Chapter 3:

Appreciated Irritation

Caroline stared out the window with her head sitting glumly in her hand, looking out at the bright blue sky and flourishing trees. Though every thirty seconds she would give an exaggerative sigh, to Klaus's deep annoyance. It was about 12 in the afternoon, and since he took his time getting her in the car and taking care of things in Mystic Falls, it had only been about two hours on the road, and one hour since he threatened to knock her unconscious again, and apparently she took it seriously... Or maybe it was the nonchalant 'I love you' that shut her up.

Quite frankly, he didn't even notice he'd said it – it just felt so natural for him to say. But for that next hour he continued to run her ignorant reaction through his head.

Caroline sighed loudly again.

Klaus gritted his teeth and glared over at her, warning her to stop.

She sighed again.

"Caroline..."

"What?" She sneered, shooting daggering looks his way.

"Will you please stop that incessant sighing?" He asked, still through gritted teeth as his grip on the steering wheel tightened even more.

"Why, does it bug you?"

Klaus didn't say anything, as the question seemed rhetorical – and he figured she wasn't done.

"No, I understand. It sucks when someone bugs you."

"Caroline."

"I mean, hey, it's no kidnapping, but heavy sighing every now and then does have a similar effect."

He laughed bitterly, shaking his head. "My god, you really hold a grudge..."

"Yeah, I'm funny that way," she sneered sarcastically, turning her head to face him. There was another moment of silence, which made Klaus smile, hoping to endure as much of it as possible.

Though the silence didn't last long.

"Where are we even going, anyway?" Caroline asked, slapping her hands against her legs in exasperation. She kept her narrowed gaze on him as she waited for an answer.

"New Orleans."

"New—" Caroline's lips parted in a minor shock. "New Orleans?!" She yelped.

Klaus rolled his eyes in anticipation for her oncoming rant.

"That's, like, a ten hour drive!" She complained, her mouth still hanging open.

"Yes, but you make time fly so much quicker, Caroline," Klaus sniped sarcastically with a bitter, thin lipped smile, which disappeared almost instantly. "Especially with that attitude," he judged.

"Ugh." She squinted up her eyes and scoffed again. Caroline shook her head, confused. "Speaking of flying, why didn't we just take a plane?"

He glanced over at her with an 'are you serious' expression on his face. "Because apparently it's illegal to bring unwilling passengers on the flight with you."

Caroline folded her arms over her chest and smirked bitchily. "Maybe that's there way of telling you, I dunno, not to kidnap people!"

"You have really got to let that go, love!" Klaus snapped, glaring at her with wide, irritated eyes. Caroline sighed again and fell back into her chair, shaking her head. She paused before saying, "I don't even have any clothes to change into – if you haven't noticed; I'm still in my graduation dress!... And I don't even have any shoes on!" She glared over at him, then back at the open road. "Do you have, like, some sorta creepy shoe fetish, or something?"

Klaus rolled his eyes with what seemed like disappointment. "Relax, love – I'll take you shopping when we get there."

She didn't say anything and Klaus smirked. "Though if you truly are that uncomfortable in your dress... You are more than welcome to take it off." Klaus saw blonde ringlets whip around from the corner of his twinkling eye as he continued to smirk.

Caroline glared in shock and disgust, but when she turned to the window and out of his view, she couldn't stop the smile curling on her lips, nor could she stop the charmed blushing.

About an hour of silence later, when they found themselves driving through a small town, Klaus became the annoying one. Caroline's sighing stopped, but she grew irritated because every so often, Klaus would look at her and open his mouth to say something, but never did. It bothered Caroline, not only because it was distracting, but because every time she thought he was about to say something, her breath caught in anticipation. Sometimes, even a shiver ran down her spine.

Though, no matter how much it annoyed Caroline, it annoyed himself more. He just genuinely didn't know what to say. It's not as though you could kidnap someone, then talk about how beautiful the weather was.

Klaus did it again.

Caroline growled, her fingers curling in frustration. "Okay, Klaus," she began, her brows raised high. "Either say something, or stop doing that."

"What can I say, Caroline?" He asked her, his own brow furrowed in frustration with himself.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Caroline replied with a shrug.

"Well, you seem to be the expert on speaking beyond ones natural limits, so go on; have at it," he sniped, waving a hand in the air, keeping his eyes on the empty road. He glanced over at her, the sneered. "Not so easy, is it?"

She raised her chin. "Well you're the one who kidnapped me, so I think that makes the ball in your court," she stated while tilting her head in a very dominant way.

He unintentionally mimicked her growl, his grip on the steering wheel becoming tighter to the point where it left dents. Oops. He sighed, thinking of something to say... "So... The weather's quite lovely today, isn't it?"

She laughed mockingly. "Seriously?"

He waved his hands in the air in frustration. "Okay! I give up."

Silence.

"...What's your favourite colour?"

Klaus frowned. "Beg your pardon?"

Caroline shrugged, her arms folded with a blank look upon her face. "What, you wanted conversation," she pointed out.

Klaus was about to mock her some more, but stopped himself. "I suppose—"

"And don't say red!.. Every vampire says red."

"Then, I suppose—"

"So it was red... God, why red? I mean, yeah it's the colour of blood, but, like, really? That's just so predictable..."

Klaus laughed and Caroline looked over at him to find out why. He raised his hands as in defence. "No, continue. It's become apparent to me that you don't actually need another person in order to have a conversation."

Caroline glared at him for a second, then couldn't help but laugh. "Well, yeah. It's because people are so bad at it," she raised her chin and pursed her lips, "they need my expertise."

Klaus continued to grin at her, and Caroline found herself not able to look away from his adorable dimples, until they disappeared.

"Ah," he said, raising his brow, pursing his own lips. "Here we are."

Caroline's head whipped around, her expressive blue eyes darting all over the place to see where they were. "And," she began with caution in her voice, "where is 'here'?"

"Hm?" He glanced over at her, as he pulled his flash car over in front of a dingy looking bar. "Oh, nowhere you'd know," he added with a wry smile.