Rash of updates courtesy of me asking for drabble prompts and my brain liking to have me stress out about something, so deciding that instead, I'll get inspired for this fic.
Urdu Poem is Do not Ask, by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. It's TOTALLY not a light and frothy love poem, but I thought that Klaus would see the different application of words and use it to his benefit. Because he's Klaus.
Thanks for reading and enjoying! Let me know what you think if you have a moment.
After leaving Jantar Mantar, Klaus has them winnowing their way through the city in the most convoluted fashion, trying to shake any possible tails. While Caroline's love of spy films has her appreciative, exhaustion drags at her steps as they circle through Sadar Bazaar for what seems like the gajillionth time.
"Klaus, I think we're sa-"
"There you are!" Klaus interrupts with a jovial tone, walking up to a pani puri cart. "Ah, yes, I thought you might be responsible for the witch welcoming committee we just dispatched. Figured I'd just stop by to see how you were. You know, I hear intestine tastes great with just a touch of cumin."
Caroline's eyes widen progressively larger as Klaus speaks. The pani puri vendor is that sketchy guy - Sanjay she thinks his name is - that had known who Caroline was when her and Klaus stopped by for golgoppas. He sits now on a small stool behind his cart, tears rolling down his face, and she watches as he reaches down and tugs up, his intestines roping in his hands and what the fuck.
She whirls violently away, finding the nearest wall and retching. He was - oh god - and why does Klaus sound so smug? She wipes her mouth, pulls a bottle of water out of her bag to rinse, mind racing. Her phone buzzes in her pocket, insistent, and she swipes her pattern in; there are a bunch of missed texts from Josh and Bonnie, the most recent one prominently displayed on her notifications.
FFS CARE LOOK AT YOUR PHONE
"Ok geez," Caroline mumbles, pulling up the recent twelve - twelve! - missed texts. She reads them and her jaw drops and she lets out the smallest noise.
"Mom?"
The next morning dawns and Caroline's just managed to get her tears under control. She's sitting in the study just off the kitchen with Josh and Bonnie, Bonnie having recently found that the leather armchair in the corner is the most comfortable thing ever, as long as you throw a blanket over it first.
The cure sits between them on an ottoman, and Caroline spins her chair in circles, just able to make out the faint thwack-thud of the feeble heartbeat that signifies her mother's chance at life. It almost sends Caroline into another relieved crying fit; she seriously can't believe the rollercoaster of the past few days.
"Klaus compelled a guy to eat his own intestines," Caroline says brightly, setting a foot down to stop the spin and changing the subject to avoid another round of tears. Bonnie grimaces and takes a sip from her mug, and a small smile plays at Josh's lips.
"Your fave is totally problematic," he says, deadpan, and Bonnie almost spits out her tea, clapping a hand over her mouth. "How was the date by the way?"
Caroline spins her chair to level a direct glare at him. "It was NOT a date. But oh my god, he's like textbook problematic fave. Holy crap. I know it doesn't mean anything, since I'm going home in -" she taps at her phone, "wow six hours, I need to go see Abhi soon. Anyways, I just...why does it have to be Klaus that treats me like how I always," she falters for a second, continues, "how I'm supposed to be treated, you know?"
Bonnie's brows flicker up and down as she gives a half-smile. "I'll be honest, this is new territory, I've never seen Klaus like how he is with you." She pauses, cocking her head at Caroline. "No one, girl or guy, has gotten under his skin like you have. I'm surprised he's letting you go without a fight."
"Seriously? He doesn't have a choice. As much as I love this world, and you guys and Abhi, and hell, even Klaus and Rebekah, it's my mom I came here for in the first place."
Bonnie and Josh eye each other, sharing a silent thought, and Caroline sighs. "You guys don't think he'd -"she trails off and Bonnie shrugs.
"I mean, I… He's possessive, for sure, so I know he doesn't want you to go. I don't really know, Care, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, yeah?" Bonnie stands and rubs her hands together. "I'm getting you home. I promise. Now, I really need to stock up on supplies. You heading to Abhi's?"
"I can't believe this is almost over," Caroline says as soon as she enters Abhi's house..
