Ever since she'd started school at Loyola University New Orleans, Caroline Forbes had gone to Mass at St. Anne's in the French Quarter. As a rule, Caroline didn't like the French Quarter. It was too touristy for her tastes, and something about the space screamed danger in the back of her mind. It was the kind of place her father would have told her to avoid. Maybe that was why Caroline loved it so much, as a bit of belated teenage rebellion.

Besides, it wasn't like she went to the French Quarter to party. Only to attend church every Sunday morning. She liked Father Kieran and his homilies, and she liked the community in the small congregation. They all seemed to know each other well, and had all welcomed her with open arms for the most part.

Besides, her friend Davina Claire had been going there for years, apparently. The girl had even joked that it had been like a second home to her back in high school. Caroline could understand wanting to get away from her family at that age. She and her dad…they'd argued and argued when Caroline was still living with him in Atlanta. She'd wanted to go back to Mystic Falls with her mom, even though both of her parents forbade it.

Maybe it had been for the best. In Mystic Falls, she'd been cheer captain and a mean girl. In Atlanta, her dad had taught her self-defense and all sorts of weird mythology. It was weird, but it served as father-daughter bonding.

"What did you think?" Davina asked as they followed the congregation outside. "I thought the homily was really good today."

Caroline nodded. "It was. Hey, do you want to grab coffee somewhere around here before returning to campus? Or do you have plans with that mysterious boyfriend of yours?" Davina's boyfriend wasn't exactly mysterious, but he did always manage to show up in places he shouldn't be able to reach without a student ID, given that he wasn't actually a student at Loyola. Still, he made Davina happy, which was more than enough to satisfy Caroline.

"I could go for some coffee. Come on, I know a great place for beignets around here." Davina wrapped an arm around Caroline, and the two girls wandered the streets of the Quarter until they reached the little café of Davina's choosing.

"Is it just me or is the Quarter way too touristy?" Caroline asked. "With all this fake supernatural stuff going on around here."

Davina let out a laugh, but it wasn't the laugh Caroline had seen her use when something was genuinely funny. She almost seemed…nervous? "Yeah, it's all a big tourist trap. How's your beignet?"

Caroline took another bite and let out a moan that did not belong in the public sphere. "Amazing. I want to marry it."

Someone behind her chuckled. "I'm not sure if that's legal down here," he said. Caroline turned to find a rather attractive man smiling at her. "Hey, D. I couldn't help but drop by when I saw you were in here. Who's your friend?"

"Marcel!" Davina smiled brightly. "What are you doing back in town? I thought that…"

"All is forgiven, so I'm back in town for good. Now, your friend?"

Caroline smiled awkwardly throughout the familial exchange. "I'm Caroline, one of Davina's friends from college."

"Ah, I remember her mentioning you. Are you from NOLA too?"

"No, I'm from a small town in Virginia. You've probably never heard of it. But I lived for a while with my dad in Atlanta." Caroline took a sip of her coffee and then smiled again at Marcel. "So, how do you know Davina?"

"He took me in when I was having some trouble with my parents in high school," Davina said. "He's sort-of like a cool uncle who still lets me crash at his place every once in a while." Davina shot Marcel a wry grin and turned back to Caroline. "He's the one who first brought me to St. Anne's and introduced me to Fr. Kieran."

"Why don't you join us?" Caroline asked. "Rather than hovering around our table. It's always great to meet Davina's old friends."

Marcel pulled up a chair at their little table, and the three fell into easy conversation. Eventually, though, Marcel glanced at his phone and swore. "I have to go; I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch ten minutes ago. But it was good seeing you, D, and nice to meet you, Caroline. We'll have to catch up again soon." He grinned at them again and then left the café.

"Should we head back to campus now?"

"Yeah, I have to finish up a paper for my history class," Davina agreed. "Let's get going before I run into anyone I went to high school with."

Caroline laughed at that, and the two girls made their way to Caroline's car to get themselves back to campus. Caroline could relate to not wanting to run into anyone she'd known from high school. It felt like a long time since she'd thought about Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett. The two girls had barely reached out to her after she'd left Mystic Falls to go live with her dad, so Caroline hardly counted them as friends. She'd thought, since they'd practically been friends since they were born, that Elena and Bonnie would have at least attempted to keep up with her and text her back. But…they hadn't.

So, they weren't friends. They had to have been ignoring her on purpose; it wasn't like anything interesting ever happened in Mystic Falls anyways.

Despite whatever good sense her parents had tried to drill into Caroline, she found herself at a bar in the Quarter with some girls in her psych and bio classes. As a junior in college, Caroline had turned twenty-one just a couple of months into the semester. She and her of-age friends had tried most of the bars around Loyola, but now they were venturing into the Quarter for the night. Caroline had initially protested, but Stephanie from her Intro Bio class freshman year had convinced her after buying Caroline a drink—or two—at the first bar they'd visited near campus.

"But the Uber home is going to be so much more expensive," Caroline had protested. The other three girls had waved her off and laughed, so Caroline had just gone with it. If you couldn't beat them, join them. Right?

Finally, though, Caroline had had enough of the loud, tourist-trap bars catering to out-of-towners wanting to 'experience NOLA' for the night or whatever that meant. She spotted a quiet-looking, respectable bar and pulled the others inside. Rousseau's was nice, and not the seedy kind of bar that attracted all kinds of creepy guys eager to hit on drunk college girls.

