This is the last installment of this three part shot. This story became very special to me. It came out of nowhere one day and demanded to be written. Special thanks to:

And super huge thanks hug love to Anastasiadreams for her awesome beta skills. To my girl Marisol40 for her input and ideas, and my beautiful EternityofKlaroline for being the ultimate focus group.

And the amazingly talented Nfinneman for the beautiful artwork.

And Thank you all for reading.

Jay


Playlist for this chapter:

Taste of me | Sabor a mi | Luis Miguel

The day you love me | El dia que me quieras | Luis Miguel

Wrapped in a memory | Shawn Smith

Love you for life | Jodeci


More than a thousand years will pass

Many more

I don't know if love is in my eternity

But there, like here

Your mouth will always carry the flavor,

Taste,

Me.


Córdoba-Andalusia, Spain

Two years later

The streets of Córdoba were alive. Candles burnt everywhere and the sound of the crying guitars colored the air. She sipped her wine and took a deep breath. The night air and the bouquet she just tasted made her skin tingle and her thoughts traveled to him; her heart quickened.

Caroline sensed she was being watched.

She remained still, forcing her eyes not to search. She was sure it was him and her body could barely contain the excitement she felt. She examined her glass of wine as she waited. She didn't have to wait long.

"Well, isn't this a surprise?"

Her eyes snapped up.


Chicago

He sat nursing a glass of whiskey. He had been at the bar for the past couple of days.

Literally.

He had compelled the staff to just work around him. He sipped on their best liquor and ignored the patrons. It had worked until the two girls came in. There was something about them. He had been trying to ignore the flirty eyes, or the catchy laughter. They were flipped sides of the same blond coin it seemed. One was modest, with straight shoulder length hair. She's the one that made eyes at him; sending subtle come hither looks. The other one with curly long hair was bolder, more blatant about her interest. She timely flicked her blond mane over her shoulder and stared at him with a wide smile. Her eyes spoke of soon to be shared secrets.

Lust and thirst filled him. He looked down at his drink trying to resist what he knew would be the end of them. He concentrated on the dark liquor trying to find the strength to fight what inevitably pulsated in his veins.

"Still on the wood critter diet, I see." A voice from behind him chimed in.

He didn't bother to look up. "Why are you here?"

Klaus shrugged and took the chair beside him.

"Shouldn't you be out stalking her? Begging for a chance? Nothing's standing in your way now…" Bitter. That's the only word that could describe Stefan's words.

Klaus laughed. It was mirthless. "Of course there's something in my way. The same thing, the only thing that ever stood in my way…" He stopped to motion for the bartender to bring him the same thing his friend was having.

Stefan could only grimace. The comment was harsh but Klaus was right. He had never been an obstacle. Just a place for Caroline to hide. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to hate her. His love for her burned like poison, filling him with anger, hate, thirst. His eyes drifted back to the girls. This time he smiled.

"A toast mate?" Klaus' voice interrupted the path his thoughts were taking.

Stefan turned to the hybrid exasperated. "Do we really have to do this? Is it not enough that you know why we… Do you have to rub it in?"

The joviality left Klaus. His face was serious. "Does it look like I'm a position to gloat to anyone? It's been two years since she left your side."

Stefan's voice was barely audible as he said "It's only a matter of time."

Klaus chuckled humorlessly. "It hasn't happened in 37,230 days." He downed his drink in one sip, "I'm not holding my breath for tomorrow either."

The other vampire snorted, "She's stubborn."

"Really? I had not noticed," Klaus countered dryly. He raised his glass. "To her?"

Stefan touched his glass against it and both men drank. Letting the alcohol numb their sadness.

"I don't hate you, you know?" Stefan said almost to himself, keeping his eyes were fixed on the bar. "I waited."

"She would've never forgiven me." Klaus joked then sobered. "I thought about it…remembered the time you were like a brother to me…that means something."

Stefan nodded. "I keep losing to my brothers", He added cynically.

"You had her for a hundred years." Klaus couldn't keep the jealousy off his voice.

"No, she was with me for a hundred years; she's going to love you forever…" He looked away from the Hybrid, a visible lump forming on his throat. He seemed as if it cost him to speak, as if it was too much. "I can't do this with you. Not yet. I need to be ok first. If not, I'll spend time comparing myself to you and wondering what I could've…No, I can't do that. I already did it for too long."

Klaus opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"Someday, just not today." With that, Stefan was gone.

