This started out as a small (seriously) AU piece and it just became this behemoth of a one-shot AU piece. I'm...happy?...with it. I don't know quite what to make of it, but I do know that it is what I had planned to write. I just hadn't planned on it being this...long.

Regardless, it's meant to take place several months after the episodes that have aired, but no spoilers for future episodes as I don't know any and I strongly doubt this is where the story is going anyway.

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries characters et al are obviously not mine. This is based solely on the TV-verse.

Blink at me, Skies

Tokyo had turned out to be everything Mystic Falls was not; exuberant where Mystic Falls had been subdued, painfully colourful instead of obsessively coordinated, so busy and brash and bright to a girl who'd grown up in quiet neighbourhoods of lush greens and pastel flowers.

Caroline stood inches away from the floor-to-ceiling windows of her hotel suite overlooking the Ginza district. She let herself be overwhelmed once more by the multicoloured neon lights of giant billboards; the bright whites that lit up every towering office building and dotted yellows and reds of cars practically standing still on the crowded streets below. A thick pane of glass and dozens of stories separated her from the crowded city, but she could still hear the buzz of the crowds, the raucous laughter of swarms of uniformed school children, and the roar of the busy streets ringing in her ears.

Walking the streets of Tokyo hours earlier, in a daze from the overwhelming sights and sounds of a city unlike anything she'd every experienced before, Caroline had been able to push all thoughts of Mystic Falls into the furthest recesses of her mind. Tokyo was so loud, so bright and all-consuming of her senses that she'd almost had no choice in the matter.

Down there on the streets, lost amongst the crowds, just another blonde tourist gawking at the sights, she could forget or at the very least pretend that this life she was living was not her own. Earlier, when a couple from Germany had asked her in broken English to take their picture in front of the Sensoji Temple she'd been Claire from Los Angeles. With a wide smile and sparkling eyes she'd laughingly snapped their photo while children ran between them. Now, in the stillness of her luxurious hotel room she couldn't do anything but be Caroline as the bustling noises faded in her ears and the colours began to lose their sparkle. Struggling to hold on to the city below her as memories of the hometown she'd run away from fought their way to the forefront, Caroline leaned forward pressing her hands against the glass, eyes widening further to burn away memories with the bright lights of Tokyo.

She heard the door click open and shut behind her. Her entire body tensed at the sound, but she didn't turn. Focusing her hearing on the soft footsteps against the hardwood floor, she watched the reflections on the glass intently as the intruder walked out of the darkness behind her to become illuminated by the lights of the city below. Caroline slowly drew in a long breath, the warm dark scent of spice and honey unmistakable.

"Caroline."

She watched his reflection flicker along the pane of glass beneath her hand. She hadn't bothered turning on any lights as she'd watched the light of day fade and the city become illuminated by night. But now, seeing him so at home in the darkness as it caressed his face when the glow from outside should have burned it away, she wished she'd at least left the TV on.

His blue eyes rivalled the bright lights outside despite the shadows flickering across his face and she caught them with a hard stare in his reflection.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was too loud as it pierced through the quiet stillness of the room.

"Your friends are worried about you, Caroline." He spoke softly, almost as if he were trying not to startle a frightened animal.

"My friends," Caroline scoffed. "They're so worried about me that they sent you to find me?"

"I offered," he stated simply. His reply had caught her off guard and almost against her will she turned away from the view and around to face him.

Standing with both hands behind his back, Klaus cocked his head to one side and simply studied her while she considered his response. With the room cast in darkness and the city lights behind her, he couldn't quite see her face, but the rigid outline of her body and the tension in her shoulders told him all he needed to know. Undoubtedly by know she'd thought up dozens of reasons why he'd been the one to come after her and all of them, he was sure, cast him in the role of the devious evil doer. Tempted to roll his eyes, Klaus instead exercised that which he'd perfected over a thousand years yet only used when it most suited his purpose – patience.

"Why?" Caroline demanded.

Klaus shrugged. "It was the simplest solution. If it hadn't been me, it would have been Bonnie. And if it had been Bonnie, then your dear friend Elena would have tagged along on that little road trip. This way, Elena remains safe and snug in Mystic Falls."

Caroline's eyes narrowed. "You mean, Elena stays where you can find her in case you need to make more hybrids," she sneered.

"Think the worst if you like, Caroline." Klaus' voice lowered as he spoke, "But it's a dangerous world out there for a Bennet witch and her doppelganger friend."

Tired of the ridiculous standoff, Klaus stepped around the couch in the middle of the room and walked towards the minibar in the corner.

"You should know that I started my search for you in Paris," he said as he reached for a bottle of scotch. Grimacing as he read the label, he nonetheless turned around and offered her a drink with a tilt of the bottle. A short nod was her only reply. He filled two glasses halfway and faced her again, his eyebrows raised in invitation. When she made no move to join him, he felt his jaw twitch involuntarily. It was the only sign that he was beginning to lose what little patience he'd mustered up earlier.

