Okay so this week was Jade's birthday, if you guys don't know who Jade is, well let's just assume she's a pretty cool personon tumblr and she's been very nice to me despite being new in the fandom,, so the point is that I wanted to do something nice for her birthday because she's awesome…but I couldn't decide what to write because I had so many good drabble ideas and couldn't just chose one, so in the end I was like "ohh to hell with it" and wrote them all just because…So Jade aka #talkingKlaroline hope it's fine with you
Four ways human Klaus and Caroline could have met (and one way they did)
Meeting #1: Underage Drinking
In another life Klaus meets her in a bar, she's celebrating with a fake ID, a baby in the sea of worn out adult faces, her innocence gives her away for the "princess" she is, all smiles and coy deflections despite the clothes that reveal her body is anything but "childlike" so he offers to buy her a drink, thinking of his own sister back at home.
he tells himself that this is all there is to it, nothing more, despite the fact that apart from the blonde hair and high school age, this angel drinking shots in front of him has nothing to do with Rebekah
She starts talking then, encouraging him to open up to her to giggling in a far off tone "Come on, if you can't tell your life story to strangers when you are drinking then why drink at all?"
This way he learns that she is an only child and just won a dance scholarship to Julliard, that her parents have been together all her life and would sooner smother her to death than see her leave home to strike out on her own.
He then tells her then that he's a painter, that he's the only guardian of his sibling Rebekah and that he is flying out of Chicago in the morning to pick "the brat" up from boarding school.
The blonde angel laughs at that "An artist and a mystery, just my luck huh?"
"And what are you then? A dancer and an ingénue?" Klaus shoots back trying to remind himself again and again that early admission to Juliard or not, the girl is still underage, but it was proving to be darned difficult to remember the million reasons why he shouldn't be there buying drinks to an eighteen yearold when she looked at him like that.
so he tells her she is beautiful and they they talk all night, laugh, dance and drink some more untill he decides against his nature to take her home before she or he do something that they might regret in the morning, like sleeping together for example.
it isn't untill he's driving away from her parent's white picket fence suburb, that he realizes he never even asked her name.
it was one night of fun, but he never expects to see her again.
Years later, much later, she shows up at Rebekah's wedding rehearsal on the arm of the groom and he learns that the bloke marrying his baby sister is in fact her best friend. The blonde angel is no longer a teenager that's for sure, beautiful as ever in a red cocktail dress sharing a laugh with Rebekah's soon to be husband and the rest of their mutual friends.
When the night dies down he tries not to look smug as he begins walking to the bar eyes trained on the beautiful woman sitting there sipping a vodka tonic.
"buy you a drink love?" Klaus asks perching himself possesively next to her. she turns around and he can see the way her eyes widen in recognition.
"No thanks, already have one, see" she replies haughty holding up her glass
.And Klaus smirks to himself because she's everything he thought she would be as a woman and this time she's no longer underage.
Good, he's always liked to give a little chase anyway.
_
Meeting #2: Friends till the end
in the next alternate reality they meet as kids, he moves in next door with his family and they become best friends from the start. Caroline introduces Klaus to all her dolls and he shows her how good he is at building stuff with Legos.
They make it out of Elementary school with only a few scratches despite the fact that Caroline now is the elder sibling of four and constantly has to play the part of being perfect at everything, in contrast being the youngest of his own family makes Klaus's life quite different from hers.
She envies the freedom he has sometimes, after all he has Finn and Elijah to cover up for him when he messes up, if he's sick they take care of his chores and if he's in trouble they bail him out. But who does Caroline have?, certainly not Elena, Katherine or Amara, her three younger sisters, who breeze through life in a happy go lucky path, always assured that if anything happens they can always count Caroline for advice and consolation, not the other way around, she envies the ease he has around people, knowing that his brothers have already walked ahead of him and made sure his path is safe to walk on, the way he can do what he wishes because nobody ever denies the baby of the family, how he can party and skip school and just be a mess without having to bother about his consequences, yes Caroline sometimes envies her best friend.
