Chapter Text
AN: Thank you for clicking on my story and taking the chance on it. I have read FF on KC for years, but never actually wrote any. This is my first fic and I'm kinda nervous about it. The idea for the story came after I read JavaJunkie 110's "Your Hopes, Your Dreams." I really liked her idea of Caroline telling Klaus to go save Kol, but I wanted to put my own spin on it. This first chapter will have a few similarities to her story, but the rest of my story will be different. So I guess I don't really own the whole idea and I definitely do NOT own The Vampire Diaries or any of the characters.
I hope you all enjoy!
Chapter One
Caroline stomped out of the Grill knowing Klaus would be close behind. She really had mixed feelings about her friends' plan, especially her part in said plan. On the one hand, she totally agreed with her friends; the Originals were not good people. They hurt others, sometimes for no reason but their own entertainment (exhibit A - Kol hurting Matt at the ball.) They had been alive for over a millennia. She couldn't imagine all of the death and destruction that they had not only seen, but likely caused. Even if they had only killed one human a month over the course of their vampiric existence… ok, that was way more people dying than she was comfortable calculating.
However… she had also killed. Her friends had too. She didn't even want to consider Damon's body count, but Stefan was another story. She considered him to be one of her best friends and she heard the stories about what he did in the 1920s. Sure, his humanity was off, but still. Stefan was her friend and she trusted him and believed he was a good person. Stefan himself had told her about what he did in the 20s. He wasn't proud of it, but it had still happened. He had changed. Hell, even Damon had changed in the past year since he got to town. Why couldn't the Mikaelsons?
Maybe change wasn't the right word for it. Maybe everyone had a little bit of bad and good inside of them, and each just came out at different times of their lives. Lord only knows how long the Mikaelsons' lives had been. Elena had told her what she knew about the time that the family was human. It didn't seem like a great childhood for any of them, least of all Klaus. She herself had met Mikael, and she had been more scared of him than she had ever been of Klaus, even before she had even ever talked to him.
That was a whole other aspect of the situation in itself. She had talked with Klaus. Like really talked. He had shown her parts of himself that she was almost positive he hadn't shown very many people. He liked drawing. Who knew that the same hands that created mass destruction could also create beautiful works of art? She really did like the drawing he had given her, even if his means of delivering it were a tad creepy. He had seemed so unsure of himself when she had asked about his art at the ball. Anyone who felt nerves and anxiety couldn't be all bad, could they? Those were some of the most basic human emotions that a person (or vampire) could feel. Didn't that alone show that he wasn't a terrible person?
She was jolted out of all that was running through her mind when she heard a car horn honking. She turned around in time to see Klaus dodging the oncoming car and jogging across the street to catch up to her.
"Come on Love, talk to me," he started. "We had a little spat, I'm over it already."
Caroline rolled her eyes that he would call her yelling at him, insulting him and throwing his bracelet at him a 'spat.' "Seriously?! It was not a 'spat,' Klaus!" She yelled using air quotes. "It was an argument about some things that actually upset me."
She continued walking to the town square with him a few steps behind her.
"Sweetheart, I understand we had a disagreement. How can I acquit myself?" He smirked down at her.
She finally turned to face him and took a deep breath. "You and your expensive jewelry and romantic drawings can leave me alone." She quickly looked away from him. She didn't know if she actually meant what she was saying or if she was just saying it because she felt that she had to.
He stared at her for a few seconds and sighed. "Oh come on, take a chance, Caroline. Talk to me." He suddenly sat down on a park bench that she could've sworn was not there a second ago. "Get to know me," he encouraged. She looked away trying to hide her smile. "I dare you."
He smirked because, somehow, he seemed to know enough about her that he knew that saying that would only egg her on. She internally swore when she realized that he was right. That dare only made her want to do it even more than she already did (and not just because of the stupid plan.)
"Fine," she said plopping down on the bench beside him. He grinned victoriously. She looked at him, waiting for him to say something, but he only kept smiling at her. "What do you want to talk about?"
"I want to talk about you," he answered immediately. "Your hopes, your dreams, everything you want in life. You learned a bit about me at my mother's ball, now I'd like to learn about you."
She chucked and eyed him shrewdly. "Just so you know, I'm too smart to be seduced by you…" she told him honestly. She had already let one vampire get too far with fancy words and seductive looks. She was never going to let anything like that happen again.
"Well, that's why I like you," Klaus responded, still smiling.
