Notes: So I decided to do a follow up to this because it had a good bit of reviews and I had quite a few requests. I feel Klaus kind of got away from me though. He seemed a bit different from the first chapter, but oh well. At the very least this chapter is much longer. Hope you like! Review always appreciated!


"Caroline."

She picked up her pace, almost into the school. Vampire pace would have been preferable, but human would have to suffice considering the other students standing around. Which meant, eventually, Stefan caught up with her. His legs were longer.

"Caroline," he said again, this time he was directly behind her.

She stopped, turning to face him. "I've got to get to class, can't this wait?"

"No," Stefan said firmly. "I've been trying to talk to you for over a week. This seems to be the only place I can corner you. Although I'd much rather talk in private."

As if the school was granting his wish, the bell rang. Caroline sighed in annoyance. "I've got to go, I'll be late."

"Compel the teacher," Stefan responded, ignoring her glare. They stood there in silence, staring at one another, a fight of wills as students rushed off to their classes. Eventually, they were the only ones left.

"Alright, I'm here, everyone's gone. What do you want?" Caroline asked, but her stomach clenched as feelings of anxiousness began to grow.

"You know what I want. I want answers."

Putting up her best facade of cluelessness and annoyance she threw her arms in the air in frustration. "To what Stefan? You've lived longer then me. I'm sure you have a lot more answers then I do. I think I am hardly the person to be-."

"Cut it out Caroline," he snapped. "What is going on with Klaus?" Her eyes opened wider and she opened her mouth to respond. "Don't lie to me. Don't insult my intelligence." He paused, sighing, trying to regain some of his composure. "I know Klaus. If he wanted to kill me he would have done it. Klaus' brother had a good time knocking Damon around, one of his hybrids had been holding back Elena. You come in, attack Klaus' hybrid, scream at him and he doesn't even flinch."

Caroline rolled her eyes, still trying to pretend that she had no idea what Stefan was talking about. As he spoke she looked off to the side in annoyance, refusing to meet his eyes.

"I saw the way he looked at you," Her eyes flickered to him finally, her face losing that hint of annoyance. "Elena said he winked, but I think it's safe to assume it wasn't to unnerve her."

Caroline sighed, defeated, her shoulders slumping slightly, but she still couldn't respond to his accusations.

"So I'm going to ask again," Stefan said slowly, his head tiling slightly to the side, looking at her expectantly. "What is going on with Klaus?"

It took her a moment to respond. She swallowed nervously, pursing her lips, then licking them. It wasn't exactly something she had ever spoken out loud, at least not to anyone that wasn't the cause of the problem. "Nothing." He raised his eyebrows at her. "At least not from my end."

"Then what is going on?"

"He..." Caroline sighed and closed her eyes, realizing how difficult it was to say out loud what was happening with Klaus. "He likes me."

"Likes you," Stefan repeated, because hearing her say it wasn't enough. "This is Klaus we're talking about."

Caroline's snapped her eyes open, this time genuinely annoyed. "I know who it is," she responded angrily. "The same Klaus who gave me a diamond bracelet after he saved me on my birthday. The same one who invited me to the ball and sent me a damn dress. The same one who always pops up at random moments when I'm alone for a damn chit chat." Even for Stefan he seemed genuinely unsure about what she had revieled. Caroline wasn't through. "And don't give me the talk about him being a dangerous killer, I know that. I'm well aware of who he is and what he is capable of. I've told him that!" Caroline exclaimed loudly and then glanced around nervously for any sign of students, or worse teachers. It was bad enough she was going to have to compel her teacher to forget she was tardy.

Stefan frowned, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. Her birthday had been six months ago. "Klaus is...committed."

Caroline laughed, but it lacked any real humor. With a tired sigh she rubbed her face and looked up at him. "Nothing is going on."

"Except for the fact that you have one of the most dangerous supernatural beings in the world trying to court you." She rolled her eyes in response. "This is serious Caroline."

"I know that," she responded, this time lacking the anger from earlier. "But what am I going to do Stefan? I know what he is. Hell, I've told him if one day that if someone finds a way to kill him I'm not stopping them." She noted the way Stefan cocked an eyebrow, amused. "And do you know what is even more frustrating? He actually fucking gets it, he is understanding as to why I want nothing to do with him." She shook her head. "Dick," Caroline mumbled, more to herself then Stefan. "But really Stefan, what am I going to do about it? I mean it isn't like anyone can control Klaus."

