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“It’s snowing.”
Klaus looked up from his reading, but his eyes were vacant, obviously still lost in the novel.
He liked adventure stories, Caroline knew. She’d expected his tastes to involve a lot more blood and gore, but he was surprisingly soft when it came to fiction. He even accompanied her to the cinema for the occasional romcom, if she asked nicely.
“It snows every year, love.”
He looked back down, and Caroline went back to staring out of the window.
She was bored.
Rebekah was in New Orleans visiting Marcel, and Freya was only set to arrive in three days for Caroline’s New Year’s bash. Elijah was around, but Caroline felt weird being alone with him for extensive periods of time. She always felt like she annoyed him, even if Klaus had assured her multiple times that if there were any truth to that, Elijah would have already been neatly daggered and packed away a long time ago.
She couldn’t help but feel like this declaration only added to the unease she felt in the older Mikaelson’s presence. If she hadn’t been there, more of Klaus’s loyalty might have gone to his brother.
“We need to go shopping,” Caroline declared.
“If you’re bored, sweetheart, you’re welcome to go. I’ve never shown any intention of keeping you hostage, have I?”
Caroline rolled her eyes and flashed so she was sat practically on Klaus’s lap, novel forgotten.
“If I wanted to go shopping for me, I’d have been gone and back a long time ago.”
“Then what is it you want?” Klaus asked, his tone the familiar indulgent one that Caroline knew he used whenever she was testing his patience and he had to remind himself that he loved her, sometimes.
“I want to get Elijah a birthday gift.”
“Elijah’s birthday is only a week after New Year’s. You have plenty of time.” He absently wrapped some of her curls around his finger. He did that often, and if Caroline claimed to find it annoying, she would be lying.
Except when she was trying to get things done and he used it as a cheap attempt at distraction.
“No, I want the perfect gift. It has to be something that says ‘Sorry for taking up so much of your brother’s time’ but also ‘I appreciate that you leant me your jacket that one time when my dress ripped while we were fighting that werewolf pack’, and it also needs to say ‘I’m not going anywhere so get used to me, bitch’.”
Klaus’s lips curled in amusement, and any trace of annoyance he might have felt were now non-existent.
“Where might we find such a communicative gift?”
“I doubt Elijah will like anything in here,” Klaus said, poking at an ugly blue dog collar with a bell on the end.
Caroline walked deeper into the pet shop.
“Relax, Klaus, I have the perfect gift in mind. You might not like it, though, so I need you to remain right next to me where I can keep an eye on you and keep you from sabotaging my only chance at being friends with Elijah.”
“Sweetheart, Elijah likes you just fine.”
“You have known me for a century, Klaus. You should know by now that ‘fine’ is not a margin in which I operate.” She shot him a look over her shoulder.
“See?” Klaus’s hands raised as if to prove his point. “Practically the same person, you and my brother.”
“Wouldn’t it bother you if Elijah and I were the same person?” She bent to inspect a range of whistles. “I suspect he wouldn’t take kindly to what you did to me just last nigh– “
“Fine, I take it back,” Klaus growled. “You’re not like Elijah at all. Now will you tell me this plan of yours? Are you getting him a dog?”
She stood with a sweet smile. “Nope.”
Their next stop was the craft store.
“Don’t you have enough stationary at home for a single birthday card?” Klaus asked.
Caroline grabbed a basket as she passed the display, breathing in the familiar scent of wood shavings and paint.
“I thought you liked this store?”
“I do.” Klaus’s eyes narrowed. “What I don’t like is that scheming look you have on your face.”
“Do you remember,” Caroline asked wistfully, “when you used to ignore that I was so obviously up to something just to spend time with me?”
“Yes, and I recall the doppelganger nearly dying, Kol actually dying and you bleeding out in my arms due to a nasty werewolf bite because of my willingness to turn a blind eye. I think we’re beyond those days, don’t you?”
“You forgot to mention that you were the one to bite me in the first place, asshole,” she teased, loading Melt and Pour Soap Base into her basket.
“But then I healed you, and I have apologised. Quite thoroughly, if I must say so myself.”
“Your ego really knows no bounds, does it?”
“Have you ever made soap before?” he changed the subject, amusement clear in his voice. “I’m starting to think I should just leave it alone for comedic purposes.”
“I’ll watch a Youtube video,” Caroline waved him off. She also grabbed some general soap-making paraphernalia that might come in handy.
“Where to next?” Klaus asked when they left the store, spinning his car keys around his finger.
“The Perfume Gallery, please.”
“That smells like Rebekah’s bedroom after she’d been entertaining.” Klaus’s repulsed expression made Caroline laugh. She put the bottle of essence down.
“What about this?”
Klaus sneezed almost immediately when she held it up for him to smell. “Close that.” He sneezed again. “I don’t think Elijah will enjoy that scent.”
“You mean it annoys you,” Caroline corrected, but she replaced the cap dutifully.
