Chapter 15

The next day in Amsterdam was pleasant, to say the least. Caroline and Klaus woke up well rested at a reasonable time, and due to the nature of their bath the night before, Klaus was in an extremely good more. Caroline had planned to mention that Mickey had appeared at the hotel shortly after he had fallen asleep, but she didn't want to ruin his mood.

She put it to the back of her mind—she was surely never going to see the man again. In a few days, she would be going back to New York, and he would be just a distant, embarrassing memory.

As she got ready in the morning, she noticed the tiny scrap of paper amongst her eyeliners. Klaus was in the shower, so she dug it out quickly and ripped it into shreds. Before Klaus could come back, she ran over to the window and threw the remains of the paper outside. She didn't want the reminder amongst her personal things, especially now that things were going so well with Klaus.

She had expected awkwardness between them again, as this was the aftermath of the second time they had slept together, but none was present. Klaus had woken up bright and early, and had been quick to make sure Caroline was up too. She had assumed they would be eating the continental hotel breakfast, but Klaus had whisked her out of the hotel and into the city.

Amsterdam during the day was completely different to what she had seen at night. It was strange—even though she had set foot on the same path just several hours before, Caroline felt like she was in a completely different place. The glowing, neon lights that screamed sex were gone, replaced by the weak Europe sun, which made everything look clean and bright. She could hardly believe that this was a city plagued by prostitution and any overly sexual nightlife.

They had an enjoyable fruity breakfast together, with a lot of French toast and eggs, but not a pancake in sight. Caroline's stomach was feeling a little woozy from the night before and she didn't have much of an appetite, but Klaus didn't allow her to pick at her food. "We've got a long day ahead of us, love," he told her, nudging her plate. "Finish your food."

And a long day did it turn out to be. In a way, Caroline admired Klaus for truly rinsing the date that he had paid for—at least his fifty thousand dollars were being put to use. A car had been brought to the hotel for him to use, and he drove them all over the city, meaning that they didn't have to rely on taxis or coaches. Before lunch, they went to an open air theatre and watched a play. After snacking again, Klaus drove them to the Museum District, and Caroline had never been more awed in her life.

Art had never been something she had truly admired before, and she had always been bored by the Mystic Falls History Museum, but perhaps that was because she knew everything about Mystic Falls. Here, she was admiring the contemporary art, feeling shocked and appalled during their visit to Anne Frank's attic, and wowed by her favourite—the Van Gogh museum. Klaus purchased them tickets into all of these places and followed Caroline around as she gasped and made brief comments about the art. Finally, as they were standing in front of the beautiful Almond Blossom piece, Caroline turned to Klaus, her face glowing.

"Aren't you looking at the art?" she asked him, and he smiled at the excitement in her eyes. She had told him previously that she hadn't much been out of Mystic Falls before, and since coming to New York, money hadn't come easy to her. Her first holiday had been the visit to the Hamptons; not true sightseeing, something Klaus adored to do.

"There's plenty of art in the world, love," Klaus replied. "But I'm only interested in looking at you." He grinned as she flushed and turned back to the painting.

It was late afternoon by the time they finished wandering around the museums, and time for Klaus to give her the last treat of the day. He took them to an area of the canal, where a small red canal boat sat on the river, with a table and two chairs sitting on top. Fairy lights adorned the table and the roof and windows of the boat, making it stand out against the hazy, darkening afternoon.

"Klaus," Caroline whispered. "It's beautiful."

A Dutch man stepped out of the boat and gestured for Klaus and Caroline to step on. Klaus did so first, holding out his hand to help Caroline up, and they both took their seats at the table. The Dutch man murmured something to Klaus in his language, and Klaus nodded. A few minutes later, the Dutch man was presenting them with champagne, pouring it into tall glasses, before bowing out and returning to the inside of the boat.

As it lurched into steady movement, Caroline shrieked. "Will we fall off?" she gasped, clutching the rungs of her chair. She was becoming increasingly aware that the railings around the top of the canal boat were very, very low—it would be only too easy to slip and tumble straight into the water. Klaus laughed into his champagne.

"Of course not," he replied. "The boat will go no slower than this. Just relax."

So, relax she did. She found that it was remarkably easy to talk to Klaus—he had set up a wonderful day for them, and it had not yet been ruined by anything. In fact, Caroline had to resist the urge to pinch herself—she was sure that something was bound to go wrong.

But it hadn't, and she wasn't about to ruin it by bringing up their heated love-making session the night before. Klaus was talking animatedly; chatting about work, about work events, Elijah, Kol and Rebekah. Caroline found herself initially tuning out at Rebekah's name, but she became interested when he spoke about Kol. She personally hadn't spoken to Kol since he had embarrassed her at his mother's Charity Gala by bringing another date and basically making her look a fool. It turned out that Elijah had finally given up on Kol, after catching him up to no good.

"Elijah caught him in the Hamptons," Klaus told her. "He had sneaked into Elijah's home with the tramp he had brought with him to the Gala. Apparently, he didn't expect Elijah to be home so early—which is odd, considering how much of a fun sponge my older brother is. He was raiding Elijah's house, looking for money, apparently. He confessed as soon as Elijah walked in and found him snorting cocaine off the girl's back, and all of Elijah's suits were strewn around the house."

