"What about Kol being an FBI or CIA agent and Caroline being a daughter of a powerful diplomat of some sort and her family has all been assisnated so Kol being the bad ass agent he is gets her as his assignment and so on?" –nadya12

Just something sweet. I write so much dark stories sometimes, I don't think it's healthy.

Kol exited the lift leading to his father's office, the top one of the building. His father was behind his desk reading over some documents and without looking up, said, "Ah, Kol. Finally. Come in. We have something to discuss."

Kol obeyed and took the seat across his father's desk, trying to gauge from his father's mannerisms what he could be there for this time. Last time, he was in his father's office was three months ago when he had to go undercover in Russia to uncover some drug ring and now after that mission was accomplished, Kol had been looking forward to having some recuperating time before he was sent back in the field. Then again, it wasn't up to him.

Mikael finally stopped reading the file he had in hand and handed another one to Kol. "This is your next mission."

Kol opened the dossier quickly and was presented with a picture of a blonde girl in her early twenties.

"That is Caroline Forbes, daughter to the world's diamond tycoon, William Forbes. Her entire family was assassinated last Friday by what we believe to be an assassin with the codename: Silas." As his father explained, he continued reading the file. "Your mission is to go under deep cover for six months."

He looked up from the file and asked. "Undercover as her bodyguard?"

"No, Kol, her husband." Mikael told him plainly. "Miss Forbes needs to be protected and she needs to stay hidden, out of sight."

Kol meets Caroline Forbes at his father's office an hour later. His father debriefed him on all sides of the mission, aliases, location, Forbes' food allergies when the blonde walked in looking like a nervous little bird. He expected some ditzy heiress in designer couture, not some girl who looked too young to even be twenty. It was disconcerting.

She was dress well but not obnoxiously so, dressed more plainly than he expected anyway. There were no diamonds glittering from head to toe, unexpected from a diamond heiress. She walked into the room on high-heeled boots and took his hand gingerly when introduced to him. She was sweet, all bright smiles and endearing babbling.

This could be better than he thought.

"So, can you cook?" She asked him.

He smiled. "A little bit."

"Good, because I can't."

He was one of the youngest in the bureau which meant he went undercover as a college kid a lot of the time. Considering Forbes was an actual college kid, it wasn't that hard to place them as a couple of newlyweds fresh out of college with a shitty apartment. Forbes tried her best not to look disgruntled but even a down-to-earth heiress was used to finer things in life.

He might've complained to once upon a time before he was so used to these things he became immune. And developed weird habits like the ability to ignore how cold the apartment was and the shaking of the pipes while Forbes lay beside him on the bed, mumbling curses underneath her breath. The third night involved them cuddling to survive the cold and buying earplugs to drown out the rattling. The fifth morning he grew used to waking up to her hair in his face.

"When are you going to fix the heating?" She mumbled as he buried his nose deeper into her neck. "We're going to die of frostbite here."

"The landlord despises me."

"You're the badass agent. Can't you intimidate him?"

"I'll blow my cover."

"I'll blow you if you get the heating fixed."

"Tempting, but no."

Forbes liked art galleries, something he discovered when one of their neighbors, a slightly older couple in their thirties, invite them to the wife's gallery opening. Forbes is ecstatic and spends an hour fiddling with her dyed red hair before forcing him into fancy clothes and dragging him to the gallery.

"My mother was an art connoisseur," She told him as they stare at one painting. "Our old home was filled with all sorts of artworks. I wonder what happened to them now."

The nostalgia and sadness in her voice is unmistakable so he wrapped his arm around her in a half hug as she sipped white wine.

"Everything's going to be okay." He kissed her temple. "I promise."

"Thank you." She squeezed his shoulder. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Kol kissed Caroline in public a few times, just for the sake of the illusion and she always told him that it was nothing but when he kissed her in their cramped kitchen one night, it didn't feel like nothing. She's kissing him back and he could taste the secrets in her mouth like a confession. He wondered if she could taste his.

They're undressing each other in the bedroom soon after, her hands impatient and his uncaring as he ripped the cheap blouse she's wearing right off her, buttons flying like something out of the trashy romance novels she tried to hide from him. She's giggling in his ear as he tasted the skin of her neck, leaving a nice hickey for her co-workers at the bookstore she worked at to see tomorrow. Her fingers are in his hair, tugging him to meet her sweet mouth and he's lost in her and he never wanted to leave.

"I think I might love you," He whispered to her after, the afterglow long gone.

"Don't think," Her hand was gentle as she traced the contours of his face. "Just feel."

"Do you love me?" He couldn't help but ask.

"I will soon."

His real birthday came along and he came home from his nine to five job to a dark apartment lit by candles. Caroline appeared from the kitchen with a home-made chocolate cake and singing happy birthday to him and he couldn't help but smile.

"Blow out your candles," Her smile was like home.

And he only had one wish.

Six months could go by without you noticing, not when you're wrapped up in a person, wound so tightly that you forget that reality did come back for its due and he's left at his father's office again, pretending he'd never known Caroline Forbes outside from a mission he had to complete.

His father was debriefing him, saying that Silas had been taken down by Stefan Salvatore a week ago and he was now free to return to his real life but all he wanted to do was go back to that wonderful, shitty apartment and be home again. But he couldn't have that so he left his father's office and got in the lift, trying to control his emotions so that nobody could know how he really felt, how homesick he suddenly felt.

The lift opened and he didn't look at who entered as his gaze on the floor where his stomach dropped earlier. The hand reaching for his surprised him and he's left gaping at Caroline smiling at him.

"What's for dinner?"

Her smile was like home.