Heyaaa, I'm back!
It's been a long time? It's been a short time? I honestly can't remember. Anyway, let's have a little Q/A game
Who's ready for a lot of Klaroline love?
Who's ready for a lot of Mikaelson sibling family banter drama?
Who's ready for another ship love which has one of our favourite Mikaelsons and one sarcastic, fiery brunette?
These are a lot of spoilers, I know.
If you answered yes to all of those questions, you're in luck! Keep reading!
Hope you enjoy!
Caroline walked through the gardens and lawns of the hospital, her mind brimming with anxious thoughts.
It was the day of the benefit, and even though everything was almost ready, there was still a lot to be done. She still had to see to the stage decorations, check on the lights, and most importantly, find a dress to wear.
After all, she was the one who had planned the entire thing. She wouldn't not want to be well-dressed.
She walked across the lawns, carefully looking everything over with a scrutinizing look.
"I hope you need some extra help, love, because I brought some ammunition," said Klaus, walking towards her, dragging Kol and Rebekah by the arms, both looking irritated, Elijah trailing behind them, looking impeccable in a suit as usual. Caroline would have paid a hundred bucks to see him in a pair of shorts. She smiled at Klaus, suppressing the urge to laugh at his siblings' irked expressions, then turned to him, smiling widely, dropping a kiss on his cheek, earning gags from both Rebekah and Kol.
She and Klaus had decided to keep their relationship under the wraps for a few weeks, but their plan hadn't worked out so well since a few days after their second-first time Rebekah had decided to waltz in to announce that Klaus would be taking her out on a grand shopping trip for the benefit since she hadn't bought any formal clothes.
Long story short, it had ended with Rebekah screaming her head off, Kol screaming how much money she owed him, Caroline screaming that they had literally no right to bet on her and Klaus's sex lives, and Elijah and Klaus watching all the screaming with mildly interested looks on their faces.
The story also had a small part of Rebekah screaming a lot of colorful swear words at Klaus, and yelling how they had disgusted her to the ends of the earth, and how she was so telling her mother what Klaus did when he fully well knew that his siblings were in the next room, and Klaus calmly explaining that if she told on him to their mother he would send her the videos of Rebekah making out with three random guys when she was in college.
Rebekah had flung her hairbrush at Klaus, which he had dodged, then stormed into the living room to scream at Kol and rant to Elijah.
Of course, no amount of threats from Klaus had managed to make her or Kol keep quiet before they had blabbed to everyone they had made friends since they had come to Mystic Falls.
And Caroline had undergone enormous smirks and winks and gloating from Bonnie, Katherine, and Stefan, at all of whom she had snapped at to seriously shut up.
And now, making Rebekah and Kol do some manual labor was the perfect opportunity for revenge.
She smiled at them brightly, looking Klaus in the eyes. "Hey, you're early. And yes, we could use some extra help."
Rebekah tugged her arms from Klaus's, then glared at Caroline furiously. "Nik, I am not helping your girlfriend plan a party for a bunch of those hospital bores!"
"I am one of those hospital bores you speak of, Rebekah," said Klaus, grabbing her arm again, and tightening his hold on Kol's, who glared back.
"Precisely my point," Rebekah ranted. "I want to go shopping, Nik, not be stuck hanging streamers at some goddamn fucking party!"
"It's not a party, Rebekah," said Elijah, shrugging off his suit jacket, and rolling up his sleeves. "Miss. Forbes is being very kind to do this for the benefit of the hospital, which help many people to get better."
Rebekah stamped her foot. "But why should I do this right now? Kol has no life, make him help."
"Don't be an arse to Kol, Rebekah. Kol is helping, and unlike you, he is doing so without any complaint."
"Only because you threatened to rip my intestines from my abdomen if I didn't do as I'm told," Kol shot back. "I have other things to do that making sure your dear, sweet girlfriend has everything her little heart desires. No offence, darling," he added, looking at Caroline, while glaring at Klaus. "I'm very sure you didn't ask for us to be here, but Nik did, even though I'm exaggerating on the politeness of the word asked; threatened is more like it, and for the record, I happen to quite like my intestines where they are, and not in the hands of the evil Nik."
