Our little secret Chapter 1: It happened one (summer) night.

Since the civil war mystic falls had been run by the same core powerful families. The Mikelsons, Forbes, Gilbert's, Salvatores and Lockwood's, owned every inch of land and every business front for miles around. All the cards fell to these five families and with it all the power. With power came jealousy and with jealousy came conflict. There was never a moment in the town's history that one family was not at war with another, battling over land and money. The conflict that stood out most in the history books was the endless silent war between the Forbes and Mikelsons. For decades the families brushed along beside each other, pretending to be cordial, but everyone knew the truth.

Caroline Forbes had grown up in the centre of this conflict. She had remembered the third grade when she hadn't been allowed to go to Elena and Katherine gilbert's birthday party, or the seventh grade when she had had to run back and forth between Damon Salvatore and Tyler Lockwood passing messages because the boy's parents had asked them not to speak to each other. These phases always passed once the deals were closed or the land was sold, but the conflict between Caroline Forbes parents the and Mickelson family was endless. It was impossible for their parents to keep their kids away from each other while at school. They were in the same classes and played on the same tiny tots soccer teams, but never were they allowed to be true friends. When Caroline would tell her parents stories about what happened at school that day she was careful to exclude any of the Mikelson children from her tales.

Before high school could begin the Mikelsons family relocated back to Esther's home town in England and Caroline thought that would be the end of it. Until that summer.

….

Klaus hadn't been pleased with the idea of moving back to America, especially not right before his senior year, but he knew he didn't have a choice. Both of his older brothers were attending university in the states and his father had been anxious to return to mystic falls to see to his business ventures there. They had never sold their grand manor house in virginia, and it hadn't taken long for his mother to unpack everything right back in its exact place that it had been before. Suddenly it was as if he was twelve years old again, stepping back in time.

"Nik!" rebekah was poking her head into her brothers room, hissing his name.

" I'm trying to sleep here" he groaned pushing his face into his pillows. Rebekah flounced into his room and plopped down on his bed.

" Oh please it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon you're not that jet lagged. Get up i want to go out." Nik turned over and sat up grumbling.

" And where exactly would you like to go?"

" Do you remember Stefan Salvatore? What am i saying of course you do. Because i ran into him an hour ago downtown and he told me that the lockwood boy is having a party at the reservoir on his property, and he said we should come. So we should go." He rolled his eye's

" Bekhs i don't think you need me to escort you to party so you can hang around drooling over Stefan Salvatore all night." She smacked his leg over the covers.

" Jesus Rebekah!" She huffed exasperated.

" Come on Nik i can't go alone!"

" Why you don't bring Kol then?" She rolled her eyes

" Kol is coming, but i can't just show up with my little brother."

" But adding your older brother to the mix helps so much?"

" Just get up already.. We're supposed to be there at four."

….

At four o'clock the three mikelsons road up to the large body of water at the back of the Lockwood family property. There must've been a hundred people there, splashing around in the murky water, or hanging around coolers of beer.

Rebekah was off in a flash and before Klaus had even entered the party his sister had a drink in her hands and was deep in conversation with a large group of people. Kol sauntered off towards a pretty dark haired girl sitting on the tailgate of a parked pickup truck. Klaus was about to head over to one of the many coolers and snatch a beer when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Well as i live and breathe. Klaus Mikelson." Nik turned around and found himself face to face with his old friend Damon Salvatore, grinning at him with two beers in his hands. He passed one to Klaus.

" Nice to see you mate." He said happily taking the beer from his hand. Suddenly a tall, thin, brown haired girl was running up behind damon and had jumped on his back.

" Katherine I told you! Not in public where Elena might see!" he joked hoisting her up higher onto his back.

" Oh very funny!" Elena Gilbert look up then recognizing the boy in front of her, she smiled.

" Klaus? I thought i saw your sister somewhere! I didn't know you guys were back!" Her smiled at her.

"Elena. This is a rather different sight than the past. When i left two were shoving dirt all over the others face and trying to make voodoo dolls of each other." Elena laughed, slipping down off Damon's back and letting him drape an arm around her.

