A/N: Welcome to beautiful Budapest.
When Klaus had told Caroline they were going to Eastern Europa Caroline's first thoughts had circled around mobsters and Russian gangs. Surprisingly enough for her Budapest turned out to be one of the most beautiful cities she had ever seen. She imagined it would be even prettier in the summer but for now the spring sun was shining over the Danube River warming her face.
They had once again managed to compel themselves a seat in the first class. This time Caroline had done the compelling. For a small moment there had been a nagging feeling in her mind that this was not proper behavior. But then she had compelled the guy from the flight agency to give the two teenage girls who were going to miss their flight due to a booking error a paid night at the four seasons for their troubles. Klaus had laughed at her attempt to calm her mind but had not intervened. The seats in the first class were spacious as always. Caroline sheepishly had to admit to herself that she was getting used to this kind of travel. Though as soon as they were seated the memories of their heated kisses and her position in his lap came back to Caroline. She immediately blushed and turned her head towards the window. Klaus remembered Caroline's little scene from the last transatlantic flight all too well as well. He would not have minded a repetition but saw that she was not in a mood for anything alike. So he contented himself with her head on his shoulder while she was sleeping. Despite the announcement of the great on flight entertainment that the flight attendant had made at the beginning of the flight watching Caroline sleep was enough entertainment for him.
They were picked up by a driver from the airport who held a sign for Mr. and Mrs. Mikaelson. Caroline pursed her lips at the sign but said nothing. Maybe it hadn't even been Klaus idea but the hotel had simply assumed. The car had tinted windows so Caroline could only see the landscape in very blurry images. Klaus had spoken to the driver in rushed words which, Caroline assumed, were Hungarian. Then the window between the driver and the backseat had closed.
The backseat immediately became very silent. Caroline secretly cursed the tinted windows since she could not take her mind of Klaus' proximity by staring out the window. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that he sat relaxed back in his seat not paying much attention to her. For a reason she could not or would not explain to herself his lack of interest in her bothered her. She let her head fall against the car window and closed her eyes.
"The airport is about 15 miles from the city center. The driver said considering morning commute into the city it will take about 30 minutes to get to our hotel." Klaus said into the silence. Caroline turned to him. Now he was looking at her.
"Do you speak Hungarian?" She asked.
"Yes" he affirmed. "Hungarian is a quite beautiful language. Also it is a rather unique language, since none of the neighboring countries have an even similar idiom. This is not a very common occurrence in Europe where many times people from neighboring countries might not speak the same language but are able to communicate with each other, for example the Portuguese and the Spanish people. Hungarian is rather difficult to learn but I have been perfecting my skills for a couple of centuries." He grinned at her. She just had to laugh as well. "I hope that when we are done with this whole adventure I get enough time to learn at least one more language. Though I am not sure Hungarian will be my first choice." They both smirked again. "Well" Klaus added "since you already speak Portuguese I would then recommend a language not from the same family of languages to not confuse them. Maybe German would be lovely?" She nodded. "I had actually already thought about that. Though it seems like an awfully difficult language." Klaus considered that for a moment and grinned. "Well if you need any help with it I would be very amendable at teaching you at least a few German phrases."
"Oh you" Caroline poked her index finger in his direction. "You would only teach me the bad words." Out of nowhere Klaus took her hand dragging her closer to him. "And you would love it." He leaned down to her and kissed her holding her hand steadily in his. Caroline forgot her dedication to not making out with him again in any moving vehicle and kissed him back. Suddenly she didn't mind as much that the windows were tinted.
Their hotel was absolutely stunning. The suite Klaus had booked them, he swore it was booked and not compelled, overlooked the river. From the window she could even see the white castle glittering in the midday sun. She hoped they would finally catch Shane here and then be able to see more of the city. Klaus appeared at her right side. "It is beautiful, isn't it?" She nodded. "If you like," he added as if he had read her mind earlier, "we could come back again someday to see more of the city." She turned her head and kissed him softly. "I would very much like that."
The network Klaus had in Budapest was not as extensive as in other cities. He had spent only a few years in Eastern Europe. There he had focused his activities more on Romania, finding a certain comedy in the much later told stories of Count Dracula and Bulgaria, for obvious reasons. But he had stopped occasionally in Budapest observing the rise and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city had lost quite a bit of the charm it had when there was still a king occasionally living here. But he had to admit that the people had rebuilt it quite nicely in the past couple years. But his only few years of living close by were not the only reason for his small network. The Eastern European witches and warlocks had chosen the city as their headquarters. On the contrary to vampires witches tended to live in covens and Budapest had one of the most powerful he had ever encountered. Their leader was a fearsome witch who had held her position of power throughout many years not always without conflict. But she was well respected in the community and he could not go around asking questions without paying his respects to her coven first. As soon as they had arrived he had compelled one of the hotel employees to send her a message and asked for an urgent meeting.
