Who: Damon and Stefan Salvatore What: The boys have a spat When: Tonight Where: The prison Warnings: Just violence
Damon felt like every day was worse than the last. He was in a prison living with a bunch of idiots and his feeding habits were now something he had to hide. If Damon wanted to feed he had to go to Bonnie but sometimes he didn’t want to do that. Sometimes Damon went out to the projects or the wood to see who he could pick out. Damon didn’t kill people - he wasn’t about that life but he did compel, snack and compel away to come back another day. Fresh blood was better than the lukewarm crap given to him by Bonnie and Damon didn’t want to depend on her. He didn’t want to depend on anyone at all.
He knew this was him acting out - reeling from the loss of Elena who was doing whatever the hell she pleased. Damon couldn’t chase her up and down Everett. He didn’t have to means to switch her humanity back on and he had his brother back. Even if Stefan didn’t remember anything about him going to the Other Side he was by his brother again although right now he was reliving the tension of having fallen in love with his girlfriend. The past did love to repeat itself and it had done so in a bad way this time.
First Katherine and now this. It was funny because Damon had gotten over this already. Stefan might not have been over it but Damon thought that they were in a better place given that his brother ran off to spend the summer away although it was later revealed that Silas was the reason for Stefan’s disappearance.
So things were rocky - whatever. Damon had to get over it and Stefan had to get over it, too. They were from different points in time and Damon wasn’t the slick brother trying to steal Elena. Hilariously enough Elena wasn’t even a factor anymore and yet here they were.
He didn’t know where Captain Jackass was but Damon was alone when he saw Stefan through the bars of his open cell door. Damon rose both brows as he ditched the half ripped copy of Moby DIck, his eyes rolling because he was sure that Stefan was going to throw out his words of concern.
“What do I owe this pleasure, brother?”
Stefan hated this place. Right now, he was supposed to be anywhere but Mystic Falls, but this wasn’t exactly what he had planned. He didn’t know much of the future, except for the fact that apparently Caroline and Alaric had twin girls but other than that, he didn’t know much and he didn’t really want to know much more. Except when it came to Damon. He was worried about him, but he was still upset at him. It was such a conflicted feeling, but he supposed it would always be like that. It would never change.
Getting over Elena was hard, it was something that needed to be done. Right now, he didn’t even know what to do with her. She was running wild and for all intents and purposes, it was as if her friends were letting her for the moment. At least until they came up with a plan. Before, it was hard, but they had managed it. Stefan thought for sure that Jeremy would be the reason she turned it back on, but that wasn’t the case. He was curious as to what Damon was going to do about it, or what his plans were, but it seemed he was more indifferent than anything when it came to the situation. The problem with that was, they couldn’t be. It was Elena. They had to help her, whether they liked what she had to say or not. Stefan knew that she would say anything she could in order to hurt him, and hurt her friends. Stefan knew the score all too well and while what she did say could hurt, it was something that he couldn’t let bother him.
“I just wanted to check up on you. You’ve been keeping to yourself lately,” Stefan said, his eyes on his brother as he kept his distance from Damon. He wasn’t sure what his brother would do. The last thing he wanted was to fight, but well, they were brothers and they fought. It was bound to happen.
And no matter how much hated that Damon and Elena were together, what he hated more was that this was happening to Damon. Maybe Stefan was the wet blanket, but it didn’t matter what girl came between them, they would always be brothers. Katherine couldn’t break that and neither would Elena.
“Everything is screwed up. I don’t even know what we’re doing anymore,” he confessed and crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall in Damon’s cell.
“What we’re doing is hiding out in a prison while our ex runs around the state of Washington doing whatever she wants, apparently.” Yes, Damon used the word ex because as of this moment he wasn’t dating Elena. He wasn’t dating this vampire who refused to turn on her humanity despite knowing that her brother was alive and well. Damon didn’t understand it. He thought for sure that Jeremy would be enough because he was the goddamn reason why Elena turned it off in the first place. Damon based it all around her feelings for her dead brother who, miraculously, was alive.
The plan was to send Jeremy after her but what could they do if she didn’t want to be found? It meant all of them or some of them would have to venture out into the wilderness again to see if they could encounter Elena hitting up a bar or just being her usual reckless self. It was old at this point and Damon couldn’t do it alone. He tried and it went south really fast.
“Did you come here to tell me the we should work together and go out there? Sorry. I’m running a little low on fucks to give.” Damon couldn’t do anything - he wasn’t the trigger to Elena’s humanity and dragging Jeremy along was only useful if he knew exactly where Elena was. The area outside of the prison was dangerous - there were more than just the zombies out there which meant throwing the hunter into a whole fine mess.
“Elena is out there without her humanity. We can’t chase her up and down the state. Not without an actual plan.” Because going in assuming that Elena would listen was dangerous. The two of them had learned that already.
Damon was right. They couldn’t chase her around Everett, or wherever else she might end up. The Jeremy card meant nothing. Bonnie had no luck with her, he assumed that Caroline didn’t either. At this point, anyone who would stop her, who would want her humanity back on, she wasn’t going to listen to. It was a pretty good guess at this point. It made Stefan wonder if who she was hanging out with.
