Brother-Bonding

Damon gasps, jolted awake by the sharp piercing of Stefan’s knife at his wrist. But it was a weak gasp, barely more than any other intake of breath. This was how weak he was, unable to even try and contemplate twitching his wrist away from the knife.

It’s been three days, three days of being violently awoken before sinking back into unconsciousness after his blood had been drained yet again. Sometimes, when Damon’s lucid enough, he wonders what Stefan does with it all. Usually, he doesn’t stay awake long enough to come up with a single idea.

This time is different, though, because it’s taking a little longer than usual. Damon can open his eyes a few millimeters and he sees Stefan with his hair messy and his top button undone.

“Took you long enough,” Damon rasps out, closing his eyes because leaving them open was too much effort.

“Sorry, I was busy.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me, Stefan. I know Rebekah likes to take her time.” A ghost of a smile on Damon’s face. He can feel himself slipping away again.

The last thing he hears is Stefan’s chuckle before he blacks out again.

---

The next time Damon speaks to Stefan is a week later. He’s surprised that it’s been so long; their hostage attempts never usually turn out so well and he’d have expected somebody to bust him out by now.

Mostly he’s been waiting for Elena, but after what Stefan told him before he supposes he shouldn’t be so surprised that she hasn’t come to visit him yet.

“So how long are you planning to keep this up, little brother?” Damon’s back is against the stone walls, and he watches Stefan drain him again. It doesn’t hurt anymore, and Damon finds the look of concentration on Stefan’s face strangely intriguing, the way Stefan was always so careful not to take too much or too little. “It must suck, trying to find a cure when you’ve got to come running back to me every couple of days. You know, if you weren’t such a micromanager, I’m sure you’d get a lot more work done.”

Stefan never takes Damon’s bait anymore. In fact, sometimes, Stefan even likes it when Damon tries to get a rise out of him, because bantering with his brother is something he misses. Even if Stefan also happens to be in the middle of bleeding Damon out for the nth time.

“Well, it’s not like we’re in any kind of rush, huh?” Stefan cleans off the knife on Damon’s jeans (it’s not like Damon could do anything about it anyway) and watches as the wound begins to slowly heal itself and Damon’s eyes start to flutter shut.

“Besides, I don’t mind too much.”

(Stefan thinks that Damon had already gone back to sleep when he says this, but Damon’s always been an excellent liar.)

---

One time, Elena sneaks down to see Damon, but she hadn’t realized that Stefan was already down there. She’s about to back away, not wanting Stefan to catch her and actually make it so that she couldn’t visit him at all, but then she hears that they’re having a conversation.

“Her ears. That always gets her off quickly. Just nibble on ‘em a bit and she’ll be putty in your hands.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“But if you really wanna blow her mind, there’s this spot behind her knee…”

Elena leaves at this point, half embarrassed and half upset that she’d just overheard the two brothers talk about Rebekah’s erogenous zones like they were sharing secrets. She doesn’t even want to know what they say about her down there.

(Elena’s weak spot is her tummy, she’s embarrassed to admit.)

---

“How goes the hunt, Stef?” Damon asks pleasantly when he sees Stefan’s face pop up from behind the bars of the cell.

Stefan comes more often now, like clockwork, so Damon always knows when to expect him. Nowadays, Stefan bleeds him daily, but just enough to make Damon too weak to actually escape. He doesn’t knock Damon out anymore.

Damon suspects that Stefan enjoys their little chats more than he’d like to admit. Damon also suspects that the same could be said about himself as well. This makes Damon a little uncomfortable, but also a little sad.

“Same as usual. Who’d have believed that an ancient, long-lost cure would be so hard to find, huh?”

“Who indeed,” Damon repeats, watching as Stefan comes into the cell and takes out the all-too-familiar knife from his back pocket.

“If you asked me, I think it’s taking you so long because you keep wasting your time coming down here to visit little old me,” Damon continues, wincing a little at the first cut.

