I was blown away and humbled by all the reviews left last chapter! Thank you! I finished chapter 14 and I'm nearly done with 15 and whew! are they draining as hell. But until then you get to enjoy the endless fluff of this next chapter-the calm before the angst.

Guest: If you loved the previous chapter focused on them, then you'll thoroughly enjoy this fluff spectacle.

TwilightHybrid: I wanted there to be more intimacy than anything in that chapter; a cocoon with just the two of them. Happy you liked it!

AxeBird1: Thanks! This chapter is a big longer for you :)

Guest: I'm a sucker for angst. I suppose that's why I gravitate towards writing it. I'm worried about the pacing sometimes; is it to rushed or too soon? I generally just go with my gut.

Guest: Thanks! Im forever worried I'm not getting the 'voice' correct with Klaus and Caroline

Kacomu: I've stated I'm not sure what the outcome of the story will be quite yet. I have an outline but those change frequently with me.

Zangestsu50: Klaus finds out in chapter 14 and I'm certain it's going to take everyone by surprise how it comes to light. There will be acknowledgement in chapter 15 about the fact that she led him on for so long despite her illness; I felt that was super important to cover. Post chapter 14 everything gets shifted for a more of an even split regarding everything. I wanted to focus more on the build up first. Lastly, rant on honey. I love it.

Daniellerae23: I updated the summary. I hope it's better! Thanks for giving me a kick in the butt about it!

Thanks again for taking the time to read and review! Enjoy!

Chapter 12

"You sir, have proven yourself quite the pillow fort engineer."

His grin was sheepish as Klaus crawled onto the cushions he had placed on the floor. The morning was beginning to break before them and a soft rain had started to fall tinging against the roof in a cacophony of hums and dings. As their evening had dwindled into array of soft caresses and teasing kisses, they had worked up quite the appetite and decided sustenance was a good idea in the early morning of dawn.

It was Caroline's suggestion to watch the sun rise and she giggled at the mischievous glint he got in his eye as he tossed pillows and cushions on the floor and arranged two chairs in front of the sofa. Dashing to the hall closet, he returned with a large sheet fitting it over the tops of the furniture and cocooning her in his creation. He left her to fret around in the kitchen and she could hear the rattling of bowls and drawers opening and closing. From her position, she could see clearly out of the large bank of floor to ceiling windows and doors that took up the entire back façade of the condo, the ocean dancing along the shoreline in crashing intervals.

"I am rather pleased with it if I do say so myself." He gave her the bowl in his hand and settled inside their fort. He got comfortable on his side, his elbow bent to prop up his head. She was laying on her stomach, her arms crossed under her to pillow holding up her torso. He tucked an errant curl behind her ear. "Rather pleased with you too, love."

"Tennessee Fudge." She blushed, nodding suspiciously at the bowl of ice cream in her grasp, dipping her spoon in and plopping it into her mouth. Her face was sun kissed, her freckles a constellation across her cheeks framed by the wild curls the sea salt had created. "Someone was prepared."

"I hadn't the haziest notion you would be spending the night here," he kissed the hollow of her neck. "or working up quite an appetite," moving his way up her neck, he latched onto her earlobe as she took in a sharp breath. "or demanding ice cream the morning afterwards."

Shutting her eyes against his ministrations, she placed a tentative hand on his chest lightly pushing him away. She gave him a knowing look. "You had an idea though."

"There may have been a question of what if…" leaning forward he kissed her, the coolness of her tongue hot against the heat of his. He drew on her bottom lip with his as he released her, licking at the taste of her and faintest hint of fudge. "I'll admit I wasn't sure of your suggestion of ice cream for breakfast but I think I'm becoming a rather big fan."

"I'll be sure to let Hope know."

"I'll never hear the end of that, I'm sure."

"Tell me what this means." She murmured, her fingers tracing along the lines of the feather on his arm that scattered into birds across his chest. His eyes fluttered under her touch as she continued her exploration.

"It was an act of rebellion in my formative years." He confessed with a soft snort. "I suppose I thought it might be meant to symbolize freedom. I was a bit of a prat back then."

"You're a smartass for sure, and you keep saying how terrible you used to be; but how bad could you have really been?"

He focused on the hair he was pushing back from her face as he spoke. "I allowed my poor relationship with my father turn me into a twisted and angry version of myself. I was sullen and violent most of the time. Rebekah wouldn't have anything to do with me, Elijah did his best to save me from myself. Kol rejoiced that he had someone to join in on the chaos." He paused his explanation with a completive frown. "We would get into so many fights. My father allowed me to sit in jail for four days once. He didn't even bat an eyelash."

"What changed?" she snuggled further into her arms, her attention completely on him, her bowl disregarded. "Other than my wall" she gave him a pointed look. "Which I may have forgiven but will not be forgetting anytime soon…you seem to not have any cares in the world."

