Getting prepared for a dinner loaded with Originals was never in Caroline's plan. Hell, Klaus wasn't even in her plan, and their status at the moment confused her to limits unknown. Caroline simply had a curler held closer to her face as she released the curl to frame her face.
Letting out a loud sigh, she turned off the curler when she was done and set it down, fluffing her hair. If she had a heart, it would be beating erratically. Meeting Elijah was terrifying to her, he seemed so serious and grim, yet so protective. If he didn't like her, he'd get rid of her.
"About done in there, love?" Klaus calls from her room, growing with impatience.
Caroline groans, walking out of the bathroom, "Enlighten me as to why I have to do this."
"Well, you want my family to love you, don't you?" Klaus questions, a light tone in his voice.
"Or else they'll rip my heart out?" Caroline guesses.
Klaus chuckles lightly, "Not really, but their opinion matters to me."
"So if they told you to throw me to the Hybrids, would you?" Caroline questions, walking over to her closet and throwing open the doors.
Klaus smirks, "Love, I wouldn't go that far. After all, no one tells me what to do."
"Oh yeah, because you're the Hybrid Master and all of that boring stuff." Caroline tosses him a teasing smile over her shoulder before turning back to her closet and retrieving a black blazer.
"Besides, Elijah is merely curious as to why I spend so much time around you." Klaus walks over to her window, staring out of it.
Caroline grins, "Elijah, curious, who would have thought? I thought he had master plans to do all of this funky witch mojo stuff."
Klaus laughs, "He's merely trying to keep us safe. Though he was surprised when it was you who kept us safe when our Mother tried to murder us."
"I have been known to save lives." Caroline says with a teasing note in her voice.
"I think he feels as if he owes you, by allowing you to have a peek inside of the Mikaelson home." Klaus pulls the curtain in front of her window.
Caroline laughs at this, "Technically, then he owes Elena too. Because she told him."
"That was expected out of a human. You could have easily held the secret to yourself, Elena's heart kept giving her away though. Elijah was sure she was hiding something from him, and when I told him what you told me, his suspicions were confirmed and he confronted her." Klaus says easily, the words rolling off his tongue.
Arriving at the Mikaelson home was nerve wrecking for Caroline, she had tried to escape twice by now, he had a stern grip on her arm now, reassuring her.
"You'll be fine, just be Caroline. Just not as feisty." Klaus adds the last part with tensity in his voice.
Caroline laughs, "So are you saying I'm a vindictive bitch?"
"Hardly the words I'd use. Just sometimes hard to handle." Klaus throws a smirk her way while he opens the door to his home, "Elijah?" Klaus calls through out the house.
"Brother." Elijah appears on the top of the staircase, obviously, he got a new haircut, Caroline had to admit that he looked much better. Not that he didn't look good before.. but.. that's beside the point, "I was concerned you'd have trouble getting her here."
Caroline blushes, so, he knew that she was scared shitless to actually show up.
Klaus shrugs to himself, "It took a few tries and multiple pulling and tugging, but she's here."
Elijah descends down the staircase, each of his steps not making a noise, he stands in front of Caroline and holds out his hand to her, "Elijah Mikaelson." He says as if they've never met before.
Caroline resists the urge to say 'I know' and she takes his hand in hers, "Caroline Forbes. But you probably already knew that.."
Elijah smiles to himself, "Dinner is in the dining room, Rebekah and Kol already have things set up."
"Rebekah and Kol?" Klaus questions, a suspicious glint in his eyes.
"With my help of course." Elijah seems to be reassuring Klaus as they walk to the dining room.
"Hello kitten." Kol grins, his arms folded across his chest, "Been some time since your witchy friend tried to kill me, huh? Is she waiting outside? Wanting to give another go?"
Caroline rolls her eyes at this, "Hardly. But if she was outside would you be scared?"
Kol throws back his head and laughs, "Oh kitten." He sits down and Rebekah walks into the room and sits herself at the table.
Elijah looks up from his plate at Caroline, "So, you two officially met when he kidnapped you, am I correct?"
Klaus chokes on the scotch he's drinking, "Elijah." His name is more of a warning.
