Mistletoe
Chapter 1: The Snow's Piled Up Outside the Door
Summary: Caroline and Klaus get snowed into her family's cabin after the rest of their friends aren't able to make the trip.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries, or the song that inspired this story, which is sung by Lucy Hale. AU/AH.
Caroline huffed as she got yet another text from their friends apologizing saying that they wouldn't be able to make it to her family's cabin for Christmas. All of Klaus' siblings had flaked, and now with Elena and Jeremy saying they couldn't make it either, that made all of her friends. Tyler had been the first to flake out on this trip, and then Matt and Bonnie right after each other, and now Elena and Jeremy. Caroline wasn't counting Stefan and Damon as having flaked, because when the plans had been made, they already knew they wouldn't be able to make it. Leaning her head against her seat, she tilted her head to look at Klaus.
"Elena and Jeremy aren't going to make it either." Caroline said.
"So it's just us?" Klaus asked.
"Looks like it." Caroline replied with a sigh.
"I'm not that bad to be alone with, love." Klaus commented with a smirk.
"Let me make myself very clear, Mikaelson, just because we are going to be the only two at the cabin for the week, that does not mean that we will be sharing a room. There are plenty of rooms." Caroline said.
"How many rooms are we talking here, Care? Because it would have been a very tight fit if there isn't at least 5+ rooms." Klaus asked.
"Enough that you and I won't have to share."
"I'm genuinely curious here, love."
"Why?"
"Because, it was originally going to be me, you, Elijah, Elena, Kol, Bonnie, Jeremy, Matt, Rebekah and Tyler. If Stefan and Damon had come it would have been 12 of us."
"We're almost there. You can see for yourself. And I swear, if Elena and Elijah convinced everyone else to bail to get us alone together, I'm going to kill them." Caroline said, contemplating calling Jeremy and asking if he and Elena really had something family related that was keeping them from coming but thought better of it.
"Are you scared of being alone with me Forbes? It's not like I'm the big bad wolf or something. I can be a gentleman." Klaus replied, a mischievous glint in his eye.
"Yeah... that twinkle in your eye says otherwise." Caroline said with a roll of her eyes.
"If you don't like being alone with me, why did you agree to drive up to the cabin with me?" Klaus asked.
"Because it wasn't supposed to be just us in this car. Rebekah, Matt and Tyler were going to be in the car with us." Caroline reminded him.
With a small nod, Klaus turned his attention back to the road. Luckily they were getting close to the cabin, because the weather was getting worse. By the time he pulled his SUV to a stop outside the cabin's front porch, the rain had turned to a medium snow fall, and he was concerned. There wasn't a lot of light out anymore, as it was already late in the afternoon, so there wouldn't be a lot of time to get firewood. Once he got his and Caroline's luggage into the cabin, he instructed her to get warm while he got some more firewood for the night.
"Be careful Klaus. I would hate to have to tell your siblings that you couldn't handle an axe and hurt yourself cutting firewood." Caroline said.
"Your family doesn't keep a storage of firewood?" Klaus asked.
"No, we don't, because usually my dad stocks up once we get here." Caroline replied.
Before Klaus could respond, the tell tale sound of a phone losing it's signal beeped from Caroline's coat pocket. Pulling her cell phone out she looked at the screen. As expected, her screen said, 'no signal'. After Caroline showed her phone to Klaus, he pulled his out his own, hoping to see a signal, and frowning when his phone said the same as hers.
"It looks like we're really going to be alone if the storm doesn't pass to allow us a signal. Hopefully your family has games that we can play for the week." Klaus commented as Caroline handed him the axe that sat in the coat closet.
"Oh, we have tons of games. And in a twisted turn of events, most of them are more annoying to play with more than two or three people, so with it just being the two of us, we should have fun playing." Caroline replied.
"Do you have a second axe, love?" Klaus asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"If we work together to cut firewood, there's a chance that we'll get enough for the week. It looks like a storm is coming in, and I would hate for us to run out of wood."
"We might have one in the attic, but it might take me a while to find it."
"I'll cut as much as I can while you look for it."
"Okay."
