"Cookie?"
"Ooh, yes please." Caroline grabbed a double chocolate chip from the packet as she crossed out '1990's' from her colourful Decade Dance mind map. It was a disaster. The dance was mere weeks away, and they hadn't even got a decade yet.
"Still no inspiration?" Klaus said sympathetically.
"Nothing. We've done all the good decades, and everyone there will have lived through the 1990's." she groaned.
"Caroline, you're immortal. Why are you wasting a never ending life planning a high school dance?"
"Because I'm immortal, Klaus." she said, exasperated. "I have the rest of eternity to do boring, immortal things. I'm still technically 18 so I fully intend to live by that."
She was absolute on that. She crossed her arms in an attempt to prove her point, but Klaus only smiled at her.
"You're so cute when you're stubborn."
She threw a highlighter at him. "This matters to me, Klaus!"
"I know it does, love." he said as he threw it back. "Any excuse to take you to a dance."
He'd won her over, and he knew it.
"I'm just not looking forward to reliving another decade."
Inspiration hit like a brick. "Then we won't."
"What?"
Caroline grinned. She wrote '3013' in big numbers in the middle of her page and circled it aggressively to emphasise her victory. She took a victory bite of her cookie.
"You want to set it in the future?"
"Why the hell not?"
"Is this you being crazy and impulsive, because I'd love to see you really take a risk." he teased.
"I live with you, don't I?" she pushed him playfully. "My own mother is on the verge of staking me, Elena thinks I'm insane, Damon thinks I'm an idiot and Rebekah... deserves a smacking."
Klaus chuckled at the aggressive mention of his baby sister (affectionately known as the 'She Devil') and the somewhat strained tension between her and Caroline since the unfortunate incident where Rebekah had caught them in a slightly compromising position.
But she had a point; their new relationship had stirred things up somewhat...

Point of View: Liz Forbes

Liz frantically scanned her daughter's vague and infrequent text messages, reassuring her of her safety. She knew in her heart, Caroline was safe from most things, but four days without seeing her was enough to drive even the most lenient of mothers over the edge.
She paced about the kitchen, nervously checking her phone every few seconds, until the front door opened, and Caroline's voice greeted her.
Liz ran to the hall, but stopped abruptly. She looked different; her hair wasn't smoothed into perfect, and she was wearing a black trench coat that Liz had never seen before. It also looked about five sizes too big for her daughter. Despite this, and the nervous look on her face, Caroline was positively glowing.
"Where have you been?" Liz stormed.
"At a friend's."
Caroline's eyes dropped to the floor; her tell.
"You're lying."
"Mum, I'm not! I was at a friend's."
"What friend keeps you away from me, hardly a message, for four days?" Liz asked incredulously.
Caroline looked shocked. "It's been that long?"
"What friend, Caroline?"
She murmured something too quiet to hear.
"Sorry, what?"
"I was at... Klaus's."
"You were where?!" Liz screamed.
"Mum, please... He needs me, he loves me, he wants to change..." she pleaded.
"Caroline Forbes, you are a naive little girl if you think that monster can love."
Caroline knew better than to argue, so she simply dropped her face sadly.
"That man is a killer. He held this town hostage, he killed Tyler's mother, he killed your best friend's aunt, how can you even contemplate he has enough humanity left inside him to feel?" she raged to her silent daughter. "He would bring this world to it's knees if it meant getting what he wanted... Hell, Caroline! He was using your best friend as a portable hybrid maker! God alone knows how many innocent lives he has taken since you've been cosying up with him..."
"None."
Liz did a double take. "What did you say?"
"I said, none. He hasn't fed on a human since I went with him." Caroline said feebly, as if this little nugget of information wiped out 1000 years of slaughter and torture.
"Bullshit, Caroline." she snapped. "He's probably just compelled you to forget it all."
"He wouldn't, Mum!" Caroline retorted. "He wouldn't do that to me, because he loves me!"
"Oh yeah? And how do you know? How can you even trust him with..."
"Because I love him too!" she yelled. The second the words escaped her mouth, her face whitened. She was upstairs in a flash before Liz could form and answer.
"Caroline..." she shouted upstairs.
Her daughter stormed downstairs with two bags in her hands. "I'm leaving, I'm going back to him."
"Wha..."
"Goodbye, Mum." She was out the door without another word, leaving Liz in her hall, alone, confused and bewildered.

