A few weeks had gone by since Caroline was released from the clutches of her father, and the first day back at school was rapidly approaching.

Caroline had spent some time with Elena doing normal teenage things; going to the lake, having sleepovers and the like. The experiences were always that tiny bit more enjoyable because of Klaus' running snarky commentary in the background. He would more often than not say out loud exactly what Caroline was thinking about a situation, and it took all her will power and acting prowess to not laugh along with him.

She had been a little distant with Tyler, which she felt guilty for. But between sleeping with him, Klaus' constant presence, and knowing that Tyler was a little more interested in her than she was in him… well, it just felt easier to keep him at arms length.

Her father was still hanging around Mystic Falls, but was yet to reveal any cards in his hand. He went to Founder's meetings, and skulked around the edges of every town event over that time, but more often than not, just kept to himself. The few times he hadn't was to stick his nose in to different activities Caroline partook in around town, so she always had to be extra careful to make sure he wasn't around when she was in public.

Then there was her secret life with Klaus.

As it was summer vacation, and Liz worked a lot, Caroline and Klaus found themselves in the house uninterrupted a goodly amount of time. He had taken up residence in the spare room, and was making a number of in-roads into interacting with things around the house, in the same way he interacted with the blood-bag. He could turn the TV off and on, get in and out of his bed – covers and all. And he'd just polished off all light switches in the house – with the exception of Liz's bedroom light, he didn't need to invade the sheriff's privacy like that.

Caroline couldn't understand Klaus' current compulsion with using the fridge, kettle, and other kitchen items, because, the way she saw it, it wasn't like he could eat or drink any of it anyway. But, for Klaus, he just wanted to be able to bring Caroline a cup of tea every now and then. But he was not going to tell her that's what he was doing. Partly so he could surprise her, partly in case he couldn't succeed, but mainly because he felt exceptionally embarrassed for wanting to do it in the first place.

They had begun their search for Rebekah, which was aided a great deal by Damon and Elena's on-going search for Stefan. Neither Klaus nor Caroline was particularly sure what they would do when they found Rebekah, but it gave them both something to focus on beyond the uniqueness of their scenario.

While they spent a lot of their time in companionable silence, they also spent a good chunk of time just talking. Caroline really was fascinated with Klaus' life. Every now and then he would share a life event so unexpected that she was struck with how long Klaus' life actually had been. She knew she was supposed to hate him for everything he had done to mess with Elena, but it was proving difficult. It wasn't as though he had killed anyone in the sacrifice other than Jules the wolf – seeing as both Caroline and Elena – as the vampire and doppelganger sacrifices respectively – had been brought back to life. She supposed an argument could be made that John Gilbert died because of Klaus' actions, and Stefan would have never been taken. And maybe they could blame Klaus for Katherine Peirce's meddling in their lives, but that was a bit of a stretch in Caroline's view. The more she got to know him, the less she could see the vengeful, hedonistic monster.

The two of them had discussed this somewhat, and Klaus made efforts to assure Caroline the vengeful hedonist was the real him, but she wasn't so sure. After spending every waking moment with him for weeks on end, Caroline could just see the long, complicated, traumatic life he had led.

Despite all of this, there were times when they could not stand the sight of each other; when their chats escalated into arguments, into shouting matches, into slammed doors.

That particular morning, they had one such altercation.

Caroline had casually brought up the idea of talking to Bonnie about him when she finally came back to town. In her mind, Bonnie was best placed to shed insight on what the hell was going on with them, given that it was likely something in Bonnie's magic that tied them together.

Klaus had immediately jumped on the defensive, claiming Bonnie wouldn't want to explore the connection, she would just want to unlink them and banish him, since it was Bonnie who had killed him in the first place. From there it quickly escalated to value judgements about Caroline's 'choice of friends' and Klaus' 'choice of terror victims' and all came to ahead when Klaus spouted that he had half a mind to channel his energy into ripping Bonnie's throat out, and Caroline saying she wished he would just disappear because obviously he wasn't worth caring about.