He looks up from his reading and slides his glasses back up to rest on the bridge of his nose. "Caroline. I was hoping you would come visit before you left. Here," He stands, bending over the desk he's working at, pulling out a thick envelope. "I wrote you a letter."
"Like I'd leave without seeing you, have you gone insane?" Caroline shakes her head in disbelief. "Funny though, I made you a video and timed it to send from Bonnie's email after I leave."
"Ah look at the two of us, defining the generation gap so readily," Abhi's voice holds a laugh in it. "I look forward to seeing it, Caroline. It will be good to treasure your voice."
Caroline motions her head at the doorway, turns to walk through it. "Come on, it's my last time here, I need to say my mournful goodbyes to your awesome courtyard."
"I've been doing some research," Abhi says as he follows her in, placing thick cushions on the wrought-iron chairs. "This whole herald business bothers me."
"Oh! I didn't even tell you what happened last night. Klaus and I were at this concert and - " Caroline falters a moment at the curious flash in Abhi's eyes, "yeah long story. Or rather, just...not now, ok?" Her eyes turn pleading and and Abhi flips his palm up and forward, motioning for her to continue.
"Yeah so, we got ambushed. And, I'll be honest with you, I was about to get eaten by a wolf when one of the witches yelled at him to not hurt me. So here's what I don't get. You've got the grey dudes calling me the herald, then you've got people attacking me trying to..subdue me I guess? But why? Do they want the cure back? What do they want me for? How am I a herald to whomever this lady is? Is the lady that...the vampire from my world?"
Caroline's words start jumbling at the edges as her voice tries to keep pace with her thoughts. She seems to realize it and takes a deep breath, worried eyes focusing on Abhi before she speaks of the true heart of the matter. "Am I putting this world in danger by going back home?"
Abhi smiles a one-sided grin. "I don't think you need to worry, Miss Caroline. I've been reaching out to my Aunt's old contacts, and from what I understand, the pishachas are going off of very limited information. I was right, in that they came here to avoid the same fate as their goddess, but the act of coming here cut off all contact between the worlds." He shifts in his seat, looking down with annoyance and resettling the cushion that's slid halfway off the chair.
"Something Lamashtu told them, before they made their grand escape, was to wait for the herald, and that they would recognize her. It's a bit unclear, the pishachas don't actively share their goddess' 'holy' words, but from what I'm gathering; if you are the herald of anything, it is of the ability to cross through the liminal space between worlds."
Caroline studies the planes of his face, her eyes still troubled. "But what if I did something wrong by coming here? What if they can figure out how I crossed worlds and use it to bring her back?"
"Would you do it again, if you knew that it could endanger others?"
Caroline sighs and her voice breaks a little as she replies. "No, but that doesn't make it better if I'm hurting people now."
"You can't blame yourself for making choices with the best information you have at the time, Caroline. Magic is a curious thing, and I, for one, am more than happy that you arrived in my house with your...cheese arms." Abhi's eyes are shining and he gives a little laugh, ducking his head down. His embarrassment seems to break Caroline's downward spiral, and she sniffles once more before playfully poking Abhi with the heel of her boot.
"Oh Abhi, seriously, what am I going to do without you?"
She meets Bonnie on the way back, the girl's arms laden with some pungent herbs wrapped in newspaper, and a few jangling plastic bags.
"Ok, so I didn't just need supplies. We're headed back to New Orleans tomorrow, and I wanted to bring back some souvenirs." Bonnie shakes one of the bags with a grin and Caroline smiles, grabbing it and looking inside.
"Ooh I do love those bangles." Caroline looks up excitedly. "I think I'm going to take my mom to visit our world's Delhi when things settle down. Although it's not going to be the same without you guys and Abhi." She pulls a face. "I won't miss Agent Smith or the other grey dudes though."
"You all ready to go tonight?" Bonnie's tone is careful, her eyes sliding sideways to watch Caroline's reaction.
"No, I'm not. I mean yes I am. Yes. Overwhelming yes to see my mom's face, hear her voice." Caroline's words spill out in rapid succession.