"Do you think my mum hates me?" Caroline said sadly. Having recounted the experience with her mother for the first time to Klaus (leaving out her declaration of love for him), she was feeling a little childish , and more than a little guilty for not defending him.
Klaus thought for a moment. "I do not, Caroline. I killed my mother and she forgave me." he said lightly.
"And then she tried to kill you."
"Details." he shrugged.
Caroline despaired. "I hoped Elena might take it a little better, but she thinks I'm an idiot."
He kissed her forehead. "I'll go get you a blood bag. Why don't you tell me about it? It might make you feel better. "

Point of View: Elena Gilbert

Elena eagerly waited in the living room of the Salvatore Boarding House for a knock on the door. Bonnie was holed up with Professor Creepy, and Caroline had gone completely AWOL, up until this morning when she texted asking to talk. It would nice to actually have a conversation; Damon seemed to be walking on eggshells since he found out about their bizarre connection.
The door knocked, and Elena threw it open. Caroline beamed at her, launching herself at Elena.
"Where have you been?" she demanded. "It's been nearly a week."
Caroline released her. "That's what I need to talk to you about."
Elena saw the concern on her friend's face. "Care, what's wrong?"
She took a better look at her best friend; her hair was thrown into a rought bun on the top of her head, something she rarely did even to go running. She was devoid of make up, but her face had a certain glow about it.
"The reason I've been gone... I've been at Klaus's."
Elena was silent as she absorbed this information. She was shocked. But the more she thought about it, the less surprised she knew she should be. She'd heard of Tyler's drunken adventures at the Grill, so it wasn't much of a leap.
Elena felt torn. She wanted Caroline to be happy, but with Klaus? The man was a monster of epic proportions.
"But... after everything he's done, is this really..." she tried to reason.
"Yeah, everything he's done for me."
"He has never caused you anything but pain!"
"Except when he saved my life... twice!" she fumed. "He's looked after me, been a friend to me, he's even stopped killing for me."
The last bit startled her. "Well, good for him! Are you forgetting Carol Lockwood, Jenna... me?!"
"No, of course not, Elena." she said coldly. "But he deserves a second chance. What do you think would happen if he was on his own for another thousand years? How many more meaningless deaths?"
"Oh, so this is a selfless act on your behalf, is it?"
"What?"
"You get nothing you want out of this. Don't even bother lying," she snapped as Caroline opened her mouth to protest. "You've been gone for a week, I'm guessing you weren't sleeping in the guest room."
"Elena, don't be such a bitch."
"Tell me, how many hours after you dumped Tyler on his ass did you wait before jumping into Klaus's bed?"
Caroline was clearly hurt by the scorn in her voice, but Elena didn't care.
"Care, I'm sorry but this is a one way street."
"Yeah, it is." she scowled. "Klaus will stop hunting, he will be a better person and..."
"You'll live happily ever after?" Elena said sarcastically.
Caroline paused. "Yes, we will."
"You're insane."

"I don't think you're insane." Klaus threw her a blood bag. She loved him so much for letting her rant at him, for sitting down next to her and putting an arm around her. She cuddled into his chest and sipped at her blood bag.
"Well, at least Damon wasn't as bad."
"Oh yeah?"