Caroline was appalled. "I'm really sorry to hear that, Klaus."

Klaus shrugged. "I've always known Kol was going to turn out in such a way. That's why I don't like you hanging around him. He's always been a terrible influence on anyone he meets. It's Elijah who is really upset—he tries to see the best in everyone, and he really wanted Kol to flourish."

"So, he's sacked?"

"He's sacked."

Caroline couldn't help but feel relieved. Even though she and Klaus had their own area of the office nowadays, Kol was still always present. Being the little brother of the chairmen of the company meant that he had many perks, including venturing into Klaus's office at his own will, something that the other employees would never do. He was always looking to find Caroline alone, so that he could distract her from her work (and possibly irritate Klaus in the process).

"You seem quite pleased about that," Caroline added cheekily, noticing the brightness in Klaus's eyes.

"Of course I am. You know how much my little brother annoys me. Though, it does mean that Elijah will probably look for another assistant."

Caroline drained her glass of champagne. "Don't I assist him enough?" she chuckled, feigning offence. In reality, it would be better for her if Elijah did get his own personal assistant, because her workload would be taken down a notch.

The afternoon soon melted into the evening, and by the time they returned to dry land, Caroline was surprised that at least one of them hadn't toppled over the side of the boat. As they stood by the side of the canal, Klaus removed his jacket and wrapped it around his shoulders, before Caroline could protest.

"Thanks for the great day," she told him quickly, clutching the lapels of his jacket around her. The evening had brought with it a coolness. It seemed that summer evenings in Europe didn't get as warm as they often did in America.

"Are you glad you agreed to come out to Amsterdam with me, now?" Klaus smirked.

"I didn't really agree," countered Caroline, cocking an eyebrow. "But...yes, I suppose I am."

"Good," Klaus replied. "Now, we're going to head back to the hotel and have a wash and a change, and then we're going out for dinner."

Caroline didn't say anything as they walked back to the hotel. She felt, for the first time in a while, rather happy. She wasn't confused by Klaus, even though they were yet to discuss the previous night, and her argument with Elena was as far away as New York. She had planned to at least send Elena a text message once she arrived in Amsterdam, but after realising that her best friend hadn't bothered to try and contact her, Caroline had stubbornly decided she wouldn't be the one to text first.

Plus, after such a good day, she didn't want to become irritated by a problem that was back in the States.

Caroline was waiting in the foyer of the hotel for Klaus. He had told her to wait downstairs, as he wanted to make a call to Elijah beforehand, and she had agreed. They were, after all, on (yet another) holiday, and she didn't really want to think about work. So, she stood by the reception in her smart evening attire, patiently waiting.

"Hey, sweetness," a familiar, accented voice alerted her. She looked up, spotting the cheeky, grinning face of Mickey—the Traveller from the night before. She gasped—she had almost forgotten about his existence. "You're looking delicious. Going out?" His eyes travelled up and down the length of her body, and she pressed her lips together tightly.

"You should go," she muttered, glancing at the receptionist—Arabella, the woman whom Klaus said he knew through his family. She was giving Mickey a disgusted look, like she had never seen someone so filthy step in her hotel before. Whilst he wasn't generally dirty, Caroline had to admit that he was a lot less good looking than he had been whilst she was drunk. His teeth were a little too crooked, his hair greasy, and his clothes were shabby. She didn't like the way he was looking at her either, like he was a hungry dog and she was a juicy steak. "I'm going out to dinner."

Mickey nodded. "With the boyfriend, right?"

Caroline's lips grew even tighter, but she didn't correct him. "Please leave."

"I thought you would've called me," Mickey continued, ignoring her demand. "Don't you wanna have some fun, again?"

"No!" Caroline hissed, turning around to glare at him. Arabella looked up from her guestbook, giving Caroline an unamused stare, and Caroline rolled her eyes. She grabbed Mickey by the arm and marched him over to the doorway, leading him outside. "Look, I just want to forget about last night, okay?" she told him, once they were out of the hotel and away from Arabella. "I don't know you, I don't want to know you."

"Feisty," Mickey replied. Suddenly, Caroline noticed that something had shifted in his accent. The humorous, Irish tone was gone—he wasn't European, he was American. Maybe even a New York national. "But this isn't about you, actually. It's about Kol."

Panic flared within Caroline. "What about Kol? And...what's happened to your voice?"

"Never mind that, sweet," he continued. She looked up behind Mickey, and noticed that there was a blue transit van sitting in front of the hotel. She hadn't paid much attention to it before—vans were always parked outside hotels, making deliveries and such. But suddenly it worried her—a man sitting in the driver's seat was looking at her with a devious smirk and dark, glimmering eyes. Before Caroline could make a dash back inside the hotel, Mickey had grabbed her around the waist and thrown her over his shoulder.

"Put me down right now!" she screamed, beating her fists on his back and dropping her handbag in the process. "Klaus!"

"Caroline?" a voice boomed from inside the foyer of the hotel. As Caroline was being thrown into the back of the van, she spotted Klaus exiting the hotel—but he was too late. Mickey had already jumped into the back with her, pulled shut the doors, and the driver was speeding away from the hotel.

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