Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries.


Slight Chance of Rain Ahead

by: ObsessiveCompulsiveImpulsive


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If there was something that Caroline Forbes didn't like, it was too much extravagance.

Now that wasn't very uncommon, because most people would be contented to live normal, ordinary lives as long as they could afford to buy the things they needed and they were with the people they loved. But see, as much as she would have wanted to, Caroline could have never really lived an ordinary life. Not when she was William and Elizabeth's only child. Her parents were regarded as two of the most prominent cardiothoracic surgeons of the decade, and ever since she could remember, there had always been enormous pressure for her to live up to her parents' excellence.

If the Forbes raked a lot of green for being skillful with the scalpel, it was something that people would not have conceived easily. For all the money they possibly had, the family was resourcefully frugal. In a world where you could lose everything you had in a matter of seconds, extravagance was the last thing they wanted their daughter to like.

And Caroline Forbes did not like extravagance. Neither did she like people who were extravagant. It wasn't about people having a lot of money; it was about people having a lot of money and having the constant pointless need to rub the fact in.

You now know the reason why Caroline looked weary as she drove to find a space for her car at the parking area around an obviously posh coffee shop. Café Legato opened barely a month ago, but it quickly became the place to be for anybody who was somebody in Chicago. So far, she had driven by nothing but BMW's and Mercedes', an arrogant Aston Martin and an even more arrogant Porsche. Caroline had no doubt that most of the owners of those vehicles didn't come here because the place was comfortable or the coffee was good. This place attracted them because the price list was outrageously expensive, which allowed them to show to everyone how filthy rich they were.

She finally found an empty slot, between an imposing Bentley and an unusual metal-gray car she had no time to identify. It didn't matter; in the world of autos, unusual usually meant expensive, anyway. Caroline's modest Ford Fiesta clearly did not belong anywhere near those rides.

Caroline got out of her car and instinctively pressed the left button of her car lock. She turned around to head to the restaurant and found herself in front of the 'unusual' vehicle she parked beside.

And she stopped.

It took a lot to make Caroline Forbes stop and stare, and the ride she now recognized was just that. She had never been interested in automobiles, but the very fact that a car like that was in front of her seemed incredible. Even for someone like her.

She had seen it only once, featured in a magazine she found at home, but it was the kind of car that was hard not to remember. It was said to have been inspired by the fighter jet that the US air force considered the most critical component of its strike force, the F-22. It even had a G-force meter that could show drive forces and longitudinal breaking, similar to the meter found in the fighter jet it was modeled after. It boasted of an impressive 6.5 liter V12 engine that could deliver 650 unadulterated horsepower and 487 pound-feet of torque. In fact, that car could go from start speed to a hundred kilometers per hour in 3.4 seconds and soon reach its top speed of 340 kmph.

Its appearance and performance were definitely astonishing, but perhaps that adjective should have been left for this last part. You needed an astounding one point six million dollars, or about a million euros, and a quick secretary to own one – the former to buy it, the latter to have your order placed before anyone else even heard of it. Only twenty units of that car were produced, and reportedly, all the twenty cars had already been marked sold far before the car made its first appearance to the public.

Caroline Forbes was looking at a freaking Lamborghini Reventon.

She let out a deep breath to get herself back on track, and after soon after she recovered she was shaking her head. The person who owned it must be such an incredible show-off. What did you need a car that had a fighter-jet meter for? It's not like the car could fly too, right?

Or could it? After all, it cost 1.6 million dollars. What could they have spent all of that on?

Caroline sighed as she continued making her way to the coffee shop's entrance. It was all too clear why her ex-boyfriend wanted this café to be their meeting place. This was the kind of place Tyler Lockwood liked – expensive, popular and senselessly expensive.

"Good afternoon." A man who looked like the maitre d' politely greeted. "That will be a table for…?"

"Two." The blonde curtly replied. She remained silent as a waiter appeared and led her to an unoccupied table.

She took her seat and briefly noticed the other people in the coffee shop as the waiter left. Most of the males were either the suit-and-tie yuppie types, and most females were Blair Waldorf witches without enough creativity to make fashion statements of their own. Thankfully, the café was quite spacious so there was a lot of room for space away from them.

