A/N: This is my belated contribution to Klonnie Week 2K15 inspired by a thefudgeisgrumpy's gifset. 1/10 oneshots of Klaus and Bonnie post S2. So basically a S3 rewrite but, as always, I play fast and loose with TVD canon so if you notice something missing or different just go with it. I'm really focusing on Bonnie's feelings about dying or nearly dying at the 70's dance since I imagine that would've had a huge impact on a young girl's psyche (i dont really like her whole dying for Elena bit so i've honed in on Bonnie's personal feelings of isolation and depression). Hope y'all enjoy! [the quote in the summary is from Ntozake Shange's "for colored girls who've considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf".]

~o~o~

"It's not the pale moon that excites me

That thrills and delights me, oh no

It's just the nearness of you" - Ella Fitzgerald

I died. I died and came back. All because of him.

Bonnie didn't feel much these days, except when Klaus crossed her mind. A sudden, boiling, frustrated rage would wash over her whenever she thought of the cunning and powerful hybrid and how he'd managed to evade death. Really she should be mad at Elijah for going back on his word, but it was Klaus whose face burned into her dreams, whose voice haunted her waking hours. Klaus was the one who'd lied to all of them and twisted their lives for his benefit like a sick puppet master. She stayed up nights by herself reading everything she could get her hands on about the original hybrid and his family, poring over old manuscripts and grimoires and asking the Spirits for help in finding a way to destroy him.

He had to have a weakness. Everyone did. And she swore she would be the one to find it. It gave her purpose and meaning and something to focus her energy on. She became a hermit, sitting glassy-eyed through her classes until she could get home and bury herself in research about Klaus and his long, colorful life. Grams had had quite a collection of old witches' journals and manuscripts that proved quite useful, and late at night long after her father was asleep Bonnie sat up reading by lamplight and candlelight, translating between Latin and French and Dutch with the help of Google and several huge dictionaries.

She discovered that Klaus had several dalliances with witches (and powerful ones at that). She read about how charming and beguiling he was, and that he taught Botticelli how to paint. One witch named Helene guiltily wrote rapturous paragraphs in French about his skills in the bedroom. Le petit mort, she wrote over and over again. The little death. It was an apt phrase for what happened to Bonnie the night of the 70's dance. She'd felt the life leaving her body, and for one terrifying, dizzying moment she'd wanted to let go, to feel her soul lifting up and out forever. Was love like that?

When she wept over Jeremy's body and brought him back from the dead, she expected love and relief to flood her whole being. Instead, her fear of losing him and her own desperate desire to have something for herself had been replaced not with joy, but with...emptiness.

No, she didn't feel much these days. Except an all-consuming need to take down Klaus Mikaelson.

So when Caroline tried to invite her to a party she turned her down. But Caroline was stubborn in her own way and refused to leave until Bonnie got dressed and came with her.

"What is all this stuff anyway?" Caroline said picking up a page from the pile scattered around Bonnie's bed.

Bonnie snatched it back and stuffed it into a drawer, mumbling about research and "important witchy stuff."

"Bonnie, I don't know how to say this, but you're starting to look less like a cute new-agey witch and more like the hansel-and-gretel-lure-kids-with-candy kinda witch. See?"

She followed the blonde's gaze into the mirror and jumped. She hardly recognized herself, her eyes had a haunted, sunken look, her curls were dry and coarse, and - horror of horrors - her knees and elbows were ashy!

Caroline nodded, vindicated. "Get your ass in the shower while I pick out a dress. Move Bennett."

Being in a crowd after so many weeks alone was jarring. Bonnie found a quiet spot and posted up with her strawberry daiquiri. Her newly washed hair was was pulled into a tight top-bun, and she was wearing a nice dress for the first time since the 70's dance. Caroline called her outfit "funeral clothes" but they suited her mood: a plain black dress that hit just above her knee and a soft grey cardigan.

She watched the crush of teenage bodies dancing and drinking and groping each other under the outdoor fairy lights and wondered if she would ever feel like them again. She was supposed to be in the flush of her youth, but the most alive she could remember feeling was when she lay dying on that cold tile floor. Maybe she was too broken inside to feel anything except when she was kissing death.

It was then she saw Klaus standing across the way, talking to Tyler as if he didn't have a care in the world, and Bonnie thought she was finally losing her mind. She froze in place, unable to think, until his slow gaze swiveled her way. He smiled like the devil that he was, said something to Tyler and started walking in her direction.

Panic seized her and her first thought was to lead him away from this crowd of friends and innocents. Whatever confrontation he had in mind, she wanted to ensure as less collateral damage as possible. She glanced over her shoulder and quickened her steps. Klaus was following, sliding easily between the crowd like a knife through butter. He wasn't using vamp speed, like he was confident about reaching her eventually.

"Move!" she hissed at idle teens grinding on each other.

"What's your problem bitch?" some beefy guy with slicked-back hair loomed in front of her and she shoved him, hard.

