"I can totally see Kol flirting with her and trying to get into her panties just to piss off Klaus. I mean Klaus had him in his coffin for a hundred years or so and Kol was amused greatly that this young baby blonde vampire kept on refusing Klaus and was quite rude to him. What a perfect payback! Wouldn't that have been an awesome storyline?" –RideEmLikeACowboyJazzy
"Or maybe psyche?" -QueenVamp
"The Last Time by Taylor Swift." – crystalclaes
This was inspired by the Greek Myth of Eros and Pysche, J.K. Rowling's The Warlock's Hairy Heart from Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Catherynne M. Valente's Deathless.
Okay, guys, as I said in my last author's note - no more prompts. I have to get the remaining ones done before OMIL's birthday and I'll never be finished if you keep suggesting. After the birthday, you can suggest as many as you want but right now - wait, just wait.
"That's how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you'd have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines."
- Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless
You're loading your meager belongings into the trunk of your car as Caroline says her farewells to her old life. All of the Idiot Squad is there. The Salva-whore brothers, Witchy Witchy Bon-Bon, Jeremy Gullibert, Elena the Dopplebanger and Matt Donthaveanyone are all individually and collectively saying goodbye to the blonde who can't help but cry.
You don't see what all the theatrics are for. Caroline Forbes is just going to be bound to you for the rest of her immortal life in exchange for information about Silas and help in finding his location. The Idiot Squad hates having to bow to your whims but since you're the only Original who knows anything about Silas, they have to concede and does it bristle them so and give you such joy.
Your terms are simple. Caroline Forbes will come to live with you somewhere they have no knowledge of and will not come to find you either to take Forbes and shove a dagger through your heart. So they basically agree to leave you alone and not harm you in return for all your knowledge about Silas. Information you will give in small doses because you know better than to trust this merry band of opportunistic, sanctimonious fools.
Caroline tells said fools her tearful goodbyes, telling them how much she loves them and how dearly she's going to miss them. The goodbyes seem to go on forever before you have enough and reach inside the driver's seat to press on the vehicle horn.
Caroline Foreverdawdling turns around to give you a frosty glare that would've even impressed Rebekah before turning back to her friends wrapping up her farewell speech.
"I'll be okay. Don't worry." She tells them. "We're spelled not to hurt each other."
Damon SalivatesoverDopplegangers scowls. "And I was going to tell you to kill him at any chance."
The blonde shakes her head at this. "And drop dead after? He's not worth it."
Call yourself paranoid but you know better than to put your trust fully into someone and you made the Bon-Bon bind you and the blonde vampire with a magical vow so she would be unable to hurt you physically and vice versa and of course, unable to leave without your permission. You can never be too careful.
You don't particularly care for long drives but there is no way you're going to where you'll be travelling by public transport so you get into your car, Forbes scowling as she takes the passenger's seat and you two are off to Neverland.
"Where are we going?" Forbes asks you an hour in, unable to keep quiet anymore.
You give her a look. "I'm not telling you that, sweetheart."
"You took my phone," She points out heatedly. "You don't own a laptop and I don't even know if there's wi-fi where we're going. How do you think I'd be able to contact my friends? I just want to know where we're heading. Is that so unreasonable?"
You consider her before answering. "Wyoming. I bought property there. That's where we'll be staying for now."
"For now?" She repeats. "Are we going to move later?"
"Darling, we're vampires. We're always going to move sooner or later."
The pointing out of this fact has her scowling all the way out of Virginia.
When you arrive and you're aching for a bed. You drove straight through without stopping only for gas, the loo and a blood bag when the thirst gets too much and all you want to do is curl up on a mattress and be dead to the world. So you unload the bags into the house with Forbes helping, though her walk is less sluggish than yours, hadn't been able to sleep at the backseat when she got tired while you continued driving.
The cabin is large and you don't pay attention to Forbes as you bring the bags up the stairs and to the master's bedroom.
"You can look around the area but don't leave the property." You tell her as an afterthought. "Believe me, I'll know if you disobey."
She mutters a curse but your superior hearing makes it as clear as if she's standing right beside you. "Which one's my room?" She calls out.