Caroline had not been expecting an answer like that. She didn't know what to do with that. Why did he have to say things like that and with that accent? Stupid. That's what his accent was.
She took a deep breath before saying, "Well, I don't really know some of those at the moment. I had my life planned out before I turned. Graduate high school, go to college, party a little, study a lot. Become an events planner and settle down here. Or close to here. Get married and have a family. Raise my family alongside Elena and Bonnie and everyone lives happily ever after. Then everything went to Hell. Damon came to town, and Stefan and Elena became a thing. Bonnie was suddenly a witch. I turned. Ever since then, I feel like my life has been one emergency after the next. Honestly, my only want in life at the moment is to still be alive at graduation." She finished. "Oh, and maybe be valedictorian. I am number one in the class currently, but who knows how long that will last with my attendance the last few weeks."
She hadn't meant to say all of that. She hadn't even really talked with her friends about her wish to maintain her number one ranking of the class through her high school career. She looked at him to gauge his reaction. He was smiling softly at her.
"Trust me, Love. I understand the feeling of constantly dealing with one emergency after the other. Running from Mikael for a thousand years wasn't the walk in the park that you might think," he joked, though she could tell that it really wasn't a laughing matter. "Now that he's gone I really hope for my family to be able to settle down."
Caroline felt that same pang of guilt that she had on the way out of the Grill when he mentioned his family. Her friends were probably trying to get Kol away from the public as they spoke.
"As for your plan from when you were a human, I will say that you have plenty of time ahead of you to figure out new dreams and goals, Sweetheart. You will be around for graduation," Klaus said looking at her pensively. "How about we move on to less serious matters then?"
"Like what?" She asked, thankful that they seemed to be done with the heavy stuff. She did appreciate his reassurance about her plans from when she was human.
He stared at her very seriously for a moment, before asking, "What… is your favorite color?" He finished his question with a smirk.
"Seriously?! An Original Vampire is asking me about my favorite color? Did I stumble into an episode of the Twilight Zone?" She couldn't believe that that was what he wanted to talk about. "It's like you want to play 20 Questions or something."
"I am very serious, Sweetheart," he answered with a mock serious face. "Also, I believe you meant Original Hybrid" He smirked as she rolled her eyes at his cockiness. "And if this 20 Questions, is something where I get to ask you any question I want and you must answer truthfully, then yes, that is exactly what I want to do."
"It's not just one person asking another person questions. Both people playing get to ask each other any question and everyone needs to answer truthfully. But, if one person asks a question that the other person also wants to know, it doesn't count as one of their own questions." She explained. "But I am not playing 20 Questions with you."
"And why not?" He asked in mock outrage.
"Because you're the Original Hybrid. It would be weird."
"No it wouldn't. It's just talking, as we have been for the past 10 minutes, Love."
She took a second to really look at him. She knew that she looked good tonight, but damn it all if he didn't look just as good. She had dressed to catch his eye. She was wearing her favorite black skinny jeans and a dangerously low cut black top. She had topped off the look with her knee-high black leather boots and a black leather half jacket. But him… he was also clad in all black (shocking). He was wearing black jeans that clung to him, but not in an unattractively tight way. He had on a black henley and his own black leather jacket.
"Fine," she started. "We'll compromise. We each get 10 questions to ask each other and we both have to be honest." He nodded his head in agreement and started to speak, but she cut him off. "Seeing as how you already started, my favorite color is yellow. Now as stated earlier, the rules say that I can turn the question around without wasting one of my own on something as silly as color preference." She gave him her own smirk and raised her eyebrows expectantly.
Now it was Klaus' turn to roll his eyes at her. "Black." He said simply.
"Shocking," she replied, pointedly scanning him.
"Now, Love, if you wanted a chance to stare at me, you didn't have to ask me something as silly as my favorite color to initiate it." He smirked at her causing her to blush.
"I was not staring at you!" she spluttered. "I was making a point. Of course your favorite color is black, it's half of your entire wardrobe."
"So you've been paying attention to what I wear on a regular basis, Sweetheart? I'm flattered." He shot back putting a hand over his heart.
She blushed even more. Was she flirting with him? That needed to stop. She cleared her throat. "What is your favorite time period that you lived through?"
Luckily for her, he didn't comment on her abrupt change of subject. "That is a tough one, Love. The Renaissance was a fantastic time to be alive. It seemed that the whole world was flourishing. Science, art, music, culture, you name it; it was all advancing. Now if we're talking a little more recently, I would have to say the 1920s. The world was still coming down from what was, at the time, thought to be the war to end all wars. Everyone was enjoying life to the fullest."