"Imagine my surprise when you it turned out you'd never been there despite the airplane ticket telling me otherwise." Klaus closed the few steps between them as he spoke and joined her by the wall of windows. He handed her a glass then turned to admire the city glittering below.

"You searched all of Paris?" Caroline's tone was incredulous. "What'd you do, use your hybrid speed to check every street corner? Compel some police officers to check every hotel?"

"Caroline," Klaus chuckled and shook his head at her naiveté. Sometimes he forgot exactly how young and sheltered she really was. Eyes on the swarming mass of people below, he leaned over slightly and whispered in her ear, "When you live as long as I have, love, you get to know a lot of people and a lot of secrets. No compulsion required. I'm sure even you can appreciate that."

"No compulsion - just blackmail." Caroline scowled at him.

Klaus straightened and sighed. There was no winning with this one. He took a sip from his glass, hissing as the liquid burned his throat. He may not have used compulsion to find her, but if he had to suffer too much more of this hideous liquid the hotel called scotch, he'd seriously consider compelling the hotel manager to spend the money on better liquor. It really was just disgraceful.

Tearing his eyes from the window, the bright lights leaving spots on his retinas, Klaus turned to face the blonde vampire he'd chased all around the world. Leaning casually against the window, one hand in his pocket, the other swirling the undrinkable liquid in around in his glass, he studied the play of shadows across her face as she struggled to maintain her composure under his scrutiny.

"Speaking of compulsion," Klaus began, "I thought you didn't believe in using it to get what you needed."

"I don't," Caroline replied. Confused, she turned her head to look at him.

Klaus pointedly gestured around the room with his glass and raised his eyebrows at her. Caroline scowled and fought the urge to throw her drink at that damnable smirk on his face.

"It turns out both my parents had pretty good life insurance policies, so yippee for me," Caroline spat back at him. She'd aimed to throw sarcasm back in his face, but there was too much pain in her voice. When his eyes softened at her words, she quickly turned away and stared into the darkness once more. She refused to accept his pity.

Her parents. Caroline felt her stomach twist into knots as thoughts of them came rushing back. She'd worked so hard to forget over the past weeks. To wash away memories of them in sights and sounds and millions of people, and for the most part she'd succeeded. Getting lost in the scramble of bodies, in the riotous colours and the piercing noise of the city, she hadn't been the sad orphaned girl destined to live forever. But now, the ancient vampire who'd offered her the world only months ago had brought memories of Mystic Falls back to her and the agony of it twisted her heart.

Unable to stop the strangled sob from escaping her throat Caroline turned her back to him, squeezing her eyes tightly shut as she tried in vain to keep the tears from falling. Her shoulders shook with sobs she could barely contain until the effort became too much and she let herself slide down against the window pane to collapse in a heap on the floor. The drink he'd handed her tumbled from her fingers, spilling onto the floor. She barely noticed it.

Klaus heaved a heavy sigh and cast his eyes upwards. What guidance he hoped to find there he didn't know, so he tossed back the scotch for fortification and lowered himself slowly to the floor to join the young vampire. He made no move to touch her or comfort her. Centuries of watching people die around him had taught him that nothing made this particular pain any easier to bear except time. In his first century as a vampire he'd struggled with the sick reality of mortal life. He'd watched friends wither away in old age or succumb to the many diseases that had run rampant in those dark centuries. He'd railed against their unbridled stupidity when they'd refused his offers of immortality, unable to understand the choice of blank oblivion when faced with the opportunity to live countless lifetimes. Time brought with it a perverse insensitivity to death; made it easier to bear the centuries and centuries of it.

She heard the quiet tap as he set his glass down and the soft thud as his head fell back.

"You can turn it all off." The low cultured tones of his voice drifted to her ears, but didn't seem to pierce through the darkness before them. Instead, the lights of the city cocooned them in their glow through the window at their back. She could almost take comfort in that. "It's one of the many luxuries of being a vampire, love. You can turn off everything that hurts you. Just throw it all away and you never have to look back."

Caroline drew in a shaky breath and looked down at her hands clutched tightly in her lap. Her throat felt too full to speak, but she tried anyway.

"Remembering is what keeps me human." Her voice was barely more than a croak. She cleared her throat and shook away the blonde curls sticking to her tear-stained cheeks.

Klaus let out an impatient sigh. "Sweetheart, you're not human anymore."

"But I need to be," Caroline replied fiercely. "My father chose to die rather than become what we are, but he loved me because he could still see the little girl I used to be, the one he raised. My mother - " Caroline choked on the words and pressed her fists into her thighs, willing herself to remain whole.

"I forced her to forget once," Caroline whispered softly, memories of that night in the Salvatore dungeon sharp in her mind. "When I tried to do it a second time, she didn't beg me not to. She just looked at me with this sad smile on her face. She knew she couldn't really stop me, not really, but I think she hoped that I trusted her enough to let her take care of me for a little while longer.

