Chapter 8 - Reunited

A/N: IT'S HEREEE THE KLAROLINE AND KALIJAH REUNION MY BABIES ARE FINALLY SEEING EACH OTHER AGAIN *heart eyes emoji* okay sorry just had to freak out a bit. Oh and there's only one flashback in this chapter but it's super fluffy so I hope that makes up for it. Please review and let me know how you like this chapter!

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"But Klaus Christmas is the best time of the year!" Caroline protested, jumping up on the counter in Klaus' lavish penthouse kitchen.

"I have to disagree, love." He said matter-of-factly, putting a dash of salt into the vegetable soup he was making. "I personally like Halloween the most."

Caroline rolled her eyes, crossing her legs and leaning in dramatically.

"Let me guess. You were always the guy that jumped out and scared trick or treaters when they came to your door?"

Klaus put on a mock look of offense at her words.

"Caroline, what do you take me for?" He asked innocently and almost had Caroline fooled into thinking he was actually offended. "I made sure to steal their candy too after I scared them all away."

"Shutup!" Caroline laughed, making Klaus break out into a grin as well. Her laugh was something he would never grow tired of even after six months of dating.

"You know you tease me too much." She said a few moments later as Klaus reached up to one of the higher cabinets to pull out some glasses for them. "And one of these days I'm going to tease you back so hard you won't know what hit you."

Klaus scoffed, narrowing his eyes at her playfully as he searched for the Bourbon he had stored somewhere around there.

"Caroline love, you keep me on my toes enough as it is, you don't have to worry about that." He murmured sarcastically, but she could still detect the affection behind his words. "Not to mention that since you're immune to my charm – as you so poetically put it when we met seven months ago – I have to use something to my advantage. And you are so fun to tease." He winked at her playfully before turning his back to her and pouring their drinks.

Caroline chuckled, shaking her head fondly.

"You know it's a good thing I love you." She said offhandedly, a crooked smile on her delicate face.

Klaus froze, and so did Caroline a few seconds later as she realized what she had said. In their six months of dating neither of them had dared to say those three words, scared of what the weight of them could mean for their relationship. They had both thought it a hundred times of course, but neither of them knew that about the other.

Klaus turned around slowly, meeting Caroline's wide eyes, her mouth slightly parted in shock at herself.

"Oh gosh." She said quickly, terror written all over her face. "Oh gosh oh gosh I didn't – I didn't mean to say that, I just – "

Klaus' heart dropped as did his expression when she said that. She said those three words, making his heart and soul soar because she said it so nonchalantly and genuinely in a way that he had never heard before, only to take them back.

" – well I mean of course I meant to say that because I mean I do…you know, that," Caroline rambled on, making Klaus remember how to breathe again, "It's just that I never meant to say it like that, you know, it's supposed to be special and oh gosh," She put her head in her hands and hunched her shoulders over, "I just blurted it out like word vomit or something and now you're not saying anything so I'm probably freaking you out and I just…I'm going to go. Yeah, I'm going to go, I need to…go."

Klaus' brain finally started to work again as he realized Caroline had jumped down from the counter and was grabbing her bag to leave, still rambling like crazy while he stood there with a glass of Bourbon in his hand like a mute.

Slamming the glass down on his counter harder than necessary, Klaus met Caroline by his front door in three large strides, spinning her around by the shoulders to face him.

Caroline's incessant nervous rambling was cut short as Klaus' lips found hers forcefully, pushing her back against his front door. Her mind blanked at the familiar sensation, her fingers finding their way to the front of his shirt, curling around the fabric. Klaus' own hands were laid flat against the small of her back, pulling her delicate frame into his body so that there was as little space between them as possible.

As they broke apart both gasping for breath, their foreheads leaned together, Klaus had to take a moment to get his bearings together.

This beautiful girl in front of him, this goddess, was all his. And not only that but she loved him. She actually loved him. Him, the man who had done countless awful things to friend and foe alike. Him, the man who constantly pushed her away when she got too close, only for her to push right back.

He, the monster in the dark, was loved by her, the angel in the light.

"What was that for?" Caroline asked breathlessly, looking up at the beautiful man in front of her from underneath her long eyelashes.

"That," Klaus said seriously, "Was because I love you too."

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"Welcome to Whitmore!" A woman named Carol Lockwood clapped her hands together to the group of haggard survivors in front of her.

