World out there

"Happy Birthday, Caroline." She heard his raspy voice laced with the thick british accent as her fangs penetrated through his skin and his arm hugged her body securely against his chest.

His blood ran down her throat, warming her muscles and making her feel alive again, rather than the dying mess she had been in the past hours. The liquid was exquisite which surprised her, probably because some childish part of her believed someone as mean as he was had to taste awful and cold, as cold as his dead heart. But it wasn't, not at all, actually his blood felt better than human's, it was sweet, powerful, dangerous and addictive and it shoved a twirl of emotion and strength to every nerve of her being. And when he pulled his wrist from her mouth, she felt weak.

Klaus carefully laid her back in the bed and smoothed the blankets around her. She stared at him through heavy lids and he could tell she was already in some sort of sleepy daze. "Why?" Caroline's voice was husky and he could almost hear the words scratching at the back of her throat.

"Because I never wanted you to die." He stated simply as he reached his hand to remove a strand of hair from her eyes. "Do you want anything to drink, love?" Caroline's eyes darkened with lust and Klaus had to hold back a chuckle, he had to take some pride that she seemed to have enjoyed his blood so much. It had been a long time since someone had drunk directly from his bloodstream without being forced and apparently she had enjoyed the experience. "I'm not talking about that, sweetheart. I was wondering perhaps you'd like me to get you a glass of water or maybe a cup of tea."

Caroline shook her head slowly and averted her eyes to the other side of the room. Klaus eyed her intensely, she had a striking beauty that was hard to ignore and he had been impressed by the pain in her eyes when he arrived. Klaus thought she was far too young to look as unhappy. The girl was living her first year as a vampire, she should still be in awe because of all the power, she shouldn't already be feeling the pain that came with being a monster.

Finally, Klaus decided it was time to go. As softly as he could, he pulled himself up from the bed, but her hand quickly rose to grab his arm. "Please, stay." Caroline whispered, so low that a human wouldn't be able to hear. He furrowed his brows in surprise at her request, before doing as she asked and sitting back down.

Caroline didn't know exactly why she was doing something as crazy as asking him to stay, but for some reason, his words about the world out there had induced on her some kind of trust… or maybe it had been his blood. Could that be some sort of sire bond like he had with Tyler? Her face twisted as she thought about that, fortunately the sire bond didn't work like that, but surprisingly enough, she caught herself thinking that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it was because of the blood, maybe because she was sleepy or maybe it was the bite making her delusional, but she also felt some sort of faith on him.

She turned her eyes back to him and he ran his fingers softly over the skin of her arm. There was something so gentle about him that it was hard to believe he was the same person that tried to kill Elena, turned Stefan into a monster and ultimately made Tyler one of his hybrid puppies. "I don't want to be alone." Caroline confessed, meeting his gaze and immediately feeling intimidated by the power he held on his blue pools.

"Your mother is here." Klaus offered, even though he wouldn't mind staying at all.

"She can't help me if something happens."

"You will be fine, Caroline." His voice carried so much certainty that it was hard for her to believe otherwise, but she still shook her head as tears flooded her eyes. He was surprised by her reaction and hurried to place a hand on her face, soothing her. "I give you my word, everything will be fine and you'll be feeling absolutely recovered by morning." Klaus knew he shouldn't show his caring side to someone as close as she was to the people wanting to destroy him, but he felt almost compelled to do it. That baby vampire held such a hypnotizing presence that it was truly hard to pull away.

"I'm not gonna be fine." Caroline shook her head again as some tears sprung from her eyes. "I'm gonna be alive, but I'm not gonna be fine."

Klaus frowned, not really understanding why she wouldn't be fine, but, acting purely on instinct, he moved to sit against the headboard of the bed and pulled her to lay her head on his lap. "Why won't you be fine, love?" He questioned, caressing her long silky hair.

"Because Tyler bit me." Caroline's broken voice seemed to also hold a little anger this time. "My boyfriend, the one who's supposed to love me more than anything else, the one I love more than anything else." Her face pressed against his shirt, muffling the sound of her sobs. "And it's all your fault, but then you come here acting like a hero and saving me, like this wasn't all your making."

