Notes: It's been forever since I've posted a drabble! This one got finished when I was stuck on something else. Hope you enjoy!

Proximity

(The Gifted inspired fusion in which Klaus and Caroline are mutants – a telepath and a teleporter respectively. Rated M for a little bit of suggestive stuff near the end.)

Caroline holds her breath when she teleports. It's an old habit, one left over from when she'd first learned what she could do and half thought she was stuck in a nightmare. That she could wake up and be normal again.

The first time had been an accident. She'd overslept, nearly missed a math test. Her dad had moved out the month before and Caroline had still been deep in denial, had thought she could fix it, if only she was perfect and obedient and sweet. One second she'd been frantically tying her shoes, fighting back tears. The next she'd been in the girl's bathroom at school, just down the hall from her classroom.

She'd gotten a C on the test, too anxious and confused to concentrate. She'd spent years listening to her parents discuss her dad's case at the dinner table, knew mutant abilities tended to first appear in times of stress. She'd been taught that mutants could be dangerous, that they had to be monitored so humans would be safe.

Adjusting her worldview hadn't been easy. Caroline had never considered one day she might be a mutant case for her dad's office. She'd known, right from the start, she had to be careful. Controlled. Her parents loved her, surely they would understand, she'd thought, would see that Caroline was a good mutant.

At eleven years old she'd started sneaking into the woods around Mystic Falls to test her limits. She'd practiced, carefully measuring out distances, popping back and forth until she was exhausted.

After a few weeks, once it was easy, teleporting started to become fun. She'd felt powerful and it was an intoxicating high.

She'd been discovered at fifteen, had become so used to the forest being her territory that she hadn't been careful enough. Caroline had appeared out of nowhere while Vicki Donovan had been getting hot and heavy with her latest victim. Vicki had screamed bloody murder, called Caroline a freak, and she'd known her secret was no longer safe.

She'd had her bag packed when her parent's had gotten home. They didn't bother to try and convince her to stay.

Used to the feeling, Caroline doesn't panic when her chest gets tight. Her lungs strain as she waits to feel solid ground beneath her feet but she stays relaxed. When she's alone there are no witnesses for the deep inhale her body will demand, or the whoosh of air that escapes afterwards, usually as a relieved laugh.

This time she's not alone. Klaus is with her and Caroline realizes, as his grip on her arms tightens, she probably should have warned him about what to expect.

Oops.

He's rigid and unmoving when they materialize at their destination, not that Caroline blames him. She's been teleporting long enough that it's second nature but she's been told that it's a disconcerting experience for her passengers, downright terrifying the first time. He makes a noise of distress before he shakes her, gentle but insistent. "Breathe," Klaus demands, his voice unsteady. "Right now, Caroline."

It's early evening, they're just on the outskirts of New Orleans, and the air she sucks in is thick and humid, choking her. Caroline coughs into the crook of her elbow, stumbling back, her eyes popping open only to narrow indignantly, "Excuse you," she hisses. "Since when are you the one issuing orders?" She plants her hands on her hips, taking another, more cautious, breath.

He's unmoved by the reprimand, his shoulders shifting as he takes off the pack he carries. "Since you were turning blue. You're my ride out of here, remember? Can't have you dying on me, love."

She crouches because they can't risk being seen, and Klaus follows her down quickly, cooling her annoyance. Caroline does a quick check to make sure all of her gear has made the trip. Occasionally, when she's distracted, inanimate bits and pieces get left behind. Klaus is excellent at messing with her concentration, a fact she takes great pains to hide. She's relieved when all of her things are accounted for and her reply comes a beat too late, "Wow, I am truly blown away by your warm regard. I might just swoon."

"I think we just established that's exactly what I don't want," Klaus points out, dropping to one knee. He misses the face she makes as he digs out a tablet, which is probably a good thing. Mature adult leaders of mutant underground cells shouldn't be sticking their tongues out, no matter how exasperating a mission partner they were currently stuck with.

The mission Caroline is currently kind of a slacking on.

Her own pack is light, holding only a few emergency provisions, a lock picking kit, and a back-up set of weapons. She shrugs it off, dropping it beside Klaus, before reaching up to ensure her hair is safely tucked under her dark-knit cap. "I'm going to get a visual on the perimeter."

