[ visual / location: damon's room ] she broke down and let me in made me see where i've been

[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

[ after a long night, damon didn't have the energy-- or honestly, the desire-- to kick stefan out. it's been a hard, keeping to their self-imposed separation. damon's used to being able to track stefan down whenever he feels like; having his brother firmly back at katherine's side has put awkwardness where previously there was none.

so his tablet turns on the a view of stefan and damon in bed together, reconnecting in a quintessentially salvatore way, remembering the patterns they'd once gone through as easily as breathing.

...one thing in the pattern damon forgot, however: stefan is a horrible bed hog. all the covers are wrapped around stefan and he's sprawled out, limbs all akimbo; damon is towards the edge, one leg almost entirely off the bed. the feed would close on them asleep like that, but damon shifts, and almost falls out of bed; flailing out with one arm, he catches himself and sits up, glaring over at stefan with a fondness he can't hide. ]

You always were one to steal the blankets. [ a smirk steals over his face, and he grabs a corner of the sheets currently wrapped around his brother and yanks, sending stefan tumbling onto the floor. over the sound of his indignant howl, damon leans over the edge of the bed and grins. ] Oops.

[ the feed closes on stefan's hand reaching up to grab damon's shoulder and then and pulling, and the thud of damon hitting the floor himself. ]

Comments

[ visual ]

[aregulargirl.livejournal.com]

[ max sounds pretty amused at the enfolding scene, although it does make her a little wistful. she hasn't seen most of her own family for nearly a decade, and she's had to kill one brother and let go of another (who was in love with her, but she doesn't talk about that ever). one sister betrayed her and another is dead. manticore's regulations meant that it was pretty much impossible for them to share beds the way the salvatores are doing, but there were games of escape and evade during training, staying up after lights out and talking, and comforting one another whenever one was suffering from seizures. it wasn't much, but those moments were all they had, and she cherished them.

it's screwed up and she knows it, but some days, she misses the fruitless searches for her "siblings". at least then, there was still hope. ]

I prefer coffee as a wake-up call myself, but that's pretty effective.

[ visual ]

[virtued.livejournal.com]

[ stefan's the first to notice the tablet. it's damon's, because he left his back in the room with kath-- oh shit.

that deer in headlights look up, over the edge of the bed at max's image on the screen has little to do with max teasing them or finding humor in their brotherly antics, but more with the realization that ( a ) he failed to return to his own bed after abandoning katherine to come talk to damon and ( b ) the tablet's on and apparently recording it all. ]

Uh... [ articulate. now, try again. with more words, this time. ] These aren't the droids you're looking for?

[ visual ]

[aregulargirl.livejournal.com]

[ max knows very few pop culture references, and has been exposed to more since arriving in taxon, but that's one that throws her off. (apparently she's been introduced to batman, but not star wars, outside of the movie footage she'd stolen and fenced for twenty grand back at home.) ]

What?

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[virtued.livejournal.com]

You know, droids. Artoo and Threepio.

[ stefan, you're talking to the one person in taxon who has no clue what star wars is. ]

[ visual ]

[aregulargirl.livejournal.com]

What, you mean like robots? Were they pets or something?

[ YOU'RE KILLIN' HIM, GUEVARA. ]

[ visual ]

[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

He's a bed hog. Always has been.

[ there's... actual affection in damon's voice. trolling, yes, but with last night still so close he can't pretend to be unaffected quite yet. ]

[ visual ]

[aregulargirl.livejournal.com]

[ careful, damon, your sentimentality is showing. ]

That's siblings for you. Always hogging something.

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[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

What can I say? I never was that fortunate son.

[ and stefan was, but this morning is too pure to sully with old jealousy. ]

[ visual ]

[aregulargirl.livejournal.com]

Is that a movie reference?

[ location ] some things will never change;

[virtued.livejournal.com]

[ to stefan's barely awake, hazy mind - he hasn't been sleeping much lately, and last night was the most sleep he'd got in days and would very much just like to roll back over and continue to do just that - this is a scene plucked right from memory. maybe he's dreaming, maybe he's delusional. who knows, who cares; stefan goes along with it and gives the blankets a good tug as he climbs back up onto the bed, attempting to pull the sheets back up with him, too. ]

Leave me be. [ echos of words already spoken, like reading from a script that's already been memorized. ] It's you who has to be up, not I. Don't make me suffer more than I already will be in your absence when you leave.

