So I kinda like edited chapter 6 a little. But no worries, I just fixed some nuances in the grammar and spelling that I've noticed. When I reread it, I was like GAH, what the hell. But anyway, who the hell cares.

R&R!

JEALOUS

"So..."

"So?"

"When are you going to tell me about your hot but totally moronic and inappropriate affair with your boss?"

"What?" Caroline half-shouts. She might be drunk but she's not that drunk to plead her guilt. Especially not in front of a certainly drunk Salvatore. "Ew, no, Damon. There's nothing to tell because there is nothing happening, okay? Why the hell are you so persistent about this?"

Damon hums, unconvinced, and takes a long swig of his drink before eyeing her again suspiciously. "Don't think no one saw you disappearing with him that time at the Met."

"It's nothing, I swear." She says a bit too forcefully. "Our relationship is strictly business."

He lets out a humorless laugh. "Risque business, you mean."

That earns him a playful punch in the arm from Caroline and, in return, he does his trademark You're-full-of-shit eye squint at her.

"He wants you, Barbie." He then tells her.

"And how would you know that, Snarkyface? I don't remember you and Klaus being actually friendly with each other... Or are you having sleepovers behind our backs?"

"Hell, no." Damon hisses in mock disgust before he falls into this stony face he wears when he is dead serious. "I know that because Mikaelson and I are similar."

"I bet it kills you just to admit that." Caroline quips and he gives her the look again.

"What? You're both arrogant self-absorbed assholes and don't even try to deny it."

"I don't. We are arrogant self-absorbed assholes..." Damon retorts. "And it just so happened that the likes of you are our favorite."

"Well..." She tries to sound nonchalant but she is genuinely curious to know what Klaus might think about her. "What exactly are the likes of me, Salvatore?"

Damon smirks. "Hot, of course..."

"Cliche but thanks."

"Feisty..."

"Debatable.." She hums with interest and waits for him to continue but he doesn't.

"What? That's it?" She shakes her head irately to hide her disappointment. She doesn't even know why she's disappointed in the first place. Damon seems to catch on her sudden brooding attitude and inches his face closer to hers.

"And very very readable."

Caroline stares at him for a moment. She isn't really sure if she should take being "readable"as a compliment so she rolls her eyes dismissively. "Whatever, Damon. It's not happening."

He is obviously not buying it with the way he's looking at her and only shrugs. "So I guess you're still with that Tyler tool. Seriously, you're really falling to an all time low, Barbie."

"Oh, we're so not going to have this conversation again, Salvatore." She scoffs at him.

The major downside of making the mistake of dating Damon Salvatore is that you did make the mistake of dating Damon Salvatore. And he's gonna rub it on your face 'til the day you die.

But really, it was over a year ago when they're still in Mystic Falls. He's there for a project as freelance photographer. She and Tyler were on a break and she practically thought they were over so, yes, she fell head over heels with Damon completely. Obsessively.

Of course, her clingy idiot self ruined it all and it didn't work out. But they did become friends in the end and he was the one who got her out to Mystic Falls. She always wanted to think that that was his own way of saying sorry when he broke her heart.

"So you obviously didn't ask me out here just to discuss my mediocre love life." She finally says after the long silence. "It's Stefan, right?"

Damon raises his brows in agreement and mumbles. "He's gone. Again."

"To where?"

"God knows where. He never tells us." He almost spits as he gulps down his bourbon. "You know what, this brotherhood secret thing they have going on? I'm sick of it. I mean, I get that he owes Klaus. Heck, I owe Klaus for pulling Stefan out of the deep end..." He trails off, his voice turning to a whisper. "And I get it, more than anyone, that he's always been a brother to him."

Like the one he's never been. Caroline understands the unspoken part of Damon's statement.

"Klaus wants his family's business down." He then growls angrily. "But if he's playing dirty, I don't want my brother to have anything to do with it."

Caroline grows confused. "What do you mean?"

Damon eyes her sadly and she knows he won't tell her anything. Instead, he lets out a resigned sigh. "My brother is not a criminal."