They had just finished traveling through the night and fighting off a total of about fifty Infected, and she was stood there looking pristine in her skirt and blouse. Hell, she was even wearing makeup. Klaus had never been so thankful yet disgusted at the same time.

"If you would be so kind as to step over here to your right and answer a few of our people's questions and let them explain the guidelines of the community to you, it would be greatly – "

"We're looking for people." Klaus interrupted harshly, stepping towards the woman who immediately took a step backwards. "We think that our family could be here, we just need to – "

"We can direct you towards any potential Whitmore members here if you would please just help us with our records." Mrs. Lockwood said smoothly, maintaining eye contact with a very annoyed Klaus Mikaelson.

Klaus scowled and Elijah stepped up to his brother, putting a hand on his shoulder and startling him.

"Niklaus, these people have rules and if we wish to stay here we should abide by them." He said calmly, making Mrs. Lockwood smile at his sense of reason. "It would be very easy for them to – "

Elijah suddenly stopped speaking as he caught a glimpse of messy brown curls in the corner of his eye. A woman was drawing water at the well in front of them, her back to Elijah, but he would recognize that woman anywhere. She was in dirty jeans and a black short sleeve shirt, and he wanted to laugh that she managed to somehow find a pair of high wedged boots even in the midst of the apocalypse. But he couldn't laugh because he was too entranced.

Elijah stepped past Klaus, who was confused and slightly annoyed at his brother's sudden lack of intellect. Elijah walked slowly towards the woman whom had his heart, body, and soul, stopping about five feet behind her.

"Katerina." He whispered, his voice full of emotion.

Katherine was caught off guard by the physical pain that swept through her heart at the voice that spoke her birth given name – his voice. She dropped the bucket half filled with water to the ground as she spun on her heel so fast she could have gotten whiplash.

"Elijah." She breathed out, completely and utterly shocked at the vision of the man she vowed to spend her life with standing right in front of her. His body looked destroyed, frayed pants and a torn white shirt, a bloody tourniquet wrapped around his upper arm. His hair wasn't styled up like it always was before The Outbreak but instead falling in front of his face. Dirt and blood smeared his strong jawline, but his eyes – his eyes never wavered. They were still full of the love and devotion he had for her when they first met.

"Katerina." He repeated in a stronger voice, taking one large step forward and wrapping one arm around his wife's waist and using the other to cradle her cheek in his hand. Their lips met as if they hadn't been separated for eight months, each of them pouring more love and emotion into the embrace than they had ever experienced.

As husband and wife were reunited, Damon, Elena, Kol, and Bonnie had heard the commotion of newcomers from their rooms, running outside to see who it was.

"Stefan!" Damon shouted, unashamed of how ridiculous he looked as he shoved past people walking around the well and watching Katherine and Elijah's reunion. "Stefan!" He screamed again as he caught a glimpse of his brother's stupid hair that he always made fun of before The Outbreak.

"Damon!"

Damon ran right past the well and crashed into his brother, not caring one bit about it either. He put his hand on the back of his brother's head and held him tightly, heart filled with emotion that his baby brother was alive when he hadn't been there to take care of him.

"Nik, it's Kol." Rebekah breathed out with a laugh. "Oh my gosh it's Kol!"

"Bekah!" Kol shouted, overjoyed as he saw her face for the first time in not months, but years. He dropped Bonnie's hand and ran at her with what could have been superhuman speed, picking his sister up and spinning her around joyfully.

Elena ran over to Matt, Stefan, and Lexi, tears streaming down her face as she hugged her friends like her life depended on it. Jeremy and Alaric had come over by now too, and the townspeople looked on and clapped as loved ones were reunited.

Yet Klaus stood off to the side scanning people's faces relentlessly. He knew he should go over and see his younger brother, but he couldn't stop wondering why she wasn't with them. The entire group that was in Chicago except Alaric's wife were there, so where was Caroline?

Because she isn't here, he finally thought somberly. She couldn't be there, if she were she would've come out with the rest of them. Caroline wasn't with the group which meant…

Oh no, Klaus' heart dropped and he had the sudden urge to punch the wall that enclosed Whitmore with every ounce of his strength, tearing down the one hope that he had been clinging onto. He stumbled away from the crowd, nobody even noticing him leaving.

He walked alongside the wall, hand bracing himself up as the pain tore at his heart. He was in actual, physical pain at the prospect of his Caroline being gone. The pain started to be lessened by an immense amount of rage that he couldn't control. He was just about to scream at the skies when suddenly a door was flung open to his left from a nearby brick building.