Klaus' body tensed and his lips drew a thin line on his face at her words. "I'm sorry." His apology was honest, but he hadn't meant to actually say them out loud. He certainly wasn't supposed to.

"I know." The confidence in her voice frightened him. How could she be sure of something like that? She was supposed to see him as a monster, not someone that showed remorse. Caroline turned her face up to look at him, there wasn't any trace of anger in her features like he had expected. "You didn't come here and just held out your wrist. No, you made sure I felt like living was worth it and you stayed when I asked you to. That's how I know you're sorry."

Klaus was now truly intrigued by this girl. After a thousand years, he hardly got surprised about anything anymore, but in less than an hour, Caroline had surprised him greatly about various things. And she appeared to be able to read him, which was rather terrifying for him. He didn't like feeling exposed, but right there, he did. "Sleep, Caroline. You need to rest."

The vampire nodded and closed her eyes, shifting to lie more comfortably on his lap. "I risked dying for him so many times when he was going through his first transformations…" She babbled, her voice laced with frustration. "He couldn't, I don't care about the sire bond you have with him, what he feels for me should have been stronger." Klaus kept stroking her hair as he wondered if what she said was right, then he quickly remembered how strongly Stefan had fought against his compulsion when he forced him to bit Elena. What the hell was his weird fixation on getting guys to kill their girlfriends, anyway? Klaus felt suddenly really tired when he realized that girl's pain was his entire fault, even if she was blaming it on Tyler. He knew better and, in the end, it really was just him.

"Please, can you keep him out of my dreams?" Caroline request didn't fail to surprise him once again.

"You want me to get inside your head?" He couldn't help the slight tone of shock in his voice. It didn't seem likely that this girl would want him to do such thing, not when she didn't trust him and when he was her enemy.

"It's my birthday." She stated weakly, as if it was some sort of justification for what she was asking him to do. "I don't want him to ruin it in my dreams too. Just do it, please, without messing with my head. I can't handle nightmares tonight." Her voice sounded so sad that it would have broken his heart if he still had one.

Klaus leaned down and kissed the top of her head, before fixing the sheets around her body once again and relaxing against the headboard. "You'll be fine." His voice had once again that unquestionable tone; it just didn't feel natural to tell him he was wrong. "Just sleep." Caroline didn't say a word, she shifted a little on the bed and kept her eyes close. Soon, he could tell by her breathing that she was already sleeping.

"Where are we?" Caroline asked, her eyes darting around in wonderment, staring at the small buildings and the canal running below the bridge they were standing on. "Is this Venice? It looked bigger in the movies and photographs."

Klaus chuckled and shook his head, leaning against the bridge and staring at her. "No. This place is a little more special. It's Bruges, some people consider it to be the North Europe Venice, but I personally think Bruges has more magic." He grinned lazily at her, finding her expression of surprise the cutest thing in the world.

"Where's Bruges? I know something about Europe geography, but I've never heard of the city." She wanted to know after a long silence while her eyes kept gazing everywhere they could reach.

"Belgium." Her blue orbs met with his and slowly a grin drew on her face. Klaus smiled right back at her and retrieved one of his hands from his pocket to place it lightly on her lower back. "Come with me." He instructed as he started walking along the road and pointed at a high tower that contrasted with the small buildings around it. "That's the Belfry Tower." Klaus explained to her as she followed him close. "And that's where we're going, the view from the top is breathtaking."

Caroline nodded and for some more seconds she didn't say a word. She was too busy looking around, taking in all the marvelous details of that old town, it looked like one in every 3 stores were either pick and mix or chocolate stores and they all looked far too delicious. The town in general seemed to have been picked out some sort of fairytale; everything was just old and cute. "Why did you bring me here?" She finally decided she wanted to know why she had been taken there in her dreams.

"You asked me."

