The request: Rebekah and Caroline have a physical fight after an argument. Although Caroline is fierce, she is no match for Rebekah. She gets battered and comes home to Klaus who is beyond furious.

The response: Okay, so I'm thinking that the lovely requester might have wanted more furious close than what is below, but…I'm in a good mood? So there is less angst than fluff but I still hope that it's up to snuff.

"You need to leave him alone," Rebekah snarled, eyes narrowed and body defensive as she attempted to tower over Caroline. Unfortunately for her, Caroline's heels were taller.

"Why don't you just stay out of it?" Caroline demanded. "This has nothing to do with you!"

"He's my brother!" Rebekah fired back. "It has everything to do with me! Just leave him alone! You're going to hurt him, Caroline, and Nik doesn't need that!"

"Will you just give it up already?" Caroline hissed. "This has nothing to do with me and you know it. You're just bitter because you didn't get the cure and insecure and you're lashing out at me and I get it, okay, but that doesn't mean it's okay for you to come and verbally assault me over something that is really absolutely none of your business—,"

Rebekah flashed to Caroline immediately, her hand wrapping around Caroline's throat as she pushed her deeper into the wall. "Shut up!" Rebekah shouted. "Just shut up, you stupid vampire slut! Just because Tyler's gone you feel the need to jump into the next available bed and-!"

"—seriously? You think I jumped into Klaus's bed?" Caroline brought her knee up to Rebekah's stomach, momentarily distracting her before wrapping a hand around the Original's hair and flinging her away.

"We haven't even – Klaus and I – we're friends—!" Caroline screamed.

Both girls hesitated for a second, chests heaving and eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, before they both attacked. Fists flew and nails scratched. Hair was pulled and bones were broken. Wooden flag poles were broken and shoved through specific body parts (Rebekah was this close, this fucking closeto just ending Caroline completely and solving all of her problems, but she knew that if she did that Nik would probably put her in a box for the rest of eternity) and glass was shattered. Caroline fought with a ferocity that almost impressed Rebekah, if it wouldn't have been so goddamn inconvenient, but Caroline weakened from the wood protruding from her stomach and thighs and eventually Rebekah just snapped her neck and left her at that, kicking the girl with her heel one final time before leaving the slumped body on the cafeteria floor.

Caroline woke with a start. Her skin felt dry and caked with something and parts of her were burning with intrusive hurt. Caroline pulled the piece of wood out of her thigh slowly, hissing as she rebroke parts of skin that were already healing, and then focused on the thick piece lodged into her stomach. She whimpered as she pulled the wood out as quickly as she could, feeling her organs shift and break again and then start to heal. She stake clattered to the ground next to her and she let out a sigh of relief. Caroline could feel her body already starting to heal, but the process was slow and she felt dizzy and weak from hunger.

With a grunt, she pulled herself from the floor and stood shakily, balancing herself with the table next to her.

Klaus. Caroline thought to herself. Just get to Klaus.

Caroline's eyelids were dropping, her body tired and weak, and she chastised herself for acting so weak. A snapped neck and some wood in her bloodstream was nothing compared to other forms of torture she'd endured, but she was weak. She hadn't drunk in a day, because she hadn't had the time to go hunting and the town blood bag supply had vanished. Caroline refused to feed on humans, so she was sticking with bunnies and other forest creatures, and they weren't doing the job as well as they could have.

She stumbled her way through Klaus's foyer, hands using the walls as a guide as she attempted to make her way into the living room. She could hear him walking around upstairs, but his house was too damn big and there was no way she was going to make it up a flight of stairs before she passed out again.

"Klaus," she attempted to call out, her voice cracking and weak. Maybe if she wasn't so tired, wasn't so hungry, she would have been embarrassed for him to see her like this, but all she wanted was someone to take care of her.

It was a matter of seconds before he was down the stairs and pulling her away from the wall and towards a couch. She was fighting to keep her eyes open, but the exhaustion was winning. She caught a glimpse of Klaus's face – confused, slightly irritated, and definitely worried – before she let herself sink into cool, soft black.

He was prodding her awake only seconds later.

"Caroline? Caroline?" He kept asking and even though she loved the way he said her name, the lilt on the second syllable and the seductive roll of the tongue, all she wanted then was for him to just stop talking. "Caroline, what happened?"

"Tired." She mumbled, the word catching up in a small yawn. "Hungry. Sleep."

"Hungry?" Klaus repeated, but it seemed more to him than her and Caroline allowed herself to relax and find that blissful place yet again. She could feel him watching her, eyes inspecting, but she couldn't find the energy to be curious or to really care.

She was almost on the way to blissful land, her body relaxing and her thoughts slowing, when there was something pressing against her lips and an intoxicating smell weaving its way through her nostrils.

"Drink." A harsh voice commanded and Caroline immediately obeyed, remembering the way he had felt before on her tongue, delicious and velvety and familiar. Her body's reaction was almost instant, her muscles perking up and systems working on healing themselves even faster. Her mind no longer felt clouded and foggy, but rather alert and almost hyperaware.