"Oh, stop your whining," Klaus growled. "You are going to attend the benefit, aren't you? Then I'm sure you'll see that you'd be nice enough to help arrange it. And do not pay attention to anything Kol says about me when I'm not here, love," he said to Caroline, looking over at Kol menacingly. "Kol has a nasty little habit of lying when he isn't supposed to, don't you, brother?" he asked, releasing Kol's arm and twisting his ear for good measure.
Kol twisted out of Klaus's grip, glaring at him furiously. "Now who's being an arse, Nik?"
"Be quiet, Kol," Klaus shot back, then turned to Caroline. "I have a bit of work to attend to, but I'll be back in about ten minutes," he said.
Caroline nodded. "Ok. I'll be here. And, Nik," she said, when he had turned away. "Be nice to your siblings. They don't have to help if they don't want to."
"Oh, they'll want to," he said, dropping a kiss on her nose, making Kol and Rebekah growl. "They'll want to because I'm telling them to. And Rebekah and Kol really don't need me telling Mother their dirty little secrets, do they?"
"Shove off, Nik," Rebekah said furiously.
"Don't be a brat, Bekah. Kol, I'll trust you to be nice to Caroline, and if I hear even a single sexual innuendo had come out of your mouth while I was gone, I assure you, you'll be on the next flight home with your body parts in various different planes. Elijah," Klaus said, sauntering off. "Keep an eye on them."
"Sod off, Nik!" Kol yelled after him. "Bullied into doing something for Nik," he stated furiously.
"For one of his lady friends. How new and unexpected," Rebekah added, snarling at Caroline. Caroline opened her mouth to protest and say that she hadn't ordered Klaus to bring them here to help, when Elijah gently pulled Rebekah back from Caroline.
"This is Niklaus's doing, Rebekah, don't forget. You mustn't go around blaming Miss. Forbes for his actions. Now be a good sister to Niklaus and go help out with the decorations over there. Kol, the same goes for you."
"Bloody Nik," Rebekah growled. "Elijah, I'm only going to do this if you make Nik promise to take me shopping after this dreadful bore of an hour. And he has to pay."
"I will try to make Niklaus agree to your demands, but I don't know whether he'll agree to the paying part," Elijah said distractedly, looking at his fingers.
"And what about me?" Kol snarled. "Am I to wander around shopping racks and hunt for dresses like a bloody lunatic? Or have you forgotten about me as usual?"
"Oh, put a sock in it, Kol," Rebekah said, now alright with her task now that she was going to get what she had wanted later.
"Easy for you to say, you're already getting something out of this," Kol hissed. "Elijah, I want Nik to give me back my ring."
"Are you still harping on about that, Kol?" Elijah asked, evidently bored. "It has been nine years."
"I don't bloody care," Kol snarled. "Make Nik return my ring to me, or I walk out of here scot free."
"Without getting a vital organ ripped out by Nik? That seems unlikely," Rebekah said, examining her nails.
"Mother will be upset with Nik if she finds out he had murdered her favourite child, wouldn't she? I'm safe."
"I'm obviously the favourite child, Kol."
"Stop your bickering, both of you," said Elijah, obviously fed up with his siblings. "Rebekah, I will have Niklaus take you out for your dress procurement; Kol, I will try to convince Niklaus to return your ring to you."
Obviously still not satisfied, both siblings stomped off towards the stage, still bickering. Elijah turned to Caroline with a sigh.
"I apologize for my brother and sister, Miss. Forbes," he said, tucking his cuffs back. "Rebekah and Kol have never taken the subject of helping to mean anything good."
"Oh, it's fine," said Caroline, laughing. "And it's Caroline, Elijah."
Elijah nodded. "Where would you want me to help?"
"Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like you to go to the bakery and check on the cakes, and then to the caterer to pay the bills. I'll give you a check, and I'll send someone with you to show you where they are."
"Alright," Elijah said absent-mindedly.
"Wait here for a second," said Caroline, rushing off. She suddenly caught sight of her friend, lounging on one of the benches.
"Katherine!"
Katherine turned her head around, her dark curls whipping some poor helper guy in the face. "What, Care? I'm busy."
"You're literally just sitting there doing nothing—is that a bagel?"
"Yes," said Katherine, taking a bite of said bagel.
"Katherine, are you seriously eating a bagel when I asked you to help out?"
