prompt: "hey, i'm escorting my little brother/nephew to this party and even though you sucked as a magician, i think you're pretty cool."

written for klarolineauweek over on tumblr for day three; magic. so i've kind of taken the term 'magic' not so literally, and this is probably cheating but ah well. also, i was sent this prompt before the last klarolineauweek and this has took forever, so oops. sorry guys! hope you all enjoy this one.

also, this is gonna need a part two at some point? kind of a cliffhanger. literally, gonna be one more part, though. i promise.

- shauna! xo

Caroline Forbes loved her father. Truly, she did, 100%, but when he asked her to baby sit almost every week, he was seriously testing that love.

He and his partner, Steven, had recently adopted a little boy after many months of trying, and they'd become successful. Her father was delighted at becoming a father again, and Steven even happier, at having his first child. His name was Henry, and the kid was cute, extremely cute, she'd give him that, but that didn't mean she'd like to be babysitting when she could be out partying with her friends.

She was twenty, after all.

So, that is how Caroline finds herself taking Henry to one of the friend's at his new school's party, because he was five years old and apparently it was essential to his social development, and basically her father knows how to guilt trip her. That, and she was offered new shoes, and a night out pre-paid for, and she was a college student so she'd take all the money she could get.

Henry is adorable, though, and she knows he's nervous, when they arrive at his friend's house. His fingers curl around hers, and his palm squeezes against hers.

Giggling slightly to herself, she bends down to his height, as she squeezes his hand back whilst she shoots him what she hopes is a reassuring smile.

"You'll be fine," she tells the little boy, a charming smile on her face. "I promise. Just be yourself, and you'll make lots of friends in no time."

The look he sends her reminds her very much of when she was younger, and her lips twitch at that.

"That's your strategy, Care?" he asks, almost mockingly, and she's almost impressed at that for a five year old. "Be yourself?"

Caroline snorts, rolling her eyes, as she presses the doorbell and they wait for somebody to answer.

"Just have fun," she winks at him.

Caroline straightens to her full height, when she hears the door open, that familiar creek that accompanies an old building. She plasters her best Miss Mystic Falls smile on her face, as her arm curves around her new brother (and god, that was still strange to say, but she couldn't deny that she did love the kid, he was family now).

That smile, however, soon fades, when she catches who is waiting at the door, and her arm falls from her little brother.

"Klaus," she breathes out, and her voice is far too breath for her liking.

And there he is, in all of his smirking glory. But, god, he looks hot, as usual.

His smile widens, when he catches her eyes trailing over his form, and it causes his dimples to protrude, and she can't help but think how adorable that makes him look. He's wearing black jeans, and a dark henley that hugs his chest, emphasising his muscular chest. His eyes are unbelievably blue, when her eyes flicker back up to his, and she bites her lip, when she catches the dark flick of lust echoing through them.

"Caroline," he dimples.

Caroline lets out a long, drawn out sigh, and she barely restrains herself from rolling her eyes, as she tries her best to stop herself from meeting his gaze, as her eyes flicker down to Henry's.

She ignores the nagging feeling in her stomach that she always gets when she knows that Klaus is staring at her, with that intense look of his. Coughing, she shifts slightly, and she stumbles back against her brother, her arm curving around his shoulders.

"I'm here to get my brother to Henrik's birthday party?" she tells him, though it almost comes out questioning, and she ignores the amused look on his face.

"My brother," Klaus nods, and then his head twists to the side, slightly. "And you must be Henry, my brother has been waiting for you to arrive. He's not so patient that one, just between you and me," Klaus mock whispers, and he shoots a wink to the nervous little boy.

Caroline smiles, when Henry seems to relax slightly, and the stiff set of his shoulders soften, as he grins up at Klaus.

Caroline thinks he has the worst taste, but she bites her lip.

Klaus steps aside for the boy, and Henry eagerly steps forward.

"Why don't you go in?" Klaus encourages. "Almost everybody is already here, I'm sure they're itching to start the games."

Henry is still grinning as he steps forward, but he falters, looking back at Caroline, as though asking permission, and Caroline feels herself soften considerably, as she remembers all the tragedy's he has suffered in his young life.

"Go ahead," Caroline tells him, a smile on her face. "I'll be back to pick you up at 4."

Though, Henry is still hesitating.

"Promise?"

Honestly, she feels like she's the one who could start crying at the tremor in his voice.

"I promise," she swears.

