❝brother of mine❞

"HERE'S THE DEAL," Damon crouches down before Alaric, gripping the man's jaw tight and setting his head forward so he can't avoid Damon's stare. "I can't have you blabbing about this to anyone just yet, alright? So I have to do this."

Alaric's eyes fall into the dazedness of compulsion, and Damon continues, satisfied. "Anything you remember, you can't tell anyone about. No whispering, no talking, no writing it down. If you try to tell anyone what you know, I want you to rip out your own tongue. Got it?"

Ric nods, and Damon half-smiles, letting go of his friend's jaw and stepping backwards.

He unties Ric and helps him stand, patting his bloody chest where he'd been healed already. Ric shoves away from him with a glare and walks shakily towards the door. "You're a bastard."

Damon smirks and watches him go.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈•ﾟ｡

"What'd Jonas have to say?"

Damon doesn't look up from the box of books he's going through because he doesn't need to in order to get the full effect of his brother's judgmental state.

"Elijah doesn't have a weapon to kill Klaus. But he thought that if a witch channeled enough power," Stefan shrugs, trailing off to the obvious answer.

Damon frowns, but it's hidden and disappears in a few seconds. "Great, so now what?"

Stefan sighs. "We need to find the place where those witches were killed. Have you found anything in the Gilbert journals, yet?"

"No. You'd think a man so obsessed with vampires would have more information on how to kill them." Damon drops one of the journals onto the table with a thud and gives Stefan a passive aggressive smile.

His brother sighs heavily and crosses his arms over his chest, looking at Damon contemplatively. "Are we ever going to talk about this?"

"Talk about what?" Damon keeps his voice pointedly disinterested, hoping Stefan will give up before he even starts.

"Your behavior. Your attitude."

He got his hopes up too soon.

Stefan steps towards him, dropping his arms and shoving his hands in his pockets. "You're off lately, Damon. Is there something going on? I know we didn't really like him, but I find it hard to believe you killed John just because he irritated you."

Damon sighs to himself. "I've killed other people for less, Stefan."

"Yeah, but not like this. You're not exactly a saint to begin with," Damon barks out a laugh at that, earning a pointed glare from his brother. "But you don't really care about what other people say about you, especially not to the point of murdering them."

He knows he's not getting out of this conversation, no matter his outward emotions. Damon rolls his eyes and lifts his head again, forgetting his current task to glare at his brother. "Why do you care, Stefan? John is dead, Elena hates me for killing her dad, and here you are playing Devil's Advocate for your lost cause of a brother."

"You're not a lost cause, Damon,"

"That's what you got from that?" Damon scoffs and faces Stefan head-on. "Listen, I don't need to be lectured about being a better man, and the consequences of my actions, alright? Despite what you all believe, I'm always thinking in terms of the long run."  

"So, what, you killed John because you have some grand plan of your own?"

"No, I killed John for— I don't know, for the plot."

Stefan looks at him incredulously. "Damon, you killed Elena's father!"

He resists the urge to laugh at Stefan's obviously stressed demeanor. It makes him wonder what Elena's said about him since Stefan broke the news about John.

"Damon, what is going on with you? You're lashing out on Elena, you haven't talked to me, actually talked to me for weeks, and from what Alaric has told me, you two aren't getting along either."

"I'm not acting any differently than I normally do, Stefan. It's just finally starting to affect you and your perfect little bubble, so you're getting mad at me for it."

Stefan stops himself from walking away, and giving up again. If he wants answers from Damon, he's got to push to get them. It's the only way Damon will open up to him. "When I was in the tomb with Katherine, she told me something."

Damon tenses, and a glare washes over his face.

"She said that because I was trapped, you'd have the perfect opportunity to kill Elena if you wanted to," Stefan furrows his brows as he recalls the evil woman's words. "Would you have done it? Would you have killed Elena if I stayed in the tomb?"

Damon takes the last few steps towards Stefan, face to face with his brother. The look on his face is one of fresh anger, but the finality he feels in his bones is something that's been waiting just beneath the surface for weeks.

He scans Stefan's face closely, looking at the hesitance that is hiding behind the strong front he's got on. He knows Stefan is scared of his answer, because they both know what he's going to say.

"Yes."

It sets Stefan off, and he shoves Damon, sending him flying across the room. Damon immediately bounces back and punches Stefan as he approaches, his lip curling in anger at his brother's actions.

Damon stops Stefan before he can get up again and wraps his hand around his throat, pinning him down to the floor. "You wanted my honest answer, Stefan."

Stefan glares up at him through his labored breaths. "Why are you doing this?"

Damon rolls his eyes. "My life has been an absolute hell to live for the past century, alright? Don't you get it Stefan? I lost my wife, you tried to run off with the girl that got her killed, then you turned me into a vampire when all I wanted was to die, and now you hate what I've become?"

He lets go of Stefan and pulls him up by the fabric of his shirt before he can say anything else. "Your hypocrisy will be the death of you, little brother."

Despite Damon's anger, he doesn't really want Stefan to die. No matter how much wrong Stefan has been at the center of in his life, he'll never want to lose his brother. But the fact that he will, no matter if he ends up dead or not, is something he's had plenty of time to come to terms with.

"Do you want to kill Elena?" Stefan's chest is heaving with heavy breaths, and the look in his eye is manic. "After all of this, do you still want to try and kill her?"

"Stefan," Damon sighs his name like it's some sort of hassle to answer him. "I'm not going to try to kill Elena."

Stefan relaxes briefly.

"I'm going to make sure she dies in this sacrifice, no matter what you do."

Damon smiles and it's empty, save for the usual glint of sarcasm in his eyes. Stefan's frightful look is back in full force and it makes his cold eyes brighten. "Now get the hell out of my house."

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈•ﾟ｡

The silence greets him fondly.

Stefan disappeared quickly, most likely to run off and tell all of the resident teenage murderers that Damon's the bad guy. He thinks to warn Caroline, but doesn't. If she's honest about her loyalty, she'll handle it herself.

He's still going through the Gilbert journals, trying to find the massacre sight or any hint of it. Damon stands up, craving a fresh drink, when the doorbell rings.

He smirks as he walks over to the door, swinging it open blindly. "Come back to apologize already, Stefan?"

Damon's face falls as soon as he looks up. "What is this? What am I looking at?"

Elijah shoves the girl forward, his bruising grip not loosening a bit. Katherine smirks as she meets Damon's eyes. "Hey, roomie."

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈•ﾟ｡

author's note; i didn't even know where i was taking this chapter, but i can't wait to start writing katherine and damon's chaotic interactions

edited and published; 6.12.22.

- liz