Genetics and Molecular Biology
An alarm blares through the quiet in her bedroom. Loud and obnoxious tones, she's slept through too many of the peaceful pre-programmed noises to rely on anything else. When she rolls over, she knocks into the mistake she let into her bed. One she keeps making no matter how often she insists it's over.
"Why not change your alarm to something pleasant? Music, chimes, cats in heat screeching in the alley." His black hair is ruffled and frustratingly it makes his blue eyes look even dreamier.
"This is the only thing that can wake me up on time." She's out of patience for him. For herself when she's with him. Each word punctuated by her locating a different piece of an outfit. Dark jeans, a navy top with a cream cardigan, her favorite pair of ankle boots.
"Or." He reaches for her. "I could wake you up."
She swats away his hand as she nears the bed, plucking her purse from his radius. "You can hardly wake up on time, Damon. How are you supposed to help me? Wait. Aren't you supposed to be at work right now?"
"I'll get there when I get there." He shrugs, his overly casual attitude was once something she liked.
"Well, wherever you go, just make sure you're gone by the time I come back." She wipes away the leftovers of her make-up from under her eye, avoiding him like she could erase last night if she just ignores him hard enough.
"You don't mean that."
"Yes, I do! I mean it, Damon. Not more texts. No more casual drinks. No more late-night hookups. Last night was it." Her gestures are frantic, exasperated with how far she allowed her life to dovetail.
"You've said that a dozen times before."
He tosses one of her throw pillows and she throws it back without the same playfulness. "Doesn't mean I mean it any less." She calls up the staircase after him, the one Stefan helped her paint blue after her parents bought this place when she complained about her roommate her sophomore year.
His brother was in her bed, but he was everywhere else. From the shelves he helped put up to the furniture he moved for her on the weekends he visited from Cornell. He was in her foundation.
She scrolls through her phone, deleting their text messages as she rushes to the subway. Taking it all the way from Brooklyn to Colombia to meet her advisor. Over the next hour, she has enough time mull over the last year. How easily she had torn down all she'd been working towards so quickly. A talent she'd gladly forfeit.
But today is about looking forward.
She shakes her head and heads into campus, ready to discuss her final year before graduation. She's planned it perfectly and at least this, she was able to stick to the plan. She'd busted her ass in the first three years so that she could relax her last year. It was always the plan.
And then she falls dramatically on the blanket Caroline has laid out for them in Central Park, near the carousel they love. Tyler waves in the distance but doesn't leave his game of catch. Not that either girl minds.
"What's wrong?" Caroline asks, bringing out sandwiches from her wicker basket and arranging them on the blanket for the perfect photo. She too looks perfect in her high waisted shorts and ruffled pink shirt. She has the confidence of a woman who looks like she can run in heels.
"Apparently, I need an art credit to graduate." Elena leans in, her smile wide and plastic for Caroline's photo. As soon as the click satisfies, she continues. "I made it through organic chemistry on my second try and my inability to draw is going to stop me from walking."
"Don't be so dramatic. You'll be fine."
It's an early fall day. A hint of the cold to come blows through the trees and Elena clutches the cardigan closer to her chest, impressed by Caroline's iron will to stick to her aesthetics. She pouts silently before trying to reiterate her complaint.
"It's just stupid. When am I ever going to need this?" All she wants is for someone to agree even if she knows she's being unreasonable. But Caroline is busy writing in her calendar, planning out her senior year as the president of her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. She's the only one of them who never deviated from the plans they'd all been building since middle school. She had committed to the plan, stayed in the sorority, and stayed with her high school boyfriend. Caroline was too stubborn not to fail.
Elena was envious if not a little intimidated. And annoyed when she keeps writing without responding. Finally, she taps her shoulder and blows out an exasperated puff of air into her hair when Caroline finally looks back up at her.
"Maybe…" she trails and glances back down at her calendar. Elena has to tap her again to get her attention. "If you have a sad patient, you can cheer them up with your terrible art skills?"
"Be serious, Care."
"Well, Tyler could take the class with you? Right, Tyler!" Caroline calls for her long-time boyfriend and as soon as she does he comes running. They'd been like that as long as anyone can remember.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"I don't know, some art class Elena needs to take." She runs her fingers through his hair, a little longer now at her request. They really were the perfect couple, the high-strung overachiever, and her people-pleasing boyfriend.
"Oh yeah, sounds fun. I'm down." Tyler puts a stop to their conversation, almost like he could read Caroline's mind. He's on his knees in front of her, pulling her in for a kiss that deepens and lasts longer than the sandwiches. Elena nibbles at the crusts, waiting for them to stop with no sign of that actually happening.
Eventually, she gets up and clears her throat to excuse herself. "I actually have to get going. It's almost noon."
"Why do you even need a part-time job?" Caroline says it like an inconvenience.
"It's nice to have a bit of savings. In case." She brushes off the real reason, not comfortable enough to share this concern with her friend.
"Alright, well. Say hi to the witch for me." Caroline flips her hair, trying to pretend like she doesn't care at all.
"Care," she scolds softly.
"What?" Caroline snipes and immediately Tyler starts rubbing her shoulders. Elena is convinced that he's psychic. Or just that in tuned to his girlfriend. "I'm not the one who decided to run off with her girlfriend and break up our college plans."
