I hadn't realized that it had been so long since I updated this, so I sat down and finished this. Sorry for the wait :(

Thank you to chica-cherry-lola for gently poking me to write more of this. It's a little rough, but I hope you all enjoy it ;)

Klaus looked up as the door to his office burst open, Caroline stomping through with her fists clenched, eyes on fire.

"Seriously?"

"I'd assume so, but if you'd like a more accurate answer I suggest you clarify your question."

"You're sending Tyler on that...that suicide mission?"

"Yes. Seriously."

"Why?" she asked, and he felt a sudden stab of regret when her voice hitched slightly.

He steeled himself for what would likely be a screaming match. "Someone has to go, love."

"That someone doesn't have to be him."

"Why not? He's a decent enough flier and if it goes pear-shaped we won't be left undefended."

He did hope she'd see sense, but judging by the gleam in her eye, the shift in her stance, he was about to be disappointed. "There are lots of decent fliers."

"Yes, and he's one of them."

"So then why him? Why can't you use someone else?"

"Why should I? Tyler's qualified."

"Because you're letting your emotions get in the way of your job," she said quietly, pinning him with a cold stare.

"How so?"

"You're jealous," she said, meeting his gaze confidently without a hint of a smile. "It's not attractive."

He forced a laugh that came out sounding a lot more bitter than he'd intended, his spine straightening as he stared her down. "Oh, sweetheart," he whispered. "We both know that there's no reason for me to be jealous."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"There's no point in being jealous of a relationship we both know has an expiry date."

She swelled to her full height, only an inch or so lower than him, though she didn't talk, letting the filthy look she shot him speak volumes, though he could see the flash of insecurity, the fear behind the anger. He honestly hadn't been certain, but from her reaction he knew he'd been right about her feelings for him, had tapped into a weakness that she hadn't wanted to reveal. She wanted him, and it was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. He'd loathed himself for pining after her for so long, and it was a relief to know that she returned his feelings, even if it was reluctant.

"I love Tyler."

"Do you really? Or do you love the shield he gives you when you're trying desperately to dig in your heels and resist the temptation that I bring? I see the way you look at me, Caroline. We both know that you're not as indifferent as you wish you were. Not anymore."

Her lips quirked in a smile that did nothing to distract from the tension in the way she held herself. "Someone's overconfident."

"Am I?" he asked, his tone deceptively light.

She took a step toward him, so close that her nose was practically touching his, breath hot on his lips. "The point is that you sent my boyfriend on a suicide mission."

"Because it's my job," he said. "I have to make decisions like this, and Tyler was an appropriate option."

And maybe he'd lied and he was a little jealous, and from the way he snarled Tyler's name, he knew Caroline had an inkling of what he was feeling, that he wasn't as nonchalant about her relationship as he was pretending to be. She could always see right through him, and even though he knew it still always caught him off-guard whenever she read the subtleties of his expressions.

"Don't make me tell your father that you're abusing your power, Sir," she hissed, and his cock twitched at the fire in her eyes, the tension in her body. He stared at her and watched her eyes darken, her gaze darting down to his lips and back to meet his eyes. He heard the hitch in her breath before she swallowed audibly, clearly only just realizing how close they were.

His lips pulled into a smirk. "Who do you think rubber-stamped the order, love?"

Her shoulders stiffened, her fingers brushing his leg with a light touch that only turned him on more. She curled her hands into fists. "I cannot believe you."

He fought to stay calm, to stare her down coldly despite every inch of him craving to pull her into his arms and stroke her hair and feel her soft curves slump against him as she calmed. He'd held her before, years ago when Kol had the accident, and the only bright spot in the months of grief was that one bright moment when she'd let her guard down.

He could be patient, could wait for her to come to her senses and realize that giving into her feelings for him might not be so bad. It was just a matter of time.

"Aren't you supposed to be on duty?" he asked leaning forward slightly so that he was a hair's breadth away from kissing her, just curious about what her reaction would be and taking a bit too much satisfaction from the way she stepped back hastily, her arms crossing protectively over her chest.

"Yes."

"Do I need to throw you in the brig to remind—"

"That would be a little counter-productive to me being on duty, don't you think?" she asked, not waiting for him to answer before she stalked out, her head held high, and he was forced to wonder, yet again, how she'd managed to get the last word and wreck him while doing it.

XXX

Caroline rolled her shoulders, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she stared down Katherine, who was eyeing her with a mixture of trepidation and determination. Caroline kept eye contact with the other girl as she lifted her hands held up in the sparring position, careful to keep the large red gloves in a position where she could still see her opponent, waiting for her to make the first move.

