In which Kol might just ship Klaus and Caroline together even harder than I do.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Rebekah asks, eyeing her brother warily—nothing good ever came out of his so-called 'plans'.

Kol rolls his eyes, flashing her one of his creepily perfect grins. "It will be fantastic, Bekah. Don't worry."

"Mmh, yeah. Something always goes wrong when you say that."

:

:

"Why are we here, again?" Caroline asks, bitchy attitude on in full mode. She folds her arms across her chest and stares pointedly at Stefan, a perfectly plucked eyebrow arched at him.

The Salvatore sighs for what feels like the millionth time that day, looking down at his best friend.

"You told me that you would make an effort."

"Yes, but like, at the Grill. You know, where I can play darts pretending I'm throwing them at her slutty face."

"Care."

The blonde sighs, closing her eyes for a moment. "You're right, sorry. It's just–it's not easy."

"I know, believe me. And I'm immensely grateful that you're trying, but–"

"Try harder?" Caroline laughs, finishing his sentence for him.

A small smile appears on Stefan's lips. "Rebekah has her moments, and she can be nice, too. It was already hard enough for her to invite you here herself."

"I know," Caroline concedes after a moment. "After all, she can't be all bad if she has you wrapped around her finger," she teases her friend with a knowing smile, prompting him to roll his eyes.

"Blondes are experts at that," he teases back, obviously hinting at her relationship with another Mikaelson.

Caroline glares at him. "Don't."

With a small chuckle, Stefan raises his hands up at his sides in a 'I'm innocent' manner. "I didn't say anything."

"Mh-mh," she hums, thoroughly unconvinced. "Of course you didn't."

Just then, Rebekah finally arrives.

"Caroline! You came!"

She greets her a little too loudly and a little too excitedly, which immediately has the other blonde going into full-skeptical-mode—what has the Original planned for her?

"Uhm, yeah. Hi," she regards her warily as Rebekah kisses Stefan on the cheek and then loops her arm around his.

"No need to be so tense," Rebekah waves her off with an easy smile. "Nik is not even here, I want you to enjoy yourself."

The knowledge that Klaus won't be present actually makes her heart drop a little in her chest, but she quickly dismisses the feeling with a strained smile towards the happy-looking couple.

"I'll try."

There's a long pause and the mood shifts awkwardly, so Rebekah quickly excuses herself to go check on some other guests, again leaving Caroline alone with Stefan.

"It's okay, you don't have to babysit me, Stef. Just go enjoy the party with you girlfriend, please," she gives him her best puppy eyes look, which she knows he can never say 'no' to. "I'll manage, I promise. I'll do some typical Caroline inner monologue and then come mingle with you two when I'm ready."

Stefan looks at her for a long moment, but, eventually, he sighs. "All right. But call me if you need me, for anything. And if it just gets too much and you want to leave, come to me first."

"I promise, dad," she agrees, rolling her eyes at his antics, but smiling nonetheless because she knows that he's only acting that way because he cares and worries about her (and also because he has this insane idea that her and Rebekah are somehow made to be best friends forever).

"I'm serious," he replies, sternly.

"I am, too," she laughs at his skeptically raised eyebrows. "Really, I am. You spend some quality time with Rebekah, do your boyfriend job to make her at least slightly more agreeable while I look a bit around the house, and then I promise I'll come so the two of us can talk about girly clothes, and ponies, and pink rainbows."

Despite himself, Stefan can't help but laugh with her, shaking his head.

"All right. See you later, then?"

"Count on it."

"Just be careful."

Caroline rolls her eyes as she watches Stefan turn around and then walk through the mass of people having fun together in the Mikaelson mansion's living room.

"Be careful"—really? Yes, it is the Mikaelsons that they are talking about, but this is a Christmas party, what could really go wrong, right?

But that's one of those thoughts that you should never, ever, have, unless you indeed do want for something to go wrong, and Caroline doesn't even have the time to fully turn around before she collides into someone's chest.

"Oh, hello there, darling."

She groans, because—seriously?

"Kol," she greets him curtly, walking around him, but—if only, right? Because the youngest Original brother simply casually follows behind her.

