A/N: Inspired by a tumblr post I saw from hellaradalwaysmad about this girl who tearfully told her boyfriend that she got drunk at a party and ended up sleeping with a guy there, only to be surprised when her boyfriend laughs and tells her that asdksdhgk;dshlgjfh;.
I know I said I'll be finishing the oneshots and updates that have been sitting on my laptop for the past two years and I am still hell bent on doing that, but I hope you guys don't mind that I took a quick break. After the angst fest that is And Maybe Together You and Me Will Find It and Rest In Pieces I might just go crazy if I dive into another 'heavy' story which most of the said oneshots and updates are, so I took like three hours to write this short, shallow, fluffy thing.
-o-
but if we're meant to be (we will be)
Girl, you really got me bad, you really got me bad
And I'm gonna get you back, I'm gonna get you back
- Misery, Maroon 5
It was the most heartbreaking thing Caroline Forbes ever had to do in her entire life, and that was counting that time she had to throw away the anniversary cake she spent an entire day baking for Klaus because she asked Kol to taste it first and the restaurateur choked, promptly declaring that the glob of flour and cocoa was unfit for human consumption.
To sit on their bed with her arms hugging her knees, like a little girl who knows she did something wrong, last night's make up smirched into a Pollock-esque mess on her tear-streaked face, her eyes red and swollen from wailing incessantly for the last three hours… and tell her sweet, kind, loving fiancé who'd just arrived from a four-day corporate meeting in Dallas that she - well, there was no other way to put it, really - she slept with another man.
"WHAT?"
"I'm sorry!" she sobbed, the tears spilling anew, even when her own tear ducts thought they'd dried themselves out. "I didn't meant to – I love you, Klaus, you know that, right? Please, I'm sorry!"
And Nikaus Mikaelson couldn't do anything but close his eyes in disbelief, lifting a hand to rub his right temple where he can feel a vein almost pop out. He and Caroline had been together for four crazy years and they'd fought about basically everything, from movies ("Sweetheart, I know you adore that Chris Pratt bloke, but we've seen Jurassic World four times in the past two weeks and I'm going to have to put my foot down.") to mushrooms ("Like, this is no not fair, that mushroom was clearly on my slice of the pizza!"), but infidelity? That was the one thing they never had a problem about.
"Who – when - " he sputtered, not having quite recovered from the bomb his girlfriend just dropped.
The blonde cringed further, the expression on her face changing from pained remorse to miserable mortification, one that you would likely see on a patient admitted to the hospital when the ER doctors ask how a cucumber got stuck in her bowels. (There was this guy who said he kept his cucumbers in the bathroom and he slipped while taking a shower and somehow landed his a-hole perfectly into the vegetable…)
"I- I don't know who…"
"What do you mean you don't know? Were you drugged? Taken? Have you called the pol -"
"No, I - I got really drunk at Enzo's party last night and I can't remember clearly what happened after the fifth round of drinks… just flashes of this guy arriving and walking towards us and I was so giddy, it had to be the alcohol…"
Wait - "What does the guy look like?"
"I don't know, I'm sorry! Everything's a blur and I think when he started to leave he took me with him and I don't remember why I followed… but we walked upstairs and ended up in the guest room and we started kissing – I'm not sure who started it, it might have been me, but oh – I didn't mean for any of it to happen, Klaus, believe me, I wouldn't be here admitting it to you if I –" she cried again.
The Mikaelson & Mikaelson junior partner ignored her – he seemed far more interested in the story than in his girlfriend's apology. "And then?"
"And then…" - cue waterworks that could have kept a one-acre garden in drought-hit California fresh and green for an entire summer - "I slept with him!"
"…"
"Klaus, I love you, you're everything to me – this, this is all my fault, I wasn't thinking at all and it felt so good and I wanted – oh, why am I saying this, I must be sick!" Caroline wailed, holding her head in her hands.
If she'd taken a second to glance at her boyfriend, she would have seen the bizarrely amused look splashed on his face… and the ghost of the grin that he was, weirdly enough, trying so damn hard to suppress.
"And then?"
"A-and then I woke up this morning and my head was hurting so bad and I felt really sore… and when I stood up I saw that I was naked and I remembered what happened... I cried, Klaus, I really did, I was so ashamed and sorry, I thought of you and felt sick to my stomach -"
"And the guy?"
"I heard the water running in the bathroom, he must have been taking a shower. But I didn't want to be there when he got out, I couldn't bear to see who I… (sob) who I cheated on you with! So I threw my clothes on and grabbed a cab as fast as I could – and Klaus, please, I'm begging you. I love you and I want this to work out, I made a mistake and it's all my fault but please!"
