AN: AU/AH. Song Fic based on Terrible Things by Mayday Parade. Klaus tells his son why he never fell in love after his mother died almost seventeen years ago.

Klaus looks at his seventeen year old son sadly with a sigh. He'd just been asked why he never tried to fall in love again after his mother died.

"When I was your age, I would've given anything to fall in love truly, it was all I could think about. That's when I met your mother, the girl of my dreams. She was the most beautiful woman that I'd ever seen."

"We were at a basketball game and I went to support your Uncle Kol. She was a senior, the head cheerleader and so full of light. I couldn't help but stare because I was so in awe of how beautiful she was. She came up to me and said,

"Hey, can I tell you something? I know that you're staring at me, and I know I shouldn't say this... but I really believe that you're in love with me.""

"From then on we began dating. Most of the time, we'd have too much to drink and we'd look at the stars and share everything. We were too young to notice but too dumb to care. Ours was a story where nothing could compare."

"About four months after graduation, I said "Here's a wonderful thing, I got you a present because you're in love with me. I'm asking you please, will you marry me?"

"One year along and we were married. She looked so perfect, with her stomach round with you inside. She was like an angel, so stunningly light and beautiful that I knew she'd break my heart one day."

"I'm only telling you this because life can do terrible things. When you learn yourself, I hope and I pray that God shows you different than he did to me."

"In the hospital, after she collapsed, I was let in to the room. She said, "Sweetie, I've got to tell you a terrible thing. I'm sick and it seems that I've only got weeks. Please don't be sad, please believe that you were the greatest thing that ever happened to me." I fell to the ground on me knees as you lay in her arms, completely unaware."

"Son, don't fall in love there's so much to lose. If you've got a choice, then please, walk away. Walk away and don't let her get to your heart. I won't be able to bear seeing the same happen to you. And I'm only telling you this because life can do terrible things."

He rises, patting his son on the shoulder on his way out of the house, tears staining his eyes nd rolling down his cheeks.

Klaus looks at the headstone before him, snow dusting the ground around her. He brushes the stuck flakes from the small photo in the corner of her headstone, the one that shows them at their happiest.

"He keeps asking me why there's nobody else," Klaus laughs brokenly, "because he doesn't understand that there is nobody else. Nobody can even compare to you, let alone match you."

He kneels on the frozen ground and clears his throat before continuing. "Nobody could ever understand how I can love a dead woman. Because that's just it. I love you after all these years, and it hurts."

Tears begin streaming down his face as he looks at the photo on her headstone, the one where she smiles straight at him wearing her wedding dress.

"It hurts so much and it doesn't even lessen. Every day it hurts more and more. Henry is the only reason that I'm still going, because I know you'd never forgive me if I left him to join you."

He looks down ashamed for a second, letting his years good it off his eyes. "He's almost eighteen. You'd be so proud. He's so smart and bright, just like you. He reminds me so much of you. The way he rolls his eyes, the way he scrunches up his face when he gets excited, the way he throws his head back to laugh. It's little things, but they are just so you that it breaks my heart."

"You know, you took half my heart when you died. You hurt me more than I ever thought you could. It hurts so much that you aren't here. I'm so sorry. I miss you so much. I love you so so much, Caroline. I hope I'm doing this right. I hope you still love me. I'm so sorry. I love you, Caroline."

He drops his head in to his hands and sobs, feeling and wrap around him. "I'm sorry, dad," Henry whispers, "I'm so sorry." He clings on to his son, crying in to the thick winter cost wrapped around his thin frame as he finally lets out seventeen years worth of hurt.