Where Words Fail
A Klaroline One Shot
Part 3 of 3

\m/ . \m/

Caroline slowly began to wake up and stretched her limbs like a cat waking from a short snooze. She started getting her bearings down and sleepily opened her eyes. She was confused, with the first thing she realized being that she was on the floor of a hotel room. Before she could wonder why, she heard a deep, sleepy groan behind her and she froze like a deer caught in the headlights.

Something moved on her waist and she glanced down without moving a muscle and realized that what had moved was a hand. A rough, calloused male hand was on her waist. That's when she remembered everything. The shots, the club, the dancing, the bathroom, the car, the elevator and the common factor they all shared:

Klaus Mikaelson.

She was lying on the floor of a hotel room, naked, next to Klaus Mikaelson.

Well, she was naked save for the sheet she was currently sharing with the sleeping rockstar beside her; and she had no doubt he was as naked as she.

She was lying on the floor of a hotel room because she'd given into her baser desires and let Klaus have her. And she slowly began to remember she didn't just let him have her; he had her every which way...and then some. In her defense, she also remembered having him just as often, if not more, but before she could ponder who had whom the most the previous night, Caroline glanced around and shot up into a sitting position next to Klaus, doing everything in her power not to scream.

The room was in a complete disarray: drawers pulled out of dressers, furniture tipped over, a lamp knocked over and leaning against a table in the corner, framed pictures on the wall askew, and one panel of curtains on the large window were hanging on the curtain rod with one ring. Immediately worrying that they had been robbed, she moved around and looked for her things, which were still in the hallway by the door where they had been left the night before. Caroline placed a hand on her chest, trying to calm her racing heart and considered the facts. Then that's when it occurred to her: the room hadn't been trashed by robbers while they were sleeping.

She and Klaus trashed the room. While having sex. They trashed the room while having sex.

She normally would've been filled with an overwhelming sense of pride at realizing this fact, but in this moment, knowing the man beside her was her accomplice, pride was the last thing she was feeling. They were touring together, and would be for the rest of the summer, and they'd scratched an itch they should've left alone. Although truthfully, Caroline didn't think Klaus had been that bad of a scratcher. No, he was very good at scratching that itch, yes he was...

The man in question suddenly shifted beside her and the hand that was on her chest trying to calm her racing heart flew from where it was to cover her mouth. She yanked part of the sheet off his body when she sat up, but soon she relaxed; it wasn't like her breathing would wake him.

He was lying on his stomach to her right, and the arm that had been around her waist had fallen to the floor between them. The sheet now barely covered his tight, firm ass that he'd had no qualms about digging her heels or nails into and she was suddenly captivated seeing the tattoo on his right shoulder. It was a simple, unfilled solid lined triangle and she found herself lightly tracing it with her fingers.

Her mind slipped back to their earlier activities and she suddenly remembered rough fingers gently tracing the tattoo on her own right shoulder. A small smile came to her face as she recalled not just fingertips gently tracing it, but lips too, as their owner took her from behind. She shivered remembering the intimate and gentle gesture while he'd been ravishing her and she snatched her hand away from his tattoo and reminded herself she shouldn't let herself get wrapped up in this.

She needed to go, and she needed to go now.

Doing the walk of shame out of the hotel and getting a cab back to her bus that was still at the stadium from the concert last night was seeming so much better than having to have the awkward "morning after" talk with Klaus.

He'd no doubt say that he was glad they got that out of their system, or worse, that they should do it again and keep it casual. After breaking things off with Tyler, Caroline really wasn't sure what she wanted, be it casual or serious or whatever. But she was more than happy to delay her talk with Klaus for however long she could manage.

Caroline carefully maneuvered herself out from under the sheet and tiptoed naked over to her scattered clothes, picked them up and rushed into the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind her. She looked sadly at her torn fishnets and made a mental note to get Bonnie to get another pair for her; taking it out of Klaus's budget of course.

It was only fair; he's the one that ripped them.

Once she was dressed, she took a deep breath and slowly opened the bathroom door, not sure what would be on the other side. She sighed when she peeked around the corner and saw that the slumbering rockstar was right where she left him. She tiptoed out, her shoes in one hand, her bra in the other, and her jacket over her arm and reached for the doorknob. Her hand was inches away when she suddenly heard the vibrating of a phone, and she froze. It was soft but loud enough that Klaus started to stir, and she quickly fumbled around in her pockets and took out her cellphone to silence it. Even though it had a few texts and calls from Bonnie and the girls, it was still on silent.

The vibrating continued and she realized that it must be his phone if hers wasn't ringing, so she quickly went to his things and searched for the phone before Klaus woke up. She found it finally in the pocket of his jacket, and she unlocked it so she could put it on silent as quickly as possible. 'Hayley - Moonlight' was lighting up the screen as the phone vibrated and Caroline quickly clicked the sleep button to silence the call, sending it to voicemail. She felt bad about it for a moment...until the phone went back to the home screen and showed the numerous texts from the same 'Hayley - Moonlight.'

She knew she shouldn't invade his privacy, it was bad enough already that she'd looked at his phone and sent a call to voicemail, but the girl that had just had a passionate and intimate night with a guy that claimed to 'fancy her' couldn't help herself. Caroline slid her finger across the screen and soon the texts were open for her to read for herself and she felt her heart drop into her stomach. This 'Hayley - Moonlight' had texted him over ten times that morning alone.