"Don't be in such a sour mood, sweet Caroline."

"I'm not. I was just hoping that when Rebekah said Klaus wasn't going to be here, she meant her other brothers wouldn't as well."

"Ouch," Kol feigns to be hurt by her words, bringing a hand upon his heart. "And is that bitterness I hear in your tone? Maybe you were hoping to run into my good, old brother, after all."

"Yeah, right," she scoffs, but it doesn't sound half as indifferent as she would have wanted it to.

"Well, maybe you could use another Klaus, instead," he offers her cheekily.

Caroline stops walking and turns to him with a curious look. "What do you mean?"

With a smirk, Kol puts his hands on Caroline's shoulders and turns her to their right.

"Is that–oh my God," she laughs—genuinely laughs—for the first time in her whole day. "Did you seriously hire a Santa Clause?" she arches one of her eyebrows at Kol. "There hardly are any kids here."

He shrugs. "It's good for the atmosphere."

"Right," Caroline rolls her eyes, ready to try and escape him again.

"Wait," he reaches for her elbow, effectively stopping her. "Don't you want to try it?" he looks almost panicked.

"Try what?"

"Santa Clause."

Caroline scrunches up her nose, confused. "What? No. Why would I?"

"For fun? You know what that is, right?" he taunts her, but only earns himself another scoff.

"Yes. And it's not giving Santa Clause a list of Christmas wishes, unless you're seven years old."

It's Kol's turn to roll his eyes. "Oh, please, lighten up, baby!"

But Caroline just keeps staring at him with a rather unimpressed expression.

"At least have a drink with me? Come on! It's going to be better than wandering around alone."

Caroline thinks about it for a second, before eventually slumping her shoulders in defeat—what else does she have to do, anyway?

"All right."

:

:

Around a dozen glasses of eggnog (strongly laced with a combination of rum, whiskey and vodka) later, Caroline is barely coherent.

Surprisingly enough, Kol provided a very pleasant company, but it had been too late when it finally became obvious that he was meaning for her to get drunk. Not that it really mattered now, she was too far gone to care or be angry about it.

"So," he offers her a dangerous smirk. "Do you think you're in the mood to pay our dear Santa Clause a little visit now?"

"Yesssssss!" she giggles, clapping her hands together excitedly.

Kol helps her up from her stool at the bar that they had set up inside their spacious living room, guiding her towards the old man with the white beard and the red clothes seated on a high armchair in a corner of the crowded room.

Nobody has been really paying him any attention for the whole party, and, in all honesty, it was meant to be that way. It was more the humiliation that Kol thrived in, added to the sneaky plan that he had conjured up just a couple of days prior.

:

:

Klaus scoffed. "That is not happening, Kol."

"Oh, come on! We made a bet and you lost, pay up Nik."

"Paying, I'd do gladly. But I am not dressing up as Santa Clause! Rebekah, love, this is your party, please tell him that he's being ridiculous."

"Actually, he's not," Rebekah answered after a moment, thinking about it. "If the roles had been reversed, the dagger threats would be flying in right about now."

The hybrid shook his head—his siblings were being unbelievably childish.

"He would have had to stay on the bunnies diet for a week, not humiliate himself in front of the whole town. I can't believe we're even having this conversation," he huffed, turning on his heels with every intention of leaving the room and the argument behind him—he was not going to do that, ever.

Kol groaned in annoyance, stomping his feet like a three-year-old who didn't get his way (which he was, more or less).

"Actually," Rebekah brought her hands to her hips, a dangerous smirk firmly in place on her full, red lips. "If you don't do this, then I'm not going to tell Stefan to ask Caroline about that double date that you have been nagging me about for months."

Klaus stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't have to turn around towards his sister or ask her to know that she was indeed being serious. With a sigh, and already cursing himself, he finally spoke again.

"Where is that damn costume?"

:

:

Klaus' eyes widen as he notices his brother pushing a giggling and very-drunk-looking Caroline in his direction.

