#this dragged on for weeks; i've had 4thewords for three days and actually finished

[honestgrins]

Do you accept prompts that you didn't come up with, I don't know if you have a list or not. But I just thought up a prompt and I would give my firstborn child to read the story. I know you may not have seen the Originals but Esther tried to body-switch Rebekah and Klaus said 'take me instead.' So the prompt is Esther grants Klaus’s request and body-switches him instead of Rebekah. He’s put into a teenage boy not much older than Caroline, he finds Caroline in Mystic Falls. Chaos ensues.

Ummmm, sorry this took SO long!! I’m slowly working through my lists, I swear. Thanks for your patience, and I really hope you like it! Takes place near the beginning of TVD S6.

Familiarity || Klaroline

“I’m going to fix this.” Rebekah’s voice was steely as she cupped his face, looking for any resemblance to the brother who had selflessly taken her punishment instead. Her thumb traced the new line of his cheek. “I promise, Nik.”

Klaus smirked, the familiar expression almost eerie on his human vessel. “It’s only temporary, Rebekah,” he murmured quietly.

She glanced just behind him to glare at their mother. “I don’t trust her,” Rebekah hissed.

“As if I don’t already have a plan.” Rolling his eyes, Klaus turned to face Esther. “Satisfied, Mother? Here I am, human and non-threatening.”

Esther’s eyes remain cold as her smile spread to something almost like warmth. “It’s for the best,” she nodded sagely. “The mere lifetime ahead of you will be worth more than the millennium you’ve already lived, Niklaus.”

Stepping toward the body he once inhabited, Klaus swallowed back an odd, hollow feeling when faced with his desiccating form. “Rebekah.”

“No!” Esther screamed.

In a second, Rebekah flashed both Klaus and his body away from the compound. Too focused on the body swap, Esther had failed to maintain the barrier spell on the house, allowing her children to escape.

With his too human senses, the sudden speed was disorienting for Klaus. By the time Rebekah stopped at the compound, his chest was heaving, the urge to vomit nearly overwhelming the dizziness. “Now-” He had to pause, focusing on deep breaths to remain steady. “We’re going to need a witch for cloaking spells. Elijah has one of his computer techs working on a false identity I can assume in the meantime, just out of sight of Mother Dearest.”

Nodding, Rebekah had yet to look at him in his new body; she pushed back the hair against his graying skin, instead. All the times he had daggered her, yet she couldn’t take any joy in him forced into submission. They’ve all lost each other too many times, and by their own family. “Where will you go?”

“Once the spells are done and my body is reasonably secured,” Klaus shrugged, “I have an idea where I can lay low, the last place Esther would think to look. There’s even a built-in resistance should she manage to find me.”

She frowned, finally turning to face him. Her eyes looked for any sign of her devious brother among the unfamiliar features. “Tell me you’re not that stupid.”

His smirk fell into a stern glare, the resemblance becoming clear in the violent expression. “Careful, sister. I may be human now, but-”

“Shove it, Nik,” Rebekah snapped, steel in the reminder that she was more powerful than her brother for the first time in her long, long life. “What could you possibly hope to gain by going back there?”

Klaus narrowed his eyes, a cunning smile curving his lips. “It seems the quarterback hasn’t been keeping in touch,” he teased, enjoying her angry hiss in response. “My sources say that Mystic Falls is protected against magic.”

“And Mother can’t get to you,” Rebekah realized. “But you’re magically in a human body.”

Sighing, Klaus ran a hand through his hair and startled at the smooth, dark strands. “I don’t know, Bekah. It’s merely an option should Mother make herself a further nuisance. Plan A is to ingratiate myself nearby.”

Rebekah blinked, irritation rising in her expression. “Oh, you must be joking.”

“Whitmore University Academic Advising Office, Caroline speaking.” Her fake smile stretched like elastic with the standard greeting, voice strained between professionalism and complete irritation with the human condition. The office job seemed like a good bet for work-study hours, even if the endless phone calls panicked over registration made her want to eat everyone who didn’t understand basic instructions. “Yes, you received an email with that information, I’m not at liberty to discuss it with you,” she answered tightly. “Then check your student portal, it’s also listed there.”

Sighing at the barrage of angry explanations for why that was so hard, Caroline mentally reminded herself that murder was bad. Even if she was short on blood and super hungry, hunting down some freshman who got snippy with the wrong vampire was so not worth the effort and resulting guilt.

Not so much about the feeding; since she’d been magically locked out Mystic Falls all summer, Caroline goaded her mom into taking advantage of the relative peace with a long vacation. The beach resort had plenty of booze for her to sublimate, but blood bags were few and far between. Liz managed to grin and bear the glassy-eyed guests on their way to sleep off the blood Caroline gave to heal them, but not without a stern reminder for her daughter to use good judgment once back at school.

“Mystic Falls might be safe from the supernatural, but Whitmore isn’t,” Liz had warned just before crossing the border back into town. “Getting sloppy can get you killed, draw the wrong attention.” What she left unsaid had Caroline nodding back grave tears. The Travelers were finally gone, but not without losing Bonnie to wherever she and Damon ended up when the Other Side collapsed. Stefan fled to grieve his brother, Elena walked a fine line between miserable and losing it on a good day, and Matt seemed to enjoy his exclusively human experience.

