The story began when dressed in a suit he decided to attend a charity event. People were scattered around the room conversing among themselves. Orchestra was playing strings of classical and waltz music to entertain the guests.

His ocean blue eyes dully glanced around the ambience of the room. Waiters walked through the crowd carrying trays of champagne glasses. Emeralds, diamonds and sterling silver were shining under the crystal chandelier and incandescent golden of the theme. Red dresses trained around along with stilletos cackling against the marble flooring carrying the beads of gossip and latest update on weddings, affairs and who was about to divorce whom.

It was a boring evening if he dared to comment on it. His good friend who helped him once before cordially asked for him to attend. He accepted knowing his whereabouts would still go incognito.

Through the hustle of women, he saw someone at a table, giggling over a joke the man in front must have cracked. She gracefully stood wearing a corseted floor length dress with a slim fit. The silver of her dress complimented the porcelain flawless skin of hers. The red of her hair, tied in a braided bun, was bright like he had seen before but somehow she made the color of the hair of hers seem uncommon. The diamonds she wore were straight out of a James Bond movie and she carried the class and grace like she demanded respect and admiration...but from afar. She momentarily looked his way, although not straight at him.

He had met women from all walks of life: timid and shy or bold and violent. But a woman with a demanding smile and striking posture to lay shame on princesses he had ever come across was an unusual account. Her eyes were roving judgementally around when her smile faltered for a second before she masked her disdain quickly to get back to her conversation. He grew curious of the woman.

Minutes passed he kept his eyes on her. He had gone through two glasses of champagne. He could see the smile slowly grow forceful by the minute.

"I see she caught your attention as well" Someone said from right next to him. He glanced sideways to see his friend standing next to him.

"Who is she? I have never seen her before."

"That's because she doesn't always attend these functions. She is here on behalf of her father."

"Who is her father?" The two men hadn't noticed that they had a company with them.

"If you are speaking of my father, shouldn't I be a part of this conversation?" She teased. The two men turned to face her. She saw the man standing before her with curled dirty-blond hair and dark blue eyes that contrasted with his pearl-white skin.

"Marilyn." She introduced herself.

He took her hand and kissed back of it, "the name is Klaus." He said looking into her eyes with a smile. "May I say how beautiful you look." He flirted with her.

"Thank you. You look handsome as well."

"Don't be fooled love, I am the devil in disguise." She couldn't help the laugh from leaving her lips.

"Don't get so ahead of yourself about it, love." She looked at him with a playful smile and with soft eyes. His friend had excused himself watching the two have a flirtatious look gleaming in their eyes.

-----

“what are you thinking about?” asked Marilyn, wrapping her arms around Klaus from behind and resting her head on his back.

He placed his hands on top of hers, head tilting to the back just a little to rest it on top of hers.

“the first time we met” he told her. Marilyn hummed and smiled.

"Never been more thankful for dad about forcing me to go somewhere I didn't want to.”

"I am glad too."

"How did it go?" asked Klaus.

"Elizabeth was glad I came. Artie is still a bit shocked, I mean Bill was only in his fifties and his younger brother. Caroline is shocked to say the least. She'll take some time to digest it all."

"Family always is trouble, love. But they came back around always."

Suddenly as if realising something, Marilyn pulled away. Klaus turned around meeting her bewildered eyes.

"What?"

"I forgot."

"What?"

"Your gift."

"My gift?"

"Yes." Marilyn darted out of Klaus's room leaving him to stand in place utterly confused about the particular exchange.

Five minutes later, Marilyn walked back into the room. She was holding a bottle in her hand. Klaus took one look at the bottle and began to smile wildly.

Marilyn rolled her eyes but even she couldn't stop herself from smiling. "Dad sends his congratulations on completing your one true dream." She put her hands up front.

Klaus took the bottle from her, delicately nursing it in his hands. "Beautiful. We'll open it after the ball tonight." he told her.

"Alright, so we have about three hours till the ball. What should we do?" Marilyn quizzed, her eyes trailing Klaus as he went into his walk-in closet and carefully placed the bottle inside the safe he built.

He walked out again, slowly prowling toward Marilyn. Klaus grabbed Marilyn by her waist and pulled her impossibly close to him. Marilyn gasped but didn't protest, leaning into his dominant touch.

After twenty years of being together, he still had the same effect on her as the first time. The same feeling of comfort in her heart and blazing fire under her skin.

Marilyn didn't wait another second and wrapped her arms around his neck. Klaus brought his lips down to hover over hers. They barely touched making Marilyn crave for more.