"She died to protect me." Caroline turned her head and met Klaus' gaze, her own eyes bright with tears yet crackling with conviction. "I can't forget that. I can't ever forget any of that."

Her eyes captivated him. Dark with pain, stormy like the waters of the North Atlantic, yet somehow they still managed to hold flashes of something altogether brighter – a sparkling jewel in their depths and he thought if he caught the flicker of it in just the right way, he might be able to coax it all the way out.

Klaus was the first to break eye contact. A rueful smile fell across his lips and he held up the empty glass for closer inspection.

"If I had known the night was heading in this maudlin direction, I would have brought better scotch," he solemnly remarked, his eyes on the bottom of his glass.

Caroline let the corner of her lip quirk up into the semblance of a smile, but it quickly faded as she watched him rise gracefully and walk back over to the minibar.

"What are you doing?" Caroline's confusion was evident on her face as she watched him pour himself another glass of the scotch he supposedly hated. "You hate that stuff," and said as much.

"If there's anything I've become very good at over the centuries besides murder and mayhem, Caroline, love," Klaus allowed himself a grin as Caroline rolled her eyes and bit back a small smile. "It's how to toast the dead."

Shocked, Caroline's head snapped up to find Klaus suddenly standing in front of her, his hand outstretched and bearing another drink, waiting for her to take it. She did, slowly and with hesitation. When his hand remained outstretched, she took it this time in her empty hand and allowed him to pull her up. Her hand tingled in his, so cool in contrast to his warm skin. She figured it somehow had something to do with being a hybrid. The sensation surprised her, but it wasn't unpleasant, so when he didn't let go neither did she.

"To your father," Klaus began, "Who loved you as every father should, but not many would." They touched their glasses together, the ringing loud in the solemn quiet of the room, and drank. Their eyes met over the rims and held.

"To my mother," Caroline's breath hitched as she spoke, "I know she loved me. More than anything. And I know it hurt her all those years when I wouldn't give her the time of day, but she loved me anyway. I hope -" Caroline's voice caught in her throat and she fought to swallow the lump that had gathered there. "I hope to one day be that good and that brave."

They touched their glasses together softer this time, the ring barely sounding, and drank.

"Wait," Caroline lightly squeezed Klaus' hand to hold him in place and held out her glass once more. Frowning slightly, unsure of what she was doing, Klaus nonetheless brought his glass back next to hers and waited.

"To your father. You real father," Caroline added hastily when she saw his eyes darken. Now a surprise he couldn't hide was etched all over his features, but he didn't move away and she took that as a sign he wasn't about to rip out her throat. She didn't quite know where she was going with this or what to say.

"My father," Klaus drew out the words on one long breath, "Was hardly more than a savage, but it's kept me alive. A toast to his generous donation." The sharp clang of their glasses meeting for a third time rang bitterly in her ears, but Caroline sipped her drink and let his hand fall out of her grasp when his fingers relaxed around hers.

They both turned to gaze at the expanse of city below. Their hands hung at their sides, brushing together with every small movement of their bodies. They both pretended not to notice.

"Why Tokyo?" He asked after what seemed like hours. "You had your ticket to Paris yet you never used it. Why?"

Caroline's soft giggle took her by surprise and she closed her eyes for a moment to relish in the lightness of it. "Because of the way you said it that night of the ball."

The glow of the city lights below lit up his face and she could make out the frown working its way across it as he tried to remember exactly what he'd done to make Tokyo sound more intriguing to her than the wonders of Paris and Rome.

"You said it with this little quirk in your voice. This, like, upbeat kind of tone. Tokyo." She tried to imitate both his accent and that quirk, but ended up sounding more squeaky than British.

"I have never made such an undignified sound in my life," was Klaus' indignant reply at her poor attempt at an imitation.

"Close enough." Caroline peeked at him through the corner of her eye and was relieved to find that she hadn't insulted him. If anything, he looked a little bit amused.

"Don't worry, love," Klaus reassured her. "If I were to be offended by anything tonight, it would be that you allowed this deplorable excuse for scotch to be brought to your hotel room."

Caroline allowed herself another smile at that and shrugged, "You made it sound fun. I needed fun. I needed fun more than I needed genuine beauty." She tried her hand at another impression and was oddly pleased to see that it had managed to coax a bigger smile out of the ancient vampire.

"No offense," Klaus prompted her with a light nudge of his shoulder.

This time she didn't try to stop the wide smile from spreading across her face. "No offense," she offered and was rewarded with a small nod.

Feeling lighter than she had in weeks, Caroline turned her gaze back to the view outside her window. Bright and colourful and loud. Tokyo wasn't Paris or Rome or any of those other cities people usually visited when they needed an escape, but that didn't make it less genuine or less beautiful. At least not to her.

"It's still beautiful, Caroline," Klaus murmured, his voice low and dark and smooth, like the scent of him she remembered breathing when he'd first walked in. "It doesn't pretend and it grabs you in a completely different way. Completely unexpected."

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