Klaus stayed at the bar, in pain for his friend. He hurt because he caused the suffering. Because Caroline was the one thing he couldn't give up for anyone. His eyes stung because he felt lower than dirt. In the midst of speaking of his pain, Stefan gave him the comfort he needed for a century. He was never truly out of her mind. He was in her as she was in him. While this wouldn't keep him warm, it soothed his soul while he waited for her.

He was a selfish asshole.


Indulgence of life.

It was the theme she adopted since she had walked out of the condo in DC. For the first time in her life she was alone and on her own. She had taken a couple of days and gone down to Richmond. It was as close as she could get to Mystic Falls without actually going there. She didn't want to ever go back. She went to the storage facility where she kept most of her mother's things. She allowed herself to take out Liz's scrapbooks and albums and look through her things.

She missed her mother but being among her valued items gave her the steel and courage Caroline needed to make her decision.

Caroline made a promise to Liz on her death bed. She would let herself fly one day. Through the years when she had thought back on that moment, she wondered if she had said it just to appease her mom as she left this world. As time passed she realized more and more she needed to do that.

So she did.

She was going to see the world on her terms. She would allow herself to experience and live. She wouldn't let loneliness be her life adviser.

It began with a cooking show on TV. She watched an hour of it. By the morning, she booked a trip to France to learn to make pastries. It was a disaster. Apparently, she was good at organizing people to cook but horrible at it. Her dough wouldn't rise and when it did, the consistency wasn't fluffy and flaky, but as thick as Sicilian pizza and tasted like cardboard with fruit.

One day she flung the pastries out of her window and not even the birds would go near them. She laughed for hours. That afternoon, she bid au revoir to France and flew to Turkey. A student in her pastry class, who looked at her attempts with pity but was sweet, told her about her native land and Caroline was fascinated by the idea of the belly dance.

She loved it. It was sensual and innate to her body. It seems she was to dance the opposite of what she was to cooking.

She practiced until she was as good as the natives. In the afternoons, she would dress and line her eyes with kohl. Before the sun went down, she would open the curtains and let the music take her. She would bare her belly and play with the veils, swaying to the music beautifully, enchanting her audience of one. On her last dance in Turkey, at the end she looked towards the window she knew Klaus watched from, and blew him a kiss and smiled.

Next she traveled to Thailand a city she chose exclusively as her feeding ground. There she exerted her power and freed her beast. She drank and indulged in the liquid bread of life. At first she went about it in her methodical and controlled way. Then one day, she let out her inner ripper and fed at will. Almost. She still didn't kill anyone but she went on drinking binges. She finally understood why Stefan turned ripper. The freedom of just letting herself be who she was. She also knew herself better than ever and accepted the control she had over herself.

Moscow, Jerusalem, Cairo, Amsterdam, all saw Caroline come and go. All fed a soul hungry for the world, raised the level of her hunger and stoked the fire that threatened to burn her all while she cursed him. He had instilled that hunger in her and now she was fulfilling it alone.

That's your choice, Caroline. A little voice would yell at her.

At night, her body screamed for him. She could almost cry in frustration because it wasn't just sexual hunger but a desire to bury herself in his arms. He could shut out the loneliness and the fear of it filling her eternity as he had done the days after her mother's death.

She longed for his impatience and lack of tolerance to finally snap. Why wasn't he coming to her? Why was he waiting in the shadows?

He would come to certain cities and watch her without showing his face. It was creepy and stalker like when it happened. She would scoff and roll her eyes.

God, how happy did that make her!

She didn't know how they started playing this game. Sometimes when too long had passed and she didn't feel him around, a small nagging voice whispered that he had tired of waiting. As if by intuition, signs that he was close would appear.

The white rose on the bed of her hotel in Brazil.

She had spent the afternoon dancing on the streets of Rio during Carnival. She laughed and learned to Samba in the sea of glistening bodies, some of which she fed off because the heat made her hungrier than she had ever been. She returned to her hotel to find the flower on the bed. She smiled and lay it on the pillow next to her every night until the fragrance wore off.


Córdoba-Andalusia, Spain

"I won't spoil our reunion by lying and telling you it's nice to see you."

Caroline leaned back in her chair. "Another hundred years and you're still not pleasant. I need to start adjusting my expectations."

Rebekah's lips twitched. "Maybe it's not so bad seeing you, after all."

Though it wasn't whom she was expecting, Caroline flipped her palm up, offering Rebekah the chair across from her. The Original sat down.

Rebekah raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe it's not so bad seeing you either." Caroline returned the tiny smile. "Otra copa, por favor" She called out to the waiter to bring another wineglass.

