"Stefan I'm telling you don't risk it."
Elena paused when she heard Damon's sharp voice in the room next door. Stealthily, she peered into the room only to see both Damon and Stefan in a cogent argument. Damon's head swiftly turned towards the door and she immediately crept into the darkness. Elena knew he could sense her presence but he wasn't doing anything about it. Instead, he turned to look at Stefan while she continued to listen.
"Are you actually trying to protect me?"She heard Stefan challenge him.
"I'm trying to protect Elena."Damon hissed between his teeth. "You could die for all I care."
"Exactly." Stefan pointed out and Elena saw a completely baffled Damon nod in confusion. "Except you do care!"Stefan went on. "You'd go to Italy without my knowledge to deal with a mess I made."
"I love the heroic attention."Damon spoke slyly and clicked his tongue. "I told you."
"You lied."Stefan narrowed his sharp eyes at Damon who stood leaning against the fragile, broken window. "You're coming to my wedding after Elena asked you. Don't you think that costs you a little of your sensitivity?"He didn't let Damon interject him and quickly went on "Considering you hardly have any left."
"Miss a one in a lifetime chance to see my baby brother exchange vows with the whole I love you, I love you la la ceremony only to be seen dead the next day? Never."He paused and snapped his fingers. "Such a bittersweet ending don't you think?" The corner of his mouth broke into a mischievous smile that reached up to his eyes. Elena didn't understand. Dead?
Stefan shook his head and slowly bent down to pick his jacket up. "No."His gaze followed Damon who began walking around the room simultaneously picking anything interesting up to browse. "You throw me some of the post pathetic excuses but in the end, it just leads to one thing."
"Oh really?"Damon chuckled and returned the photo frame of Stefan and Elena to where he first found it. "And what is that?"
"You want something. You seek something that no one's willing to give you."Stefan approached his older brother and looked directly into his dark, malign eyes. "And you won't rest till you get it."
Both brothers were eye to eye and nothing but awkward silence beleaguered them that moment. Elena felt the goose bumps slowly emerge on my skin like mushrooms after rain. The tension in the room didn't last very long when Damon started chuckling as though something humoured him. Stefan continued to stare at his amused older brother who looked like a laughing child who did not understand the word 'danger'. It was natural for children to seem carefree and ignorant when it came to understanding serious things because....they never understood anything. This fact only made Damon seem like a retard.
"Bravo, baby brother."Damon clapped his hands and tossed his brother an impressed nod. "Such a heart-felt speech. Brilliant!" He took a deep breath, exhaled and smiled. "What were you trying to do exactly?"Damon narrowed his eyes. "Pull the sensitivity out of me with some of your psychological tricks?"
"And you want Elena." Stefan sneered and watched Damon's humoured expression slowly fade away. "You feel for her."
"Excuse me?"
Stefan ignored him and went on. "You don't want her away from you."He snickered. "Her absence makes you weak." He sensed Damon chuckling but this time, the chuckle sounded more forced than all of his previous chuckles. It was then, when Stefan knew he had reached Damon's weak point and all Damon could try and do to save his ego, or in his words 'dignity', was to put up an act. An act of ignorance which, after nearly two hundred years, could not fool Stefan any longer.
"Admit it Damon." He challenged and looked directly into his brother's immortal eyes. "Why do you keep crawling back to us? To Elena? Why can't you just live alone with your own life and not interfere with ours?"Stefan's words were sharp and wounding but Damon showed no sign of defeat. "Easy."Stefan answered his own rhetorical question. "Because you're alone."
"You've always been alone ever since Katherine's death and you have never, ever since then, let anyone into your life because you were heartbroken. I get it."
Elena waited for Damon to make a move but he didn't and it was starting to frighten her. He was either really hurt by Stefan's tactless truth or was recharging to pounce on Stefan once the 'speech' was over.
"But it has been nearly two hundred years Damon. You fight to let your anger out. You hate me because I'm moving on and the more you abhor me, the more we fight and the more you grow closer to me." He paused and watched Damon smile for no apparent reason. "And you enjoy it not because of the satisfaction you get through torturing people. But because you know you won't be alone and forgotten." Pause. "Damon Salavatore."Stefan spoke sarcastically. "Everyone knows that infamous name."
Damon's silence was sending the shivers down my spine.
"Then Elena comes into the picture."Stefan sneered and stared at his brother's unmoved face. "And she reminds you so much of Katherine that it kills you."He paused. "And you're falling for her but that hurts even more because you have never loved anyone anymore after Katherine's death."Stefan looked into Damon's pitched black eyes. "Elena is the only reason you have a speck of humanity left inside of you."
Stefan retreated and crossed both his arms across his chest. "So tell me Damon." He went on. "What's the real reason here? You've cleaned up all the old messes I made and all the rules I broke. Why not let this one? After all, there's no such thing has big rules and smaller rules in our real."He pursed his lips. "I'm sure you're of that. After all, you have been spending your life graduating our world several times, aren't I right?"Stefan raised an eyebrow but Damon's face did not change. He merely stared at Stefan with malevolence and in any minute, Elena knew that that patience in him was going to run out.
