A/N: Welcome back! All of my editing for this chapter was just deleted, so yay! I know I said Friday, but I decided on Friday that I didn't like the update, so I spent yesterday and this morning rewriting.

Thanks for the continued support. I hope you like this one!

Please check out the song that accompanies this chapter. It's one of my favourites.

Enjoy!

"Why can you read me like no one else,

I hide behind these words,

But I'm coming out."

It's Not A Side Effect Of The Cocaine, I Am Thinking It Must Be Love | Fall Out Boy (My Heart Will Always Be The B-Side To My Tongue)

Foot, Meet Mouth (AKA first love, pt 2)

By this point, she doubted she could move even if she wanted to. Even if her life depended on it.

After her panic attack had officially ended, Klaus walked them to his house in complete silence. She felt guilty, because she knew he knew she was lying about the reason behind her panic attack, but she wasn't ready to face the real cause of it, and she had a feeling that he wasn't either. Klaus cheered up when they walked through the door of the Mikaelson household, as did she when the scent of crisp meat wafted into her nostrils. They sat at the table making small talk with Rebekah and Esther while Kol moodily played with his food, complaining about wanting to be a vegetarian. That sent a wave of laughter over the dinner table, and Klaus explained Kol's request was due to a girl he liked at school refusing to talk to him because he ate meat.

Dinner had finished thirty minutes ago. She and Klaus were in his bedroom—Esther was the most amazing mother in the world allowing her to be inside his room with the door closed—lying on his bed, their bellies stuffed with Sunday roast and green apple crumble. She could get used to spending her Sunday evenings like this.

"I know you don't want to tell me about the panic attack," Klaus said, taking her hand in his and bringing it to his lips. His scruff tickled her skin. "But I want you to know that I won't judge you, or anything like that. If that's what you're worried about."

That was part of it. She was worried he would laugh at her, tell her she was a foolish teenager that didn't know the first thing about love. But, then again, he was a foolish teenager too. And didn't this whole partnership mean they were supposed to figure this type of stuff out together?

"Relationships," he went on, rolling up her sleeve and scraping his blunt nails across the skin of her arm. She had to stop herself from shivering, but could do nothing to stop the infestation of goosebumps that exploded the moment he touched her. "Relationships are built on trust, that's what I've been taught. I don't want you to feel pressured into telling me anything, ever, but I do want you to know that . . . well, that I'm here for you. You can trust me, with anything. I don't want you to think you have to lie to me."

He had a point. Of course he had a point.

Both of their fathers were liars. Cheats. Scum of the earth. She didn't want to already be lying to Klaus. Not about this important, life-changing, emotional shift.

"You want me to be honest with you?" she said, rolling onto her side. She took her arm away from Klaus. His touch was too distracting.

Klaus lolled his head to face her, giving her a nod. "Yes," he replied shortly. "Always."

Christ, she was an idiot. This was all happening too fast. She wasn't ready.

But, if books had taught her anything, you never were ready. These things, they sprang on you. Caught you off guard and unawares.

Elizabeth was startled beyond belief when she found she loved Darcy. As was Anne when she discovered that Gilbert Blythe had entered her heart long before she realised. Ron and Hermione, Cath and Levi, Rose and Dimitri.

Even Jane and Mr. Rochester had a tough time coming to terms with their feelings for each other.

"Nothing you say will shock me, I assure you," Klaus promised. "I'm not easily startle"—

—"I think, maybe, I love you. Maybe. Kind of. Yeah."

There it was. Out in the open.

Caroline's stomach felt like it was about to rise in her throat and fall out of her mouth. Her heart was beating a thousand miles a minute. Sweat was falling from each and every individual pore pinpricked across her body.

Fearing the worst, Caroline braved a look at Klaus. He was frozen, eyes wide and mouth hanging partially open.

Why had she said anything? She felt like the biggest fool in all the world.

Well, Caroline thought as she readied herself for the embarrassing, cold walk home, that was a very anticlimactic end to my first and last relationship. Goodbye dating world, hello cats.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed as the once-delicious roast dinner swept its way up her digestive tract, the red-faced high schooler sat up and tried to put on her best fake smile. "Um," she croaked, refusing to look at Klaus while she hopped off the mattress, "I think I should probably go now."

She took a few steps forward, the floorboards creaking beneath her weight, and was nearly overcome with the unexpected desire to burst into tears, but locked her knees when she sensed someone behind her. A hand gently wrapped around her wrist, turning her body back around. Swallowing the lump of silly emotion that was blocking her throat, Caroline peered up at the handsome British boy she had just spilled her heart to.

