Notes: I finished this days ago and totally forgot to post it! Hope you enjoy!

OCTOBER – TUESDAY

CAROLINE:

Tuesday/Thursday lunches with Rebekah had been a thing ever since Caroline had started her current job, two years ago. Her office was conveniently located in a building 5 blocks from where Rebekah worked as an associate designer. Occasional work crises prevented them from meeting, of course, but on this particular Tuesday they were eating soup and splitting a turkey sandwich.

Rebekah had just finished relating a story about a supplier who she's put the fear of God into, for daring to try to pass off a sub-par cashmere as the one that had been approved months ago ("He thought he could tell me it was 3-ply? Please. I wore better quality sweaters in the cradle. He was screwing with the wrong blonde.") Needless to say they were being credited 15% and the material they had ordered from the sample swatches would be in the city before the end of the week.

Rebekah looked to Miranda Priestly for inspiration, Caroline secretly thought, and also rather enjoyed terrorizing people.

"Do you want to split a piece of pie with me?" Rebekah asked, "Stefan's on a no-sugar kick again. He threw my chocolate covered almonds in the bin when I was at your place on Sunday. I made him sleep on the couch."

"Ugh. I hate it when he does that. No sugar-Stefan is my second least favorite Stefan. I used to hide Red Vines behind my tampons."

"Oh, that's smart. Pie?"

"Sure. The peanut butter one?"

"Definitely." Rebekah waved the waitress over and ordered dessert and accepted another cup of coffee, "For curiosity's sake, which Stefan is your absolute least favorite Stefan?"

"Juice cleanse-Stefan."

Rebekah nodded grimly, "I remember that."

"I wish I didn't. Those were dark days."

They paused and mutually shuddered at the memories. It had been before Rebekah had admitted that she'd had feelings for Stefan and had Stefan not seen the light in time (light meaning carbohydrates) Caroline probably would have murdered him and called Rebekah to help hide the body. Rebekah would have complained about ruining her shoes the whole time, but she would have shown up with a shovel anyway. Because she was just that kind of friend.

"So…" Caroline started, clearing her throat, unsure how one asked one's best friend if their brother was mentally sound.

Rebekah rolled her eyes, "Spit it out, Caroline."

"About your brother."

"Nope. No take backs. You agreed to three months. You're stuck with Kol."

"It's…"

But Rebekah talked over her, "I know he's a bit much. Mother swore he was not dropped on his head as a baby but I'm fairly sure either Nik or Elijah did and have just never spoken up about it. So really, when you think about, it it's not his fault he is the way he is. It's just brain damage."

Caroline snorted, "He's not brain damaged. He's just an attention whore."

"That too. And you, my darling, are stuck with him. You've already worn the Loubie's."

"I have. I will be buried in those shoes, make a note. But I actually meant to ask about Klaus."

Rebekah leaned back in her seat, eyebrows furrowing, "What about Nik?"

"Well, he came over for dinner last night and it was freaky. He brought beer. And did the dishes. And talked to me!"

Rebekah stared at her in, expression disbelieving, "Yes, well, I can see how that's concerning behavior. Politeness and conversation in a guest. How alarming."

Caroline sighed. Okay, when you put it like that, she maybe seemed like the crazy one. But she wasn't. It was totally Klaus acting like a weirdo. "Bekah. We've been friends for seven years now, and Klaus has never talked to me."

"Of course he has, Caroline."

"No. Seriously. He really hasn't. I think he asked me to pass him the ketchup once. Maybe some salt another time. And one time I sneezed and he said, 'bless you.' That's it. That's the extent of our interactions and I've seen him at least four times a year in the last seven."

Rebekah glanced up at the ceiling in consideration for a moment, wracking her brain for a rebuttal, but coming up with nothing, "Really?" she finally said, skeptically. "It just seems odd. Nik's not really shy."