She smiled at his answer. She loved learning about the Renaissance in school. It was one of her absolute favorite times to study. She couldn't even imagine getting to actually live through it and see all of its effects for herself. "What was - "
Her question was cut off by him raising his hand and scolding her. "Ah ah ah Love. I believe you already asked your question for this round." He smirked when she huffed at him in response. "Now let's see… Since my previous question was apparently too silly for your tastes, let's go with… Why do you want to be an events coordinator?"
She didn't expect that question from him. He had actually been paying attention to her rambling about the life she had pictured when she was a human.
"Honestly? I'm comfortable doing it. I already plan so many things for this town and school that I figure I have a bit of a head start in the field. I've been told that I'm a bit of a neurotic control freak," she grimaced remembering exactly who had called her that, "and I decided to use that to my advantage. I like organizing things and making sure everything is planned the way I want it down to the tiniest detail. Now that I'm a vampire, that is amplified by a billion."
"I think you'd make an excellent event planner, Sweetheart," he started, but looked at her slightly sternly. "However, I don't think you need to do something just because you're comfortable with it. You will never be happy doing something that is easy for you, I can tell. You like to be challenged. You might like it for a few decades, but soon you'll get bored of the same old thing."
She opened her mouth to respond but was again cut off. "Who told you that you were a neurotic control freak?"
She froze. She had not meant for him to pick up on that part of her speal. She did not want to get into that with him.
"Now, now Darling, I believe it is my turn." She said mimicking his accent. "Have you really thought about not wanting to live anymore?" Her question surprised both of them. She didn't really know where it had come from. It was something that had stuck with her ever since he had come to give her his blood and asked if she wanted to live.
"Yes." He said seriously, looking away from her for a few seconds. "As I said before, my life hasn't been easy. And as much as I don't want to admit it most days, I know that some of that is my own doing. I can only blame my mother and Mikael for all of the things that have gone wrong in my life for so long. So, yes, there have been a few times where I have just considered ending it all. How much easier it would be to simply give up and let Mikael kill me. Then I would think about finally getting to be my full self, unlocking my werewolf side was a very strong motivator for me." He paused here, seeming to be debating with himself on if he should say more or not. She gave him a reassuring smile. "As motivating as that was, there was a bigger goal in mind. My siblings. Every time I thought about ending everything, a memory of one of them came to my mind. Rebekah begging me to teach her how to use a sword so she could fight her own battles, even though it wasn't seen as 'proper' for a female. Finn writing yet another love letter to Sage and blushing whenever Kol and I would mock him. Elijah getting comically upset whenever he would find even the slightest crease out of place in one of his suits. Kol popping up from a long solo trip, ready to travel with my sister and I again. Just those simple memories and the knowledge that if I was gone, I wouldn't get any more of those ever again. I think all vampires go through a time of wanting their life to end. It's the ones that come through the experience stronger that will live the longest."
Throughout his whole answer, she sat there stunned as she listened to him talk about his family. She watched his eyes fill with hope and pride as he shared a memory about each of his siblings. It was that answer that truly solidified what Caroline had been thinking about as she was walking away from him out of the Grill. He wasn't a terrible person. He loved his family and cared deeply, even if he didn't know how to or like showing it. She couldn't do it anymore.
She was about to say something when he had already started talking again, "Sorry, Love, it seems as though I made our chat quite serious again. I really didn't mean - "
"Klaus." She said to get his attention and put her hand on his arm that was stretched out across the back of the bench. "I can't do this anymore."
"What are you talking about, Sweetheart?" He asked, looking confused and slightly wary.
"I didn't like their stupid plan from the start and you just gave me the push I needed. They're going after Kol," she said simply, staring at him trying to put her apology in her eyes.
"They… Kol?" Klaus asked as he kept looking at her. Then it all seemed to click for him. He looked over his shoulder to the Grill and then back to her. His eyes seemed to lose a fraction of the warmth they had held just a minute ago. He studied her for a few more seconds before flashing away.
She watched him go truly hoping that he made it in time. She stood there for a moment trying to dissect her feelings about everything that she just did. She had just had a very nice talk with Klaus and she had most likely destroyed her friends' plan. She searched for that feeling of guilt for both of her actions, yet she couldn't find any.