Sunlight

Chapter 16: Welcome Stranger

"Yes?" Elijah said, trying not to sound too encouraging.

"Caroline," Klaus rasped, the sound half prayer, half curse. "Where to begin with Caroline."

"She is your..." Elijah started, not certain what to label the unusual occurrence as.

"Mine. She is mine. That is all anyone needs to know it as." Klaus glared at Kol's immobile form.

"Understood." Elijah nodded. "Now what happened."

"Everything was more than pleasant. And then that mutt showed up. Tyler." Klaus growled.

"But she is still with you, so what is the problem?" Elijah questioned, and saw an emotion flit across his brothers features that he had not seen in a thousand years – guilt. Guilt? How peculiar.

"I may have assumed she had left with him and possibly compelled some humans –"

"Heavens, surely you did not –"

"I did nothing." Klaus snapped, shocking himself out of his softer, trance-like state. "And none of this is your concern."

"You are my brother. Of course it is."

Klaus clenched his jaw at his brother's sentimental words. "Half brother." He corrected harshly. "Mikael did an excellent job reminding me that I was Mother's one mistake, the abomination, her biggest sin."

"You were not Mother's biggest sin." Elijah said. "You were our biggest gift, a savior. Our brother, the strongest part of our family, always and forever."

There was a pause, and both men shifted awkwardly in the heartfelt moment.

"Regardless," Elijah began slowly. "You should apologize to Caroline."

"Why should I apologize?" Klaus snarled, but Elijah stood his ground.

"The lady is never the one in the wrong. Even if there is no one in the wrong, or both are at fault, its always the gentleman's task to apologize." Elijah told him sternly.

"Who said anything about being a gentleman?" Klaus said with a cocked eyebrow.

...

"That's all?" Rebekah said, sprawled across the four-poster bed in the guestroom while Caroline stormed back and forth, hanging up clothes and ranting.

"What do you mean that's all?" Caroline halted and glared at the fellow blonde who was running her fingers through her straight hair, fanning it across her face.

"You have absolutely no idea what kind of wrath he has done before." Rebekah sighed, pausing in her actions to lock eyes across the room. "Seriously."

"I don't even want to know, do I?"

"You don't need to know. Just assume that he's actually done some things that are far crueler and hideously violent and you might begin to comprehend some of the nicer things my big brother has done." Rebekah's eyes were hazy and distant for a moment, before she shook her head slightly and focused on Caroline, who had paused while putting a dress on a hanger. "But don't forgive him. Just because he's known for doing evil things doesn't mean he should get away with them. Particularly when you've changed him as much as you have." She smiled wryly. "Harlot. Changing him like training a dog."

"Hey!" Caroline said, continuing on her mission while shooting a glare at the girl. "I resent that!"

"Yet you don't deny it." Rebekah teased, easily rolling to dodge the pillow from a nearby armchair that had been thrown at her head. "Womanly charms. I've always lived by two moral codes, Caro-pop. Family first – always and forever. But my own personal favorite, artem femininum pulchritude. The art of feminine beauty. Use it to your advantage."