AN: Hello, darlings! Thank you so much for all your support, I'm so glad you liked my last drabble and I'm happy to say I'll definitely continue with friends with benefits AU :)
This one is a sort of Star Wars AU paired with royalty AU and a *slightly* belated birthday gift for the lovely Shauna aka emmascaptn on tumblr.
Based (mostly) on this prompt:
"prompt + kc marriage au + a lot of people are fucking shit up across galaxies and klaus is the one to cause the greatest fuck ups + it's complicated, complicated as in "your husband is a mass murderer with a god complex, heading an intergalactic civil war, intent on destroying the galaxies, and you're carrying his kid" + also a premise similar to that of anakin/padmé's relationship from star wars but do it with what you wish if you haven't watched the movies"
P.S. This is like...loosely set in SW universe? The premise is similar but it focuses on the Rebellion, not Jedi Order and so, they're not even mentioned.
The vastness of the universe was terrifying.
Countless stars, nations and planetary systems, all in ruin and chaos because of this war. Was one life more than a mere blink of an eye when a whole planet could be annihilated with one press of a finger? And the universe, so terrifyingly vast, wasn't big enough to hide from the Empire.
But Caroline wasn't trying to hide. She was looking for someone.
And it looked like she had found him.
"Are you alright, Gorgeous?" Enzo's voice rang in her ear as he arrived at the bridge of their small spaceship. Levelling with her, he stole a worried glance at her that he surely thought Caroline wouldn't notice.
"I will be," she answered, her tone stern. "Now tell me something useful."
"It seems they've taken the bait. We're jumping to lightspeed in ten minutes, we'll come out in the middle of imperial fleet in T-minus 15."
"Are all our units ready?"
"Yes. We'll engage and lead them away from the commanding ship. All while you'll be walking straight into the lion's den," her friend murmured those last words.
With a raised brow, Caroline demanded, "Say what you have to say, Enzo. I know you're dying to."
"You know I'll walk through the fire with you but Gorgeous...are you sure you want to do this?" Awkwardly, he motioned towards her stomach.
It was an instinct for her to move her hands protectively over her still flat belly. Gaze set forward, at all the stars stretched before them, Caroline whispered, "I am sure. He's there, I can feel it."
It had to be true. She was so sure of it while she was looking at the stars and it felt as if he was staring right back at her with those ocean-blue eyes of his, familiar smirk curling his beautiful lips.
Klaus.
Her friend, her husband, her lover. And apparently, also Emperor's second in command.
"That's what I'm worried about. It's been three long months, Caroline. And Mikaelson hasn't been exactly sitting innocently on his ass. Three months and he blasted his way through half of the Rebellion's forces. Three months and the Empire is the stronge - "
"I don't need pathetic three months, Enzo," she interjected. "I want a lifetime."
"But is it what he wants? He left you in the Outer Rims, betrayed Rebellion and became the new poster boy for the Empire. What if…"
"If what, Enzo?" Caroline pressed impatiently. They didn't have time for this.
He hesitated before finishing is thought, "What if you get there and he wants to kill you?"
If circumstances were any different, she would probably be able to feel amusement at this absurd statement. "Klaus would never hurt me." A dark chuckle escaped her mouth as she added, "At least physically."
They had come a long way since their first meeting. They had loved and fought and ruled together. Led the Rebellion. Buried their loved ones and their brothers-in-arms. Caroline knew Klaus like no one else - and perhaps it was arrogant on her part to assume that but it was true nonetheless. She wouldn't be giving up on him anytime soon even if he had decided on becoming the intergalactic douche.
Warmth enveloped her hand and she glanced sideways to see Bonnie standing there, her eyes meeting Enzo's in a silent exchange, an understanding passed between them before she stated, "Our fleet's ready for the lightspeed jump. T-minus 6."
"Thanks, Bon," Caroline nodded, a ghost of a smile gracing her lips when she felt a reassuring squeeze of her hand. "You and Enzo go back to your ships. It's time to face the music."
She was Caroline Mikaelson, the rightful Queen of Alderaan and consort to the rightful King of Naboo. She was General Forbes, the leader of Intergalactic Rebellion.