"You did."

Caroline had more to say, but Stefan's response mentally threw her off balance. "What?"

"When he wanted to kill me, he stopped because you asked him to," Stefan responded, watching her for any confirmation that she believed it.

"No," Caroline shook her head, "he doesn't do anything without a reason. I can promise you, even if he did do it for me, it's just one more attempt to get me to-."

"You just said that you pretty much told him you'd watch someone put a stake in his heart," Stefan pointed out. "I'd say his expectations shouldn't be very high."

"No! That isn't what I meant!" Caroline felt something akin to panic come over her, and she wasn't even sure why. "You said yourself Klaus is committed, he thinks he can just wait this out, keep up this stupid gentlemanly seduction, keep playing nice with me, and I'll just give in. I don't have any influence-."

"This is Klaus," Stefan snapped and stepped closer to her, lowering his head. "If he wanted you he'd compel you, he'd threaten your mother, your friends, and he'd kill them if he didn't get what he wanted. It's what he's done since he came here. But with you he's playing nice."

Caroline brought her hands up, covering her face and squeezing her eyes shut, wanting to block out Stefan's words, or at the very least punch him.

"Why is he giving you this time Caroline? Making these allowances for you? You weren't even scared of him that night. You knew he wasn't going to hurt you. How many other things have you said to him that he would have probably killed other people for."

Denial wasn't just a river in Egypt. "Stop it!" Caroline screamed and dropped her hands, glaring at him. To her relief he shut up. For the next couple of seconds they said nothing, and Caroline took that time to compose herself before looking up at Stefan, because she needed to come clean, even if it was to the ripper himself. "I asked him that...everything you said." Caroline shook her head, smiling to herself at the ridiculousness of it all, yet it wasn't funny, not in the slightest. "He likes me the way I am he says, and the last thing he wants is it to make me hate him." Stefan only stared at her. "I mean, what the hell is Klaus, of all people, thinking when he says he wants to take you out of this miserable little town and show you the world? There's nothing I can do Stefan, whether his feelings are superficial or not."

Caroline leaned against the bannister of her porch, standing high on the top step, the light of her phone glowing as she amused herself.

"If I didn't know any better I would think you were waiting for me."

At the familiar voice Caroline looked up, locking her phone and extinguishing the light. She had been waiting for him, for two nights, but she would never admit to that. "Don't flatter yourself."

"Trust me Caroline, I don't come see you for flattery," Klaus responded as he came to lean back against the opposite bannister, looking over at her.

She rolled her eyes, fighting a smirk. They stayed like that a while. Her looking out at the street, at the surrounding houses. There was nothing to look at, nothing changed in Mystic Falls. The houses across the street looked the same as they had when she was five, just with a fresh coat of paint. Finally, she broke the silence. "Stefan, knows you've been harassing me."

"Harassing? I've done my share of harassing, this doesn't fit the bill sweetheart."

Caroline sighed dramatically. "Okay, Stefan knows you've been overly nice to me the past six months regardless of how much I tell you to leave me alone. Better?" She asked, looking at him expectantly.

"I'm not hiding anything love. You're the one that is." Caroline glared at him, but he only smiled in return. "Let me guess, when I almost ripped his head off?" She frowned and turned away again. "Well, if you wanted to keep that a secret you shouldn't have asked me to not kill him."

"Oh, right," Caroline responded angrily and stared out into the night, refusing to look at him. "That would have been a much better alternative." Something he said made her snap though, the same thing that made her react to Stefan the other day. Standing, Caroline turned and narrowed her eyes. "And don't say that you didn't kill him because I asked. That's crap and you know it. Don't act like you're sparing lives because of something I said. If you really had wanted him dead-."

"I did want him dead," Klaus cut her off, feeling the need to clarify.

"You don't-."

"I was going to kill him Caroline," he said, this time with more conviction. "Take comfort in the fact that you saved his life." He paused for a moment then spoke again. "I suppose I should be grateful you did, I'd imagine you wouldn't be speaking to me if I had ended his life."

"Of course not!" Caroline exclaimed, shocked at that he spoke so easily about it.

"So I rest my case."

