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The line was long, the room was stuffy, and his phone had just died.
“Bekah, give me your phone,” Klaus demanded gruffly, shifting in his uncomfortable plastic chair.
“No, Nik,” his sister snapped. “I can see an empty bed, which means you’re probably up next. Quit being a baby.”
“You think you’d be nicer to me since I’m doing you a favor and all,” he groaned.
Rebekah scoffed as she flipped through her magazine. “It’s not my fault they won’t let me give blood because I don’t meet the weight requirements,” she said, not sounding proud in the slightest.
“It is your fault that you’re part of a sorority that requires you to give blood or find a replacement,” he pointed out.
Her retort is cut off by one of the blood drive workers calling Klaus’s name. “Mikaelson, we’re ready for you in bed eight,” he said, pointing to the empty lawn-chair contraption Rebekah had noticed earlier.
“I’m going to check in with my president and let her know that you’re covering my donation,” Rebekah said, already walking away. “I’ll get you an orange juice.”
Rolling his eyes, Klaus made his way over to his designated bed and situated himself upon it. He huffed in boredom, without even his phone to distract him. Looking around, he could find anyone paying him any attention. “Does the blood magically leave my body or what?”
“It can violently leave your body if you keep up that attitude,” a feminine voice said from behind him.
He turned, finding a beautiful blonde nurse raising an unimpressed eyebrow. “Sorry,” he said, attempting to appear contrite. “I’ve just been waiting for a long time, and I’m ready to get this over with.”
“Little tip,” the nurse said as she prepped his station with bandages and a stress ball. “Don’t get snippy with the nurses during blood drives. You’re my tenth donor today, and it’s barely noon. I don’t need the sass when we’re doing our best to keep the line moving.”
“Noted,” he said, properly abashed. “My phone died, so I’m less patient than I ought to be.”
She plopped a water bottle in his hands. “Get over it and drink,” she said, shrugging. “The more hydrated you are, the faster this whole thing will go.”
Klaus followed her orders as she finished her preparations. He took the stress ball she offered.
“If you squeeze that repeatedly,” she said, arranging his arm on her tray with the blood pressure cuff, “then it should help me find a vein.”
“Have you been doing this long,” Klaus asked. She looked young, though no less stunning in her pink scrubs.
“I’m actually a nursing student,” she answered without looking. “I think I found a winner.”
“Already? I don’t even know your name, love.”
She snorted at his lame pick-up, the smile brightening her entire face. “I was talking about the vein I’m about to stick a needle into,” she clarified. “Are you ready?”
Klaus chuckled, nodding. “Have at it, sweetheart.”
“My name is Caroline,” she insisted just as she broke the skin in his arm with the needle. “Enough with the pet names.”
“I’m Klaus,” he replied in kind, though trying not to look at the blood coursing through the tube. “So, you’re a nursing student here at Whitmore?”
“Yup,” she said, popping her lips. “What about you? You look a bit old to be undergrad.”
Klaus coughed out a laugh at her brash statement. “My sister’s a freshman here,” he admitted. “I own a gallery in Richmond.”
“Let me guess,” Caroline teased as she checked the progress of his blood bag. “She’s one of the sorority pledges too tiny to give blood?”
“Know something about that love,” Klaus asked with a smirk.
“Caroline,” she corrected with a playful glare. “And I may have done my own cajoling for replacement donors back in the day. You’re about halfway through, by the way.”
“Great,” Klaus answered faintly, leaning back to rest.
Caroline leaned forward, pushing the curls back from his forehead. He looked clammy and pale. “Klaus, are you okay?”
“Fine, sweetheart,” he flirted.
“Lightheaded,” she pushed. “Dizzy?”
“Wha-”
His eyes rolled back as he fainted, and Caroline quickly maneuvered his chair back for him to lie flat.
“Nik!”
A young blonde came bounding up, shaking the bottle of orange juice in her hand. “Is he okay,” she asked frantically.
“He’s just a little woozy,” Caroline assured her. “Can you help me prop his feet up?”
When he came to, Rebekah was the first person he saw.
“I’m so sorry, Nik,” she said, noticing he was waking up. Caroline had given her damp paper towels to put over his eyes, and she quickly removed them. “I didn’t think you’d pass out.”
“Don’t worry,” Caroline’s voice said from his other side. Luckily, she was smiling down at him. “It was a very manly fainting.”
Klaus huffed in amusement. “Small victories, I suppose,” he croaked. “Would this be a bad time to ask you out, then?”
Caroline opened her mouth to answer, only to shut it again. Flirting with an attractive man with a sexy accent was one thing, but she hadn’t expected to get a date from him. “I- You’re still suffering from blood loss.”
“Come on, love,” he teased, slowly sitting up. “I just swooned at your mere presence. That’s got to be worth at least a dinner.”
Smile twisting in flattered humor, Caroline bit her lip pensively. She looked at her watch before meeting his earnest eyes. “I’ve got a fifteen minute break now,” she finally said. “You’re definitely owed some cookies and juice. Who knows? You might just earn dinner after all.”
He did earn that dinner date, as well as the last first kiss he would ever have when he dropped her off at home.
Their “how we met” story was a little bloodier than most, but Rebekah took pride in technically arranging their introduction. It certainly made Klaus more inclined to grant her favors, since giving blood had turned out so well for him.
In the long run, anyway.