Chapter Two: How to Convincingly Pretend Like You Didn't Get Kissed By Damon Salvatore and Like It

"You're home early." Caroline noted as Bonnie slammed the door, more loudly than she had intended. The ride back home wasn't long enough to mask her discombobulating thoughts. They were still back at the Grill. On Damon. On Damon's lips. On her lips. His taste. Mixing with hers. "Bonnie?"

"I ran into someone that I really didn't feel like seeing." Bonnie sighed, removing her scarf and settling back into her old, safe, semi-protected self.

"Do you mean Klaus? I mean God, can't he take a hint? I'm soooo not interested."

"Have you told him?" Bonnie asked, watching her friend's reaction. Caroline played it cool, but it was undeniable that at this time only two topics seemed to spark Caroline's interest nowadays—Tyler and Klaus—in that order. Even if it was just to talk about how much she hated him, Caroline's eyes seemed to twinkle at his name.

"Told him what?"

"To get lost?"

"I'm pretty sure he got the picture. A guy can't recover from hitting a girl, unless it's Chris Brown. Now that's a comeback." Caroline joked.

"Please don't tell me the story again. If you haven't confronted him about it, then it's obviously not that important to you." Bonnie sat down on the couch, exhausted. For now, Abby was staying at the Forbes' household since Bonnie was afraid of how she would react once she saw Mr. Bennett for the first time in over fifteen years.

"You think I'm scared don't you? Well I'm not." Caroline responded, grabbing her coat. "But I can't. Your mom …"

"It's okay. Just drop her off by Stefan's so that she won't escape again." Bonnie replied, looking tired.

"Are you coming with?"

"I really don't feel like seeing Elena right now." Bonnie answered as Caroline just nodded. It had been nearly a month and things were still not right between the three of them. Caroline was in the middle, once again, Bonnie pretended like things were fine only she was really terrible at it, and Elena just kept apologizing.

"It'll get better." Caroline promised, hugging her friend tightly before Bonnie felt the cool air on her face once again.

The remnants of 'The Originals' consisted of just the lonesome three, Elijah, Klaus, and Rebecca who refused to leave her brother behind. He'd taken some comfort in this, despite the fact that both of his parents had wanted him dead more than anything else, and he suffered from a mild case of mommy and daddy issues.

But they were of no concern now.

On tonight's agenda was … absolutely nothing. Between his mother's betrayal and Caroline's role in it, Klaus was perhaps for the first time ever, worn out. It was almost like that human feeling of being rundown or burnt-out except he'd always found something else to amuse him, a new idea, a new ambition that would take centuries to bring into fruition.

"I'm bored." Rebecca complained, filing away at her already symmetrical fingernails, a sound that her two brothers were hearing more and more of lately.

"Then go amuse yourself and take that filing elsewhere."

"So what exactly is the plan NiKlaus?" Rebecca wondered, continuing to rub the abrasive steel against her nails just to make a point. "How are we going to get Stefan back for his betrayal? Oh, and his brother … Elena…"

"Is that all you think about? Revenge?" Elijah emerged from the shadows, taking on the heavy-hearted, brooding role since apparently there was at least one in every family.

"Well what do you propose that I do? Let them continue to walk all over me?" Rebecca growled back, wanting some sort of atonement for what she'd been through.

"Go find someone to stroke your ego." Klaus offered, looking down at the newest notebook of drawings he'd done of Caroline. Since the incident his affection for her had actually grown, strangely enough, and he couldn't help but continue the portraits.

Over and over again he drew, torturing himself.

"Why don't you just admit you love her brother and let the chips fall where they may?"

"I can't trust her." Klaus mumbled, starting to tear the pages off one by one and burn them, again. His cleansing ritual was interrupted by the heavy sounds of clicking heels scraping the ground with such determination, confidence, and spunk. It was Caroline.

Klaus's eyes were toward the door before she even walked in.

"Aren't you brave?" He commented, continuing to burn the pictures one by one.

"You've ruined enough lives, haven't you? Why don't you just leave Mystic Falls?" Caroline suggested, her tongue shooting rounds of fire headed straight for him.

"You came all the way here for that?"

"I'll excuse myself." Elijah looked back and forth between the two before smirking and exiting the room. It wouldn't take long before this played itself out. He urged Rebecca to join even and she did so reluctantly.

"Damn right. You wouldn't be staying here unless…"

"Unless?" Klaus didn't look back up at her again, afraid that he'd release some other sort of confession, expression of how much he 'fancied' her.

