Prequel to 'hearts beat loud'.

"Hazelnut?"

"No."

"Coconut?"

"Nope."

"Peppermint?"

"Klaaaus," Caroline whined through the phone, "I want strawberry yogurt chocolate!"

"I've got the store manager here, love, and he's never even heard of it."

"So I'm supposed to pay for someone else's incompetence?"

Sat on the opposite couch in the living room of Klaus' New Orleans apartment, Marcel chuckled.

Caroline shot him a glare but her protruding belly did very little to make her look anything other than adorable.

Marcel only grinned wider as his werewolf hearing picked up the sigh Klaus gave.

"Of course not."

"How many stores did you even try?"

"This is the third."

"Well, I have been carrying your babies for over four months, now. You can try a few more stores."

"Of course, love."

Caroline disconnected the call and threw her phone all the way to the other end of the couch with a humph, already knowing she'd come to regret that decision the next time Klaus called.

Wordlessly, Marcel retrieved the device and moved it back within her reaching distance.

"Thank you," she mumbled.

Ever since her relocation from her hometown of Mystic Falls to New Orleans a little over one month ago, Marcel had been Caroline's biggest ally.

He was the only one who understood how intense Klaus could get whenever challenged on something he deemed not to be contested. Because as obvious as the love and trust Klaus' pack had for him were, implicit constants of a supernatural found-family, whenever one of the werewolves had a doubt or a suggestion to raise it was on Marcel that the duty to weigh whether it held reasoning and, eventually, to approach Klaus with it fell.

Everyone witnessed the praising or the scolding.

But no one else had ever experienced the exhausting push and pull.

Which Caroline had become quite the pro at, what with how ridiculously protective Klaus was of her and their babies.

Although his devotion did come in handy whenever her pregnancy cravings sent him driving all over the city for flavored treats, a recurring occasion, especially considering the sugar-related cravings somewhat also soothed the sex-related ones and she had so not stopped mentally freaking out over the whole mates situation enough to go through with her very vivid fantasies of riding him into oblivion on every possible surface throughout his apartment and then outside of it yet.

So, strawberry yogurt chocolate it was.

Still, at the memory of the time she did ride Klaus, Caroline had to shift the angle of her position on the couch, a soft blush rising to color the apples of her cheeks.

"Anything else you need while waiting for your strawberry yogurt chocolate?" Marcel asked, a teasing, knowing lilt to his tone.

Caroline ducked her head in an attempt to hide her growing redness behind her hair, shoulders shaking lightly in laughter. "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

"Mmh," she pursed her lips, not convinced.

"I didn't. I was simply being polite. Believe me, I'll be more excited than you are when Klaus ends up having to buy a whole ass chocolate factory in order to be able to come back home."

"He wouldn't!"

"Girl," Marcel shot her a pointed look full of disbelief at her rebuttal, "my poor man has his portrait next to the word 'whipped' on the dictionary."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Caroline folded her arms across her chest, which, lately, had come to mean over her belly.

Marcel was torn between letting her stew in her denial – she was every bit his alpha as Klaus was, after all, and he didn't want to push her – and drafting up a graphic chart to illustrate just how impossible it was for her not to have realized that Klaus literally lived for her and their babies, when, all of a sudden, Caroline yelped.

In an instant, he was off the couch and by her side.

"What is it? Are you hurt?"

The norm dictated that Caroline scoffed or snorted or attempted a combination of the two whenever Klaus or one of his werewolves dramatically reacted to her smallest display of discomfort, but, that time, she found herself unable to do anything at all, frozen but full of warmth, lips parted and eyes wide, a kind of magic so much more powerful than that which ruled the supernatural world spreading through her being as she realized what had just happened.

"Caroline?"

"I—" her breath caught in her throat. "The babies just kicked." Her shock melted into happiness. "The babies just kicked!"

Marcel's gaping expression fueled her giggles, her hands moving every-which-way across her stomach to follow each of the twins' movements.

There.

Again.

Once more.

"Oh my God, they're ninjas!" she exclaimed.

"More like werewolves," Marcel commented with a smile.

"Eh," Caroline moved one shoulder up and down, "I guess that works, too."

"Hey! I take full offense."

"I'm kidding," she rolled her eyes before settling them back on her stomach. "I would love them even if they were little blue gremlins, anyway."

"Well, you're gonna have a lot of explaining to do to Klaus if that happens," Marcel joked, also eyeing her stomach.

Caroline noticed and nodded towards it.

