Notes: Still stuck on the multichapters so I figured I'd clear out some of my old old prompts. There will be a number more over the next few days!

Lights and Sparks

(Prompt: KC + "I just wanted to put Christmas lights up but I ended up falling off the ladder and crashing into you while you were delivering a package to my door but oh god you're hot" AU. Rated T).

Caroline eyes the wooden ladder with trepidation, lifting one booted foot and resting it on the lowest step. She presses down to test it and the small creak she hears is not reassuring. She bites her lip and considers her options. Mystic Falls, by virtue of being teeny tiny, had lacked a hardware store since Mr. Nelson had retired when Caroline had been in high school. If she wants to buy a new ladder she's going to have to drive a good forty five minutes. And she's not even sure she can fit one in her car so the trip hardly seems worth it.

She'd already thought about popping over to one of the neighbors but that had been a bust. The ones she knows are all at work for the day and she really wants to surprise her mom by having the lights up when she gets home. She'd even trekked next door, knocked on the door of her mother's newest, and most mysterious, neighbor but she'd gotten no answer.

Something Caroline had been a little disappointed about, honestly. She's yet to catch a glimpse of him herself and it bugs her. People generally moved away from Mystic Falls. She had. In fact, this was the first Christmas she'd come back for since college.

Maybe that could explain her preoccupation. She was stir crazy, going a little nutty from boredom. There really was nothing to do in this town.

Caroline glances to the left at the house that had belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Mueller when Caroline was growing up. They'd doted on her when she'd been small, Mrs. Mueller forever plying her with cookies and letting Caroline ramble on about what she'd been learning about at school. They'd only had one child who'd lived too far away to visit frequently and Caroline had lapped up the attention that had come with being a surrogate grandchild. Unfortunately, Mr. Mueller had suffered a stroke when she'd been in middle school and Mrs. Mueller had ended up moving to a retirement community in Florida. She'd passed away a few years after that. The house had been vacant for years and Caroline had been shocked to see a large black SUV parked in front when she'd come home to spend Christmas with her mom.

Curious, she'd peppered her mom with questions and had been miffed when little information had been available. The small town gossip mill had seriously been slacking and she'd resolved to pump Matt (as owner of The Grille, literally the only bar for miles, he had to have some info, right?). All her mom had known was that he was the Mueller's great-grandson but that he'd actually never met them. News that further frustrated Caroline because there was clearly a story there. How had her mom not pressed?! Caroline must have gotten her innate nosiness elsewhere. Other than that all Caroline had learned was that his name was Klaus and her mom guessed that he was about Caroline's age, maybe a few years older. He'd mostly kept to himself in the two months since he'd arrived in Mystic Falls, occupying himself with improvements to the house he'd inherited. She's been excited at the opportunity her rickety ladder presented, thought it a perfect opportunity to make Klaus' acquaintance. He was renovating so he'd definitely have one. She could get what she needed to finish her project and attempt to charm more details about just who he was and why he'd decided to settle in Mystic Falls.

Talk about a win win.

But, Caroline's plan had been thwarted despite the fact that his SUV was in the driveway. Her knocks had gone unanswered and she'd had to accept that she was back to square one. She had to use the ladder her dad had always used, purchased at least twenty-five years ago. It had rarely made it out of the garage in the last twelve but admitting defeat was not an option. The lights had to go up today. She had a schedule.

She was just going to have to cross her fingers and hope for the best. Nodding decisively Caroline turns and marches back into the garage. She'd already spent a solid four hours detangling the lights, searching out faulty bulbs, no way was she letting that effort go to waste. She picks up two of the coils and loops them over her shoulder and pockets the stapler before returning to the ladder.

Caroline wishes she'd thought to bring her phone out so she could shove her earbuds in and crank Christmas music. Listening to the creaks as she made her way up was only going to freak her out more.

She takes one final deep breath and starts to climb, determinedly not looking down. She goes quickly, and throws her arms up and does a little shimmy now once she's safely on the roof. Caroline tosses one last glance at her mom's mysterious neighbour's house. From this vantage point she can see lights on upstairs and she frowns. So he was home.

Rude. Had he never heard of being neighborly? It was a week away from Christmas! She aims a glare, well aware that he would never actually see it. It made her feel better. Turning away Caroline shoves Mr. Scrooge out of her mind and scans the roof with a critical eye, considering how her (admittedly crude) drawings will translate in reality.

She quickly becomes absorbed in the her. It's frustrating in the beginning, working out the best angle to hold the staple gun, figuring out how to lay the light strings evenly to get the effect she wants. Soon her ladder issues and the neighbor are forgotten.

Until she has to get down.

The ladder looks even sketchier from above and Caroline stares down at it with nerves churning in her stomach. They'd gotten a light dusting of snow last night and it's been blown from off the roof and the surrounding trees, drops of water clinging to each step of the ladder. She kinda wishes she'd thought to bring up a rope or something because that did not look safe. Still, she's chilled and damp, nose frozen and drippy and probably bright red.

A cup of hot chocolate, extra marshmallows, sounds amazing and she can only have it if she gets down.

Caroline turns and crouches, glancing over her shoulder as she stretches out her leg. She lets out a sigh of relief when she connects with a rung and eases her weight onto the ladder, inching backwards with her hands firmly planted on the roof until she's situated solidly, both feet steady.

Step one, the most difficult, complete. A few more steps and she'd be home free. She'd make her hot chocolate, shower and order some food, and wait for her mom to get home. "You've got this," she mutters to herself, because a little positive thinking never hurt anyone.

