Hello, lovelies! It's been a long time since my last update because school really is kicking in right now, I got this one up, though! Everything in regards to Klaroline's past will be explained soon!

As always, beta read by the lovely Tanya.

There was only so long one's patience could be tested before they eventually snapped and someone got hurt. Or died. Like poor old Elena Gilbert, 'collateral damage' was just something that she was going to have to go down in history as. A necessary death by all means.

There were others, however, who did not necessarily have to die - they simply chose to. Caroline Forbes was becoming one of those people and if she took too many steps in the right direction then the same fate may fall upon her. Poison would be a gift, something that she didn't quite deserve.

Unfortunately, the same could be said for Klaus. He was prying into this information far too much for it to be ignored and they were not going to ignore it. They poured some more alcohol into their glass, bringing it to their lips as they tried to think of how to deal with the latest bump in their metaphorical road. Killing both Caroline and Klaus would definitely arise some suspicion, but unless things changed drastically there didn't seem to be another option. If anyone found out that it was them then they'd be royally screwed over with the case that they already had piled up.

With an irritated sigh they got to their feet, putting the glass down as they headed out the door. A visit was in store.

"This is all terribly cliché." Even as the words escaped Kol's mouth he couldn't help but smirk, he could do cliché as long as Bonnie was helping out with it. Any excuse. Besides, she looked hot when she was being deceiving and that was an opportunity that he didn't really feel like missing out on. He was about to say something else when she pressed a finger to his lips to quiet him, earning an eyeroll.

Cliché it may be, but it was necessary if she was ever going to be able to help her friend get on with things. Bonnie didn't like Klaus, at all, with good reason as far as his career showed, but either way it wouldn't hurt Caroline to get over him. For a lack of a better way to put it, if she had to get under him first for that to happen then so be it. Even if she did have to hold back a shiver at the thought of it. She had to focus, a task that was increasingly difficult with Kol running his fingers along her side as she waited for Caroline to arrive at the restaurant. "We're in a public place."

"All the more fun." He grinned at the half-hearted slap she gave him, he was curious to see how things worked out; he just cared a little less than the fiery judge. Which, in all honestly wasn't terribly hard to do. She had an uncanny knack for making his moral compass look more than a little bent. Which, then again, wasn't hard to do either. Klaus had already walked in a few minutes ago, so Kol thought his part was done but Bonnie was insistent that they wait to see that Caroline turns up. If she didn't, Kol just thought it would be funny.

Luckily for his patience, a wash of blonde popped out of a cab at that moment, paying the driver and then heading indoors, seemingly planning an excuse as she went. It wasn't going to be necessary but at least she was prepared. "There, now can we please get going. I can think of much better things to be doing with us both at this proximity."

Okay, so maybe he had deserved that slap.

Caroline hadn't meant to be late, she really hadn't meant to be late but there was a phonecall which was followed by a few emails and tied up with a fax. Then Stefan needed her, something to do with a form and before she knew it it was 7:15 and she was already a quarter of an hour late. She was actually surprised that Bonnie hadn't already called her to yell at her but her personal cell was clear of any messages, which she was going to use as part of her excuse for being late. She was glad that she was usually on the prosecution and not the defense because unless she was in a courtroom her back up tended to turn to crap.

She took a second to fix her hair in the door window of the restaurant before heading in to find Bonnie at her table. She found her table, but Bonnie was not at it.

"What did you do to Bonnie? Kidnap is illegal, you know that right?" The only trouble was that Klaus looked as surprised to see her as she was to see him. This only made her suspect that there was something else going on here, which she didn't appreciate.

"Ah. It would appear we've been duped." He couldn't help but smile at the tactics. Kol wasn't usually this subtle so he strongly suspected that the Bennett judge was the brains behind this plan, he'd have to send her a fruit basket. He sensed that she would much prefer his head on a pike but he didn't much like the thought of going without it for the time being.

It took Caroline all of three seconds to understand what he meant, a theory that was only reinforced once her phone buzzed with a text from her so-called dinner date.

'Have fun! Don't do anything I wouldn't do. x'

She scoffed at her phone and put it back into her bag, folding her arms as she continued to stand next to the table. "So, what's supposed to happen now? We sit down and talk about the weather? No thanks." She didn't move, though. She didn't know why she didn't make a dash for it right then and there but she stayed put - if only to hear him ask her to stay.

"We can talk about that if you want, we can talk about anything you want to."

"What cracker did you get that line from?"

He laughed. Reluctantly, she did too.

"Come on, Caroline. Sit down, give me a chance to explain. I'll even pay."

"You bet you will."

