Hello, my lovely readers. This chapter has some Klaroline, some Klaus/Damon friendship moments, a little bit of Delena and the disaster that is usually associated with most dances. On with the show…

Chapter 37: Unofficial Date

Blowing out a long breath, I stared into my closet. Caroline and Bekah and Elena had gone across the campus to get ready for the party. Now, I had to find something to wear. Damon was already dressed in a black t-shirt and black jeans. "Come on, Nik. You're taking far too long to get ready. If this were Elijah I would accept it but you not so much."

"I have nothing to wear," I moaned, staring at my closet that I shared with Damon. He came to stand beside me. Pulling out a pair of blue jeans and a long sleeved dark blue shirt, he handed it to me. Eying the clothing, I sighed. He was right. I needed to just get dressed and get on with it.

Walking into the bathroom, I took my clothes off and then pulled the new outfit on. "Thanks, Damon," I called as I buttoned the shirt up. Then I heard a low cough coming from the direction of Enzo's bed. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine, mate. Thanks for the concern. Make the perky one happy," Enzo called with a cough.

"I'll stay with him," Elijah reassured them. "And so will Kol."

Kol looked up from where he was building a fort between Marcel and Damon's beds by tying their bed sheets to the bed posts. "I don't want to stay up here. I want to go with Nik and Damon."

"Don't you want to hear about the pirates?" Enzo called, propping himself up on his elbow.

Kol folded his arms over his chest and his lower lip popped out. "You know about pirates?"

"Know about pirates? I used to be one," Enzo proclaimed.

Rolling his eyes, Kol smirked. "No, you're not. You're a big liar."

"Why would I have to lie to a little boy? I could just lie here and take a nap. All you're doing is keeping me from getting my beauty sleep. But I was going to be nice and tell you about my friend Bluebeard," Enzo trailed off with a wide yawn before rolling onto his side and ignoring Kol.

Taking a tentative step closer to Enzo, Kol ran his foot back and forth in front of him. Chewing on his bottom lip he gave in. "You know Bluebeard?"

"Yup. Went way back but I thought you wanted to go to the party with your brother?" Enzo replied slowly rolling onto his back and peering at Kol through nearly closed eyes. "I guess if you reallllllyyyyyy want to hear the story I can tell you. But only if you promise to stay here with me and Lijah here," Enzo nodded at Elijah who nodded and looked down at Kol.

"I guess I can," Kol said as Elijah sat down on Marcel's bed and pulled Kol onto his lap.

"Have fun," Damon called with a grin as he grabbed me by the arm and we slipped out the door. In the hallway our fellow students were milling about the hall either going to their rooms to get ready or leaving to get to the party.

Walking down the hall with Damon we ran into Diego and Thierry. "Where is Marcel?" I asked them. If he was not with me or Damon he was usually with those two.

"He's downstairs," Diego said. "Said something about keeping an eye on Princess Mikaelson."

Damon began to laugh as I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, Damon," I ordered as we headed down the long staircase. When we got to the large room for guests' visits we found that it was occupied with children of various ages. However, I did not care about anyone when I saw a little girl dressed in a light blue dress. "Caroline," I breathed.

Caroline looked radiant and I could not believe how pretty she looked. She was beginning to look like a young lady. "Klaus," she called as she walked toward me. Clasping her hands behind her back, Caroline came to stand before me with a wide grin. "Hi," she said and I gulped.

"Hi," I said.

"Do you like my dress?" Caroline asked. She twirled around and I watched the skirt billow outward around her small frame.

"Very much," I said. Standing there I began to feel awkward. I could not think of an intelligent comment or even a stupid joke to make. Why couldn't we just be Caroline and Klaus? This was getting too complicated. I felt my throat beginning to close up. Oh, God. What was happening to me?

"Klaus. Klaus, are you okay? You looked pale. Do you need something to drink? I mean the boy is supposed to get the girl drinks on a dare but this isn't a real date," Caroline began to ramble, her cheeks turning pink.

"Drinks. Yes, I will get us drinks. Be back soon," I said quickly before hurrying away. 'Where in the hell were the drinks?' I thought, looking around for where they could place drinks. There were children everywhere.

I was about to ask someone where they would put the drinks when a child ran into me. "Stefan?" I said, staring down at Stefan who looked unhappily up at me. "What's wrong? Did Damon tell you to bury yourself behind the school because you don't have to."

