Constitutional: A walk taken for one's health
Stefan stands in the middle of his room, looking at the carnage. Unbelievable, he thinks. He has never met anyone who gets as easily and destructively bored as his older brother. One day trapped in the house and Damon got drunk, left him five threatening voicemails and three whiny ones, turned Elena's brother's almost girlfriend into a vampire, and either broken or moved every single thing that Stefan owns. Stefan knows he should be angry about Vicki. He should be furious about Zach. Mainly, though, he is annoyed that he has to clean up all his possessions while his brother lounges on his bed and mocks him.
"Is this your master plan Damon? All the killing and maiming and endless Katherine references getting tiring? You're just going to taunt me and trash my stuff?" Stefan deadpans at his older brother.
"'Trash your stuff?' Look at you picking up on the high school slang. You're just like a real boy!" Damon sits part way up, making sure to drag his boots across the blankets. "You're the one who forced me to spend all day cooped up. What did you expect? I can only read your pathetic diary so many times. 'Oh, Elena! I love you! But I'm a vampire! And I have an evil vampire brother who's so mean to me! But you're so kind and your hair is so shiny!' It gets formulaic."
Stefan tries for calm. "I'm sorry it's so boring for you here, Damon. Why don't you just leave and go back to terrorizing the rest of the world?"
"Because, like I said, Stefan, I wanna spend time with you," Damon simpers. "Well, you and our new vampire gal pal. Do you think she'll bring us closer together?"
Stefan picks a paperweight up off the floor and flings it at his brother's head. Damon catches it easily and pitches it at a bookshelf, knocking all of the remaining items to the floor.
"It's going to take you awhile to clean all this up," Damon observes.
This, Stefan thinks, is a talent unique to Damon. He somehow always manages to make Stefan so annoyed at him that he forgets to be angry.
"Where is Vicki right now?" Stefan asks, starting to shift the furniture back into place.
"She's resting. Like I'm trying to do. Except you keep making all this noise," Damon says, lying back down.
"Where is she resting, Damon?" Stefan says, almost smiling, knowing the answer.
"She won't leave. She just keeps going on and on about her life and asking me a million questions."
"She's taken over your room," Stefan states. Damon doesn't contradict him. "I can imagine how annoying that must be for you," Stefan continues, making as much noise as possible as he cleans, "having someone in your room that won't leave."
Damon doesn't answer. His eyes are closed but Stefan can tell that his brother is still awake because the side of Damon's mouth curls up and eyebrows twitch. Probably responding in his head, Stefan thinks. Damon always did talk to himself.
If Stefan is honest with himself, he prefers Damon like this. It's easy to snipe back and forth with him. Fun, almost. He can focus on being irritated at Damon's childish actions and acerbic comebacks and ignore all of the larger problems. When Damon is like this, Stefan can be sure that neither of them is really going to say anything. He would never admit out loud that he finds it comforting. They know each other, he and Damon. And sometimes, much as he complains about his brother, the constancy of Damon's presence is reassuring.
Stefan begins to sort through papers. He can never forgive his brother for killing Zach or any of the other terrible things he's done. Yet, at the same time, he always forgives Damon. No matter what his older brother has done, they always go back to the same patterns. They annoy each other, they argue, sometimes they even fight. But Stefan always expects Damon to come if he calls.
And Damon does often enough that Stefan's expectations are justified. It occurs to Stefan that Damon may feel the same. Stefan had dosed Damon with vervain and starved him in the basement, but there his brother is, eyes closed on the bed.
"You're getting mud on my bed," Stefan says in annoyance, glaring at his brother's booted feet.
"You'll clean it up later," Damon says unconcernedly.
Stefan throws the papers back down to the floor and grabs his jacket.
"Where are you going, little brother?" Damon asks, still not opening his eyes.
"Out," Stefan says, sounding like the seventeen-year-old that he's supposed to be.
"Why?"
"So that I don't kill you and get blood all over my sheets, too," Stefan mutters, knowing that he sounds ridiculous.
Damon laughs outright. "You're going on a walk for my health?"
Stefan doesn't respond. When he's half way down the stairs, he hears the clunk of Damon's boots hitting the floor.