Waterly Challenged
Written for @klarosummerbingo
Prompt: Mermaid. You can also read it on AO3 or FF.net.
Author’s Note: I thought I’d try my hand at a Merman!Klaus. And even though I haven’t been writing for a while, writing Klaus from Klaus’ perspective is always fun. I wanted to get as much ocean vibe there as possible since I’m still cooped up inside and I want OUT. So maybe too many ocean metaphors I know I know. Still, hope you enjoy:)
***
He didn’t remember California being this hot the last time he was here. Klaus’s brows furrowed so tightly under the scorching sun he could feel a headache coming up. He wished he had brought the sunglasses Rebekah gave him the last time she was home. “And what use would I have for those?” He’d asked, veiling his amusement and affection under a layer of criticism as usual. But Rebekah knew him too well to get riled up by a simple comment like that, or to be intimidated for that matter, “for one, it would make you look less like an old grumpy wanker.”
He had to admit to himself: sometimes it was nice to have a sister.
But certainly not right now. Right now he would very much like to drag Rebekah by her meddling little arms and throw her right into a pod of raucous dolphins. Let her get a taste of being annoyed to no end without an out. That was, if he could find her in the foreseeable future.
He should have known that his little sister was up to no good. She’d called out to him three days ago in the special frequency that only their kind could hear, asking to meet him at a beach in Malibu. Even through their own coded words she sounded distressed. So Klaus had cut short the very important errand he was running around the Japanese Sea and crossed almost the entire Pacific Ocean for his thousand-year-old baby sister.
Only to get stood up, scared to the point of committing homicide – or whatever was the correct term for a merman killing a Homo Sapien, and forced running around town for a whiff of her whereabouts. After two days’ worth of restless searching, he was left exhausted in this desert of a place with the infuriating news that Rebekah, his distressed sister, was airily sipping rainbow-colored cocktails in Tahiti, perfectly safe and sated.
And perfectly blocking all of his calls.
The little twit didn’t even have the decency to apologize. Instead, she threw accusations in the form of an all-cap text message.
STOP BLOWING UP MY PHONE NIK! YOU SHOULD BE THANKING ME FOR GETTING YOU OUT ON LAND BEFORE YOU ROT IN THAT HELL YOU CALL YOUR BIRTHRIGHT.
And then another. At least not all cap this time.
Surprised you remembered the phone though, since YOU DIDN’T EVEN HAVE WIFI IN THAT DUMP!
Klaus sighed, resisting the urge to throw the phone and hear it crack just to release one thousandth of his frustration. Barring call-blocking, this remains the most convenient way for him to contact any of his siblings in human territory. Also, the sleek black device was yet another gift from Rebekah, and he’d rather hang onto it even though she was not his favorite person at the moment, to put it lightly.
Rebekah had never been subtle about her agenda to lure him into the human world. Granted subtlety had never been her strong suit, but for the past century or so she’d switched lanes from casual hints here and there to downright blatant bombardment. And now apparently it had come to the stage of cheap trickery and scheming. She was one step away from straight-up kidnapping.
As if. Klaus ground his teeth, his mouth dry like sand in the Californian beach. He’d keep her in her tail-swaying mermaid form if he had to, just so she didn’t take that final step.
Not that he hadn’t tried. Klaus thought darkly, skin tight and crisp from the lack of water. A few centuries ago when his older brother Elijah found out he was working with their Shaman trying to find a way to bind all his siblings in their merpeople forms forever, they’d been furious. Rebekah had raved and cried, his younger brother Kol swung and smashed, and Elijah just left without one more word.
They all did eventually. It’d taken him almost a century to find them, and another to get back into their good graces. But by then they’d all established their contented lives in the human world, endeared and bedazzled by the fresh, quirky, fleeting yet booming human ways.
And he was left here alone, in some nameless human neighborhood, hot and thirsty and drained, in a world that he neither cared for nor understood.
He needed to find some water, soon.
In hindsight he’d been too careless – or too distracted by his sister’s wicked tricks to be precise. The first thing they were taught about venturing into the human world was to always keep themselves near water. Well, not the first thing actually. The first thing was not to venture into human territories in the first place, which ironically he had adhered to out of all his siblings for hundreds of years. But in the haste to find Rebekah he’d forgot about the second rule.