Closing the door behind Klaus, Caroline made her way up to the attic. There were boxes of holiday decorations that they would definitely be able to utilize, but the lighting in the attic was horribly dim, and with it not being a very big attic to begin with, all the boxes made it hard to find anything. After moving boxes around and making sure the holiday decoration boxes were closer to the opening, Caroline finally found the spare axe and headed back outside. Upon opening the front door, Caroline realized that Klaus had been right about a storm coming in, as the snow was already coming down in bigger snowflakes than earlier. Luckily the extra snowfall hadn't completely covered Klaus' footprints, and the wind wasn't howling, so she was able to hear the distinct sound of metal hitting wood, so Caroline was easily able to find Klaus, despite the beginning of the storm hitting.
"That didn't take you nearly as long as I thought it would, love." Klaus commented.
"I'm surprised that I was able to find it at all. The light is so dim in the small space that it made it near impossible to find anything." Caroline replied. "On the plus side, I also found a good amount of boxes filled with holiday decorations, so we can always bring those down and decorate the cabin tomorrow." She added.
"Is Caroline Forbes already warming up to the idea that we are here alone this week?" Klaus asked with a smirk.
"Not if you're going to be a jerk about it, I'm not." She retorted.
"Right, sorry love. I'll behave." He said with a wink before returning to cutting wood.
Caroline turned to the pile of wood, making sure to turn away from Klaus to hide her smile. She really didn't hate being around him as much as she let on. And her statement in the car about killing Elena and Elijah if they had orchestrated all of this wasn't as true as she would have liked to believe of herself, but at the same time, she didn't want to go through the same thing her mother went through. Finding someone that she loved, and loved her in return, getting married and having a child before some life altering event happened that led to a divorce. Caroline had been light-heartedly teased by her friends for being picky, but Caroline saw herself as being practical and cautious. She wanted to believe Klaus when he said he would be a gentleman and would behave, but she couldn't bring herself to do so... at least not completely. Maybe being alone with him would help with that.
After working in silence with each other for close to 30 minutes, all while the weather got steadily worse, Klaus stepped back from the pile of wood and took it in. While his pile was slightly bigger from having been cutting it up while Caroline looked for a second axe, he determined that it should be enough for the week, as long as they used it as sparingly as possible. For the sake of keeping the main area of the cabin warm, Klaus figured he would have to talk Caroline into at least sharing a bed to keep themselves warm. Even though he would have liked to use the week alone with Caroline to finally have sex with her, if he could only convince her to sleep in the same bed so that they could stay warm, Klaus would take it.
"I think that's a decent amount of wood, love. If we use it as sparingly as possible, we should be good for the week." Klaus commented, and Caroline nodded as she placed the axe in her hand on the ground.
"We should get a tarp or something to put all of the wood on to carry it back to the house." Caroline said as she took in the amount of wood they had cut. "There's too much for us to carry in our arms, and it would take us too many trips to get it all."
"Do you know where your family keeps a tarp that's big enough to handle this task?" Klaus asked.
"Yeah, its in the coat closet." Caroline said with another nod.
"Why the bloody hell do you keep an axe and a tarp in the coat closet?" Klaus questioned, giving the blonde a look of bewilderment.
"Because it's literally right next to the front door. Easy to grab when we need to get more wood." Caroline replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What about coats and shoes?" Klaus inquired.
"It's a big closet, Klaus. There's plenty of room for all of it." Caroline said as she turned to head back towards the house.
"Where are you going?"
"To get the tarp."
"Would it not make more sense to bring the axes with you so that we don't have to worry about carry them back with the wood and getting hurt if they fall off?"
"Fine. Give me the axe." Caroline said with a huff, grabbing the one she had been using and holding her hand out for the one that Klaus had been using.
"Don't hurt yourself, love." Klaus said with a smirk as he handed the axe over.
"Shut up." Caroline grumbled while sticking her tongue out at Klaus while lifting the axe from his hand.
It didn't take long for Caroline to grab the tarp and get back to the clearing where Klaus was waiting, but it seemed that the storm was getting closer and closer with every pacing second, so it was getting near impossible to see where she was going. Luckily Caroline made it back to Klaus without bumping into any trees, but it quickly became a race against the weather to get all of the wood onto the tarp and to carry it back to the cabin. Once they made it back inside, Caroline immediately dropped her end of the tarp and started rubbing her hands together to get the warmth and feeling back into them.
