An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Characters: Caroline Forbes, Klaus Mikaelson, Original Characters, Aria Forbes (OC), Viktoria Mikaelson (OC)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Klaroline As Parents, but not together - Freeform, yet - Freeform, Fluff, Attraction at first sight, Klaus Needs To Watch More Movies, or maybe not, The Kids Ship Klaroline, Caroline Ships It Too, So Does Klaus, Did I Mention This Was Pure Fluff
Summary:
Caroline and Klaus are both single parents whose daughters are best friends. The two parents have never actually met each other, but it seems like that is all about to change one December night. Surely it's just coincidence, though.
For 25daysofklaroline when you get this, you must publicly post something nice about at least 5 different people you befriended in the fandom and follow, then copy and paste this in each of their ask boxes. Check each others blogs to see what they said about you! ♥
So...I read everyone’s posts for me, and *sighs bc words will not convey* You all amazed me. Thank you. This truly blessed me. So without further ado, let me reciprocate.
@shelovedtooeasily Sometimes, I still catch myself smiling when I see Shirley is online, not bc of the posts, but just bc it’s Shirley. She is intelligent and helped make my fandom experience both hilarious and unique. I wish her a phenomenal Christmas. :*
@dreamsarefleeting *drum roll* BO BEAR! Bo sticks by my side. We can weeks without talking to one another, and if I suddenly pop up, she’ll be right there, and I am so glad she is. Bo can make a person feel welcome and appreciated. She’s irreplaceable. Also, thank you, Bo! For the Doctor/River well wishes. *starts singing* It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas* *hugs you*
@queenvampirebarbie Cassie is my Sunshine. She has kindly listened to me ramble and bug her about this graphic and that graphic. Full of kindness and love, Cassie draws people to her. How could anyone utter a single negative thing about her? She’s brilliant.
@letsnotsaygoodbyethistime BUFFY! Do I need to say more? Honestly, Buffy is superb. She makes me laugh, and I just join into a conversation with her. She’s more than just my Klaroline buddy, but I can run to her with Sherlolly feels as well. She’s an amazing person, and I feel good around her. I am smiling right now. LOL
@realynn8 Aphrodite. Monika helped make being a Klaroliner wondrous. SHe would share stories with me, and when I found out she could write *throws confetti* She’s a great friend and an even more amazing woman. She’s hardworking and goes after her dreams. Love her.
This is a @klarolinegivesback fic for @letsnotsaygoodbyethistime. They asked for a fusion fic, with Klaroline as Dany/Jon from GoT. Now, obviously I didn’t go down the path where he’s her nephew, but it’s some Khaleesi/Lord Commander goodness. I hope you enjoy it!
---
The first time they had met, she had been on the sharp end of his sword, not at all afraid. Of course, she’d had a giant fire breathing lizard at her back, so his mere sword had probably amused her.
She had called him Lord Stark, and introduced him to her dragons – Loros, named after her long dead husband, and Lizbeth and Wilhelm, named after her deceased parents. He had tried to touch Wilhelm, only to nearly lose his hand. Caroline’s lady-in-waiting, Bonnie had laughed at him.
Later he had discovered that the dark skinned woman was Wilhelm’s rider, and that watching an ignorant man try to touch the red scales had brought her no end of amusement.
Lizbeth, on the other hand, had been farm more accepting of Klaus’ touch.
“She likes you,” the Khaleesi had mused. Klaus had stroked his hand over Lizbeth’s green muzzle and looked at the woman they called Mother of Dragons, and wondered how it was that she wasn’t freezing. She had been dressed in a gauzy dress that revealed nearly as much skin as it covered, yet she had looked every bit as comfortable as Klaus in his warm blacks.
“I have been known to be charming,” Klaus replied, not quite sure where the words had come from. The Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch couldn’t marry, couldn’t love… yet here he was flirting with a woman that could order him burned alive and probably never blink.
Yet she had, at that reply. She had looked very nearly startled, and a faint flush had risen into her pale cheeks. He had only caught a glimpse of that blush before she busied herself with Loros, who let no one but her anywhere near him.