"On the contrary love," he smiled warmly, his palm cupping her cheek. "I, in fact do have a few cares in the world, including a Car-oline." She rolled her eyes as his terrible attempt at humor but her face nested further into his embrace all the same. "You know I saw Elijah yesterday."

"Seriously?"

"Well, someone did harangue me endlessly about it."

"I resent harangued; that's not what it was."

Nuzzling her neck first, he kissed her pout away. "What would you call it?"

"Strategic reminding." She quipped. "Endlessly because you're too stubborn apparently. But how did it go?"

"Elijah and I have to be better for one another because it's bigger than us now. Having a child changes things. I didn't understand it at first. Years ago, Hayley and I got into a spat one night and I caught my reflection in her hall mirror. I saw a monster, I saw my father and then it all made sense."

"You changed because you had Hope."

"I haven't really changed, love." His small grimace was framed in brief melancholy. There was a softness to his face as he refocused his attention back to her. "I just choose different avenues to dive my energy into now. Like focusing my attention on you instead of my devious ways"

"Like the night we had last night wasn't devious." She snickered and he cracked a smile in response. "Or you just being a general pain in my ass distraction."

He blew a raspberry kiss in her neck, a burst of laughs erupting out of her. "Mind your tongue sweetheart."

"But it's so much more fun when you mind it for me."

He didn't hesitate to take the invitation as she savored her lips upon his. Coiling his arm around her waist he hauled her torso on top of his chest. She smiled against his lips he continued his ministrations sliding down her body and over his shirt that she still wore. Flipping her quickly on her back, he made fast work of exploring the hollow of her neck once more, finding new spots that had her humming with excitement.

His hands moved painfully slow as he inched up her shirt, a trail of wet kisses following in the wake of his lips upon her skin. Tenderly, he eased the shirt off of her head, tossing it to the floor and relished in the sight of her beneath him once more. She tugged at his necklaces, meeting his lips, a blissful sigh escaping them at the contact. The sun was forcing its way through the storm clouds outside, casting an iridescent glow around them.

Despite the tent collapsing around them, he drowned in a sea of her giggles and curls.

X-x-X

From her perch at the bottom of the stairs, Caroline stretched her bare legs out in front of her, her toes squishing between the sand. The sun was high in sky, even if was obscured by a relentless parade of clouds. The breeze was pleasant enough though; as it weaved through her unruly curls she could still smell Klaus lingering on her skin, could still feel his touch on various parts of her body. She could feel the blush creeping along her cheeks just at the thought.

"What is that grin for?" Klaus settled in behind her, chest still bare, tucking her body in between his legs. He passed her over the half sandwich he had made for them and a beer as he took a sip of his own.

"I was thinking of our time in the pillow fort." She sunk a bite into the sandwich, a soft moan coming out at how tasty it was. "Thank you, this is delicious. It's pretty cute that it's cut into a triangle."

"Need I remind you I have a five-year-old." He murmured in her hair with a smirk as she finished the last of her food. "I'm just sorry that the pillow fort did not make it through the Caroline tsunami."

"Hey!" she spun in his grasp the slightest to push his shoulder playfully. "Actually, I think I was a helpless victim to Hurricane Klaus."

"Helpless?" He laughed, his fingers digging into her sides as she squealed and squirmed in his arms. "On the contrary love, you were all too willing."

"Maybe."

"Maybe." He agreed with a snicker. Her giggles fell into short breathes as he turned her wrist to show the small swallow on her skin and kissed it gently. "And what is the meaning of this? We delved into mine earlier, so I think it's only fair."

"Rebellion." Parroting his earlier answer, she slid her palm along his jaw and settled it on his cheek after he kissed her palm. "I got it right before heading to college so for me it was about the journey I was about to embark on. Since I was scared, I guess this was my idea of how to control things. I would always be able to look down at it and know that it was my course I was set on."

"And college? Did you get everything you wanted out of it?"

"For the most part." She frowned just the slightest. "Obviously finding Stefan was a big win; it set me on the road to what I do now. Gaining Bonnie as a friend was a godsend. I found a lot of who I was in those years. Got my heart broken for the first time."

"Oh?"

"You really want to know this?"

"I'm torn between shaking this bloke's hand for leading you to me and tearing his head off from hurting you." He replied with a shrug. "What if you tell me yours I'll tell you mine."

"Ok but yours better be good." she asked mocking serious. She had to fight the smile that was trying to take over her features. She sighed. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything about you."

"That makes things simple." she plopped back against his chest, her hair fanning around her head in a halo. She thought of the everything about her and shuddered thinking of telling him. "I actually grew up with Tyler. We knew each other our whole lives and I had no idea he was going to the same university as I was. We ran into each other at a party and became friends."

