Prompt: Stefan, madness is like gravity; all it takes is a little push
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There's blood on the corner of Elena's mouth.
It's staining the white white skin underneath it, white with death and rebirth and innocence and he thinks there might be a metaphor behind the staining of her innocent white skin but he can't think around the blood.
She doesn't notice it, staring at Damon with wide eyes as he tells her to slow down her breathing. "Control it," his brother says, just the right amount of force. "Don't let it control you." Elena takes another breath in - slowly - and the blood begins to drip down the side of her mouth. How can she not feel it - it's all Stefan feels.
His tongue dips out from his mouth to the phantom bloodspot, licking away - nothing. There's nothing on the corner of his lips because it's not his blood to drink - he gave it up, remember?
He forgets sometimes too.
Elena's veins are receding and her fangs begin to shrink back into her mouth; there's no trace of the monster she just became except for the drip of red blood that still dangles from her mouth. She's a monster - the girl he loves is a monster now, she's the thing he hates, and it's his fault - his fault for letting her drown. Damon would have saved her. Stefan should have saved her. Stefan is a pile of good intentions in a poorly executed body. (But is it really good intentions if he didn't want to deal with her hatred? Was it less selfish to let her die than to live with the very thing he could not stand?) Damon is raising a hand to wipe the blood off, he's - wasting. That'swasteful.
Stefan blurs across the small floorspace of the morgue, grabs Damon's hand.
Presses a kiss to the corner of Elena's mouth, lets his tongue soak up the blood beginning to dry on the side of her face. Moves back to her mouth to pretend that that was his end goal. (The blood is human. Type O+. Lukewarm from staying on Elena's skin for so long. It's the most delicious thing he's had since he "got good" again.)
He stops kissing Elena and looks back at his brother; Damon's eyes are a cold blue, a wary blue. His brother's eyes hold too many concerns - he's supposed to be the bad brother. He's the big, bad brother who looks out for himself. (But maybe Stefan's now the bad brother - he killed the girl they love. Isn't that what the bad guy does?)
He presses another kiss to Elena just to prove the first wasn't about the blood. He tries to be gentle before realizing he doesn't have to be. (She's dead. He killed her. She's a monster now - a chasm of blood just like him.)
He looks into her eyes and sees wariness where before he saw only trust. Confusion when he saw surety. (Here's a secret he'll never tell: she will never forgive him for letting her die and she will never tell him.)
"Lighten up, brother." He claps a hand onto Damon's shoulder, the other arm wrapped tightly around Elena. "Looks like we've got ourselves an immortal girlfriend." Elena flinches away. Damon's eyes close of their own accord, weary.
He has human blood in his system and he killed the girl he loves.
So they want to make him the bad guy?
Fine. He's a ripper.
(A ripper doesn't stop.)
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