AN: It's been too long. No excuses. All I can say is: I hope this makes up for it. Please R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own the show. Only the plot.

I wanna be your skin
I wanna feel everything you feel
I wanna be your covering
And I will hide you inside of me
With every breath in harmony
I wanna be your skin
I wanna be your covering.

I Am Your Skin - The Bravery

Caroline manages to successfully avoid Klaus and any mention of the hybrid for the rest of the weekend, choosing to spend her time trying to distract herself by tackling the growing pile of neglected coursework sitting on her desk.

She wakes up on Monday morning and pushes aside the barrage of butterflies in her stomach, refusing to spend more time than usual getting ready. Caroline makes it to the college a record twenty minutes before her first class and manages to get a latte half price from the cart outside of her lecture hall.

Her good mood lasts for the remainder of the morning and into the afternoon but all the while she's steeling herself with the resolve to act completely normal during her tutorial with Klaus. Her resolve crumbles exactly two seconds after walking in the door, three minutes early. She feels her eyes soften just looking at him sitting behind his desk, dressed in a pair of dark wash jeans and a crisp white dress shirt that he's worn unbuttoned just enough to show his collarbones, and the dark tattoo adorning them.

She flushes, half collapsing into her seat as she feels the blood roaring in her ears, remembering kissing along the dark ink, before sinking her teeth into the skin around his collarbones, sucking up an ounce of his blood before the wound healed under her tongue. She remembers the way he laid there, under her careful ministrations, not a sound penetrating his bedroom apart from the harsh rasps of their breathing.

Forcing herself back into the present she watches as the corners of his lips turn into his now familiar smirk, his tongue darting out to lick the corner of his lips before dragging his eyes up from his paper to bore into her.

She feels like she's been punched in the stomach and tears prick the back of her eyes as she lets herself see, really see, how he's been looking at her all along. At first his eyes are dark with what can only be lust but then they soften into something much gentler. He's looking at her like she used to look at Tyler, she realises. He sees in her what she saw in Tyler.

Her head is spinning, she's so overwhelmed. Her heart is pounding and she's starting to sweat. He's in love with her. Niklaus Mikaelson, murderous vampire/werewolf hybrid is in love with Caroline Forbes.


Somehow she makes it through the tutorial, thankful that Klaus only asks them to read a passage in their textbooks and summarise it in their own words. The minutes tick by so agonisingly slowly, an hour and a half seems like a life time but finally he's dismissing them and her classmates are packing up their books. She follows suit but much slower and the second the door closes behind the last student she launches herself across the room at him and kisses him straight on the mouth, feeling his body relax against hers as he gently kisses her back.

"Come over for dinner?" she murmurs against his lips.

"Of course," she can hear the surprise in his voice as it ghosts past her ear.

She hesitates slightly, then. "And stay the night?"

His breath hitches in his throat momentarily and his voice is huskier than usual when he gives her his answer in one word that actually makes her tremble against him. "Always."


She waits for Klaus to tap out an apologetic email, cancelling their art club meeting that night and then they're driving away from the college and stopping at his house for him to pack a bag. She waits in the car, for no other reason than to avoid Rebekah. He's only gone two minutes before he's opening up the back door of his Range Rover, flinging a duffle bag in and climbing back into the driver's seat, leaning over and surprising her with a quick peck on the lips.

"What was that for?" she asks.

"Do I need a reason to kiss you now, love?" he smirks.

"No," Caroline replies. "It was just… nice, is all." She wacks his chest with the back of her hand when he puffs his chest out a bit too far and looks all too pleased with himself.

He smirks at her again, throwing the car into drive before lacing his fingers with hers.

She's quiet for the rest of the drive, his hand still clutched in hers for a majority of the time. She knows he can hear the beat of her heart and how it's a little out of time and seems to skip a beat every time he sneaks a not too subtle look at her.

They make it to her house and order a pizza each, him surprising her by requesting Hawaiian. "What?" he asks, seeing her eyebrows raise as she adds it to their online order.

"I didn't peg you as a Hawaiian man," she replies with a shrug.

"There's a lot more to me than meets the eye, sweetheart," he quips.

She rolls her eyes, trying not to smile. "What you mean apart from the fact that you're a thousand year old hybrid in a twenty five year olds body?"

He snickers and she tries to ignore the whole heartbeat skipping thing that seems to have become the trend of the afternoon.

They eat their pizza in front of the TV watching some rubbish end of the world movie and sipping blood out a wine glasses, which Caroline defended as being "the classy way to be a vampire". Once they finish their pizza, their bodies seem to naturally gravitate towards one and other and when the end credits roll, Caroline is curled against Klaus's side, head resting on his chest. Their legs are intertwined in a way that makes Caroline forget the fact that seventy-two hours ago she was determined this wasn't a 'thing' and instead she lets herself want this.

She wants him. She wants his goodness. She wants his body. She wants to feel him pressed against her, brushing the hair out of her eyes and kissing her cheek so tenderly she wants to cry. She lets herself feel worthy of his attention, of his desire. She lets herself run away with the idea that when they're together they're something more than when they're apart.

