Damon lay in a naked and crumpled heap on the floor. Stefan could feel the bones in his face fusing back together. Both brothers were breathing heavily.
"Get this thing out of my chest" Damon said with ragged breaths.
"Only if you swear to tell me what is going on with you Damon," Stefan's words were a little mumbled as his jaw was healing, "and you promise not to try to kill me again, at least not until I know why."
"Fine, just hurry up will you," Damon glared at him.
The floor was slick with Damon's blood and Stefan slipped when he tried to stand up and landed with his face in Damon's lap.
"Find something you like down there?" he asked in a humorless voice.
Stefan grabbed the stake and twisted it. Damon yelped in pain.
"Now are you done with the snarky remarks brother?" he asked with a growl.
"If you are done with the comments, I will pull this thing out of you" Stefan said as he straddled Damon.
Damon looked up into his eyes and mentally promised to make Stefan's death extremely slow and painful. But he finally agreed to stop the comments.
Neither one noticed that Elena was standing at the top of the stairs watching the scene with her mouth hanging open.
"What the hell is going on?" she demanded in a voice filled with mixed emotions. She was shocked to say the least, but also somewhat angry.
They were suppose to be working on a paper for English class. She did not understand the topic and Stefan had offered to help her with the research.
Now her boyfriend is straddling his very naked brother. It would almost be humorous if not for the blood soaked floor. They had been fighting yet again.
"Well hello Elena", Damon smirked at her.
"Oh, Elena. I can explain this, this" Stefan stutters the words as his hands make a sweeping gesture around them, "is not what it looks like."
"I don't really care what is going on Stefan," Elena says through gritted teeth. "I will be at home when you are free to help me on the research", she barks the words at him as she descends the stairs.
Both, Damon and Stefan, jump at the sound of the front door being slammed shut.
Stefan starts to get up from his kneeling position in front of Damon, when he feels a slick hand on his arm.
"Did you forget something?" Damon asks in a shaky voice.
"I need to go after her, tell her what happened here", Stefan almost whines to Damon.
"I don't care if you shout your undying love from the roof, just pull this stake out of my chest before you go anywhere", Damon says in a calm voice. He knows that he cant afford to lose any more blood.
"Besides, I thought you wanted to know why I am going to kill you"', was Damon's only snarky remark to Stefan.
Suddenly there was a sick slurping sound as Stefan pulled the splintered wood out of Damon's chest.
Damon screamed.
Stefan was worried, Damon never screamed, never cried, never showed any emotions except disdain for others.