"Are we really going to exchange pleasantries like adult vampires? Last time we actually spoke you refused to let me join you and Matt's study group." At the end of the sentence she had to press her lips together.

Caroline's laughed first, and then Rebekah joined in.

"Life was so simple when all I had to worry about was Silas and saving Mystic Falls from the big bad." She shook her head sadly.

The Original nodded. "When was the last time you spoke to Stefan?"

Caroline stiffened. It was one thing to laugh at past insignificant moments and another totally different to broach the topic of her former boyfriend and best friend with a woman who had always been more of a foe than anything else.

Rebekah's eyes pierced through hers, surprising Caroline because there was no anger or animosity in them towards her.

The other woman changed the topic before she could think of anything to say.

"So, how is it that you're here without my brother? Now that you are not with Stefan, I would have thought he would be practically nipping at your heels."

It was the same question Caroline got from Elena and heard Damon utter in the background every time she talked to her friend. Did the whole world believe it was only a matter of time before she ended up with Klaus?

"I've been traveling alone." She simply said, noncommittally.

"He is still playing the waiting game. I must say, I'm beyond shocked. It seems you've taught Nik impulse control. The hard way." Rebekah regarded Caroline in true awe.

She examined her wine glass. The past two years she had gone on a journey of self-discovery. She was doing the things she always dreamed of. Two things bothered her. The first was the lack of someone she could truly trust. Someone in whom she could confide even about the silliest things. She and Elena had never been able to recapture the devotion of the earlier years of their friendship. The other thing that bothered her, was the flood of emotion she constantly felt now that she allowed herself to reflect on him.

"Why did you leave?" Rebekah's voice brought her back to the present. She blinked a couple of times. The other woman continued. "That day, why did you leave?"

"What day?" She asked. Though deep down, she knew.

"I saw you. You came to see him." Rebekah said softly. "In New Orleans."

Caroline shocked herself by answering the other woman.

"He was having a child. He had a girlfriend. It didn't seem like there was a place for me there." She shrugged.

Rebekah played with the wine in her glass as she regarded the woman across her. The Original's eyes narrowed.

"What?" Caroline snapped after a while.

"I. Don't. Believe. You."

"Excuse me?" Caroline countered incensed. "You know what…I don't care."
Rebekah interrupted her, "You're lying."

Caroline wanted to scoff and get up and leave but something held her in place. Maybe she was tired of running from the truth. She started to speak before she realized it.

"When I got there and I saw Hayley, her baby and Camille. Something happened in me. All my reasons for being there seemed to have died. He had it all. A family, someone to love. What would I do there? How long till he realized he didn't need me? How long till I played second fiddle? I couldn't do that anymore. Not with him. He's always chosen me. I wouldn't have been able to handle it."

Her hand suddenly went to her mouth at the realization.

"How could you have thought my brother would do that? Though Nik is capable of many things, his feelings for you are true. I've seen it. Everyone has." Rebekah told her.

"You forget I lived years of my life in the shadow of Elena Gilbert. I guess old habits die hard and I thought how long did I have. I didn't see how I fit."

"So you sought refuge in your best friend's arms?"

Caroline didn't take offense to the question, despite the edgy tone.

"I love Stefan. It's not clear how we moved from friends to couple, but I love him. It's just different. We are a good team. We laugh and share everything. We were so comfortable with each other. He knew when to give me my space and my quirks," She said wistfully.

Rebekah chuckled. "Sounds like Nik and I in the 20s."

Caroline shook her head.

Rebekah nodded. "You were basically sleeping with your brother."

"Ew. Why would you say something so vicious?"


Mystic Falls, Virginia

Four months later

"You look pathetic"

Stefan looked up from his latest binge kill into the blue eyes he could have sworn he had forgotten.

"It must be a family thing. You people can't take a hint when someone wants to be alone." He spat petulantly.

Rebekah smiled. "We're just caring. We hate to see a friend down even when he brought it on himself."

His mouth dropped open, but he recovered quickly. "Well…this is nice. What do you say, we make it another 100 years. Maybe my heart will have grown fonder for your presence."

She laughed. "Where will you run to this time Stefan? Who will you give your heart to this time? I think you've run out of forbidden women."

"Don't." He warned her.

"Don't what? Tell you the truth?"

"You don't know what you're talking about. Caroline and I…"

"Were a mistake. A colossal one. You knew it. You knew her feelings for Nik. But you thought the two of you could keep each other pure. Eating bunnies and doing charity. Hiding who you really are. She loves my brother in spite of his darkness, because parts of her harbor the same darkness within her. She wasn't going to deny herself forever, Stefan. Not even for you."

