A/N I've been a Klaroline shipper for a long time, and after the fourth season premiere, I couldn't get this scene out of my head! It's been longer than I like to admit since I've written anything, so if you please, ignore any absence-earned rustiness. Set right around the time Klaus snaps Rebekah's neck in 4x01.

I own nothing.

XXX

Caroline couldn't believe her luck.

As she looked back exhaustedly at the emotional rollercoaster she'd been on in the last forty-eight hours, the blonde vampire sighed in relief. She had gone from kidnapped, to tortured, to angry, to bereaved, and kidnapped again in less time than it usually took her to plan her next outfit for school.

When she'd seen Tyler's face, his real face, in that cellar after Bonnie had performed the body switch, the only thing she'd felt was overjoyed. Caroline had thought that Tyler, perhaps the only person who understood her in the supernatural world was gone.

After helping him gain his feet and after consoling a distraught Bonnie, Caroline had fled. She told herself that it was because her hybrid was so weak after being immobile for so long, but in all honesty, she simply didn't want to be there.

She couldn't be there when he woke up.

Caroline, try as she might, could not get Klaus out of her head. She told herself that it was because of all of the things that she had gone through in the past couple days, but she couldn't lie to herself that long.

The truth of the matter was that Caroline was morbidly curious.

She scoffed inwardly. "Curiosity killed the cat," she thought to herself.

"But satisfaction brought it back." A voice that was not hers rang through her head, persistently finishing the rest of the popular saying that she refused to acknowledge.

Caroline closed her eyes, carefully thinking about what had occurred in her life. She had Tyler back. That, at least, was certain. Her hybrid boyfriend was sound asleep at the Salvatore boarding house, the only place that she could think of that would be semi-safe.

Elena was a vampire. Damon had texted her not twenty minutes ago to inform her of the outcome of the events at Pastor Young's ranch. Deep down, Caroline had hoped that her friend would make the choice to transition, if only so that she would have a close friend in the inevitable centuries to come.

Unfortunately for Caroline, Tyler and Elena weren't the only ones who had offered to stay with her for eternity.

Klaus. Her mental voice gave his name a special cadence when she thought of him. So much danger, so much potential, and so much anger was wrapped up into that one, single name. When he'd been desiccated, she'd felt something akin to remorse, but hadn't explored it. When he'd come back as Tyler and kissed her, she'd felt anger and regret, but most of all, desperation.

Whether or not she was desperate for his kiss or to return Tyler to his rightful vessel was something that Caroline didn't want to think too much about.

She checked the clock. "2 AM. Surely a vampire who doesn't need sleep won't be napping now," she thought to herself. Caroline checked her phone one last time, making sure that she hadn't received any more S.O.S. messages from Damon or Elena.

The screen was blank, cheerfully displaying the time with neon numbers.

Caroline rose from her bed, and went to sit at her vanity. She looked at herself, seeing the vampire in her eyes, her movements, her body. Those same eyes flickered to a piece of pen-covered parchment protruding from a drawer. She looked at it for a moment, than sighed and left in a rush of air, leaving the month-old, relationship-damning drawing sitting on her table.

"Thank you for your honesty. Klaus."

XXX

The Mikaelson mansion was the same as she remembered from their ball. Huge, white, and grandiose, the secluded house still reeked of vampires. Caroline walked across the lawn to the enormous oak-paneled door, and stood at the knocker, contemplating.

It wasn't too late to go home. She could turn around, walk back the way she'd come, and go to sleep in her own bed, safely.

But Caroline was curious.

She took a deep breath, steeling herself, and then raised her hand to the knocker, only to have it ripped out of her hand from the inside.

Standing in the doorframe for the first time since he'd saved her from Alaric was a heavily enraged Klaus. Back in his own body, Caroline could do nothing but stare. She'd known that it wouldn't be the same, seeing him now, but nothing could have prepared her for the relief that she felt at seeing him back in his own body.

"I'd thoroughly enjoy taking you up on your offer from earlier, sweetheart, but I'm afraid I'm a little busy at the moment." Klaus spoke gruffly, the anger in his eyes not diminishing a bit.

Caroline stood there dumbly, not knowing what to say. His accented voice had always worked wonders on her judgment.

He gave her a second to respond, then brushed past her and leapt off the porch with on giant stride.

"Wait!" she called out, following him into the darkness. "What are you doing?"

Her voice stopped him in his tracks and she saw the rise and fall of his shoulders as he took a calming breath. She walked closer to him, noticing that he was clad in the same leather jacket as always, dog tags jingling softly around his neck.

With what seemed to be the will of a thousand men, Klaus turned to face her. "Well, you see, I've recently awoken from near-death, only to realize that my one chance at an army has been turned into a bloody vampire." He spat at her, running a hand over his face irritably.

"And the best part of it all, love," he continued, "Is that my own sweet sister was the one who caused her death."