Caroline and Klaus settled in their rooms, Caroline insisted on having separate rooms for appearances although he was not sure whom she had to convince of her virtue. When he teased her about it, she said: "Well, maybe I decide to sleep alone tonight after all. Perhaps I want to flee from your snoring." He laughed for a short moment and then replied bewildered: "I do not snore." She smirked: "Well, how would you know?" and disappeared into her room. He was left standing in the hall way lost for words. He did not snore!
A couple minutes later Caroline resurfaced and stacked the blood bags she had brought in her hand luggage in the mini fridge in the hotel room. She grabbed one and poured the red liquid into a wine glass. Noticing he watched her she said: "What? We are staying at a fancy hotel if I want to drink my blood out of a fancy glass I will do that." He didn't answer her. He could remember all too well the days when she had drunken straight from the vein with him. Maybe someday…
"So", she said sitting down in one of the spacious chairs with her legs tugged underneath her, "what is the next step? I think for once I would actually like for you to tell me what you are planning to do. That would boost my trust in this little adventure immensely." He smiled. He had actually planned to let her in on the plan even before she had demanded it.
"We" he said sitting down in the chair right next to her, "are hopefully going to meet the head of the coven of Budapest's witched tonight. She can probably give us some answers."
"Don't you have another contact in the city? I feel like we are only relying on witches lately." She asked carefully. Despite the fact that B had been rather nice to them her encounter with the witch in Rome was still blurry in her memory at best. She really did not feel like confronting another powerful witch.
Klaus shook his head. "Unfortunately I don't. And even if I had we would still have to contact Andoria to get anybody to speak with us. This is her city after all and I prefer to stay in her good graces."
"Are you afraid of the big bad witch?" Caroline asked him teasingly.
He frowned. "Obviously not, but there is no need to alienate everybody. Budapest has one of the largest gatherings of witches in this part of the world. I rather not fight myself through every single one of them."
Caroline nodded understandingly. "I just meant to tease you. If you think we should visit the supreme witch then you are probably right. Where are the witches staying anyway?"
"They used to meet on top of their local Blocksberg, now they meet inside of it to not get too much attention form the humans."
"They meet inside their local what?" Caroline asked not having understood the word.
Klaus smiled: "Blocksberg. It is a German word, referring to a mountain where witches meet. The most famous is in Germany but other hills have carried the name as well. The Gellért hill in Budapest is one of them. There are hidden catacombs under the hill where the witches meet." Caroline had turned white as ash when he mentioned catacombs. Klaus took Caroline's hand in his. "Caroline, I promise I will not let you out of my sight for a minute. I promised you I will never abandon you like that again." She saw the sincerity in his eyes and nodded weakly. He kissed her knuckles. "Right now though" he said into the silence between them "we have to wait for my messenger to come back. Unfortunately we can't leave the hotel until said point but afterwards we could go out and see a bit more of the city." He let go of her hand and got up.
"You don't think she will want to see you immediately?" Caroline asked astounded. Klaus laughed: "I hope she does. Although she is the queen here and if I were her I would make myself wait at least one night."
The messenger arrived about an hour later with a message from Andoria, head of the witch coven of Budapest. Just as Klaus had assumed she invited them to join her for an afternoon tea the following day inside their headquarters under the Gellért Hill. Klaus send the messenger back with a note confirming their appearance the next day.
Caroline had patiently waited reading in the living room and was now ready to pounce into the city life. They left the building a few minutes later and explored the city. Despite the fact that Klaus claimed he had not spent much time in Budapest he made an excellent guide and showed her all the important sites from the parliament to the Central Market Hall. He shared other stories about his travels in Bulgaria and Romania with her as well and they both laughed at the differences between their being a vampire and the Bram Stoker Version of themselves. They resolved to get some food at a local restaurant based in a cellar. Despite the fact that they were in no need for human food it was still an essential part about getting to know a countries culture in Caroline's book.
