Klaroline AU

Klaus is an artist with a promising career, a hard past and certain difficulties to be open to new people. Caroline is an advertising agent who competes with men in a very hard business. The agency she works for chose her to be in charge of campaign that advertises Niklaus Mikaelson's next art exhibition. Based on a scene from TVD 4x09.

It's supposed to be one-shot, but if you guys like it I might write more chapters, so for now I'm rating it M with the promise of some smut future wink wink. Also, English isn't my first language, so please bare with me and If you notice any mistake or any part that doesn't make any sense, please let me know.

You are my snowflake

"I gotta give it to you, there's more people here that I first expected." Stefan said as he looked at the crowded art gallery before sipping his glass of champagne.

"Don't forget I managed to do it with less money that we first expected." Caroline said with a smirk.

"Really?" Stefan asked raising an eyebrow.

Caroline smiled and nodded. "Mhmm! Let's thank the Internet and Tumblr!" She joked. "Using social media and networks made the job easier, you post it and people share it for free! If I keep in the right track I might become my agency's Community Manager, which would be a big step!" Stefan could feel Caroline's excitement as she spoke. She seemed a very energetic woman, which made him feel like picking her agency to advertise his client's work was the right choice.

"I might write you a reference, then." Stefan offered. He promised he would only be Klaus' manager, but he was very impressed with the signs Caroline designed and managed to put up all around the city.

"That would be nice, but I advertise my own work." She replied. Yes, she was a tough cookie, working in a men's world. Being in advertising wasn't easy, but she was good at it, and so passionate, every job seemed like a challenge that she would accomplish and celebrate.

There was a sound that made the crowd go quiet. Klaus was standing in the back, facing the people, with a glass of champagne and a spoon that he used to knock it.

Caroline turned to him, like everyone else, expecting him to say a few words about that special night. This would be the first time she saw him. During the campaign, Caroline only spoke with Klaus' manager, Stefan, and his co-worker Marcel. She only knew Klaus by photos.

"Evening everyone." Klaus said. "First I wanted to thank you all for joining me tonight. There's nothing better for an artist that having the people's support." He said as he looked around, lifting his free hand indicating his paintings on the walls. "Second of all, I wanted to thank my manager, Stefan Salvatore, for making this unique opportunity possible." He said as he lifted hiss glass towards his old friend. "Please, enjoy the art, the food and the lovely company." He finally added to the crowd.

Caroline turned to Stefan and gave him a playful grin. "It looks like I won't be working for you too long, he seems capable of bringing people by himself." She said, noticing how many important people walked to Klaus and offered him their hands to shake after his speech.

"You would be surprised." Stefan replied, finishing his glass. "Now if you excuse me, I got a client whose back I should pat." He joked and stepped away from Caroline.

Klaus was clenching on his glass of champagne. He begged Stefan to get other drinks for the party, like bourbon, but his manager refused, saying the last thing they needed was a drunk Klaus ruining his own exhibition. But the champagne didn't have the effect he wished for. It didn't burn his throat, nor made things fuzzy and clear at the same time. Stefan patted his back and excused everyone around the artist, telling them he needed to "steal him away for a moment" to talk about business. Or maybe there was some problem in the kitchen? Klaus couldn't tell, he wasn't listening, he was just trying to keep breathing, fearing he would have a panic attack any moment now. He didn't even remember Stefan pushing him away from the people.

"You okay?" He asked, not as manager, but as a friend.

"The fact that you have to ask that, means I'm not okay." Klaus replied, quickly taking another glass from a waiter that passed by.

"It's just for one night, okay? Look around, a lot of people came to see you and your art tonight." Stefan said looking around the gallery.

"No, they came to see Niklaus, the artist, not Klaus, the guy that is about to have a panic attack." He replied while his hand tried to pull his tie from his neck, feeling he was suffocating.

Stefan sighed and looked around. "Alright, I didn't want to do this but I knew you might need it." He pulled out a bottle of pills out of his pocket, opened it quickly and took two pills.

"What's that?" Klaus asked with a frown.

"A little something that should help you stay calm."

"Where did you get it?" It wouldn't be the first time Klaus got pills from a friend, but he seriously doubted getting drugged was a good idea.

"My brother gave them to me." Stefan replied reluctantly. Klaus gave him a look. Of course Damon Salvatore was behind those. "Just take them."

