Tea for Two - Klaus' finally acts on his crush for perfect student Caroline Forbes and she is not as indifferent as she's always acted. High school AU/AH.

Klaus trudges into the library and finds an open table towards the back. He hasn't even thought about a topic for his research paper, let alone begun researching. With the due date looming, he resigns himself to a weeks worth of study halls spent in the library. He hopes it will be enough to put together a decent paper and that he won't have to sacrifice any personal time working on this blasted thing. Klaus pulls out a notebook and turns to a fresh page, trying to think of some moment in history that will be interesting enough to write a 5000 word essay on but also be easy enough to research without obstacles. He's not a total slacker - procrastinator yes, but slacker no. Really, school just came easy to him but you can't pull 5000 words about a historical event out of your arse no matter how smart you are.

Fifteen minutes later, he's no closer to choosing a topic, when he notices her. She's walking hunched over in the aisle to his right scanning the titles on one of the lower shelves. She's wearing a sleeveless royal blue dress with a small floral print in light pinks, yellows, and greens. He can't help but admire the two inches of creamy thigh on display as she continues down the aisle barefoot, her pale pink toenails matching the pink in her dress almost perfectly. Evidently she finds the book she's searching for and grabs it victoriously, heading back over to the table she's working at. Klaus figures she must also be working on her research paper, as her table is piled high with books - her laptop perched on the corner. He sinks a bit lower in his seat to observe her, hopefully without being noticed. Her table is adjacent to his and luckily for him she seems oblivious to his presence, which was par for the course with Caroline.

When the Mikaelson's moved to Mystic Falls two years ago, Klaus was livid. He was looking forward to a Mikael free life but not a small town American life. He didn't understand why his mother leaving Mikael equated to the whole family leaving London. He liked his school, his friends, football club, and girlfriend. His mother assured him that Mystic High had a soccer team and she was sure he would meet a nice girl. He begrudgingly showed up at tryouts and was surprised that the team wasn't a bunch of wankers. They were good and apparently state contenders for the past couple of seasons. The team was ecstatic to have such an experienced striker so he made varsity as a sophomore without issue. Life in Mystic Falls became infinitely easier once he made the team. The guys were cool and he found out soon enough that being a jock at Mystic High came with plenty of perks. The parties were fun and so were the girls or scroupies (soccer groupies) and it wasn't anybody's business if most nights he ducked out early to head home and draw or paint in peace.

Caroline first appeared in his life or that of the Mikaelson's in the form of a math tutor for Kol only a month after they arrived stateside. That first afternoon, she arrived at their front door in a perfectly fit pair of light wash skinny jeans, all white Chuck Taylors, and a heather gray sweater. Her hair platted in a loose braid over one shoulder and no noticeable makeup as he admired some freckles on her nose and cheeks no doubt left over from the summer sun. Her effortless beauty stunned him into silence. Caroline awkwardly shifted back and forth a couple times under his gaze before clearing her throat loudly. He learned through some stealth research that Caroline Forbes was little miss perfect in Mystic Falls. Her mother was the sheriff and she was a straight A student who didn't involve herself in the politics of high school social climbing. She had a couple good girl friends, Bonnie and Katherine, but mostly kept to herself - busy studying or volunteering around town.

Klaus is pulled from his memories of their first encounter when someone settles at the work table next to his. He quickly looks back over towards Caroline and is comforted by the fact that she is too absorbed in her research to notice him mooning over her. She's got one leg tucked underneath her as the other dangles from the chair. Her cute nose scrunched up in concentration as she types feverishly, a pen between her perfect pink lips and just like that Klaus is lost again. She just looks so soft – the exposed skin of her neck and clavicle, those legs, her lips, that hair. He dreams of drowning in the softness of Caroline Forbes practically nightly. They've had several classes together over the past two years but Caroline made her opinion of his kind - jocks - known to him immediately when they were paired up in bio lab that first year. While Klaus would definitely not consider himself a jock by any definition of the word it's hard to argue with her grouping him in. His closest friends, Stefan and Enzo, are teammates and the trio is regularly at the 'cool' parties, The Grill, and hooking up with scroupies at the falls. She's remained Kol's tutor this whole time, so he sees her at the house once a week, and she's always polite but still a bit standoffish.

This time he's startled from his reverie by the woman herself as she slams a book closed. His eyes dart up to hers and his luck has run out because it's obvious by her annoyed glare, she'd caught him leering (he'd say admiring) at her from across the room. He shoots her a small, apologetic smile, hoping to look friendly and not creepy but she just huffs a 'seriously' under her breath and rolls her eyes as she continues packing up her stuff. She slips her feet into flats and pulls on her cardigan before standing and making her way towards the door. Klaus is not sure what comes over him but he scrambles to shove his notebook in his bag and jogs after her.