You don't stop and you answer as you open the door to the master's bedroom. "Pick one. I don't really care which."
You wake hours later with a needling headache, you've had worse of course but it's still annoying so you get up, put your coat on and use that internal map in your head that told you where Forbes is. It's not really a map, more like a newfound instinct from the binding spell that just tells you where the blonde can be found.
You find her toeing the age of the property line and scowl. It hasn't even been a week and she's already being troublesome. "What did I tell you about staying within the property?"
She freezes and turns back to you wide-eyed before scowling and being sassy again. "I want cookies."
Your still somewhat sleep-fogged mind barely comprehends what she just said. "What?"
"There's nothing in that cabin but blood bags and I want chocolate chip cookies."
"So you decided to disobey my order, almost get yourself killed with breaking the vow to get into town for baked goods instead of simply waking me up? "
She flusters a bit at how foolish he just made her sound. "Well, yes."
You close your eyes and wish for patience before sighing in irritation and jerking your arm in the direction of the cabin. "Get in."
She tries to protest. "But the cookies-"
"We'll get into town later," You explain barely able to restrain yourself. "When I've had enough sleep and don't want to compel you to walk into the sun without your ring."
She pouts and it makes her look like a small child. Nik, you sick bastard.
"Fine." She huffs then moves past him to go inside.
You follow after counting to ten.
You wake to Forbes sitting on the foot of the bed and staring at you. Now, a regular bloke would find it creepy the way she stares at you like she wants to flay you alive but you're Kol Mikaelson and you've inspired this look in others even before you were a vampire.
"Can we go get the cookies now?" She asks slowly.
You stare up at the ceiling when you realize that she hasn't given up on that. "Fine."
"And a cheeseburger?"
"Sure."
"Also a chocolate sundae?"
"I will buy you anything you want if you will leave this room right now and wait downstairs quietly." You give her a look that has brave men quivering in their boots. "Am I clear?"
She makes a zipping motion to her mouth and gets up and leaves.
The trip to town is uneventful aside from the locals asking about them and they're move to their town. Kol spins a backstory of them being newlyweds fresh out of university and we're hoping to start their lives there. The property had been a wedding gift from overly generous parents.
"Are you trying for a baby?" The shop girl at the boutique Forbes is buying clothes from asks and the blonde who's been going along with the sham suddenly stiffens.
"Oh, no, no, no! There will be no baby…e-especially with him! No! No way!" She gesticulates like a nervous Chihuahua and you wrap your arm around her, pinching her sharply at her side.
"What my lovely wife means is that we're not quite ready for a baby yet." You lie smoothly. "But in the future we'd definitely want plenty of children."
"Plenty?' Forbes squeaks.
"Yes, of course." You grin deviously at her. "Why else would we buy such a big cabin? I plan on filling it up with little boys and girls with eyes like their mother."
The blonde vampire looks ready to throw herself off a cliff. Cover story or not, he admits to enjoying her discomfort especially when he'd touch her in a very couple-y way, knowing she can't shrug him off without it looking suspicious. She just has to grin and bear it.
"Aww, that's so sweet," The shop girl cooes. "I hope I find a man like this one. You two are so adorable."
"You heard that, sweetheart?" You grin at Caroline's martyred face with relish and kiss her on the cheek as she shudders in your arms. "We're adorable."
The next few days mostly consist of you trying to ignore Forbes as she goes about the property trying to pretend she's not bound to you for the rest of her life. You two see each other when she goes inside for something or when you take a walk outside, and with neither of you really like going to town, especially Caroline who the women wouldn't stop pestering about her 'perfect husband', it really makes you think about things in your practical solitude.
Why had you made the deal to have Caroline Forbes bound to you forever? You think it had been a fuck you to Nik who did keep you in a coffin for a century. You think maybe because she made a good bargaining chip to keep the Idiot Squad in control. You think – you don't really know why.
She can be annoying, loud and stubborn. Sometimes she makes you want to tear off her head on the days she isn't avoiding you like the bubonic plague. So why did you bind yourself to her?