"You're planning something aren't you?" Caroline was closer now, almost too close for him to bear, but Klaus was cavalier. He kept tearing the pictures one at a time, almost robotic-like. "Well?" She waited, but he said nothing more. He wouldn't dare look at her. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Getting rid of a few old things." He glanced up for a moment to see her reaction. For a millisecond, there was shock on her face but Caroline quickly flipped the switch. She could be nonchalant too. Or … not.

"Let me help you with that." She grabbed the notebook and tossed the entire thing into the fireplace. "There's a reason that no one's ever loved you. It's because you're selfish and arrogant-"

"How am I selfish when I saved your life?"

"You killed my father. I know it was you. You either did it or you know who did."

"Caroline … I had nothing to do with that. Please accept my sincerest apology-"

"Stop with the 18th century bullshit. Do you know who did it or not?"

"I do not." He responded truthfully, fighting back the urge to do something … comforting for her. Caroline turned to leave, embarrassed that she'd shown a weakness and was close to crying about losing her father all over again. "But I promise that as long as I'm here, I'll dedicate my time to finding out who hurt him." Klaus promised.

"You will?"

"I'm a man of my word." He repeated, taken by her. That kind of … fire, believe it or not was the one thing that enticed him the most. Klaus could, by his nature have anyone, but he'd never met anyone so alive in all his life.

"You better be."

"Oh and Caroline, we still have to work out the arrangements for my services. Finding a killer can be quite time-consuming. Now that I think about it, I am hosting a party-"

"I don't need your help that badly." Caroline walked out of the house, just as she had walked in—confident, wildly, brazen.

"You better watch out NiKlaus. You may have met your match." Rebecca warned, listening from one of the rooms upstairs.

"So I said 'thanks but no thanks.' I have Tyler, right? No need to go and screw that up again." Caroline explained everything to the girls over lunch. Elena seemed more interested in trying to find Stefan and Bonnie was so far in her own head right now. "Can you two pretend to be listening?"

"I am listening. It's just … I think Klaus is bad news. Everything he touches turns to death." Bonnie explained.

"Bonnie, I am so s-"

"Don't say it." Bonnie hopped up from the lunch table, enough of this. Elena had to stop thinking that everything Bonnie said was about the sacrifices she'd made to protect her bestie. Right now, she didn't need a Life as a House or Gilmore Girls lame talk about your feelings, make up moment.

She needed time. Time to be angry. Time to regret. To figure this out. Time to … herself?

Bonnie shook that thought from her mind. No way that would happen.

She was off the school's campus and into her car before she could even blink. Driving to the Salvatore house was her next step and as she parked Bonnie knew there was no way that she could go in. The last time she'd seen him was when he'd kissed her, shattering any feelings that she'd held about being unloveable. "Forget it." Bonnie muttered to herself, ready to reverse the car.

"So the mouse found its way back." Damon sauntered to the side of the car, the window seeming to magically down itself.

"I'm not the kind to speak in code, like you. I have something I want to say."

"Go ahead."

"What would possess you to kiss me?"

"Do you want me to do it again? I will."

"Damon, do you realize that you slept with my best friend and made out with my other best friend? Whatever you're planning, I don't want any part of it. Stefan and Elena are together. Deal with it."

"I am. I thought it was obvious that I'm totally trying to move on."

"I'm not on the market." Bonnie responded back, backing the car away from the Salvatore property.

"Not even for a friend?" Damon wondered, walked side-by-side with her window, which was still down. Twenty, no thirty miles was nothing for a vampire. "Come on Bonnie … talk to me. I'd say you're running low on the friends department."

"Thanks to someone who keeps biting, killing, or turning everyone around me into a supernatural freak." Bonnie blurted out as Damon smirked. So she did have an opinion after all, and it wasn't as clean and pure like she pretended it was. "Damon, why would you possibly want to me my friend?"

"So I can get to know you."

"So that you can kill me later or make me one of you?"

"No. I just want to get to know you. And I'll prove it… I'll help you with Abby." He repeated, as Bonnie took her eyes off of the road for a few seconds too long. When she looked away, at him, what she saw was a flicker of something human, something that was real or at least seemed to be. She was … contemplating giving him a chance. After all, it would be nice to have someone to talk to about all of this without having them run back to the others and since Matt didn't want to be involved… "Watch it!" Damon yelled reaching into the car and shifting the wheel back into the right lane.

Bonnie waited until she was at the next stop sign to brake, but by then Damon was gone.

"So tell me how I got roped into this again. You want to be here to make sure Klaus makes good on his promise." Bonnie turned to Caroline. "And you are agreeing with her on this because Rick was almost killed a few weeks ago… I still don't see why I need to be there."