Caroline found her voice finally. "So what were you doing?" she asked.

Klaus looked at her squarely, taking her focus away with his crystal blue eyes momentarily.

"Quite frankly, I was stalking off to kill someone." The original hybrid shrugged his shoulders menacingly. "Maybe Matt? Perhaps Elena, for the trouble she's caused. I've already taken care of Rebekah, what's another vampire or two?"

Caroline frowned disapprovingly as Klaus continued.

"Mayhaps even your darling Tyler?" he contemplated with a smirk. "I'm sure he's all recovered by now, certainly he'll be up for a good fight."

"You can't!" Caroline blanched, feeling sick to her stomach. "You cannot kill someone tonight, Klaus. Let them all have at least a moment of peace."

The ancient vampire glared at her again, his eyes expressing pent up anger from centuries past. "I can't?" he hissed so menacingly at her that it was barely a question. "You are not the one to tell me what I can and cannot do." Klaus started walking again.

"Dammit," Caroline grumbled, and used her vampire speed to cut him off right before he hit the line of trees separating the Mikaelson property from the road. "I have a bone to pick with you, Mr. Orginal." She declared angrily.

Standing in front of him with her feet set, Caroline felt the first shiver go through her. Whenever she was around Klaus she couldn't help but feel scared. The man was a thousand years old, after all!

Klaus closed his eyes and set his jaw for a moment, trying to control the rage that he had built up in side of him. A long moment later, he opened then again and gave the young vampire an icy glare of contempt.

"What bone could I possess that desperately requires your picking, love?" he asked scathingly. "I can only think of one." The hybrid added the dirty thought with a smirk, knowing that it would make Caroline uncomfortable.

She grimaced, but didn't back away from him. "You kissed me."

Klaus's face lost all of its anger for a second, only to quickly be replaced with shock, then eventually arrogance. "Truthfully, sweetheart, I didn't think you'd bring it up." He told her. "I thought you'd be too embarrassed to even look at me in the eyes… thoughts that were soundly confirmed when you ran away before I woke up."

Caroline stuttered, trying fruitlessly to look anywhere but into the hybrid's now-smiling face. "I was angry." She justified. "I still am angry! How could you come at me like that when you knew full well that I would let you?"

Klaus laughed in her face, stepping closer to her so that their noses were nearly touching. "Come at you like that? Even you must admit, love, that you didn't take a whole lot of convincing." His breath fanned over her face, and for a moment Caroline forgot where she was.

And then she slapped him.

The next thing she knew, Caroline's front was pressed against the tree nearest to where they had been standing and her wrists were held against her back by one-hundred and ninety pounds of fuming hybrid.

"Honestly, love. You know that I don't want to kill you, but don't think that for a second I won't if I have to." He hissed under her ear.

Caroline knew that she should've been scared in that moment. She was pinned against a tree by a man who had killed more people than she'd met in her whole life, and yet, the frightened shivers she'd felt earlier had been replaced by something much more…intense.

"You won't kill me." She spoke, feeling braver than she actually was. All she could focus on were his lips perched delicately above the flesh of her neck, his stubble pressing into her sensitive skin, and the sheer weight of his body behind her.

The hybrid's grip tightened on her wrists, but never once were they squeezed hard enough to cause her pain. "What makes you think that I won't?" he asked her darkly.

Caroline laughed breathily. "You've said it yourself before, Klaus," she stated simply. "You fancy me."

He whipped her around so that her back was to the tree, yet never once moved an inch farther away from her than he had been. For a moment, all she knew were his pale blue eyes boring into her own. "That was then." He stated.

She laughed again, scoffing this time. "That was then." She mocked his accent. "No, Klaus."

"This is now. You haven't been able to not save me. Any time I was in trouble, you came soaring into the rescue." Caroline shot at him. "Even today! When you knew that saving me would blow your cover, you still came."

In a moment of boldness she was sure to regret in the future, Caroline rested her hand on Klaus's now-stunned face.

"You always come for me." She finished her rant softly.

She saw his eyes relax under her touch, some of the blazing anger he'd felt earlier dissipating from his countenance.

"Caroline-" he began to say, before she cut him off with a finger pressed to his lips.

"Don't, Klaus. Don't try to convince me to run away with you. Don't try and tell me that this life in Mystic Falls will never be enough for me." Caroline said. "Don't try to tell me that my life will be better if I let you into it."

The young blonde stepped slowly away from the speechless Original. "One day," she continued, "Maybe I'll see that you're right, but now I'm with Tyler."

"Caroline, wait." Klaus called out. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to fight the furious urge he felt to pull her back to him.

Caroline began walking away, choosing not to hear him, back to her car. "I won't always want to stay in Mystic Falls." She guaranteed softly into the night, her one last Parthian shot before she got in her car and drove home.

XXX

So lovelies, how'd I do? Drop any suggestions, requests, comments, or questions in the review box.

Or don't. I won't compel you, promise. xo