"Klaus." His name fell from my lips as a whisper. My skin tingled as memories flooded my mind of the last time we had seen each other. His body going up in flames and the audible sound of my heat breaking. I had been battling feelings for the Hybrid since our chance meeting a few days before he had attempted to use Elena in his ritual to break the curse his evil mother put on him.

*Flashback*

I slumped over at the bar, my hand encircling a glass of whiskey. It was my 22nd birthday, my first without my parents. I had already smoked a lot of weed in my car, trying to numb the ache swelling in my heart. The smell of the weed stuck to my clothes and I knew Matt could smell it on me.

"Care...maybe you should go home and sleep whatever funk your having off." I stiffened in my seat and glared at him.

"Matt, maybe you should shut the fuck up." His eyes widened.

"Care, what's wrong with you?" I scoffed and threw my whiskey back, shivering as the fire surged up my throat. I had been a vampire for six months, and even if I would always be stuck at the age twenty one, it still felt like my birthday. This big, bad,evil Klaus was coming to town to use Elena in some freak ritual. It kept me up at nights and most of the time I stayed in her room and watched as she slept. I had dropped out of college when our parents passed away and came to take care of them. Then Jenna came to help us and encouraged me to go back, which I had, but I didn't find it interesting anymore. I just compelled the teachers to give me a passing grade. I mean, its whatever and I know Stefan judges me and whatever, but I don not frankly give a shit. I feel it more and more, every day: the urge to shut it all off.

As a human, I had suffered depression. When I was eighteen, a close friend of mine had passed away from cancer and it just fucked me up. He was my best friend, the Bonnie to my Elena. The Matt to my Elena. Yeah, we had been dating, and had been planning on spending the rest of our life together. No matter what, but pancreatic cancer is a sneaky bastard. Adam only lived for seven months after he was diagnosed, and I had never gotten over it. I, as a person, had always cared too much, loved too deeply, got too attached, and as a vampire it was heightened. It was a pain in the ass. "

Just go away Matt, and leave the bottle." I compelled him. He left the bottle and went about his work boy duties. I took a swig and smacked my lips. It was a lot harder to get messed up as a vampire, but I was sure as hell going to try.

"Mind if I join you, love?" I looked to my side to see some gorgeous piece of eye candy to sit in the stool next to mine. I slid the bottle over and nodded.

"Help yourself, dude." He chuckled and lifted the bottle to his beautifully sculpted lips. His eyes closed in appreciation as he set the bottle back down at the bar.

"What's a pretty lady like you doing in a place like this?" He asked, his arm resting on the back of my seat. I took a drink from the bottle, tasting the remnants of him.

"Getting wasted my friend, and you are welcome to join me." He smirked and we took turns swigging from the bottle and making passes at the other. He told me how we was in town for a personal matter and I told him I was a college student trying to suppress my killer instincts. He looked a little shocked and then we started to talk about the pros and cons of being a vampire.

"It's not that bad, love. You're young forever, beautiful forever." The bottle was gone now and I was as messed up as they come. I had pulled my long hair into a messy ponytail and I knew my eyes were glassy as hell, a mixture of stoner and alcoholic.

"Yeah, exactly, you're frozen. Never changing. I never really wanted kids, but I wanted to grow old, you know. I wanted to work thirty years at a job I loved, change and grow, maybe travel the world with my husband and watch my nieces and nephews grow up. I'm not really the maternal one, but my sister is going to be one hell of a mom one day." I swelled with sad pride at the end.

"You can still travel. You can travel with me." His hand lifted up and gently pulled the hair tie from my hair. The brown curls cascaded down my back and my eyes rolled to the back of my head at the sensation as he tugged on the ends slightly. His lips touched mine lightly then moved to my ear.

"How about we take this back to my hotel room?" I nodded and we left the Grill, hands entwined.

Let's just say I was surprised to see him draining the life out of my sister, and any feelings that had been stirring in my undead heart instantly died. As Elena fell to the ground lifeless, my emotions turned off. All summer they were off, and I was able to function like a normal person. I didn't go on killing sprees and I didn't drain every human that I came across. I was just blunt, rude and a big bitch, even after I learned that Elena was going to live. Klaus was actually the one to help me turn on my emotions, when he died. When Alaric had stabbed him in the chest, and his body went up in flames, they came back full force. I had immediately left town, not being able to look anybody in the eye, ashamed of my feelings for Klaus. They for sure had known that my hook ups with Klaus were much more than physical, and that he meant much more than a fling. I didn't tell them where I was going, but when they had called me to tell me Katherine was finally dying, I came back.

"Carrie." My name rolled off his lips as a sigh. I was frozen to my spot, eyes roaming over his figure. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he kept rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. With vampire speed, I had him backed up against the wall, my body flush against his and his mouth hot on mine. His hands were in my hair and mine wrapped around his shoulders, pressing myself into him.

"You're alive." I whispered as his lips traveled down my neck. I sighed in pleasure and he growled in appreciation. My eyes grew hot and tears rolled down my cheeks.

"It would take a lot more than death to keep me away from you, love." He whispered as he cupped my cheeks, kissing away the tears the fell down from my eyes.

"I watched you die." I replied, voice shaky as I relived that moment. I shut my eyes tight and he kissed my eyelids. He had never been so gentle with me, not even when he told me he cared about me. Not love, caring.

"You're Bennett witch helped, and you were so overcome with grief that you didn't even stick around to find out I didn't really die."

I heard the smile in his voice, and I was pleasantly surprised when I opened my eyes to see his shining with tears of his own.

"I don't know what I feel for you, Carrie Gilbert, but I know that it scares the hell out of me, and anything that can do that is worth exploring." His mouth descended on mine and kissed me so sweetly that I almost turned to Jell-O.

"Klaus, I love you. You don't have to say it, but I do. I love you." He pulled away from me, and it was my turn to kiss away the tears from his cheeks. "I..." I kissed him hard. "I know." With a smile and a few more passionate moments, we started our forever.