"Moral support." Elena offered with a shrug. "Besides, the last party we went to went astray because you weren't there."

"Don't remind me." Bonnie sighed reminded of the last time she'd been with her human mother.

"Enough talk of the past ladies." Caroline jumped in, sensing the tension. "I will find out who killed my father and who attacked Rick through Klaus, all while juggling Tyler. If I can deal, you two can too, okay?" She reached into her closet, excited to show the girls what they'd be wearing. "And I present you with our attire for the evening … tokens of appreciation given by Klaus."

"You don't think accepting his gifts is sending the wrong idea?" Elena wondered hoping that Caroline was taking this too far.

"Of course not. It'd be rude to reject…" She pulled out three dresses from the bag, each befitting one of her besties. "Bonnie, blue and Elena purple … and I get the red."

"Of course." The other two girls said in sync.

"What does that mean? Red is a wonderful color."

"The color of lust and blood." Bonnie responded. "How about … green?" She offered, spelling the dress and turning it to a bright deep green in thirty seconds flat. "Now, it's perfect."

The party reeked of … fun, something that Bonnie wasn't expecting, considering that any resemblance to fun always hid behind it a backdoor of death and pain. She was cautious, but so far there was no reason for concern.

"Come on girls, let's dance!" Caroline led the pack, taking both of her friends' hands and making a spectacle of themselves in the middle of the "dance floor." Completely aware of the affect that she was having on Klaus, Caroline pretended not to notice he was there, while Elena was anxiously awaiting Stefan. Bonnie wouldn't even admit to herself that she wanted to see Damon.

"So are you just going to watch her the entire night or make a move brother? She's obviously still getting to you." Rebecca challenged still looking half-bored.

"I thought you hated her."

"I do."

"But you want me to go and talk to her?"

"I'll even help you out with that." Rebecca began, a wonderful plan formulating in her mind. "I'll keep Tyler busy so he doesn't … interfere. In fact, there's the party crasher now." She disappeared suddenly, deciding that if she couldn't make Stefan and Elena miserable, for now, she would settle with destroying the lives of her friends. Caroline was an easy enough target.

Unaware of what was going on, the trio kept dancing until Damon tapped on Bonnie's shoulder, pulling her away momentarily.

"Aren't you watching my mom?" She inquired, worried that something had gone wrong.

"Stefan's there until I get back. Relax. I'm making good on my promise."

"So you're not staying?" Bonnie asked, a little disappointed. There was a part of her that was really … intrigued by the other side of badass Damon Salvatore.

"I can call Stefan and have him cover for me a little longe-"

"Don't. Elena and Stefan need all of the drama-free time that they can get together." She backed off, once again sacrificing something to make her best friend happy. "Thanks for … watching my mom, but if you do anything to hurt her or corrupt her-"

"I won't." Damon had moved closer to her now, his face a mere inch from hers. Her heart started accelerating like crazy. The crowd around her started to vanish. He was going to kiss her again, she knew it. She wanted it to happen … too much.

"Thanks." Bonnie looked down, finding salvation in the floor. The wood patterns in their uneven tones... anything but the piercing blue eyes of Damon Salvatore.

When she looked up for a moment to change her mind, Damon was there, smirking at her. "I have to get going."

"Then go." Bonnie challenged, but Damon wasn't there, hadn't moved anything except his hands which were lightly grazing hers.

"I'm leaving." He agreed now lacing both of her hands in his.

"Okay." Bonnie nodded, but Damon had only moved enough to press his forehead against hers. He didn't know what had come over him or why he was acting this way with Bonnie so publicly. It was all he could to do stop himself from kissing her.

What Damon didn't understand was why she wasn't fighting him off, why she didn't slap him like last time.

"Do you want to dance?" He finally asked and Bonnie nodded where they found a dark corner where they could be alone.

It almost felt like middle school when you had your first boy-girl dance and you were as nervous as hell. Bonnie tried not to get too close to him, but the way he was holding her made it impossible. She was thankful that even with heels, he was much taller than her. That way, she didn't have to look into his eyes.

Damon smirked to himself, watching Bonnie in all her insecure beauty, listening to the sound of her heartbeat, which was still racing but had slowed a little. He felt those feelings of … butterflies, warmth, things that were rare, really foreign to him.

Things that he'd only remembered feeling when he'd first met Katherine. During his pre-vampire days. Bonnie wouldn't dare look at him, which made the whole thing comical and even more elementary, but the fact that she was even this close to him was progress.