You're out the door and searching for her before you can comprehend where your feet are taking you. The "she's here" in your head points you to where she's by the riverbank, lying on a towel in a red bikini. You can't help but stare at her smooth white skin, her golden hair and her parted rosy lips.
Those big blue eyes like a child's open to stare at you in question, still dazed from her nap and it's the first time she hasn't looked at you with distrust and you finds youtself wanting to see that in her more.
And oh no. Nik isn't the only sick bastard in the family it seems.
You notice the small things about her. How she bites her lips when she's reading something she can't understand, how she always flips her hair after taking a seat, how her eyes brighten up at the sight of baked goods from that bakery in town – and it's quickly driving you mad.
You can't be attracted to Caroline Forbes. She's the girl Nik pines for, your bargaining chip against the Society of Fools and you can't compromise that because of lust. She's just a girl, a pretty girl but there are so many of those these days. She's nothing special, no matter what your brother seems to go on about.
You find her cooking one night and you take a seat on a stool on the island to watch her work. She likes to keep busy, cleaning and cooking around the house all the time like possessed by the ghosts of dead housewives.
"What are you making?" You ask.
She stops humming and answers absentmindedly. "Lasagna. Have you had it before?"
"A few times," When it was first invented in the 14th century. "How about dessert?"
"Trifle."
You almost moan. You'd kill for a good trifle.
"Do you like trifle?" She asks.
"I like it enough."
You downplay it. She doesn't have to know and for a minute it almost felt domestic between you two and you don't know how to process that.
You're both reading in the library one afternoon, she's been drilling you about classic literature which you gave detailed answers while she tries to educate you about pop culture and so far you've found yourself bewildered and offended by Twilight, when you kiss her for the first time.
It's not really a kiss if you want to get technical. You're both on the same couch as always, debating about the merits of J.D. Salinger, your head beside hers reading over her shoulder as she read a passage aloud when she turns her head too quickly before you can pull away and your lips brush against hers for a second.
It's too brief and soft to even be considered a peck but she flushes all the same, gives an excuse and runs.
She avoids you for a few days before you corner her in the living room as she's scrubbing the fireplace. Stress cleaning, you've learned and you watch her for a full minute before stepping in front of her until she's forced to look from your boots and all the way up to your face.
"Forbes." You greet her with a raised eyebrow.
She flushes again and tries to stand up to get away but you grab her arm and use your Original strength to keep her in your arms. She panics. "Let go, Kol!"
"No." You tell her firmly and force her to stop squirming. "You're going to stop running away."
"I'm not!"
"Yes you are." You roll your eyes. "You're like a skittish rabbit."
She frowns at the comparison. "Well, have you met yourself?"
You shrug and ignore the jab. "Just admit it."
"Admit what?"
"You want me." You say it matter-of-factly like everyone knows it. "And that's why you keep running away. You're scared of your attraction."
She sputters. "I-I don't! I'm not!"
You raise an eyebrow and she looks like she wants to rip it off your face. "Stop that! Stop messing with my head!"
"I'm not. You know I'm not." You shake your head as if bored with the entire thing. "Just admit It and I'll show you what I've learned in a thousand years."
You smirk with delicious promise. "And maybe you can teach me something new."
Her face is so red you expect her to burst into her flames but she just lets out a whimper of defeat and you pull her close for your first burning kiss. She just melts in your arms and it's glorious.
Later, the two of you lay in bed, her head on your chest, fingers tracing patterns on your abdomen. She's humming a tune and you're falling asleep when she asks, "So, what now?"
"You get out and let me sleep." You mutter.
She laughs into your chest and looks up at you with those large blue eyes of hers. "No, really."
"I'm serious." You give her a dry look and she stares at you in confusion before realization, horror, and embarrassment set in.
She's off the bed in a second, sheet wrapped around her otherwise naked body. She stares down at you like you're a nightmare come to life. "That meant nothing to you?"
"Why? Should it have?" You sit up to stare her down, all black water eyes. "Do you think I actually care about you, sweetheart?"