She and Klaus had also texted back and forth the day before and his texts had only stopped right before they went to the club. She felt her heart tossing and flopping around in her stomach as she continued to read the texts, that were not only flirtatious but familiar as well. Caroline's mind was blank as she pushed the sleep button again and instead of putting the phone back in his pocket, as she knew she should have, she padded over quietly to Klaus and put his phone next to his head. If he wanted to see Hayley, she wasn't about to stop him.

It wasn't like they were dating or anything.

Caroline slowly made her way to the door and quietly opened it, turned to look back at Klaus one last time sadly. He looked so peaceful as he lay there, deep asleep, and his arm outstretched to his side as if she were still there. She thought about going back and leaning down and waking him up by kissing his tattoo and trailing kisses up the back of his neck until she was kissing his face; he'd smile his dimpled smile and roll over and grab her and keep her straddling him and make some snarky comment about loving a woman on top. But the name of another woman flashing across the screen of his cell phone and familiar texts came to mind as she looked at the cell phone she'd placed down on the floor next to him, and she took a deep breath and closed the door quietly behind her.

\m/ . \m/

Klaus rolled over and grimaced as something smooth and hard hit his face. He slowly gained consciousness and realized he'd rolled over and was lying on top of his phone. His brow furrowed, not understanding how he could be lying on his phone, then he was even more confused because he was also lying on the floor of his hotel room. He got his bearings down as he also realized he was naked under the single sheet while on the floor. He grinned as he remembered the night before and the blonde that had made it so memorable.

He sat up on his elbows, stretched out on his stomach, and clicked the sleep button to turn his homescreen on and see what time it was. It wasn't even 10 yet, and they'd be leaving in the next couple of hours. He was surprised that Elijah hadn't called him or texted him or come in to wake him up as he so often did. He smirked to himself, thinking of Elijah's reaction to seeing not only his naked brother, but the equally naked blonde bombshell with him. Then Klaus frowned, realizing that the blonde in question wasn't there beside him on the floor.

He sat up fully, the sheet dropping from his hips, and frowned again, seeing that she wasn't in or on the bed. He could've sworn that after the...oh he couldn't remember how many times they'd gone at it, but it was probably the second or third time he'd taken her from behind that they'd ended up on the floor and just stayed there, spent. That's why the sheet was there, he'd pulled it from the bed with the remaining energy he had, knowing he didn't have enough to carry her and put her back on the bed. But he glanced up and saw that the bathroom door was closed, and a smile spread across his face.

As he padded, barefoot and naked, to the bathroom door, he glanced down and saw that while his clothes remained scattered on the floor, Caroline's clothes, the few that she'd been wearing, were gone. She was probably getting dressed and he smiled as he raised a hand to the door and knocked on it softly with the back of his knuckles. Maybe he could convince her to stay, get a little dirty again with some shower sex before they cleaned up, and get some room service?

"Caroline?" he called, knowing his voice would carry through the door. "Come now, love, no need to be bashful. You don't have anything I haven't seen before. And to be honest, yours are probably the loveliest I've seen." He paused and waited, expecting to hear some sort of witty retort, but after some silence, his brows furrowed again. "Oh come on, Caroline..." he said, turning the knob and opening the door, but he stopped cold when he stepped into the empty room. He stood, puzzled for a moment, then looked back around the room and found not a single trace of her. He looked back at his phone through his texts and calls and didn't see a single one from her. No text, no call, no note, no nothing.

She had left, no, she had snuck out without so much as a word.

Then his phone vibrated and he looked down at his hand quickly, and his face fell when a different name lit up his phone. Maybe he'd been wishful to think that she'd call him after sneaking out and not leaving him a note or text before she left, but the brunette on the other end of the line was the last person he wanted to talk to at this moment.

"Hayley," Klaus answered without greeting her, "this really isn't a good time for me right now," and he promptly hung up the phone. He didn't have time to deal with some escort he'd hooked up with a couple times.

He had a blonde to find.

\m/ . \m/

Caroline tipped the cabbie and made her way quickly back up to her bus. She needed a shower to wash away all the memories of the previous night and the man she'd spent it with as quickly as possible. She'd told herself as she stood in the elevator that this 'Hayley' was someone he knew before they met and, as she kept repeating to herself, she and Klaus weren't dating anyway.

But the word that had followed the girl's name kept nagging at her, even as she made her way to the lobby and had the concierge call her a taxi. Once she'd given the driver her destination, she leaned back against the seat and let her curiosity get the better of her again. She typed 'Moonlight' and the city into Google and she felt her heart flop around in her stomach again as the top result, "Moonlight Escort Service," came up on her phone.

Her finger tapped the link, even though her mind told her she'd regret it, and soon she was looking through the website, scrolling through the pages that described the different services offered, and then she found the page with a picture of each escort that worked for the company. She scrolled through, hesitantly, scanning through the names, seeing every 'ee' name, Whitney, Brittany, Courtney, Candi, Misty, Kristy, Ashley, Mandy...and then she saw it. She saw her.

Hayley. 24. Brunette. Green eyes. 5' 7¾" 34B. Been 'Moonlighting' since 2011.

Caroline gazed into her face and looked for something, but for what she wasn't sure. Did she expect the girl to have "Klaus's type" stamped across her forehead. She then began to remember the sweet nothings Klaus uttered in their moments of passion the night before, praising her eyes, her lips, her hair, her smile, her smooth skin, her long legs.