Bonnie was biting her lip now as the slow song droned on in the background and Damon was losing his courage mostly because … he was starting to actually care about her which was bad because he fell hard and fast, and loved long.

Damon spoke. "Does this mean we're on the road to being friends?"

"You have to trust your friends."

"Have I done anything to hurt you … lately?"

"No. Thank you for that." Bonnie grew quiet, this time watching Damon who was moments away from kissing her. The dancing had stopped and they were both waiting for the other to make a move. Neither got the chance as someone's phone went off.

Damon got a call from Stefan. "I can stay if you-"

"No." Bonnie squeaked out. "It's okay." She had been saved. By calling, Stefan had stopped her from kissing Damon again. Now, she just had to lie and say they had been talking strategy, how to get rid of Klaus or something like that.

He was gone before she could say goodbye again, giving Bonnie a few moments to get it together before trying to explain this to the girls. When she walked back to where they had been, only Elena could be seen.

"Where's Caroline?" Elena pointed in the direction of Caroline and Klaus. Now that was a requiem for disaster.

"Let's get this straight. I'm only here because of our agreement. Once a week. You give me updates and I go on living my life." Caroline explained once she and Klaus were alone in one of the rooms upstairs.

"And I've got news."

"Well?" She probed.

"I know who did it when and where but the … why is what's a little fuzzy and that, my dear is the most important thing." Klaus answered, waiting for her reaction.

"Whatever. Tell me what you know. Who is it?"

"I prefer to … give full information, not little bits and pieces here and there if you don't mind." He responded saying this mostly to push her buttons. Klaus already knew all of the information but if he gave it all away, there'd be no reason for Caroline to see him again.

Plus, this situation had gotten a little more complicated than that. The person who did it was well aware of the one weapon that could annihilate the Originals and that information needed to be kept secret. If others got wind that they were … vulnerable, things would get more than a little messy around here.

"Hell yeah, I mind. You're supposed to tell me everything you know."

"So you can run away and never see me again? That's not how it's going to work." Klaus explained. "You see things are a lot more … complex than just finding out who killed your father. They have information that they shouldn't and knowledge cannot be simply erased. It has to be contained, destroyed-"

"You don't know shit." Caroline rolled her eyes. "I was stupid for trusting you." And she was heading for the door, her hair bouncing like crazy as though she were stomping a runway.

"I don't want to lose your trust. I can tell you what you want to know." He gave in, with a sigh.

"What's the catch?"

"No catch. I do have something to ask you first … have your sentiments about me changed at all?"

"Sentiments? No one says that anymore Klaus. And to answer your question … no. Your charm is simply annoying, all of the gentlemen-ness, chivalry is dead."

"So what do men do now to get a women's affection my dear?"

"First, they don't use terms of endearment, ever unless they want something. Secondly, guys now take what they want. If they like you, they aren't afraid to show it. They don't waste time drawing weird pictures or writing sappy poetry or doing other embarrassing things to show their 'affection,' as you put it. They take action."

"And that's what you like?"

"That's what I like." Caroline agreed knowing that Klaus would never do the things that she was suggesting, knowing that she finally found a way to rid herself of her not-so-secret admirer. "See you around." She rolled her eyes, feeling stupid for being conned into showing up here. Klaus had nothing, probably hadn't even done any investigating.

She had only taken a couple of steps before Klaus appeared, blocking her exit to the doorway. He wrapped his arms around her waist, so close to kissing her that she could taste it. But he would back down. No way he would take anything that she said seriously.

"May I?" He asked, seeking her permission in his normal and sophisticated manner. Caroline rolled her eyes, taken aback as Klaus rolled his round lips onto hers, making it so that she had no other recourse but to react.

One kiss morphed into another, into a series of wild pecks until Klaus eventually parted her lips with his tongue. Caroline was still too surprised to do anything but to oblige, but to fully engage herself and to not object once they'd made it over to the empty bed.

"Is it okay if we-"

"Don't ask. Just act." Caroline responded, swiftly moving to rip off her green dress, thinking that if they moved in normal time that this would end too soon. She felt like her skin would burn off of her entire body if she didn't do this, right now.

Klaus was breathing heavily, balancing kissing her and caressing her as though it were nothing new to him.

Caroline looked up at him, giving him one more kiss before it happened—before her entire universe changed, before she felt a surge stronger than any human power that she knew of on earth.

She was unable to contain herself, her pleasure, unwilling to hold back, digging her nails into his back until little drops of blood dripped all over. Pieces of his flesh littered the backs of her fingernails, but Klaus didn't let up. Caroline didn't want him to and he was sure that he'd never felt anything like … this.

