Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Happy wasn’t a word Caroline had ever associated with the Mikaelsons, what, with the daggers and grand murder plots. But there was no denying what was right in front of her eyes. The room was filled with bright conversations and laughter, the table with delicious food. At one corner of the table Josie, Lizzy, and Hope were all giggling. Elijah was across from them and Hayley was at one head of the table, next to him. Caroline was listening intently as the newest Mikaelson, Freya, spoke about her trip. Caroline raised her wine glass to her lips and made the mistake of looking towards the head of the table, opposite to Hayley. Klaus sat there, leaning back leisurely and observing the scene with pride in his eyes.

I made this.

It’s what he tells himself every day. Sometimes it’s enough for him to forget his guilt, if only for a moment.

Caroline couldn’t help but think Hayley and Klaus looked like a king and queen, his with his natural aura of power, and her with her level headed opinions, just to keep him and check.

She also couldn’t help the pang of jealousy that ran through her at the thought.

God, she hated that.

When her eyes meet Klaus’ he his looking at her like he had at Saint James’; like he knew every piece of her. Like wanted every piece of her.

For the billionth time that night she curses herself for kissing him.  

But it had felt really good to kiss him.

He winks at her and she wants to scream because she’s already been so stupid and she does not need this.

She knows a blush accompanied her scowl and his smirk turned into a half smile.

“Caroline?”
“Hmm?”

“Jeez, I said your name like thirty times.”
“Sorry, Hayley. Were you asking me something?”

“What exactly is the situation you’re in?”
“Caroline is under no requirement to disclose anything to anyone, and I will insist you not pressure her to do so.” The tone of warning in Klaus’ words made Hayley roll her eyes, but Caroline felt gratitude swell inside her.

“No it’s fine. Um… So basically a huntress is after Stefan.” She hears Elijah inhale sharply. “So we’re all trying to figure out how to stop her, how to save him.”
“Huh. Tell me why you can’t just kill her?” Hayley’s bored tone frustrated Caroline, but she answered anyways.

“She’s… powerful. Dangerous, and keeps coming back.”
“Well, you’ve dealt with that before, don’t see why you had to come here to, ah, ‘research’.”
Me neither, she wanted to say.

“We can’t really find anything on how to kill her. I mean, Damon and Alaric are doing everything they can to basically distract her, but as long as Stefan has this… psychic link to her, he’s a goner.”
“And is he who put that ring on your finger?” Elijah struggled not to laugh at her antics; provoking Klaus had become one of their favorite games.  “I mean, it was so painfully obvious you had a thing for him. Finally seal the deal?”

God, her and Klaus are weirdly alike, She thinks.

“No. That was Alaric, actually.”
“Oooo, the history teacher. Scandalous! And two children , even more scandalous. I mean, I  can only imagine what the one pony town has to say about you.”
Such a shame, she almost had potential.

She should have stayed with the Lockwood boy, would’ve been better off.

I wonder if those babies are really his.

Once a slut, always a slut.

Can you believe that hottie of a boyfriend stayed with her? I mean, after she fucked her professor?
Apparently he taught at her high school, too.

Bet she’s a straight A student.

Caroline took in a deep breath, refraining from diving across the table to attack Hayley in front of both of their daughters.

“Well, it’s not exactly like I could stick up for myself with the truth, right?”

“Hmm. How exactly did this happen?” Hayley gestured vaguely at the children and Caroline takes in a large gulp of wine before answering

“I suppose I could ask you the same thing.”

“Enough, Hayley.” Klaus all but growls. Freya swallows a bite just as she notices the girls watching intently.
“You know, this chicken is wonderful, Nik. You’ll have to tell Xavier to make it again.” Freya cuts in, causing staggered conversation to fill the room. Caroline tries not to look at Hayley.

~PAGE BREAK~

Dinner passed uneventfully after the minor pissing match between Hayley and Caroline. She had put the girls to bed an hour and a half before Hope, just so that she wouldn’t run into Klaus.

It was midnight, although Kol still hadn’t returned. Caroline had been working for two hours and still came up with nothing. She groaned and ran her hands through her hair, propping her elbows on the table. She rarely felt tired, having been doing nothing tiring for so many years, so she didn’t even have an excuse to stop. Damon had texted her half an hour ago asking if she had anything for them yet. She responded to stop pretending like she wasn’t here just to hide, and that Klaus had a baby . He called to gossip.

“Wait, so did he adopt? What is he, a saint now? Damn, Barbie, you really got to him.”
“It’s Hayley’s.”
“Who?”
“You know, brunette. Tyler Lockwood.”
“Oh oh oh yeah, yeah. Shit, so they fucked?”
“Yep.”
“Ha! Guess she’s after all your men. Ric better watch out.”
“Klaus is not my man!”

