AN: Hello, lovelies! How you've been? Thank you all for reviewing, following and favouriting (it's a word, ok?)! This is my last drabble of KC Au Week and then I'll be back with my regular stories as soon as I can :)

Prompt: Klaus and Caroline are soulmates, and if one of them is harmed in any way, the other one gets harmed in the same way.

Set some (quite a lot) years in the future where all the grass is green and magical baby doesn't exist.

"You won't get away with this, Marcel," Klaus growled, his voice dripping in fury, muscles of his arms straining against the shackles he was magically bound with. It took a coven of witches to captivate him and even then, he managed to take out half of them.

But it still fell one half short.

"Really? And how do you suppose you'll get to punish me? Snarl at me from your shackles?" Marcel taunted him while shoving a stake through his abdomen forcefully, in process of draining him of blood, the dungeon specially crafted to contain a hybrid giving him a sense of security.

Klaus smirked momentarily – just how false that sense of his was – only to let out a hiss of pain a second later as the staked pierced his intestines. These were always such a bitch to rebuild.

Marcel must have planned this for quite some time, he pondered in haze. Klaus had been certain that the witches of NOLA owned their allegiance to him.

However, when he thought about it, they could have been a little irked with him lately as he threatened a lot of them to bring his younger brother back to the land of living undead.

How Kol managed to create problems for him, even trapped in the afterlife, was beyond him.

Caroline would probably contribute this latest fickle he had found himself in to karma or some other nonsense, for daggering his siblings time and again.

"Face it, Klaus, there is no one in New Orleans who could, or would, help you. From what I gathered, Elijah is in Europe, vacationing with the lovely Katrina and your dear sister is off in Buenos Aires dallying with that Enzo dolt, that your girlfriend was thoughtless enough to introduce her to."

An overwhelming urge to end Marcel's existence crossed Klaus' thoughts at once, a bunch of different scenarios filling his mind, spurred on by the insult the younger vampire dared to spring on his mate. As soon as he got out of this shackles, his former protégé would meet his punishment and it wouldn't be an easy one, visions of years of torture and psychological damage providing Klaus with temporary satisfaction that allowed him to reign in his temper and not take the bait.

"Still bitter over that one, Marcel? I would say not to worry but surprisingly, Rebekah's attention span on that one is much longer than usual," he quipped, his tone almost jovial as if he wasn't trapped in a dungeon to be left to slowly and painfully desiccate. He caught a movement in the back corner and grinned internally in satisfaction.

She found him.

What no one in New Orleans knew, besides his siblings and their significant others, was that Caroline was, in fact, not simply his girlfriend but his mate. After their time in the woods, they both had felt this strong bond building up between them, culminating in affliction of feeling the other one's pain and feelings. But that was not all there was to it. After parting ways in Mystic Falls, they found it was impossible for them to stay separate for too long. The psychological strain it took was just too much. And the most crucial thing of all – the power he yielded as a hybrid, a strength of thousand years seemed to have passed onto Caroline as well. She was almost as powerful as him now.

Klaus had naturally suspected Caroline was his mate but when faced with the reality of it, he found himself petrified to his bones. He was a thousand years old and here she was, a baby vampire, with the power to bring him to his knees. And this constant urge to stake his claim on her, to be in her presence didn't help the matter at all. If he were to be honest with himself, a traitorous thought to put an easy end to it crossed his mind once or twice, to cease this exposure she threatened him with.

Vulnerability had never been something he allowed himself to suffer from and she was dangerous to him, not on a physical level - quite paradoxically, he took comfort in knowledge she could now defend herself, to the best of her abilities, even against him. No, it was this annoying turmoil of feelings she so imprudently invoked in him, not even realizing it, just by being her glorious self. His own insecurities, old fears never put to rest had gnawed at him, possibly destroying something that had no chance to bloom yet.

But then, all it took was for Caroline to appear at his doorstep, her posture almost resigned with a glint of hope shining through, this annoying Enzo bloke he (eventually) grew to begrudgingly like over the years right behind her with suitcases in both hands.

Now what he needed to do was to divert Marcel's attention from the subtle quiet movements in the back of the dungeon. Not that it was so hard, with Marcel practically glowing like a fool over his very-short-lived victory. He'd put too much trust in his allies and that would, inevitably, lead to his fast-approaching doom. You should never trust, that was rule number one for Klaus in the last millennium and he stuck to it no matter what.

The only person he trusted was currently in this very room.

Which brought him back to playing distraction. Oh, the irony.

"You know, Marcel, Caroline will be quite furious with you for your little endeavor. Not to mention, you so shamelessly overlooked her in the group of people able to save me from the big bad you," he quipped, focusing his predatory gaze on him.

"And what will she do?" the younger vampire snarled, half-amused, "With you captive and your siblings out of the country, she's all alone in a city that once again belongs to me," Marcel continued twisting the stake inside Klaus' body once more, jolt of pain surging through the hybrid as he let out a loud groan to mask any potential noises coming from behind his enemy.

