#me considering the tatia situation is perhaps where his insecurity toward elijah truly began 🤔

[klaeus]

piggybacking off this post about intense ships, i just realized we really never got to see klaus in a long-standing romantic ship, and therefore didn't get to see how the passage of time would change their dynamic / klaus' disposition. the first one we're shown is tatia, sort of. elijah says "none loved her more than niklaus", but we don't really see much of them and she ended up choosing elijah over klaus, cutting any relationship between them short and breaking his heart. then comes aurora, but again, it's cut short when she brutally breaks up with him ( the truth of that is of course revealed eventually, but numerous centuries too late ), breaking his heart again and majorly impacting his self worth. then we're shown his interest in caroline and their game of will they won't they ( which i've explained doesn't make much sense to me here ), but a sustained romantic relationship never comes from it.

ㅤㅤhis romantic involvement with hayley was really as simple a one night stand, but tbh, i preferred that for the two of them and really ended up loving what their dynamic grew into. genevieve is hardly worth mentioning here, as while they of course had a physical relationship, i saw klaus' thing with her to be strictly strategic rather than having true romantic interest in her. now comes the crème de la crème of a romantic relationship perhaps making klaus a bit better: cami. but unfortunately, not only did it start slowly ( def not inherently a bad thing, but they had so little time together in total it was quite detrimental here ), but once again, it was cut short before it could truly flourish. cami becoming a vampire basically halted the growth of their relationship ( understandably so ), and while they ended up taking great strides to repair and further their bond, it was literally during cami's last days and then she died - and that was that. she was his last romantic relationship before he died, and the closest thing to a healthy, sustained ship he was shown to have; and considering healthy wouldn't really be a great way to describe their rocky, power imbalanced relationship, that's saying a lot.

ㅤㅤso once again, i'm going to take liberties with something that wasn't shown in canon. in my mind, i like to think that upon actually officially taking someone on as his s/o, the beginning of their relationship would have that intensity his canon ones are shown to have. he would likely start out as highly possessive, easily jealous, his affections and passion turned up to 100 ( bc he knows no other way to be tbh ), and he would just overall be a lot. but as time passed and his s/o remained both alive and with him rather than choosing someone else, i believe he would mellow out quite a bit. not really in the passion department, because he has exceptionally strong emotions in general, but definitely when it comes to his more negative expectations. he would start to relax, be more confident in the relationship ( namely that they aren't going to leave him / choose another over him ) and probably soften quite a bit. his toxic behaviors are of course highly unlikely to ever fully disappear, but i do think he'd become comfortable being more gentle and vulnerable with his s/o. he would also eternally be touchy about them potentially dying, especially given his own unique level of immortality, so he'd probably never get less overbearing when it comes to them being in danger and doing what he can to prevent that very thing. but i definitely think he would soften in other areas, perhaps even becoming almost sweet, and more outright romantic.