@klarolinefanficweek Week Two: Historical
Caroline Forbes had wanted to be center stage for as long as she could remember. She longed for the applause, the spotlight, for everyone to be watching her. And as things finally fell into place, she wanted desperately for it to last. She had paid her dues; had danced until her feet bled, sung until her voice gave out, had put up with drunk male costars and directors that were only interested in getting her onto the casting couch. Caroline had worked her way up from chorus girl to the best friend in six different movies and now she was finally a leading lady. She had more than earned her name in bright lights, front and center, and she would do whatever it took to keep it there. Because despite her baby face and her fake birth certificate, she knew that in Hollywood there was always someone out there prettier and younger than you. No one stayed young and beautiful forever; it was just a matter of time before you got cast aside. But Caroline was determined to make sure that didn’t happen for a long long time.
Enter Klaus Mikaelson, immortal, bored and lonely, though he would never admit it. He came to the west coast to check out the movie craze that seemed to have taken over. He still had doubts about it, nothing would ever beat a live performance in his eyes, but they had made progress and were even talking about making them in color soon, so he was curious. He thought he could spend a few weeks, maybe a decade, pretending to be a producer or photographer, something to get him close enough to see what was happening in person. It was all wonderfully more tawdry and indecent than he had expected; parties non-stop, pills and alcohol happily handed out by the people in charge, and too many good-looking people to count, all craving just a little but more attention.
Klaus had been there barely a week when he caught sight of her. Up on stage, pouring her heart out in a song as everyone watched, the cameras and lights all on her. Caroline shined in a way that Klaus hadn’t seen in decades, maybe centuries. He hadn’t yet learned her name when he decided that he wanted her, that he would have her.
She played hard to get at first. “Call me when your a director,” she had scoffed at him when he introduced himself. But he wasn’t offended. No, he laughed. He appeared before her a week later, with the compelled status of a director for one of the larger studios. “Call me when your a good director,” was her reply. Klaus always did like a challenge.
He finally got her to agree to an evening on the town when he got her signed to a studio with a three movie deal that he had no involvement with. She was suspicious of course, she wasn't stupid, but she signed on the dotted line anyways. It was Hollywood after all, everything came with a price, and at least Klaus was upfront about his.
But what started as what she imagined would be a one night thing, as enjoyable and fun as it was, turned into a whirlwind romance that was the talk of the town. Gifts were given nightly and her prestige and fame grew more and more each day. It turned out Klaus did know the way to a girl’s heart and it wasn’t diamonds, though they were always appriciated. No one seemed to know who the mysterious man she was seeing was or managed to get a photo of the two of them together. And the more time the two spent together, the more Caroline realized that there was something different about Klaus Mikaelson, something far more than just a charming accent or enough money to make him powerful enough to pull everyone else’s strings. And when he finally revealed it to her, she could help but think that maybe, just maybe, there was a way to stay young and beautiful forever. To perhaps even have him forever too.