Tyler was staying back at the barracks to pack, and he'd convinced her to go to the knockout tournament anyway. So, here she was, getting ready to knock Katherine Pierce out cold.

They stood there for awhile as the people cheered around them, just staring at each other. Caroline was patient, knew that things always ended better if she let the other person throw the first punch, and Katherine was getting progressively more restless, shifting from foot to foot. The waiting paid off when Katherine lunged, and Caroline dodged, using the weight Katherine had shifted to throw the other girl against the railings and punch her in the jaw.

Katherine threw up her hands to signal surrender, and Caroline backed up, trying not to smile too much. Adrenaline was rushing through her, the energy almost too much, and she took a deep breath to calm herself before feeling all of it rush back.

Klaus had just entered, already shirtless and wearing pants that sat low on his hips, wrapping his hands in long strips of white cloth and flexing his fingers. She was still standing in the middle of the ring when he looked up, meeting her eyes, and she felt range bubble underneath the surface of her skin.

She wasn't even sure what exactly she was angry about. She was upset he sent Tyler on the mission, but she knew that he was doing his job, and if it hadn't been Tyler it would have been someone else in their fleet, someone that she cared about.

Okay, maybe she was sure. That knowing look in his eyes when he'd told her there was no need to be jealous, the way he'd smirked, like he knew her feelings better than she did (and maybe he did, but that wasn't the point). She just wanted to punch his stupid smirky face. So she would,

"Captain!" she called, her voice mocking, waving at him, and he exchanged a look with Stefan, who nodded and wrote his name on the tournament board, slashing through Katherine's to move Caroline on to the next round. The first person Klaus was facing was Stefan's brother Damon, and Caroline suppressed a shiver of disgust as his eyes raked up and down her form as he moved by her into the ring, adjusting his gloves. He'd grabbed her ass when she was coming out of the showers after a training day once and his face had promptly been smushed against the wall. She still remembered Klaus's face when he'd done it, the way he'd cooly let Damon slump to the floor and glanced at her, his eyes searching her face before he turned and walked away. It had been kind of scary, the way he'd shut down like that, but at the same time it had been kind of nice for someone to be so outraged on her behalf.

From then on Klaus had sent him on the most dangerous missions (probably low-key hoping he'd get killed, because Caroline certainly did), but Damon was a bad enough flier that he couldn't send him on the important ones, so he always seemed to survive by the skin of his teeth. He was like a cockroach.

Klaus would totally kick his ass, and no matter how mad she was at him, she was totally here for Damon being in pain.

"Your boyfriend's going down, Blondie," Damon said with a wink, and she stiffened, her leg halfway out of the ring before she turned to glare at him.

"Tyler will be fine," she said, her voice shaking, and Damon threw his head back and laughed.

"No, not him. Klaus."

Caroline huffed and tossed her hair, turning away enough that Damon would think she wasn't going to dignify his comment with a response before driving her fist into his obnoxiously prominent cheekbone. He let out an embarrassingly high-pitched yelp of pain.

"Oops," Caroline said unrepentantly, sliding out of the ring without waiting for his response, and she turned to see Klaus eyeing Damon with an intense amount of dislike. He glanced at her, his expression blank, eyes shuttered, but when the bell rang it only took a quick three punches for Damon to be out cold.

The next four matches were also quick, and though Caroline usually kept an eye on her competition, looking for weaknesses to exploit if they fought, she found her gaze drifting to Klaus when she should have been observing her fellow officers. He was leaning against the wall with a drink in his hand. She suspected that if anyone else saw him they'd think he was relaxed, just chatting with another officer. She could see the stiffness of his spine, though. The way his hands twitched whenever he glanced up and caught her eye.

She felt flushed and hot after the first twenty minutes of waiting, rationalizing that the room was full of people and was bound to be stifling because of all of the physical activity, but she knew it was also the way Klaus kept looking at her, his eyes dragging up and down her form in a way that could have been compared to the way Damon eyed her lasciviously, but somehow Klaus made her feel sexy where Damon had made her feel small.

She hated him for it, hated that he could make her hot and bothered and wanting with just a glance, that he seemed to know all the right buttons to push, that he'd sent her boyfriend off on a suicide mission. That he wasn't sorry.

By the time the final round came up, Caroline had worked herself into a dangerous fury, all of her pent-up emotions swirling inside of her, and she bared her teeth as Klaus climbed through the ropes of the ring to face her, adjusting his gloves.

"Hello, love," he said, his voice light, and her breath caught.

