Chapter Text
The blaring of a car horn rapidly approaching where they stood intertwined finally broke them apart from their goodbye kiss, causing Caroline to wheel around, still bracketed in Tyler's arms. The sight of a large SUV greeted her, but it hadn't even come to a complete stop before the driver exited the vehicle and stepped onto the curb outside Caroline's mom's house.
"Hey, man," Tyler greeted the rude interruption, who was outfitted in dark clothing that probably cost more than everything Caroline had packed and piled up next to them. He responded with a curt "Mate." She couldn't decide if it was a greeting or a dismissal. Either way, she put on her best sorority president during rush smile she had perfected during her tenure in that very office and held out her hand to greet the person she would be spending the next 12 hours with on the road from Mystic Falls to Chicago as Tyler stared loading her bags into the trunk.
"I'm Caroline!" She infuses her voice with as much cheer as she can muster, and as a former state champion cheer caption, she could muster an impressive amount of cheer.
"Klaus Mikaelson," he shook her hand, and she winced slightly at the sharp obstruction between their palms. She looked down in confusion to see his car keys wedged in their hands in a move he had probably performed on countless valets." Why don't you take the first shift?" He said with a dimpled smile that could have been charming if he lost the condescending tone. She opened her mouth to respond with a "Sure, no problem" or "It's the least I can do to thank you for giving me a ride," but he was already making his way to the passenger side door and closing it just a beat after Tyler shut the trunk.
They said their last goodbyes, and Caroline climbed into the car and adjusted her seat and mirrors.
"I have this all figured out. It's a twelve-hour drive, so we can break it down into four three-hour shifts or by mileage. I have marked on my phone's GPS where we can stop to switch." Caroline finishes buckling her seatbelt and looks over to her companion for his thoughts, only to find him somehow already asleep with the passenger seat reclined all the way, arms crossed over his chest, and head lolling towards the window. At least he had his seatbelt fastened, and Caroline wouldn't have to reach over him to do it herself – safety first and everything.
As she took off down the familiar street she grew up on, adjusting the radio and waving goodbye to Tyler, she tried not to feel resentment of her passenger neglecting his duties in favor of a nap.
He was doing her a huge favor. Klaus was a friend of Tyler's she had never formally met. They were in the same fraternity at Whitmore, so they may have briefly crossed paths on a weekend when she came down to visit Tyler for the weekend from Penn. But just because they had never officially met didn't mean she hadn't heard about him. She wasn't particularly impressed by his womanizing ways and was even less impressed by the undertone of admiration she heard in Tyler's tone when he recounted stories to her.
He wasn't her first choice of ride, but they had both happened to be going to Chicago after graduation. Him leaving from Whitmore and her from her quick post-graduation stay with her mom. She had accepted a job at a local news affiliate, where she was pretty sure she would be getting coffee for actual reporters and news anchors, but hey, you have to start somewhere.
According to Tyler, Klaus had also been heading to Chicago for a job. She assumed it would have something to do with his family's business, finance, or anything else that would make him a lot of money—not that he needed it based on the interior of the car she was driving.
As she entered the ramp onto the highway that would take her toward her future, she chanced another glance at the sleeping passenger. At least she wouldn't have to make awkward small talk.
Klaus had only been feigning sleep for the last 30 minutes. For the first three hours into this trip, he had been in a deep sleep fueled by the combination of the bourbon he had drank last night working its way out of his system and the early start Tyler's girlfriend "insisted on."
Usually, he wouldn't subject himself to hours in a car with someone who voluntarily keeps the company of the likes of Tyler Lockwood, but here he was, driving down the highway at precisely the speed limit. While he and Tyler were in a fraternity together, he wouldn't consider himself someone who voluntarily keeps his company. His rushing had been a last-ditch attempt to keep his father's favor as he had also been a Phi Beta Kappa, along with his two older brothers. And while it didn't buy him his father's love, it did supply him with an endless supply of liquor and women, so he figured he might as well say in good standing, even if it meant putting up with the Tyler Lockwoods of the world.
So when Tyler found out he'd be going to Chicago and asked if he would mind driving his girlfriend, he agreed for one reason. Curiosity. Well, curiosity and the fact that having another along for the ride would allow him time to rest, and Elijah thought it ridiculous to hire a chauffeur to take his car when "you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself, Niklaus." But mostly, it was curiosity about the girl Tyler had talked about for the past four years. He tried to tune out Tyler's insistent bragging about his small-town political dynasty and extremely unimpressive fortune. But the talk of his girlfriend unfortunately caught his attention. She was both a small-town beauty queen and head cheerleader, which Tyler emphasized as a way to impress their fraternity brothers.