"Yes, that was the plan, wasn't it?" Klaus remarks, purposefully bland and it needles. "The one we've been obsessively going over for weeks at your behest." Caroline itches to snap back but refrains, clenching her teeth together and leaving Klaus' side.

She could totally be the bigger person. If she tried really hard.

Caroline stays low as she makes her way to the edge of the roof, careful to stay hidden from anyone who happened to be looking up, and peering down. In theory this op is low danger, just a sneaky breach of a relatively low security building to get information. It's a food service company, one that makes the bulk of its profits on government contracts. On paper they supply prisons and hospitals and schools, churn out the sort of cafeteria slop that Caroline had been thrilled to leave behind when she'd left high school. Careful digging had revealed some intriguing discrepancies between their input and their output, product that was produced but seemingly never delivered. It was a long shot but those meals were going somewhere. Caroline was hoping to find something, any clue no matter how tiny that would lead to the location of mutant detention facilities.

Far too many of Caroline's friends, people who relied on her, had disappeared in the last year and she was determined to get them back.

She's finally got some momentum, hope, and she owes Klaus for it.

Until he'd shown up, along with his brother Kol, Caroline had been angry and frustrated, sick to death of chasing dead ends and struggling to maintain her outward optimism. Klaus and Kol had come with a group of six other mutants, the remnants of an underground cell in The French Quarter that had been raided. There'd been a fire, casualties. Many mutants rounded up and taken into custody. Less than twenty had escaped, some finding their way to the cell Caroline and Bonnie ran in Dallas, another handful making their way north in hopes of getting to Atlanta.

Caroline had handled the newcomer's intake personally, had been left marvelling at the difference in the brothers. Kol had lit up when he'd set eyes on her, kissed the back of her hand when she'd offered it, and had immediately tried a pickup line that dripped in smarm. He'd been eager to talk about himself, his powers. Had offered to demonstrate but, given their cramped quarters, Caroline had been quick to decline.

They'd already been sleeping four to a room. The last thing she'd needed was Kol blowing up any of their living spaces and making things even more cramped.

She'd barreled through the conversation as quickly as she could, deflecting flirtation and refraining from rolling her eyes.

She'd been prepared for more of the same with Klaus but, when she'd entered the med bay cubicle he'd been occupying, she'd been met with silence. Klaus had been cool, had offered the bare minimum of information and had kept his eyes trained on her face, his manner suspicious and assessing. He'd asked pointed questions, about Caroline's cell and its resistance activities, about her and her background and how she'd come to find herself in a leadership position.

If it hadn't been directed at her Caroline might have been grudgingly impressed by the thoroughness of his interrogation.

She'd been tense and aggravated by the end of the meeting, all notions of southern hospitality out the window. As they wrapped up she'd been fed up, had strained to be polite when she'd informed him of where the door was and that he was more than welcome to use it.

She'd assumed he'd take some supplies and try his luck in the next closest city but she'd been wrong.

Spotting Klaus in line for breakfast the next morning Caroline been genuinely surprised. And then annoyed, when he'd tipped his dented metal coffee mug in her direction, the tilt of his head and the mocking twist of his lips an obvious challenge.

Caroline had never been very good at backing down from those.

She'd offered him a wave in response, along with the sort of megawatt smile she'd once perfected for cheerleading competitions. He'd blinked in surprise, had glanced around in confusion and Caroline had awarded herself a mental point.

They've been butting heads ever since, both of them stubborn and fond of doing things their own way. She should probably dislike him but her annoyance is partially feigned now. Klaus' surliness could be entertaining (she lived in a cable free world now, had to look to odd places to amuse herself) and she's thrilled by the progress they've managed as a team. Between missions, when he relaxed enough, he was surprisingly charming.

Every mutant who stayed with Caroline's cell worked in some capacity. Food prep, clean up, teaching - the only way they survived as a group was if everyone contributed. Many preferred to stick close to the base, to keep their heads down and live as risk free a life as possible and Caroline tried to respect their wishes. If she occasionally did her very best to persuade someone to join them on the front lines - scouting, scavenging, spying - it was only because such tasks were necessary.

Certain gifts were more useful than others and Caroline and Bonnie had learned to be strategic. They'd put Kol with the team in charge of security and he seemed to have a ball sparring and showing off.

Klaus was a telepath and Caroline had known, even before Bonnie had gently brought it up, that he'd be useful in the more delicate operations. The ones that she usually ran.

