I was at the desk in my room one morning before school, reviewing history dates, when Klaus spoke from next to my window.

"Good morning, love."

I hadn't heard him come in, but I didn't look up from my notebook. "Hi, Klaus."

"Do you want to be alone?"

"No, but I do require silence; I'm studying."

"What for?"

"My history exam is in a few hours."

"No, I meant to what point. You don't even need high school."

I turned in my seat to look at him and sighed in frustration. "I know I don't, but I want to finish. And I want to finish well. I like having good grades."

"It's unnecessary."

"If you won't give me silence, then please leave."

"No, I'll stay. There are a lot of things I can give you that don't require speech. Or any sound." He spoke with a cocky smirk as he settled onto my bed.

I rolled my eyes and went back to those history dates.

C burst into my room with papers in her hands. "Ri, can I ask you a… question." She stopped, stunned, in my bedroom doorway. "I didn't know Klaus was here," she said, curtly, as she crossed her arms.

I smirked at her. "He's sneaky like that."

C scoffed. I noticed the papers in her hands.

"Did you come in to ask something?"

"Yes. I wanted to ask you an English question."

I raised my eyebrow at her statement. "How can I answer your English question? I'm not in your class. I'm not even in your grade."

"No, but you're freakishly good in English."

I considered the validity of her statement, but I didn't respond.

"And don't act like you haven't read Romeo and Juliet."

I narrowed my eyes at her. Not a glare, exactly. "I have."

"As have I," Klaus announced.

C rolled her eyes. "Of course you have."

"Actually, C, Klaus might be a better resource. What could be better than asking someone who was around when Shakespeare wrote it?" I smirked at Klaus.

He looked at me. "Are you 'freakishly good' in English?" he asked.

I shrugged. "It's my favourite subject."

C cleared her throat; she obviously wanted an answer to her query so she could leave my room a.s.a.p.

"What's your question?" Klaus asked before I could.

C rolled her eyes as she looked at one of the papers in her hand. "My teacher gave us practice questions and I can't find anything in my notes that even mentions birds. At the beginning of Act III, Scene 5—"

"The morning after they got married," Klaus interjected.

"Right. The question asks about the significance of the birds. All I know is that they mention nightingales and larks."

I smiled at C before I explained. "Juliet tries to convince Romeo that the bird's song they're hearing is the nightingale, which is a night bird, rather than the lark, which is a morning bird. She wants to extend her time with Romeo.

"But when she realizes Romeo must leave or else be put to death by the Prince's orders, Juliet declares that it is, in fact, the lark; it is dawn and he must flee."

"Juliet tries to change the world through language — as we saw in the balcony scene," Klaus added.

"Huh?"

"During the balcony scene, after Romeo and Juliet first meet, Juliet first uses language to 'change the world,' " I explained, using Klaus's words. "In that scene, she transformed the night into day using words; here in this scene, she does the opposite, transforming day into night.

"But they cannot change time using words."

"Juliet realizes this," Klaus explained. "Romeo is willing to die simply to remain at her side, but Juliet — the more pragmatic of the two — comprehends that he must leave."

"All of this comes from listening to a bird singing outside the window?" C asked.

Klaus and I nodded.

After C left my room, I realized it was time to go to school. Klaus offered to walk with me.

He quizzed me along the way, asking me the dates of important moments in American History, making comments on each of them.

At the school, he stopped and handed my notes back to me.

I suddenly felt the strong need to skip school today. I knew I shouldn't, and couldn't because I had an exam, but I wanted to. I inwardly rolled my eyes as I heard myself quoting Romeo from the scene we discussed earlier with C. " 'I have more care to stay than will to go.' "

Klaus smirked. "Finally. I have shown you the frivolousness of school."

"Yes. I have succumb to peer pressure."

He shook his head. "I shall not be the cause of your bad decisions. Off to school with you. But know this: 'Parting is such sweet sorrow / That I shall say good [bye] till it be [later].' " Klaus quoted Juliet.

"Nice adaptation. At least my quote came from that same scene we were discussing earlier."

"All that proves is that you know one scene; quoting from an entirely different act shows I know the entirety of the play."

"Or you just got lucky that that particular, well-known line is in a different act."

He scoffed. "Unlikely, love."

Once again, I found myself at Klaus's instead of studying. But in all fairness, I did get some studying in while I was at his place.

The exam I dreaded the most, my History exam, was already behind me and my next exam was in English — an exam I wasn't too worried about — so I didn't feel too guilty about hanging out with Klaus instead of studying.

I never saw or heard from Rebekah the entire time I was at Klaus's. Maybe she was studying. Or perhaps she was at the Grill, trying to catch Matt's eye. Or maybe she was just quiet.