She had stomped out the front door at that point, and set a cracking pace away from Klaus. She considered breaking their one-mile-radius rule, and send him to his dark, oppressive hell, but she instantly brushed that away.

For all her bluster at him wanting to disappear, it had just been that; bluster. She enjoyed having him around, for the most part, and had begun to rely on his presence to mitigate the loneliness she historically felt over summer vacations.

And, she hated to admit it now after such an ugly fight about it, but Klaus had a point about Bonnie.

Caroline still had not heard hide nor hair from her, despite reaching out a number of times. She was getting the distinct feeling that Bonnie was mad at her, and the few times Caroline had brought her concerns up with Elena, the brunette girl had skirted around the subject somewhat.

"I think the sacrifice took a lot out of her," Elena had said, sketchily, when Caroline questioned her. "She just needs time, and I think she wants you to respect that."

At the time, Caroline resisted the very pressing urge to sardonically question as to why she was in the doghouse, while Elena was not, but now, Caroline shut her eyes roughly, still speed walking in the direction of town, her anger at Klaus dissipating, making way for guilt.

Klaus was right. Of course he was right.

Something was obviously up with Bonnie, and Caroline was obviously part of that.

For the first time in her life, Caroline was realising that maybe she couldn't trust her friends with everything. It scared her that she was putting Klaus' safety before being truly honest with her friends.

While she was thinking, Caroline's feet sub-consciously led her to the nearby store, and as the house needed groceries, she decided to use the opportunity to do the errand.

Though, as if she manifested her friend, as Caroline walked through the door, she ran headlong into none other than Bonnie Bennett.

"Oh my gosh, Bonnie!" Caroline said, mustering all the jubilance she could find in the hopes of outwardly staving off her current mistrust for the witch.

"Hi Caroline," she replied, uncomfortably averting her eyes.

"It's been so long since I've heard from you, is everything okay?" Caroline asked.

"It's fine, Caroline," Bonnie said, shortly.

"Jeez, doesn't sound fine," Caroline said, teasingly, trying to joke their way out of this strange tension. "What's up?"

"Well, I can't do magic anymore and it's your fault," Bonnie snapped.

"You can't do magic?"

"No I can't."

Caroline furrowed her brow, the fury she felt at Klaus only a short while earlier beginning to bubble at her friend.

"How is it my fault?" she said, with a little more bite than intended.

"You should be dead, Caroline," Bonnie bit out. "You should be dead, but I brought you back, and now the witches have cut off my powers for saving a vampire and destroying the balance of nature."

"That doesn't make it my fault?" Caroline replied, indignantly.

"Well, if you were dead I would still have my magic!"

"Oh, I'm sorry my living is such an inconvenience for you?" Caroline cried, getting angrier still. "And don't you mean if you never brought me back you would still have your magic? Because it sounds like a your-fault thing, not a my-fault thing?"

Bonnie defiantly stared at Caroline, but seemed to deflate after only a few more seconds.

"I'm sorry, Caroline," Bonnie said, tears caught in her throat. "But I just can't talk to you, because right now it feels like your fault."

With that, Bonnie turned on her heel and walked back through the door Caroline had come in only minutes earlier.

Caroline half-heartedly attempted to do her shopping, but gave up after about fifteen minutes, her rage at the injustice of Bonnie's word consuming her concentration.

Half way back to her house, she heard a familiar voice, and turned to see another friend she hadn't spoken much to in a few weeks.

"Caroline, hey, Caroline!"

It was Tyler. He looked worn and tired, but his face looked calm.

A knot of nervousness formed in her stomach, joining the ball of fury at Bonnie. In the aftermath of her unsettling experience with Bonnie, she really didn't have it in her to have another tough conversation.

"Hey Tyler," she replied. "How have you been?"

"Good, good," he said. "I just wanted to talk to you about something, can I walk with you?"