Elijah clasps his hands together, "Just curious."
"Yes." Caroline answers the question, "He was using me to get to Stefan." She takes a drink of her own scotch, it burns the entire way down.
"What is your relationship with Stefan?" Elijah questions.
Caroline chokes on her scotch also, coughing, "What do you mean?"
Elijah looks amused now, "I'm sure you already know."
"We're just friends." Caroline clears her throat, "He helped me while I was transitioning into becoming a vampire."
"So you two have grown relatively close?" Elijah is looking deep into her eyes now, causing her to squirm.
"I guess you could say that. But then he went into his ripper-mojo and.." Caroline breaks off, all of the Originals are looking at her now, "Then he wasn't Stefan anymore."
Elijah blinks, looking at her still, "Sincerest apologies for your loss." He's making it sound as if Stefan's dead, not alive, not undead, but dead.
"Let's not talk about Stefan." Klaus's voice is husky, like it usually gets when he's mad.
"But brother, Stefan is where all of the drama lies." Kol grins, clasping his hands together, "I mean, everyone here has a connection to Stefan Salvatore - besides me of course. How about you go first Rebekah?"
Rebekah smacks her brother, "If you don't shut your mouth, the first thing that comes out of it will be your teeth."
Kol grabs his arm, making a mocking face, "Oh Rebekah, are you just mad you can't sleep with Stefan anymore? Aren't you shacking up with the other Salvatore? What was his name again? Damien?"
"It's Damon, you inconsiderate brat." Rebekah hits him again, "Really? You've been here how long and you don't even know the Salvatores's names?" Rebekah scoffs, "Rookie."
Caroline is enjoying their bit of bickering, they seem to be acting like a real family.
"Sorry I don't bother remembering every guy you sleep with, Rebekah." Kol grins, then he turns to Caroline, "How many men have you slept with besides my brother?"
Caroline chokes again, "Excuse me?"
Kol grins, "Merely a simple question, kitten. Too many to count? Ah, a little Rebekah in training I see."
Rebekah glares at her brother.
"No." Caroline's face is growing hot.
"Stop trying to embarrass her in front of me, Kol. I hardly care about the number of men she's slept with, I can guarantee you won't be one of them." Elijah snaps.
Caroline flushes, her eyes on the table.
"I've also heard through the grape vine that your Mother strongly disapproves of Niklaus." Elijah intertwines his hands together, looking at her intensely.
"Um, yeah. You can thank Stefan for that." She says under her breath.
"Oh Stefan." Klaus growls.
Elijah seems amused, "Does Stefan always seem to stick his nose into your love life? Does everyone else do that also?"
Caroline takes a deep breath, "Um, no. Everyone else doesn't know."
Elijah raises his eyebrows at her, fascinated, "Oh really?"
Kol's booming laughter interrupts Elijah's thought, "You must be kidding me! How much do you want to bet that the Salvatore is off telling that doppelganger everything? Rather great friendship material, Caroline, oh, the company you keep is just heavenly. A psycho witch that is persistent on killing me, then some ripper in love with a human. Oh I've hit the jack pot!"
Caroline turns a bright red, resisting the urge to snap at him, "What about you Kol, where are your friends?"
"My family is all I need." Kol argues back, tilting his head to the side with a smile, "At least I don't have men falling head over heels for me. So you aren't going to tell them that the Salvatore boy is in love with you? What about the Lockwood one?"
"Damon?" Rebekah pipes from the end of the table.
"Oh, I nearly forgot he's your latest screw." Kol winks at his sister, "But don't worry - you have nothing to fret about, she's shacking up with the other Salvatore. Oh wait - you were shacking up with him for a while also. I see, you have a bit of Elena in you. Brother-hopping again, are we?"
Rebekah growls at her brother, "Shut up Kol, I hardly need your opinions on who I sleep with."
Kol scoffs at her and then turns to Caroline, "Would you fancy a game of brother hopping? You do have two choices, but you'll find that one of them is more willing."
Elijah turns a bright red at this and clears his throat, "I think that's quite enough Kol."
