A/N: Your eyes do not deceive you. It is an actual update! I am so sorry for how long it took to write this chapter!
Chaos seemed to have reigned in their absence. It wasn't surprising, Klaus had known that Rebekah would act out as she always did when things didn't go her way. Add in Kol's need for grand displays of debauchery and Klaus had almost expected to return to a bloodbath, even though he'd warned the two of them against such a thing.
His hybrids were unharmed, having wisely stayed out of the house and away from his siblings. Rebekah had torn apart the room Caroline had been decorating earlier that day, leaving the paintings in shreds while the furniture was broken beyond repair. "It was tacky," Rebekah shrugged as she flicked a piece of fuzz from her sweater.
Thankfully Caroline had headed up to her room, bypassing his sister's theatrics. "I believe that armoire was your favorite," Klaus pointed out as he leaned against the doorway, enjoying the way his statement seemed to rankle Rebekah.
"It was until she put her grubby, common hands on it," Rebekah huffed before turning to glare at him. "Just run along after her, Nik. The quicker you are at fucking her the faster this interlude with her will end."
He knew better than to let her words goad him like they were, but this constant need that his sister seemed to have to dismiss Caroline's presence while perpetuating the belief that his relationship with the baby vampire would end didn't sit well with him at all. And ending wasn't allowed with Caroline Forbes, only an eternity of new moments at their feet as he continued to keep her at his side.
"Maybe I'll keep her head as a nice little trophy when you're finished with her," Rebekah muttered, barely getting the last word out as Klaus surged forward, grasping her by the neck as he hoisted her up and into the wall.
"Touch a hair on her head, sister, and the last time you spent in a box will seem like a small nap," Klaus warned her, pleased that she stared at him in disbelief even as she tried to wrench his hand from her throat. Rebekah was powerful, there was no doubt about that, but his werewolf side added strength to his grip that she'd never be able to claim. "I suggest you do not test me on this."
"You'd hardly leave me vulnerable to Alaric," Rebekah pointed out with a smile, clearly thinking she'd won the battle.
Klaus smiled back, baring his teeth at her as he released his grip. "I will have your coffin sealed and dropped into the lake at your favorite villa for safekeeping. Perhaps in a thousand years I'll desire to see your face again if you do anything to ruin what I'm doing. I doubt it will be that soon though." He stepped back, enjoying the resurgence of disbelief. "Elijah will hardly care what happens as long as you're still 'alive' and he'll be distracted easily enough if I were to pardon his favorite of the doppelgangers. As for Kol. Well, I'm sure he'll be able to find someone else to torment for a few centuries."
"And you call me the fool in love," Rebekah spat out, clenching her fists at her side as she tried to wrap her head around all he was saying. All of this for Caroline Forbes. She couldn't fathom it. They'd met countless people throughout the ages, far more cultured and definitely more powerful than the baby vampire, and yet this was who he was rallying behind. "I won't touch her. I don't need to ruin whatever you imagine to be happening here, Nik."
Rebekah stepped forward, holding her head high as she looked him over. "You'll do it yourself. As if she could ever truly want to be with the person who terrorizes her friends and wants to use one of her, oh what's the term? Besties? I think that's it." A smile tugged at her lips as she looked him over, seeing the flicker of paranoia in his eyes that she knew all too well. "But yes, use her bestie as his own personal hybrid making blood bag. Maybe you've enchanted her here but once you step foot back into that town all of it is going to come crashing down around you." She patted his shoulder as she headed around him. "And I can't wait to see that happen."
She couldn't help but laugh as she heard him start to tear apart what was left of the room. She wouldn't lay a finger on Caroline Forbes. There would be no need to. Klaus would end up ripping the girl apart with enough time. Just as he did everything else he cared about.
Rebekah didn't expect to find Kol waiting for her on the stairs. "You should really start looking at the bigger picture here, darling," he started and she rolled her eyes at him, not wanting to hear whatever so-called wisdom he thought he could offer. "How many of your suitors has Nik killed through the ages, Rebekah?"
"I hardly see why you feel the need to bring that up now, Kol," she bit out, glaring at her brother.
Kol grinned at her before hopping down the last few stairs one at a time. "Do you think he'll be able to 'police' your social habits if he's actually wrapped up in his own for once?" he mused and she frowned, realizing the truth in his words. "Seems to me that he was always less likely to be meddling with our business whenever he's actually focused on something. Beating father, lifting his curse, tracking down Katherine for that first decade."
Kol stopped in front of her, his mirthful demeanor shifting to something much more predatory as he flashed his teeth at her. "We should be able to get at least a century out of this thing with the baby vamp if you don't screw it up."