"Is it because you don't want to see me happy? Or Elena happy? Or Elena officially mine?"He paused. "Or are you afraid to admit that you've lost this game you've put the both of us in. You took the wrong path in life and ended up being stoic to keep your ego up. Deep down, you know you've lost this game you play Damon. Your own game. You lost it." Stefan's voice went lower and lower that it made it difficult for me to make out the words.
"And along the way...."Stefan continued. "You lost your humanity, your heart, your trust..."Then his voice spoke in a whisper but it was a loud enough whisper for me to hear. "And your brother." He mumbled under his breath. "Your only "source of family."
"Well maybe he's doing it so he wouldn't lose his only source of family."
Stefan peered over Damon's shoulders only to see Elena emerge through the door.
"Ah, Elena."Damon exclaimed and gave Stefan and malice smile. "About time you joined us."
"About time?"Stefan was confused.
"Didn't you know?"Damon crossed his arms and gave his brother a sarcastic look of surprise. "Elena has been listening the whole time."After noticing how tongue-tied his brother was, he went on. "Oh that's right. You've been starving yourself for days to even recharge your powers." He snorted.
"Elena..."
"What's going on Stefan?"Elena looked at both brothers.
"Yeah, what's going on baby brother?"Damon tilted his head and looked at his brother.
"Elena...I."He sighed. "It's complicated."
"So beat it."Elena palavered. "It didn't sound that complicated while the both of you were discussing."
Stefan opened his mouth to answer but Elena interrupted him. "Anyway whatever the two of you were discussing, Stefan, maybe Damon's doing it so he wouldn't lose his only source of family."
Damon pursed his lips, impressed.
"You don't know him Elena." Stefan's voice sounded more like a warning.
"I don't think I know you either." Elena crossed her arms across her chest and shook her head. Damon whistled. "There are just so many things I didn't realise that I didn't know. You and Damon...the two of you keep secrets between yourselves and I feel so....lost."
"Which is why I mentioned earlier that there are a lot of things about the Salvatore brothers that you have to find out?" Damon butted in and Stefan raised an eyebrow.
"Earlier?"
"Yeah."Damon shrugged. "We had breakfast together." He noticed the confused, lost look on Stefan's face and smiled. "Oh wait, she didn't tell you."
Stefan looked at Elena who shifted uncomfortably.
"It's just breakfast."
"With Damon."Stefan added in.
"My brother-in-law to be."Elena snapped and he fell silent. "Besides you were at the library and Bonnie and Meredith knew anyway."
"Elena, he's dangerous."
"How dangerous could he get?"Elena snapped and Damon whistled again.
"I wouldn't ask that question if I were you Elena."He shrugged and picked up a miniature statue from the old oak wood table Mrs. Flowers would leave Stefan's mail at.
"I'm not afraid of you."She glared at Damon then turned back at Stefan. "I'm not afraid of Damon. I can't be cradled by you in the wilderness. I'm a vampire too Stefan. I've got to learn to live."
"At least your fiancée has sense."Damon muttered and returned the miniature statue. "Even she knows a normal vampire's behaviour."He approached his older brother and whispered into Stefan's ears. "Survival, baby brother. Even if it goes against humanity."
Ignoring him, Stefan turned to look at Elena. "Did you feed on human blood?"
"WHAT?"
"She fed on me."Damon clicked his tongue and grinned.
"What? No! What the hell Damon?"She exclaimed but Damon seemed to be enjoying every minute of Stefan's confusion. For the first time ever, he seemed to be dubious about Elena's answer. His eyes were focused on Damon's, and only Damon's.
"Admit it Stefan. You're just jealous how people connect with me easier because of my generosity of sharing blood." He sighed and pulled his sunglasses out of his jacket. "It's a wonder why people don't connect with you...."
"You force people with your blood Damon."Stefan snickered. "You want them to connect with you. You're desperate."He felt the blood boil inside of him. Even the Elena's grip on his arms grew tighter when she noticed him slowly leaning towards Damon. "You're desperate."He repeated, spitting between his teeth. "Because you're alone."
Damon's coal black eyes grew darker and darker than it already words until it looked like dark voids. Slipping his sunglasses over his eyes, Damon fetched his jacket off their bed and stopped to look at his young brother.
"Chill. It's your wedding tomorrow." Then he looked at the both of them. "You two have a great wedding."
Elena couldn't see his eyes so she couldn't guess his expression. Instead, she watched him disappear behind the front door, leaving it ajar. When he was gone, and this time, she was sure he was gone, she turned to look at Stefan who looked calmer than he had been a few seconds ago.
"What was that about?" She demanded.
"What?"
"The whole tactless speech?"
"Something Damon deserves to listen to."
"No he doesn't."She defended. "As much as we both find Damon irritating that wasn't the right way Stefan. That's what Damon does to bring his adversaries down. You're not like that."
She slowly pulled her hands away and looked at him. "Stefan, I did not take any of Damon's blood."
She expected an 'It's okay' or a hug or a kiss but Stefan didn't move. Instead, he hesitantly shrugged and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt. "I'm exhausted."
He laid on one side of the bed with his back facing her. Sighing, she crept up beside him and rested her chin on his shoulder and a hand on his arm. "Sorry."She whispered and gave him a short kiss on the cheek but he didn't reply.
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