@brokencanbefixed Asked:
"But every day you can start again and face your demons." - Klaus to Caroline
Caroline glared through him, past him-- at first it seemed she was watching the sunlight yank itself behind the clouds, but she didn’t even register them. Klaus was a well of poetic platitudes. She wondered if he actually believed what rattled from that perfectly shaped mouth. If, like her, he woke at four in the morning with the stench of old guilt souring his mouth. ❝ That’s rich from you, ❞ she said, voice nearly sweet. ❝ You start again every century, at best. ❞ Caroline braced her hands on the balustrade, wrists skinny and angular in even the most flattering light. ❝ You make it sound so easy. ❞
A wind disturbed the wild ivy that crawled over the balcony rail, shifting Klaus’s scent closer: spice, leather, and the faintest hint of metal, like blood poorly scrubbed from fine silver.
Caroline waited, refusing to meet his gaze, ignoring the puppy-dog patience he wore so convincingly when he wanted something. She imagined shoving him off the balcony, just one sharp shove, but even in fantasy he would only laugh and land on his feet, the dark prince twirled by gravity’s cruel grace. He always landed upright. Caroline snorted. ❝ I think you love trying and failing. It gives you a reason to keep punishing yourself. Or everyone else. Martyrdom by massacre. ❞
She looked at his hand, the ache of what might have been. ❝ I'm sure you have quotas to fill. Cities to slaughter. That priority out ranks wasting your time here with me, Klaus. ❞