She made him smell two dozen more fragrances, until eventually he stormed out in a huff, likely on his way to eat someone to take the edge of.
Caroline smirked and picked out the one that made him sneeze (hydrangeas), the one he said smelt like rotting potatoes, and eucalyptus, just because. The shopkeeper seemed sceptic about the combination, but mixed it together regardless while Caroline looked on.
Elijah was so going to love her after this.
“Purple or green?”
“For what, love?” Klaus kept his eyes trained on his newest painting. Caroline thought it looked like a lightbulb, but Klaus’s face pinched in that sad way of his every time she tried to bring it up, so she left him to it.
“For Elijah’s soap.”
She stirred the melted soap base with vigour.
“I doubt Elijah has any appreciation for colour, so do what makes you happy. I haven’t given him a gift in five hundred years, ever since he told me that my gifts were more for me than him.”
“Well, what did you give him?” She added purple pigments to the soap base.
“A moonstone.”
Caroline laughed. “I don’t blame him for not being excited about it. Did that come along with the promise to murder the girl he was in love with at the time?”
“The only good thing Katerina ever did in her life, sweetheart, was to turn you into a vampire.”
“Alright, don’t work yourself up over it, it’s been half a century.”
Checking that Klaus was still engrossed in his work, she swiftly poured the contents of the little bag in her pocket into the mixture. She stirred it in quickly, the blue leaves all but invisible in the purple soap.
Satisfied, she poured it into moulds.
“What is this?”
“A birthday gift. Seriously, Elijah, don’t look so shocked.”
“You bought me a present?” Elijah hesitantly took the basket from her, eyes narrowing. “How lovely.”
“I wouldn’t apply any adjectives until you’ve opened it,” Klaus warned, refilling his bourbon. “She led me on a bit of a goose chase compiling it.”
“It is a lovely gesture, Niklaus.” He turned to Caroline. “Does he react this way when you give him gifts, as well?”
“Nope,” she said. “But I give excellent gifts, and he knows he won’t like what you’re about to open.”
Elijah’s eyebrows raised just the slightest bit, revealing his curiosity. “Then I shall open it right now.”
He took out the bottle of cologne first.
“A custom mix?” he asked, puzzled.
“Just take off the cap,” Caroline encouraged, her excitement tangible. Elijah did, and a second later, Klaus sneezed.
“You didn’t,” he grumbled, sneezing again.
“What is it?” Elijah asked.
“It has a base of hydrangea essence,” Caroline informed him. “It’s said to have a drowsing effect on wolves, and can cause excessive mucus formation in other animals.”
“Hence the sneezing.” Elijah looked impressed. He carefully replaced the cap and reached into the basket again.
“Soap?”
“Homemade,” Klaus was growling now, angry eyes not leaving Caroline’s face. He wasn’t likely to try anything in front of Elijah, but Caroline knew she would be in quite a bit of trouble later.
“I see.” Elijah inspected the bar of soap against the light. “Wolfsbane?”
Caroline smirked, and Klaus bristled. His next swallow was done angrily, and Caroline raised an eyebrow when she heard the glass in his hand crack.
It was part of a set Freya had given Klaus for Christmas, and she wouldn’t be impressed if Klaus managed to break one in January already. Klaus loosened his hold.
Elijah dug back into his gift. “And a dog whistle. How very apt.”
“The entire thing is a survival kit to help out with Klaus’s personal space problems.”
“A little sneezing won’t stop me,” Klaus remarked.
“I know,” Elijah drawled, “But you’ll be uncomfortable, and I’ll enjoy it.”
When Elijah smiled at Caroline, it was the realest one she’d ever gotten from him. “I appreciate the gift, Caroline, thank you.”
“One last thing.” She dug into her back pocket for the birthday card she’d made away from Klaus’s watchful eyes. He would have been sure to tease her about the glitter, even though he spent years on metaphorical paintings that resembled lightbulbs and expected her to take it seriously.
Elijah quickly scanned over the card, then rolled his eyes in that unsubtle way that only Elijah could.
“I don’t hate you, Caroline. In fact, you’ve made my life a lot easier since you started keeping Niklaus occupied.” He gathered his gift and headed for the door. “You’re welcome to my jacket, but bitch is a derogatory term.”
Klaus laughed, anger forgotten, as Elijah left the room. Caroline walked over to join him at the bar, satisfied with herself.
“You called Elijah a bitch in his birthday card?”
Caroline held out a glass for Klaus to fill up. “Of course I did. How angry are you, on a scale of one to ten?”
“I was a lot angrier before you brought out the glitter. Fuchsia, Caroline, really? It’ll cling to Elijah’s tie for a week.”
“I told you not to judge my colour choices.” She settled her head onto his shoulder, and his fingers tangled in her hair. “Did you see it, though? Elijah totally likes me now.”
Klaus placed a kiss on top of her head. “Of course he does, love, you’re impossible not to like.”