Prompt: Klaus / Caroline / I mean it / Rated M

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Caroline's golden waves brush upon Klaus' face. The sunlight shines through Caroline's room's window and sheer, green drapery, illuminating the entire space. It's almost nine in the morning, yet there they are, still unclothed and touching every inch of each other.

Klaus takes in the scent of Caroline's lavender perfume as she lies atop him, placing sloppy kisses around his neck. Her lip balm leaves a minty scent that he notices right away, and her breath is minty, too. Toothpaste, he thinks. Then "toothpaste," he whispers.

His fingers are on her lower back. He likes the feeling of her smooth skin, and especially how Caroline frequently pauses in the middle of sex to replace his hands, either on her ass or on her hips, the way she enjoys it most. He also delights in feeling those sloppy kisses, and how she lightly bites on his neck like it's some kind of fetish for her. But then again, she's a neck-biting vampire. And he's a neck-biting hybrid. It's expected.

"What did you say?" she asks, as Klaus starts to run his fingers along the sides of her body. He thinks about the hour-long marathon of love-making they finished a few moments before, and how touching her body makes him want to start touching her again. But he wants her to suggest it, just so he doesn't seem too eager, even if they both are.

"Nothing," he mumbles. "I just said 'toothpaste.' Your lips and breath smell like mint. It's quite nice."

Caroline lets out a loud laugh and then bites her lip, staring at Klaus with a smirk. He thinks she looks so beautiful with her face in that particular way, and in every other way, if he's honest. He almost doesn't want to ruin the moment by speaking, but he's curious as to why she finds that humorous.

"What's so funny, love?"

"For the last hour, you've only said one-word responses." He raises an eyebrow. "Fuck, love, beautiful, wow..." She counts off the words on her fingers. "Caroline, ten variations of fuck, and then... toothpaste."

Klaus uses his right elbow to quickly lift himself and linger above Caroline. She turns her body so that she's facing him, and he's facing her. He leans his upper body in and kisses her roughly on the mouth, and she kisses back, surprised at how fast they changed positions. It only took half a second, probably, but then she remembers they both possess supernatural speed. It's just that they took their sweet time a few moments ago—an entire hour—which was a record time for Caroline having sex with someone.

She is also surprised at Klaus' eagerness, again despite the previous hour. She's not tired at all, and she wants to kiss him again, and fuck him again, and take him all in again, but it seems weird to initiate it. They only had sex once before that day in the forest a while back, when Klaus was visiting Mystic Falls. And then last night, she felt vulnerable and alone, yet also strong enough to make the decision for mindless sex again, and to awkwardly call him. Except this time, it did not seem scandalous at all, and she wasn't thriving on the idea of being scandalous. Last night, Klaus came and told him about the current happenings in the land of New Orleans, and she enlightened him on the Traveler crap in Mystic Falls. And somehow she ended up crying, and he ended up holding her. And then they ended up in her bedroom asleep, and she turned to Klaus and then ripped his clothes off in the morning thinking 'What the hell.'

She looked into his eyes.

She kissed him and undressed.

She felt in control.

And then an hour passed, and there they were.

Klaus kisses Caroline on the lips once again. "Do you want to stop?" he asks, after seeing Caroline sigh as if something else was on her mind, or as if she was unsure.

"Please," she says, rolling her eyes and focusing on him. "Don't. Don't speak about anything serious." She wraps her arms around the back of his neck to bring him forward, and then tries to bring his body closer by tightening her legs around him, arching her body. Klaus places his hands on the sides of her face, letting his fingers move around the curves of her neck and shoulders, to the sides of her breasts, and she drops her arms to the side, clenching onto her cotton sheets. He then kisses her neck softly, and he wants to ask her some more questions, so that he can know what is on her mind, so that he can read her. But Caroline doesn't want that.

He hears her soft moans and views them as a melody, and he quickens his pace as she tightens her legs even more, moans like pleas. She reaches her hands forward to grab onto his messy, brown hair, playing with it, then bringing him closer again so that she can look at his face. She looks confused for a second but hopes Klaus doesn't notice at all; she's just thinking, Why do I like you so much? Why do you like me so much? as if they are fourth graders writing love letters and having big, stupid crushes.

