Of Nicknames and Love
Request: Caroline calls Klaus Nik for the first time
Request: Established relationship Klaroline
She called him many things in the time they spent together. Klaus most of the time, alpha male when he was being particularly obtuse or stubborn, Niklaus when she was beyond angry with him, and occasionally Mr. Mikaelson when she was seducing him. But she never called him the name that seemed to be reserved for the use of Rebekah and the resurrected Kol. Nik, the name that she had yet to call him. Caroline wasn't sure if he would want her to use that nickname, and she hesitated to reveal that level of intimacy with him, especially because she had yet to tell him that she loved him.
It wasn't that she didn't feel it, she did, and it was growing everyday, but still she couldn't quite find the courage to say it. He said it to her, rarely, but he did say it, and she often felt bad that she said nothing in return. But she wanted to be sure, she needed to be sure for him, for herself. She didn't want to tell him that she loved him only for her to find that she wasn't sure, that she didn't mean them completely. She didn't want Klaus to doubt the sincerity of her words. Because try as she might, though she had not left him for the twenty years they had been together, she couldn't convince him that she wanted to stay with him.
And he was ridiculous, always jealous at one guy or another. This one looked at her too long, that one brushed up against her on purpose. And she was getting tired of it quite frankly because why would she leave him in all his glory for a mundane human?
"Klaus, you need to trust me!" She shouted at him across the room.
His fists clenched in anger, his eyes flashing, and she crossed her arms at his show of male bravado. "Why should I? Everyone I've ever loved has left me!"
"Nik, you know I love you! I'm not going to leave you." They both stood still for a moment, his mouth falling open slightly in shock, her arms falling by her sides. She had said it, she had finally said both of the things she had been dreading saying came out of her mouth in the heat of her anger.
"What did you just say?" His voice had softened considerably, and he took long strides over to her.
She smiled up at him, finding no doubts in her, only happiness, peace, that she had finally managed to say those words aloud. "I said I love you Nik."
His lips were on hers then, pressing firmly against them as their arms wrapped around each other, each of them murmuring I love you in between kisses when they came up for air.
"Told you she would say it eventually Bekah, pay up."
Caroline laughed softly against his lips at Kol's voice followed by Rebekah's annoyed voice following soon after saying that she had never agreed to the bet in the first place.
"Who would have thought the girl in Mystic Falls who thought I was terrible would ever come to love me?" He teased hours later as they lay in their bed together. She poked his chest in response, not really angry at the reminder of that time, more annoyed that he didn't seem able to let her live that one down.
"Don't push your luck." She muttered, poking him with her finger once more for emphasis. He was impossible to live with, a royal terror, but she loved him, and at the end of the day, it was always worth it.