Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries - the original books were written by L J Smith and the TV show was developed by Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson. This story is the product of their characters and world and my imagination.

When Caroline comes home from school one day she finds Klaus perched on the end of her bed, glancing through the pile of texts she's collected (okay, borrowed without asking) from council families over the past few weeks.

Books about the Originals.

She doesn't trust Damon's information. Aside from the fact that he is an overconfident ass, he's also nowhere near as old as the Originals and his research about them is half-hearted and incomplete.

"Some light reading, love?" Klaus asks as she stands, frozen, in the doorway.

She had forgotten that he can come and go in her home as he pleases (which is stupid of her, considering he's already left the bracelet and the sketch on two separate occasions), that her house is no longer the sanctuary it once was.

He pats the spot next to him on her bed and she sits down without protest. He's too close – it's making her nervous and scared and, damnit, a tiny bit aroused – but she thinks she needs to pick her battles and, while his voice is even, there is something in his eyes that reminds her that he's a thousand year old monster.

He'd scared her, that night Stefan, Alaric and Damon temporarily daggered Kol. Since then the seriousness of their situation has never been far from her thoughts and as she's obviously no match for an Original in a fight, she's decided that arming herself with knowledge is the best way to go.

Even if said knowledge makes her dream of blood and death and screaming.

Klaus holds up one of the books – the one with a chapter that had gone into excruciating detail about the kind of tortures the Originals inflicted on their enemies – and raises an eyebrow, a clear reminder of the question she has not yet answered.

"I was bored," she tells him, "I wanted something new to read."

He gives her an indulgent little smile, one that says he knows she's lying but he'll allow it … for now.

"Have you learnt anything useful from these?" asks Klaus, shifting so that their legs are brushing just slightly.

"That your brother Kol once decimated an entire village because he thought one man looked at him funny. That Elijah is not nearly as noble as he apparently likes to think he is. That Rebekah has allegedly had affairs with three Kings of France, one Queen of England and an extensive number of aristocrats all over Europe."

"And me?"

His fingers are toying with her hair now and his tone is amused, so she thinks he isn't offended by the way she's described his siblings.

Especially since she's only being honest.

Whether he will feel the same after she answers this question remains to be seen.

"You," she muses, "the nightmare. The monster that other monsters fear. Always ten steps ahead and always twenty different back-up plans. Unforgiving."

Her voice hitches slightly on the last word and he clearly knows why.

"Yes, I'm not too fond of betrayal, or of those who try to hurt my family."

She knows he is thinking of Kol and she wonders, for a moment, if he might kill her for her part in that debacle. Her flight instincts tell her to look for an exit, but she doesn't want to incite Klaus to violence and so she very carefully keeps still.

"You tried to kill my friends," Caroline reminds him.

"Mmm," he agrees, "but of course if you handed Elena over to me now I can assure you that there wouldn't be a safer human anywhere, and she will live a long, healthy life."

"Elena is not a blood bag for you, Klaus," she hisses.

"She is what I make her, love," he replies, "I don't want to talk about the doppelganger, though. Let's talk about you, Caroline."

"My hopes and dreams?" she asks sarcastically, "everything I want in life?"

"All things I'm extremely curious to know, Caroline, but not tonight. No, now I want to talk to you about your misplaced loyalty to your so-called friends, and how it's going to get you in terrible trouble eventually. A girl of your intelligence should know better than to try and trick me, but clearly your friends have blinded you."

"I wasn't trying to trick you," she insists, even as she feels a twinge of guilt for lying so blatantly.

"Oh Caroline," he gives her hair a brief, almost affectionate, tug before he finally lets go of it, only to rest his hand against the small of her back instead, "you think I cannot smell the deceit, or that a thousand years have not given me an immense ability to know when I am being lied to? I have tortured and killed for far less than what you have done."

"Then why am I still alive?" she asks, angry and frustrated and wishing he wasn't quite so close to her.

"Because I fancy you," he repeats his words from the ball, "because you're honest and strong and intelligent and loyal, even if your loyalty is sadly misplaced. And because you feel it too."

"Feel what?" she asks sharply.

"Our connection, of course."

She shakes her head in denial, "we don't have a connection."

He laughs, "it isn't just deceit I can detect, love. I do wonder what sort of paltry company you've been keeping that my simple desire to get to know you can be so pleasantly surprising."

Caroline wants to say it's surprising because it's him. That's not the real answer, though – he is more right than she wants to admit. She knows that when he asked to hear her hopes and dreams it wasn't just a line – it was a cheesy way to phrase it but she is oddly sure that he was (is) genuinely interested.

It seems so wrong that the evil stalking their town appears to see her better than her friends do.

She thinks back to the night Tyler bit her, and Klaus' visit to her house. He hadn't even known her then but somehow he'd found exactly the right words to say to her to help her finally realise that though she might be stuck as a vampire in a filler year she still wants desperately to live … and that she wants the chance to escape the confines of her small hometown.

"Why allow me to try, if you knew it was all part of a plan?"

Klaus grins, "you kept my sketch, sweetheart," he gestures to her vanity, and the drawing laid unfurled on top of it, "and came to the ball. You try to entice and, believe me, you succeed, but you do not seem to realise that this is a two-way street, and I wager I am not the only one of us who is intrigued."

