It's not like she had any rational thoughts when it came to him because she just got so lost in the way he looked at her whenever they were together.
Like he knew her.
Like he knew every piece of her.
It infuriated her to no end and that's why she was here after he phone stalked her.
"Look, Klaus, I have like three prom committees to head and the rest of..."
The words died in her mouth when she was confronted with his naked, sweaty, cut torso.
Jesus was that a fucking /bird/ tattoo on his shoulder and she felt some sort of pull wondering if the skin there tasted differently.
And where the hell did she get off thinking /that/ when she finally drug her eyes to his feverish needy and, scared, blue eyes.
And he was, scared. He was panting and wide eyed and hurt and she cold smell the sweet salty scent of him (and boy did she remember how his blood smelled; and tasted) and she wondered why she could even smell it at all.
She moved toward him and he recoiled and fell, shaking hands out in a warding off gesture and she froze a step or two in front of his cowering form. She looked down at him and she found her hand reaching out to touch his fingers.
"Klaus, it's me..."
He scrabbles backward and shakes his head.
"Silassss..."
"Klaus, seriously, it's me, you called me like ten times and you texted me like twenty five times. And now I know why."
She gets down in a crouch, body loose and open as she faces the most volatile creature on the planet as he regards her with full panic evident on his fines features.
"Caroline..."
Jesus finally.
He takes her hand and sort of lurches to his feet and she's struck by the fact he's almost eye to eye with her and she's in heels.
Why does it /matter/?
"What happened?"
He takes a breath, launches into his explanation.
"Silas attacked me with the white oak stake and there are pieces making their way to my heart..."
There's entreaty there and Caroline knows that he would never beg anyone, except her and Damon's words from before ghost into her memory.
"You have that hybrid wrapped around your little finger blondie."
She sort of cringes and leads him to his sofa and he sort of slides down onto the thing in a sweaty heap.
"What do you need me to do?"
"Well love, you're going to have to dig the pieces out of me." He gets his bloodied left hand fingers to gesture to the garden shears on the wood floor.
She makes a face as she bends to pick them up and looks over at him with a scowl.
"Klaus, you have a gleaming kitchen /full/ of knives and meat cleavers and bone scissors and you opted for dirty damn garden shears?" She folds her arms and notes he still drops his eyes to her chest and then back up to her eyes, chuckling wetly.
"If you knew chef, you'd know why, that man scares the trousers off Elijah. If I bled all over his marble kingdom he'd stake me in my sleep."
Caroline scowls and then snorts a really unladylike laugh out and shakes her hair out of her face.
"Well I'm going to take the chance and get something sharper and more precise from the "gleaming marble kingdom" if I'm going to dig around in your body for the white oak."
She's there and back in seconds with several gleaming knives and scissors and she faces him.
"And if he wants to kick my butt then he can bring it."
There is a look she can't fathom on his eyes and she thinks it might be awe and a lot of love but she can't think on that yet; or ever; or until she washed his blood from under her fingernails.
Either way, she put her hand on his slick back and warned him as gently as possible.
"Hang on, I'm going in."
And she tried not to vomit as the blades of the scissors cut into him like butter.
Hours later she still hadn't found anything and Klaus was way pissed and she just, gave up, exasperated when he shouted at her to hurry.
She flung the knife aside and just backed away, growling.
"There's nothing there Klaus! /Stop/ shouting at me!"
"I can feel the splinters moving through my body and you /aren't trying hard enough!/"
He whirled on her and snarled this into her face.
"Oh my god! I just spent the last three hours digging around in your shoulder and I can say for a fact that there's nothing there! Nothing! God! All this time and you still can't get out of your own way! I feel sorry for you!"
"Don't turn your back on me!"
He grabbed her arm and spun her back and boy was she mad, so she smacked him enough to rock his smug head back sharply.
"I should have turned my back on you ages ago!"
He blinks.
She stares.
It's like he's back in his own head now and she kind of swallows and is scared.
Quiet Klaus was not always sane Klaus and he's staring at her like she's his own personal Jesus.
"It's gone."
She blinks and starts. "What..?"
"The-the pain is gone."
"Oh..." Snap out of it Caroline.
His big calloused hands are gripping hers and he's /thanking her/. And it's sincere.
"You took my mind off it. Thank you. You brought me back."
Well yeah, she smacked him for being a dick and she felt her cheeks flame. She was /such/ a drama queen.
But he deserved it for the snarling.
And for the arousing flash of amber in his eyes.
And fuck of that didn't make her want to clench her thighs together.
They were /way/ prettier than Tyler's.
There was more of him in the flash and she found she wanted to see it again.
But she shouldn't, damn him.
"No problem. Umm, you should probably go get cleaned up, I'll take care of the kitchen, chef will never know his things were touched."
He opens his mouth and her eyes are drawn to those raspberry lips, wondering, wondering if they taste like the fruit or, if they taste like the smell of him that she had been surrounded by all damn day.
He nods and ducks his head and moves to his room, she guessed and the guess is confirmed when the water shoots on and she hears his jeans hit the floor and she shakes herself into action.
The kitchen is gleaming when she returns to the living room and she looks up and fixes her eyes to the shoulder his tattoo is on and now covered by the dove grey Henley he's sporting.
He's still hot even fully dressed.
And her fingers remember how his skin felt, how his muscles flexed under all that skin, and how she snuck a close look at his triangle tattoo.
And mapped each of his many moles with her eyes.
Oh she was in such trouble.
"I used all your bleach but the kitchen is back to pristine so your immortal hybrid ass is safe from the wrath of your chef."
He grins and oh Jesus /god/ those dimples! They should be illegal. Seriously.
She makes to move past him and leave but he grabs her and she turns back.
"Friends, then?"
They would never be actual friends she wants to say. Not with everything that always lay between them.
The blood, the lust(/not/ completely one sided on his part either) the laughter, the need.
Because she needed him.
She nearly reels as this thought strikes her like lightning.
God she was in so much trouble.
She steps into his hold, into the gentle grip he has on her wrist and she reaches up to touch his face, careful touches with just the fingertips of her right hand and she marvels that his stubble is so soft and she keeps her eyes glued to his and she sees so many things pass behind them.
A need so deep he shudders with it.
A love so vast it covers the world.
A lust so hot she feels her skin redden in the wake of its heat.
She smiles then and cups his jaw.
"We can't ever be friends Klaus."
His face splits into a large grin and he kisses her palm. She sighs.
"No, I don't suppose we can, can we love?"
Sent from my iPhone