"Paradise Circus" (Caroline, Klaus) PG-13 (Part IVb of V)
Title: “Paradise Circus”
Author: Lila
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing: Caroline, Klaus
Spoiler: “All My Children”
Length: Part IVb of V
Summary: Klaus takes Caroline on a trip, but he’s the one to see the world.
Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing them for a few paragraphs.
Parts I, II, II, and IVa are here:
Author’s Note: So I’m just going to say uncle and call it a day. This fic just keeps getting longer and longer and who knows how long it will end up being. My current plan is this: shorter chapters, but quicker updates. So this chapter is shorter than usual, but continues on the same theme. Expect another post sometime this week. Thanks again for the wonderful support. I can’t believe how much people are enjoying this fic! Cut courtesy of Portishead, because I listened to “Dummy” in serious repeat the last time I was in Eastern Europe. Title courtesy of Massive Attack. Enjoy.
~ * ~
Caroline wants to stay in Switzerland forever, but Klaus has other plans.
They’ve been here three weeks, longer than their stay in any other place, and one morning he tells her it’s time go.
“Pack your bags,” he says. He’s resting his weight on his elbow, grinning down at her. He looks so young in his thin t-shirt, his hair mussed from sleep, and when he smiles she sees only the flash of smooth, flat teeth. It’s to forget what he is at this time of day.
She pulls the quilt over her head. “No, I like it too much here.”
“Caroliiiiiiine,” he drawls, reaches under the covers to run his fingers over stomach. It tickles and she can’t control the giggle that escapes. The tickling increases as he rolls on top of her, her thighs cradling his. She’s struggling beneath him and knows she looks like she’s having an epileptic fit, but she makes no move to push him away. She likes the feel of him pressing her into the mattress, the easy way his body fits against hers.
“Can we stay, please?” she asks when she finally stops laughing.
He reaches down, brushes tangled hair back from her brow. Their mouths are so close that if either of them still had breath, she’d feel his fanning out over her cheeks. He doesn’t kiss her though, just looks deep into her eyes and rolls away. “I promised you the world,” he reminds her. “We can’t very well stay in one place.”
She knows she’s not going to win this battle. This is his trip; she’s only along for the ride. “Okay,” she relents, pushes back the blankets to start packing.
She can’t help but hang her head a bit; she’s really not ready to go back into the hustle and bustle of another city, face more strangers. He snags her wrist as she heads for the closet, pulls her tight against him so her back presses against his chest and his mouth moves against her ear. “The cabin isn’t going anywhere. You can visit whenever you’d like.”
She relaxes against him, resists the urge to turn her head. It’s getting hard to think when he’s this close. “Promise?” she asks. She doesn’t want to come back to this place without him.
“Promise,” he says, lips moving against her temple.
She smiles as he gives her what she wants.
~ * ~
They head east and land in Budapest after a long night of traveling. Caroline wonders how airports used to seem so exotic and exciting; they’re now a necessary annoyance.
It’s late when their taxi deposits them at the hotel, but there’s no hiding the Danube’s beauty. The moonlight glitters on the water and lights from the castle shine brightly in the clear night.
She stands on their balcony and watches the river, the smooth flow of the current, the endless rush of water. It might be the only thing older than an Original.
Klaus comes outside but rather than stand beside her, he stands behind her, loosely gripping the railing. She should feel caught, trapped, snared in this narrow space between wrought iron and the hard planes of his chest, but she only feels safe, protected.
He hasn’t let her down yet.
He hums softly in her ear, Danube so blue, so bright and blue…
“That’s pretty.”
“If I were a musician I’d write you a song this night.”
Caroline should laugh. She wants to laugh. He’s saying ridiculous things like out of a Katherine Heigl movie, but she can’t laugh. She remembers the way her chest tightened when she took in his drawing, the horse and her face and so much beauty. She remembers hating Klaus, but enjoying the way he saw her, like no one else in her life could see her. His words let her know that nothing has changed.
She doesn’t laugh.
That feeling is twice as strong tonight.
~ * ~
Budapest is the exact right place to transition back to urban life.
Their hotel has a first class spa and they spend the day alternating between the Corinthia’s therapeutic pools and steam baths in the morning, pampering in the afternoon. Caroline finally gets a manicure and pedicure and a facial before a set of couples’ massages before bed.
Caroline barely notices Klaus at first because she’s too overwhelmed by the feel of hot stones working out the kinks in her muscles. There was a lot of archery practice over those three weeks; her muscles welcome the break.