Caroline pulled her mouth away from Klaus's open wrist gingerly, her tongue sticking out to lap up the last drop of blood almost instinctively. Klaus stared down at her, memorizing the way her tongue and her lips felt against his skin, before finally pulling his arm back and tucking it away.

Caroline collapsed back against the couch with a sigh. "Thank you." She whispered, her voice low. Had she really just…licked Klaus? Oh my God. She had licked him. She had licked him and he totally liked it.

"What are friends for?" Klaus responded casually, but Caroline could see something deeper brewing behind her eyes. "Now are you going to tell me what happened to you in the first place?"

"I…um…got into a bit of a brawl?" Caroline answered hesitantly. She really didn't want to tell Klaus about the entire thing, mostly because her pride was hurt and she wasn't sure how he was going to react when she told him that she'd been fighting with his sister over him.

"With whom?" Klaus asked, but this time she knew that his voice was entirely too casual.

"No one important." Caroline answered, looking away from him as she tried to circumvent his questions. "Thanks again for saving me—,"

"No one important who almost killed you?" Klaus questioned.

"I wasn't going to die. Stop being dramatic. It was just a little wood and a snapped neck. I've been through much worse, remember? I was just hungry. This town has a blood bag shortage and I haven't had time to go hunt."

"Caroline, there are humans everywhere. How have you not had time?"

"I don't feed from humans. Seriously, Klaus, you would think some things about me would stick, but apparently not—,"

"—I remember everything about you. Now who attacked you?"

"Does it matter?" Caroline huffed.

Klaus had the audacity to roll his eyes. "Caroline," he started warningly.

"It's nothing! Seriously. Let it go."

"Why won't you tell me?" Klaus pushed.

"I just don't think it's super important—,"

"—of course it's important, sweetheart. Stop evading and just tell me who—,"

"—your sister, okay. I got into a fight with Rebekah."

Caroline let out a breath and Klaus stopped. There was a second of silence, calmness encircling them both, before he exploded.

"She could've killed you!" Klaus snarled. "I told her not to – the bloody insolence! – What were you even—?"

It would've been funny, if Klaus wasn't fuming and already up and heading towards the door, glaring at the wooden doorframe as if it were Rebekah and he was preparing for attack.

"Where are you going?" Caroline scrambled up to her feet. "Klaus, stop. Really, it's not that big of a deal—,"

"Not that big of a deal? She could've killed you and it's not that big of a deal?"

"But she didn't! She was super pissed but she didn't kill me so will you just take a chill pill and think this over before you go do something monumentally stupid – Klaus!"

She wrapped a hand around his arm, aware this it probably wasn't the safest of moves, but she was desperate. Klaus turned, ripped his arm from her grasp, turned again, turned back, and then stared at her.

"Stop justifying her actions. My sister will never learn to leave alone what isn't hers and stop putting her nose where it doesn't belong, but—,"

"Excuse me? 'What isn't hers'?" Caroline repeated. "You don't own me! We are friends and okay, yeah, that gets you some pull, but stop acting like I'm some piece of territory that you need to pee on to establish dominance!"

"You don't understand, sweetheart, it isn't like that—,"

"—it is exactly like that! Just stop, Klaus. Stop. Actually think before you do something out of anger, it might actually do you some good for once!"

"Caroline—,"

Maybe it was because she was riding the exhilaration experience that was drinking Klaus's blood or maybe it was because he was so fucking exasperating or maybe it was because she just really wanted to make him shut up and she couldn't see an easier way out of this conversation. Whatever. Girls have their reasoning and go ahead and judge but it got him to shut up, didn't it?

So Caroline just went for it, leaned over and pressed a kiss right to that overly supple and incredibly irritated pout. She kept pressing kisses to his lips, delicate and fragile and so painstakingly mind numbing that she had to remind herself how her knees worked.

Caroline pulled away hesitantly, instantly wanting the soft cushion of his mouth back (it was the blood talking, it had to be) and stared at him. Klaus wasn't responding to the kisses and a part of her realized that she probably should've been worried about that, because what if that ship had sailed and their friendship was going so great that he didn't want to muddle it all with some nice mouth touches?

"Um," Caroline started.

"Foul play." Klaus accused, but he was smiling at her.

Caroline shrugged, let out a small laugh. "Worked, didn't it?" She went to back up, maybe to turn and go back home and take a nap or something, but Klaus was already zeroing in on her.

"Indeed it did." He murmured, his arms already moving to wrap around Caroline and press into her hip until she was back to the couch, lying down and staring up at him. His mouth was on hers, warmth and softness and hot hot heat. Caroline melted into the couch, wrapping her arm around his neck and pulling him down to her. One of his hands was settled on her cheek, steering her mouth in whatever direction he wanted it to and the other was boldly wandering around her hip. He was pressing kisses to her lips, soft and then hard, their mouths moving in force as she drank him in.

Klaus pulled away and her mouth buzzed with the loss of him. "Color me distracted," he muttered, before he returned his mouth back to its rightful place and assaulted her again.