Hey, my lovelies. Thank you for your beautiful rewiews and your support.
To the new readers, welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay.
26 HOURS BEFORE
Caroline had basically become Bonnie's savior. The witch was about to go crazy struggling to keep the tension between Kol and Jeremy when Caroline arrived at the Lockwood mansion to help with the Masquerade Ball preparation. She literally jumped at her friend's throat and swore to kill both Elena and Rebekah whenever she would catch a hold of either of them.
Sensing that her friend was honestly about to lose it, Caroline decided to give her a hand and get one of the boys out of the way, and she completely arbitrarily decided that guy would be Kol. She asked the Mikaelson man to go with her pick up the floral arrangements for the Ball.
"So how are things going on between you and Bonnie?" Caroline inquired and glanced at Kol beside her on the passenger's seat before quickly refocusing on the road in front of her. Unlike most vampires, she was still very much concerned about safety when driving: she would always fasten her seat belt before starting off and she would always keep her attention completely focused on the road. It was just one of those human habits she couldn't seem to get rid of.
"You were just there. You saw." He answered pointedly. "They're not going."
"How would you want them to be?" She asked and glanced at him.
He simply shrugged.
"Wow. Well, I can only hope you're a little more responsive with Bonnie." She commented turning her gaze back towards the road.
"What do you want me to say?" Kol retorted sounding annoyed.
"I don't want you to say anything, Kol! I want you to express your feelings!" She answered him. "And that is probably what Bonnie is expecting of you too." She told him. "However that is…"
"Have you told her how you feel about her?" She inquired as he didn't respond.
"I told her I like her." He responded.
"Excuse me?" Caroline asked her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Yes. I told her I like her." Kol repeated.
Caroline turned to look at him to see if he was serious, and if his expression was genuine, he was kidding.
She huffed at him and his apparent cluelessness. "And you wonder why Bonnie isn't jumping your bones right now." She said mockingly.
"Excuse me?!" Kol offended.
"You cannot tell a woman that you like her, Kol, and expect her to be all over you because of that! You like a pet! You don't like a woman!"
"What am I supposed to say to her?! Bonnie knows how I feel about her. I've made that obvious, believe me."
"I don't know, Kol!" She suddenly exclaimed. "And if you even have to ask, then you do not deserve my best friend." She declared pointedly.
She caught something in his expression at her outburst from the corner of her eye that made her feel bad and regret her words, and she sighed. She found a spot on the side of the road where to pull over so she could speak to him seriously.
"Look, Kol…" She started. "God help me I actually like you, and it doesn't seem to me that Bonnie is irresistible to your charms." She declared.
"Well, how could she be?" He said with that trademark smirk of his raising his eyebrows in a smug manner. Caroline gave him a hard look and he regained his seriousness to listen to her wise words.
"But I know for a fact that she has very strong feelings for Jeremy." She continued. "You may not have noticed, but you have some serious competition here, Kol: Bonnie and Jeremy have lots of history."
"Full of heartbreak." Kol commented.
"And love, and happiness." Caroline added not even bothering asking him how he knew about the heartbreak Jeremy had caused her friend. If there was one thing she had learnt since she had started spending time with that family, it was that the Mikaelsons knew everything.
"They were very much in love, Kol. Yes, they did hurt each other." She decided to generalize because she didn't want to give sordid details about her friend's past. That was for Bonnie to decide to tell to Kol, if she wanted to. "But it doesn't erase what they shared, and I can tell you it was something pretty special. They made each other incredibly happy. I know: I witnessed it firsthand."
"And you think they still love each other?" He asked in a low voice, suddenly feeling like his throat was awfully dry. It was a question which answer he didn't want to know to be honest.
Caroline looked away and heaved a sigh. "I think there are still residuals of that love… from both sides, yes." She answered.
"So this is a lost battle?" He tried to resume what she had been saying. He was having trouble seeing where she was going with this. Was she encouraging him? Was she advising him to give up? What was she…?
Her voice interrupted his train of thoughts. "I didn't say that." She answered. "All I'm saying is this won't be easy. If you engage in this battle, you need to know it's going to be a tough one. I know who you all, Kol. I've heard about you. I've heard tons about you." She told him knowingly. "I know that you've wooed more women in a decade than Don Juan in his lifetime." She said emphatically. "I know that you are used to getting what you want when you want it, and I know how frivolous you can be, so before I continue, I need to ask you a question, and I want an honest answer, am I clear?"
He slightly nodded, but the blonde saw the movement. "Do you care about Bonnie… or is this just a game? Do you actually know she is or are you just lured in because she resists you?" She questioned.
