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Even before getting into a relationship, Klaus had almost always put Caroline first.
Anything she wanted, he gave, even if it took more compassion and mercy than he'd think he could offer, he did it nonetheless, and whenever she was in a room, his full attention fell completely on her, in her presence everything fell away, for everything else was nothing if not insignificant.
Because of the fact, it wasn't hard for Caroline to think that once they'd be in a relationship that wouldn't change, in fact, she thought that would only get stronger.
And maybe that was her first mistake, after all, assuming usually always leads to the wrong conclusions.
—
It wasn't like that in the beginning, not at all.
In the beginning, it was just their bare bodies pressed against each other, her blonde hair spilled out on his shoulder, and their limbs tangled together.
"You know I think we should leave this room eventually, I'm starting to think all your loyal subjects and minions will start to resent me for taking their grand ruler away from them," she joked lightly, her smile pressing against his chest.
He chuckled and gave her one of those rare, soft smiles with dimples that were reserved for her and her only. "Nonsense my love, they'd ought to know by now you're more important than this whole city." While there was a teasing edge to his voice, they both knew there was more weight to his words than just playful teasing.
She looked up at him, giving him a smile that could've lit up the whole street. "Well good, I better be or you and I will have a problem, mister."
"Always, my love," he promised, and then lovingly pressed his lips to hers, making her giggle softly against his mouth.
Things were much simpler then, even with their complicated history with everything in Mystic Falls all they knew then was the unadulterated love that flowed through their veins from just being near each other, but even though he had promised her he'd always put her first, at the end of the day promises are nothing more than pretty words.
—
For a long time, it stayed that way—Caroline was too important for him to put anyone or anything above her—but as it turns out, it's much harder to run a city full of all types of supernatural than it seems.
It started when he missed his date with her and then when they rescheduled it for later on that week he missed that one too because of the witches acting up or something of the sort.
While disappointed, she wasn't too worried, it wasn't a big deal, after all, running a city was hard work and she got that sometimes he'd be too busy to go on dates with her, she knew sooner rather than later everything would be back to normal and he'd make it up to her.
She wasn't worried, it'd all be fine.
—
Except that it wasn't fine, it went on for longer than it should have.
The witches wouldn't give out, the beginnings of war lingered in the air, and Klaus spent almost every second of every day trying to stop it.
Caroline couldn't blame him, this was of utmost importance and she knew it, in fact, she tried to help as much as she could too.
While she wished she and Klaus could have more time together, she knew once they prevented a war, they'd have all the time in the world and more.
—
Caroline should have known by now assuming things never did end well for her.
Because they had successfully stopped a war but Klaus was still distant, spending much time than he should be working because he wanted to stop any uprisings from starting again.
However, she did see him more than before, so at least it was something.
"Are you sure you can't make it?" She asked once when he'd called and told her he couldn't make it to their dinner date because he had a meeting with the wolves.
"I'm sorry love, I can't miss this meeting, but I'll make it up to you, I promise," he said apologetically.
She looked down at her lap, disappointment clawing in her chest. "That's fine," she assured but without any conviction.
"Caroline, I promise you once I make sure nobody is trying to come after me as king of New Orleans that we will have all the time in the world."
She sighed, licking her lips. "Okay, just hurry up I feel like I've barely seen you recently."
"I will. I love you, never forget that."
She closed her eyes, she felt like she hadn't heard those words in far too long. "I love you too."
She loved him, but that something was starting to not be enough.
—
He got her a diamond bracelet and spent a whole week straight with no interruptions with her to make up for his recent absence.
The bracelet was beautiful—it was a bunch of shapes with diamonds encrusted in them—it looked as ridiculously expensive as it must have been, and it clasped perfectly on her wrist.
But as beautiful as the bracelet might have been it meant nothing compared to finally spending time with the man she considered the love of her life.
It was like before everything had gotten so messy, it was simple and nothing more than unadulterated love flowing between them.
"You know Caroline, you're the single most important person in my life," he breathed against her neck, she smiled widely because for the first time in so long, Caroline felt like she was being put first over this stupid city and his role as king, and she had hope that it would last.