She felt disgusted knowing that she'd let herself fall for each and every compliment when he'd familiarized himself with the pouty lipped brunette that gazed back at her from the screen of her phone. She'd quickly thrust her phone back into her pocket, deciding to sweep the nagging feelings, just like her own for Klaus, under the rug and ignore them entirely. She made her way across the parking lot quickly and opened the bus door. She just needed to forget anything had ever happened with-

"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" Caroline exclaimed, slapping a hand over her eyes. Apparently, tight, firm asses ran in the Mikaelson family. It was just too early for her to be seeing Elijah's; actually Caroline would never be ready to see Elijah's ass, which was currently face up on her bed. Kat had never been one to share the covers, and apparently Elijah didn't mind too terribly.

"REALLY KAT?! AND ON MY BED?! IN MY BED?!"

At Caroline's first scream, Elijah and Katherine had jolted awake and now Katherine was moaning sleepily as Elijah cleared his throat and scrambled to put clothes on.

"Dear God, you are so fucking loud," Kat grumbled, rolling back over and putting the pillow over her head. "Like I've never walked in on you and a guy before. Get over yourself, Blondie."

"'You broke the golden rule of the bus, Kat: no sex in my bed unless it's me having the sex! Why would I want sex in my bed if I'm not even the one enjoying it?!" Caroline whined, with her hand still over her eyes.

She heard Elijah's belt jingling and through the space between her fingers she could see the man with his clothes haphazardly thrown on. She heard him clearing his throat and she knowingly moved to the side and finally dropped her hand. She still averted her eyes, not sure if she could look Elijah in the face after sleeping with his brother and walking in on him and her lead guitarist.

"Caroline," Elijah said, nodding respectfully towards her as he inched around her. Caroline merely waved at him once, awkwardly at that, and made a face to recognize his acknowledgement. "Katerina, I'll see you later," he added, turning back to the pile of blankets and pillows.

"Yes, hopefully in your bed next time," Caroline replied, walking him out and closing the bus doors behind him. Elijah glanced back at her on her remark, and as he turned back around she could've sworn she saw him smirk. That must run in the Mikaelson family too. Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose and slowly made her way back into the bus and stopped at the foot of her bed, peering down at the lump on the bed with her arms crossed.

"Don't give me that judgey look," Katherine's muffled voice came from under the mounds of fabric and down, and Caroline shook her head.

"So it's 'Katerina' is it? I thought you haven't been Katerina since you and your family defected to the US from Bulgaria nearly 20 years ago..."

"What do you care what Elijah calls me? It's my name, not yours," Katherine snapped, not moving from underneath her barricade of blankets and pillows.

"You're right, I shouldn't be judging you as much," Caroline said, taking off her jacket and tossing it on one of the benches that should've been turned into Kat's bed. "I had expected more of Elijah though. I can't believe that he took advantage of you like that..."

"HE DIDN'T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME!" Katherine suddenly shot up from beneath the blankets and pillows, sending them flying in different directions, and Caroline rolled her eyes as she gave her friend the courtesy of not staring at her as one of her boobs hung out of her black lacy bra.

"You were hopped up on pain meds and a single glass of champagne," Caroline added, leaning into the small bathroom to turn the shower on to get the water warming up. "If it wasn't taking advantage of you, then it was irresponsible, to say the least..."

"If anyone was taking advantage of anyone, it was me taking advantage of him!" Katherine insisted, and Caroline paused a moment to give her friend's declaration some thought.

Normally, she'd believe her, no questions asked. Katherine was one of the boldest, most determined people Caroline had ever known, if not the boldest and most determined, and if Katherine said she did something, she had and she meant it. But the fact of the matter was, her judgement had been compromised, and the fierce brunette couldn't argue with that. She'd been loaded before the toast, having taken God knows how many pain meds, and then she'd had a glass of champagne on top of that.

Caroline typically wouldn't believe that 6 or 7 oz of alcohol would be enough to affect her friend, considering Kat was normally dancing on the bar with a half empty bottle of whiskey in her hand with the other half of the bottle in her stomach. But they had no idea how many pain pills Kat had taken, and the combination of her meds and champagne had brought her to a screeching halt pretty quickly last night.

"Do tell," Caroline said, leaning against the wall near the bathroom door, crossing her arms and peering down at the brunette who was giving her a haughty look. "I'd love to hear how Elijah brought you back to the bus when you were drunk off of pain pills and champagne and didn't take advantage of you by sleeping with you."

"It wasn't like that at all, Care," Katherine said, half sadly and half stubbornly, and the sadness in her voice made Caroline soften a bit. "Elijah is every bit the gentleman he was yesterday, and then some." The brunette sighed, dragged a hand through her long, tangled brown locks and chuckled to herself as she glanced down and tucked her stray boob back in her bra.

"He helped Bonnie bring me back last night, and I vaguely remember him and Bonnie hanging out, periodically making me drink water, and I fell asleep for a bit. When I woke back up, Bonnie was gone, Elijah was on your laptop doing work and he said that he'd sent her to her room to get some sleep, and he made me drink, like, two full water bottles and a Vitamin Water. But I was still really sleepy, so I fell asleep again.

"I woke up an hour or two later and after peeing my entire bladder out for longer than I've ever peed in my entire life, I was 100% again. I was clear and sober. And I came back in and saw him sitting there; he'd fallen asleep sitting up beside me. He hadn't left, even though I'd had enough liquids to flush out a horse tranquilizer..."

Caroline snorted at her friends hyperbole, but Katherine kept confessing the events of the previous night.

"And I just did what I instinctively wanted to do; I climbed right on top of him and started kissing him and trying to take his clothes off..."

Caroline snorted again and covered her eyes again.

"Christ, Kat...why am I not surprised?"

"What can I say? I'm a needy sociopath desperate for love and human connection! I'm sorry!" she retorted defensively and crossed her arms over her chest. "And you know what he did when he woke up and I was on top of him, my fingers unbuttoning his Calvin Klein dress shirt and my tongue down his throat?"