Her pride hadn't been up to approaching him right away, to making the offer. She would have worked up to it. Eventually. But Klaus had cornered her first. He'd caught her in a hallway, pressed a thumb drive into her hand, told her to find him if she had questions before he'd sauntered away.

She'd been momentarily tempted to throw it at him, confident that she wouldn't miss. In the end her curiosity had won and she'd grabbed Bonnie and a laptop.

Her confusion had led to excitement as they'd gone through the documents the drive contained. She hadn't known how he'd gotten it, hadn't really cared. The respect for law and order her parent's had drilled into her had long since dissipated.

Whatever shady means Klaus had used to get his hands on the intel was irrelevant. All Caroline cared about was the plans they needed to start making.

The info Klaus had handed over had provided the first solid lead they'd managed months. Her pride had been pushed aside and she'd frantically searched the common areas for him. When she'd approached him Klaus had been scribbling on a piece of paper, a drawing that he'd quickly covered once she'd neared. She hadn't quite known how to start but something about the way he'd leaned back, the imperious lift of his brows had bugged her. "Well?" She'd snapped. "Don't you think we have work to do? Or do you need a round of applause first?"

She'd whirled away and he'd followed, hadn't called her on her lack of graciousness. Klaus had answered her rapid fire questions with minimal snark, the first sign that her initial judgements had possibly been on the harsh side. Two weeks later they'd retrieved four mutant kids with various healing powers who'd been kept captive and used. That had been just the beginning. They've spent an awful lot of time together, planning missions, doing research, out in the field. Sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) Caroline even enjoys his company.

She's been known to curse his existence at great volume, in front of a captive audience, in meetings. He's always eager to add his two cents to her ideas, pointing out the flaws and shoring up weaknesses in the smuggest way possible. She's ranted about his pigheadedness, whatever whim had led him to stay and work with her rather than leave, to Bonnie at least once a week in the six months that have passed since Klaus first showed up.

The fact that they're an incredibly efficient pair had annoyed her so freaking much in the beginning. Their powers and skills are complementary and Klaus had proven to be exceptionally useful even when he'd delighted in being a raging pain in her ass. They've done great things, helped their people.

She really needs to suck it up and say thank you one of these days.

She chances a glance over her shoulder, finds him bent over the tablet, his face in shadow. Caroline returns to her scrutiny of the ground below. The office building she'd landed them on has the smallest footprint and is a story higher than the surrounding warehouses on the lot. She has clear sight lines to the paths that the night guards patrol.

She'd spent the last three nights on her belly in an itchy patch of grass a quarter-mile away, a pair of binoculars trained in this direction, Klaus at her side. There'd been a lot of bickering, and a tiny bit of flirting that Caroline was trying to forget about, but they'd gotten the job done. She has an insane amount of bug bites to show for their recon and a pretty good idea of how the security team operated.

A guard walks under a spotlight. She checks her watch, smiles in satisfaction. They were running right on schedule this evening and she quickly counts off the four guards she'd expected. Was there anything better than a plan unfolding flawlessly?

Klaus makes a noise, an annoyed scoff deep in his throat. When Caroline turns in his direction she feels a pressure at her temples, then his voice inside her head. "There are people inside the building."

There just had to be a wrench.

She does her best to focus and push her question towards him, "How many?"

Klaus holds up three fingers and Caroline's grateful. As useful as his abilities are it kind of weirds her out when he's in her head. The cursory tests Bonnie and the rest of the med team had performed on Klaus had shown him to be one of the more powerful telepaths they'd come across - not only could he read and project but he could plant thoughts, essentially use anyone to do his bidding.

Highly useful when surprised by wayward security guards? Yes. A. potential nightmare for an admitted and unashamed control freak? Also yes. When their working they're focused, all talk mission related. When she seeks out his company at the base they talk about everything but business – shows they'd loved, childhood pets, places they've been to or want to go someday. Listening to him talk has become one of her favorite distractions. They've never talked about any stray thoughts he might have gleaned from her. Klaus is always been careful about boundaries, has never breathed a peep about anything he might have pulled from her mind without her knowing.

Caroline appreciates the effort, has come to trust him more than she'd ever anticipated.

She tips her head towards the access door and Klaus nods, unfolding himself and edging over. One last quick scan below shows Caroline that everything is calm, that their presence hasn't been noted. She ducks and crosses the roof in quick steps to where Klaus has eased open the door. She slips inside and he's close behind, brushing her back in the darkness of a narrow hall.