Originally, Klaus had expected to see more of her around as she seemed like the type to hang around on the arm of her high school-turned-college quarterback boyfriend and not have much going on in her own life, but he was mistaken. Not only was her presence sparse, but subsequent information about her seemed to contradict his first impression. While he wasn't very impressed she was valedictorian of their aforementioned small-town high school, she did appear to be attending an Ivy without any familiar or monetary connections, which could not be said for others he knew.
The more he learned, against his will, about her, the only thing that didn't reveal itself was why she was still with Tyler after four years of long distance. And why was she with him now as he stayed behind in middle-of-nowhere Virginia while she had a bright future ahead of her? He couldn't wait to get out of middle-of-nowhere Virginia, and the only reason he had been there in the first place was the surprisingly impressive art program that Whitmore had to offer.
Klaus opened his eyes for the first time since they'd been on the road to take in the girl for himself. She was objectively pretty, of course. But not in the way he imagined her to be. He thought someone as shallow as Tyler Lockwood would gravitate to a plain, attractive, but not in a standout way kind of girl. But Caroline had a beauty that appealed to his artistic sensibility. Her face would not look out of place hanging amongst the pre-raphaelite paintings he has admired throughout his life.
As if she felt his gaze upon her profile, her eyes drifted briefly from the expanse of asphalt ahead of them to meet his eyes.
"Oh good, you're awake." She said, in a less cheery manner than her initial greeting this morning. "Your shift starts in about an hour."
He adjusted his seat to full height, never taking his eyes off her. He was captivated by the side of her face, the slope of her nose, the color of her lips. His fingers itched to do something. If it was to reach out to her or to sketch them, he couldn't decide. When she doesn't say anything else after a few minutes, he says, "Well, I am incredibly torn up about missing out on what clearly would have been a stimulating conversation."
She scoffed and darted her eyes over to him again. He smirked at achieving his goal of drawing her attention back to him.
"Seriously? You've said two words to me before passing out, but I'm not holding up my end of the road trip etiquette?"
He laughs softly at her indignation, "My apologies, love. How can I acquit myself?"
"Whatever." She grumbled. "What do you want to talk about?"
"I want to talk about you, your hopes and dreams, everything you want in life."
"Seriously?" she asked again.
"Fine, I'll settle for your life story."
"My life story won't even get us to the next exit. Nothing has happened to me yet."
"And that's why you're going to Chicago, for something to happen to you?"
"I'm going to work at a news station –"
"So that you can report on things that happen to other people?"
She fixed him with a steady glare. "That's one way of looking at it, I guess."
"And what if nothing ever happens to you? What if you live your whole life and nothing happens to you? You never see great cities, art, music, or genuine beauty. And finally, you die one of those city deaths where no one notices for weeks until the stench finally arouses the suspicions of your neighbors?"
Carolines takes her eyes off the road again, this time to send him a long, worried look at his macabre outburst. Finally, she spoke. "Tyler did say you had a dark side."
"Don't underestimate the allure of darkness, sweetheart. Even the purest hearts are drawn to it."
"He clearly doesn't want her to say. That's why he helps her on the plane in the end."
"I think it's her who doesn't want to stay, love."
"Of course, she wants to stay. Any woman in her right mind would want to be with Humphrey Bogart over the other guy!"
"So she is to stay in Casablanca for the rest of her life married to a man who runs a bar?"
"So snobbish!" She says, but she's laughing. "I'm sorry if I don't want to be in a passionless marriage–"
"You'd be the first lady of Czechoslovakia."
"--Just because the love of my life runs a bar and that's all he does."
Klaus lets out an unbelieving laugh as he pulls the car into the parking lot of a roadside dinner. After his weird comment about the "allure of darkness," Caroline objected that wasn't the case, citing examples from film and television. This led them to a discussion of their favorite movies, and despite Caroline expecting them to have absolutely no crossover, they stumbled across their shared interest in classic films. Caroline's affinity came from watching the old Hollywood stars with her dad and his husband, Stephen, when she visited them in Atlanta. His, she assumed, came from his overall need to be pretentious. This line of conversation eventually led them to Casablanca.
"Oh, I see." She commented as she exited the car, and they headed towards the diner. Its exterior made her feel like they had time-traveled to the 1950's.
"What?" he asked as he opened the door to the establishment, whose decor just reinforced the feeling of being in another decade.
"Nothing," she adds at his raised eyebrows, "You obviously have never been in love. Table for two." She adds to the hostess who had been waiting to seat them.
"What gave it away?" he finally asked after they settled down. He picked up the laminated menu, giving it a once-over with a slight grimace. She imagined he was accustomed to a higher caliber of restaurant.
"I would say your general pessimistic 'everyone has a dark side' thing." She said the last part with a horrible impression of his English accent. "It was either you have never been, or someone broke your heart so badly you swore off love forever, but that would mean you had one to begin with."
