Day 4 KLAROLINEAUWEEK : AU-AH.
rambling+missing you+drunk+college = this.
No smut, but language. Uncharacteristically cutesy and light-hearted for me, but I hope still not too sugary.
Caroline got out of one of the many shabby bars around Princeton, with aching foot from the killer heels she wore all night, and with the throbbing rhythm of that awful music drilling through her head from the amount of alcohol she consumed.
All she, and her friends, had wanted to do that evening was to relax, let loose, have some good time since they finally finished the ultimate exam period after weeks of brain wracking, all-nighters, coffee-induced hazes, subsequent zombie faces and no social life whatsoever.
Actually, she finally finished school. Now she only had to wait for the results in order to really close that important chapter of her life.
Their night of enjoyment really had been due, and frankly they deserved it. They all (theoretically) had their diplomas in pocket (a master in journalism and web communication in Caroline’s case) tons of loans to pay off and hesitant enthusiasm for their new lives on their minds.
She was proud to get her diploma, with good grades (and no she was not being presumptuous, she just didn’t work like a horse for weeks and months without the results she deserved). She was Caroline fucking Forbes after all.
And she really had a great time with the whole gang, minus one major nuisance.
But, now that she was drunk, tired and finally free to think bout other things than classes, the thing that has been in the back of her mind for not only the entire night but also the last few weeks came back with force and she couldn’t put it away again: she missed Klaus really hard. Like, really, really, really hard.
She has not seen him for months, and with her exams and his new job at the MOMA, they couldn’t even find the time to communicate by phone or even Skype.
Caroline fumbled to find the pocket attached to her jacket, and after a few moments and grunts, took her phone quickly and (drunkenness severely obstructing her rationality) called him immediately. Even if it was approximately four in the morning. And he was most probably sleeping. And he had work early in the morning. Whatev’s!
The dial tone rang a few times, so much that Caroline even thought he actually wouldn’t answer, and finally, at the last ring, his tired, sleepy and gruff voice answered.
“Sweetheart? Why are you calling so late?” he paused, and then teased her, as usual. “You missing me?”
Oh, how she missed that accent of his, and his voice, and the confused, sleepy yet smirky, face she imagined he wore at that instant, and his wonderful curly hair she loved to grip hard, and his hands, and the heat of his skin, and his neck, and his…
“Caroline, love, is something wrong?”
She realized that while he waited on the phone for her to answer him, she had lost herself in imagining him, so she giggled, obviously.
“Hi baby… No, nothing’s wrong… I just reeeeally miss you babe.”
Klaus didn’t answer immediately, and she thought that maybe he had actually fallen back asleep while waiting for her to respond.
“How drunk are you, sweetheart?”
And apparently, she really didn’t do a marvelous job at hiding the slur in her words like she thought she had.
“Yeah… been celebrating the end of exams babe. I was out with Stef, Bon, Josh and Elena. Uhhh and Damon too, since potential drama is like chocolate icing on cake for him. I swear, I’ll never understand why is Elena mooning over such an asshole. The whole night he was explicitly trying to get on my nerves : “Care-bear, you sure you want that ice-cream, this shirt isn’t really fitting you that well already?”; “Blondie, maybe you should take a nice mimosa instead of that bourbon, wouldn’t want your clit to become a dick, am I right?”; “You sure seem eager for some fun tonight, what, Klausie not satisfying your needs Barbie? Oh right, I forgot, not really around anymore is he?” Why is that guy so fucking annoying?! Isn’t there like… a group therapy thing for aggravating people that you want to punch in the face and/or stab every time they opened their mouths?!”
She heard a deep chuckle in her ear, and thus, was reminded that she actually rambled to someone and not alone, like she thought she did. And that someone was actually her sexy boyfriend of three years, Niklaus fucking Mikaelson, artistic genius, intelligent psycho and panty-dropper extraordinaire. Mmh, and his dick! (Fuck, she won big with this one.)
“I don’t know if there is such a thing love, I’ll look around tomorrow and ask a few questions to the right people, but if there is, consider Damon already on the waiting list.”
“Thank you sweetie baby, I knew I loved you for some reason!”
“How many drinks did you ingest love? I know it was at least a small dozen since you seem to be unable to stop calling me some declination of “baby”….”
“I don’t know boo, but definitely a lot… How can you speak so aloquently-, eloquin-, eloquen… good, when I just woke you up?!”
Her loudness control went away with each additional drink it seemed, or at least it appeared so judging by the few people that stood around her on the pavement in front of the bar and looked at her very strangely at that moment.
Her boyfriend only chuckled.
“Call it inherent talent or simply, genius, love, your choice.”
She smiled like a loon at the omnipresent arrogance in his voice. She knew he exaggerated it only for her enjoyment (even if he was without a doubt an arrogant asshole sometimes) only to make her laugh. And she did.
But that laugh quickly quieted down.
“I really do miss you Nik… I haven’t seen you in such a long time, I don’t even know which month it was! (Well I do know, because “Hello!” I’m still the kind of neurotic Caroline Forbes, but it hasn’t the same impact you know?)”
She paused a little while he giggled,in a manly way of course…
“I know, I know… we were both super busy: me trying to get that damned diploma and finish those exams from hell, and you settling in New York for your new, fantastic, career-jumping job, but… I just miss you. I want to kiss you, I want to cuddle with you and wake up without having to take my phone just to hear your voice, you know?”
She only heard silence for a while, then a swallow, and finally Klaus answered, his voice a little more subdued and gentle.
“Sweetheart, I know. I miss you tremendously too. I’m so glad that you can finally come join me now that your exams are over. I would have waited even years for you, and I don’t have the words to describe how thrilled I am to talk with you, and hear you say you missed me as much as I did you. But, love, you shouldn’t cry, this temporary separation can come out as a positive period for our relationship.”
Caroline swept her cheek with her hand, and (she really hated to admit it) Klaus was right, she had been crying without even knowing. She felt good because of his reassurances, they had lost so much contact these last few weeks that uncontrollably she began having doubts about their relationship, Damon certainly did not help tonight. But, she was troubled by his last words.
“How can it be that both us missing each other like crazy is a good thing huh?! Were you happy that I wasn’t there? That you didn’t have to deal with neurotic, exam-stressed Caroline? … Are you having doubts about us Niklaus?!”
“Sweetheart, please, calm down. Don’t make allegations you know are not true. I’m saying, Caroline, that it is a good thing because it served a purpose for the long term. It shows that we’re not like all those other couples made during college years, that once in the real world or with a change of situation as big as ours just crumble… it shows we’re made to last, love. That we were meant to be. That we’re strong enough.”
“Thanks, now I’m crying even harder Klaus! Why do you have to be so damn… you?!” She sniffed a few times, and continued a little bit more composed. “I think I’m calling you this late more often from now on, if you are so uncharacteristically optimistic and romantic during the night? Were you having pleasant dreams? Is that why?”
She only heard a soft laugh, again, and a short bout of silence afterward.
“Sweetheart, take a bus and come to New York. Come to me. Let’s start our lives together.”
His voice sounded resolute and determined, as if it was the most obvious and natural statement in the world.
And it really was. (She was already running, well, trying to, drunk and in 6 inches heels wasn’t really the best combo.)