Rebekah stomped her feet as she watched him walk away before letting out a frustrated huff. Brothers. She needed to eat someone to stave off the headache both of them were giving her.
Klaus waited until his anger had receded before heading up the stairs. He'd heard Kol venture off further into the estate while Rebekah had insured everyone heard her leave for the evening. At times he wondered if she even knew what stealth meant, but her behavior was more about being dramatic than valuing her safety at the moment. The hybrids were scattered throughout the building, the few he'd ordered to guard Caroline stationed outside her room as he headed up the staircase. He could hear her hanging up the phone with a sigh, the muttering under her breath that he heard next letting him know she hadn't hurried to get off the phone because he was approaching.
Silently he berated himself at the paranoia that still lingered because of his sister's earlier words. Caroline's friends were definitely a sticking point, one that he'd work through in order to keep his hybrid army building in numbers, but Mystic Falls was far away for the night and not allowed to ruin the momentum that he had going with his baby vampire.
A smile tugged at his lips as he listened to Caroline talk to herself, going over lists that it took him a moment to figure out as he dismissed the hybrids. Caroline wouldn't be sleeping alone as long as his siblings were in the building. He'd be right at her side so there was no reason for his minions to stay near. Nothing would happen to her in his presence.
"Come in," she murmured, no doubt sensing that it was him knocking on the door. Or at least Klaus hoped that was the case. If not they were going to need to work on her abilities some more. Though he honestly couldn't see Caroline welcoming either of his siblings into her room.
A few weeks back she wouldn't have welcomed him either.
"So should I be watching out for wooden objects being hurtled at me or Rebekah just deciding to tear off my head for the hell of it?" Caroline asked as he opened the door. "Because I'm kind of partial to my head." Her eyes widened a bit before continuing. "She's not vindictive enough to cut my hair while I'm sleeping, is she? Because I will totally pull a Marcia Brady on her."
"She won't get close enough to brandish any scissors, sweetheart," Klaus replied, not quite sure what she meant by the Marcia Brady comment. Caroline arched a brow at that, but he wasn't quite ready to get into the argument about the change in sleeping arrangements. "How is Mystic Falls?"
"I have no idea." Caroline shrugged as she set her phone down. "Aside from there are apparently more teenage pranks than usual lately, but my mom has a good idea of who the culprits are. It's usually the same idiots from the high school. She said it's kinda nice to be dealing with that instead of the murders that were cropping up over the last few years. Or 'animal attacks' as they liked to call them."
"Your mother should have no problem with a few humans," Klaus replied, though he noted the slight worry as she furrowed her brow for a moment. His sister might have believed that Caroline's ties to Elena Gilbert was the biggest hurdle for him to overcome, but her love for her mother was infinitely more important to the girl. And Liz Forbes would be much easier to accommodate than his handy hybrid bloodbag.
He remembered how Caroline had grown quiet for a moment looking at the Christmas displays in town, knew the holiday was only a few weeks away. Perhaps he could figure out a way to bring the Sheriff to them for the holiday without Alaric catching onto what he was doing. Or sending the Salvatores into some kind of tizzy which would lead to him needing to deal with the idiotic brothers and their half-assed plans.
"She'll be fine." Caroline nodded, though Klaus picked up on the bit of uncertainty to her voice, that underlying worry for her mother that only bolstered his belief on who mattered most to her.
"Speaking of problems though," Klaus started, grimacing as he heard Rebekah return. "They know the consequences of doing anything to you."
Lips pursed she canted her head, hearing his sister's dramatics coming from the floor below. "Coffin threats?"
"Why change what works?" Klaus mused with a slight shrug.
"Which is why you're still worried that they will end up trying something," Caroline pointed out as she crossed her arms, sensing that she wasn't going to like what came next.
"My room has more comforts than this one," he told her and watched as Caroline arched a brow. "Though if you wish to remain in here then that can work as well."
She shook her head at that. "With you, what? Lingering around?"
Klaus shrugged, not about to deny that he would be staying with her.
"You don't sleep!" she told him and it was his turn to arch a brow, wondering when she'd figured that out.
"Okay, no, you do sleep but not like I sleep. Did you think that I didn't notice over the last few weeks that you seriously rarely ever actually sleep?" Caroline asked as she uncrossed her arms, shaking her head again. "I'm guessing it's an age thing because I know I can do the whole skip a night thing way better than when I was human. Which is really helpful for cramming before exams. But I'm pretty sure you did a whole week once and only slept for like an hour when you even did rest. And I happen to like sleeping so you flittering around the room, or doing the annoying scratching of your pencil against paper is so going to keep me from sleeping. Don't even get me started on lights being on."
