Hey there! I've had this floating around in my mind for quite a bit now, so I thought I'd put pen to paper. Well, fingers to keyboard but you get the drift. This is just the prologue so it is quite short, but future chapters will be longer. Of course, it's AU/AH!

I don't have a beta, just rely on my own 4am editing, so I apologize for any dumb mistakes. Please drop me a review if you have a chance! It would be much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

Prologue.

For months now, she's been running around in neurotic maid of honor mode. This was Katherine's wedding and she'd be damned if her best friend didn't have the wedding she deserved. Others may have argued that she didn't deserve more than hell, but Caroline had always seen past the bitchy front she'd put up. So of course, she was going to make sure this day went perfectly for her best friend. Now that the day had arrived, Caroline was pretty sure that she was the one getting cold feet.

Fighting the urge to chew on her freshly manicured fingernails, Caroline tapped her fingers against the glass of her sparkling water. There was no chance in hell that she was getting drunk until there was nothing to stress about. At this point, the list of things that could go wrong during the wedding was fairly long. In her mind, the list was actually much much longer than it actually was. Weddings never ran completely smoothly, she knew that, but she would do everything in her power to make sure Katherine got through it without any hassle whatsoever. She'd go to the ends of the earth for her best friend and today was just another example. But it wasn't just another day; it was Katherine's wedding day and nothing –nothing- was going to go wrong.

Katherine however, seemed completely content with staring at herself in the mirror and not worrying about a thing. The rare grin on her face proved that much and Caroline couldn't help but let that calm her nerves. She knew that Katherine loved Stefan, always had, but that didn't change that Caroline was still worried about her. All she ever did was worry about Katherine and the trouble she got herself in. It had been that way since they were kids. Since the very day in kindergarten that Katherine stomped on her foot and Caroline in return shoved her back. Their toddler-tantrum had lasted all of two minutes and forty-six seconds before the two of them had found themselves laughing in the sand pit. They bickered very often and they were definitely an unlikely friendship, but they'd die for each other and that was that. The amount of douchebag guys that had discovered that the hard way was uncountable by now. But Caroline liked Stefan. He was a good friend to her, as well as a good boyfriend/fiancé to Katherine. She had no doubt that he'd be just as a good husband to her too.

When she'd been asked to be the maid of honor, she had admittedly been slightly taken aback. After all, Katherine had a twin sister. Elena was a perfectly good sister, who'd always been around to keep Katherine on track. But apparently, having your identical twin as a part of the wedding ceremony would take 'too much attention' from the bride. Which had made no sense to Caroline but hey, Katherine never did stop surprising her.

So it was just the maid of honor and the best man. The best man being Stefan's best friend, Klaus. The British asshole who'd been friends with Stefan since forever, who Katherine could barely stand but tolerated for the sake of her future husband. Since Katherine and Stefan had met and fallen in love during their college years, Caroline had shared the annoyance for Klaus. Sure he was pretty damn attractive – but he was also an arrogant, impulsive, frustrating pain in her ass. When Katherine had informed her of Stefan's choice of best man, he hadn't been at all surprised. Considering Stefan's rocky relationship with his brother and Katherine's complicated past with the elder Salvatore that they just didn't speak about it – she hadn't expected Damon to be involved in the wedding plans. Hell, it had been a stretch that he'd even received an invitation to the ceremony at all.

"How long?" Katherine's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, forcing her to look up at the bride.

Katherine's dress was a white, strapless sweetheart dress. There were crystals encrusted across the top of the deep neckline and around the hip, the tight material showing off the brunette's figure perfectly. The dress fell all the way to the floor, the A-line silhouette falling around her feet. Her hair was clipped to the left side, a matching crystal holding it in place as her long curls cascaded evenly down her shoulder.

"Ten minutes." Caroline replied, standing up from her seat with a soft smile. "We can head down now, if you want?"

There was no answer to her question, the blonde just watching on as Katherine kept her eyes on her reflection in the mirror. A few seconds later, she turned around with her typical smirk. It seemed the wedding day nerves lasted all of one minute with the not-so-blushing bride.

"Lets go get married."


The ceremony had gone smoothly, with no exes bursting in to declare undying love or distant family members getting drunk and passing out in the middle of the vows.

Everything had gone perfectly. Almost too perfectly, actually. A part of her kept neurotically wondering when something was going to go wrong, but there wasn't much that could go wrong at this point. Stefan and Katherine were married, everyone was happy – everything was good. Actually, no, everything was amazing. Katherine was happy, Stefan was happy. After all, that had been her main goal.