"But I'm having so much fun! Who knew Mystic Falls, a quite desolate town, could be filled with so many pretty women and backstabbing bitches?" Kol's eyes seem to be glowing, "I'd very much like to stay."
"That is enough." Elijah scowls through thin lips, his eyes angry, "I invite her over for a lovely chat and she's being interrogated by you with your hopeless attempts to hit on her."
Kol just grins, "Not hopeless brother, not hopeless." He says with a pointed look towards Caroline.
Caroline glares at him before looking over at Klaus to see he's looking at Kol as if he's planning his funeral. Caroline wouldn't doubt it if he was.
"If everyone would mind, I'd like to speak to Caroline alone." Elijah says.
Everyone looks up from their plates, Caroline included, Klaus shoots Elijah a questioning look.
Rebekah and Kol leave, Klaus hesitantly follows them.
"Very sorry for my family, they haven't got a clue how to act in this century quite yet." Elijah says with a pointed look towards the living room.
Caroline nods, finding it hard to breathe around him, "It's fine."
"I do hope you don't follow Elena and Rebekah's path of brother hopping. They do tend to have disastrous results." Elijah takes a sip of his wine, "But I'm certain that you don't care for Kol."
Caroline agrees, "I've never agreed with what Elena did with Damon and Stefan."
Elijah grins to himself, "But I am however worried about Stefan."
"Stefan?" Caroline questions, her heart doing a frightened leap.
"Yes, Stefan." Elijah confirms, "He does seem to have a certain impact on you. I don't know what it is, but you're hiding something from Niklaus, and I can sense it isn't good."
Caroline swallows hard.
"I can also see, Stefan causes you great pain." Elijah continues, "I wouldn't want you to hurt Klaus, he's gone through so much in the decades we've been living through. I'm afraid he may be done."
"What do you mean by done?" Caroline questions, sitting on the edge of her seat.
Elijah sighs, taking a long drink of his wine, "By done, I mean one day, he'll disappear. Though he's been everywhere, surely, he'll just disappear. Go somewhere else, leave us behind, I wouldn't put it past him. Indeed he cares for us, but if he believes that we're causing him trouble, he'll be gone."
"But.. you know him, right? So it surely wouldn't be so hard to find him, right?" Caroline asks, her eyes searching his for a answer.
Elijah shakes his head, "No, Klaus has a gift for disappearing." Elijah swallows hard before continuing, "I wouldn't want what ever you're hiding from Niklaus about Stefan Salvatore to prompt his leaving."
Caroline's lips are dry, and her head is throbbing, "Yes."
Elijah nods, "It's been a pleasure meeting you Caroline, but do be careful. Especially around Stefan." He adds the last part with hesitancy.
Klaus walks Caroline home, and she hasn't spoken a word since they've left his house.
"What did you think of Elijah?" Klaus questions, annoyed with her sudden silence.
"He's very.." Caroline can't find the word for it, "Different." She settles for that.
"He seemed to like you." Klaus says, "He doesn't have a knack for showing when he likes you, but he seemed to enjoy your company."
Caroline turns to Klaus, grinning, "Oh yeah, kind of like you?"
Klaus grins, "I'm more straight forward with my advances then Elijah."
"Is that what you think?" Caroline smiles, looking at her feet as they walk.
"Hm, if I recall, I was the one who kissed you first." Klaus hooks a arm around her waist, pulling her playfully to him.
Caroline just rolls her eyes, "In case you forgot, I was the one who kissed you second."
"That hardly counts, love." Klaus whispers against her ear.
Caroline giggles at the sudden proximity of the two, "I think it should. The first time was against my will."
"So are you saying the second time wasn't against my will?" Klaus questions.
"You know you liked it." Caroline says playfully.
Klaus presses her against the wall of a alley and kisses her fully, his tongue circling her mouth as she clutches the collar of his shirt, bringing her closer to him.
"I did." Klaus says when he pulls away.
Caroline laughs and pushes him away from her, holding his hand in hers, "Come on, lets go. I'm late anyways."
"So what's your excuse?" Klaus questions.
"Bonnie is my excuse." Caroline answers easily.