“That’s what we need. A plan. A plan that’s going to work because we both know that’s not Elena out there and the longer she’s like this, the longer she’s out there hurting people, the more she’s going to hurt when she does get her humanity back on. This could destroy her.”
And Damon knew it was true. Even if he said that he didn’t give a fuck, they both knew that he did. It was Elena. They would always care. It was just inevitable.
“I think either way, when it comes to me and you, she’s going to the resist the most. We’d have a better chance with Caroline or Bonnie, even Jer. Regardless of what she says, if she sees Jeremy, she’s going to feel something. And that’s when we have to work her, Damon.” He knew this. They did the same thing with Matt. The thing was, Elena didn’t know about that. So this time? It would be brand new. Not that they were going to kill Jeremy anytime soon, but they needed something that was going to spark the change and Stefan still believed that Jeremy was the way to go.
“How about you ask Klaus?” It was a plan. A really good plan, actually. Damon had thought about it but realized that maybe it wouldn’t work unless someone could convince him otherwise. Someone who wasn’t so closely knitted in with Elena. Damon was thinking Caroline and suddenly it became clear that was probably the best route to go.
“An Original can compel vampires. We should ask your little blond bff if she can wear something nice and tight and ask Klaus to find Elena, compel her to turn on her humanity and then we’ll be good again. Elena will be back to the way she’s supposed to be.” It would solve all of their problems in a heartbeat. The question was simple. Was Stefan willing to ask?
Damon didn’t think so. He could already see the look on Stefan’s face. That uncertainty of using Caroline Forbes in a way that could be dangerous. Of course Damon didn’t care about Caroline. All he wanted was Elena back - it didn’t even matter if they were together or not.
“You want me to ask?” Damon asked, quirking a brow because he would. He would go ask Caroline himself and of course, with some convincing, he knew that the bubbly blond would agree. “Carebear can get it done. Where’s your faith, little brother?”
“No. Nobody’s asking.” Not that the thought hadn’t crossed Stefan’s mind one or two times, but the truth was, that was something they couldn’t do. It wouldn’t help and besides, even in this state, Stefan didn’t want Elena to do anything she didn’t want to do. Her humanity was all she had in the end and Stefan wanted her to turn it on because she wanted it. Because she felt it. Not because it was forced. She would never forgive them if they pulled that and he wasn’t going to put Caroline in that position either.
“Don’t do it,” Stefan warned, looking at him because he knew his brother would probably go around him and ask Caroline. “Caroline isn’t your go to as a means to get what you want from Klaus, Damon.”
Stefan was so frustrated at this point with Damon that it was showing on his face. He did this, he told Elena to turn it off because he knew she would listen. It was selfish and it wasn’t helping because even Stefan could see that Damon was losing her. It wasn’t how it was supposed to be. He wasn’t supposed to sweep in and steal his girlfriend only to give up on her.
“It’s only a matter of time, Damon. You know it and I know it. We can do this. We did it before. We’ll do it again. We’ll get her back.” Stefan’s eyes softened before he looked away. Now he just had to keep his brother from going to drastic measures in order to get Elena back. Drastic measures being using an original to compel her to turn it back on. It would mean nothing if she was compelled.
“I’m telling you we can’t.” This situation was different, obviously. It wasn’t like they could just capture Elena and lock her up in a basement. They weren’t familiar with Everett. They were dealing with a town infested with zombies and other crazy shit. Did his brother really expect them to band together and go after Elena and hope they could, miraculously, find the means to trigger her humanity?
“Jeremy is the reason she turned it off. She knows that he’s alive. She likes it, Stefan. She likes not having to care about anything because it feels good. Not having to worry or feel threatened. To wake up without problems. She’s living that life and she wants it.” Damon knew it would be a losing battle. They would go after her and then what? Fight her? Drag her kicking and screaming?
“Last time we used Matt to trigger her humanity switch. We killed him in front of her so that his loss would be significant enough to bring her back. Who do you want to kill? Jeremy? You want to kill her brother again? Bonnie? Caroline?” Damon was just shooting off names because Stefan was pissing him off. He was taking the hard way out when it would be so easy to just take the shortcut.
“If you don’t ask one of the Mikaelsons I will and there isn’t a damn thing you can do to stop me. If you’re not willing to do everything to get Elena back then maybe you didn’t love her as much as you think you did.” Damon knew it was wrong of him to say - it was a slap to his brother’s face after everything they went through but he didn’t care. Damon was tired. He was mentally exhausted and he was hungry. He wondered if maybe turning it off would be a good thing. Maybe it would solve all their problems.
Stefan knew that they were low on options. They were low on options in Mystic Falls too. This wasn’t any different besides the fact they were out of their element here and they were trying to survive. Just because they were vampires didn’t mean they didn’t have their own shit to deal with. Blood mainly, but with Elena - Stefan was trying to stay focused on that.
