Hello everyone! This is my first Klaroline fic, so please be kind!
The idea came to me randomly and it wouldn't go away, so I decided to write it out.
This is a *slightly* AH fic. 4x09 still happened but the circumstances were slightly different. We'll get into that as the story goes on.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this attempt at fanfiction.
If you have any questions/concerns/anything, feel free to message me or visit me on tumblr at Damonsbetterhalf. With that being said, let's begin!


Caroline groaned. Her head was killing her.

"What happened?" She thought.

Her eyes felt heavy as she fought to open them. As everything came in to focus she realized this was not her room. She sat bolt upright, regretting it immediately as the room spun around her. Eventually she was able to look around and study her surroundings.
Everything was so… nice. This was too grand to be Tyler's house, and it certainly wasn't hers. The bed was much too large and way more comfortable than anything she had slept in before.
It wasn't until she heard a noise beside her that she discovered she wasn't alone. She turned her head slowly and yelled in surprise.

"What is this?" She demanded. "Where am I? And why are you here?"

Klaus put down the book he had been reading and smiled at her from the large chaise lounge across the room.

"One at a time, love." He chuckled. "Last night didn't exactly go as planned."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, watching as he strolled toward the bed. She tried to remember anything about the night before but she came up blank.

"You don't remember, do you?" He asked. Looking down, Caroline shook her head.

"Mm. You did take a rather hard blow to the head. Had it not been for you being a vampire, I would have feared you dead."

"You didn't answer my question. Where am I and why am I here with you of all people?" She winced as her head gave a nasty throb.

Klaus sighed in amusement. "When are you going to admit it, Caroline? Your aversion to me is all but gone. Considering the last time we spent some time together you called me… what was it? Perfect, I believe."

Caroline felt the bed dip as he sat next to her. Why did he have to sit so close? The bed was big enough to fit at least four people. She refused to look at him, even if he did have all the answers. She did not have feelings for him! At least none she would admit any time soon. Ugh! She wished she could remember what happened last night so she could get out of there and take a shower. She felt gross and her muscles ached. She sighed.

"Yeah, well, it was a stressful day. I didn't know what I was saying most of the time. You just happened to catch me off guard. I was distracted and…" She trailed off. Even she didn't believe her story.

"Sounds like an awful lot of excuses to me, darling." He quipped. Caroline could hear the smirk in his voice. He was so aggravating!

"Would you just answer my question?" She growled in exasperation.

"Alright. I suppose delaying it any longer wouldn't do me any good." Klaus started. "You see, Elena was kidnapped by that Shane bloke yesterday morning. Do you remember that?"

Caroline searched her brain. An image of Stefan materialized in her mind. He was saying something to her. He looked worried. She pressed her hands to her eyes, willing her memory to come back to her.
Caroline started when she felt a hand on her wrist. She lifted her head to look at the hand that gripped her arm. It was warm on her skin, too warm. She pulled away and looked up.

"It's alright, love. It will all make sense eventually." He smiled reassuringly. It was odd. Klaus never looked at anyone else like that. What did he care if she was stressing out? Oh right, he "fancied her". She huffed.

"Continue." She said firmly.

Klaus chuckled at her tone. "Yes ma'am." He stood up, eyeing the window beside them distrustfully and skirted around the edge of the bed to stand at the foot of it.

"As you can imagine, Damon and Stefan were quite frantic trying to find their precious Elena. They searched high and low looking for her but to no avail. I was unaware of the situation until Damon broke down my door demanding to know where she was. Considering the doppelganger is still of some importance to me, I had no choice but to join them in their hunt. Stefan insisted you would want to help, so he gave you a call. Does any of this ring a bell?" He paused to ask.

Again, Caroline shook her head. The last thing she remembered was the blinding pain of being hit in the back of the head and her vision going black. She reached up and ran her fingers over her scalp. There was a large, tender bump that made her whole head ache when she touched it. Caroline groaned as nausea overtook her. Weren't wounds supposed to heal much faster when you were a vampire?

"Easy, love. There's some water on the nightstand there. Take a drink." Klaus said.

"I need to get up. I can't sit here anymore. I need to move." Caroline insisted, throwing back the comforter. She momentarily wondered how she wound up in her pajamas but she'd ask about that later. Right now she just wanted to stretch her muscles.

Her feet touched the floor and she slowly straightened up off the bed. She raised her arms and arched her back in a very satisfying, full body stretch. Out of the corner of her eye, Caroline saw Klaus peeking at her slightly exposed stomach. She adjusted her t-shirt, pulling the hem down forcefully and turned to give him a dirty look.
His gaze met hers, lips lifting in his signature smirk. Caroline could have sworn she saw desire behind the cool blue of his eyes. Turning her attention to the window, she figured it was about midday. The air felt kind of stuffy despite the size of the room.

"I'd like some fresh air if you don't mind. I'm going to open the window." She announced.

"Caroline, wait! Don't!" But it was too late. She had moved directly into the ray of sunlight shining through the glass. A piercing scream filled the room as her flesh sizzled angrily. Caroline threw herself into the safety of the nearest corner of the room. Klaus was at her side in an instant. They both watched as her skin slowly turned back to its natural shade of ivory before taking a simultaneous breath of relief.

Caroline's relief was quickly replaced by confusion as she picked up her left hand. The index finger, where her daylight ring usually rested, was bare. She turned her hand over as though the ring might appear if she looked hard enough.

"My ring." She murmured. Looking up, she saw Klaus eyeing her nervously. "Klaus…" Caroline started slowly, for she wasn't sure she really wanted an answer. "Where's my ring?"

He didn't speak right away. Had Caroline not been so concerned as to why she'd just fried like an egg, she probably would have been more interested in the expression on Klaus' face. His eyes bore into hers as he subconsciously fiddled with one of his many necklaces. He seemed lost in a distant memory. One of millions he undoubtedly accumulated over the centuries.

"Klaus!" She yelled, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "You still in there?"

Klaus stood suddenly and offered his hand. Only when she was fully upright did Caroline realize just how close they were. Their hands still entwined, she watched a small smile grace his lips.

"You know love, a few months ago, you never would have dared snap your fingers at me for fear of losing them." He crooned.

She tried to take a step back but found herself cornered quite literally. She pressed herself against the wall but Klaus only followed.

His face mere inches from hers, he suggested, "Perhaps you've grown to trust me, hmm?"

Caroline tried to school her features into a look of defiance. She wasn't positive it actually worked.

"You didn't answer my question." She said. She tried to shift forward but stepped back again when Klaus failed to move. His gaze flickered to her lips for a split second before focusing on her eyes once again.

"You're right." He said, turning and striding across the room. "Would you care for a drink?"

This was slowly turning out to be the weirdest day of Caroline's life. She woke up in a strange house, in a strange bed, with no memory of the day before, got burned by the sun due to her missing ring, and backed into a corner by her Original Hybrid Stalker.

"Yes. Please." She sighed. "Make it a double."