The One You Once Were

Rebekah gives me a warning and a thumbs up. Because Friendship?

Klaus was already wide awake when my conscience returned to my sleeping mind. He was playing with my hair and smiled when he felt me slightly moving. The first thing I did was to take in his exquisite scent. Then my eyes went up to his face.
"Like what you see, love? And feel?" My hands were on his chest. Slowly, I got up. He let go of my hair and I sat beside him.
"Did you sleep well?", he asked and I nodded. My mind flashed back to my first dream. Don't think about this now, Caroline!
"That rest was highly needed.", I sighed instead.
"Do the nightmares disappear when you're with me?", he grinned and I shrugged my shoulders.
"Why else would I be here?", I teased him.
"Who knows.", he smirked and I softly punched him on the arm. My memories of our actual kiss in his time returned to my mind. Don't think of this.... awkward... He eyed me curiously.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Breakfast. I'm hungry."
"Are we ever gonna talk about the fact that you sleep here from time to time? Coming into my room at night and snuggling up to me?", he wanted to know sincerely.
"Ask me again when I had coffee.", I escaped the topic. Hayley, Elijah and Rebekah were already awake when we entered the kitchen. My friend smiled at me in a way that suggested she knew where I'd slept today. I just gestured her to keep her mouth shut about this and then asked her if I could get a coffee.
"Of course you can.", she answered grinning.
"Anything specific to eat, love?", Klaus asked me and slightly brushed against my waist while passing by.
"No, I'll just have whatever it is you're having.", I told him and tried to hide my blushing cheeks. The kiss from yesterday and from the past (that had not really happened but somehow it still did, just not for them, only me), sat deeply. I remembered Klaus once telling me how he fancied me. It was the first time I had ever felt affection for him. Though, actually it had already been before that. It all seemed so long ago that the lines had gotten blurry.
"Caroline.", Elijah smiled at me. "I must say, it is nice to see that you are still around. I was surprised to see you back when I still was in the coffin, to be honest. I didn't expect you to stick around for so long."
Klaus shot me a look like he'd already wondered the same thing himself.
"Yeah well. There's a lot going on in Mystic Falls with Silas and everything. I needed to get out of there and my time here hasn't been that bad so far.", I admitted.
"That's great to hear.", Klaus grinned and I jokingly rolled my eyes at him.
"Care, I was thinking, why don't we go shopping today?", Rebekah suggested and brought me my coffee.
"Shopping?"
"Yeah, you know, spent some more time together."
I looked at Hayley since I really didn't want her to feel excluded. But she just smiled and nodded to give her okay.
"Don't worry about me. I'm sure, Elijah will keep me company for the day?", she looked at him and he immediately told her, she was right.
"Very well then.", Klaus said. "I'll do my business, as usual."
"Oh no no no.", Rebekah chuckled sadistically. "You are keeping us company!"
"Going shopping with girls? Couldn't think of a more exciting way to spend my day.", he rolled his eyes.
"Hey, no being annoyed! It's a privilege, you'll get to see Caroline try on new things and can be there to give advice, maybe even pick out some things for her.", Rebekah winked at her brother.
That changed his attitude entirely and he looked at me with a smirk.
"Oh god, Rebekah. What have you done?", I laughed.