Once Caroline made it to campus for her sophomore year, then, all that left her with was-

“Hello, gorgeous.” Enzo appeared before her desk, handing off a coffee cup that didn’t smell like coffee. “Thought you might be needing a pick-me-up.”

“Enzo!” She kept her admonishment to a harsh whisper, glancing around the open office to make sure no one noticed his too sudden entrance. He’d become an unexpectedly reliable companion, though she still wasn’t sure why he stuck around. After a hundred years in a cell, Caroline half wanted to send him on a world tour. But he brought her blood and let her vent about statistics homework, so…only half. “Some discretion would be nice.” His roguish smirk told her exactly what he thought about discretion, but she accepted the cup anyway; her crabbiness would only get worse without blood. “Suspiciously warm,” she noted. “Anyone I know?”

Shrugging, Enzo made himself comfortable in the waiting area next to her, legs kicked up on her bookshelf until she shoved his feet away. “One of the parents passing through, per your request. No one likely to build a lingering grudge over time.”

Caroline sighed in relief. “Thank you.” The scent of blood darkened the veins under her eyes, and the tips of her fangs just grazed her lip when a student knocked at the door. Ducking her head to fake a cough, she took a calming breath to greet him with a more human face. “Hello, can I help you?”

He just stood there, staring at her for a too long moment. “Uh, hello?” Caroline asked again, ignoring Enzo’s amused recline as he watched the show.

“Sorry.” The guy seemed to straighten his leather jacket before folding his hands behind his back. “I wasn’t expecting- Hello. I’m a new transfer from Tulane, and I received an email to confirm my schedule here.”

Enzo perked up in his seat. “New Orleans?” Wincing, Caroline reminded herself to never drink with him again. New friend bonding time had turned into story time, which included a fair amount about the Mikaelsons, the havoc they wrought, and the greener pastures they apparently found down South. “I hear it’s a great town to get in trouble.”

“And then some, mate.” He glanced between the two of them, though, his fond smile turning into something darker.

Her eyes narrowed, some wave of suspicion dawning upon her. “Name? I’ll need it to find your advisor.”

Surprisingly, he didn’t waver from her gaze, instead meeting it with a challenge of his own. “Nicholas Mills. Call me Nic.”

He had forgotten what it was like to truly be in the presence of Caroline Forbes, the whirlwind that she was. For a whole month, Klaus had been able to chat, flirt, and even befriend her in his new body. She invited him to movie nights, caught up with him at the library, it was the utterly human life he had wanted her to leave behind.

As much as he hated his own humanity at times, he could admit that this glimpse of another life was…tempting.

Klaus knew he would have to tell her the truth at some point; the excuse for protection would only hold her attention - and her patience - for so long. He would have to explain when the time was right. Unable to contact Rebekah without drawing their mother’s attention, though, Klaus could not begin to guess when the right time would be.

Until then, he simply tried to enjoy the time she spent with him as Nic Mills. Dreadfully bored from the rest of his college experience, Klaus couldn’t help but allow bits of himself bleed through the mask. He spent his days in art classes, rolling his eyes through poor interpretations and misinformed history lessons. Often, he would duck into the music wing to while away at the piano. Whitmore had more to offer than he’d expected, but too much longer in this game would surely drive him insane.

But watching Caroline dance, smile bright among the party lights of the frat house, was a different sort of hell entirely. A red Solo cup of cheap beer was shoved into his hand, and he glanced over to find Enzo smirking at him. “Thanks,” he bit out, taking a sip. The strange vampire had been an unpleasant surprise, to say the least. It had only taken Klaus a day to catch onto his supernatural status, what with the unsubtle jokes about going for a bite and bloody t-shirts. Finding him so close to Caroline was even worse. Those nicknames. She had brooked no such casual friendship with Damon; why she put up with this fellow, Klaus didn’t understand.

“Following our girl again, huh?” Enzo drank from a flask instead, his eyes darting around the room. “Gorgeous has a tendency of collecting hangers-on.”

“Apparently so,” Klaus noted, none too generously. “Where’d she get you, then?”

Shrugging, Enzo waved back to Caroline who’d noticed both of them in the corner. “Would you believe that I was held captive for a hundred years, only to be abandoned by the closest thing I had to family, with just a gorgeous blonde to pester me back to fighting shape? Of course not, that’d be impossible.”

Klaus blinked, suddenly wanting much more of that story. But with Caroline approaching, he had to quash his instincts to threaten Enzo for information. “Hello.”

“Just in time, Gorgeous,” Enzo teased. “I was telling Nic here all about how we met. See, she pretended to hate me for a bit, but I grew on her. I hear it’s a habit with her, actually.”

Rolling her eyes, Caroline stole his flask before turning to Klaus. “Don’t believe a word he says. You don’t strike me as the frat party type.”

“You’re here,” he answered simply, much to Enzo’s amusement.

With a hoarse laugh, Enzo barely dodged an elbow jab from Caroline. “Careful, you’re a bit more breakable than her usual boyfriend. Don’t have fur, do you?”