"Bonnie just figured it out earlier than we did and went for it." It hurts, having her two closest friends at odds like this. And she's tried to fix it, but Caroline was so stubborn and Bonnie too busy and happy to bother. It was like pushing two mountain peaks together.
"Whatever! Have fun at the magic shop." Caroline waves her off and she's obscured once again by the back of Tyler's head. It will take another hour to get back to her side of town to get to Gram's, the magic shop Bonnie opened up after their sophomore year. Another strike against them, she admits, that both her and Bonnie moved out to Brooklyn and out of the dorms.
At some point, they were all going to drift apart and start their own lives. She just hadn't expected it to be this sudden.
In a different world, one with opulence and no strings attached, Klaus wakes up in his humid room with a beautiful woman asleep at his side. The smell of the ocean and last night's tequila in his nose. Camille has her hand curled up on his chest. She's prone and trusting and everything he wants, but nothing he thinks he deserves.
Carefully, so he won't wake her, he slides her arm off him and slips out of bed. Walks through his home, lingering in the kitchen until his coffee is finished. One cup. He could make two and wake her up, but he won't. He's there but his heart isn't all the way. Hasn't been for anyone in a long time.
He starts his day mixing paints, working on the perfect colors for the piece he left unfinished the last time he was in New Orleans. An alluring white oleander. He's lost in the deadly flower until mid-morning when Camille breaks into his focus.
"You keep leaving me in bed." Her arms are crossed, guarded. It's what he's used to with women. It's the only thing he brings out in them.
"I wanted to let you sleep in." He pats her hand when she reaches down, wraps her arms around him. Pulling to get him to stay when he's never really been there in the first place.
"Well, I'm awake now. Do you want to grab some breakfast?"
"I don't have time today. I need to pack for my flight tonight. If I miss another one, Elijah will escort me to New York personally. I'd rather not go through that particular embarrassment." It's all true. He does have to be in the city. Was asked to join the faculty for one year as a guest professor. A request Elijah was more than happy to force upon him for any kind of good publicity. But even if it weren't true, he still wouldn't make the time for her. Couldn't.
"When are you going to have time for me?" The hint of anger is there. A question she's clearly been thinking about since their professional relationship turned personal.
"I told you," he sighs, tired already of an argument that hasn't even happened yet. Happened so many times before with other women, he could fulfill his end of the conversation in his sleep. "This is as much as I can give right now."
"When do you think you'll be able to give more? I want a future, Klaus. I deserve that." She's fiery and assertive. Traits he enjoys, but even those don't sway him.
"I'm not saying you don't, Camille, but I don't know that a future is anything I can offer you. Not right now at least." She's angry, he can tell from his periphery. But he won't look at her. Knows that looking will extend the fight. You can't fight with a brick wall.
"God, that should be your catchphrase. Not right now." She deepens her voice to mock him, but that doesn't earn his attention either. She switches tactics, letting the hurt out in her question. "Will it ever be the right time?"
He's impressed with the tactic even if it doesn't move him.
"I told you!" He grits his teeth, his jaw clenched as he puts down his brush to finally look at her. "I don't know. Can't that be enough for now?"
"No, maybe it can't."
She stares at him like she just won something, but there was no winning with him. "If it can't, then it can't.
"You've just been wasting my time, haven't you?"
She's started crying and he wants to comfort her, but for what? To tell her that yes, he's heartless. Yes, he's an asshole. Yes, he's terrible. But she already knew those things and still slept with him. Comforting her wouldn't do anything but lead her on. At least on that, he's never done her wrong. "You've done nothing but waste your own time, Dr. O'Connell."
"You need to get over her. This isn't healthy." Her words sting as she storms off. He can hear her gathering her things from his room and each step down the stairs until she slams the door. It hurts that she'd throw something they'd work so hard on back in his face, but he'd never actually expected to get over his first love.
Not in therapy. Not ever. At least in this life.
He keeps his promise to Elijah and boards his plane on time. Lands in JFK at midnight, the only man with a driver waiting for him. Weaves him through a city of sparkling lights to his apartment high in the sky, so different from his home in New Orleans.
Different, but the same.
Empty, void of all personality except the spaces he's set aside for his art.
His void buzzes again. Another missed call from his brother and manager. He's not bothered though. Elijah made the reservations and knew that he made it on the plane. He just wanted to hear it from Klaus. Gauge his mental space before taking on this commitment. Anticipate any breakdown or fallout before it happened. Protect the cash cow.
A variety of interpretations depending on how generous he is feeling.
He continues to ignore the incessant ringing, his phone left somewhere in the bare kitchen as he wandered through the house. Elijah must have had someone come by clean while he was gone.
All the ways his brother had kept his life together as a penance it seemed for all the ways he had helped tear it apart.
He tugs the corner of a cloth, letting it fall to the ground. Starting at his ruined painting of a woman. Her dark curls and wild braids, her darker eyes staring into his soul through the white he had used in an attempt to cover her up.
A/N: Life has gotten busy so I wanted a WIP that wouldn't require as much as Throne of Blood. I hope you enjoy this (intended) light college AU. Pairings will include Klaus/Elena, Caroline/Tyler, and Bonnie/Nora. With an appearance by the Salvatores and Mikaelsons.