"Rocked your world?" Caroline guessed. "And not in the musical sense, but...you know."

"No, he didn't actually!" Kat replied quickly, "He actually pushed me off of him!"

"He resisted the Petrova charm?" Caroline said, sounding both shocked and impressed. "Wow...if I hadn't been greeted by his full moon, I'd wonder if he's gay..."

"That was the first thing I thought!" Kat said, obviously relieved that she hadn't been strange to wonder the very same, and continued, "And I asked him if he was and told him that he didn't have to be ashamed of it, and Jesus, Caroline, you should have seen his face..." Katherine trailed off and slowly devolved into a fit of laughter.

"Once he assured me of his sexual orientation," Kat suddenly donned what Caroline could only guess was her interpretation of an Elijah expression and she dropped her voice to sound closer to Elijah's octave, "'straight as straight can be,'" and Caroline couldn't help but laugh with her friend before Kat continued, "he told me that 'while he found me immensely attractive, he couldn't, in good faith, be intimate with me while my judgement was impaired.'"

"Wow," Caroline said.

"I know."

"But you were sobered up?"

"Uh huh," the brunette nodded, "and even though I swore I was, he still didn't believe me and I accused him of not trusting me, and you know what he said?" Caroline shook her head, and the smallest smile spread across Katherine's face, and she quietly replied, "'You're right, I don't trust you. But I'd love for you to prove me wrong and win my trust'..."

"Aww," Caroline couldn't help the endearing sound that escaped her throat, and Kat only made it worse by blushing and casting her eyes down in embarrassment. "Kat...you really like him, don't you?"

"More than I'd ever allow myself to like someone..." Katherine admitted reluctantly after a moment of silence, her feet dangling off the edge of the bed and kicking the floor aimlessly. "And so I took it upon myself to prove just how sober I was and for the next two hours, we ate Chinese take out and watched Keeping Up With the Kardashians reruns..."

"Really?"

"Yup," she said simply, and she finally brought her gaze up to Caroline's and grinned impishly, "it was after the third rerun that I knew he really liked me. The only thing funnier than his face when asked if he was into dudes was his face watching those trainwrecks..." The girls laughed together and when their laughter died down, Kat spoke again, her gaze focused on her hands.

"Then...it just happened," she said softly. "It was completely unplanned, and it just happened," she repeated. "He didn't make the first move, I didn't make the first move; we just sort of...moved together." She had a goofy, romantic smile on her face, and she continued, "He was so tender and sweet and attentive and...oh my god, he has the most perfect dick I've ever had the pleasure of fucking..."

"Aaaaaaaand that would be my cue, exit stage left," Caroline muttered, crossing and grabbing a fresh set of towels out of the cupboard.

"Wait, what about you?! How was your night?" Katherine continued, quirking an eyebrow and sneering at Caroline knowingly. "You look thoroughly fucked." Caroline made a noise somewhere between a squeak and a gasp and Katherine grinned and chuckled to herself. "Yeah, I knew Klaus would get something better than a bottle of whiskey."

"I'm not talking about this with you right now, I'm showering."

"Oh yeah? Sounds like I'm not the only one that was a dirty, dirty girl..."

"Can't hear you!" Caroline said as she closed the door and shouted.

"I knew it! The second I read those texts from Anna asking if you were back and if Klaus was with you, I knew you fucked him! You bitch! And you come in here acting all high and mighty about Elijah's sweet ass in bed with me!" Katherine said, leaning over and pounding her hand against the bathroom door as she yelled to her.

Caroline simply ignored her and ducked into the stream of water when she'd stripped off the rest of her clothes and kicked off her boots. She heard the low murmur of Kat grumbling something, but she just focused on how good the warm beads of water felt rushing over her head and face and down her body. She took a deep breath and could already start to feel the tension in her body lessen and she reached for her bottle of shampoo. She squeezed more than was needed, filling her palm, and began to lather her hair, washing all the dirt and sweat out of it from the show and the club...and her other activities. She pushed the memory out of her mind and rinsed her hair and worked conditioner into her hand carefully working from the ends up.

As the smell of peppermint, sage, and rosemary in her conditioner filled her senses, her mind wandered and she couldn't help but think of a more musky male scent that had turned her on so unbelievably. She absentmindedly squeezed some shower gel onto her loofa and as the rough mesh exfoliated her skin, the memory of rough skin sliding along her softer skin came to mind. Caroline felt her breathing becoming deeper and she got goosebumps as she remembered the two rough hands touching her with such gentleness, like they were scanning her body and committing the feeling of her skin to memory.

One of her hands slid down her torso as the other moved to her breast, both of her hands joining his as she leaned her head back against his shoulder. She turned her face towards his and he pressed his lips to her temple, taking her from behind and gently moving her leg up and placing it on the edge of one of the open dresser drawers. She moaned as she felt him move even deeper and her hand that accompanied his on her breast went and buried itself into his curls.

He growled as she tugged his curls, but her moan drowned it out as he continued to thrust into her more forcefully, though his steady pace never faltered. His lips trailed kisses down from her temple down her jaw, his one hand teasing her nipple while the other teased the bundle of nerves at the junction of her thighs, and she-

"Caroline?!" Bonnie's voice came through the door after two short knocks and Caroline jerked back into reality and couldn't believe she'd let herself get so wrapped up in memories from last night. She also couldn't believe where her one hand was before Bonnie had snapped her out of her reminiscing. What the hell was wrong with her?! She was Caroline Forbes: rock 'n roll princess and all around badass. She didn't reminisce about past conquests and touch herself in the shower, especially not with playboy rock star conquests.

