AN: Thank you again for the reviews and for sticking around this long.

January 2nd

As soon as the light began to filter through the blinds of the bedroom, Klaus opened his eyes and despite being able to feel Caroline's presence all through the night he still could not believe that she was truly there, sound asleep, next to him. It was too good to be true and he feared that once she woke up she would regret coming here as he was never the kind of person who received such gifts. Yes, this was a gift, a gift from heaven and not fit for a monster.

In the years he spent with Camille, Klaus learnt to accept himself and his tragic past, but yet those like Caroline or even Hope who were inherently pure made him doubt himself. Camille was similar, but her age and her experience made her tougher in some ways, she did not have this idealistic notion of romance and what life should be like; she never did. Caroline, on the other hand, died with the idea of having the perfect romance, the perfect family, the perfect life and as much as she learnt in the past century Klaus doubted that she truly gave up on that. It was simply who she was.

One thing was clear to Klaus, this time he would not let her go. This time she was here to stay and he would do everything in his power to convince her of that.

Not too long after, Caroline started waking up and when she noticed that Klaus was still laying down next to her with his arms around her waist she smiled. She did not forget what she heard last night, but she refused to think about it for now as she took a long time to get where she was and since Klaus did not push her away she was not about to let her insecurities drive her to leave the comfort his arms provided. She knew deep in her heart that she was at home. She tried to look for this feeling everywhere she went, she looked for it in her relationship with Stefan, with Alaric, with her daughters, but there was always something missing and had been missing for far too long. Caroline thought that it was her mother, and she was right, part of it was, but the rest was all Klaus.

"Good morning" she whispered softly

"Good morning, love" Klaus said with a smirk, not a smile, but a smirk and then Caroline realized her mistake.

"Argh" Caroline knew the moment she saw his smirk that she lost. She was the one to speak first. It was a stupid challenge, but it was always like that with them. Part of her was glad that this remained the same, that it did not change despite the fact that at times it could get pretty annoying. She rejoiced in the familiarity of the action. They both liked to tease other until one could no longer handle it, but truth be told, none of them ever got to drive the other to the breaking point as something always happened before they reached that stage. Maybe this time it would be different.

As she sat up, Caroline looked around at the room once again now being able to observe it in daylight. The room was just as beautiful, but it was bigger than she realized.

"I know we need to talk, but I would like to get a shower first if you do not mind and maybe some food as well." Caroline said with a hopeful tone. She knew they needed to have a conversation soon, but she wanted to postpone it as she did not feel ready. The conversation would change her life forever, no matter the outcome, she was certain of that and to be ready for something like that she had to look her best first, which was not going to happen before a shower and maybe e change of clothes.

"Of course love, anything you want. The bathroom is through that door there." Klas said pointing towards the door at his left.

"Umm, I do not want to put you out. If you just show me one of the guest rooms I will be fine." Caroline said in a rush.

"Nonsense love. This is your room."

There was no way the room was a guest room as it was way too big, so Caroline was certain that it had to be Klaus' bedroom.

"But…"

"No buts, sweetheart."

"But this is the master bedroom." Caroline said in a rush.

"What did I just say, love? You are right, though. This is the master bedroom, but also your room. Mine is at the other end of the hallway." He added for good measure, not wanting to scare her away or to make her think that she had to share her room with him right away.

After hearing this, Caroline was utterly confused, but also feeling calmer than before. He would have not given her the best room in the house if he had not intended for her to stay, right?

"Okay." Caroline said, not wanting to further discuss the topic with him as it could easily turn into an argument and now was not the time.

"One more thing, could you possibly find me one of Rebekah's outfits or send one of your minions to get me something to wear. Well, assuming you still have those." Caroline said looking down at her wrinkled dress.

"No need, just pick anything you want from the dressing room. They are all yours." Klaus said slightly embarrassed before turning towards the door. "I will leave you to it then" He said in a rush, before finally leaving her alone. As soon as the door closed behind him, Klaus leaned back on the door. He could not believe the way he was acting. It was like he was human again, falling in love for the first time. He was a hybrid, the most powerful of them all for God sake's and this was just ridiculous. He could not be acting as a teenager, he was way too old for that. Even when he died he was long past his teenage years, yet the baby, not so baby anymore, vampire managed to turn him into a love fool.

On the other side of the door, Caroline was in shock. It seemed that it was rapidly becoming her new default state, but then again he always managed to surprise her. Still, finding out that there was entire dressing room full of clothes that fit her style and size was too much and she felt the need to sit down, but there was no time so she rushed to pick an outfit without paying too much attention to the other clothes as she would have forgotten about herself and it was so not the time for that.

Quickly after her shower, Caroline left in search of Klaus. She remembered most of the rooms that he showed her the previous night, but she left herself be guided by the noise in any case, just so that she could avoid getting lost. It would have been slightly embarrassing, but also because she did not want to keep him waiting or for her to lose her newfound courage.

As she entered the kitchen, she saw Klaus moving around, preparing breakfast, another site that she found incredibly bizarre, but refused to ponder on for the moment as they had more important things to deal with and that did not include her freaking out because she discovered that the original hybrid knew how to cook. Ever since she stepped foot in New Orleans, it is like she stepped into another galaxy, there was no other explanation for everything that happened since she arrived. One would think that after so many years on this Earth she would not be shocked by something so trivial, yet she was.

As soon as Caroline entered the kitchen, Klaus lift his head from what he was doing, he was done making pancakes anyway, but he waited for her to say something. Noticing her expression, he decided that it was his turn to speak. He also refused to ponder on the reason why she looked so shocked.

"Are you ready to talk now, love?"

TBC

AN: The story will pick up from now on, maybe one, two more chapter will be slightly slower, but it is finally reaching the point I wanted to get at. Thanks again for reading and please leave a review so I know what you think. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in a comment as well.