Hello again :) Hope you are all enjoying my story thus far. I'm having a blast writing it! I'm loving all the feedback I'm getting from all you lovely people, questions/comments/suggestions always welcome so keep them coming! Hope you like this next chapter, and sorry it's so short!

P.S. Noticing I'm always making these guys"grab their jackets" before they leave, or the scene ends... Haha. That's weird.

"Are you seeing Klaus?"

I freeze from counting graduation invitations, blinking a few times before I can meet my mother's eyes.

"...Kind of." It comes out as hardly a whisper.

She sighs, carefully sitting down next to me at the kitchen table, and rubbing her forehead the way she does when she's stressed.

"Caroline... What are you thinking?" She shrugs, total confusion in her eyes. "Don't you remember what he's done? Who he is?"

"Of course I do."

"Then why? Why let yourself be drawn into his games?"

I stare at her, my stomach twisting painfully at her words.

"You think he's playing gam—"

"Well of course he is!" She stands up, her chair making a loud noise as it scrapes across the wood floor of the kitchen. "What you think this man is capable of real feelings? Everything he does is fueled by hate and revenge—Now I don't understand how you keep letting yourself forget that!" She scrapes the dirty dinner plates into the garbage, throwing them into the sink with a loud clank that makes me jump.

"You told me, that you would trust me with my own decisions."

I think back to my conversation with Elena today—never imagining her being so supportive, so kind, her being able to relate to closely to what I'm going through.

My mind skipping forward, to only an hour ago, Klaus's sneak attack in his living room, taking me so by surprise I lost my ability to fight him off, letting go more than I've ever let myself before. As I sit here now, I'm still not sure what came over me...

The events of today, everything playing back in my mind—I find myself totally and completely drained. Aren't weekends supposed to be relaxing? I'm suddenly finding myself wishing it was over already.

"Are you listening to me?" My mom's voice fights its way back into my mind as I float back to reality.

"Yes, but I'm tired," I start collecting my invitations into a stack, and grabbing my bag off the back of my chair, "Can we talk tomorrow?"

She just looks at me; I've never seen so much disappointment in my mother's eyes as this moment. It breaks my heart.

Her look still haunts me as I stare at my bedroom ceiling, the length of the day feels like a boulder sitting on my stomach.

I turn on my side, checking my clock.

9:43

Klaus is probably with Elijah at the grill—butterflies springing into my stomach as I recall his sinister yet calm tone over voice, asking Klaus to go for drinks. And I can't help but wonder what's so important...

And on top of everything... I still have no prom dress.

Klaus's Point Of View

I enter the grill, my eyes making a b-line for the bar as I recognize the clean cut of Elijah's expensive suit; the only man in Mystic Falls to dress up as if he still belongs in the twenties.

Elijah turns as he hears my advance, he tips the rest of his drink back quickly, never taking his eyes off of me.

"Alright, you've got me here, so tell me," I step close, talking low enough so the human ears around us are deaf to my words. "What was so important that you couldn't stay away? We've found our witch, we will find the cure, and when it is found I will personally shove it down the ancient man's throat."

"We Nicklaus?" Elijah takes a seat at one of the bar stools, checking over his shoulder that I follow suit, and when I don't he smirks, "The man who spends his whole life running, finally stops long enough to make some friends..."

The bartendress catches my eye then, and I reluctantly take the seat next to Elijah, ordering a whiskey, neat.

"Come on now brother," I say after I receive my drink from the woman tending bar, offering no smile in return for hers. "What is it you want to talk to me about?"

"...Freedom."

"Yours?" I frown, that makes less than no sense.

"Katerina's."

I almost choke on my whiskey.

"You foolish, foolish man," I shake my head disbelievingly, "After all these years, after all these lies, you still have a soft spot for that poor, innocent katerina—"

"I'm asking for a favor, brother to brother, it doesn't matter my reasons—" When I don't offer an answer, he slams his tumbler on the bar, the glass cracking only slightly with the impact, "Why do you insist on pursuing these prehistoric concepts—"

"I could ask you the same." I empty my glass with one more draught, and flip my glass upside down on the bar.

"I have... Loved her for many years. Now that confuses you doesn't it. Being motivated by anything other than hate or fear; how could anyone by encouraged by something that brings such elation." His words are spiteful as they bite the stillness that surrounds us. "It seems this concept has been foreign to you—until recently."

"And if I do allow that pest her freedom to live the rest of her miserable life with, who, you?" Skipping the subject of Caroline's presence in my life all together, "What do I get in return for this favour?" I inattentively move my glass in circles on the bar, creating a ring of neglected whiskey on the dark, polished wood.

"Consider it, a piece offering." Elijah counts out ten dollar bills from his pocket, I chuckle under my breath at this human ritual, watching as he also leaves the waitress a large tip. "As your brother, I'm asking you to spare the woman I love." He stands from his place on the bar stool, facing me, "And in return, I will spare yours."

The place is silent, everyone, save a few bus boys and the smiling waitress still linger in the large restaurant. The only sound is the tension, the threat hanging in the air between the two of us, like a rope pulled taut.

My hands have abandoned the glass on the table, and now grip the edge of the bar as if it were able to help me from ripping out his throat.

"You look good Klaus," He says this casually, as he retrieves his jacket from the back of his chair. "Happiness suits you."