And that's all he was to her: a conquest.

A really good looking, charismatic, accented conquest, she told herself, and nothing more. Even when Kat's phrase, "the most perfect dick I've ever had the pleasure of fucking" came to mind.

Bonnie knocked again on the door and added, "Kat just left, but she told me all about her and Elijah...and you and Klaus." Damn that Petrova bitch. Caroline made a mental note to punch her guitarist in the boob at the next available moment.

"Come on, Caroline, you can't hide in there forever."

Wanna bet? Caroline thought to herself.

"...I've got coffee."

Damn. Bonnie knew that coffee was Caroline's kryptonite and had undauntedly whipped out the big guns right off the bat. She gave the girl credit, she knew not only how to handle herself but how to handle others. It was a wonder she kept it together all the time.

"I'll be out in five," Caroline finally replied back reluctantly. Fifteen minutes later, once Caroline had thoroughly cleaned herself every which way, she exited the bathroom, a large fluffy towel wrapped around her slightly dewy body and her hair wrapped up in one on top of her head like a turban. Bonnie sat on one of the benches with her legs up on the seat and her laptop on her lap, typing away and occasionally pausing to sip from her cup of coffee.

"Yours is on the other counter," Bonnie said knowingly, sensing that Caroline was there even though her back was to her, and she kept typing.

"Thanks," Caroline said, reaching for it and sipping quietly. The silence made Bonnie turn to look at Caroline as the blonde sat down on the opposite bench.

"I got you the usual, a double capp with a shot of french vanilla and two sugars, would you've preferred something else? I got a salted caramel mocha if you want mine-"

"No, no, the coffee's fine, Bon, thank you..." Caroline shook her head and waved her hand at her friend to let her know the coffee wasn't a problem. Bonnie watched her for a moment before turning and continuing typing on the computer. Caroline would open up sooner or later, and she wasn't going to force her to open up unless she wanted to and Bonnie knew her friend too well. After only a few moments of silence, Bonnie heard her friend sigh quietly.

"I let myself fall for him," Caroline said quietly, and Bonnie turned to her, and she added, "but it was fantastic, Bonnie. I've...I've never felt so alive. Every synapse was firing, every sense was on fire...but I knew it was a path I shouldn't have gone down. And to make it even worse, I saw his phone and some girl was calling him and texting him..." Bonnie straightened a bit, hearing how her friend's voice got more strained, and she carefully closed her laptop and put it down on the seat beside her.

"A girl?" Bonnie asked, facing Caroline and resting her elbows on her knees and clasping her hands.

Caroline nodded, her lips pressed tightly together and scrunched to the side of her face, her indicator that she was trying to hold tears back. Caroline was always good at keeping her composure in front of others, but Bonnie was a whole different story. Caroline and Bonnie had clicked instantly, and even though Bonnie could read her like a book and break down her walls easily, Caroline always folded like a napkin in front of her. It was just something about Bonnie that melted away all of Caroline's masks and walls and she'd feel the need to just openly and honestly talk to her.

"His favorite escort at 'Moonlight Escort Service' that he talks to more like a friend than an escort," Caroline said, her voice trembling a bit.

"Is that what you're upset about? How intimate and friendly he is with some escort, versus the fact that he even uses escorts?" Bonnie asked.

"Please, he's a rockstar," Caroline chuckled wryly, taking a deep breath and keeping her tears at bay, "I'd wonder what his vice was if he didn't have an escort service on speed dial...It'd probably be the nearest casino manager's phone number instead of his brunette escort BFF..."

"True," Bonnie nodded, "and honestly, I'd rather get involved with an alcoholic sex addict over an alcoholic gambler anyday!" Caroline laughed and Bonnie smiled, happy to hear the sound. "Okay, we need an excessive amount of breakfast food, so you go get dressed and I'm going to make a food run and I'll be back, okay?"

Caroline nodded as Bonnie touched her knee supportively before grabbing her purse and exiting the bus. Caroline went to the back of the bus and looked through her drawers until she opened her closet and began flipping through her hangers before settling on one of her favorite dresses, a black Pearl Georgina Chapman for Marchesa dress covered in little stars with a hot pink ribbon around the waist that tied in the back. Typically if Caroline was feeling down, she'd dress up and make herself up in an attempt to brighten her spirits and it usually worked. Once she was dressed, she blow dried her hair before she flat ironed it and she was nearly done with her makeup when she heard the bus door open again.

"Okay, I know you said you were getting a smorgasbord, but I really hope you got waffles, because now I'm craving one something awful," Caroline said, her face still inches away from the mirror as she finished sweeping the mascara wand through her eyelashes. She tossed it back in her makeup bag on the small sink counter and turned and padded out barefoot to the kitchen area. When she looked up, she stopped dead in her tracks.

"I'm sorry, I was told you were more of pancake person, and I know a place that makes the most delicious blueberry ones you've ever tasted..." the accented voice replied and the dimpled smirk that accompanied it made Caroline's heart clench and her stomach twist into knots.

"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked, proud of herself for sounding cool and standoffish even though that was far from how she felt.

\m/ . \m/

Klaus closed the door of the town car that had picked him up at the hotel and strode through the parking lot quickly. He was frustrated because some imbeciles with stadium security had said that the town car didn't have clearance to go to the back parking lot where Caroline's tour bus was located, so he had to ditch the car at the front and walk the rest of the way there.

He was nearly to the other side of the stadium when his phone trilled in his pocket again, but steadily and he knew he had a phone call versus a text. He took out his phone and growled as he hit the talk button and pressed it to his ear.