He also envies her freedom sometimes, Caroline has always been the perfect one, highest scores and best behavior, even the mayor looks upon her golden face and sighs with pleasure as if saying "there goes a girl that does everything right", she is so adult in her personality, so confident even when she makes mistakes, making miracles happen by the cheer force of her will, Klaus is sure that Caroline has never been treated like a worthless child by anyone, never been looked down upon because he doesn't measure up to someone else, if anything Caroline usually sets the standard by which other girls should measure themselves, he envies how everyone trusts her with everything, projects, the key to the school, money, when he is forever treated like Elijah and Finn's kid brother, never taken seriously, who has to rely on them to get him out of trouble, unlike Caroline who only needs to smile to inspire trust, yes Klaus envies his best friend sometimes.
yet they still remain best friends, holding on to each other with an almost familiar bond, they end up going to college together and even mayor in the same thing (He mayors in Art History because it will piss off his parents, and Caroline, well Caroline did it just to be near him) growing up into very different adults.
Eventually he impregnates his girlfriend Hayley on a drunken one night stand and she marries his brother Elijah after a very serious and proper courtship, never once confessing their feelings for each other, always wondering in the back of their minds what would have happened "if"
Still they share their lives together as only best of friends would. _
Meeting #3: Incurable
In the next universe her parents never divorced and she meets him at the hospital, here he is a brilliant Oncologist who gave up his artistic dreams and she is a dancer with terminal cancer, she smiles too much and talks too loud making him laugh whenever she is near.
"But Doctor Mikaelson, I don't want to be left here in this sucky hospital bed look at the TV channels" his favorite patient complains snorting at the TV "there's no HBO"
"As I recall Caroline, we had to block it because a certain primadonna was taking bets among the patients on who would be the next to die during Game Of Thrones" Klaus smirked pulling out the stethoscope to listen to her chest, sometimes Caroline Forbes did the most interesting things to keep herself amused
"Can you blame me? They keep killing off people, I still think its Tyron Lannister tough" She watches him lean over her with care brushing his fingers over her skin and damn him and his sexy dimples because if she were healthy she would totally tap that.
"My money is on Joeffrey" Klaus murmurs off handedly wondering if he should mention to Caroline that he can hear her heart accelerating with his stethoscope every time he touches her.
"Aja" Caroline shouts triumphantly making him wince at the sound since he is too close to her "I knew it; you have a thing for gambling too"
"patient Forbes as your doctor I must warn you that too much excitement is bad for you" He said pretending to be serious, Caroline rolled her eyes sticking her tongue out at him "And as your friend" He smirked starting to tickle her making the sound of her giggles bounce on the sterile hospital walls "I am telling you that how I spend my money isn't any of your business" he grinned as he continued ticking her
"Stop, ha-ha stop, okay I yield, I get it ha-ha oh my gosh stop ticking me"
"Say I'm the best doctor in the world"
"Hahaha okay you ha-ha are the best doctor ha-ha in the world" she giggled not caring that her cancer wig was falling off
"Better than Stefan?" Klaus smirked still ticking the girl
"Yes! Better than doctor Salvatore" Caroline shouts between laughs, finally Klaus stops his ticking giving her a break "See Doctor Mikaelson you can be fun when you want to be" Caroline points out
Klaus reaches out towards her face to adjust the red wig on her head knowing that she gets self-conscious about her lack of hair, smoothing a tendril behind her ear and not for the first time he wonders what it would be like to kiss her "That's right, now back to sleep with you love, tomorrow we have chemotherapy again"
"I take it back, you sir are no fun at all" Caroline grins taking his hand and squeezing it.
during those few months he knows her she makes him hope again, she talks about her life in her small hometown and her dreams, tells him he's the best doctor because he actually seems to care about her, as a person and he gets attached to her.
She is light in a dark world and when she dies, he cries for the first time in his life. _
Meeting #4: Language Barrier
In another world, he is an only child, raised by his wealthy biological father away from Esther's abusive marriage and she is an orphan taken in by Giuseppe Salvatore to be raised in Italy with his sons after her mother died saving his life in Mystic Falls.