"Don't you think I know that?" He yelled. "She's my best friend."

Rebekah nodded. Taken aback by his outburst.

The look of acceptance in her face tugged at him. Why did she always bring out this callousness in him? "I'm sorry."

"I promised Caroline I would check on you and I did." Her eyes were sad but her voice was steel as she added, "Feel free to continue being pitiful"

"Wait. You've seen her?"

"Yes, we've been traveling for a couple of months."

"Together?" He said incredulously, "Why?"

She shrugged. "It just sort of happened."

"How is she?" It pained him to ask. Rebekah knew him well enough to tell.

"She hasn't gone to him yet. She was not ready when I last saw her."

He was angry again. "That's not what I asked."

She scoffed. "No, but it's what you want to know, need to as well. It's going to happen Stefan. Soon. Nik has been patient for too long."

"I know. He won't let it go much longer." He acknowledged.

"Actually, truthfully speaking, I think she'll break first." It was brutal; she knew it but he had to hear it.

His shoulders sagged then and he sat on the floor next to his victim. He looked like a lost child.

She should have left then, but she couldn't. Though she had moved on and had her own life in order and the way she liked it, she stayed. She would always remember who he was when she first met him and despite their clashes, his betrayals, and distance, Rebekah cared about him.


She was a natural her dance partner kept repeating. She showed a modesty she didn't feel and blushed. It pleased her. It was 95% attitude after all and she possessed it. Also, she was blessed with long graceful legs. So she allowed her partner to twist and turn her; play her body like an instrument. When he dipped her, she felt her breath fly away only to come back in a charge of electricity that sent her senses into overdrive.

She knew what it meant. Her body knew it too.

Her partner released her into a turn and when she came back, she collided against a complete different body. Her face was mere inches from his. Their eyes locked, his breath on her lips. Her right leg held in place as her left swayed in front of it balancing. She lifted the right in an elegant yet devastating move that brought every man's eye to her. It reached the height of his armpit and his eyes could not help but travel to it.

"You're the most legendary stalker in history." She said breathlessly.

"Hello Caroline"

Déjà vu washed over her and her whole body hummed at the sound of her name on his lips.

"May I say the Tango becomes you? I thought you waltzed well, but I think this is truly the dance you were born for?"

"Thank you. You're not so shabby yourself."

With his arms around her, he brought her closer; holding her tightly, he leaned in and his mouth was right at her ear.

"El día que me quieras, la rosa que engalana
se vestirá de fiesta con su mejor color
y al viento las campanas dirán que ya eres mía
y locas las fontanas se contarán su amor"

Of course, he spoke fluently. His Spanish was flawless. The timber of his voice sending waves of desire through her and she wanted to scoff as she had once done during his family's ball. She wanted to roll her eyes and pretend she didn't care, wasn't affected. However, much like then, she was more than impressed; she found it worldly, charming, and incredibly sexy. She was older. She had lived. She had allowed herself to be wined, dined, and courted by many men. She could flirt with the best of them. Yet, this is the man that always rattled her. One look of those blue-green eyes could melt the clothes off her body and make her feel naked. Klaus could stop her breath and make her heart beat as it did more than a century ago when it bled during a life lived in innocence.

"Your Spanish is beautiful and melodious." She smiled.

He was serious as he replied, "Thank you but beauty is not truly anything that comes out of my mouth but what my eyes behold."

She blinked a couple of times.

"Seriously? How the hell do you come up with that shit?"

He threw his head back and laughed. It warmed her heart.

"This is an old song from the early 20th century. It's originally Gardel's."

"Did you write it with him?" She deadpanned.

He chuckled. "No, but I was there the first time he performed it. Do you know what it means?"

She shook her head. "My Spanish is not that evolved."

The day that you love me, the rose on display

will dress for a party in its best color

and the bells will chime to the wind and tell it that you're mine

and fountains will whisper of our love.

Her breath caught in her throat. "It's beautiful."

He nodded. "Yes. I never understood it before. Not it's meaning."

"What does this part mean?" Her hand trailed his shoulder.

The night that you love me from the bright blue sky

the jealous stars will be watching as we stroll by

and a mysterious lightning will nest in your hair

A curious firefly, what will it see?

That you, Caroline, are the only comfort I need.