"…" – Keep it in, Niklaus Mikaelson, keep it all in –
She looked at him pleadingly, her vision blurred from the fountains of tears she'd been crying all morning. It took her more than a few seconds to realize that he looked like he was holding a fart or something in - but she pressed on, determined to save their relationship.
"I am never going to drink alcohol again, I swear. And I'm going to get help, counseling, sex therapy if I have to –"
And the last statement finally choked the air out of the lawyer's lungs, letting him burst into the fit of laughter that he'd been trying with all his strength to contain for the last five minutes. It was the most hilarious moment he had ever gone through in his entire life (mighty feat, considering he's related to Kol Mikaelson) and he could only thank God that he had a resilient gall bladder or he might have peed himself already.
Caroline looked even more devastated. "Oh, God, I've driven you mad -"
"No, sweetheart – please stop crying." He finally said, stifling his laughter as he sat beside his future wife and took the sobbing woman into his arms.
"Y-you're not angry?" she asked, lips wobbling, green eyes filled with utter confusion.
He shakes his head. "I'll wager you'll be angrier at me than I at you two minutes from now but… well, you didn't really cheat, love. The guy you slept with at Enzo's party last night – your must've been so hammered you didn't remember, but that was me."
"Y-you? How…?"
"The conference ended early, I checked if there were still seats in the 7pm flight and fortunately for me there still were, so I decided to leave last night instead of this morning. I called you when I arrived at LRX but you weren't answering so I got hold of Enzo, he told me you girls were enjoying your drinks a tad too much and that he'd had to swat the last tray of afterburners from Bekah -"
Enzo, Caroline thought rather blankly. Of course, she was at Enzo's house, how could she think that Klaus' own best friend would let her roll into bed with some random guy?
"- so I got a cab and went straight to the party. You were – how should we put it – you were so delighted to see me you almost tripped on your heels trying to run to me." Klaus said with another chuckle. "I'm not sure if Bonnie or Elena even knew where they were anymore and Matt was taking them home and Bekah was the only one of you who could still walk and Damon said they'd better leave before that changed. You the drunkest of them all, so Enzo, feeling sorry for his good old mate who'd just arrived from four days working in Dallas and now had to look after his very drunk fiancé, offered to let us crash in his guest room." he explained.
"Enzo offered... So you were really that guy I went to sleep with?"
"Yes, love, I walked you upstairs with solely the intention of finally getting some shut-eye. But you're right, you started kissing me and you were saying how much you missed me and since Enzo already offered us the hospitality of a room with a nice, soft bed, how could I deny you?"
"And this morning, in the bathroom…?"
"Imagine my surprise when I got out and saw that you'd bolted. How many fiancee's disappear in the morning after spending the night with their fiancé?"
"Oh God -" Caroline gasped, feeling her cheeks burn.
"You said that a lot last night as well." Her boyfriend replied with a cheeky grin, though one she did not have the pleasure to see because she was too gobsmacked by the revelation.
"I was heartbroken and ashamed and I prayed so hard that Enzo wouldn't see me sneaking out -"
"Ah, if you'd waited a few more minutes until I got out of the bath, you would have saved yourself the walk of shame -"
"And you stood there letting my cry my eyes out when I thought I'd cheated on you!" Caroline finally screeched, furiously smacking her boyfriend in the shoulder with newfound energy that came with he guilt and shame eating her up mere minutes ago now being reduced to an embarrassing but thoroughly welcome sense of relief. Ugh, she ought to skin Klaus for making her go through the worst five minutes of her life -
"Come on love, I had to let you finish the story, if only to make sure we were talking about the same thing." Klaus laughed, wrapping her arms around his girlfriend again.
He could very well chortle his way to dehydration (Oh, wait until Enzo and Kol hear about this) and he knew she'd be pissed at him for this for probably the rest of her life – but for now Caroline was leaning into him, her cheek finding a comfortable spot in his chest, (Seriously, who cares if he's wearing a light blue shirt that's sure to be smudged with caked cheek highlighter and run-down mascara) and everything turned out to be fine. They were still together and he was still going to marry this amazing girl and that was all that mattered to him.
He stroked her hair gently, raspberry lips curling up into a kind smile.
"Oh, sweetheart – I'm just glad you've always been honest. Imagine what I'd have felt if you tried to soothe my ego and said that sex with that 'other guy' was horrible."
"Klaus!"
-o-
1. And there you go. Short, shallow and fluffy, just right for a quick break from all the heavy storylines I'm working on. Now please excuse me while I try to finish the update for That I Give You Not My Hand But My Heart while my muse is still here. :)
2. As always, I'm erica-dreams-in-colour at tumblr and you can also check out my multi-chapter fics at she. dreams. in. colour here at FFN, both links are in my profile page.