Kol nodded and looked back at Caroline before answering. "I do care about Bonnie. I feel good when I'm around her. I forget who… what I am when I'm with her. I forget I'm a thousand years-old Original. I forget I'm a bloodsucker. I forget about all the loneliness in my life." He declared looking down.
Caroline looked at him intently and she wanted to smile and yet cry at the sight before her. This was a Kol she had yet to know: a sensitive Kol, a humble Kol, a human Kol…, a Kol she knew her witch friend could fall in love with. She wondered if even his siblings knew this part of him existed.
Kol meant all that he was saying. What he felt for Bonnie was something he hadn't felt on years, not since 1609 with Angelic, yet another witch. He inwardly huffed at the thought. He definitely had a thing for witches. He loved the feeling he had when he was around Bonnie. He loved the feeling that he got when he looked into her brown eyes and saw her looking back.
"She makes me feel…" He struggled with the word. He wasn't used to this. He didn't know how to handle this, so he covered it with constant arrogance and self-satisfaction. The little Gilbert on the other hand wasn't afraid to lay his feelings on the table. It was no wonder she preferred him.
"Human?" Caroline completed him.
He nodded once, almost imperceptibly, still not looking at her.
"Kol…" She called and waited for him to steady his eyes on her before she went ahead. It took him a while, and she could tell he wanted to look anywhere but at her after bearing his soul like he just had, but he did. "If you want Bonnie, this is exactly what you have to say to her. No more." She told him. "I'm not making any empty promises here: I can't promise you that it will work and that she will pick you, but… but it will for sure make you score a good number of points. But at the end of day, nothing assures you that you will have her. This is a risk to take. So I guess it's for you to decide if it…, if she's worth it." She ended.
Kol looked down as a pensive expression covered his features, and just when she was about to start the car again, Caroline heard. "Thank you, Caroline."
/
Elijah was in his bedroom staring at the outside from the window. The sky was getting darker and the air was getting cooler. The day was coming to an end here, but it was just starting in another continent, and it was a very special day. It was Katherine's birthday, and Elijah truly felt awful about the fact that he couldn't be with her today on this particular occasion. Truth was he wanted to be with her every single day of his life, and every day that came by without her was yet another painful, but today, it was all that harder.
He knew Katerina wasn't upset with him, or at least he thought so, and hoped so…; but frankly, he was upset at himself and Niklaus. Of all the women in the world, he had to take an interest in the one his brother hated with all his being.
He huffed at the thought. This whole situation was so pathetic it was almost funny.
He really wished he could be with her. He unfortunately couldn't. He couldn't risk exposing her to Niklaus. He couldn't take that chance. It was absolutely out of question that his brother found out Katerina's location because of him. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her because he couldn't be a better man and keep his distance with her. Her and her security came first for him. There was no doubt in Elijah's mind what Klaus would do in the second he would cross paths with Katherine again.
What killed him the most was that he couldn't even call her to wish her a happy birthday and hear that matchless laugh of hers as a reaction to his sweet, eloquent words. He couldn't be with her on this special day in any way, and he couldn't bear it, especially after the last birthday he had spent with her: his birthday.
2018
"What do you mean you don't celebrate your birthday?" Katherine asked him to explain himself in a tone very close to indignation, her brows knit together in confusion.
"I'm a thousand and two hundred years, angel. It has been a while since I stopped celebrating my birthday." He responded to her.
"Well, it is time we change that." She said in a determined voice.
"Oh God." Elijah let out an apprehensive sigh. "You're about to make me do something I really don't want to do, aren't you?" He guessed just by her expression she already had something devilish planned out.
She looked at him and her lips curved into a sly smile.
"Oh Katerina…" He spoke in a pleading voice.
"Please, Elijah… Let me do something special for you." She asked him and saw by the look on his face that it was still a no for him. "Look either we do something special for your birthday, or you can get out of my room because we're not spending the day together." She said with an inflexible expression, and crossed her arms over her chest.
He raised his eyebrows at her. "Katerina, this is my room." He politely reminded her.
"Oh…" She had forgotten that part. "…right.
"But I'm a gentleman, so alright." He said and stood up in an attempt to leave, but Katherine pulled him back to the bed.
He fell heavily and brought a hand to his chest.
"Where are you going?" She rhetorically asked him.
"You just said…" He started to explain.
"You weren't supposed to pick that option!" She told him feigning annoyance.
Elijah heaved a sigh. "Katerina, I don't want to do anything special." He told her again for the fifteenth time in that past hour. "We're together. I'm spending this day with you. This is plenty special for me." He assured her hoping his sweet words would be enough to appease the beast that was Katherine Pierce.
