Caroline tried feigning sleep for a while, but finally decided it was no use and got out of bed. The day was still just beginning and she was going crazy staying inside. She was here for her sake, after all. She should do something fun.
She got up and changed clothes as quietly as possible, stopping dead in her tracks every single time Klaus stirred. She wore a pair of shorts and a simple t-shirt along with a pair of brown leather boots. She looked herself over in the mirror and decided to wear sunglasses, the sky looked clear from her window.
Doubting whether or not Klaus had seen her fingers linger over the hidden zipper yesterday, she decided to move the drawing. She thought he wouldn't look through her clothes and hid the drawing in between two pairs of jeans. They covered every inch of it and she was satisfied, feeling a lot safer with it now. She wrote him a small note and left it on his bedside table.
'Gone sightseeing, I'll be back by dinner.' She had no idea if she'd actually be gone that long, but she would definitely be back by them. Grabbing a bag with her wallet, phone and keycard for the hotel, she set out the door to see the world.
She walked to Piccadilly Circus and went to take the Underground trains. Everything was very confusing - how to buy passes, how to use them, where to go - luckily, the people were very kind and helpful. She figured out everything, but wondered where to go first. London had such rich history and figuring out where to start was difficult, but she chose to just follow the guide. There was lots to see, so she just saw all the most cliché landmarks the first day.
She spent many hours just walking around looking for things, she never found. She bought a lot of touristy crap, though, and a few postcards to send back to her mom and Elena. London was big. Much bigger than Mystic Falls.
She got hungry by noon and made sure her sunglasses covered her eyes, while she tried to find a hospital. Asking around for directions, pretending to have a severely sprained hand. She found one and within seconds had a doctor fetch her two bags of B+ and forgetting about her immediately afterwards. She hated compelling people, but this was survival. Necessary.
Klaus had awoken after a deep sleep and had wondered at how silently Caroline slept. He tiptoed out of the room to take a show and hoped that the running water would awaken her slowly.
When he had returned to the bedroom, her side of the bed was empty. He changed his clothes, as he thought she had just left him for the privacy. He wouldn't mind letting her watch, but this was fine too. She wasn't in the living room either. He looked around, but she was nowhere to be found. He got a little worried and paced around looking for her.
Her phone was gone. Where had she gone? What had happened? His stomach churned and he was beginning to grow sick with concern.
As he wondered whether or not to call her, he looked at her suitcase. His worry overshadowed a bit by curiosity, he went and soundlessly unzipped it. Nothing was there and this only made him worry more. What had been in that compartment? Had she taken it with her? He called her, not able to stand not being in the loop.
After spending another hour aimlessly searching for something, her phone rang. She looked at the display. 'Klaus'. She picked it up.
"Hey."
"Don't 'hey' me, Caroline. Where are you? Are you alright?" He sounded way too worried.
"Yes, I'm fine, Klaus. Chill."
"No, I won't 'chill'. Where are you? Did something happen to make you leave without telling me where you went?"
"Let me guess, you didn't look at your bedside table?" She heard him pacing through the phone.
"No. Why would I..." He stopped mid-sentence. "Oh."
"Look, Klaus, I'm sorry, but I didn't want to wake you." She sighed and headed back towards the nearest station. "I'll come back to the hotel now. Just… Stop worrying so much!"
"Maybe I can take you some place, then?"
"Yeah, fine. We could go to the London eye. I see it in movies all the time. I really want to go there some night."
"It's a date."
"No, it's not. It's just two friends, going to have some fun, look at the skyline and drink champagne."
"If you say, so."
"Seriously, Klaus. We are not going on a date. I'll bring someone else along, if you keep pushing it."
"Fair enough, sorry." He sounded like he was scheming something.
"Klaus, I swear, if you're not on your best behaviour tonight-"
"I always am when it comes to you, Caroline. You know that."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, you're still cheesy." She said and hung up.
Making her way back to the hotel was pretty easy. She patted herself on the back for learning how to navigate a part of London so quickly.
He was standing in the middle of the living room, when she got in. He was dressed in a suit and she felt immensely underdressed.
"Why are you all dressed up?" She inquired, setting down her bags and kicking off her shoes. She settled in a chair and looked up at his face, handsome as ever. Damn him.
"I thought, since we have some time to kill before the sun goes down, that you would allow me to take you to see a show on West End." He looked at her smiling and she couldn't help but return his smile.
"You mean a musical, right?" Her smile brightened as he looked at her completely astonished at her knowledge, obviously not counting on that an American small-town girl knew anything that specific to the UK..
"You are much smarter, than I give you credit for." He bowed for her and she got up and curtsied. Their eyes met for a second and it was electric. She busied herself with going into the bedroom and trying to find something fancy to wear.
"Not really, I just spent all day looking at this tourism brochure. If I hadn't learned something, I might as well just have watched tv." She chuckled, but her demeanour quickly changed.
She gave him an annoyed look and groaned. "I don't have anything fancy to wear." He gave her a mischievous smirk. "Luckily that is fixable."
Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for your continued support! Next chapter is twice as long as normal, I hope you'll like it! And I hope you like the story so far!
Don't worry, Caroline will probably fall completely for Klaus' charms soon, and then it's her time to do the pursuing ;)