Hey y'all! This is my first fanfiction and I'm already astounded by the immediate response! It's so great; I love reviews and constructive criticism, so please share. :) Already love you all! XOXO


Hearts Beat

Ba-bum. Ba-bum. Klaus was "hunting" and he could hear this girl's heartbeat from across the room. The girl had long, blonde hair and he could feel the self-loathing rolling off her. She wasn't precisely pretty, but she would suit his purposes.

He sauntered over just oozing sex appeal. Klaus caught the girl's eye and instantaneously heard her heart beat faster. Oh, how he loved that he had that effect on women.

You don't have that effect on Caroline, the little voice in his head retorted.

He quickly shook his head to expel the little voice and all thoughts of the young vampire. He was no longer supposed to feel, so he wouldn't.

By now he had completed his approach to the girl. She was looking at him with a slight bit of confusion and he realized she had probably asked a question or introduced herself all whilst he was thinking. He quickly compelled her to meet him outside in a few moments; there was no need for pleasantries, so why bother?

The girl immediately made her way out the door to meet him in the alley, but Klaus decided to wait for a few minutes before following her. There was no chase and no effort put into this, he had to find little ways to make it interesting. How long would she wait outside? Would she eventually get fed up and leave? When he finally did join her, would she say anything about how long it took him to meet her? Of course he knew none of this would actually happen. She was compelled; she'd wait, perfectly still, for him for however long he told her to.

Realizing the dreariness of this eternal game he played, Klaus decided just to go feed and get it over with so he could return home and not have to be around a bar full of drunk and happy people. He quickly exited and found the girl in the alley exactly where he told her to be. The greatest part about compulsion is that the girl couldn't comprehend the danger she was in. Being in a dark alley at this hour: she was basically asking to be raped and murdered. Lucky for her, tonight she was only a food source.

Klaus quickly assessed the completion of his compulsion and deemed it passable for the current situation. He focused on her pulse for only a moment before he was hit with it. The moment before touchdown was the best part, in Klaus's opinion. All the anticipation and bloodlust lead up to this single moment where everything you want and need is so close; if you just move a quarter of an inch, all the world's pleasures are yours.

Klaus bit down on the girl's neck. He felt her automatically stiffen, as was the normal response, and then slowly relax as the endorphins spread throughout her body, leaving her floating on the greatest high the world has ever known.

After a minute or two, as the girl grew weaker, her head fell forward and a few strands of blonde hair fell into Klaus's line of sight.

Only one thought went through his head: Caroline.

He immediately pulled back with inhuman speed. He reevaluated the girl and discovered she hardly resembled Caroline at all, save for the blonde hair. It was strange for him to be so overwhelmed with just the thought of a name. Klaus was used to controlling everyone and everything in his life, especially his thoughts and actions. It was peculiar that this one girl had this startling effect on him; no girl had done similarly in centuries. He wasn't yet sure of what it was about Caroline that made her so special in his mind. She was beautiful, but no more beautiful than others he had seen before. She was kind and loyal, but those were traits Klaus usually found more suitable for followers, not romantic interests. Maybe it's the fact that she doesn't want him. Whatever it was, he had to permanently remove it from his thoughts.

I cannot be in any remotely close proximity with her. Maybe I need to go away for some time…


Caroline quietly knocked on Elena's front door. After a few moments, Elena opened the door with a slightly surprised look on her face.

"Fancy seeing you here," Elena said with a questioning look.

"I know, I should have called first, but I really needed to talk to you," Caroline replied as she made a motion toward the door.

"Oh, yeah, come in. You know you don't need to give me warning. I'm queen of crisis, remember?" Elena said as she opened the door further.

"Well, your powers are really needed, so I hope they're in high supply today," Caroline sighed as she stalked past Elena and up the stairs to her room. Elena followed her into the bedroom and quietly shut the door behind her.

"So what's going on?"

Caroline groaned and fell onto the bed. "I don't know what's wrong with me," she wailed to the ceiling.

Elena sat down on the edge of her bed and placed her hand on her friend's knee. "I can guarantee there's nothing wrong with you. I thought you had accepted your vampirism and made peace with your inner demons?"

The blonde girl sat up and sighed again. "Of course I have. That's not the problem," she said as she threw her head into her hands. Through the gaps between her fingers, she looked up at Elena. "You have to promise not to hate me," she mumbled.

Elena grabbed the vampire's wrists and pressed them to her sides. "Caroline. Stop being ridiculous. I will never hate you, so stop worrying. You're starting to scare me. Just tell me, it can't be that bad," the brunette said with emphasis.

"Oh, it's bad," Caroline said while raising her eyebrows and nodding her head, "Trust me. I think I'm falling for Klaus…" Caroline grimaced.

Elena quickly stood and put her hands to her head, "Seriously?" She stared at Caroline for a moment then exclaimed, "Oh my god, you are!"

Caroline meekly smiled, "I wouldn't make a big deal about it if I didn't think it might happen, but remember how I told you about the ball? And what Klaus said to me? He fancies me too, so it's, like, realistic. This relationship has a possibility on the first level."

Elena's jaw dropped. She pulled her fingers through her hair and said, "I'm not quite sure what to say. I mean, the fact that he's murdered all these people, including my aunt, obviously isn't a problem for you if you're interested in him now," she said with a bit of a snarky tone.

"Oh gosh, Elena, you promised you wouldn't hate me! I'm sorry and I realize how much you must feel like I'm betraying you, so I won't act on my feelings if you don't want me to," Caroline said, on the verge of tears.

