Post Season 4 TVD. Spin Off AU. I own nothing.

I'm in the corner, watching you kiss her, oh

I'm right over here, Why can't you see me?

Oh I'm giving it my all, but I'm not the girl you're taking home, ooh

I keep dancing on my own

Caroline had no idea what she was really doing at this overcrowded club in the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans. No, that was a lie, she knew exactly why she had finally come. She was told this was where she could find him. After the defeat of Silas, at the cost of so many lives Caroline still couldn't flee from Mystic Falls when all was said and done. When the time came to make her choice on whether or not to stay, she chose the option that scared her less than a Klaus filled future. And now she paid the price as she spotted him among the many more private booths.

In all the scenarios of their reunion, the one before her was not on the list. He was here, and was with another blonde and they were kissing. Caroline felt her heart plummet at the sight only a few yards away from her. She knew it was naïve to think he would still be waiting for her after they said goodbye less than a year ago. She had been holding out on that hope though, but the proof of his new affection was killing her.

She stood almost frozen in place, despite the merriment going on around her on the dance floor. Whether or not to confront him was now been the question plaguing her. Tearing her eyes away from them, she moved out of their view and back to the other side of the bar where a stage of burlesque dancers were performing for the crowd. After ordering a line of ten tequila shots from the bar, she felt better and worse at the same time. After she knocked back the final one, she felt a hand on her shoulder and instantly froze. She turned slowly and saw Stefan looking at her with a knowing expression written on his face.

Klaus was slowly losing his patience as the incredibly annoying blonde named Camille sitting next to him rattled off more questions for her psychology assignment. Why Klaus had agreed to this favor for Elijah he had no idea, but he was getting bored quickly and he was hankering to rip out the girl's tongue. He leaned in closer, as if to hear her better, only for appearances sake as he was able to make out every word she said over the din of voice in the club. Why she wanted to meet here of all places befuddled him, but he assumed she had the though of mixing business with pleasure was on her mind. Her blond hair was curly as it draped slightly past her shoulder and it tortuously reminded him of another blonde, nearly a thousand miles away from him. Leaving her behind was a daily torment that he had endured since moving back to the Deep South less than a year ago. But perhaps it was for the best, she wasn't ready to leave and he couldn't stay any longer. He was hit with a sudden burst of scent from across the room. It was lilac and sunshine, the scent that he had come to associate with Caroline. He turned his head and swore he saw a blonde mass of blonde curls mane whip out of sight. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking fueled by too many dreams of seeing her again. He took another long gulp of his ice-cold scotch; it was going to be a hell of a long night.

Caroline sighed miserably when Stefan moved to stand next to her. "I found him with someone else. I don't want to talk about it," she said as she pushed past him and made her way to the stage of dancers with a new determination. Pulling the stage manager aside she compelled him quietly and noticed that Stefan was now eyeing her with a worried look. As the new song started up she moved towards the stairs leading to the stage, she was going to dance.

As she sashayed across the small stage she took her place among the other dancers, easily falling into their routine with the music. While Caroline had never done this type of dance before, she had seen Blair Waldorf do it on Gossip Girl once. If she could do it to escape, so could Caroline. Feeling empowered she swayed her hips seductively, tossing her locks back and forth to the loud hypnotic beat pouring out of the speakers. The people around her noticed her out of place presence among the red corseted club dancers and soon she was gathering a crowd of male admirers from the dance floor that had noticed her impromptu performance. She tried her best to pay them no mind, and just kept dancing trying to hold back her feelings for the man who was less than fifty feet away from her, her presence still unknown to him.

Feeling even more brazen and daring as the crowd grew, she turned around slowly on stage and grabbed the side zipper on her new red silk dress. Turning her head over shoulder, she winked seductively to the crowd as she slowly and teasingly pulled it down in a halting motion, before it fell in a puddle at her feet leaving her dressed in only her short champagne colored slip. She kicked it off her feet and moved it off to the side without a care.

"CAROLINE!" Stefan's voice rang out from the group.

The crowd roared with pleasure at her strip and Caroline saw Stefan angered face in the throng, but she blocked him out. She just continued to shake; shimmy, and sway to the beat, trying to push down all the ugly feelings inside of her. She was done trying to be good, sweet, and innocent Caroline Forbes.

Klaus's hearing picked up on the excited chatter from across the room as he answered what he hoped was his last question to the blonde next to him. "CAROLINE!" Klaus heard a very familiar voice from the Rippah yell across the club and this time he knew he wasn't hallucinating. He bolted from his seat, ignoring the angered protest of Camille and pushed through the mass of humans on the dance floor, to get to the dance stage on the other side of the club. She was here and she had finally come for him. When he made it to the other side, he saw what is was that made the crowd roar with pleasure. The sight of his blonde angel on stage, wearing an almost see through outfit angered him and hit him with such a wave of lust he was frozen in place. She hadn't noticed him as she kept on dancing with her back to the stage, shaking her hips in the sultriest manner.