A blonde-haired guy in a light blue, long sleeved collared shirt soon approached her, holding a leather-covered bound. He smiled as he handed her what he held, which turned out to be Legato's official menu.

"Hello. May I know what you'll be having?" the man asked with an obvious Welsh accent, the friendly smile never leaving his lips.

She looked back at him with an incredulous expression on her face. "Sir, you just gave me the menu. I haven't even opened it yet."

The man looked genuinely embarrassed. "Oh, right..." he said, biting his lower lip and briefly looking down on the floor. He cleared his throat and looked at her again, now grinning. "In that case then, if it isn't too much to ask, mind if I sit here while you decide what to have?"

Caroline's eyes widened slightly in surprise. He just asked her if he could sit with her while she chose what to order. Were waiters supposed to do that?

She looked up at the man in front of him. For the first time she noticed how… well, handsome he was. He was tall and lean, with full lips and a stubbled jaw that made him look rebelliously charming. His dark, long lashes drew her attention to his eyes, which she noted were (and she hated to admit it) even more tantalizingly blue than hers. That British accent just completed the package.

She thought about his request for a while and shrugged. Well, there wasn't really any reason for her to say no, and she could use some company while waiting for Tyler. The guy seemed nice anyway.

She smiled at him for the first time. "Be my guest."

The man looked very pleased with her answer and graciously sat on the lounger opposite hers. "My name is Klaus. And I owe this pleasure to?"

Caroline smiled again, and a blonde brow rose craftily. Were waiters supposed to ask the names of their customers too?

"Caroline. I'm pleased to meet you, Klaus."

He returned her smile. "The feeling is mutual."

The blonde looked around the restaurant uncomfortably, not quite knowing what else to say. The guy looked uncertain about what to do too. A moment of heavy silence followed. After her eyes had swept on almost the whole restaurant, she simply had no choice but to look at him again. Funny. There seemed to be something wrong about him that she couldn't put her finger on.

The waiter awkwardly brought his hand up to his neck to unbutton the first level of his light blue shirt dress, possibly to ease tension.

That was it!

"Why aren't you wearing a red shirtdress like most of the waiters?" She asked, careful not to sound rude.

Klaus looked down on his collared shirt and realized that he indeed was wearing the wrong color.

"Oh… I'm… I'm a bit new here. I haven't gotten used to the uniform schedule."

"And the management doesn't mind?"

He shrugged. "I guess not. I don't really think it matters a lot to them. I could still serve your coffee in a blue shirt dress, right? And anyway, I know the owner quite well. I'm sure he'd understand."

Caroline relaxed a bit, starting to feel comfortable around him.

He felt that and looked relieved. "So, love, you're here to meet with someone? Or did you want some time alone today?"

She shook her head. "I'm meeting somebody."

"Your boyfriend?"

Caroline laughed. "Not quite. My ex-boyfriend. Emphasis on ex."

Klaus grinned again and leaned his head back on the couch in amusement. "Ex-boyfriend. Interesting. I know a lot of couples who stay friends after they break-up, but none of them still go out with each other after the split. You must be very good friends then."

"On the contrary." The blonde said, aquamarine eyes narrowing at the suggestion.

The truth was, if Caroline Forbes and Tyler Lockwood were anything, it was definitely NOT friends. No, not even anything close to it, at least for Caroline. The last time they actually spoke to each other was the day Tyler broke up with her.

A thousand miles away and over a phone call nonetheless.

She met Tyler during her last year at Uni, where she was studying biology for pre-med and he was taking political science as his pre-law. It wasn't really love at first sight; they both frequented the library and one unfortunate night they got locked in because the librarian in charge forgot to check if anyone was still inside the archives section before she closed the library. As bad luck had it, both their cellular phones were dead, and both of them left their laptops at home that day. There was just no other option but to wait until the library was opened the next day.

Tyler wasn't Mr. Congeniality, but he was a gentleman. He kept assuring her that everything would be fine, and he shared with her the bag of cookies and the tumbler of coffee that he had, which was the only dinner they had. He preferred sleeping with the lights off, but when he learned that she couldn't sleep when the lights were off, he insisted keeping them on. He even gave her his coat to use as a blanket.