"Caroline," he whisper yells while receiving a glare from the librarian as he catches her right before she gets to the door. She half turns her head but keeps walking when she confirms it's him who's called her name.

"Caroline, wait!" This time she stops just a few feet outside the main library doors and stares at him. "Hey," Klaus wants to punch himself in the face when the lame greeting exits his mouth but he really has no idea what possessed him to follow her in the first place or what he's planning to do now that he has her attention.

"Hi," she responds wearily.

"Um, how are you?"

"Fine?" At this point, Caroline is looking around in confusion and Klaus can't help but laugh a little are her bewildered face. He shifts from foot to foot, looking down, thankful class is still in session so the hallway is deserted and the student body isn't witnessing him look like a bloody imbecile.

Caroline clears her throat, much like their first meeting and demands, "Is there something you need Mikaelson because I have someplace to be."

"No, well, yes, I'm mean, uhh - I was wondering if you would, um maybe, what are you writing your research paper on for Saltzman's class?"

"Oh my god, you haven't even started?!" Caroline goes wide-eyed. "You realize it's due in less than two weeks?!"

Klaus laughs nervously while scratching the back of his neck, "Uh yeah, I do, I just haven't really been able to think of a good topic."

"HA! Well you better hope one comes to you soon," Caroline throws back as she turns and begins down the hallway again.

Klaus immediately falls into step beside her, "Well, I was wondering if maybe you'd help me?"

"I'm not writing your paper for you," Caroline stops dead in her tracks and seethes at him.

"No, no, that's not what I meant at all." Klaus quickly responds, hoping to assuage her anger. "I was thinking maybe we could grab a cup of tea - at Mozart's- and just brainstorm some topics – together."

He knows Caroline loves herbal teas – even though his British self is kind of appalled by them – and she's a regular at the only coffee shop in town. It definitely caters to a different clientele than The Grill, so he's only been a couple times both dragged in by Beka for some horrible latte coffee something or another she'd grown to love upon arriving in the U.S.

"Um…" Caroline looks around the empty hallway, trying to figure out what is happening. Why is Klaus Mikaelson, soccer stud extraordinaire, asking her to coffee? "You want to go get tea?"

Klaus nods with a soft smile in place, trying hard to not get sucked into another 'Caroline is a perfect beautiful creature trance' but her eyes are just so wonderfully blue he feels himself failing.

"With me? Right now?" Caroline confirms while hugging the book she's carrying a little closer to her chest almost as a shield.

"Yes," he says matter-of-factly.

It feels like an hour has passed before she finally answers a simple 'fine' and then he's leading her to his car. Caroline figures, worst case scenario- he's just using her for her brain and she can add the time to her next tutoring invoice for Kol's session and get reimbursed. Best case scenario, she gets a big old cup of her favorite tea for free since she was planning on stopping at Mozart's on her way home anyways. Hmm, maybe she'll order a pastry too.

The car ride wasn't as awkward as she'd anticipated, the two of them making polite small talk about how his family was and her mother. She even asked how the team was doing this year and Klaus was polite enough not to go into much detail and then inquired about her most recent pet projects. Ten minutes later they're seated across from each other at a quiet table in the back, Caroline sipping her wild sweet orange green tea and Klaus a passable version of English breakfast. Caroline was explaining that her newest passion project, a fundraiser for the local animal shelter, was taking up a lot of her time recently, hence why she was still working on her research paper. Normally, her paper would have been done a month ago, but kitten season was coming so the fundraiser had to go off without a hitch or the shelter wouldn't be able to support the influx of animals.

"Anyways enough about my stuff, do you have any ideas what you'd like to write about?" Caroline inquires with a smile.

"Not really, every time I try to think of a cool event, it just seems so boring or overdone."

"You know it doesn't have to be an event, it could be an issue in history or a specific person who's had a large impact."

"Wait, it doesn't have to be an strongevent/strong," Klaus questions, quickly setting down his tea. This changes things - he could think of a bunch of different artists he could write about, already running through possibilities in his mind.

As if she'd read his mind, Caroline responds, "No, you should just pick one of your favorite artists, although someone who's influence has lasted over decades would be best, as opposed to someone more obscure."

Klaus looks at her questioningly, how did she know he was into art?

"What? I've been at your house once a week for over two years, Klaus, it's kind of impossible not to notice you sketching. Plus I complimented a painting once to your mom and she said you painted it." Caroline responds to his look, hoping she sounds nonchalant about the whole thing.

