A/N: I really do hope you enjoy this story!
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Prologue
"And this maiden she lived with no other thought.
Than to love and be loved by me."
-Edgar Allan Poe, 'Annabel Lee'
It is Niklaus who sees her first that faithful summer day.
He's just a young man, 25 perhaps, helping his mother and Rebekahwhen she walks by. She's beautiful with her blonde curls and happy, dancing green eyes. He yearns and he wants with the entirety of himself and he doesn't understand how one as lovely as she could possibly exist. He tries to step away from Rebekah who hasn't noticed her brother's attentions have been taken from her, only to be called by his mother to come inside. He wants to disobey and go after her but she was gone from his sights.
With a silent vow to himself to find her another day, he goes inside.
/
Elijah sees her a week later, or rather, he hears her.
He's taking a walk through the woods enjoying the summer heat when he hears a song, and he's captivated. He follows the sound until he stumbles across the singer, bathing in a small pond. All he sees is her back and then the slight curve of her breasts when she lifts her arms and he looks away because she's a lady and he will not see anything he hasn't been permitted to see.
He does steal a quick glance at her back once more before he turns and goes the way he came.
/
They are together the next time she appears, not two days after Elijah saw her.
They're simply having a go at each other with their swords. They were having fun and practicing all in one. And then she appears, their lovely summer girl, with Rebekah and Henrik of all people. Both girls are smiling and laughing at something the other said when she spots them. Boyishly wanting to impress her it is Elijah who takes a jab at his brother. Nik of course laughs and comes at him and cuts his belt, sending it to the ground. Eljiah lets out a good natured laugh but looks up to see the lovely lady giggling. Nik sees this as well, but it does not embarrass him. In fact it makes him smile and offer a little bow which makes her smile. The elder brother frowns at this, but before he's able to say anything their father is on Nik, yelling and rough.
Elijah has never appreciated this, but a part of him is glad to have her see his brother put in his place.
/
She approaches Nik first.
It has been a day since the incident and he isn't in the best of moods, but offers a polite nod in her direction. They're in the woods, and it's a lovely afternoon, and he would say she's glowing. Sunlight only makes the inner light she has glow brighter. She sits beside him and offers a smile. "I'm Caroline," she says. Caroline. Lovely. "Niklaus," he replies back. She nods at him, smile widening into a grin. "I know, Rebekah told me." And suddenly he feels a little better. Elijah listens from behind a tree as their conversation goes on, and she tells his brother she thinks he is very talented. And later, when he returns home, he is cold to his younger brother in a way he has never been before.
He doesn't understand why he's acting this way.
Doesn't understand why a girl he's never even spoke to makes him feel this way.
He just…wants to know her. But she wants to know his brother.
He really should be happy about that, because other than his sister and sometimes his mother no one really shows Nik any consideration. Yet…he just can't. To drown out his sorrows he pays attentions to Tatia, the most beautiful (he still prefers a girl who embodies summer) girl in the village. She has a child, but he doesn't mind. It becomes hard though, when Caroline deems it appropriate to befriend all Nik's siblings, and since she's already friends with Rebekah and Henrik, she goes to Elijah first. She comes up one day gives him a smile, pointing to his new belt. "I hope that is of stronger material," she tells him, and he lets out a chuckle. He's surprised, and delighted, to see that despite his feelings he's able to just be a friend.
/
As time passes Caroline becomes closer and closer to Nik, who is quite happy.
His father's harshness doesn't bother him as much, but Elijah's obvious affections for his girl do. He sees the way he looks at her, the way he smiles at her when she says hello, but most of all he sees the want. He may fool everyone else by courting Tatia but not him. And one day it gets to be a little too much.
Elijah has the audacity to touch her face, kiss her forehead. He doesn't know why, doesn't care to ask. Doesn't bother to see the tears she's been shedding for whatever reason. Doesn't see that Elijah was doing nothing but offering comfort.
All his pent up angers and frustrations leak out and his hands ball into fists.
He stalks up to them.
He draws his hand back.
He lets it fly.
It hits Elijah square in the face.