"You underestimate her," he growled lowly, a promise of a thousand tortures awaiting Marcel conveyed clearly in his menacing tone as his protégé carelessly darted forward, his face an inch from Klaus'.

"What's to underestimate? She's just a baby vampire. I have too many years on her and a coven of witches at my disposal. She won't survive…"

Klaus watched with satisfaction Marcel's face contorting in pain and fear as a lean hand sank into his chest, his veins already protruding and skin graying as the same hand removed his heart and plopped it unceremoniously on the dirty floor.

"She won't survive your incessant yapping for one more minute, the rest she can take," Caroline drawled, annoyance at the now dead vampire clear as she pushed his already grey body to the side and proceeded to get the stake out of Klaus' insides.

"This was driving me mad for the last hour, good thing that I found you so quickly," they both hissed in pain as she promptly removed the wood.

"Hey! You could be more delicate, you know," he complained, sounding really petty, he realized.

"Don't be a baby, it's unbecoming," Caroline retorted but it was softened by the gentle touch of her hands on his cheeks, her fingertips caressing the skin.

"The witches?" Klaus asked shortly, leaning into her touch and letting it soothe him. He could be the strongest being on Earth but the combination of spells and bloodletting had taken its toll on him.

Perhaps he should have been embarrassed, with Caroline seeing him so weak, but then again, throughout the years they had spent together, she had witnessed the worst of him and stayed. He had always seen her as his equal but with time he learnt that equality meant the possibility to be vulnerable around her just as she sometimes was with him. There was no shame, not anymore. Not with her.

"Dead or incarcerated," she said venomously, the strive to defend her mate adding to ruthless tone of her voice.

She was exquisite like this, his brave righteous goddess, basking in her power. It hadn't always been like this but over the course of their time together, Caroline had come to realize that a life as a vampire was impossible to lead in a black and white clarity. She still kept her morals and most of the eating habits but anyone who dared endanger somebody close to her soon knew the unleashed might of her wrath.

His inner musing were interrupted as she leaned into his body and kissed him, their tongues melting together and the air hummed with electricity as it always did with them. Her lips were forceful against his as if to devour him, make sure he was there, alive and well, kissing her back with all he had. After a while the kiss turned gentler as Caroline nipped on his lower lips in a delicate caress, feeling the creases on his mouth and then her head darted back a little, her eyes assessing him carefully.

"You're weak," she stated while stroking his dirty blond curls in a soothing motion, "You're going to need my blood. Davina should be here shortly to get you out of these," she said, looking at the shackles and then put her arms around his neck and angled hers just so he could reach her jugular with his fangs.

"Are you sure?" she heard him whisper, "You might need your strength in case there are more witchy friends of Marcel out there."

"You need it more. I'll take some from you when you have your fill and plus, it's best that we're both in form if you're right," she reasoned.

"Caroline…"

"Come on, Klaus, let's not waste time on this. Plus, don't pretend you don't enjoy it."

He hummed in agreement and Caroline felt his head shift, fangs emerging as he breathed in her scent and lined out the veins on her neck with his tongue, this simple touch setting her on fire. Earlier fight with the witches put her on edge and now it was all ready to burst, the adrenaline she felt pulsing under her skin urging the monster inside her out.

She gasped when Klaus sank his fangs in her, the way he nipped her skin and drank her blood in sensual, sending delicious shivers along her spine, her vampire features coming out to play. Purring quietly in approval, the sound reverberating between them, Caroline let herself feel the flow of blood coursing from her body to his, the flood of emotions overtaking her senses and arousal pooling in her abdomen, the venom of his bite and the slight pang of pain it caused only adding to sensations.

She waited a while for Klaus to take his fill, enough to build up his strength again and then she dipped her fangs into his skin, the iron-sweet taste of his blood flooding her mouth. She moaned in ecstasy and so did he, the mutual sharing of their blood heightening the experience. They had blood-shared many times before but each one was different, the emotions they felt on a particular occasion always changing the flavor a little.

Klaus released his hold on her with a satisfied groan, letting out her name and bucking his hips in her direction subconsciously. She smirked at that, titling back her head and swiping the blood left on her lips with her tongue, feeling his burning gaze on her and the heat accumulating in her body begging for relief.

"You know…Nik…" she whispered seductively in his ear as her hand glided down his body, brushing against tight muscles of his now healed abdomen to his pelvis and lower.

"Now that I think about, Davina is taking an awful lot of time to get here," her teeth grazed his earlobe as she reached the zipper of his pants and slowly undid it, her motions making him tremble with excitement as their minds shared the same thought – release.

Caroline lowered herself on level with his hips and sent him a sultry look, her eyes burning with unadulterated desire.

"So how about we make most of these shackles now, hmm?"

So how was this for you? Not the best place to end that one, huh? I admit, I do feel a little bad, sorry guys!

As any writer, reviews are my jam and motivate me to write more so if you liked my ramblings - or not, please let me know ;)

Till next time!