"I only asked you to keep Tyler away from my dreams, I didn't ask you to come into my dreams and take me somewhere." Caroline pointed out matter-of-factly, but right after she said she was afraid she had sounded too harsh. Since when did she feel bad for being harsh to Klaus – Klaus of all people - , anyway? Well, it was a dream and she was in a dreamy town she had never seen before, that could be why.

"I can leave and do just that if you want me to or I could leave you alone in here."

"No, its fine as it is. I'm just wondering why you would do this."

Klaus tilted his head to look at her, grinning to himself as he realized that he knew exactly why he had brought her to that place. He had put together all that idea without even thinking about it and only then he realized it. "You know how I was telling you about the whole world out there you have to discover?" He averted his eyes from her to let them rest in the horizon while he scratched the tip of his nose shortly. "Well, this is the point. New York, Paris, London, Rome… you'll know all those cities in no time and they're all beautiful, that's not the point, but they're predictable. Those cities are the ones you'll know first and then believe you've already seen everything, but you'll never see everything, because there'll always be great cities like this one that you don't even know that exist."

Caroline felt herself extremely drawn to Klaus everytime he would start talking like that. His voice was filled with so much knowledge and experience, it was like she could literally hear it laced with his british accent. It was terrible how she felt literally leaning towards him when he used that deep tone and she really hoped that it went away once she woke up because the last thing she needed was letting Klaus have some kind of influence on her.

"I thought you needed something to make you happy after your disastrous birthday and I was sure you'd like good old lovely Bruges." Klaus chuckled and she couldn't help smiling too, she felt relaxed there, she was dreaming and the problems from the real world truly didn't reach her there. "Come here." He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards a little store. "This place has the best cookies and sweets."

Finding herself in a town in a small country in Europe shopping for sweets in a traditional store with Klaus, was something that would never ever crossed her mind. Especially, adding the fact that it was the evil guy leading her to the shop and not the other way around. "Help yourself, honey."

Caroline remembered herself that it was only a dream and that people wouldn't actually be shocked or in panic if she used her vampire speed. So, in a blink, she had a large paper bag filled with all sorts of pick and mix and cookies. The original looked amused by her eagerness to get all types of candy. "I was always freaking out about calories while I was human, now that I'm a vampire and I'm dreaming I should make some excesses."

He nodded without losing the amused expression plastered all over his face, she had never seen him with such a genuine emotion, when he grinned or when he laughed, it always looked diabolical because it always had some sick twisted reason behind. But as she looked at him in that dreamy Bruges, he just looked genuine and it was like she could still hear his voice whispering in her room 'genuine beauty'.

They kept making their way to the Belfry tower, but they were already practically there, so it only took a minute until they were standing right in front of it. Caroline looked up, amazed at the monument in front of her. It looked taller than it had looked from afar, now that she was that close. "Surprisingly beautiful, right?" Klaus asked with a hint of smugness in his voice, for the first time she realized that he was proud of surprising her, proud of taking her breath away with the amazing places he knew and could show her.

"I want to get to the top." Caroline suddenly said, she had been taken by some sort of anxiousness to see how that city would look from up there. Because Klaus had said it was breathtaking, but everything around there was quite breathtaking, so she figured she'd be even more impressed when she got up there. And, honestly, she needed that, she needed something so beautiful that when she woke up next morning she would do it with a smile on her lips.

"Let's go then." Klaus made his way inside the tower and Caroline just followed him. The passage gave them access to an interior patio and she became a little confused on how to get to the top, but he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing as he led them to some stairs in the side of the open space that finally let them into the building. Once inside, it wasn't hard to spot the stairs as they stood right in front of them. They were so narrow that someone over 250 pounds wouldn't fit in there and it made her chuckle as she imagined someone getting literally stuck in the middle of the stairs, it had to be claustrophobic to say the least.

"Catch me." Caroline dared playfully before she sprinted up the stairs in vampire speed. She made it to the top in only some seconds and there was Klaus already smugly smirking at her. She didn't even know how he had done it, he had to have jumped over her or something like that. Well, there was the possibility he just made it happen, after all he was controlling the dream, but she knew better than to believe he had to go there to beat her in a race, he was almost thousand years old or over a thousand years old, she didn't even know.