The restaurant they were eating in was an original local restaurant. The menu was only offered in Hungarian from which Caroline could not even guess what the dishes were. She took a look inside and then closed it again immediately. Klaus had started studying the menu but looked up when she put hers down on the table. "Would you like me to translate for you?" She shook her head. "Just order something for me will you. I trust you not to order anything gross like snails or stuff." He laughed quietly. "You used to drink animal blood with Stefan all the time but you still think snails are gross." "Oh shut it, that is different and you know it." Had they been outside she would have punched him lightly but she just pouted for a moment. He had taken the menu again in his hands. Despite the fact that it was hiding the lower half of his face she could still see that he was grinning. "Stop it! This is not funny." He looked at her again and his grin turned into an adoring smile, a look that suited him but was nonetheless rather strange to see on his usually so sincere face. "I am just surprised you trust me enough to order for you." She chastened him: "Well, I would not do that if I could read the card. After that first time in São Paulo that I asked you to do that and you simply ordered everything on the menu. There was no need for that and everybody kept staring at me." She stopped talking when he let his menu sink on the table glaring at her. "What?" She asked nervously. "You remembered." She stopped to think for a moment. He was right. She had not remembered this episode before. But as much as she concentrated there were no more memories. "That is all I can remember. I know you picked me up. We walked down the street to the Spanish restaurant. I couldn't choose between the foods and told you to choose for me. So you ordered every single item on the menu. They cooked for us the entire night." His gaze was still on her. "What else do you remember of that night?" She concentrated again but then shook her head. "That was it. I remember coming home alone and going to bed. Did something else happen that night?" He shook his head but she had the distinctive feeling that he was not telling the whole truth. "But I promise you" he added before calling the waiter "this time I will not order every item on the menu."
They had a nice dinner together chatting about their impressions of the city. So far she had loved everything he had shown her. He promised that if there was time tomorrow he would show her the castle on the other side of the river as well. Happy and sated, at least partially, they left the restaurant as one of its last guests. Spontaneously Caroline grabbed Klaus hand to hold it in her own. They walked along the river in the direction of their hotel. They were in a less lit area when suddenly two men stepped in their way, effectively cutting of it off. They had guns pointing at the two.
"Stop and give us your money." One of the men said in a heavy accented English. Obviously Caroline was not afraid of them. There was no way they could harm them but she was clearly annoyed that they had disturbed her perfect evening. "Okay, douchebag," she said in a more bored than angry tone "here's what's going to happen. You will put down that gun and you will leave us alone now before I get mad." She wasn't sure he had understood every word but she was pretty certain he had gotten the general message. Yet he did not move an inch or put down his gun. Caroline did not have the patience to deal with this right now. Klaus at her side was surprisingly quiet. She rolled her eyes, why do the guys never act when they could be making your life easier, and vamp speeded in front of the two men. Before they could even react she had snatched the guns out of their hands and thrown them into the river. Without hesitation she grabbed the right one by the throat and lifted him of his feet. She held him in her hand for a moment while his friend watched her with growing fear. Then she let him fall, hearing the body hit the floor and grabbed the other guy. He screamed a couple of words at her in Hungarian that she did not understand. She didn't even think about it but let her instincts take over and pushed her fangs into his neck. She took a couple of gulps from the screaming man. The fresh blood ran down her throat like the most exquisite wine she had ever tasted. The warmth of the liquid seemed to light up her body from the inside. Only after his screams had gotten quieter and quieter by the second did she realize what she was doing. Appalled she let go of the man who fell to the floor landing next to his friend both staring at her with fear in their eyes. She turned around to Klaus who had not moved since she had attacked the men.
"What have I done?"
Only now did he move closer to her. He looked at the two men. "Stay here and stay quiet while we talk. As soon as we leave you will forget you ever met us. You got into a fight at a bar, therefore the bruises and marks." He compelled them. Then he turned to Caroline. "Calm down, love. You just embraced yourself. You did not kill him, you stopped out of your own will. There is no need to get upset about this." But Caroline looked like she was about to faint herself. He took a step closer and cradled her face in his hands. Finally she caught his gaze and nodded. He kissed her on the lips. There were still traces of blood on them mixing with Caroline's own flavor. He had missed the mixture more than he could tell her. It spoke of nights of passion between the two as he had not encountered ever since. "Let's go home, okay? They will forget as soon as we're gone." He reminded her when she hesitated and looked over to the two men. He took her hand in his walking away from the scene.
A/N: I feel like this chapter needs a few explanatory notes. The Gellért Hill is indeed named as a supposed meeting spot for witches during the middle ages but as far as I know there are no catacombs or caves beneath it.
The robbery scene is not meant to be a discriminitive depiction of Budapest. I stayed there quite a couple times but nothing has ever happened to me. Getting robbed could happen in any major city, in case anybody who reads this is from Budapest or Hungary, I did not mean to offend you.
Finally: Caroline remembering some parts will have good and not so great memories coming up, because Klaus might be amazing to and for her but in his heart he is still not a very nice guy.
This much so far, have a great week, next time there will be more story telling when they get closer to Shane and the resolve of the puzzle. Love, Santavica