"Are you going to take me to bed now?" she asks quietly, reaching down off the couch and flicking off the television before turning towards him.

"I thought you'd ever ask," he admitted gently.

She pulls him off the couch and takes his hand, pulling him up the stairs and leading him towards her room. She feels him pause momentarily; looking at the pictures he's drawn for her that she's pinned up on her pink bulletin board, among the pictures of her mum, her friends and her family.

"Caroline..." he says huskily, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat.

"Kiss me," she replies.

And he does kiss her. He kisses her so tenderly her toes curl against the plush carpet of her bedroom floor. He kisses her so fully and completely she is left a trembling mess against him, he backs her up slowly and lays her down on her bed, moving to take his shirt off. She pushes his hands away, "I want to."

Her hands slide up under his shirt, tracing the outline of his body before slowly tugging it up over his shoulder and tossing it on the floor. She flips him quickly and kisses down his body, etching love bites into his skin, watching as they disappear before her eyes.

He props his head up on her pillows, watching as she marks his skin, fumbling with his belt for a second before pulling his jeans and his underwear off in one brisk motion. His hips jerk up as a moan catches in her throat. He watches as her golden hair creates a veil around her head, bowing lower, lower, lower until she takes him in her mouth, his groan reverberates off the walls as she begins to move slowly up and down, licking the tip of his dick and collecting the pre-come that was gathered there on her tongue. He sits up, gathering her hair in his hand, pulling it off of her face so he can watch her pleasure him with his mouth.

Klaus likes to watch. He watches as her eyes look up at him, darker than he's ever seen them, before fluttering closed in concentration. He watches the way her lips get darker and darker as they draw themselves around his cock tighter and tighter. He watches the way she reaches under him and gently massages his balls before pressing down on his perineum and then he's not watching anymore, instead he's coming in hot bursts down her throat, collapsing back into her bed as his orgasm takes him completely by surprise.

It takes a few moments for him to recover himself, aware only of the fact that Caroline is once again kissing him. He can taste himself on her tongue and he's suddenly so overcome with the desire to make her feel what he's feeling that he's sitting up and pulling her off of him, trying to pull the clothes off of her.

Her soft hand on his wrist stops him and he looks up at her confused, "Slowly," she manages her voice so hoarse it sends shockwaves down his body.

He understands and kisses her softly, slowly pulling off her sweater, revealing her baby blue lace bra that does up at the front. He undoes the clasp, watching her pale breasts fall free of the material and it's his turn to watch as his love bites are healed before his eyes. Klaus pulls of her jeans and hooks his fingers through the lace of her boy shorts. As he pulls them off her the words are so close to the tip of his tongue. I love you. I love you. I love you, he thinks as he goes down on her, tongue flicking out to graze her wetness, causing her to gasp and jerk her hips up to him. He flings one arm across her pelvis to hold her down as he slowly eases two fingers inside her warmth. "Fuck," he groans. "Caroline…"

He moves them in and out slowly, refuses to let her hips up despite her best efforts. He nudges her clit with his thumb at the same time as he hooks his fingers inside of her and she screams so loudly he lets go of her hips to move up her body, kissing her fully to quieten her. He can feel her trembling again, desperately thrusting against the two fingers anchored inside her body and he thinks it again… I love you.

The thought makes him quicken his pace, fingers slamming in and out, curling against her g-spot on every thrust. He twists her clit, almost painfully and she's coming around his fingers, body spasming so hard in her orgasm that her hips leave the bed completely.

He's fully hard again now, but he waits for her to come down, tracing the three words into the skin on her hips over and over and over again. I love you. I love you. I love you.

He doesn't move from where he's laying against her, head buried in her neck, breathing in her scent until she's running her fingers through his hair and asking him, begging him to makes love to her. Then and only then, does he reach down and position himself at her entrance, pushing in slowly, letting her feel every inch slide into her until he bottoms out, pressed so deep inside her she can feel him against her cervix.

She's trembling for the umpteenth time that afternoon as he slowly pulls out, and pushes back in. He's holding her, cradling her in his arms as he turns them onto their sides, so her back's pressing into his chest. He hitches one of her legs over his hip and turns her head to the side so her head is facing them.

"Look at me… Caroline…" he gasps out, toes curling against the mattress at the sensations racing through his body. "Please."

Her eyes flicker open and she's staring at him. Crystal blue eyes locked on sea blue-green, her mouth parted in a permanent 'o' as he reaches down and rubs her clit in time with his thrusts.

"Say it," she grinds out, pushing her hips back against his, her body ready to throw itself off the cliff top and into oblivion.

"Say what?" he gasps, playing stupid as he feels himself tensing in anticipation of the pleasure to come.

"You know what. Say it." She gasps desperately, tears rolling down her cheeks; he bends down and kisses them away. "Please. I need to hear it. Say it."

"I.. I.. I love you," he whispers into her ear at the exact moment they fall into indescribable ecstasy together. "I love you. I love you. I love you."

He's crying too and their tears mix together as they roll down one and others cheeks. He can't stop saying it and she can't stop listening. "I love you. I love you. I love you."