—
Of course, as these things go, it didn't last.
The week was over and at first, he was making an effort to try to spend more time with her, to prioritize her again and it worked for a while, but then there was a threat to her life.
Klaus heard through whispers that clung to the night air, all he knew was that somebody was planning to harm Caroline to get to him and he would stop at nothing to make sure his love was safe.
Now, he spent all his time obsessively looking for whoever for those wishing ill on her or meeting up with all the leaders of all the different factions in New Orleans to see if any of them had heard anything new.
And now, he blew off Caroline more than he ever did, he pushed her away and didn't let her in on any of his plans—he'd always taken her and all her ideas seriously, she had never felt taken for granted with him and she hated that she was starting to.
What Caroline hated the most, however, was that most days instead of waking up to his warmth enveloping her in bed, she'd wake up to a cold, empty bed.
She knew he was doing all this to make sure she was alive, that he wouldn't lose her, but it seemed as if no matter what he did, that was becoming the outcome.
—
On a rare night that he was home before she fell asleep and they were eating dinner together, she brought all she'd been feeling up to him.
How she felt like he was slipping away from her, how he was doing too much and it was probably just some rumor.
"You're not losing me, Caroline, besides I am doing this for you, so you can be safe."
She looked down at her half-eaten plate of food, she knew his words were meant to be reassuring but she couldn't help the pit of dread building up in her stomach.
God, it seemed like he didn't even hear her out anymore.
—
Klaus found who was plotting against Caroline—a witch and a werewolf teamed up together to try to get rid of Caroline, to make him suffer.
He hung them both on his cellar, any torture he'd inflicted before seeming like nothing but child's play at what he was doing to them.
The witch, as expected, died much faster than the werewolf and when she did, he brutally ripped her head from her body.
The wolf was clearly trying to hide the horror on his face from the gruesome sight he'd just witnessed, but he spat blood on Klaus and said, "No matter what gruesome way you kill me you will always be weak, having a much younger vampire as your one weakness will only make you weak."
Needless to say, the werewolf didn't last much longer and he met the same end as the witch.
He threw their decapitated heads as if they were nothing but trash in front of all the supernatural community of New Orleans, he was giving them a message—this happened to them just for plotting against Caroline, imagine what would happen if they were to harm a hair on her hair—and he continued to dismember anyone who he would hear speaking anything ill of Caroline.
But Caroline didn't feel any reassurance from this.
She'd heard what the wolf had said to him in that cellar, and she knew he wasn't doing this to protect her but to save his image, so that nobody would ever dare to think of him as weak.
It reminded her too much of Tyler's relentless, bloodthirsty quest for revenge, she saw him grew bitter and always leaving her for something 'more important'—thinking about the similarities made sirens wail in her mind.
She had lived through this before, and she hated how it'd ended.
—
So Klaus continued to obsess over anyone questioning his power, over anyone talking about Caroline, and all Caroline saw of him anymore was his shadow slipping away.
He told her he needed to do this but promised her they'd have all the time in the world soon enough, his promises fell to deaf ears, they were just pretty words.
She caught up to him one day after another violent display in 'her' honor, and he was completely covered in blood—it covered his mouth, trickled down his chin, and coated his hands— and it just made her so angry.
She yelled and screamed at him about how she never saw him anymore and how he needed to stop being a murdering megalomaniac because he was just being obsessive and nothing else.
He didn't snap at her, he just locked eyes with her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Caroline I'm doing this for you, so you stay safe because you are the single most important thing in my life," he declared with much conviction.
It broke her heart to countless pieces that she didn't really believe him.
—
Caroline hadn't seen or heard from Klaus in days when she got kidnapped.
The sister of that witch who'd Klaus decapitated because she'd planned to harm her wanted to not only finish what she started but have revenge on Klaus for what he did to her sister.
Any time she'd ever been in harm since being with Klaus—hell even before then—she never doubted that he'd find her, or that at the very least he would do the very best he could to try to, but for the first time in years, she wasn't so sure anymore.
