When I see you smile

He loved the way her eyes caught fire, shining like the Milky Way on a clear night, while she strolled through the streets of London taking pictures and asking questions.

The jet lag had poor effect on their immortal bodies and the weather had been way too kind to spend the best of the day at home: the sky was bright blue, painted with some greyish clouds here and there and the air was chilly and saturated with the smell of recent rain.

He wanted to show her everything so she could keep that genuine smile plastered on her face forever. She insisted on taking the underground and giggled excited as they stood awkwardly in the middle of the overcrowded wagon.

He silently witnessed her excitement with disbelief, what was so funny about a ride in the Underground? Not even he had been that excited on his first ride and, mind you, he had seen the bloody thing being invented!

She took pictures of Nelson's Column and the lions statues in Trafalgar Square and she listened carefully to him as he explained the history of the square and of each statue that was standing there.

They spent the rest of the day at the National Gallery, completely overwhelmed by centuries of history of art. Of course Klaus had to go on and on explaining every single painting, had it been for Caroline the could have been out in a matter of a couple of hours: she literally had to beg him to cut it short on the first two centuries of Italian religious painting!

"But they all look-alike!" She complained as they moved to the further, boring biblical episode with bi-dimensional characters floating in an improbable environment.

"They don't!" He retorted, pinching the bridge of his nose as if she had just told him the worst heresy ever "Weren't you the one who wanted me to show her the World? Well, here we are"

She sighed heavily and she shook her head "Please, can move onto the next chapter?"

As the moved through the centuries, the paintings became more and more elaborated and the subjects became more various. She actually started to enjoy it.

She looked over at Botticelli's Venus and Mars painting and she almost felt envious of that woman, the Goddess of Love, so strong and beautiful watching over her sleeping lover, the God of War. She wondered how could Mars let its guard down in front of someone else, putting his heart in the hands of a woman, trusting her with his life. A woman who was more of a lover, than a fighter. And by the way why was there a gang of half-sheep weirdos playing with Mars weaponry?

"Botticelli believed than Love could conquer over War, that's why Mars is sleeping peacefully while Venus is wide awake" Klaus explained while looking at the painting "but some people think he was just stoned"

Caroline laughed heartily at his words, but the first part troubled her somehow. Could it be that simple? Could Love alone win over War?

"So do you think it's true?" She asked as they moved away from the painting, chewing on the words he had just told her "Do you think love conquers over war?"

He dodged her question, because he didn't know how to answer. Because in his whole life he had never met a love so deep to redeem him, to make him forget his hunger for power and revenge.

She didn't even try to bring up the subject again, how could a man like him know anything about love when all he had loved were slaughters and mayhem?

She had to admit that some paintings where pretty amazing when she had such an excellent teacher by her side.

"What's so exciting about a vase of sunflowers?" She asked when he stopped in front of Van Gogh's famous work The Sunflowers "I mean, why so many paintings of sunflowers?"

His lips formed a thing, thoughtful line "Van Gogh was basically an obsessed, lonely, desperate man who thought he would have never succeeded in life, he wanted to be a painter but he never considered himself as such"

Caroline looked at the painting and she could see why people would have hardly noticed it: it seemed quite pointless to the eyes of a casual observer, who didn't know about the background story. She wondered how Van Gogh had felt while painting those sunflowers? Why had they caught his attention? There were way more beautiful flowers. More elegant, refined, flowers like roses that everyone loved. What was so special about sunflowers? He wasn't even a happy man, why did he like happy flowers?

"Let's go out of here, there's not much more to see anyway" He hissed taking her by the wrist and heading towards the exit.

She bit her lips trying to figure out what had made him change his mind so quickly, but to be honest she was way too happy to get out of the Gallery to complain.

They moved to Hyde Park and she was happy to find a green area in such a big city.

Caroline smelled the fresh air of damp soil and green leaves and wet wood, it was such an unusual smell in a big, polluted city like London.

Suddenly she tugged at Klaus' arm "Look!" She squealed unable to contain her excitement "A squirrel!"

She pointed the little animal with her index finger and she looked at him, she was a little bit disappointed to discover that he was looking at the squirrel with boredom. How could he be so insensitive?

"Isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen?" She asked with a great expectation in her voice.

"My brother, Kol, and I used to kill squirrels when we were kids" He answered unemotionally.

Caroline let go of his arm and her eyes widened with disbelief. She looked like a kid who had just discovered that Santa was just fiction.