Then she laughed again, which he took for a good sign. He also noted that the slap she'd had before hadn't marked - he had made sure to find out exactly what was going on there, although he had already known the details that were exchanged. Katherine had told him once she had been accused of the murder, he hadn't enjoyed keeping it from his brother and so was relieved that he'd made that discovery himself. Client-lawyer privileges didn't quite extend to family. Either way, he didn't appreciate that she'd hurt his favourite lawyer, regardless of how justified her actions may have been in her given situation.

He had already ordered a drink but called a waiter over to bring them a bottle of wine instead, although she insisted that she wouldn't be having much of it.

"I'm heading back to the office after this, if this is one of your sneaky plans to bring down the firm because one of their senior partners was drunk on the job then you'll have to try harder." Would he try anything like that? She wasn't sure, he might stoop to that level. He'd done far worst things in the past and so it wouldn't be overly outrageous in the grand scheme of things, she wouldn't appreciate it either way. She'd only just gotten a good office, the view was great and she wasn't giving that up - regardless of how expensive the wine was.

"Would I tarnish the great name of Salvatore & Saltzman?" He gave her a look of faux innocence that she might believe if she was twelve and hoping to get an ice cream cone out of the deal. Mikael & sons had been around a lot longer, she knew that much, but S&S had been making a good name for themselves for a while now and she didn't feel that they were any better than them anyway.

"It's a better name than Mikael & sons. If it hadn't been then I would've taken that job instead."

"Who's to say you were going to be offered the job in the first place?"

"So I wasn't?"

It wasn't a real question, she had been the best candidate there, a stellar record throughout school, numerous internships during summer since she had been old enough to legally do so. He'd almost wondered if she had any kind of social life at all - other than being Miss Virginia when she was seventeen, which she had noted - but that wasn't going to help her get the job. That hadn't been the real cherry. The tip of the iceberg had just been her.

She had walked into the waiting room with confidence that no prospective associate should have. She laughed at all the right times and stayed quiet where others made the mistake of babbling some intelligent idiocy. She stood out and he was relatively sure that she was aware of that, they liked to make them wait, to make sure that they could hold out given the time. That was the first mistake that she'd made in a while, he could still remember Stefan's smug self offhandedly informing them of their latest associate from Harvard.

"Great girl, really hard-working. I think she may have come to the interviews over with you as well? Caroline Forbes."

And then he'd ended up taking in some idiots who hadn't lasted a month before he'd thrown them out - almost literally with a certain idiot by the name of Jules.

"Of course you were, you're brilliant-"

She was going to respond, to thank him in some way or maybe make a joke out of how she agreed with him, but he just couldn't leave it be.

"-Which is why it's really such a waste."

"What is?" She knew what was coming, could practically taste the ignorant comment on his tongue before he even said it but she tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, to make it clear that he should back away from saying what was coming next.

"The fact that someone like you would work at a sham like that." Okay, so they weren't as bad as he was making out, but either way they weren't Mikael & Sons and so they weren't good enough. Not for her.

"So, what? I come over to the darkside and we're Chucky and Tiffany?" She was getting more irritated by the second, as she always did when they spoke. He would be fine for a short while and then he'd say something obnoxious and she'd want to ring his neck.

"I wouldn't say no to the leather."

"You're disgusting."

"No, Caroline. I'm trying to help you. That firm is doing nothing for you, if you came to us you'd shine. You wouldn't have to live in the shadow of the Salvatores."

Now he was pushing it. "You know what? Those Salvatores just happen to be my friends and they've done more for me than you ever have, I knew this was a bad idea." She got to her feet, picking up her purse and making to leave.

"Caroline, love - wait. Caroline!" He hesitated for a second before huffing and getting to his feet, dropping some money for the wine onto the table and then heading out the door after her.

"Following me isn't going to make me like you. At all." She didn't turn around just kept walking - not that she was too sure of where she was actually headed; but going forward seemed like a good idea. She could go with the general forward direction. Plus, going this way meant keeping up a good distance between her and Klaus which was definitely a good thing.

"Fine." He caught up to her with a jog, grabbing her hand and looking down at her shoes. "I hope you can run in those."

She'd assumed that he was joking, but with a tug of his hand he headed up the street and she had little to do but go along with him. He was being ridiculous, being absolutely ridiculous and she refused to go along with whatever he was trying to do here. "I can't, what are you doing?!"

"Moving briskly forwards."

"That's hilarious."

"Much appreciated, love."