Klaus felt his blood boil as the men around him hooted and hollered at her body. He saw Stefan in the crowd, anger painting his features, but Klaus made no move to approach him. He looked back up to the stage and saw that Caroline had finally spotted him. She didn't freeze at his presence, but kept on moving effectively ignoring him completely. Klaus felt his un-beating heart sink into his stomach.

Caroline saw Klaus now standing with the horde of people in front on the stage and while she internally froze for a second as they locked eyes, she forced herself to break their contact and looked elsewhere around the room, trying to keep her gaze away from him. She didn't spot him with his new blonde girlfriend, and while she was pleased that he must have left her for the moment, she still wanted more attention. And her next move would do just that. Caroline lowered her swaying hands from above her head as she kept in time with the music, and moved them to the small buttons that went down the front of her slip. Slowly, but with agility, she began to unbutton them to expose her lace bra to the crowd.

She hadn't gotten three open before she felt a strong grip, grab her hands and effectively stopping her from going any further. She glared at Klaus as he swooped her up in his arms and carried her off the stage, and behind the curtain to the back exit of the building. Caroline wrestled against his grip, fighting and thrashing against him to put her down. He ignored her and promptly set her down when he got them outside the building into the balmy July air. She instantly made a move to leave, but he pinned her against the side of the building, his arms on each side of her body, effectively trapping her.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing Caroline?" He growled angrily, thoughts of her dancing for all those men flashing through his mind in a kaleidoscope of images.

"Having a good time," she said bitingly, her eyes burning into his defiantly. "I'd like to go back for an encore, if you don't mind," she said trying to push past his arms to leave, but it was a wasted effort, like trying to break through titanium.

"No," he snarled at her. He had no idea why she was acting like this, so cold hearted and vicious towards him. He thought they had parted on somewhat good terms.

"Yes," she retorted, "You better get back to your girlfriend or she'll think you've abandoned her," she said nastily, a frown marring her features before she masked herself into a look of cool indifference. Now everything made sense to him.

"She's not my girlfriend, or a friend, or anything to me," he said much more calmly now. She scoffed loudly and rolled her eyes. It felt like all the times she had rejected his compliments so many months ago and hurt just as much.

"I saw you kissing her!" Caroline shrieked.

Klaus froze, confused. There had been no contact like that tonight, or ever when he had met with this girl. The closest he ever got to her was to lean in to allow her to hear him better. But from a different point of view from the wrong angle it could have looked like something completely different.

"No! I never kissed her, Caroline. I leaned in to talk to her, but I could never kiss her. Not ever," he said earnestly, wanting to hit his head against the brick wall for this mishap. This was all a giant misunderstanding. "I swear on my brother's grave, you saw nothing of the sort, love."

She looked at him in shock and fear as if she was fighting with herself to believe his words.

"I could never kiss anyone else who wasn't you," he confessed, moving his one hand off the wall to cup her cheek, his thumb slowly caressing her skin. "You are the one, Caroline."

Caroline eyes teared up as she saw the honesty in his voice and in his expressions. She believed him, even if her heart was still trying to catch up.

"I thought," she began, emotion tinting her voice. "I know," he replied. Despite the heat in the air, she shivered against him. He noticed immediately and shrugged out of his suit jacket before wrapping it around her scantily clad figure.

"You finally came," he said after a long pause. He tried not to get his hopes up that she was here for good and that she had actually chosen him, but in his blackened heart he wished it were so.

"You said maybe in a year or even in a century," she started, a shy smile playing across her lips as she moved slightly closer to him.

"It's only been eight months," he said automatically. He felt a rush of embarrassment that he had been counting their time apart from one another.

"And thirteen days, but who's really counting," she countered, before grabbing his shirt and pulling him into her, branding him with a passionate kiss. A feeling spread within Caroline that was like was like fireworks, Christmas, and New Years all wrapped into one. They madly held onto one another, and finally allowed themselves the pleasure of giving in after so long a separation and so much thick sexual tension.

It was perhaps minutes or hours before they were interrupted by a fake cough from nearby. They pulled apart, consciously before noticing Stefan standing by the exit door holding Caroline's discarded dress.

"Thought you might want this back," he said to Caroline, before stuffing the material in her hands awkwardly and then quickly moving out of sight from the pair.

Caroline looked down as she felt that material slide between her hands. She suddenly felt a little mortified by her little "show", but at the same time, it was what brought them together. She looked back up at Klaus who was gazing at her with intense reverence and almost disbelief.

"So, you hungry for dinner?" She said, trying to break their little moment of silence.

Smiling, Klaus nodded, "I know a place," he said smugly. She handed him his jacket before slipping on her dress as quickly as possible. When she was set, she took his extended hand and together they disappeared into the crowd within the French Quarter, both ready for the start of a new era.

So I stole a little from Gossip Girl, ;). The song Caroline dances to is Stripper by Soho Dolls. Listen to it! Review my lovelies! xoxo