"You ready?" she asked, and his lips twitched, his eyes flicking up to meet hers.

"I am."

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, bringing her fists up to protect her face when Stefan shouted, "Go!"

They sized each other up, the seconds too long and the room too hot, air pressing uncomfortably against her skin. He was smiling at her, a real smile with his dimples cutting into his cheeks, his eyes sparkling, and she was just so angry.

He was so smug and knew her so well and she hated it.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked after they'd stood there for a good thirty seconds.

"You," he said simply, his hands never wavering from their defensive position.

They continued standing there, frozen, and all it did was make the feelings within her stir more forcefully, her anger growing.

"I didn't come here to watch you two eyefuck!" Katherine shouted from the crowd, still holding ice to her jaw, and Caroline snapped at her to shut up, but Klaus just smirked at her.

"Now, I'm perfectly fine with that."

"I bet you are," Caroline muttered, tossing her hair as she took a step towards him. His eyes were stuck on her as she moved, and he dodged her first two punches, his gaze glued to the way her body twisted. It made her cheeks flush, her breathing stutter in her chest. "Why aren't you fighting back?" she demanded as he dodged another punch. "That's the point! Hit me!"

He was silent, neatly evading every single hit she tried to get in, and she found herself breathing hard as he backed her up to the edge of the ring. He was every inch a predator despite her being the one trying to land a punch, his body tense as he invaded her personal space. He was close enough that it would be almost impossible to miss, and her cushioned fist collided with his cheek with a harsh thump. He groaned, spitting out some blood to the side before turning to look at her, his expression unreadable. She gasped as he grabbed her wrists (when had his gloves come off?) and loomed over her, his body firm against hers as he pressed as close to her as possible. She stiffened when their eyes locked, and he tightened his grip on her wrists when she tried t o pull away.

"What are you doing?"

She meant for her tone to be demanding, to threaten, but instead it came out a bit breathless. His palms were warm clamped around her wrists, his thumbs brushing over her pulse in a light touch that made her nipples tighten, his eyes dark. Her breath hitched as he bent forward, his stubble scratching against her cheek as he moved to nip her ear, his voice soft when he spoke. "I'm not going to hurt you, Caroline."

"It's a competition," she pointed out, naturally leaning into him, relaxing into his touch.

Everyone around them seemed to melt away as he pulled back and searched her gaze, his blue eyes almost hypnotic in the way they scanned her face. He drank her in, his lips slightly parted, tongue darting over his lips like he was wondering how she tasted, and she knew she should rip herself away, back up and leave, but she couldn't find the motivation to.

"It is," he agreed with the smallest of nods, and his eyes darted down to her lips before meeting hers again, the pull between them too intense to ignore, sparks seeming to ignite underneath her skin as she longed to touch every part of him.

She wondered if his lips tasted as sweet as they did in the dreams she tried her best to forget.

"Still eyefucking!" Katherine shouted, and Klaus let go of Caroline to turn and shoot Katherine a dirty look, hissing out a reprimand.

Caroline found herself jerked back to reality, her face flushing when she realized that literally the entire squad had just watched her and Klaus exchange a whispered conversation, probably while looking like they were about to fuck on the boxing ring floor. Tyler, her boyfriend, was going out on a suicide mission the next morning, and Klaus had made her forget. Had made her forgive him when he was the one who sent Tyler off.

She didn't even wait for Klaus to turn around before she nailed him in the jaw.

He hissed in pain, backing up a few paces, and she smirked, stretching. "Does that mean I win?" she asked, her tone a bit too malicious to be considered cheerful, but he looked like he was having the time of his life despite the blood dripping out of his mouth down his chin.

"I suppose I do surrender, love. For now."

She shivered at the way his eyes raked over her, the way the endearment fell off of his tongue. He seemed to notice, his lips quirking, and though Stefan was busy announcing over the loudspeaker that she'd won and listing how much money was in the prize pool, she kind of wanted to punch the stupid smug smile off his face.

Instead she climbed through the ropes without another word and walked to Stefan, snatching her prize money away before turning on her heel to leave. She had a boyfriend to prepare for send-off, and if she had anything to say about it, their night would be memorable enough to sustain both of them through his absence.

And if she closed her eyes while Tyler filled her to imagine it was another man's stubbled cheek brushing against her neck as his tongue laved her pulse point, that was fine. A little harmless fantasizing never hurt anyone, right?

It didn't change how guilty she felt when Tyler finally rolled off of her, both of them sweaty and sated.

