Baby Caroline's turn!
It was very well-known at that point—do not set foot in Mystic Falls unless you want to find yourself in the middle of the most frustrating and always on-going supernatural war of the whole wide world.
No matter how perfectly the vampires and werewolves there had learned to blend in with the rest of the human population, something was always bound to go wrong if it had the chance to. Always.
Which was why Klaus' new black Volvo was currently speeding its way from New Orleans all the way to the Salvatores' Boarding House. Apparently, Caroline had some sort of sudden condition, and her merry band of little misfits had decided to finally call him after not having been able to help her on their own. Ah, big surprise there.
Over the phone, Stefan had told him not to worry too much—although sounding entirely too unconvincing for the hybrid's liking—and he had simply snorted at the notion of him worried over somebody else's well being; but the truth was that it was Caroline that they were talking about, and, no matter the fact that he had never really had her, he wasn't in any way willing to lose her.
That was the one and only thought in his mind as he finally arrived at the Boarding House. The vampires inside had been waiting for him for a couple of hours now and Elena was there to open the front door for him as soon as he had hopped on the last step of their porch.
Not seeing the use for insincere greetings or small talk, he immediately entered, demanding to finally know what the hell was actually going on.
Stefan appearing with a tiny baby snuggled into him definitely wasn't the answer that he was expecting.
Before Klaus could say anything, the young Salvatore carefully approached him, the weirdest look ever on his face as he cleared his throat.
"Klaus," he acknowledged, and then nodded towards the baby girl wiggling in his arms, "this... this is Caroline."
The hybrid's eyes widened almost comically then, and, for probably the first time in his long existence, he found himself at a loss for words.
"I'm sorry... w–what?"
Stefan swallowed, extremely nervous and fearing the Original's possible reaction. He briefly eyed Elena before repeating himself. "This is Caroline."
Upon hearing her name for the second time in such a short amount of time, the baby turned around, her big blue eyes finally meeting Klaus' figure and curiously blinking up at him. She gave him a small smile, her chubby cheeks widening slightly, and Klaus swore his heart would have stopped right then and there if he had still been human. She looked so tiny and defenseless, but still as trusting as ever, and the dead organ underneath his chest ached a little at that.
Refocusing his attention on Stefan, he pursed his lips, feeling frustrated.
"How is this possible?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"Bonnie lost control of her magic–"
"The Bennett witch did this?" he growled.
"It wasn't her fault!" Elena quickly defended her best friend, but the feeble attempt simply made Klaus laugh bitterly.
"Of course not, it's never any of you's fault."
"Anyway," Stefan continued, "we know she can turn things–Caroline to the way she was, we just need to find her."
"And you have been waiting days to do so because?"
"We don't want to alarm Liz with what is going on, so we didn't have anyone to leave Caroline with if we left."
Everything seemed to finally click together in Klaus' mind then, and he couldn't help but snarl.
"Stefan," he started, sounding dangerously calm, "please tell me that you did not call me here just so I can play babysitter."
Stefan had the decency to look ashamed, his features turning a mixture of guilty and scared.
"You're the only one other than the two of us whom we can trust her with. And don't argue that you could go search for Bonnie instead of me or Elena, because we both know that she wouldn't go anywhere with you."
After a few moments of tense silence, Klaus sighed heavily, obviously still enraged, but conceded the two vampires' point. Considering the people that she liked to call friends, he only trusted Caroline with himself even as an adult, so let alone as a baby.
Stefan saw the acceptance written all over the hybrid's features as he begrudgingly nodded, and grinned.
"Here, take her then," he swiftly but carefully thrust Caroline into Klaus' arms.
Klaus' eyes widened in alarm as the baby was almost dropped onto him, his arms securing themselves around her tiny body as she willingly molded against his left side. He couldn't help but look down at her, gazing intensely into the innocence shining bright into her wide blue eyes. She was so warm and cute, so human in that moment.
Slowly, she brought one of her chubby, tiny hands up to his face, caressing his cheek and giggling when the stubble there tickled her sensitive baby skin. She retreated her arm and snuggled further into him then, sighing contently.
Stefan smiled fondly at the scene unfolding in front of him.
"She likes you."
Softly rubbing one hand up and down her back, Klaus smiled as well, unable not to do so as Caroline babbled incoherently but happily against his shoulder for a few seconds.
"Yeah, I think I like her too."
After giving the hybrid some bullet points on how to look after baby Caroline—he hadn't been around a baby in several centuries, after all, and he wasn't exactly the most well-versed of people when it came to that kind of things—Stefan and Elena eventually vamp-sped away in search of Bonnie, leaving Klaus alone with the tiny blonde.