He shot her a dimpled, sardonic grin before deflecting the conversation back onto her, "And you're in love with Tyler?"
"We've been together for five years."
"That didn't answer my question."
"It's a given. I wouldn't be with him if I didn't love him."
"Even if he stays in that little town of yours. Perhaps he even fulfills his destiny and becomes the mayor. It's certainly a step up from barkeep." Caroline instantly regretted needling Klaurs. It's clear he can deal it out far better than he can take it. He had been so hot and cold this whole trip with her, and right now, she felt like he could see right through her.
Because, yes, She and Tyler did have a long…not fight persay, but conversation about their post-graduation plans. He wanted her to get a job at the local ABC news affiliate and stay in Mystic Falls with him, as he had already accepted his mom's offer to be her chief of staff. His logic was that he had connections, so he might as well use them rather than try to find a political job elsewhere. Until she left him today, she had been banking on him, realizing that working alongside his mother would most definitely make him want to commit matricide, and he'd decide to join her in Chicago. She had barely gotten out of working with Carol on the Mystic Falls Beautification committee in high school without fantasizing about drowning her in the new fountain they had installed. And Carol wasn't even her mother. However, she wasn't about to admit any of this to Klaus, who she had known for about six hours.
"What's your point?"
"I just have a feeling," he said, sipping the black coffee the waitress had put down in front of him. "A small-town boy, a small-town life, it won't be enough for you."
She opened her mouth to retort, but he had turned to the waitress who was waiting to take their orders.
"I'll have a number three." He says, but he doesn't look pleased about it.
"And what kind of bread?" The waitress asked.
"Surprise me." He said in the same tone someone might say, "Just shoot me."
When it was her turn, she said, "I would like the pie ala mode."
"Apple pie ala mode." the waitress repeated to herself and scribbled on her notepad.
"But I'd like the pie heated, and I don't want the ice cream on top, I want it on the side, and I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, then no ice cream, just whipped cream, but only if it's real. If it's out of a can, then nothing.
"Not even the pie?" the waitress asked.
"No, just the pie, but then not heated." She could tell the already annoyed waitress was fed up with her, but Caroline liked the things the way she liked them, and that wasn't a crime. She watched the waitress walk away before meeting Klaus' gaze. He stared at her with his head tilted and his dimples on full display.
"What?"
"Nothing, love."
When their food came, they moved on from the more sensitive topic of her and Tyler's impending long-distance relationship, and by the time the check came, Caroline had almost forgotten his prying. She insisted on paying her portion of the bill, having already owed him for the ride, and didn't want to be even more in his debt. She looked up from digging around in her purse for exact change and saw him staring at her. Her first thought was that she must have some leftover pie on her face, and lifted a hand to brush off whatever crumbs remained.
"What?" she asks when she doesn't feel anything.
"You are quite beautiful, you know that, love?"
"Oh." She said, somewhat out of shock. "Thank you."
"Tyler never said just how beautiful you are."
Caroline felt the gears in her brain sputter before they started working again, and she could grasp what was happening.
"Klaus," she said, standing up and putting the money she had fished out of her purse on the table. “Tyler is your friend."
Klaus shrugged as if to say, "That's debatable," and then actually said, "So?" before standing up, leaving a wad of cash on the table, and following her.
"So… he's my boyfriend."
"So…?" He said again. The bell above the entrance jingled as they made their exit.
"So… you're hitting on me!"
"I was not." They both paused at their respective doors to the SUV, her at the driver's side and him at the passenger. "What? Can't a man say a woman is beautiful without it being perceived as an advance?"
"I'm sure some men can, but for some reason, you don't strike me as one of those men,"
"And what kind of man do you think I am?"
"A slutty one!" She says, yanking the door open.
"Alright," he began as he slid into the passenger seat, chuckling slightly. "Let's just say, for the sake of argument, I was coming on to you, so to speak." She looked up from buckling her seat belt to hear what he would say next. "I rescind my advance."
"You take it back?" She clarified. "You can't take it back!"
"Why not?"
"It's already out there."
"Well, if it's already out there," he repeated mockingly. "Whatever should we do? Perhaps –"
"Just," she said, cutting off whatever would come out of his mouth next, and started pulling out of the parking lot. "Just let it go."
"Right… letting it go."
She nodded and then started navigating them back to the highway.
"Or…" he began after a few minutes of silence, and Caroline braced herself for something ridiculous with an exasperated sigh. "We could stop for the night at that charming little hotel," he said, gesturing towards a run-down motel. Even if the offer wasn't half a joke – at least she hoped it was – she wouldn't have touched the place with a ten-foot pole.