And he did. He swallowed the pills that Stefan put on his palm with a sip of his glass. He really hoped he could go through the night without any disasters.

"Now go and make small talk." Stefan said, placing his hands on Klaus' shoulders. The young artist groaned, but Stefan was expecting that. "You need to make new contacts if you want to keep selling paintings. Which reminds me, Alaric told me you already sold three." That was one victory for Klaus. Every paint sold was a reason to celebrate. He nodded his head and finished his drink before heading to the crowd.

"Did he buy it?" A voice said behind Stefan. He turned around and saw Marcel standing there. "I mean... I saw him give him the pills." He continued.

"Yes, he did, and it better stay that way at least till the end of the night." Stefan replied as he looked down to the bottle of pills he was holding. "Klaus can't know these are sugar pills."

With a little bit of confidence in his steps, Klaus managed to walk around the people, sell a few more paintings and talk without running out of air or feeling annoyed by people's ignorance. The night passed, and despite Klaus wasn't as uncomfortable in his own skin as he first thought he would be, he still wasn't having much fun. Specially when he had to explain his paintings to a bunch of people who couldn't tell the difference between a Picasso and a Dalí.

Eventually he reached one of his oldest paintings, but he stood a few feet away from it, watching a young blond woman observing it. He could only see half of her face, but he could tell she was beautiful, her nose was small, her eyes were blue and her eyelashes seemed to frame those eyes perfectly. She was wearing a blue dress, tightly curled around her body from her thighs to her chest, leaving the legs and shoulders exposed. It made her curves look dangerous. But all Klaus noticed her smooth skin, her pinks lips and her golder hair falling in waves on her back.

Klaus lifted his hand and caught Stefan's arm without looking away from the woman.

"Who is she?" Klaus asked quietly. Stefan turned and looked at her. Caroline, the advertising agent. He looked back at his friend to reply when he came up with something better than a name.

"If I told you who she is, I would be ruining her chance to introduce herself..." He started before standing behind Klaus with his hands on his shoulders. "Go get her, tiger."

The painting was titled "Frozen". It was composed by black, white and gray lines. Putting them all together, Caroline saw the snowflake, white and frozen in the middle of so much darkness. She was so caught by the lines, the brushes and the colors she didn't notice the man staring at her. When the sound of a few steps getting closer pulled her out of her thoughts she turned to see the artist, Niklaus, approaching to her and turn to look at the painting while he stood next to her.

"Do you like it?" He asked without looking at her, but at the painting.

"Yes... that's a nice snowflake." Caroline replied.

"Is my work really that literal?" Klaus asked, the amused tone in his voice covered his disappointment. He turned to look at her and he realized they were standing closer than he first intended, and there was a pair of big blue eyes looking right at him.

"I'm serious... there's something... lonely about it." Caroline replied, struggling to put her thoughts into words. She blamed it to her ignorance when it came to art, and not to the fact that his accent and dimples made her mind go blank.

Klaus looked back at the painting. She was the first person that night to realize that. Hell, the first person to realize that ever!

"I'll take that as a compliment." He said before extending his hand to her. "I haven't introduced myself. I'm Klaus."

Most of the time, when people touched Klaus, even if it was an accident, it seemed to trigger a bad reaction. He had a hard time offering his hand for handshakes, but he thought since he was so calm that night, probably thanks to the pills Stefan gave him, that he could stay in control.

"I know, I'm Caroline Forbes. I did the ads for this event." She explained as she took Klaus' hand in a firm, yet delicate handshake.

People tend to describe handshakes in many ways, Klaus would describe them as a very uncomfortable situation. This wasn't like that. His hand linked with Caroline's was beyond comfortable and he even forgot to pull his hand back for a good ten seconds.

"You are my advertiser." He said out loud, although he was just realizing that. "Then how come we haven't met before?" He asked.

Caroline smiled proudly and nodded when he concluded she was his advertising agent. "Long story, the few times I came here Marcel told me you were working at your studio, then I got a cold so I did most of my work from my apartment. Now I'm better so I decided to stop by, plus Stefan gave the agency a few tickets and I wasn't going to let them be a waste." She replied.