Caroline flushes pink as she tries to think of a way to deny it. Of course he's extremely attractive, and he seems to find her fascinating, which is more than she can say about most of her friends. However, he is still Klaus, still the cruel, vicious Original who brings destruction in his wake.

She sighs and, unable to quite untangle her feelings regarding Klaus, asks him a question instead.

"How much of it is real?"

He doesn't seem at all bothered by her change in topic. In fact he seems quite smugly pleased, probably thinking he has flustered her (he has, but she's never going to admit that to him).

"How much of what, love?"

Everything, she thinks, have we ever not been puppets on strings, dancing for your amusement?

"The conflict between your family," she says instead, "the impression you're giving that some of what is happening here is actually a challenge for you?

He looks delighted, "you're very clever, Caroline. It's one of the things I like about you."

"Answer me, Klaus," she demands, determined to receive a reply even if she has to antagonise an Original to do so, "how much of it is real?"

His smirk is wide, "oh sweetheart, you already know the answer."

So that means his answer is that none of it is real, or at least not much. She thinks his mother is a genuinely nasty surprise for him, but she also knows Esther is currently nowhere to be found and that Klaus will soon have his siblings unlinked.

"Why the games?" she asks, "why not just burn everything and take Elena – that's what you do, isn't it?"

Klaus' hand is tracing circles on her back now and it is very distracting.

"We don't want quite that much attention falling on this town, Caroline, and Elijah is always insisting, in a most tiresome way, that we try to reduce our bloodshed when we can. Besides, boredom does strike hold occasionally and it is fun to see the way you all scramble about for plans as if you have a chance. I'm sure you'd have been a delightful little opponent if you weren't following Salvatore plans, love, and the Bennett witch is powerful, if untrained, but the rest of your friends are ... disappointing to say the least."

Caroline wants to defend her friends, but she also knows that Klaus is right – Salvatore plans are usually terrible.

"Even if I wanted to," she tells him, "I couldn't get Elena to give up her blood. She might agree to it but Damon and Stefan will never let it happen."

She can't quite believe she is even contemplating trying to persuade Elena to hand herself over to Klaus, but in the circumstances it genuinely seems to be the best scenario.

Not that it matters what she thinks. Damon and Stefan would probably sacrifice everyone but each other on the altar of Elena's safety. She loves her friend, but god does it sometimes make her angry how so many people seem to bend over backwards for Elena in a way she thinks they never would for her.

Klaus might be obsessed with Elena's blood, but it gives her some comfort to know that he's never looked at her with a hint of romantic intent.

"I'm sure," Klaus says, "that you can find a way to persuade the doppelganger of the sense of my offer. Once I'm ready to leave I will just take her, but I'm willing to give you a little time, love, to try and make the transition a little less … fractious."

"Is that your idea of mercy?" she scoffs.

"I'm not much known for mercy, love, as I'm sure you're aware. For you, though, I'll make a gesture."

"It won't work," she tells him, so quietly it is almost a whisper, "scraps of mercy are still just scraps, and you can't force me into acknowledging whatever bond you think is between us."

He moves so quickly she barely has time to blink. He grabs her arms, pulls her to her feet, and suddenly she 's backed against the wall of her room with his arms bracketing her in.

"What the hell are you doing?" she shouts.

"Do you know what I feel from you right now, Caroline?"

"Anger," she snarls at him.

"Yes, and adrenaline and arousal … no, don't deny it, love, you know I'm right."

"Attraction doesn't mean anything."

"Maybe not yet, but it's a promising beginning. And what is most important, Caroline, is that you aren't pumped full of fear. Oh it's there a little, which is to be expected, but it isn't consuming you – part of you, a large part, knows that you are safe right now."

"You're reaching, Klaus," she tells him, "seeing things that aren't there."

He still seems perfectly at ease, "I've lived a very long time, Caroline, and I know that what is between us is shared and strong."

He drops his arms now, allows her to slip past him and sit warily on the bed, "that conversation is for another time, however. I don't think you're quite ready for all that I can offer you."

He takes a seat next to her once more, "think about what we've talked about, Caroline. I'd be very happy to make a bargain with you – Elena is non-negotiable, though I assure you she'll be comfortable, and the Salvatores are likely to make a nuisance of themselves, but I am perfectly willing to ensure the safety of your other friends, and your mother. Perhaps I will even refrain from hunting Tyler … if you offer the right incentive."

He then pulls out of his jacket pocket a sparkling object that she recognises as the bracelet she'd thrown back at him at the ball. When he reaches for her arm she considers pulling away, but in the end she allows him to fasten it around her wrist.

"Beautiful," he tells her, "it suits you."

The bracelet feels like a weight, and not just a physical one. She knows it will remain a reminder of this conversation, of the fact that Klaus seems to be gearing up to show them that they have no real control over the events that will now follow.

A reminder of Klaus and all his promises.

She doesn't want there to be anything between her and the dangerous hybrid. It is there, though, and she knows Klaus will not let her forget it.

He leans over to press his lips briefly against her cheek, and while she sits frozen he does not seem deterred by that.

"Goodnight, love," he says, "I'll be seeing you soon."

Caroline doesn't hear him leave and, still lost in thought, she doesn't even notice when her mom arrives home an hour later.

She falls asleep with Klaus' bracelet glittering on her arm.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it.