Thanks for the wonderful response! I did have someone ask about the close sleeping situations to which I would respond, most families slept in the same bed until more recent history. I know poorer families slept in the same bed through the Renaissance, and many even past that depending on their financial situation. Moving on though, here's the next installment (there will be 5 chapters), so I hope you all enjoy.

TWO.

I used to drink Old English and speak broken English
Yeah, men are from Mars, and girls are from Venus

Self-entropy drove me cold like a winter breeze
Fear as a winter tree, yeah I wasted centuries
Running wild, then the birth of my child struck me
Realisation, I learnt how to smile, wow
What I know now, I wish I knew then
I may have had a clue of what to do then

I may have gotten out of these bad situations
Running around town with no destination

She doesn't bother calling after Kol, watching his back dart away between the trees. She was really sick of the snake in the laundry trick though, black snake or not he was about to put her in an early grave. She was at the point where the little black snakes didn't even bother her, so she digs under a pile of leaves and puts the poor thing back. She'd make sure to chastise him later about disturbing them during their hibernation.

"Caroline."

"God dammit!" She whirls around with a hand pressed to her heart, "seriously, why do you people keep doing that?" Klaus watches her curiously and she's realized that she's slipped back into English. It hardly happens anymore, unless she's complaining about someone and doesn't want anyone to know. She can't think about what that means.

"Sorry," she amends, switching back to whatever Nordic language they spoke. She honestly didn't know where they had come from, but if she ever made it home, she'd figure it out. "Did you need anything?"

"Are you alright?" He gestures to where her hands and dress are stained with dirt, "you didn't fall?"

"No, no, just rescuing some poor snake Kol dug up to scare me with," she waves off, moving back to where she'd left the laundry. "I just started so if you're going to wait for me, it'll be a while," she peers up at him from where she'd kneeled back down.

"I have a few things to take care of, but I'll come back if you'd like?"

"It's up to you," Caroline tells him, but smiles at the gesture.

"Are you saying yes or no?" That was one of the many things she'd struggled to adapt to, giving a definitive answer. She'd never realized how indecisive she was and she was someone who knew what she wanted. But the people here didn't understand the half answers, giving her confused looks when she left the decision up to them. We don't have time to read your thoughts, Rebekah had chastised, if you want something, ask for it.

"Yes," she corrects, "I'd like that very much." He flashes her a toothy grin before ducking his head and moving back toward the village. She doesn't miss when he looks back with mirth in his eyes. Nor does she miss the warmth pooling in her belly, but ducks her head to hide her blushing cheeks.

The laundry is a mindless enough task, it's still cold enough that it'll have to be dried inside and wringing out the wet fabric takes more time. Klaus had secretly lined her pockets with fur so when she took short breaks, she could warm her hands back up. Thankfully she had Rebekah on her side, who had actually sewn the pockets and told Klaus which dress to put them in. Still, it was the thought that counted.

Rocking back onto her heels, she regards the falls with a wary gaze. Her chores led her back here at least once every other week and she was taking it as an opportunity to overcome her fear. But it was never loud anymore, never as loud as it had been the night she jumped. She hadn't been able to tell if the noise was just her imagination, her body's fight or flight system activating, or something she couldn't actually explain.

"Caroline," she startles again, biting out a low curse and turns to yell at whoever the hell it is now but finds Tatia staring at her. It had terrified her at first, to see her friend's face staring at her through different eyes. Statistically, Caroline had reasoned, it was possible that over thousands of years and across billions of people, it was possible to have someone that looked exactly like you. Right?

But what was she doing here, especially so soon after Klaus had stopped by? Tatia not so subtly pulls a leaf out of her hair and gives Caroline a coy smile. Caroline knows that move though, she'd spent too many afternoons with the varsity cheer squad to be taken for that much of a fool. She could respect Tatia's efforts to keep a member of her male harem, but she'd straight up fight her if she thought Tatia was after Klaus. Arranged marriage or not, Caroline Forbes didn't go down without a fight.

"Tatia," she answers, raising an eyebrow and continuing to work at rinsing the dirt out of the clothes. Caroline is practically radiating self-confidence, petty games were so 2011 and she was above that. She also had known where Klaus was the past few hours, having watched him split wood from where she and Rebekah had been drying Esther's herbs. That helped too.

"You are the one to marry Niklaus," Tatia leans against a tree, standing over Caroline and watching her work. "And you missed a spot there."

"Thank you, Tatia," Caroline gives her best award winning smile to the other woman, "and I am." She hums in response but makes no move to leave or continue her thoughts. Caroline rolls her eyes and dunks another brown tinged shirt into the water.

