For the tumblr trope drabble prompts list. Time Travel AU + Curses + Dystopian + Fake Dating.

Caroline hummed contentedly as she shifted on her bed, inhaling a familiar delicious scent that she couldn't quite place. She'd almost drifted off again when the mattress moved.

Her eyes flew open and she scrambled out of bed, looking at her surroundings and growing more confused by the second. Cream walls with framed paintings. A half-open closet door showing racks of clothes. A mahogany dresser with jewelry box and a framed photo settled on the surface. She approached the photo, reaching to pick it up, her mouth dropping open when she saw herself and Klaus.

"All right, sweetheart?"

She froze, barely managing to keep hold of the photo frame before turning around slowly. Klaus's voice was low, thick from sleep, and she watched as he ran a hand through his hair in such a human gesture that she might have laughed if she weren't so freaked out.

"Did you kidnap me?" she squeaked, and Klaus frowned.

"What?"

"You totally did," she accused, trying her best to keep her eyes on his face rather than his tattoo, which she vividly remembered tracing with her tongue three months before. "You promised you'd stay away from me, and now you like, abducted me in my sleep and took me to your bedroom?"

He looked so confused that she briefly wondered whether it was possible that he wasn't acting before firmly dismissing the idea. Klaus was basically a TV villain. Of course 'kidnapping someone and then pretending to be innocent' was on his shortlist of skills.

"Sweetheart—" he began slowly, but she interrupted when she realized that the pajamas she was wearing consisted of Klaus's shirt. And nothing else.

"What the hell is going on, Klaus?"

"I'm not sure, as last time we spoke you were perfectly content to be in our bedroom," he said, the emphasis making her eyebrows fly up her forehead.

"What do you mean our bedroom?"

He stared at her for a moment, and she could practically see the gears turning in his head before he spoke. "How old are you, sweetheart?"

"What kind of question is that? You literally met me on my birthday, remember? Are you so old you forgot how to tell time?"

"Seventeen, then," he murmured, leaning back against the headboard, rubbing his eyes with his palms. "Fuck."

"What?" she demanded, and Klaus pushed the covers off and walked to the closet, ignoring her squeak as she realized how little he was wearing. He shot her an amused smile and grabbed a pair of flannel shorts from the shelf, handing them to her. She pulled them on, wondering whether it was creepy or cute that he knew her size and style and had clearly been stockpiling clothes for her.

"Time travel," he said quietly, before pausing, his head tipped slightly to the side. "Well, not exactly. Close enough, I suppose."

"Time travel?"

"It's the year 2153. We've been together for the past 79. Eighty years in September."

He said it with a small smile, threading his belt through the loops of his jeans and glancing at her. She was used to heated looks from him, a scorching drag up and down her body that made her heart pound in her chest, an ache throbbing between her thighs. This was different. It was softer, somehow. Warmer.

"Okay," she said softly, dragging the word out as she glanced out the window, studying the lush green hills. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"I suppose that in your current state it's reasonable not to trust me," he said softly, though he looked slightly pained. "However, I can assure you that I'd never lie to you, Caroline."

"Right," she muttered, shifting uncomfortably. "So. Assuming you're telling the truth, what exactly do you think happened? You said 'time travel' was close enough, but if that's not it, what is?"

"Considering you didn't pop up as another Caroline but instead inhabited your own body, I'm going to assume that you've been put under some sort of spell to remove or suppress your memory."

Caroline swallowed, suddenly feeling a bit sick. "You didn't...you didn't compel me, right?

"No," he said immediately, his tone firm. "I would never do that to you."

She had no proof that he was being truthful, but something about his tone reassured her that he wasn't lying.

"I suspect it was a spell of some sort," he continued, pulling on a shirt. "I'll make a few calls while you get ready."

He leaned in as though about to kiss her but stopped himself when she twitched, pulling back and wincing. "Sorry, sweetheart. Habit," he murmured. "Shower's through that door. The robe on the right is yours."

She'd always liked to pick out her clothes post-shower wrapped in something fluffy, and it was weirdly comforting to know that she'd retained her habits, and that Klaus knew them.

"Thanks."

She was met with a cup of coffee when she emerged, the rich burgundy color indicating that it had been brewed with some blood.