Caroline's about halfway down when she spies a dark shape out of the corner of her eye. It's unexpected, startling her since the street's been quiet all afternoon. She twists her neck abruptly trying to get a better look. Too abruptly and she loses her balance, letting out an alarmed squeak. She clings to the ladder with desperate fingertips but it's useless, she can't get any traction with her feet, her boots sliding on the wet wood. She registers a rough curse, several soft thumps, and a hand on her back. She realizes that someone's trying to help her but it's too late.

She's going down.

Caroline squeezes her eyes shut as she feels herself slipping, two strong hands gripping at her coat in a last ditch attempt to right her. She goes down, taking her would be rescuer with her. A hand cradles the back of her head, saving it from the worst of the impact, and her eyes fly open with a gasp as a heavy weight knocks the wind out of her. It lets up immediately and Caroline wheezes, blinking up at the unfamiliar man who's now braced over her, expression tense and concerned. "Are you alright?" he asks, brushing the wisps of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face. He gently angles her head so he can check her pupils, his hand rubbing over her scalp, checking for injuries.

His hands are warm and his eyes dark blue and thickly lashed. He's very attractive and Caroline's mind is a bit blurry. One of her hands lifts, rests on his jaw. She rubs her thumb over the stubble there absently. Later, she'll blame what she blurts out next on shock. "Am I dead? Are there actually hot angels who usher people into the afterlife? I thought that was only in the movies."

The stranger's lips curl in amusement, "While I'm flattered I can assure you that you are quite alive. And that I'm no angel. I do believe we should get your head looked at, however. You may be concussed."

"M' fine," Caroline tells him, her head clearing as an ache in her back starts up. She rolls her head to the side and notices a couple of brown boxes scattered across the walkway. "Wait, are you UPS or something?"

He laughs this time, rolling to the side and getting to his knees. "From angel to delivery man? Talk about a downgrade."

Oh god she'd called him an angel. A hot angel. That was mortifying. She feels her face heats and sits up, wincing as it sends another twinge through her limbs. He notices and sobers setting a palm lightly on her shoulder. "Hey, easy. You fell a fair distance. Does anything feel wrong? Broken?"

Caroline takes a second to consider, wiggling her fingers and toes. "No, I think I'm fine. Just bruised. And embarrassed, obviously. Sorry for landing on you."

He stands and offers her a hand and Caroline takes it, allowing him to tug her to her feet. "No harm done, love. I think it might have been my fault for startling you. Only fair that I slowed your fall. Your mother strikes me as a formidable woman so I'd hate to have been responsible for seriously injuring her only daughter."

"Yeah, you'd probably spend some time in the cell at the station."

He nods, a smile tugging at his lips. "Right. And I'm afraid I'm far too pretty for prison."

That startles a laugh from Caroline but she cuts it off when it worsens the discomfort she's feeling. She clutches her side, "Ouch," she grumbles. "Don't be funny, please. Think of my poor ribs."

He looks concerned and crouches to gather the packages, "Apologies. I'm Klaus."

"Caroline," she offers. "But you already knew that, right?"

"I did. You mother mentioned you and it's on these," he nods down at the boxes. "They were delivered yesterday morning. You must have been out and I got involved in a project and forgot to drop them off."

She reaches out to take them from him but he takes a step back and shakes his head. "I've got them. You just focus on getting up the steps."

Caroline crosses her arms, forcing herself not to react to the uncomfortable pull in her side. "I really am fine. And nothing in there is heavy. It's the last of my Christmas shopping." And a few things for her, of course. Holiday sales were far too tempting. Thank god for discrete packaging because she'd splurged on a thing or two that would make this encounter even more awkward.

"Humor me, sweetheart. Your mother has a gun, remember?"

Giving up Caroline turns, makes her way up the porch more stiffly than she would like. "Yeah, she conveniently always had to clean it whenever I had a date in high school. Made a boy hesitant to get handsy, let me tell you."

"Smart woman," he remarks, following her to the door.

"Tell that to my teenage hormones."

He laughs again and Caroline has to admit that it's a nice sound. One she's not opposed to hearing more of. "Something tells me you managed to convince them," he says knowingly.

She snorts. "Duh. You can convince a teenage boy to take a flying leap off the falls once you lose your bra."

"I know. I was once a teenage boy."

Caroline pushes open the door and turns, leaning against the frame. She'd been curious about him, hadn't she? Maybe this was the golden opportunity she'd been looking for. If nothing else she'd have the best gossip for when she met up with Bonnie on Christmas Eve. She gives him a not so subtle once over, letting her mouth pull into a smirk, "And you long ago was that?"

He raises an eyebrow, "Are you interrogating me?"

"Maybe. Is that a problem?"

He takes a moment to consider, his head tipping to the side. "Can I return the favor? Perhaps this evening, over drinks?"

She bites her lip to keep from smiling. This is far from how she expected this afternoon to go but a date with an attractive man wasn't exactly a bad turn of events. Hadn't she just been lamenting her boredom? Klaus seemed like an excellent distraction. Caroline gestures inside, "I'd like that. Do you want to come in? I was going to make some hot chocolate and I made sugar cookies yesterday."

"Attempting to use baked goods to lull me into a false sense of security?" he jokes, but he steps inside the house, toeing off his shoes once she discards hers. "You play dirty. Noted."

Caroline stops trying to hide her smile, and it might be a little devious. "Oh, you have no idea."

The interest on Klaus' face only grows, turning speculative and eager. He sets her packages down on the hallway table, and surprises her by reaching out and wrapping his fingers in her scarf. He watches her reaction carefully and she steps closer to him, a not so subtle invitation. He smiles at her, loosening the knotted wool. "I look forward to finding out," he murmurs. "And I've a few tricks of my own."

She fights a shiver when he brushes against the skin of her collarbone. It was a good sign of things to come that she reacted to so simple a touch.

Caroline was positive that learning Klaus' tricks was going to be fun.