Chapter 12: Build-A-Boyfriend Workshop

Author's note: In this one-shot, Klaus and Caroline's relationship is unconventional, to say the least. When a complication arises, Caroline will have to decide how much real she likes in her reality.

Warning: Delightful smut! Also, slight Camel shade (because I've been watching Drag Race and the delicious, feisty shadiness has seeped into my soul and I want to spread it around. :)

"One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them."
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

"What unspeakable evil are you about to make speakable," Caroline asked as she noticed Bonnie bent over a circuit board in their lab, soldering an errant wire back into place.

"Oh, you know me," Bonnie said with a grin that lit up her green eyes, "Just tinkering."

"That's what has me worried," Caroline muttered. Watching her friend with a critical eye she advised, "Make sure you're applying enough heat. If you end up with a cold solder joint, the circuit might not work properly."

Bonnie rolled her eyes, an annoying habit she'd picked up from being around Caroline. "Really, tell me more about the process that I taught you once upon a time in our advanced electrical engineering course."

Caroline raised her hands in surrender, backing away from her testy friend. "Fine, whatever. I have a date anyway," she said with a cheerful smile, quickly pulling off her hair tie and running her fingers through her hair to unbraid the messy plait.

Bonnie nodded without looking up from her work and murmured, "He's been waiting. Have fun!"

Caroline sighed contentedly as she stretched out on the green plaid blanket. She turned her head to the side to stare at the impossibly attractive, dimpled specimen lying beside her. His dirty blonde curls had been carelessly tousled by her fingers earlier and the devilish, knowing smirk he wore brought an instant blush to her cheeks.

"You seem deep in thought, love. Tell me, what's flitting about that extraordinary brain of yours," he whispered, a touch of awe coloring his delicious accent.

A lazy smile graced her lovely face and she replied, "I'm just thinking of how happy I am, in this moment, here with you, Klaus."

His gray eyes widened in surprise, and he said huskily, "I don't think I truly started living until I met you, Caroline." He seemed to sense that his confession had overwhelmed her and he smoothly slid his hand around her waist, pulling her body closer to his. "Now, why don't you show me more about this sky of yours, love," he murmured against her blonde waves.

She turned her head to stare up at the dark blanket of stars. Squinting slightly, she quickly found the North Star. Pointing overhead, she explained, "That's Polaris, the North Star." Different civilizations used it to navigate for centuries."

"My people called it lode-star, and we used it to help guide our ships during raids and exploration," Klaus responded.

Moving her finger, she outlined the seven bright stars in the familiar shape of the Big Dipper. "There's Ursa Major."

Nodding to himself, he added, "We called it the Great Wagon." He began tracing sensual circles along her bicep, trailing his fingers to her shoulders where he began rubbing her skin in earnest, kneading her flesh until she let out a helpless little sigh.

She leaned the last few inches to touch his rosy lips to hers, loving how he started out his kisses slow and gentle before becoming more aggressive when he recognized her growing need. She mapped out the muscles of his chest as they flexed under her palms. She helped him take off his dark pullover, anxious to touch him more fully.

He lifted the hem of her floral skirt, cursing softly when he saw she was bare underneath. "You never fail to surprise me, sweetheart," he muttered against her skin as he began raining down hungry kisses onto her newly exposed flesh.

"It's your reward for coming stargazing with me," Caroline said breathlessly.

"Perhaps your reward for coming should be…coming," Klaus teased, licking between her thighs as she eagerly parted them to welcome the warmth of his tongue. Soon, she let out a strangled cry as he plunged into her aching core, applying just the right amount of pressure with his mouth.

Klaus!" Her shriek seemed to spur him on as he quickly lowered his jeans to replace his talented tongue with his throbbing cock. As he began to smoothly piston in and out of her dripping core, she tightened her legs around his waist, drawing him closer to her, as though trying to fuse their beings.

The moment he reached down to tweak her clit between his thumb and forefinger made her shatter around him, drawing out his own satisfying release. He curled protectively around her as they caught their breath on the blanket, reveling in the peaceful calm that always followed their passion.