"Part of me's worried, since it's been so long, that something might have happened to her, you know? So I'm just super anxious. But the idea of never talking to you guys again?" Caroline's expression turns wistful as she kicks at a piece of loose gravel on the sidewalk. "I'm glad none of you exist in the other world, because it wouldn't be the same, but I mean why can't you exist in the other world, you know? Ugh. I know I make no sense."
"Psshhh you always make sense. It's just an insane kind of sense." Bonnie knocks her shoulder into Caroline's, a teasing grin on her face. With a bump of her hip she opens the gate in front of the Mikaelson's home. "Honestly? I have a feeling I'll see you again. You know I dreamed about you before we ever met, yeah? Magic does some strange things."
Caroline laughs. "That's pretty much what Abhi said earlier." She takes the keys from Bonnie's hip and unlocks the front door, pushing it open a few inches before shouldering the rest of the way in.
Klaus enters from the living room with an expectant look and Bonnie nods at him as she heads up the stairs. "I'll be ready in 30. Meet you guys on the roof."
Caroline shifts awkwardly and sets Bonnie's bags down on a cherrywood console table. She hasn't spoken to Klaus since the market, and she's not quite sure how to open the conversation. So, you compelled a guy to eat his own entrails to keep me safe? How romantic.
"I wanted to share something with you, if you have the time?" Klaus breaks the silence and Caroline nods tentatively, brow creasing in curiosity. "It's in my room," he says, and Caroline feels an unwelcome twisting in her stomach; follows him up the stairs and past Bonnie's door to which she sends an unseen look of panic.
"Urdu is known as the language of poetry, its forms and structure tailor-made for words of love, of softness, of beauty." Klaus finds the book he was looking for in a stack next to his bed, and Caroline notes the pressed sheets, the crisply folded comforter. If Klaus had slept last night, he had certainly been neat about it. She passes him, leans up against a writing desk inlaid with the same curled gold wire as the coffer that contained the cure. She wonders how old the desk is, realizes her nervous thoughts are spinning on overdrive from standing here so close to him, in his own bedroom. Ugh.. what was she, 15?
He flips a few pages, muttering a pleased "ah!" as he finds the page he's looking for.
"Even translated within the confines of English, the soul of the great poets comes through.
'The world knows sorrows beyond love's brief dreams betrayed, and pleasures beyond all sweet, idle ideals of romance.'"
At the hitch in Caroline's breath, Klaus continues, gently tilting Caroline's chin up with his free hand so that he can look at her eyes.
"'The dread dark spell of countless centuries and chance is woven with silk and satin and gold brocade.' While the poet did not intend those lines with the meaning I ascribe to them now, that is the beauty of art. It takes on the form, the quality, that the observer sees in it. I see the wisdom learned living that brief hummingbird flutter of human life, I see how we as vampires transcend it." Klaus leans in, inhales her scent, and it is almost his undoing. His voice holds a hint of rawness as he continues.
"And most of all I see you in these words, spread across my bed in a thousand moments of ecstasy, veins spreading across your eyes as you take what you want from my willing throat, spitting fire as my adversaries cower at your vitriol, countless centuries where you choose to be at my side."
Caroline looks up sharply at his words. "What are you saying, Klaus? Are you saying you want me to stay? Here, in this world?"
He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, opens them to meet her gaze anew. "I know you well enough to know that whatever schemes I've been concocting to keep you here would result in your resentment and hatred. And I would never ask you to make a choice I already know the answer to." He draws close, eyes flitting across her face, an artist memorizing the details of his next work.
"What I am saying is that I will find a way for our paths to cross again." His lips brush her ear as he leans in close. "However long it takes." He tilts his head, as if to kiss her cheek, and seems to reconsider, pulling away sharply and clasping his hands behind his back. His eyes are hard, and Caroline is confused by the abrupt shift until she hears the door creak behind her.
"Um. Sorry if I -" Josh trails off, embarrassed. "Bonnie's ready for the spell now. I'll just go back -" he cuts off again, pointing back the way he came, and takes a dramatic step back through the doorway, letting the door softly shut behind him.
Caroline bursts into giggles, thanking Josh mentally for diffusing the tension. The mercurial age-old vampire before her, however, still has his jaw set and his brows pulled inward, although she does see his eyes brighten with proximity to her smile. She doesn't know what to say, how to respond to such a grandiose statement that he's stated with the finality of something that has already come to pass. It's a heady feeling, to listen to that certainty in his tone, that certainty about her - even if she's not quite sure she's there yet.