[ leave for war. getting up early for meetings in the town square for those enlisting were things damon had to do, not him. emphasis on had, given that it's not the 1860s anymore. ]

some things will never change;

[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

[ it's on the tip of damon's tongue to mock stefan, remind him the eighteen hundreds were a long, long time ago. but as much as stefan needed this, he did too; and he's warm and comfortable and feeling the rough edges between them blunted. it's reason enough to respond in kind. ]

And maybe I'm selfish enough to need a friendly face to see me off. [ he rolls onto his back, staring at the ceiling. it had been 'want', not 'need'. but times change. ]

some things will never change;

[virtued.livejournal.com]

You're selfish, alright.

[ and stefan hits him in the face with a pillow. ]

some things will never change;

[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

[ damon flops back on the bed, laughing. ] And you're immature behind that brooding facade.

some things will never change;

[virtued.livejournal.com]

I'm seventeen, what's your excuse?

[ he hits him with the pillow, again. ]

[ visual ]

[whoneedsrules.livejournal.com]

[ when katherine woke up and rolled over to find the bed empty, her initial confusion had shifted to concern. stefan's tablet was still in the room so her first thought had been that he'd simply stepped out for a moment and not wanted to wake her, but the sheets on his side were cool in a way that signified he'd left a good while ago. reaching for her own tablet only to come across this is leaving her floundering for the most apropos reaction.

stefan has been acting kind of strange lately; katherine knows something is bothering him. she also knows now that it has to be really weighing on him if he needed to seek out damon despite the recent bad blood between them. suspicion, confusion, hurt, anger - it's all melding together into a jumble of emotions katherine doesn't really want to deal with first thing in the morning. but she can't quite bring herself to ignore it, either.

eventually, katherine decides it's easiest to be annoyed at having been ditched in the middle of the night by her boyfriend - for his brother. ]

Well, isn't this a cozy scene.

[ visual ]

[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

[ damon will just smiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirk. stefan was damon's before he was yours, katherine. and he'll be damon's until they both die, nyeah-nyeah. ]

Brotherly bonding hour. Reinforcing what really matters.

[ ie: suck it, he's mine. ]

[ visual ]

[whoneedsrules.livejournal.com]

[ katherine's annoyance gives way to predatory amusement. she's hardly oblivious to the underlying meaning of damon's snarky words, and the thought makes her smile like a cat with a bowl of cream. oh, her silly, darling boys. how they did not remember that they were both hers was rather entertaining. but let them keep thinking otherwise.

katherine's gaze tracks what bare skin is revealed across the feed self-indulgently; she may have excellent recall, but she wouldn't skip a chance to refresh her memory. they really are lovely, the pair of them. it really is a shame she can't have them both properly. oh, well. she has her little daydreams. ]

Mm, boys and roughhousing. [ she grins, not quite innocently. ] By all means, then. Carry on.

[ visual ]

[virtued.livejournal.com]

[ stefan's got a fistful of damon's hair and is about to pull his brother back down to the ground to when katherine speaks and he can almost here the 'my' that 'boys' should've followed, especially when spoken in that tone. suddenly touching damon feels wrong with katherine watching and laying on a thick layer of something he tries not to think about. he wasn't an idiot and he knows katherine. what she was hinting at was something he knew to be partly the inspiration behind turning both of them and not just one or the other.

and he lets go, stands up, and walks over to the other side of the bed. he glares at her image on the screen. boldly, he calls her out on it. ] That was uncalled for.

[ visual ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

[ river is watching with an unwarranted amount of concentration. ]

Stop moving.

[ because that is definitely the issue here. the moving. ]

[ visual ]

[virtued.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I've chosen to become itinerant.

[ how stefan continues to make sense of river's otherwise disconnected, unrelated to anything way of speaking is a mystery. ]

[ visual ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

You're in one building.

[ she is wise and informative. because obviously stefan is an idiot. ]

[ visual ]

[virtued.livejournal.com]

With multiple floors.

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[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

Stop watching us move.

[ helpful, damon. ]

[ visual ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

Requires the cessation of movement. You're being uncooperative.

[ their maturity here is astounding. ]

[ visual ]

[allthefunever.livejournal.com]

You're being nosy.

[ being with river: lowers damon's already bottom level emotional maturity by a factor of five. ]