#25DaysofKlaroline: Growing Up!Klaroline/College

Childhood Sweethearts

Caroline waved at Bonnie as her friend left to go reserve them a table while she found a place in line to acquire their food for the evening. Surveying her options, she felt her stomach grumble. She hummed and voiced her thoughts aloud. "Oh, I want that. Just kidding, that looks really good, too."

"I hope you don't actually find this food to your palate, love." An accented voice chuckled behind her.

She frowned, turning to the smirking boy. "We can't all be food connoisseurs. Especially not when we have very limited options." Staring into his blue eyes, there was something distinctly familiar about him.

"Well, I can certainly remedy that. There is an exceptional Italian restaurant across the street. Would you like to join me, Caroline?" he entreated.

Her eyes widened slightly. "How do you know my name?" She scanned his face once again, trying to search her mind for a clue. He was so painfully familiar but she couldn't quite place her finger on it. He certainly was handsome and his personality wasn't one that she would easily forget.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten." He placed a hand over his heart, pretending to be insulted.

With that sarcastic expression, it hit her like lightning. She gasped as she recognized the young boy gleaming in the young man's eyes. "Klaus Mikaelson."

"Caroline Forbes." He stared at her in awe like he still found it unfathomable that she was standing in front of him. "It's been a long time."

"Yeah," she breathed out. She could only blink as she stared at him, appreciating how well puberty had treated him. Though she had a feeling he had a similar reason for continuing to stare back at her.

"So about that Italian restaurant?" he asked impishly. "Would you do me that honor?"

She quickly snapped out of her daze. "Oh. Uh. Yeah. Can you just hold on a second? I have to go tell my friend that I'm leaving. She's just over there. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Take your time, sweetheart." He smiled.

She walked away as her cheeks turned hot. One minute with him and she already felt herself reverting back to the little girl he had known. She needed to get her head screwed back on.

"Bonnie Bennett!" Caroline scrambled to sit across from her friend and caught Bonnie off guard. She regarded the brunette with an angry and frantic stare.

"What's wrong? Are they not serving breakfast for dinner again?" Bonnie teased.

"You are a terrible friend," she said with exasperation. "How could you let me go stand in line alone?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "It couldn't have been that bad. Besides, someone had to save us a table."

"Bonnie, did you know that Klaus Mikaelson goes to school here?"

Bonnie's eyes widened. "Wait. The Klaus Mikaelson? The same one who was your epic first love in the second grade? The greatest love story that Mystic Fall Elementary school had ever seen?"

"Yeah!" Caroline exclaimed.

"But I thought he moved to London the summer after second grade."

"He did. But apparently he's back in the states."

"Isn't this good news, though?" Bonnie asked. "Didn't you say that you would never love again after him?"

"I was in third grade, Bonnie!"

"Alright." Bonnie held her hands up in surrender. "Do you still like him?"

"Oh, my God. That was like a million years ago."

Bonnie nodded understandingly. "So how does he look now?"

"So hot, actually," she admitted. "He actually asked me to have dinner with him tonight, too." She averted her eyes, attempting to sound innocent.

Bonnie looked at the blonde curiously. "I see. So you're ditching me to go have dinner with the ex that you are no longer romantically interested in?"

"We can be friends," she said defensively.

Bonnie grinned smugly. "Let me know how that turns out, Care.

After they had received their entrees, Caroline took a long sip of her iced water. She didn't know why she felt so jittery. It was just Klaus. He had seen her hair frizzy and her whole face drenched in sweat from when they were kids.

It was just dinner.

"How are you?" He asked, pinning her with those piercing blue eyes.

"Good." She smiled. "Kept busy during high school. You know, cheerleading, school dance committee, town pageants, academics. The usual."

He chuckled with mirth dancing in his eyes. "Some people never change."

"I hope not." She took another sip of water. "I'm not a fan of change." She paused, realizing she might have reopened an old wound. Clearing her throat, she replaced the memory with a wide grin. "What about you? I can only imagine the things you did in London."

A bittersweet smile graced his face, her earlier words clearly having an effect on him. "I learned quite a bit about art, music, and culture. My hobby for painting blossomed into a passion. My parents enrolled me into a school that had an excellent fine arts program. I learned to hone my skills there and I learned a lot about myself as well. I was very privileged enough to learn about everything that London had to offer."

"Wow," she uttered. "I'm really happy for you, Klaus. That sounds amazing."

"I would have taken you with me if I could have." His eyes were filled with honesty.

"I'm sure I would have gone with you if my mom had let me." She laughed, and he smiled back at her.

"You know, I still think about you sometimes, Caroline," he stated. "Even after all these years."

"Seriously?" She raised her eyebrows.