"Do you wanna feel?" she asked.

"Before Klaus does? And here I thought the two of us were friends, Caroline, but, obviously, you're trying to get me killed."

Caroline huffed. "Fine! Give me my phone," she requested with a clumsy wiggle of her fingers.

No matter how much pride she was going to have to swallow, there was only one person she truly wanted to share the experience with.

Klaus picked up on the first ring. "I'm on my way to a fifth store, love, but I promise—"

"Klaus," she interrupted, stern but soft, "forget the chocolate."

"But—"

"Forget it. I don't care about the chocolate. I just..." she hesitated, took a deep breath before plunging forward, "I just want you to come home."

On the other side of the line, Klaus fell silent. Like, dead silent. Not-even-breathing-about-to-have-a-heart-attack silent. It seemed to be a thing between them.

When he did breathe out, almost an entire minute later, his exhale was a trembling thing that tugged fiercely at Caroline's own heart.

It gave her the push to add, "Come back to us."

The joy she could hear in his next words told her it had been the right thing to say.

"Always, love."

She disconnected the call before she had a chance to say something she couldn't take back, something she wouldn't want to take back.

"Now," Marcel's tone had regained its previous knowing quality, though it didn't sound teasing anymore but, rather, proud, "was that so hard?"

"For your information, yes."

He roared with laughter and slapped his hands on his thighs.

Caroline proceeded to give him the silent treatment.

The twins seemed to have calmed down, in the meantime, kicked again just as Klaus crossed the threshold into the apartment, as if they could sense his presence and wanted to greet him.

The thought made Caroline tear up a little.

Stupid hormones!

Klaus sat down in the spot Marcel had just vacated, the latter sneaking out of the apartment altogether with neither of the other two noticing.

"Are you all right, love?" Klaus inquired, concerned. Caroline had never asked for him so directly before. "Did something happen?"

She nodded, blond curls bobbing, and turned to give him a smile so brilliant it made his heart burn with longing.

"The babies kicked!"

"W-what?" Klaus' gaze lowered to her belly, grew, if possible, even softer.

On instinct, he reached out, hand stopping mid-air, inches away from where it was aching to be, when he realized what he was doing.

Before he could as much as open his mouth to utter any one word, however, Caroline circled her fingers around his wrist and brought his hand to her stomach.

The babies kicked again as soon as he touched her.

Caroline flinched but giggled. Klaus could only look on in awe.

"Can you feel them?" she asked, guiding his hand across the stretched expanse of her blouse.

"Yes," he answered, voice hoarse, "yes, I feel them."

The combination of Caroline's warm skin touching his and their babies kicking strong inside of her, their heartbeats beautifully loud in his ears, took his breath away, seemed to take everything he was feeling away, only to push it back into place with the intensity of a tidal wave, meant not to destroy but to clean and soothe all the wounds he had let fester throughout his life.

His life until her.

His life until them.

Emotions choked him up.

Caroline, who had been eagerly studying his reaction, frowned.

"Klaus. Are you... crying?"

"Don't be ridiculous, love," he tried to scoff but his voice wasn't cooperating, "I do not cry."

"Uh, I'm looking at you right now and you're crying."

"You must be hallucinating."

Caroline's lips twitched upwards. "I must be."

Klaus tore his eyes away from her stomach, content to keep track of the twins' movements with his hand.

For an infinite moment, the two of them simply stared at each other, let their eyes share what words were not able to express and thoughts were not able to comprehend yet: in a world of billions of people, there sat the one person who had been literally made to complete them.

It was a knowledge both soothing and scary... depending so much on someone else's existence.

Neither, not Klaus with his dominance and loneliness and not Caroline with her insecurity and control-freakness, particularly liked the idea, but their lives were already irrevocably intertwined, and not just because of the babies, just by having met.

Soulmates.

"I never thanked you," Klaus broke the silence but kept his tone low, feeling the need to preserve the tranquility that had encompassed them.

"What for?"

"Everything."

Everything she had given him which was everything he had.

Caroline dragged her teeth along the curve of her bottom lip. "I never thanked you, either," she pointed out.

Klaus echoed her question, confused. "What for?"

"For catering to all of my whimsical requests."

A shrug.

A chuckle.

"I'm happy to, love. Never not ask me for something you desire."

His words seemed to carry a deeper meaning, making Caroline swallow thickly.

"Noted," she whispered. Hand still covering his, she threaded their fingers together. "And I am thankful for our little family."

"Me too, love."

The babies gently kicked their agreement.