((A/N: A very short piece of fluff that we thought you might enjoy))

Caroline's Ultimatum

By: Aria Daughter of Chaos and Lab7417

"I can't believe you did that!" Caroline screamed at Klaus. This of course was not an unusual occurrence since they had been dating for three months now. What followed next however... Picking up the vase, she threw it at him but he dodged it and it shattered all over the floor. "That boy wasn't hitting on me! He was asking me for help on his math questions!" Klaus glared at her.

"He bloody well was not! Love-his hand was on you intimately!"

"He wasn't acting on anything! Hell-I'm not his type!" Caroline finished with an arched brow hoping he would follow that thought to its conclusion. Klaus gulped as the realization hit.

"What can I do to make this up to you?" he asked and he wasn't above pleading for her forgiveness. Caroline judged quickly the degree by which Klaus wanted to smooth over this rift and noticed he was pretty foot-in-mouth. An idea popped into her head and she smiled sweetly at him.

"I think we should have a dinner party?"

"A dinner party?" Klaus worried. "You mean you and I have dinner somewhere?" He was clutching to the hope that perhaps she meant an intimate gathering of two which would of course be the perfect time for him to woo her. His hopes were dashed a moment later.

"No I want us to have dinner at the mansion. I want all your siblings there plus Elena, Bonnie and Stefan. Oh and why don't we invite Alaric and Jeremy too. Oh and my mom"

"That's quite a guest list." Klaus said and again Caroline looked at him pointedly. Putting on his best smile Klaus nodded.

"Consider it done."

So it was that Klaus had basically ordered his siblings to attend and then extended an invitation to the others on the list for Friday night. Sheriff Forbes politely declined, stating that she had a raffle to get to. One by one and through many means of bribery and pleading Caroline had convinced them all to come. So it came to Friday night. The table was set, the food was placed ceremoniously in the middle of the table and everyone was dressed in their best clothes-the women in dresses of various styles and colors while the men were in casual suits.

Elijah sat at the Head with Elena on his right and Kol on his left. Beside Elena was Caroline and across from her and beside Kol was Bonnie. Next to Caroline was Klaus and across from him was Stefan while Rebekah sat next to him and across from her was Alaric, Jeremy sat across from Sage, Finn sat at the other end of the table and next to Alaric.

The Chicken Marsala was plated and the vegetables added to each plate while plenty of wine was poured. After a couple of minutes of silent eating and a pointed look from Caroline that the party was not getting off to a good start he decided lively conversation was needed. Taking a long sip of his wine he began with the following.

"Do you remember the time that Finn thought girls were evil?" Klaus asked and Elijah smirked.

"I was young!" Finn protested in his defense to any who would listen.

"Oh yes," Klaus said nodding. "He was eight years old and after seeing our parents kiss, got so disturbed that he wouldn't eat anything that she made, claiming that it had 'the plague'." Everyone couldn't help but laugh until Rebekah snickered.

"I remember Klaus getting so drunk back in 1914 that he claimed to be an Opera singer." Caroline gave her best 'do tell' look while Klaus tried to silence Rebekah.

"Opera really?" Caroline asked her boyfriend who wouldn't look anyone in the eye.

"That's nothing." Jeremy said as he stared at Elena. "One year Elena did the talent show and dressed up as Alice from the Disney movie and sang the theme song to it. Caroline had dressed up as Sleeping Beauty and began singing 'Once upon a dream' while Bonnie dressed up as a cat and sang 'everybody wants to be a cat'. One right after the other." The laughter didn't stop as they imagined the girls doing this and singing.

"Oh so you want to play like that hmm? You asked for it," Elena grinned evilly to Jeremy and then turned to address the group, "Jeremy dressed as James Bond one year for Halloween and wouldn't talk to anyone unless they called him 'James Bond' or'007' for the whole day!" Elena said smiling and laughing. Alaric nearly choked on his bite of spaghetti when he heard that.

"Didn't that just recently happen?" He asked which brought on even more laughter from the group.

"That will have been his second time." Caroline squealed out as Klaus was tickling her.

"That's nothing." Kol told them while waving a fork around. "Beks here compelled quite a few bankers to sell her their jewelry stores back in 1910 and still to this day, she owns them."

"Oh wow! Can I borrow some jewelry?" Elena smiled at Rebekah.

"Oh yes! me too!" Caroline squealed and Bonnie nodded her agreement.

"Didn't you go to Vegas and nearly get married to a male stripper?" Rebekah asked Kol with a look of sweet revenge. Kol nodded.

"Joe and I have an agreement-we don't talk about it."

"Please tell me you're kidding," Bonnie looked pointedly at Kol.

"What does it matter to you?" Elena asked quickly scenting emotions. Bonnie blushed immediately.

"Nothing!"

"At least you're not like Niklaus who promptly puked on me when he tried helping me deliver Henrik." Finn shivered. "It was traumatizing."

"Umm...eating dinner..." Caroline groaned with a forkful of noodles dangling in front of her.

"If I recall correctly, you did the same thing to me when I was delivering Nik the day he was born." Elijah said suddenly turning the tables. He looked next to him and caught Elena smiling at him before she took another drink of her wine.

"That was a sight I didn't want to see." Finn admitted and Sage smiled at him.

"I remember having to drive away from some Karaoke bar where Nik and Rebekah sang some love song duet to these two old men." Klaus and Rebekah blushed as they heard Kol say that to everyone present.

"Careful Kol..." Elijah cautioned, "you have more than enough skeletons in your closet."

"Didn't you unveil your undying love for Katerina while drunk?" Rebekah snapped at Elijah, clearly still embarrassed about the karaoke incident and wanting the focus off her.

"No-that was Kol and he kept calling her 'Scarlet'," Elijah said snickering. Kol had the good grace to look embarrassed.

"Well there's not a chance that you've made it through a thousand years without a single embarrassing tale," Elena asked him. He remained patently silent and Elena looked around the table. "Okay come on guys...somebody tell..."

"Yes this has got to be good!" Caroline said when there was still obvious hesitation from the siblings. Dirt on Elijah had to be rare.

"Went swimming in the lake naked and someone stole my clothes, making me walk back home at night but not before Klaus scared Kol who promptly screamed and our father nearly had a heart attack at the sight of the three of us." Elijah said waggling his fork for emphasis as he grinned with mirth while he told the tale. "I was naked, Klaus was red from laughing and crying and Kol looked like someone had just told him that he was going to be eaten by rabid animals!" By this time the entire table was laughing. Differences had been set aside amidst a family-style dinner and the best weapon at this table was a good tale.

Klaus stared at Caroline who was smiling at him and he smiled back.

"I had a great time tonight, actually." She confessed. He smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"I'm glad that you had a great time love." He whispered.

"Everything that happened at dinner was what should happen at family dinners." She told him before she kissed him on the cheek. "Until next time Klaus."

"Until then Miss Caroline."