"I got your 50 million texts and typically if a phone rings for the normal allotted time before going to voicemail, that typically means the person in question's phone is on, otherwise it would've gone straight to voicemail had it been off. So what part of my non-responsiveness, be it via texts or calling, did you not understand as me letting you know I had no interest in talking to you, Hayley?"

"Sue me, I thought you were playing hard to get," the alto of the brunette's voice replied into Klaus's ear and he sneered.

"If I were playing a game, trust me, you'd know it."

"Yeah well, after you blew me off last night, luckily I got a call from the agency about a pro-football player that was feeling kinda lonely and could use a pick me up, so I wasn't all by my lonesome..." Klaus rolled his eyes and had every sense to just hang up on her until she added, "But you were right; he lacked your... stamina." Klaus chuckled once to himself then sighed like a parent about to tell their child it was time to take the training wheels off their bicycle.

"Well, Hayley, as much as that would've delighted me to hear in the past, hell as much as that would've delighted me to hear yesterday, suffice it to say I'll no longer be in need of your services." He pulled the phone away from his ear but he heard her screech even though the phone was away from his face.

"Excuse me?!" He stopped in the parking lot, looking around to make sure he didn't get pegged by a car, and brought the phone back to his ear.

"Did you suffer a head injury while your football player was running into your endzone? I said, 'I'm no longer in need of your services,' which loosely translates into, 'Goodbye, Hayley.'"

"Are you serious? What are you going to a different escort service or something? Because let me tell you, 'Bewitching Beauties' is not a classy as they seem. They kind of operate like a cult-"

"Yes, I'm serious," Klaus started, cutting her off out of annoyance and anger, pinching the bridge of his nose before adding, "And no, I'm not going to a different escort service." He glanced over and could see Caroline's bus a short distance away and smiled to himself. "I don't need escorts anymore. I've found something better." His smile slipped from his face as he heard her begin to laugh on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, I see... Mr. Big Bad Rockstar's got a crush. Who's the unlucky victim?"

"None of your goddamn business" Klaus started, his voice dropping lower. He tried to control his anger and not shout into the phone at this dumb slut. She had some nerve to laugh at him after she'd spent the better part of her evening and morning calling and texting him excessively.

"You listen to me and you listen well, Hayley: this is the last time that you and I will ever interact, and should you ever contact me again, I will take it up with your escort service. Not only will I make sure they fire you, I will make sure that you won't be hired by an escort service within a 100 mile radius. If you think I won't, I dare you to pick up the latest copy of People or The New Yorker and flip through it and consider how many famous and powerful friends I have in just a single issue that probably already use escort services. I'm sure Moonlight would be more than happy to get rid of one hooker that stalks her clients rather than lose countless current and possible clients." He paused only a moment to take a breath, but Hayley made no attempt to interrupt him in any case.

"And before you try and suggest that you can go to the tabloids and start spouting off how I'm head over heels for some girl and I'm no longer the badass that I was in the past, let me just remind you that after you get off of the phone with one such tabloid, you might be getting a knock on your door and the next thing you know, you'll have silver cuffs around your slender wrists, and they won't be attached to a bedpost. No, they'll be attached to the partition of a squad car as police bring you in for prostitution. Police are just as capable of getting anonymous tips as tabloids, love," he sneered as he emphasized his sarcastic use of the endearment, the first time he'd even used it during their conversation, and paused to let everything he said sink in for a moment. "Do you understand me clearly now?" There was a longer pause before Klaus heard her reply.

"Yes."

"Good, I'm glad. Goodbye, Hayley," Klaus said with finality before hanging up the phone and striding towards the bus, knowing what he wanted more clearly than he ever had in his entire life. Just as he was a few yards away, he saw Bonnie step around the front of the bus as if she'd just exited the bus and she was looking at her phone. When he was a little closer, he called to her softly, "Hey, Bonnie!"

She looked up and gave him what may have been one of the dirtiest looks he'd received in his entire life, and he'd received numerous and varied ones so he gave her credit, and she began to walk faster towards him. But he quickly realized she was walking past him, not towards him.

"Hey yourself, you jackass..." she muttered as she brushed past him.

"Excuse me?" he said, surprised, and turned and followed her, wondering what the hell was going on. "Who pissed in your coffee, love?"

"You did, when you slept with my best friend," she replied, not looking up from her phone.

"Not that that's any of your business, but that was a mutual decision," he said, finding himself getting more pissed himself from her tone and how she refused to look at him and kept walking. "Where's Caroline?" His question made Bonnie stop and flip around to him quickly and he nearly walked right into her.

"You may be her headlining act, but that doesn't make her your slam piece, Klaus," Bonnie said calmly but with a hint of anger and defensiveness in her voice. "She's not a plaything for you to just screw around with when you feel like it or if something better doesn't come along, although truthfully, she's the best you're ever going to have, so the notion of 'something better coming along' is a longshot, even for you."

"Of course she's not a plaything, I don't think that of her! Besides, she's the one that snuck out on me this morning-" Klaus started to defend himself when he paused and thought about what Bonnie had said again and he took a step back. "Hang on a tick. What do you mean 'if something better doesn't come along'?"

"I know you got Caroline in your bed for free, but you deserve meaningless, no strings attached bought sex, not someone as wonderful and caring and amazing as Caroline..." Bonnie started scolding Klaus and defending her friend, but Klaus stopped her by gently grabbing her arms.

