Until Forever Ends (TVD+TO FF)

My Dearest Husband

Kara didn't know what she suspected would happen when she finally returned home after fifty years. It had taken her and Kol a while to track down Louis, he hadn't remained in Paris for some odd reason. She hoped that she would find the others with him wherever he was. 

Her madness still reverberated through her everyday life. She would sometimes ignore things, assuming they were hallucinations. She still had trouble sleeping, but it was getting slightly better as time ticked on. 

When she finally found the home of her husband, she did not know what she expected at all. But it most certainly wasn't a woman who looked eerily similar to her answering the door. She was pretty enough, with large brown doe eyes and silky brown hair. She smiled like a saint as she answered the door, "Bonjour, comment puis-je vous aider?" (Translation: Hello, may I help you)

"Hello, darling. We're looking for a man named Louis, is he here?" Kol cut in, smirking at the girl who flushed under his attention. 

"Oui, please come in." She lead them into the front room of their home, on the mantel sat a painting of Prince Louis and the woman who had escorted them inside. 

Kara's stomach dropped, beginning to understand that this was not a maid or a blood bag who had greeted them at the door of her husband's house. Sensing his sister's discomfort, Kol reached out grasping her hand in his. The woman left to go fetch Louis and terror built in Kara's soul, a feeling so deep Kol felt it as well. 

"He will ditch the cheap imitation the moment the real thing is back in his arms," Kol whispered in their Nordic mother tongue. He hadn't used it in a while, but it seemed to comfort Kara during some of her episodes during her fifty-year illness. 

Kara kept her eyes trained on the painting, even as she heard the footsteps approaching. She heard his pause, his sharp intake of breath as he saw her. She turned to face her husband and it was as if all else faded. 

Tears filled her eyes as she saw his handsome face once more. Those blue eyes that she adored pierced through her like an arrow. 

"Hello, my love." She whispered, a single tear slipping down her face. 

"Hello... Hello?!" His astonishment quickly turned to rage as he stared at the face of his beloved first wife. "FIFTY-TWO YEARS, KARA! You were gone for fifty-two years! I thought you were dead! And your little sire command trapped me within the borders of France so I could not look for you! I was forced to run every time I heard the name, Michael! Do you have any idea how many fuckers are named Michael?! I WAITED! I PINED FOR YOU FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS! I MOURNED YOU! I THOUGHT MY WIFE WAS DEAD, ONLY FOR YOU TO STROLL INTO MY LIFE ONCE MORE FIFTY-TWO YEARS LATER AND SAY HELLO?!??" 

"Watch your tone." Kol all but growled when he felt his sister flinch at Louis' sharp tone. 

She thought back to the last thing she said to him, recognizing how the sire bond may have taken her words far too literally. She had said, "You will stay in France while I go to handle my family... They need me right now. Just stay safe and if a man named Mikael finds you... run..."

Louis had been trapped in France for fifty-two years, forced to obey his sire's wishes. He had to flee each time he heard the name Mikael, which in hindsight is a rather common name. She hadn't intended to command anything of him, she had forgotten about the sire bond altogether. Louis spent fifty-two years pining for her without a word.

Kara never wanted to cause the people she loved pain. She had endured fifty-two years of torment for that very reason. In her first life, Kara had no one to care about, she had lived and died alone. In her second, she gave everything she had to those who gave her life meaning even to her own detriment. 

She loved Louis, but a Mikaelson's love is toxic and corrupting. Even if she told him everything that happened, it wouldn't erase the years of pain she had caused him. Her mere words had unintentionally hurt him. So she did what she always did, she made herself a martyr for her loved ones. 

"Are you happy now? Does she make you happy?" She asked though her words were startlingly sincere. 

"She is the only reason I did not shove a stake through my own broken heart." He answered.

"What's her name?"

"Monique."

"I hope you and Monique love and care for each other until your eternity ends...I love you, my husband. Which is why I must let you go..." Kara grasped his face in her hands, watching as he melted into her touch just as he had half a century ago. 

She looked into those gorgeous blue eyes that she loved so desperately her pupils dilating as she held his stare, "You will forget that you married me, you will forget ever loving me, you will erase me from all of your memories. You will know that you were turned by an Original Vampire named Kara Mikaelson. You will be free of any and all compulsions I have unintentionally forced on you. You will live freely and happily in any way you see fit. You will explore the world just like you always wanted." As her compulsion finished, he repeated her words. Before Monique could return with the tea, Kara grabbed Kol and fled the room. 

"Where did they go?" Monique asked her lover. 

Louis looked at her in confusion, "Who?" 

"Why did you do that? Why didn't you just explain?" Kol asked trying to keep up with his sister's quick pace. 

"Because he was hurting because of me... I would have gone back and explained everything if I knew it would never happen again. But truthfully Kol... When it comes down to choosing my family or anyone else, I will always choose you all. I will choose my family again and again until forever ends. I could not guarantee that I would not leave him again... So I saved him the pain." A single tear fell from each eye as her face fell into a painfully neutral expression. "He will be better off having never loved me at all."

Kol didn't agree. He could not imagine anyone being better off without Kara, but he kept his thoughts to himself, returning to meet with the rest of their family in Germany.