Contrary to certain fabricated lore, merpeople wouldn’t die from a lack of water. Instead, they’d slowly “mummify” from dehydration as Rebekah so elegantly put it. Klaus detested directly borrowing human terms, the creators themselves so susceptible to the corruption of mortality that they felt the need to rejuvenate their language at an ungodly rate. And he detested the feeling of dehydration, every inch of his skin feeling foreign and desperate.
Yet fortune had it that he was already too far from the beach but not close enough to any human residential area. He’d been walking for quite a while and all he saw was the forsaken desert with no river nor pond, not even a store where he could purchase some relief with human currency. Klaus squinted in annoyance as he watched a small group of humans gathering in the middle of nowhere, dancing to strange music generated by an even smaller group in the center. He recognized it as some form of a concert.
Pushing down his distain, he examined the crowd in the corner of which he spotted a scrawny creature crouching beside a box, with a poorly made sign that read: ICE WATER. Praise Poseidon.
Klaus exhaled and strode toward the sign. It would probably be bottled with the disgusting taste of chemicals and plastic, but it would have to do for now. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one piece of their ridiculous paper currency, not bothering to read what was on it. Rebekah had said that they were all high in face value anyway.
He was just about to hand the piece of paper to the merchant when a female voice interrupted from a few steps away, “hey there! You got any water left?” Klaus paid it no mind as he pushed his money-holding hand an inch forward. He couldn’t wait to be rid of the filthy-smelling piece. But he was interrupted yet again by the fast approach of a human body, the air shifting around him not unlike water currents, only lighter, and warmer, with a sweet scent of flowers. Klaus impatiently looked up at the human that almost bumped into him.
She was beautiful.
Merely seconds later Klaus would regret the prolonged stare. But in those few seconds, he let his eyes roam over her lean form, flushed face, and hair the color of gold.
He was pulled out of his trance when the scrawny merchant drawled, “sorry, only one left.” And regret started to set in as the female reached for her purse with a smiley nod. Under any other circumstances Klaus would gladly let her have the water, but not right now when he barely felt he fit in his own shriveled skin.
“Excuse me, I was here first.” The female didn’t seem to hear him, “excuse me –”
“Huh?” Finally, shiny blue eyes skimmed over to him like gentle waves, and Klaus felt his heart swim for a tiny moment. “I’m sorry, did you want something?”
Klaus gulped, gesturing at the box with the bill that he was still holding, “I was just saying that I was here first.” Inside he was silently fuming since he sounded like an absolute idiot.
“Oh,” she blinked a few times in surprise, then blinded him with a big smile, “well you see, I’ve been here all day and I’m really, really thirsty, what with all the singing and dancing. You know how concerts are. Anyway,” she bit her stuck-out lower lip, batted her long lashes, and slightly swayed the lower half of her body. “Could you just let me have this one? Thanks!”
Klaus may be an idiot, but he could recognize the tricks from a mile away. And amused as he was, he wouldn’t let the little lady have her way. Not this time.
“I’m afraid I can’t agree to that, love.” He smirked, keeping his eyes on her as he shoved the cash into the merchant’s face, “keep the change.” Whatever number was on that piece of paper, it was enough for the merchant to promptly lay the icy-cold bottle into his waiting palm.
Her rosy lips hung open, seemingly unaccustomed to anything uttered from them being so easily rejected, “seriously? It’s just a bottle of water!”
“Sure it is,” his fingers closed around the plastic container, the condensation taking the edge off his severe dehydration. “Then why the indignation?”
She huffed, her golden curls bouncing so lively, “I am not indignant. Just shocked to see that chivalry is indeed dead.”
“It would be if you are always in such a haste to announce its demise,” Klaus chuckled, “I, however, would very much like to prove the contrary. How about dinner with me, tonight?”
“Really? You just robbed my water and now you’re asking me out to dinner? I don’t even know your name!” She threw up her hands before tilting her head to regard him with a stinging amount of contempt, “used to getting your way, huh? Is it the accent? Personally, I don’t get the hype.”
“Actually I could say the same thing about you.”