“Lizbeth doesn’t like anyone,” Caroline had said, not looking back at Klaus. “She’s always been rather prickly.”
“Perhaps she just hasn’t had the right touch,” Klaus retorted.
Caroline had looked back at him then, her green blue eyes clashing with his own, and they had stood like that for what seemed like an eternity. There had been a unnamed charge between them, something unspoken but tangible.
Then the Others had come, and whatever it was that had flared between them was lost to war and blood.
Klaus had taken to the skies on Lizbeth’s back, with Bonnie and the Khaleesi as the other riders. And even with the dragons, there were untold deaths. In the end, the Wall came out victorious, but at such a toll that no one could quite celebrate it.
“You will rebuild.”
Klaus had been surprised to return to his tent – the wall was in such shambles that everyone who remained made their homes in tents. But there was nothing left beyond the wall to threaten them any longer. The dangers that had once haunted them were no longer, and the most dangerous beasts they needed to worry about were the dark ones that lived in the nightmares of the survivors.
“Is that an order from the Queen of Westeros?” Klaus replied, the weight of the lives of his men making him feel far older than he was. “Because you do not yet sit on the throne of the Seven Kingdoms, Khaleesi.”
“It’s a throne that is mine for the taking. The Lannisters have fled, and their bastards have gone with them. No one with a claim to the throne remains.” Caroline stepped towards him and with gentle hands began to remove his dark clothes. “But it is not an order. It’s a statement. You wouldn’t leave this place, even if I were to make that an order.”
“Then why are you here, Caroline?”
And that tangible thing that had existed between them flared to life once more as she tugged him down. She tangled her hand in his hair and pressed her lips to his. He had expected her to be soft in his arms, but she wasn’t. Being a Khaleesi, spending so much time abroad a horse, had honed her muscles until she was lean and powerful, and the way she kissed showed that she was no fainting virgin flower of the court.
She was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted.
“I cannot replace your husband,” Klaus said, pulling back with a gasp and putting some space between them. He had heard the stories of the Khal Caroline had had called husband. Her Lorenzo.
I have never seen two people who loved each other more had been the dark skinned woman’s words. At the time, Klaus had thought the words a warning. And now he finally understood it.
“I do not seek to replace Enzo,” Caroline replied, her brows furrowing. “But I also do not seek to remove myself from love all together, Klaus. And I want you.”
“A member of the Night’s Watch cannot have this, Caroline.”
She smirked and raised a brow, and he found himself thrown off balance, with her sitting astride his hips. She leaned down to press a kiss under his ear.
“I am the Queen. If I say the Lord Commander can take me to his bed… well, it’s as good as the law, is it not?”
Klaus was not a weak man. He had survived being the Bastard Stark. He had survived Others and Wildlings and the death of most of his family. He had survived learning that his mother had been a delicate lady that had loved him, but that couldn’t survive his birth. He had risen to respected Lord Commander amongst his men.
But she made him feel weak.
So for one night, he was. He loved her as he had loved no other, not since Genevieve with her wild red hair and wildling ways. But when Caroline tugged at his lips with her teeth and brought him to the cusp, it wasn’t a wildling he thought of. It was a Khaleesi with blonde hair and eyes like the sea that seemed to never feel the cold.
When he awoke the next morning alone, he would have thought it a dream if not for the fingernails that scored his back, and the dragon that remained curled outside.
Lizbeth, it seemed, would remain his.
---
Ruling was not easy.
Caroline found that the crown of the Seven Kingdoms, so very different from the Khalasar she was used to overseeing, sat ill on her head.
“We could go back,” Bonnie mused one day. They had found a quiet moment to leave behind the intrigue of the court, to simply be themselves.
“You would want to?” Caroline replied with surprise. “You fought for so long to get here, to prove to your father that tossing you aside was wrong.”
Bonnie gave a wan smile, and picked at the red of her gown. She was known as Lady Lannister now, Caroline having granted her the legitimacy that her Lion of a father had refused.
