Stefan's eyes grew wide when he opened the door to the sight of Caroline, her hair disheveled and clothes torn, carrying four felines that were mewing hopelessly.

Questions were on the tip of his tongue but he held back at her signature do-not-mess-with-me look.

"Do you plan on helping me out at some point or will you be just standing there?" Caroline bit out, placing two of the cats in Stefan's arms as he stayed in place, stunned.

The contact of the fluffy fur against his skin seemed to creak him out of his reverie because he drawled in response, "I'd appreciate a little explanation."

"Well, I'd appreciate if I could go out with my friends and once, just once, spend a nice peaceful evening instead of getting in trouble with some big bad but apparently we can't always get what we want."

His stance turned rigid. "Who attacked you?" he asked.

"Calm down, Stefan," Caroline rolled her eyes. "Not me. Them," she motioned towards the kittens in their arms. "Well, I was attacked too but only after I stepped in saving their sorry asses."

"You mean…" A flash of understanding crossed his face as one of the animals started clawing at the fabric of his shirt. He gripped it by the nape and lifted up, staring at it half-bewildered, half-amused.

Nodding, the blonde mused, "Yep. You know Damon, he thinks he's charming but he cannot help but annoy the witches. The rest of them were collateral damage, I guess."

"But…kittens?" Stefan scrunched up his nose, disgusted.

Caroline just shrugged. "I think the one with beautiful green eyes and these ridiculously white teeth is Bonnie. Damon is the one that tried to scratch you, Enzo's black with white paws and collar and Elena has the puffiest tail and these strange eyebrows…Do kittens even have eyebrows?"

Stefan just raised his own eyebrows at her, making it obvious the topic was not worthy of his consideration. "And what happened to you?" he asked instead, voice laced with concern.

Sighing, she strutted to the couch, resting two balls of fur (Enzo and Damon, according to her guesses) in her lap. Stefan couldn't help but glower at them when they purred and preened under the blonde's touch.

He was the only one Caroline should pet like this.

"Seriously, Stefan?" Her tone told him she was unimpressed by his jealous glare. "Look, when the witches cast their spell, I decided to get them out of there but believe it or not, juggling four kittens is not that easy. And then some werewolves showed up and you can probably guess felines slash vampires are not their favourite so yeah, a little brawl might've happened…"

His eyes swept over her body carefully, looking for a signs of a bite. Finding none, he sat beside Caroline, burying his nose into her hair. "I'm glad you're okay" he whispered, kissing her temple. "It's a third time something like this happens, you know."

"Look, it's not like I go looking for trouble. It just sort of finds me."

"Especially with Damon and Enzo around you," Stefan groused.

"Okay, enough with the brooding, we have tons to prepare, alright? Like, you better hope we have some kitten litter and a box in the house, we're not gonna get those anywhere at 3 am."

They didn't.