(Just a quick note, this is following episode 3x14, and is something that I really really want to happen between the two of them!)
Chapter 1
That night, Caroline's subconscious flashed with a colourful montage of Klaus' face. She woke suddenly, with a start. Guilt overwhelmed her, coursing through her veins. There was Tyler, out fighting his own demons so he could come home to her and here she was, dreaming of the sociopathic hybrid who was responsible for them in the first place. Her half open eyes led her to the sketch from Klaus almost immediately. She'd abandoned it on her dressing table in the hope that it might disappear by morning, and prove that this was all a dream. Surely Klaus couldn't mean a single thing he'd said or done, it had to be a part of some wicked plan that he was forming, she was sure of it. Convincing her-self that this was the reality and nothing more, she fell back to sleep and slept soundlessly until early morning.
Klaus was conflicted, to say the least. He needed something to take his mind off his troubles, and quickly. He couldn't be weak, that wasn't a part of who he was, or at least who he thought he was. He made his way through the mansion, slamming doors as he did so. Elijah was sat elegantly on the arm of the sofa, watching him calmly and somewhat knowingly through his storm of fury. Ignore him, Klaus thought. Out of all of his siblings, Elijah understood him best. Elijah understood everybody. Secretly, Klaus envied this trait of his greatly, and resented Elijah for possessing it.
Out in the woods, Klaus exhaled deeply, lost in his conflicting thoughts. This was never meant to be a part of being the world's most invincible predator. He thought back to the advice he had once given Elijah; "love is a vampire's greatest weakness. And we are not weak, Elijah. We do not feel and we do not care." He was contradicting everything he believed in, everything in his very nature. He'd prove that he was not weak. A fox, startled by Klaus' sudden and inhumanly quick appearance, scurried away through the hedge. The fox had nothing to fear from Klaus tonight, his hunter instincts had focused on a larger and more vital prey. Caroline's house wasn't too far from here. He could get rid of his problem within the blink of an eye. Never would anyone call Klaus weak.
As soon as her house came into sight, Klaus felt his anger being stripped from him entirely. It was inevitable. He could almost feel her light and warm presence, even from afar. With every motion, another sadistic thought, another scheme of revenge, simply evaporated. In that moment he knew that he'd do everything in his power to protect Caroline Forbes. She was the only beam of light that had entered his life in a thousand years. He'd thought becoming a hybrid and creating his very own army of followers, would make him happy. The idea of more cast out, unwanted abominations like himself had comforted him, ebbing away slightly at the mass of loneliness that consumed him. After all that time spent hunting a lost moonstone and waiting for a doppelganger, he presumed that when he finally completed the ritual, he would be happy. The truth was; he didn't care about that anymore. The focus in his life was now met by obtaining the love of the challenging Caroline Forbes. Of course Klaus had pondered the idea of compelling her love, it would be simple. But simplicity is not what he wanted with her, he wanted to earn her love, for it to be real. He needed to be assured that he could be loved; specifically by the beauty that was Caroline. He would take her wherever she wanted to go, and be whoever she wanted him to be. Internally, he was conflicted. Never did he think that after all this time his neglected human side could find him once more.
The door creaked as he entered her exquisite palace. His breath was stolen by how beautiful she looked, even asleep. Her shimmering, golden hair was fanned out across the clean, white pillow. Honey against cream. He longed to probe her thoughts, to know what she was dreaming of, but resisted. He stole a glance at the portrait he had sketched of her just a few hours earlier, laid out across her dressing table and felt a surge of emotion towards her. She hadn't disposed of it. Still, it was going to take more than a creative portrait to convince Caroline that his thoughts and feelings of her were the truth. He didn't believe that she could ever love him, not after everything he'd done to her friends. She was right when she struck out at him; she called him up on issues he'd repressed. Issues he'd built a wall around, but there was no stopping her crashing through them. The beauty stirred in her sleep, her vampire senses warning her of a possible dangerous presence. The sun was rising by this point, and Klaus couldn't resist running his fingers gently over the creamy surface of her cheek. Her eyelids began to flutter.
Caroline experienced a rush of feelings as her eyes opened and she spotted Klaus standing above her. Her heart began to beat faster, which she simply put down to fear. Warmth, happiness and more guilt quickly followed this. Finally, she settled on confusion. His face was sculpted into a mocking smirk. He appeared different, somehow. Raising his eyebrow, he muttered gently; "Good morning, Caroline."
She groaned and propped herself up in her bed. Her mind ached. She whispered slowly, carefully; "What do you want, Klaus?"
Humour etched across his face, he replied; "I told you last night, Caroline. I fancy you."
Her heart skipped a beat. She ignored it. "Yeah, I'm not buying that. What part do I play in your plan, Klaus? Are you using me in an attempt to hurt Elena? Stefan?"
Hurt seemed to flash across his perfectly sculpted features. So quickly that she couldn't be sure if she saw it in the first place. "Caroline, you're not part of any plan. You hold something over me that I can't control. If there's anything I need you to believe, it's that."
Warmth spread through Caroline, like rays of the brightest sunshine. It must have shown clearly on her face, as Klaus quickly reacted to it, his lips forming a slight, euphoric smile as he gently brushed a lock of her hair from her face. His fingers grazed against her skin, leaving a tingling feeling like the tiniest of electric shocks striking her cheek. He leant forward. Caroline's world was swallowed up in Klaus' handsome face.
Klaus couldn't comprehend the emotions that surfaced inside him in that moment. To see his own feelings of joy and passion echoed in Caroline's face was genuine beauty to him. In that moment, he felt that he had conquered everything in life. This is what it was all building up to. He noticed her reaction, and he gladly took it as an invitation. As he brushed the golden lock of hair from her flawless skin, he felt a shiver coarse through her. She physically reacted to him, whether she wanted to or not. He leant forward slowly, calculating her reactions as he did so. She didn't flinch away from him, nor did she attack him. Instead, she embraced him, sighing in surrender. She was like nothing he had ever experienced before. He leant his face down to hers, feeling the warmth of her angelic breath against his face. Gradually, his lips brushed hers. Softly, sweetly, passionately. All too soon, he felt something in her stance suddenly change. She became rigid, her response to him halted. He retrieved his lips from hers and pulled back to look at her.
Monster, she thought. He's a monster. She didn't try to force him away from her, she wanted him to realise her anger on his own. As he pulled back, she saw such an innocence and a genuine joy in him that she'd never seen before, that she didn't think was even possible. Comprehension dawned on his face.
"No, Klaus. You hurt people, my friends; all you brought is blackness and pain into this town with you. Forgiveness is there to be earned, not to just be handed over." She spoke calmly, yet her heart was racing, partly with fear of the consequence of her words, and partly something else.
Menace flashed across his face, and for a second she thought he would kill her right there and then. She closed her eyes, preparing herself for the blow. Nothing came. Slowly, she raised her watery eyes to look at him. That sudden menace had faded away again, replaced with a look of gentle understanding.
"I'll earn your forgiveness." He replied simply, gazing at her with the sweetest of looks, one that wasn't usually associated with someone like Klaus. Caroline blinked, and he was gone. She raised her fingers to feel the tingling sensation lingering on the lips that he had just kissed. Conflict, guilt and repression overwhelmed her. She was submerged in darkness.