Chapter 12 - Humanity

Caroline woke up the next morning, her neck hurting terribly. She blinked a few times as the sun was shining so bright, that her eyes stung. She yawned while holding her neck, causing it to crack once. "Ouch", she moaned and sat herself up. Bewildered she looked around and noticed she was sitting on the ground. She must have fallen asleep in front of the door. Caroline let out a sigh and massaged her temples before she heaved herself up and slowly went to the bathroom. Shocked she looked at her reflection in the mirror – she looked horrible! With slightly trembling fingers she drew the dark shadows under her eyes. Her eyes looked bloodshot red and they still stung of all the crying. What shocked her the most was that the dark veins under her eyes were clearly visible like she was about to attack someone. Lost in thoughts, she stroked the veins under her eyes, somehow amazed. She shouldn´t think that, it was bad, but she couldn´t help herself. As it knocked at her door, she jumped, suddenly torn from her thoughts. Not thinking about how she looked like, Caroline went to the door and unlocked it. Slowly she opened the door, seeing Rebekah standing in front of her. The Original´s smile disappeared and her eyes widened. "You too?!"
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When Klaus woke up, he was still sitting on the ground in front of Caroline´s door. He cursed himself mentally for falling asleep when he noticed how his neck hurt. No one ever managed it to break his neck but he supposed you must feel like that when you woke up again. Moaning he brought his hand to his neck, causing it to crack loudly. He groaned when the pain shot through his neck. Listening to Caroline´s calm heartbeat and breath he assumed she was still sleeping, so he decided to take a quick shower. While going into his room, he massaged his temples after his head stung like hell. Shocked he looked at his reflection in the mirror – he looked dead, for real this time. Curious he inspected his face: he had shadows under his eyes, dark as the night and his eyes looked bloodshot red. Had he really cried that much?! Klaus wasn´t really familiar with the after-effects of crying after he never really did so, but he had noticed those symptoms at his sister sometimes. But what shocked him the most was that the veins under his eyes were visible, what made him look even more horrible. His eyes fortunately had the normal deep blue colour and hadn´t taken over the hybrid look to a bright gold. His chest stung when he thought about how his eyes got this look the day before and how he glared at Caroline with those...murderer eyes. "Gosh Nik, you look like a bloody ghost!", his sister´s voice made him jump and in the mirror he saw that she was standing behind him. "Never heard of knocking, did you?", Klaus growled. "I did knock and after I got no answer I took it as an invitation", Rebekah just stated like it was a matter-of-fact that she was allowed to go in his room whenever she wanted. Klaus just rolled his eyes on her, causing his eyes to sting again. "I thought you didn´t want to leave?", Rebekah asked after a while, but it sounded more like a statement. Maybe even a judgement, Klaus wasn´t sure. First he hesitated but then he looked to the ground. "I didn´t", he said quietly but still powerful. A quick smile hushed over Rebekah´s face as she heard that. "You know brother, yesterday was a long day. Try it again today, I´m sure Caroline will give in sooner or later", she said smiling and at the mention of her name, Klaus turned around, facing his sister. "If you say so", he muttered, trying to sound like he didn´t care, failing miserably. Yes, yesterday he didn´t care if she saw him crying or not but today was a new day and he was trying o get back to his old facade, his safety. Rebekah just gave him a sly smile. "I do, trust me: at the end of the day it´ll be forgiven and forgotten", she trilled as she left the room, heading to Caroline´s door. Klaus sighed, turning around to look at his reflection once more. Now how to I fix that, he thought before he took a shower.
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"What do you mean: you too?", Caroline asked, closing the door behind Rebekah. "Never

mind, how do you feel?", the Original blonde tried to change the subject, sitting down at

