A Persistent Lover

All For the First Time

Caroline found herself entrapped in Klaus' arms when she awoke. Her whole body was pressed up against him in a warm embrace, his head rested slightly on hers.

Caroline gazed at his sleeping form. He looked almost like an innocent child in his sleep. As she looked on at him, she wondered how many people had ever seen Klaus in this form. Not threatening and evil, but vulnerable and kind. She smiled letting herself run her eyes over all his features.

"Has anyone ever told you it's very creepy to stare at someone while they are sleeping, love?"

Caroline let out a little squeak of surprise.

Klaus opened his eyes and gazed at his blonde angel. Her whole face had taken on a light shade of pink. It was quite becoming, actually.

"Did you sleep well?" His voice lost its sarcastic tone.

Caroline nodded absently, tugging at her own dog chain in embarrassment. Why oh why did she have to get herself in trouble like this again?

"Is there something wrong, Caroline?" Klaus swept strands of Caroline's hair behind her ear.

Caroline was not about to tell him about watching him sleep. So instead, she asked him something else that she had pondered about earlier.

"Klaus....why were you crying yesterday? At the Eiffel Tower?"

Klaus froze. Caroline was afraid she had stepped too far, until he let out a sad laugh.

"Not too many people have cared about how I feel..." he mused out loud. "I apologize, Caroline, if I am not good with explaining my emotions...."

She smiled, giving him her consent to continue.

"Yesterday, as we were sitting there waiting for the sun to rise, I remembered every time I had come to Paris. Some of those times before the Tower was build, many other times after when I would sit in the ledge were we sat yesterday. I remembered how every time I came here, I was always unspeakably angry and sad. I remember terrorizing innocent humans here, just trying to feel some sort of peace. Peace was never something I had felt since I was turned. You may well know, Caroline, that vampires have the ability to shut off their emotions...that is true but after centuries I found that it was impossible to always have that ability work."

He paused for a moment to gaze at Caroline. The look was so full of love and adoration that Caroline blushed another shade of pink.

"Until we sat up there yesterday. I realized for the first time that I was at peace and happy. Even after accomplishing my goal of completing the sacrifice and creating new hybrids, I was never happy. You...you gave me that happiness and that peace, Caroline. My family has never given me any of that, I admit I perhaps made that difficult. My father made me believe that those things were not possible for someone like me. But you have given it to me, Caroline! You've made me understand what it's like to be someone's first choice. You may not realize it at all, but you have. And I will be spending forever making it up to you."

Caroline simply gazed at Klaus in response. The fact that Klaus had just given her this confession...the fact that he thought he was indebted to her for all his joy...made a response almost impossible to bring up.

Klaus took Caroline's silence the wrong way. A wave of disappointment washed over his face and he cleared his throat.

"Well um...I'll get you some breakfast then," he quickly untangled himself around Caroline and left for the kitchen.

Caroline laid there for a few moments before following suit. She felt disgusted at herself. Klaus gave her so much comfort last night when she opened up to him. But when he opened up to her, she just remained silent.