[TVD] Just Like the Movies: A Light Hearted Zombie Romp

[tmbreck]

Title: Just Like the Movies: A Light Hearted Zombie Romp
Author: tmbreck / eclectic_tongue / eclectic / Lilbreck
Beta: velvetwhip
Character/Pairing: Caroline, Klaus, Caroline/Klaus
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 1,184
Summary: A not-so-typical Halloween night for Caroline and Klaus
A/N: A huge thanks, as always, goes to my wonderful beta velvetwhip. Written for klarolinetrickortreatortreat, gifted to Hana and whichever url she's going by now. ;)

The century or more that the suit had spent in a tomb had done it no favors. Of course, the same could easily be said for the corpse wearing it. That would have been far from shocking had the suit –or more specifically the body wearing it—not been shambling its way through the cemetery where it should have instead been resting. Aside from the sound of old and weathered cloth sliding against rotting skin, the long-dead gentleman made no sound. Not even a groan of acknowledgement as it changed course and headed toward the blonde fighting off one of its companions.

Although she appeared at first not to notice another attacker coming up behind her, the young woman in question quickly spun and decapitated the dead man with the axe she was wielding before he could get close enough to do any damage.

"Seriously? You piss off a witch and she sends zombies after you? On Halloween?"

Caroline paused to behead another slow moving corpse that had gotten too close and then quickly tuck the hair that escaped her pony tail behind her ear.

"They're not even the scary fast ones from 28 Days Later, and they don't even make other zombies by biting people. You do realize what this means, right?"

Klaus dispatched two zombies with one swing of the sword he was holding –and it said a lot about her life that she didn't even question that someone she knew would have a sword and battle axe just lying around—before turning to look at her. The fond smile he sent her way let her know that, while he knew exactly what was going on, he was waiting for her to say it. Every time he gave her that look she was both annoyed and oddly flattered. After all, there weren't many people who took it as a matter of course that she would figure out a situation.

"What does it mean, love?"

As she took a breath to answer there was a movement from the corner of her eye. Deciding to switch up her hacking technique, Caroline brought her axe down and buried it in the center of the zombie's head. Of course, she then spent an awkward minute or two trying to wrench it back out again. Maybe she should stick to swinging it like it was a baseball bat.

Just when she finally worked the blade free, she saw the head of yet another corpse go rolling past her. Upon turning, she was witness to one of Klaus's teasingly faux-concerned faces.

"Perhaps, had you chosen a sword instead of that brutish weapon, you would not be having so much trouble right now."

Rolling her eyes, Caroline moved further down the row of tombs, keeping an eye out for any ridiculously slow-moving dead.

"Maybe I would have picked a sword if I hadn't almost taken off my own head when I tried to get the only other one in the room off your pretentious wall-mount."

At this she looked over her shoulder with raised eyebrows, almost daring him to laugh again at her less than graceful attempt to arm herself earlier in the evening. When he simply tilted his head in acknowledgement, she turned back to scan the cemetery in front of them.

"As I was saying, the easily-defeated zombies rising from only one specific cemetery where a large number of powerful witches supposedly are buried seems a bit Rube Goldberg, even for this town. Add to that the fact that it just happens that this cemetery is far from your home, which just happens to be where the grimoire this witch wants is located, and it all spells distraction."

Looking over at Klaus, Caroline was warmed by the pride glowing on his face. At what point in her life did making a billion year old mass murderer become something she was happy about? Deliberately pushing down the inevitable guilt and discomfort that always came with such thoughts, she waited for his response.

"You are, of course, completely correct. When word of a zombie army rising to attack us fell so easily in our laps, I knew immediately it was a ploy to get me to leave the book unprotected."

Caroline turned back the way they had come, grabbing hold of Klaus's arm as if to pull him along.

"We need to get back there! Lord only knows what an angry witch could do with the spells in that thing!"

Klaus did not move, however, and Caroline was pulled up short by his hand covering hers when she tried to walk off.

"I called in Elijah to quickly relocate the grimoire right before we left. There's no chance of her getting her hands on it."

It wasn't necessarily the fact that Klaus had done all this without letting her know that had Caroline's temper quickly rising; it was the fake innocent look he had on his face as he told her. As if he couldn't even bother to pretend to be sorry he had intentionally worried her for nothing.

"And why didn't you decide to let me know any of this?"

At this, Klaus did look genuinely puzzled.

"Caroline, when we were watching that zombie marathon last week, at your insistence, you implied that you were disappointed in the lack of zombie fighting in your life. You had said something about already battling two of the 'big three' horror monsters and that it didn't seem fair you couldn't claim to have fought them all."

Slowly, the memory of the night Klaus was referring to came back to Caroline. By the time she had started talking about fighting monsters, she had already downed far too much of a bottle of tequila and Klaus had appeared to be engrossed in whatever he had been sketching at the time –most likely her, if history had taught her anything. She hadn't even thought he had been paying attention to her, let alone that he would remember any of it.

"That is---,"

Whatever she had been about to say was stopped by the nervous and hopeful look on Klaus's face. He had done all of this just to make her happy; just to fulfill some half-assed wish she wasn't even sure she had been serious about. Maybe this was why she continued to hang around someone who did things she would probably never approve of. He wanted to make her happy. That probably made her morals shady at best, but that was something she was learning to live with.

"That is actually pretty sweet."

She couldn't help but return the grin that spread across his face. Yeah, this is why she stayed.

"So, if everything is taken care of back at home," linking her arm through his, she led him further into the cemetery. "I don't see any reason why we can indulge in a bit more zombie ass-kicking!"

Their laughter bounced off the walls of tombs around them and attracted the attention of the numerous shambling corpses in the vicinity. Good. Because this was the perfect night to kill a few zombies.