Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire diaries.
Rated T just to be safe...I dunno what else I'll end up writing for these oneshots.
'I was the one you always dreamed of. You were the one I tried to draw. How dare you say it's nothing to me? Babe, you were the only light I ever saw. I'll make the most of all the sadness. You'll be a bitch because you can. You try to hit me just to hurt me, so you leave me feeling dirty, because you can't understand. '
"Hey are you going to Elena's?" Matt asked her as she walked past him as he was busing tables at the Grille.
Caroline stopped, repressing the growl and the tears that stung her eyes before turning on her heel to face at Matt. "Seriously? No, I'm not."
"Am I the only one who doesn't know why you're being ridiculously moody today?" he asked as if it was a joke, only making Caroline angrier.
"No, you're not. Actually, you're the only one to remotely come close to asking me 'Are you okay?' or 'Oh my gosh, it's been a year since you got Turned. How are you handling things?'. So, I guess I should be thanking you for being the one person in Mystic Falls for not thinking the world revolves around Elena," she snapped.
"Caroline…I had no idea…I, um…,"
Caroline sighed and shook her head, "I'm sorry. That was harsh, you've been nothing but nice to me ever since…" she paused, looking around at the Grille's unsuspecting, human inhabitants, "Since, you know," Caroline hinted at him with a raise of her eyebrows.
"No, it's okay. You're right. There are other people here who matter," Matt said with an easy but understanding smile. "But I'll still take that as a 'No, I'm not going'?"
She nodded. "Yeah…I…I feel awful for this, I mean she's my best friend but there's only so much doppelganger drama I can take. I'll see you later?"
"Yeah, Care. Have a good night!"
Caroline walked out into the night with a sigh. She had meant what she said, but she felt bad saying it around Matt. She strode towards her car, eager to get home and curl up in bed and maybe eat the rest of the Cookie Dough ice cream that was in the fridge.
"Caroline!" the crisp accented voice caught up to her easily in the night air, not that it wouldn't have anyways with her supernatural hearing and all but she liked to pretend that if she was human- if this was taking place a year ago today- that she wouldn't have heard him; that his voice wouldn't have such an affect on her.
Caroline didn't stop as she continued walking, "Seriously? I've had a really bad day and I don't have the patience to deal with you, Klaus," she sneered.
He chuckled, further enraging her, as he came to stand by her car. "If your tone wasn't so drastically different from the last time we talked out here, I might be having déjà vu, love," he said with a smirk, letting her know that she wasn't entirely forgiven for her 'Klaus-bait' role in Damon's 'Kill the Originals: Part'…well whatever attempt it had been.
"Maybe I would be, too, if I hadn't had such an awful day. Actually, the fact that I'm sitting here, talking to you…yeah, it is déjà vu."
"Well, well, well, you're quite the feisty little thing tonight." Klaus smirked down at her again and she felt like steam was coming out of her ears. "Care to tell me what the problem is?"
"No," she said flashing him a sweet smile, venom dripping off the word. "But thanks for the offer."
Klaus only shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest with an amused expression as he leaned against her car.
Caroline's brow creased as she glanced at him. She pursed her lips, throwing her keys onto the driver's seat before turning to look at Klaus, "You know what? Screw them. You really want to know what's wrong?"
Klaus smiled but dropped his arms, opening himself up to her rant.
"Elena Gilbert. This entire town thinks the world revolves around her. As long as she's okay, everyone else should be too but we're not. Just because she got Turned, wasn't going to Transition, and then Katherine screwed things up doesn't mean I drop everything that's going on in my life," Caroline's eyes narrowed at this point, reminding Klaus that he wasn't forgiven for the body swap stunt (yeah, the one that hadn't been his idea) with the Lockwood boy, "to go make sure the world gets turned back on it's axis all because I'm the best friend. I mean, Elena has two Salvatore brothers, they need to put themselves to good use but men will stay men so they're clueless about female emotions," Caroline said, ignoring Klaus' look (Because, really? He thought. Men don't understand female emotions and here I am listening to a teenager rant about jealousy.)
"And don't even get me started on you," she warned, narrowing her eyes once again. But Klaus got the feeling that she was about to erupt into a rant about him despite her words. "You and your accent, and your dimples, and your horse drawings. I mean, seriously? You're evil, like evil incarnate and evil incarnate shouldn't have any of those things. You shouldn't even be capable of feeling!" she said with a humorless laugh filled with the disbelief that covered her face at the complexity of his psyche.
And, Klaus realized, he should be estatic that Caroline Forbes is giving him two seconds (okay, more like 5 minutes) of her time when she rarely acknowledges him on a good day. But, Klaus' face sinks into the emotionless, someone's-in-trouble-and-they're-gonna-pay-for-it-big-time mask as he remembers the Ball where she (Very accurately, his subconscious adds, much to his annoyance) diagnosed the root of his problems. Klaus also recognized the feelings that also meant that Caroline's rant is about .2 seconds from ending with him snapping her pretty little neck.
"But," she bites out, daring to continue despite the look on Klaus' face. "But here you are, listening to me talk about things that shouldn't matter. So, I hope you get that you give me whip lash, like extreme whip lash 'cause I can't keep up with your mood swings."