"Should I literally catch you?" Klaus inquired as he took small steps towards her. Caroline was phrased between saying no or just letting him do whatever he wished. She couldn't deny some part of her wanted his arms around her and her body pressed against his muscled chest. She really needed to stop with those kinds of thoughts.

"No. I got it." She finally said breathlessly, after letting him get far too close. "I just want to see the view."

Before she could even realize what was happening, his hand was on her eyes and his body was standing behind her, holding her against him. "Let's go, no peeking until I say." A shiver run through her body as his lips whispered the words against her ear. She felt her knees falter but she made an effort to propel her legs forward and walk like he was asking. Caroline moved blindly with him and she was impressed how she didn't feel a hint of fear, no, unfortunately, all she felt in that moment was electricity due to the closeness of their bodies.

"Ok, now, close your eyes and I'll remove my hand." He instructed. His lips still way nearer than they needed to be for her to hear him. "Are they closed?" Caroline nodded and felt his hand drop from her eyes and wander down her body until it stop flat in her hips. She only then realized his other hand was already in her opposite hip and, goddamnit, she could feel his deep breathing against the side of her face. "Open your eyes, love."

Caroline did as he told and literally gasped at the view in front of her. The city was just unbelievable, she could see a thousand little canals between the roads and buildings, another high tower, which belonged to what seemed to be a church, shot up into the sky next to all the small constructions and the sun shined up in the sky to color all the city below. The green from the trees, the orange and the dark grey from the different ceilings, the red awnings that belonged to the restaurants and bars and finally the clear blue sky above it all.

She turned to him to find an even more beautiful tone of blue in his eyes and he took her breath away, maybe even more than the city did. But he also took her breath away because of that, because he had brought her there and he was the one showing this place to her. With a warm smile on his lips, he handed her the bag of candy she had picked up earlier, Caroline was surprised to see it again, because she didn't even know where it had gone. It was all a dream, she shouldn't be surprised, after all things don't always make sense in dreams and the fact that the bag has disappeared only to appear again right there, could be of his making as well.

Caroline took the bag and turned back to look at the city, freeing her hands by placing the bag on top of the wall. She popped one of the sweets in her mouth and almost choked on it when she felt his body pressing against hers once again and his hands resting on the stone wall in front of them. Caging her between his arms. "Genuine beauty." Klaus purred the words against her ear and this time all her body shook as shivers ran violently down her body.

Swallowing tightly, she slowly turned to face him, but then she realized he was far too close to let her brain work. She lost herself in his eyes, Caroline could only imagine how much he had lived in his long existence, how many things he knew and how many places he'd seen. "You were right…" The words left her lips rather incoherently, but it was like they hung in the air around them as his face came closer to hers.

She had lost her mind, definitely, but at the same time she couldn't even began to understand that, because her mind had been literally lost, or at least shut down. His lips came closer hers and she let her eyes close at the same time he close his. Caroline could now feel Klaus' hot breath against her lips and she truly had never desired so much for a kiss like she did in that moment.

When their lips finally touched, it was so soft that she gasped against his mouth. Her hand reached to intertwine her fingers in his curly locks and her lips parted to give access to his tongue. Dream or not, she was kissing Klaus and that idea was just insane, but she wanted it. She wanted it so much in that moment that the slow pace of his kiss was frustrating her.

But it was only slow for a couple more seconds, before the hybrid shoved his body against her and pressed her strongly against the wall behind her. His hands gripped painfully on her waist, but she didn't protest, she just moaned and then she was colliding to the wall in the opposite side of the tower. The air flew out of her lungs at the impact and he didn't even give her room to breathe before his lips were hungrily devouring hers again, it could be a problem if she was human, but as she was, air was not something vital. And she had done rough with Tyler and with Damon, but Klaus made them look gentle in comparison.