"Yes," Katherine repeated, then finished off her bagel.
"Kat, get off your ass and go to the caterer! I need you to—"
"Send someone else," Katherine said, licking sauce off of her fingers. "Please," she added, noticing the venomous look on Caroline's face.
"Not an option," Caroline said. "Elijah!"
Elijah walked over to them, inspecting his already immaculate shirt for dust. "Yes, Miss F—Caroline, how can I help?"
Katherine looked up at Caroline and Elijah, her lips pursed, but what Caroline had expected to happen did not happen at all.
Katherine's jaw dropped when she looked at Elijah, her annoyed expression melting away to a completely smitten one.
Caroline looked between them, a smirk slowly forming.
Maybe she could use this to her advantage.
"Katherine, this is Elijah Mikaelson, Nik's older brother. Elijah, this is Katherine Pierce, cardiologist at Whitmore and my best friend."
Elijah nodded at Katherine politely. "Charmed to meet you, Miss Pierce."
Katherine did a very un-Katherine like thing; she let out a high pitched giggle.
"Pleased to meet you too," she replied in a breathy voice; Elijah, thankfully seemed not to notice. He was too busy staring at Katherine himself, Caroline noticed.
Maybe there would be more than one new couple in Mystic Falls that month.
"I had told Elijah that you'd go with him to the caterer and the bakery, but Kat just told me that she wasn't interested in going there at all," said Caroline, with a fake long-suffering sigh. Katherine's head jerked up, and Elijah's expression turned slightly disappointed. "Ah well!" she said, throwing her hands up in mock disappointment. "Looks like I'll have to find someone else to go with Elijah after all—"
"No, wait, Care!" Katherine yelped hastily. "I just found out that my schedule has a free space. I'd be happy to go with Elijah to the caterer's."
A genuine smile lit up Elijah Mikaelson's face, and it was so cute Caroline nearly lost character for a moment.
"Well," she said, looking at her papers. "I was going to send Vaughn or April with Elijah, but I suppose…"
"I can go, Caroline," said Katherine through gritted teeth, and Caroline immediately felt satisfied with the amount of power she was holding over Katherine's head.
"I don't know," she said with mock hesitation. "I was under the impression that you had to go set up the garbage bags and recycling bins in a while."
Katherine's eyes widened in horror. "What? No, of course not. Elijah and I are going to go to the bakery."
"Hmmm," said Caroline, sighing. "Oh, alright, why not?"
With an evil look, Katherine, steered Elijah away by the shoulder with a sweet smile on her face, sending death glares towards Caroline. Caroline laughed, making a mental note to harass Katherine as much as she had in the last six weeks.
"That doesn't go there, Kol!" Rebekah Mikaelson's screech interrupted her thoughts, making her groan. "Why are you so incompetent! Can you at least try not to be completely useless?"
"Begging your pardon, sister dear, that's hypocrisy, coming from your mouth most of all," Kol shot back.
"You disgusting piece of—"
"Alright!" Caroline said loudly, quelling Rebekah's words and making the latter glare at her furiously. "Kol's useless, we got that."
"I'm hurt, darling. Truly."
"And we've also established that Rebekah's a hypocrite," Caroline continued, making Kol grin.
"You horrific—" Rebekah started furiously.
"Enough!" said Klaus's annoyed voice behind her, and Caroline thanked the stars that he was finally back to reign in his siblings. "Kol, don't be an arse. Rebekah, stop being a brat."
"I am not a brat, Nik!" Rebekah screeched. "Stop calling me that, or I will tell Mother!"
"How old are you to go off tattling to Mother?" Kol asked, sniggering.
Rebekah's eyes flashed. "There are people present," Klaus told her warningly, casting a glance around at the various volunteers gathered.
Rebekah breathed out sharply. "I hope Elijah told you what I had wanted in return, Nik."
"And me," Kol piped up, boxes in hand.
Klaus closed his eyes briefly. "Yes, he messaged me. And yes, I will take you out to get dresses, Rebekah."
Rebekah smiled, satisfied.
"And me?" Kol demanded. "What of my ring, Nik?"
"You're not getting that back," Klaus said casually. "That's mine to keep."