"I'm not sure exactly when you stopped taking it with sugar, but we have some downstairs if—"

"This is fine. Thanks."

He nodded, the motion jerky, and she took a sip, avoiding his eyes.

"I contacted a trustworthy witch, but she'll take some time to fly over. Most likely a few days."

"Days?" Caroline asked, eyebrows raised. "How much stuff does she have to pack?"

"She's coming from Earth Four. With our private ship it's a two day travel time both ways. We'd meet her halfway, but the party's tonight."

She had a lot of questions about that one. Were they in space? Earth Four? What Earth were they on now? However, another part seemed more pressing.

"Party?"

"Rebekah's thousandth birthday," he said, smirking slightly. "Well, not counting the daggered years."

Caroline snorted.

"We've been planning it for half a decade. It would be the scandal of the century should you choose not to attend, I'm afraid."

"And even more of a scandal for me to go and not be all over you, I'm guessing?"

"Indeed."

They were quiet for a few seconds as Caroline processed. "We're like...dating, right?" It seemed like such a juvenile word, but she didn't know how else to put it. Klaus looked amused at her question, his lips tipping up at the corners.

"I suppose so, yes."

"You suppose? I mean, what do you call me when you introduce me to people? Your girlfriend? Your partner?"

"I introduce you as Caroline," he said, and she was a hundred percent sure he was making fun of her. "I'd forgotten how obsessed the youth were with labels."

She glared at him over her coffee mug. "You're still not funny and it's been like...eighty bajillion years."

"You're Caroline," he repeated quietly. "I don't need to contextualize you for them to know you belong to me, love."

"I belong to you? Gross."

"And I to you," he said easily, slipping his hands in his pockets. "As you point out to me often, not that I need the reminder."

"Right," Caroline muttered, fiddling the belt of her robe and staring into her now-empty mug. "Got it. I'm going to get dressed."

"Klaus! Caroline!" a woman screeched, pulling her into an enthusiastic hug. "It's so wonderful to see you again, dear. Such a treat."

"And you as well, Melinda. I do hope everything's going well with your real estate endeavors?" Klaus asked, smoothly giving Caroline her name and some sort of context.

"Oh, yes! Roger and I have just found the most perfect planet for summer homes. It's lovely, really. The oxygen level is too low for humans, of course, so synthetic blood is the only option, but it has such a picturesque view—"

Caroline listened to Melinda go on about 'summer location planets' and a startup producing a line of luxury jets she and 'dearest Roger' were planning on investing in and it was...a lot.

"All right, sweetheart?" Klaus asked when he glanced at her face, his arm tightening around her waist. It still unnerved her that he knew her so well when she'd barely spent any time with him, that he could glance at her face and know exactly how she was feeling (and she'd thought her neutral face was pretty unreadable).

"Yeah. I'm fine," she said. "Please, Melinda. Tell me more about the townhouses? Klaus and I have been looking for another summer place."

Melinda's eyes widened, and Caroline was pretty sure that the other woman was trying to calculate how much money she could get them to throw. "Well, the townhouses on Dionysus have been constructed by a large stretch of private magically-maintained vineyards-"

Caroline smiled and nodded, tuning Melinda out, highly aware of Klaus standing next to her with an expression of polite interest that she'd never seen him wear. Melinda must be some sort of ally, then. She seemed like she had a lot of money, and if Klaus wasn't ready to throw her off the balcony she must be useful in some other way.

She waited for a natural lull in conversation before turning to Klaus. "I think I need some air."

"Of course, sweetheart."

Wary of the other partygoers watchful eyes, Caroline pressed a light kiss to his stubbled cheek, her lips lingering against his skin for a moment too long to be truly pretend before she pulled back, biting her lip at Klaus's knowing smile. She knew there was a blush creeping up her cheeks, that her heart was pounding loud enough that the guests could hear it.

It wasn't weird to kiss Klaus, right? They'd apparently been together for almost eighty years. Even if she wanted to think it was weird, and she totally did, she felt like she had to admit to herself that it was useless to ignore it anymore. She just couldn't shake him. Their (amazing!) forest sex was supposed to get him out of her system, but it hadn't. Had she ever really wanted it to? Or had she been too afraid of what would happen if she gave in?