"What?!" She shrieked "You're a barbarian!"

"Well, a Viking to be more precise" He replied "and by the way I've done far more disgusting things in my life"

"It's not hard to believe" She muttered.

She carefully knelt in front of the little animal, but she was not careful enough and the little ball of fur disappeared in the closest tree. He couldn't help but smile while looking at her, she was so young and so easy to impress. He hoped she would never become as anesthetized as he was.

She looked around and everything felt so normal: there were people walking their dogs, families with children, groups of friends and young couples. Everything there screamed humanity.

They spent the rest of the day visiting London: they crossed the Millennium Bridge and they visited the Globe Theater, where Shakespeare's plays used to be performed during the Elizabethan Period.

The guide, a red-haired boy in his twenties, stopped in the middle of the pitch and started to explain that the lower class used to stand in the flat area in front of the stage and that there was nowhere to sit down for the whole play, she couldn't imagine how it used to be like since she was used to all kind of comforts when she went to the theater or to the cinema.

"I wonder how it was..." She murmured "to go to the theater in those times"

"It was awfully uncomfortable and the place stank as hell, you wouldn't have liked it" He answered bluntly "But I'll take you to West End, you can't leave London if you haven't seen a musical first"

The guide was explaining how the theater was a reconstruction loyally based on the original one when Klaus rolled his eyes and sighed with boredom.

"The boy is talking rubbish, Sweetheart" He scoffed as he took her by the wrist "Come with me, I'm by far a better teacher"

She giggled feeling like a good school girl being tempted into skipping class as they vanished behind the stage, where no one could see them.

He told her how he had performed there once, substituting the actor who was supposed to play Macbeth "Well, he should have known better" He shrugged as if it were nothing "Everybody knows that bad things happen when someone tries to put The Scottish Play on stage"

Caroline felt suddenly extremely uneasy, knowing that Klaus was so old even if he looked only a few years older than her made her feel absolutely numb and vulnerable.

For a few moments Klaus was estranged from reality, he was probably drowning in old memories.

Caroline couldn't understand how someone could retain all those souvenirs and experiences without getting absolutely insane. Not that Klaus was exactly what could be considered normal.

In the main time Klaus was thinking about the people he had met during that period, he was traveling on his own during that time trying to throw Mikael off his scent. He realized that he had spent most of his life running away from the vampire hunter, his step-father, and he had been chasing others in return.

The pale shadow of an emotion appeared on his face -Caroline couldn't believe it- it was sadness.

Hesitantly Caroline gently touched her hand with his shoulder asking him if he was okay. He nodded and smiled while looking up.

"I'm sure you were a wonderful Macbeth" Caroline teased him as they hid in a darkened corner when they heard steps approaching "Obsessed with power, allowing no one to get in his way, failing miserably..."

"Caroline, you're beautiful" He glared daggers at her, unsure whether he was more annoyed that she kept making assumption or that she was actually comparing him to that pussy wife sub of Macbeth "But if you don't stop talking I will kill you"

Caroline bit her lips, trying hard not to laugh in his face. You never know how Mr. Evil Villain and his massive ego could react.

"Let's just say that Lady Macbeth was worth making myself a fool in front of the audience" He replied with a smug expression on his face when she frowned.

"Don't worry, Love" He smiled wickedly as she pushed him away and started walking towards the opposite direction "she couldn't quite compare to you anyway" And even if she could she was only dust now.

Caroline convinced Klaus to take a walk through Covent Garden and Soho, she was inebriated by the lights and the loud music. People were dancing and talking loudly in the streets, everything was so vital and lively and she couldn't help but feeling as dead as she had never felt before. He couldn't help but notice the way she envied those fragile, limited bodies and their beating heart pumping blood through their veins. He wanted to hug her and stroke her hair, to comfort her, but he knew that being with her was like walking on thin ice, one wrong, inconsiderate move and the tiny bit of trust he had earned was going to shatter into tiny pieces.

They entered one of the fancy bars and sat at one of the table, ordering a drink. The pumping music and the people laughing reminded Caroline of her friends back home. She had never been so far away from them, she didn't even know if they were fine, she was such an awful friend.

The waitress came with their ordination and she gave Klaus a seductive smile while batting her fake eyelashes. He even smiled back at her like, that jerk, like a wolf before killing its prey. The woman barely registered Caroline's presence as she sat the drink in front of her and, of course, she didn't notice the disgusted -but more than anything upset- frown on the blonde's face.

