A/N: Just wanted to point out, that since Klaus is British, he says "colour" instead of "color"... Stupidly sexy accent, right? ;)

Still feeling a little bit uneasy while being in crowded places, Klaus decided to stay behind and take a seat on the last row, far away from most students while James Williams dictated his lesson, Art History 101. Klaus and James hadn't been introduced just yet, but Klaus could tell he liked the guy already. He spoke about art with passion. Sometimes his voice got louder as he went deeper and deeper into the details, pointing at the projected paintings at the front of the class.

"This is La Chambre à coucher, painted by Van Gogh." He said as he changed the projection. "It means "The bedroom". "La Chambre à Arles" is a collection of three paintings of Van Gogh's bedroom in the Yellow House, Arlés, in France. The first painting was ruined during a flood, so Van Gogh painted it again, twice." James explained as he showed his students the other two paintings. "Now, you might notice a difference between the paintings. Van Gogh made them different on purpose. Does anyone know why?" The students looked at each other and then down to the floor. Klaus grinned. "Come on, someone has to know it..." James said.

Klaus cleared his throat and replied.

"He changed the colours. To him the colours were a representation of his mood and feelings. The first painting has a lot of yellow, which means Van Gogh was happy when he painted it. But the other two have more red and blue, which means he was sad. He painted those after he moved out of the Yellow House and into a psychiatric hospital."

Everyone had turned around to see the mysterious guy sitting at the last row. James smiled and nodded.

"That's correct, Mister..." He waited for Klaus to introduce himself.

"Mikaelson." Klaus said. James frowned and put his glasses on. He stared at Klaus for a moment and the students started to look at each other once again.

"Of course..." James mumbled and snapped out of his trance. "I want everyone to write me a paper about the meanings Van Gogh gave to the different colors." He said to his class. "Now you can go."

The students started gathering their stuff until one girl called out.

"Professor Williams? You forgot today's quote."

James smiled.

"Oh! Right!" He cleared his throat and everyone went quiet. "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. Thomas Merton said that."

The students exited the classroom and Klaus made his way to James.

"That was an interesting way of finishing your class." Klaus said extending his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, professor Williams."

James looked at Klaus hand for a moment and then shook it.

"Call me James. Can I call you Niklaus?" He asked and Klaus nodded his head. "Alright, well let's go to my office where we can talk."

James' office was quite impressive. The wooden furniture was old and classy, the walls were covered by ceiling high libraries or big paintings. It looked like the family library at the Mikaelson's manor. Klaus expected James to sit behind his desk, but instead he sat on an arm chair next to the couch, as if they were equals.

There was something about the way James looked at Klaus that made the young artist feel uneasy. It was like James was memorizing his face or trying to look so deeply into his eyes that he could see his soul. Either way, Klaus sat down on the couch. James cleared his throat and looked at him.

"I'm sure you're wondering why a stranger asked to meet you." He said.

"I just assumed it had something to do with art." Klaus said with a shrug.

James made a face and nodded.

"In any other circumstances, perhaps… But the thing is…" James looked at Klaus for a moment and hesitated, then took a breath. "… I met your parents years ago. Your mother and I were pretty close." Klaus listened carefully and nodded for James to continue. "I read the news about Mikael's death and I thought…" He wasn't sure he wanted to give his condolences to Klaus, he hated Mikael, but he wasn't ready to drop the bomb on him just yet. "… I'm not sure what I thought." He needed to approach the subject better. "Tell me, were you two close?"

Klaus shook his head.

"Not really, no. He's one of the reasons why I left England in the first place." Klaus replied.

James hummed.

"I see…" He took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Your mother never mentioned me, did she?"

"No sir." Klaus replied shaking his head.

"And did she ever tell you about the circumstances her relationship with Mikael went through before you were born?"

Klaus frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…" James took a breath. "Did she ever tell you about her affair?"

Wherever this guy was going to, Klaus didn't like it at all. He was still trying to fix things with his mother, he didn't need some man meddling their life.

Klaus frowned and clenched his jaw.

"Where are you going with this?" It wasn't an answer, but he wasn't denying it either.

James knew he upset Klaus and he looked at his son apologetically

"I'm just trying to figure out how much you know…"

"About Mikael not being my biological father?" Klaus asked with a hiss. "That information never became public, so how do you know about that?"

"Niklaus…" James started trying to calm him down.