“What?” Her brows went up and the tiniest crease formed on her forehead. It was adorable.
“You are just as used to ‘getting your way’, aren’t you? You never thought I’d take the water, even if I was here first.” He smirked at her, and the girl had the decency to look slightly embarrassed, her face blushing just enough for Klaus to notice.
But she was not one to ever back down. Klaus could tell.
“I’m not wasting my time arguing with you, water-hogger!” She crossed her arms and jutted out her hip, a delicate statue of beauty and petulance. Klaus couldn’t wait to further rile her up.
“Speaking of water and time-wasting,” he uncapped the bottle and, in a swift move, poured all the content right over his own head. He didn’t hold back the sigh at the sweet relief, his drying skin finally feeling appeased, the moisture soothing away the layer of tension that had built over the past hours. He basked in the cool comfort for a few more seconds before taking notice of the unexpected silence. He’d thought she’d be screaming at him at this point. Anger was a good color on her.
But instead the girl was quiet save for the audible gasp she’d let slip. Klaus palmed away the water from his face, looking at her curiously.
She was not looking at his face though. Her eyes were transfixed on his midriff, jaw hanging open. Klaus followed her line of sight and pleasantly realized how see-through the white T-shirt he threw on this morning could be under the…right circumstances. He looked back at the girl and caught her unconsciously wetting her lips.
“See something you like, love?”
“Huh?”
Klaus didn’t quite hold back the laughter boiling at his throat. The blush on her face grew.
“I mean…how could you! You didn’t even drink it! What is this, some low-budget R-rated movie?” She gestured frantically at him, expressive to the tip of her blonde curls.
For the sake of his own chances, Klaus decided to let that comment slide. “I assure you sweetheart, it was never my intention to offend you. Now how about I acquit myself over dinner and drinks? It’s only fair.”
***
After much persuasion and sweettalking, the girl – Caroline was her name – said yes, ostensibly reluctantly. Klaus saw the little smile she tried to hide when they parted ways though. They’d exchanged phone numbers, and now Klaus was wandering around downtown LA trying to find the restaurant that Caroline exclaimed they simply “must try” via text messages.
He’d driven here alone in a car that his family had left in a local property they owned. Throughout the years they’d accumulated human possessions as such all over the world. Klaus had always thought it unnecessary, but now he had to admit that Kol’s theory of “in times of need” had its merit.
Still he was not overly fond of the human world, which was way too crowded to begin with. Yet these little creatures loved to confine themselves in even smaller spaces like dwellings and automobiles, skyscrapers that cut the streets into narrow trenches. It was ridiculous, as if they were secretly afraid of too much freedom. As least it appeared that way when they kept bumping into Klaus with their sweaty arms and shoulders.
Suffice it to say he was not in the best of moods when he found his destination in a small alley off the beaten path. Yet in a city like this even the unbeaten path never went unnoticed, and sure enough there was a line forming outside the little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Klaus inwardly sighed. Humans. Of course they would spend their already fleeting life doing meaningless chores like waiting in lines. It was nearly fascinating how senseless this self-crowned “superior” species could be. Klaus had watched them from beyond the shorelines for centuries, and still he could not quite figure them all out. Whenever he thought he’d finally summed up the ultimate principles of human behavior, something jumped out from the sea of random yet monotonous motions and intrigued him to take a closer look.
Like the fact that Caroline had apparently decided the perfect spot for a romantic dinner was a Japanese ramen joint.
Maybe this wasn’t a romantic dinner for her. The girl did seem like she was still silently fuming when she said her goodbyes. So maybe she was trying to distance herself and pretend this wasn’t a real date. If that was the case, then Klaus would have no problem showing her his very pure intentions.
He was wracking his brains for any rusty memories of human conventions regarding courtship, along with any pieces of Rebekah’s relationship quips or woes that he hadn’t completely filtered out, when he heard the sound of her sweet voice, with just a hint of hesitance, “umm...hey there, Klaus.” His name, even uttered with strangeness, sounded titillating on her tongue.
