Chapter 4:

AN; Thank you so much for all the support so far

Previously: Caroline and Klaus were betrothed and a ball was held in honour of the engagements. Elena snuck away and was attacked by Damon, who was stopped by Elijah. Damon revealed that he had been compelled by Katerina, revealing someone had turned her. Bonnie revealed she and Kol hooked up previously. Caroline found out the siblings are vampires.

June 1492

Caroline pushed back her hair and stared into her looking glass. Her eyes were rimmed with red; she looked exhausted. She'd been faking sick for the past few days and Bonnie had covered for her but she knew she couldn't hide in here much longer. Looking back to the looking glass she noticed a figure that hadn't been there moments ago. Klaus.

"What's wrong love?" She didn't even acknowledge him, choosing to stare down at the floor. "You've been ignoring me since the ball, even more so than before it." After ten good seconds of silence the prince grabbed her arm and spun her around, roaring, "ANSWER ME!" When she didn't he grabbed her face and made her stare into his eyes, his pupils dilating, "I said, answer the damn question."

"You're a vampire," she bit out, feeling compelled to answer. "You're all disgusting bloodsuckers."

Klaus dropped her face and she staggered back from the force of it. He seemed to be taking a few moments to take it in and just as he started to talk again Elijah flashed into the room and said their mother needed everyone downstairs before flashing away again, at an inhuman speed. "We'll have to continue this conversation later," the vampire behind her said and then he grabbed her and zipped downstairs. She pulled away as soon as she could, trying to slap him but he caught her hand. "Did you have to do that?"

"No but it was fun." Klaus took off towards the throne room and she followed behind reluctantly, unable to think of a comeback right then. As she entered the room she saw how empty it was- just the family inside. She heard sobbing and saw Esther patting Katerina on the back uncomfortably while Mikael glared in no particular direction. Elena stood with her arms crossed, not looking compassionate whatsoever- a very un-Elena like look. "She knew him for less than ten minutes." The brunette rolled her eyes as Caroline approached.

"Who are you talking about?"

"Prince Finn. He's gone."

Mikael and Esther were livid at the news that their eldest son and heir had run off with his peasant lover Sage. Klaus himself found the whole thing rather amusing, and useful. With one of his elder brothers out of the way that was one down, one to go. Sure, everyone always said Elijah would be a magnificent king what with his fairness and his way with words but he didn't want the power. Klaus was sure he could easily convince his brother he'd be better suited as his right hand man. So that was his power sorted out. He had a lead on the moonstone and that was the last thing he needed to break the curse, and a plan for how to get rid of his parents. Everything was falling into place, now all he had to worry about was his soon to be wife.

Caroline hadn't spoken to him in days and he'd finally compelled her to tell him that it was because she knew about vampires. He'd seriously contemplated compelling her to forget it all but the royal families all knew about supernatural creatures. Maybe she needed to talk this through with her family... no she didn't trust them, she couldn't have spoken to them for more than an hour at most before being shipped off to the Kingdom of the Night. What about her friends? Maybe that was a better idea, he'd have to convince them to be nice about him to her though, which was sure to be a hard task, definitely for Bonnie, as the witch hated him. If anyone could accomplish it though, it was Klaus Mikaelson. Time to turn on the charm.

Bonnie had been kind enough not to fry Klaus' brains as he explained what he wanted and when she asked why she should he'd said it was because Caroline was her friend and surely she wanted her to be happy and comfortable. Elena had been a lot easier to convince than herself and had run off to go talk to Elijah as soon as she'd agreed to help, now she was nowhere to be found. Oh well, Bonnie was sure she'd turn up soon. In the meantime she was headed to Caroline's room to start on making her more comfortable with vampires, a species which she herself naturally detested. As she was about to turn a corner a hand darted out and dragged Bonnie back into an alcove, holding her against themselves. She struggled against the body and was starting to focus her magic on her attacker when he spun her around and she came face to face with Kol. Shocked, she stopped her magical attack on him and instead tried to ask him something but the words came out unintelligible against his hand. The young prince chuckled lowly and removed his hand.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Kol put a hand to his heart, faking hurt. "Ouch, darling, I thought we had something."