She sips her tea while looking away suddenly feeling the awkwardness of this – whatever this get together was - return. So she's noticed Klaus, on more than one occasion, big deal. He was objectively attractive; I mean there isn't a girl at school who hasn't noticed Klaus, right? She definitely hasn't daydreamed about having his lean soccer frame pressing her into a wall somewhere or what the scruff that arrived on his face between the summer of junior and senior years would feel like beneath her fingers. Or how his stupid raspberry lips would feel against her lips or the way dirty things would sound in his delicious accent. Nope, not once, none of those thoughts have ever entered her mind.

"Which one?" Klaus inquires, his voice lower and softer than before.

"What?" Caroline repositions herself a little straighter in her chair.

"Which painting?"

"Oh, um, it was like a snowflake, I think." Caroline answers dismissively, once again trying to downplay the whole thing. WHY had she even said anything? WHY can't her brain and mouth just finally sync up with each other?!

"Hmm, I painted that one right after my mom announced we were moving here, that's why it's kind of-"

"Lonely?" Damn it Forbes, what is wrong with you?! STOP talking!

"Ha, well I was going to say drab but yeah lonely works too. I was pretty angry about leaving behind a life I liked a lot."

"Well, you slotted right in at Mystic High, you've got the team and the scroupies, so it all worked out for the best!" Caroline says cheerfully, hoping to lead them back to discussing school and less intense and personal topics.

"I guess so," Klaus continues to stare at Caroline so deeply she feels likes she's being pulled into his mind but she can't look away. Finally, a waitress comes by to inquire about refills and Caroline is able to get her bearings again.

"I should probably go," she says with a light laugh. "Research paper won't finish itself."

"Of course, let me drive you home." Klaus downs the rest of his tea and pulls his wallet out to leave a tip.

"NO! I mean, you don't have to, it's only a few blocks - I can walk."

"No way, it's the least I can do for you saving my arse. I've been struggling to pick an event this whole time. I guess I should have read the assignment more closely."

"Yeah - way to go Mikaelson, too many soccer balls to the head," Caroline nervously laughs, rolling her eyes at herself as stands and grabs her things.

"Something like that." Klaus smiles genuinely at how freaking adorable she is, following her lead and grabbing his backpack.

Once again he leads her to his car and in less than 3 minutes their parked outside her house. Before she can grab her stuff and run up to her house, he'd turned off the ignition and was at her side of the car, opening the door for her. They walk up to the house in silence, when they reach the door Caroline unlocks it and then turns to face Klaus.

"Thanks for the tea."

"Of course love, thank you for the company." Klaus looks down and nervously shifts his weight from foot to foot. "It was really nice."

She's about to turn and head inside when Klaus quickly blurts out, "Would you like to go out with me?"

"Like on a date," she asks apprehensively.

"Yes, on a date." Klaus says with a sudden surge of confidence as he takes a step towards her, crowding her back against the door.

Caroline's breathing shallows as she catches his scent, Klaus' eyes boring into hers again. She swallows deeply and his eyes are drawn to the motion against her soft, delicate neck. Her 'yes' is barely above a whisper but at hearing it a goofy smile spreads across Klaus' face that she can't help but mirror.

It's Klaus' turn to clear his throat, "Ok, great, I'll text you and we can pick a night."

"How do you-"

"Your contact info is hanging on our fridge, I'll just snag it from there." Klaus says still smiling like an idiot. Caroline nervously pushed a strand of hair behind her ear while nodding to his explanation and finally opening the door to her house.

"I'll talk to you soon love." Klaus turns and heads back to his car. Caroline is now inside leaning against the closed door, staring blankly down the hallway trying to mentally process this strange turn of events when her phone beeps in rapid succession, the noise startling her.

KAT [4:15:32 PM]: Word on the street is u left school w/KM?! halfway through 6th period

KAT [4:15:36 PM] THEN our fav barista said u came in w/some dude

KAT [4:15:40 PM] B I are already on our way so prepare to spill your guts Forbes bc u got some splaining to do!

Caroline rolls her eyes after reading Kat's messages and heads to the kitchen to pop some popcorn for the inquisition. She should probably just order a pizza too; it's going to take a while to dissect the events in the manner in which Kat is no doubt expecting.

Just as Klaus is about to pull away from Caroline's house his phone beeps.

ENZO [4:15:35 PM] Zach said he saw u chase down Forbes in the library

ENZO [4:15:37 PM] bout time u made a move

ENZO [4:15:42 PM] Stefano I are already at the grill

ENZO [4:15:45 PM] GET OVER HERE