She hadn't seen Klaus in days, how would he even know to look for her? And even if he knew she was missing, would he even make it in time or would he make a spectacle of the whole town, and paint it red to keep his reputation intact?
For the first time in a very long time, she was truly afraid.
—
Of course, he was still Klaus, and he still saved her—his eyes roaming over every inch of her skin for any sign of damage—but she couldn't ignore that doubt she felt.
Because after years of being with Klaus, she felt doubt clawing underneath her skin and bubbling in her chest, even though she thought she never would.
How did they get to this? It started so simply, so lovingly, and somewhere along the way, they became a jumbled mess.
She let him fuss over her and cradle her to sleep while he told her he loved her even with the unrelenting thoughts in the back of her mind.
But when she woke up alone, in a cold bed the doubts only grew.
—
And then after the kidnapping, she didn't see Klaus again for days.
But throughout those days she could see a shadow lingering behind her, following her everywhere—he got her a 24/7 bodyguard but she knew better than to think for a second that it could be him.
She got why he did it but it made her so angry that she couldn't be anywhere just by herself, that he felt the need for her to be watched at all times, especially when it wasn't him.
And the anger only grew worse when the first time she even heard from him is from a letter set on top of a white box with a blue bow on their bed.
The letter informing her there was a ball for the elite of New Orleans and that she was going with him at nine, giving her a dress she could wear if she wanted.
She scowled, throwing the letter aside, and untied the blue ribbon from the box, carefully opening it to reveal a midnight blue dress with spaghetti straps and a slit on the skirt, it truly was a beautiful dress but god was she angry at him, so instead she stuffed the dress back in the box and sat back on the bed. She had no intention of going to this dance, not unless she talked to Klaus first.
She couldn't ignore the increasing doubt fraying the edges of her brain about their relationship, about whether he would be really there for her, anymore.
He came in at nine o'clock, already in a tux and ready to go out, he expected her to be in a similar state so when he saw her clad in her bright pink pajamas he raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Hello love, why aren't you ready? You're always so punctual I'd thought you'd be ready at least an hour ago," he joked lightly, but Caroline just crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him with an emotionless mask.
"Because I'm not going," she replied simply, shrugging it off as she did so.
"What do you mean you're not going?"
"It's what I said, I'm not going," she remarked through clenched teeth.
"Why not?"
"Are you seriously asking me that right now? I hadn't seen or heard from you in days, days Klaus, and now you show up like nothing's happened and demand I go to a ball with you that I don't even want to go to, and I'm just so sick of it."
"I've been busy Caroline, I've been trying to keep make this city safe so I can keep you safe, can't you see I'm doing this for you?!" He snapped, fists clenched at his sides.
She scoffed incredulously. "That's funny I keep hearing that excuse whenever I confront you about it but we both know the only person you're doing this for is you, you're just trying to show to people that you're an insufferable megalomaniac sadist who's stronger than everyone else, well guess what Klaus, I can't deal with it anymore, you have to be willing to end your macho, dick-measuring contest with all of New Orleans because I'm at my wit's end."
He just sighed. "Look, Caroline, let's talk about this later I really need to get to the ball, if you don't want to go fine, I'm not going to make you, but I'm going either way," he told her completely ignoring everything she just said (deflection at its finest).
Caroline scoffed and held back the hot tears brimming in her eyes. "Fine, but don't expect me to be here when you come back," she spat, leaving their room and slamming the door closed.
Klaus sighed, shaking his head, and left through the side door in their room. It was clear that he thought Caroline only said that in anger, that she didn't really mean it, after all, he had never been a stranger to saying things he didn't mean in anger.
He had to talk to Caroline eventually but he'd figured all the time in the world to do so.
—
Caroline had locked herself in a bathroom far away from their room, sliding back against the door and sitting down on the floor with hot tears rolling down her cheeks.
She had never felt this angry, this hurt, he wouldn't listen and wouldn't turn things around, and deep down she knew there was only one thing she could do.
She had to leave.
She needed time away from there, from him, not just for herself but because she knew leaving would be the only way he would finally see how hurt she was. As much as she knew she needed to do that, the mere thought of it felt like having her heart ripped out from her chest.