Caroline is confused because she knows how it goes: She either wants to sleep with a guy, hold hands with a guy, or do both. Wanting only one of the first two is safe, but the last is dangerous. The thing is, she wants to sleep with and hold hands and fight and make out and run away with Klaus. There are too many emotions and thoughts that go through her mind when she thinks of Klaus, and even as she's fucking him she visualizes him buying her a rose, or writing her a letter. And she also thinks about how everything in that exact moment, and everything from the night before, and everything from their brief encounters to touchy waltzes confuses her. How he can go from being completely realistic and in the moment, to thinking about years into the future, imagining them traveling the world together...

She feels overwhelmed, but in an oddly good way. A great way, actually.

It's a mess of emotions, but I like him, she realizes. I like Klaus.

"I think I like you. A lot," she admits aloud.

She begins regretting how childish those words sounded as they exited her mouth. Maybe she should have opted for something more romantic, or less general. But her emotions were a mess, and only that she was certain of.

Klaus takes a pause from his kisses on her neck and collarbones, letting out a breath of relief and surprise. It's the first time Caroline has said anything like that explicitly; even if it wasn't elaborately phrased or planned, he didn't care. Even though they were both completely naked, and the situation was probably inappropriate, he didn't care. He was smiling. Not a smirk or a slight grin, but a full smile. Caroline looked confused as she did not expect a full smile as his reaction, and she giggled at how amazed he looked.

He coughed and then let out a low laugh, not knowing anything to say in response. Falling and lying beside Caroline, some of her golden waves brushing the side of his face, he touches her hand with his. A moment passes, just silence, and Caroline is still a bit puzzled at Klaus not saying a word and smiling more than she's even seen in the past years she's known him.

"You mean it, Caroline?" he asks. She thinks about how she loves the way her name sounds when he says it, and how there's a difference between the way Klaus says "love" and the way he calls her "Love." She then turns her body towards him, staring down at their hands brushing together.

Caroline smiles. "I guess, I mean," she pauses. Klaus feels as if something sad will come out of her mouth, like how she did not mean what she said, or that she isn't certain, or that she doesn't want to talk about it ever again. But she laughs and tells him that, when looking down at their hands, she realized that they were completely naked, and the sunlight shining on their private parts made her remember where they were and what they were doing, and that they should probably get dressed.

"And yes, I did mean it, Klaus," she clarifies. She purses her lips and then smiles, again letting out a laugh. Klaus looks at her and tries to mentally count how many times she has laughed in the past ten or so minutes. He keeps hold of her hand and then rubs his thumb against her wrist, and then his hand across her side. She's still laughing, and she can't take it anymore.

"What's so funny now?"

"It's just that," she starts. "I. Literally. Ripped off your clothes this morning. They're shredded. In pieces."

Klaus raises an eyebrow and just looks Caroline again, thinking about the entire morning, from waking up to her straddling him, to now, her cheeks flushed red as she's trying to catch her breath.

"You don't have any clothes to wear. I don't know how you're going to leave this place."

He laughs along, and all he can think about is her, how they are taking it slow. And how she just admitted to liking him, maybe as a person, or as a friend, or as a lover. He wants to know, but he doesn't want to pressure her. So all he does is think about how hectic the next hours will be, as they try to find a way to have him wear something that would not damage his reputation as the "powerful Original hybrid" if someone along the way were to recognize him. He also knows he has to go back to New Orleans, to his current life. And although Caroline spoke about the problems of Mystic Falls, he knows she wouldn't leave, at least not with everything going on.

He has to leave.

They have to be apart.

That's how it goes.

He thinks about how any sort of a goodbye from Caroline would hurt him, because their interpretations of goodbyes probably aren't the same. So are their definitions for a lot of things, like what liking someone means. But Klaus doesn't want to think about that.

He just holds on to her words like they're the only thing that matters, and handles the humor as Caroline looks through her wardrobe for the least embarrassing pieces of clothing, even though the very thought of waiting distracts him and feels like it's literally weighing his heart down. And the idea of a goodbye still feels awfully painful.

He just wonders and hopes that sometime in the future, they'll both need each other at the same time. For the same reasons.

And there wouldn't be any need for clarification, or anyone else.

Maybe then they could see the world together.