And she wasn't giving up on him.
She was five years old when they first met.
Alderaan and Naboo had never sustained close diplomatic relationship but after The First Imperial War, the game had changed. No one trusted old alliances, every corner of the galaxy ridden with silent Empire supporters. It made sense for two planets that had stood the tallest against the tyranny to seek some kind of coalition, to join their strength in the Galactic Senate. Caroline's mother, the Alderaan's Queen, believed the Mikaelsons would prove to be worthy allies, with their long lineage of excellent politicians.
And so, a series of visits followed. She remembered the way Klaus looked in his pristine little suit, an interesting contrast between the white crisp of his shirt and his paint-covered hands. The tight-lipped smile on Ansel's face as he nudged the reluctant nine-year-old to greet her and Esther's scolding hiss when he hastily shook Caroline's hand only to turn around and flee.
Suffice it to say, that particular visit didn't go very well. Not that the rest of them turned out to be any better.
She was eleven when she found out they were to be married.
Her mother insisted that she took Klaus to see the falls near the palace, one of Alderaan's landmarks. They bickered and argued all the way there and his snotty tone whenever he made a remark about her motherland was so not appreciated. So when Klaus, in all his teenage cockiness, looked down at her with his brow raised daringly and stated lazily that she'd better start being nice to him - she's to be his bride, after all - Caroline did the only thing she deemed appropriate.
She pushed him into the water.
She was seventeen when she first noted this annoying flutter that occurred any time he was in her proximity.
Queen Esther threw the most splendid ball to celebrate her son's 21st birthday. Dignitaries and royalty from the furthest systems arrived to pay their respects to the prince of Naboo, second in line to the throne. Stealing a quick glance at him here and there as she danced with Tatooine ambassador, Caroline had to admit - and it pained her - that Klaus had grown out of his teenage years in spectacular fashion. His blonde unruly hair curled playfully over his forehead, his perfectly-shaped lips curved in that cocky grin that only accentuated their raspberry colour. Something in her belly stirred, this unfamiliar disturbing sensation that threw her off and caused her to miss the step as her partner went for a twirl.
When she finally found her balance, it was Klaus' arms that enveloped her. "May I have this dance, princess?" he asked, his eyes raking over her midnight blue dress with intense gaze. Stunned, Caroline nodded her consent and they waltzed the night away till the first embers of dawn shone through the glass windows.
She was eighteen when they first kissed.
They met again at the emergency session of Galactic Senate, both their parents deciding it was time to further their children's involvement in the current affairs. The shadow of the threat was looming over the universe again after Damon Salvatore's fall in the First Imperial War. But this time the danger was less obvious, the dead Emperor's brother a master at deception and masking his corruption with pretty words and grand gestures.
The session proved to be long and frustratingly fruitless and Caroline sat beside her mother in their booth, gritting her teeth so as not to speak up and call out the senators for what they were - blind morons. Her patience snapped when one of the Trade Federation representatives interrupted Klaus' motion to mobilize Republic's armies with incredulous laugh. She could feel her fiance's eyes bored into her as she spoke and urged the Senate to see reason, his gaze flaring up with something akin to...admiration when she finished her speech in the deafening applause.
Klaus sought her out afterwards, inviting her to spend the evening with him and she tentatively agreed. Coruscant was the urban planet, the city overwhelming its surface but he flew them out to what seemed like the only scrap of green, a little meadow on the outskirt of the metropoly.
He said it reminded him of home.
They settled over the blanket Klaus had brought with him, their usual banter stilled with a touch of awkwardness and this underlying tension that had been growing between them. A gasp escaped Caroline's lips when he clasped a bracelet over her wrist, a belated birthday gift as he put it.
"Moonstones," he explained as she curiously grazed her fingertips along the smooth surface of star-shaped jewels. "They're rather difficult to carve but the effect is worth it, isn't it?"