For a split second, she contemplated brushing him off, but she couldn't.

"Sure."

The two walked in semi-uncomfortable silence for a minute or so before Tyler spoke.

"I turned again last night."

"Oh my gosh," Caroline breathed, instantly feeling terrible she hadn't been there for him. "How are you feeling?"

He just smiled sadly.

"Look, Caroline, I don't know what changed between us," Tyler began. "Like we slept together and, I don't know, I thought it was awesome."

Caroline cracked a rueful, side-ways smile, and playfully rolled her eyes.

"But, obviously something is going on with you."

Caroline continued to stare straight ahead, even as she could feel Tyler's eyes inspecting her face.

"It was almost like you came out of that cell with more secrets than you went in with," he continued. "And I know you haven't told Elena or Bonnie, and I don't blame you, they're always so wrapped up in themselves. But I wish you could tell me. I wish you could trust me."

"Tyler," Caroline began, but he raised a gentle hand to cut her off.

"But you don't have to, just know that when you're ready, I will always be there for you. You first."

A moment fluttered past her in which she told Tyler, in which she wasn't trying to deal with an unknown entity all by herself. But she couldn't. Not yet at least.

"Thank you," she replied.

He smiled and grabbed her hand, squeezing it.

"But I have to be there for me too," he said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm leaving Mystic Falls for a while," he said. "I want to learn more about my wolf side, you know. I know where Uncle Mason's pack is, they deserve to know what happened to him and to Jules. I thought maybe I'd do school there."

"Oh Tyler," Caroline said, her eyes widening.

"Mum thinks it's a good idea, because with your dad hanging around… and Damon being Damon… And with Crazy Sister Mikaelson ready to appear at anytime… I would say I think you should come too, but I know you won't," he said, as he offered her a wan smile. "I'm going in a few days actually, but I'll be back for Christmas."

Caroline could see how resolute he was in his convictions, but still wished she could talk him out of it. Weird, things may be, but that didn't stop her deep fondness for him.

"I'm really going to miss you," Caroline said, and Tyler could see from her face she truly meant it.

"And I'll miss you."

He leaned in to hug her, and Caroline couldn't help the tears prick her eyes.

"I meant what I said," he whispered into her hair. "I'm just on the other end of the phone. You can always trust me with anything."

They broke apart, and he turned to go.

"Bye for now, Caroline," he said over his shoulder.

"Bye for now, Tyler."

xxx

As the front door slammed behind Caroline, Klaus had fury brimming to his ears.

How very dare she go against him, how dare she spit such vile things into his face, how dare she walk out on him.

He threw himself dramatically on the couch, in half a mind to chase after her, and continue yelling, knowing she would be in public and would have to act as though she didn't have a furious 1000-year-old original hybrid ghost-entity screaming in her ear.

But he thought better of it; mad he may be at Caroline, but he didn't want to push her away to the point where she felt like banishing him. He didn't want to push her away full stop when he thought about it.

Klaus grabbed the remote and crankily switched on the television, flicking through the channels until he settled on watching the reality show channel.

Reality TV wasn't his favourite, but it was good for playing in the background while he stewed and brewed on his situation.

He really was exceptionally bored that day, and if he was truly honest with himself, his defensiveness at Caroline was more to pass the time with a fight than anything else.

Over the past few weeks of co-existence with Caroline's semi-mundane, half-human-half-supernatural life, Klaus was becoming acutely aware that in his thousand plus years of life, he had never truly had down time. Had never spent more than a few consecutive days simply existing.

He was always after something, always looking to conquer something. Always busy; never bored. And yet here he was, forced to just exist with extremely limited distraction.

He couldn't eat or drink, sleep wasn't necessary – though he tried to do it to pass the time – he couldn't interact with much, and didn't like to spend too much time reflecting.

So if he wasn't talking to or fighting with Caroline, or working on interacting with the physical world, Klaus found himself watching hours upon hours of television, anything to keep him from feeling alone.