"Bekah is dancing with your roommate and she said she likes him better than me," Stefan said, staring at Bekah and Marcel miserably, wiping at his eyes.

Staring down at Stefan I had no idea what to say. "Marcel is far too old for Bekah and you're with her all the time that he is not. You should take advantage of that time that you're with her," I advised the boy. "And flirt with other girls. Bekah hates it when people ignore her so she will be chasing you in no time."

"Really?" Stefan asked, his eyes wide and hopeful as I nodded. "I saw a pretty little girl on the other side of the room."

"Then go get her," Klaus told Stefan who ran off to find the other girl as I glared at Marcel and Bekah. I would have to kill my friend in his sleep."

"Nik, what the hell are you doing?" Damon inquired as he came to stand beside me. Elena was standing beside him her hand clutching his tightly. They had drinks in their free hands. "You should be dancing with your girl before one of these losers gets ahold of her first," Damon told me.

"Where is the drinks table?" I asked.

"Over there," Damon said, holding his hand out and pointing. Elena rolled her eyes before sipping her drink.

"Lena, Nik and I are going to go get his drink," Damon told Elena who folded her arms and glared at him.

"You said you would dance with me," Elena hissed.

"I will," Damon promised.

"Whatever. I will go dance with someone else," Elena snapped, striding away.

"Lena," Damon shouted after her as she waved good-bye.

"Women," Damon groaned as we headed toward the drinks table.

I raised my eyebrows. "What is going on with you two?"

"It's your fault. This non-date date thing. Caroline told Elena about it and the next thing I know Elena is asking me why I didn't ask her to do that. So, then I'm all ummm uh. Huh? And then I'm down here and she's holding my hand and dragging me around and forcing me to get her drinks and trying to make me dance with her. She caught me looking at another girl and she stepped on her foot. Hard. I mean really, really hard. I'm ten. Is she crazy? I'm not going get too tied down to some chick for the rest of my days. I'm going to play the field. Ya know?" Damon was nodding as he spoke and I poured out drinks for myself and Caroline. Then his eye narrowed and he snarled.

"What's going on?" I asked, turning to see what Damon was looking at. Elena was dancing with Thierry.

"I'm going to kill him," Damon snarled. "Does he not know that that is my girl? How dare he dance with her? He is so out of our group. And I'm going to kick his ass. No one touches my Elena."

"But you just said you wanted to play the field," I protested.

"Yeah, but that's different. Did his arm just move lower? Oh, I'm going to break his legs. Then I'm going to throw him off the roof," Damon said, beginning to cross the room.

"Hey, Damon," Marcel called cheerfully as he came to stand in front of Damon. "What's going on?"

"Move, Marcel," Damon demanded, standing on his tip toes he tried to look over Marcel's shoulder to figure out what Elena and Diego were up to.

"Damon, dance with me, please?" Rebekah demanded with a large grin as she stared up at Damon.

Damon directed his gaze down at my little sister who was smiling up at him. "Sure. Why not?" Taking her hand, he moved as close as he could get to Elena and Diego.

"What is that about?" Marcel asked me and I simply glared at him.

"What is going on with you and my sister? She is a baby, Marcel," I snapped.

"I know that, Nik," Marcel replied. "What is going on with you?"

"Nothing," I said with a roll of my eyes. Refocusing my gaze across the room my eyes widened when I noticed that Caroline was dancing with Diego. What was with my mates? Had they all chosen to chase after the girls that Damon and I were with? I don't know what we were but that was just not right. "What is Diego thinking?" I snarled under my breath but not quietly enough it appeared.

"Klaus, buddy, it's a party. People mix and they mingle. Or so I've been told. Loosen up. Go find a pretty young thing and go out there and stop freaking out, man. You're beginning to freak me out," Marcel told me, placing his hand on my shoulder. "Isn't there one other girl here that you would like to dance with?"

Looking around the room at the other girls who had come to visit my fellow students I found that there was no other girl that I wanted to dance with. There was no other girl that I wanted to hold hands with. There was no other girl that I wanted to talk to. Caroline was the girl that I wanted to visit me. She was the one girl that I wanted to spend my time with. No, there was no one else who could take her place. Of that I was absolutely certain.

Sucking in a breath, I marched across the room and I tapped Diego on the shoulder. "Excuse me, Diego. Do you mind if I cut in?" I did not look at the other boy. All I could see was Caroline. She was beaming at me as she pulled away from Diego.

