Follow-up to 'one day'.

"Tell me again, Nik: why did you drag me here?"

"I didn't drag you here, Kol," Klaus snapped, at his wit's end between anxiety over his current situation – funny, how attending San Diego Comic-Con after years and years of waiting barely mattered when meeting Caroline occupied the other plate of the scale – and annoyance at his brother. "In fact, I specifically told you not to come."

"Uh," Kol trailed the curve of his chin with his left thumb and forefinger, "suspicious."

Klaus whipped around, all but ready to lash out, only to find Kol with his hands raised between them in the trademark sign of peace.

"Sorry, sorry! You're nervous about meeting your girlfriend, I get it."

"She's not my girlfriend!"

Even among hundreds of people cheering and laughing and talking, Klaus' shout echoed, earning him quite a few curious stares.

He cleared his throat and repeated in a lower tone, "She's not my girlfriend."

Kol arched an unconvinced eyebrow. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

"I'm not protesting, I'm stating."

"Oookay. Well, let's go find not-your-girlfriend, then."

"Her name is Caroline," Klaus growled, then deflated, "and I have no idea where she could be."

"Ask her?"

"How?"

"Don't you have her phone number?"

"Of course not. She's someone I only know online."

Kol's chuckle almost choked him. "Nik. You crossed the bloody ocean to meet her. I'd say she's a little bit more than that."

That time, Klaus didn't bother to correct his brother, as the latter wasn't actually wrong. "Still no number. She... doesn't even know I'm here."

"Whaaaaat?"

Another round of curious stares.

Klaus pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperated. "Will you keep it down, Kol?"

"The first scream was yours!" Kol rebutted with an accusing finger.

"This is it. I've had enough. We're going separate ways."

Kol's lips curved into a lopsided smirk. "Right. You probably want some privacy with your girlfriend."

"For the last time, Kol, Caroline is not my girl—"

"Klaus?"

The soft, familiar voice paralyzed him, held him warm and tight like a cocoon from which he knew he would emerge forever altered.

To prolong the thrill of anticipation, that bubble of hope he would inevitably burst by disappointing her with the reality of who he was, Klaus moved in slow quarters of a circle to face Caroline.

He had imagined her, of course, many a time, had imagined what she would look like, her figure, the shape of her lips and the shade of her eyes, but no amount of daydreaming could have ever prepared him for the ethereal beauty of her standing right in front of him.

A pair of bottomless, blue eyes stared right back at him with matching intensity.

"Hello, love," he greeted, struggling to get the words out, not even hearing his own thoughts over the loud beating of his heart. "Fancy meeting you here."

Caroline's wonderment melted into that fiery indignation Klaus had learned to love.

"You're unbelievable! You knew I'd be here!"

"I wanted to surprise you."

"This isn't a surprise, this—I don't even know what this is! I thought I was hallucinating your voice!"

"I can vouch for that," a new voice piped up, and Klaus found himself glaring at a dark-haired boy appearing from behind Caroline. "I really thought gorgeous, here, had finally gone and become bonkers because of you."

Klaus blinked, confused. "You know me?"

The other boy shrugged and a lovely pink rose to Caroline's cheeks. "I know of you. It's not every day someone's best friend falls for a boy she's never even met."

Caroline's skin turned completely red and her body turned to the boy with outrage. "Enzo!"

"What?"

"Filter, please?"

"At least you've stopped denying it."

"All right," she huffed, "you're leaving."

"Of course," Enzo mock curtsied. "You two love birds need your privacy."

Kol snorted. "That's what I said!"

Kol and Enzo shuffled away, already deep in conversation like two old friends.

Like opposite ends of a magnet, Klaus and Caroline gravitated towards each other.

"So," Klaus hedged, clearing his throat.

"So," Caroline repeated. "What are you doing here?" She caught a flash of hurt crossing Klaus' eyes and shook her head. "I mean... why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Klaus opened his mouth to answer, but, before he could speak, she added, "The real reason."

A sigh left him. He craned his neck to the side to avoid looking at her and swallowed. "I was afraid."

"Of what?"

"That you wouldn't want to meet me. That I wouldn't live up to your expectations."

"There were no expectations to live up to," she scoffed, and the teasing lilt of her voice snared him back into the trap of her stare boring into his. "I barely think about you at all."

Klaus grinned.

Caroline silently cursed his dimples.

As if he needed to get any cuter.

"That's not what that Enzo bloke seemed to believe."

"His insanity diagnosis is pending."

"And what about mine?" Caroline frowned and Klaus went all out. "Am I insane for traveling to a whole other continent?"

"N-no," she stammered. "Thousands of people do that. You're here for Comic-Con."

"I'm here for you."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am," he chuckled.

"You can't be here for me!"

"Why not?" Klaus asked, tone harsher than he had intended as the weight of what he had admitted sunk in, leaving him feeling raw and vulnerable in a way he had always done his best to avoid.

Caroline sucked in a deep breath, steeling herself for her own admission. "Because, then, what happens when you leave me again?"

Klaus' hands were shaking as he cupped them delicately around Caroline's face.

"I will just have to keep coming back to you."

"How?" she whispered, branding his skin with her breath.

Again, he grinned, dimples even more pronounced, the points of two stars in the endless universe that he represented.

"Well, I remember a certain virtual slayer of goblins mentioning just how excellent a university she had been accepted into."

Awe spread across Caroline's features, followed by a blinding smile. "You're coming to Berkeley?"

"That depends," Klaus pretended to ponder. "Are you willing to give me a tour?"

"It's almost eight hours of driving. How long are you staying in California for?"

His answer trickled from his lips straight onto hers when, at long last, they touched.

"For as long as you will have me, love."