He knew that Damon wouldn’t agree with him. But that was the thing about Damon, the only interests he had were his own. Not Elena’s or even his own brother’s. It was about what Damon wanted. And he should have expected it from Damon. The words that came next, but when he said it so easily, Stefan’s eyes were on him. For Damon, time might have passed and things were different for him, but for Stefan, it was still there and it was something he was still trying to get over.
“So you want to yet again, take another choice from her? Is that all you ever know how to do? Instead of actually letting her feel something, you’re going to just force it on her? Just like it is your fault her humanity is off in the first place?” Not that it would matter. It seemed that Damon could do no wrong in Elena’s eyes.
Maybe Damon was right in his own way. Getting Elena back by any means necessary, even if it meant an original compelling her.
“You do what you need to do. I’m not having any part of it,” Stefan said, pushing himself against the wall as he walked over to Damon. Without warning, he punched Damon in the face.
“You know what that’s for,” he said before he turned around to head out of his brother’s cell. He knew that either way, Damon would do what he wanted to do, even if Stefan didn’t agree with it.
The anger was expected but the punch was...maybe not so much although he did expect for him, for Stefan to wail on him in order to leave him bloody. Of course Damon thought they would continue to talk about this but of course his brother decided to run away like he always did. Stefan Salvatore wasn’t getting his way so there was no point in chatting about it anymore. There were so many times where he just let Stefan walk away but not this time. They couldn’t walk away from this.
Damon was more tactical in his approach. He knew he would apologize for this later but right now he was just angry at Stefan for being a bitch. Before exiting his cell to follow Damon broke off a piece of the chair that was in cell, flipping it and using the broken edge to sink it right into Stefan’s lower back, the piece of wood twisted inside of him.
“You think you can just walk away from me? I don’t see you going out there, Stefan. You’re too busy whining about your lack of blood. Depending on everyone because you’re so afraid of being a Ripper again.” Damon was behind Stefan, whispering these things into his brother’s ear while simultaneously sinking that broken piece of chair deeper.
“At least I’m doing something. I’m not taking away her choice - I’m fixing a mistake. I should have never told her to shut it off, to not feel anything. Now I’m paying for it. You think I don’t know that?” Damon pushed Stefan away and took the wood with him, knowing that if he left it inside of Stefan’s body he would be too weak to move or do anything.
Stefan didn’t expect his brother to follow him, let alone stake him with a piece of wood. Stefan felt the wood as it entered his body and while it wasn’t a stake to the heart, the wood was literal poison to him. The longer it was inside of him, the worse it was and Damon holding it in place, twisting it even made Stefan struggle against him as his brother held him there and all he could do was listen to Damon’s harsh whispers about the situation as a whole.
When Damon pushed him away, he felt the relief of the wood leaving him and he hunched over slightly as his body slowly healed. It didn’t heal as fast because he wasn’t feeding regularly and also because he fed from animals. Human blood was addicting for him, he couldn’t handle it and it just led him down a road to where he was doing things he would feel guilty for. Until the guilt became too much and he would just eventually turn it off.
But the problem with only feeding from animals in a world like this, filled with zombies is sometimes, there weren’t any animals and Stefan was realizing that. Which was why he was stressing about blood. It was something that Damon wouldn’t be able to understand because he could easily feed from humans or use the bloodbags that Bonnie had gotten.
Turning around, he looked at Damon as he stood a little straighter. No, his back wasn’t fully healed but it didn’t matter.
“What do you want me to do, Damon? I came to you because you’re the guy she chose. You’re supposed to fight for her, to make her want to come back. Instead, you’re what? In your cell telling me that you have no more fucks left to give?” Stefan was so disappointed in him because somehow, this - all of it got turned around on Stefan. It was bullshit.
“You do whatever you need to do. If you want to have Caroline go to Klaus to get her to turn it back on, then do it. But that’s on you. That’s your decision and your call and I have nothing to do with it. But I’m not going to stop you.”
“You’re my brother. You didn’t make it about us. Once again you made it about her. Maybe for once I needed you more than you thought I needed her.” Damon tossed the broken piece of chair aside. This was stupid and he didn’t want to talk about how lonely he felt. How lost he was in all of this because that’s all he felt was loss. He lost Elena and somehow he knew that getting her back wasn’t going to be easy, if it was even possible at this point with everything going on.
“All I wanted was some comfort. And you couldn’t even give me that but should I be surprised? Be shocked that once again all you care about is your own happiness?” Damon lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. Maybe Damon was just better off following in Elena’s footsteps. Turning it off would make things easier here. Maybe it would solve a lot of problems, too. Damon almost wanted to do it - he had the urge to just do it right here here in front of his brother so that maybe then he would start to pay attention.
“I’m not going to tell Klaus. He probably wouldn’t care.” The Mikaelsons often didn’t do anything for free and in the end Damon didn’t want to owe them anything. “I’ll figure it out. I’ll do it my way. I don’t need your help.”
Damon turned away this time, deciding to head out instead of just going to his cell.