He has been an alpha male all his life, brought up in the prime of luxury by a man that considered him his prized only heir, and she's a free spirited country girl that has lived in Tuscany with Stefan and Damon her whole life, with Italy as her only point of reference, the birthplace of the best artwork known to men.
Caroline and Klaus meet by accident in the airport tough, She's heading home with Stefan after a brief trip to the States to meet Damon's American fiancée, shinning ex cheerleader Elena Gilbert and he is on his way to Tokyo for a business endeavor when her frantic search for her brother makes her approach him in hopes that he can understand her, it's funny even, the way she tries her best to communicate with him through sign languages because he doesn't get a word her rapid-fire Italian.
"Pero signore, mio hermano perdito, tall guy" Caroline tried again mistaking him for someone from the airport office "Stefan perdito, il ser mio traductore" she was getting frantic feeling the tears prick her eyes and shaking them away "Stefan, perdito, eeoh asustada"
"Segniorina, slow, don't talk so fast, I cannot understand you if you talk so fast" Klaus said in vain trying to appease the blonde girl that had taken the seat next to him, cursing himself for not practicing his Italian more "Slow signiorina, lento" he tried again, Caroline seemed to get his meaning because she nodded and repeated everything she had said over again but slower " Okay let me understand, you are looking for your brother yes" he sighed lord he needed to go to Italy more
"Yes, mio hermano, Stefan, tall guy, lots of hair products" Caroline nodded making a motion with her hand lifting it high over her head and mussing up her blonde curls with the other, cursing herself equally for not paying more attention when Stefan tried to teach her English, but honestly it wasn't like she had ever needed to know the stupid language, she lived in Tuscany for Santa Carolina's sake, until Damon decided to get engaged to the American tourist, she hadn't needed to learn anything longer than the basic introductory sentences they taught in high school.
"Your brother's name is Stefan, he is your translator and you lost him"
"Exactly, traductore means translation en English?" Caroline tried again feeling grateful for the handsome man, at least he was making an effort to help her "Eeoh no parlare Ingles, pero eohh entender" at his quizzical look Caroline tried again "I...no...Speak...English...but...I...understand...English"
"oh well then that is a relief" Klaus sighs very glad that she can at least understand his words, not that speaking to the blonde girl next to him would have been easier had she been able to speak good English, even in English he is sure she would have still baffled him into silence with her straight forward manners "now what do you say if we start looking for your brother now love"
Caroline cocks her head to the side with a puzzled expression then "Eeeoh no ser tuo amore" I am not your love, she says with such a confused tone that he understands her right away, then she reaches over for his hand without thinking and points to his empty ring finger "Eeeohh soy simplemente Caroline" I am simply Caroline she says with a haughty tone
And Klaus lets out a hearty laugh smiling at her offended face "I'm sorry, I really meant no offense, in England calling someone love is just a figure of speech"
"Oh" Caroline blinks "Then..I..am..sorry..too...your..costumbres. .confuse...me" he can see that she is having a hard time with her English but it doesn't matter, he likes hearing her voice
"My name is Klaus by the way, a pleasure to meet you signiorina Caroline" he offers with his signature wolfish grin and is rewarded by one
"Well then...signior Klaus Grazie...for...helping...me" Caroline replies lifting her eyes to his.
without warning, it's like the world has stopped turning, because he won't look away from her blue eyes and she just can't bring herself to stop looking into his either, he keeps staring at her as tough he is trying to decipher some mystical secret and he will only find the answer if he looks at her closely and Caroline just feels that if he looks away she will be sad for all eternity.
Then he smiles.
And she smiles back.
and for a moment Caroline knows, she just sees it in his eyes, so stupidly stubborn and mischievous at the same time, that this is the moment that Nonna Salvatore was talking about when she sat Caroline down to talk about true love. This is it, because Nonna was right, Caroline "just knows" in her gut, that something wonderful just happened in the universe.
So they do find her brother together in the end after struggling through the airport system like a pair of mismatched lunatics, she with her fresh country girl look and him at her side looking the part of a sleep deprived business man, living the strangest day ever in that crowded Chicago airport.
he even contemplates cancelling out his appointments in Tokyo, just to remain at her side, but alas, reality calls both of them and like the gentleman he is not, he lets her leave with Stefan once they have found the Salvatore brother.