Just as Caroline felt her eyelids flutter and she was about to succumb to sleep, an incessant, loud shrieking reached her ears, shattering their bliss. Sighing heavily, she sat up and pressed the silver cuff on her wrist to end the simulation. She noted with a twinge of regret how the romantic, starry sky faded from her view, taking Klaus with it as she was left once again in a sterile white room. She stood, grumpily opening the door to see Bonnie had replaced several panels on the mainframe while she had been in the simulation room.

"Took your sweet time," Bonnie commented dryly, taking in her flushed appearance. "You know we have several appointments tonight."

"You're such a cockblock, Bennet," Caroline grumbled, snatching her iPad to call up the scheduled bookings for the night. Raising a critical eyebrow at her friend, she added, "You know, you'd be a lot more fun to be around if you'd book some me time for yourself. In fact, at the beginning, you were even more of a frequent flier than I was. I still don't get your self-imposed celibacy."

Bonnie quickly busied herself at the mainframe, furiously typing at the keyboard. "I don't know what you're talking about, Caroline," she mumbled quietly.

Caroline huffed in exasperation, pulling her blonde waves back into a messy bun and went to work accessing the correct data files to meet their clients' preferences that evening. She and Bonnie owned Build-A-Boyfriend Workshop, the world's only cutting-edge, simulated dating experience. During grad school, they had perfected their theories on electromechanical transfer relations, molecular diffusion and AI, and then created their business model as a tongue-in-cheek perversion of the Build-A-Bear Workshop franchise.

They had been astounded at the unprecedented demand for their product. What they offered was the chance for individuals to create their perfect date, their perfect mate, etc., at whatever level of commitment they desired. The simulations they offered the public were nearly impossible to discern from reality, and left their clients immensely satisfied if their hordes of repeat business and referrals was anything to judge by.

Staring at the data on her screen, she saw that one of their most "frequent flier" clients, Katherine, had booked a full evening in one of their simulation rooms. As per usual, she requested the very first program she had created and had yet to stray from it. Apparently, Elijah knew how to push all the right buttons in the brunette's uptight, corporate lawyer exterior.

First-timers to their business were offered a variety of basic models to choose from — obvious choices like tall, dark and handsome; bad boy; and shy, nerdy naughty boy were still their most popular. Next, the client would select a personality program like docile, aggressive, funny, witty, etc. IQ levels, interests and hobbies were added based on client preferences. Accessories like dimples, tattoos, glasses, etc. were add-on features that many of their clients were happy to pay a bit extra to have. The final piece to arrange was the scenario — regency-era ballroom and a duel between jealous suitors, an ex's wedding and a fake date that leads to something real, one-night stand hook-up that begins (and often ends) in a bar, sailing around the world for a tenth anniversary, etc. They boasted that no two simulations were alike and that their clients were only limited by their own creativity.

When she and Bonnie first opened their business, it was difficult for her not to be inwardly judgmental and callous about the dazed, blissfully happy expressions that graced their clients' faces after they exited a simulation room. She had thought them ridiculous, silly imbeciles for clearly being unable to separate the chemical rush of endorphins from true feelings of love and happiness. They couldn't separate the real from the simulated reality they had purchased.

But now Caroline found herself facing a similar predicament. She had created Klaus several months ago and found herself wanting, needing to stay in her simulations longer and longer to be near him. She worried about what that said about her as a person that she could become so attached to her own construct. She recalled how possessive she had become over Klaus, to the point that she finally had to remove the Klaus basic model from their client selections as she couldn't stomach the thought of anyone else getting to experience the sheer joy she felt when she was near him. Klaus was hers.

Although, the one other client who had selected the Klaus model had made him so utterly unrecognizable that it was laughable how he could even be associated with her Klaus. This model had been over-engineered to the point that after the clueless, dishwater-dull blonde had finished making her selections, the program had been a weeping, bland, ignorant bore of a construct that no one in their right mind could relate to or feel anything for other than pity.