The double-meaning of his question knocked the air out of her lungs and all she could do was nod in affirmation. Looking up at him from under her lashes was a mistake - or maybe it wasn't - as she drowned in the night sky reflecting in his eyes. The warmth of his lips on hers was foreign for a second but then it all became familiar, the pressure of his mouth, the creases of flesh, the swirl of his tongue. Slow and tender at first and then turning more needy, more hungry, just more until they were both gasping for breath, lying side by side on the blanket - her head nestled on his arm, his hand buried in her curls. They talked, as earlier uneasiness had long passed, talked of their homes and the unknown stars, of their dreams and war that would surely put an end to any plans.
But for that one night, it didn't matter as they enjoyed that one last moment of peace in the universe, stargazing on the grass.
They were married a fortnight later.
Not without complications, Klaus settled into the royal house of Alderaan, consort to the future Queen. Whether they were too alike or too different - or perhaps both at the same time - Caroline didn't know. She just knew that their strive for control made them butt heads more than one time. Their bedroom in a state of constant mess as their arguments turned from verbal to carnal.
There was this confusingly beautiful ambiguity in Klaus, in them. He would take her against the wall, fast and angry, then teach her to paint as they lay in their bed afterwards. They would go to the falls, a barefoot walk on the grass, a perfect little date with midnight picnic among the crystal hum of water. Meeting the very next day in palace gymnasium so that Caroline could teach her husband how to throw knives.
She was twenty when she fell in love with him.
Or, most probably, it was one of those things that simmered under your skin and grew for a very long time, only to catch you by surprise. They were visiting Naboo for Rebekah's coming off age ball and Klaus flew them out to the meadow enclosed by the waterfalls, their first kiss a ghost of a memory as they made love among the sunflowers and tall green grass. Its straws brushed against their naked skin as they lay on the ground, basking in the moonlight and each other.
It was the moment Klaus grew nervous, fumbling through his clothes and retrieving a long silver necklace, two moonstone stars dangling down from it. His hands trembled slightly as he clasped it around her neck, placing a butterfly kiss in the hollow of her throat.
"It's gorgeous," she murmured, drawing a line of pecks along his jaw. The cool silver of the necklace sipping through her fingers, she clutched the moonstones between her fingertips. "Why the stars?" Came her whisper of a question. And honestly, what she expected was some charming yet cheesy compliment about how she was beautiful like a shining star. But that was not what she got.
With a sigh, Klaus shifted to lie on his back, pulling her against his chest. His gaze darted to the sky while his fingers tangled in her hair, a soft graze of his touch sending shivers down her spine. Silence filled the air between them but it wasn't an unwelcome kind and then when Klaus did speak, the lilt in his voice rolled her name in this raw tenderness he had never used before, "Because, Caroline...it's terrifying, isn't it? The countless number of planet systems, people, universes…and the sheer randomness of it all. That something could quite literally flew you by, something strong and beautiful and full of light. And in the end, you cannot help but feel alone against the millions of stars."
The heat of his gaze burned her skin when Klaus twisted his body to face her, curling a lock of her hair around his finger. "All these countless stars - " he trailed off.
And in this moment, as everything in her fluttered, this annoying little thing that had been happening around him since she was seventeen - Caroline understood.
"And all you need is one."
They came out of lightspeed right in the middle of Empire's fleet, just like she'd planned. Enzo and Bonnie led their units to right and left flank as they'd discussed, engaging imperial destroyers and coaxing them away from the commanding ship and the Death Star.
If her intel was right - and knowing Marcel she knew it was - Klaus would be on the commanding ship while the Emperor presided over the reparations of the Empire's deadliest weapon.
Her jaw tensed as Caroline looked over the Death Star. The Emperor had destroyed half the galaxy for his misguided ambition. It was painfully tempting to change the course and head to the battle station instead, break into with guns blazing and all reason be damned.
But first she needed to get her husband back. So she set her eyes back on her destination, strapping knives to the inside of her boots and loading her blasters. All that was felt to do for now was trust the invisibility drive Katherine had invented to do its work and wait until the ship crossed the distance separating her from the commanding ship.
Her ship was mere minutes away but time worked in a funny way. It stretched unbearably in moments like this one, in moments that mattered. It could've been seconds or it could've been ages, Caroline didn't know anymore.
