A/N: Bonus chapter this week! I love you all! Unfortunately, not much Delijah in here, just some angst and sibling bonding. This story is worse than my Klefan ones. It just does whatever it wants

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries. If I did ... Let's just say that Klefan & Delijah dinner party would have ended way different!

Damon was sitting on the couch, reading a thick old grimoire. The Gilberts had left shortly after Elena's crying session and Stefan had claimed he needed to hunt. She wasn't an idiot but didn't call him on his transparent lie, enjoying having the house to herself and no distractions.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, opening the message from Ric reluctantly. It was probably yet another rant about how much of a dick she was for snapping his neck and she was hesitant to read it.

'I heard about what happened. Is this a joke?' the message said and Damon almost laughed. She wished it was just some prank.

'Sorry to ruin your day, I really did grow tits overnight,' she replied before tucking the phone back in her pocket and turning back to the book.

There was nothing in the book that was of any use at all. No one had recorded any spell like this, at least not in this journal, and what little hope she'd had was already plummeting. They were right. All of them. The odds of finding a spell like this were minor and the odds of getting a witch to reverse it were even smaller. This would never end well; he'd be stuck like this forever.

Damon could feel her emotions welling up, burning through her, and quickly stood, gathering the grimoire in her arms and walking to the shelf. Maybe she slammed it back into its housing with less than the respect it deserved, hearing the old wood of the shelves groan in complaint.

As if her day wasn't awful enough already the sound of fluttering paper caught her ears and Damon barely jumped out of the way as a book hit the spot where she had just been. Her phone buzzed in her pocket again and she slipped it out instinctively as she scooped up the book, dumping the leather-bound tome on the coffee table as she read that message.

'Are you okay? This must be hard,' it read, almost making her smile. Ric was going to be mad for a while, that was obvious. Snapping his neck was definitely not a good way to maintain friendship but at least he cared enough to ask.

Her pale fingers had started typing out a reply, a short sarcastic bitchy one, when a faded photograph on the floor caught her eyes. The phone was slipped back into Damon's pocket as he gingerly picked up the paper, looking at the image.

She was standing with Stefan, back when she was still a he. They were smiling, laughing, as someone took the photo and Damon could vaguely remember that day. Stefan had just done something amazing, as usual, and Giuseppe insisted on a photo to commemorate the occasion. The older Salvatore was never meant to be in it but Stefan had looked so grouchy, so bored, that she had decided the best way to cure it was to make it a group shot.

As usual, the punishment had been swift and painful, but it had been worth it. Seeing Stefan smile like that, watching the mirth light up his green eyes had been more than enough for Damon. Her little brother had never smiled enough. The only times he had really been happy was around Damon and their cousin, Danielle.

Damon's feet had taken her to the couch without her brain registering it, only realizing when her body slumped against the leather. The photo was still in her hand as tears stubbornly pricked at her eyes despite her attempts to shove down the emotions again. This wasn't something she wanted to think about, especially not now.

Danielle had died in her arms. The story she had told Elijah had been true, partially. Damon had always loved her cousin, born merely weeks after her. Stefan had always been her priority but that wasn't something she cared about. Danni had always understood. She had loved her cousin, completely and unconditionally and Damon had loved her too.

She had been dying, from some problem with her lungs, and she had wanted to save her. If Damon was stuck living for eternity she wanted Danni to be able to live too, not die a slow and painful death while she was coughing up blood. She had just wanted to save her. Instead she hadn't fed her enough blood and she never woke up.

A tear dropped from her ice blue eye onto the photo and she sucked in a deep shuddering breath, glad no one was around to see her cry. Damon Salvatore never wanted to look weak. That resolve didn't stop tears trickling in steady streams down her cheeks as she stared at the photo, happier times flooding through her mind and making her wish she had just run before Stefan could make her turn, before any of this happened.

She never noticed the Original lurking in the hallway, looking at her with sorrowful eyes. Elijah hadn't expected to see the woman crying, tears pouring freely down her cheeks as she looked at a photo. He couldn't see what the picture was but the elegant writing on the back was easy to read from his position in the hall. Damon and Stefan, 1861.

Her tears were genuine, that much was clear, and something in Elijah stopped him from interrogating her like he had planned to when she looked like that. He couldn't hurt her, not now. He lived by a strict moral code and part of the ingrained rules in his mind was that he couldn't hurt women. If he had a choice he wouldn't and he couldn't change that. Over the years his morals had changed and that was unavoidably true but this was one thing Elijah had refused to let change. He would never hurt a woman, not on purpose.

