Klaus woke up as the bed shifted slightly. Caroline froze where she was just about to slide out of the sheets and blinked at him.

"Sorry. Did I wake you?"

Klaus made a muffled noise that Caroline would call adorable…if she didn't already know that he would not take kindly to being called adorable. She continued to slowly move herself out of bed, but Klaus' hand shot out and latched onto her wrist, making her pause.

"Go back to sleep." She murmured.

"Why don't you?" He retorted gruffly.

"I can't." Caroline huffed. "I've tried."

"I'll find a way to tire you." His words would usually send a thrill running through her, but the sleepy edge to his voice made her smile fondly.

"I don't think you have the energy, Nik." She leaned over and placed a soft kiss on the skin covering his shoulder blade. "Go back to sleep." Caroline moved away again, but Klaus used the grip he still kept on her wrist to pull her back onto the bed, rolling so she was swung to the other side of the bed he had previously occupied. She lay on her back and made a growl of complaint even as he tucked the sheets sweetly around her. Klaus lay back down on his stomach and draped his arm across Caroline's middle, firmly anchoring her to his side. She would have attempted to make another get away…but his side of the bed was so warm…and smelt like him…

"Don't expect me to sleep, then." She said, and he chuckled, his warm breath moving her hair.

"Fine then, sweetheart. What's on your mind?"

"Nothing." Caroline said, gasping when his fingers poked her side. "Silly things, then. Silly things are on my mind."

"Tell me about them."

She rolled her eyes. "You'll fall asleep."

He opened his eyes and silently stared at her until she turned her head to meet his gaze. "Okay, fine, you won't fall asleep." Caroline conceded. "I had a dream."

"Go on."

"A dream where I couldn't find you, and when I did, something wasn't right. And then suddenly you morphed into someone else."

That woke him up a little more. "Who did I morph into?"

"No one I knew or recognised. But that wasn't the important aspect of the dream. The focus was more on the fact that you were someone else." Caroline could feel his eyes trying to burn their way into her soul, and she sighed. "I don't believe it for a second. Its just some left over imagination from the movie." They had watched the remake of Total Recall at Caroline's insistence – she was educating Klaus in modern movies as he educated her in classics. The idea of someone you thought was your partner turning out to be your enemy had stuck with Caroline.

"Would you be able to tell if an actor, a really good actor, replaced me?" She asked in a rush, turning her head and meeting Klaus' gaze again.

The moonlight illuminating his face showed his raised eyebrow. "You mean would I be able to tell that something was amiss when you didn't try and pour the entire bag of sugar into your morning coffee, or absent-mindedly hum 'A Little Fall Of Rain' when it started raining outside? Yes, I'd be able to tell."

"Even if that actress…Candice whats-her-name…even if she switched places with me? And I told her all of my bad habits?"

"Those aren't bad habits, sweetheart."

"Klaus."

"Even with all of that, I would know. Because no one is like you."

He expected her to smile and sigh and fall asleep. Instead, she rolled her eyes and looked at him expectantly.

Klaus heaved a sigh. "Fine. There is no way she would smell the way you do – like flowers baking in the summer sun. There is no way that she would react the way you do when I kiss you, or make that small sighing sound when I bite your lip. There is no way that she would manage to know how to brighten my dark life. But most importantly, there is no way that she would get a chance to switch places with you without me knowing because I plan to be by your side for eternity." He eyed her levelly. "Got that, love?"

Caroline smiled sleepily, tilting her head to press a soft kiss against his lips. "Thank you." She murmured, before sighing. "Goodnight." She closed her eyes and snuggled slightly into his side.

Klaus smiled, pressing his face to her hair and inhaling the scent he had just described. Then he paused.

"Caroline,"

"Mmm?"

"I'm awake now."

"Go back to sleep, then."

"I cant."

"Mmm."

Klaus scowled. She had got him in this predicament. But she looked so peaceful settling down to sleep. But he had been perfectly tired. He slowly stroked her side, earning a sigh and flutter open of her sky blue eyes.

"Alright, I'm awake."

They lay in relative silence for a moment before Klaus' sleep-deprived brain kicked into gear.

"Imagine if your last words to me had been 'mmm' as you fell asleep."

"But they weren't." Caroline said softly and slowly.

"But if they had been." Klaus retorted just as quietly.

"Then I would be a terrible lover, now, wouldn't I?"

"What would you want your last words to me be?"

Caroline frowned. "I'm half asleep and you want me to even process that?"

Klaus scraped his teeth across her earlobe, waking her up a little bit more.

"Thank you for everything, especially the sex?"

It was Klaus' turn to roll his eyes and look at her expectantly.

"Okay. Niklaus…you have meant everything to me and will continue to mean everything to me long after I've departed this earth. There may not be a heaven or a hell, but I do believe in reincarnation, and I hope to find you in another life and relive even a fraction of the happiness I have with you every day."

Caroline muffled a squeak as Klaus pressed his mouth urgently against hers in response to her words.

"Realistically, though, it will probably just be your name because it'll most likely happen if someone attacks us." She murmured, slightly breathless when he finally released her lips.

"I will never let anyone take you from me." Klaus vowed in a dark whisper against her temple, and she smiled, her eyes fluttering closed. She opened them again a moment later with a sigh.

"Nik?"

"Yes?"

"Are you tired?"

"A little. Are you?"

"Yes…"

"But you also aren't."

"Yes…"

"Right." He flipped so he hovered over her.

A while later they curled together in freshly tangled sheets, and didn't move or open their eyes again till late morning.

Hey!

Sorry, this took way too long to start up. But its here now! I'll be posting drabbles of life after the Starlight and Sunlight stories I've written about our favourite ship - Klaroline. If you haven't read the stories, you can certainly read these drabbles without too much trouble, but if you'd like to read them, then check out my profile :)

Reviews and requests are more than welcome :) And keep your eyes peeled for a Valentines Day special in Dappled Sunlight!

xx