"Hello, love."
Caroline's eyes opened wide, shocked. She turned towards him in the bourbon isle of the liquor store. The store she technically shouldn't be even inside because she was underage still.
"I dunno how you still sneak up on me!" she frowned.
"A thousand years of intuition, finding people's blind spots. I'll try and teach you sometime." He answered a little smugly.
"What are you even doing here? I thought you'd be off bargaining for Elena's blood off the Salvatore's." She was talking at him in a whisper with her teeth clenched like the criminal she was.
He laughed at her, as he scanned the shelves for the bottle he wanted, "As you know, I like to mix a little pleasure in with my business, I haven't even approached them about it yet" He found what he was looking for, and looked down to her hands, "That's what you'd like?" she looked at the bottle in her hands that she had just been about to steal before he snuck up on her.
Before she knew it, he took it from her hands and she was now following him, to the counter? Her worry etched on her face as she stood to the side of him and the cashier glared at her.
"She's of legal drinking age and you'll never remember her face clearly," He compelled the man so fluidly, without even breaking a beat. Caroline had so much more to learn from him. He handed the cashier more money than the liquor was worth and was already saying thank you.
Klaus says thank you for purchases?! Caroline felt like she was having a seizure, she's never interacted with him about town, outside of silly teenage dances or bloody murders. She never knew how he'd interact with humans he wasn't manipulating for something.
She was now following him outside to the main street where she had left Bonnie by the bench on the corner, while she went in to quickly steal the hooch.
Bonnie looked to her standing beside Klaus, amused at the shocked look on her friends face whereas Klaus looked as stoic as ever, "Is there something I should know?" she prodded lightly, especially because in this town it literally could be something really huge and bad.
This could have been a heavy question had Bonnie not been in the know.
He hadn't seen Caroline in person since he found the bear for the witch, but she had called him after she gifted it back to her. She had told Bonnie all the details, even shared her journaled entries about how her cravings where lessening each time. But she still hadn't revealed the secret about who actually killed Tyler, which he could understand, she still had things to come to terms with about it without everyone else judging her for it all at once.
He was surprised at how he felt a weight lifted, someone else finally knows about their secret, and it wasn't one of his siblings who would use it against him. The witch had soothed them both, in a way, accepting the information as she did, he was glad Caroline had such a friend.
Caroline opened her mouth, looked at Bonnie then up to Klaus and made a gesture with her hands, "He paid for it."
Bonnie didn't get why that was so astounding, Klaus was a thousand year old vampire, surely he didn't need to steal booze. But she couldn't help but smile at how Caroline looked like a fish out of water, "He even said thank you to the cashier."
The witch looked amused to Klaus who was smiling and shaking his head, "I support local business owners." He shrugged, "Unlike some thieves I know," he pointedly looked at her, "Here you go, sweetheart." He handed a stunned Caroline the bottle he bought for her.
He took a step away about to nod his goodbye when Bonnie piped up, "Thank you," her eyes flinched down to the sidewalk before gaining her confidence back, "Thanks, I mean for.." she glanced at Caroline who was still stunned beside her, "for finding that teddy bear."
Klaus genuinely smiled at the witch, "No worries, love. You two have a good night." and then both stunned girls watched him walk away, painfully, beautifully, slowly as if he was a human, away.
He smirked once his back was turned to them, he had followed them here. He put himself in her way on purpose, he wanted to see her and he wanted Bonnie to see them together. Proof and it couldn't have turned out better.
Caroline turned to Bonnie as soon as he was out of sight and just opened her mouth, unable to find the words.
Bonnie laughed wholeheartedly, "He's really not at all how we all thought he was, huh?"
"Understatement of the century!" finally finding her voice. They both giggled and snuck back to Elena's house for a little drinking and goofing off, girl's night style.
"So, what do you mean he's nice?" Elena nearly choked on her drink.