"Sure not a problem," Diego said, taking a step back and disappearing into the crowd.

Holding out my hand, I waited for Caroline to take my hand. She placed her palm flat upon my own and I curled my arm around her back. We began to sway slowly to the beat. "It took you long enough," Caroline whispered into my ear and I grinned as I pushed her curls off her shoulder and placed my chin there.

"Too long, love," I whispered back. "I promise you that I will never take that long to dance with you again."

"You had better not because my mother says this thing about there being a lot of fish in a sea and I think it's supposed to mean something about boys," Caroline said trailing off with a grin.

Narrowing my eyes, I pulled back and stared down at Caroline. "Oh, and does that mean that you want to dance with the other boys?"

"No," Caroline told me with a giggle. "You're my boy. Am I your girl?"

"Yes, you will always be my girl," I said solemnly, leaning over I pressed my lips to her cheek and felt her flesh warm beneath my own.

"Damon, you are such a jerk," Elena shouted, interrupting my and Caroline's momentary happiness. Craning my neck I saw that Damon had rolled his shirt sleeves and was waving his hands with a wide grin. Thierry was laying on the floor with a circle of our fellow students gawking at the two.

"Get up," Damon called to Thierry. "Get up and fight," he taunted Thierry who got to his feet and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.

"You're nuts," Thierry spat before moving to leave the crowd.

"Yeah, run away. Just keep your hands off my girl," Damon shouted after Thierry.

"What is wrong with you?" Elena shouted at Damon who looked confused.

"You were dancing with some other boy, Lena, and he practically had his hand on your butt," Damon shouted at Elena who rolled her eyes.

"No, he did not," Elena shouted back, her face turning red and tears started to roll down her cheeks. "If you had just danced with me like I asked you to then you wouldn't have to act like a jerk in front of all these other kids."

"Lena," Damon called as Elena began to walk away.

"Leave me alone, Damon," Elena shouted back,

Caroline frowned looking up at me. "I should go after her," she told me.

"I should go talk to Damon," I replied. We held on to each other for a moment longer before we parted.

Walking over to Damon, I looked at him as he ran a hand through his hair. "What's going on, Damon?"

"There is nothing going on with me, Nik. It's Lena. She's crazy. Girls are all crazy. One minute they act like they want us to be with them and then the next thing they want us to leave them alone. We don't need them. Just get some other girls that aren't crazy," Damon told me as he trudged out of the room.

"Uh huh," I replied as Marcel came to walk with us.

"Dude what was with punching Thierry?" Marcel inquired.

Damon shook his head. "It was a mistake. I'll make it up to him tomorrow."

"Right," Marcel said with a roll of his eyes.

We went upstairs to find that Enzo, Kol and Elijah were all fast asleep. "So, where am I supposed to sleep?" Marcel asked, looking at my brothers who were on top of his bed.

"You can sleep in my bed," Damon told him as he walked over and plopped on top of mine.

"Where am I going to sleep, pray tell?" I snapped at Damon who grinned at me.

"Don't worry, Nik. I won't hog the covers," Damon replied with his usual snark and I rolled my eyes before walking over to the bed and laying down. I was simply too tired to argue with him. "Good night, Damon," I whispered.

"Night, Nik," Damon said, rolling onto his side with his back facing me. As tired as I was I could only stare at the ceiling and think about dancing with Caroline. It was silly to think this way at my age but I could not help it. She was unlike any girl that I had ever known or any woman that I would know.

The next morning the birds were chirping. Damon's arm was wrapped around me and he was drooling. When I opened my eyes I found that Marcel, Enzo, Elijah, Kol, Bekah, Stefan, Elena and Caroline were staring down at us. "Ah, Elena. Look at what you drove him to? He's trying to cuddle with my Nik," Caroline told Elena with a laugh that was just loud enough to cause Damon's left eyelid to pop open.

"Shit," Damon muttered when he realized what he was doing. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand he proceed to wipe the excess drool on my shirt.

"Ugh, Damon," I groaned. "That is disgusting."

Rolling his eyes, Damon got to his feet. "Sorry, Nik, but you already had some so it's not that big a difference."