She stills once the door is shut, listening carefully. Klaus leans in and speaks softly, "They're on the main floor. I spotted them on the security cams once I looped in. I can get snatches of thoughts. They're agitated. Something about blowing a deadline."

Caroline considers the information, turning to face Klaus. She rests her shoulders against the wall behind her, conscious of just how close he is, of all the places where they're touching. "On a Friday night? That's dedication. Who says good help is hard to find?"

Amusement softens his face, "I gather their boss is a bit of a tyrant. You'd probably like him."

She shoves him playfully, doing her best to hide a smile. "Oh, shut up. I'm not that bad."

He opens his mouth, surely to argue, but Caroline cuts him off. "Do you think we can copy the hard drives without them hearing anything?" They need to adjust their plan before they start bickering.

He slips into business mode easily, "It's possible. We need to be in the room directly above them so we'd have to be absolutely silent if we don't want to be discovered."

"Which we do not."

Klaus nods in agreement. Finding this company had been a lucky break. One of the first kids they'd rescued had drawn out a logo in her debrief. Some searching had yielded a company name. Their business plan involves lowballing their way to the top, hence the shoddy security. Getting away cleanly with the information they were planning on collecting, leaving no hint of their interest behind, is crucial.

The last thing they needed was anyone scrambling to cut their losses, possibly at the expense of mutant lives.

"What if we wait them out?" Caroline asks. "How late could they possibly stay?"

"If we do that we won't be back at headquarters on time. We'd likely have to start back straight after we're done here and I don't think that's a good idea. Neither of us has slept much these last few days."

"I can get a message to Bon. Let them know not to worry. We'll find someplace to crash for a few hours."

"Someplace nice?" Klaus suggests. He taps his temple, "I'm sure some hotel clerk would love to comp us their finest room."

God, that sounds amazing. They've been camping and it's been sweltering and uncomfortable. Indulging in a little luxury was too tempting to resist. The baby mutants she was supposed to set a good example for never had to know. "There'd better be a kickass bathtub."

"I'm sure that can be arranged."

Her traitorous mind conjures up an image - champagne and steam and bubbles. Klaus' slick hot skin pressed against her, his long fingers making a leisurely journey lower and lower. Caroline's lip clenched between her teeth as she fights not to urge him to go faster.

She freezes, face flushing, whirling to break eye contact. She presses her forehead to the wall, praying to any deity that happens to exist and be listening in that Klaus had not caught her thinking about engaging in naked bathtub foreplay with him.

Her subconscious clearly did not have much respect for appropriate times and places.

He's silent behind her, unmoving, but she can feel his eyes on her. "Well," Caroline starts. She clears her throat when the single word comes out squeaky, resisting the urge to bang her head against the wall. "Guess we should find a place to wait out the worker bees."

She hears fabric rustling, a click, and Klaus aims a flashlight at the ground. "Step softly, just to be safe. No one should hear a thing."

She nods, shifting over so he can go first, keeping her face averted. He doesn't head for the inner door, instead leaning in so she can feel his lips brush her ear, "There's no need for embarrassment. Skip the bubbles and that intriguing little scene could very well have come from me."

She's left gaping as he slips past her, cautiously opening the door. It swings open silently, no neglected hinges creaking out an announcement of their presence. Klaus holds the door for her, expression expectant when she's slow to move, "Are you coming?"

Caroline presses her lips together. If she speaks now there's no telling how deep a pit she'll dig herself. She moves forward and Klaus does too. Caroline carefully shuts the door before falling into step with Klaus, concentrating on making sure her boots don't make any noise as she walks. He mercifully doesn't call her on her silence, pausing at the first door they find. "All the offices are on the lower floors, aren't they?"

"Yeah. According to all the plans we could find." She pushes up onto her toes to peer into the small window set high in the door. "There should just be a staff room up here. Storage." It's too dark for her to make out much, but she doesn't see any movement. She motions for Klaus to open the door.

He tries the doorknob and it twists easily. He aims the flashlight into the room, illuminating an impressive quantity of dust and haphazard piles of desks, chairs and filing cabinets. "Guess this is where office furniture goes to die," Caroline jokes.