" It took a while, but she finally warmed up to me." Damon said,,squeezing her against his side. Klaus glanced around and his eye's caught on someone across the party.

" Damon?" He said still watching the girl chatting happily with a friend.

" Yeah?"

" Who's that girl over there?' He asked gesturing with his head. Elena leaned over and peeked around Klaus to see what he was talking about.

" You don't recognize Caroline?" She asked, catching her eye and shooting her a smile and a small wave. He faced Damon and Elena again,

" That's Caroline Forbes?" Damon nodded.

"A lot can change from the 7th to the 12th grade my friend." Elena jabbed him hard in the ribs with her elbow.

" Ouch? Elena!" She smiled smugly but placed her hand on Damon's stomach.

" Be careful there Klaus. Wouldn't your family burn you at the stake just for looking at her?" Klaus raised his beer to his lips,

" I guess we'll find out."

…

It was nearly an hour later, and the sun had sunk far into the sky. The strings of lights in the tree's above were all lit and shining. Klaus noticed that Caroline had broken apart from her friend group and heading over to one of the coolers. Klaus walked over to her.

"Caroline Forbes." she twisted around to face him not recognizing his voice right away.

"Niklaus Mikaelson." her voice was rather musical and when she smiled at him it was as if the sun had come out again.

" Wow, my full name. I just be in trouble." she laughed bringing her freshly cracked beer to her lips.

" Technically we're both in trouble just to speaking to each other." Klaus rolled his eye's laughing along with her.

" Well i won't tell if you don't" She smiled mischievously and put out her hand to shake his.

" Then we have a deal."

…..

They made laps around the party together as Caroline pointed out all the people that they used to go to elementary school with.

" There's Matt Donovan, over there with Sloan, and that's Bonnie Bennett with"

" my brothers tongue in her mouth." Klaus finished slightly horrified and slightly amused.

" Oh my god." Caroline whispered grabbing onto his arm in shock.

" That's Kol? "

" I'm afraid so."

…..

After both knocking back several more beers, Caroline whispered embarrassingly that she needed to pee. They ventured farther into the woods, Klaus took Caroline's hand in an attempt to help her navigate through the heavy wooded area, but they had both indulged in so many drinks that at this point it was the blind leading the blind. They stumbled and laughed and joked until the lights of the party were in the distance. Caroline stumbled into Klaus's side and he wrapped his arms around her waist in an effort to keep them both standing.

Staring up into Klaus's face Caroline couldn't remember what they had come into the woods for, and at this point she didn't care.

" You're hands are on my waist." she whispered as they continued to look into each other's eye's.

" They are." He whispered as he moved his hands along her waistline

" They probably shouldn't be" but even as she spoke her hands were running up his chest and came to rest on the back of his neck. She could feel the wisps of his tiny curls against her fingers.

" I know" he said slowly leaning in closer.

" If somebody saw us.." but she lost her train of thought, because all she could look at or think about was how close his lips were to hers.

" I mean were pretty out in the open." He stated backing her against the trunk of a nearby tree.

"These hundreds of tree's don't provide much cover." She laughed in spite of herself. She ducked her head onto his shoulder and laughed lightly.

" Caroline" she lifted her head off his shoulder and looked into his eye's, now unsure he started to lean backwards and loosen his grip on her waist. Caroline removed her hands from the back of his neck but grabbed hold of his shirt. Klaus leaned forward again as their lips collided together. His hands held tight to her waist as her fingers tangled into his hair.

"NIk!" They jumped apart at the sound of his sister's voice ripping through the silence. She was on the outskirts of the party shouting into the woods.

" Wait a minute" he whispered. " She'll give up as soon as she's out of breath." Rebekah's voice faded away as she moved away from the woods edge. Even after she was gone the spell had been broken. For a moment they hadn't been a Forbes and a Mikelson, they had just been Klaus and Caroline. Two kids, at a party with a spark.

" I should probably get back." Klaus nodded and Caroline turned to head back towards the lights of the party.

"Goodnight Caroline Forbes" he called after her, she turned and smiled at him, a glint in her eye

" Goodnight, Nik." and in that moment he wondered if maybe someday soon they could be more to each other then just their last names.