A quiet sob caught his attention and his deep brown eyes snapped up to watch Damon again. As he watched her cry something in him rebelled and he was gone from the house, blurring out as silently as he had come and standing in the trees. Elijah didn't move a muscle as he waited for the younger Salvatore to return, not wanting to risk the girl doing something if she was alone.

Damon's tears were dry by the time Stefan got home, turbulent emotions hidden again. A false reassurance was sitting in Ric's messages and there was no sign she had been crying. The photo was tucked back into the leather-bound book, hidden from prying eyes and a glass of bourbon was in her hand, as usual.

"I was thinking," Stefan quietly ventured, "that maybe there's a reason for this. Some reason we don't understand. It's possible, isn't it?"

Damon shot her brother a glare, snapping, "Besides making us vulnerable what reason could there be for this? What, do you think it's some bizarre form of penance?" She snorted, taking a mouthful of her drink. "If it is, it's definitely a creative punishment."

Stefan sighed, rapping his ring against the table as he thought. It wasn't a new habit but it was definitely still an annoying one. Every single time he went into his withdrawal this would start. Once he was firmly on the bunny diet it would stop until he fell off his imaginary wagon again.

"When the last time you really ate?" she asked, giving him a warning glare, one that clearly said 'don't even try and lie to me'.

He shrugged, muttering, "I went hunting today. I caught a deer."

Damon rolled her eyes, downing the rest of her drink and reiterating, "Really ate Stefan. I don't mean the bunny diet and you know it. I mean fresh-from-the-vein human blood. Withdrawal doesn't suit you, brother."

Her tone was harsh, sarcastic, but the worry in her chest was genuine. After the memories of losing their cousin had flooded Damon's mind he wasn't interested in losing her brother too, not to bloodlust or to death. She had no one else.

"I'm fine Damon. It'll get easier," Stefan insisted as he stood and started to leave.

In an instant she was in front of him, grabbing him by the shirt and spinning him into the wall as words tore from her throat, unbidden, snarling, "No you're not ! You never will be until you stop pretending you can survive like this! I don't want to lose you, not now!"

His green eyes were wide in shock and guilt as he stared at Damon, speechless for a second. Her brain caught a second to catch up with her mouth and when she realised her hands vanished, letting her little brother slump slightly, before choking out a weak sarcastic comment.

"I knew I could get a reaction out of you."

Stefan's eyes softened before he tugged Damon closer, holding his big brother-sister in his arms in a way he hadn't since they were children. She stiffened in his embrace before her too-thin too-delicate arms slipped around his waist, grip tight even as she felt nothing but hesitant.

"I'm sorry Damon," he sighed softly, reaching up to run his fingers through the messy black hair. "I don't want to kill people anymore."

She rolled her eyes, pulling away from him as she folded her arms with a dark glare. It was so clearly Damon, reminding Stefan so vividly of when they were human, that it didn't seem nearly as odd to accept the woman as his brother. He had always gotten that glare whenever he'd made any mistake at all.

"I don't kill people anymore," Damon reminded, mentally adding a 'much' to that statement. "What you need to do is learn self-control. You were never good at controlling yourself."

Stefan shook his head, muttering, "Coming from you that's hilarious. Your control is worse than mine."

Damon stopped for a second, trying to think of a retort, before shrugging and trying to grin as she teased, "At least you won't have to worry about Elena choosing me anymore. I don't think she's into girls."

The comment actually hurt the older Salvatore slightly but she ignored it, resigning herself to the fact Elena would have always chosen Stefan. She had just been a fun boy-toy, a game, and that was all it ever would have been. For some reason the tiny flare of pain wasn't as bad as she thought it would've been.

"Damon," Stefan sighed, eyes guilty. "I wouldn't have cared who she chose. Not after Katherine hurt you like that. Not after Elena turned out to be like her."

Something seemed to be lurking behind his words, dancing on the tip of his tongue, but the door opened and someone called and the moment was gone. Stefan moved away from her, heading to the front door to greet whoever it was and Damon sighed. She didn't like her baby brother keeping secrets, not after this summer.

Thanks for reading. Reviews is more chapters and Delijah loving!

~Klefan-Lover