"No! Tell me! Are you snooping around my family? Looking for some juicy gossip to sell?" He accused.

"No! Of course not! It's not like that!" James said.

"Then why do you care?" Klaus practically yelled.

"Because it was me! I'm the one she had an affair with!" James blurted out.

Klaus blinked.

"What?"

James ran his hands down his face and sighed.

"There's no easy way to say this. I'm your father." He confessed. "Esther and Mikael went through some hard times and when I met her we fell in love. It was about 30 years ago."

Klaus stared at him for a moment, clenching his jaw.

"No." He got up. "No. Just… no…" he paced around, breathing heavily. James got up and walked to him, but Klaus quickly stepped back. "No, don't get any closer." He said with his hand raised to stop him. "I need to get out of here." He mumbled to himself before turning around and running out of the office.

"Niklaus, wait!" James called out, but it was useless.

The halls were filled with students which didn't help to Klaus' condition. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He pushed his way through the people, bumping into some, dodging others. He felt trapped as he looked around frantically, looking for a way out. He caught a glimpse of an emergency exit and made his way towards it. He pushed it open and found himself outside the building, near the parking lot, but the feeling of being trapped didn't fade away. He still felt like he was being choked.

Everything started to sink in. He had been sitting with his biological father. The man that Esther had cheated Mikeal with, his true maker and the man that sentenced him to a life filled with Mikael's hate. The world was spinning around him, everything was confusing and he felt his head pounding. His lungs felt like burning, his eyes got teary and his stomach begged to be emptied. Klaus leaned on the wall and threw up.

"Dude, are you okay?" a student passing by asked. Klaus barely looked at him as he tried to push himself away from the wall.

"Coming here was a mistake." He said as he stumbled back to his car.

Caroline looked at Stefan, confusion and worry written all over her pretty face.

"What do you mean you can't find him?"

"I mean I've been calling him for two hours now and he's not picking up. He had an appointment with that art professor we spoke about, but that was hours ago." Stefan replied with a frown on his face.

Caroline left the agency after a long day of hard work and all she wanted to do was catch up with Klaus, spend some time with him, maybe have dinner and watch a movie. So when she arrived to the gallery and found Stefan pacing back and forth, she got worried.

"Have you tried calling his siblings?" She asked and Stefan nodded.

"Rebekah hasn't seen him since yesterday, Kol can't look for him because his taking some class right now and Elijah..."

"Is working." Caroline finished for him with a sigh.

"I checked his studio on the second floor, and his apartment. He wasn't there either." Stefan added. Klaus apartment was in the same building the gallery was, which was really convenient, but Stefan never thought he would have to look around for Klaus, because Klaus never disappeared like that.

Caroline groaned and rubbed her face.

"Where could he be?" She said worriedly. Stefan couldn't answer her so she turned to leave. "Call me if you hear from him, okay?"

Caroline called Klaus' cell phone on her way home. She must have called six times but he never picked up. When she reached her building, she gave up and decided to leave a message.

"Klaus, I don't know where you are right now and I'm really worried. Stefan is worried too... I keep thinking maybe you had an accident, or got kidnapped or God knows what!" She sighed. "Please call me back."

As she hung up her phone and reached her floor she spotted someone there. Klaus was sitting on the floor with his back against her door, playing absently with an empty bottle of water.

A sudden wave of relief hit Caroline as she realized it was him and he was okay. She rushed to him and knelt on the floor next to him.

"Klaus! Thank god! I was worried about you!" She said before frowning and slapping his arm. "Why the hell aren't you picking up your damn phone?!"

But Klaus didn't answer, he just kept looking at the plastic bottle in his hands. Caroline frowned and placed a hand on top of his.

"Klaus?... what is it?" She asked, her voice a lot softer than a moment ago.

Klaus tried to talk but he only managed to take a few shallow breaths as he felt another panic attack coming, and then just leaned on her, burring his face on her chest. Caroline blinked and started running her fingers through his blonde curls.

"I didn't know where else to go." Klaus mumbled against her shirt.

Any other time he would have tried to act brave in front of her, he wanted to be a strong man, a man she deserved. But he was just so tired of fighting to breathe, so tired of fighting his fights alone. And he knew Caroline wouldn't judge him. If anything, she loved feeling useful and would never turn down a chance to help.

Her touch calmed him down soon enough and Klaus could picture her small yet adorable smile when she spoke.

"It's okay, you're home."

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