"Yeah, now you tell me! Once you explained that he's into comic books I just assumed he was a nerdy weirdo in high school that never realized he was smoking hot and therefore never managed to learn how to talk to women! So I always just brushed his behavior off as social awkwardness. But last night he was all charming and…"

Caroline doesn't get to finish her sentence as Rebekah laughs so hard, and so long, that several people in the diner turn to look at them curiously. Caroline slouches slightly in her seat, "Rebekah!" she hisses, "shut up!"

"I'm sorry!" she giggles, wiping her eyes. "It's just…" Rebekah's gone again, laughing helplessly, and doesn't pull herself together until the waitress returns with their pie.

"I'm thrilled you find this so amusing," Caroline grumbles.

"Sorry," Rebekah repeats, calming enough to dig into the dessert. "But Nik, not talking to women? He's nearly the man-slut Kol is, he's just more discrete about it."

Caroline picks up her own fork, turning that over in her mind, "So it's just me, then? I'm apparently somehow repulsive."

"Oh, don't be dramatic, Caroline. You know you're not. I'd honestly never noticed he ignored you. I doubt he has an actual problem with you. He tends to be quite obvious in his dislikes. Do you want me to speak with him about it?"

"No! God, no," Caroline denies hurriedly. "That would be absolutely mortifying."

"Your call," Rebekah agrees. "Maybe it's just because you're my friend?"

"He ignores all of your friends?"

Rebekah shoots her an unimpressed look, "Caroline, you know I don't make girlfriends easily."

"Mmm," Caroline murmurs, "I couldn't stand you, in the beginning."

"The feeling was entirely mutual, if you recall."

"Oh, I definitely do."

"Yes, well. I did have this one friend in high school, April."

"April…" Caroline repeats, "I vaguely remember you mentioning her."

"We lost touch. Anyway, she had a bit of a thing for Nik."

"Okay…" Caroline's not entirely sure how that would lead Klaus to treating her like she was the smelly kid in class.

"And when I say 'a bit of a thing' I meant the kind of thing that involved writing him terrible poetry, snooping through his room, stealing underwear, and picking the lock on the bathroom door while he was showering."

Caroline blinked, "Wow. That's hardcore."

"Exactly."

"Wait," something tugged at the back of Caroline's mind, "wasn't her dad a minister or something? How'd she learn how to pick locks?"

"Youtube."

"Huh," Caroline said, kind of impressed. She made a mental note. Maybe that could come in handy?

"So you can understand Nik being leery of my friends, after that."

Understand, maybe. But Caroline didn't think she came off like a boundary ignoring creeper, so she was still a little offended. Would it have killed him to make small talk, once or twice? She said as much to Rebekah, "I mean, even Elijah made an effort to ask me about my major and my hometown."

"I don't know what to tell you, Caroline. Nik does what he wants."

Caroline scraped up a bit of whipped cream, sucked it off her fork in contemplation, "Well, now that he's found his manners, I'll make an effort. But if he goes back to mutely staring at me like I'm a science fair project again I'm going to kick his ass."

"You do that," Rebekah said soothingly, before her face lit up and an evil little smirk crawled across it. "But first, maybe you can tell him that you think he's 'smoking hot.' I mean, he's massively egotistical, so I'm sure he'd love it."

Caroline felt her face heat, she'd really said that out loud, hadn't she? God, Rebekah would never let that go. "I didn't mean it like that! I just meant that, objectively speaking, he is pleasing to the eye."

"Mmm-hmm," Rebekah nodded mockingly, "I'm sure that's what you meant. And you also find him charming, you said. I don't mind if you've got the hots for my brother, Caroline. Lord knows I like you better than any of the vile little tramps I've been subjected to, over the years. I'd just rather not hear about it."

"Rebekah!" Caroline screeched, and once again they were garnering looks. "I do not have the hots, or even the lukewarms, for Klaus. I mean, he literally just started acting like a normal person in my presence. How could I?"

Rebekah narrowed her eyes, still amused. Caroline desperately wished she didn't blush so easily. Or ramble quite so much, "The lady doth protest, too much, methinks."

Caroline groaned, "I hate you." She yanked the remaining pie over to her side of the table, using her fork to block Rebekah's, "And I'm finishing this, because you're mean."