"Impasse" (Klaus/Caroline, PG, future-fic, 1/2)sandrineJanuary 2 2015, 15:52:05 UTC
He rolls into Mystic Falls in a sleek black sports car, parking it in Caroline's driveway like owns the place.
"Hello, love. Did you miss me?" he says, and his lips curve into a smirk that's achingly familiar, like it hasn't been half a century since she's last seen it.
She puts on her most disapproving expression and makes her voice sound lofty. "Not at all," she lies. "I barely thought about you at all."
*
The tragedy of Klaus is that he never changes, Elijah once told Elena when they shared one of their moments of raw honesty, but it only takes Caroline a few hours to realize that he was wrong. There's something different about Klaus now, a hollowness behind his derisive little smile, a fakeness in his nonchalance, a lack of conviction when he playfully chides her for not having managed to leave this boring place behind.
"It's my home."
Caroline doesn't miss the way his jaw clenches minutely before he pastes on another smile and waves her objection off. "Come on now, sweetheart, you know better than that. There's nothing here for you anymore. Everyone who kept you here is either dead or they ran off as soon as they could. You'd do well to follow their example."
She purses her lips, annoyed. "I don't have to justify my life choices to you, Klaus. No one asked you to come here. You could have stayed in New Orleans playing king."
For a moment, he looks like he wants to rip her apart, and she's almost frightened of him. It's like she can feel his hand pushing into her chest, fingers tightening around her heart. But she never let Klaus intimidate her - not when he was terrorizing her friends and certainly not now when they've long since struck what feels like the most uncomfortable, hard won truce - so she pushes on. "What happened in New Orleans?"
The fight drains out of him and he turns away. He shrugs. "I just fancied a change of scenery, that's all."
*
He insists on taking her to dinner, and she knows it's better to give in than argue. Besides, she enjoys his attention. Always has, if she's honest with herself, even back when she shouldn't have.
So she puts on a pretty dress and pulls her hair up and lets him drive them to the quiet little French place two towns over that opened in June. They share a bottle of expensive wine and Klaus compels the waitress to kindly donate a little of her blood and tips her generously when Caroline objects. He makes Caroline talk about what she's been up to the last few decades, goading her into sharing little anecdotes about her trip to Europe a few years ago and dutifully asking after every one of her friends, as if he genuinely cares what Matt is up to (tending a bar in Alaska and not speaking to her since she turned him) or Bonnie (still caught in the ghostly state between dead and alive and haunting-slash-playing-house-with Damon) or if he didn't already know everything about Elena from her run-ins with Elijah.
Klaus lets her talk and talk and whenever she stops, he's ready with another question, like all he needs to do is keep her busy so she won't realize he's not offering any information himself.
She doesn't know why she lets him get away with it. She likes to think it's kindness, not forcing him to talk about something he's obviously running away from. The truth is, she's not sure she'd be ready for his answers, even if he was prepared to give them.
"Hello, love. Did you miss me?" he says, and his lips curve into a smirk that's achingly familiar, like it hasn't been half a century since she's last seen it.
She puts on her most disapproving expression and makes her voice sound lofty. "Not at all," she lies. "I barely thought about you at all."
*
The tragedy of Klaus is that he never changes, Elijah once told Elena when they shared one of their moments of raw honesty, but it only takes Caroline a few hours to realize that he was wrong. There's something different about Klaus now, a hollowness behind his derisive little smile, a fakeness in his nonchalance, a lack of conviction when he playfully chides her for not having managed to leave this boring place behind.
"It's my home."
Caroline doesn't miss the way his jaw clenches minutely before he pastes on another smile and waves her objection off. "Come on now, sweetheart, you know better than that. There's nothing here for you anymore. Everyone who kept you here is either dead or they ran off as soon as they could. You'd do well to follow their example."
She purses her lips, annoyed. "I don't have to justify my life choices to you, Klaus. No one asked you to come here. You could have stayed in New Orleans playing king."
For a moment, he looks like he wants to rip her apart, and she's almost frightened of him. It's like she can feel his hand pushing into her chest, fingers tightening around her heart. But she never let Klaus intimidate her - not when he was terrorizing her friends and certainly not now when they've long since struck what feels like the most uncomfortable, hard won truce - so she pushes on. "What happened in New Orleans?"
The fight drains out of him and he turns away. He shrugs. "I just fancied a change of scenery, that's all."
*
He insists on taking her to dinner, and she knows it's better to give in than argue. Besides, she enjoys his attention. Always has, if she's honest with herself, even back when she shouldn't have.
So she puts on a pretty dress and pulls her hair up and lets him drive them to the quiet little French place two towns over that opened in June. They share a bottle of expensive wine and Klaus compels the waitress to kindly donate a little of her blood and tips her generously when Caroline objects. He makes Caroline talk about what she's been up to the last few decades, goading her into sharing little anecdotes about her trip to Europe a few years ago and dutifully asking after every one of her friends, as if he genuinely cares what Matt is up to (tending a bar in Alaska and not speaking to her since she turned him) or Bonnie (still caught in the ghostly state between dead and alive and haunting-slash-playing-house-with Damon) or if he didn't already know everything about Elena from her run-ins with Elijah.
Klaus lets her talk and talk and whenever she stops, he's ready with another question, like all he needs to do is keep her busy so she won't realize he's not offering any information himself.
She doesn't know why she lets him get away with it. She likes to think it's kindness, not forcing him to talk about something he's obviously running away from. The truth is, she's not sure she'd be ready for his answers, even if he was prepared to give them.
( read on)
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