Still before she leaves, thinking that she might not see him again, she escapes from Stefan's side, runs back to Klaus with the agility of a ballerina and kisses him with all her might.
it's a passionate kiss, one that can't be misinterpreted by language barriers, his mouth responds eagerly to hers like a dying man giving his last breath, tasting heaven in its wake and she kisses like she does everything else, completely, giving him a glimpse into her soul "Goodbye..Klaus" is all Caroline whispers in his ear, giddy with excitement, running back to her older brother and disappearing into the crowd boarding the next plane to Italy.
"Goodbye Love" he whispers back, turning on his heel after her long blond curls are out of sight.
A month later, he visits Tuscany under the pretext of a company expansion, he finds her easy enough, and the name Salvatore, being quite famous and then, he's at her doorstep.
Caroline opens the door and smiles.
He smiles back.
And despite the fact his Italian is rough at best, and she hates English, they make it work.
Meeting #5: Ending Undecided
In this life, however, he rides a Motorcycle and she drives a Prius, he is the campus's delinquent and she is the perfect daughter of the dean of Whitmore University.
Growing up in her father's household with Bill and his partner Steven instead of at her mother's side has made Caroline into a lovable but annoying perfectionist and sometimes it's hard to remember she too is human when as the daughter of the university's dean she is often being hounded with second hand tasks and requests to pass to her father. she is the perfectly ladylike overachieving princess, a veritable daddy's girl with her sights set high, in the eyes of dean Bill Forbes there is nothing his darling Caroline can do that's wrong.
Klaus, well, he's a heartless jerk, the dreaded middle child in a family with five children he's staying true to statistics and indulging in all the pleasures life has to offer while his parents are probably too worried chasing after Rebekah and Kol or praising Finn and Elijah to care how he singlehandedly does whatever he wants.
all his life invisibility has been a beautiful blessing and a curse, these days it feels like all Mikael and Ester remember to do when it comes to him is write his college tuition check at the end of the month and give him a half assed phone call to scold him on whatever shocking story that little gossip of Rebekah has regaled them. Lucky for him it's his last year in this godforsaken place, one year more in Whitmore and then he's off to LA.
His parents might have forced him to study Law but he knows he wants to be an artist, his paintings are pretty good actually and once he gets that useless degree he's going to hit the road and finally do what he wants with his life. The only reason he's even bothered with going to college is because of Henrik and the promise he made before his kid brother died of leukemia.
these two barely knew each other until an accident of fate (or the vindictive tongue of Hayley Marshall as Klaus likes to point out every time someone asks him) had him caught "In flagrante delicto" vandalizing the campus's main auditorium with a couple of (*cough* Minions *cough*) friends of his. Lucky for him, dearest big brother Elijah handled the situation with the dean before news of how he almost got expelled with just a number of months to go until graduation reached Mikael and Esther. One sweet word here, one murder threat there and a hefty check issued by Elijah's company was all it took for Bill Forbes to agree on his brother's point of view and not expel Klaus.
Sadly his punishment for vandalizing the school turned out to be ten times worse. Because after a week of being dean Forbes's "secretary" (slash errand boy, slash slave) he was learning that perhaps expulsion wouldn't have been that bad.
The man was a veritable piece of work...and then he met his daughter.
Caroline Forbes was a fixture in the dean's office weather he liked it or not, she came and went at all hours, eating, writing, drinking, dancing, reading, asking for money, "dad Steven called says you better take the weekend off" or "Daddy professor Katherine invited me over to her condo can I go pretty please?", asking for his credit card, his car, the keys to campus's library.
And the worst part? Bill never told her NO.
