Wow! Over 100 reviews! Thanks so much for your time and patience! Between finals, moving back home for winter break, and readjusting to being back home it's been a hell of a week and a half. But I rocked my finals, and brought up my GPA to a better level! Unfortunately I wont have a job the entire month I'm home, but I will have lots of time to write. Without further ado…

Your heart's against my chest

Lips pressed to my neck

I've fallen for your eyes

But they don't know me yet

And the feeling I forget

I'm in love now

Caroline was clicking away noisily on her Mac laptop in Klaus's spacious art studio, completely obliviously to him as he called her name for the third time in a row from the open doorway. When he finally had to raise his voice loud enough to get her attention, she blushed brightly, mumbled something under her breath, and then finally glanced back at him across the drawing room.

"Yes?" She asked in somewhat exasperation, it was becoming an unfortunate trend in her feelings these past few months, more so since she had been living in the Original mansion. However, she was being interrupted while in the middle of an important, yet completely futile task and his presence was at the moment intrusive.

"What are you doing all alone in here, love?" His eyes were burning into hers, trying to see what she was hiding in her bright cerulean eyes.

"Nothing much, just checking my email," she said with a clipped voice, trying to avoid looking him directly in the eyes knowing he would see her dishonesty. But when she looked back up, he gave her a pointed look that clearly showed his disbelief at her answer. She rolled her eyes at him and went back to her project, effectively ignoring him. He growled lowly in annoyance at her and stomped out of the room like a petulant child, complete with a scowl across his full lips.

She glued her eyes back to the screen, the images before were taunting her but she couldn't help herself and continued to scroll through page after page, each bombarding her with the one thing she wanted, but dared not to ask for. She kept at it for a few more hours before powering down her Mac with a sigh. This doubtful desire was eating her up inside, nearly rotting her.

Dinner was a quiet affair as it was just she, Rebekah and Klaus left in the house tonight with Elijah away on a business trip in Italy and Kol terrorizing Prague. Klaus contributed nothing to the conversation that she and Rebekah were having over the latest designs of out Milan and their plans for another trip there in the spring. He continued to say nothing as he angrily stabbed his pasta with vigor and kept his eyes on his plate rather than the two blondes. Caroline rolled her eyes again, an action that was becoming such a habit. However, she wasn't going to encourage his anti-social behavior, so she chatted louder the latest gossip in the never ending "Elena saga" to Rebekah. To his credit, he lasted almost fifteen minutes before he picked up his plate and marched out of the dining room, but not before slamming the door.

As Caroline and Rebekah finished dinner and bid a goodnight to each other, they both were clearly unwilling to discuss the petulant behavior of the third blonde in the house. Caroline took it upon herself to clean up, a ritual she had always hated when she was a human, but found it to be relaxing in a weird way as a vampire. In truth she was also in no hurry to go back to their bedroom where he was most likely waiting to interrogate her about her behavior these past few weeks. She didn't know how to tell him what was wrong without driving him away or making a fool of her for desiring something he probably would never want. It was a doubled edged sword and soon she found herself elbow deep in soap bubbles, silently crying over something she would never have.

Still lacking courage, she moved into the library, a bottle of aged red wine accompanying her and settled into the couch with her favorite Jane Austen novel, Persuasion. The hours chimed by as she continued to add logs to the fire and refill her wine goblet as she tore through the book. She didn't have the guts to leave the safety of the library. Soon her eyes grew tired and the heat from the fireplace along with the wine lulled her into a dreamless sleep.

She awoke the next morning in their room, completely aware of how she must have gotten there. The spot next to her was cold and she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. He was always there when she woke for the nearly the last five years, even if they were fighting. If he was not in the bed he was sitting in the armchair, teasing her about her bed head or just simply drawing her as she drifted out of a sleep haze. She could feels the tears start to gather along her lashes, and she hastily wiped them away as she head footsteps approach the room. Without knocking, Rebekah strode into the room and gracefully landed in the spot on the bed next to her.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on or am I going to have to drag it out of you?"

Caroline opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off, "He's not in the house, so you can tell me."

"Where is he?" She looked down at the blonde who was admiring her fresh manicured nails and Caroline felt that sinking feeling again in the pit of her stomach. Did he really leave her?

"What's wrong, Caroline?" She implored, now looking at her straight in the eyes. Her faithfulness to her brother was admirable at times, but now it was cornering her into admitting her fear.

"It's stupid." She huffed, trying to play it off as something trifling.

"Obviously not, if it's upset him enough to make him call Elijah early this morning."

Caroline frowned; she didn't realize that things had gotten that strained between them that he needed to talk to his older brother for advice.

"Will you swear not to tell him?" The other blonde nodded, her expression grave and her eyes wary.

"I want to get married." She muttered, humiliated at admitting such a human desire.

"That's it?" Rebekah seemed confused.

"We've been together for almost five years and I know its stupid because we're going to live forever. It's just that I want something more concrete to define us, and I don't think he feels the same way."