Stefan stiffens a bit at this, eyes cutting to meet Damon’s sharply. “I’m not wasting my time,” he says, not really answering Damon’s obviously-not-so-obvious question.

“You know, if you wanted some brother-bonding time, you could have just asked.”

Damon doesn’t know why he’s saying these things. He watches as the shutters start to close in Stefan’s eyes, how his mouth presses into a hard line.

“I’m just doing my job,” snaps Stefan irritably, getting to his feet. “It’s not like I want to be here.”

“Sure, Stefan. Sure.”

Damon watches Stefan slam the door shut and lock it angrily, listens to the heavy stomp of his brother’s feet as the march back up the stairs. There’s a slight sinking feeling in his chest and he wonders when spending time with his brother had become so uncomfortable and unwelcome. Stefan might be a self-righteous ass a lot of the time, but worse could be said about Damon. And Stefan doesn’t seem to hate him all that much, despite of this.

Damon also wonders when pushing his brother away become so much of a habit.

(Stefan isn’t all that bad. He’s his brother, nothing related to Damon could be all that bad, their father being an exception. Damon won’t admit that maybe he misses his brother.

Just a little.)

---

Stefan doesn’t come back for another three days, enough that Damon is up and pacing in his cell. To Damon’s credit, he doesn’t attack Stefan the minute he walks into the cell, but he doesn’t hold back on the swearing he does as Stefan digs the knife into his skin.

“Tell me why we have to keep doing this again?” Damon asks, if only to get Stefan talking again.

“Because you’re compelled to kill Jeremy.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“Of course it is.” Stefan sounds a little annoyed at this, like he can’t believe that Damon would think otherwise.

“Since when do you care about whether Jeremy dies anymore?”

“I don’t know, because Elena might be a little bit upset when she finds out her boyfriend killed her brother?”

“And since when do you care about Elena? Aren’t you still in that denial phase of yours?” Damon smirks at Stefan, who just stares back, unimpressed.

“Because it’d also hurt you, too, Damon!” Stefan snaps back snippily. “You may find this hard to believe, but you are still my brother. Even if I do want to kill you ninety percent of the time.”

This takes Damon aback; his eyes wide open as he stares at Stefan, completely nonplussed.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that? I’m not quite understanding what you’re trying to say. Since when are we the type to spare each other’s feelings? If anything, I’d think you’d like it if I screwed things up with Elena!”

Stefan sighs and rolls his eyes. “I don’t want to hate you, Damon! I don’t actually like fighting with you. I’m not saying I want to be best buddies with you or anything, but you’re not exactly bad company.”

“Gee, Stefan, you coulda just said something. No need to bleed me to death whenever you wanted to spend some quality time together.” Damon’s still reeling at Stefan’s words, but that doesn’t mean he completely loses his wits and can’t come up with a sarcastic reply.

“You always end up pushing me away, Damon. Whenever I try.” Stefan pauses a moment, realizing what he’s just said, and scoffs. “God, I sound like such a pansy.”

Damon laughs, “And you wonder why I don’t want to spend time with you, you sap.” But then he sobers and looks at Stefan seriously. “But you know, you’re not too bad yourself. I wouldn’t mind spending time with you in the ten percent of time that I don’t want to rip your heart out.”

This time, Stefan laughs. He smiles hesitantly and says, “Truce?”

It’s probably not the right word for it, but Damon understands.

“Truce,” he repeats, rolling his eyes and holding his wrist out for Stefan to cut.

---

Damon gets out eventually, because he’s needed too much to stay locked up forever, and he partakes in the plotting against Kol and the rest of the Michaelsons. And sure, Stefan gets under his skin just as much as before, but sometimes, Damon likes to take a night off and have a drink with Stefan, gossiping about Rebekah and laughing about the past.

He can deal with the plethora of Mystic Falls’ problems tomorrow.