"You will be good to him?" This question does surprise Caroline, she hadn't been expecting the vulnerability of Tatia's tone. Perhaps, underneath the bitchy exterior and two-timing relationship, Tatia really did care about Klaus. It's not an unfathomable thought, Klaus was very sweet when he warmed up a little.

"I will," Caroline promises. She'd promised him that she would try a few months back, and she finds herself reiterating the promise with more conviction.

"If you should ever need anything," Tatia pauses, letting the offer hang in the air. Caroline nods, unsure of exactly how to answer but appreciating the thought. "Good. And Caroline?" She pushes off the tree and glances back over her shoulder, "he's an excellent lover. You will be pleased." Much like Kol, Tatia moves away quickly, a flash of dark hair moving between the trees.

"What a fucking bitch," Caroline shakes her head and picks up her basket. She might not like her, but she can't help but respect Tatia for that one.

She'd been given her own chores about a month before, after ages of shadowing Rebekah. Caroline had never thought that she'd long for the days of pre-calc and biology but she really hated laundry more. Seriously though, were men always this freaking messy? She was never complaining about laundry at home ever again.

It had been almost seven months since she got here, something that's too surreal for her to really acknowledge. She speaks the language, knows the customs, and has fallen into the gleeful excitement of the period before her own wedding. She wondered what her friends were doing back home.

"Tatia came to see me," she tells him demurely when he returns from whatever errand he'd been sent on. When he doesn't respond she looks up from the particularly stubborn stain she'd been working on, but his eyes are on her. He gestures toward the shirt she's working on and silently accepts it.

"I would not already doom our marriage, Caroline, trust that," he tells her quietly, working at the stain.

"Great, now I'm the bad guy," she mutters in English, but he ignores her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to...she was actually nice. Well, I think she was testing me or whatever, but she was alright. I didn't mean it in a bad way or to make you upset or anything but I just, oh I don't even know. Men didn't really like me back home and I'm really not good at this, but,"

"Caroline," Klaus interrupts, stopping her mid-thought. She pouts at him, puffing air out of her nose. She'd actually been getting somewhere, she was sure of it. He presses his hands to the underside of her chin and pecks her lips with his own, a hurried kiss that was more innocent than anything else.

"Holy shit, Klaus! Your hands are fucking freezing," she slips her English curse words in amongst the Nordic, ducking her chin to her chest. She can hear him laughing, he was clearly pleased with her reaction, so she decides to make a move of her own. Blindly reaching for his hands, she grabs them and shoves them deep into her fur-lined pockets with her own.

"Caroline,"

"Don't say anything, I can't have a husband with frozen hands," she shushes him quietly, pressing her body closer to his while their fingers interlock. She grins when he tries to say something more, but the air goes out of him in a rush.

"The season is still early," Rebekah tells her in way of apology, passing Caroline the flowers. They're mostly white and a bluish purple, not at all what Caroline had imagined for her wedding bouquet but apparently peonies and hydrangeas were scarce this time of year. And also probably this century.

"Can you give me something to tie them together? Maybe a ribbon?" Caroline lets the bunch go, picking each flower up individually to arrange it. She may not have won Miss Mystic this year, although she freaking deserves it now with her historical commitment to the cause, but she could still put her flower arrangement class to use.

"What an odd tradition," Rebekah had managed to find a thin piece of cloth and Caroline makes quick work of wrapping the stems together. "What does it mean?"

"I have no idea, but it's been done for so long I don't think I could get married without a bouquet," Caroline admits, holding her creation up, "what do you think?"

"It's lovely," Rebekah smiles fondly.

"Rebekah," Caroline hesitates when Rebekah moves around to pull her hair into a braid, "I don't want to be improper by asking but why is no one else in your family married? Klaus isn't even the oldest and there are girls much younger than you in the village with children already."

The other girl sighs, weaving some of the left over flowers into Caroline's hair, "that does not have a simple answer and I'm not sure I could tell you the exact reason. But he has yet to make matches for any of us."

"He doesn't treat Klaus well," Caroline comments. She'd nursed a few black eyes over the winter, grateful that there was enough snow to soothe the swelling.

"No," Rebekah admits quietly. Caroline had already guessed that it was a sore subject and did not sit well with any of them. "You were without a dowry, and Mikael...it is not an easy thing to marry without a dowry."

"It was meant as a big screw you to his least favorite son," Caroline guesses. She knows Rebekah doesn't know what she's talking about, but the girl clues in well enough to catch her drift.

"No more sad talk," Rebekah stands, pulling Caroline to her feet as well. "You must dress."

