Chapter Text
The first thing Cami thought when she saw her was that she was lost, that maybe she got the wrong place. The second was, much to her shame, Disney Princess. Blonde hair pinned up in a complicated style, tasteful jewelry and a dress right out of a storybook, but it was the way she held herself, the confidence and grace, that finished the look. The moment she stepped in, all eyes turned on her.
Cami knew who this was even if they've never met before. The woman who had turned Klaus Mikaelson from the monster of legends who slaughtered thousands and kept his siblings in boxes, the one who was more beast than man, into the person Camille felt she could fall in love with some day. Still bloodthirsty, still vengeful, but protective and kind and... good. There was so much good in him, and it was because of her.
Once, in a rare combination of drunkenness and empathy and heartbreak, Rebekah had told Cami about Caroline Forbes. The real reason why Klaus had been drawn to Cami. Blonde, pretty, honest. The other blonde had asked Cami not to allow herself to become just a placeholder, a temporary replacement for the only woman Klaus had ever truly loved... could ever truly love. To not torture herself that way. Now, Cami thought that if she had been supposed to be a replacement, she had made a poor one.
There was a rare beauty to Caroline Forbes, a light shining around her like an aura. The glimpses Cami had seen before, of bright smiles on canvas and hundreds of sketches of green blue eyes like he could never quite get the shade right, of poorly hidden drawings she had pretended not to see, could not live up to the original. She was delicate in a way Cami could never hope to be but held a strength, like liquid steel, in her eyes. The real Caroline Forbes was breathtaking in a way no painting could ever truly capture and she wondered how many artists would have gone mad trying and failing to do just that had she been born in a different time.
Rousseau's was full but nobody was moving. Cami allowed her eyes to shift from the blonde vampire to the hybrid sitting in the corner of the bar. Neither of them had eyes for anyone else in the room, it was like they were the only ones alive in the world. She didn't remember seeing Klaus so human before, not even during their seasons when he had allowed himself to show emotion before compelling the memories away from her. The smile on his face was small, but gentle and soft. It reached his eyes in a way it never had before. Cami had never been insecure but for the first time she could understand Rebekah's warning. Because everyone in the bar might have been captured by Caroline's beauty but Klaus was looking at her like she was the full moon in the darkest sky.
Klaus' eyes that never left Caroline's just like hers never left his. Not as she walked closer, not as she climbed on the bar in one swift move like she wasn't dressed for a ball in a faraway land instead. It was only when she first spoke, gaze still linked with Klaus that Cami realized she was holding a microphone. She had planned this, taken her time, prepared, waited for him to come. He hadn't been there the day before, or the day before that, or the day before that. How long had she been waiting, Cami wondered, for the perfect moment?
"Hi! So, most of you don't know me, you probably think I'm crazy right about now. I am, but not for this." She joked, an airy laugh joining Klaus's low chuckle before her voice grew softer. "I feel saner than I've felt in my life. I'm here, for love. Who doesn't want love, right?" Caroline asked, but she wasn't looking at any other, she was only looking at him and he was listening. All his attention was on her, like all the eyes in the room watching them weren't even there.
"But I gave it away. Few years ago, I met this guy. The right person at the wrong time. I was young and foolish, an insecure small town girl, and he was the big bad wolf that everyone hated, too old for me. I was ridiculed and bullied and used to use him." She confessed and Cami could hear the real hurt in her voice. The scars left behind by fear and shame and regret.
"We clashed and burned, broke and fixed each other. He allowed himself to be distracted, and manipulated, even though he knew. Showed kindness and forgiveness and pity, all for me. Stayed, when I didn't even know I needed someone. Taught me how to love myself, for who I am. That I'm perfect, just the way I am." Klaus let out a little breath like he wanted to tell her that she was perfect but held himself back. Cami could still see the words in his eyes... It was unfair how expressive his eyes were.
"He made me laugh when I was sad. Saved me when I needed saving... saved me even when I didn't know I needed to be saved. I had to constantly remind myself of all the terrible things that he's done because I couldn't help but love the man I knew was underneath it." Her voice trembled. "I kept turning him down because I was too worried of what other people would think and when I covered our connection with hostility and revulsion, when I cursed him and pushed him away, he did what no one thought he was capable of. He let me go."
Cami tried to imagine the Klaus that she knew, possessive, paranoid, scared of not being in control Klaus, doing just that. Relinquishing control. Letting go of something, someone, that he desired. That he considered his. Or the Klaus from the stories, who killed his siblings' lovers, who kept the people closest to him on a leash. She couldn't really see it, and yet he had. He'd willingly let her go. Maybe that was why Rebekah had called her the one that got away with such wonder and envy in her voice. For Caroline, and Caroline alone, he's fought back the most base of his instincts.
"He let me grow. And I did. I moved on and I went to college and I lived. And I loved. And I lost. And I grieved..." Cami watched Klaus's hand twitch at the pain in her voice as it was shattering to pieces like glass and cut her throat raw, the visible tears in her eyes. He wanted to go to her, to comfort her, but he held back. Cami watched Klaus clench his hand in a fist and let Caroline lead this, whatever it was.
"I saw two people murdered on what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives... and I realized that life will always be too short to have regrets no matter how long you live. That even eternity can turn into the blink of an eye." She surprised Cami when she sat down right next to his drink and took his hand into her free one, like she couldn't keep away from him anymore. The human almost wanted to joke that that dress was not made to wipe her bar. Klaus bought the hand to his lips, and he still stayed quiet... And here Cami was, thinking he so loved the sound of his own voice, she thought to herself amusedly.
"I've built a life for myself, and that life led me to you because the truth is I've tried to stop thinking about you. And I can't." His breath hitched and Caroline ignored it, going ahead with her speech like she's told it to herself a thousand times until it caught a life of it's own. "You once promised to be my last love, now I've come here to be yours."
Caroline's voice was soft and warm and light just like the rest of her when she started singing.
I found myself dreaming
In silver and gold
Like a scene from a movie
That every broken heart knows...
Cami didn't know this song, but for some reason she thought it sounded like a heart breaking. After everything she's been through, Cami knew that no one was guaranteed forever. Not even an immortal, not even Klaus Mikaelson.
...So I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you
I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you
Caroline's voice faded into silence, and still no sound was heard in the bar until Klaus cupped her face in his hand. "Hello, love."
He pulled her down into a kiss so intimate Cami felt like an intruder. When they parted, they still refused to look away from each other's eyes. They stayed like that as the bar came back to life around them, as minutes passed, as people came and left with their drinks. Cami couldn't help but feel like she'd just lost something, even though it was apparent it was never meant to be hers. The world, she knew, would never be the same again.