Note 1: Obviously not canon. For prompt #006 Bronzer. There's not enough Koroline out there, so get to it people!

Note 2: I actually wrote this and posted on AO3 a very long time ago. Just thought I'd archive it here too and see what happens.

Warnings: PWP; Explicit language and graphic sex. Some kink.

A swipe of the hand, a pat on the face. Everything in its place. Checks her lips, tugs her dress down to make sure that hint of cleavage is enough to draw the eye but not cause a commotion. She decides to dust a little bronzer just above the square neckline of her dress.

Perfect. She waits patiently and pours herself a drink.

The doorbell rings. Caroline takes a breath before setting her glass down and strides over to answer the slowly fading chime; swallow all the nerves first and show that you haven't been spending the last two hours trying to look this impeccable.

Her fingers are curved around the handle, but she pauses when the anxiety starts to creep into her chest. Okay. This is going to happen, she realises, and the nervousness wells up inside of her. With a twist of a lock and a pull, the door swings open. There he stands.

"...Very nice," Kol smiles, casually leaning against the teak frame of her doorway. "You didn't need to hesitate, you know." Caroline opens her mouth to explain but he taps his ear and happily steps into the room. "I hear everything."

She doesn't have anything to say to that, and only moves aside to let him in. Kol saunters into the place, but not without first leaning in close to make her think he was already going for it; he picks at a loose coil of her blonde hair and studies it instead.

Caroline can smell on him a hint of cigarette smoke, mints and the faint last wisps of an aqua scented cologne clinging to his shirt. She tries to hide that she isn't fazed by all these things that actually make her want to unbutton his fly, but it's hard to fool him. Kol knows everything.

"Room service," he says of the bottle he spies on her dresser. "Did you save any for me?" She doesn't answer, so he picks it up and takes a big swig from it. "This is abhorrent." Kol makes a face, leering at the label and drinks again.

"You're such a freak." Caroline can't understand why he always has to rate and judge the entire world around him, when he has such a deep appreciation for the fact that it's ripe for his exploration. "This isn't the Ritz, you know."

"I don't know who could possibly last on this piss," he sets the bottle down, and shrugs his coat onto the floor. "And your room is decrepit." Caroline finds herself staring at the way his shirt clings to him, planes and lines of his masculine form under ribbed navy cotton. He may be a big mouth, but there's no denying that Kol gets her going.

"Stop complaining," she rolls her eyes and pushes him onto the bed, already running her hands under his shirt. "Spoiled," she criticizes him.
Kol smiles this toothy smile and cups a breast through her dress. "Not even ten minutes and you already want to fuck me." It had been a good half hour before clothes were torn the last time around, but Caroline isn't keeping tabs. Much.

"You're forgetting that you were the one who unbuckled your belt first," she retorts, finding his brand of egomania both annoying and endearing - more annoying, but it's hard to find fault with him when she's got his body to distract her. The youngest Mikaelson, her midnight incubus, making his visits a more frequent habit. Must've been that time when she strapped him to the bed with belts.

Kol's finger hooks the front of her dress down and openly admires the way her breasts are held in black lace. "You said you wanted to suck me off, Caroline darling." He pauses, while tracing his fingers over their shape, smirking at how much she hates pet names in general. "Well, maybe you didn't say it, but being on your knees was an obvious enough message." The smug look on his face gives away how much he enjoys their banter - she's probably the only girl in a very long while to be able to return his remarks with equally cutting wit. Not to mention that she thoroughly enjoyed making him pop in her mouth as he admitted to the deft skill of her tongue on his cock.

"Real men know how to be grateful and return the favour," she teases, nails scraping over the front of his jeans. "You don't know how to be a man." She feels his kisses start in the centre of her chest.

"I'm an Original."

Caroline's hands find their way into his dark hair. "You Originals say it like it's supposed to impress everyone."

She expects a crass response but Kol pulls back, looking perturbed. "What is that?"

"What's what?" His fingers swipe over the spot, and she realises that he's just had a tongue full of bronzer powder.

Ah, crap.

Her entire body freezes and the embarrassment starts to hike rapidly.

