All I Want ➸ Klaroline

f i v e

I lay in tears in bed all night

When Caroline stood above Klaus, staring down at his worn-down existence, her head spun.

Klaus was asleep, or at least, he looked like it. His eyes were close, his features relaxed, breathing uneven.

It scared Caroline how helpless he looked. Flashes of him from years ago crept into her mind. Seeing him draining the blood of hundreds, stronger beyond belief. Worrying about Elena, because Klaus wanted her blood, and there was no way to stop him. Listening to Tyler when he told her he was sired to the hybrid, and that his mother had been drowned by Klaus.

But now, it was hard to even believe the bold, strong man who asked her to the ball his family put on.

He rolled over, eyes fluttering open ever so slightly. His skin was sallow and wrinkled, as if he'd aged thirty years in the time they were apart.

"Caroline?" he questioned, blinking rapidly, as if trying to clear his eyes. LIke he was making sure she was actually there. "Are you...? I'm not... This isn't a hallucination is it?"

Caroline's eyes softened. For all those years she might've told herself that she hated Klaus, but seeing him in this state, her heart ached.

The blonde woman reached her hand out, and wrapped it around the century-year old man's.

"It's me, Klaus. Caroline. Really."

Klaus's eyes brightened. For a split-second, they were almost restored to the bright blue she recognized, instead of a dull grey.

"Oh, Caroline, you're almost as beautiful as when I last saw you."

Despite her better judgment, Caroline blushed. Klaus's hair was longer than she had last saw it, parted slightly to the side, and stopping close to his ears. Though it was a it of a mess from all the tossing and turning in his bed, Caroline thought it would look nice when it was actually styled.

"It's been a long time, Klaus." Caroline muttered. "How did you get yourself into a mess like this?"

Klaus smirked slightly. "Tried my damnedest to piss of some ancient witches," he muttered sarcastically, despite his state. "Guess it worked."

Caroline couldn't stop the grin that crept into her face. "So how do we get you out of this. From what Rebekah said—"

"Caroline..." Klaus sighed, but she ignored him.

"I mean, I'm not just going to let you die, so we'll... Figure something out, right?" Caroline smiled optimistically.

Klaus just frowned in return. "Caroline, I really appreciate you coming to see me. Especially after everything." Klaus burst into a fit of coughing. "But I'm sure you didn't really think you would be able to help me when you were on your way down?"

At that, Caroline's hope was shattered. "Well," she said after a few moments of expanded silence. "That was, of course, the idea." She tried not to frown. To let Klaus know that despite the past few years of supposedly hating him, she actually cared a lot about him.

No, she couldn't let him die.

Klaus's face brightened, though sympathy shown through his glazed over eyes. "I wish something could be done, but..."

Caroline cleared her throat. She wouldn't let the tears she was holding back escape from her eyes while she was in the presence of Klaus.

"Tell me about your life, Klaus." Caroline blurt out, unable to listen to Klaus talk about himself like he knew he was going to die.

Caroline wouldn't allow it.

"What?" Klaus asked in shock.

"Tell me about your life... I mean, if you have enough energy," she said. "You've been alive for a century, and then some!"

Klaus smiled brightly, the glee nearly reaching his eyes. "What do you want to know?"

Caroline breathed out, thinking of all the things she wanted to learn from the first hand account of Klaus.

Thus began the start of Klaus and Caroline's long conversation that went into the night, up until Klaus was too tired to keep his mouth moving.