Kol dropped the boxes he was holding. "Well, then, looks like I'm not helping out at this place, am I, Nik? Apologies, Caroline, but I demand payment for my services."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "What is this about a ring? I'll get you a new one if you want, Kol."
"I don't want a new one," Kol growled. "I want mine. Nik, give it back."
"No," Klaus said. "I won it from you fair and square."
"You obviously cheated!" Kol snarled. "No one had ever been able to beat me at chess before. You couldn't have been some magic god at it, could you?"
"You're in denial, Kol," said Klaus, with a bored look on his face. "Get over it. I'm not giving you the ring back."
"Caroline," said Kol, turning to her. "Make Nik return my ring to me."
"Why do you want it so badly?" Caroline asked. "It's just a ring."
"Oh, but it's not just a ring, is it?" Kol said, Rebekah visibly rolling her eyes behind him.
"What's so special about it?" Caroline asked, looking at Klaus.
"The ring was given to Kol by our mother. And the thing was, it had something Kol liked very much."
"What?"
"Gold and diamonds," Klaus said, shrugging. "Mother hadn't bought it, it was a family heirloom she had. Mother said that the tradition was that two siblings contest for it, because it's so valuable. Finn and Elijah had no interest in jewelry, and Rebekah had been gifted some necklace by Father, so Kol and I were the only ones left."
"Nik wanted to hold on to it, whereas I wanted to sell it," Kol said, with a mutinous look at Klaus. "He was all about family tradition and all that, and I—"
"Small correction: Father, Finn, and Elijah were all about family tradition and all that, I merely wanted to hold on to it."
"Why?" Caroline asked; she couldn't really picture Klaus with a ring.
"Because it was pretty," Klaus said, shrugging, and Caroline snorted. Kol glared at them.
"I wanted to sell it to get money!" Kol snarled. "Is that so wrong? It's worth thousands!"
"You can get money if you actually work, Kol," Rebekah pointed out.
"That ring is useless," Kol pressed on, ignoring Rebekah. "No one's ever used it for the past ten years! Why would you want it?"
"Because I want it, Kol!" Klaus snarled. "You merely want to sell it!"
"So, Nik won the contest?" Caroline asked, trying to calm Klaus down. She had noticed that he had a temper, and sometimes it got the best of him, even in trivial matters.
Rebekah laughed. "That's the thing. Kol won."
"What did they have as a competition?"
"Bicycle racing. Stupid, I know. But Kol was too young for a car and Nik had just gotten his bike, so they had to make do on bicycles," Rebekah explained. "Apparently, Nik hadn't tended to his bicycle properly in the last few months, and the chain broke in half halfway through out the race."
"It wasn't my fault!" Klaus growled. "Kol had obviously sabotaged it beforehand."
"Don't make excuses, Nik," Rebekah said in a reprimanding manner. "Anyway, Kol won the ring, and everything was fine and well until a few weeks later Kol challenged Nik to a game of chess."
"Nik agreed to play as long as they put some stakes on it. If Nik won, he would get the ring, and if Kol won, he would get one of Nik's horses—"
"Horses?" Caroline asked hoarsely. "You guys bet on horses?"
All three of the Mikaelson siblings suddenly looked very uncomfortable, looking down at their respective feet.
Caroline knew that Klaus's parents were rich, he had uncomfortably told her on their date five days ago, but she hadn't known how rich.
Rebekah, whom she had expected to gloat about her money, looked uncomfortable, and Klaus and Kol looked embarrassed and awkward.
"So, then what happened?" Caroline asked, changing the subject.
"Kol fancied himself a professional chess player and saw an opportunity to place his grubby little hands on my horse, and I saw an opportunity to take a family heirloom for myself," Klaus said casually.
"And what Kol hadn't known that Nik actually almost was like a professional chess player," said Rebekah with a laugh, looking at her eldest brother.
"Long story short, Kol hasn't been able to beat me at anything yet, and the ring is still mine," said Klaus, with a smug look towards his brother. Kol growled.
"I will find a way to get it back, Nik, mark my words," he said.
"That's nice, Kol, keep telling yourself that. For the time being, focus on lifting boxes."
"I can't believe you hustled Kol at chess," Caroline snorted as she lounged on his bed that afternoon. "And at chess!"
Klaus grinned, stroking her bare thigh softly. "I saw an opportunity, and I took it. Chess was the only game I knew he knew he was good at, but I was better."