Bonnie stamped on his foot, which just made him laugh. "What do you want?"

"Who says I have to want something to talk to my favourite witch."

The brunette raised her eyebrows. "I'm sure Davina would be thrilled with that."

"Someone's jealous," he teased her, reaching out to stroke a hand along her arm.

She jerked away from the touch and started to pull away when he pulled her back again. "What?" She practically shouted, exasperated with the Original.

He sighed and she looked closer, confused by the sudden shift. "You were right. I do want something." She waited for him to continue. "You."

Eurgh. "Leave me alone!" Bonnie declared, pulling away and hurrying down to Caroline's room before he could catch her.

"Caroline!" She chose to ignore that pestering voice behind her as she stormed out of the palace into the gardens. He'd found her. She'd been avoiding him the whole day. Bonnie and Elena had spoken to her about vampires, trying to get her more comfortable with the idea of them. While it was still incredibly confusing she at least now understood how they existed. Caroline stopped when she got to a beautiful pond, taking to staring at it as Klaus approached. "We had a little spat- I'm over it already!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well I'm not."

"Oh come on!" Klaus sat down on a bench by the pond, giving her his best puppy dog eyes. "Take a chance, Caroline. Get to know me! I dare you." She couldn't stop her eyes from darting over and eventually she succumbed.

"Fine." Arranging her skirts as she sat down, she didn't notice the slightly surprised long on her fiancé's face and when she looked over the expression was gone. "So what did you want to talk about?"

His eyes seemed glued on her and no matter how much she tried to avoid them they kept colliding. "You. Your hopes, your dreams, everything you want in life."

Everything she wanted in life. What did she want out of life? This life was so different to the one she knew, she was still settling into it- she hadn't had time to think of new dreams and hopes. Seeing the way he was staring at her she narrowed her eyes. "Just to be clear, I'm too smart to be seduced by you."

He smirked. "Well that's why I like you."

"Damon told me what happened that night at the ball," Stefan said as he strolled arm in arm with Elena. "I'm sorry- for both of you- but especially you, that must have been horrible."

"Can we not talk about that?" Elena whispered softly and her ex-lover readily nodded.

"Stop it," Elijah told his younger sister, watching with vague annoyance as she eavesdropped on their betrotheds' conversation.

His sister spun around and faced him, hands on hips. "Well how on Earth am I supposed to know that bitch isn't trying to lure Stefan away from me? You know as well as I do the history of the Petrovas and the Salvatores; always repeating throughout the centuries again and again. You would be wise to keep an eye on them yourself."

Elijah shut his eyes for a moment. "I have more faith in my fiancée than you seem to have in yours." He stood up and offered his arm to Rebekah, who took it, and they walked slowly over to the stables to meet the others. "I believe it is the other doppelgänger you should be more worried about," he said in a low voice. "She was crying about our brother earlier on my shoulder and then tried to seek my arms for comfort."

"Or was it your lips 'Lijah?" Rebekah raised an eyebrow.

Her brother rolled his eyes. "Was it you that turned her?"

The blonde stared at him. "Now why in God's name would I willingly choose to make Katerina Petrova walk this Earth with me for all of eternity?" He shrugged and she gave him a look. "Are you sure it was not yourself? You have always been one to fall for the Petrova charm... I suppose it would not be that difficult for her to convince you..."

"Let it suffice to say that I only have eyes for one Petrova these days." Said Elijah simply and saw the small smile his sister gave him before he walked over to Elena.

"So what does this parade entail?" Elena asked as Elijah approached.

Davina, stood beside Kol, explained how it was her favourite festival, since Marcel had adopted it for his own kingdom so she knew it well, where lights went up into the sky and people wore vibrant colours and danced all night! Elijah had always enjoyed it as well though he rarely took part in the dancing since his parents usually just did the parade and then dragged them back to the castle, but today they were letting them stay down in the village. It was a little odd now he thought about it, he'd have to keep one eye on the King and Queen, but at the same time he needed to make sure Elena enjoyed this.