She only hoped she wouldn't arrive too late.
War had changed Klaus.
With younger Salvatore's rise to power, chaos and destruction torn the Galaxy apart. Old allies and brothers turned on each other, pacts were broken, whole nations annihilated.
People did christen the new Emperor as 'the Ripper' for a reason.
Amidst all this, Klaus and Caroline stood in the lead of Rebellion. They stood together.
But there were no more picnics in the meadow, no more walks with their feet bare on the grass, no more painting lessons. Soft touches and brush of Klaus' lips, the leisure pace, they all turned into hungry kisses and rough grip of hands, as if he wanted to hold onto her against all odds. They laughed rarely, with an undertone of guilt in every little chuckle as if it were a crime against the dead.
And there were many dead.
Klaus' parents had been taken hostage after final invasion of Naboo and executed by the firing squad, payback for Caroline's successful sabotage of Empire's main clone supplier.
They had lost Elijah during the second attempt to destroy the Death Star, leaving Klaus as the first successor to the throne.
And Rebekah…all they had got was a message from her fellow commander that there was no body left to bury.
Since that day - or maybe it had been for far longer - anger seemed to crawl just under Klaus' skin, flowing through his veins like poison as he fought to keep himself in control, not to burst in splendid glory of pain and deadly fury. But the cocky prince she had once known, the loving husband that had lain beside her in their bed was slowly fading away and every death fueled the wild flames of his anger.
Until one day, he broke.
Surprise, that's what Caroline felt. Because it wasn't in the spectacle of fireworks and wrath, he didn't unleash himself on the world to watch it burn - that came later.
Klaus simply walked away.
"I cannot bare to lose more" - the note said, scribbled in the elegant cursive of his writing. Caroline read the words, clutching the nearest chair with the desperate grip of her hands as the world were being swept from under her feet. It would be so easy to let herself fall, to crumble and wait for the end to come to her. It would be so gloriously easy.
Only, she couldn't afford to break.
It was easy enough to get into the commanding ship, her pace hasty but deadly quiet as she made her way to the bridge.
It was too quiet.
"Hello, Caroline." She closed her eyes at his voice that encircled her like a warm embrace, blast doors shutting behind her. And then she heard marching footsteps and rustling as the stormtroopers drew their guns. Her eyes fluttered open and there he was, surrounded by at least dozen soldiers, the emblem of the Empire sewn to his uniform.
Her beloved husband.
Something gleamed in his gaze as he looked at her, something indescribable and familiar at the same time. "Leave us," he barked the order, then adding impatiently as everyone stayed in their place, "Do you think me unable to handle my wife?"
Momentarily, the place emptied but for Klaus and Caroline, the stormtroopers marching out in haste. Air was thick with tension as they stood there waiting until it was safe to talk. Swallowing loudly, she fought to keep her composure when finally, Klaus strode towards her in fast decisive steps and stopped just inches away from her face.
"What are you doing here, sweetheart?" he asked in a deceptively calm voice.
Oh, she would show him calm. "Gee, I don't know, how about collecting my estranged spouse before her sets the other half of Galaxy on fire?"
Pinching his nose, he let out a long sigh, "Caroline…"
"Don't you dare 'Caroline' me!" She smacked his chest. "What the hell have you been thinking, Klaus?! You left the Rebellion! Took over the Inner Rim systems! Destroyed your home planet!" With each of her cries came another punch to his body. "You - " Her voice broke.
"I what? What did I do, love?"
"You left me," she whispered and his features turned soft, like winter melting away under the sun.
"So what are you doing here, then? After I've done so many terrible things?"
"Because," she said, her hand darting to cup his cheek and what a relief it was when he leaned into her touch. "Because there is one thing I know you'd never do." Leaning over, she brushed her lips against his, her next words a gentle flicker against his mouth, "You would never betray me."
Klaus' eyes widened in shock when she pushed him away, his gun that she had just plucked from his holster in her hands. "So the question is," Caroline went on, pointing both her and his blasters at her husband, "what are you really doing here, my love?"
