✓ | 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖, klaroline

xvi

"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" Stefan asked, walking into the bar with a sly grin plastered across his face. Klaus looked at him with tired cerulean eyes, signaling with his head for the vampire to sit beside him. Stefan did just that, perched right next to the original, and poured himself a half-pint of bourbon.

"Never too early to drown your anguish in fermented refreshments." Nik groaned inwardly, the night earlier still weighing heavy on his mind.

"Caroline was looking for you, seemed pretty upset," Stefan suggested stealthily, not wanting to push his old friend, but also wanting to see what he had done to anger his newer friend. 

At those words,  Klaus felt something drop in his lower abdomen like his heart had simply fallen limp against his organs. The original hybrid had never meant to hurt Caroline, quite the contrary actually. But even he knew that leaving the girl he'd persuade for years high and dry after performing intercourse with her would most likely be detrimental to her feelings. That was why he'd decided to act cold towards her. Try and make whatever feelings the blonde have leave, he simply wasn't worthy of them.

"We may have spent the night together." Klaus trailed off, eyes widened slightly to purvey what he was implying. 

"So you decided to leave her alone afterward? God that's such a Klaus thing to do, could you be any more predictable?" Stefan groaned, agitated at the thought of his poor best friend alone in his bedroom. 

Carolien had told Stefan everything, how her feelings had grown immensely since arriving at New Orleans, her plan to become a friend, and only a friend to the blonde original, preaching that if she ever gave in he would've won the competition. Though Stefan had always made sure to reassure Caroline that Klaus's feelings were genuine, that he truly cared about her and it wasn't his sick and twisted version of a competition. But now Klaus was here after finally getting what he wanted, Caroline. He wasn't with her, proclaiming the emotions that so obviously Nik felt, instead he was in a bar, talking about everything so nonchalantly. 

"It was merely a game of pursuit, I've succeeded so there is no purpose in accompanying her anymore," Klaus said the words as though they were obvious, not expecting Stefan to slam his bourbon at the Hybrid's feet.

"That's shit and you know it, In all the time I've known you Klaus you have never once looked at anyone the way you look at her. Stop being so paranoid something will happen that you don't let yourself be happy!" Stefan had never been more upset with Klaus than right now. He had tricked caroline into falling just to be terrified of things getting real and not pursue it.

Niklaus seemed to mull over what Stefan said, only to respond in a very monotone voice, "She serves better than me. I'm solely protecting her rippah. My own feelings play no role in the situation." 

"That's not true, Klaus this isn't going to protect her. She feels used, exactly how she did with Damon, Matt, and Tyler. But those had just been pathetic crushes. With you it's real, it's not a highschool romance, its something way more intense. Something Caroline's never felt before and neither have you if I'm being honest." 

Maybe Stefan was right. She did seem to be in distress by the way the ripper was describing her. Perhaps this was a lapse in judgment for the Original Hybrid. He did feel something intense, almost overpowering when he was around Caroline. Maybe that wasn't just a lust, maybe it was something more. Something akin to love. Yes, that was it, something close to love. If it wasn't that why would he hate to be away from her? Why was the very possibility of Care getting hurt almost unbearable? It had to be love. 

And Klaus had to tell her.