This is why Klaus had made it his personal mission to push her buttons every time he saw her, she infuriated him to no end with her very presence so she should suffer he reasoned to himself. Besides it wasn't anything big, just comments he knew would irritate her. A simple whistle followed by a "nice skirt" comment usually did the trick. A raised eyebrow in her direction or a muffled "brat" under his breath followed by a smirk on days Caroline seemed specially annoying with her "princess" act was all it took for her to stalk in his direction with a glare and start calling him out on his crap (and on those days when she looked ready to strangle him, he considered his job well done)
Yet sometimes, just sometimes when they were left alone or her father looked away, Caroline would smile to herself a bit...those where good days for Klaus too.
Caroline didn't know what to make of Klaus Mikaelson, really, ever since her father had taken him on as an errand guy to teach him a lesson, she had been forced to endure his presence in her daddy's office every single day, he was true to the rumors running around, as handsome as he was a jerk, he just kept muttering things, calling her "self-righteous princess" under his breath and "Brat", once going as far as to ask about the stick up her ajem nothing, really there where days Caroline contemplated avoiding her daddy's office altogether just not to see him.
But then Caroline caught small glimpses of someone else when he wasn't actively trying to annoy her, small things, like watching him sketch people when nobody was looking or when he helped her rearrange Bill's schedule so he could spend more time with Steven (even when he did it out of his own selfish desire for free time) and the way his eyes would soften when his siblings on occasion bugged him on the phone.
But then again Caroline wasn't ready to admit she might like him...just a little.
Then her preliminary semester scores came in and Caroline's world began to hyperventilate rather dramatically.
The thing with Caroline Forbes was that for a hardcore perfectionist, she wasn't perfect, sure she aced every subject and had a pretty neat GPA, but she didn't have an artistic bone in her body (Unless you counted interior design as art, which according to professor Katherine, "was a pity it did not") Caroline was just so close to getting her degree but she was missing some extra credits on something art related to fill up her "self-expressive extra academic" requirement, normally people filled up that requirement as freshmen when easy credit was easy credit but Caroline had pushed it back time after time and now...now she was screwed.
So Caroline Forbes did what she knew how to do best when in trouble and went running to her Daddy. But sadly the best thing Bill could do for his princess this close to graduation was to talk to her teacher who agreed to let her present an extra credit project and tell her to find a tutor so she could even up her scores.
This was how Klaus ended up teaching Caroline the finer points of postmodern expressionism and helping her create a good enough painting for her last minute art project.
In that dark studio apartment of his, surrounded by the smell of paint and turpentine, while Caroline tried her best to concentrate on the canvas and not the handsome man behind her. While Klaus tried not to lean in and touch her skin with the pretext of guiding her trembling hand, dipping back the paintbrush into the bright blue oils and caressing her fingers to hold it still over her unfinished creation.
Maybe this was why she ended up kissing him, no other reason, he of course kissed back, holding on to her for fear she might run away, but she didn't she just continued on kissing him and pulling him in and...
"And how does the story end?" Klaus asks looking away from his canvas, gazing at her with pensive eyes. They are outside now, in the lawn outside the star observatory.
"I don't know" Caroline whispers staring away into the starry sky, her hand finding its way to his, Klaus doesn't comment on it, just interlaces their fingers "I suppose it ends somewhere amazing, as in orgasmic amazing" Caroline teases, then sobers up "But really Nik, I like to believe, that even if I'd been born somewhere else, made different choices or had different parents" pausing she looks back at him and smiles "I still would have met you"
"Know what love?" he muses warmly, taking her face in his hands, slowly lifting her lips for a kiss "I'd like to believe that too"
Soooo I suppose I could have posted all this separately but really they all were meant to be together since the beginning, my favorite to write was "language barrier" honestly it was fun writing an Italian Caroline, I imagined her with a juliet capuletish accent and since Klaus is a brit, it made the interaction so much fun, also on "ending undecided" I purposefully teased with the almost smut in the end, what can I say I'm evil, note that the theme in the first four where those pesky "differences" taboo, difference in age, family upbringing, health problems and language, sometimes just because people seem totally wrong for each other according to society doesn't mean they can't make it work. Love ya guys keep shipping and remember the goal "KLAROLINE IS NOT OVER". And Jade. Happy belated bday., so comment and like and also tell me which of the drabbles you liked most/wish I would have written a bit longer