Just something I had in my mind about Damon and Stefan and the bond that they share even if they refuse to see it.
They hate each other, tolerate each other, have each other's backs, betray each other, one-up each other, fight over the same girl again and again, threaten to kill each other, have tried to kill each other (half-heartedly), have killed for each other but most importantly they love each other. They are Damon and Stefan Salvatore and it seems like they are stuck in this never-ending loop.
They can both remember a time when they were human and Damon was teaching Stefan how to play football in the front yard. They can both remember the happiness they felt at seeing each other after Damon returned from the war. They can both remember being happy and content in each other's presence. Then things changed as they tend to do.
Katherine happened with her compulsion and empty promises and mind games. The council happened, their father happened. Stefan forcing Damon to change happened. All of the pieces of their humanity, their friendship, their love for each other fell away. Stefan became a Ripper…or Rippah depending on who you ask and Damon, Damon would have been fine and then Sage happened.
They'll both be the first to admit that they lost pieces of themselves along the way, they lost their humanity and their soul but the one thing they seemed to never be able to get rid of? The bond that they share. It's growing almost comical now to those around them at how blind the Salvatore boys are. Jeremy laughs about it right to their faces.
148 years of being vampires, 165 years of being brothers. No matter the amount of times they threaten to kill each other they've never followed through with it. Every time one of them does something out of character, saves the other, says something nice, makes a promise that they intend to keep they each have the same excuse handy and it always means the same thing to each of them. In fact those four words have become they're way of saying everything that they have to say to each other without actually having to say the words.
From doppelgangers to opening tombs to Original vampires with their fake curses and annoying habit of not being able to be killed without risking them all to the girl that they both love becoming a vampire something shifted. They were working together, willing to try each other's plans before running off and doing their own, helping each other, sacrificing for each other.
It will never be perfect; it will never be like it was when they were human. Trust will always be an issue between the two even if they are a little more willing to use it these days. The girl is always going to be a problem between the two of them but they overcame it once and this time around they managed to keep their heads out of their asses and make a pact. When you live forever it means that the past is always going to be there to haunt them but they're stronger this time around.
And in the darkest of moments when one is about to lose hope, when they feel that's it's all just too much and they might not survive whatever catastrophe is happening they look to each other and ask why? They ask why and the response is always the same.
Because you're my brother.