His face softens again, "Quite the contrary. It does matter to me."
"Here we go again," she says with an eye roll. "What? You hate me now that I've bashed your precious Elena Gilbert? Or you don't like people talking about you? What is it this time, Klaus?"
"Actually, it's none of the afore mentioned reasons, love. It matters because your upset…granted, I'm still trying to figure out why. But I hope you can forgive me because,as you so courteously mentioned, men can't keep up with women and their, ah, mood swings. It would be much appreciated though, sweetheart, if you could lend me a helping hand with figuring it out?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Caroline turned from bitchy to shy in a fraction of a second as her eyes fled from Klaus' face to the pavement below her feet. Here she had been brave, successfully (a.k.a. Klaus not losing his patience and snapping her neck)reading Klaus the right act but she couldn't admit this inferior problem that, she was sure, he'd laugh at.
"I know we have all the time in the world but, surely, greater problems will arise in the future. Must we waste out time by waiting for this explanation?"
"You say that like we'll be together in the future."
"Let's just say I like my chances, love. I did say you'd show up at my door, whether it was a day or a century, it doesn't matter."
"Yeah you gave me two options: show up in a day, or in a century. Obviously, the option A didn't work out and if I'm counting correctly, I still have years left before option B is applicable."
Klaus chuckled in amusement. "And yet, here you are, pouring out your life's problems to me in the meantime. You've gotten yourself into quite the predicament."
"Yeah, no thanks to you."
"Let's not kill the messenger. I'm here, on quite honorable intentions to alleviate your distress," he said, that infuriating smirk playing on his lips as he held up his hands in mock offense.
"You are hardly a messenger here, Klaus, so stop acting like my knight in shining armor!" Caroline said, crossing her arms over her chest and standing slightly taller.
"Minor details, Caroline," he chided in an ever-so-slight case of annoyance, clicking his tongue. "Now, I believe you were about to confess something of importance to me?"
"Oh, is that supposed to be like collateral damage? Whatever," she said with a flip of her curls and yet another eye roll. "Fine, you win," she said before his intense gaze was too much to handle and Caroline turned her blue-green gaze to the pavement again. "I got Turned a year ago today. There. I said it and you can laugh now," she mumbled. Silence settled between them as she waited for Klaus to laugh, smirk, say some witty comment in his infuriating accent but he didn't so she sheepishly peered back up at him under her eyelashes.
She found him watching her. His blue eyes were light and soft, not dark or patronizing. "That's hardly a laughing matter."
"Like you know how it feels," she scoffed. He didn't know what it was like to have been one of the most hated kids at school for being shallow and conceited and fake. He didn't know what it was like to be played by a person who you thought cared for you. He didn't know what it was like to have life ripped away from you just as it was beginning by a girl who wore the same face as your best friend.
"It feels like you've been abandoned. Thrown into a place you know nothing about, surrounded by people who don't care. You feel like you're on the outside looking in and if you don't learn how to play the game you'll get left to rot. Sound familiar?" he asked, pursing his lips as a look mixed with vulnerability and frustration colored his face. "You forget that my…parents," he spit the word, "created the first vampires to walk the earth, love. I know exactly how it feels. It's probably applicable in different aspects of your life but I do know."
Caroline just looked at him, unable to respond. Part of her was screaming that she didn't say anything because she did not want to admit that, once again, Klaus had won. The other half was traitorously whispering that she was lying to her self; that the real reason she didn't respond was because Klaus had surprised her, once again, telling her felt and he felt deeply. And the idea of it made her heart hurt for him because here he was, just like her, screaming for help while no one listened.
Taking a chance with Caroline's stunned silence, he brought a gentle hand to her face and cupped her cheek in his large palm. "The only difference, love, is that you have people who care. You just have to find them." Klaus studied her for another moment, stroking her cheek with his thumb as she continued to give him a dumbstruck look, before disappearing from in front of her like a breeze.
Caroline looked around for him foolishly before getting into her car and driving away, eager to escape the parking lot and Klaus' words. She cursed him and his silver tongue but she had half a mind to go find him.
In that moment, Caroline was positive of several things and one of them was that she was no where near ready to throw herself through the threshold of the door labeled 'Niklaus Mikaelson'.
But you will, the traitorous voice whispered. In the end, you will and you know it.
No, she definitely wasn't ready.
A/N: hello all! Sorry for my slight absence- going out of town and working and going to the barn, a social life (wait, I have one of those?) and the need to, I dunno, maybe sleep have been keeping me away, lol. This story will be a compilation of one shots containing scenes that I would like to see in Season 4 because I'm incredibly impatient and waiting for October 11 is killing me:) I hope you enjoy them!
I promise I have not forgotten 'Movie Night: The Sequel'. I want to get 'Lessons of Love' wrapped up before I finish that but I wanted to get this new one jump started before I did anything else. I hope those of you waiting for 'Movie Night' can forgive me!
Credit to the story and chapter title, and the lyrics (do they not scream Klaroline? lol) at the beginning, go to 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' by the wonderful John Mayer!
Thanks for reading and if you have a minute, please review:)