Ev'rybody got problems, buddy. I got mine.
When midnight comes around, I start to lose my mind.
When the sun puts out the light,
I join the creatures of the night.
Sleepwalker – The Kinks


Stefan got two steps into the boarding house and instantly knew something was very very wrong. Panic hit him at the faint smell of blood coming from upstairs. Before he got that far, he saw Damon standing naked in the front room staring at the fireplace. Unsure which thing to deal with first, he froze in the hallway long enough to realize Damon wasn't moving either. His body rocked into gear, stepping toward his brother first.

As he neared, he noticed Damon was frozen with the same stoic look on his face as the night before.

At least he was breathing. Stefan tried not to look too closely other than the cursory check. It wasn't like he hadn't seen his brother naked before. His brother had been an exhibitionist from the start. Skinny dipping as boys in the quarry when they were human, the phase they went through in the sixties, long after they turned, when free love was all the rage, and they got drunk on dandelion wine and spent an entire summer trying to get a full-body tan. Then there were the random occasions through the decades in between when they crashed somewhere together for a while and Damon went wandering through the halls bare-assed for no reason at all.

But something about it felt invasive and wrong if Damon wasn't intentionally putting himself on display. So Stefan kept his eyes above Damon's waist. That's when he saw the traces of scratches on Damon's arms. There weren't actual cuts, but there were remnants of dried blood where the wounds had closed beneath it. Damon still hadn't moved, hadn't even acknowledged Stefan's presence.

Before trying to snap him out of it, Stefan stepped away, going up the stairs to follow the stronger smell of blood. It was on the door, or at least, on the wood that used to be Damon's door.

"What the hell!"

Suddenly Damon was standing next to him looking mildly concerned. "What's wrong?"

"You tell me!" Stefan looked back and forth between Damon's confused expression and the mess of wood all over the floor in the doorway.

Leaning over Stefan's shoulder, Damon surveyed the debris. "What the hell did you do to my door?"

"Are you serious?" Stefan demanded. "I just got home!" He grabbed Damon's arm, fingers tracing the blood along his forearms, finding more in the creases of his knuckles and palms. "What did you do?"

"Me?" Damon looked at his hands as if he had never seen them before. He seemed to realize Stefan was still holding his arm at the same time and wrenched it away.

"Damon," Stefan started, but didn't really know what question should follow. Damn, the man was a mess. Hair matted with dried sweat, odd marks where scratches must have been on his sides and chest from crashing through the door. Fuck. Stefan was an idiot for leaving. What the hell happened?

"I have no idea, man." Damon shrugged, answering anyway.

They stared at the mess in silence, expecting answers to reveal themselves, until Damon started picking at the dried blood on his skin. "Where were you?"

Stefan looked up at him, a sense of shame growing. "With Elena."

"Oh. Of course." Damon lowered his arms but kept rubbing his fingers together. "I thought she wasn't staying?"

"She left after our disagreement." Stefan scratched at his face, a rush of guilt flooding him for walking away at the mere hint of worry. For not wanting to deal with whatever Damon was up to. "I went over there to make up with her."

"You were fighting?"

His genuine surprise confused Stefan. "You don't remember?"

Damon scoffed. "Should I?"

Stefan's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Damon had been standing at the top of the stairs when Elena left. His eyes wide open. Stefan figured their argument had drawn him out. Damon would have heard the whole thing. Yes, he damn well should remember... if he had been awake.

"What do you remember?"

Damon was silent for a few moments as Stefan's brow furrowed deeper. "I didn't sleep well."

Stefan waited for Damon to continue. When it looked like he wasn't going to add anything, Stefan pinched the bridge of his nose. That only reminded him of Damon's blood that had gotten on his fingertips. "Is that it?"

Ignoring Stefan, Damon started nudging the rest of the wood around his doorway with his toe and pushing it into a pile. "You two were in the kitchen talking, I went upstairs. She complained about me for a while, and then she started telling you how totally awesome the Founders Day parade was going to be this year. Like they all aren't complete disasters. Then she told you about the dress she bought before Caroline got to it." He rolled his eyes, "I don't really remember what happened after she started talking about how I was ruining all the fun events in town."

Stefan shook his head. "You were standing at the top of the stairs," he crossed his arms and thought to add, "wearing pants, when she left." He narrowed his eyes. "You saw me and went back into your room."

"Oh yeah." Damon looked away like he was trying to remember as he scratched his hand over flaking bits of dried blood on his chest. "I kicked those before I tried to go to sleep. I had a really weird fucking dream. Then I woke up to you screaming like a bitch a minute ago."

