[OPEN] We'll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet

[nascensibility]

Who: EVERYONE, but especially you!
Where: Wonderland Ballroom
When: New Year's Eve
Rating: PG - PG13 (will change if applicable)
Summary: New Year's Eve Party
The Story:

[The morning of December 31st, all residents will receive a handwritten invitation slipped under their door.]



You are cordially invited to attend a party
celebrating the New Year

Wonderland Ballroom
8 pm - 1 am

Semi-Formal Attire
Buffet & Bar
No RSVP Required

All Ages Welcome

For inquiries, contact E. O'Connell

[Punctuality in planning is important: the ballroom itself will only be ready for guests at exactly 8 o'clock, bedecked in glittering golds and the red-green of Christmas' vestiges, still clinging to the old year. Dining tables surround a central dance floor, bars and buffets dot the edges of the room and both holly and mistletoe are expressed liberally through the interior.

Mingle, dance, eat and be merry! The New Year will come in at midnight - the band will play and the drinks will flow for long after.]

Comments

[poppycock]

[ he knows that she does: with fierceness in her heart and and in her smiles, caroline perseveres. i did the thing!! isn't that what he has done? build fortresses and terrors so great no one would ever challenge or cross him, and if they did—if they did, they would pay for the mere inclination. he has made a point to make himself invulnerable just as she, but not like her. not with hope, and faith, and worth.

not then.

the reminder of who she is jars him, for as breakable as she is, what is there strong enough to break her spirit? to cow his belief and admiration of it? no one. not even he, and he'd be remiss to imply it.

(but it doesn't change how someone could break her in other ways.)

his lips part and his exhale is heavy. jarred he was but now he nearly flinches, his eyes dropping to their entwined hands and his white-knuckled grasp. his eyes close for a prolonged few seconds at her questions, because what he wants is for her to be safe. for them all to be safe. what he wants is for her to stay removed from the darknesses that shroud him and be safe and happy.

(is it not the curse of all who love him and all he loves to suffer?) his fingers slowly loosen but klaus doesn't step away. when his eyes open, there is steel in them. there is love. more than anything, more than fear or uncertainty, there is guarantee: ] I promise you: [ he stops, caught in her eyes ] I will not let harm come to you. Not on my account. [ his smile is small, but true. ] And not only because you are perfectly capable. [ he believes those words. with one last look at her, he leaves her on the dance floor. ]

[persevere]

[proud of u

She's silent as several different expressions seem to cross his face in the span of a few moments, each one more confusing than the last. Caroline's own eyes drop to their hands, clasped together and on the verge of being painful with how he's clutching her, and her mouth goes dry as she tries to process what it all means.

When she looks back up, he's letting her go, opening his eyes to stare at her in a way she recognizes only vaguely. She's seen it in the eyes of other people, and they've never made it when they looked at her.

She knows the look, and yet she finds she still can't quite accept what she knows she sees. Denial is her greatest ally in this moment, because of all the people to look at her like that, she never expected it to be him.

Caroline had almost come to expect that no one would.

She's stunned into silence at his verbal declaration, her lips parting as words stick in her throat, and then he's walking away, leaving her on the dance floor, alone. Her lips press together, wetting them with her tongue, and she sighs heavily as she turns to look back the way they came before things had gotten even more confusing.]

Of course, he'd say that and just leave...

[Men.]