She bites her lips and he laughs hollowly. "I'm not my brother, love. You're not some angel on a pedestal. You're just a girl I shagged."
She's quiet, eyes tearing up at his cruel words before the truth dawns on her. "Your switch is off."
You shrug carelessly. "Not completely but yes. I switched off some of my emotions."
"Which ones?" She looks absolutely terrified of his answer.
"Just the difficult ones."
"Like compassion, kindness, guilt – love." She lets out a bitter laugh. "Well, no wonder you're such a psychopath."
You just stare at her unfazed as she gasps and stares at you like something incomprehensible. "You shut off those parts of you for a thousand years, didn't you?"
You don't answer. And she covers her mouth with her hand, shaking her head in disbelief. "Oh God."
You're bored of this conversation and open your mouth to order her out when she says, "It's no wonder you're so weak."
You glare at her hotly. "Careful, Forbes. I am not weak."
She stares you down, head cocked to the side. "Prove it. Turn it on."
You know this isn't a good idea but you can't let her win and so you turn it on and it's pure hell after that.
A thousand years' worth of guilt and regrets you are forced to feel again and you want to die for the first day or even be daggered for another century if it will just make this agony stop. So many faces and names of people you'd done wrong to – tricked, tortured, and killed because you couldn't care about anything except from the satisfaction of killing and the endless rage inside of you.
And now you can't feel anything but the aftermath of a thousand years worth of sins and all the while you curl up into your room, sobbing like a pathetic worm on your bed, Caroline is beside you, stroking your hair and whispering comforts into your ears.
"It's okay. It's okay. It'll be over soon." Even her lies spoken in her sweet voice is not enough to pull you out of the sea of repentances you're drowning in but the fact she's there with you makes your heart swell three sizes larger. "I'm here. Focus on me."
You try to put all your attention to the blonde holding you, looking into her clear blue eyes as if she holds your salvation.
She strokes your hair lovingly and it reminds you of a time before all of this when there was no need for switches and bloodshed, when it was just you and your family in a small house and that was your entire world.
"Tell me about it," She speaks so softly. "About that night."
"I didn't know what was happening." You answer slowly, your throat hoarse from crying. "Nothing was amiss until our father started to slaughter us. I didn't understand why he was killing us."
Your eyelashes fluttered and she presses a kiss to your hair. "He killed me last."
She lets you speak, letting this all out as she tenderly touched your face, her eyes so gentle it makes you ache as you conclude. "We all died that night. And in our place came the monsters."
You tell her stories of your life, of the women who changed it in different ways.
"My mother wanted her children safe but she later hated us for her mistakes. Rebekah wanted to be loved but she was so desperate, she let any man use and discard her.
"Agnes wanted a simple life free of darkness but that naiveté ended her. Victoire wanted her people to be safe so she sacrificed herself for those who never even remembered.
"Ileana wanted power and control and she got it but she became greedy. Sam just wanted me but she refused to see the danger I came with."
You smile bitterly as you realize something, "All the women I cared about are either ruined or die tragically."
"That can't be true." Caroline disagrees with you kindly, her lips at your neck and making you shiver.
"You should go." You tell her as her lips find your ear and he stifle a groan. "I'll ruin you."
She stops the lovely things she is doing to you and looks you in the eye with so much warmth you feel like the universe is found in this one girl. "You won't because I won't let you."
You shake your head. "Why are you here?"
"Because my heart is too big to not care, to not feel. I look at my mom and my friends and I can't help but care. I look at…at you and I can't help but care."
You smile and kiss her so softly she lets out a breath like a sweet surrender. "My heart feels either too drained or too full."
"With what?" She asks.
"Love."
You open your eyes and she's smiling at you so brightly it's like that universe is coming to life and in her you found a home. One you want to stay in forever if she'll let you. But it has to be her choice.
"You can go. I'm releasing you from the vow." You tell her. You want to be selfless, to atone in some way for all your crimes no matter if the price will hurt you more than you can bear. "You don't need to stay anymore."
"I want to." She assures you and laughs like you're being so silly at even suggesting. "I'm right where I want to be."
And you know right then, it's going to be okay.