A/N – Sorry for the delay, this was supposed to be up earlier but just couldn't find the time! So I'm going to upload the next chapter on Sunday coz I am done writing 11 chapters so I think I can update a bit faster now! Please let me know what you think... REVIEW tc...

Thanks so much to my beta Kady (klausykins)


Chapter 4


It has been three days, three whole days since she had met him and she was yet to accept her feelings or the mere existence of her feelings to herself let alone say anything to her sisters or even her parents. Her parents had completely understood and had given her the time to think; Katherine had only smirked and shook her head at her sisters' indecisiveness whereas Rebekah had pestered every 20 minutes if she had made a decision.

The young girl was ridiculously excited by the prospect of watching her sister get courted. She was used to men flocking Katherine but she had never seen Caroline in the same way.

So Caroline still confused and dazed of the upcoming decision she had to take was doing the best she could by keeping herself preoccupied all the time. She took on all her sisters' chores to keep herself busy, that is except Katherine's charge of cooking. Caroline couldn't cook to save her life and she wasn't about to subject her parents to her horrible culinary skills just because she was nervous.

Which is why she currently was knee deep in the soil of their garden tending to her precious Orchids, effectively keeping her mind off of a certain blonde man whose name began with a k- and ended with a –laus.

Afterwards she would curse herself for choosing this particular time to frolic around in the mud in the burning heat and ending up looking like a disgruntled cat.


Damon had seen them from a mile away. He heard the sound of the chariot first and had practically flown out of his house ignoring his father's protests.

He saw them walking in the Forbes house direction and couldn't help but notice the elegance with which the little family walked, sans the small kid from last time. They definitely looked the part of the gentlemen Katherine claimed them to be, Caroline had been too busy trying to hide her face and blush to participate in that conversation.

"If it isn't the fancy foreigners," Damon piped up arrogantly when Mikael, Elijah and Klaus passed by his house.

"If it isn't the Peeping Tom," Elijah retorted back in the same arrogant tone as Mikael and Klaus looked around for the source of the cocky voice.

"I've been called worse," Damon dismissed, cocking a brow and walking forward to meet them on the dirt road. "This is actually one of the nicest insults I've ever gotten."

And just like that without knowing nor caring about who he was, Mikael already liked the dark haired man. He appreciated anyone with a sense of humor.

"I'm sure," Elijah responded and Mikael looked from confused from Elijah to Klaus, who after recognizing Damon was looking at him in the same way as his brother.

"And you are?" Mikael asked Damon politely.

Damon turned to look at Mikael for a second before turning his infuriating smile back to Elijah and Klaus. "Damon Salvatore."

"Ah yes, the neighbor," Mikael said in recognition. "Bill speaks highly of your father."

"They've known each other since they were children," Damon supplied.

"Well I'm Mikael and these are my sons..."

"Elijah and Klaus, I know. The girls filled me in," Damon butt in coyly, and it wasn't lost on anyone the way in which he said the girls.

Elijah shifted on his feet rapidly turning his stone eyes on the the raven haired man as Klaus got his typical narrow eyed wanting to rip your eyes out look as Mikael looked on amused at his sons behavior.

"Yes the girls," Mikael repeated. "I hear you've known them for years," he added in an attempt to get Damon to say what he wanted. The minute he saw the exchange between his sons and the Salvatore's body language he knew exactly why he had stopped them.

"Katherine was this small when I first saw her," Damon said, happily indicating a small space with his arms about the size of a small newborn. "And Caroline was actually inside Mrs. Forbes when I first spoke to her... or at her."

Mikael laughed softly at Damon's expression and noticed that both his sons had slightly relaxed their rigid stance.

"We'll be on our way then," Klaus said rather rudely as he started to walk away but Damon literally blocked his path.

"Not so fast... I wanted to talk you guys first," Damon said in a mock chirpy voice.

"Well I want to know what you were doing watching us from the woods?" Elijah rebutted and Damon actually made an impressed face.

"I was keeping an eye," Damon said simply.

"On?" Klaus challenged.

"The garden gnomes! What do you think? I was keeping an eye on the girls," Damon chided.

"Let me make something clear," Damon began half-seriously but it was always so difficult to tell with that smile on his face, "Katherine is like my little sister and Caroline is like my little sister's little sister, so as you can imagine I'm a tad bit over protective."

Klaus and Elijah's posture relaxed further at this while Mikael thoroughly enjoyed watching his sons in their new insecure avatar while a smug Damon lectured them.

"I'm even more protective since I happen to know the despicable mind of all men, me being the worst of them and..."

"And you wanted to do the routine 'If you hurt them I'll break your legs'?" Elijah interrupted.

"I'm not afraid of you," Klaus added as Elijah showed his approval to the statement by stepping ahead towards Damon.

"No threats here," Damon said instantly throwing his hands up. "I just thought you should know a few things, because guessing from the girls reactions you aren't like the scoundrels I've come across."