Obviously, he has been observing the blonde beauty since she first arrived with Stefan, and he knew that Kol was up to something as soon as he saw him approaching her, something that he didn't do anything about because he really didn't want anybody to realize who was under this stupid Santa Clause costume. It had been difficult, extremely difficult, but he didn't even eavesdropped on their conversation, in order to not get any more 'let's dagger Kol and put him in his coffin again for a couple of millenniums' urges, which he was already dealing with as it was, so he really had no idea what his brother had in mind.

"Hello, Santa Clause," Kol snickers. "The lady here has some wishes she would like you to hear."

"Kol," he warns him threateningly low, his voice as sharp as a knife and much more dangerous, his eyes flickering yellow in a second.

Unfazed, Kol gently pushes Caroline towards Klaus, and she awkwardly stumbles onto his lap, giggling like crazy.

Klaus grinds his teeth in frustration, and, before he can say anything else, Kol hurries away with a huge grin plastered on his face—he was going to pay for this.

But Klaus' attention suddenly focuses solely on Caroline as she snuggles more comfortably against him, sighing into his neck. In less than a millisecond, all of his blood rushes to his lower parts, and his jaw clenches.

He knows that, technically, all it would take was for him to stand up and carry her in another room where she could sober up a little, but the warmth and softness of her body against his is too damn tempting, and what is he if not a masochist, after all.

"What is it that you want for Christmas, sweetheart?" he asks through gritted teeth.

Caroline sighs again, nuzzling into his neck with her nose. "I don't know."

Fighting to keep his control, Klaus subconsciously wraps an arm around her, pulling her closer. "Come on, there must be something."

There's a long, silent pause before Caroline answers again. "I just want to be happy, I guess. Free. There's this person that I want to be with, but I can't," she sounds so sad and almost on the verge of tears that Klaus would smack himself in the head for even asking her if only he wasn't so preoccupied with what she has just said.

She's involved with someone? How did he miss that?

He swallows, his dead heart clenching painfully in his chest. "Is there? And why can't you?"

She shakes his head against him. "I'm not sure. I mean–sometimes I know, but some other times..." she trails off. "He's not all bad, you know?" she says, raising her shining blue eyes into his. In all honesty, it wouldn't be too hard to see that that's Klaus, but Caroline is just too drunk and too caught up in her own thoughts to notice.

He nods, slowly, racking his brain for all the male figures that are in her life at the moment—Stefan, Matt, Damon. The usuals. So, what, or better who, did he miss?

"You remind me of him a little, to be honest," she suddenly perks up, wiggling in his lap and making him groan as she sits more comfortably so that she can properly face him.

She brings her hands up to his face and teasingly pinches his cheeks.

"You even have dimples, too!" she exclaims excitedly, gently caressing his stubble.

"What?" Could it be–?

"And your name is Clause. So, basically, it's like you're the same person," she giggles. "It's only spelled differently," she adds pensively, as an afterthought.

At this point, Klaus is not sure whether this is actually happening or not anymore, and he doesn't care that she's drunk now and will probably later regret and deny everything that she's telling him, he knows now that she returns his feelings (some of them, at least), and he's going to confront her with that knowledge until she admits to it.

Caroline is now looking at him almost wistfully, biting down on her bottom lip with her cheeks red for the too much alcohol—she's a vision, and he's so painfully hard that he might just break down and cry at any given moment.

Suddenly, she's leaning forward towards him, eyeing his lips, and it's not like he ever has any common sense when he's around her anyway, so he can't help it when he gently caresses her nose with his and dips in just a little–

"What the hell!"

They both quickly fall back, bumping foreheads, and Klaus' groan is twice as disheartened as he sees Stefan standing before them with a very angry look.

"I can't believe that you were in on this, Bex," Stefan scolds his girlfriend again, taking Caroline away from Klaus and into his arms without sparing the hybrid as much as a second glance and walking away, Rebekah quickly trailing behind him with guilty eyes and several apologies on the tip of her tongue.

After a moment, with the umpteenth groan, Klaus lets his head fall against the back of his chair, releasing a frustrated sigh.

"Mommy!" he hears a little boy cry out. "Why does Santa have a toy in his pants?"