“So, is daddy still panting after you?”

“Ew.” She crinkles her nose and sticks out her tongue, ignoring how she could imagine herself calling him that. “Never call him that again.”

“Right, that’s your job.”

“Damon!”

“I don’t hear a ‘no’.”
“Of course he is, Damon! You knew he would when you sent me here!”
“Hey, you’re about to marry Ric. As his friend, I gotta test your loyalty. Plus, isn’t our mass murdering hybrid friend supposed to be all-knowing?”

“Ric doesn’t even like you right now.”

“It’s just for show. Hey, just like how Klaus is obsessed with you and you pretend to hate him!”
“Goodbye, Damon.”

“Hey, blondie,”
“What?” She huffed.

“See if you can get a picture of Rebekah fresh from curse induced slumber.”
“Goodbye, Damon.”

“I miss you, ‘Lena.”
She whispers it into the night, just like she does every time she misses the way things used to be. Sometimes she swears she can feel her friend hugging her.

“Tell me, love, why would you ever miss her ?” She looks up, her head between her hands and eyes wide. Klaus leans in the doorway across from her. It almost makes her laugh, the thought of him in something as simple as flannel pajama pants and a t shirt, his hair flat from sleep.

She pushes the thought that’s kind of cute away.

“I’m sorry!” She whispers, “Did I wake you? I tried to be quiet.”
“I wasn’t sleeping anyways.” He says offhandedly, but Caroline makes mental note of the comment. “How is the ever infuriating Damon?” He imitates her whisper, smirking. She knows the answer to her question before she asks it.

“Did you eavesdrop?” Caroline sounds like a teacher scolding a paste-eater. He grins, leaving her smiling against her own will. He falls into the plush chair in front of the desk where Caroline sits.
“A little.” He replies cheekily, pushing the stack of books off the desk so they crash to the ground, disturbing the near silent night. He sets his bare feet where they had once resided.

“Klaus! You’ll wake the others.” He closes his eyes and leans his head back, ignoring her scolding. His fingers intertwine beautifully on his chest.

Caroline has a sudden, much too real, memory of them curling inside of her.

She feebly attempts to steady her breathing

“Hayley’s been a heavy sleeper ever since she had Hope. Freya snuck out ten minutes ago to hit a bar that offers ladies, Kol stomped out hours ago after a tantrum, and Elijah woke three seconds ago, heard it was just you and I, and went back to sleep.”

“Freya what ?” Caroline’s eyes light up, and he finds the constant urge to kiss her more demanding.

I love scandalous sex! This is great.
“Oh, yes. She’s been cheating on Vincent for quite sometime now. Sort of. She just flirts, rarely even makes it to a coat closet without crying. It was a different world, the one she was raised in. She’s still afraid to admit her preferences to anyone, even herself.”
“And you know all this because…”
“I had her tailed months ago. She was acting jumpy.” Caroline rolls her eyes and scoffs.

Forever paranoid.
“Who’s Vincent?”
“Regent of the witches, Freya’s dedicated boyfriend, certainly not loyal to my family, and I suspect not to Freya, either.”
“Why don’t you just approach her about all of this?”
“I’ve found matters such as this best left alone. I have, however, subtly made it clear I am in no way opposed to her nighttime routine. She’s dealing with mostly internal stuff. I could care less about him.”

“You’ve dealt with this before?”
“Love, I’m, like, a billion.” She laughs at his crude imitation of her.

“Tell me some people who I wouldn’t know about being gay. Or gayish.” He chuckled.
“Hmm… during the American revolution there was Hamilton and Laurens, but I suppose you’d rather hear about something more romanticized, no?”

“Hit me.”

“Okay, how about Queen Victoria?”

“No way! Elijah? ” Her eyes light up with excitement and he can hear it in her voice.
“Oh, yes way. Rebekah fancied her for a bit, but got over it swiftly. She was a fine queen, indeed.” Caroline smiles lazily as she drags her pen across the paper in front of her, doodling flowers and stars.
“Tell me something else I wouldn’t know.” He thinks for a moment, then grins.

“Elijah has fucked every queen and one king of England.” Caroline gasps.

“No way!”

“Okay, from one thousand forty on. He would make trips just for the coronation of a new queen.” Caroline is bent over with laughter, and she hears Klaus’ soft melodic chuckle join with her own laughter. She stops suddenly, noticing how pretty he is like this. He keeps going a few seconds before he realizes she has stopped. He quickly closes his mouth and clears his throat. They lock eyes, comedy still in the air, begging them to find something to laugh at once more. In the end comedy is swallowed up by electricity; it crackles through the air, leaving it heavy around them, almost impossible to breath in. It is a few minutes before they speak, eyes locked, smiles tugging at the corners of their mouths.