She slowly moved her head back from his shoulder to look at him. Her mouth was slightly opened and her heart was pounding. It wasn't only the words. It was what she heard in his voice. He spoke clearly, with conviction.

He meant it. She knew he did.

"You've never wavered." Her voice broke a little.

"And I'll never will."

Caroline needed air. She pulled away and walked outside. The evening air felt cool but it didn't help. She knew he was behind her.

"She could've made you happy." She whispered and referenced Camille.

"Camille could have, if I let her." He countered nonchalantly.

"Why wouldn't you? It's been more than 1000 years. Don't you want happiness? Don't you want to not be at war and full of angst anymore?" She asked confused.

"If happiness is not you, I don't want it."

She felt suffocated. It was almost as if she was about to pass out. Isn't that ridiculous? That shouldn't happen to Vampires, especially, not adult vampires who have seen the world. She wasn't 17 anymore, but he made her feel like she was still that girl, at the ball, steeling herself against this seasoned Casanova. She willed herself to resist him as she had for so long.

She found she couldn't.

He wasn't moving.

He wasn't talking anymore.

Yet, he was making all the right moves. Because his words hung in the air between them. The echo of them seduced her as effectively as his mouth could have.

"I can't do it anymore." She whispered.

"Then stop" He said firmly. He grasped her shoulders. "It's never going to be anyone else. I'm not going to change my mind Caroline. But I'm not going to be safe like Stefan. We're not going to laugh over the same things all the time. You'll want to stake me a few times a week and there will be times when I contemplate finding a way to dagger you so I can get away with murder…literally."

It ripped a laugh out of her but it went as he came closer and her eyes were serious again.

"You don't have to stop tonight. Would you have breakfast with me tomorrow?

She was taken aback at this change. 100 years and the man wanted to have breakfast?

He saw her surprise and chuckled.

"Isn't that what people do? Have coffee to see if they're compatible and then move on from there?" He joked.

She nodded. As she made her way back to her bedroom she lifted her eyes to the sky over Buenos Aires. A shooting star appeared and made her smile.

"Stop pushing me." She hoped her mother could hear that.


The minute he walked in the room, he loosened his tie, took off the jacket and lay on the bed. His eyes closed immediately.

Klaus

The whisper woke him.

It was faint, barely audible even to the keen hearing of a vampire. Even more so, it was as if he only heard the movement of lips. There was no voice and almost no breath in the word.

Yet he heard it.

His body heard it.

He followed the echo of it in the wind and stalked after it.

It was no time before he stood in front of her bed. She was on her back, one hand bent above her head. Caroline's long lashes demurely resting over her cheek bones.

The sheet silhouetted over her body, showcasing all the hills and valleys that composed it. Her long legs stretched out the closest to him. He allowed his eyes to caress the view before him. Yet, he forced his hands to remain still.

He didn't make any moves. He waited. He just smiled and waited.

15, 20, 30 minutes past.

She let out a long, seemingly frustrated breath.

"What the hell are you doing?" she yelled without opening her eyes.

He didn't answer her.

Her eyes finally opened. They emitted the frustration she felt. He still stood there impassive.

"Are you stupid?" She yelled.

"No." He whispered softly. "I understand what you're doing, Caroline."

"And?"

"No,"

"No?" She parroted.

"No." He said one more time, frustrated and a little angry.

She smiled, finally understanding. "Ok, go back to your room then. I'll see you in the morning for breakfast."

With that she turned to the side and went to sleep.

With his pride weighing more than his body, he began slowly walking back to his room. He had to be the stupidest man alive. He berated himself on the way there. He knew now more than ever he wouldn't be able to sleep. The frustration combined with the excitement of what tomorrow could bring would not allow him to.

When he returned to his room, she sat with her legs crossed in the middle of his bed. His heart began to pound so fast it was uncomfortable.

"I couldn't sleep without you."

Shock and an emotion he couldn't identify, coursed through him but were immediately smothered. He looked down then up. He couldn't bring himself to say anything.

She knelt on the bed and began walking closer on her knees.

"Ok, I lied. I can sleep without you." She took his hand in hers and brought it to her heart. "I just don't want to…ever."

He exhaled violently. He searched her eyes for doubt or half-truths and found none. Her heart beat at the same erratic rhythm as his.

With his hand still pressed against her chest by hers, he lowered his head to kiss her forehead, then her cheeks. It was a slow process with him, pausing to savor each kiss he placed on her face. When he finally touched his lips to her, it unleashed all his pent up desire, frustration, love, anger, loneliness, hunger for her.