"You've been taking note of what I do," Klaus replied with a slow grin. Now that was nice to know. He could practically see the roots he'd already helped plant starting to grow, slowly binding her to him.
"Well, yeah. It's kind of hard not to when it was basically the two of us and Sam for a while there. I know how long he sleeps too," she shrugged, not seeing what the apparent big deal was. "My hybrid guards in front of my door aren't enough for you?"
"They're hardly as efficient as I am at keeping threats away, love," Klaus pointed out, amused with her sigh, the frustration he saw building as she grappled internally with what he was telling her something he wanted to capture in charcoal at some point later.
"Why don't we just leave and go somewhere else with your hybrids then?" she asked, frowning at the idea of leaving the chateau so soon. She really enjoyed being able to decorate it as she saw fit.
"Kol believes the witches near here might be able to help undo what our mother did to Alaric. Strip him of the powers he's currently running around with, rid him of the need to stake any of our kind." Plus his siblings would simply tag along anyway. Now that they'd found him Klaus was all too aware that they'd keep close. At least until Alaric was dealt with. Their strength only increased when they were together.
After that Kol would scatter to the wind as he always did and Rebekah would find someone to be the current 'love of her life' and drown herself in that relationship as she always did. Only this time Klaus wouldn't be collecting them back to him, the threat of Mikael no longer lingering over their heads. Let them lead their own lives, he'd have Caroline tucked neatly at his side to explore the world with.
"And unlink his life from Elena's?" Caroline asked, and Klaus noted how carefully she watched him then, reminding him again of Rebekah's earlier words.
"The doppelganger is no good to me dead," Klaus reminded, hating how quickly she closed herself off to him at that. He'd walked right into that reaction. "No harm will come to the Gilbert girl, Caroline."
"Of course not. Can't ruin your future hybrid making blood supply," Caroline replied before pressing her lips together in distaste. "I think I'll take my chance with your siblings and sleep by myself tonight."
His eyes narrowed at that, angered with how flippant she could be about her own life. "I won't," Klaus told her, further annoyed by how she shrugged.
"You can enjoy the lounge or sofa or whatever that thing is called then," Caroline replied. "I'm taking a shower and you're not invited."
Klaus glowered as she sauntered off into the attached bathroom before making his way over to sit down. This was not going at all how he wanted it to.
The silent treatment was never Caroline's favorite punishment to dole out to others. Mostly because it forced her to curb her very talkative nature. But she was furious with Klaus for his position on Elena but even more annoyed with herself for having thought that might change. It was always going to come back to Elena, wasn't it? Even outside of Mystic Falls it felt like she couldn't get out of her best friend's shadow. And okay, she knew that was her own hangup, that her own perception of the situation was clouding her judgement and maybe she'd thought she had moved past this kind of thinking over the last few months. But nope, here it was rearing it's ugly head again and she hated it.
She ignored Klaus as she curled up in her bed, still banning him to the stupid sofa if he was actually going to linger in her room, and turned out the light. Caroline expected sleep to come quickly, she was tired enough that it should have, but no amount of closing her eyes seemed to help it happen.
She wondered at first if Klaus had left without her knowing but she heard his small movements every so often, alerting her to the fact that he hadn't left, even if she wasn't letting him be near her. There was movement outside her door and the atmosphere inside the room grew tense. She could practically hear Klaus' body ready itself to attack whoever might come into the room.
Whoever had been outside didn't linger long though and Caroline frowned, realizing that he was actually sticking around to make sure that she was safe. Her mind didn't quite know how to handle that considering everything else she'd seen him do. But then again, hadn't he kept her safe countless times in the past few weeks? Just because she was angry at his need for Elena's blood didn't mean she should simply discount everything else that had happened. Klaus' desire to keep making hybrids didn't exactly dispel all he'd done with her since they'd left Mystic Falls. It didn't make the growing connection that was happening between them go away.
It could though.
She could use this moment as a reason to push everything else away, to focus only on the Elena issue, and ignore everything else that had happened. Caroline could close herself off again. It'd be easy enough.
That was probably what she should do. It would be what everyone else would expect her to do.
She peered out from the covers she'd wrapped herself in and spotted Klaus back on the small sofa. Moonlight helped her see some of his features but she didn't want to look at them too closely, instead took in the tension in his shoulders, the way he looked ready to pounce on anyone who might enter.
"Thank you," Caroline murmured, smiling a little when he caught her gaze.
It softened a bit as he looked at her. "You can rest, sweetheart. No one will hurt you here."
Sleep didn't take long to come after that.