"I have got a few things in mind." whispered Klaus in a low husky voice. Klaus slammed his lips on hers. There was a sense of desire and possessiveness evidenced in the fervent kiss. Marilyn moaned at the feeling of not just Klaus's lips on hers but his touch that gripped and kept her close to him.

Klaus sped them to the nearest wall and used his hands for trapping her between him and the wall. Klaus grabbed Marilyn's hands that roamed over from the base of his neck to his back and pulled them away. He held them up on the wall, keeping them in place with just one hand. He used his free hand to reach the helm of her button up shirt and began to unbutton it.

Klaus pulled away just then, both catching their breaths. Each had a dark lustful look glass over their usual bright eyes. Marilyn released her hands from Klaus's hold and helped him pull off his shirt. Quickly she unbuttoned her shirt and discarded it in the room somewhere along with his shirt.

She pushed him away and towards the bed. She shoved him on the bed and crawled over him, straddling. "I missed you." she went in for another kiss.

"I missed you more."

Marilyn Vaugh was not a willing participant for the gala dinner organized by an old friend of her father. She engaged in many conversations with many people clearly interested in her as an object rather than an intellect brighter than anyone.

She would have sworn she had every intention of retiring for the night early on but a man with bright blue eyes and a captivating smile convinced her otherwise.

She waited by his side to make small talk. Although by his side, Marilyn was not taking her eyes off of the many people in the room laughing obnoxiously and rolled her eyes. She had, one too many times heard the same tone and pattern of laughter and seen the expressions plaguing the place.

"What is it?"

"Is it just me or is this place filled with boastful men and women whose entire goal for coming here is to pocket more money in the already overflowing pockets?" Klaus laughed genuinely turning to look the other way from the crowd hearing Marilyn's words.

"For many in the room, your thought is applicable."

"I certainly hope it doesn't apply to you." Marilyn said with a side glance his way. There was a hint of playful accusation in her words and gaze and it would be safe to say, Klaus liked it.

"I will leave it for you to be the judge of that." Klaus replied sending a smirk her way.

"Fair enough." She smiled widely.

The string quartet came to a stop before they switched the tunes they had been playing all night. Klaus put forth his hand, "may I have a dance?" He asked Marilyn.

"It would be rude not to." replied Marilyn, taking his hand and letting him lead her to the dance floor.

The mansion was decorated lavishly, a fitting display of the wealth and power of the Mikaelson family. Rebekah and Kol stood side by side at the bottom of the large staircase conversing among themselves.

"She's engaged to Nik. There has to be a lot of things wrong with her." Kol snickered.

"Hmm, no. Something is really wrong with her. I just──I have a bad gut feeling about her." Rebekah voiced her concern.

"Just because she hasn't been forthcoming about her entire life Rebekah, doesn't mean you will call it a bad feeling." Klaus retorted moving to stand next to her.

"Well then, you tell me, who is she?" Rebekah asked him.

"She is partly human and partly──" klaus words hitched when his eyes fell on Marilyn Vaughn ascending down the stairs. Her A-line gradual tulle applique dress was perhaps the most simple one in the room, yet she had managed to make it as perfect as ever. Her red hair were in an updo hairstyle with braids. The updo had small tinsels decorating it which sparkled under the ambient light installed just for the evening.

She gazed around the room before her sight fell on Klaus at the bottom of the stairs who was stunned in place watching her make her way. She smiled looking at him looking as smart and handsome as ever.

The ocean blue eyes of his were set straight on her, taking in her form. She looked at him with a soft smile. The man that stood at the bottom of the stairs was clearly the most astonishing wonder she had come across. With an avalanche of incidences which had made the man create an image as a weapon against the world, he had his moments of showing who he could be if not being a hunted or feared being. Marilyn had only one thought in her head: how enamoured she was with Klaus Mikaelson.

Each one saw something no one had seen in a long while and that cemented their trust and love for one another. Besides, love as heavenly the feeling, it's choice that matters right?

She stepped down from the last step and took her place by Klaus's side. "You look absolutely handsome, Nik."

"Not as beautiful as you though, my lovely Vixen." He told her before placing a kiss on her lips. Marilyn looked at him studying his features she had come to account as her favorite. Something dully coated them today. Intuitive worry was what she guessed but chose to not speak about it.

"I'll be back, I need to see if the bar is stocked with what I said it should be with. Rebekah! You look gorgeous. As do you, Kol. Handsome." She complimented the two before disappearing in the crowd.