"I am so glad I decided to date such a modest person."
Klaus grinned widely. "I can teach you to play chess once, if you want."
"I don't think I'd be very good at it," Caroline said, wrinkling her nose.
Klaus propped himself up on one elbow, and stared down at her. "What games are you good at then, love?"
"Scrabble," Caroline said, shooting an indignant look at Klaus when he snorted. "What?"
"It just seems like a very you game, that all," he replied, and resumed stroking her thigh.
"Excuse me," she said, slapping his hand away and glaring at him. "I'm good at other games besides scrabble too, you know."
"Like what?" Klaus asked, smirking.
"Cards," she answered, her eyes narrowing. "Poker. Pool."
"I'm not very good at pool," Klaus said forlornly. "I haven't played it in a long time, and I wasn't even that good then."
"Really?" Caroline asked. "You want me to teach you?"
Klaus smiled. "Alright. I'll teach you how to play chess, and you educate me on pool."
"Deal," Caroline said, holding out her hand. Klaus grabbed it, but pulled her towards him and kissed her full on the lips instead of shaking it. Though initially surprised, she melted into the kiss and wound her arms around him, his fingers brushing against the shirt she had stolen from his cupboard.
"Nik!" Rebekah's voice screeched through the door. "Open up, Nik!"
Klaus growled. "Go away, Rebekah! We're busy!"
"Busy shagging? I don't think that counts!" Rebekah yelled, pounding on the door. "I thought you were supposed to pay attention to me since I'm your guest!"
"When are you going to stop playing the guest card, Bekah?" Klaus asked, kissing Caroline anyway, pushing off her shorts.
"When you start treating me like one!" Rebekah shouted, making Caroline nearly scream in frustration.
Rebekah was such a mood ruiner.
"Nik, you promised me you'd take me shopping today! The benefit is in six hours and I have absolutely nothing to wear!"
"Not my problem!" Klaus said, pressing his mouth to Caroline's neck, making her moan. Rebekah made a disgusted sound outside the door.
"I heard that! You both are absolutely revolting!"
"No one told you to listen, Bekah!"
All this shouting was really spoiling the mood.
Caroline pushed Klaus off of her, smiling at him apologetically. "You did promise her."
Klaus looked at her incredulously. "Why are you taking her side? What we're doing is so much more fun."
"Nik," Caroline said, pressing a hand to his chest when he moved towards her, intent on kissing her again. "Nik, you have to go. Rebekah really wants to spend time with you."
"You know what else she wants to spend? My money."
"Nik," Caroline said again, this time with a small smile on her face. "Come on. Seriously. She's right, the benefit is in six hours and I can't have my boyfriend's sister show up naked."
"How about we don't go?" Klaus suggested. "We can stay in bed. I can show up naked."
"Not funny, Nik. I planned this. I have to be there. And so do you. Now hurry up and get dressed.
OOO
"Finally done fucking your brains out?" Rebekah sneered when Klaus stepped out of the room. "Good. Now hurry up and put on your shoes. The nearest mall is an hour away."
"Actually, the nearest mall is half an hour away, if you don't take the subway. Assuming there's no traffic, you can reach there in twenty minutes, half an hour tops," Caroline said helpfully. Rebekah looked at her, surprised.
"And here I thought you were like all of Nik's other stupid girls. Good for you, Nik. You found yourself a smart one."
"Shut it, Rebekah," Klaus said, running his fingers through his hair. "Where are Elijah and Kol?"
"Elijah took Kol out for a movie he had wanted to see. They paid for the tickets with your credit card, obviously."
"What? Why?"
"That was Kol's price," Rebekah shrugged. "He would help if you bought him those tickets."
"Fine," Klaus grumbled. "I'm glad he's happy. Now you hurry up, Rebekah. I'm only going to spend two hours at that place for your ridiculous whims."
Rebekah turned to Caroline. "Is he this mean to you too?"
Caroline laughed. "He wasn't mean, but he was an ass."
"I resent that," he muttered.
Rebekah laughed, turning to Klaus. "I like her, Nik. She isn't fishing for a compliment about you all the time."
She turned back to Caroline, cocking her head to the side. "Perhaps this the girl I'll share all of your embarrassing childhood stories with."
