A/N: Chapter 8! I've been wanting to draw connections between Klaroline and Beauty and the Beast for a while but I couldn't find the right quote without taking one straight from the Disney rendition...but I think I found a good one! As always, enjoy and if you have a minute tell me what you think :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries
Lessons of Love, Chapter 8: Klaus to Caroline, Part 4
"For those who immerse themselves in what the fairy tale has to communicate, it becomes a deep, quiet pool which at first seems to reflect only our own image; but behind it we soon discover the inner turmoils of our soul - its depth, and ways to gain peace within ourselves and with the world, which is the reward of our struggles." Bruno Bettelheim
Caroline heard her phone buzz from her perch between Lily and Rachel. They all had paper-made crowns on and Caroline was trying to get the girls to settle down to sleep since their parents would not pick them up until later. But it was to no avail, so, she got up and grabbed her phone.
She rolled her eyes when she read the message.
"I am terribly bored. Are you done yet?"
She was about to throw it causally back onto her dresser when a thought came over her.
"Girls, would you like to her a really good bedtime story?" she asked. Surely, an Original hybrid that had lived for at least a thousand years knew some really good stories. Besides, if he was going to complain, Caroline would see to it that he got his wish for something to do. She smiled as she thought that it would do him good to remember to 'be careful what you wish for.'
The girls squealed with delight as Caroline dialed Klaus' number.
"I'm guessing that the squeals in the background mean you aren't done."
"Well, no. But you can come over."
Klaus was quiet for a second. "What's the catch, love?" he asked with a snicker. Surely, Caroline did not think him foolish enough to lose at his own game.
Caroline looked at herself in the mirror as she scrunched her face up. She wasn't one to ask for help, in normal circumstances, but tonight was not a normal circumstance.
"Know any good bedtime stories?"
Klaus just laughed before he hung up.
"Where's the story?" Rachel squealed again, causing Caroline to wince. She had to remind herself that, even though it had only been minutes since she had hung up the phone, patience was not a five-year-old's strong point.
"It'll be here soon, I promise!"
"I do take pride in my impeccable timing" Klaus said in a cocky tone, leaning against the door, watching the three in the bedroom with an amused expression. "Now," he said again, watching Caroline. "What am I supposed to do?"
Caroline just pointed at the two girls sitting on her bed. "I have to clean up the kitchen, but I'll be right back," she said, walking out with a smile at the girls. She paused as she walked by Klaus, briefly enough that human eyes wouldn't notice. "No compulsion," she whispered into his ear.
With a barely audible growl in Caroline's direction, Klaus sat on the bed in the bright yellow room and faced the girls. He studied them for a second before he smiled.
"I have a feeling that you girls enjoy stories about princes and princesses."
Caroline could hear them from downstairs, thanks to her heightened senses. She smiled at the giggles that he drew out of them as the little girls laughed at his 'funny voice' and agreed to listen to his tale of a prince and princess.
"Once upon a time, in a place long forgotten," he started and Caroline smiled to herself. There was part of this that felt so natural and real…and human. And that made her sad because it reminded of all the normalcy of a human life. It reminded her of what she couldn't have, but she quickly removed those thoughts from her head as she listened to Klaus continue his story.
"There were three five princes and a princess who lived happily with their mother and father. Their father was the king and he was never very happy with the second oldest, Prince Nicholas. One day, Prince Nicholas took the youngest, Prince Henry, out hunting and it was a trip that ended terribly. Prince Nicholas made a terrible mistake that made his father extremely unhappy. The king was so unhappy that King Michael and Queen Esther decided that they had to punish Nicholas.
"They put him under a spell and he was doomed to walk the earth, alone, until the end of time. Nicholas lost all of his family and became a monster."
At this point, Caroline was standing outside of her room door, listening to Klaus tell his fairytale.
"But, after centuries of being alone, Nicholas found a beautiful princess."
"What was her name?" Rachel asked, Caroline could hear her stick her thumb back in her mouth.
"Her name was Charlotte. Charlotte was the princess of a land that was once called Gaul. She was the most beautiful thing that Prince Nicholas had seen for quite sometime and he tried and tried to win her heart. He gave her beautiful jewels and horses and clothes, but it was to no avail.
"Nicholas' time on earth had turned him into a monster and Princess Charlotte could not come to accept him as he was. So, in the end, Prince Nicholas lost her to another prince."
"What happen? Surely Pwince Nichlas finded a pwincess, den the spell be bwoken and live happy ever after." Lily said with a yawn.
"Yeah, like Beauty and the Beast," Rachel chimed in. Caroline could almost hear Klaus smile.
"Well, sweetheart, its not that simple. The spell that Queen Esther and King Michael put Prince Nicholas under can't be broken. He's still around though, walking through the lands."
"Do you know Pwince Nichlas?" Lily asked.
"I can't tell you that. But, I can tell you that Prince Nicholas has found a princess, but she has to accept him. Prince Nicholas has been alone for such a long time that he has to remember what it is like to have friends."
"Den the pwincess will kiss him."
"Yeah, and then they live happily ever after."
"Of course they will, because after all, all Princes and Princesses live happily ever after. Now," Klaus said. "I think it is time to go to sleep."
"Only if you promise to come back sometime and tell us how Prince Nicholas is."
"As long as you fall asleep, I think that I can do that sometime," he said gently. There was a smile in Klaus' voice as Caroline snuck back down the stairs and waited in the living room, absentmindedly turning the TV on, but she couldn't pay attention.
Caroline was lost in her thoughts. Klaus was the prince in the story, there was no doubt about it, nor was their any doubt in her mind that Caroline was the princess that 'Prince Nicholas' had found at the end. But what had startled her was not the fact that she was the deadly Original's love interest, that much was obvious to Caroline.
What had surprised her was how much Klaus was trying to change for her. She had not realized how incredibly like a fairytale their relationship was, all supernatural things aside. It was almost as if she was living in the Beauty and the Beast story book that was boxed up in her attic. She was Belle, beautiful and strong-willed, courageous and honest and kind. And Klaus was this lonely monster that had never, truly been loved, not once in his thousand years. He had always, Caroline assumed, had an arrogant air about him. He was competitive and impulsive and anything but perfect. And, he had been under a spell since before time really began.
Despite herself, Caroline had to laugh. This was really a 'Tale as old as time.'
But, quite honestly, Caroline was not sure how much more of the time that could be their happily ever after she could deny her own feelings.