Her hand pushed him away until she could slip between them like a barrier. Klaus wanted to push on that, wondering if he was included in that usual. Her smile turned placating, a reminder of all the times she acted as the distraction for him. “Seriously, ignore him. He’s already drunk. Do you want to da- Hold on.” Caroline reached into her pocket, frowning at the display as it buzzed. “This is…weird. I should take this.”

Lifting the phone to her ear, Klaus tried to decipher the sudden pinch in Caroline’s expression, only for the reason to become all too clear. “Rebekah?”

Klaus froze and wished he had his supernatural hearing. He didn’t want to show his hand too soon, both his safety and Caroline’s good favor depended upon him play his cards right. Worse, Rebekah might be in trouble when he was in no position to help. As his brain ran wild with the possibilities, he forced his face to remain passive. After all, he was just a human with no clue as to the Original family’s existence.

Thoroughly concerned with her conversation, Caroline didn’t seem to pay him much mind. Her eyes went wide; Klaus assumed Rebekah told her of Esther’s return and his own sacrifice. “No, Bonnie’s-” She choked up a bit, likely taken off guard. He hadn’t been pleased to discover the joy of Damon’s death cost a Bennett witch as well, though he knew Caroline was impacted on a more emotional front. “She’s gone. Where did Klaus go? Is he okay?”

Warmed at the note of worry in her voice, Klaus figured he had best be the one to come forward with the truth. Holding out his hand, he let himself fall back into his natural accent. “I’m fine, love. Give me the phone.”

Caroline hesitated only a moment until her eyes slid shut. He could practically feel the frustration rolling off her as she pressed the phone into his hand. “Unbelievable,” she muttered seconds before flashing them both out of the party. When they arrived in her off-campus apartment, Klaus took deep breaths to prevent vomiting. She scoffed at the utterly human reaction. “Seriously? Start talking, Nic.”

“You wanker,” Rebekah’s tinny voice yelled through the phone. “Is it really you, Nik?”

Sighing, Klaus held the phone up to his ear. “Yes, Rebekah. It’s been a dull few weeks. I assume you’ve been trying to reach me.”

“Your voicemail is full.”

“Phone’s locked in my studio at the compound,” Klaus answered. “I didn’t want to give Esther’s minions a means to track me.” He watched as Caroline crossed her arms, clearly unsettled.

Rebekah mumbled some obscenities at the holes in that plan, not that they’d had much time to develop it. “Well, I have you now. Elijah and Marcel have brokered a truce with Mother, I was going to bring your body up to Whitmore to avoid any interference with the spell.”

“What truce?” He certainly didn’t approve any such agreement, especially given their mother’s ill will toward their very being.

“We have Finn, it’s a trade. His life for your freedom. If the Bennett can’t do the spell, however, I want Caroline to escort you back to New Orleans. Davina will have to be the one to return you.” With a click, Rebekah hung up before either of them could protest.

Playing idly with the phone, Klaus struggled to meet Caroline’s eyes. “Sweetheart-”

“Please, don’t.” She sounded tired. “This is just…weird. Why would you do this? You made me a promise.”

I will walk away, and I’ll never come back.

Klaus opened his mouth, only to close it again. Dragging his tongue across his bottom lip, he bowed his head. “Where else would you have me go?” He glanced up to see the indecision on her face. “I wanted to tell you. Several times.”

“And yet, you didn’t. Several times.” She combed her hands through her hair, and Klaus watched forlornly as paced the room. “Well, it looks like you finally got me to New Orleans. Let’s go, we can make it there by lunch.”

“Caroline-”

Pressing her hands to her mouth, Caroline shook her head. “We’ll be trapped in a car for hours, I swear, we’ll talk about boundaries and honesty and common courtesy, I just…need a little time to process for myself. Okay?” She stared expectantly until he nodded in answer. “Okay. And I get to pick the music, it’s my car and I haven’t been lying for weeks.”

“No arguments here, love.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Stop that. I need to pack.” Flashing around her apartment, she came to a sudden stop with a suitcase in her hand.

A flare of hope clenched his stomach, though he wisely stayed quiet; still, a suitcase seemed more appropriate for an extended visit than a mere delivery. Soon, curiosity overwhelmed him. “Did you like him? Nic?”

Caroline, half buried in her pantry looking for road trip snacks, turned to face him in speculation. “I wanted to,” she finally said. “It’s been a while since…” The woods. “Plus, dating a human is such a recipe for disaster. I always kind of knew it would only be a temporary thing, which is fine. But I don’t like being temporary.”

Immortal. Fearless. “For what it’s worth,” he breathed, almost scared to invite her derision once more, “temporary is the last thing I want from you.”

“I know.” She didn’t sound sad or resigned as he’d expected. Rather, Caroline stated it as a matter of fact - that what they might be, would be forever. Shrugging, she managed a small smile. “Not yet.”

Klaus blinked, all too human heart pounding in his chest. He was about to have Caroline all to himself for hours, then in New Orleans, in his own body. She wasn’t ready for forever.

Not yet.

Read on: AO3 and FFnet