"You were saying something." Rebekah asked Klaus just as Marilyn left their side.

"She's my only angel." Klaus told her before walking away in the same direction as Marilyn.

"I──what? Did that make any sense?" Kol asked his sister.

The evening moved along. The siblings stood on a side watching Klaus and Marilyn giggle forgetting about their world. Both were in their own world ignoring his siblings constantly looking their way.

Rebekah stood between Kol and Elijah, both engaged into a conversation with the invited guests. "Rebekah you have been obsessing over Marilyn since morning." Elijah brought it to her attention.

"Don't judge me. Something is bothering me about her. She's odd. Powerful, charming and just──I have a gut feeling, alright?" Rebekah huffed finishing her glass of champagne.

"She seems alright. But wicked too." Kol added to the conversation. All three turned to look at the couple laughing together at whatever became the topic of their conversation.

"Nik seems quite taken with her. I have not seen him laugh so much." Rebekah voiced. Even if she remained uncertain about the new face, she couldn't deny how unbearably in love the two were.

"Did you really tell her that?" Klaus asked. Marilyn was telling him about her visit to her parents.

She interlocked her hands with his. "Yeah, what else was I supposed to say?"

"Anything but that. Who says; he sacrificially stole hearts of a vampire and a werewolf before he drank the blood of a teenager. You make me seem like a cult leader."

"Potato potato." she shook her head. "The rest asked any questions so far?"

"Rebekah has been asking about you. She just asked what you are."

"And what did you say?"

"My only angel." Marilyn toppled into a laugh hearing his reply. She leaned ahead resting her forehead on his shoulder.

"What a reply!" She turned her face away slapping his chest. She looked up seeing Elena enter inside the house, soon joining hands with both the Salvatore brothers.

"Look at that." Marilyn gestured towards the trio.

"That was an expected occurrence."

"As it was." She nodded with a short-lived giggle. Elijah walked up to the two whispering something in Klaus's ear. "We have to go."

"Where?"

"Welcoming announcement."

"Me too?"

"Why not?" Klaus didn't wait for a reply from Marilyn instead dragged her to the stairs by her hand. She stood a step below his looking around the room filled with the people of Mystic Falls. Her eyes fell on the Salvatore brothers standing on either side of Elena who had a worrisome look flickering from each original to Marilyn and then set upon the eldest Mikaelson, Esther. The brothers whispered in a low voice as Elijah welcomed everyone to an evening of dance and drinks in the most elegant manner organized.

At the end of the Elijah's speech everyone made their quick way into the ballroom, each already having a partner with them.

"May I have this dance?" Klaus asked, lending her a hand to balance as she ascended the stairs.

She gazed up to look at his face before she smiled scrunching her nose almost timidly, "it would be rude not to." She replied with a wink.

Both had a flash of deja vu from years ago. The evening they were present in at the time, slowly faded into the one they first shared when they merely knew each other's names.

The music played a few seconds later giving a small window for everyone interested in dancing to take place in the centre of the room. Marilyn and Klaus stood in the centre of the line of dancers. Both were well versed with the steps.

She turned her face over to focus on the man leading the dance. He twirled her around with the beat. His arm wounded around her waist resting on her lower back. The corner of her lip curled into a snarky smile. "It's supposed to be a bit up." She whispered to him.

"No one cares." He replied keeping a soft gaze on her.

"Something is bothering you." Marilyn voiced it finally. She felt it since the evening began, she could see it on him that he had been in deep thought away from anyone's knowledge.

"Nothing. It's all good." He excused before twirling her once more to change partners. Klaus had worries circling his mind but he didn't want to put them on Marilyn's shoulders. At least not for the evening.

With much reluctance, Stefan and Marilyn danced for the time being ignoring one another's eyes. Stefan was still weary of the woman muddled with her.

"What are you?" Stefan blurted out giving in to his curious and flight instinct.

Marilyn lifted her gaze from the walls and every person standing on the sides and looked at Stefan raising an eyebrow. She was waiting for the question to make a comeback through one of the two Salvatore brothers.

"Why? Haven't you figured it out yet? From what I have heard, you seem to be the all knowing gang of misfits." She challenged amusingly, her accent as thick and odd as ever for ears.

"You are human. All signs are right there but Elena said you look exactly the same, since you first launched your brand." Stefan reiterated.

"Maybe...I am she-hulk. Cool, right?" She teased with a laugh making him roll his eyes. The song ended soon after. Taking a bow out of curtsy for the dance, Marilyn quickly walked away giggling to herself inaudible.