It's all a bit overwhelming, isn't it? And here he goes forming another wrinkle in the list of complications by being all grim and petulant after such a sweeping romantic gesture, and honestly? She just wants to go home right now, not deal with emotional whiplash. She wants to go home to see the film of sickness lift from her mother's eyes, to squeeze her warm hand and smell the scent of that Pantene she tried a million times to get her mom to switch from. Silicone really builds up on the hair, ok?
But you can't just walk away from words like that, and she knows he's waiting for a response. So she makes the choice he denied himself moments ago, and steps towards him, raising her hands to his face. His jaw loosens, cradled in her palms, and she sees his eyes widen a fraction just before her lips brush his own.
She pulls away delicately, right as the kiss begins to turn from a confession into something more. Klaus' hand pauses halfway to her curls, but he's been a bastion of restraint today and can't help but finish the movement. He cards a hand through her hair, lifting the strands up and off her face; his lips part as he studies the play of light across her cheekbones. Caroline takes an unthinking step closer, then stops, shaking her head and glaring at Klaus who swallows his words with a great effort and a dimpled smile, following her as she stalks with exaggerated anger out of the room.
They gather on the roof, the unbinding spell requiring as much open air as possible. Bonnie had literally bound Caroline to this world's version of Delhi, so the entire city stood as the anchor for the spell.
Bonnie's chanting lowly - Hindi from the sound of it - and Caroline smiles, thinking it fitting. She curls her arms about herself, her long dress fluttering in the wind that whips across the rooftop in curling gusts. The candles are guttering, and Bonnie gestures with annoyance at each of them in turn. Caroline can feel the magic prickling the back of her neck as the flames start burning straight and true. Klaus stands across from her, and he is wound so tightly that he seems almost relaxed, if Caroline didn't know better. The predator is in his eyes tonight, and she can see it scrabbling to break free.
Josh stands close to her, warily eyeing the both of them. "I guess this is it. For what it's worth, we're really going to miss you."
Caroline answers with a sad smile. "I'm going to miss you guys too. It felt...you guys are real friends, and you don't meet real friends that often." She gives a short laugh, "or at all, really." She looks up at Bonnie, circles her gaze to Klaus. "I will never be able to thank you enough for what you've done for me, but I'll try, in my thoughts every day." The spell thickens the air and her last words seem to lose themselves in the looming, thundercloud sky above them. She looks down and sees the rooftop through her arm, feels that pull begin, like a hook deep in her belly, and a tiny part of her wants to scream for Bonnie to stop.
Klaus clenches his hands into fists and watches her disappear. He sees the candle flame rise, surrounding those blond curls with flame, he hears the melody of Bonnie's spell, and he watches Caroline disappear. He retreats into his thoughts, what he's retained of a thousand years, and he watches -
Limbs slide against one another in whispersoft throes of passion, oh how the porcelain skin parts and the red sea awaits. Peerless eyes the color of a Nordic sky, spun silk in flaxen wheat and crimson sunset and raven black, the sweet ambrosia of a thousand throats. The cool regard of his mother's gaze and the fear that has driven men lesser than him and the relentless dark angel of his own device who whispers sweet words of betrayal and doubt and you'll never be good enough Klaus for you are weak you are weak and power is all that will ever speak its name loudly enough to silence the interminable whispering and you know it, you've felt it, and the slick slide of lifeblood and the hot sting of vervain and tears and oh god you cry out you are so tired of being the strong one to escape the voices why won't they stop?
- her disappear.
And despite all of this, this tide of eternity rising and falling in his mind and the inexorable pull of memory, amidst all this distraction, it is all he can do not to reach out and grab at the space she once occupied, as if she is something he can reach through worlds to touch.
But desire does not equal reality, and for a moment, he continues to stare - perhaps he can still see her face and needs just a few seconds more to commit it to memory. The empty air stares back unflinchingly and he glares at Bonnie and Josh for a moment, the angles of his body fraught with tension, before he snarls and speeds away into the cold Delhi night.