Notes: I was blown away by the follows and reviews I got for the first part of this, so thank you guys! I would have uploaded this morning but was having a tantrum. We jump ahead to teenage Caroline and almost-a-university-graduate Klaus here. I tried not to make Klaus too creepy. I stole a quote from an Adam Sandler movie here, it's something my brother and I say all the time. Hope you enjoy!

Growing Up Beside You

Part Two: Ages 15 and 22 (March)

The upside, Klaus had decided, to spending his very last spring break at home in Mystic Falls, with his younger siblings, rather than on a beach somewhere, was definitely the fully stocked kitchen. He definitely wouldn't be missing dorm food and greasy campus restaurants when he graduated. And the advance on his trust fund he was receiving for playing nanny this week would allow him to skip the ramen noodle phase most of his peers would be forced to endure.

Klaus heard a faint scraping sound, so he paused in putting the finishing touches on his sandwich, to listen. He couldn't help but be confused when he heard the front door open. It was nearly 2 PM on a Friday. He'd dropped his mother off at the airport an hour ago, and all of his sibling should still be at school.

Was this a home invasion? That was not what he'd signed on for. Klaus had expected a relaxing week hanging out with Henrick and making sure Bekah and Kol didn't trash the house or kill each other. Where did Kol keep his bats, again?

"Bekah!" a decidedly aggravated, and definitely female, voice rang out.

Probably not a robber than, at least if the information he'd gleaned from various crime shows was correct. He returned to his lunch, and cut his sandwich in half.

"Bekah, I know you're here and I can't believe you're moping over that bag of dicks!"

Klaus snorted at the insult, even as he braced himself for what was to come. Teenage girl drama, definitely. Fingers crossed it was accompanied by minimal crying.

He was incredibly thankful that he'd left for university right in time to avoid Bekah's teen years. She'd only been 11 when Klaus had started his first year and still more interested in horses and her dance classes then in boys. He began to get excruciatingly detailed emails from her about her various crushes and feuds at school, and even more messages from Kol complaining about her, right around the time Rebekah turned fourteen. Klaus wasn't much for superstition but he thanked his lucky stars he was several hours away from the thick of Bekah's histrionics.

The girl, to whom the colorful insults and impressive lung capacity belonged, entered the kitchen and stopped short, startled. Klaus recognized her immediately.

"Ah, Little Caroline Forbes, why am not surprised?"

"Holy hell, you scared me," she complained, hand over heart. " And I am not 'little,'" she continued indignantly.

Klaus looked at her properly and found that he couldn't disagree. He hadn't come home very often in the last two years, and his visits had seemed to coincide with Caroline's trips to visit her father out of state. Last time he's seen her she'd been all elbows and gangly limbs. She'd just gotten braces and her hair had usually been caught back in braids that seemed to be perpetually falling loose.

Now, he couldn't help but notice all the skin she was displaying. She'd definitely grown into the long legs that her little blue dress left bare. Her curls were smooth and artfully tousled and her lips were slick and pink tinted. She'd left her shoes in the front hall, his mother never had come around to allowing shoes in her home, and he spied toes painted blood red.

Klaus looked away. There was a reason he didn't bring any of his university friends home and it was mostly because he didn't want them around Rebekah. One of his roommates had received a black eye after asking Klaus who the hot chick was, after he'd peeked at a picture of Bekah that Esther had sent, taken on the last day of her freshman year of high school. Ogling Rebekah's best friend was both wrong and hypocritical, he reminded himself, so he focused on the countertop when he replied, "I scared you, by standing quietly, in my own kitchen?"

Caroline tossed her hair over her shoulder and pulled out a stool from the island, "Technically, you don't live here anymore. And I forgot that your mom bribed you to stay here this week."

He was surprised by directness. Little Caroline Forbes had always nursed a bit of an obvious crush on him. When she was a kid, and he'd occasionally been roped into babysitting, she'd followed him around asking questions like she was conducting a CIA interrogation. Thirteen year old Caroline had blushed and stammered in his presence, barely able to look directly at him. Fifteen year old Caroline had seemingly gotten over all that, "Technically, you don't live here, period. What happened to knocking?"

Caroline waved a hand dismissively and eyed his sandwich, "Kol and Bekah tend to yell at one another about answering the door instead of, you know, actually answering the door. Poor Henrick was basically their butler. You're mom told me to stop knocking like two years ago. I even have a key. Me and Jeremy come and go."

"Lucky me."

Caroline glared and leaned over the island towards him. Klaus eyes strayed down to where the swells of her breasts pushed out of the scoop neckline of the top of her dress, and no. He had to stop that.

Checking out his baby sister's best friend was strictly verboten.

In his distraction Klaus didn't notice her hand swipe the other half of his sandwich off of the counter, "Hey! That was mine."

Caroline took a hefty bite, clearly not the least bit put off by his displeasure, "I earned this. Alexander Cinavas text dumped Bex during second period and then shoved his tongue down Slutty Sophie's throat after fourth. I spent my lunch break trying to coax your sister out of a bathroom stall instead of eating my salad."

"I see you still haven't grown out of your tendency to overshare."

"I prefer to think of myself as both articulate and verbose, thank you very much."

Klaus laughed, and resigned himself to half a sandwich. "Bekah isn't home, you know. Perhaps she decided to cheer herself up with some retail therapy?"

Caroline levelled him with an unimpressed look, "Where have you been? Your sister hasn't managed to pick out an item of clothing without getting a second opinion since we were still in training bras. She would have texted me. I have no problem ditching geography."

"Evidently," Klaus agreed, "but that doesn't change the fact that you're here, and she's not."

"Wanna bet?" Caroline challenged him. "I bet she's upstairs, in her bed, headphones on, blasting sad sack breakup music."