Caroline pulled his head back by his hair and left wet open-mouthed kisses down his throat, before she even noticed her fangs had pierced through her gums, and were now scratching the soft skin of his neck. She wanted his blood, she wanted the twirl of power that ran through her body when she took it, but she was too afraid to take it from him without any kind of permission. And she was right in being afraid, because as soon as he felt her fangs, he pulled away from her abruptly.

She couldn't define the expression in his eyes, it was lustful, but it was so many other things too: conflicted, painful, regretful, surprised… In that moment, she realized that his expression had nothing to do with her almost biting him. No. It was about what they were doing there, both of them, kissing when they should be enemies. But she barely had time to take a second look at him, because then everything went black.

She jolted upwards in the bed, waking up from her dream and immediately looking around. He was gone. If she didn't still feel his smell in her room, she would have thought that dream had been all hers. But his smell was there, the proof that he had been in that room with her and that he had also been in that dream with her. In absolute shock, she realized she had kissed Klaus: their enemy number one. It had all been a dream, but it had been a dream where she was very in control of everything she was doing, so why did she do it?

Oh, she knew it. Even if she couldn't admit it to herself, she knew just why she had let it happen: because it had been perfect, everything, the city, the tower, the view, him… He hadn't been the heartless Klaus she always knew, in contrary, he had been charming, caring, gentle, sensible. All that at least until they started kissing, then he had been all that she expected from him: violent, rough, intense, dominant… and she had loved every little second.

No! She couldn't. Frustrated, she felt back to the bed and tried to shut down the thoughts of that city in the north of Europe. Bruges. One day she would actually go there, she had to, it was beautiful for her never to see it again. She wanted to see all of those beautiful places that she didn't even know existed, not everyone had an eternity to enjoy doing just that. After all, Klaus really had been right, there was a whole world out there waiting for her, at least for that, her existence would always have a meaning.

Caroline closed her eyes and buried her face in her pillow. Quickly, memories of Klaus' body pressed against hers and the way he held so tightly her hips flooded her mind and she couldn't quite push them away. It was leaving her all hot and bothered and even more frustrated than before. She wished she could shut it all down, but it was just impossible, because whenever she closed her eyes he appeared in the darkness smirking, ripping her clothes apart and kissing down her stomach.

She tossed and turn in her bed for almost an hour before she finally managed to go back to sleep. The rest of her night was blank or, at least, when she woke up she couldn't remember dreaming about anything. The sunlight shined through her windows hurting her eyes as she stretched her arms and slowly lifted up her torso. Her hand moved to the back of her neck, absentmindedly, but at doing so she noticed her skin was perfectly soft, undamaged. The bite was gone. She couldn't help but sigh in relief. Klaus had told her she was going to be fine, but when you're dying you can never be too sure.

Klaus. Everything from last night came back to her mind as she spotted a tiny black box in her bedside table. It hadn't been there last night, she was sure about that, and she suddenly felt too curious, wondering if it was his. She picked it up quickly and read the small card attached to the box: from Klaus. It surprised her greatly, so he had ran away last night but then he had came back to drop a gift. Against her better judgment, her heart was pounding loud against her chest in anticipation to know what he might have gotten her.

Caroline breathed deeply before finally pulling the soft silk lace that wrapped around the box and opening it. Inside there was a diamond bracelet and she felt the air literally getting caught in her throat. She had never seen such beautiful piece of jewelry, not in her hands at least. She shouldn't be so surprised though, there were a lot of things she hadn't seen yet, Klaus had taken care of making that really clear last night.

"There's a whole world out there waiting for you."

I hope you enjoyed my little try on writing Klaroline. I was quite satisfied with this and I hope no one will think I was totally out of character with them. Because both of them are quite hard to write. Also, I don't know if it was clear in the end, but when Klaus pulled away from her, it was actually because he was terrified that he had gotten himself get involved with Caroline.
This is one-shot, but I can easily be coaxed into writing more. It'll depend on the feedback I get from you people. So, please, review.