The next morning, they were acquaintances. After a week, they were friends; after six months they were going out. A full year later they were a couple.

There was a time in her life when Caroline was certain that Tyler Lockwood was the man she was going to end up with. They had so many things in common, and you could count with your fingers how many times they had a fight. Both of them wanted simple, quiet lives – he just wanted to be a lawyer and work in his family's firm and she just wanted to be a surgeon like her parents. He was patient and supportive and she was understanding and appreciative.

They were the perfect couple, if there ever was one. Until Tyler grew close to his uncle Mason.

Now there was no doubt that Mason Lockwood was a good lawyer; He was one of the senior counsels of the Lockwood law firm, and he won most of his cases. Usually he was a good man in court – but outside the judge's room was a different story. He was a gambler, a womanizer and a crook who always liked his wallet full of money to spend. And spend he did. A lot.

And soon Tyler was like him. He began to invest on clothing even more expensive than those he already had – so many of them that Caroline had no doubt he could build his own Macy's, on the newest and priciest gadgets and appliances ("What do you need five 42 inch TV's for, Tyler?." "Well, Care, there's one for the living room, one for our room, one for the kitchen, one for my bathroom and one for your bathroom.") and sports cars – god, the sports cars. He had a Jaguar, a Porsche, and his personal favorite, a Ferrari 430. As if he could drive all of them all at the same time. He also frequented posh bars and casinos, and was often seen with different women… looking intimately close.

Klaus looked confused. "You're not friends? Then why are you meeting him?"

"I don't know. The last time we spoke was when he broke up with me a year ago. And then all of a sudden I received a call from him last week. He said he wanted to see me… and talk…" Caroline said, stirring uneasily on her seat. "The truth is, I don't even know why I agreed in the first place. Our break-up was… not quite good."

The waiter shook his head and laughed. "Just when are break-ups good, anyway? There's no 'right' way of breaking up where nobody gets hurt and everything goes back to normal. It's just the truth. Something gets left behind in you, and you can never really get rid of it no matter what you do."

"You have no idea how horrible the way he broke up with me was. He was a thousand miles away. He called me and said he wasn't going back here anymore because he met a Victoria's Secret model there and he was in love with her. He had the nerve to do that on the day of our fifth anniversary." The blonde admitted.

Now Klaus knew there was no way he could top that. Fifth anniversary? This woman's ex-boyfriend must have been the king of jerks to do that. There's nothing you can do if you really have to break up with your girlfriend, but you don't do it on your anniversary. It's just not…right. There wasn't anything he could say that could make her feel better about what he did.

But he could try.

"I bet he was a complete idiot, love. How could he break up with a woman like you? I personally think that you're hotter than any Victoria's Secret model I've seen. And trust me, I've seen a lot of them."

She faked a scandalized look. "Are you hitting on me?"

"If I were, love, would you flirt back?" Klaus asked, grinning playfully. "Even just to get back at your ex?"

Caroline laughed. "It depends. I can think about it."

"I promise I won't break up with you during our anniversary."

She laughed again. "Enough about me. Let's talk about something else… like you."

It was Klaus's turn to pretend to be shocked. "You are hitting back on me!" He said, laughing. "Unfortunately, I don't think I have a lot to say. I don't like waking up late. I don't like going to the beach. I like reading books. I like drawing and painting. Most of all, I like sitting with gorgeous women. But mostly I'm just your ordinary waiter."

His lovely blue eyes looked directly into hers. "Now, if you don't mind, let's change the topic. Let's make it something interesting. Like you."

Caroline knew that he was probably just sweet-talking, but she didn't know why she couldn't help but turn slightly red under his gaze. She cleared her throat, trying to get herself serious again before he noticed. "I don't have a lot to say either. I don't like snobs. I don't like sleeping with the lights off. I like reading books too, and I like animals. But mostly I'm just your ordinary medic."

"Ordinary medic…" Klaus repeated thoughtfully.

She nodded. "Yes. Ordinary med-"

"Caroline."

Caroline Forbes turned around. Her face suddenly became grim.

She stood up. She could only say one word.

"Tyler."

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TBC

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