As if silently asking him to continue Elijah moved back as Damon continued, "Men have always flocked to Katherine and she always pretends like she knows how to handle them, like she's strong and brave. She's a tough girl but she breaks just as easily."

Elijah almost appreciated Damon for caring so much for Katherine but shrugged the thought away when he remembered how much he hated his leering face.

"And Caroline..." Damon sighed looking at Klaus, "Caroline is sensitive, insecure, impulsive and childish. She's never even spoken to anyone other than me and my brother before, Katherine made sure to keep her away from the pathetic men in town. Caroline bruises easily." Suddenly Damon's face lit up as he chattered on, "Once when she was little she cried endlessly because she thought a butterfly ate her caterpillar until we caught another caterpillar and showed her that her caterpillar actually turnedinto the butterfly."

Mikael laughed loudly at this and even Klaus couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought of a small Caroline crying over her caterpillar.

"She puts her heart and soul in the smallest things and when they fail, or die or go away she breaks down until either it comes back or we find something else to distract her with," Damon ended in a warning tone.

There's an uncomfortable bout of silence as Damon and Klaus stare at each other and Mikael felt the need to break the ice and stop his son from making a fool of himself.

But thankfully he didn't have to as Giuseppe Salvatore came running out of his house a forlorn expression on his face.

"Damon," he irked putting a warning hand on his sons shoulder, "Let's not intimidate the Forbes' guest shall we?"

It's clear from Giuseppe's desperate tone that he really had no control over his son and Mikael couldn't help but empathize with the poor man. He felt the same way when it comes to his sons.

"They don't look like they get intimidated easily," Damon rebutted impishly. "Or is that all show?"

Mikael let out a booming laugh just as he saw Klaus take a furious start in the Salvatore's direction.

Mikael clapped Damon on the back and genuinely said, "I like you Damon, you've got a sharp tongue on you."

"Well thank you," Damon said in his best gratuitous voice and nodded his acknowledgment.

"Why don't you escort them to the Forbes' house Damon," Giuseppe said slowly, again the pleading tone evident in his voice. "Bill did ask you over as it is."

Damon only made an 'Uhmm' noise and led them in the direction of the house nearby.

"Neither Bill nor Rebekah would stop talking about how funny you are," Damon said to Mikael conversationally as if he was talking to his friend and not one of the wealthiest merchants in the area.

"I've been blessed with two extremely uptight sons, I need my sense of humor boy," Mikael answered teasingly and Damon laughed heartily while both Klaus and Elijah both rolled their eyes.

"Thankfully the youngest is a riot," Mikael added laughing at the memory of all the things Kol came up with.

"Also the bravest. I heard he beat you two," Damon said mockingly, turning around to wink at the stone-faced brothers. "Advantages of being young, you can kiss any girl you want and you won't get beat up for it."

"Kol has his way with the ladies," Mikael confirmed thoroughly enjoying the teasing his sons were going through. "Even older ones."

"Well older ones are the better ones," Damon winked. "Trust me, I know..."

"The young ones aren't that easy to manipulate I suppose," Elijah said haughtily as he stepped ahead of his father and Damon and started walking faster.

"They also don't have husbands with a gun waiting to blow a hole in you," Klaus added with his signature smirk, as he jogged ahead wanting nothing more to put distance between him and Damon.

Damon was still amused while Mikael was glad to see his son's territorial over anything other than the business.


Caroline was frustrated, extremely frustrated. She had been doing everything she had been told and yet her Orchids kept dying. No matter how carefully she would water them or care for them they just withered away after a while.

And Caroline did not like anything dying, not even plants. She was helplessly removing all the withered and dead Orchids while cursing and muttering under her breath. She heard the familiar laugh behind her and knew instantly it was Damon so she didn't startle when he called out to her.

"Care!" Damon half-yelled purposely using his nickname for her.

"Damon," Caroline wailed in her typical pouty childish voice, "Help me! They keep dying... nothing works. Six months they're all dead."

"Orchids don't like too much sun," a low harsh voice said from right in front of her and she peeked up at the person, squinting her eyes to see through the haze of the bright sun.

She let out a little yelp as her eyes widened and she jumped up wildly when she recognized the person standing in front of her, appraising her with his deep blue eyes which looked even bluer in the sun. And that smile... she still couldn't explain what that smile did to her.

Or those dimples, for that matter.

"I have dirt on my dress," she blurted almost as if stating the fact would make it less obvious.

"And everywhere else," Klaus snipped playfully but instantly regretted it when he saw the way Caroline flustered and started looking at her arms frantically so he dove back into the safe subject of Orchids.

"Orchids need controlled light," Klaus digressed and Caroline immediately stopped fidgeting and paid attention to him. "They need alternated sunlight and shade, if you had planted them on that bed over there," he pointed a bed at the other end and currently shaded by the roof of their house, "They would have grown beautifully."

"How do you know so much about this?" Caroline asked in awe and Klaus bobbed on his feet excitedly.

"It's one of my passions, and Orchids are my favorite, too."