Klaus took a moment just to appreciate her form. She wore a blue dress that took on a warm hue in the evening sun, her long legs pouring out from the flowy material ending in yellow strappy sandals. She’d painted her toenails, transparent paint with an iridescent sheen, like that of the inside of a seashell. The dress had a low neckline that revealed the little golden shell-shaped pendant nestled between her breasts. Earrings in the same shape dangled around her face. Her hair was down this time, rather than the two braids she wore earlier that day, and one side was pinned back with a star-shaped clip. Starfish, if he had to guess.
Her outfit had a theme. Klaus had to smile at that.
“Okay, you need to stop staring, like right now.” Caroline held out a perfectly manicured finger, same shade as her toenails, “that is way too creepy to be cute.”
“So you think I’m cute?”
“You clearly think it enough for the both of us,” she shrugged. “No need to feed your ego.”
Klaus merely smiled at that, “you look beautiful, Caroline.” He decided that blushing was his second favorite look of hers, right after annoyed and defiant.
“Thanks, you too.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked aside, her long eyelashes fluttering up and down from her profile, as if shining whale flukes rising and then sinking into the evening sea. It was mesmerizing, like a painting, but suddenly that painting swung into life when she looked back, a big smile lighting up her entire face, “well come on then, I’m starving.”
“In case you haven’t noticed...” Klaus gestured at the growing line.
“Don’t worry about that,” she whispered to him, her breath tickling the side of his face, “I know someone here.”
Klaus raised an eyebrow at that, but Caroline just winked at him, “you were right about one thing – I am used to getting my way.”
She led him right to the front of the line and greeted some brunette girl named Vicky. “I met her earlier at the concert, and she just happens to work here. Isn’t it great?” Klaus simply nodded and smiled, his eyes following her every move as she navigated the crowd with confidence and ease. The crowd didn’t seem so ghastly now that it parted for her charms, and their growing proximity was a much-appreciated bonus.
Ten minutes later they were sitting side by side at the wrap-around counter in the center of the room, facing the open kitchen where chefs bustled around. Drinks were at hand, orders were in, and Klaus was more than happy to keep watching Caroline in pleasant silence. Caroline, apparently, didn’t quite think so.
“Didn’t I tell you to stop with the creepy staring thing?”
“I believe you did,” he tilted his head. “However, try as I might you are far too beautiful for me to avert my eyes.”
“Laying it on a little too thick there,” Caroline half-laugh half-scoffed. “Don’t tell me you actually got girls to date you with those lines.”
Actually mermaids in his kingdom had been throwing themselves at him since even before he claimed the throne, but Klaus was not going to tell her that. “Not in so many words, no.” Something in her words registered then, “so this is a date?”
Caroline shrugged, “I said yes, didn’t I?” His expression must have given him away somehow because Caroline laughed, and it was the most melodic sound, “I know, doesn’t sound like a rational decision – trust me I’m still debating over it.” She gave him a pointed look, “and I’m totally not over the water incident, but curiosity trumps grudges I guess.”
Klaus felt his heart flutter. She was curious about him. That was definitely a good sign. But more than anything he wanted to use her lovely curiosity to fulfill his own. “I’ve always found curiosity a great trait in people,” although in others’ cases it always entailed something he could manipulate to his own heart’s desire. “So, what are you most curious about? Other than myself, that is.”
Caroline threw him an unimpressed look, though the corners of her pink glossed lips were lifting upwards, “you just can’t lose that annoyingly smug, over-confident, I-know-better-than-anyone-else attitude, huh?”
“What can I say? It goes with my outfit,” he joked, the playful light-heartedness a fresh feeling in his chest, “and I do.”
“What?”
“Know better than anyone else.” He smirked.
“Seriously, are you like an actor or something? You sound like you’ve been type-casted as the supervillain in a bazillion trash shows.” Her lips wrapped around the straw of her lemon sea salt iced tea, the sight instantly drying up Klaus’s throat.
He coughed and quickly took a sip of his own drink, “and here I thought I was to star in ‘some low-budget R-rated movie’.”
Her eyes fell on his then, the blues deep yet clear, “you know, it’s not very chivalrous of you to repeat everything I said back to me.”
“Believe me, chivalry has nothing to do with this one. I just couldn’t stop replaying our brief encounter over and over again in my head,” he licked his lower lip, looking at her from under his own eyelashes, listening for that catch in her breath.