XXX

"I love you," Caroline whispered, pressing her forehead against Tyler's shoulder and closing her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I love you too, babe."

It wasn't a lie. She did love him, and she was nervous to watch him go, but she'd been thinking about Klaus's words to her the day before, and she was struggling to keep denying that she might not love Tyler enough. Not as much as she should.

She and Tyler hadn't always gotten along. He was bad-tempered and hot-headed for a long time. He'd calmed though, had over time grown into a man who had every reason to be her first choice. He was kind and attentive, he listened to her, made her laugh... But no matter how often she told herself that he was exactly what she wanted, she always had the underlying truth bubbling under the denial that he was good, but he wasn't right.

And Klaus...

There were so many reasons why he couldn't be an option, but every part of her craved him in a way that made her deeply uncomfortable. They'd always been friends to a point, flirting endlessly and fighting constantly, yes, but she enjoyed spending time with him when he wasn't being a total douchebag. Still, they always toed the line, never quite crossing the boundary between frenemies and...frenemies with benefits? Fuckbuddies?

Lovers?

She wasn't sure what they would be if she caved, but knew Klaus well enough to understand that he thought he'd made his feelings perfectly clear and his intention was to tempt her into admitting what they both knew she wanted.

"...be back in a few days. I promise I'll be okay," Tyler was saying as he stroked her hair. "Klaus wouldn't have sent me if he didn't think I could do it."

"He sent you because he's a jealous ass," Caroline mumbled, and she heard Tyler laugh quietly.

"He wouldn't have sent me just for that. We don't have enough people as it is, and this is an important mission. Yeah, he's jealous, but I have you for now, and I'm going to enjoy every second."

"For now?" she asked, her brow furrowed as she pulled away. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"This isn't a conversation to have right before I leave."

She debated pushing the subject, but she knew Tyler was right, no matter how curious she was. It'd be better if he wasn't sent on what could very well be a suicide mission weighed down with emotional baggage.

"Then you'd better come back," she settled on, standing on her toes to kiss him. "Good luck."

She let go and watched him get into the Viper, the lid closing on top of him before the jet slowly rose into the air and sped off through the gateway, and felt a heat prickle at the back of her eyes, not quite knowing why she was about to cry but overwhelmed with conflicting feelings about what felt like everything. She swallowed, trying to hold them back, and stiffened when she felt someone's eyes on her. She turned to see Klaus watching her, his expression uncharacteristically unreadable.

"What?" she snapped, her tone a bit harsher than she intended, and she winced at the flash of surprise that flitted across his face, her shoulders slumping. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"No need to apologize, sweetheart. It's clear you're stressed," he said, though his dry tone didn't match his words.

"No, it was rude," she said firmly, giving him a wan smile and turning to walk away, and she stiffened when Klaus took her arm in a gentle grip and tugged her to him, his arms wrapping around her, and she buried her face in his neck almost automatically, her fingers winding into the back of his henley.

"I wouldn't have sent him if I didn't think he'd come back alive," Klaus whispered as he rubbed her back, and she hadn't realized how much she needed this, his touch, his scent, the sound of his voice.

"I know," she said, and somehow just the act of talking made her tears spill over, and she found herself sobbing into his shoulder, just so tired of her conflicted feelings and responsibilities and pretending to be okay all the time and just everything, and Klaus had always understood.

She pulled away at that thought, suddenly feeling a bit sick. Tyler had just flown off and she was sobbing into Klaus's shirt and savoring the feel of him and god she was a terrible person.

"I have to go," she said, her voice cracking, and she walked away without another word.

She had some thinking to do, and she had no desire to do it. She just needed to get away.

XXX

"Have you seen Caroline?" Klaus asked, poking his head into his father's office. "I need to tell her whose names I'm submitting for the attack."

"She left this morning," Ansel said, looking at Klaus with mild surprise. "On that mission, actually. She told me she'd cleared it with you. I was surprised since it's so dangerous, but it's about time you stopped being such an overprotect—"

"What do you mean she went on the mission?" Klaus interrupted. "She hadn't cleared anything with me."

Ansel responded, but Klaus felt like there was wool plugging his ears as he tried to process that she was gone. She'd left.

He suspected that he knew why, and he'd never pegged Caroline as the type to run from her feelings. When she got back they'd be having words, he decided, fighting to suppress the small voice in his head saying 'if she gets back'.

'If' was not an option.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this :) Please let me know what you think! Favorite parts or lines? Predictions? Constructive criticism? Feedback inspires me and nothing makes me want to write more than knowing people are enjoying my work.

There's only one more part to go! :D