fic: rose garden full of thorns
title: rose garden filled with thorns
fandom: the vampire diaries
pairing: caroline/klaus (spoilers into season four)
word count: 926
a/n: written for tenshinrtaiga for my writing meme and the prompt “klaus/caroline, I'm not a princess (this isn't a fairytale)”. I hope you like it and it’s something resembling what you wanted. When I see/get prompts that have fairytale themes in them, I tend to run with that as much as possible. also, I’m sorry for the long wait.
When Caroline was a little girl she dreamed of being a princess.
It was an easy dream to fall into for a silly little girl like her. With her pretty dresses, finer than those around her, bought and given to her with broken smiles she didn’t recognize.
Such an easy dream to fall into when her daddy called her his little princess and would bow when she came into a room all dressed up just to make her giggle.
An easy dream when your name was something important, when Forbes was said like it meant something special, like you were born into something that not everyone could have.
Being a princess, it didn’t seem like such a dream to a little girl like Caroline, learning to curtsy and dance at such a young age. Learning to smile and always be polite.
Such an easy dream to fall into.
--
The dream crumbled around her easily.
Reality set in as she grew older. Her life was torn apart and her father disappeared to a different home and her mother disappeared into her job.
Reality set in when she learned the Forbes name meant the same thing as the Gilberts or the Lockwoods. When she learned she was nothing special. When she heard the Forbes name whispered in conversations she wasn’t supposed to hear, when rumors circulated about them.
It was an easy dream to fall into and even easier one to wake from.
But Caroline kept what she had learned and smiled through it all. Crossed her legs and curled her hair and said her last name with pride.
There were some things they could not take from her, no matter how hard they tried.
--
It’s an easy dream to fall into.
When beautiful dresses appear at your doorstep, gifts at your bedside, and drawings of a beautiful girl who doesn’t exist appears just for you.
It’s an easy dream to fall into when someone is saying everything Caroline has ever wanted to hear, when they chose her over everybody else (over Elena), when they call her beautiful and strong, like maybe she can be both and not just one or the other.
It’s an easy dream to fall into, with wolves and princes and a prick of the skin that can send her into an endless sleep, and savior that looks at her like maybe she could be anything.
But the bracelet gets thrown at his feet, the dress gets pushed to the back of her closet and the picture he drew burned, her own fingers striking the match.
It’s an easy dream to fall into and it’s almost just as easy to wake up from.
--
Caroline doesn’t believe in fairytales anymore.
Life had taught her lessons found in the storybooks about wolves and wandering off the proper path, about the woman who wanted to be the most powerful, the most beautiful, and would gladly hand you an apple in the form of a pillow and leave you choking for breath.
Life had taught her lots of things.
Trust was not one of those things.
Klaus snuck under her skin anyways, when she wasn’t looking, when her eyes were distracted, when she was too busy looking at him watching her to see the look in his eyes, when she was too busy trying to think of the right thing to say and he said it for her.
He snuck in, under her skin, until she could feel him, feel him in her blood, taste it the back of her mouth, feel it running through her veins.
(She forgets the real fairytales are full of blood, blood and death, and no happily-ever-afters guaranteed. Just forever.
And that, Klaus had promised her. She had forever now.)
But Caroline didn’t believe in fairytales. Not anymore.
--
Klaus is not a knight to save her, he is not the prince who sees the beautiful girl and falls in love, he is not her savior.
His teeth break the flesh of her neck, a prick of the skin, and then darkness.
She was dying and there is no one coming to save her.
There is no such thing as true love’s kiss.
Instead there is just Klaus, watching her and hiding behind things he doesn’t believe in. She comes in and out, hallucinations and reality combining until she’s lost. Sees things she doesn’t want to, sees things she wants to forgets, hears her own voice calling out someone’s name, but never remembers who.
Sometime she gets lost in the forest, running in her blue ball gown, and its Klaus chasing after her, calling her name, and he catches her. He always catches her. But he doesn’t kill her, no he never does, he kisses her with blood stained lips instead.
Caroline kisses him back and it feels real, feels like it happened.
The blood tastes like hers and his mixed together.
She wakes with a gasp, her lips stained red, and Klaus’s blood running through her veins.
--
Caroline is not a princess and she lives in a land full of monsters, but not in a fairytale. But she looks at Klaus and sees him differently than she does the rest of the world.
Because he is the villain, the wolf, and the spindle, the needle to prick her finger on.
He draws blood and he likes it.
But he is the huntsman too, telling her to run, he’s the prince bringing her out of an endless sleep, he is the prince that sees only her in a crowded room.
And Caroline does not know what to think of that.