"You woke up downstairs standing in front of the fireplace. Still naked." Stefan reminded him.

"Hmm." Damon looked at his hands again, regarded his nudity with indifference, and then looked back at the pile on the ground. "And apparently I did this?" He looked at Stefan again to confirm he understood. "And you didn't hear it because you weren't here."

"Right." Damon wasn't accusing him of anything, but he still felt responsible for leaving. His face pinched a little before he looked up into Damon's eyes again. "Hey, I shouldn't let her talk about you that way."

The corner of Damon's lip twitched up, as he arched his back and folded his arms behind his head. Stefan's eyes briefly got caught on the long lean line of bare skin before he flicked them away. He was well practiced at keeping his gaze elsewhere. Damon's smirk grew. "Oh I didn't mind that part. I like the attention." His laugh fell short of being genuine, but Stefan took it as a pardon anyway. There seemed to be bigger issues at the moment.

"You should wash up and get dressed. I can take care of this."

"Hardware store after?" Damon lowered his arms, looking back at the mangled wood in the doorframe. "Need to replace it while I get something ordered that matches the rest."

"Sure." Stefan nodded, surprised at the invitation.

Damon stepped through the doorway towards his bathroom. "Have to preserve my modesty, after all." He laughed again, sounding lighter. Stefan caught a glimpse of Damon shaking his ass before he turned the corner.

It took Stefan a few seconds to start gathering the debris.


Later that night, after their shopping trip progressed into catching a movie, getting drinks at a better bar out of town, installing the door, and finally bringing his journal up to date, Stefan put down his pen and stretched. It wasn't that he was sore, exactly, but he felt restless and uneasy. Damon had gone to take a nap after the door was installed, complaining about going out before stores were even open.

Spending the day with his brother had been interesting. He thought keeping an eye on Damon would be necessary, but his brother acted like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. They didn't talk about anything too serious, but they didn't fight either. Stefan knew better than to think Damon would open up in one day about all the things they didn't share with each other, but having the time together, just them, had been nice. Something they hadn't done in a long time without some kind of ulterior motive.

Stefan changed into more comfortable clothes. He knew he needed to feed and decided to go for a run while he was out. Warring over whether he should invite his brother, he found himself standing in front of Damon's room as if the decision had already been made. At the newly installed door, he heard knocking that had nothing to do with his hand hovering over the surface.

It took a second to discern the noise was coming from the front of the house.

"Stefan?" Elena poked her head around the door, looking around before finding him at the top of the stairs. Her face split in a grin that Stefan couldn't help but mirroring. He moved away from his brother's door and met her at the bottom of the stairs in an embrace.

"How was your trip?"

"Complete success." She smiled up at him. "I even talked to Bonnie about you and I being together, and I think she's starting to understand."

"Yeah?" Stefan wasn't sure why Elena was so hung up on Bonnie's blessing but it didn't hurt to have a witch not hating him.

"Well I told her we're, you know..." Elena bit her lip and shyly looked down while still encircled by Stefan's arms.

"We're what?" Curious, Stefan waited for Elena to look back up at him.

"I told her how much we're in love. And she really-"

A thunderous sound cut her off, the ceiling shaking with the force of it. It came from upstairs, and it made Stefan think of really heavy furniture plowing through the floor. Stefan lowered his arms and stepped away from Elena, suddenly worried about Damon barreling through his new door and demolishing it again.

Instead it flung open with Damon pulling on a button-up and scowling. Guess he wasn't asleep.

"Damon, what the hell happened?" There were no injury or scent of blood that Stefan could detect, but something upstairs had definitely been damaged. "What did you break this time?"

Damon stopped in the middle of the stairway and scanned between them. A dry click sounded in his throat and his eyes snapped away from Elena to Stefan. "Everything."

Alarmed, Stefan pulled Elena slightly closer and she frowned. She had a mix of worry and annoyance in her stare and her mouth parted to speak, but Stefan caught it in time. With a few fingers over her lips, and her annoyance redirected toward him, Stefan only nodded as Damon passed.

He was finally paying attention, and he was beginning to notice a pattern. He glanced down at the girl in his arms, and up at his distressed brother. "I'll see you in a few days then, I guess."

Damon snarled some nonword. It wasn't an audible reply, more like a primeval fuck off which Stefan heeded. He even refrained from asking where Damon was going. As Damon picked up his keys and stalked out the front door, Stefan was pretty sure he knew Damon's reply anyway.

Out.


A/N: Thanks for the support and reviews. They really mean a lot to me. I hope you enjoyed picturing Damon naked while holding a normal conversation! ;)