Notes: Still plugging away on my iPad, for this one. My laptop's fate is still to be determined. My mother left on a trip this morning so I'm contemplating snatching hers when I go over to check on her cats… TL:DR please excuse any mistakes! Review replies are also kind of a pain, so I'm pretty sure I missed a few. Thanks for the reviews (we actually hit the most I've gotten for this story last time!) and alerts. There's two more chapters left of November, and one of them *should* be a Klaus POV. This chapter's for wanderlustfaery who requested (demanded) that I post it before watching last night's TO. Enjoy everyone!

NOVEMBER – WEDNESDAY

KOL:

When Kol stumbles into the living room, bleary eyed and cursing the minion of Satan who wrote his work schedule, (a late Tuesday followed by an early Wednesday? How cruel and unusual) he's surprised at the sight that greets him.

It's Caroline, on the couch, exactly where he'd left her when he'd gone to bed. She'd been partway through the first compendium of Nik's comics and so engrossed that she'd barely looked up when he'd entered the apartment last night, and hadn't even tried to make small talk about his day, despite the fact that he had several frankly hilarious anecdotes to share. But no, she'd just absently mmm-hmm'ed at him and not even bothered to laugh. He'd quickly given up and retreated to his room to grab as much sleep as possible.

Now, Kol's an observant sort of guy, and he's picked up on Caroline's habits easily enough. Unless she'd worked an event the previous night Caroline always rises promptly at 6:30 AM on the weekdays. She gets ready and usually runs out the door with a travel mug of coffee and breakfast to go.

But it's Wednesday. It's 8:30 AM and she's wearing sweatpants and bunny slippers, so something is amiss. He surveys the rest of the room, and it's easy enough to deduce what's happened. The blanket she's been bundled in last night is crumpled on the floor. The neat stacks of comics that had been on the table last night are still there, with the addition of brightly colored Post-Its peeking out from the edges. The table is now littered with evidence of a long night, the likes of which Kol vaguely remembers from university. Kol spies a coffee cup, two empty water bottles, an open box of Ritz crackers, peanut butter cup wrappers and an orange peel. The cat has clearly clawed its way out of the bag and Kol cannot help but gleefully anticipate what's to come.

Caroline doesn't look up when he enters the room, eyes focused on what she's reading. The mess is actually kind of alarming from such a neat freak, now that he thinks about it. "Don't you have to work, darling?" Kol asks.

She appears not to hear him, still staring at the issue clutched in her hands.

"Hey. Caroline?" Kol tries again, then louder to gain her attention, "Caroline!"

Her head snaps up, she registers his presence, "Kol," she acknowledges. He notes the haphazard bun and faint dark circles under her eyes. It's possibly the most unkempt he's ever seen her, including that time she'd been massively hung over a few weeks ago, and he can't help but feel a little tinge of worry. Ugh, she really has grown on him, hasn't she? That's annoying, if not completely unexpected, given that she's something of a pro at Mikaelson taming.

"In the flesh," he answers lightly. "So, work? That place you got to every weekday? Keeps you fed and allows you to buy more shoes than a single human could possibly need? Don't you need to go there?"

"I'm taking a sick day."

"Are you sick?"

She looks at him like he's an idiot, and he's happy she seems to be snapping out of her stupor, "I know you're new to the workforce, Kol. But sick days are usually just mental health days. It's only my fourth in three years, so someone can cover my meetings. I've done it for them enough times."

"Okay then," Kol agrees easily enough. Because it's not like he's a paragon of responsibility, is it? Mental health days sounded like a fabulous concept, actually. So he filed it away. "Did you sleep?"

"I don't think so."

That explained the slow reaction times. "Did you finish?" he asks, with a nod at the table.

"All fifty issues."

"Fifty?" Kol exclaims, feeling momentarily outraged. "Did that wanker give you an early copy? When I asked he's all, 'No, Kol. My publisher will have my head' but he hands them out willy-nilly to pretty blondes?"

"Kol," Caroline retorts, "Focus, please. I don't care about your weird sibling nonsense at the moment." She waves the book in her hand at him, "It's my face. My actual face. My literal face."

"You realize you just said the same thing three times?"

"Kol!" she growls in annoyance.

Kol rolls his eyes, her sense of humor was at an all-time low, this morning, "Yes. I knew that. Known for years, really. I'm the one who clued you in, remember?"

"Um, pretty sure you did not, in fact, clue me in to anything, you dick."

"Rude, Caroline."

She groans, slumps back into the couch. "I suspected he used me in it. I didn't think it would be so obvious. I mean everyone else is a little different. Bekah's got dark hair, Elijah's got a beard. You wouldn't know it was you guys instantly. But me? No wonder those kids wanted a picture."

Kol nodded, "I'm honestly quite surprised it had never happened to you before."

"And I thought I'd be a man eating villain, or something. Not…" she trails off helplessly.

"Violet is definitely not that. Nik pulled out some seriously romantic shit in there. I mean, 'full of light?' I absolutely stole that one, a time or two."

"Right?!" Caroline's voice pitches higher in her astonishment, "God, wait until you read the last one. It's swoony and amazing and I have no idea what I'm supposed to think."

Kol feels his eyebrows shoot up and he can't help but stare at her for a few moments in disbelief, "To borrow your favorite phrase: seriously?" Caroline wasn't a dense woman but she sure was doing an incredible impression of it.

Caroline's eyes narrow and she points an accusing finger at him, "Oh don't start with your 'Klaus is into me' theory."

"It's not a theory," Kol immediately shoots back.

"It doesn't make any sense!" she declared. "The first time I met Klaus was at Elijah's house in Colorado and he was all, "oh, I'll just leave you girls to your little slumber party. Go easy on the wine coolers.' Like he was our chaperone, or something."

Kol's puzzled, "And?"

"And," Caroline draws the word out, "what do you mean 'and?' He treated us like we were about fourteen. Come on, wine coolers? And then he proceeded to ignore me. For years. Doesn't exactly make me think he harbors warm and fuzzies for me."

"Good lord, Caroline. Grow a little self-esteem." Her jaw dropped indignantly but Kol held up a hand and kept talking, "Listen, he's my brother so I feel qualified to diagnose him as an emotionally repressed nutter. He's the worst at feelings."

"Sorry. Still not buying it. I think you're messing with me."

Kol pressed his hand to his heart, "Me? You think I'd do that?"

"Oh please. You let me, and Klaus, if I know you, squirm for weeks for your own personal amusement."

Alright, so she kind of had a point there, "Look, Nik gets around, a lot. He's nearly as charming as I am, if he puts some effort in." Caroline lets out a fairly unladylike snort at that, Kol ignores it and continues. "He didn't make a move on you, because Bekah would've had a fit over him toying with the one new female friend she managed to make at school."

Caroline crosses her arms, "Okay, say I buy that he wanted to sleep with me. Still doesn't mean I buy the rest."

Kol shakes his head, "You're a stubborn one, Caroline Forbes. We don't really do deep emotional conversations, Nik and I. Except in my nightmares. But I'm guessing you wormed your way into his brain, with all your perky blonde sassiness."

"Aw," Caroline cooed mockingly, "you like me. You really like me."

"Shut it. As I was saying, Nik knows how to think with his penis, but he's terrible when there's anything more. Blame that awful harlot, Tatia. And really, our parents, for being a shining example of how not to have a healthy relationship."

Caroline blinked, and Kol found himself wondering just how much Bekah had imparted to her about their parent's rocky marriage. It was not a subject that he spoke of, with anyone. "So you're saying that Klaus does like me, he just doesn't know how to express it?"

"Ding ding," Kol says, mockingly clapping his hands.

"Yeah, still not sure how I feel about that."

Kol sighs, glances at the clock, "Why don't you go have a shower," he suggested, "Wash off the crumbs, and any of the lingering crazy. I'll make you banana pancakes to soak up the coffee and then you can sleep and maybe your brain will work properly again."

She stands and stretches, eyes him a little suspiciously, "That's… really nice, Kol. It kind of freaks me out."

Kol avoids her eyes, retrieves the blanket from the floor, "Oh, do dial down the sentimentality, darling. My trial period's up next month, remember? Perhaps I've just grown attached to this location."

She smirks at him, turns toward the hallway to the bedrooms, throwing, "If that's what you want to go with, I won't stop you!" over her shoulder.

He waits until he hears the shower running before he takes out his phone. Nik's probably sleeping (the lucky self-employed bastard) but leaving an alarming text for him to see when he wakes up is just Kol's brotherly duty.

Kol:

[Wednesday 8:51 AM]

Well done, Nik. I think you broke Caroline. Expect a visit, in a day or two. Try not to muck it up.

Kol puts his phone away and vows not to respond to anything from Niklaus until at least this afternoon. It'd be more fun to let him stew.

Busying himself in the kitchen, he makes a single cup of coffee for himself, pours a glass of orange juice for Caroline, before turning his attention to making the food. He's got her plate in the oven and is just digging into his own when she emerges, dressed in clean clothes, and rubbing her hair with a towel. "Better?" Kol asks.

"A little," Caroline replies. "I'm going to clean. I do my best thinking when I clean. And then I'm going to take a nap. And then I'm going to figure out what I'm going to say to Klaus. Can you leave me his number? I'm going to set up a meeting for Friday."

"Set up a meeting?" Kol teases, as she gathers digs cutlery out of the drawer, "Is that what the kids are calling it these days? And on a Friday, no less."

"Shut up. I have to work tomorrow night."

"Uh-huh," Kol says, making to attempt to mask his skepticism. "Just use protection. I'm not ready to be an uncle if the 'meeting' gets too intense and you find yourself ripping his clothes off."

Caroline sighs, clucks her tongue, "Perv jar," she demands, pointing her fork in the direction of the glittery monstrosity.

Grumbling, Kol gets up to drop a dollar into the stupid jar, giving Caroline a dirty look as she retrieved her food and smiled brightly at him. He's already lost nine dollars to the thing, yet another reason why he felt fully justified in torturing Nik a little.