The next evening Caroline was still coming off of her high, though her mom had extracted a very firm promise to never do anything like that again.

It was a good thing she wouldn't need to, but part of her knew even now she'd crave the satisfaction of a well-executed plan sooner rather than later. She smiled at the memory of Marcel's face when he'd been so utterly certain he'd won.

In the early stages of planning, both her and Klaus had realized that they needed to keep the other vampire feeling like he had control of the situation. It was the only way they'd succeed, but that didn't mean putting her mom in danger hadn't come with some sleepless nights. Given enough time, she supposed they'd have come up with a different plan, but part of her loved that her mom had been involved, because she knew it made her mom feel a part of her own recovery.

And with that thought, Caroline circled a date in the calendar hanging next to the coat rack. They'd called for a surgery appointment first thing that morning, and Caroline thought she might go insane waiting for the next week to crawl by.

A knock at the door, and Caroline shouted for Bonnie to come in. She had texted earlier, intent on hearing all the details.

"I can't, love," Klaus' voice called out, amused, and her heart spun in her chest. She stepped out on the porch, her eyes bright as she studied him. She gestured towards the porch swing and sat down, though he remained standing. The sound of the late-summer cicadas was almost deafening, and she hoped it hid the way her heart beat.

Because regardless of what anyone thought, including her mother, she was no longer able to ignore whatever these feelings were for Klaus. She stared up at him, her eyes huge and his silence unnerving, so she broke it.

"Hi."

A dimple cut his cheek. "Hello, Caroline."

"What are you doing here?"

He pulled out a sheaf of bills from his back pocket, lifted them up. "Your payment."

"Is that all?"

He looked abashed at her statement then started to laugh. "While I know what you mean love, it was a bit unexpected hearing 'is that all' as I hand you a stack of money that could buy this entire neighborhood."

Caroline quirked a lip, showing mild amusement, but her heart was in her throat and she needed him to say something. Was it just her? Had she read him the wrong way? Did she even want this?

"I wanted to show you something, actually," he finally said, reaching his other hand out and pulling her to standing. "Will you come with me, Caroline?"

"Where are we going?" she asked, carefully stowing the money in her pocket.

"Let me guess, you're not a fan of surprises."

She smacked his shoulder as she pulled alongside him, both of them walking along the neighborhood road back towards the top of the hill. A breeze raised the sound of the fall's song and sent a chill through the air; Caroline shivered, wishing she'd grabbed a sweater. "No seriously where are we going?"

He grinned at her, or perhaps he'd never stopped, she wasn't sure. "On another day, I would take you to far-flung places on the globe and watch you charm the natives out of house and home. But for today, we're heading there." He pointed, and Caroline looked up.

"The old wizard's house? Why?" Caroline asked.

He looked sideways at her, restraining his laughter. "Do you trust me, Caroline?"

"Of course I trust you, but what does trust have to do with me not liking surprises?" She grumbled, crossing her arms under her chest. There was a beat of silence, and when she looked up, Klaus was staring at her, dark and covetous, and she felt her hummingbird heart beat in response.

They crested the hill and he led her into the back garden, one hand guiding her at the small of her back. She'd gotten so used to his close presence in some ways, but this felt different, and her heart gave another unasked-for lurch.

"Here," Klaus said, and she stopped. They stood in front of the falls, the eerie music almost discordant this close.

"Don't tell me, you helped design this place too?"

"No," Klaus responded, his voice distant, in the throes of a memory. "I used to come here as a boy."

The weight of his history felt heavy on her shoulders, and she fell silent, something dark in his tone reminding her of how little she really knew him. She resolved to ask.

Klaus walked a few steps further and knelt, searching along the dusty ground close to the base of the falls and Caroline stood still, watching him as he seemed to find what he was looking for, a lever she had never seen buried behind a patch of weeds abutting the glass of the falls. He pulled it and stood with an almost boyish grin aimed back at her, rejoining her a few feet back. The air whistled through the falls as they stood together, and Caroline gave a soft gasp when she saw it.

An illusion, a dancer pirouetting among the falls, the music in time with her motions. She leapt and spun and turned, not confined to mortal limitations, leaping the falls ten feet in the air, her limbs bright projections against the deep blue evening sky. Caroline turned to Klaus, her eyes wet with the sheen of emotion, and there he was staring only at her. Her breath caught in her throat again as she stared back and he leaned in close, brushing across her lips with the barest of kisses. She thought of wizards toppled from towers, of hearts torn from men, and found that she could not balance these sides. So she decided to stop trying, and surged in to kiss him back, the graceful lines of the ballerina's image a backdrop, the chorus of the falls their soundtrack.

He broke their kiss to press his lips to her neck, his hand combing up through her hair to cradle the back of her head, pulling the hairs taut, and Caroline's responding moan only spurred him on. He pulled away and Caroline's eyes widened at his gaze. It was dark and calculating like she was used to, but something more lay atop of it, the blown pupils, the dark gleam of desire. He kissed her again, and she brought her own hands up to tug at his hair. He spoke words against her skin in a murmur, Caroline too far lost in her lust to pay attention until he pulled away again, his thumb tracing the swell of her kiss-stung lips, his expression fierce.

"No one ever told me," he said, narrowing his eyes, "and in a thousand years I never thought..."

"Thought what?"

"What seems simple to me now, love." His hands moved to rest on her hips, drawing her flush against him, his desire evident, his lips parted as he studied her. "That having someone stand beside me is so much better than them standing beneath."

It was melodramatic, even awkward in its delivery, but his expression made up for it, a mixture of lust and awe and admiration and vulnerability. It was his way of baring his underbelly, this consumate predator, and Caroline pushed forward to meet his lips, her hands bracketing his face as she tried to show her own feelings she wasn't yet ready to tell. The image of the dancer took another pass, her filmy gown swirling in the night air, her pointed step arching over their heads as she spun to the music of the falls, and Caroline thought that maybe, just maybe, it might not be so bad to be a queen.