Above All Else

Chapter 24

The foursome caught stares and lingering glances as they laughed in complete abandonment strolling down the sidewalk of the city just a few hours outside of Mystic Falls. They had spent the past few hours each taking turns picking a random street of the busy downtown area to walk down, heading into the first bar they could find. Kol was in the middle of telling them a story of one of his many exploits when Caroline suddenly stopped and crossed her arms.

"No."

Klaus paused beside her wondering what had her looking so adamantly upset and flustered, "What is it Caroline?"

Caroline scoffed as she pointed at Kol, "Your brother must think I'm an idiot."

Kol grinned innocent at her with his hands in his pockets, "Why whatever do you mean Darling?"

Caroline pointed a finger at him waving her hand, "Don't play dumb with me Kol. I know exactly where we are. You expect me to believe that you just happened to take your turn and we just happened to end up on the road that the only bar around is Steven's?"

Kol shrugged his shoulders, "Well Darling since we are already here, there's no harm in going in is there?"

Caroline scoffed, spinning on her heels as she stormed down the road. Klaus eyed Kol critically, "Was this all a part of your master plan Kol?" At Kol's answering grin Klaus grabbed a hold of his collar, "Caroline was supposed to be out having a carefree night not have you blindside her like this."

Kol knocked Klaus's hand off him, "She needs to talk with him Nik. She needs to at least attempt to make amends with him before all Hell breaks loose in her life. He misses her Nik. And you know that I am right."

Klaus snarled in his face, "Right you may be brother, but it is the way you went about it that is in question." Klaus flashed away to catch Caroline before she got too far.

He felt a moment of panic when he did not see her on the sidewalk any longer but calmed as he caught her scent coming from an alleyway that he had already passed. He found her leaning casually against the brick wall with her arms folded over her chest and a light grin on her face.

"You sure flashed by me in a hurry." Caroline said with a giggle.

Klaus stepped beside her mimicking her stance against the wall, "Well I do recall telling you that my arms were the safest place for you to be tonight."

"And without your little minion following me around you can't have me too far can you?" Caroline said in a teasing manner.

Klaus sighed, "I know my brother may have gone about this the wrong way, but I am sure his intentions were in the right place. He actually mentioned his plans to me earlier this evening I had debated whether to foil his plans or not. In the end I figured you should at least have the choice yourself on what you wanted to do or not do. I have to admit I let myself get distracted and it slipped my mind until we reached the road Inhibitions is located on." He eyed her carefully, worried about how she would react.

Caroline looked over to him and sighed as her arms fell to her sides, she could see he was concerned about how she would feel about him knowing about them coming here but in all honesty she just didn't have the energy to be upset with him, "Its fine Klaus. I know you had the best intentions and so does Kol. Just like I know I should probably talk to Steven. I mean with everything going on it's probably best if we can at least communicate right?"

Klaus turned his body to the side to face her, running his hand up and down her bare arm, "You don't have to do this if you don't want to Caroline. We can leave and either continue our night at a different bar of your choosing or we can skip that and head home to the grand finale." He ended with a playful smirk.