The parade involved riding side saddle for the women, which was a skill Caroline had not quite mastered yet, so Bonnie helped her with that, magically of course. She had to ride side by side with Klaus, which was a little easier since their conversation in the gardens so at least she could look at him now without feeling utterly disgusted. The streets were lined with people cheering and playing music and shouting "long live the King! Long live the Queen!" It gave her memories of when she was introduced to the public, but this was a lot more of a party atmosphere! When they reached the end of the parade route they came to a stage. King Mikael went up first and made a speech about the importance of this festival and then declared, "But enough of that. I know what you all want." He gestured to a woman by the side of the stage and she focussed her eyes on the unlit fireworks. Silence throughout the streets and then- boom! The lights blasted up into the sky and Caroline couldn't stop the gasps of wonder as she stared up at the whirling pinks and blasts of green and blue in the sky, fading slowly only to be replaced by more patterns and colours. The crowds cheered and a band started to play festive music.

"Come on!" She heard Davina call to Kol as the young girl pulled her partner down to the floor to dance with her. Rebekah followed with Stefan, who was complaining about not being able to dance but the youngest Mikaelson wouldn't take that! Elijah looked like he was about to ask Elena to dance when Katerina approached, curtseying in front of the now heir to the throne. "Dance with me m'lord." It wasn't exactly a request and Caroline didn't know much about etiquette in these types of situations but she supposed the prince couldn't exactly refuse. "One dance," he promised Elena, who nodded curtly and glared at her sister.

Klaus watched the whole exchange with amusement and then turned to ask Caroline to dance. "Just a minute," she replied, grabbing her best friends and pulling them down. She didn't catch the look of amazement on the soon to be hybrid's face as she linked arms with her friends, dancing and laughing, the most full of joy that he'd seen her. It was infectious and he found himself smiling- that was until he saw his mother and father sneaking away from the festivities, whispering as they did so. What the hell were they up to?

Caroline was having a fantastic time dancing and giggling and drinking. She spun around and around until she collided into a body and looked up, laughing as she clutched onto the shirt in front of her. "Hello luv."

She groaned as she saw who it was. "Oh... you."

Klaus smirked. "Indeed."

She raised a finger and pointed it at him in a chastising way. "Y'know, my sister would hate you." Her voice didn't sound like usual and as she stopped talking she slipped on nothing.

"Woah," Klaus caught her, pulling her back up to a standing position. "How about we go sit down?" He suggested. He wasn't usually one to act like this for anyone but he'd make an exception for his drunk fiancée, he didn't have much else to do anyway- his spy was watching Mikael and Esther for him. After managing to take her over to the stage and sitting her down on it, Klaus started looking around for her friends to come help her when she spoke in a soft drunken voice.

"Do you ever feel like there's not a person in the world that loves you?"

He knew she wouldn't remember this conversation so he sighed. "All the time."

She looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. "But you're-" she raised her hands in a weird exaggerated gesture he didn't get. He almost laughed.

"My father has tried to break me continuously over the centuries and the closest he ever came was chopping off the head of my favourite horse."

Her head snapped over. "I love horsies." Klaus smiled, a genuine smile, the one he only did when he knew no-one was watching, or in this case when the person watching was drunk and would have an awful hangover the next day. She started to get up again and stumbled.

"Okay," said Klaus, lifting her up in his arms. "Let's get you back home."

Back inside the palace Klaus slowly lowered the blonde beauty onto her bed and after staring at her for a few seconds turned to walk away but she reached out and grabbed his hand. He turned back around and met wide green eyes. "Please," Said Caroline. "Don't leave me."

He shook his head, more at his own thoughts than her words. He remembered what he had told Elijah just yesterday when reminding him to focus on the plan, "love is a vampire's greatest weakness and we are not weak. We do not feel. We do not love."

"Please." He stared down at her eyes and then slowly lowered himself down to lie beside her.

Next Time: The royal families arrive for the joint wedding and Bonnie meets Kol's cousin Nora.