Caroline´s huge, untouched bed. She obviously didn´t sleep in it this night, what Rebekah found weird. "Rebekah, talk to me: what do you mean?", Caroline repeated, walking over to the other blonde. "Didn´t you sleep at all this night? Your bed is untouched", Rebekah ignored her question what made Caroline furious. "Rebekah Mikaelson, you listen to me now!", she yelled, causing Rebekah to look perplexed. "What do you mean with you too?!", Caroline asked a little quieter than before. "Okay – bloody hell, I´ll tell you", Rebekah sighed before she continued. "I mean your eyes: dark shadows, bloody red and your vampire vein look...Nik looked exactly the same this morning", she told honestly. So he really did cry, Caroline thought, Dammit and it´s my fault! Sighing Caroline sunk on her bed, sadly looking to the ground. She felt horrible because she didn´t let Klaus in, didn´t let him talk to her, didn´t even answer him. What he did wasn´t that horrible that he´d deserve being treated like that by her. She was just shocked by him, by the situation – by herself. First the fight about the two massacres: the one by him was, if she thought about it, just to protect himself. And the one by her, where she killed those 12 witches was to save her friend. Caroline knew it didn´t excuse the murder of 12 most likely innocent people but it was the truth. Klaus mentioning that made her just very angry and sad at the same time, because he knew what she killed them for. He was the one who buried those witches afterwards, he was the one who stayed with her while Stefan brought Bonnie home. But though, he was mad at her back then and when she felt the guilt rushing through her, he first took her shoulders, slightly caressing them. He told her that she looked like she was in need of comfort and his eyes were full of love back then. She felt so save when his strong hands held her shoulders and his touch made her shiver. But then he said: Why don´t you find someone less terrible you can relate to? And it hurt, it really did. She remembered those words very well after she was the one who made him say it. She had told him before that people who do terrible things just are terrible people and by that practically thrown in his face that he was a terrible person and not worth caring. Caroline regretted those words very much because they weren´t even true. She was the one who knew his real face, at least a lot of it already, and he was definitely worth caring. The other thing that made her cry the day before was when he growled loudly. She hated when he did that, his voice was very frightening then. Caroline had never been afraid of Klaus, and she still wasn´t. It was just a horrible sound to her ears to hear this normally soft voice getting so loud, powerful and angry. His calm voice, with the handsome British accent, and all the love in his voice when he spoke to her...it all just disappeared. Moreover she cried because she was stupidly impulsive and when she was in rage, she couldn´t shut her mouth. She basically told him, even though it was more screaming than telling, that it hurt her to see him like that. That she cared about him and liked him and liked his caring side. That he hurt her by acting like he wasn´t human, because if Caroline knew one thing it was that he was human. He was caring, loving and extremely driven by his emotions. All his actions were consequences of his feelings, she knew that, because he was just like her. She was also driven by her emotions, she just showed them more often than him – maybe because he had not many people to show them to. How could you do this to me?!, were her words. They literally screamed – I care about you, you affect me, I like you! Caroline cried because in some way she told him how she felt. The last and most important reason why she cried was his reply: Well there we are – I am not human! Those words hurt her, they made her heart shatter into pieces because she knew it was a lie. It was a lie that he wasn´t human and those words, paired with his golden hybrid eyes and his canines were a way to show her how dangerous he was. Klaus was dangerous, he was a murderer, immortal...Intentionally or not, Klaus did this to show her that he wasn´t good. But Caroline knew that it was a lie, at least to her eyes it was. Klaus did terrible things, but he was driven by emotions and by reasons. She could explain every horrible thing he had done, because she understood how he must be feeling. Caroline cried because she didn´t want Klaus to believe that he was a monster. "Caroline? Hello there?", Rebekah´s voice interrupted her thoughts. "Mh- what?", Caroline jumped, looking at the other blonde. "You didn´t listen, did you? What were you thinking about?", Rebekah asked a little worried. "Humanity", Caroline said under her breath. Rebekah raised her eyebrows and inspected Caroline´s face. "You were thinking about my brother, weren´t you?", she asked but it sounded more like a statement. Or a judgement? No, no that wasn´t a judgement, there was a hint of happiness in her voice. Caroline just looked at her hands. She didn´t really want to tell Rebekah that she was right but she didn´t want to lie either. It wouldn´t make any sense anyway because she was a bad liar and Rebekah would notice immediately. The blonde Original smiled lovingly as Caroline nervously played with her daylight ring. "My brother really likes you, you know?", she said smiling. "Yea I doubt that after yesterday...", Caroline answered, laughing madly. "I was being a stupid little bitch..", she added before she started sobbing again. Rebekah took her in her arms and caressed her arm. "No, he doesn´t judge you at all", she said calmly and Caroline looked up. "He doesn´t?", she asked in a shrill voice. "No, he says it´s his fault and he judges himself", Rebekah said smiling but Caroline burst into tears. "But t-that´s ev-ven wo-o-orse!", she said between sobs and cried into Rebekah´s shoulder. "Shh, shh", the Original tried to calm her down. "A-and now he´s-s never gonna ta-alk to me again-n", she sobbed quietly, not caring that she just made clear how important Klaus was to her. Now was he? He was important to her, he was – good god, he was!, Caroline thought. She was surprised by herself but Rebekah didn´t seem surprised at all. "I´m positive he´ll talk to you, before the sun will go down", Rebekah said innocently, with a sly smile on her lips. "Okay now back to your eyes, what is it with the veins?", she asked, looking at Caroline. "I guess the cravings...", Caroline said quietly, wiping her tears away. "What cra-", Rebekah started but she was cut off. "The cravings for blood", a voice said, Caroline knew just too well. As she turned to the door, she saw Klaus standing there, red eyes and dark shadows underneath them.