She slips at one point and finds herself staring at him as his masseuse digs deep into the tight muscles of his back. She watches Eva’s hands fly, pressing and pushing, the heat of the stones soothing his muscles. His eyes are closed but his mouth rounds into a perfect oval as Eva works out a particularly tough knot.
Caroline hurriedly turns away and resists the urge to look back. She can’t ignore the part of her that wishes those were her hands on his skin.
---
They tour Buda the next morning. It feels strange to sling her bag over her shoulder after so many weeks of wearing little more than slouchy socks and sweatpants, but Caroline gamely picks up her guide book and follows Klaus into the heart of the old city.
She’s always wanted to be a princess and Castle Hill fits the bill.
Buda Castle is all ornate ballrooms and grand dining halls, drafty passages and beautiful bedrooms. She wanders about with her eyes open wide, imagining herself walking the halls with diamonds and pearls in her hair.
“I went to a party here once,” Klaus says when the pause in the Great Ballroom. He leans against a column and stares into the vast room, memories of the past washing over his face.
“Of course you did,” Caroline says and comes to stand beside him. All she sees is an empty space, but tries to imagine the world he sees: silk dresses, champagne, chaperones. There’s so much of his life that she doesn’t understand.
“Empress Elisabeth was quite fond of me.”
Caroline grasps at straws, tries to remember any female monarch except Elizabeth I. “Was she related to Catherine the Great?” she finally asks.
Klaus laughs, rich and full, and all the nostalgia disappears from his face. “I so enjoy you,” he says.
“Because I got my history wrong?”
“Because you’re so eager to learn.”
Caroline has never thought of herself as much of an intellectual, a good student perhaps, but her passions were always limited to things like cheerleading and glitter guns. She doesn’t recognize a cerebral part of herself.
“Well, you need to understand the past for the present to make sense, right?”
“It’s fortunate that you have a good teacher.”
He takes her hand, tangles his fingers with hers, and another jolt sings through her chest. They touch each other all the time, but this is different. She hugs her friends; she doesn’t hold hands with anyone but the boys she loves.
He looks at her hopefully but doesn’t move; he’s waiting for her to push him away.
She knows she should let go. He’s Klaus and she’s Caroline and Tyler is waiting back home, but they’re in Budapest and Mystic Falls is thousands of miles away and she doesn’t want to. It’s really that simple.
“Where to next?” she says and his face relaxes.
Caroline keeps holding his hand as they head for Franz Joseph’s apartments. She’s half convinced that Sleeping Beauty might have lived in this castle, but Klaus’s smile is the best thing she’s seen all day.
---
Though, the view from Fisherman’s Bastion gives it a good run for its money.
Klaus steers her past Matthias Church but stops at the entrance to an elaborate terrace. Caroline’s eyes widen. “Are we in Disney-Budapest?”
“I told you there was great beauty to see,” Klaus says and tugs her along. “Let me show you.”
They walk along the white stones, stopping every now and then to look at a fancy church or an elaborate suspension bridge, the Parliament building that looks like yet another castle. It’s hard to remember that this place is real, that castles on a hill aren’t figments of the Brothers Grimm’s imaginations.
She glances at Klaus a few feet ahead, wearing yet another nostalgic expression.
She frowns, tries to focus on the scenery around her. Not for the first time, she wishes she’s always been by his side.
---
They take on Pest in the afternoon and it’s like being in a completely different city. The streets are wide and sweeping, like if the Paris of those Audrey Hepburn movies was recreated in the east.
Especially when they walk down Andrássy Avenue towards Hero Square. The street is broad and tree-lined, with gorgeous buildings Klaus tells her are neo-renaissance. She tucks it away for a later day; she likes learning from him.
It’s bright and light and she thinks she could twirl for minutes on end and never careen into anything else. She’s not sure which she likes better, the close confines of the castle or the airy openness of the plaza.
She walks along the maze of white tiles, watches Klaus snap photos of the different statues. Eventually, he remembers her. "Say cheese," he says and she stops, puts her hands on her hips and smiles broadly for his camera.
Later, she browses his photos while he’s in the shower. She flips quickly through the sights they took in today, but she pauses on the photo from Hero Square.
She’s standing with her back to the Millennium Memorial, twin colonnades shimmering in the background. Caroline studies the statues, the men and women dueling for meaning before the full span of Hungarian history. She studies herself, the unfamiliar clothes and the hair in desperate need of cut, but it’s the look on her face that surprises her the most. She’s not wearing any makeup and she’s squinting at the camera, but her smile reaches all the way to her eyes.