"I'm not doing this with you, Klaus." She didn't have to know him for longer than their brief trip to know he was giving her his absolute cheekiest grin.
"Doing what exactly?" This time, she did look over to see his eyebrows raised in a display of faux innocence.
"Aren't you and Tyler supposed to be like brothers or something? Would you proposition your actual brother's girlfriend?" She appealed to his familial sensibilities, recalling Tyler mentioning something about Klaus' brother, who was also living in Chicago.
"If any of my brothers brought someone who wasn't a complete bore, in Finn and Elijah's cases, or completely insane, in Kol's, then probably yes. If they were as beautiful as you, of course."
"Jesus," she said, ignoring his latest pass, "How many siblings do you have?"
"Just the three brothers and two sisters."
"Your poor parents," Caroline mumbled, mostly under her breath.
"So, that's a no on the motel, then?" Klaus asked.
"Klaus -"
"Yes, love?"
"We are just going to be friends."
"Right… friends." He said it as if it were a completely foreign word to him. And who knows, it probably was. Klaus didn't strike her as someone who opened himself up to friendship often.
They spend the next part of the ride in contemplative silence. Caroline even checked a few times to see if he had fallen asleep again. He hadn't. On the third or fourth time, she looked over, and he spoke.
"You realize, of course, that you and I could never be friends."
Caroline didn't necessarily disagree, but she was surprised and a little hurt by his bluntness. "What do you mean?"
"What I am saying is – and this is by no means an advance upon your person – is that men who are attracted to women and women who are attracted to men really can't be friends. Sex will always be in the way."
"That's not true!" Caroline scoffed. "I have a ton of guy friends, and there is no sex involved."
"Straight?" he asks, and she nods. "No, you don't."
"Yes, I do!"
"No, you don't." As she went to object again, he cut her off. "You are only under the assumption that you do."
"I think I would know if I was having sex with all my friends."
"I am not saying you're having sex with them, love. I am saying they all want to have sex with you."
"They do not.'
"They do."
"They do not!"
"I assure you-"
"How would you know?"
"Because no man can be friends with a woman he finds attractive. He'll always want to bed her," he answered like it was the simplest thing in the world.
"Okay, so you can be friends with someone you don't find hot?"
He seemed to contemplate her question for a moment before responding, "No, you'd probably sleep with them as well."
She let out an unbelieving laugh and turned her head slightly to see if he was joking. She couldn't tell. "You're disgusting, you know that?" He merely shrugged, so she continued. "And what if they don't want to have sex with you?"
"That doesn't really happen to me." She rolled her eyes so hard it was actually a danger to them and other drivers on the road. "The idea of sex is already out there. Even if it is one-sided, the friendship is already fated to fail."
She lets out a sigh. She's tired from all the driving and doesn't have it in her to unpack all of the misogyny and friendzone bullshit he was going on about. Okay, fine, she had several study partners and members of her co-ed professional fraternity sit her down and say, "I've got to tell you something." before either confessing their feelings or trying to kiss her throughout college. But she didn't want to live in a world where men and women can't be friends or where Klaus Mikaelson is right about gender dynamics.
"I am not saying that it's right or just, love. Only that men are unable to see their relationships with the women they know well as truly platonic," he reasons.
"Yeah, well." She said in a huff. "I guess we won't be friends then."
"I guess not."
"That's too bad."
"Why's that, sweetheart?"
"You were the only person I knew in Chicago."
In the last portion of their journey, Klaus found himself in the driver's seat. When he pulled up to the address that Caroline had keyed into the GPS, the sun had already set. After their conversation about their star-crossed friendship, the conversation drifted to less controversial subject matters and eventually settled into a comfortable silence.
Klaus wasn't sure he truly believed what he was saying to Caroline, and part of him regretted it instantly when she declared they wouldn't be friends. He could use a friend like Caroline. He was quite certain that everyone could, even those who didn't deserve it, like him or Tyler. But, simultaneously, he doubted that he could ever truly want just to be her friend. Perhaps that's why he constructed a new gender theory and projected his feelings about himself and Caroline onto men and women as a whole. Because he could see himself becoming enraptured in her bright light and never be able to look away. Friendship with Caroline would be far too painful and dangerous for him. To him, she'd be an eclipse, a fleeting moment of true phenomenon.
He helped her unload her things onto the stoop of her new apartment building, which she would share with two girls she had found online.
"It was an honor to make your acquaintance," he said, feeling uncharacteristically awkward.
"Yeah, it was interesting, " she replied, and he couldn't help but smile at her. "Thanks for the ride."
"You're welcome, love."
She holds out her hand, and he can't help but find the gesture endearing as he shakes it.
"Well, have a nice life," she says.
"You too, Caroline."
He gets back in the card and drives in the direction of Elijah's apartment.