"Should make it easy to stay out of sight," Klaus notes. He enters the room, heading towards the desks in the corner. They're stacked two high and mostly old, bulky and made of wood that's seen better days. "These should hide us nicely should the guards make a sweep."

Considering how little she'd seen a minute ago she knows Klaus is right. "It'll work. If someone happens to wander in I'll just get behind them and hold them still so you can work your brain scrambling magic."

"A fine plan."

She weighs his words, something of a habit now, but she finds no sarcasm. He sinks down, out of sight, and Caroline hurries to join him. She grimaces slightly as she sits, shifting on the hard tile in a futile effort to find a position that's not going to end in her butt falling asleep. It's not going to be the most comfortable stretch of hours she's ever spent. Physically or mentally. Klaus seems to be having fewer issues, sitting with his back to a desk, legs stretched out in front of him. "Do you want me to hack their Wi-Fi so you can make contact with the base?"

Caroline considers the offer. She knows it wouldn't be a strain for him, has seen him do much more complicated tasks with minimal effort. While Klaus has been tight lipped about his background Kol has been more forthcoming. The fancy private school they'd attended as teens had been big on tech and the sciences. Klaus had gravitated towards computers though his tendency to chafe under strict rules and any sort of authority had led him to experiment outside of class, test boundaries, narrowly avoiding expulsion to hear Kol tell it.

Caroline had listened to the stories with some amusement, and a healthy dose of relief. It had been nice to know that it hadn't been her personally that Klaus had a problem with, that he would have been just as ornery with any other leader when he'd arrived.

"No, better not," she decides. "It's possible they'd notice we'd logged on."

Klaus' agreeing hum is faint and he falls silent. Caroline toys with the zipper on her jacket, uncomfortable with how the high collar presses into her skin. Now that they've stopped moving she's noticing the oppressive heat, how her snug fitting outfit is sticking, and she'd give anything for the AC to come on.

Given what she knows about this company she'd bet they're too cheap to do more than the bare minimum. She scrubs her arm over her damp forehead before flapping her hand near her face. "I'm tempted to pop over to the break room and raid the vending machines," Caroline grumbles.

"As nice as a cold drink would be it's not worth it."

"I know."

"Though I don't see why we can't lose some of these clothes."

The end of the sentence is muffled and Caroline glances over to see Klaus peeling off the black shirt he wears, revealing a layer underneath. It's sleeveless, and she watches the flexing or the muscles of his upper arms with interest, her eyes catching on a tattoo she hadn't known was there.

She looks away hastily, before he can catch her ogling, hoping he hadn't been tuned in to her thoughts. "I'm good," she mutters.

Klaus huffs out an impatient breath, "I'll take back what I said earlier, if you'd like. No need to give yourself heatstroke on my account."

"So you didn't mean it? You were just sparing my delicate feelings?" That was mortifying.

"In truth I've never fantasized about you in a bath."

Caroline's contemplating the logistics of curling up into a ball and dying - Klaus would manage to get out, he was a resourceful kind of guy - and she almost misses the next thing he says.

"It's usually the showers at the base. Sadly impractical, I know. The hot water is in such short supply. Though usually we just start there and you pop us somewhere less slippery. And more private."

It takes a second for his meaning to sink in and, when it does, she's left floundering for a response. "I… you…" she can't form a complete sentence, coherent words dying on her tongue.

Klaus grins, "Have I shocked you?"

"Yes!" Caroline hisses.

"Odd. Your friend Bonnie has a lot of thoughts about the tension between you and me. How much easier her life would be were we to relive it. Apparently you've not had a proper orgasm in ages and it's made you nearly insufferable. Has she never shared them?"

Caroline reaches out with her leg, nudging his foot with hers, "Listening in to people's thoughts is rude, Klaus."

He shrugs, "I do try not. Well, at least with people who aren't actively trying to hurt me and mine. Certain factors make it more difficult."

"Like?" Caroline prompts, unable to tamp down her curiosity. Mental powers manifest in a great variety of ways and she's not entirely sure of the finer points of Klaus'.

"It's cramped at headquarters. A lot of thoughts flying about. Constantly. It's impossible to block them all out. Certain people just think loudly. And, in the case of your friend, thoughts about me, when I'm in the room, are especially hard to miss. I can't help but tune in."

That was not good news. "So if I'm right next to you, and I'm thinking about you, you're going to know?" He'd surely gotten plenty of information from their private conversations if that was the case.