Rebekah groaned, as if in pain as she flopped back into the numerous pillows.

"You two are completely thick." She said with exasperation. Caroline glared at her darkly.

"I knew I shouldn't have told you," she growled with annoyance.

"He loves you so much, you twit. He was griping to Elijah that he thought you were falling out of love with him."

"How can he think that?"

"How can you think that he doesn't want to be with you forever?"

Caroline shrugged. Her old insecurities still lingered in her heart and cropped up at the worst of times.

"Oh Caro, trust me he wants to marry you. Perhaps he's just waiting for the right time."

She threw Rebekah an incredulous and skeptic look, but shook her mane of blonde curls and moved off the bed and sauntered into their bathroom. She needed space to think and the shower was the magical place where everything always seemed clearer.

The following weeks after their talk, Caroline and Rebekah became closer going shopping together more often and having movie nights. Caroline soon buried her secret wish and soon forgot about it. She and Klaus hadn't talked about their spat, but moved on as if it had never happened and neither brought up the previous weirdness between them.

When the day of their five-year anniversary finally arrived, Caroline was expecting something spectacular from Klaus all day. She had secret plans for today, but when Klaus hadn't mentioned anything to her at neither breakfast nor lunch, she realized he must have either forgotten or didn't really want to celebrate from some reason. She didn't know what hurt more.

She sequestered herself in the library after lunch; picking up her abandoned copy of Pride and Prejudice and settled into her favorite sofa and got lost in a world of misunderstandings and unrequited love, the themes unfortunately that were coloring her relationship. It was nearly seven, when Klaus finally wandered into the room, obviously looking for her. Keeping her eyes focused on the pages, she ignored him for as long as she could until he stole the book from her hands.

"Hey!" She hissed.

"I love this part," he said eyes scanning the page she was on. He grabbed the bookmark off of the table next to the couch and marked the spot in the book. As he placed the book down, he gave Caroline a soft smile.

"Come." He had a small smile and while it intrigued her, the larger part of her was angry with him for being an absentee boyfriend for most of the day. He gave her his pleading, puppy eyes and as soon as she looked at his baby blues, she was screwed. She got off of the couch in a huff ignoring his proffered hand.

"Fine. Where are we going?" She asked as he guided her through the hallway.

"It's a secret," he whispered conspiratorially into her ear causing an involuntary shiver. He grabbed her hand and pulled through the back of the house and to the spacious garage containing Nic's modern and antique car collection. Once they were seated inside his large SUV he pulled something out of his pocket. It was a black blindfold. She gave him a questioning look, complete with a raised eyebrow.

"Indulge me, sweetheart."

She took the blindfold out of his hands and wrapped it around her eyes, effectively blinding her. They drove in near silence for almost an hour; the only constant source of noise was the smooth jazz flowing through the car's speaker system.

"Are we there yet?" She whined loudly. She smiled at his mischievous chuckle as he answered, "Nearly there."

About five minutes later she felt the car slow to a stop. She moved her hand to take off the blindfold, but a hand caught her wrist lightly.

"Tsk. Tsk. I didn't say you could take that off yet." She sighed and allowed him to help her out of the seat.

"Lead the way Mr. Grey," she said throwing him a smirk.

She didn't have to see his face to know he had a baffled look on his face. He kept a hand on her waist as he pulled her off in an unknown direction. After almost five minutes of walking through what she could hear was the woods he stopped and pulled her to onto a soft surface. Now she was really confused.

She felt him move behind her on whatever they were sitting on and start to untie the blindfold.

"Open your eyes, Caroline."

She gasped. The sight before her was purely magical. Off in the near distance there were literally thousands of lightening bugs twinkling in synchronization. The soft surface they were sitting on was an outdoor canopy bed. She felt his arms wrap around her from behind, pulling her closer into his chest.

"Happy anniversary, sweetheart." She melted against him, and turned in his warm embrace. They watched the lights glimmer around them and reveled in their seclusion.

As the night grew darker, and slightly chiller, they moved closer to one another each seeking the other's warmth and comfort. She felt him place a feather light kiss on her temple and she reveled in their closeness after such a silly emotional estrangement.

"Thank you, Nic." He gave her a glowing smile and pulled her into a smoldering kiss. Together, they fell back onto the bed, and gave into each other, slowly and intimately.

As Caroline laid her head against his broad chest, she was purely contented in his gentle strokes of her hair.

"I do have one more present for you." She turned to face him and shot him a questioning look.

"I already have everything I want." He smiled softly and kissed her again, slowly.

"How about this?" He pulled a ring out of a small box in his hand and grasped her hand with his other.

"Marry me, sweetheart?" He murmured softly, slipping the radiantly shining ring onto her left hand.

"Always and Forever."

Merry Christmas Eve! Some fluffy Karoline to get us through these terrible weeks until episode 10! Read and review my lovelies, xoxo!