"Orchids aren't my favorite," Caroline said crinkling her nose and wiping the sweat off her brow. "My favorite are lilies."

"Then why are you planting Orchids and not Lilies?" Klaus asked curiously.

"Well because I keep killing everything and I don't want lilies to die at my hand," Caroline said softly feeling quite stupid giving her explanation until Klaus got that half-amused half-adoring look on his face as he slowly laughed.

"Thank you very much for your help though," she added hastily only now remembering her courtesy.

Before Klaus could respond Damon jumped in.

"Oh please don't thank me," Damon said sarcastically waving his hand around. "I only went and bought your blasted seeds and what not every month, but I don't have an accent so don't thank me."

"Go away Damon!" Caroline yelled and Klaus's brows rose instinctively at seeing the sweet Caroline disappearing and the fierce Caroline emerging.

"Oh how she wounds me, my little Carebear," Damon said mockingly putting a hand on his heart as he started to walk away.

"DAMON!" Caroline exclaimed with an adorable foot stomp while Damon and even Klaus silently laughed.

"Don't call me that Damon," she hissed and added in a bellow at his retreating figure "And I'm not little anymore."

Klaus though was quite enjoying watching Damon tease Caroline, starting to not despise the Salvatore as much as he had earlier.

"Care-what?" Klaus asked with a little shake of his head to further watch her get riled up.

"Carebear," Damon quipped popping his head out of the door. "It's my nickname for her. You see she loves animals and resembled a teddy bear when she was young so behold, Carebear."

Caroline whined loud enough for Damon to snicker contently and walk back inside.

"He is annoying," Caroline puffed angrily throwing a handful of mud from her hands, effectively splattering it on her and Klaus's shoes.

"That he is," Klaus agreed.

"But he means well," she added instantly and Klaus only shrugged at that.

"Was he talking to you?" she asked slowly and fearfully as she realized that they had obviously come here together.

"Yes," Klaus said simply enjoying the way she gulped in nervousness.

"He told us a story," he added and Caroline looked like a lost little puppy.

"Of?"

"About you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"And..."

"And a certain caterpillar."

Caroline whimpered and got enough courage in her embarrassment to hit Klaus on the shoulder as he bent over in a fit of laughter.

"Don't. Laugh. At. Me," she groaned while hitting him playfully for each word.

"Please tell me you were young enough to be that dumb," Klaus chided in between his laughter and if she wasn't so mad she would have taken a moment to appreciate how beautiful he looked when he laughed so carelessly.

"Did you just call me dumb?" she screeched on managing to look half angry as she whipped a chunk of dirt at him, forgetting for a minute that this was Klaus and not Damon or Stefan.

"Did you just throw mud at me?" he retorted in a similar tone unable to keep the wide grin off his face.

He had never seen anything more enticing as Caroline's wide blue eyes, her parted lips and her tongue sticking out a little, biting onto it tightly as she muttered a smothered, "Oops."

"I'll clean it," she said sincerely and he shook his head at her fondly.

He realized then how badly he wanted to touch her - graze his rough fingers over her smooth cheek wiping the smear of dirt on in and tuck her stray curl behind her ear. Anything to get an excuse to touch her.

And he did just that, breathing a sigh of relief when she didn't recoil or startle at his motion but just looked at him with wider eyes. Slowly he pulled his hand forward and used his thumb and the back of his fingers to remove the stub of dirt stuck to her cheek, gladly noticing the slight pinkish tinge under it.

She smiled shyly and bent her head down running her own fingers over her cheek.

"Caroline what did you do to your dress!" a high pitched voice startled them both from behind.

Caroline turned around with a yelp while Klaus looked over her shoulder to see his brother and Katherine striding towards them.

"I was just tending to my Orchids," Caroline said with a shrug.

"No excuse to look like that," Katherine reprimanded her sternly and moved forward, running her hand through Caroline's hair attempting to straighten it while painfully rubbing off the dirt from her dress, playing her role as the big sister to the T.

"What happened to you, Niklaus?" Elijah asked amused, looking his brother up and down.

"That's my fault," Caroline said diffidently causing Elijah to raise his brows impressively.

"And why did you splatter my brother with mud?" Elijah asked playfully, smiling at a frustrated Caroline while Katherine still attempted to make her more presentable.

"I might have called her dumb," Klaus chuckled but quickly added when Katherine glared at him unabashedly, "Playfully, I was just teasing."

"Well that's what you get for teasing me," Caroline grumbled as Katherine finally let her go and linked her arm with hers.

"You should be grateful it wasn't me, ," Katherine said teasingly, glancing briefly at Elijah. "I would have dunked your pretty head in the mud."

Elijah and Caroline heartily laughed at her comment while Klaus narrowed his eyes and decided then and there that only a man like his brother could handle a woman like Katherine Forbes.


So I was told that this story was a bit weird coz Mikael is so nice and all but I hope at least some of you like it. I am done with 11 chapters and it's not even half the story. This is going to be like a 40 chapter story since I have the entire plot mapped out. Would you guys stick around for so long?