The elder brother, who was merely trying to comfort Caroline after she found out her mother, her only family left, was deathly ill, was taken aback by his younger brother's assault. Being the honorable man he was, he wiped his face of the blood now pouring from his nose and gently ushered Caroline, who was shocked, to the side and tried to get his brother to calm down. "Niklaus, what has gotten in to you?" he asks, calmly watching as the young man's body shook in such a rage that he couldn't quite understand.
Nik has no answer as he flies at him again, but Elijah sees it coming and blocks, but Nik just comes again and again. Elijah has no choice but to fight back, and now a crowd has been drawn. Caroline is sobbing and begging them to sop because how can she understand that its over her? They've drawn a crowd, Tatia is among them, and it's becoming messy as the boys go to the ground.
Made aware of the situation, Esther runs to her sons with Kol and Finn hot on her heels. Rebekah is somewhere in the crowd, holding Henrik's hand while they listen to their mother scream for the boys to stop. With Kol and Finn pulling them off each other they have to. "Explain yourselves!" their mother demands, but nothing is said. Nik glares at Elijah, who glares back before walking away into the crowd, followed by Tatia. Nik sends their backs such a glare that it leaves his mother speechless as he walks away. She watches as Tatia follows her eldest son, and then turns to watch Niklaus' retreating back. With this visual, how is she to know that it was sweet little Caroline, naïve little summer girl, who caused such a rift. While Caroline rushes, in tears, after Nik, Esther vows she will find a way to end the Petrova child.
/
Nik and Elijah are on unsteady terms but being brothers they couldn't let the rift last and slowly began to calm and forgive. Nik asked for no explanations and neither did Elijah because he knew why. Caroline was more reserved from them after the fight, almost frigid to Nik because when she went to him he was most cruel. She ran from him before he could show her he didn't mean it.
With Elijah she's not so much cold as she is distant. He's apologized for frightening her and she's accepted but won't really speak to him. Fall has come and her summer glow is dimming, and neither brother wants to think of winter.
/
Everything goes horribly after one full moon. Henrik is killed by werewolves, and their mother brings forth the curse of vampirism. Thinking Tatia caused the rift between her sons, Esther used her blood in the spell taking her life with it. She told them, Elijah and Nik, that she took 'that meddling whore' out of their lives to keep them happy. Elijah was the first out of their home to see Caroline. She's bringing medicine from Ayanna to her mother, but it hasn't helped at all. He watches her from the shadows.
/
Nik only goes to see her once he is assured by his brother she is well. She's heading into the forest, tears in her eyes because her mother is now gone, and she is alone. He pulls her into his arms and holds her, whispering promises of love and that he'll never leave her alone. He kisses her look of shock away and holds her close. And then he notices.
Her neck is lovely. Her veins, oh how they tease him. He can't hold back anymore.
Hey eyes widen in horror at his beastial look, and she screams and screams when he suddenly sinks his elongated fangs into her neck. Her cries are drowned out by the screams of his siblings' victims.
/
He transforms after that and Elijah finds her body. There are tears on both sides when Nik turns back and Esther finds them. Elijah is holding their beautiful summer girl close to his body, begging her to wake up while their mother leads her wolf son away. She puts on him a curse, worse than the other, and she shuns him. He rips her heart out.
(Earlier in the day Elijah had slipped some of his blood into the water Caroline was to bring home for her mother because he was told his blood would heal. But Caroline had taken a drink first.)
/
A thousand years later, both brothers are still on strained terms and they're sitting with another pair of brothers, telling them a story. As they were once, the Salvatore brothers were falling for the same girl.
Klaus grins.
Elijah sighs.
"When our family first settled here, there was a girl, she was an exquisite beauty. Every boy of age desired to be her suitor. And none loved her more than Niklaus."
Klaus rolls his eyes. " I'd say there was one who loved her at least as much."
Stefan looks between them. "You both loved the same girl?" They still do
\
As Elijah holds her in his arms, he begs for Caroline to come back to him. And then, like a miracle, he hears her gasp. He looks at her, watching as her eyes open.
A/N: Summer Girl is going through a makeover! R&R please!