"With benefits?"

"Don't be gross." She scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "No benefits; we would study together and grab food, go to parties. But then our dads died within a few months of one another at the end of our freshman year and it was something we both bonded over. We grew closer. We stayed together all through college. We even lived together our senior year."

"And what exactly was the undoing of you two?"

"Time." She whispered softly with a small breath. "The future I guess. Here we were, months from graduating college, a nearly 3-year relationship behind us and not once had we talked about what came next. I remember sitting on the floor of our apartment pouring over business plans that Stefan had drawn up and looking for places to live in Charleston. He was pacing in front of me back in fourth on the phone hammering out the details for a job in Texas. It was like a cold bucket of water was dumped on me. We were totally orbiting in different circles."

"Was it amicable?"

"It was like, this very underwhelming conclusion to something that had carved out so much of my life. There was nothing catastrophic or explosive about it." She exhaled and shrugged. "We had shared a bed, and a lease, but I guess we never shared ourselves and then it was all over. It didn't feel like a waste to me though, because I did love him, but it just felt complete; final."

"You seem troubled by that." She removed herself from his grasp then, and despite being in just a pair of his boxers and his t shirt, she sank into the sand in front of him. Tucking her knees in between his, she took his hands as she scooted closer to him. "Seems rather convenient; no lingering doubts or feelings."

"Well yeah." She nodded, her brow furrowing in the center. "But that only matters now. At the time it felt like I needed more. I just think that any love that is substantial doesn't ever feel complete, that it shouldn't. It should fill you up, but still make you crave that next slice of the pie."

Her heart clenched; not at the absence of Tyler in her life but at the dwindling life she had remaining. She hadn't quite decided what she felt for Klaus and a lot of that hinged on her inability to fully accept her fate. After their previous night, she was unable to deny the connection and accepting that he was simply now a part of her story; however that played out.

"My ex would have some thoughts about your outlook." He responded and she noted the wistful look in his eyes. "I met Camille at a bar but much later after Hope had come along. She was getting her degree in psychology and because I am the epitome of anger management and daddy issues, she found me fascinating."

"She called you out on your shit, didn't she?" Caroline deduced with a smirk. "I like her already."

He leaned forward as she propped her elbow on his knee, her chin in her hand. "Perhaps." She hesitated but after a moment she ran her fingers through his hair, his eyes beating at the contact. "I suppose we were in a relationship but we never quite defined it as such. We didn't end dramatically either; I made the choice to move here and she made the choice to stay in Chicago."

"But she was important to you."

"She was." He agreed, capturing her fingers and kissing along her knuckles. "But that was a lifetime ago."

"You didn't ask her to go did you." She deduced after a lull, the crashing waves behind them filling up the silence. "Did you want her to?"

"I had Hope; Hayley and I were balancing each other and an infant, there were a multitude of factors…" the sun peeked through a break in the clouds and he squinted against it's light. "I didn't fair well in my attempt to navigate that time in my life. I wanted to be with her; but I think I was only participating because I needed help. That's not what a relationship should be built on. It didn't have weight but I suppose it was sinking all the same."

"What if you had met me at that time in your life?" she blurted out, her eyes wide at the admission. Biting her lip, she peaked up at him through her lashes. Gingerly, he tucked a loose curl behind her ear, cupping her check and giving her a tender look of adoration.

"Much the same as I feel now, I suppose." He drew her into him, the fervor of his lips yielding and demanding against hers. "I'd want to carry you with me and just hope you'd just allow me to show you what the world has to offer."

X-x-X

"Lovely. I see you've managed to find more to cover yourself with than just your knickers."

Klaus smirked coming into the kitchen as he tossed a shirt over his own torso. Caroline gave him a snide face as she turned away from him and dug into the fridge. He glided into one of the stools at the breakfast bar and waited, admiring the way she looked with the khaki shorts she had slipped on. Spinning around she set a bottle of wine on the counter and began rummaging through the cabinets, finally finding two sippy cups and placing them beside the bottle of wine.

"Yes, I finally put on something other than just underwear but I didn't see much complaining coming from you."

"And you never will love." He held his hands up in mock surrender. "Just a harmless observation. What are you up to?"

"Well, you can't openly drink on the beach." She twisted the lid off each cup and poured the wine to the brim. "So, this is my solution."

"In my child's sippy cups?" he questioned and she nodded happily as she screwed the lids back on. As she took a generous sip, the red wine flowing through the straw he gestured for her to pass one over to him. "Since I'm probably going to hell anyway; why not drink out of my child's cup."

"Excellent." She purred, coming around the bar and holding out her hand for him to take. "The sun is just about set, the rain has finally stopped, and I think we should stretch our legs a little bit."