He clearly didn't know her all that well.
She didn't give up and kept giving him her intransigent look.
"Katerina, you are more than five hundred years-old." He stated. "You want to make me believe that you've celebrated all of them?" Elijah asked raising a skeptical eyebrow at her.
"I haven't celebrated half of them." She admitted.
"Then why have we been arguing for more than an hour and a half? Why are you insisting that we celebrate mine this much?" He asked her even more confused than he was a few seconds before.
Katherine looked down and Elijah knew by the expression of her face that this was about to get serious. He had never really good at reading women…, and he had been especially bad at reading Katherine, but all this time spent around and with her had enabled him to remark gestures, looks… giving him indications on her mood or on her thoughts.
"Because it's our first birthday together." She said in a low voice, seeming flustered, still looking down at the bed. "And it may also be our last." She added in an even lower voice.
"Katerina…" He started, but she wouldn't let him.
"No, we both know it's true!" She insisted. "Can you honestly tell me it's not true? Can you guarantee me that we will have other birthdays together?" She challenged. "If you can, then we don't have to celebrate this one." She declared.
Elijah looked down breaking her gaze. He knew he couldn't promise her that… as much as he wanted to. He had no idea if they would have that chance.
He ended up focusing his brown eyes back on hers. "You're right." He said. "I can't."
"So…" She tried with hopeful doe eyes, and Elijah knew he had lost –though it was hardly a loss. In any case, as long as he was with her, it was a win.
"We can do whatever you want us to do." He gave in.
"Really?!" She exclaimed all excited and got in a sitting position. "Oh thank you." She said and leaned in to plant a quick kiss on his lips.
Elijah smiled at her obvious content. As long as she was happy…
She pressed her lips against his again, this time for a longer, sweeter kiss. She parted her lips slightly waiting for Elijah to accept her invitation, which he did without being pleaded. He slid his tongue into her mouth and Katherine moaned as it entangled with hers in a sensual dance.
"I promise not to go overboard." She told him after she broke away.
Elijah chuckled. "Katerina…" He said in an amused tone.
She would overdo it even if she tried to underdo it.
/
"Katerina!" Elijah called out. "Are you ready?" He asked her through the door separating them finishing doing his tie.
"No…" She paused. "Are you ready?" She asked him opening the door between them and revealing her glorious self to him.
Elijah's hands left his tie and his arms dropped to his sides while his mouth drew open in awe.
Katherine was wearing a black nightie in lace leaving very little to imagination and yet not quite enough revealing to Elijah's liking.
"Wow."
Katherine turned on herself once. "Do you like?" She asked him waggling her brows suggestively, though the answer rested in his suddenly very dark eyes.
"You're breathtaking." Was the only answered he offered, and really, she took his breath away.
Her coaxing mood and seductive provocative manners faded, and her features turned serious and almost timid. Only Elijah could flip her mood like that. Like a switch. He had this way of looking at her –as though he was entranced –that made her forget where she lived. It was absolutely ridiculous. He turned her into a fifteen year old girl in puppy love for the first time.
He walked to her grinning like a fool. "I'm assuming we're not eating after all?"
"Oh no, we are." She glanced over at the table set beside them, and Elijah followed her gaze. He was so caught up in her he hadn't even noticed the said table.
He turned his head back to her. "Do we have to?" He asked coaxingly nestling his face in the crook of her neck. Her hand from his back came to his neck and she slipped her fingers into his hair. He made a noise as she run her fingers gently through his amazingly soft, silky hair as he inhaled her wonderful scent mingled with her quite not as nice perfume.
Summoning all her inner strength and against her true will, she gently pushed him away but kept him within reach. "Yes, we do." She answered his question. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment and Elijah tried to convince her with his tender gaze. She stared right back at him but didn't give in, though she really wanted to. Eventually, he sighed and his shoulders slumped but he raised his gaze to hers and cracked a dazzling smile, one of those he reserved solely to her.
He moved towards the table and pulled out the chair for Katherine. He waited for her to sit and, like the gentleman he is, pushed back her chair, before moving to sit across from her.
So... Kol/Caroline? Kalijah?
Just a reminder: This is a Klaroline fanfic before anything elso, so try not to care too much about the secondary couples please...
Please leave a review.
Also, I assume some of you have/had finals these past few weeks, so to those of you who still have exams coming up, all the luck in the world, and to those of you who are done, well you can take now take a breath and I hope you did great.
Feel free to stalk me on Tumblr.