"Bonnie!" he said, stopping her and she stopped but only to grit her teeth and shoot him an angry glare. "She snuck out on me this morning," he repeated, "and for me, there's only her." Bonnie regarded him silently, and after a minute of her not responding to his confession he decided to elaborate.

"There's no one else. The moment she strutted up on that stage, she turned my world upside down; I was a goner. And she's more than wonderful and caring and amazing; she's beautiful and strong and good and passionate and enthralling and never have I wanted anyone or anything more in my life. But just as much as I want her, I want to be worthy of her. Please tell me what I can do to deserve her, Bonnie, and I'll gladly do it. She's all there is for me, and I'll wait, I'll wait however long it takes to earn her love, because she's all there is for me."

Bonnie regarded him warily the entire time he spoke, but by the time he finished, she had seemingly softened and she glanced down at her phone again, sighed then looked back up at him.

"You're going to need food. And by food, I mean a smorgasbord of breakfast foods. She's allergic to strawberries, she eats her scrambled eggs with cheese and ketchup, and she really likes pancakes." Klaus smiled at the young woman, his dimpled grin reaching from ear to ear. She gave him the smallest smile but her face quickly became serious and she pointed a finger in his face. "Don't make me regret this. Believe me, the one place you don't want to be is on my bad side...Which is where you'll be if you screw around with my best friend."

"Sounds fair."

"Just think of the worst migraine of your entire life...now multiply that tenfold. You'll be begging me to put you out of your misery."

"Understood."

"Good," Bonnie said with a sense of finality. Then, Klaus literally watched her take off her best friend hat and don her business hat and she said, "Well then, I'm going to call the town car to go get chilaquiles from a hole in the wall place the girls and I always go. Maybe if we divide and conquer we can get this smorgasbord together in half the time of you just going solo."

"Fantastic. I know a place that makes delicious blueberry pancakes..."

\m/ . \m/

"A little bird told me that you were in need of 'a smorgasbord of breakfast foods,'" he said, holding up the brown bags he held in his hand, "so I've brought my favorites from all my favorite local restaurants: blueberry pancakes, cinnamon rolls, assorted bagels and spreads, bacon, sausages, chilaquiles, hash browns, chocolate croissants, fresh fruit-" he paused and glanced at her seriously, "no strawberries-and I also brought orange juice, apple juice and more coffee," he finished, holding up the drink caddy with four cups in his right hand. He set the drinks down on the counter before he set the bag down on the nearby bench and began taking out the containers of food.

"I didn't ask what you'd brought with you," Caroline said, crossing her arms across her chest, not moving from where she stood even though the smell of the food was filling the bus and making her mouth water. "I asked why you were here."

"I'm here to eat a smorgasbord of breakfast food with you," Klaus restated as if it were obvious and he continued to unpack the to-go boxes.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" she finally asked quietly, but Klaus kept unpacking the food, and as he reached into the bag for the last box, she asked, "I mean, don't you have someone else to be with?" That question finally made Klaus pause, and when he finally looked up at her, she forced herself to ask the question that she was shouting in her head. "What about Hayley?" He gazed at her for a while and she gazed back, even though all she wanted to do was look away and cry or look away to grab the nearest object to throw at him and shout at him to leave. She didn't expect him to answer with a question, and it nearly knocked her on her ass.

"Hayley who?"

She opened her mouth after a second to respond, but she looked at his face and she was stunned and no words came out. Had she not been looking at his face, his response may have been seen as a pathetic attempt at playing stupid or dancing around the subject. She could see, however, that clearly was not the case. She read a million and one sentiments, thoughts and emotions in his expression, but after she heard his voice and looked at him, she realized that instead, it was as if he'd replied, 'I'm attracted to you, and I've done some terrible things in the past, but for some reason, I care only about you.'

The fierce honesty in his voice and the look he was giving her nearly took her breath away. She had gotten sentimental that morning, watching him sleep, but she never dreamed that he'd have real, deep feelings for her. Yes he talked a big game last night, but she'd thought that surely that was all for the sake of the conquest and that once he woke up, his lust satiated, he'd be through with her. That or he'd only want to hook up, and Caroline didn't know if she was prepared for that. She was beginning to realize that was the thing: she hadn't been prepared for Klaus in any sense.

He watched the emotions and conflict flit around her face before he smiled and reached back into the bag and pulled out the last container.

"Scrambled eggs?" he smiled but then raised his eyebrows and gave her a saucy smirk as if to entice her with them. "They've got cheese..." Caroline chuckled and he chuckled along with her and she glanced away and he gazed at her softly with a smile and she finally looked back up at him and returned his smile. In less than a second, however it slipped from her face, and he furrowed his brow before she spoke.

"I'm not even touching those unless you have-"

"Ketchup?" he asked with a quirk of his eyebrow and he opened the lid to the box and revealed a heaping amount of cheesy eggs with at least two handfuls of ketchup packets tucked in, "Of course I have ketchup." Caroline gazed at the contents of the box amazedly, and looked back up at him and gave him a shy, sweet smile. She knew he had to have asked Bonnie, or she had to have told him, but she didn't care either way; they were both so sweet and the fact that he paid that much attention to detail really touched her.

"Well, I guess this food's not going to eat itself," Caroline said quietly with a smile. She got silverware for them and divvied out the rest her silverware amongst the boxes to use as serving spoons and they each put food on their plates and sat down and began eating in comfortable silence, both with smiles on their faces.

The silence was broken when Klaus's phone rang, and Caroline couldn't help but stiffen at the thought of it being "Hayley - Moonlighting' calling again. But he reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone and smirked and rolled his eyes when he saw the name on the screen.