There it was. Sometimes truth made the greatest lines.
“Now why don’t you tell me all about your curiosities, and give me a bit more material to obsess over?”
***
Their dinner date was quite a success, if Klaus did say so himself. Caroline, it turned out, was a great conversationalist when he wasn’t getting on her nerves. She openly shared her life stories, and Klaus had hung on to her every word. Everything appeared fascinating when she was in the picture, including her smalltown origin, her endeavors at keeping the perfect GPA, her last-minute decision to travel to the West Coast for vacation, and the boy troubles besieging her best friend slash roommate, which Caroline had been regaling him for the past half-hour. It was a long story, Caroline had warned him.
Klaus wasn’t particularly interested in the story, nor its main characters, having seen similar plots repeating itself in the past centuries. A woman vacillating between siblings was hardly news, no matter how excruciating it might have felt to the participants. Though truth be told, it was just one other thing he didn’t understand about humans – his people had far more determination, and far less care for the pesky notion of monogamy when it came to the matter of hearts. And what he couldn’t understand, he generally sneered at.
But Caroline seemed deeply invested in the issue, and Klaus couldn’t fault her for her youth, or her genuine care for the people she considered hers. Not to mention that she looked absolutely stunning when she cared.
They were now walking alongside a quiet beach, having driven here at Klaus’ request. Caroline was gesturing vehemently while she talked a mile a minute, her nimble fingers seemingly toying with the evening breeze. Klaus idly wondered how they would feel on him, but the thought was fleeting as Caroline’s expressions commanded his full attention. She had such an expressive face, all the emotions written on it seamlessly morphing into one another like the colors of the evening sky. He couldn’t afford to miss even a single nuance, filing every detail into his mind in something akin to reverence.
“I’m just saying, she’s the one hanging onto the past so hard it’s pathological. We are halfway through college and she’s still going back and forth between her high school boyfriend, and – oh wait – his brother who’s entirely too old for her!” Caroline threw up her hands, “Damon is a disgusting scum, period. And Stefan, well I love him but he has to deal with his substance abuse problem on his own, and Elena isn’t exactly helping. And now she’s accusing me of trying to ‘get out’? What’s wrong with having a life plan? No offense but she should try it sometimes.”
“What do you mean ‘get out’?”
“Oh my god,” Caroline’s hand flew to her mouth, her eyes blinking sheepishly, “how long have I been talking? I’m so sorry! It’s just that we just had a huge fight right before I left for LA and we aren’t talking right now, and it’s just so frustrating I –”
“Relax, love,” Klaus touched her bare shoulder, feeling an involuntary shiver going through him. He indulged himself in lingering one more second before removing his hand, the warmth and softness of her skin a phantom glow on the tip of his finger. “You’ve known her your whole life. It’s understandable that the situation weighs on your mind. But I might need some further explanation on the topic.”
“Oh, right,” Caroline laughed, “I have finally decided on a major, and basically my career path for like, the next decade. I want to become a marine biologist one day, which means a PhD at a decent school. Whitmore just can’t cut it. But Elena isn’t exactly happy about that.”
Klaus frowned. His indifference towards this Elena girl was fast growing into annoyance, “and why is that? I’d imagine anyone would be happy for you, let alone one of your closest friends.”
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Caroline huffed, “but according to Elena, apparently I ‘think myself too good for the small-town life’ and ‘always bite off more than I can chew’. I wonder who’s been feeding her all this garbage talk.”
“Only few are destined for great things, sweetheart, which means they are almost always misunderstood.”
Caroline rolled her eyes, “hey, just because you’re the one percent doesn’t mean you need to spew this elitist nonsense, alright?”
Klaus lifted an eyebrow, amused, “and how do you know I’m the ‘one percent’?”
“I may be a biology major, but I can tell brands just fine. Especially expensive ones.”
Klaus chuckled at her haughty look. She was right in a sense, even though most of his limited collection of human attires came from his shopaholic little sister, save for the occasional gifted belts or ties from Elijah.