Klaus found himself raising an eyebrow at her boldness. And he did enjoy a good wager, "Terms?"

"When I win, you make me another sandwich."

"When you win? I like that, it's very confident. What do I get if I win?"

"What do you want?"

Klaus though about it, "You convince Rebekah to scale back the party she and Kol are planning on throwing Saturday night."

"What party?" Caroline's exaggerated expression of wide-eyed innocence was fooling no one.

"Spare me the doe eyes, sweetheart. I was in high school less than four years ago. I'm not stupid and I know the protocol for when a parent leaves town. I can't exactly refuse to allow them to have a party as I owe them for covering for me a few times. I'll keep Henrick out of the way but if you lose this bet , you cut the guest list in half."

"Deal," Caroline thrust her hand out, "shake on it?" He shook her hand and she immediately slid off of her stool and headed for the nearest staircase. "Prepare to lose, Mikaelson."

Klaus shook his head and followed her up the stairs. A decision he immediately regretted. Not leering at her arse and firm thighs proved basically impossible, positioned a few treads below her, as he was. The airy blue fabric she wore swished in front of his eyes tantalizingly. She had an old bruise, yellowing around the edges, on the back of her left thigh, and he wondered how she'd gotten it. Why was her skirt so short, anyway? Shouldn't she be wearing tights? It wasn't that warm outside.

Klaus was somewhat appalled at his own thoughts. Thinking like an overprotective parent was making him feel like a dirty old man, only increasing the faint pangs of guilt he was hit with every time his thoughts strayed to less than pure territories. He was only twenty-two. Yes, he had slightly more control over his body now, than he did at say sixteen, but he wasn't made of stone.

Thankfully, Caroline was determined to win their bet and didn't seem to notice his preoccupation, or mind the lack of conversation. They hit the second floor and she strode towards Rebekah's room. She didn't bother to knock and simply threw open the door. She waited for Klaus to come up behind her and gestured triumphantly towards a Rebekah shaped lump under the covers of the bed.

Klaus rolled his eyes, "Alright, fine. She's here. Must've come in before I got back from the airport."

"Or you underestimate her sneakiness."

"Or that. You win."

Caroline bent her knees and tipped her head in a small, mocking curtsy, "Thank you, I am amazing."

"Yeah, yeah. Just get her to stop sulking before dinner, alright?"

Caroline shrugged, "I'll try. She's dramatic, though."

"Which must be why you two get along so well."

Caroline shoved him towards the door, "Rude! Someone's a sore loser." Klaus laughed and let himself be moved, though he didn't leave just yet. He propped a shoulder on the doorframe and watched Caroline turn away from him and launch herself onto the bed, landing right on top of Rebekah. He was pretty sure he caught a flash of pink under Caroline's skirt, as she moved, but he was most definitely not going to think about that any further.

Rebekah squawked indignantly and shifted underneath a laughing Caroline, "Bloody hell, Caroline," she emerged from the quilts with messy hair and a thunderous expression, "Are you trying to suffocate me?"

Caroline shifted to join Rebekah under the covers but stayed upright, sitting cross legged, "Nope! Why would I do that? You know you're my favorite, Bex." Rebekah grumbled unintelligibly and sat up. Caroline snatched the headphones out of Rebekah's ears and held up the attached iPhone triumphantly towards Klaus, "See? 'From the Bottom of My Broken Heart.' Totally a sad sack song. No one knows my bestie like me."

Klaus clapped his hands mockingly, "Yes, yes. No one likes a gloater, Caroline. One sandwich, coming right up."

"Use the spicy mustard this time!"

"Ooh, can you make me one too, Nik? I skipped lunch."

Klaus was about to refuse, he wasn't a servant for pity's sake, but Rebekah was pale and her eyes were red rimmed and he wasn't her favorite brother for nothing, "I heard. Crying in the bathroom, Rebekah?"

She knocked her shoulder into Caroline's, "You told him? Ugh!"

"Calm down. It wasn't a secret. April Young knew, which means the whole school will know, including Kol, who will bring it up at every available opportunity for at least the next month."

"Three months," Klaus corrected, "at the minimum."

"Siblings are so weird," Caroline declared, not for the first time, in all the years she'd been acquainted with The Mikaelson's, and not for the last, either.

Rebekah flopped back down on the bed with a pained groan after hearing that, "I've been humiliated. I might as well sign up to be homeschooled right now."

"I'm fairly certain that mum would have to approve that so you're out of luck for at least the next week."

"You're not becoming one of those weirdos over Alexander Cinavas, Rebekah. I refuse to let you. He couldn't tell time until the 7th grade. He dressed as a Power Ranger for Halloween last year. Stop acting like he's a catch."

"Do I need to have a talk with this boy, Rebekah?" Klaus asked.

Both Rebekah and Caroline immediately favored him with a disdainful look, "You're such a boy, Nik."

"Obviously," Klaus said dryly, gesturing to himself. Rebekah was staring miserably at the ceiling but Caroline bit her lip and glanced down the length of his body. When she met his eyes again, Klaus stared back pointedly and she flushed slightly. He bit back a grin. So that crush was not quite as dead as he'd been led to believe. She was far too young for him to consider touching but the knowledge was good for his ego nonetheless.

"Boys, Niklaus," Rebekah began, in her bossiest tone, "Think everything can be solved with a few punches or some sort of competition."

"And you two are going to solve the problem with this, Alexander was it, like girls do? How?"

"Psychological warfare and mental torture," Caroline told him.

"Duh," Bekah added.

Klaus took that as his cue to leave, fairly certain that he didn't want to know any more details, "Right, you do that."

"Don't forget my sandwich!" Caroline called after him.

"And bring ice cream!" Rebekah yelled.