He nods, and he walks forward, but not before he looks back to Klaus.

"Should I take my shoes off?" he asks, and Caroline shakes her head at his manners.

Clearly, he was not biologically related to her. Klaus shakes his head, and shoots her a grin, as though he was thinking the same thing.

"Just go on in," he assures the boy.

There's an awkward silence for a few moments, and Caroline shifts on her feet, before she shakes her head, and sighs, when she realises that Klaus isn't going to say anything. She takes a very obvious step backwards, and is about to flew without a word, when Klaus suddenly steps forward, and clapses an arm around her wrist.

"Stay," he suddenly pleads, and she's taken back at the tone in his voice.

Her forehead crinkles slightly, and her eyes narrow.

"Why?"

"The boy seems nervous, and he's given to, if what my mother tells me is true, about his time in foster homes. She also tells me that he's taken quite the liking to you, and maybe he will feel better, if he sees a familiar face, that he can trust," the words are said slowly, but his accent wraps around the words, drawing the words out carefully.

Caroline thinks that he's just found an excuse to make her stay, and her eyes narrow immediately, but she finds that she can't fault his reasoning, so she agrees, albeit begrudgingly.

"Of course."

The words are gritted out between her gritted teeth and a clenched jaw, and she debates punching him in the face, because after everything that had happened between them, how the hell did he get off on standing there so casually, and practically manipulating into staying, when he knows that she can't refuse?

His face lights up at that, a grin taking over his face.

"Excellent," he murmurs, and then he takes a step backwards, opening the door more firmly, as his fingers curl around the wood, and he bows slightly. "Now, please. Come on in."

She does, her heels clacking on the floor, and she feels Klaus, almost pressing against her back, as he walks very closely to her. She hears a cough, and her head twists to the side slightly. Klaus' face is extremely close to hers, and his lips look too inviting.

Klaus bites back a smirk, his face taking on a look of mock innocence.

"May I take your coat?" he requests.

Caroline lets out a sigh, when his hands slither around her shoulder, as she agrees. She bites back a contented sigh, when she feels his hands on her bare skin, and she suddenly declares that the strapless, black top had been a bad idea. She feels his breath against her back, and shivers vibrate down her spine, her own breathing coming out a little shaky.

Her eyes flutter shut, when she feels Klaus step into her, and she feels every inch of him pressing against her, and his fingers wrap around her curls, tugging slightly. He swipes her hair to the left, and his lips come down onto her neck, pressing one and two kisses before withdrawing, and effectively bringing Caroline back to the present.

She shifts away from him abruptly, and she hears a loud sigh.

Caroline pulls up her top slightly, her hands brushing over her jeans.

"We should get to the party," Caroline mutters. "I'm sure your brother is waiting for you."

She starts to walk away from him, towards what she thinks is the right direction, when she hears footsteps hurrying to her side.

"As you wish," she hears him murmur.

(She decides to let that one go.)

-/-

There's a few other parents in the room, and though some of them are only a couple of years older than her, she feels the awkwardness creep in. That is until Rebekah Mikaelson walks in, and she sighs with relief.

"Caroline," she grins. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Henry was invited," Caroline explains. "And my father couldn't make it, so he volunteered me to babysit."

"Henry?" Rebekah asks, and her head tips to the side in confusion before lighting up, when she realises. "Oh, your new brother. Which one is he?"

Caroline twists her head, and she points Henry out, who was set down next to Henrik, as they wait for the magician to start. Caroline thinks that's what Rebekah organised, since it's more her taste, and honestly, Caroline really should have figured out that Henrik was Henrik Mikaelson before. It wasn't exactly a common name, after all.

It's a few moments later, when Rebekah nudges her shoulder, and she turns her head to the side.

"I didn't expect to find you here," Rebekah murmurs. "After... everything, that happened last time."

Caroline doesn't answer to that straight away, as she gazes out at the crowd of five and six year old's, and her lips press firmly together, as she contemplates her words. She debates asking Rebekah what she knows, but figures that her brother told her. They were family after all.

"Yeah," Caroline lets out a shaky breath. "I didn't either."

Her eyes glaze over, as she catches the magician walking up the stage (that absolutely was Rebekah, Caroline had decided), and her head tips to the side, her eyes narrowing when she realises that his form looks a little too familiar to be a stranger, and it gets her thinking to the last time that she saw Klaus.

She doesn't actually remember all that much about that night.