"I see." Klaus managed to see. He listened to her, but he wasn't really thinking about her words as much as he was focused on her mouth and that light pink lip gloss she had on. He was distracted, like every time he drank too much, although in his opinion it wasn't possible champagne had him lightheaded so soon. "You were saying..." He continued as he turned to look at the painting. "There's something lonely about the painting..." Klaus was curious to know what made her say that.

"I don't know. I don't know anything about art." She said completely honest, which was something Klaus admired. They both stared at it for a moment before Caroline spoke again. "Is that you? The snowflake, I mean." She asked and Klaus smiled with amusement.

"What makes you think that, love?" He asked, feeling more comfortable around her than most of the people in the room.

"How do I explain it?" Caroline mumbled. "You know that snowflakes are one of a kind, right?" She waited for Klaus response, which was a simple nod. "What if that's what makes it lonely? Knowing that there isn't any snowflake like that one. And you're an artist, meaning you're one of a kind. Do you ever think of yourself as a snowflake?"

Klaus was astonished. Was this woman reading his mind? She had to be. No one ever seemed to know the true meaning behind his paintings, yet she did, after one look. He didn't reply Caroline's question, and after a moment of silence, the young woman started to feel uneasy. Her nervous laugh pulled Klaus out of his thoughts.

"I'm sorry. I tend to talk too much." She said. Klaus quickly shook his head.

"No, please, don't apologize." He took two glasses from a waitress that walked around the crowd. "I find you fascinating." He said handing her one of the glasses, which she took before he had the chance to ask her to join him for a drink.

Did he just call her fascinating? Caroline couldn't remember the last time someone ever say something as simple as "you're pretty" to her. And now she was fascinating? She kept her cool tho. She was used to receiving compliments for her work anyway.

"I don't know about art, really. Except advertising, which I consider a form of art. It takes a creative process and a lot of passion. That's art to me." She said. Most people would laugh at her, saying advertising is just a way to fool people, to make them buy things, not art. But Klaus could relate to that, to her.

"I'm sorry, I have to steal him away." Stefan said to Caroline as he patted Klaus' back. He stayed away from the two of them since Klaus went to introduce himself, but now the night was reaching its end and he had to wrap it up.

"Of... of course." Caroline said with a nod before turning to Klaus. "I think tonight was a success, so congrats!" She said, offering her hand for Klaus to shake.

It was now or never, go big or go home, give the girl an impression she wouldn't forget. He took Caroline's hand but instead of shaking it, he lifted it to his mouth and kissed her knuckles softly.

"It was a pleasure meeting you love." He said, memorizing the surprise in Caroline's face, and then he added with a calm and low voice. "You are quite the snowflake." He let Caroline's hand go and walked away with Stefan.

"Snowflake?" Stefan asked when they were far enough for Caroline to hear. "What did I miss? Is that a new way of flirting?" He was truly confused by his friend's behavior, it was quite unusual. Klaus didn't reply, he just smirked. Caroline was unique, like a snowflake. "It's a secret, mate."

Caroline watched Klaus thank everyone once again and say good night. She still had a tingling sensation in her hand and her cheeks were pink, a blush caused by the way Klaus' big eyes seemed to peel off her clothes and make her feel naked, the way he called her love with that thick accent, and mostly the way he called her a snowflake.

The gallery was empty now, except for Klaus, Stefan and Marcel. Klaus still felt uneasy, which was weird because he didn't feel like that when he was alone with his friends. Marcel was swinging a bottle of bourbon around after serving the glasses for third time. At this point the liquor should make Klaus feel better, but it wasn't working. He was still thinking about the snowflake, about Caroline, about her pink lips and blond hair.

"I say tonight was a success." Stefan said lifting his glass to Klaus. "You sold many paintings."

Despite the obvious victory, Klaus just shrugged. After a moment the panic came creeping up his chest and he turned to Stefan with wide eyes.

"What is it?" Stefan asked, trying not to choke on his drink.

"Frozen... the paining... did you sell it?!" He asked. When Stefan shook his head, Klaus felt the air getting back in his lungs. "Good. Don't sell it." He said shyly. "I want to keep that one."

Stefan and Marcel looked at each other, surprised by the reason of Klaus' panic, and how easily it went away. Looking at the painting Stefan realized why.

"Please tell me you're meeting Caroline again." He said with a teasing tone. Klaus made a face and shook his head. "That's okay. I have her number."