His words shock her for a minute but before she can inquire further, Damon's phone rings. She sees him roll his eyes mouthing "Katherine" as he picks up the call, and, in a matter of seconds, he's been locked into a sort of heated debate with the Petrova. Meanwhile, Caroline is pondering in silence, trying to process everything Damon has told... or hasn't told her.

If anything, she trusts Damon. He could be very sly and abrasive but, if worse comes to worst, he always tells the truth.

She then thinks of Stefan and somehow, she feels scared for him. They are nothing sort of close but he's always been very kind to her. She even thinks they could be good friends, if given the chance.

Klaus, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether. She's scared of him. Well, he is scary to everyone, really. He's the evil sneaky boss. The prodigal Mikaelson. The Big Bad. Yes she has always thought that she has already seen the different side of him—the sweet and charming side.

But knowing that he might have other darker things to hide scares her. Does she even want to go there? Does she even want to know? She remembers then of how he asked her—dared her, to be exact, with utter eagerness in his eyes, to get to know him.

Perhaps now, she's just too scared to know him after all.

Done. says Stefan's text. They've sealed another deal.

He can finally see it. In a few years—months even, he knows he'll get what he wants.

Success.

Power.

With no thanks to him, of course. He can curse Klaus all he wants but not before he brings him down first.

Klaus relaxes back on his chair, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. Indeed, he is having one of those rare moments of ease, the first one in a long time. And, as a plus, he saw Caroline, too, which was sort of the cherry on top of a fairly good week.

Though, it didn't escape his notice how hard she tried to pretend he doesn't exist. And failed. He felt a little smug inside knowing that he has an effect on her because she definitely has an effect on him. He wanted nothing more but to take her right then and there in the elevator, not giving two shits about the other person present.

He's very much surprised, too, when she showed up at his office, peppering him with kisses the moment he arrived. That was one of those moments he could feel that she wants him just as badly as he wants her. He cannot exactly pinpoint when he started to get used to her kisses, to her touches yet he wants her so much more, if she would allow him.

He thinks then of agitation he felt seeing her with Salvatore and unknowingly, his hand clutches harder on the steering wheel.

"Oh." slurs a very drunk Damon when he enters the bar.

"Fancy meeting you here, Salvatore." Klaus greets, taking a seat beside him. "Miss Forbes."

Expectedly, she stiffens when he addressed her and she ignores him for the rest of the night. On the other hand, Damon, who is too much inebriated to care or to feel the tension between his two companions, continues to babble on annoyingly about his sister. Klaus has to sit through that while trying not to seethe every time Salvatore would casually rest his arm on Caroline's shoulder.

"Come home with me." Damon whispers suggestively on her ear when they're outside. Klaus is hailing a cab for him while Caroline is holding him up.

"Shut up, Salvatore." They both say at once and Damon laughs.

"No funny business, you two." He tells them knowingly as he boards the vehicle.

"Good night, Damon." Caroline deadpans and shuts the car door to his smirk. They watch the cab drive away.

"You two are close?" Klaus then asks, looking everywhere but her.

"I wouldn't say that." Caroline shuffles her feet nervously. "But we had our moments..."

"Well, you're not exactly pulling away when he's practically breathing against your face. That obviously says something, right?" He snaps.

Okay. Where did that come from? Caroline thinks. "Your point, Klaus?"

"You're spoken for."

"That's kind of hypocritical, coming from you." She retorts and now, he's looking at her. She could see the jealousy in his eyes and he's not even bothering to hide it.

Seriously. She's not in the mood for this.

"I can't deal with this right now." She rolls her eyes and starts to walk away when his hand grips her wrist. She tries to struggle him off but he's holding her in place so she huffs a sigh and murmurs in frustration. "What more do you want from me, Klaus?"

He gazes at her.

"You." He breathes, a myriad emotions flashing through his eyes. Caroline stares at him wordlessly as he speaks again.

"I just want you."

.

.

.

.

.

A/N: Unbeta'd.

I have always imagined Damon as a closet Klaroline shipper. HAHA

Anyway, I'm gonna go ahead and come clean about something: I, clangwee, have officially decided to board SS Steroline. Adieu.