And what was the point of holding off anymore, really? Her friends weren't around to judge and it was a gajillion years in the future. She'd clearly already jumped this hurdle before she lost her memory. But still...

She tried to walk as fast as she could to the gardens without looking awkward.

She wasn't sure she succeeded.

She'd taken Klaus up on the offer of the guest room down the hall from his (their?) bedroom, but when she woke she reached to the other side of the bed automatically, like it was muscle memory, looking for his body, craving his touch.

When she finally got up the nerve to poke her head in to see him, he was already up, a glass tablet in his lap with glowing letters scrolling across it. Neither of them spoke as she hopped into bed next to him, but she broke the silence after a few minutes.

"What's that?"

"Tablet. Modern iPad, sort of," he said. "I've taken the liberty of procuring every season of your current favorite television show. I figured it would be entertaining enough while we wait for the witch."

"Thanks," she said awkwardly, taking the remote from him and pressing the power button, her eyes widening when the painting on the wall melted away to show a television.

Once she'd gotten used to that, the next few hours were weirdly relaxing, and it took Caroline much too long to realize that it was because she felt safe. There weren't any doppelgangers after her or witchy rituals she might get swept up in, and sitting next to Klaus as he scrolled through his tablet while she bingewatched her show was...nice.

Now that they were so close, sitting next to each other naturally as though they'd been doing it for years—well, Klaus had been, to be fair—everything felt right. He didn't react oddly at all when she impulsively moved closer, slotting herself against him comfortably, simply looping an arm around her shoulders. He probably did it often, she thought. Older Caroline most likely hadn't outgrown her love of cuddling.

"You and old me," she began, breaking their hours of lazy comfortable silence.

"Yes, love?" Klaus asked, immediately setting the tablet on the side table and turning to look at her.

"You love each other."

"Yes."

"And how exactly did that happen?"

He didn't look at all surprised by the question, and she wondered if he'd been expecting it. He seemed to know her well enough to have seen it coming.

"There was a war. Millions of people died. I kept tabs on you, of course, and when the city you'd been living in was completely destroyed I took a witch and set out to find you," he said quietly, his finger absently tracing circles on her bare shoulder. "I was lucky. We managed to locate you before you'd been fully desiccated. Though you've never said so, I'd imagine you'd been hoping for a different rescue party."

"Bonnie?" Caroline asked, her voice shaking.

"That was also your first question back then," he said, smiling slightly. "Got to her in the nick of time as well. She wasn't thrilled when she woke up a member of the undead, of course, but I think it's grown on her over the years."

"Right, so that's how we met back up," Caroline said slowly. "I meant the how did we get together bit."

"It only took a few months, actually," Klaus said, shooting her a smirk. "You packed to leave the compound at least once a week, but you always changed your mind at the last minute. Never because of me, of course. It was always something like wanting to help Bekah pick out another dress or the worry of missing the new episode of whatever you were watching." His grin showed her that not only had she probably done it, but she's been very transparent about it.

"Wow. I was not subtle."

"You were not," he agreed. "I let you think it through. Didn't want to push you too much lest you change your mind. Coincidentally, the planet became nearly uninhabitable by then and you had to decide whether to leave with me or go off on your own."

"And I chose you," Caroline finished.

"You did."

They were quiet for a few seconds before Caroline spoke again. "You're going to give me so much shit for calling you gross when I'm me again, aren't you?"

"Yes, though I have a feeling you'll manage to distract me."

"It's one of my many talents, apparently."

"Indeed. You have over a hundred and forty years of experience, after all."

She grinned, looking down at her palms, which were face up on her lap, Klaus's leg pressed against hers.

"I'm glad that we end up together," Caroline said quietly, looking up to meet his eyes. "I think I always hoped we would. Deep down."

"As am I, Caroline."

I hope you guys liked this! Do you have a favorite part or line? Did you like the backstory? Did you feel like they were IC? Please let me know what you thought in a review. Your feedback inspires me and makes me a better writer.

I feel like it's been awhile since I posted this, but I do have a tumblr (thetourguidebarbie), and I write a lot of stuff that doesn't make it onto ffnet from a combination of it being short and me being lazy. If you want to read the things that don't get onto ffnet, you should go to my 'mydrabbles' tag (no space).