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Caroline finds an apartment in Cornelia Street by pure chance.
She ran into Stefan, her ex-boyfriend from college, in a flower shop that she’d stumbled into as shelter from the pouring rain soaking the bustling city streets. He was there buying a bouquet for his girlfriend but also was stuck there, waiting for the rain to stop.
They struck up a conversation and she mentioned offhandedly how her lease was going to end soon and he mentioned that his girlfriend — who Caroline, by that point in the conversation, had learned from his many mentions of her that she was a stunning, British blonde who he described as a hard candy with a gooey inside (which she absolutely did not want to think about because she didn’t want to get sucked into the logistics of that analogy) — had just moved out of her brother’s place and into his apartment and her brother, Klaus, was looking for a roommate.
He rented a two-bedroom apartment in Cornelia Street, Stefan described him as a bit of a cocky asshole who would (eventually) grow into you.
And really, Caroline should’ve tossed the scrap of paper where Stefan had written Klaus’ number away. She didn’t know him, he could be some murdering psychopath for all she knew, and she was not the type of person to just jump into things without a color-coordinated, alphabetized plan and yet….
She ended up renting an apartment in Cornelia Street.
—
Stefan was right when he said Klaus was a bit of a cocky asshole, actually not a bit but a lot .
She tried to ignore his existence as much as possible but moving in with Klaus meant seeing Stefan and his girlfriend Rebekah basically on a daily basis.
There were no lingering feelings or any awkwardness left between her and Stefan, they were friends hell, they were probably closer now than they were when they had dated. Rebekah proved to be a great friend too, they had similar taste and got along great — Caroline noted idly that if they had met back in high school they’d probably be mortal enemies from just how similar they were, but right here and now, she was quickly becoming one of her best friends.
Hanging out with them, however, meant hanging out with Klaus too, much to her chagrin.
But, as Stefan had said, he’d eventually wormed into a hole in her heart without her permission, as irritating as he was. Especially after their weekly visit to Rousseau's bar, where Caroline would get drunk, being the lightweight that she was, and Klaus would end up taking care of her, even in the mornings when she was too hungover to hold her head up.
The problem was that she liked him a little too much.
They were sitting in the back of a Taxi, his jacket was around her shoulders as she clung to him like a life-sized teddy bear (in her drunken state she couldn’t help but think that a life-sized Klaus stuffed pillow would sell well ). Her cheek was pressed to his neck, her head laying on his shoulder, and her arms clutching to him with all her drunken strength.
She loved to be there enveloped in his arms and where she could smell his cologne, if she was even the least bit sober she would have fought herself on it but he was just so warm . She wanted to stay in his arms as long as she could, so much so that she let him know just that, but the fogginess of her brain made the words that came out of her mind completely absurd.
“I rent a place in Cornelia Street,” she mentioned casually, a sly invitation so she wouldn’t have to part with him.
He laughed, a deep, rich thing that she felt rumbling in his chest, and when she looked up with a frown, noticed his dimples hollowing out on his cheeks.
She frowned, wanting to cross her arms over her chest but having absolutely no energy to do so especially not if she had to pull away from him.
“Oh sweetheart, I know,” he laughed, pressing a kiss to her temple as he saw the car turn to their home from the window.
—
The first time Klaus kisses her, it’s in the middle of Cornelia Street after they were making their way back home from lunch.
She didn’t really know what spurred it on, one second she was telling him of the party she was planning for Stefan and Rebekah’s engagement party, and boom, a second later his lips were on hers, kissing her like they’d done so a million times before.
Later, he told her it was because whenever she talked about the things she loved her eyes lit up impossibly so and he’d always been incredibly impulsive.
She laughed. “So you just had to kiss me there and then?”
“Of course, Cornelia Street is practically ours, Caroline.”
She figured he was right — that’s where they met, where they lived, where they became friends, where they ate lunch together at the little restaurant down the street and where she forced him into shops with her. Cornelia Street and all of its colorful liveliness made her think of nothing but Klaus; his name was engraved in the pavement, and if she were ever to lose him, she wouldn’t be able to step foot back there without reliving through that unmendable heartbreak.
She hoped she never had to though, she loved Cornelia Street and most importantly, she loved him.
—
Much later, when their family has grown and they could not keep living in that simple two-bedroom apartment, they still walked through those streets as if they would forever be theirs.
He held her hand as they walked through those sacred grounds, spotting their old apartment complex, the place where they’d spent so much time together, barefoot in the kitchen.
Caroline smiled. She wondered who lived there now, wondered if it was a couple too stubborn to get with one another like they once were and if they loved Cornelia Street as they did.
But even if they did, Klaus was right all those years ago — this city screamed their names in every turn they took, their love was carved in the pavement and painted in the brick walls and would always be theirs.