Caroline finished loading Katherine's Elijah program and set to work updating the Finn basic model. It had been glitching the last few times on their clients, apparently calling them Sage, for some odd reason. She turned toward Bonnie and asked, "Have you updated the memory architectures in our database?" She frowned when she noticed that her friend seemed lost in thought. Snapping her fingers impatiently, she finally caught her attention.

She repeated the question and saw that Bonnie wrinkled her forehead in concentration before answering, "Why does it need updating?"

"Because of the recent Finn construct glitches, remember? I think if we update the memory architectures, information retrieval will go more smoothly for the programmed simulations," Caroline explained, noticing how Bonnie's green eyes kept darting to the corridor that held the simulation rooms.

"What's wrong," she asked, placing a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder.

Bonnie seemed to shake herself out of her gloom and responded with an overly bright smile that didn't quite meet her tired eyes. "It's nothing; don't worry about it." She playfully shoved Caroline adding, "Besides, you know as well as I do that I'm way better at updating the mainframe than you. Since Katherine's all tucked in for the night with Elijah, why don't you go find Klaus for a bit? Our next appointment isn't for another hour or so."

Giggling as she felt the telltale schoolgirl blush creep to her cheeks, Caroline practically skipped over to her iPad and accessed one of her favorite go-to scenarios with Klaus. As she headed toward the corridor, she looked back at Bonnie and with her blue eyes twinkling she said, "By the way, in my last simulation, the Viking navigation data you added to Klaus' program was incredibly hot, but I'm a little creeped out that you were tinkering with my sexy-times fantasy."

Unfortunately, Caroline was in such a rush to get to her simulation that she failed to hear Bonnie's startled protest of, "But I haven't messed with your program."

Caroline opened the door to one of the simulation rooms and immediately found herself standing on top of Natural Bridge, the geologic formation found in Virginia that she and Bonnie once went hiking to back when they were in grad school. She smiled in contentment as she felt Klaus standing behind her, pulling her close to his body and wrapping his toned arms around her. She gazed out across the impressive, lush green landscape, inwardly congratulating herself on designing the simulation to appear as it had hundreds of years ago before the ravages of civilization had left its scars.

"This seems to be one of your favorite places, love," Klaus murmured as he kissed the top of her head.

Caroline sighed happily. "It is; Bonnie and I were in the middle of writing our thesis projects and had hit a roadblock. So, we traveled here thinking that going all Walden and getting back to nature would spark a solution to our problem."

Klaus chuckled, his breath softly brushing against the back of her neck where he had pushed her blonde waves to the side. "And did it solve your conundrum?"

"Yes," she said eagerly, trying not to shiver from the sensual way he placed sweet kisses along her sensitive skin. "In fact, when we were at the bottom of the gorge staring up at the limestone land bridge, we had this idea about bridging the gap of statics and dynamics of electromechanical systems having static equilibrium and electromechanical flows which naturally got us thinking about field coupling with thermal and…" she trailed off uncertainly, embarrassed by how high-pitched her voice had gotten in her excitement to explain her passion.

As though sensing her self-doubt, Klaus spun her around to face him, his gray eyes darkening as he commanded, "Never be afraid to share your passions with me, sweetheart. Your intelligence is astounding and I am fascinated by how your mind works."

Caroline hated how his earnest statement left her suddenly so emotional. She had never encountered a man who wasn't intimidated or bored by her work, and she had longed to find someone who embraced who she was so that she didn't feel the need to hide her opinions and ideas. She had drawn the line at dumbing down her intellect, which is why she had remained alone all these years. And why the Klaus construct she programmed had worked so well at alleviating her loneliness. She knew that the beautiful words he spoke that shattered her soul were nothing more than what she had designed him to say, but she found herself falling for him all the same.

Klaus tilted her chin so that he could meet her hesitant gaze. In a ragged voice he swore, "I owe you more than you can fathom, my Caroline. What you have done for me and mine is a boon that I can never properly repay." His dimpled grin came out to play as he teased her with, "I want you to get to know me. I dare you."

In the back of her mind, Caroline registered that Klaus' speech was odd; she had never programmed those precise phrases and momentarily started pondering if the construct was starting to glitch like Finn's. However, her thoughts were pushed aside as Klaus' gray eyes darkened with lust and he captured her lips in a punishing kiss that wiped her mind clean of everything but his magnetic pull.

