Klaus watched her walk away from him, his temper rising with each step she took. No. This was not how this was supposed to go. She was supposed to stay with him, to choose him. But no, she was pushing him away again. Pushing him away in favor of Tyler fucking Lockwood. The closed-minded, small-town jock she felt she was meant to choose.

Klaus watched the door to the restaurant swing closed behind Caroline and couldn't contain his anger any more. He drove his fist into the window of the nearest car, closing his eyes in satisfaction when he heard it shatter. Klaus leaned against the car he'd just vandalized and picked a few shards out of his hand. There weren't many but the blood on his hand made it seem worse than it actually was.

She claimed Tyler was enough for her. Does that mean he was too much? Or was she trying to say that he was the one who wasn't enough? Perhaps what she truly meant to say was that he wasn't enough to be anything more than a bed warmer to her. Klaus cringed at the thought as he took another swig from the bottle in his hand, polishing it off. Fuck. That was his last bottle of bourbon. Klaus shrugged and began to rifle through his bar.

"The empty bottle is a sign you should stop, brother." Klaus' shoulders sagged and he gave a heavy sigh as he turned to face the intruder.

"Not necessarily. I believe an empty bottle to be a sign that it wasn't full enough in the first place." Stefan smirked as Klaus stumbled his way over to the couch. "Care for a drink?"

"No thanks, I'm not currently spiraling." Stefan strode over to where Klaus had made himself comfortable with a bottle of whiskey. "Come on, man. Nobody's seen or heard from you in days. We're all really worried."

"Define 'we'? Kol has been sending me numerous messages. Mostly offers to aid me in emptying the bar." He rolled his eyes.

"Just because she hasn't called doesn't mean she's doing any better than you right about now." Stefan mentioned under his breath. He peeked up at Klaus to gauge his reaction, if there was one. "She's actually been a wreck. A high-functioning wreck."

"Yes well. Bekah's always been that way. Even in distress she manages to get things done." Klaus knew very well he was talking about Caroline, but it had always been convenient that Bekah and Caroline were both high functioning, control freak, fashion loving blondes. They were as different as they were similar though so it left it at kind of a stalemate.

"You and I both know I wasn't talking about Bekah." It killed Stefan to see his two closest friends so miserable.

He could handle Klaus being moody, he always was. And normally it was easy to pull him out of his brooding fits, but this was a new low for him. He could also handle Caroline being down in the dumps; some lighthearted joking and a junk food binge had always worked on her, not this time though. Even her favorite ice cream hadn't enticed her enough to give him a genuine smile.

He'd tried to pry the truth out of her for why she ended the affair to no avail. She refused to talk about it and made that very clear, prompting Stefan to drop the subject altogether. He didn't want to push her out of her comfort zones. If or when she wanted to tell him about it or talk to him, she would. Caroline knew Stefan was always there for her through the worst of it. But even so, Stefan was surprised. He'd always liked the idea of Klaus and Caroline being together. They worked in an odd, slightly twisted sense. He couldn't explain it, but they did and he'd always liked that his friends made each other happy.

Klaus was more emotionally attached to her than he'd been to anything, or anyone, else in his whole life and more than he'd ever seen anyone be towards Caroline. Sure Tyler loved her and all, but did he deserve her? No. Did he treat her like she was his world? No. Did he put any and everything before her? No. Klaus would do anything for Caroline. Klaus would give up anything, even things in his most basic nature, just to make Caroline happy. Stefan knew Klaus lived to see her smile. He couldn't blame him. Caroline had an amazing smile. And on the flip side Caroline helped Klaus fight his demons. She wasn't afraid of him in his darkest moments. She saw past all the bad and highlighted the good. Most people lash out at him, or get angry with him, or blame him and none of those things helped him. But Caroline was willing to put in the time and the energy to help him embrace himself. She didn't want to fix him she wanted to love him. Or at least he thought she had.

"She's made her decision. I will respect that." Klaus shrugged as he stumbled upon a bottle of vodka that Stefan promptly, rudely, snatched.

"You mean you're hurt and your best solution is to sit here and sulk before you inevitably pull yourself up and purposefully hurt her like she's obviously hurt you in an attempt to drive her away." Klaus rolled his eyes. He could never hurt her. "What did you have planned, huh Nik? Were you going to parade some arm candy around her? Were you going to be flat out cruel to her? Were you going to ignore her?"

"My plan, dear Stefan, was to simply give up." Klaus gave a small hiccup. "I Niklaus Mikaelson give up."

"Then you aren't Niklaus Mikaelson. The Niklaus Mikaelson I know doesn't give up before he has exactly what he wants. And correct me if I'm wrong but what you want is Caroline Forbes."

"And the one thing I want doesn't want me so why don't you sod off?"

"Because I'm your best friend. We're brothers." Klaus shook his head. He had enough of those.

The last thing he needed was another one. One was impossible to please, one was impossible to live up to, the other was impossible to take care of, and the last had died. He didn't need any more brothers. He wasn't a fan of his sisters either. Rebekah was…his little sister, Sage was just as impossible to please as Finn, Katherine was pure evil, and whoever Kol ended up with would most likely be as much of a head ache as he is. He neither wanted nor needed any more siblings. In fact the only thing he wanted that he was sure he needed was Caroline Forbes.

"Well, when you finally manage to pull yourself together drop by my place will you?" Stefan shook his head and made his way to the door. He was beyond frustrated. He didn't have the patience to deal with Klaus when he was this low. "Preferably before you die. Or before we all leave on the vacation the girls wanted to take. Whichever comes first."