He was looking down at her with an excited, confused glint in his shadowy blue eyes. His fingers were steadily burning holes in her flesh the longer he stared, but she couldn't find any words to say. Her mind had gone blank, a common occurrence when she was around Klaus, but right now she needed to say something.

Klaus shattered the ringing stillness, saving Caroline from having another panic attack. "Really?" he asked, sounding bewildered. His lips twitched. "You do? Or, you think you do?"

Heat engulfed Caroline, scorching her cheeks. "I—yeah," she whispered, heart hammering away in her throat. "And I know it's only been a couple of months, and to be honest with you I only just realised it myself."

Caroline tried looking anywhere but at the boy right in front of her, but Klaus followed her darting gaze. "Hey, stop freaking out. This is not the time to be freaking out."

"Actually, I think this is the perfect time to be freaking out."

"You're too cynical," he accused, mouth moving into a smile.

Caroline sighed, suddenly tired. "We come from broken homes, Klaus. I'm being realistic here. Love rarely ends well. I shouldn't have said anything."

"Um, no. You're not allowed to take things like that back. It's against the rules."

"What rules?" Caroline scoffed, wanting nothing more than to escape. She kept looking at the door, wondering if she should just make a break for it. Pick up her feet and never look back.

Klaus took a step back, pulling her with him toward the bed. He sat down and tugged her arm. She fell into his lap perfectly.

For a brief moment, Caroline considered how protected she felt, wrapped up in Klaus. He was a source of comfort and warmth and security. They had taken part in petty fights since they got together, but nothing big enough to lose that sense of safety. Could falling in love with this boy be such a bad thing?

"Now," Klaus started, his breath tickling her neck, "we need to talk about this. This is big, it can't be brushed under the rug."

His maturity was slightly annoying. And anyway, why couldn't it be brushed under the rug? She wouldn't mind if it was.

"What's there to talk about, Klaus? I don't know what came over me exactly, and we can forget I even said anything. I like the sound of that," she remarked, her throat barely able to push the words out.

Klaus tightened his grip on her, almost desperately. "I don't want to forget," he maintained. His statement quickened Caroline's pulse.

She didn't want to forget either, not really. The pressure that had surrounded her chest for weeks disappeared when she said those words. But . . . he had yet to say he felt the same way, that he maybe loved her too.

That was why she was ready to up and walk. To run and forget this evening had ever happened.

"No one other than my mother and Rebekah have ever said they loved me," Klaus mentioned hollowly, breaking Caroline's poor heart. She took his hand in hers automatically, as it was rare for Klaus to go into the depravity that was his childhood. "Elijah did once, but he was slightly drunk at the time. Hearing you say it, say that you, this wonderful girl, love me . . . it feels as if I have died and gone to heaven."

Despite the outrageousness of the idea, Caroline understood where he was coming from. "My dad wasn't good at saying it either. And considering how many times I've seen or even spoken to him since he left makes me believe he never really meant it anyway. Elena and Bonnie occasionally say it, but it's on friendly terms. Not," she paused, trying to figure out the best way to say what she was thinking, "I-couldn't-imagine-living-without-you love, the way my mother says it. I mean, to be perfectly honest, I've only ever said it to my parents. I don't say it back to my friends."

Klaus rested his chin on her shoulder, his breaths even. Feeling more relaxed than she had done in the past ten minutes, Caroline allowed herself to go slightly limp in Klaus's arms. Confession time was upon them, and it required no fences nor boundaries. Only truth and compassion.

"I love you, too. I think I have for a while."

A whisper, a hush, brushed over Caroline's skin like fog washing over a mountain.

She remained still. "I probably won't always say it back," she noted, realising only after she had spoken that it was probably the silliest thing she could have said. "I—I mean—no, that came out wrong. I just mean it might take a while to get used to it. Besides," she remarked, "I don't want to become one of those couples who say it all the time anyway. They make me want to vomit."

Amazingly, Klaus laughed. And his laughter brightened up the entire room, which had steadily shadowed as the wintery night passed them. "I can live with that. But I'll get you used to it," he asserted, lips connecting with the side of her neck.

Involuntarily, Caroline tilted her head to the side. Klaus planted more kisses along her skin until he reached her ear. "We've started something great, Caroline Forbes," he murmured, setting her entire body ablaze, "and I honestly don't plan on ever stopping it."

It sounded like a promise. A declaration that Klaus would always love her. That he would never cease loving her.