About thirty minutes after Caroline stormed away, Klaus was roused from his contemplative sulking by her voice talking to one he didn't recognise. He sprung up to peer through the door and saw her talking to the wolf boy.

Rolling his eyes, Klaus dramatically flopped back on the couch.

Which is where he was a few minutes later when Caroline came through the door he had just been spying through.

Klaus fully intended on ignoring her, and letting her feel his sooky wrath, until he saw her colourless, helplessly upset face.

"Caroline, sweetheart, is everything okay?"

Caroline looked at him, the tears she felt at Tyler's goodbye welling more in her eyes.

"Bonnie hates me, but is back. Tyler doesn't hate me, but is leaving."

All traces of animosity gone, Klaus sat up and patted the couch cushion next to him.

Caroline sat down and let a few of her tears fall.

"How could that witch possibly hate you?" Klaus asked, spitting the word witch with such disdain that Caroline could have flinched.

"She's lost her magic," Caroline said, taking deep breaths to calm herself. "And blames me for it. Apparently the witch spirits were mad she rescued a vampire and cut whatever magical antenna Bonnie's connected to."

"It's hardly your fault that she tried to save you," Klaus said, indignantly.

"Well I know that!" Caroline cried. "But apparently Bonnie's self-awareness is lower than Elena's at the moment."

"And the wolf?"

"His name is Tyler and he's moving to where his uncle's pack was, wants to learn more about being a wolf, I guess."

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, before Caroline suddenly sprang to her feet, attempting to cover her sadness with an air of busyness.

"I think we should actually try and find Rebekah," she said.

"Come again?"

"We should actually try and find Rebekah," she repeated. "I don't know why we've not actually followed any of the leads mom has given us, we've just let Damon do the looking. I guess so we – or just I – don't look so suspicious. Why would I be so desperate to locate a Mikaelson and a Salvatore, you know?"

Caroline was talking very fast, but look very determined.

"But now feels like the right time, if I go on like a 'road trip' by myself right now, people will just think I'm upset Tyler's leaving and upset Bonnie hates me. And anyway, me, Bonnie, and Elena always talked about taking a small road trip before senior year, then Stefan showed up, and Mystic Falls went to supernatural hell in a hand basket, and I guess we lost motivation for doing it. We can use that as a cover!"

"Seems like sound logic," Klaus said, slowly, mulling over her words. "If that's what you want to do sweetheart, you needn't consult me."

"Of course I need to consult you!" Caroline said. "We're stuck together, and even when we drive each other up the wall, I still respect you enough to make sure you're on board."

Klaus didn't respond straight away, a mixture of emotions releasing into his stomach.

"You respect me?" he said, gruffly. "I thought I wasn't worth caring about?"

Caroline softened a little next to him.

"You are worth caring about, Klaus," she said quietly, placing her hand on his, even if she couldn't feel his hand beneath hers. "I'm sorry I said you weren't."

"Thank you," he replied, the warmth of her hand spreading through him.

They sat quite still for what seemed like an age. Caroline noted that Klaus didn't make any move to apologise to her for their fight, but chocked it up to a millennium of being stubborn for survival's sake. It wasn't the kind of behaviour you unlearned over a few weeks of forced co-habitation.

"So, road trip?" Caroline questioned, after a while.

"Road trip," Klaus smirked back.

Hi everyone! First fic update of 2021! Thank you for all your comments so far! There have been a couple of questions, most of them about how canon and lore interacting with this fic. One was would Klaus' line have died with him when he died? And I was just operating under the assumption that wouldn't apply in this fic, because it was canon after the point I threw canon out the window. Another one was wasn't Tyler supposed to be sacrificed as the wolf in the sacrifice if Caroline was used, but again, canon out the window - the three sacrifices were Elena (doppelganger), Caroline (vampire), and Jules (wolf). If you have any other questions about canon/lore interacting with this story, let me know! And I will answer them!