When Caroline reached the top of the stairs leading out of Dr. Maxfield's lab, she burst through the door and stepped out breathlessly, trying to get her bearings. She put her hands on her knees as the door swung shut behind her, closing her eyes and trying to catch her breath.

She couldn't get over what she had seen down there in the lab. It was…horrible, disgusting, heartbreaking. Enzo had to watch the love of his life hate him with every fiber of her being each and every day with only the hope that Wes would perfect his antidote into a cure. And poor Wes, despite how awful of a person he was for jumpstarting the apocalypse, his own son was telling him to kill himself because his biology was demanding it. Caroline couldn't fathom having to suffer that kind of torture day in and day out. She would never be able to strong enough to do that like Enzo and Wes.

A minute or two passed of her trying to catch her breath, the rain starting to fall around her as she knew it would. She took one last deep breath and let it out slowly, becoming aware of the cheering she could hear from the townspeople to her left. She stood up to her full height gradually, getting an eerie feeling that she was being watched.

As she looked to where the noises were coming from the first thing she saw was Katherine making out with someone hardcore. Before she could even process what was going on there, she saw that past Katherine, Damon was hugging someone that looked a lot like Stefan. Actually, they looked a lot like Stefan. And now that she thought about it, Katherine's make out buddy looked like Elijah.

And holy hell, she thought to herself, that's Rebekah with Kol. And Matt with Jeremy! They're back!

But just as she had taken a step forward, fully intending to run after her friends that she hadn't seen in months, the feeling that she was being watched intensified. It intensified so much that she recognized its familiarity, and she turned on her heel slowly, the sound of the rain falling around her deafening her ears as she saw the man standing behind her.

He was about twenty feet away, leaning against the enclosing walls and staring at her. He was shaking, the rain soaking his lean frame. Even from so far away she could see the rain drops beading on his eyelashes and dripping from his nose.

His gaze was so intense it felt like the breath had been knocked right out of her and she very audibly gasped. Her mouth floundered for words to say, but nothing came out.

Klaus was the first to move, pushing himself away from the wall and taking three slow, calculated steps towards her. He was so afraid that she would disappear, be washed away with the rain just like all of his other hopes and dreams before he met her.

But she didn't disappear. In fact, she started to walk towards him as well, the rain soaking through her purple shirt and dark jeans. Her hair matted to the top of her head, a few strands sticking to her face that Klaus immediately wanted to push away. His stride increased, realizing that this wasn't some trick by The Universe, that she was really here in front of him.

Caroline matched his speed, and pretty soon they were both full on running to each other. Caroline gasped as they finally reached each other, throwing her arms around him with a choked sob, holding onto her for dear life.

The feeling of her in his arms was overwhelming to Klaus, and he literally fell to his knees, taking Caroline with him. She was shaking in his arms as they both knelt in what was now mud, his arms around her middle, crushing her to him.

Tears slid out from his own eyes as he shut them tight, reveling in the feel of his one true love back in his arms. He had always hoped this day would come, had imagined it countless times, but no figment of his imagination could match the real thing.

"K-Klaus." Caroline finally stuttered out, making him shiver at the sound of her voice, further revealing to him that she was actually there. "I th-thought you were dead." She pulled back and put her hands on his face, her eyes squinted shut as she tried to compose herself.

"I'm here." He all but whispered in a gentle tone, pushing the wet hair away from her beautiful face and making eye contact with her as she finally looked up at him. "I'm here, love."

Caroline couldn't say anything, just leaned her forehead against his and let the rain fall around them. Their breaths intermingled and neither knew the right words to say – they weren't even capable of saying anything at that point.

Caroline moved first, her mouth hovering over Klaus' carefully as if he might disappear. He leaned in more forcefully, and when their lips met it was like the world imploded.

Nothing in either of their lives had ever compared to the feeling of that exact moment when they kissed. It was like coming home. Damn the apocalypse, damn it all to hell if it meant they could have this. That they could have each other.

They separated carefully, as if the other might break or disappear if they moved too fast. Caroline's eyes were shut tightly and she laughed through her tears, completely and utterly wrecked. He was here. Things were going to go back to normal, they could finally -

And then she opened her eyes.

Only to see blood dripping from his nose.

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A/N: JFKLADJFLAKJFLA REVIEW PLEASE