The conversation that follows is lighter in tone, and quickly they are laughing while Rebekah tries to lace her dress. Caroline has no veil, no father to walk her down the aisle, no Bonnie and Elena in hideous dresses. There isn't anything old, new, borrowed, or blue. She isn't even marrying a man that she loves which is requirement number one on her wedding checklist. But that list is in a binder at home under her bed, and she's in freaking prehistoric Virginia.

Klaus isn't that bad either, she admits to herself. He could really use a haircut, but she supposed that might come with time. He was sweet and a little dorky but she could do so much worse. This is what runs through her mind when Rebekah declares her work done. Esther smiles and softly declares that she will be the most beautiful bride of the season. Caroline gives her advanced mother-in-law points.

It is Mikael that leads her down the aisle, apparently, that was a tradition here in the original home of sexism. She only rolls her eyes a little. Most of the village had turned out for the event, and they watch her curiously as Mikael leads her down the short path. Klaus does not smile but watches her with an intensity.

The ceremony is short enough, she hadn't been exactly sure what to expect but it's a weird mix of Christian and pagan rituals. She responds when prompted, thankful Rebekah had given her the full rundown, and then she's married. She doesn't even have a ring, but her fingers are interlaced with her husband's, the deed sealed with a kiss, and Caroline is oddly happy.

Like, she isn't expecting the bubbly feeling in her chest, or the warmth in her cheeks. But they're there none the less. She totally wishes her mom had actually seen her married, or even for the one she'd always dreamed of, despite the ever changing face of the groom. But this was good too, Caroline thinks, ducking her head into Klaus' shoulder when Kol makes lewd gestures.

This is good too, she realizes when Rebekah throws her arms around them and declares she finally has the sister she'd always wanted. Elijah even gifts her a rare smile, god she wished she had her phone. That was something to be saved. Henrik offers a quiet congratulations and Esther presses a bottle into her hand with a wink.

This is good too, she realizes.

Winter is different here, it's hard not to notice. Not only does the cold seem to bite deeper, making itself at home in her bones, but Caroline finds herself wrapped in furs that her husband brings home for her. It's warmer than the down and wool jackets she's used to, but that fact that he went out with her in mind when he hunted, well, despite the overwhelming sense that PETA was lurking somewhere with their buckets of paint, warms her heart a little as well.

She was willing to bet that none of the girls back home could claim that their boyfriend had felled animals to keep them warm during the cool Virginia winters. A nagging voice reminded Caroline that her mom would probably arrest any boy who tried anything of the sort, but still. When in Rome.

But winter is nearing its end now, a fact Caroline acknowledges with a mix of dread and excitement. She's been in this version of her hometown for eight months now, she wonders if time moves the same at home. She wonders if anyone has noticed how long she's been gone.

"Your thoughts are unhappy," Klaus murmurs from beside her. She turns her eyes toward him, her head following. They're lying between two furs, only lightly brushing against the other, looking up at the night sky. The sound of the falls has become comforting to her, after months of exposure therapy.

"Would you miss me? If I went home I mean," Caroline pauses, hopes the desperation in her voice doesn't betray her, "and answer truthfully." He'd been watching her for a while now, as he did almost every night but now he turns his eyes up toward the stars.

He opens his mouth to answer, pausing before the first sound can pass his lips, and holds the sound for a minute, "I find that the more I know you, the more I dread the day you must leave. I'm afraid I should spend the rest of my days in this spot waiting for you to appear."

"Klaus," she breathes. It's not the answer she expected, nor the answer she particularly wanted to hear. If she were to leave, to ever make it home, he would need to be ok.

"I apologize," his head turns away, his body shifting to move, "that was forward."

"No," her hand finds his and she curls her body toward him, breast to shoulder, thigh to thigh. "It was perfect, what you said."

"Caroline," he hesitates.

"No one is going to find us," she groans quietly, "not to mention, we're married." A noise cracks in his throat, but he shifts closer to her. It takes everything Caroline has not to roll her eyes at him, not that he would even know what that meant, but she sits upright and moves to settle between his legs, pressing her cheek to his chest.

"I don't…"

"Klaus, you're pretty, but if you don't shut up right now, I will kill you."

"As the lady wishes," he relents, wrapping his arms around her. She grins, knowing he can feel her cheek shifting against his chest. The whole Renaissance times thing that couples did back home skeeved her out, like majorly, but Klaus only called her lady when he gave in to her demands. The thought entertained her more than it should.

They'd leave soon, return to their home and crawl into their bed. She couldn't believe they'd been married for two weeks already. They might not love each other, but she felt the thrill when his hand skirted her back in public. The sex was getting less awkward, slowly but surely. She'd love to punch whoever had told him that they were supposed to dressed and the act was solely for one thing.

Caroline Forbes never half-assed anything, and that included her husband.