Rebekah and I went to almost every single store we found. There were so many things I liked, but when I looked into my purse, I knew that I could only get a few of them. It would be hard to decide.
"Are you worried about money?", Rebekah chuckled.
"No, no, it's okay.", I said, trying to hide the fact that she was right..
"What my sister is trying to say: don't worry about money, we'll pay.", Klaus explained giving me a soft look.
"What? No, I can't let you do that! I'll feel bad for centuries, I hate letting other people pay!", I denied. No way they'd pay for all this expensive stuff.
Rebekah grinned.
"No getting out of this one. We want to pay, let us pay, the end."
I wanted to say something again, but Klaus shushed me and Becky just gave me all of the clothes I liked and shoved me into a changing cubicle to try them on. Some didn't fit that well so I gave them back, others were really pretty. There was a navy blue short dress with flowers on the top half which specifically had caught my eye. After I tried it on, I knew this would be my new favorite dress. Fulfilling Girls Rule Number one, I always pulled back the curtain after changing to show my friend how it looked and waited for her judgement.
"Wow!", she exclaimed. "You need to get this!"
Klaus just let out a whistle.
"Careful brother.", B smirked. "One more look and you'll start drooling."
I laughed and closed the curtain again. The dress had been my last item in this shop.
"Your turn, Bee.", I said after finishing up and she got her stuff and vamp speeded into the cubicle. She had picked out amazing clothes, which all fit perfectly. We went into other shops and were really successful. In one of them, Klaus handed me some clothes. They were pretty sweet and hot at the same time and even fit me. I was kind of embarrassed by him picking them for me but I actually liked them and decided to buy them.
"Care, let's go in this one!", B yelled to me from a bit afar.
"But that's for ball gowns and stuff like that.", I raised my eyebrows.
"So? We can just try them on for fun."
"Alright."
We stepped into the shop and were in heaven. All these dresses, they were so indescribably beautiful. We picked some out and tried them on, causing us to feel like princesses. Klaus applauded our looks with a grin.
"Love, try this on.", he held out a wonderful red dress.
"Okay.", I took it and did what he said. The material figure-hugged me perfectly.
"You're getting this.", Rebekah said once again.
"What? Why? I have no occasion to wear this to.", I said back.
"Doesn't matter. You. Are. Getting. This.", she decided for me. Klaus agreed with her.
"You look like a queen.", he whispered. I sighed. "Well, it's your wasted money, not mine."
I changed back and Rebekah took the dress to the cashier. Afterwards, we decided to go back home. To our surprise, we'd only taken 2 hours for all this.
"What now?", I asked my friend while Klaus disappeared into the living room to read books with Elijah or something like that.
"I'm hungry.", Rebekah answered.
"Oh my god. What do you think about waffles?", I excitingly suggested and her face lit up.
"Let's do it!"
We got all the utensils out and I told her about a family recipe, which she agreed on making afterwards. While I was mixing the batter, Rebekah suddenly turned to me with a questioning face.
"You were in Klaus' room again tonight, weren't you?"
"Maybe.", I said, not looking at her.
"What is going on between you and my brother?", she asked and I stopped the mixer.
"I'm not sure.", I answered truthfully.
"Not sure?", she repeated and I nodded.
"Then let me tell you something. I haven't seen my brother like this in a long time. And I mean a very, very, veeery long time. You have a certain influence on him, you've always had. And I like you, you're a really good friend, Care, but you do need to be careful. You know he can be selfish, defensive and cruel. You've seen this side of him several times and I have even more.", she sighed. "What I'm saying is, you should always keep in mind that if you give him a chance now, I don't know if he'll be able to let you go. As long as you know that, everything will be fine. Don't recklessly fall for him. And this is coming from the girl who loves way too easily."
I stayed silent for a moment, not sure of what I should say. Then, I tried to form some words.
"I get it, Becks, I really do. Do you think that if I wouldn't know all that and have it in my mind constantly, I'd have been able to stay away from him this long? There's a certain affection of the aura around him in me and I have never told this to anyone before. I trust you to keep this as a secret. Here's a promise that I will keep what you said in mind. Though, I have no idea what I am doing right now to be honest. And I also don't know what will come next. Maybe I'll return to Mystic Falls, maybe I'll stay here a bit longer. Though, I do know that I have responsibilities there plus college is closing in by the second. We'll see how it all develops."
Rebekah smiled. "Then I can only tell you to do what your heart says. I for one would love to have you as a sister-in-law."
"Okay wooow, noone said anything about marriage.", I laughed and turned the mixer back on. "Though if I were to get married, I'd want a June wedding!"

We quickly finished up the waffles.
They turned out pretty well, at least by the looks of it. Just as we were ready to taste them, the others decided to bulge in. Hayley was the first one.
"I smelled food.", she grinned. "And food is good."
We invited her to join us. A girl more wouldn't hurt anyone. As I got more plates, Elijah entered.
"Hayley, here you are. What is this delicious smell?"
"Waffles.", the werewolf answered.
"You can join of you want?", Becka told him. "If that's okay with you, Care?"
"Of course."
The Original settled down next to the girls.
"Well, well, the entire family gathered in one room? What happened, is the house on fire?", a certain hybrid asked as he came into the room too.
"Food has that effect.", Hayley joked and I put all the plates on the table.
"Do we even have enough waffles for everyone?", I checked our supply.
"If not then Nik won't get any as a solution.", Rebekah shrugged.
"Why me?", her brother complained
"Last one always gets the least.", I put the first waffle on my friend's plate.
We did have enough though, so noone had to be cut short. And they tasted as good as they smelt: delicious.
"Good work.", Klaus licked his lips to not miss any remains.
"Agreed.", Hayley let us know.
"Yeah, we should do this more often.", Rebekah smiled at me.
"Yup.", I sighed happily.
"Oh, you definitely should!", Klaus smirked. My eyes went to him.
"If you liked it so much", a grin spread across my face, "then you can do the dishes now."
"What?", his smirk disappeared.
"What a brilliant idea, C!", my friend said with a sadistic face. "And no cheating by compelling someone else to do it for you! Care will watch you."
"I will?"
The smirk returned to Klaus' face.
"Alright. I'll do it."
Dammit. How did this backfire on me?

Hey everyone!
This story has reached 13K reads, omg thank you all so much! I honestly never thought this would happen but I'm glad you're all enjoying the story!

Gosh, honestly though, my daily life has me stressed out so much lately because of all the exams I have to study for. But don't worry, all that won't stop me from giving you the weekly (hopefully) joy of new chapters!
There's been requests that I should publish more often and I'm working on writing more chapters to do so! I promise, I'm on it! So hang in there guys, maybe I can make it someday!

Okay, that was all from me today!
I'll see ya next week, enjoy your days! Byeee