Without thinking about anything other than him, Caroline turned in Klaus's lap and placed her lips over his. She kissed him with the kind of vigour she perhaps hadn't before, wanting to convey to him without having to use her voice that she agreed with him. That she too believed they had started something great, and she too could see no end to it.

Klaus sat it bed, a book propped upon his lap, a smile plastered permanently on his face. Caroline was gone now, but he could still feel her in the room. Feel her lips upon his.

He almost couldn't believe what had happened, least of all that Caroline was the one to say those magic little words first. Over the past couple of weeks he had found the sentiment sitting on the tip of his tongue more than he cared to admit, but he always chickened out at the last second. He was glad it was out in the open now. Beyond glad, really. Stefan and Jeremy had been teasing him lately over how "serious" he and Caroline seemed to be getting, and now he saw where his best friends were coming from. They were serious, not that the boys would ever find out how serious.

Klaus jumped and slammed his book shut when a sharp rap echoed around his room.

"Nik, can I come in?" It was Rebekah.

Breathing out slowly, Klaus leaned back and turned toward his door. "Sure, Bekah."

Their mother had gone to bed ages ago, probably thinking with surety that her youngest child was sound asleep. When Rebekah opened the door, Klaus smiled at her knowingly.

"What?" she said, moving inside and approaching the bed. She was fairly short and the bed was fairly large, so she had to put in quite a lot of effort to boost herself up. "You're looking at me weird."

Klaus cocked his head to the side. "Aren't you supposed to be long asleep, little sister?"

"What Mum doesn't know, won't hurt her." Rebekah frowned and crossed her arms. "You won't tell on me, will you?"

"I'm not Kol. I wouldn't."

Bekah nodded. "Good. I just wanted to know how it went with Caroline today. You guys were out for a long time, then in here for a long time too," Rebekah said, almost suggestively.

Klaus knew his cheeks were pink, but his room was hopefully dim enough that his curious sister wouldn't realise it. "Stop being so nosy. It's not very becoming."

"You're covering something up," Rebekah decided, sounding scarily like a lawyer. It was only the face and the Lion King pyjamas that gave her true age away. "Did you . . . have sex?" Rebekah lowered her voice and her head, staring intensely into Klaus's eyes.

"What?" Klaus shrieked, thankful their mother was the heaviest sleeper in existence. Shortly after they moved to the States, Kol broke an entire set of plates at two o'clock in the morning. He and Rebekah shot out of bed immediately, but they had to go into the master bedroom and physically shove their mother downstairs. "Rebekah, honestly," Klaus said, rubbing his eyes as if the motion would help him un-hear his sister's question, "what has gotten into you?"

"Is that a no?" she asked casually.

Glaring at his sister, Klaus nodded. "Very, very, very big no."

Sure, he'd had the occasional dream about it, but they'd only just admitted their feelings for one another. That could definitely wait. For however long it needed to wait.

"You should go to bed, Bekah. We've both got school in the morning."

Rebekah pouted. "Fine." She hopped off of the bed and walked to the door. "Goodnight, Nik."

"Goodnight, Rebekah," he responded, switching off his light when she left.

Grabbing his phone, Klaus sent a quick text to the girl he was sure would somehow find her way into his unconscious mind that night and set up his alarm to wake him at 5:30 a.m.

He closed his eyes, but they flew open seconds later when Caroline's personalised text tone went off. Reaching for his phone, he opened the message.

Sweet dreams, Klaus.

He responded quickly. You as well, love.

Sweet dreams indeed.

"Think of all the places where you've been lost,

And found out."

A/N 2: I don't usually ask for reviews, but I would really love for you guys to leave some for this chapter telling me what you've liked about Klaus and Caroline's journey so far. Since we're coming up to a two-year time jump, they won't be the same characters anymore, and I think it would be fun to know what you guys have loved, and maybe not so much loved, about this story. Maybe talk about their steady progression into romance, or their individual characteristics, or the background characters. Please be kind, though, always. And thank you, thank you, thank you! You're all amazing.

Next update will perhaps take a while, and I will tell you the reason is because it deals with some heavier things. Klaus and Caroline will be seniors when we next see them, and we open up to a completely different town that's just recently been tainted with some horrible news. This story will always revolve around Klaus and Caroline, their relationship, their growth as a couple, but to get them to the next step, they need to go through something less happy than what you're used to. DON'T WORRY THOUGH: Klaus and Caroline are still together, still in love, and still planning their future. The bad thing does not happen to them.

I've got it all mapped out. You'll just have to trust me and my fluffy ways.

Until next time, guys!

LoveIsATemple