He didn't know where it had come from but the urge to just go with it had struck him and so here he was, acting like an idiot in the middle of New York, if she had forgotten who he was when he wasn't being 'Niklaus Mikaelson - Senior Partner' then he was just going to have to remind her someway or another; if that way happened to be by pulling her through the streets of downtown New York then so be it.

"I could always take you around the entire block so that we could get back in time for the wine that I bought." Money wasn't a problem but that didn't mean that he wanted to make a habit of paying for things he wasn't going to be using.

"I didn't like that restaurant. I just wanted fries and maybe some coffee."

He stopped running at that, turning to face her with a look of confusion. Just when he thought he had her pegged she'd throw something new into the equation. Living in New York for a long time didn't help with his knowledge of where to get fries and coffee - the latter could be gotten from any cafe, he knew that much but fast food wasn't something he was used to getting. Which would apparently have to change.

"You're impossible."

"You're just not trying hard enough."

Well, he had to laugh at that. If anyone else had ever tried harder to win Caroline Forbes' affections then bravo to them because he was getting exhausted by her emotional debates.

"If it's coffee and fries you want then it's coffee and fries you'll get."

It took them a good twenty minutes to find anywhere that didn't look like it would give them some kind of disease, eventually stopping into some takeout and getting two cappuccinos and a large fries. (Which did not mean that she was willing to share and if that's what he thought then he was sorely mistaken, buddy.)

It then took them all of five minutes to find a bench. (As it turned out, her shoes really were not suitable for running and if he made her walk another step she was going to hit him over the head with her heels.) So he found them somewhere to sit.

"Time's square, really? Are we tourists?" She sat down on the steps anyway because she valued her feet being attached to her body, but she still thought he was acting strange. "So what is this?"

"James Traub once called it New York's agora."

"We're not Greek and I was talking about this." She pointed at him before generally gesturing around them. "This 'nice guy' thing. What're you doing?"

"Am I still nice now?" He asked, taking two of her fries and putting them in his mouth before she could say anything.

"Don't avoid the subject." But yes, she was going to move her fries a little further away from him because she had already warned him about food sharing rules.

He had no idea what he was doing, but he enjoyed it and it was obviously working so he was just going to go with it. Caroline wasn't like anyone else, which is exactly what everyone tends to say but there was no other way to explain her. He couldn't just seduce her with fine food and music, or sweep her off her feet with fancy words. She saw through anything fake and searched for the truth, the simple things, so that's what he was going to try and it seemed to be working. "I'm trying things your way. Blunt and a little rude at times."

"I am not." She tried to look offended but it might be true, she cared for other people's feelings more than most and yet her honesty could occasionally get her into trouble. It was still better than being a sneaky liar, she wanted to add - but thought better than to bring it up seeing as he was actually being decent.

Her words may also have had more resolve if she didn't have foam on her lip from the dollar cappuccino that he was beginning to assume was ninety-percent milk. Without putting much thought into it he reached out and wiped her lip with his thumb, lingering there for a moment as his eyes met hers. She really was beautiful, anyone who couldn't see that was insane. He almost leaned in when she pulled away, dropping her food on the floor and getting to her feet, shaking her head. "No."

So now he was going to roll his eyes because she really was being ridiculous. "What's wrong now, please do tell what exactly you're going to complain about next."

"Excuse me? I'm not just someone you can call when you feel like making out with no-strings attached." Not that she had actually had that pleasure for a few weeks now, but the sentiment was still there. This wasn't something she could keep doing behind everyone's backs (although they seemed to have worked it all out a pretty long while ago.) "And anyway, you can cut the attitude."

"My attitude? That's rich, isn't it." He got to his feet, incredulous. "There's nothing whatsoever wrong with my attitude, love. You're the one who seems to be on this power-trip."

"Power-trip?! I've been trying to stay away from you!"

"Funny how we seem to keep running into each other then, isn't it? New York's a big city, you could try a little harder."

"You're such an asshole."

"There we go again. You keep saying that, that I'm the bad guy - the bad lawyer. Don't kid yourself, Caroline. There's no such thing as a good or bad lawyer, we take the jobs we get and we keep our clients happy. How many of the people you've saved from going behind bars were actually innocent? I'm betting a lot less than you'd like to admit to because you can't, you can't stomach the fact that you might not be the epitome of good and light in this world."

"It's not hard to look like a saint next to you, is it! You don't care about anyone but yourself, you're manipulative, pig-headed and evil! That's the problem."

"No, Caroline." He paused, stepping closer to her as he composed himself. "The problem is that you're just like me. The only difference being that I know who I am, you're still living in your dreamworld."

Then it was his turn to walk away.

You all know you love it when they fight. R&R!3