"Hey!" he grabbed her arm and yanked her back like a rag doll. Her hair came half-undone as he shook her and she aimed a blind fist that somehow connected with his jaw. He swore but only tightened his grip on her, yanking her chin up.

"Slow down," he sneered, "dumb freak bitc -," the magic burst out of her palm with an anger of its own. He was slammed back into a tree with a sickening crunch. Blood trickled down his neck. Someone screamed and a crowd gathered. Dozens of eyes fixed on her in horror and shock. Before she could say a word she felt an iron grip on her arm. The world melted into a blur of color.

When she blinked again she was standing on the other side of the woods, at the edge of the lake.

Klaus released her arm and she staggered back. After so many nights reading about him, here he was. In the flesh. Her heart was pounding and adrenaline rushed through her veins.

"You can thank me later, ," he grinned at her disheveled state.

"Thank you?" she spluttered, "you're the reason...everything is wrong because of you!"

He raised an eyebrow, "That's quite a charge considering what you just did to that boy. I was impressed." His voice dropped lower as if in admiration. Bonnie shivered.

"I was trying to get you away from a crowd of innocent people. That was self-defense."

"I know a thing or two about self-defense."

Her disbelief must have shown on her face. He smiled but there was a strange glitter in his eyes, "I've had to protect myself from the time I was old enough to walk. Or didn't your late night research reveal that little detail? Ah, I see it didn't. Nothing like a primary source, as the historians say. I do hope I've been an entertaining subject."

He must have had her followed and noted her multiple trips to the archives. Of course. No matter what she did, Klaus was always one step ahead. Tiredness swept over her and she felt like a foolish, lost little girl. Well the lost part was definitely right.

"What do you want Klaus?" she asked, her fingers clenched and already gathering magic to launch a defense. "And if you're not trying to murder me tonight at least tell me where we are." She'd left her phone at the party and she estimated they were several miles from her house, which meant it would take all night to get through the woods and hitch a ride. Bonnie glanced around her again and realized she'd never been to this place before. The woods were thicker here, dark and lush around the bare shoulders of the lake. Starlight dappled the water and the air was cool and quiet.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Klaus kept talking, ignoring her earlier question, "I came here the night you almost killed me."

Her head jerked up.

"A thousand years I've walked this earth and that was the first time I felt alive, connected to nature and who I was always meant to be: a hybrid, immortal and indestructible," he closed his eyes and breathed long and deep like he was sucking the essence of the night into himself. His eyes opened languidly, "Can't you feel it?"

No, she wanted to say, I don't feel anything these days except wanting you gone.

She looked around again, then up at the star-speckled sky. The heavens seemed cold and brilliant and unreachable and the forest breathed quietly around her.

"It's one thing to die and return as an immortal. But to die and return as you were...I would imagine makes for a peculiar kind of shock," he turned his head to look at her, his expression unreadable.

"I don't have time for your games, Klaus. Just tell me what you want."

"Close your eyes."

She raised her eyebrows. Of all the things she expected to come out of Klaus' mouth...this strange request was equal parts terrifying, surprising and intriguing. The rational side of her mind was pleading with her to run, but he would catch her easily...and then what? Or, she could do as he asked and play along. The worse that could happen was she'd die here and the stars would be witness instead of the florescent lights of a high school gym. At least the scenery was better.

At first all she could hear was the thumping of her own heart and the crickets chirping. But gradually her heartbeat grew low and deep until she could feel each pulse through her veins. Her fingertips tingled and a slow flush crept along her neck. The forest was alive and throbbing around her, the whisper of each leaf raising goosebumps on her skin. Bonnie felt herself sighing long and lushly as nature's energy seeped into her pores and awakened her numbed senses.

She'd forgotten what this felt like. The slowly building rush was almost too much, an almost painful awareness climbing higher and higher, but this was no petit mort, this was the opposite, her body returning to the feel of magic and what magic was at its core: life itself. And she realized it wasn't just the lake and the woods she felt, but Klaus too, his raw power and wolf energy all mixed in with the earth and sky. It was all too much, as though each star in the sky was a tiny knife stabbing sensation back into her.

Bonnie took a deep, shuddering breath and, pulling her cardigan closer around her, opened her eyes to find Klaus watching her.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Let's just say I've been doing my own research," he said casually, though she knew better than to believe anything was casual with Klaus.

A wolf howled nearby and she jumped.

"It's late, little witch," he said, suddenly closing the distance between them to slide a strong arm around her waist, "And I have miles to go before I sleep," Her words of protest were lost to the wind as vampire-speed blurred the night into an erratic wash of colors. Head spinning, Bonnie held tighter to the only solid thing she could.

They came to a stop only heartbeats later and she raised her head from his shoulder, dazedly pushing her tumbling hair out of her eyes.

"Goodnight, love."

She tried to see his face in the moonlight but he was gone. It took her a moment to realize she was standing on her front porch and that the warmth that lingered around her was the only trace left of the man who'd brought her home.