"Rebekah, if you do not stop talking I will make you wear a garbage bag instead of a dress," Klaus threatened. His phone suddenly rang from the other room, and he ran off to answer it. Rebekah turned back to Caroline, fixing her with a look Caroline couldn't really classify.
"Nik really likes you," Rebekah said plainly, looking at her. "Really likes you."
"That's…nice?" Caroline tried. Rebekah's eyes narrowed.
"You don't understand. Nik hasn't felt this for any other girl. I haven't seen him like this since we were children."
"Like what?"
"Happy," Rebekah answered, and Caroline was surprised at the raw emotion in her voice. "Cheerful. Content. Laughing, joking. Nik didn't have a very happy childhood. I'm not going to tell you why, since that's his business, and he'll tell you himself once he's ready," she added. "But the reason I'm telling you this is I'm just asking you one thing of you: don't break his heart."
"I wasn't intending to," Caroline replied. Rebekah nodded.
"I've observed you over the last few days," said Rebekah. "Not in a creepy way, of course. I was just seeing whether you were right for Nik. He's my favourite brother, see, and I can't bear to see him unhappy. I couldn't do anything about it when we were kids, but I certainly intend to something about it now." She let out a short, humourless laugh. "If Nik found out what I was talking about, he'd have my arse."
"You're just protective of him," Caroline said, fiddling with the hem of her shirt uncomfortably. "It's natural."
"Nik's very used to have to protect himself," Rebekah said, smiling, although the smile didn't reach her eyes. "The reason's not a good one."
Caroline didn't press; she could sense that this was a hard subject for Rebekah to talk about. Rebekah turned to face her, a strange expression on her face.
"Please don't think I don't like you. I just had to see whether you were good enough for my brother. Every time I snapped at you, or something like that, I was just testing you to see whether you'd hold your own or cower and ask Nik to make me shut up. You're a good person, Caroline," she said, looking at the wall. "Please don't make Nik unhappy."
"I won't," Caroline said, smiling slightly at the amount of love Rebekah obviously felt for Klaus.
"Right," said Rebekah in a business-like tone. "We're going to forget this conversation ever happened. If Nik asks what we did when he was gone we'll tell him that I criticized your clothing choice and you calmly told me that my hair looks like a rat's nest."
Caroline laughed. "Ok."
"Lovely," Rebekah said, primping up her hair just as Klaus strode back into the room.
"I swear to god, Kol needs therapeutic help," he growled, looking over at Rebekah and Caroline. "Ready to go?"
"Yes," said Rebekah, grabbing her purse. Klaus wrinkled his nose at her.
"Why do you need that? You aren't going to bring your wallet. You'll be spending all of my money, anyway," he grumbled, making Caroline laugh.
"It's for style, Nik," Rebekah sniffed. "I apologize for my brother, Caroline. Please excuse him, he has no sense of style at all."
"Oh, look over here. My sister and my girlfriend are getting along splendidly, thus leading to an obviously unavoidable Let's talk about Klaus fest in the near foreseeable future. This shouldn't be bad at all."
"You're right about that, Nik," Rebekah said, grinning. "Caroline and I have much to talk about. In, fact, why don't you come along? You might need a dress too."
"Oh, I don't know," Caroline said hesitantly. She was under the impression that Rebekah and Klaus had wanted to spend time with each other, and they couldn't very well do that with her tagging along.
"Come now, sweetheart," Klaus said cajolingly. "Would you really leave me alone with my sister to endure two hours of torturous shopping? At least this way I'll have something pretty to look at."
"Very nice, Nik," said Rebekah tiredly, then looked back at Caroline. "Although you should come. It'll be nice, having a female opinion on things. All Nik knows about fashion is that socks and sandals aren't supposed to go together."
"Be quiet, Rebekah."
"That being said," Rebekah said brightly, looking at Caroline. "Would you like to accompany us?"
"What do you think, Nik?" asked Rebekah, holding a pink taffeta dress to her chest and looking at her brother, who looked visibly bored.
"It makes you look like a salmon," he said, turning back to his phone.
Rebekah huffed and flung the dress at the assistant.
