five acts meme - round four
YAAAY IT'S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN.
Like I needed more fic to write but I'm never passing on this meme whenever it happens.
( Read more... )
Like I needed more fic to write but I'm never passing on this meme whenever it happens.
( Read more... )
They’re climbing a winding set of cobblestone steps, Alaric one flight behind. The sun is setting and Damon knows that Stefan will be on the hunt soon. He always did prefer the night, such a cliché, Damon would tease as his little brother slipped away to stalk rabbits and deer in the woods. It’s practical, Damon, Stefan would shoot back.
Damon misses that balance, that give and take, craves it in fact. His world is off kilter now that it’s his job to plat the hero, a role he knows he’ll never be fit to play. Not like his hopeless, self-sacrificing jackass of a brother. He wishes that he hated Stefan. But he doesn’t and he can’t.
Stefan’s close. Closer than he has been before. Damon pauses, closes his eyes and listens.
“He’s here,” Damon says.
Alaric is beside him again, his hands resting on his knees, breathing heavily. He looks up at Damon with more trust than he deserves. Damon makes one more wish, a better one this time, he wishes for Alaric to make it out of this little vacation of theirs alive.
“You sure?” Alaric asks.
Damon nods.
“I can hear him. He’s calling my name.”
*
The vampires circle each other, their eyes locked, and Alaric feels like an intruder. Tension hangs in the air with a litany of things left unsaid. Alaric gets the distinct feeling they’ve been here before.
“Darkside never looked good on you, little brother,” Damon says with a smirk that doesn’t reach his eyes.
Stefan shrugs, somehow infusing a usually innocuous gesture with menace. Alaric can’t see a trace of the old Stefan left in this man, but still Damon edges closer, hand outstretched.
“Elena’s blaming herself for this, you know that? You remember Elena, right? Love of your life? That should ring a few bells.”
Stefan raises a finger to his bloodstained lips and Alaric shivers, wonders if Damon will hate him if he has to kill his brother, wonders if he would even have a chance to do the job before Stefan ripped his throat out.
As if he can hear his thoughts, Stefan turns to Alaric.
“I see you brought your pet,” Stefan chuckles.
“Leave him out of this,” Damon hisses and Stefan seems to take the words as a challenge because he’s on Alaric before he can blink. Alaric staggers back, hands groping for something to hold onto, he presses the release on the stake at his wrist and plunges it blindly into Stefan’s shoulder at the exact moment Damon stabs the needle into Stefan’s neck. Stefan’s body goes limp, but it’s too late, Stefan’s teeth hit their mark.
“You okay?” Damon asks, as he lowers his brother to the ground.
Alaric touches his neck; his hand comes away drenched in blood. Damon pales and Alaric takes that as a bad sign.
“Well, at least we found him,” Alaric says shakily.
Damon shakes his head as he kneels down beside Alaric. He moves closer until Alaric can feel Damon’s breath on his wound and then Damon is pressing a gentle kiss against the puncture marks, his tongue lapping at the errant flood of blood, hissing slightly at the taste of vervain. Damon pulls back.
“I told you to go home.”
“Since when do I take orders from you?” Alaric muttters, still pressing at
his neck.
“Always.”
Damon uses his teeth to open a vein in his wrist and forces Alaric to drink. He gags at first, but he can feel the blood working through his system, healing him. He was never one for drugs, even back in college, but he imagines this is very close to the high his roommate was always chasing.
“Try not to die in the next twenty-four hours, okay, Buddy?” Damon says before placing a lingering bloody kiss to Alaric’s forehead.
He turns away before Alaric can respond, his attention returning to his mercifully unconscious brother.
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Stefan wakes to find himself strapped to a bed, the ropes binding his arms and feet laced with just enough vervain to keep him weak. His mind is a jumble of thoughts, the events of the past few months melding with the events of the last few hours. The only clear thought he has is that he wanted this. He wanted to be found.
“Morning, sunshine,” Damon says and Stefan turns his head in the direction of his brother’s voice. Damon’s lounging beside the bed, his long body draped gracefully across a chair. “Still crazy?”
“Let me go, Damon,” Stefan demands. Damon shakes his head.
“No.”
Stefan strains against the ropes and feels a scream bubbling in his throat as every twist brings the vervain in contact with his skin. He wants to be free, wants it desperately, but he’s not sure what exactly he wants freedom from---this room or Klaus or fucking Damon or himself.
“Please,” Stefan knows he’s begging, can hear the sound in his voice and resents himself for it. “I can’t do this, not again. Just…let me go. Walk away.”
Damon is beside Stefan in the blink of an eye, his face perilously close to Stefan’s. He runs a hand through his brother’s hair and leans down to meet his lips, his mouth is cool against Stefan’s feverish skin and he tastes familiar, like Damon, and someone else---
“Alaric?” Stefan mutters against Damon’s mouth. “Did I…”
The sound of someone clearing their throat draws Stefan's attention to Alaric lingering by the door. He smiles lightly.
“I’m not dead yet, but I’d appreciate it if you would keep your teeth to yourself. At least for a few more hours.”
“Ric’s not looking to join our ranks,” Damon says, as he gives his brother’s cheek an almost affectionate pat.
Stefan swallows and closes his eyes. His been done this road before. He’s not looking forward to the next part.
“Klaus will come for us,” he says.
He feels the sudden absence of Damon’s weight as he gets up from the bed.
“We know that.”
“We just don’t care,” Alaric adds.
*
Stefan’s screams echo through the abandoned house and Damon imagines them reverberating through the mountains to find Klaus’s ears, to bring him to their door. Alaric stands beside him, the pale light of the moon illuminating his face, as they stand guard together.
“He’ll get through this,” Alaric reassures.
“You are too damn optimistic for your own good, Ric.”
“It’s a curse.”
Damon catches Alaric’s eye and half smiles. He’s very glad that Alaric’s still among the living.
“It’s really not.”
Another scream pierces the air and Alaric flinches. He’s clearly never had the joy of listening to a vampire detox before.
“I guess you're right,” he says simply and takes Damon’s hand without asking or hesitating. This is a new, but not at all unpleasant development.
Damon lets him.
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Okay, I might be incoherent here, but: OH MY GOD STEFAN ACTUALLY WANTING THEM TO FIND HIM. OH MY GOD DAMON WANTING ALARIC TO BE THERE AND FEELING OUT OF HIS ELEMENT BECAUSE HE'S NOT THE GOOD GUY AWW. ALARIC STICKING WITH DAMON REGARDLESS OF WHAT DAMON SAYS. EVERYONE BEING IN EUROPE (which I approve of). Also the dynamics were so perfect here -- I loved how Stefan switches between before they get him and after they tie him up. Also DAMON FEEDING ALARIC HIS BLOOD AND KISSING HIS FOREHEAD - GUH. This fandom, making me thing bloodplay is sexy, lol. Also Damon being sort of affectionate with Stefan anyway was <3333 and THE END I DIED THEY WERE HOLDING HANDS THIS IS S3 UNTIL I'M PROVED OTHERWISE OH MY *swoons*.
I don't even - thank you so much, I love every comma of this ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
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