He followed her, a tight grasp on her fingertips as she led them through the back door and onto the beach. His house was a least a mile from the popular tourist spots along the beach and there were only a few people milling around in the distance. He watched her hips sway in lovely rhythm with the waves that crashed down in front of them. Savoring her small squeal when the water rushed around her feet, he tugged her closer as they continued their trek along the shoreline.

"Tell me your favorite holiday."

He snorted softly against her knuckles as he kissed her hand. "You never cease to astound me with your randomness."

"My favorite holiday is Christmas." She continued despite his thinly veiled protest. She bent down and plucked a seashell out of the sand. "I love the smell of pine and the magic of all the twinkling lights and holly. And presents! The best part is seeing everyone's face when they open their presents. I love watching all my hard work pay off."

"So, it's really about you at that moment?" he goaded in jest and she nudged him with her elbow. She could feel him lament against her skin. "What else did you enjoy about it?"

A breath of contentment dropped from her lips as she snaked her arm around his. "The last weekend we spent here every summer we would celebrate Christmas. In fact, we would even celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving; We'd dress up something silly on Friday, have a big dinner Saturday and on Sunday…"

"Christmas morning."

"Christmas morning." She parroted as she smiled warmly. "We would scour the beach for all the shells we could find and place them in the shape of a tree on the beach. Then we would garnish it with seaweed and whatever else we could muster up out here. Most years, that Christmas was better than real Christmas."

"I rather like birthdays."

"That's not a holiday."

"It is if you bloody well make it into one." He retorted. "Just ask Rebekah. She makes a compelling argument for hers to be a national holiday."

"And what was your favorite birthday?"

"My 25th." He chuckled at the memory and he looked comical taking a long drink out of the sippy cup. "Kol had a fake ID and chaos ensued. He had the grand idea to go galivanting around the French Quarter in New Orleans. Somewhere, there is video of me singing quite terribly at karaoke. Kol has been holding the footage hostage."

"Oh my god." She giggled, falling into his chest. "I can't imagine you of all people singing." She gasped, stopping them in their tracks. "What did you sing?"

Grimacing he twirled her around in front of him. "I don't recall, actually."

"You're such a liar." She frowned in admonishment and tugged him closer to her. "Oh, come on! What if it's a favorite song of mine? Oh! Would you sing it for me?!"

"Absolutely not." He shook away from her grasp and started a small jog away from her. She waited a moment before chasing after him. After catching up with him, she grabbed him around the waist and they both fell into the sand with a thump. "Are you pleased with yourself?"

Rolling on top of him, she propped up on her elbow as her curls cascaded around his face. "You could tell me or I can bride the video evidence out of your brother."

"You haven't even met him yet."

"I have ways." She flirted giving him a peck on the lips. "Come on! Please, please please…"

"I like those words against your lips," he kissed her, delving into her parted lips. "Just not exactly in this context." She tilted her head away from him in a mock protest and he let out his breath. "Keep in mind that I was plied with a various array of tequila and bourbon and Kol is the biggest prat I have ever met. But since you insist on it, I sang a number from the Spice Girls."

"NO WAY!" she exclaimed her eyes growing wide as she bouncily pushed his chest. "Now I have to see that video."

"Out of the question." He managed to pull them both up to sitting positions, dusting the sand off of his arms. Laughing at her pout, he ran a thumb along her bottom lip. "Don't be cross, sweetheart."

"I've never done karaoke before." She admitted with a soft cringe right before her eyes lit up with excitement and she gripped his forearm. "What if you do it with me one day? I know all the moves to 'Wannabe.'"

Rolling his eyes, he entwined his fingers through hers with reverence. "What if I just watch?"

"What if," she countered with a serious tilt of her head. "I do karaoke and you do something you have never done? What's something you've always wanted to do but have been too chicken to?"

"I've never understood that particular phase. Have you ever seen a chicken? Little buggers will just about go anywhere with very little provocation." She chuckled and shook her head.

"Come on, what's something you're just dying to do? Climb Everest, go to Paris, rob an art museum."

"I'll need to find my passport for the first two," he contemplated in jest. "And we'll need far more grace than you and I have sweetheart to rob a museum."

"Come on, I'm being semi-serious here. Anything in the world."

"I suppose I have always wanted to do a little graffiti."

"Really?" she blinked pursing her lips in contemplation.

Inching forward, he looped his arms around her waist. "I rather like the idea of taking my art and putting in on an unremarkable and unconventional canvas for the whole of the world to see."

Running her hands up the plane of his chest she nestled them around his neck and drew his lips down to meet hers. "Well, I can't offer you up an overpass of a bridge just this minute but what if we go back, rebuild our fort, and you make me your canvas for the evening?"

Have you melted from all the fluff? :)