"Caroline, love, you don't understand - "
"Yes! Because you didn't tell me anything! All I know is that you would never join the Empire, not after what they've done to Rebekah or my parents - " Her voice wavered as she recalled the dark days that had followed her mother and father's deaths. But that pain couldn't stir her away from her mission now. "I know you and you wouldn't do this. Not to play second in command to the Ripper."
His lips curved into this cocky smirk, one that reminded her of teenage Klaus so much. "You do know me well," he said, stepping in her direction again, no regards for the fact that she was holding him at gunpoint. Blasters' barrels were pressing into his chest when he spoke again, "Because I am playing his second in command."
This huge weight was lifted from her chest and Caroline could breathe freely again - because yes, she knew Klaus would never betray her and that there must have been a reason behind all he had done but there was a difference between knowing and hearing it from his lips. "Why keep it a secret from me?"
"To keep you safe."
A hysterical laugh escaped her throat, "Safe? In case it didn't get through your thick skull, there is a war going on. I was never going to be safe!"
"I am not going to apologize for my need to keep you alive, Caroline. I did what I deemed necessary…"
"Wreaking havoc on the Galaxy? Killing all those people?"
His eyes darkened, the skin of his hands white, he clenched them in fists so hard. "They were collateral damage. Do not think for a second that I wouldn't do this and more to ensure your safety, love."
"And I get that. But you lied to me!"
"I did not - "
"Lie by omission is still a lie, we've covered that one a long time ago, you know" she pressed the blaster more firmly into his body. "So now, you'll tell me everything. What's your plan to kill the Emperor?"
Before Klaus had a chance to answer, his communicator beeped, Kol's chirpy voice resounding across the room, "We're in position, Nik. Ready for some fireworks?"
Caroline's eyes widened in surprise as Klaus gritted his teeth, barking into the receiver, "Then set the damn thing off and get out of there."
"Speak. Now," she bristled as Koll threw an ironic "Aye, captain" before signing off.
"I'm afraid we don't have time for a full explanation now, sweetheart."
"A shortened version then. Bullet points, if you will," Caroline drawled, cocking an eyebrow.
There was this glint of admiration crossing his features again, tongue curling the words as he explained, "You know how Kol fancies playing with explosives, sweetheart. He infiltrated the Death Star with a small group, right under the Ripper's nose, timer's set, they need to get out of there. Just as we need to get out of here. Now." There was an edge to his voice, urging her to end this discussion, to move.
It hurt to find out her husband chose to trust his brother over her. That he'd set her aside, that he'd lied - no matter how noble his intentions had been. Caroline knew all about fear and all about loss - she lived it every single day, trembling and wary of this new life growing inside of her. One she had yet to tell her husband about.
And she didn't even want to imagine the world without Klaus in it, this excruciating pain of a fading star. So she got it, this deeply ingrained need he had to protect her at all costs - she felt exactly the same. But still, they had to come before his need to protect her - and that was something Klaus had yet to learn.
Too bad they didn't have time to ponder it now, with all the bombs about to go off and slimy dictators being overthrown. "We're still dealing with this later," she decided, pressing a gun into his hand. "Once we get out of here alive."
Dipping his head, Klaus sealed his lips over hers in a quick passionate kiss, and then the whisper of his words covered her mouth. "We will, love. And then we can have all the talks in the world."
Breathless, Caroline fought against her knees buckling. Now was so not the time for it, even if she'd missed Klaus' touch like crazy.
Besides she was still furious with him.
"Together?" she asked, a steel edge to her voice as her hand hovered over the panel control.
Eyes cast on her, his dark and intense and loving, Klaus covered her hand with his and whispered, "Together."
Controls lit up as he pressed their joined hands to the panel, door opening up swiftly. With one last look at each other, they raised their blasters and walked out, their grip on each other still intact as they started shooting their way to the emergency spaceship.
The universe was terrifyingly vast. But sometimes, all you needed was one. One star.
AN: Thanks for reading! What do you think of this one? Was there a balance between romance and action? Tell me your thoughts, please :)
Till next time,
Kate