It takes a few seconds of awkward silence before Kol quietly starts to analyse every inch of her, eyes darting about to regard her face, her neck, the way her hair falls by her face. She hates it. She already hates that he's so scathing with his tastes, much lest the things he doesn't like.

Oddly enough, he tilts her chin and studies her jawline carefully. "What?" she asks, trying not to sound as if the shame isn't actually suffocating the unlife out of her. She would prefer to be well and truly dead than deal with this.

"Take off everything."

The instruction is simple, but it's a lot harder to digest than it sounds. Kol reiterates. "All this makeup and whatever you've got going on. Take it off."

Her first instinct is to protest - tightly lined eyes and dewy skin is her beauty signature. But she knows that tone. Its serious, demanding fervour makes it a command, not a request. It's powerfully personal.

"You're beautiful enough," he adds, careful to soften his approach. "Show me what's beneath all that."

Caroline knows that it could be empty words, but the thought of it intrigues as much as it terrifies her. It sounds shallow, but it's kind of a big deal when she agrees to go barefaced.

Kol accompanies her to the bathroom, where she picks out her makeup remover and a cotton pad from the cabinet shelf. He sees that she's uncomfortable, so being the cheeky bastard he is, suggests that she do it with her clothes off. Kol grabs the hem of her dress and pulls the stretch jersey over her head, after which he immediately strips down, hands sliding along her waist to explore the skin there.

She goes through several squares of cotton with Kol watching her through the mirror, who is strangely absorbed and seemingly taken in with the eventual reveal of her appearance sans the faux glow. Cheek to cheek with her he stands, as she wipes away the last traces of makeup. Kol gives her a rather satisfied smirk.

"You look the same to me. " Caroline can't help but feel like he's being nice. Kol regards her especially carefully once she's splashed water on her face and patted her face dry. Burying her face in her towel feels like the best idea at this point.

But Kol on the other hand, doesn't say anything. He just unhooks her bra.

Guess he's into it.

In the mirror she sees him cup her breast, thumb brushing her nipple. "Always lovely," he compliments, speaking against the nape of her neck. Caroline's hands reach for the edge of the sink. "You should come to me like this more often."

His other hand travels downwards, past the band of her panties. Kol is good at that, moving things along. "You're the one who always comes to me-"

"You're the one always coming." He teases her bundle of nerves and she breathes in when he starts to circle hot patterns on her. And it's true. Kol is an expert at her body by now. Every time he visits her, she ends up a quivering mess and it strokes his ego to no end to see the carnage he's caused.

"Don't deny that you don't," Caroline manages. She barely can contain the smile at how much she's okay with this. It's like they're slowly creeping over a line somewhere into a next phase, even if she doesn't want to let herself fall into any potential traps of feelings.

"Not denying anything," he whispers, distracted as he dips further down without entering her. "You're hot." It elicits a moan from him to know that she's so ready. The press of his hard cock against her ass is sign enough that he is too.

"Tell me," he says, voice growing dark, both hands now raking towards her back and skimming the top of his underwear. He really wants to fuck her. But he wants to hear her ask.

She hates asking. She doesn't want him to have all the power, or let herself seem like she's the weaker, needy one. Sometimes you've got to give up a little pride to win the war, though.

Caroline takes him by the wrist and guides it upward from her stomach, past a heavy breast to brush across her pale pink pout. Parting her lips ever so slightly, she grazes the tip of his fingers with the softest nip of her teeth; she can feel Kol twitch from the reminder of their use. She's fairly certain he's pulling up memories of her again, of how she makes him feel when those same lips are dragging along the sensitive skin of his cock.

Hot against her ear is his ragged moan, zipping down her spine like a flash of electricity, and her entire body responds with a tiny shudder - god, Kol can be incredibly infuriating sometimes but the attention he pays her makes it so worth enduring.

"Please, Kol," she pretend-begs, voice husky and saccharine and oozing the sort of desire she knows he'll pick up on. "I want you to be inside of me." The sound of falling fabric causes her breath to catch. "Make me feel good."

Kol shoves her panties down and enters her.

