A/N- This story runs concurrently with my other story New Path's you don't have to read both of them but it will flesh out the story a bit more. This first chapter is dedicated to the reviewers of my other story who complained about the lack of Klaroline. I literally wrote this first chapter for you.
Ships- Klaus/Caroline. Damon/Elena. Bonnie/Jeremy. Katherine/Elijah
Disclaimer- I own nothing

Caroline's POV

My cheek still tingles from Klaus' kiss. His lips were gentle but dry, I guess millennia old hybrids don't use Chapstick, he made me blush but at the same time left me wondering why he didn't aim for my mouth.

Maybe he figured that he'd stretched his luck with me already?

Still, it's a month later and I'm lying in my bed three hours after my alarm went off staring at the ceiling and trying to recall the dream I had last night that was a blur of hummingbird tattoos, blonde hair and woke me up breathless and wet with desire.

My fingers and vibrator were a poor substitute and left me feeling apathetic towards the world at large.

God if Klaus knew I was getting off with just the memory of a chaste kiss and the one time I saw him half-naked and half out of his mind with hallucinations and fear, he would be back from New Orleans and demanding I shift over to make room in my bed faster than I could blink.

Or maybe I'd get that first class ticket to NOLA after all, it'd be easier for me to give in if I didn't have to worry about my mom coming home and seeing a damn good reason to shoot kneeling between her daughter's thighs.

I groan and dig my palms into my eyes. I wouldn't be thinking these things if I could just freaking find Tyler- I know the minute he comes back I'll be the perfect girlfriend and former Miss Mystic Falls, I'll host a bajillion Founding Family events, I'll finish cataloguing all the colleges in Virginia and my friends and I can finally choose we're we'll be going in the fall.

My life would be so much more productive if I could dig myself out of this imaginary rut.

My phone rings for the third time in an hour and I recall that I'm meant to be meeting with three different student presidents right now. All women, thanks to my female empowerment program at Mystic High. I'd promised to tutor them over the summer, to explain the ins and outs of dances, rallies, charity drives and club meetings. It seemed once I'd graduated that the school administration realised that I'd essentially been running the extra-curricular activities from the moment I'd set foot in the halls and that there was no-one half as qualified or motivated to take over from me.

Hence the reason I had written a how-to guide and was spending a perfectly beautiful summer day ignoring the fact that I was two hours late for coffee at the Grill with April and two shy nobodies who could barely string a coherent sentence in my presence.

Maybe I should compel some confidence into them.

The next time my phone rings I switch it off and roll out of bed, deciding on a long shower before even beginning to plan my day.

I find it pathetic that when I do finally set foot in the Mystic Grill its one in the afternoon and the girls are still waiting for me. April Young seems pissed off enough to want to call me out on my behaviour but when I throw her a pointed look she huffs and backs off.

Shame, I could have used a Queen Bee smack down.

Unlike the rest of the town however, April Young is clued in on the supernatural happenings and is aware enough of the situation to understand why figuring out the perfect colour scheme for the welcome back dance isn't high on my to-do list.

I hand over the manual, issue a half-hearted good luck and after a token tequila shot I'm out of the bar so fast I nearly collide with Mayor Hopkins. I widen my eyes dramatically,

"Oops sorry" I chirp in my most innocent tone, and high tail it out of there before he stops me to chat. The very morning after we'd stuck Silas in the quarry that man threw vervain into the Salvatore well and suggested to my mother that as Jeremy was legally dead, it wouldn't be murder to euthanize him.

Jeremy and I had to lock Damon and Elena in the basement cell for a week before we could trust them not to kill Bonnie's father. Thankfully, in a rare show of solidarity, my mother locked Hopkins in the cell below the police station and kept him there until the vervain was out of his system.

After that, we held a month long campaign to compel every citizen in Mystic Falls to forget that Jeremy had died.

Katherine Pierce was surprisingly helpful, giving us pointers and explaining how she'd tried and tested her own town-wide compulsion. Of course once we made it clear that not one vampire in this town was giving her a single drop of blood she told us where to go, keyed Damon's Camaro and broke into the Gilbert lake house for a mini vacation.

I pull into the driveway of the Salvatore boarding house just as Jeremy is getting out of Elena's car. After Katherine had lured a bus full of college footballers to the lake house it had required an epic clean-up which Jeremy had volunteered for. This had set off alarm bells for all of us-usually we leave any required house cleaning/body moving to Damon's undiagnosed ocd but he claimed he needed a break from Elena's new relationship.

I don't blame him. I understood completely.

We walk into the parlour to find Damon sitting on the couch with Elena's head in his lap, he's playing with her hair while he reads to her, and she's stretched across the seat with her eyes staring through the large window to the beautiful summer day outside. They both look up at us when we enter and the mood is so peaceful and loving I feel sinful just for interrupting, it also brings home the fact that I am utterly alone right now. Tyler and I would never read aloud to one another, I'm usually so busy with all my activities that it takes me about three months to finish an Austen novel and Tyler isn't what you'd call a deep reader, he barely read the required literature during school.

