Follow-up to 'Dear Cupid'.

"You've had quite a few boyfriends," Klaus mindlessly comments as he finishes adding one 'Tyler Lockwood' to the list.

He looks up from it only to find Caroline intensely glaring at him from the other side of the small, secluded table that they are currently occupying at the college library.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," the Cupid promptly rolls his eyes. "I was just saying."

The blonde snorts. "No one ever just says things, Klaus. How many girlfriends have you had, anyway?"

Klaus frowns, looking genuinely perplexed by the question.

"Girlfriends?"

"Uhm, yeah. Like, relationships... ring any bells? I mean, boyfriends count too, if you're—"

"I'm not."

"All right," Caroline brings her hands up in the universal sign of innocence, even as a grin curves the shape of her lips. "I was just saying."

He gives her an unimpressed, half-annoyed look, but eventually answers her question.

"I don't do girlfriends."

"Oh," Caroline is taken aback, eyebrows furrowed. "Why not?"

"As a Cupid, I have specific duties, and they will always come before anything else. There is no time for—"

"Love?" she supplies for him, sounding oddly sad. "Isn't that a bit of a contradiction, though? You guys bring Love to pretty much everyone in the world, yet can never have it for yourselves?" she shakes her head. "It doesn't seem fair."

It has only ever happened a handful of times in a thousand years of existing, but, somehow, Caroline's words deprive Klaus of his ability to speak.

He attempts to, wets then parts his lips, but can only inhale sharply, instead, speechless.

He suddenly feels something tugging violently at the strings coiled within his chest, and his eyes, gentle but intent, sweep across the blonde's features, his mind questioning how she could have possibly conceived such a thought, a thought he's not supposed to agree with.

"I—we don't see it that way."

He can, however, see that she doesn't believe him.

Throughout their one week together, he has already come to catalog his human's varying moods and, most importantly, whether they are sincere or not.

Caroline taps her nails against the wooden surface of their table for a long moment, probably mentally weighing the pros and cons of picking that particular battle, then sighs.

"Fine. Still," she can't help but add, taking to nervously chewing on her bottom lip, "I'm sorry and... thank you, I guess."

Klaus frowns again, again confused—he's supposed to know humans better than they know themselves and, yet, Caroline Forbes is but a mystery to him. "'Thank you'?"

"Yes. For caring for us and about us. For being selfless," she shrugs. "In the end, really, that's what Love is."

And it's funny—the lines of the Cupid's frown now etched as deep as the dimples that are a no-show—because Klaus has always considered himself to be quite selfish.

:

:

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I say so."

Caroline's hands find the lean crooks just above her hipbones. "You're aware that that's not a real reason, aren't you?"

Klaus lets out a long, exasperated sigh, thumb and forefinger pinching the bridge of his nose. "It is, when you're about to go out on a date and I'm Cupid."

"Your ego doesn't need any inflating, please," she rolls her eyes before correcting him, "you're a Cupid."

"Your Cupid."

The way his accent curls around the possessive should be illegal and Caroline curses the shiver his knowing smirk sends up her spine.

She grits her teeth together and tries to focus back on the problem at hand.

"What's wrong with wanting to look cute on a first date?"

"That's not 'cute', Sweetheart, that's—" he hesitates, a demeanor so unlike him, loath to admit just how much he's affected by the short, leather dress that is all but a second skin and matches the blue storm in her eyes. He has learned that Caroline is strong-willed and confident but a little heedless when it comes to men, and he feels... protective of her, somehow. He settles on, "—risky."

"What does that even mean?"

He gives her a pointed look and she blushes.

"All right. Maybe," she stresses, huffing, "this outfit might be a bit much for the movies."

Her heels click-clack haughtily against the dorm room's pavement as she shuts herself back into the small bathroom.

An hour and a half later, Klaus is sitting three rows behind Caroline and her date, an Engineering student by the name of Stefan Salvatore, while some boring action movie plays on on the big screen in front of them.

He pulls a face—Caroline hates action movies, she thinks they lack content and connection.

Between a terrible pun and some pathetic flirting on the boy's part, she voices her opinion, only to be curtly dismissed with a "Girls don't know how to appreciate them." comment that makes Klaus' blood boil beneath his skin.

She covers up her crestfallen expression expertly, like she's used to not being taken seriously, and his fingers dug into the armrests of his seat in anger.

It's been over three weeks since he first appeared square in the middle of her dorm room out of thin air and he knows that she's worth so much more than how she's been treated so far. Caroline is intelligent and compassionate and full of light, and, as far as Klaus is concerned, any boy who has ever passed up the chance to keep her by his side must be a fool. Stefan Salvatore isn't faring any better.

Which is why the Cupid feels a pang of annoyance when the couple parts ways with a kiss.

No other reason.

:

:

Much to Klaus' chagrin, there's a second date, then a third, then they are officially dating.

"He's not the one, Sweetheart," he insists, observing as Caroline seems to be over-stuffing her purse. "You're wasting time." He's not sure whether he means his time on the job or their time together.

"I like him."

"You're free to, but I can literally sense when two people are meant to be together and you and Stefan most certainly aren't."

"Well," she snaps, struggling to zip up her purse, "try sensing a little harder!"

Despite his annoyance at the situation, Klaus chuckles. "That's not how it works. I always immediately know," he guarantees, a touch smug, "and I'd say I've been privy to my fair share of relationships throughout the centuries."

Caroline crinkles her nose. "Thank you for reminding me that you're ancient and a stalker."

Klaus is unperturbed. "Doesn't change the fact that I've had to go as far as cajoling enemies into lovers more times than I can count. So, Sweetheart, let me tell you... you and Stefan? Can work as friendly acquaintances at best."

"We will get pleeenty 'friendly' tonight, that's for sure," she mutters, mostly to herself. Klaus stiffens. "I meant to ask you, actually," she starts fidgeting, slightly embarrassed, fully oblivious to his reaction, "if you could sit this date out?"

Ever the masochist, voice dripping with venom, he asks a question he already has the answer to. "And why is that, Sweetheart?"

"Let's just say I'd rather not find out what's the policy on sex voyeurism among Cupids."

"You're going to sleep with him?" Klaus hisses.

"I know you're, like, eternally celibate or whatever, but I'm so not going to have the 'birds and bees' talk with you," Caroline half snaps, hating how the anguish suddenly streaking the blue of his eyes makes her feel as if she needs to explain herself. "Anyway, yep, that's the plan. Why did you think I was packing an overnight bag, exactly? To rob a bank then flee the country?"

"I wasn't putting much thought into it, truth be told, since I believed you to be smarter than that!"

She gasps, pointing and wiggling a finger at him. "You take that back!"

"Do you take back your dreadful decision-making skills?"

"I haven't even decided anything, yet!"

He nods towards her purse, now clutched tightly in her hands, with a pair of arched eyebrows. "Seems to me like you have, Caroline."

"I—"

"Enjoy your date."

Klaus storms out of her dorm room before she can reply.