“I came here to show the great Lannister Lion that the skeletons in his closet would come to haunt him,” Bonnie replied, bitterness in her tone. “Only to find that he was already dead, and would never see the bastard daughter take everything from him. What else holds me here, but my friendship with you? If you decided to leave, I would follow.”
It was tempting. So long determined to reclaim her family’s throne, but the country had been driven into the ground, no longer the realm of greatness that had been painted in her childhood stories. She sat on a throne of dust in the ashes of her family’s legacy.
She thought of leaving, and then she thought of a set of blue eyes that had turned dark with desire the last time she had seen them.
“Do you think Lord Niklaus would accept legitimacy were I to offer it to him? His half-sister is the Queen in the North… but I feel that Rebekah might step down if another Stark were to offer to step up in her place.”
Caroline could feel Bonnie’s gaze on her, but she refused to meet the other woman’s gaze. She knew what she would see there, and she didn’t want that judgment. Bonnie was the one that had been with her from the start, helping her to create a true marriage with Enzo. Then later, when she almost lost everything because of the pretty eyes in Stefan’s pretty face.
It had been Bonnie that had told her that her weakness for men would be her downfall. Surrounded by the burned bones of her enemies and three dragons she was losing control over, Caroline hadn’t been able to deny the accusation. So instead she had stepped up to be the Khaleesi her people needed, and when Wilhelm imprinted on Bonnie, she had let him go rather than hold him tight.
Just as she had with Lizbeth, though in the darkest parts of Caroline’s heart, she would acknowledge her selfishness in that action. By allowing Klaus to ride Lizbeth, by leaving the dragon at the Wall, she had created a tether between them. They would always be two of only three Dragon Riders in all the world.
“Stefan was never what you needed, Khaleesi,” Bonnie said, and this time Caroline did look at her, because she would forever deserve the derision for that action. But Bonnie’s expression wasn’t cruel. It was understanding. “But you are no longer a naïve girl with no clue how to rule. You are a Queen in truth, and there are far worse men you could make your King than the Lord Commander.”
“The Night’s Watch cannot marry.”
“You are the queen – whomever you decree can marry can marry. And yours is meant to be a rule of change… perhaps it’s time you start.”
Caroline contemplated Bonnie’s words, and thought of Klaus, with his blonde hair and blue eyes and firm hands. It had been years, since she had felt as he had made her feel.
He was the type of man a woman became foolish over.
Caroline shook her head, because she couldn’t afford to be foolish, not again. And even if she could, Klaus’ heart and loyalty belonged to the men at the wall; he was needed there, and though Caroline could be exceptionally selfish, she would not allow it in this.
“Come, we need to return to the palace.”
“We should burn the damn palace to the ground,” Bonnie muttered darkly, and her response made Caroline laugh.
Thoughts of marriage were shelved, only to be taken down in the dark hours of night when Caroline was alone and could allow herself to wish.
---
When he saw his sister again for the first time since she had left for King’s Landing as a girl, Klaus almost didn’t recognize her. She had grown into the gold beauty that had been promised in her youth, but there was something very… sad about her. A sadness that hadn’t been there when she had been younger.
When she had seen him, she had thrown herself in his arms in a way she would have never done, when they were simply Lady Rebekah and the bastard son.
Now they were the Queen of the North and the Lord Commander, the only ones of their family left alive.
He breathed her in, and despite all the changes, she still smelled the same.
“I’ve missed you, Nik,” she said, pulling back from him, tears making her eyes shine. Klaus smiled in return and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I’m so sorry, Bekah.”
She hugged him again, laughing and crying at the same time, and with her there to take his hand and lead him to the newly renovated stronghold, Klaus found that Winterfell felt like home as it never had when he had been the bastard son.
“I’m to go to King’s Landing,” Bekah told him later as they ate.
“Will you bend the knee?” Klaus asked, his gaze sharp.