Sitting at the bar, she sipped on her white wine as she looked around her. She was happy, so happy, for the now married couple. There wasn't a long face in the room and she couldn't help but be proud of that. She'd put this entire thing together, with Katherine's demands in mind, but still. She'd made this work. The past sixteen months had been spent planning this day and she was glad that it had all paid off in the end. All she'd wanted was for this wedding to go as perfectly as humanly possible and it had. She'd managed to pull it off, without Katherine having to sacrifice any of her wishes. It was a pretty damn amazing to feeling to have, to know that she'd secured her best friend's happiness on the most important day of her life.

"Drinking alone, sweetheart?"

It didn't take much for her to recognize the smug tone. If the accent wasn't enough, the damn 'sweetheart' at the end pretty much sealed the deal.

"What do you want, Klaus?" She questioned in aggravation, fighting the urge to roll her eyes as he appeared from behind her and took a seat next to her. Taking another long gulp of her wine, she slammed the glass down on the bar.

Honestly, she didn't even know what it was about him that bugged her. He'd always been around; just the best friend of her best friend's boyfriend. They didn't have to socialize –very rarely was it ever necessary- but they were around each other more often than reasonable. As annoying as he was, he was strangely compelling. They'd known each other since college, when Stefan would invite him out and Katherine would invite her out all at the same time. Ever since, they'd just known each other. Whether the two of them happened to be at Stefan and Katherine's place at the same two, or birthdays, or now weddings. Since wedding planning had started though, they'd been around each other more and more again. Maid of honor and best man duties crossed paths quite often, apparently.

There'd always been that attraction there, she'd admit that. Well, she'd admit that to herself anyway. Would she ever give him a compliment and flirtatious look? Hell no. His ego did certainly not need any boosting, as far as she was concerned.

"Just checking up on you, making sure the maid of honor isn't drinking herself into oblivion." He shrugged, innocently. That time, she didn't even bother to resist her eye roll.

"Can you just …. go away? Please?"

"Now why would I do that?"

Giving him a glare, she let out an irritated sigh before turning to the bartender and ordering another glass of wine. Ignoring his amused look, she offered the young bartender a flirtatious smile before turning back to Klaus. "Are you going to get your own drink or just stare at me all night? Because it's kind of creepy, actually."

"...Red wine, mate."


"Now go get laid, Mrs Salvatore." She whispered, holding her best friend in a tight embrace. Katherine's intoxicated laugh echoed around the large room, nobody even there to hear it other than the four of them and a few other departing guests. "And feel sorry for me when you're having the time of your life in Sri Lanka and I'm stuck in Chicago."

Watching on with a smile as Stefan and Katherine walked away, she turned to get her purse from the bar. She didn't say anything to Klaus, who had been sat next to her at the bar since he'd come over earlier that night. Wine had very quickly turned into shots and stronger than strong alcohol, glares turning into seductive smiles and irritation turning into flirtation.

Before she even knew it, she'd subtly slipped her hand into his and the two of them were in the hotel room.

His lips crashed against hers the very second the door had shut behind them. He pressed her up against the wall, his hands on her hips as hers immediately flew to his golden curls. Only seconds later, his shirt was on the floor and hers was soon to follow. She let out an involuntarily moan as his mouth moved to her neck and continued moving downwards, not even realizing that the noise came from her own mouth.

She walked backwards, mouth not leaving his until the back of her knees hit the bed, causing her to fall down onto the mattress.


Turning over with a groan as the sunlight peaked through the curtains, she flinched internally as her arm hit another person. She reluctantly opened her eyes, looking up and freezing at the sight of her not-so-mystery lover.

Klaus.

Freezing for a moment, she let herself panic in her mind as she slowly rolled back around – just to be greeted by his arm curled back around her shoulder. She managed to pull herself up without waking him, quickly finding last night's clothes. Slipping into her underwear and dress, she slid her shoes on and began to move around the room to search for her purse. She let out a breath of relief as she spotted it on the small table by the door, her heels clicking against the wooden floor as she moved.

"Leaving so soon?"

She froze again as she heard him, his groggy voice making it clear that her moving around had woken him up. Taking a deep breath and plastering a smile on her face, she spun back around on her heel to face him. She made an extra effort to not let her eyes fall down to his exposed chest, running a hand through her hair as she cleared her throat.

"Um – yeah." She said, her voice quiet and making her mentally slap herself at how lame she'd made herself sound. After a few moments of awkward silence and avoiding eye contact, she eventually forced herself to choke out something. "Listen, we're just … never talking about this again, okay?"

At his silence, she let out an aggravated huff. Of course he was going to be difficult and smug about this, just, just of course he was. The look on his face was telling that he was definitely feeling fairly smug.

"I mean, it's for the best. Right?" She bit her lip, quirking an eyebrow as she began to step backwards towards the door. "So, no mentioning this. To anyone. Ever. Deal?"

"If you say so, love. It's a deal."