It's the first time she's seen Klaus look anything but confident and assured and she can't even enjoy it. His eyes drop as he nods, "I'm afraid so."

And the hits just keep on coming. She doesn't feel any anger because Caroline gets that he can't help it. She's lucky that her ability has nearly always been voluntary, that she has to really try to propel herself from point A to B. She's heard so many stories from mutants who don't have the luxury of that sort of control, knows all about how it can ruin a person's life. The hint of shame in Klaus' slumped posture doesn't sit well with her.

"So why haven't you ever said anything? Done anything?"

His head turns but she can't see his eyes, the room too dim. "My abilities are invasive, I know. It felt manipulative to use your private thoughts to get closer to you."

"And you're anti-manipulation all of a sudden?" Caroline asks skeptically. Klaus was a 'by any means necessary' tactician, it's part of what made them so successful on missions.

"I have no problem with lies or tricks to get what I want. What I want most is for you to be sure that you want me too."

Her confession comes easily, "Well, I do. So we should probably look into that once we're no longer in enemy territory."

"I look forward to it," Klaus replies and Caroline kind of wishes he wasn't so far away.

She briefly considers whether or not it would really be all that disastrous to crawl into his lap right now. The building is quiet, did she really have to be all that cautious?

Caroline shakes the thought away quickly, straightening her spine and taking a second to listen carefully. Now was not the time to start thinking with her libido. She and Klaus had plenty of time, would be locked away in a stolen hotel room in a matter of hours. She tries to push them into lighter territory, "I guess I should apologize for all the not so nice things I thought about you in the beginning, huh?"

He relaxes, a smile teasing the corner of his mouth. "After hearing it so often I slipped and used the word 'asshat' in front of a Kol. He's delighted by it, so thanks for that."

"It's an excellent word!" Caroline insists, doing her best not to laugh.

"You don't use it anymore. Not about me."

"Because you don't actually deserve it. Probably didn't even in the beginning." He argues with her for good reasons, his input always makes her plans better. If he was a little obnoxious in his delivery Caroline shouldn't judge. She wasn't stingy with the scathing witticisms either. "Except that first day. You were a real dick."

A surprised laugh bursts from Klaus and he's quick to muffle the sound with his hand. "I might have been testing you," he admits, once his amusement had calmed.

"Testing me?" Caroline repeats, bristling with outrage. If he made a blonde joke she was going to drop him off in the middle of the bayou and port herself back to the truck alone.

"The Underground is the best shot Kol and I have at finding our family. But the cell in New Orleans…" Klaus pauses, choosing his next word with care. "It was incredibly dysfunctional. There were three people jockeying to be the leader and nothing productive seemed to get done. We thought we could… well, no one was particularly intelligent and, given a couple of weeks Kol and I could have eliminated the competition. Set things to running more efficiently, worked on tracking down Rebekah and Henrik. The cell was raided before we made much headway."

That's more information than Klaus has ever freely offered about what had happened just before they'd met. She known that he had more family, but not that they were mutants. She's curious about them, can tell that he cares for them deeply, but Caroline can't press for detail until she deals with his most concerning statement. "If you're plotting a coup you probably shouldn't have told me all that." She realizes, horror dawning, that Klaus' abilities mean he has other options. "Or, wait. I guess you could just wipe my memory."

Caroline tenses, edging away, but Klaus holds up his hands, palms up and open. "No, no. I wouldn't. I won't."

She wants to believe him, ceases trying to increase the distance between them. Deep down Caroline does trust his words. There's nothing in her that fears Klaus but she's got dozens of people relying on her. She can't afford to make the wrong call, no matter what she feels for him. "Why should I believe that?"

He doesn't rush to reassure her, instead saying, "I had four brothers, three now. And one sister. Five of the six of us were born with the X gene."

Caroline knows it's fairly common for the gene to be present in siblings but she's never dealt with, or heard of, such a large group. "How did your parents react?"

"Badly," Klaus says, the single word harsh.

"Yeah. Mine too. I ran away. Bonnie found me a couple months later. We grew up together. She was a late bloomer."

"It's good that you had someone."

Caroline doesn't like to remember the stretch of time just after she's left Mystic Falls. She'd been alone, scared. Happy to have a gift that allowed her to feed herself and make quick escapes.

"Will you tell me about them?" Caroline asks.

