This drabble was written as a response to a prompt on my Tumblr (venomandchampagne): Established KC. Caroline takes Klaus to a Forbes family reunion.
This is Part I of II.
(Feel free to send me prompts on Tumblr or PM me them here.)
"If you don't stop whining it's going to take twice as long."
Klaus narrowed his eyes. "I do not whine," he responded, in a normal, completely unwhiney tone, mind you.
Caroline rolled her eyes as she continued to pack the suitcase. "Oh no, of course you don't. The past three hours have been filled with nothing but positivity and helpfulness from your end," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
It wasn't like she had sprung this trip on him last minute. Oh no, not Caroline Forbes, planner extraordinaire. He had known about, and agreed to attend, by the way, this family reunion for months. Now, the manner in which she had convinced him to say yes may not exactly have been fair; she seemed to recall a serious lack of clothing being involved, but that was neither here nor there. He had agreed and that was that as far as she was concerned.
And it wasn't as if she was trying to get him to attend his own family reunion; he wouldn't be the only one needing convincing if that were the case. No, this was just a simple, human, Forbes Family Reunion. It only happened once every 15 years for whatever reason. She had been 9 the last time, stuck between two very unhappy parents pretending everything was okay. This time she wanted to make the most of it. It would be the last one she could attend before her appearance and age were too far apart to be believable and she wanted to indulge in her prior human life one more time. She wouldn't tell anyone that part of the reason she wanted to go was to show off her drop-dead, no pun intended, gorgeous boyfriend (or whatever Klaus was to her). And he had, albeit reluctantly, said 'yes' to this weekend. Yet here he was, acting like a petulant child at the very idea of even packing.
She heard a low growl from behind her but paid it no mind. Caroline was used to his tantrums at this point. Four years together had left her accustomed to Klaus' moods and the accompanying theatrics. That didn't mean she always enjoyed them, however.
"Careful, love, you're lucky I agreed to go along with this ridiculous endeavor in the first place." Klaus continued to stand against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, where he had been for the better part of the last hour. His body language clearly showed how distasteful he found the current situation.
"Yeah, lucky is definitely the word I would choose to describe how I'm feeling right now," Caroline said under her breath, not caring that he could still hear her with his supernatural hearing, rolling her eyes once again. She idly wondered if one could pull a muscle doing that too many times. Well, if it was possible she would surely find out before the end of the day.
She finally turned around to face the obstinate hybrid, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking her hip to the left, mimicking his irritated posture. "Look, you promised me you would come with me. I never expected you to be overjoyed with the concept, but this pouting has got to stop."
"I do not pout either," Klaus insisted, his bottom lip sticking suspiciously slightly further out than usual. At her raised eyebrows he sighed. "Forgive me, sweetheart, I know how much this means to you. I'm just not used to such… mundane activities."
Caroline smiled and dropped her arms to her sides. "I know, and I really do appreciate you coming with me. You know I wouldn't ask you to come if it wasn't important to me. And my mom."
Klaus watched as she crossed the room towards him, slightly wary of the unpredictable blonde. "Yes, well, I still don't quite understand why your mother is even attending in the first place. She's no longer part of that side of your family, technically." He made sure to skirt around the topic of her father as much as possible as he knew how much the subject still pained her.
"True," Caroline said as she stopped in front of Klaus, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck. "But I suppose fear of the wrath of the evil-mother-in-law remains even after divorce."
Klaus smiled as he instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her closer. "Well I guess you're fortunate in that you'll never have to experience such a thing."
Caroline tried to hide her blush as she leaned her forehead down onto his shoulder, smiling. She could never tell if he said these sorts of things as a joke to mock her propensity for human traditions or if he was being serious. Either way, she would never admit how happy it made her to hear him say such things. Trying to disguise her movement, as if she could fool him anymore, he knew her so well, she turned to kiss the side of his neck. "Yeah, I can only imagine having an actual evil witch as an in-law."
Klaus smiled, squeezing her gently. If anyone else had made a joke about his mother they would have been in pieces across the room. But not Caroline. He knew she accepted and understood him, all of him, and would never mock him with something she knew was a sensitive subject for him. She was one of the only people he could trust not to use her knowledge of him to hurt him, so he knew she was only teasing him good naturedly in return. Klaus' smile turned into a smirk as he felt her lips grace his neck a second time. "Don't start something you can't finish, love." he said, his tone lower than usual.
Caroline felt her blush intensify, for entirely different reasons this time. She pulled away from Klaus' neck reluctantly. "Sorry," she said a bit sheepishly. "We really do need to finish packing so we can head out to Mystic Falls soon. Maybe you could help me now that you've finished pouting," she smirked up at him cheekily.
He couldn't keep the smile off his face as he chuckled at her audacity. Yet another thing only Caroline could get away with in his presence. "I told you before, love, I do not pout."
She gave him one of her million-watt smiles. "Well, you'd better help me finish packing or I'll give you something to pout about if you make us miss our flight!" Caroline said slyly as she wriggled her way out of his grip and walked back over to the previously abandoned suitcase.
Klaus frowned at both the cryptic promise and the loss of her from his arms. "And what do you mean by that?" he questioned.
Caroline turned to him with an all too innocent look. "I mean, if you don't start helping right now, I'm not going to pack anything from the bottom drawer of my dresser."
Klaus' eyes flicked over to the aforementioned dresser and focused on the lowermost drawer. It was half open and its contents were haphazardly hanging out, strewn over the lip of the drawer. He noticed his favorite red lacey teddy on top of the pile and licked his lips as his mind wandered back to the last time she had worn it. His mouth went dry at the memory.
Caroline raised an eyebrow and smirked at the look on his face. "Perhaps I shouldn't bother with that drawer," she said as she gestured with her hands. "I mean, you don't seem that interested in packing-"
Before she could finish, Klaus had flashed in front of her, his darkened eyes piercing hers. "Do not tease me so, Caroline." he said huskily.
Caroline shivered from the intensity of his gaze. She felt like she would never get used to the way he looked at her, and she reveled in it. She gathered herself before answering, trying to regain her teasing tone. "You love it," she smiled playfully, scrunching up her nose.
"I love you." he said, his gaze never wavering from hers.
Caroline's face softened and this time her smile was one of pure happiness. "I love you too, Klaus," and she leaned in to give him a quick peck on the lips. Predictably, he reached out to wrap his arms around her as he started to deepen the kiss, but Caroline knew him too well and dodged out of his reach as she pulled back. She skipped away from him, turning to give him another brilliant smile before heading into the en suite bathroom. "But we still have to pack! Maybe if you're good this weekend…" she trailed off, knowing she was playing with fire.
Klaus took several deep breaths as he watched her disappear from view, trying to calm down and resign himself to his fate of packing. He looked sullenly at the second smaller suitcase on the floor before heading into the closet to gather his clothes.
"Oh, and don't forget we're stopping to visit your sister on the way back!" Caroline called from the bathroom, grinning as she heard the answering groan.