Klaus would probably read to me, or he'd take me to galleries and explain the different schools of art to me. Considering he lived for eight hundred years before film he's probably read every European classic there is, I'd have to make an effort to be intellectually curious if I was with him.

But I'm not so it doesn't matter.

Elena pulls herself into a sitting position but doesn't move away from Damon, I'm standing in the doorway waiting for his customary rude greeting but they're both so relaxed that it's taking him time to put on his mask,

"Vampire Barbie" he eventually drawls, "Found your lost dog yet?"

There we go. I roll my eyes, "Nope but maybe Elena can check the local pound for me when she finally comes to her senses and returns you"

Elena rolls her eyes but doesn't bother telling us off, after all when Damon and I are around others or not planning for our continued survival this is our primary form of communication. I don't care how happy he and my best friend are together, he was an asshole of a boyfriend. Klaus would have disembowelled him if he'd found out how badly I'd been treated when the Salvatore's first rolled into town.

I flop down on the couch opposite them as Jeremy makes his way to the kitchen, I sigh and brace myself

"Have either of you heard from Stefan at all?"

Instant mood killer, Damon and Elena immediately shift away from each other with their faces displaying guilt and dread that Stefan will suddenly walk in the front door and catch his brother and ex-girlfriend showing off their love for one either.

At this point I'm kind of hoping for Murphy's Law to kick in just so he'll come home. I haven't heard a word from him for two months now and considering I'm his sober sponsor, I'm worried he's on a Ripper Bender.

He nearly went off the rails when he found out Elena and Damon had slept together once, I can't even imagine what he should be feeling now that she's supposedly 'chosen' him and they're sleeping together every single night.

"I haven't heard from him" Damon tells me, getting up to pour himself a drink, "Pretty sure he ditched his phone but for us, no contact only becomes worrying after…oh forty years"

Nice try but I'm not buying it. Damon and Stefan may have been estranged for most of the twentieth century but after a year together in Mystic Falls Stefan admitted to me that he'd got used to having his big brother in his life again, even when they were fighting- which was at least once a week- they still texted one another.

And Elena's not that good an actress, she looks suitably worried at Damon's day drinking and upset about Stefan's prolonged absence, but to be fair she nearly cried when Matt left for Europe, these last two years have left her with a separation anxiety and abandonment issues that we should really be encouraging her to see a counsellor for.

I write that down on my mental to-do list, promptly forget about it and move on to our next concern, "What about Bonnie? Has anyone heard from her?"

Jeremy comes out of the kitchen with a hamburger I know he didn't make himself, it contains fresh vegetables and an expensive meat that has my fangs tickling my gums as the scent wafts over to me. At least living at the Salvatore boarding house has improved the Gilbert diet, despite being orphaned Elena never really learnt how to cook anything and I'm pretty sure Damon was their one source of nutritious meals long before they moved in.

"She rang me this morning" he announces, trying to look casual as he heads over to the wet bar but getting pushed away by Damon,

"Not a chance in hell baby Gilbert" he hisses and Jeremy continues talking,

"She said her mom has found a coven in New York that might be able to do a detox without figuring out that she was practising expression. She's completely burnt out though"

My shoulders sink, "No chance of a location spell then?"

He looks apologetic, "I asked and she told me she's struggling to light a candle without using expression"

Great.

Then again, at least she's speaking to me…or not ignoring me or hating me or something. When she disappeared so quickly after graduation and didn't respond to any of my calls, texts or emails I was terrified that she'd seen Klaus kissing me and was busy wishing I was dead. But she didn't reply to anything Elena sent her either and nobody is capable of hating Elena Gilbert, we forgive that girl no matter what.

Hence the reason I am sitting across from her two months after she went on a bitch bender, threatened to kill my mother and entered an actual relationship with my abusive ex.

Another issue for another day.

Elena reaches across and squeezes my hand, "Your mom hasn't come up with any leads?"

No but considering that Tyler was fleeing from a millennia old hybrid with immeasurable power and not partying with him up and down the eastern seaboard, she's just not getting the same easy clues she got when she was looking for Stefan.

I refrain from saying this out loud. I'm not Elena, I don't score the same orphan-amnesty privileges.

I shake my head and suddenly my exhaustion hits me. I make half-hearted plans to go shopping with Elena in Richmond tomorrow when Damon goes to pick up his beloved car. I make sure I'm out the door before I allow myself to smirk, Katherine may have been a bitch to damage Damon's Camaro but I'm a little pissed I didn't think of it back when I was newly turned and still struggling with all of my compelled memories returning.

I climb into my car and have a sudden flashback to the night Silas appeared to me as Klaus and lured me into the forest. I know now it wasn't really him but still…if I'd run that conversation past Klaus he would have reiterated every sentiment and…

I lean my head against the steering wheel and breathe through the flush in my cheeks and the images of my 'perfect feathers' being ruffled by the suave, romantic vampire.

I can forget to renew my licence, do the grocery shopping, wash my clothes and meet my mom for her birthday dinner but I can't forget how his blue eyes burned when they looked at me.

Perhaps Abby can refer me to a witch for an amnesia spell.

I'm not Elena.

My friends would never forgive me for this.