“I want to. We’ve lost so much to war, Nik. I wish for our people to be allowed peace, and to prosper. But I don’t know this new Queen of ours. They call her Khaleesi, as though she’s still across the sea.” Bekah’s gaze held a wisdom that had been forged in fire, and Klaus wished that she didn’t need to have that wisdom, though he knows she’s stronger for it. “You met her, Nik. I need your advice.”
He thought of Caroline, with her blonde hair and solemn expression, and how she had walked the Wall in gauzy cloth that should have left her frozen, but the cold never seemed to touch her. His first thought was that she was beautiful, but that was the shallow thought of a man in lust.
Because she had been more than that. She had been fierce and brave, and she had clung to Loros’ back and stared down the Others with no fear, even knowing that, surely, her life could be forfeit.
Yet none of that said what kind of Queen she would be.
Then he looked at Rebekah, and thought of the girl she had been, and the woman she was now.
“I believe the two of you are much alike,” he admitted.
Bekah looked thoughtful, and she reached out to take his hand.
“Would you come with me?”
He knew he should say no. He had duties at the wall, and was no longer technically of Winterfell. But Bekah’s eyes pleaded with him, and her questions had him thinking of the blonde Khaleesi, and their last night together.
“Of course I’ll come, Bekah.”
---
She was surprised.
She shouldn’t have been. After all, Klaus is Queen Rebekah’s brother… but even knowing that, she was surprised.
“You were quick to answer the summons,” Caroline commented, forcing herself to keep her gaze on Rebekah rather than her blonde shadow.
“I wish to see all the kingdoms prosperous, Majesty,” Rebekah replied, her curtsey at just the right depth for one monarch addressing another; it was clear that this Queen of the North had been well trained in court intrigue, and Caroline isn’t surprised by this. She’s heard the stories, and knows that Rebekah was the protégé of Lord Silas, known as Little Finger, before his mysterious death.
A death many attribute to the beautiful blonde that now addresses her.
“You don’t wish to waste any time. That bodes well for us all.”
Now, her gaze finally drifts to the Lord Commander, who has knelt, and she has to swallow. He is just as she remembers him, all curly blonde hair and eyes like the sea. And Caroline’s feet carry her off her dais almost against her will.
“Lord Commander,” she greets, her voice soft, and his head jolts up so her gaze can meet hers. “It has been a while. How fairs Lizbeth?”
“Far better than I believed a dragon in the North would. I’m afraid she could not accompany us.”
Caroline smiles, and holds her hand to Rebekah, because it would be rude to focus on the brother, and Caroline wants desperately to touch Klaus.
Instead, she laces her arm with Rebekah, and tries to ignore Klaus’ warm presence at their back.
---
It takes approximately three hours for Caroline and Rebekah to realize they would not be friends.
Both of them are women of strong wills who have been forged through trials that have left them harder than they would have been otherwise. They are too alike in too many difficult ways, but raised with such different beliefs that the gap between them will never be fully bridged.
“I can respect her, though,” Rebekah told Klaus, when they convened in her room. “I… you were right. We are much the same.”
And it is clear, as the days pass, that Caroline feels much the same about Rebekah. After the Queen in the North has bended knee, Caroline takes to seeking out her counsel. And though it will never be friendship in the way that Caroline has forged friendship with Bonnie, Klaus knows that the bond made of respect and a mutual desire to see the Seven Kingdoms flourish will be every bit as strong.
He also knows he is not needed any longer. Rebekah doesn’t need an elder brother to aid her, not when she was forced to learn farm more from Silas than Klaus could ever hope to teach her.
“They say you’re making plans to leave.”
Klaus looks at Caroline, who stands just inside the open doors to his chambers.
“I’ll ride North with new men for the Watch. It’s not quite the death sentence it was considered once. There are younger sons that now see honor in becoming a member of the Watch. Although I’m sure we’ll still have our share of criminal recruits,” Klaus replies, the soldier giving his Queen a report. “I’m afraid that the laws that guide us still keep many from joining our ranks.”