"No!" Caroline yelled then glanced around, making sure no one was near. Taking a step forward she pointed angrily at him. "Just stop, you're you. You don't not kill people just because someone asks you not too."

"I've never cared for someone enough to even consider the request," Klaus countered and from the evident fury on her face he was sure that was the last thing she wanted to hear. "Only being honest love."

Caroline growled loudly in annoyance and walked back over to where she stood previous and sat down, once again looking straight ahead, hoping she didn't appear as if she was a pouting teenager.

"Back to Stefan then," Klaus said finally, because there was a reason she had brought it up, and he doubted it was to warn him. "Concerned for my well being? Your friends going to come after me?"

Caroline could hear the teasing in his voice, but this time she chose not to react to it. "No." Turning to lean her back against the bannister she looked up at him in all seriousness. "I told Stefan the truth about you, what's been going on, and I'm telling you that he knows, I'm telling you what I told him. I want it all out in the open, because I'm not getting caught up in this little tug of war between you and Stefan, and I told him the same thing. Everyone turns into a pawn in your little game, and I'm not playing it, I don't want to be a part of it. If it's all out in the open, then no one has any reason to use-." He appeared in front of her, squatting so that his eyes were level with hers. Even for her speed he was fast, and she had to resist the urge to gasp.

"I don't want you to be a part of this Caroline," he told her, this time in all seriousness. "That's the last thing I want. And if I find out he-."

"No," Caroline said firmly. "Don't say it, because you already know that isn't what I want." And he didn't say it, just like she had asked. Caroline swallowed nervously as she saw emotions flicker across his face. When he was playful, teasing, flirting, she could handle that. It was when he was being honest with her that she found it more difficult. "I still think you're going to kill me," she said out of no where, because it seemed easier to say the absolute worst thing possible to drag her mind from the depths it was descending too.

Klaus sighed and stood, looking down the street himself now, not to avoid her, but unable to fathom how to have the same conversation again. "I'm not going to kill you."

She wrapped her arms around herself, not comfortable in her own skin. He did that to her, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. "I amuse you, I'm aware of that, and you're infatuated with me, fine, but your going to get bored you know. Either bored of me saying no or if hell does finally freeze over and I actually returned those feelings you'd get bored then too. Call me crazy, but I don't exactly take you as a person to keep around things when they bore you."

Klaus turned and looked down at her, wanting her to meet his eyes, but she wouldn't, and he wasn't going to force her too. "I've told you numerous times that you're the only one I've cared for besides my family...and I can I can tolerate them even less."

"Infatuation," Caroline said resolutely, unwillingly to think otherwise.

"And once again," Klaus began, this time a little more firmly, "I'm over a thousand years old Caroline. I know the difference."

"Whatever," she snapped, hating his words, hating him for trying to convince her otherwise. She'd said what she had to say, she was done. Standing up swiftly she turned to leave, not even bothering with dismissing him. Caroline wasn't surprised when he grabbed her arm as she reached the door. His grip on her wasn't hard, but it was firm, and he forced her to turn and face him.

"The last time I remember feelings for someone that wasn't my family," Klaus began softly, his head low as he stared into her eyes, "was when I was human. My mother killed her, and it was her blood I ingested that turned me into a vampire."

Caroline swallowed at his revelation, but refused to react to it, not wanting him to know that it was another thing that seemed to make him more human in her eyes.

"And I can assure you this is more then that." Klaus could see her jaw tensing as she looked away from him, refusing to hear or believe anything that he said. "I'm not just passing my time in Mystic Falls by playing games with the local vampire cheerleader. I know the difference between being infatuated and being in love with someone Caroline." Her eyes snapped to his as he expected they would. Klaus dropped his hand from her arm and stepped back. "Don't worry about Stefan. I promise I won't give him any reason to think you're consorting with the enemy."

Caroline could only nod. He offered her one of those endearing smiles, the one that made him look less deadly and much to sweet. Then he turned and left, disappearing fast enough that even her own vampire eyes couldn't see him.

She wouldn't let his words sink in, she wouldn't sit there and contemplate whether he was being honest with her, or why he would be so honest with her. Because if she did, if she did believe that he loved her, that he had never loved anyone like her, then she had to believe the rest. Believe that he'd always wait for her, that he'd never hurt her, that he'd take her to places she could only imagine, that he would keep her safe. If Caroline believed him, then he would be right, one day she would fall for him.