(you're beautiful, you're strong, full of light. I enjoy you.)

She could never understand why he wanted her.

He considered her worthy of him for some ridiculous reason. There was nothing special about little old her—why on earth would he ever want her? But, at the same time, he seemed to be genuine in his affections. It simply didn't make sense.

She was just Caroline Forbes, former Miss Mystic Falls, neurotic cheerleader and event planner, and all around control freak. She was the little blonde distraction for all of her friends. She was the one that they kept everything a secret from until she was turned into one of them herself. She was the sheltered one—the one who they feared could never keep a secret. She was the shallow one. She would never be enough.

Looking back on it, Caroline knew where her fears of being second best stemmed from. Her father had left her mother when she was eight—for another man, no less—and it had broken her mother terribly. Her mother had buried herself into her work to escape it all, and Caroline was left in the dust. The day her daddy left she became second best to his partner and her mother's work. That was the day that Caroline Forbes, age eight, had to grow up.

When Caroline and her friends had finally gotten to an age where they noticed boys, she was never the first pick. All the boys loved Elena. They never loved her. She had tried to catch Stefan's attention before he got to Elena, but that failed. Of course, when she later found out that he only came to school for Elena, it made sense. She had pretty much only been Matt's girlfriend once he finally got over Elena, and even then she was constantly reminded of their history. He had always been happier with Elena than he ever was with her. Technically she had dated Damon before Elena got to him, but that was when he was going through his "Humans Are Walking Food" phase, and that relationship ended really badly. While she had mostly gotten over what he did to her—it was in the past and while she wasn't happy with him and Elena together, she knew that he would never, ever do that to her friend—she didn't like the guy very much. He still rubbed her the wrong way at times. And Tyler… Well, that boy seemed to rate her lower than a wolf pack that "needed his help". As if. Honestly, the boy proclaimed to love her, yet he never seemed to be around. It does take two to work in a relationship.

Yet, even with her string of boyfriends in the past, no man had ever made her feel like Niklaus Mikaelson. And that scared her. She was in no way, shape, form, or fashion good enough for the likes of him. He was the Original Hybrid. He was immortal. He had everything. She was just a baby vampire with a control freak personality from the middle of nowhere.

Before she had turned, all Caroline wanted to do was get out. She wanted to get away from Mystic Falls and see the world. She was a good student, and her grades could get her into a great college. From there she could apply for independent studies abroad and see what was out there. She had never been anywhere, and college was her way out. Too bad Katherine Pierce and a pillow got in the way. She was stuck at eternally seventeen, and she had to get her bloodlust under control, and then there were sacrifices, and werewolves, and a really sexy, immortal, psychopathic Hybrid that had an interest in her.

Getting out of town wasn't really an option when her friends were going through hell at home. She couldn't just leave them, but at the same time, all she wanted to do was just that.

It was one of the reasons that Klaus intrigued her so much. He had promised her the world—Rome, Paris, and Tokyo to start with—and she couldn't help but be interested. To be honest, it was flattering that he was so obvious in his interest in her, but she couldn't go there. She was with Tyler, and he had done horrible things to her friends, and, well, she was with Tyler. Besides, she and him would never work. They were so alike that it simply couldn't. They would fight, and he would get all pissy, and she would freak out, and they would both have some sort of neurotic control freak meltdown and blow each other up. They wouldn't last two seconds as a couple, much less an eternity. (Though she would bet that the makeup sex would be fantastic… DAMN IT CAROLINE STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM THAT WAY).

Klaus seemed to get her deepest thoughts and desires in a way that no one else ever had. He knew that—while the circumstances of her turning weren't the best at all—she was happier this way. She was more confident with herself now. She liked that she was strong, fast, and fearless. The inconsequential things that she had obsessed over in her human days still mattered—she would still graduate like a normal person for goodness sake—but they didn't matter nearly as much anymore. She didn't have to prove herself nearly as much as she had to before. The social events of her high school days were all that she had to live for before she turned. They took up her every thought. They were something that was underneath her control. Even when her life was falling apart at the seams, if she could just get that party to turn out as impeccably as she always did, then everything would be okay. Now that she was a vampire, she would have to leave town anyways in a few years, so she didn't really have to worry about being Mystic Falls' resident Disney Princess for the rest of her life. Vampirism was her escape. And Klaus got that.

He understood what it felt like to love being what she was. He embraced it, cherished it, and in a thousand years, Caroline could only hope that she had the same level of control as he. She felt a connection with this thousand year old lonely man, but they were never meant to be. She wasn't the strong, and beautiful, and queenly woman that he seemed to see in her. He loved her light, and yet she felt herself slipping into the darkness. She was a mass murderer. She was brutal, and a monster. She was just what her father had said that she was. "You'll never be okay, because you're a vampire" is what he had said to her. She wasn't okay. She was an abomination, and she was dark. He cherished her light, and he loved her darkness. No, Klaus was much too good for her. She could never be the girl that he thought she was. She would never be that girl, because she never could be.

She just wasn't enough.

AN: So here's the first installment of a short and sweet Klaroline piece. I adore these two characters, both individually and together, so it was a fantastic undertaking to write them. As a reminder, a general disclaimer for all of my stories is available on my profile. Anyways, enjoy Niklaus's chapter, and thank you for reading!