“The prohibition against marriage,” Caroline muses, entering the chamber further. Klaus can’t take his gaze off of her; he hasn’t been able to since his arrival. He had thought her brave and fierce at the Wall, but here, in the viper’s den of the capital, she has shown herself to be clever and just, if ruthless. She does not hesitate to mete out punishment, but nor is she slow to give pardons to those that deserve them.
She clears her throat lightly, and Klaus jolts, and sees that she is watching him with raised brows.
“I’m sorry, Majesty. My thoughts were… elsewhere.”
“Should I be insulted, Lord Commander, that I can’t keep your attention for five minutes?” she asks with rueful twist of her lips.
“You know that’s not true,” he replies, his voice hoarse. He clears his throat as she looks at him curiously. “You know that’s not true, Khaleesi… Caroline. I would be hard pressed to find a woman that can keep my attention longer than you.”
“There are those that would tell me to have you punished for addressing me in such a familiar fashion,” she points out, carefully avoiding looking at him.
“And will you? Punish me?”
Caroline lets out a light laugh and raises a teasing brow at him, and that’s all it takes for Klaus to decide to throw the rules of high society aside.
She doesn’t fight, when he brackets her face with his hand and presses his lips to hers hungrily. She wraps her arms around him and kisses him back with the same passion. When he carries her to his bed, she goes willingly, and Klaus thought he must have built what he’d experienced with her up in his mind, but he didn’t. It’s just as wrecking this second time.
“I should not do this,” he says to her in the aftermath, pressing a kiss to her naked shoulder. Her hair has fallen out of the braid she usually wears to lie wildly around them.
“What if I changed the rules?” she asked. “What if I said that the men of the Night’s Watch could marry?”
Klaus is no fool, and he knows what her asking this now means. He doesn’t reply at first, instead kissing her again, which of course leads into another round of sex, and he thinks that he’s made her forget that question – that question that offers such temptation.
But she hasn’t.
“Even if you did change the law,” he says when she watches him closely. “I cannot be Lord Commander and the King, Khaleesi. It’s not possible.”
“There are those that said I couldn’t be Khaleesi and Queen both,” Caroline replies. “Yet here I am.”
He holds her through the night and allows himself to dream of a world where her words are true, and he can be both. But the wall is still a mass of rock that needs to be put together again, and his men need him there.
“Then fix it,” she says to him when he tells her as much. “Fix it and then come back to me. I am not as impatient as I once was, and winter cannot last forever.”
When he goes, it’s with a lover’s token with a lock of her hair in it. His sister wishes him good-bye, and then goes back to her place on the Little Council, and in the end it is just the Queen that watches him go.
He returns to the Wall, and they rebuild it, and rumors come to them, of how the Queen refuses to take a husband despite the prodding of her advisors. The news gives him heart to continue working, and then one day he awakes to find that the wall is whole, and the Night’s Watch has been at peace for months.
And winter is gone.
He receives a message from his sister.
If you do not marry her, I fear we’ll never have an heir. Do something, Nik.
He can hear his sister’s frustration in her written words, and this time he does take Lizbeth with him to the capital, the journey far shorter on dragonback.
They marry before what seems to be the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms, before the eyes of the New Gods and Old, and finally, finally, the people of the Seven Kingdoms feel at peace.
Post 6x22 AU
Set after the 5 year time jump.
After Elena and her mother’s deaths, Caroline leaves Mystic Falls and traverses the globe, simply choosing to live. Inevitably, she runs into a familiar hybrid.
oh no i'm so sorry to hear about your job! *internet hug*
Meh, I’m not as pissed off or sad as I thought I’d be. Actually, this is a good thing because I wasn’t too happy with the fact that I was hired to do design and accounting and ended up pressing shirts and other shit instead. Today, alone, I spent 7 hours on my feet at a job where I wasn’t even supposed to be on my feet.
On the bright side, my future brother-in-law offered me a job at his company doing some part time bookkeeping, which I’m okay with. It’s better than nothing. So I guess you can say when one door closes, another one opens.
