Fic: The Capability To Earn Trust
Title: The Capability To Earn Trust
Author: simply_aly
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing/Characters: Klaus/Caroline/Damon
Rating: PG
Word Count: 505
Summary: Damon is with Caroline instead of Tyler while Klaus pursues her. Damon and the others suspect Klaus is up to no good, so they use his interest in Caroline as a way for her to keep an eye on him at this years Miss Mystic Falls event. (AU)
Klaus watches Caroline from across the lawn-she’s been watching him for a while now. When he asked her to accompany him to the Miss Mystic Falls event, he didn’t expect her to say yes, but she did. She danced with him earlier, but has been keeping her distance ever since.
Suddenly, her attention is diverted. Damon Salvatore is standing across the lawn, staring at her.
Klaus sets down his glass of champagne and quickly makes his way to Caroline before. “You’re leaving with him?” he asks her.
“Yes,” she answers firmly and with a decisive nod.
Klaus’s expression hardens as he glares behind Caroline and over at Damon. He refocuses on Caroline, stepping so close to her that their noses are practically touching. “Why?” he asks, truly curious. “He is no better than me. He hurt you once before. You know what he’s capable of, and yet you went back to him?”
Klaus sees her brief flinch at the reference to the way Damon treated her when they first met, but she schools her features quickly and her face is once again calm and serene. Caroline takes a deep breath and reaches out for his hand; he lets her take it. “Yes. I know exactly what he’s capable of. But what about you, Klaus, what are you capable of?” She drops his hand, then, and walks away…to him.
When her hand is on the car door, Damon speaks. “What was that about?”
“Nothing,” Caroline says in a reassuring manor after a moment’s hesitation, a fake smile on her face; but Klaus catches her eye as they pull away.
It was something, and they both know it.
-x-
Caroline sits in the passenger side seat of the car as Damon starts the car. “I guess we were wrong,” she hears him saying. “Stefan was so sure he was planning something big.”
Not even paying attention, but knowing how to respond, Caroline nods. She stares out the window, her eyes trained on Klaus. He’s staring back at her with this expression on his face that makes her visibly shiver. His intentions for her are so clear in his eyes-he wants what every man has wanted from her-but he holds back. He’s attempting to woo her. Klaus isn’t a good man, not by a long shot, but Caroline believes in giving credit where it’s due and the one thing she can say about Klaus is that he has never tried to tip the scales in his favor through means of compulsion.
Her breath hitches. Unlike Damon, a small voice reminds her.
Sensing her distress, but misinterpreting it, Damon reaches for her hand. “Hey, you okay?” he asks, but Caroline cannot answer.
The question she asked Klaus comes back to her as his face fades from view. She does know what Damon is capable of-that’s why she trusts him now-and if Damon’s able to earn trust in her eyes, what is really going to stop Klaus from earning that same trust eventually?
Requests? Check out this page.