A/N: The Vampire Diaries. This is an one-shot but I will write more of Klaus x Stefan fics. This pairing is seriously threatening to become my favourite tvd pairing. I ship those two soooo hard.

Open your eyes

All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you
My bones ache, my skin feels cold
And I'm getting so tired and so old

The anger swells in my guts
And I won't feel these slices and cuts
I want so much to open your eyes
'Cause I need you to look into mine

Tell me that you'll open your eyes

Open your eyes- Snow Patrol

''Open your eyes'', Klaus said, even though it sounded more like an order and- it was funny even though he couldn't find the strength to laugh- his voice was harsh and demanding while what he really felt inside was hurt and abashed and diminished to nothingness.

''Look at me, damn you'' Klaus yelled again and he slammed both of his hands on the wall next to both sides of Stefan's head so hard that he felt splinters thrusting into the skin of his palms but he didn't care.

Even then, Stefan didn't react. He kept his eyes tightly shut, stubborn enough to defy Klaus, and just stood there, letting the other man throw him on the wall without fighting him off.

This passiveness, this lack of reaction or emotion from Stefan was what made Klaus' anger vanish and his determination falter and it seemed like Klaus had no longer his hands slammed on the wall to prevent Stefan from escaping, but to support himself because at the moment he wasn't sure if he would be able to stay upright otherwise.

''Why won't you open your eyes for me, Stefan?'' Klaus asked, his voice muffled by the pain and despair he always kept inside him and were now coming rushing to the surface.

''You've taken everything from me so why would I give you anything you ask me?'' Stefan's answear was full of bitterness and contempt and that Klaus couldn't take.

His wistful tears fell on Stefan's face but he still refused to look at the other man. He just stood there, resigned, and let Klaus say sometimes coaxingly and some times angrily- his voice falling to a mere whisper or rising dangerously- what a fool Stefan was for dwelling in the past and holding onto his old life in Mystic Falls while he could have everything he wanted here with Klaus.

Klaus had laid his heart for Stefan, but Stefan's heart belonged to that one girl back in that hole of a town and Klaus knew that that couldn't change, not now, maybe not ever.

Stefan had given himself over to Klaus to save his brother's life, but he would never be what Klaus needed the most: someone to keep him away from the darkness within him and not let him be alone.

That was why, driven by that simple and yet so deep ingrained wish, when Stefan walked away from him, Klaus would hug him from behind and bury his face into the cavity between his shoulderblades to keep him there.

When Stefan was pinned against the wall by Klaus in a fit of rage he would let his body slip along the wall as if he didn't really care and land in a heap on the hard floor.

And Klaus would fall on the floor with him as if their bodies were connected by invisible strings and tell him in a broken whisper to never leave him behind because Stefan seemed to be the only one who could fulfill this wish that had remained the same over years upon endless years.

Once, in a magical city throbbing with life, what felt like a whole lifetime before, Stefan had been there when Klaus needed it the most.

Klaus had been chased and always on the run, his family scattered like the fragments of his heart which he was trying to piece together again but, back then Stefan had become his friend, his intimate, his brother.

Back at the present, Klaus was tired of shouting about what he and Stefan could do together, sick of pleading with him to look him in the eyes even for a moment and yet he tried once more because at the moment he felt so broken and let down by the whole world that he couldn't bear to think of the alternative.

''Open your eyes. Just look at me for a while. Please, Stefan.'' Klaus said again, his voice quavering and cracking at the end so that Stefan's name came out in a barely audible whisper.

Klaus wanted to see those eyes again, those green-blue eyes of the boy he had met so long ago and reminded him how to be happy again, even if it was only for the shortest period of times and-wonder of wonders- he did see them.

Stefan straightened his shoulders and titled his chin proudly upwards, his eyes finally meeting Klaus' eyes.

There was so much sadness in those eyes. Klaus would always joke that one could see Stefan's very heart through those beautiful, sorrow-dripping eyes and now Klaus could also see hatred in there that was directed at him, but not without something painful being withhold that Klaus could only interpret as nostalgia and something that could be love.

Stefan's gaze tore Klaus apart and if Stefan asked him, he would have granted him freedom without thinking about it twice.

However, Stefan didn't speak. Klaus' hands clenched the fabric of Stefan's shirt in his trembling fists and he let his head drop on Stefan's chest, shaking with violent, spasm-like sobs.

Stefan made no attempt to console him, and Klaus was grateful for this for he didn't know what would happen if Stefan showed him any sort of his so craved affection at the moment.

Klaus was punishing himself for letting Stefan go all those years ago and for holding him by his side against his will now. It would all be so much easier if Stefan's eyes weren't begging him with an unnerving and magnetising power, telling Klaus silently ''Please, let me go''