At first, it's inch by agonising inch - he wants her to listen to the stifled groan being torn from his throat and really feel him in her, to the very depths of her core. Caroline watches his expression morph from hazed lust to unfaltering focus; until his hands fall on her waist and pulls her body back into him. She cries out in surprise at suddenly having to take him all the way in, but the pleasure is so shockingly good that it manifests as a shiver under his touch.

"Tonight I'm going to make you mine," he says into her neck, the words raw with promise. " And I'm going to make sure that you'll remember it."

It terrifies her a little. It also makes her so much wetter for him.

Kol looks at their reflection in the mirror possessively. There's a pause in his hips as he rakes his gaze all over her body, quietly, openly - his wandering hands give her breasts a squeeze and slips lower. The older vampire's staking a claim. Sometimes she fears that he's become obsessed, but at the same time, there's a certain flattery to having the object of your desire reciprocate with equal enthusiasm.

And Kol is enthusiastic."Spread your legs," he tells her, to which she complies obediently. He's in the sort of mood that involves pinned wrists, hard bruising and smeared lipstick, that is, if she hadn't just wiped it away.

Fingers sweep over her clit while he draws his hips back slowly and thrusts himself into her in one quick and forceful motion. "Oh my god," Caroline tightens her grip on the sink, leaning forward for leverage. Something, anything to help her retain some shred of sanity. She'll even let him smile into her shoulder without calling him out on it.

His hips drive forward again, even harder this time, and she can feel him press himself so deep into her that she nearly feels it in her stomach. The ring of her moan bounces off the walls in a hollow, voluminous echo, and Caroline starts to mutter profanities under her breath when he begins his wild rhythm. The way his cock stretches her is more than she can handle.

"Kol," she whines, in the pitch that he usually half-complains about for being too strained (but it's really about what it does to him). "Kol," her knuckles go white as she clutches the porcelain tightly.

His mouth open, in full admiration of her welcoming body, brushes over the delicate shell of her ear. "I'm just getting started."

Caroline doesn't expect her orgasm to hit her so fast, but it does when the flat of his palm strikes the flesh of her bottom in a hard smack. She keels and her legs suddenly buckle - Kol's spanks her again and the confusing, intertwined sting of pleasure-pain wreaks havoc on her senses. It makes her back arch and the whole world is still for the slightest pause.

He chuckles in amusement; she hates that she can't even stand upright. "You're awful," she manages, and her walls flutter around him while her thighs clamp shut.

Kol groans in response, but he's not going to placate her. "If that were true," his hand fans over the reddening skin soothingly, "you wouldn't still be coming."

"Hit me one more time and I swear I'll break your hand," she threatens, breathless and realising that warnings of violence aren't going to deter him from being smug. That's what she can't fathom about him – he can so convincingly pretend to be all alpha and domineering one minute and he's a giggling schoolchild the next.

"Don't be rash now," he says, slowly pulling out of her. Kol spins her around and captures her lips in a passionate kiss, then releases her with a pant. "You love my hands."

Caroline frowns at his comment and wants to retort - she does love what his hands do to her - but chooses to seek retribution in other ways by gingerly wrapping her palm around him.

Kol hisses at her strong stroke. "Caroline... " His eyes fall shut as her tongue darts out to trace a gentle line along his lower lip.

"You love my hands too." This time being the smirking one, she rubs just under the crown. It's his spot, this she knows very well. "And my mouth, and my neck, and m-"

Kol rolls his eyes and practically throws Caroline over his shoulder so that he can move her to the bed. She's able to quell her scream into a squeak when she hits the hard mattress, but she isn't fast enough to escape him when he climbs on top of her.

His elbows hook under her knees and he finds his way into her again. Hard. Caroline's hands twist about in the sheets and she can hear the slow rip of thread as she grips them, letting Kol trap her in this position. She falls slave to his vampire-paced ministrations - she enjoys letting him have all the power he wants. And it feels so fucking good when he's making her feel every grind of his hips against her ass. All she can do is scratch his forearms or clench around him, and listen to Kol's erratic breathing and groaning when she tightens and gets even wetter for the finish.

