I'm sorry I haven't updated! Ahh! But I should be updating more, as I plan to finish this story, I promise!

I jolted awake, sweat plastered to my back. The remnants of my nightmare remained alive behind my lids and I tried to rid myself of its memories; of men without emotions, taunting me down a barren, empty street. 

Something tapped on the window and I flinched again, my hands grasping the sheets until my knuckles turned white.

My gaze landed on the window.

Oh. 

I felt the surprise on my face and I nearly toppled out of the bed as I stood up and walked over to it. Morning was a distance away, the sky still an inky black when I pulled up the window pane, raising my eyebrows in disbelief. "Are you seriously doing the cliche window thing?" 

"I heard your restlessness," Klaus chimed, smiling slightly and I really tried not to return it.

I really did.

"Okay, look," I said, crossing my arms over my chest as he smoothly entered my room. "You can't keep popping up and then disappearing out of nowhere. I know you're a billion years old so modern technology may be somewhat foreign to you, but there's this thing called a phone. And-"

He flashed away from me and returned, my phone in his hand. It reminded me of the night of the party but unlike then, I wasn't scared of him now. His fingers blurred over the surface and then he slid it shut, tossing it to me.

"Done."

"Well, aren't you confident. What'd you put it as?" I scrolled through my contacts until I found the one I didn't recognize. "'Big Bad Wolf?'" I read melodramatically.

He smirked. "Inside humor, Love."

I pursed my lips. "Obviously. So why are you in my room at-" my eyes flickered to the clock and widened-"five thirty in the morning? Care to explain?"

Klaus smiled, that annoyingly tantalizing smile that I could never tell meant a good thing or the complete opposite of. It made me nervous, nonetheless.

"I want to show you something."

I appraised his expression suspiciously. "And that is?"

His eyes flashed. "A surprise."

"Oh....yeah. Well, that sounds promising," I said, but when he held out his hand, I still took it.

This time, he didn't even have to give me a warning because I knew what was coming. I closed my eyes as he brushed out the room and down the stairs, shielding them against the slicing winds that tore at my clothes, the temperature dropping twenty degrees when he whooshed out the door. My hair blew in disarray and when he stopped a few minutes later, the feeling lingered, like what happened when you stood up too quickly.

I opened my eyes, hearing water.

"The forest again?" I asked, finding the river that wove its way through the trees. The moonlight turned the black currents pearlescent, silvery waters drifting passed us. "Why here?" I asked as he set me down, casting him a glance.

He shrugged, gazing at the stream. "I find it relaxing."

"Ancient vampire that's probably been everywhere and you find this interesting?" I couldn't hide the surprise in my voice. I cocked my head to the side. "Really?"

He smiled. "I've been many places. Rome, Barcelona, Comoros, but simple sights still hold their own particular charm."

I blanched. "You've been where?"

"Comoros," he repeated. "It is an African island nation located over the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Mozambique. Stunning sights." Klaus glanced at me and his smile widened. "That's the privilege of being immortal; you get to see the world do marvelous things."

"Does it ever get old?" I asked curiously, a bit hesitant. "I mean, doesn't it seem....lonely?"

"Perhaps if you have nothing to occupy your time with," Klaus admitted. "But one could be around for over an eon and still have so much left to see. Give it a few years, maybe a century or so, and everything you remember has turned into something different. Civilizations can either grow or be crushed; can build great things that may be gone far too soon than deserved. They are moments in history only glimpsed by the handful, destined to be destroyed by the next."

"You know, for a wannabe evil guy, you're pretty deep," I remarked, hoping to sound nonchalant. I took a seat on the forest floor, crossing my legs and splaying my hands behind me as I stared out at the water.

After a minute, he followed suit. "I'm not attempting to be any such thing," he said. "You seem to keep trying to perceive me as someone with good motives, when that is very rarely the case at hand."

"Are we going to have this discussion again?" I asked, casting him a glance. "I know you're bent on me seeing you as this....I don't know, despicable being or whatever, but I don't. So deal with it."

In my peripheral vision, I caught him studying me. "Fine then," he breathed. "In due time, I suppose, is what it will take."

"For you to stop bringing it up?"

"For you to run," Klaus said. "Humans always do."

I glared at him, tossing my hair back. "Well then you've been kept in really crappy company."

"I could apply the same expression to yourself," he replied. "Always alone in that quaint little house of yours. I'd expect someone as yourself to be out, seeing the world."

"Well, not all of us can afford a ticket to Comoros," I said. "But I do sometimes get tired of it here. The same stuff just happens over and over again. There's absolutely nothing of interest in this town. Or at least, there used to not be."

"I can guess that what I am is not what you expected to find in such an insignificant town."

