Klaus was nervous.

He was standing with his family, welcoming their guests and hoping that Rachel would take him up on his offer and wouldn't decide to stay home and watch TV instead of joining him at this ball. He was also afraid that she would end up coming with somebody else, maybe that Noah he had heard of a couple of times.

He first saw Santana in a devil red dress and Tyler on her arm. She told him with a knowing smile that Rachel was coming with her father. He nodded and went back to watching the door and greeting guests. When Elena Gilbert arrived with Stefan on her arm, Klaus glanced at his sister but she acted like it wasn't affecting her. He was happy to see that she was stronger than he thought. He didn't want to see her broken over a lost love again.

Suddenly,two more people came through the door and it was like everybody had left the room and he was left all alone, free to enjoy the vision of perfection in front of him. Indeed, walking towards him was Rachel, with her father on her arm and wearing beautifully the dress he had sent her earlier. He couldn't deny it, she was perfect, especially with the way she was smiling at him, making him feel like he was the only man on the planet.

"Rachel, you look beautiful." He told her.

"Thank you, but I can't take credit for this...It's your dress." She replied shyly.

"I only provided you with a dress Rachel, you're the one who makes it beautiful." He smiled charmingly.

"Okay, I'm going to let the two of you be. Klaus, let's pretend I already gave you the daddy talk okay?" Damon suggested.

"Good idea daddy. Have fun with Rebekah." Rachel replied as Klaus nodded.

They watched as Damon went to greet Rebekah and Klaus turned back to Rachel.

"Shall I get you something to drink?" He asked her.

"Maybe later... Why don't you introduce me to Kol, this way I'll know your entire family. Besides your mother he's the only one I haven't met yet." She suggested.

Klaus nodded and offered her his arm. Of course she took it and together they went to Kol who was talking with Elijah.

"Rachel, you do look beautiful tonight." Elijah told her with a nice smile.

"You don't look to bad yourself for a word breaker who deserves to be stuck in a coffin for a while longer." Rachel replied, glaring at him and making Klaus and Kol chuckle.

"Rachel, this is our younger brother Kol." Klaus introduced, trying to ignore the fact that Elijah looked taken aback by Rachel's retort.

"So, I hear that you're quite the hybrid yourself... I can see why Klaus said you were off limits!" Kol said, ignoring his big brother's glare.

Rachel blushed.

"Well...hum...thank you..." She didn't really know how to answer to this.

"Well pretty Rachel, if you ever get bored of Klaus here, come and find me, I'll free my schedule for you." Kol said and winked before he turned around to flirt with a girl, leaving Elijah alone with them.

"So, I heard that you were a vampire now..." Elijah said, looking at Rachel.

"Only half vampire, I'm also half witch and if you ever break your word or do something against someone I care for ever again, you'll get to find out just how powerful I am. Klaus, I think that I'm ready for that drink now." Rachel said as Klaus nodded and walked with her to the bar, still holding her arm.

"You really know how to hold a grudge..." Klaus said with a smirk.

"Look who's talking!" Rachel replied with a smile of her own.

"True..." He nodded.

"So... I'm off limit now?" She asked him, secretly happy about it.

"Well, hum...I just figured...You know... I really would have hated for my brother to flirt with you tonight and ruin this second first date." Klaus said, worried about her reaction. He was reassured when she smiled at him.

"Don't worry Klaus... I'm fine with this... I'm actually hoping that tonight will end better than our first date..." She told him with a smile.

"So do we consider this our first date or the second one?" He asked her.

"I think it's best to think of this as our second date, it prevents us from going through all the awkward first date phase." She suggested.

"Great idea."

They drank their glass of champagne and kept on talking until Elijah called for everyone's attention and Klaus went to join his siblings and his mother. Elijah announced for the first dance and Klaus rushed to Rachel.

"Now, I hope you'll grant me this first dance." Klaus asked Rachel as he offered her his hand.

"There's nobody else I'd rather dance with tonight." She smiled.

Around them, Damon was dancing and happily chatting with Rebekah who looked like she was having a lot of fun and like Stefan was far from her mind. Santana was dancing with Tyler, Sage with Finn and if Elena was dancing with Stefan, she often let her eyes wonder on Elijah. It was obvious that she was intrigued by this original. She could also see Alaric and Jenna dancing together while Jeremy danced with Bonnie. Caroline had attended with Matt and if they looked like they were having yet another argument, they kept it pretty quiet. Elijah was dancing with Liz Forbes and Kol was with some cheerleader Rachel had forgotten the name of.

They danced and had a lot of fun. At some point, Klaus and Rachel walked outside to get some fresh air and Klaus told Rachel of his love of horses.

"What about you?" he asked her.

"To be honest, horses have always intimidated me... I'm not the tallest and... Well, you can guess how such tall and strong animals can intimidate someone my size. I must have been the only 6 years old girl in my class that didn't ask for a pony for my birthday." She confessed to him.

"Are you afraid now?" He asked her as he stood behind her.

"No, not with you here." She immediately replied before she realised what she had said and blushed while Klaus smiled in happiness.

.

While Rachel and Klaus were having a good time together, Elena managed to convince Stefan to let her go talk to Esther alone, leaving the green eyed Salvatore to watch as Rebekah seemed to be having the best time of her long life in the arms of his brother. He wasn't jealous, not really, he was just really annoyed that she hadn't waited longer for him to make his choice, but then again, he was getting ready to kill her brother, it wouldn't be for the best to start something new now... Killing Klaus would ruin everything anyway, so why bother?

.

"You know Klaus, I think that back when you were human, if Tatia had taken the time to get to know Kol, she wouldn't have played with you and Elijah... It's like he has the best of the both of you." Rachel confessed to Klaus after they had spent the last few minutes talking and joking with Kol while his date was busy in the bathroom.

"Should I be worried?" He asked her with a playful growl.

"You know you don't. Looks like your mother is ready for a toast." Rachel replied as Esther descended a few stepped and addressed the crowd.

They all listened to her talk about family and being united and they all drank from the glass of Champagne Rosé that had been passed around. Nobody knew what she was preparing but Rachel could feel something was wrong as soon as she had drank from the Champagne. She couldn't tell where it came from but she decided to stay alert and to try and find out the next day.

.

Later that night, while Rachel was going to bed her head filled with wonderful memories of her time with Klaus, especially one of an almost kiss interrupted by Matt and Caroline arguing, Esther was busy using magic to link all of her children together. She was grateful that the doppelganger had been willing to help her... Unfortunately, she had been counting on Finn to be a willing sacrifice but now that he was happy with Sage, she would have to use more magic and enchant someone else to be the one to sacrifice himself.

She wouldn't let anyone or anything stop her, she was going to kill her children, even if the spirits seemed to be divided about this. she didn't care what they thought, she was the one who was right about this.

I hope you liked this one.

Thank you for all of those who've reviewed!

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Lorelei Candice Black