Chapter Text
Klaus and Caroline were strolling through the streets of New Orleans as the annual Mardi Gras parade passed by. They stopped to watch a street artist working on a black-and-white painting.
The night that Klaus first met Camille 16 years ago came to mind.
"You know, when I first came back from Mystic Falls, I met a woman near here, and we mused about art," Klaus tells Caroline.
"I guess another blonde..." she teases him, and he smiles. "You have a type! she laughs.
"Intelligent, beautiful, fierce, with a heart bigger than the sun," he says.
He had just found out he was going to be a father. The witches were attempting to gain control over him by using his unborn child.
The news confused Klaus, and he was enraged by the manipulation attempt. He thus said to Hayley and the witches that he didn't care if his unborn child died. "How dare you command me, threaten me with what you wrongfully perceive to be my weaknesses? He raged. "Kill her and the baby. What do I care?" He said.
And now Hope was 15 years old, and Klaus Mikaelson was preparing to give his life to save her.
The painter's brush slowly and rhythmically carved vertical lines, painting the branches of a black tree.
Caroline admits to him that she never really "understood" art, apart from the fact that it is "pretty".
"Well, you have to see past the paint and the technique to understand the deeper meaning of it all. As they gazed at a man's painting, Klaus continued: "This piece, for example, is about time and the way it rises and falls, races and slows."
He could almost appreciate the irony that he was now the one running out of time.
16 years ago, it was a piece about the inner struggle of a lonely man with his demons, and another blond was standing beside him.
Today, he had Caroline by his side. She came because this was his last day. After 1,000 years of plaguing this world with monstrosities, the mighty Klaus Mikaelson will die.
He will not die at the hands of an enemy; he will not be defeated; he will sacrifice himself to save his daughter; he will sacrifice himself because he finally learned to put others before himself.
Love made him strong, as Cami promised him.
He was holding Caroline's arm tenderly, lost in his thoughts. She was a woman now. When he met her, she was a teenage girl, full of stubbornness, life, and ideas. It reminded him of himself and the girls at the Viking village where he grew up. She was kind, caring, loyal to others, still innocent, optimistic, and loved by her many friends. All the things he used to want for himself, so, naturally, he felt for her.
Somewhere inside him, she had awakened the desire to be accepted at last. The need for someone to see him for what he was, and not for what his 1000 years on this earth forced him to become.
The blonde girl refused him, and that made him stubborn. After all, he was Klaus Mikaelson. The most powerful creature on earth: the original hybrid! No woman refused him. It was not only fear for their lives that left no room for denial. It was his charm. If nothing else, Klaus was a very charming man and he knew it.
He was sure of himself, sure of his power, unaffected by petty feelings and fears, always ready to lead a woman to the extremes of pleasure. Catching his eye was a huge compliment. To invite you to his bed even more.
Caroline felt drawn to the bad boy; she was intrigued by the big, bad wolf. She sure was flattered by his attention. It was her morality that held her back; it was her insistence that she was better than him. Better than the monster.
He was so taken by her, that stated his intent to be her last love. That they would travel together and he would show her the world. He would wait for her, however long it took.
"Perhaps one day, in a year or even a century, you'll turn up at my door and let me show you what the world has to offer."
But Caroline was young back then; she was not ready for him or for them.
He was not welcome in her life, and he knew it. She had no space for him, no compassion for him, and no love for him. Just attraction and lust for the bad boy.
Once upon a time, he returned to Mystic Falls to gloat over a corpse to be, but she pleaded with him to "back off". In return, he asked her for the truth. An admission of her feelings and desires, a confession, and for that, he was ready to give her up.
The time was not right for them now, and the future was unknown. And he, Klaus Mikaelson, was not a man who could wait for a woman forever without something small in return. It was time for her to be honest with him and with herself.
He wanted to get her out of his system, at least for now. He wanted to hear her admit that she did feel something for him and that she cared. To admit that she was afraid to give in to her feelings for the monster.
"As soon as we're done here, I'm going to walk away, and I'm never coming back." Klaus said, "You'll never again have to look me in the eye and cover our connection with hostility and revulsion. You'll never have to loathe the darkest parts of yourself that care for, despite all I've done. I will be gone, and you will be free. I just want you to be honest with me."
And boy, she was honest...
"I'm in college. I'm building a life for myself. I have plans, a future, and things that I want, and none of those things involve you. Okay? None of them! She paused, "Yes, I cover our connection with hostility. Because, yes, I hate myself for the truth. So, if you promise to walk away like you said and never come back, then yes, I will be honest with you. I will be honest with you about what I want."
She wanted him, and he was mad from lust for her, so they indulged their desire. For now, it was enough for him. To claim her and then leave her alone; to live her life; to pursue her dreams
The dreams he had about the two of them, had to be put on ice and stay there.
His life was starting over in New Orleans. He was about to become a father.
But life is unpredictable. Nothing turned out the way he expected, and now, sixteen years later, he is walking with Caroline in his beloved New Orleans. His city, the city that he and his family built from the ground up. He finally had to confront his own mortality and the realization that his existence was coming to an end. He has no future to offer her, this is the end.
"Human beings feel the gravity of time; we feel it more. The fiction of the clock, the lies the calendar tells," he says in a gloomy tone.
Caroline looked at him determinedly. "Enough with this conversation. Let's have a drink." They walk into a bar nearby; melancholic jazz music is playing in the background. They order scotch. Caroline leans her elbow on the table and supports her head with her palm. Her gaze is fixed on Klaus. This is more difficult than she could have imagined.
"Would you even be here... if I had longer to live? He asks
"Maybe I'd let you chase me around for a few more centuries, she chuckles. "That was always the fun part, anyway."
She would have been the farthest away if he had had more time to live; that is the truth. Even if she feels all those feelings now, she is not ready for them.
And she also knows that this visit of hers isn't about them; it's about Hope.
It's time for her to address the elephant in the room: "Say goodbye to your daughter, Klaus. Give her real closure."
Klaus takes a big sip of his drink. "Closure is a myth."
He is too scared to face hope. Feelings, especially sad feelings, were never his strong point.
Caroline tries to make him see reason. "Look, what you're doing is noble. But if you don't say goodbye, if you leave Hope with questions, and pain and anger, you'll haunt her. And I don't think that's your endgame."
"I don't know how to say goodbye," he whispers as tears glisten in his eyes.
He was still such a child, she thought, so she had to be strong and say, "Try this. One of you stands, then walks to the door and doesn't turn back. Even if their heart aches for just one more look, for one moment. But you'll know that not looking means, "I'll never forget you."
And that last statement was 100% true; she knew that she would never forget him.
Caroline placed a soft kiss on his lips, and Klaus returned it with equal tenderness. With that, she stood up and walked away from him. She came to a halt and took a long breath before exiting the bar without looking back.
This was goodbye. A bittersweet ending to a love that never took off. She was the girl who woke up his heart—the girl who made him remember that he was once human too.