She reaches back into the farthest reaches of her memory, tries to remember what life was like before her father left, when her mother wasn't married to her job, when Elena was only a friend and never a competitor.
She sighs and clicks off the camera, lets go of the past in favor of the present.
She wants to smile like this forever.
---
They run into an old girlfriend at dinner.
The neighborhood is seedy, but Klaus swears that Jozsefvaros has the best goulash in the city and that she can’t visit Budapest without trying authentic Hungarian cuisine.
Neither of them need the food, but he makes it interesting anyway, encouraging her to savor the paprika, roll the potato around on her tongue. She has nothing else to compare it to, but she’s willing to concede the point: the meal is divine.
After dinner he orders Unicum and she tries hard not to giggle over the name. “It’s like an orgasm for everyone,” she laughs, puts down her glass before she chokes on her drink.
“All for one, one for all,” he jokes and smiles over the rim of his glass. She’s still laughing when his eyes change and his expression hardens; her heightened hearing catches the click of heels before the woman is halfway across the room. She’s beautiful, like a tow-headed Heidi Klum, but just as tall and lanky and gorgeous.
“Niki,” she purrs, a slight accent flavoring her speech. “It’s been a long time.”
Caroline watches as Klaus puts down his glass and slowly rises to his feet. “Magda,” is all he says.
The woman smiles knowingly and flips her hair over her shoulder. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
Caroline doesn’t like how Magda emphasizes the word, “friend,” but still stands up and holds out a hand. “I’m Caroline.”
Magda holds back, not forever, but just long enough to make it clear that she’d rather die than shake Caroline’s hand. “Magdalena,” she finally says. “Only my special friends call my Magda.”
Caroline resists the urge to roll her eyes and smiles tightly. “Well, let’s see how the evening goes. Maybe we’ll hit it off.”
Magdalena doesn’t even respond as she slides into a seat opposite Klaus and signals for the waiter. “Now, Niki. Why don’t you tell me where you’ve been all these years.”
“Niki?”
Klaus’s cheeks flame a bit and he shoves his hands into his lap. “It was years ago - ”
“The 15th Century to be exact,” Magdalena chimes in. She stares at Caroline. “How old are you?”
Caroline does her best to tilt her chin up high. “Eighteen.”
“Niki,” Magdalena laughs and swats him gently on the arm. “So young!”
This time, Caroline’s the one to drop her hands under the table and she twists them together so she doesn’t slam her fist into Magdalena’s perfect face.
“So how did you two meet?” she asks, desperate to change the subject. She already feels too young, too plain. She needs the focus off her.
Klaus looks pained, but Magdalena grins. “Niki saved me,” she says.
“Magda,” he sighs.
“Don’t be shy,” she insists. “My village was going to burn me at the stake but Niki cut me down, saved me from the flames.” Her eyes fill with a burning light. “Then he turned me and gave me the world.”
Caroline feels something very much like tears pricking the back of her eyes. Klaus is over two thousand years old - to how many women has he made the same pledge?
“I thought Der Hexenhamme was a vile piece of trash,” Klaus says but Magdalena only shakes her head, laughs like he’s told a hilarious joke.
“Don’t be shy, Niki. Haven’t you told Caroline about our adventures together? We had the entire empire at our feet. Jens, Agathe…we had good times, didn’t we?”
“It was lifetimes ago,” Klaus says, his voice low and emotionless. Caroline feels increasingly numb herself. She thinks back to those weeks in Copenhagen, the peace and security of the family she’d created there. She can’t believe Klaus had had that same life with someone else.
“That’s why I’m here you know. The Hapsburgs might be gone, but their cities still hold memories.” She leans forward and her smile only widens. “You remember, right? The hunt, the prey, the thrill of the chase. Madame Mao had nothing on us.” She turns to Caroline. “You know the Gang of Four, right?” Caroline tries hard but can’t quite keep the blank look off her face. “Oh, sweetheart,” Magdalena chides. “You should know your history.” Caroline whips her eyes to Klaus but he says nothing, keeps his gaze fixated on a different girl that he saved.
Caroline has finally had enough and pushes to her feet. “I know that most people think you’re named after a whore.” She turns to Klaus, glares at him like they’re back in Mystic Falls. “I’m leaving.”
She’s gone before he can say anything, zips out the door in spite of who might see her, the truths she might reveal.
She makes it back to the hotel before she collapses on the bed - their bed - and cries. She remembers this morning, the way her chest tightened when he smiled at her.
Her heart hurts for entirely different reasons.
---
It takes Klaus over an hour to get home and she spends most of it crying.