The two of them lay beside each other, Caroline forcing her eyes closed in hopes of chasing him off, but vampires didn't need sleep. Klaus watched her pretend-sleep, holding back until he couldn't any longer, from stroking her golden locks.

He knew now that he couldn't leave Mystic Falls, at least not without Caroline Forbes.

Matt wasn't picking up. Tyler's line was busy. Caroline was M.I.A. Elena and Stefan were … indisposed? Bonnie didn't know. But they were all too busy to help her when she needed it, and now was definitely the time when she needed help.

She couldn't have had more than three glasses of wine, alcohol, whatever and she was beyond tipsy. Drunk. Bonnie was a light-weight. There was only one other person she trusted with this, otherwise she'd have to take the long trip to Caroline's house on foot.

"Yes'um?" The other voice answered on the other side, low, seductive, and … Bonnie was way too drunk for this.

"I-I'm at the pparty. Can you-"

"A drunk Bonnie Bennett? I'll be there." He hung up and sure enough, in record time, there was Damon Salvatore, picking Bonnie up, since she was too intoxicated to walk properly, and placed her inside his vehicle.

"What about-"

"Stefan and Elena are on Abby duty but … Caroline was supposed to be back. Do you know where she is?" Damon wondered. "Of course not. You are hammered." He smiled to himself. "But I won't take advantage of a friend … we do need to get you sobered up some."

"Are you going to keep pretending to be asleep love to avoid me?" Klaus wondered after an hour or so of watching Caroline 'sleep.' He'd lost any sort of concept of time since she'd been here anyway.

"God, I thought you'd never stop gawking." Was her response.

"Well?" He wondered, raising his eyebrows.

"Well nothing. There's nothing to talk about." Caroline moved around the bed, searching for her clothing. Klaus handed it to her piece by piece, managing to not take a few peeks at her goodies. "You don't have to do that." She responded, once she'd put everything back on, or at least what was left of the green dress. "You've seen it all anyway."

"I'm not really sure how this … works." He smiled nervously.

"It was just sex. Fun." Caroline nodded, trying to diminish this down to nothing. But it was fantabulous, more amazing than what she'd experienced with Tyler which was … scary considering that she still felt something for him and Klaus was just … an annoying pest.

"So it doesn't mean anything more, love?"

"Stop it, will you?" Caroline complained. "The pet names are driving me crazy." She went to the nearest mirror, and that rip in her dress was beyond reparable. "Do you have something … else that I can wear?"

"Anything you want." Klaus answered giving her that look again.

As she got dressed, Caroline was fully aware that Klaus was still lurking around. Had she found him the least bit attractive, this would remind her of a Pretty Woman moment, but she had made a huge mistake. She should've just kept her mouth shut. "I hope you aren't reading too much into this whole thing. I mean it was just sex." Caroline kept repeating over and over.

"How was it for you?"

"Wow. The million-year-old vampire is about as insecure of himself as a seventeen-year-old high schooler. Shocker." Caroline joked.

"You didn't answer the question." Klaus was standing now, looking like a thinner, version of David Beckham in his black underwear. Caroline forced herself to look away, close enough to the door to say one last thing before leaving.

"It sucked. Don't try that again, okay? Maybe you really should just keep your feelings to yourself." Caroline slammed the door after her, hearing what sounded like shattering glass in the room behind her. Immediately, she was dialing Tyler's number and started the conversation like this, "I just made a really big mistake … and I need to see you."

"Now that I've got you where I want you-"

"Save it Damon." Bonnie was now coherent, but not exactly normal. She'd sobered up some and was now sitting in an iHop with Damon. "Thanks for getting me."

"Someone had to." He shrugged. "Besides, I wanted your opinion on something?"

"Which is?"

"Well, that's the problem. Only someone who really knows me would be able to answer it and since Stefan is vampire-sitting-"

"Get to it Damon." Bonnie forced a couple of French Fries down her throat.

"I'm thinking something circa twenty-questions-ish."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"I'm not. Let's start off with-"

"No. If I'm going to play, I get to pick the questions. All of them." Bonnie answered back, unsure of why she was even agreeing to this. "So, number one is going to go like this … What's something about you that no one else knows?"

"You go right for it, don't you?"

"Yeah." Bonnie nodded as Damon told her about his mother's death … what really happened and not the G-version that he'd told Stefan. The real truth was that it was his father who had killed their mother.

(A/N: This was SUPER long, I know. Keep the reviews coming. This has been written for a while and since I'm on a temporary writer's Sabbatical, I wanted to give you something to read until I return. Luv. -NL)