Klaus and I were sitting on his bed and I had my English notes in front of me. I hadn't even realized it was dark out until Klaus spoke. "Spend the night."

I looked up to the window as I closed my notebook. "Thank you, but no."

He made a face. "Not like that. It's a full moon."

I made a face back at him. "Hadn't you turned all the local werewolves into hybrids before the doppelganger died?"

I stood and put my notebook into my school bag as he answered my sarcastic question. "Packs move around, love. Just look at Tyler's lady werewolf friend."

He stood up from the bed, too, and stepped closer to me, close enough that I could feel his body heat. He moved the hair off my shoulder and kissed the side of my neck. "I've had fighting training, you know," I said, somewhat sarcastically. "I'll be okay. Don't you trust your teaching ability?" He continued to move my hair to one shoulder as he moved even closer to me, now standing right behind me, as he switched to kissing the back of my neck.

His lips on my neck made my eyes close. "The most important self-defence rule is to not put yourself in dangerous situations." He spoke with his lips still against my neck. "Don't you care about your safety, love" I sighed and leaned back against his chest.

"Are you worried about me?"

"Always." That sent chills down my spine.

"I will be fine." I stepped away from him. "Seriously."

He groaned when I shot him down. I picked up my school bag.

But Klaus kept blocking my way. The first couple of times he kept it playful, knocking my school bag to the floor and pulling me back onto his bed, or preventing me from getting back on my feet. He would grab a hold of my hand or arm and keep me sitting on the bed by kissing me or kissing my neck. He then stretched his legs around me and wrapped his arms around mine. When I did manage to stand again, he flashed to the doorway, blocking my exit. When I persisted and kept insisting that I didn't need to stay, he became less playful and more serious and insistent.

I felt my frustration with him rise.

"You do know that I'm not actually that breakable, right. I may not be a nearly-invincible Original, or even a hybrid, but I'm not a porcelain doll, either!"

"And do you think I enjoy trying to tell you what to do?"

"Then what?" We were both yelling now. "What is the problem with me being out tonight?" I snapped.

"Do you even realize how dangerous it is for a vampire to be out during a full moon? You could end up as some pup's chew toy." He growled.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm going home."

I turned to leave, but I felt his fingers wrap around my wrist.

I turned back to face him and something in his eyes — the immense sadness — caused my anger and frustration to melt away. "I just want you to be safe. I won't lose another person under my protection to werewolves," he muttered.

"Another person?" I inquired quietly as Klaus moved around me, out of the bedroom doorway, and sat down on his bed with a sigh. His face had clouded over and his jaw was clenched. I knew better than to press the issue. He would tell me when we wanted me to know. So I kept my mouth shut. I walked over until I was standing right in front of where he sat on the bed. I hummed slightly in malcontent and smoothed a hand through his hair.

"This is about my youngest brother."

"Kol?"

He softly shook his head. "Henrik."

Klaus let out another big sigh. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me against him slowly before laying me down on the bed next to him. I turned onto my side, facing him, as he stretched out beside me. His arm remained draped over my waist.

"When my family first settled here, in that clearing in the woods, we lived amongst the werewolves. We settled into their village. We lived in peace with them. And it was there where Mikael and Ester had most of their children. Including Rebekah and me.

"Once a month, we would leave our homes to spend the night in the caves that ran beneath our village. We could hear the wolves howling throughout the night. And in the morning, we'd return to our homes." He paused, and I knew this was where the story would take a terrible turn.

I placed my hand on his upper arm. "One full moon, I snuck out to watch the men turn into wolves; I had always been incredibly curious about what happened while we were in the caves. And unbeknownst to me, Henrik followed me. Once I saw that he had snuck out too, I should have returned him to the rest of our family in the caves — sneaking out during a full moon was forbidden — but I could see the curiosity burning in his eyes, the curiosity that I knew was mirrored in my own. So I let him stay with me." He let out a large, almost ragged, sigh.

"We wanted to see the men transform, but Henrik was brutally killed by one. He paid the ultimate price for my stupidity and my curiosity. And my carelessness."

He sighed again and closed his eyes for a long time before he spoke again. "That was the beginning of the end of peace between my family and the werewolves. And one of the last times my family spent together as humans.

"Henrik's death was the catalyst that drove Esther to protect her children by turning us into vampires."

I could see the pain and heartache in his eyes and it made my heart clench. I reached up and stroked the hair around his ear. "It wasn't your fault; it was an accident."

He didn't respond, but I knew he wasn't agreeing with me. I knew that he would never agree with me on this matter.

I listened to every word he said. Once he finished speaking, I made a silent vow that I would never again go out during full moons alone.

"But for your information, I'm not 'under your protection'; I'm simply gracing you with my awesome presence."

He managed a smile at my statement.