There was silence for a single second after the door closed, and Klaus only had the time to see Caroline's bottom lip wobble twice before she erupted into a fit of intense wailing. Apparently, she didn't like him that much.
Cringing, Klaus started to look around the room, almost as if anything inside of it could have helped his current predicament. There was no way he was going to be able to handle a crying Caroline all on his own, what was he even supposed to do?
"Sssh, sssh," he cooed, trying to gently rock her against him in an attempt to soothe her. She only cried harder though, her tiny, pink socks covered feet kicking agitatedly underneath her and her small fisted hands patting against his now slightly wet shirt almost as if protesting his presence.
At a loss of what to do, Klaus went to sit on one of the two dark brown couches in the middle of the living room, arranging baby Caroline on his lap. The sight of her face red from crying and stained with tears and especially of her wide eyes wet and sad pained him terribly, and his jaw clenched in annoyance.
"Come on, love," he took one of her tiny hands in one of his to try and get her attention, maybe entertain her somehow, "you know I hate it when you're unhappy," he pleaded.
Caroline's tiny fingers immediately wrapped around one of his then, and she finally seemed to quiet down a little bit. She whimpered, sniffling, and although her rosy, chubby cheeks were still wet from her previous tears, there were no new ones welling up in her eyes, and Klaus took that as a good sign.
He smiled down at her, but she wasn't paying him any attention, seemingly enamored with his left forefinger instead. She pulled at it and giggled, and Klaus couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him at how adorable she was being. She was so small, the hand that kept on wrapping and unwrapping around his finger not even fully closing together as it did so, and he immediately felt a powerful surge of protectiveness hitting him and taking over his whole being.
She looked so incredibly vulnerable, and he hated it.
A familiar crease formed in between her light blond eyebrows then, and she seemed to become frustrated with the way his finger wouldn't decide to leave his hand no matter how hard she tried to yank it towards her. She grumbled nonsensically and started fussing again, immediately making Klaus panic. He had already been lucky enough the first time, and the last thing that he needed was for her to start crying all over again.
He reached over for one of the many stuffed animals that either Stefan or Elena had bought for her during the previous days—a light gray, plush elephant that was almost as big as Caroline herself—and tried handing it to her with a hopeful, tentative smile. However, as soon as the toy was in Caroline's hands, she tossed it aside, the animal falling to the floor as the feisty baby glared at him; well, as much as babies could glare.
Klaus half wanted to laugh at how much the action resembled adult Caroline's narrowed eyes, and at how, even if just a baby, the blonde still refused to let him buy her affections one way or the other.
"No stuffed animals, then," he gave a small chuckle, pleased when baby Caroline reciprocated the sound with a giggle of her own, her million mood swings starting to give him whiplash.
"What would you like to do, uhm?" he asked, thinking of possible baby-proof activities, then feeling incredibly ridiculous for talking to someone who most likely had no idea what any of his words even meant.
As if on cue, she blinked up at him in confusion and he sighed. "Right, useless question. Let's try to do something that I like, then."
He searched around the room for a few moments, thinking, until he finally spotted a few stray piece of papers and a pencil on the wooden table right in front of the couch that they were occupying.
"Oh, look at that, sweetheart," he adjusted her better against his side and lightly rocked her to get her attention as he moved to take a hold of what he needed, "It seems like we're in luck."
"Lah!" she babbled excitedly, almost as if wanting to repeat his last word.
He gave her a sightly surprised but proud look and then smiled, leaning down to lay a soft kiss upon her forehead as he gently cradled the back of her head, caressing the light hair already growing there.
Refocusing on the task at hand, he turned around and started to draw a first few random lines on one of the sheets of paper that he had retrieved. Baby Caroline squealed and clapped her hands together as the various pencil strokes appeared in front of her one after the other, trying to move forward to reach them. Klaus moved with her, allowing her to get closer, and she squealed excitedly once again as one of her tiny hands finally managed to come in contact with the colored paper.
She suddenly launched herself at Klaus then, her short arms winding around his neck as much as they could as she settled into him and giggled happily. The hybrid's heart bursted with joy and warmth at the action, and he held the baby closer as he kept on sketching, Caroline's blue orbs lively following his every movement.
He smiled, shaking his head to himself in amusement.
There really was no denying it, beautiful woman or adorable toddler, Caroline Forbes definitely had him completely wrapped around her little finger, and he didn't mind in the slightest.