(It’s an easy dream to fall into, even when you don’t realize your falling at all.)
fandom: the vampire diaries
pairing: caroline/klaus (spoilers into season four)
word count: 926
a/n: written for tenshinrtaiga for my writing meme and the prompt “klaus/caroline, I'm not a princess (this isn't a fairytale)”. I hope you like it and it’s something resembling what you wanted. When I see/get prompts that have fairytale themes in them, I tend to run with that as much as possible. also, I’m sorry for the long wait.
When Caroline was a little girl she dreamed of being a princess.
It was an easy dream to fall into for a silly little girl like her. With her pretty dresses, finer than those around her, bought and given to her with broken smiles she didn’t recognize.
Such an easy dream to fall into when her daddy called her his little princess and would bow when she came into a room all dressed up just to make her giggle.
An easy dream when your name was something important, when Forbes was said like it meant something special, like you were born into something that not everyone could have.
Being a princess, it didn’t seem like such a dream to a little girl like Caroline, learning to curtsy and dance at such a young age. Learning to smile and always be polite.
Such an easy dream to fall into.
--
The dream crumbled around her easily.
Reality set in as she grew older. Her life was torn apart and her father disappeared to a different home and her mother disappeared into her job.
Reality set in when she learned the Forbes name meant the same thing as the Gilberts or the Lockwoods. When she learned she was nothing special. When she heard the Forbes name whispered in conversations she wasn’t supposed to hear, when rumors circulated about them.
It was an easy dream to fall into and even easier one to wake from.
But Caroline kept what she had learned and smiled through it all. Crossed her legs and curled her hair and said her last name with pride.
There were some things they could not take from her, no matter how hard they tried.
--
It’s an easy dream to fall into.
When beautiful dresses appear at your doorstep, gifts at your bedside, and drawings of a beautiful girl who doesn’t exist appears just for you.
It’s an easy dream to fall into when someone is saying everything Caroline has ever wanted to hear, when they chose her over everybody else (over Elena), when they call her beautiful and strong, like maybe she can be both and not just one or the other.
It’s an easy dream to fall into, with wolves and princes and a prick of the skin that can send her into an endless sleep, and savior that looks at her like maybe she could be anything.
But the bracelet gets thrown at his feet, the dress gets pushed to the back of her closet and the picture he drew burned, her own fingers striking the match.
It’s an easy dream to fall into and it’s almost just as easy to wake up from.
--
Caroline doesn’t believe in fairytales anymore.
Life had taught her lessons found in the storybooks about wolves and wandering off the proper path, about the woman who wanted to be the most powerful, the most beautiful, and would gladly hand you an apple in the form of a pillow and leave you choking for breath.
Life had taught her lots of things.
Trust was not one of those things.
Klaus snuck under her skin anyways, when she wasn’t looking, when her eyes were distracted, when she was too busy looking at him watching her to see the look in his eyes, when she was too busy trying to think of the right thing to say and he said it for her.
He snuck in, under her skin, until she could feel him, feel him in her blood, taste it the back of her mouth, feel it running through her veins.
(She forgets the real fairytales are full of blood, blood and death, and no happily-ever-afters guaranteed. Just forever.
And that, Klaus had promised her. She had forever now.)
But Caroline didn’t believe in fairytales. Not anymore.
--
Klaus is not a knight to save her, he is not the prince who sees the beautiful girl and falls in love, he is not her savior.
His teeth break the flesh of her neck, a prick of the skin, and then darkness.
She was dying and there is no one coming to save her.
There is no such thing as true love’s kiss.
Instead there is just Klaus, watching her and hiding behind things he doesn’t believe in. She comes in and out, hallucinations and reality combining until she’s lost. Sees things she doesn’t want to, sees things she wants to forgets, hears her own voice calling out someone’s name, but never remembers who.
Sometime she gets lost in the forest, running in her blue ball gown, and its Klaus chasing after her, calling her name, and he catches her. He always catches her. But he doesn’t kill her, no he never does, he kisses her with blood stained lips instead.
Caroline kisses him back and it feels real, feels like it happened.
The blood tastes like hers and his mixed together.
She wakes with a gasp, her lips stained red, and Klaus’s blood running through her veins.
--
Caroline is not a princess and she lives in a land full of monsters, but not in a fairytale. But she looks at Klaus and sees him differently than she does the rest of the world.
Because he is the villain, the wolf, and the spindle, the needle to prick her finger on.
He draws blood and he likes it.
But he is the huntsman too, telling her to run, he’s the prince bringing her out of an endless sleep, he is the prince that sees only her in a crowded room.
And Caroline does not know what to think of that.
(It’s an easy dream to fall into, even when you don’t realize your falling at all.)