Slut, the young vampire thought as the woman disappeared in the crowd swaying her hips as an invitation. Klaus was looking at her with a mocking grin on his face, was her disappointment that obvious?

"What's so funny?" She replied hastily while grabbing her drink "It's not nice to ignore a client because you're totally drooling over the man sitting at her table, you wouldn't have found it funny if it were the other way round"

She was adorable even when she was mad.

"If it were the other way round I would compel the waiter to claw his eyes out to make sure he never lays his gaze on you again" He replied with a malicious smirk. That was so Klaus.

"Are you trying to be charming or is it just your sociopath self talking?"

He paused for a moment thinking that a toast was the proper way to end their first day in London.

"To an unexpected adventure" He grinned raising his glass towards her.

"Cheers!" She replied and she even made an effort to smile back at him.

After the toast they headed back to his house, where Caroline felt relieved at the idea of laying in a bed. She hadn't realized how intense her day had been really.

Klaus made his way to the bathroom and he stopped to take a look at her, she made him feel warm.

After all the time he had spent on his own, it was nice to have someone with him. Especially when that someone was Caroline Forbes.

"Good night, Klaus" She murmured half asleep.

"Good night, Caroline," He answered "Sweet dreams"

"Elijah, I don't think I can do this" Elena whispered as they sat in her car just outside an anonymous bar in an anonymous city not far from Mystic Falls.

He had insisted on having their "training session", as he liked to call them, outside the town. Living in a city inhabited by vampire hunters was already hard enough, they couldn't allow themselves to be careless: they could not feed on humans, they could not steal blood bags and they could not use compulsion.

"You can do it, Elena," Elijah looked at her and he smiled confidently "I trust you and I know that you can control yourself"

"But what if I don't? What if I hurt an innocent person?" Even in the darkness of the car he could see her gloomy eyes and the crooked line of her mouth. It made him want to kiss her pain away, senselessly.

"I will be right next to you," He promised squeezing her hand gently "if you can't handle it, I'll step in"

Elena weakly returned the squeeze and she made an attempt to turn her mouth up at the corners with a insecure smile "Promise?"

"I will never let anything bad happen to you, Elena Gilbert" And with no trace of doubt nor fear she believed him.

A man in his 40s crossed their cars to get through the parking lot.

"Do you remember everything I taught you?" He asked. Elena nodded and quickly got out of the car to approach the human, she was vaguely aware of Elijah's presence in the shadows.

The man turned and gulped, there was a creepy girl standing too close to him to what was normally considered polite for social conventions.

"May I help you, Miss?" He asked feeling a weird knot in his stomach. Somehow he knew that the girl -who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere by the way- was trouble.

"Yes, you may actually," She replied boring her eyes into his with such and intensity that made him go numb "You will stay still and you will forget about ever meeting me"

The man nodded mechanically and he did not try to fend himself when the girl stood on the tip of her toes and buried her head in the crook of his neck. He was vaguely aware that something sharp had stung into his skin, but by the time he got back in the car everything was gone.

Elena rushed to the car and closed herself in, shaking violently. Feeding directly from the vein had felt divine: the warm blood splashing in her mouth was much sweeter than animal blood and did not taste nearly as stale as blood bags. The feelings were overwhelming, but somehow she had managed to pay attention to all the little things Elijah had taught her: listening to the beat of his heart, making sure to prevent his knees to grow weak and stopping before the blood pressure became too low. She licked her lips knowing that she was going to want more.

Elijah had a proud smile on his face while he cleaned the corner of her mouth with the clean napkin he had unfolded from his pocket. He looked like one of those teacher the day their favourite pupil wins the first place in the science competition.

"The first time is always the hardest," He told her "but you were absolutely brilliant out there, you didn't even need my help"

"But I did," She answered honestly with a big smile breaking on her now relaxed face "I couldn't have done it if I didn't know you had faith in me"

They remained silent for a moment and the she spoke again "Elijah promise me you will never let me lose myself"

He promised. He had crossed the point of no return without even realizing it and he would have never let anything bad happen to that girl again: she might be the mirror image of her ancestors, but there was not an ounce of evil in her. Perhaps, for the first time, that pretty face that had already left him miserable twice in the past was not going to break his heart a third time.

I am horrible! :(

I really meant to update earlier but I'm kinda lazy, I guess :/

I hope I'll be able to update faster during the holidays because I feel really bad when I put a story aside for too long. Forgive me for being such an awful person? 3