"What?" I lifted my eyebrows mockingly. "The things of fantasy suddenly invading here? No, I totally saw that coming."

He smiled slightly.

"So why did you disappear?" I asked, unable to halt my curiosity. He crossed his legs and looked over to me, that gleam igniting in his eyes. "Just....sightseeing, I suppose."

"For four days? You could cram a tour of this place into two hours with time to spare and you took four days?"

"Personal business required my attention. But I enjoy how possessive you sound at my absence," he grinned.

I gawked at him, quickly looking away to hide my red face. "Pfft, wow, egocentric much?" 

Klaus chuckled, showing off those ridiculously attractive dimples again.

That just wasn't fair.

"Do I detect subtle blushing, Love?" 

"No," I quipped. "It's just cold out here."

Before I could snatch the words back, he shrugged out of his coat and draped it over my shoulders. It was laced with the vague scent of pine and something of spice. "See?" I coaxed, after an awkward moment of silence had passed. "You're not so bad."

"I do not deliberately try to be," Klaus said. "I do what I want. Most of which just so happens to be frowned upon by that small voice called morality."

I deliberated on that for a moment. "Maybe it's just easier to play the bad guy," I mused.

"And why do you say that?"

"Well, then you wouldn't have to take the guilt of it all."

"I've taken accountability for my actions," he suddenly snapped and I flinched slightly at the harshness there. "You don't need to get defensive," I said, casting him a wary look. His eyes were trailed on the water, as if avoiding my gaze. "Just that....maybe you underestimate yourself, too." 

"In what?" Klaus asked, voice rising. "In admitting to being the bad guy? I don't wish to lie to myself and pretend that what I've done can be rectified, let alone absolved. If that were the case, then there truly is no justice in this world. I have more moments of treachery than humility and I'm sure, one day, I'll be forced to pay the price of it."

"Well aren't you the pessimist," I replied. "Remind me never to go to you whenever I need a motivational speech." I looked at him from the corner of my eye. "Plus,it makes you kind of self involved if you think you're the only one with regrets. I've had my share of past uh-oh's."

Klaus's expression fell, and he seemed momentarily stunned. "I wouldn't be so quick to throw your fate in with my own. You are much different, after all."

I ignored the weird heart flutter that suddenly erupted in my chest, watching him dubiously. "How so?"

"For one, in the fact that you express regret."

A beat of silent passed at his words and I cleared my throat. But he interrupted me.

"You are exceptionally reckless," Klaus said. "You're a rather vocal woman-"

-"Are these meant to be compliments?"

-"and your bravery is....admirable. Or perhaps I'm just misconstruing that with idiocy. But it's impressive nonetheless." He smiled.

"Wow," I leaked mock kindness into my voice. "You know, for being so old, I would've expected you to not suck so much at the whole flattering thing."

"Why?" His tone held a glimmer of curiously to it. "You're obviously intelligent, beautiful, and you have an unerring humor about yourself that both infuriates me and fascinates me. But I thought you already knew that much."

"Wait," I sat up, my eyebrows knitting together as I looked at him. "I infuriate you?" 

Klaus didn't hesitate as he returned my gaze. "To a severe degree. You're very persistent that way."

"Well, anyone would have to be to get you to talk. It's like questioning a wall," I said dejectedly, but by that smile on his lips, he was teasing and it was beginning to frustrate me. "You're like an innuendo dispenser. Put in your twenty five cents and you get a quarter of an answer's worth out the mouth."

"Fine," he conceded, to my shock. "What would you like me to answer?"

I stared at him, feeling the question I wanted to ask, dangling like a trap below my feet. "How many people have you hurt?" I specifically avoided the word kill, but he didn't miss the distinction and I wondered if there even was one.

The smile slipped from his lips and the terse one replaced it. 

"Never mind," I quickly said. "I don't want to know."

"Why not? Would you be afraid of me then?"

"No," I snapped. 

His eyes narrowed just slightly. "You're lying."

"No, I'm not," I ran a nervous had through my hair, trying to think of the right thing to say. "Besides, people are capable of change."

Klaus eyed me intently, and leaned forward, just a bit. "And what makes you think I have any such intent?" 

"Because there's good in you," I breathed, his face suddenly closer than I expected. I didn't draw back, though. Not yet, I wouldn't. "You may think there's not. But I don't need to know everything about you to see what I see. You may like to think you're untouchable and feared by everyone, but you aren't. Because I'm not scared of you."

His face drew an inch closer, until our noses were practically touching. The moonlight pooled in his eyes, making them glow with an almost unearthly light. "You should be."

But before he could retreat, I found myself leaning forward, a challenge. When he didn't pull away, I kept going, until the space between us dissolved, and until my lips were pressed to his.