"Elijah was older than me. He could manipulate time. Just not great stretches of it. He went back to warn us that our father had called for us to be collected, that our other brother Finn, had been the one to urge him to. Elijah gave the four of us enough of a head start."

She doesn't have to ask, she knows Elijah didn't make it.

Caroline digs her nails into her palms, telling herself that she can't reach out. Not yet.

"I did my best to protect them but Henrik got sick," Klaus says, his voice pained. "We were ambushed at the hospital."

A common tactic by mutant services. A dirty one.

Caroline feels a burst of anger, takes a deep breath to tamp it down. "How old are they?"

"Bekah turned 18 last month. Henrik's 14." He's not looking at her, slumped forward and staring at the ground. She hates that she can't make out his expression. "I couldn't get them out of the building. Not without getting caught."

The guilt he feels is clear. Caroline gets it. It had been her mistake that had gotten Enzo taken away in a collar. Every day she promises herself she'll get him back. And all the others she'd lost. The intel Klaus brought her, his work on missions, gets her closer and closer. "If you'd been caught they'd be stuck with no hope of rescue. You did the right thing. You got out to fight for them another day. We'll get them back." The reassurance doesn't help, Klaus barely acknowledges she's spoken. Caroline shifts so she can look at the door, sees no hint of movement. They haven't heard any noise either, no footsteps climbing the stairs. She decides to risk it. "Move over," she tells him, sliding across the floor. She unzips her jacket as she goes, peeling it down her arms and tossing it over her pack.

He freezes, looking up in surprise and when the side of her body collides with his she keeps going, pushing until he has to move his bag and is tucked right against the wall. Klaus doesn't seem all that upset about her invasion of his space, not even when Caroline lifts his arm, wrapping it around her shoulders, "I'm a hugger," she tells him. "Deal with it."

They're close enough now for her to gauge his reactions and the way his lips press together, like he's trying not to smile, assures her that he doesn't mind her pushiness.

"Before you get too comfortable you should know that touch is one of the things that amplifies my gift."

Caroline had figured that and she gives him points for warning her. It's nice to know that he deserves her trust. She stretches out her legs, her thigh pressing into his. "I'll try to keep it PG. Since we're on a mission. Gotta stay sharp, right?"

He relaxes, his body melting into hers as his fingertips trace a pattern on her shoulder. "Don't censor yourself on my account, love. Our overworked friends downstairs are still firmly in the midst of a panic about their deadline. We're unlikely to be bothered."

It occurs to Caroline, not for the first time if she's being entirely honest, that there could be some serious benefits to having sex with a mind reader. She's never been shy about offering a partner directions, mostly out of necessity. Long term relationships weren't really a thing when you lived on the run and she'd never really had the time for leisurely explorations.

Klaus laughs softly and Caroline slams her eyes shut. "Ugh," she grumbles. "And you just warned me."

"When we find that hotel room, after you've had your bath, I'd be happy to demonstrate just how beneficial my abilities can be," Klaus offers, his mouth brushing her temple.

She doesn't try to fight her brain, embraces the image that comes - the two of them tangled in expensive sheets with sunlight streaming into the room, her legs wrapped around his hips as they chase release, all deep thrusts and rough grinds and grasping hands.

"Fast the first time," Klaus says. "I can do that. Afterwards I'll take you slow. It would be a shame to waste the privacy, wouldn't it? When's the last time you didn't have to worry about being quiet?"

She's about to answer him, tell him that she's never had the luxury of thick walls or time to waste but his lips on her neck distract her, the wet rasp of his tongue over her pulse, and then he speaks again, "Can I show you, Caroline?"

She nods and then she's seeing things from his point of view. She recognizes his hands running over her skin. In his fantasy he's behind her, staring down at bare back, damp and twitching, her hair a tangled mess. She's clawing at white sheets, trembling around his cock while she pleads for him to move in broken syllables and he teases her clit with delicate brushes of a fingertip.

A moan escapes her and it pulls Caroline out of the image, back into reality. A dusty room, an important task. Far less engaging. She swipes her hat off her head, rubbing the back of her neck. She feels hot and it has little to do with the weather, is slick between her thighs. She elbows him gently, "Okay, that was a little mean."

Klaus doesn't attempt an apology, the note of smugness in his reply letting her know he's not even a tiny bit sorry, "I'll make it up to you."

Caroline is going to hold him to that.