She remembers screaming, and hurling insults, before she'd stormed out of that room, but she remembers what she felt. She remembers the ultimate betrayal that she had felt, her stomach dropping as she'd arrived at his apartment.

They'd been dating for six months, officially anyways, and the plan was to go out for dinner, but Caroline had decided that they could just stay in and skip straight to the desert. They hadn't had sex for almost a month, damn Kol and his cockblocking tendencies, and honestly she was getting pretty desperate. So, with Kol long gone, she decides to buy a new set of red, lacy lingerie and surprise him, at his apartment, when she knew he'd be back.

Caroline is the one that gets the surprise, however. Boy, does she.

His bedroom door is wide open, and there's a big grin on her face, as her fingers curl around the door frame, preparing to undo the knot tying her long black robe around her almost naked form, and the black heels did scream 'fuck me', or so she hoped.

"Klaus-"

She cuts herself off on a sharp gasp when the door fully opens, and her eyes widen, almost comically if it were any other situation.

Said persons head snaps up suddenly, and she can see a mixture of emotions swilling around in them, as his arms reach towards her, even if he's too far away. She finally sees when the gravity of the situation dawns on him, because he looks down at the girl on his lap, before his eyes flicker back up to hers.

"Caroline," her name is barely a whisper from his lips.

At this point, she's shocked. She's so beyond shocked, and she's not entirely sure she's capable of words.

The girl on his lap turns around to face her, her red lips pulling away from his neck, and that feeling of betrayal only gets worse when she sees who it is. Nobody else other than Hayley Marshall. A partner at Klaus' firm, who had flirted with Klaus many a time, but Klaus had assured her time and time again that nothing had ever happened between the two of them and nothing ever would.

Well, so much for empty promises.

"So sorry, Caroline," the brunette smirks from his lap, as she stumbles around the room, clearly looking for her discarded clothes. "Niklaus assured me that you would not be home anytime soon."

Caroline grits her teeth, as she urges herself not to punch her in the face, but Hayley soon leaves, her lips still pulled up into a smirk, and Caroline's eyes flicker down to her boyfriend of six months, who seems to have regained his voice, as he stumbles towards her.

"Caroline," he says breathlessly. "It's not- I'm not. Just- it's not what it-"

And so has Caroline.

"It's not what it looks like? Are you fucking kidding me right now?" The words are a yell, her voice turning into a screetch and she bites back the emotion in her throat, willing the tears not to come.

Klaus isn't done, however, as he clenches his fingers around her wrist, pulling until she twists her head to stare up at him.

"It isn't," he insists. "I promise. I-"

"Save it," Caroline hisses, and she knows the tears are strolling endlessly down her face at this point.

She pulls away from him harshly, and she takes a very clear step backwards.

"Just- save it," she tells him, her eyes glassy with tears as she glares at him, even more so when he stares hopelessly back at her. "I don't want to hear it, and I don't want to hear from you. Ever again. Do you get that?"

Klaus stays wisely silent.

"How could you?" Her bottom lip wobbles, as her eyes drop to the floor, and her hand comes over her mouth, when a sob escapes. "How could you do that to me? Betray me like that?" Another step backwards. "You could have told me if you were bored, I'm not precisely a stage six clinger."

His head snaps up at that, his head already shaking, but it's too late, and her back is turned.

"Save it," she snaps, squeezing her eyes closed and willing the teers to stop. "I don't want to hear it. It's done. We're over."

The sound of the door slamming behind her muffles the sound of her tears, as she walks home, wrapping the robe more tightly around herself.

Why did she always fall for the wrong ones?

Caroline blinks, coming back to, as she watches the magician perform on stage, and she vaguely remembers the night that Klaus had told her that he was extremely into magic when he was younger. It's that thought that has her eyes narrowing, and her eyebrows furrowing.

"Klaus?" her voice comes out questioning, though she didn't mean to say it out loud.

She hears a laugh to her left, and her head twists to find Rebekah practically shaking with laughter.

"My fault," the younger Mikaelson admits. "I've been blackmailing him to do this for months, and he finally agreed."

Caroline raises an eyebrow but doesn't comment.

Klaus agreed? Just like that

She shakes her head, but doesn't dwell on it that much. It's none of her business, not anymore.

"I know it's none of my business," she hears, and she finds Rebekah speaking to her once more. "It really isn't, but maybe, after the show, you could go speak to him? I'm sure he'd love to see you."

Caroline's eyes narrow sharply, and her back arches as she sits straight.