She toyed with his curls, pulling him closer to her as his tongue plundered her mouth, pulling embarrassingly loud moans from her. She nibbled on his lip, expecting him to reciprocate, but she was startled at the low growl that rumbled from his chest and the peculiar way his eyes flashed golden. Which was definitely not part of her program. Nor was the way he latched onto her ivory neck and bit deeply into the side, groaning in ecstasy as her blood flooded his mouth.

Caroline screamed, her terrified cries echoing throughout the simulated gorge, and she wildly punched at Klaus' curly head until he released her, panting and shuddering. His eyes returned to their normal stormy gray and he brought a shaking hand to his mouth still dripping with her blood. Alarmed he said, "Caroline, I'm so sorry, sweetheart…"

When he took an uncertain step toward her, her adrenaline kicked in and she quickly pressed the silver cuff on her wrist to end the simulation.

Just before Klaus faded from her sight, she swore he looked nearly as fearful as she as well as oddly remorseful when he cried out, "Wait! I didn't mean to —"

Caroline ignored the tears that rolled down her cheeks as she opened the door and ran out of the simulation room to their lab. "Bonnie! Something…something happened and I don't know what…or even how to begin to explain…" she rambled breathlessly when she finally stood before her friend trying to catch her breath.

Bonnie grabbed her shoulders, trying to get her to calm down. She gasped and pointed at Caroline's neck. "What is that?"

Caroline carefully touched the side of her neck and held out her bloody fingertips to Bonnie in disbelief. "Klaus…bit me. How in the hell does a simulation cause you physical harm, Bonnie," she screeched.

"Oh God," Bonnie moaned, clasping both hands to her mouth. She collapsed back into her office chair, looking up at Caroline in fear. "This is all my fault. I should have said something when it happened, but I just thought I was going crazy like my mom and grandma, so I pushed it out of my mind so I wouldn't have to think about it," she blurted out. "I didn't want to know," she added bitterly.

Caroline sat across from her friend, dumbfounded. She used the sleeve of her peach sweater to wipe away the remaining blood from the torn flesh of Klaus' bite mark. Fortunately, her impossible, why-isn't-it-imaginary wound had stopped bleeding. "I don't understand," she said carefully, trying to keep her voice even as she willed her body to stop trembling.

"So a couple of weeks after we opened the shop, I was in the simulation room with Kol, the construct I had created. Everything was normal like always until suddenly it wasn't." Bonnie took a shaky breath, unable to meet Caroline's bewildered blue gaze. "He — he knew things that I hadn't programmed him to know, Caroline. And suddenly he bit me, and I managed to pull it together and end the simulation, but I didn't know what to think!" She shook her head miserably. "I was so worried that I had hallucinated the whole thing and that I was going crazy like my relatives that I just deleted his construct and didn't say anything."

She suddenly clasped Caroline's hands and said tearfully, "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, that my stupidity put you in danger!" She rubbed her forehead in distress. "Had I known, I would have pulled the plug on everything."

Caroline tried to process what Bonnie had told her, her thoughts whirling in confusion. In as calm a tone as she could manage she asked, "Okay, but what do we know, Bonnie? I mean, the constructs were functioning the way they had been programmed. So what changed?" She glanced around their lab curiously, as though the answer would suddenly present itself.

Bonnie shrugged, frowning as she tried to remember any detail that might be relevant. "Right after we first opened, we had to install the simulation upgrades," she said carefully. "Nothing weird happened though, right?"

Caroline shrugged. "Nothing weird, but you did manage to slice open your hand pretty badly when we rerouted some of the equipment in the simulation rooms." She rubbed her open palm as though trying to touch some part of Bonnie's phantom wound. "Remember? I thought we'd need to go get you stitches, but you were stubborn and it finally stopped bleeding on its own."

"Blood," Bonnie whispered in a low, frightened voice. She clenched her fists, wildly looking around until her green gaze landed on the lab floor, her beautiful caramel complexion suddenly drained of color. "Oh shit. Quartz floors." She seemed hesitant to want to step on the flecked natural stone now that it had caught her attention.