But then again her heart was already shattered beyond repair so what damage would it even do ripping it out now?
She abruptly stood up from the floor and made a beeline for her bedroom, not even bothering to wipe the tears away from her cheeks.
She found two bulky suitcases in the back of her closet and neatly placed her folded clothes in, filling them both to the brim, not everything fit but it'd do.
She unclasped the diamond bracelet he had given her as an apology for his absence a while back and set it on their dresser, but her gaze was caught by two framed pictures of them that sat on their dresser.
One of them at one of Rebekah's many balls, smiling at the camera, and the other one was a picture where neither was looking at the camera, completely captivated by each other, both wearing large grins on their faces—that one was her favorite picture of them, it's why she'd printed it out in the first place.
When had everything gone so wrong? She missed who they were when those pictures were taken, she missed him, but she was done begging for scraps of his attention and feeling like a second choice.
She didn't want to just slip away in the night and leave him wondering why, so she scrambled through one of the dressers' drawers for paper and a pen.
She wrote down all she felt, why she left, just everything that had been weighing on her since what felt like forever, and she couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. When she was done she folded the now damp and tear-stained paper and folded it in half, writing in her neat handwriting his name and sticking it on the frame of her favorite picture of them.
Maybe it was a coward's move that she was leaving everything that needed to be said on a letter and slipping away when he wasn't there to stop her, to fight her on it, but she knew if he was here anything he said, any small look he gave her, would make her turn back around, and she needed to do this.
She grabbed the other frame from their dresser, the one with the picture of them at Rebekah's ball, along with her suitcases and her purse, and lingered for longer than she should've by the door to take a last look at the room she'd shared with Klaus for so long, at the place she'd called home for years.
She licked her lips and turned away, leaving through the side door.
—
Everything was way too still when Klaus got home.
He couldn't hear anything, not even Caroline's barely beating heart or movement of any sort, granted, most rooms were spelled so nothing could be heard from them, but he couldn't help the pit of dread building up in his stomach.
He tentatively walked to their room, undoing his tie as he did so but when he walked in his stomach dropped.
Their bedroom was empty, the bed neatly made with the box of the dress he'd got her laying on it, there was a picture frame missing from their dresser and her diamond bracelet was lying there, and the door to their walk-in closet was left slightly ajar.
He rushed inside the closet to see most of Caroline's clothing and shoes gone, along with two bulky suitcases they stored there. He frantically ran back into his room, searching for something, anything, that could tell him why she left or where she was, finally spotting a letter with his name on her neat handwriting stuck to the frame of Caroline's favorite picture of them.
He unfolded it, instantly noticing the damp and tear-stained state it was on.
Klaus, it read.
This might be the hardest thing I'll ever have to do in my life but right now it feels like my only choice.
I love you, and I always will, I think it's impossible for me not to, but, every day that passes is another day that I feel like I'm losing you more and more.
Every day is another day I don't see you, another day to fall second to this stupid, godforsaken city.
I'm so tired of being your second choice, I gave you so many signs, why didn't you see them?
I'm done chasing for your attention, and so done of feeling taken for granted, something I had felt with everyone all my life but never with you.
I need time, we need time, just give me this, and you can find me once you're truly ready to put me first again (I know you and I know you'll say you're ready now but we both know that's not true), despite it all, I love you, never forget that.
Yours, Caroline.
For a couple of minutes, all Klaus could do was stare blankly at the letter, trying to fully comprehend what was really happening, trying to comprehend how he fucked up so badly he pushed away the person he loved most in the world, the only person who had ever loved him for all he was—when did he fuck up so badly that Caroline felt like she was a second choice?
He felt anger rising in him, boiling his blood, he didn't know if it was at Caroline for leaving or at himself for pushing her away, all he could see was red.
He grabbed the framed picture on the dresser, the one Caroline loved so much, and hurled it against the wall.
When it fell on the floor the glass smashed, shards flying everywhere, and the frame broke apart, but all Klaus could focus on was the picture laying in the mess—they were happy then, it was clear from that photo just how enamored they were with each other, now all he had to show for it was a picture in a broken frame.