“Seriously, do you own a million-dollar business or something? You have that all-powerful boss vibe.” Her eyes sparkled with a combination of curiosity and secret excitement, probably generated from the sensitivity of the topic. But as Rebekah used to say, what was gossip if not swirls of intelligence to the educated ears? And he would certainly enjoy indulging her in her little vices.
“You could say that.” Running the ocean kingdom was not unlike running a human business, he supposed.
“Wow,” Caroline said quietly. “I mean I suspected, but I didn’t think I’d actually be right. Maybe you were just one of the extremely cocky ones, you know?”
“That, my dear,” Klaus smirked, the innuendo clear in his voice, “is also very true.”
“Don’t even start.” Caroline warned him with a pointy finger and glaring eyes, but they turned sparkly in an instant, “so tell me how it feels.”
“Being cocky?”
“No, being a conceited pervert who has the emotional maturity of a thirteen-year-old boy,” she rolled her eyes at him, the ripples of smile never quite gone from her face.
Klaus shrugged, “to be honest, I don’t know how to answer your question. It’s been long since I contemplated my feelings towards the...business. It’s mine now. What more can I say?”
“What do you mean it’s yours now? Who did you take it from?”
Klaus had to admire her shrewdness, even when it worked against him, “it belonged to my...stepfather’s family for generations.” The word “stepfather” tasted like cutting sand on his tongue. It would forever irk him that he could not erase the putrid name of Mikael from his own existence. Even in death that man haunted his thoughts, his decisions, his narrative. He hated it with everything that he was.
“So he left it for you?” Caroline threw the question back over her shoulder, approaching the ocean beckoning at their side.
Klaus watched as she took off her sandals and stepped into the waters, her giddiness almost palpable. The sun was setting, the tides long since ebbed, and she almost stumbled into the scene with all the enthusiasm of someone who was chasing either, not knowing that she resembled a goddess who could have stopped both. Klaus followed suit without a spare thought, a tantalizing calling in his core, from the ocean or her he couldn’t tell.
He watched as she bent down, her hair cascading while her fingers immersed into the rose gold reflection of herself. For a few moments he forgot the breath that he didn’t need, and just looked in awe at her hovering over the edge of his kingdom. She straightened up then, looking back at him, her eyes questioning. He finally realized that she was still waiting for an answer.
Klaus sighed, shaking his head, his lips twisting into the sarcastic angles that they were so used to, “on the contrary, he made it painfully clear that I wasn’t worthy.” For the first five centuries of his life, with words and whips alike. “So I proved him wrong.”
Even after hundreds of years Mikael’s blood splattering onto his face as Klaus plunged his hand into his chest still tasted fresh. He’d reduced him to nothing, and took all that he had – the kingdom, the title, the crown. And the victory, just as his dying blood, tasted like acid rust. Painful and stale and irremovable – a prison that he willingly subjected himself to for the rest of eternity.
“You don’t sound so happy about that,” her voice broke through his muddled thoughts, but he was too preoccupied to decide whether that hint of kinship he detected was real. “I know it probably meant a lot to you at the time, but if you are not happy with it, have you ever considered leaving?”
Klaus walked to her side and crouched down, sinking his palms into the coolness of his life source. He instantly closed his eyes, the sense of connection overwhelming. What was only salty water to humans was so much more to his kind. He could feel every message, every emotion, every tiniest tremble of nerve, from the wooing songs of a merman in love, to the panicked chemicals of a herring about to meet its end.
He remembered the first time he was allowed to ascend to the surface. With a longer life span, merpeople were usually considered to be mature enough only when they’d lived a century, at which time they would have the freedom to go above and leave the kingdom at will. Klaus had seen his brother Elijah do it, secretly clinging onto the stories and souvenirs of his adventures. But as if sensing his eagerness, Mikael held off his ascendency until he was a hundred and fifty. He’d made the journey by himself that day, swimming as fast as he could towards the blurred visage of the sun.
His heart nearly stopped when he burst out of the water. A century and a half he’d been used to the thick consistency of water, the heaviness, the pressure. Now in the barely existent embrace of air, he felt unbearably light. For the longest moment he was frozen in space, lost and bewildered without the anchor of his destined burden. A thousand feelings warring in his chest, he was thrilled yet terrified, exalted but melancholy, all bravado, all resentment, all nostalgia. He ended up lurking around the reefs spying on the humans on shore, closer than he’d ever got, but feeling farther still.