"What about them," Caroline asked, unnerved by her friend's odd behavior.

Bonnie groaned, rubbing her forehead once more. "In gem lore, quartz was believed to possess mystical properties to channel power."

"Gem lore? Channel power?" Caroline stared at Bonnie incredulously. "What the hell, Bonnie?"

Sighing, Bonnie explained, "So, if you believed the crazy ramblings of my mom and grandma, the Bennet bloodline possesses an ancestral heritage of powerful witches."

"Witches," Caroline said in disbelief. "So you thought your family was crazy but instead they are…witches?"

"I don't know, maybe? I mean, I'd love to just close my eyes and keep pretending weird shit isn't happening, but the real bites we received in our fake realities lends itself to thinking outside the box," Bonnie said.

"Okay," Caroline nodded slowly, standing up to pace erratically in their lab. "So maybe we need to accept, in this situation at least, that science can't explain everything." She ran her fingers distractedly through her waves, tugging on the ends. "What do we know about magic? Or at least the magic that's applicable to this situation?"

Bonnie turned to one of the monitors and quickly accessed the equipment schematics for the simulation rooms. With a shaky finger, she pointed to circular outlines on the floors. "When we rerouted the cables, we managed to create sacred circles."

"Seriously? That's a thing? Sacred circles aren't just Hollywood-fabricated bullshit?" Caroline counted off what they knew so far. "So, it turns out you may be part of a powerful line of witches. Then, you accidentally bled all over our floors which might be constructed out of a material that channels power. And we inadvertently created sacred witchy circles when we rerouted our equipment." Sighing in exasperation, she asked, "Anything else?"

Bonnie mumbled, "I may have accidentally dropped my sandwich on one of the simulation floors and the bread may have been baked with sage and blessing seeds."

"After you threw a monumental bitch fit when I was eating pizza in one of the simulation rooms? You said the equipment was too sensitive and that we couldn't run the risk of spilling food on…" She scrunched her eyes shut, breathing heavily through her nose. "Never mind. This is a pick-your-battles situation. Now, what's the problem with sage and blessing seeds being spilled?"

"In some spells, supposedly sage is used to unlock hell dimensions and blessing seeds have summoning properties," Bonnie clarified.

Continuing to pace, Caroline gestured wildly, speculating, "So it's possible that our constructs were possessed or even replaced by actual sentient beings? Maybe something from a hell dimension?" She scoffed, "That's impossible — we would have noticed that we were interacting with demons."

"But would we really? Think about it — did we even choose these Viking names for the basic models? I know I didn't come up with Kol; did you?" Bonnie shook her head as her green eyes widened in realization. "Plus, I definitely didn't program your Klaus construct to talk about Viking navigation."

"Klaus —" Caroline began, and then stopped abruptly as she suddenly recalled something important. She had named the basic model Kyle, and then when she began interacting with him, he told her his name was Klaus. At the time, she had foolishly assumed that Bonnie was being a control freak and had renamed all of the basic models, but if this crazy theory was true, then neither of them had named the programs — because they already had names.

"Caroline, we have to terminate the simulations. We've raised dangerous creatures, messing with things we don't understand," Bonnie said urgently.

Her heart began to pound at what Bonnie was suggesting. She realized how panicked she was at the thought of never seeing Klaus again before she could understand who and what he was, regardless of how much he frightened her before. Flashing Bonnie a weak smile, she said hoarsely. "Okay, but before we do anything hasty, I think we need a caffeine fix and maybe dive into deep research mode."

"Agreed. I'll just run next door and grab us some mochas and then we'll figure this out together," Bonnie promised, grabbing her purse and heading out the door, clearly relieved to be putting some distance between herself and the lab that had become so unsettling.

The second Bonnie exited, Caroline sprang into action, locking the front door and changing the electronic access code. She found herself in front of a simulation room, hastily accessing the Klaus construct.

She decided to follow through with Klaus' dare to get to know him…for science, of course.