Inside Klaus's art room, he stood looking at his latest piece. His sole intention of walking away was to avoid Marilyn who had her ways and charms to make him confess his mind.

"There hides the hybrid." He heard Marilyn comment from the door.

"Enjoying the party?" He asked delaying the question she was there to ask him.

"Won't say I have participated in better parties because I have but you certainly add the bonus points for it." She flirted. "Now, what is it that's bothering you? All day you have been silently sulking in worry and that leads to avoidable paranoia, which I think you have had lived through enough. So, may I ask you to begin speaking?"

"My mother. That's my biggest worry. After all these years she forgives me for killing her? She wakes up because of unknown reasons and decides to forgive me? I don't believe it to be true." He expressed his thoughts.

"It is suspicious that she was so willing to forgive you." She hummed pressing a finger to her chin. "We have to be cautious. I am not saying outright call her out or something but don't give in as easily either. As long as her true intentions aren't clear, we could keep a watchful eye around." She suggested. Klaus hummed pressing his lips together.

"Now, come on. We're not losing out on the fun." Marilyn told Klaus.

"In a minute." Klaus turned his attention and with it, hers. On the wall was hung up a painting he did of hers.

"That's the one I painted after you told me who you are." Klaus whispered into her ear. His arms draped around her waist pulling her close to him.

"The night I beat up those men?" She giggled remembering just how fascinated Klaus looked seeing her that night.

"You were in your element. The way they taunted you for being a girl and how you showed them the fury of hell's princess." Marilyn leaned onto him closing her eyes.

The painting in question was of a woman with red hair walking the ramp of a fashion show with a halo of white surrounded by black. She was the centre of the piece glowing like the radiant sun.

"I love you, Klaus. All of you."

"I love you too. All of you."

"Niklaus." came the voice of Finn. The two broke away from each other's embrace and turned to the door.

"What is it, Finn?"

"Mother wants to make a toast. She had called everyone into the main room." Finn informed them and walked away.

Hands intertwined the two made their way downstairs. "I was thinking I should tell your siblings about me. I wanted to before but your mother came and I chose to dodge it."

"It's up to you. Nothing you say would leave their mouths, as gossip. I am sure of it." Klaus assured her. Her well kept secret was actually her pride. She didn't brag about it but neither did she feel ashamed. She simply chose to not say it out loud unless she had to scare the life out of someone.

Marilyn looked into the crowd feeling straining eyes set upon her. Stefan stood on the side with a blank face but a million thoughts in his eyes looking at her. A few people away from him, Elena stood conversing softly with Elijah. While Elijah was reading Elena to see if there hid a lie, Elena was succeeding in fooling the Mikaelsons if she were to praise her own self. Marilyn could read those thoughts so clearly that she almost felt she had looked far too much into the matter but when with a sharp sigh Elena turned away from Elijah, Marilyn was already on her feet to warn Elijah.

She halted her steps when waiters made their rounds through the crowd offering champagne to everyone present. "Good evening, Ladies and Gentleman." came the voice of Esther drawing everyone's attention to the top of the stairs. "Waiters are coming around with champagne. I invite you all to join me in raising a glass. It provides me with no greater joy than to see my family back together as one. I'd like to thank you all for being part of this spectacular evening. Cheers." She raised her glass. Everyone raised her respective glasses and took a sip of the champagne. Esther's eyes wandered around the room to each of her children making sure they all consumed the drink.

Marilyn looked at Esther seeing an unreadable expression morph on her face. The crowd dispersed once again but Marilyn kept her ground watching Esther back away with Finn right on tow.

"Uh, Ms. Marilyn?" she turned around with a warm smile. Caroline stood before her wearing the dress she brought in the form of an apology.

"Hello Caroline. How are you? Please call me Marilyn."

"I──I've had better days. Thank you for the dress." Caroline smiled back at her, slightly nervous with her presence at the ball and the clearly expensive dress she was gifted and she wore.

"I just don't want there to be any bad blood between the two of us."

"I can't just wrap my head around it all, it's too much. One minute you are this fashion icon I looked up to, next you are Klaus's fiancee and then my grand-aunt?" 

"I did not expect you to be alright with everything. I just wanted to extend the hand of family. That is all. I promise." Both smiled at each other.

"Would you care for a drink?" Marilyn offered to which Caroline nodded. Caroline walked alongside Marilyn occasionally glancing at her ── while she was entirely aware of the eyes of Damon, Stefan, Elena and a possibility of Matt as well, following her through the room.