And because Kol keeps telling her how wet she is - the slippery sound of their bodies meeting is quite addicting - how much pleasure he feels fucking her deep and fast - a lot, because she feels it tear through her entire being too - and how the only way the world makes sense is for the two of them to be together - this catches her off guard a bit - Caroline easily gets off on the dirty talk. She lets out a strangled moan and clings to him in orgasm as Kol slows down, helping her draw out the sensation as her body quakes under him.

"Easy now," he says, but she can see that he's close to the edge himself, from the way he breathes.

"No," she protests, rolling them over to swap positions. With knees pinned to either side of his waist she throws her head back and gyrates even when she's still shaking on the inside.

"Fuck," he growls, sitting upright so he can kiss her on any expanse of skin he can find. Kol jaw slackens as she mercilessly rides him home, and it takes all of his power not to crack any of her bones when he tries to grab hold her arms slow her movement down. "Oh, hell," he says.

Naturally, Caroline lets him bury his face in her shoulder, sweetly ordering him to come, to spend himself in her, she wants it, please, and it's that last needy request that makes him groan and twitch and fill her with everything she's asking for. In moments like these, she has a deep fondness for his style of intimacy, where his body practically begs to stay close to her and he's breathing her in. It feels more than that, sometimes.

She runs her fingers through his hair and gently tugs on his scalp - it comforts him, he once explained, makes him feel bonded to her. Bonded, she would laugh, puzzled. Sex isn't bonding enough? But he'd say something that would throw her off, like, "It's not just the physical I'm looking for."

In the same show of unexpected tenderness, Kol embraces her in a way that causes her feelings to wander. Feelings that seem to cross a certain line. They lie down and Caroline tries to read his expression, but he only picks strands of her fringe matted to her forehead and pushes them behind her ear.

"Sleep," he says, keeping her near. "Go to sleep."

By the time Caroline is awake, the sun has already passed its hottest point in the day. Kol is still beside her and very naked, like she is. For the past few times he's been here, he hasn't bolted first thing at dawn.

It's a change in the pattern of their arrangement that developed organically and eventually – enough for her to get used to, but surprises her all the same when she's face to face with it. Like she is now.

"I'm curious," he starts, tracing patterns on her arm. "What if I turned up in the morning instead?"

Caught unaware, her brow furrows. "You always come at night."

"That I do," the pad of Kol's thumb travels gently along her jawline. The tone is suggestive, teasing.

Caroline huffs. "You know what I mean."

"Let me rephrase, then," he props his head on a hand in a show of interest in her answer, "I want to see you in daylight."

She's taken aback by the request. "I have school."

"And?"

At first, she doesn't know what he's getting at, until she replays it over again in her head a second, and then a third time. "Are you asking me to go public... With you?"

There's a brief pause that confirms it. It's more of the simper that gives it away, but it doesn't change the unspoken truth slowly unveiling itself to her - Kol wants to be seen with her, in her other world where friends exist and people judge. "The sunshine suits your skin," he answers, and Caroline feels a pang of yearning, imagining what it must be like to hold his hand and kiss him before crossing streets, or sneaking into empty classrooms for a bit of fun.

Thoughts like these are dangerous.

"I like this." The back of his hand glides over her bare cheek. It seems like he's talking about her complexion, but Caroline hears it like he's talking about their arrangement; get together at night when either one could use a spot of company for any reason.

Sometimes they sleep together, sometimes they discuss how idiotic people can be, but all of the time they've learned to stay away from sharing too much about real feelings. Especially toward each other.

Because she always wakes alone, until suddenly, it stops being just her, and it starts becoming them.

Still, she never expected much to change. And then this happens, and Kol sounds like he wants to tear down the wall between them - something that she isn't opposed to but didn't actively seek.

"It's not about night or day," he says, sensing that her quiet is more than just a stretched out thought. It's about feeling, and Caroline feels... appreciated. More than that. She can't discern its nature, but it floods every corner of her.

Affection.

"I just wanted to know if you minded breaking the routine."

She searches his eyes for one long moment. And just like that, she decides.

"...Okay," she says. His fingers lace with hers and he makes sure that she sees it; her mind is made up. "Okay."