He nodded earnestly. "Do you remember what I said to you on your eighth birthday?"

Her heart skipped a beat. She remembered that day so vividly but she was surprised that he even remembered. Though, she supposed it wasn't something he went about doing every now and then.

Caroline giggled uncontrollably.

Klaus had been so secretive the entire day. She was bursting with excitement. If he didn't tell her what his surprise was, she was going to explode.

"Klaus, what's the surprise?" She asked with glee. "I can't wait any longer."

"Sorry, love." He squeezed her hand and smiled nervously. Reaching into his pocket, Klaus revealed a plastic ring with a yellow sun taking place of a stone. Caroline stifled her squeal and Klaus smiled sweetly at her. "Caroline, I know that they're going to say that we're too young but I love you. I'm going to marry you one day, I promise. If you want to marry me too, that is."

"Of course I'll marry you, Klaus!" Her tiny voice screeched as he placed the ring on her finger. After it was securely on her finger, she jumped into his arms, squeezing a bit too tight. When she let him go, she placed a chaste kiss on his mouth and both their cheeks went bright red. "I love you, Klaus."

"I love you, too, Caroline."

"How could I forget?" She blushed. "It was the first time anyone ever promised to marry me. Well, the only time anyone has ever promised to marry me, to be honest," she giggled.

"I did promise to marry you." He smiled with reverence. "I meant it then, Caroline. I still mean it."

Her smile suddenly dropped. "What?" She held her breath, waiting for him to start laughing but he never did. "Klaus, are you serious?"

"Does it look like I'm joking?" He asked, his face humorless.

"I'm sorry, you want to marry me?" She gaped. "Klaus, that's crazy. I mean, we haven't spoken in how many years now?"

"I know how it sounds but, Caroline, listen," he implored. "I promised to marry you when we were just children and I haven't been able to forget you since then. And out of all the places we could have ended up, yet here we are, together again. I don't think it was a coincidence. I believe that I was meant to find you again."

"Klaus," she stared at him with exasperation. "Just because we ran into each other doesn't mean we should get married. I mean, we were kids when you made that promise. We didn't know what we were doing, right?" She began to drink more of her water and realized she was going to need something stronger soon.

"Are you sure?" He countered. "We already moved in together. I think marriage is the next step."

She choked. "What?!" She wiped her drenched mouth with her napkin. "You really are crazy, aren't you?"

Klaus laughed. "The treehouse. The night we became so fed up with our parents for setting our curfews too early. We told them that we didn't have to abide by their rules because we were going to move in together in my treehouse."

Caroline threw her head back as she laughed with him. "Oh, my God. We stayed in that treehouse for like a week."

"Yeah." He nodded contently. "I remember the cuddling."

She let her face drop into her hands, feeling her face heat. "That was a fun week."

Klaus simply stared, appearing wholly enthralled by her.

For a moment, she forgot to breathe and quickly shook herself out of the brief trance. She directed the rest of the conversation to a lighter subject, determined not to let him suck her back into the dangerous emotions he elicited from her.

As he walked her back to her room, she felt her heart rate gradually accelerate. She didn't know what to expect from him. Hopefully no more talk about marriage. She didn't even know how to react to that anymore, not after the evening they shared tonight.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" He asked, giving her a boyish smile.

She shrugged coyly. "Definitely better than the peanut butter and jelly lunch dates we used to have at my house."

Klaus chuckled. His eyes lit up brighter than she had ever seen them before. "And my promise? Have you given it any more thought?" He leaned against his hand so that he could peer down at Caroline with intensity.

"Klaus…" Her eyes fell to the ground. "I like you. I do. But this is crazy."

"Did you throw away the ring?" He questioned cautiously, almost afraid of her answer.

Her eyes snapped up to his.

"No."

His breath hitched and tasted hope on his tongue.

"You gave it to me. I wouldn't just throw it away," she revealed.

His face broke out into a wide smile. He slipped his hand into hers, holding onto her firmly. "Caroline, I don't mind waiting until you're ready to marry me. If it takes you a year or even ten, then that's fine. I know I want you to be my wife and I won't apologize for that. All I ask is that you give us a second chance."

She shook her head at him, still finding herself weak in front of those puppy eyes. "Okay. Yes. Just don't ask me to marry you every five minutes."

"Deal." He grinned and placed a sweet kiss on her cheek. Caroline's cheeks instantly pinked, and he smirked. "Goodnight, Caroline."

As soon as he disappeared, Caroline clutched her heart and sighed contently. Even after all these years, that guy could still make her feel like a flustered little girl. Still, he had always made her feel like the most important girl in the world.

Marrying Klaus Mikaelson actually didn't sound too bad.