Caroline was freaking done with that type of guy, thank you very much.

She ushered the other girls to a table. "Who's turn is it to buy drinks?" asked Stephanie. "Mine?"

"No, you got the last round," said Jess, a girl from Caroline's psych class that semester. They'd also rushed the same sorority freshman year (though both had decided not to join after a rather unfortunate run-in with one of the active members). "Is it Care's turn?"

Caroline struggled to remember who'd bought throughout the night. "Did you buy at the last place?" she asked Jess. At her nod, Caroline groaned. "Then yeah, it's my turn. But you three are too drunk to appreciate anything good, so you're getting cheap margaritas."

The three let out a little cheer, and Caroline rolled her eyes at them before making her way to the bar. There were a few other groups at their own tables in Rousseau's, and a few solitary drinkers at the bar. Caroline approached the bar—perhaps a tad too close to one of the other patrons—while she waited to grab the bartender's attention.

After a few minutes, the bartender approached. She was a blonde with a kind smile that made Caroline smile back. "What can I get for you?"

"Can I get four margaritas, three of those with only half a shot of tequila?" she asked.

"Coming right up. Although…I'm going to need to check your ID." Caroline nodded and pulled out her license for the woman and handed it over. "Virginia? Where are you from?"

Did she really think that Caroline was using a fake? Ugh. "A little town in the middle of nowhere, you wouldn't have heard of it. Mystic Falls, probably the most boring town in the US."

The man beside her stiffened. "Go on and make the poor girl's drinks, Cami," he said. Then, he turned to Caroline with a smile. "You're from Mystic Falls?"

Caroline frowned and edged away. Sure, this guy was hot—like, really hot—and he had an accent, which did things to Caroline. But that odd little voice in the back of her head that warned her about the French Quarter was seriously warning her about this guy. "Yeah. Have you heard of it?"

"I have, actually. I lived there for a couple of years recently."

Caroline raised an eyebrow. "It's a small town, I'm pretty sure I would have remembered if someone new moved in."

"And I don't remember seeing you when I lived there," he said. "And I'm sure that I would have remembered you, love."

At that, Caroline scoffed. "Sure you would have." She rolled her eyes and glanced towards Cami, who was still making their drinks. "I'm sorry, that was rude," she said after standing there awkwardly for a few seconds. "I haven't been back to Mystic Falls since I left during my junior year to live with my dad in Atlanta. So…it's possible that you moved in after I was already gone."

He nodded and grinned again. "I'm Klaus."

"Caroline." They shook hands, and Caroline was surprised at how warm his hands were. For some reason, she'd expected him to be cold to the touch. But…why had she thought that?

"So, Caroline, what brings you to New Orleans from Mystic Falls?"

"I'm a student at Loyola. It wasn't the best school that I got into, but…it felt right to be here, if that makes sense."

Klaus nodded. "New Orleans has often felt like home to me and my family, as well. What are you studying?"

"Psychology, actually. It's something I've been interested in for years. I want to focus in trauma, and maybe get into something with neuroscience for a grad school program."

Klaus raised his eyebrows at that and a hint of a smile curled on his lips. "What got you interested in psychology?"

Caroline glanced down at the bartender, who was still making her drinks. She sat on the stool beside Klaus to tell her story. "Well, when I was still living in Mystic Falls I must have gotten a concussion or something in cheer, or at least that's what the doctors all told my mom. I would have these horrible headaches, wake up places without any idea of how I got there, and I had all these bruises and injuries that I didn't remember getting.

"My mom finally convinced me to leave town, and I got better. I stopped having weird memory gaps, but I would get these weird…feelings around people, I guess? I had to see so many therapists about it because my dad's partner was all freaked out about what had been happening." Caroline shrugged. "I guess…I want to figure out what had been going on with me, and to help others in similar situations."

For a moment, Klaus almost looked angry. But then a solemn sort of expression replaced it and he nodded. "That's a very admirable goal, Caroline. I wish you the best." As if it were perfectly timed, Cami arrived with the drinks. Caroline started to dig her wallet out of her clutch, but Klaus was already leaning towards the bartender. "Go ahead and add those to my tab, Cami."

"Thank you," Caroline said as she picked up two of the drinks. "You really didn't have to do that."

"It was my pleasure, sweetheart. Do you need a hand getting these drinks to your friends over there?" He nodded towards the three students Caroline had honestly forgotten about. Oops. "I'm on my way out, anyways."

"Thanks, Klaus. I guess…maybe I'll see you around?" She bit her lip, suddenly worried that she'd overstepped. Caroline had pretty much just talked about herself for their whole conversation. Was he not interested?

Instead of brushing her off and walking away, though, Klaus nodded with a small smile. "I'm sure our paths will cross again, Caroline. Be safe tonight."

She grinned up at him, and then pulled him over to her friends' table. Klaus dropped the drinks off and made his way out of the bar with only a slight glance back at her and her friends. Maybe she'd have to come to the French Quarter more often, if she'd keep running into cute guys like Marcel and Klaus. Why had she wanted to avoid the Quarter in the first place? Nothing bad was going to happen, it was just a touristy area. Nothing dangerous to worry about at all…

Hello! Thanks for reading this one-shot. This is the first time I've published any TVD fanfic anywhere, so I hope y'all enjoyed it!