How could he ever explain to her that he didn’t know how to live like that?
So finally he whispered gruffly, like the coward that he was, “it’s complicated.”
He snuck a peek at her, expecting a modicum of sympathy, but she only snorted, “‘it’s complicated’, give me a break! It’s all I’ve been hearing this past week. Hell, this past year. Let me tell you, Klaus, nothing is that complicated.”
He bristled at her quick judgment, standing up and towering over her in one stride, “and how would you know? Just because you’ve had an easy sheltered life -”
“Hey, stop right there!” Again with the finger. Klaus had half a heart to bite it off at this point, not having been interrupted by anyone outside of his siblings for decades. He was about to fire back a venomous reply when he felt her hand on his arm, the unexpected touch soothing him instantly.
“Look, I shouldn’t have invalidated your feelings, I’m sorry okay?” Caroline smiled sheepishly, then putting on a stern look, “but I refuse to be lashed out at.”
Klaus exhaled deeply, “it was not my intention, love. However, you need to understand that sometimes life presents us with impossible circumstances. Its natural cruelty is unmatched even by the sharpest minds.”
“Which is why everyone should just listen to me!” Caroline exclaimed, giving the sand a small kick in her frustration, and already a laugh was tickling at his throat despite himself.
“And pray tell why that is?”
“Because I have the best answers!” She swirled around, her soft scent surging around him, “for everyone! Elena, Stefan, Damon the Douchebag, even you.” She clasped her hands together, her eyes determined and sure, “Elena should dump both of the Salvatores and focus on herself for a while. Stefan can transfer to another university, up north, or maybe Europe. Somewhere with long winters and a lot of comfort food, no party schools. And Damon can just fuck off.”
Now he did laugh, unable to stay annoyed at her, “and what of me?”
“Well, I know it’s not my place yet, but I think you could use a break from that family business of yours. Not saying you should just up and quit, but go take a vacation or something.”
“Yet?” He teased her with a straight face, although his own amusement was hard to contain.
She blushed furiously down to her clavicles, the color set off by the blue of her dress, and one pink bra strap that had slipped out from the neckline. She had so many colors on her, down to the little trinkets that she used to adorn her impeccable form. It was strikingly different from Rebekah, who was at her heart still a creature of the sea and preferred pearls to any other jewellery like a true mermaid. Caroline, however, reminded him of a painting that he found in a sinking ship little over a century ago. The moment he had his eyes on it he knew he had to see it for real. Not in the perpetual cold blue hues of the ocean, but in the blinding sunlight where colors reside. And he did.
He saw all the swirling colors in broad daylight. So straightforward and honest and raw that it physically hurt him, yet he couldn’t avert his eyes.
“I never asked you why you wanted to be a marine biologist.”
Caroline’s eyes widened, no doubt surprised both at being spared from her slip, and at his memory of her words, “I’ve always loved the ocean. When I was young I used to watch The Little Mermaid all the time, it was my favorite movie back then. According to my mom, my first dream job was actually a mermaid. I guess a marine biologist is as close as I can get.”
“You’d make a perfect mermaid, sweetheart.”
“Yeah yeah, I know I would,” she obviously didn’t believe him, nodding along with a pointed look before bursting into melodic laughter. “But I have my heart set on marine biology for now.”
“I’m sure you’d excel at that, too.” Spoken no less sincerely than his last remark. He could see it in her eyes, the passions and ambitions burning bright. He knew a fighter when he saw one.
Caroline nodded emphatically, “I really want to. And as I’m sure you already know, whatever I want, I find a way to get it.”
“Simple as that, huh?”
“Exactly. Work, study, fame, love, peace, world domination...You can have it all, as long as you want it bad enough.”
Klaus reached for her hand then. It was soft and warm and trembling slightly, but she finally let it settle in his. Light as a feather, a piece of reassurance nestled in his palm, for what he didn’t know. Her eyes looked up to meet his, and Klaus felt a tide in his soul.
“Well sweetheart, I might just take your sage words for it.”
It seemed like he was going on a vacation after all.