"Here, let me, love." Klaus said, stepping towards the blonde and holding his hands out to hers.
"What are you going to do?" Caroline asked, eyeing him cautiously.
"You're cold, I'm offering to help you get warm. I promise, nothing sexual." Klaus replied, still holding his hands out, allowing Caroline to close the gap if she chose to do so.
Glancing between Klaus' outstretched hands, and his face, Caroline gave in and closed the distance between them, allowing Klaus to take her hands in his and get them warm. When a shiver ran through Caroline's body at Klaus' touch, Klaus pulled her into his body and held her close, willing his body heat to warm her body up. Not knowing what came over her, Caroline rested her head on Klaus' chest, listening to his heart beat. An undeterminable amount of time later, Caroline pulled away from Klaus' embrace and hurried from the room, leaving Klaus watching her leave with a look of utter confusion.
Only once Klaus heard a door slam upstairs did he move from the spot he had been rooted in. Grabbing Caroline's luggage from by the front door, he made his way upstairs, located the only door that was closed and locked and placed the luggage in the hallway. Knocking lightly, Klaus leaned against the wall next to the door, waiting for Caroline to respond.
"Go away Klaus." Caroline said through the door.
"I just wanted to let you know that I brought your luggage upstairs and it's sitting right outside the door for you." Klaus replied.
"Thank you." He heard her say in a small voice before pushing off of the wall and heading back downstairs to get his own luggage.
Contemplating which of the many rooms to stay in, Klaus decided that a room upstairs would be better. Heat rose, and it would be easier to get to Caroline, or for Caroline to get to him, if it happened to get too cold in their respective rooms if he was sleeping on the same floor as she was. Choosing the room across from Caroline's, Klaus proceeded to get ready for bed before pulling out his sketch pad and starting on a new drawing, leaving the door slightly open so he could hear Caroline across the hall. He didn't know how long he stayed up drawing before he ended up nodding off, but around midnight, Klaus was slightly woken up by the bed dipping next to him before Caroline silently curled up into his side.
"Everything alright, love?" Klaus asked.
"I'm cold. Keep me warm?" She inquired simply.
"Always and forever." He said as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close, both drifting into a restful sleep.
The following morning, Klaus woke up first and took in the peaceful look on Caroline's face as she slept with her head on his chest. He didn't want to wake her, but at the same time, he needed coffee, and in order for the latter to happen, he would have to move, and Klaus saw no way for him to move out from underneath Caroline without waking her up. With a soft sigh, Klaus lightly shook Caroline's shoulder.
"Caroline, sweetheart, I need you to wake up a little." Klaus said in a soft voice.
"No." Caroline denied, snuggling more into his side.
"I was going to go make coffee. Will you at least let me get up to do that?" Klaus asked.
"You're keeping me warm. Stay put." Caroline demanded.
"But if I get up, and tuck the covers in around you, you'll still stay warm." Klaus countered.
"Fine." Caroline growled as she sat up enough to let him move out of bed before promptly snuggling under the covers and resting her head on his pillow. "Will you bring me a mug too?" She requested.
"Nope. I thought I would make just enough for me, and make you fend for yourself." Klaus replied with a smirk which only widened when she glared up at him. "I'm only joking, love. Of course I'll bring you a mug." He said, daring a quick kiss to her forehead before making his way downstairs.
Caroline made sure to wrap the covers tightly around her to keep the warmth in and inhaled deeply as she rested her head on Klaus' pillow. Even after one night, it already smelled distinctly like him, and she couldn't get enough of it. She was just about back to sleep when Klaus' voice floated up from the main floor, pulling her back into being awake.
"Caroline, sweetheart, you might want to come down here and see this." Klaus called.
"I swear if it's no a mug of coffee, I'll kill you for making me get out of bed." Caroline called back as she threw the covers off of her, shivered as the cold air hit her, hurried across the hall to grab her robe and made her way downstairs. "What's wrong?" She asked when she saw Klaus standing by the front door.
"We're snowed in." Klaus commented.
"Wait, what!?" Caroline shrieked, causing Klaus to flinch.
"The snow is literally piled up outside the door. The storm must have been really bad last night if the snow is this deep to have covered the porch." Klaus elaborated.