Groaning, I got out of the bed. 'How could this day get worse?' I wondered and then I remembered that Caroline and my family were leaving today. "I have pictures to bring home in case no believes that they were really sleeping together." Stefan announced, holding up a camera that Damon reached for. Stefan threw the camera to Caroline who threw it to Elijah who held it far above Damon's head, who was glowering up at him.

"Okay, everyone, we're going downstairs now," Elijah said, waving for everyone to follow him.

"I'm going to change first," I announced as the others trailed out the door. Pulling out a t-shirt that belonged to Damon I jerked it on before heading down the stairs. By the time I got down there was only one person standing in front of the building. "Caroline? Where is everyone?" I asked her.

"They went ahead. I just wanted to say good-bye with just the two of us," Caroline told me.

"Oh," I said, my eyebrows rising. Holding out her hand, Caroline smiled at me when I took it. She placed her hand on my shoulder and took the hint. Sliding my arm around her waist, I began to sway as Caroline sang quietly in my ear. "Someday over the rainbow," Caroline sang and I smiled remembering the first time that we saw the Wizard of Oz together. She had gone to sleep on my shoulder singing that song into my ear.

"I will never need a pair of ruby shoes to take me home. All that I will ever need is you, Caroline," I whispered to the girl that was the love of my life.

"I think that ruby shoes are highly overrated," Caroline replied with a nod and a happy grin as we swayed to the tune that only we could hear.

I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and instead of posting the chapter with Hayley's alternate history I realized that I have to write another one in between. Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing chapter 37: Klarolinelover123, xXAncientBaneXx, elijahlover, ScarletRose, ferrylis, redbudrose, lavyana and iheartfillinblank. I also want to thank everyone who asked me to update this story.

Klarolinelover123: I understand how you feel. However, like many of the ships that most of us as viewers of the series you will just have to trust that there is a reason that Elijah and Hayley became involved. It's not a romance in this story although I have to admit that I converted to shipping Haylijah and I know that has not made too many of my TVD readers happy but I would rather be honest than to lie about what I think. So, please bear with me and remember that in the future that Katherine and Elijah are married but if I tell you more I'll ruin the story.

xXAncientBaneXx: Yes, he did. But he'll bounce and be a pain in the ass once again in no time.

Elijahlover: I look forward to figuring out what Enzo's back story is in this tale.

ScarletRose: Hey,

First off I want to say thank you very much. I love to hear what readers think and I hope that you're still there. I know that's been forever for me to answer your review but I wanted to wait until I felt well enough to write a proper response.

I think that you are right and that Klaus wanted Mikael to love and respect him. Therefore that was a very important part of this story to write for me. I had to think about what Mikael could be like as a father in the twentieth/twenty-first century. Since Klaus was born a thousand years ago and Mikael's style of parenting involved trying to toughen his children up to make them more able to protect themselves I saw an opportunity to update him into a modern parent who would not have to scare his children half to death to keep them alive. And so the Mikael of this fic was born. Of course, that does not mean that as the story develops that he will not make a lot of mistakes and show a very human version of the character who makes mistakes in how he treats his children. I think that in spite of all the horrible things that Mikael has done on the two shows to Klaus that there was part of him that was horribly wounded by finding that Klaus was not his own.

I know that I probably did seem defensive of Hayley and there are probably readers that were thinking that I had started thinking like Plec. So, here's my best explanation for what was happening with Elijah, Kat and Hayley. Sometimes people break up but they care so much and are so used to each other that they just keep going even though they had the talk, the fight the make up whatever and things should have been done. But sometimes break-ups are not just you split up and you're done and that's it. Elijah and Kat are one of these examples. It was just hard for them to finally just say "Okay, we split up and that is that. Or at least for the time being." That of course made it even more confusing for everyone when Elijah and Hayley hooked up. Why that happened will be in chapter 39. I can't say more because then I will reveal too much. Let's just say that what happened between Elijah and Hayley was a moment of comfort for both of them because of some things that they had only been able to tell each other and Klaus did not know about.

I will have to admit that TO caused me to become a Haylijah fan. And if I was unwilling to convert then I would still be team Forwood and I would probably never had written a fanfic story.

I would also like to say that one day I would love to write my own TV show which of course would either be a comedy or heavily laden with comedic elements. If that never happens then I will settle for becoming a writer of drama/comedies and romantic/comedies because life is rough enough without a little humor to lighten up our lives.

Ferrylis: I love that moment, too.

Lavanya: Thank you.

Peace,

Jessica