Bonnie laughed, she and Caroline prepared for the worst, it was time to tell Elena what Caroline had been up to this whole past year. Even though Caroline had definitely thought Elena was a rude horrible friend and vampire for most of it, she knew that she still wanted to come clean to her childhood friend.
"He wolfed out to find Ms. Cuddles!" Bonnie explained, hugging the bear, she brought for morale support.
Caroline smiled softly, as Elena's worried human eyes darted between Bonnie's and hers.
"It's been a pretty intense year for all of us wouldn't you say?" Caroline offered meekly, knowing that she could play the odds that Elena certainly had her own secrets with the Salvatore boys that she wasn't going to offer up to the other two girls anytime soon.
Elena's eyes did soften, she took another sip of her bourbon, thinking, even though Klaus was certainly a killer, so was she, when she was a vampire, can't really think she'd have been a saint either if she'd been around for a thousand years.
"You're sure you're not sired right? Like absolutely sure?" Elena had dealt with being sired to Damon and although looking back on it now as a human, she knew she did love him from deep down and she didn't regret what she had done by his siring command. She still couldn't bare the thought of her friend being manipulated like that, just like Caroline stuck up for her.
Caroline nodded and Bonnie along with her, suggesting, "We could do a meditation together if you would like to feel what their bond is like, it's peaceful and nature is wholly accepting it, almost willing it to keep going even."
"Ew no," Elena scrunched up her nose, "I don't wana see them fucking!"
Caroline's eyes went wide, "I've never had sex with him!" she clarified.
"Really?" even Bonnie sounded surprised, "I had thought you would have."
"Oh great, so my friends think I'm a huge slut." Caroline rolled her eyes at them, not that upset, she could see why they'd think that. They smiled coyly back at her questioning what she had done with him.
"We've just kissed." Caroline paused and had a sip of her own drink.
They wouldn't let her leave it at that, so she thought of how to put it into words, "I fed on him like a rabid animal a few times and he was nothing but a gentleman. The first time I fed on him with consent," Caroline remembered that night after they played tag the first time, "it was like that first kiss you ever got from the boy you had a crush on feeling."
All the girls smiled and glanced at each other, as they remembered that warm, butterflies in your stomach, elated feeling.
"He's been damned professional about most of it. Even when I made the moves and wanted more, he held back I think knowing it was best. Like really, it's been a year of craziness, we were trapped together in this very living room for THREE whole days, UNSUPERVISED and we only made out like. Twice." Caroline's arms went up half shrugging, half trying to point out how funny it was she was back in Elena's living room only a week from when she had been trapped.
"So you think you will want to, you know?" Bonnie asked timidly.
"Yeah, well. I want to. I've had some intense dreams," she giggled blushing away, "There's something about when I'm around him, I really like him." Bonnie could imagine the feeling like in her meditations, "The thing is though, he's not just some hot guy I want to fuck. He's teaching me things. He's like. A good friend now. And I think he's holding back so that we don't mess that part up."
Elena was looking at Caroline, almost envious. Her relationships with Stephen and Damon, had been physical almost immediately. She always supposed it was better that way, like she had won the boy lottery. But hearing Caroline speak of Klaus in this way, Elena remembered her time with Matt. Matt who she grew up with, was friends with first and sure did a lot of other first things together, it made her miss the friendship with him.
"That's so nice, Caroline." Elena spoke her feelings, "I'm glad you are being friends first." Usually something like this, especially coming from Elena, would seem fake, over-acted sweetness. But Caroline smiled back at her, believing her sincerity.
"Me too!" Bonnie jumped up off the big pillow she had been sitting on the floor with, "Who's ready for another drink!?"
Caroline laughed at her bouncing around a little drunk already and reached her empty glass out to her witch friend. Then Bonnie's sparkling eyes went to Elena.
"Oh don't you look at me, I'm human now, and you already plied me with two before you told me the big secret, I'm feeling toasty."
They all laughed intensely at her adequate term, the night had gone better than Caroline could have imagined, she really did love them. Really happy that they were on board with this Klaus thing she had going and glad she finally didn't have to hide it anymore.