They had decided to skip the mall and go to a boutique nearby, which Caroline thought was a tad too expensive but worth it, because they truly had beautiful clothes. Caroline was busy looking through the racks and racks of clothes, trying to find one which would look beautiful on her, but Rebekah was finding pretty dresses and flinging them back almost every second.
"What do you think, Caroline?" Rebekah asked, holding out a blue maxi dress out, looking at it. "Is it too pale to look good on me?"
"Oh, just pick one, for god's sake," Klaus groaned. "I'm bloody dying over here."
"And here I thought Kol was the drama queen in your family," Caroline said teasingly, kissing Klaus on the cheek, at which his bored expression morphed into a smirk.
"You're right about that, love."
"Oh, make no mistake, Caroline," said Rebekah, who was carrying a gold dress into the fitting room. "Kol and Nik are equally dramatic."
"Piss off, Bekah."
"I'm merely telling the truth, Nik," said Rebekah, disappearing into the fitting room. Caroline smiled at him, holding out a short, white, sleeveless dress. "Thoughts?"
"It's very nice, love," Klaus said distractedly, looking at his phone.
"You're not even looking at it!"
Klaus sighed, looking up from his phone. "You'll look beautiful in anything, love."
"That's cute, Nik. Tell me your real thoughts, please."
Klaus sighed again. "It's very pretty, sweetheart."
"Pretty? Is that it? I'm asking how it looks on me."
"It looks…pretty?" Klaus tried.
"Nik!"
"Fine, fine," he looked at her and the dress, cocking his head. "It looks beautiful."
"That's just saying pretty in a superlative degree."
"For your information, pretty in the superlative degree is prettiest."
"Nik! I didn't come along to let you give me English lessons!"
"Sorry, love," he said, and Caroline suppressed a smile. She hadn't thought she'd see the day Niklaus Mikaelson, arrogant asshole, meekly conceded to his girlfriend.
"Tell me what you think, Nik," she said, holding out a different dress, this one black and gold.
"Makes you look beautiful."
"You gave Rebekah your honest opinion, Nik. Come on, I can see that you hate it."
"Fine, it makes you look like a bumblebee."
"Fat and striped?" Caroline asked, feeling slightly mean, wanting to tease him, and Klaus looked up, startled.
"What? No! I—I didn't mean that!"
"But you said that I looked like a bumblebee," Caroline said, a fake sad look passing over her face. "And I had asked you to tell the truth, and you did."
"No, love, listen," he stammered, obviously hoping to repair the damage done. "The colours are—"
She burst out laughing, a dumbfounded look passing over her boyfriend's face. "Oh, my god, you should've seen the look on your face. Nik, I'm not mad, don't worry."
He had a strange look on his face rather than looking annoyed, and Caroline's smile faded. "What?" she asked.
"You look beautiful when you laugh," he said, looking her in her eyes. "I've always noticed, but you seem to get even more beautiful each and every time. Your eyes crinkle up, and you smile, which is enough. You don't need a pretty dress to look beautiful, Caroline, you look beautiful enough on your own."
"Nik, that's…" Caroline said, trailing off, not knowing what to say she had never been given a compliment like that before. She had been told that she was smart and cute, but never beautiful. Her relationship with Matt was juvenile and childish, and Tyler had only seemed to want her for sex.
"Thank you," she said, kissing him, letting the dress pool to the ground. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her down to the couch he was sitting on. She slung one leg over his, pulling him closer to her by his shirt collar, delving her tongue into his mouth, earning an appreciative groan from him. He fingered the hem of her shirt, letting his fingers drift along the waist band of her jeans.
Caroline drew away and stood up, making him groan, and looked at him at him with a reprimanding look.
"Not now, Nik," she said reluctantly. "We're in public."
"We've done it in a parking lot and in an alley, Caroline," he said irritably, trying to pull her back down to his level. She gently pushed his hand away, shaking her head.
"That was a moment of weakness, Nik," she said, her cheeks turning red. He smirked.
"That's funny, I seem to count…thirteen moments of weakness merely in the last two weeks, sweetheart," he said innocently, his blue eyes wide.
"Shut up, Nik."
"I only speak the truth, love."
"That's nice, Nik, but I need to stop procrastinating and start hunting for a proper dress or I'll be showing up at the benefit in jeans and a tank top."
"I wouldn't complain," Klaus said, shrugging. "They're much easier to take off."