"Excuse me, love," he said, "my nanny's calling." He hit the send button and pressed the phone to his ear. "Hello, Elijah," he smirked when he heard Caroline laugh, "how are you this morning? I doubt you had as splendid a night as I had..."

Caroline began to cough as she choked on her eggs since she'd huffed them in surprise. He still had no idea about his brother and Katherine, and Caroline did her best to dislodge the food trapped in her windpipe to tell him. He had paused and looked concerned but she waved his hands away since he'd quickly put his plate down and stood up to cross to her. She reached over and grabbed the travel cup of orange juice and took a big gulp. She took a relieved breath but before she could tell him, he was back listening to Elijah.

"What? No I'm fine, Caroline just had a moment with her eggs, I believe they just went down the wrong tube...yes, I'm with her right now, how else would I know that Caroline was choking on scrambled eggs?" he replied sounding annoyed, as if Elijah had asked the dumbest question. "I brought her some food and we're enjoying ourselves a little breakfast buffet of sorts," he added, winking at her.

"No, that would be correct. We would not be interested in joining you for breakf-wait, what do you mean 'us'?!" Klaus turned to Caroline, who'd been waving her hands to get his attention. Still with the phone pressed to his ear, he looked at Caroline and mouthed, 'What is going on?' and Caroline pointed to the phone pressed to his ear and mouthed, 'Elijah' and Klaus nodded in recognition, and then Caroline thought for a moment before she mimed strumming a guitar and mouthed, 'and Katherine' and Klaus watched her for a moment before he realized she was referring to her lead guitarist that he'd substituted for the previous night.

He nodded and mouthed back, 'Katherine?' and Caroline nodded and repeated her motions of pointing to his phone then strumming an invisible guitar while mouthing, 'Elijah and Katherine,' and then she silently balled up both her fists and pulled them towards herself at waist height and repeated the gesture while thrusting her hips back and forth at the same time. Klaus's jaw dropped and he mouthed, 'No,' and Caroline merely responded with a smug smile and knowing nod.

A devilish smirk spread across Klaus's face as Elijah apparently danced around the explanation of the 'us' he'd meant, and Klaus immediately jumped back into his phone call.

"Well well well, brother," he said, his smugness coming through in his voice and Caroline rolled her eyes with a smile as she went back to her food and started opening more ketchup packets to put on her eggs.

"It would seem that I'm not the only one that had the pleasure of a young woman's company last night. Sounds like Kat really got her claws into you if you're having breakfast at such a hole in the wall establishment, regardless of how good their brunch might be," Klaus said, reaching into the mixed fruit and popping a piece of pineapple into his mouth and chewing it for a second before talking with the food in his mouth, and no doubt pissing off Elijah. "I applaud her for getting you into a restaurant that doesn't have place settings. And as much as Caroline and I would love to join you both, the lovely blonde said it herself, this food I brought her 'isn't going to eat itself,' but perhaps another time." He glanced up at Caroline and smiled rakishly and she smiled back at him and rolled her eyes, chewing thoughtfully on a bite of eggs.

"Well if it's alright with her majesty, The Princess of Rock, I'll just stay here and travel with her to the next venue. Yes, we're in her bus. Well no, I'm not going to sleep with her on the bus if you did the nasty with Kat on her bed...No, she didn't tell me that, it was a lucky guess, and a correct one judging by your response and the look of disgust and horror on Caroline's face right now."

He chuckled as Caroline put her plate down on the opposite counter and crossed back to her bed and got new sheets and pillowcases out of the closet. He watched her with a smirk as she quickly changed the sheets without touching them as carefully as she could. She threw the sheets into a giant hamper in the bottom of her closet with a sound of disgust. He placed his own plate down then stood to close the boxes and stacked some of them.

"Please, Elijah, I'm sure Caroline would accept dry cleaning her sheets as a sufficient enough apology for having sex in her bed," he replied. But then he heard Caroline make a noise somewhere between a growl and a groan, so he added, "Actually, maybe you'll want to pick up some new bedding before you see Caroline. I'm sure she'd appreciate 1200 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, even though I'd appreciate silk ones if I'm going to be spending any time in them-" Klaus said, but stopped when he felt something hit the side of his face, neck and shoulder.

He turned and saw a pillow on the floor and Caroline looking at him with what he surmised was intended to be an angry face. She failed to convey the sentiment, however, since her expression was twisted from trying not to smile and her face was flushed in a lovely and embarrassed shade of red. He stared at her seriously for a moment before turning back to his call.

"Sorry, Elijah, I've got to go; war has been declared," he said flatly and he hung up the phone and put it down on the counter next to the food before reaching down and taking hold of the pillow at his feet. Caroline squealed and scrambled up on the bed to grab the other pillow as Klaus slowly stalked after her, a grin slowly spreading on his face as he wound up his arm with her pillow in his hands.

\m/ . \m/

Author's Note:
So? What do you guys think? :D Please leave me a review and let me know what you thought about this chapter!

And never fear, friends, the fun's not over yet... ;)

I intended for there to be a short epilogue at the end of this section, but as always, I was far too overcome with Klaroline inspiration so now this will be a 3 part one shot with a separate epilogue.

Also, I might be publishing a surprise to accompany it on my tumblr page, so I'll let you know when I post the new chapter where and how you can find the surprise! ;D

Special thanks to my Google Doc Gals (who put up with my excessively long chapters): Miranda (livingdeadblondegirl), Alex (klarolineepiclove; authenticheart) and Deej (jomosfamilyjewels; The Deej)

Klaroline hugs, kisses, and cheesy scrambled eggs with ketchup,
Becky xo