"No," she says firmly, and she watches as Rebekah flinches back slightly. "Sorry, I don't mean to sound mean to you- Just, no. I can't."

She bites back the emotion welling in her throat, as she sighs. She just can't.

Rebekah shakes her head.

"Just a thought," she murmurs.

Caroline blocks her out, then, and her head twists out to the stage to see Klaus kneeling to the new edition to her family, and she smiles at the joy on Henry's face, even if it is at the hand's of the person who broke her heart.

-/-

It's a long day, that's for sure, and Caroline does her absolute best to avoid literally all the Mikaelsons in the house. Bit of a hard task, but she manages it, pretty much, until it comes to the end of the party, and she walks towards where she's spotted Henry.

"Henry," she calls out.

His head turns around, and he rushes over to her with a grin.

"Care," he hugs around her legs, and she feels her heart melt, just a little.

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

He's already nodding enthusiastically before she's finished.

"Mmhm," he sighs. "And Klaus promised to teach me magic. Can you believe it? Real magic. Henrik told me to come around whenever."

Caroline bites back a sharp sigh at that, the mention of Klaus, but she bends down to her brother's height and smiles at him, as genuinely as she can manage.

"I'm sure dad would love to bring you around more, if that's okay with Henrik's parents," she tells the boy.

He grins.

Caroline smiles back before she nods towards his friends.

"Why don't you go say bye?" Caroline encourages. "We need to leave soon."

Henry's already bouncing off, before she's finished, and she shakes her head, grinning, at the joy she finds in his face. It's a welcome change, from the way they'd first found him. No child should go through that.

"Caroline."

She freezes when she hears her name, and she was doing so well. Sighing, she bites her lip, as she turns around to find a familiar face staring down at her.

"Klaus," she sighs in recognition.

"It was lovely to see you again," he tells her, as though saying goodbye to an old friend.

Caroline grits her teeth, her jaw tightening, and she obviously doesn't return the sentiment.

Klaus' smile seems to weign slightly, and she goes to turn back around.

"Wait," he declares suddenly.

Klaus steps forward, and his fingers curl around her wrist, as though to stop her from leaving.

"Wait," he repeats, and his eyes are suddenly so full of emotion that she struggles to keep up. "I've been wanting to talk to you for a while now, and you're here. Can we just talk? There's so much that needs to be said between us."

Caroline glares.

"I think everything that needed to be said was when I found you between the thighs of the one girl that you promised you weren't into," she shoots him a sardonic smile.

"Nothing happened, Caroline," he sighs, his fingers running through his hair, as though he was frustrated.

She raises an eyebrow.

"So she ended up naked, on your lap to what? Draw you a picture?" She mocks.

"It was all her. I didn't do anything, Caroline," he hisses.

She doesn't believe him, not for one second, and she feels a pull to her arm, at the exact moment that she hears a shrill "Care".

She smiles brightly at her brother.

"You done?"

He nods.

"Great, let's go then. I'm sure dad is itching to hear about your day," she tells him, almost desperately because she needs to get away.

"Caroline," she hears a plea of her name. "Please, I can explain-"

"Goodbye, Klaus," she says firmly, her hand wrapping around Henry's. "Come along, Henry."

The boy looks confused for his part, and his eyes flicker back to Klaus'.

"Oh okay," he murmurs. "Thank you for having me, Klaus," he tells the older man.

Even Caroline can tell Klaus' smile is forced towards the little boy, as he nods.

"Of course, Henry," he says softly. "You're welcome back anytime.

"Thanks," Caroline squeaks out for him, and it's only a matter of seconds before they're out of the door, even if she feels Klaus' gaze burning holes into the back of her neck the entire way there.

Yeah, it was time to leave. Before Klaus messed with her anymore.

-/-

It's later that night, after Henry has told her, and her dad about his day a thousand and one times, and after her dad has thanked her for taking him, with a quick peck to her forehead, when she finally allows herself to think, and breathe properly.

She tucks herself into bed, her earphones pressed into her ears, as she listens to Taylor Swift.

(Yes, Taylor Swift. It was her guilty pleasure, sue her!)

She thinks back to Klaus' words at the party, and she already sighs because she knows she'll see him again. She knows that she'll want to hear his so called explanation again, even if it is just to throw her drink in his face.

She did promise to take Henry back to the Mikaelsons at some point too. She supposes she could kill two birds with one stone.

Klaus had already hurt her, after all.

What harm could it do?