Caroline realizes she has butterflies.

Klaus realizes his haven’t stopped since she arrived.

“I can’t wait to know things like that, to have known great people.” She finally says, looking down at the desk. Klaus smiles at this, knowing she’ll have it all, whatever she wants, one day.

With or without me. But I do hope it’s with me.

“You know, the first time I realized how great vampirism could be was when my siblings and I killed some travelers… their servant survived and recently resurfaced. He became an enemy, but before all of that he offered his services to my family. He taught us how to integrate into the court where the siblings we had fed on were heading for a long visit, and it was amazing. We were living at the height of luxury, which was just… we loved it, despite the recent trauma. I mean, we had always been mere villagers, then suddenly we were royalty. That’s when we realized vampirism could offer us a great life, no, lives , fit for legends. But, Caroline Forbes, out of all the lives I have ever lived, the greatest by far has been the one with you in it.” She gasps quietly and looks up from her paper, where she had a total of two notes, all with question marks and a suspicious amount of little hearts, seeing he had opened his eyes and is gazing at her desperately, as though to memorize this moment, as though she could disappear at any second. His eyes were bright against the dark room, almost glowing. She finds herself wishing the lamp next to her was off so she could really see them without the glare.

She thinks she feels her heart break a little bit because when everything is so wrong it’s what other people think is right and when everything is right it’s what they’ll tell her is wrong. Except  his face is so beautiful , god, she had forgotten how beautiful he is. She had missed him so much and she hadn’t realized how much until he was standing in front of her.

“Don’t.. Don’t do that, please.” She begs, leaving him aching because how can she not believe him? How can she not realize? He opens his mouth, but she cuts him off forcefully. “No! God, Klaus. You can’t just sit there and feed me ridiculously romantic lies and then tell me to stop kissing you! I’ve been here, like, not even twenty-four hours and I’m already drowning in you, and you’re not exactly helping!” He stands up suddenly, and she follows suit, the chair scraping the floor sharply as it pushes against the back of her legs. He strides forward and around the table to stand in front of her, cupping her cheek. It is too swift for her to move away, too sudden for her to stop.

Would she even stop him, if she could?
Part of her wants to run.

All of her wants to be closer.

Seriously?! How is that possible?

He cocks his head gently to the right as he studies her.

“Caroline, do not believe for a second that I have ever lied about how I feel about you. Do not believe for a second that you are anything less than worthy. What have they done to you? When I left, you understood. You knew what you were worth, Caroline, what happened? Make me understand.”

“You left! You left, and no one was there to remind me of it all!” He’s panting and looking bewildered, eyes widened and filled with hurt and confusion.
“You asked me to do that, Caroli-”
“Stop it! Stop saying my name because it makes me feel all fuzzy and stop saying stuff like that because I’ll-”
“You’ll what? Realize your worth? Realize you don’t need people there to validate you?”
“I know my worth!”
“Then why are you wearing a small diamond and being a PTA mom and marrying Alaric Saltzman -”
“Stop! God, I knew that shoulder I cried on was too good to be true! Don’t say his name like it’s poison!” She’s smacking his chest like a child and he grabs her wrists gently, forming rings around them with his long fingers. When he speaks she wants to cry at how sad he sounds.
“Love… please. Don’t do this.” She looks up at him, attempting to pull her wrists away, and he loves her eyes when she’s angry. The raw intensity of the emotions on display almost makes up for the anger being directed towards him.“Just-”
“No! You don’t seem to understand! You talk, and I do things that I would never do! You talk, and I dance, you talk and I start to like you, you talk and I fuck you, you talk; I get stupid!” He releases her wrists and steps back, eyes devoid of emotion. She doesn’t realize her hands reach out to him. She feels a sob bubbling in her throat, feels tears sting her eyes. She curses them both as she shoves them away.

He’s never stepped away from her before.

“Klaus, I didn’t mean-”
“Don’t worry about it. I get it. Everything between us was stupid.” He turns to leave her, to leave her again, and she feels her chest constrict with panic. She reaches out and tightens her hand around his upper arm.

“Don’t go.”

“How I longed to hear those words all those years ago, my darling Caroline.” He whispers. Her fingers loosen helplessly.

“I’m sorry.” There are tears burning her eyes and she is not sure where they come from. He turns his cheek towards her, clenching his jaw. “That I couldn’t say them then.” He blows out a shaky breath.

“If it was now? If we were standing by that tree and you were buttoning up my shirt, and the only difference was the date, would you ask me to stay?” She closes her eyes before she answers, like she doesn’t want to see his reaction.

