her employee approaches, waiting until she is done before turning to her.
Caroline's first impression, as she walks over is that Katherine must be confident.
She's wearing a sheer black lace gown with a neckline that plunged down to below the breasts with the nipples barely concealed by the pattern before meeting two silver hooks and flaring open again to reveal the matching black thong. It barely reached midway down her thighs, exposing miles of long-tanned legs down to the feet encased in Louboutin heels.
Her lips were dark red, her coffee coloured eyes smoky and lined, while her brunette curls shone in the mood lighting of the store. She was the perfect advertisement for her products.
And for sex in general.
"Caroline," she murmurs with a husky tone as she reaches her, stretching up to kiss her cheek in greeting, her lips lingering on her skin, "It is so nice to meet you."
She smells like cherry liqueur, chocolate and danger.
"Nice to meet you too," Caroline manages, clearing her throat, "You wanted to talk?"
Katherine hums and turns slowly on her heel, leading her towards two armchairs in a corner, and Caroline can't help but catch a glimpse of her bare bum and wonders if she doesn't get a little cold dressed like that.
Though she supposes when you're that confident, your own vanity kept you hot enough.
Katherine sinks into the armchair gracefully, crossing one leg over the other and Caroline feels about as sexy as a soccer mom in her regular clothes, as she sits down opposite her.
"I heard you and Nik Morgan are thinking of starting your own production company," Katherine says, diving right in,
"I'm interested in being in on the ground floor of this little venture."
Caroline blinks in surprise and gives a little head shake, "Wait, how did you find out? Who told you?"
"One of the writers you interviewed came in to my store blabbing until I told her not to," she shrugs, the gown slipping down to expose a shoulder,
"But I am interested."
"In investing money?" Caroline prompts but Katherine pouts, "Not at first, but you aren't going to get decent investors for the first financial year unless your site gets enough views to exceed expectations."
"So..." Caroline trailed off, "How are you going to invest?"
"I want you to wear my lingerie and use my products exclusively, in return, I'll have a link to your site on mine and when you start running memberships, I'll offer a discount on my products for your members."
Caroline clasped her hands together on her knees, "That's generous of you." She says suspiciously and the corner of Katherine's lips tilt up,
"Not really, our two companies have the same target audience, I'll cut some of your costs but gain almost free advertising." she uncrosses her legs and Caroline gets a flash of the black thong before she crosses her legs again,
"You want to market to middle-income, mainstream American women between the ages of twenty-one and forty-five?" Caroline asks and Katherine shrugs,
"I call them vanilla-scented candles," she says, "Because you have to set the bitches on fire to make them feel anything."
Caroline smirks, "Well, I'll have to discuss it with Nik…"
Katherine pulls a face, "I'd rather you didn't, Nik Morgan is the worst thing to have ever happened to this country."
She leans back, "What exactly happened between the two of you?"
The brunette woman stands, "The only thing you need to know is that I'll be dealing primarily with you and avoiding him like an STI."
Caroline gets to her feet, "I'll let you know as soon as possible."
The smile stretches across Katherine's face and she leans in, pressing a kiss to Caroline's cheek,
"Thank-you." She whispers in her ear, her breath warm on her face and Caroline feels her nipples pebble in response. Especially when Katherine deliberately runs her eyes over her body as she steps back,
"I can't wait to see you again." She finishes, biting her lip and Caroline is left dazed to the point where she barely even realizes she's in the parking lot until she walks right into her car.
"It's a good offer," Caroline adds, after she's finished recapping the afternoon for Nik, who was lying on his kitchen floor with an icepack on his left shoulder.
"I think we should take it."
"Katherine Pierce is evil personified," Nik intones gravely, wincing as he rotated his arm,
"But if we keep it strictly professional, it should be fine."
Caroline frowned down at him, "Okay, seriously?! What happened between you two?"
He waves his hand, "We're just enemies love, loathe each other from now til death does its business and leaves one of us triumphant."
She shakes her head, "Okay, but you two are actually okay to work together?"
He snorts, "No, but that's why you're going to be the one handling her."
Caroline has a flashback to Katherine's bare bum and presses her lips together at the thought of handling her.
"We should definitely keep the relationship professional." She announces, "All our relationships until this thing is off the ground."
Nik winces as he shifts the ice pack, "I think it'll be off the ground before I am." He whines and she rolls her eyes, "Idiot."