She knows why she’s here. She remembers the agony in Tyler’s eyes, the bargain she struck to save his life. This isn’t a pleasure trip, no matter how much she’s enjoyed it.
She tries to picture Tyler’s face but all she can see is the cabin and Klaus and the Tati film that’s making him laugh. She’s Caroline Forbes - she doubts there will ever be a time when she’s not been played for the fool.
She thinks about calling Bonnie or Elena, crying over stupid boys with her girlfriends like she’s still in Mystic Falls, but pushes the thought aside when she realizes there’s no way to explain this heartbreak. “Yeah, so, Klaus tried to kill Tyler and I made a deal with him to save my boyfriend’s life and went to Europe with a monster. Except I realized he’s not so bad and kind of sweet and when I’m with him there’s no part of myself that I don’t like.”
She hiccups as another tear slips down her cheek. She’s the worst kind of idiot.
---
He finds her in the bathroom.
Her eyes are so swollen that she can barely see and she’s holding a cold washcloth to them, trying to ease the puffiness.
“I’m sorry,” he says and she turns, yanks down the washcloth to find him leaning against the doorjamb. “I should have gotten you out of there the moment she came to our table.”
“But you didn’t.”
He starts towards her, but her glare keeps him pinned in the doorframe. “I was caught off-guard. She was a part of my life for three hundred years. It’s easy to get caught up in the past.” He glances at her but she keeps up the glare. “Can I tell you about it?
Caroline puts down the washcloth and folds her arms over her chest. “Start talking.”
“Magda told the truth about how we met. I did save her, although she left out the part about massacring her village afterwards.” He smiles. “Best meal I had in years.”
Caroline ignores the attempt at dragging her out of her feelings. “Why didn’t you kill her too?”
“She was beautiful and I wanted her.” She flinches, but he doesn’t back down. She asked for honesty and there’s nothing he won’t give her. “We terrorized Europe for the next three hundred years. Then came Jens and finally Agathe.”
“Like a family,” Caroline sneers, wishes she could keep the jealousy and anger out of her voice.
“For a while, yes. Then Agathe wanted more and Jens wanted her. Magda and I parted soon after.”
“What, she left you for a Chaos Demon?”
Klaus clearly has no idea what she’s talking about but still presses forward. “Actually, because of a Petrova Doppelganger.” He looks at her pointedly. “No one enjoys coming in second to an obsession.”
Caroline feels a slight twinge of solidarity with Magdalena. She can relate to boys losing their minds over girls wearing Elena’s face. “So she left you.”
“And you know the rest of the story.” He takes a step forward and she holds out a hand to stop him. “I’ve learned my lesson, Caroline. Five hundred years and what do I have to show for it?”
“You’re a hybrid,” she reminds him. “You’re probably the most powerful person on earth.”
“But you’re angry with me. And right now that’s the only thing that matters.” He keeps walking towards her and she does nothing to stop him.
“Why are you here?” she whispers, looks at her feet so she doesn’t have to see the pity in his eyes.
His hands rest on her hips and tug so she stumbles across the tiled floor, falls into his chest. “Where else would I be?”
“Magdalena - ”
“They’re called exes for a reason.”
“I just don’t understand what you see in me.”
He tips her chin so she has to look at him. He’s blurry through the haze of tears, but she can see enough to know there’s no pity in his eyes. “Do you remember what I told you at the ball?”
Her cheeks flame a bit; she feels silly replaying those words. “Beautiful, strong, full of light. I remember.”
“I’ve spent centuries in darkness, Caroline. It’s time enough. With you…I’m seeing so many things for the first time.”
She doesn’t understand. She’s a small town girl from rural Virginia; he’s seen things she’s only read about in books. Magdalena is beautiful, worldly, all the things she only wishes she could be. “But I’m just me.”
His fingers stroke up the curve of her cheek. “That’s all I want you to be.” He pauses, eyes suddenly pained. “You can go home, if you’d like. I won’t stop you and there won’t be any consequences.”
The enormity of her choice is clear: Klaus is letting Tyler go; he’s setting her free. She could go home and restart her life, spend her summer sunning at the swim hole and making out with Tyler. She could laugh with Elena and rebuild her friendship with Bonnie and share the occasional dinner with her mom before college starts. She could do so many things, but all she wants is here in this room.
She takes his hand, slides her fingers between his and presses it over her heart. “Where to next?”
He flattens his palm and takes her free hand with his, presses it to the same spot on his chest. “Whatever you want.”
She's young and still learning, understanding the whole wide world, but she knows one thing: whatever the future holds, she wants to spend it with him.