Elena shifted her weight from foot to foot, clearly overwhelmed with the situation. Finally, after a few very long moments, Elena sighed and looked down, "No. If you really feel this way, I can't ask you not to do anything about it. Hey, and who knows, maybe you'll turn him into a better person." The weak smile accompanying this sentiment was enough for Caroline to jump up and hug her friend.

"Thank you Elena. I know how hard this is for you."

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't make me regret this when I never see you anymore because you're spending all your time with an evil hybrid."

"I won't spend all my time with the gorgeous Klaus, I promise."

"Gorgeous? I think that's a bit of an overstatement, Care."

"It's totally not! He's got that smoldering, sexy look that you know makes me melt. You can see the contours of his muscles through his clothes, and let me tell you, he is ripped!"

Elena let loose a bubbly laugh and replied, "I'll just trust you on that."

Caroline winked and repeated Elena's laugh before a morose look passed across her face.

Elena caught it and asked, "What's wrong? I thought we just figured all this out?"

Caroline sighed and laid back down on the bed. "Yes, you and I have figured this out. But Klaus and I haven't. Actually, I don't think he ever wants to see me again, unless he happens upon me in a situation where my death is vital to his cause," she explained as her eyes began to water.

"What happened? Wasn't he like obsessed with you?"

"Obsessed might be an overstatement, but yeah. He was quite fond of me until a few days ago when we tried to kill the originals. Klaus assumed I was only talking to him so as to distract him while Stefan and Damon attempted Kol's murder. He believes I betrayed him."

"But you didn't! Sure, you were talking to him when everything went down, but it wasn't your plan and, if I recall, you weren't even aware of the plan!"

"I wasn't! Damon just told me to meet him at the bar because he had to talk to me about something. When I got there, I saw that Klaus and Kol were there too, so I left before even talking to Damon. Klaus followed me, being the romantic that he is, and we had an amazing conversation. He says the sweetest comments and we talked about life and the beautiful things of the world. Elena, he's been absolutely everywhere. I always thought I'd live in Mystic Falls forever, get preggers in high school, marry my baby daddy and be stuck in an awful marriage the rest of my life, and never actually do anything or go anywhere. With him, I feel like nothing is out of my reach," Caroline said as a slow smile spread across her face.

"Wow. This is totally for real, isn't it? Well, we will just have to find a way to get him to notice you again. If I'm right, Klaus doesn't let himself feel on a regular basis, so the fact that he liked you means a lot. Which means, no matter how much he tries to deny it, he will probably always feel something for you. That's our advantage," Elena plotted with a mischievous grin.


Klaus was reading backward through all his journals, trying to find the place he had been absent from the longest. Europe was almost entirely out of the question for he went there often and now there was the added bonus of all the immense beauty and elegance reminding him of the girl he so desperately wished to escape. He couldn't even think her name any longer for it brought up painful memories that he never wished to relive.

Asia could be an interesting selection because he hadn't returned since before the world wars and wanted to see any lasting damage. Then again, Klaus wasn't really one for crowds, so overpopulated cities like those of India or China were angrily crossed off the list. Also, he had heard that his Mandarin might be horribly out of date and catching up just felt overly bothersome at this point. That also meant the majority of his languages were useless and Klaus despised appearing as a tourist.

As a continent, Klaus was not fond of much of Africa, save for Morocco, which was one of the most entertaining countries he had ever been to. It always made him question his purposes in life (or death) when he saw the poor children of some various African countries. All he has cared about for so long is his family, breaking the curse, and getting revenge on anyone who has wronged him, when he could have devoted much time and money to a cause that could really use his help. The pity he felt for those kids was intense and painful, so Klaus had turned it off, along with the rest of his emotions. If he was going somewhere to take lives instead of save them, Africa would not be the place to go.

South and Latin America is far too close and the whole drug lords thing would be something Klaus would have to get involved with just to kill off worthless people with no guilt. You wouldn't think that'd be a problem, but if all of the drug problems just stopped, everyone would know that something's up. Eventually they would link it back to Klaus, and all that compelling would take too much effort for his tastes.

Australia was the only viable continent left and Klaus had no reserves about going there. After thinking about it for a short while, he determines he will fly to Sydney tomorrow morning on a ten o'clock flight and booked a first class seat. He began to pack his bags and crafted a note to Rebekah, explaining his absence and where to find him if she wished to join him in the near future. With her recent absence from the house most evenings, he assumed she wouldn't return until midday the following day. For a moment he worried she would not wish to share this vacation because of her recent Damon Salvatore infatuation. He then remembered that Damon loved Elena, and as much as he would like to pretend she wasn't the only thing keeping him here in this small town, he would never get over her. Eventually Rebekah would see that, torture him for leading her on, and then move on and join Klaus for some fun in the Australian sun.

Klaus decided that, for once, he really needed this.


Elena and Caroline were still talking.

"Well, you have to start by telling him how you feel. You need to find out how ready he is to forgive you before we put all this effort into winning him back," Elena said confidently.

"I could stop by tonight. I'm sure he's not asleep yet. I almost feel as though he never sleeps at all," Caroline replied.

"No. If you go tonight, he'll assume that you only came for a booty call or something of the sort. You should go tomorrow morning so he understands that you're serious about giving him a chance and you are not just interested in some one-night thing."

"Okay, it's a plan. I'll stop by his place tomorrow morning and we'll see how it goes," Caroline said, bursting with hope.


Sorry! I feel like this took me forever to upload even though it's been less than a week. Haven't had a ton of time to write what with soccer and whatnot.

If you're totally into Klaroline, follow me on tumblr at ihidemycrazy and I'll love you forever and we can be best friends :)