AH prompt: Caroline breaks up with Klaus because her friends don’t like him (give me the angst! And end it however you see fit ☺️).
Klaus chewed on the inside of his cheek, knowing if he stopped that he'd say something he'd regret.
But she was looking at him like he was the one ruining everything, that she was powerless to make any other choice. "You haven't even tried to get to know them," Caroline said for perhaps the third time. Her arguments kept circling the drain - much like their relationship, it seemed. "And it's so hard to play referee between you all, I'm just..."
"Just what?" he asked, his voice stony. "Tell me what you are that I can't possibly live up to."
Sadness made her usually vibrant face seem hollow. "I'm just tired." As though to prove her point, her whole body caved in on itself as she curled up in the armchair. She tucked her legs into her chest, though the arms she wrapped tightly around them did nothing to hide the slight tremble from him. "I don't think I can do it anymore."
Feeling pretty hollow himself, it took an immense effort for Klaus to pull himself up to stand. There was no victory in towering over her, especially not when her eyes widened. The light caught in the pools of her tears, and she somehow still looked beautiful when breaking his heart. "Sorry to have been a burden, lo-" He swallowed, his mouth tasting dry as ash. "Thank you for showing me where I stand."
He had only hoped it wouldn't be on the outside, looking in to where she smiled and laughed and loved - just not with him. Not when her friends had something to say about it, apparently. Scowling at the burn of his own tears, he moved to leave before they could threaten to fall. He'd nearly made it to the front door when-
"Klaus!" He froze with his hand on the doorknob, everything in him urging him to leave anyway. But Caroline sounded so distraught, and somehow that still mattered more to him. "Where are you going?"
Confused, he turned to find her standing, like she'd started to chase him. "I'm...leaving?"
Her eyes somehow widened further, looking even more upset than she'd already been. "So, you're done? You're not even willing to try to fix things with my friends?"
He blinked. "I don't understand. Aren't you breaking up with me?"
"I'm-" Frustrated at the distance between them, Caroline marched over to tug him back to her living room. When she sat them both on the couch, though, she didn't drop his hands. "I'm tired of being a mediator, not your girlfriend," she clarified. "I can only do so much to change their first impressions of you without you actually showing them you're more than the smarmy ass who thought paying off everyone's tab was the right way to win them over."
"In my defense, that usually works in my family," he pointed out, the old argument rolling off his tongue like a habit. "And you told me not to apologize for that."
Caroline squeezed his hands, a ghost of a smile on her face. "I did," she agreed, "but I also thought you'd take it as a lesson to actually get to know my friends, that they can't be bought with anything other than time and good interactions. I can tell them how much I love you, but it means nothing if they don't see the guy I love. They've only seen corporate Klaus, with the light small talk and too charming veneer, and I think we both remember I did not like him."
Wetting his lips, he traced his thumb over the bird on her wrist. She had a point; he couldn't even get her attention until he brought down a wall or two, letting her see his sketchbook when he'd left it out on his desk one day. That led to a coffee break, then a lunch, eventually dinner. Now, they had a signed form in their HR department declaring their relationship, one he wouldn't have to rescind in shame. But her friends, her friends were taking longer to win over. He suddenly understood her exhaustion, if his was a bit different. "I don't know how to change that," he finally said, too quiet in his fear of losing her.
"We'll figure it out," she promised. "I'm just asking that you try."
Klaus looked up to meet her eyes, knowing he would try if it made her happy. Losing her, he'd found, would be intolerable. "I will," he promised in return, bringing her wrist up to his lips. "But I think you did secretly like the corporate charm."
Rolling her eyes, she knocked her shoulder into his and scoffed. "Oh, please, you're lucky I thought your stalker sketches were cute."
Lucky indeed, he thought to himself as she burrowed into his side. "Now, where to begin with your friends?"