~ * ~
Writers live for feedback - please leave some if you have the time.
Author: Lila
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing: Caroline, Klaus
Spoiler: “All My Children”
Length: Part IVb of V
Summary: Klaus takes Caroline on a trip, but he’s the one to see the world.
Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing them for a few paragraphs.
Parts I, II, II, and IVa are here:
Author’s Note: So I’m just going to say uncle and call it a day. This fic just keeps getting longer and longer and who knows how long it will end up being. My current plan is this: shorter chapters, but quicker updates. So this chapter is shorter than usual, but continues on the same theme. Expect another post sometime this week. Thanks again for the wonderful support. I can’t believe how much people are enjoying this fic! Cut courtesy of Portishead, because I listened to “Dummy” in serious repeat the last time I was in Eastern Europe. Title courtesy of Massive Attack. Enjoy.
~ * ~
Caroline wants to stay in Switzerland forever, but Klaus has other plans.
They’ve been here three weeks, longer than their stay in any other place, and one morning he tells her it’s time go.
“Pack your bags,” he says. He’s resting his weight on his elbow, grinning down at her. He looks so young in his thin t-shirt, his hair mussed from sleep, and when he smiles she sees only the flash of smooth, flat teeth. It’s to forget what he is at this time of day.
She pulls the quilt over her head. “No, I like it too much here.”
“Caroliiiiiiine,” he drawls, reaches under the covers to run his fingers over stomach. It tickles and she can’t control the giggle that escapes. The tickling increases as he rolls on top of her, her thighs cradling his. She’s struggling beneath him and knows she looks like she’s having an epileptic fit, but she makes no move to push him away. She likes the feel of him pressing her into the mattress, the easy way his body fits against hers.
“Can we stay, please?” she asks when she finally stops laughing.
He reaches down, brushes tangled hair back from her brow. Their mouths are so close that if either of them still had breath, she’d feel his fanning out over her cheeks. He doesn’t kiss her though, just looks deep into her eyes and rolls away. “I promised you the world,” he reminds her. “We can’t very well stay in one place.”
She knows she’s not going to win this battle. This is his trip; she’s only along for the ride. “Okay,” she relents, pushes back the blankets to start packing.
She can’t help but hang her head a bit; she’s really not ready to go back into the hustle and bustle of another city, face more strangers. He snags her wrist as she heads for the closet, pulls her tight against him so her back presses against his chest and his mouth moves against her ear. “The cabin isn’t going anywhere. You can visit whenever you’d like.”
She relaxes against him, resists the urge to turn her head. It’s getting hard to think when he’s this close. “Promise?” she asks. She doesn’t want to come back to this place without him.
“Promise,” he says, lips moving against her temple.
She smiles as he gives her what she wants.
~ * ~
They head east and land in Budapest after a long night of traveling. Caroline wonders how airports used to seem so exotic and exciting; they’re now a necessary annoyance.
It’s late when their taxi deposits them at the hotel, but there’s no hiding the Danube’s beauty. The moonlight glitters on the water and lights from the castle shine brightly in the clear night.
She stands on their balcony and watches the river, the smooth flow of the current, the endless rush of water. It might be the only thing older than an Original.
Klaus comes outside but rather than stand beside her, he stands behind her, loosely gripping the railing. She should feel caught, trapped, snared in this narrow space between wrought iron and the hard planes of his chest, but she only feels safe, protected.
He hasn’t let her down yet.
He hums softly in her ear, Danube so blue, so bright and blue…
“That’s pretty.”
“If I were a musician I’d write you a song this night.”
Caroline should laugh. She wants to laugh. He’s saying ridiculous things like out of a Katherine Heigl movie, but she can’t laugh. She remembers the way her chest tightened when she took in his drawing, the horse and her face and so much beauty. She remembers hating Klaus, but enjoying the way he saw her, like no one else in her life could see her. His words let her know that nothing has changed.
She doesn’t laugh.
That feeling is twice as strong tonight.
~ * ~
Budapest is the exact right place to transition back to urban life.
Their hotel has a first class spa and they spend the day alternating between the Corinthia’s therapeutic pools and steam baths in the morning, pampering in the afternoon. Caroline finally gets a manicure and pedicure and a facial before a set of couples’ massages before bed.
Caroline barely notices Klaus at first because she’s too overwhelmed by the feel of hot stones working out the kinks in her muscles. There was a lot of archery practice over those three weeks; her muscles welcome the break.
She slips at one point and finds herself staring at him as his masseuse digs deep into the tight muscles of his back. She watches Eva’s hands fly, pressing and pushing, the heat of the stones soothing his muscles. His eyes are closed but his mouth rounds into a perfect oval as Eva works out a particularly tough knot.
Caroline hurriedly turns away and resists the urge to look back. She can’t ignore the part of her that wishes those were her hands on his skin.
---
They tour Buda the next morning. It feels strange to sling her bag over her shoulder after so many weeks of wearing little more than slouchy socks and sweatpants, but Caroline gamely picks up her guide book and follows Klaus into the heart of the old city.
She’s always wanted to be a princess and Castle Hill fits the bill.
Buda Castle is all ornate ballrooms and grand dining halls, drafty passages and beautiful bedrooms. She wanders about with her eyes open wide, imagining herself walking the halls with diamonds and pearls in her hair.
“I went to a party here once,” Klaus says when the pause in the Great Ballroom. He leans against a column and stares into the vast room, memories of the past washing over his face.
“Of course you did,” Caroline says and comes to stand beside him. All she sees is an empty space, but tries to imagine the world he sees: silk dresses, champagne, chaperones. There’s so much of his life that she doesn’t understand.
“Empress Elisabeth was quite fond of me.”
Caroline grasps at straws, tries to remember any female monarch except Elizabeth I. “Was she related to Catherine the Great?” she finally asks.
Klaus laughs, rich and full, and all the nostalgia disappears from his face. “I so enjoy you,” he says.
“Because I got my history wrong?”
“Because you’re so eager to learn.”
Caroline has never thought of herself as much of an intellectual, a good student perhaps, but her passions were always limited to things like cheerleading and glitter guns. She doesn’t recognize a cerebral part of herself.
“Well, you need to understand the past for the present to make sense, right?”
“It’s fortunate that you have a good teacher.”
He takes her hand, tangles his fingers with hers, and another jolt sings through her chest. They touch each other all the time, but this is different. She hugs her friends; she doesn’t hold hands with anyone but the boys she loves.
He looks at her hopefully but doesn’t move; he’s waiting for her to push him away.
She knows she should let go. He’s Klaus and she’s Caroline and Tyler is waiting back home, but they’re in Budapest and Mystic Falls is thousands of miles away and she doesn’t want to. It’s really that simple.
“Where to next?” she says and his face relaxes.
Caroline keeps holding his hand as they head for Franz Joseph’s apartments. She’s half convinced that Sleeping Beauty might have lived in this castle, but Klaus’s smile is the best thing she’s seen all day.
---
Though, the view from Fisherman’s Bastion gives it a good run for its money.
Klaus steers her past Matthias Church but stops at the entrance to an elaborate terrace. Caroline’s eyes widen. “Are we in Disney-Budapest?”
“I told you there was great beauty to see,” Klaus says and tugs her along. “Let me show you.”
They walk along the white stones, stopping every now and then to look at a fancy church or an elaborate suspension bridge, the Parliament building that looks like yet another castle. It’s hard to remember that this place is real, that castles on a hill aren’t figments of the Brothers Grimm’s imaginations.
She glances at Klaus a few feet ahead, wearing yet another nostalgic expression.
She frowns, tries to focus on the scenery around her. Not for the first time, she wishes she’s always been by his side.
---
They take on Pest in the afternoon and it’s like being in a completely different city. The streets are wide and sweeping, like if the Paris of those Audrey Hepburn movies was recreated in the east.
Especially when they walk down Andrássy Avenue towards Hero Square. The street is broad and tree-lined, with gorgeous buildings Klaus tells her are neo-renaissance. She tucks it away for a later day; she likes learning from him.
It’s bright and light and she thinks she could twirl for minutes on end and never careen into anything else. She’s not sure which she likes better, the close confines of the castle or the airy openness of the plaza.
She walks along the maze of white tiles, watches Klaus snap photos of the different statues. Eventually, he remembers her. "Say cheese," he says and she stops, puts her hands on her hips and smiles broadly for his camera.
Later, she browses his photos while he’s in the shower. She flips quickly through the sights they took in today, but she pauses on the photo from Hero Square.
She’s standing with her back to the Millennium Memorial, twin colonnades shimmering in the background. Caroline studies the statues, the men and women dueling for meaning before the full span of Hungarian history. She studies herself, the unfamiliar clothes and the hair in desperate need of cut, but it’s the look on her face that surprises her the most. She’s not wearing any makeup and she’s squinting at the camera, but her smile reaches all the way to her eyes.
She reaches back into the farthest reaches of her memory, tries to remember what life was like before her father left, when her mother wasn't married to her job, when Elena was only a friend and never a competitor.
She sighs and clicks off the camera, lets go of the past in favor of the present.
She wants to smile like this forever.
---
They run into an old girlfriend at dinner.
The neighborhood is seedy, but Klaus swears that Jozsefvaros has the best goulash in the city and that she can’t visit Budapest without trying authentic Hungarian cuisine.
Neither of them need the food, but he makes it interesting anyway, encouraging her to savor the paprika, roll the potato around on her tongue. She has nothing else to compare it to, but she’s willing to concede the point: the meal is divine.
After dinner he orders Unicum and she tries hard not to giggle over the name. “It’s like an orgasm for everyone,” she laughs, puts down her glass before she chokes on her drink.
“All for one, one for all,” he jokes and smiles over the rim of his glass. She’s still laughing when his eyes change and his expression hardens; her heightened hearing catches the click of heels before the woman is halfway across the room. She’s beautiful, like a tow-headed Heidi Klum, but just as tall and lanky and gorgeous.
“Niki,” she purrs, a slight accent flavoring her speech. “It’s been a long time.”
Caroline watches as Klaus puts down his glass and slowly rises to his feet. “Magda,” is all he says.
The woman smiles knowingly and flips her hair over her shoulder. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
Caroline doesn’t like how Magda emphasizes the word, “friend,” but still stands up and holds out a hand. “I’m Caroline.”
Magda holds back, not forever, but just long enough to make it clear that she’d rather die than shake Caroline’s hand. “Magdalena,” she finally says. “Only my special friends call my Magda.”
Caroline resists the urge to roll her eyes and smiles tightly. “Well, let’s see how the evening goes. Maybe we’ll hit it off.”
Magdalena doesn’t even respond as she slides into a seat opposite Klaus and signals for the waiter. “Now, Niki. Why don’t you tell me where you’ve been all these years.”
“Niki?”
Klaus’s cheeks flame a bit and he shoves his hands into his lap. “It was years ago - ”
“The 15th Century to be exact,” Magdalena chimes in. She stares at Caroline. “How old are you?”
Caroline does her best to tilt her chin up high. “Eighteen.”
“Niki,” Magdalena laughs and swats him gently on the arm. “So young!”
This time, Caroline’s the one to drop her hands under the table and she twists them together so she doesn’t slam her fist into Magdalena’s perfect face.
“So how did you two meet?” she asks, desperate to change the subject. She already feels too young, too plain. She needs the focus off her.
Klaus looks pained, but Magdalena grins. “Niki saved me,” she says.
“Magda,” he sighs.
“Don’t be shy,” she insists. “My village was going to burn me at the stake but Niki cut me down, saved me from the flames.” Her eyes fill with a burning light. “Then he turned me and gave me the world.”
Caroline feels something very much like tears pricking the back of her eyes. Klaus is over two thousand years old - to how many women has he made the same pledge?
“I thought Der Hexenhamme was a vile piece of trash,” Klaus says but Magdalena only shakes her head, laughs like he’s told a hilarious joke.
“Don’t be shy, Niki. Haven’t you told Caroline about our adventures together? We had the entire empire at our feet. Jens, Agathe…we had good times, didn’t we?”
“It was lifetimes ago,” Klaus says, his voice low and emotionless. Caroline feels increasingly numb herself. She thinks back to those weeks in Copenhagen, the peace and security of the family she’d created there. She can’t believe Klaus had had that same life with someone else.
“That’s why I’m here you know. The Hapsburgs might be gone, but their cities still hold memories.” She leans forward and her smile only widens. “You remember, right? The hunt, the prey, the thrill of the chase. Madame Mao had nothing on us.” She turns to Caroline. “You know the Gang of Four, right?” Caroline tries hard but can’t quite keep the blank look off her face. “Oh, sweetheart,” Magdalena chides. “You should know your history.” Caroline whips her eyes to Klaus but he says nothing, keeps his gaze fixated on a different girl that he saved.
Caroline has finally had enough and pushes to her feet. “I know that most people think you’re named after a whore.” She turns to Klaus, glares at him like they’re back in Mystic Falls. “I’m leaving.”
She’s gone before he can say anything, zips out the door in spite of who might see her, the truths she might reveal.
She makes it back to the hotel before she collapses on the bed - their bed - and cries. She remembers this morning, the way her chest tightened when he smiled at her.
Her heart hurts for entirely different reasons.
---
It takes Klaus over an hour to get home and she spends most of it crying.
She knows why she’s here. She remembers the agony in Tyler’s eyes, the bargain she struck to save his life. This isn’t a pleasure trip, no matter how much she’s enjoyed it.
She tries to picture Tyler’s face but all she can see is the cabin and Klaus and the Tati film that’s making him laugh. She’s Caroline Forbes - she doubts there will ever be a time when she’s not been played for the fool.
She thinks about calling Bonnie or Elena, crying over stupid boys with her girlfriends like she’s still in Mystic Falls, but pushes the thought aside when she realizes there’s no way to explain this heartbreak. “Yeah, so, Klaus tried to kill Tyler and I made a deal with him to save my boyfriend’s life and went to Europe with a monster. Except I realized he’s not so bad and kind of sweet and when I’m with him there’s no part of myself that I don’t like.”
She hiccups as another tear slips down her cheek. She’s the worst kind of idiot.
---
He finds her in the bathroom.
Her eyes are so swollen that she can barely see and she’s holding a cold washcloth to them, trying to ease the puffiness.
“I’m sorry,” he says and she turns, yanks down the washcloth to find him leaning against the doorjamb. “I should have gotten you out of there the moment she came to our table.”
“But you didn’t.”
He starts towards her, but her glare keeps him pinned in the doorframe. “I was caught off-guard. She was a part of my life for three hundred years. It’s easy to get caught up in the past.” He glances at her but she keeps up the glare. “Can I tell you about it?
Caroline puts down the washcloth and folds her arms over her chest. “Start talking.”
“Magda told the truth about how we met. I did save her, although she left out the part about massacring her village afterwards.” He smiles. “Best meal I had in years.”
Caroline ignores the attempt at dragging her out of her feelings. “Why didn’t you kill her too?”
“She was beautiful and I wanted her.” She flinches, but he doesn’t back down. She asked for honesty and there’s nothing he won’t give her. “We terrorized Europe for the next three hundred years. Then came Jens and finally Agathe.”
“Like a family,” Caroline sneers, wishes she could keep the jealousy and anger out of her voice.
“For a while, yes. Then Agathe wanted more and Jens wanted her. Magda and I parted soon after.”
“What, she left you for a Chaos Demon?”
Klaus clearly has no idea what she’s talking about but still presses forward. “Actually, because of a Petrova Doppelganger.” He looks at her pointedly. “No one enjoys coming in second to an obsession.”
Caroline feels a slight twinge of solidarity with Magdalena. She can relate to boys losing their minds over girls wearing Elena’s face. “So she left you.”
“And you know the rest of the story.” He takes a step forward and she holds out a hand to stop him. “I’ve learned my lesson, Caroline. Five hundred years and what do I have to show for it?”
“You’re a hybrid,” she reminds him. “You’re probably the most powerful person on earth.”
“But you’re angry with me. And right now that’s the only thing that matters.” He keeps walking towards her and she does nothing to stop him.
“Why are you here?” she whispers, looks at her feet so she doesn’t have to see the pity in his eyes.
His hands rest on her hips and tug so she stumbles across the tiled floor, falls into his chest. “Where else would I be?”
“Magdalena - ”
“They’re called exes for a reason.”
“I just don’t understand what you see in me.”
He tips her chin so she has to look at him. He’s blurry through the haze of tears, but she can see enough to know there’s no pity in his eyes. “Do you remember what I told you at the ball?”
Her cheeks flame a bit; she feels silly replaying those words. “Beautiful, strong, full of light. I remember.”
“I’ve spent centuries in darkness, Caroline. It’s time enough. With you…I’m seeing so many things for the first time.”
She doesn’t understand. She’s a small town girl from rural Virginia; he’s seen things she’s only read about in books. Magdalena is beautiful, worldly, all the things she only wishes she could be. “But I’m just me.”
His fingers stroke up the curve of her cheek. “That’s all I want you to be.” He pauses, eyes suddenly pained. “You can go home, if you’d like. I won’t stop you and there won’t be any consequences.”
The enormity of her choice is clear: Klaus is letting Tyler go; he’s setting her free. She could go home and restart her life, spend her summer sunning at the swim hole and making out with Tyler. She could laugh with Elena and rebuild her friendship with Bonnie and share the occasional dinner with her mom before college starts. She could do so many things, but all she wants is here in this room.
She takes his hand, slides her fingers between his and presses it over her heart. “Where to next?”
He flattens his palm and takes her free hand with his, presses it to the same spot on his chest. “Whatever you want.”
She's young and still learning, understanding the whole wide world, but she knows one thing: whatever the future holds, she wants to spend it with him.
~ * ~
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