He freed his hands from her and used it, along with the other one, to glue her to him.

"Caroline…" he tried to ask between fast kisses.

"I'm never letting you go, Klaus."


He lay sprawled over her. It was invasive and uncomfortable. She was trapped under him and yet…it felt like heaven. She thought he slept like the dead and she giggled at the morbid accuracy of it.

"I should be offended that you are still awake after the past few hours," He grumbled.

"I think I've gotten enough sleep for way too long."

He raised his head to look at her. He shifted so that his face hovered over hers. Her hands automatically went to his face. She ran her thumbs gently, like feathery caresses, over his cheeks.

"We're here," She whispered.

"I know." He looked away, almost embarrassed. Then the mask came back.

"What is it?" She was alarmed.

He shook his head.

She held his face. "Tell me."

He swallowed. "You fought me for a long time." He held his breath. "Will you ever fight for me as hard as you fought to be away from me?"

"I will. I no longer want to deny you, myself, the world or the truth. I love you. I want to be with you and intend to be always.

The shadows of the room darkened his face slightly but in that moment the light of morning penetrated. His eyes widened, then relaxed. She brought his head down and kissed him, slow, sweetly, taking her time to taste him. Klaus opened his mouth and deepened the kiss, his fingers trailing down her shoulders silkily.

He was forging a path of fire and she moaned into the kiss.

Klaus shifted up slightly and instinctively her legs spread to accommodate him. His hands continued to slide down her ribs, down her waist, settling on her hip. He stopped to caress then cup her butt while his hand slid down the back of her thigh pulling, elongating the glory of her leg until she rested her foot on the back of his thigh. This allowed him to explore the limb at his will. His other hand was firmly placed by the side of her head and he used it to balance himself as he thrust.

Caroline head lolled from side to side as the frenzy built and rose within her.

Her eyes filled in haze and thirst and her face changed as she pressed her heels into his thighs to lift herself to meet his thrusts.

Caroline's hands reached for him and pulled him to her and his hand sneaked under her to lift her so that they were eye to eye, chest to chest, monster to monster. The kiss was insane as fangs ripped into flesh and blood spilled into their skin. She sucked on his bottom lip and the hissing noises coming from him were enough to send her over, but at the last minute he tilted his head and offered himself to her.

Her gaze dipped into his neck area and back to his eyes.

"Finish me."

She wove herself tightly around him, sinking her fangs, as his hips quickly carried them beyond thought and reason.


Klaus reached for her without opening his eyes. He found emptiness and sighed. Then his eyes opened and he smiled in remembrance. She wasn't gone.

He sat on the bed and looked to the opened glass doors. Caroline stood in the balcony of the hotel room looking over the beach. She wore panties and the tank top he had worn under his clothes the evening before. He was surprised it didn't get ripped in their desperate lovemaking from the night before.

He watched her for a bit as she took in the sun of the French Riviera. Her eyes were closed and her arms opened as if receiving the wind. She was hugging the world. He got up and walked to the balcony, slowly opening the doors. She turned at the sound and the smile on her lips triggered his own before he could even think of reacting. He stepped out and she moved forward, her arms going around his neck. He touched his lips to her.

"I shouldn't be waking up without you anymore," He teased.

"Just a couple of steps away." She kissed him again.

"Too far."

She held him tighter and then turned in his arms. He held her from behind and placed kisses on her neck and shoulders.

Her eyes had gone back to watching the water.

"What is it?"

"I'm so happy."

"That's not such a bad thing. But if you want, we can wake Silas again or set off a search for a cure like the good old times," He murmured against the crook of her neck.

Caroline laughed softly. "I wish I could share it…"

He nodded understanding. "With Stefan."

She turned back to look at him with a slight frown. "It doesn't bother you?"

Klaus touched his head to hers. "He's your best friend."

"Since when did you become so well-adjusted?" She asked surprised.

He shrugged. "I learned a few things in 100 years." Then looked at the sea. "He'll turn it around. If I know my sister, she'll make sure he does."

Caroline nodded. "I know. They'll be happy together. She's changed a lot too lately."

He began to trail kisses down her neck into her chest. "She feels about him the way I feel about you."

"Poor Stefan, he won't know any peace until he gives in," she jokingly lamented.

"Difference is my sister doesn't have my amazing patience and Stefan is not as stubborn as you."

It earned him a swat on the shoulder.

"Was it worthy?" she bit her lip as she waited for his answer.

He responded by grabbing her hand and tugging.

"I could tell you but I prefer to show you."


The end