“No.” Her response is full of nothing but heartbreak, and he wants to comfort her and scream at her in the same breath. He tears his arm away from her loose grip. She wants to explain herself, to say anything to make him understand, but she can’t. She doesn’t even understand. Why couldn’t she give in? Because Damon Salvatore would look at her funny? Because Bonnie Bennett would talk shit? Because he’s not a kids guy and she has two? Except, no, he clearly is a kids guy.
It all hits her at once.

Because she is going to marry Alaric Saltzman.

Oh yeah, she thinks, that.

“It hurts to think about you, do you know that?” His back is to her; he feels her eyes on it. “My chest aches when I think about you with those people in that town, where you aren’t appreciated. My whole being screams thinking that you don’t realize that I was made for you, even if it was a thousand years before you were even a thought.” Her eyes flutter rapidly, beating the sting of tears away. One escapes, falling down her cheek before she wipes it away. She wants him to turn around, but she knows if he does she’ll kiss him again. They are quiet for a moment. He is tense before her. She is standing small, her arms pulled against her torso and her head down. She searches for something to say, anything to keep him there, then remembers she had left a question unanswered.

“I miss Elena because I miss how life used to be with her.” He takes a breath to speak.She keeps going, knowing what he will say. “Not being second best, Klaus. That wasn’t the good part. It hasn’t even changed. But- the simplicity; Stefan and Damon would always be fighting over her. Ric and Jo would get married. Bonnie would be okay. Everything was so… planned.” She takes a deep breath. “And I? Well, I believed you and I would end up together.” She expects any sort of reaction, yet he does not move an inch, doesn’t react in any way. She keeps talking just to fill the silence. “Klaus, I stopped believing I had any sort of… destiny when I got pregnant. Maybe… maybe I was happier when I believed in a future for me… and for us, but happiness isn’t the answer anymore. It’s not realistic.” He moves his head slightly to the side so he can see her out of the corner of her eye. She recognizes hope fluttering through her chest. Evidently, though, he decides to stay facing the door.

“I’m sure there was a time you believed vampires, werewolves - your whole life - was unrealistic, too.” He stalks away, footsteps light. Caroline reaches a hand out, as if to stop him, but he is long gone.

~PAGE BREAK~

“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Broken glass crunches under his shoe, and the bundle he holds in his clutches his shirt. He tries to ignore it, tries to forget what he’s holding. A blue bottle rolls across the alleyway, making a sound that’s louder than it should be in the night. He rolls his eyes. “Enough with the dramatics already Akuchi. I haven’t got all night.” A cloaked figure steps out from behind a dumpster, somewhat ruining the aesthetic of it all, in Kol’s opinion.  The bundle makes soft noises that he swears he can feel vibrate against him.

“I will take him.” The figure says, removing her cloak and holding out her arms. She’s a pretty little thing, her hair thick and kinky, bursting from her head in wild tendrils. She speaks with a thick French accent, a little off from how actual French people speak. Kol wonders when she had turned to black magic. He subconsciously pulls the bundle towards his chest.

“You won’t hurt him?” The witch laughs, and it is a frightening one. Kol does his best to remain unbothered, but it sends a chill through him.

“That is funny.” She says once she is finished. “You offer this child for a sacrifice, yet you worry about him being hurt.”

“You have an odd sense of humor.” She observes the clench in his jaw, the way he looks away, the way his fingers tighten on the blanket in his arms.

“Do not fear me hurting him. You will be the one to do it.”
“I- what?” F small hand fists his shirt.
“You. You must slit his throat. As well as the other two.” Kol is quiet, so she keeps speaking. Another terrifying laugh escapes her. She steps closer with her arms still extended. “Magic has a price, vampire.”
“I’m already paying you three mil and two dark objects.” She takes the baby from his arms, and Kol barely loosens up enough for her to take it. “Aren’t there supposed to be four of you?” She peers into the bundle, tapping the baby’s face with a single finger. Kol flinches.

“We do not meet clients together. We need two days in order prepare the ritual that will bring the girl home. That is sufficient time to retrieve the other sacrifices?” Kol nods, looking slightly pale. “We require a place of power. You know of one?”
“Will the birthsite of my brothers child suffice?” He supplies readily. A grin is the only response he receives, but the way her lip pulls back leaves him think of it as more of a snarl. “Then I’ll be going now.” He turns, and he’s almost made it out before she speaks. He stops in his tracks, watching the streetlight.

“What is his name?”
“He hasn’t got one. Probably for the best, anyways.”

“You think because he has no name and because he is sick it will be easy. That is far from the truth.” Kol doesn’t show any sign that he had heard her. His footsteps echo in the alley as he takes his leave. The baby’s cries start as soon as he hits the sidewalk. They are still ringing in his ears when he tries to sleep.