"Impasse" (Klaus/Caroline, PG, future-fic, 2/2)sandrineJanuary 2 2015, 15:52:31 UTC
He tosses and turns in his sleep, like a man plagued by night terrors.
She puts her hand on his cheek carefully, as if she's trying to placate a frightened, wounded animal, and when his eyes snap open it doesn't surprise her that they're a predatory yellow.
She doesn't shrink back, lets him pull her in and kiss her and doesn't pay any mind to the sharp, deadly teeth that could poison her with no more than a scrape. The danger of it doesn't thrill her, doesn't make her lust spike, but it doesn't scare her either. Trusting Klaus with her life is an old game that she's played for a long time now. If he wanted her dead, she'd be dead a dozen times over.
*
"Why didn't you turn your mother when she was dying?" he asks one morning, taking a framed picture of her and her mom at graduation from the shelf above the bed.
"She didn't want me to." Caroline's smile is sad. It hasn't stopped hurting, but it's a different kind of pain now, after so many years, like an old injury that never quite healed.
Klaus' grip on the plastic frame is so tight that she's afraid he might break it, so she gently pries it out of his hands and replaces it. "I tell myself it's the normal course of things. It's what being human is about - life and death, love and grief. What you said about the hummingbird once. Making every moment count."
He looks haunted, tired. "What if it's not enough? The time we have together."
Somehow, she doesn't think she's the one Klaus is referring to in that 'we'. She thinks of her parents, of Vicky, Stefan, Jeremy. All the friends and lovers she cared for and lost. "It never is."
*
He leaves on a Wednesday morning in fall. It's raining, and the world looks grey and washed out.
On the driveway next to his car, he kisses her, his hand cupping her cheek with a gentleness that makes her ache. "Thank you," he whispers against her lips, and the intensity of his gaze is almost too much.
She doesn't ask 'for what', just like she doesn't ask where he's going, or whether he's going to be okay. "Anytime."
The seriousness slips from his face, replaced by the old smile, a little more genuine now than it was when he arrived. "Don't be a stranger now, love."
She watches him drive off until his car disappears at the horizon. Perhaps, she thinks, it's time to leave Mystic Falls, for a little while at least. There's a whole world out there and just because it's immortal doesn't mean it'll be waiting for her.
Re: "Impasse" (Klaus/Caroline, PG, future-fic, 2/2)sandrineJanuary 3 2015, 21:58:48 UTC
Thank you! :) I have some experience writing Klaus, and he's admittedly one of my favourite characters to write in any fandom (perhaps it should worry me how easy I find it to get into Klaus Mikaelsson's head... :p), but I never tackled the ship before.
Re: "Impasse" (Klaus/Caroline, PG, future-fic, 2/2)sandrineJanuary 3 2015, 22:02:21 UTC
I'm so happy to hear that you thought so. Writing Caroline (and Klaroline!) was new to be, so I'm thrilled that she felt real. Thanks for the lovely comment. :)
She puts her hand on his cheek carefully, as if she's trying to placate a frightened, wounded animal, and when his eyes snap open it doesn't surprise her that they're a predatory yellow.
She doesn't shrink back, lets him pull her in and kiss her and doesn't pay any mind to the sharp, deadly teeth that could poison her with no more than a scrape. The danger of it doesn't thrill her, doesn't make her lust spike, but it doesn't scare her either. Trusting Klaus with her life is an old game that she's played for a long time now. If he wanted her dead, she'd be dead a dozen times over.
*
"Why didn't you turn your mother when she was dying?" he asks one morning, taking a framed picture of her and her mom at graduation from the shelf above the bed.
"She didn't want me to." Caroline's smile is sad. It hasn't stopped hurting, but it's a different kind of pain now, after so many years, like an old injury that never quite healed.
Klaus' grip on the plastic frame is so tight that she's afraid he might break it, so she gently pries it out of his hands and replaces it. "I tell myself it's the normal course of things. It's what being human is about - life and death, love and grief. What you said about the hummingbird once. Making every moment count."
He looks haunted, tired. "What if it's not enough? The time we have together."
Somehow, she doesn't think she's the one Klaus is referring to in that 'we'. She thinks of her parents, of Vicky, Stefan, Jeremy. All the friends and lovers she cared for and lost. "It never is."
*
He leaves on a Wednesday morning in fall. It's raining, and the world looks grey and washed out.
On the driveway next to his car, he kisses her, his hand cupping her cheek with a gentleness that makes her ache. "Thank you," he whispers against her lips, and the intensity of his gaze is almost too much.
She doesn't ask 'for what', just like she doesn't ask where he's going, or whether he's going to be okay. "Anytime."
The seriousness slips from his face, replaced by the old smile, a little more genuine now than it was when he arrived. "Don't be a stranger now, love."
She watches him drive off until his car disappears at the horizon. Perhaps, she thinks, it's time to leave Mystic Falls, for a little while at least. There's a whole world out there and just because it's immortal doesn't mean it'll be waiting for her.
End
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Fantastic job :)
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment