Hello, my lovely readers. The Mikaelsons are finding a new home. On with the show…

Chapter 2: Welcome to Your New Home

After a long negotiation, my father managed to purchase us a new house and we were to move in today. This meant that my brothers and I would be dragging around furniture and so many boxes filled with the various things we felt we could not leave behind but now that we were dragging all these things through the early Fall heat—we considered dumping them. Perhaps a garage sale would have ended our currents woes. However, we found there were just too many things we could not part with. For some reason.

"What about your old baseball glove?" I'd asked Kol. I turned to find Kol pulling out a magazine from another box.

"Look, Nik, boobs!" Kol cried in delight. He was fourteen and had become a –

"Pervert!" Bekah screamed, coming into the room. My twelve-year-old-going-on-thirty-married-woman-with-three-kids-and-a-mortgage baby sister shouted. She pointed an accusatory finger at Kol's face.

Kol rolled his eyes. "You're just jealous because you don't have these." He lifted the magazine to show the breasts that poor Bekah did, in fact, not have yet.

Cheeks flushing, Bekah shot Kol a look which might end in his untimely death before she turned on her heel and ran. This was followed by, "FATHER! Kol is a dirty, dirty pervert! I don't want to live with him anymore! Can we, PLEASE, sell him on E-Bay! PLEASE!"

Chuckling, Kol went back to his perusal of the nude forms of women he would never meet. I supposed it was one step up from last summer when he'd been caught peeping at poor Bonnie Bennett. The joke being that her Grams came out and placed a spell on him which had him ribbiting like a frog for weeks. Poor Father took him to the hospital and the doctors were quite perplexed.

Smirking to myself, I placed a picture frame with the photo of myself and Caroline inside a box and carefully folded bubble wrap over it. My eyes went up when Finn came into the living room. "Morning," Finn said, stretching his arms over his head. He'd come home to help with the move. Or to hide from Sage. She'd been badgering him about finding a new job.

Since Elijah decided to postpone college, Finn had argued that he, too, should take time off to search for himself. This meant he and Sage would be shacking up and taking odds and ends jobs to pay the rent on their "super cute studio apartment" which was barely more than the size of Damon's closet.

"Kol, what are you doing with that?" Finn demanded. His eyes darkened and then his cheeks flushed. "Put that garbage in the trash! Honestly! Can't you find a real girlfriend?"

"Is Sage looking?" Kol inquired with a grin.

Finn's eyes narrowed and he stomped across the room. Taking the magazine, he curled it up and smacked the back of Kol's head. "Out!" he snarled. "Before I take you outside and deposit you inside the trash can. Today is collection day, you know."

Kol backed toward the doorway facing us. "I'd like to see you try. Last heavy thing I saw you pick up was Bekah."

"OUT!" Finn thundered, pointing at the doorway and making a move toward Kol. Kol laughed and left us. "I do not know why we put up with him." Finn muttered. He glanced down at the magazine, shaking his head.

"It's yours. Isn't it?" I inquired, still putting away precious mementos.

"Yes," Finn grumbled. "How did you guess?"

"Caught Elijah sneaking them into your room when we were younger. Damon and I were bored on a dark and stormy night. Thanks for the anatomy lesson, brother." I nodded at the magazine he had in hand. "Plan on ridding yourself of the smut now that you have a girl in your home?"

Finn continued to stare at the magazine. "Of course." He sighed and moved to shove the magazine in his back pocket. "Just going to take it out now."

"Why don't you give it to me? I'll keep it for you until you find an adequate hiding place for it?" I held out a hand, waving for Finn to hand over the magazine.

"Thank you, Niklaus." Finn seemed genuinely grateful that I was willing to keep his porn for him. He did not see how I might keep it as something to hold over his head one day. Oh, how short-sighted my family could be at times…

~0~

"I think that's the last of the boxes!" Elijah called out. His shirt was quite damp with sweat and he peeled it off and groaned. "I am so happy that I am taking that extra shift at the Grill tonight." He shook his head in despair.

"At least you won't be alone," I told him with a smile.

"Coming in to watch me work does not count, Niklaus." Elijah said, wiping his forehead with his T-shirt.

"It doesn't?" I placed my hand over my heart. "Then why do I get a discount on my milkshakes?"

Elijah grinned down at me from the inside of the U-Haul. "Because you use my employee discount, Klaus."

A banging sound came from the side of the truck and I moved to the side to crane my neck and peer at what was making the sound. "Damon!" I called.

"Afternoon, Nik!" Damon strode over to peer inside the truck. "Half-naked Elijah. Still not finish yet?"

"No. Why?" I inquired, folding my arms over my chest. No one had told me of anything of any importance happening today.

"Oh, well, the girls were just wondering how long the show would continue." Damon hooked a thumb at a window across the street.

Turning around, I placed my hands on my hips and shot a glare at Caroline, Elena and Bonnie. They were sitting in the window of a neighbor who Elena had offered to house-sit for and had been passing a pair of binoculars between them until they caught me glaring. "What were they up to?" I demanded.

Elijah climbed out of the truck and ran a hand through his hair. "Who is what up to?" He inquired, running his hands through his hair.

I cocked my head to the side when Elena fell off the couch and Bonnie slapped a hand over her mouth. Caroline had begun to fan herself. Now, I felt my irritation rising. "You. They've been spying on you, Elijah."

Without another word, I marched across the street—without looking which is a good way to end up very dead—and punched the doorbell. I kept my finger there, enjoying the sounds of girls' screaming at the shrill noise of the buzzer.

After thirty seconds, Caroline jerked the door open. "You made your point!" she shouted at me, hands going over her ears.

Smiling, I kept my finger on the bell for another ten seconds before I lifted it. "So sorry, ladies, to interrupt your entertainment for the day!" I shouted as I stepped forward, forcing Caroline to move backwards and out of my way. "Next time, let me know of your plans. I'll only charge a small fee."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Like you've never spied on any of us."

Turning my sights on my girlfriend, I cupped her face and gave her my most sincere look. "When I think of a girl I want to see without their shirt on: You are my first, my last, and my only thought."

"Ah!" Elena and Bonnie cried, leaning into her each other.

"You mean you're weren't into it when we saw that movie with the girl who –" Elena began and I shot her a death glare. Raising her hand, Elena made a gesture, drawing her pressed together thumb and forefinger over her lips and mimed throwing away the key.

"Klaus, you always know just what to say," Caroline cooed, placing her hands on the back of my head and pulling me into a kiss.

After a moment, I pulled back and placed my lips to her ear. "Now that I said that, why don't you ditch the girls and you can give me a little show?" I pulled back and brushed her hair behind her ears.

Caroline eyed me with a gleam in her eye. She was fourteen-going-on-a-great-many-things and every time we were together I wanted to kiss her, and hold her, and show her what the rest of our lives would be like. But I also knew we had time. So, I had to take things much more slowly than I wanted to.

"Maybe later. Let's go in your new house. I want to help put your stuff up." What Caroline meant was she wanted to make sure you could find things in my bedroom when she came over. Or, to be more precise, my little control freak wanted to tell me how to decorate my room, and I would allow it. To an extent.

Taking my hand, Caroline led me out the door of the neighbor's house. "Hi, Damon!" Caroline called brightly.

"Caroline! Come see my new room!" Rebekah shouted. She'd popped her head out the third-story window. "It doesn't smell like boy yet!"

"Coming! Be back later!" Caroline pressed a quick kiss to my lips before she left me behind with Damon.

"You don't mind Lena spying on Elijah?" I asked Damon, leaning against the open back of the U-Haul.

Damon shrugged. "She has her fantasy life. I have mine. It's not like its cheating." He climbed inside the van and took a seat on the floor. "Speaking of cheating… You know that Lockwood is planning on trying to get into a thing with some girl that Donovan is pining after?" Damon seemed somewhat amused.

"How is that cheating?" I inquired, climbing inside the van and tugging the door down so we could gossip in private.

Damon shrugged. "Well, here's the thing, girl's been hanging out with Enzo. But Enzo doesn't know that she's been hanging out with other guys at the high school. He just knows she comes sniffing around the boarding school."

"Oh?" Now I felt more interested. "You mean Enzo's not truly interested in Caroline?"

"Oh, no!" Damon shook his head and folded his arms behind his head. "Enzo's totally into Care. Not that she cares. Care's all about Nik. Nik is all about Care. Enzo is going to find out that small town girls can be fickle little bits—"

"Witch," I jumped to my feet.

"What?" Damon's brows went up.

"I just came up with a solution for my problem. Will return soon. Don't go in and be sucked into Caroline's decorating my room without me." I warned Damon before pulling the door open and hopping out.

"What are you boys doing in there?" Father asked, peering inside the truck.

"Plotting world domination," Damon called back as I made my way across the street. I planted my fingertip on the doorbell once more and waited. Not long after, Bonnie Bennett came to the door. "Caroline is in your house. What do you want?"

"You." A little smile played at the corners of my face as Bonnie stared at me like I'd proposed and she would rather I asked to eat her liver.

"Excuse me?" Bonnie half-shouted.

"Not for me," I added with a quiet laugh. "Let me in. We'll talk."

Bonnie stood to the side and I peered around. "Where is Elena?"

"Doing laundry," Bonnie said.

"They expect her to do laundry?" My brows shot up. "How much are they paying and might I help? I could use some cash." Caroline did like little presents and that took money.

"It's Kat's laundry. She dared Elena to use the washer here." Bonnie shrugged. "Kat logic. What do you want from me?"

"I want to dare you to hang around the boarding school," I said, watching Bonnie frown.

"Right. Why?" Bonnie leaned against the wall opposite me and I wondered why did she have to be so intelligent?

"Because I want you to make Enzo think you're interested in him." Bonnie continued to stare at me like I'd lost my mind. "He's taken an interest in Caroline. I do not like it. I wish for it to stop."

Bonnie's brows went up. "Care likes you, Klaus."

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. "I am aware of that. I simply wish for Enzo's interest to move to a more…appropriate person." Finishing my sentence I watched Bonnie glare at me.

"I don't like Enzo. He's rude. And he's a jerk." Bonnie shook her head.

"I dare you to hang around the Boarding School!" I snarled out.

Bonnie groaned. "Fine. I dare you to stop being a jealous jackass!"

Holding out a hand to the witch; I offered Bonnie a winning smile. "Done."

Seconds later Elena came into the living room. She paused to look from me to Bonnie. "What's going on?"

"Just a dare between old friends. Now, which one of you would like to help Caroline decorate my room?" I inquired with a smile.

Elena and Bonnie gave each other a meaningful look which I felt I should worry about, and I would, later.

~0~

"What about the walls?" Caroline said. She tapped her chin and puckered out her lower lip. "I'm thinking something in the purple family," she consulted Elena. Given Elena's newfound love of everything purple; I suspected I knew the answer to this one.

"Caroline. A moment, love?" Taking hold of Caroline's hand, I maneuvered her across my room which was still cluttered with unopened boxes. The girls' main objective had been to start a memory wall, decide on whether my bedcovers truly matched the essence of the room's spirit and whether or not Feng Shui was still a thing. Allowing them to paint my walls a nightmarish Cartoon Dinosaur color would be where I drew the line.

"Yes, honey." Caroline fluttered her eyelashes at me and tilted from side to side. The bottom of her short dress kept slipping up and down her legs and I inhaled. The need to control my hormones and remember what I intended to tell my beloved popping back into my head.

"I thought perhaps I could decide the color of the room…later." I brushed her curls behind her ears. "Perhaps one night…say next year…"

"Next year!" Caroline jerked back. "Are you kidding me? We're going to have meetings in here? Right? How can you not make a statement! And the color of your walls is like, like, like a way to see into your very soul!" She threw her hands up in the air. "I'm not asking you to spray glitter on them…" A sudden gleam appeared in her eyes and I knew what that meant.

"Caroline. Darling. I have a thought. If you will just take a moment to hear me out." I paused and waited for Caroline to snap out of her fantasies of making my bedroom into an extension of her own personal space.

"Why don't you consider helping Bekah with her room? She needs guidance. She's still so young. Her tastes are just developing and I know she admires you." I added a smile to the end of my commentary, hoping Caroline would let this go.

Caroline placed her hands on her hips. Her eyes narrowed and all the happiness had drained through the floor and seeped into the ground beneath our new basement. This would not end well for me. "You don't want my help! Do you, Niklaus Mikaelson! You hate ALL of my ideas! Don't you! I can't believe this! You're such a jerk! A big, selfish jerk!" Shaking her head at me, Caroline continued to glare. "Fine. You don't like my ideas. I bet I know who will. Come on, girls!"

With a hair flip, Caroline turned and headed for the door. She paused in the doorway. "I'm sure Enzo will be happy to let me help him with his room's new look."

"Caroline!" I yelled.

"Yes?" Caroline whirled around.

"I would be happy for you to pick a color for my room. Feel free to paint it any shade that comes to mind." My shoulders fell. "I have to go find Elijah." Perhaps my brother—having spent years in an on and off relationship with the queen of manipulation herself, Katherine Gilbert—could help me figure out how to handle Caroline's demands. Or he could help distract me from my current woes.

"I knew you'd come around." Caroline crossed the floor and pressed a sweet kiss to my cheek. "See you when you come back."

"Right." I groaned and headed for the door.

I headed into the hallway and found Damon sitting on the floor. He had a glass of lemonade, a sandwich and an open canister of Pringles lay out on the floor. "Hey," he called.

"You're still here. I thought you'd disappeared when the girls went decorating mad." I slid onto the floor beside Damon.

Damon shrugged. "Beats being stuck at home. Oh, wait. I forgot. It's not my home. It's a boarding school now. Hell, there are times the other guys who live there know where my brother is and I don't."

"Where is Stefan?" I asked, taking a half of Damon's turkey on rye and taking a healthy bite.

Damon shook his head. "No idea. Haven't seen him since yesterday morning. Thought he'd head over here and check out your new digs. Seems like he's too busy. Wonder whether Bekah will freak out about that, again. Or she'll find some other reason to hang around the school."

Leaning back against the wall, I sighed. "I told Caroline I was going to go hunt down Elijah before he goes to work. Want to come?"

"Sure." Damon grabbed the Pringles, the empty plate and the glass before he dropped the plate in front of Kol's door. My brows went up. "He does that all the time. Your dad will think it was Kol. And the kid never seems to get into trouble about that kind of crap anymore. Does he?"

No. Our Father had become so absorbed with his new business and some woman he was dating, that he barely noticed when we didn't behave. This left some of us acting out to try to gain his attention. Mainly, that was Kol and Bekah, other times it was me.

Heading down the hallway, we found Elijah in his new room. While I'd been watching Caroline, Bonnie and Elena mapping out a master plan for my space, Elijah had been putting his bedroom together. His bedframe had been assembled. His book shelf, chest of drawers, nightstand and desk with chair were all in their proper places. Hell, the books were already on their shelves and his clothes must be in the drawers because they weren't all boxed up. What had I been doing?

Easing inside the room without making a noise, I snuck up on my brother. Damon moved to the other side. We glanced at each other before peering at the screen on Elijah's laptop. "Ah. You're cyber stalking Kat. How sweet." Damon's comment made me chuckle and Elijah jumped in his chair.

"What are the two of you doing?" Elijah demanded. He whirled around in his chair and glowered at us like we'd walked in on him having a "special moment" with himself. "You." He sent me a stern look. "I thought you were working with Caroline on a theme for your room." His head turned to Damon. "And you. I thought you were hiding from your new roommates and eating the food that I just stocked the fridge with."

Damon's mouth opened in a gap, displaying the yet-to-be swallowed Pringles he'd just shoved in. Closing his mouth, Damon made some noises that might be words or some pre-evolution code for "Sorry, Jackass."

Frowning, I moved to sit on Elijah's desk. "Are we interrupting something?"

"No." Elijah moved to close the computer when I grabbed the laptop and carried it over to Elijah's bed. Flopping down, I moved the computer onto my lap and stared at the screen. "Multiple windows open. Twitter. Facebook. Some other sites that Father doesn't know that we have access to… Elijah Mikaelson, I do believe you are stalking your ex."

"I am not stalking Katherine!" Elijah snapped. He got up but Damon set his lemonade on the floor and took a running dive to settle on the bed next to me. "Stalker!" He let out a hoot of laughter. His blue eyes widened as he pointed at the screen. "Can't believe it. Kat's been at Whitmore for two years and you've been stalking her this entire time. Can't wait to tell Lena!"

"Damon, so help me…" Elijah moved toward me with a look on his face that I rarely saw but made me gulp. "Give me the computer!"

"Come on, Elijah!" Damon cried, moving between me and my brother. "It's no big deal. So, you want to check out what's she's up to. Hell, she's probably doing things that are way more interesting than we've been up to lately." He settled back down. "See! She's playing a game with this guy that involves his sucking shots out of her belly button. Nik, why aren't we doing that?"

"Sucking shots out of each other's belly buttons?" My eyes went wide and I shook my head. "I think we're close enough. No need to ruin the mystery."

Damon rolled his eyes. "I want to go to a college party! Elijah, take us to a college party! Please! You can go and stalk Kat in-person. You can bring flowers. Make it a date she never asked for and might consider taking out a restraining order over."

"Damon, you're not funny." Elijah sat down on the end of his bed. "You should check the search history, Niklaus. Before you come up with any more wild accusations."

Glancing at Damon, I went ahead and loaded the history. Scrolling through, I found boring things like searches about the local library and jobs. Then I found that what Elijah had been searching had been social media quite a bit, particularly the social media sites. "Brother…I'm not sure what you think I'm looking at…"

"Andie. Rose. Mason. Ric. Jenna. Hayley. They all have social media. I've been keeping up with what they've been up to while they're away." Elijah stared at the carpet.

"You miss your friends since they moved away," Damon said quietly.

Elijah glanced at us with a crooked smile. "Yes. I do."

"Then why don't you contact them?" I inquired, setting the laptop aside.

"They have moved on." Elijah glanced at the back of his laptop. "They're having new adventures. Finding new happiness. Finding themselves." He got a far-way look on his face.

"Well, Kat comes back to check on Nadia and Davina," Damon pointed out.

"And to drop off her laundry," I added.

Elijah gave me a confused look.

"And Hales will drop by any day now to pick up Aiden," Damon stopped talking when Elijah frowned. The topic of Hayley taking Aiden for part of the year back to New York with her was not one that Elijah seemed to care for. "And she'll probably hang out with us for like a week…" Damon finished before glancing at the computer screen. "Mason will come back because Ty will do something stupid. And Jenna and Ric will come back to see Lena and me…and you."

Elijah rolled his eyes. "How very generous of you, Damon."

"You've got us," I said. "You've got the club. You're our most senior member. That means you have to help us not kill ourselves before you go off to college, too."

Letting out a laugh, Elijah shook his head. "Right then."

A soft knock on the door alerted me to Caroline having returned. "Hi." She looked at me. "Can you come with me, please?"

"I'll be back." I shoved myself off the side of the bed and made my way over to Caroline. "Yes?"

"Come." Caroline took my hand. She led me back to my room. My eyes went wide as I took in something strange going on. "So, this is just an illusion. But I thought you might want to paint something like it, here, instead of just purple."

My eyes traveled over the ceiling and walls of my room. "How?"

"Bonnie used a spell." Caroline took my hand. "Do you like it?"

"I love it." I glanced again at the vivid purples and dark blues of the night that enfolded my room. Stars lit up my walls and glowed on my ceiling. Trees erupted along the walls, attempting to meet those same stars and I found myself a little bit in awe. "You know me well."

"I do." Caroline placed her head on my chest.

Closing my eyes, I pretended we were dancing under the night sky and I felt a well of happiness as cliché as it was. I had come to find that you need to hold onto to the happy moments because they are fleeting.

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Peace,

-J