Point of View: Damon Salvatore

Damon had been listening to the girl's argument with growing interest. Klaus's feelings for Caroline were no secret, and Damon had suspected that Caroline felt the same about him, but he never believed it would go this far.
He was impressed.
He heard the all too familiar sound of a vampire being thrown into a piece of his furniture. Damon groaned, realising his famous reconciliation skills were needed.
Slumping downstairs with a brandy in his hand, he announced himself to Caroline by clearing his throat. She glanced at him, and nodded, quickly looking away.
Elena was pulling herself to her feet, pulling bits of coffee table out of her hair.
Damon looked back at Caroline. "You look like shit." She scowled at him.
"Ladies, I've been listening to this conversation and while I too," he glanced at Elena, "think Caroline is being a bit of an idiot, I think she's old enough to make her own decisions."
"Thanks, I think." she nodded.
"Klaus is an original." Elena huffed. "This might not even be real, you could be compelled."
Damon chuckled.
"What?" both women snapped.
"Caroline isn't compelled." he said, still laughing to himself. He realised neither were seeing the joke. "Oh, come on! That is one lovesick werepuppy, haven't you seen how he looks at her?"
Elena shook her head. Caroline shrugged.
"You bring out the slightly less homicidal bit of him, I don't think he'd be cruel as to compel anything from you."
Caroline looked smug.
"Yeah, and who's to say she wont end up with a dagger in her heart the first they have a little tiff?" Elena said incredulously.
"He's not going to kill me, Elena..."
"He carted his siblings round in coffins for the best part of a century, Caroline. Don't be so thick."
The mention of Klaus's siblings sparked a question in Damon. "Speaking of his siblings, how is dear Rebekah taking this?"
Caroline stiffened.
"Ah, not so well? Who told her, you or Klaus?" Damon said, winking.
"No one, she just kind of... found out."
"Oh, she didn't?" Damon threw back his head in laughter. "That is too precious. What happened?"
"Klaus bit her because she was rude to me."
Elena and Damon fell silent.
"He poisoned his sister because she was rude to you?" Elena gawked.
"Yeah, he did." Caroline said proudly. "So, since I'm 'old enough to make my own choices', I think I'll go now, because it's clear I'm not finding much support here." She turned and left, Damon with a blank look on his face, and Elena picking bits of coffee table from her arm.

"You broke Damon's coffee table?" Klaus chuckled.
"Yep."
"With his girlfriend?"
"Yep."
"I am a terrible influence on you." he grinned, pulling her leg over him so she sat in his lap, facing him.
"Actually, I think you're possibly the best thing to ever happen me."
Klaus said nothing, but simply brought a hand to her face, gently stroking her cheek. He cocked his head, as if contemplating her. Caroline turned her head in his hand to kiss his palm. He opened his mouth, but closed it again.
"What?" she smiled.
"I... I don't think... I've never been anybody's best." he stuttered, suddenly very embarrassed. He removed his hand, placing it in his lap, looking down.
Caroline could have kissed him. She did kiss him, placing her hands around his neck, using her mouth to guide his face back upwards. She broke away, marvelling at how his mouth stayed open just a fraction, his eyes still shut.
"When I'm with you, I'm free." she told him. "I feel so strong, like I could do anything. Go anywhere. Be myself. Scream, shout, live my life in a way never could before."
Klaus looked at her in awe. "Let's leave."
"Leave for where?" she laughed, holding his face in her soft hands.
He thought. "Anywhere. Everywhere. We'll travel."
"I can't just... leave!" The last word came out as more of a scream as Klaus abruptly stood up and threw her over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" he giggled.
"Taking you to the bedroom, we must pack!"
"Klaus, I can't leave..."
"Sure you can." he said as he dropped her onto the bed. She was still giggling hysterically. He climbed on top of her, kissing her again. She wrapped her legs around his back, kissing him more passionately. She ran her fingers through his hair, holding him close; she never wanted to let him go.
When he paused for breathe, she reminded him of the dance. This time, he laughed.
"Love, if you want to dance, I will waltz you down the beaches of India. We will dance in the carnival at Rio, I'll jive on the roof of a New York skyscraper..." he said excitedly. "...for you, I'd dance anywhere."
Caroline beamed at him; he was so gleeful. So excited by the prospect of whisking her away. She thought of her mum, of Elena, of Damon... it seemed there was less and less reason to stay in Mystic Falls recently.
"Well, I've got one question then." she said.
"What's that?"
She paused to savour the look of anticipation on his face. "Where first?"