"No thinking about sex, Nik," Caroline said, nevertheless observing how the chords of his neck tensed when he looked at her, the necklaces around his neck just begging to be tugged. His shirt seemed unnecessary too, since it was clinging to him, showing a lot of hard muscle. She swallowed, unconsciously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"You're ogling, love," Klaus said cheerfully. "Now who's thinking about sex?"
"Shut up, Nik," she said, her skin flushed. "I was not ogling you."
"I beg to differ, love. I define ogling as staring at someone with sexual thoughts in mind. Unless you define ogling differently, I don't—"
She silenced him with a kiss, her fingers tangling themselves in his hair. He groaned softly, sliding his hands against the smooth, flat skin of her stomach, making her moan. She pulled away quickly, her lips swollen and eyes bright, making him shift on his seat uncomfortably.
"That's what you get, Nik," she said cheerfully, disappearing into the changing room, earning a furious glare from him.
"Nik," Caroline moaned as Klaus slipped her T-shirt over her head, rubbing circles on her stomach. "Mm, keep doing that."
"Will you both please at least try to shut up? Walls are thin, you know," Kol's irritated voice carried out. Apparently, he and Elijah had returned home.
Caroline pushed herself off of Klaus reluctantly. "I guess not now, then."
He looked furious. "Why should we have to stop just because my brothers are here?"
"Because it's creepy, Nik."
He grumbled something incoherent, and Caroline laughed. "Later, how about we go over to my place? You'll stay over, and we can have lots and lots of fun."
Klaus's eyes gleamed, making her smile inwardly. She fought to keep a straight face as he smirked at her, making her shiver. "And is that a promise you intend to keep?"
"Yes," she said, kissing his nose. "But not now. I need to get ready."
"Fine," he grumbled. "But later."
"Definitely," she promised, putting her T-shirt back on and walking out of the room, and entering the remaining guest room. She had bought her clothes and make-up to Klaus's place so that she could change for the benefit there itself.
She and Rebekah had finally found the perfect dresses for themselves an hour later, much to Klaus's relief. Rebekah had chosen a scarlet sheath dress, while Caroline had opted for a short, strapless, black dress. Klaus had actually given her an opinion on it, which made Caroline realize he actually liked it.
Well, his opinion had consisted less of admiring the dress and more of mentioning how much he would like to tear it off of her, but nevertheless he had liked it.
But his words had gotten to Caroline's head and they may or may not have had a quickie in the dressing room.
Thankfully, no one had heard her screaming and moaning of his name as he had remembered to clap a hand over her mouth the entire time.
Maybe not the entire time.
She shook herself out of her thoughts and put on the dress, zipped it up, and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked good, she had to admit, and she'd look even better once she did her hair and put on the new shoes she had gotten herself last week.
Klaus would probably like her to keep them on that night, digging into his back as they did some very inappropriate and unsanitary things on the kitchen counter at her house.
And the table.
And the bed.
And the couch.
And the shower.
Could people really blame her if she wanted to take full advantage of the fact that his siblings weren't there and she had a spacious shower and that her table was sturdy?
Probably.
But she wasn't going to let judgement keep her from letting her hot boyfriend fuck her until she could hardly walk.
She walked out of the room after doing her hair, noticing that Klaus, Kol, and Elijah were already sitting on the couch, watching something on the TV, and Rebekah was on the phone, talking about something about shoes. Klaus caught sight of her and his jaw went slack, making her smirk. He got up from the couch and dragged her into his bedroom, immediately pressing his mouth to her neck.
"Nik," she scolded him. "What did I say about later?"
"Don't care," he muttered.
"Well, I do," she said, gently pushing him away.
He muttered something incoherent, making her smile. "You look ravishing in that dress."
"That's nice, Nik. It's still not going to help your case, though."
He grumbled and strode out of the room, making her laugh.
Teasing him was fun, but she was going to fulfil her promise to him that night.
After all, Caroline Forbes was nothing if not a lady of her word.
Well! That's over!
This was kind of a filler chapter; I kept telling myself I was going to put the benefit in here but it got too long, but the benefit will definitely be in the next chapter.
Ideas on why Klaus is so attached to the ring? His difficult childhood? Let me know in the recviews!
Please review, and see you guys next time!
-Sophia