Blood Will Tell (The Vampire Diaries 4.5)

"I'm saying it's enough. As you pointed out, I'm already . . . affected."

"You're telling me to fuck off?"

"Don't try to make me angry, Matt. I'm tired—"

"That proves you're not strong enough—"

"I am tired of dealing with human emotions," Stefan said raggedly. "I've got enough of my own to deal with, especially here. In this town. With her friends." He turned away, leaning against the wall and added almost inaudibly. "I'm tired of having people wonder if I'm going to rip their throats out."

Her friends. People. No mention of the fact that Elena's friends had once been his friends, that he and Matt had been friends. That once he'd asked favors of Matt, things that didn't make any sense at the time, like "Can you drive me to find this particular kind of flower?" That Matt had risked his own life to help Stefan when everyone else thought he was a monster.

And Stefan was still trying to be kind; Matt could hear it. The way you're kind to a kid.

"I didn't know," Stefan went on, even more indistinctly, "how much you hated me."

Oh hell, oh hell, oh hell. "So now you're reading minds?"

"That's what human blood does—but, no, in fact. Even before you hit me all I was reading was your bodylanguage."

I hit you? Matt squeezed his eyes shut hard. It didn't do any good; he could feel wetness on his eyelids. " I'm sorry."

Silence.

"I'm sorry, all right? I was scared. You used to understand 'scared.'" Before you lost everything.

With a sound like letting out breath, Stefan turned. There was another moment or two, as if he were thinking—or listening. "I still understand it, Matt. I still remember everything that happened here. Thank you."

Matt had turned away so he could rub at his eyes angrily—not that it made any difference which way he turned, probably. "Can you understand how humans feel around you people? Is there anything you can't do? Is there anything we're better at?"

"We're not people."

Matt opened his mouth, shut it again. A little while ago we were all ready to fight the monster that's killing the girls I went to school with. Could I have screwed this up any worse if I’d planned it?

He plucked at his Tshirt wearily. "Can we just . . . get this over with?"

"I told you, it was enough."

"If you think I'm gonna let Bonnie do something and then run away from it . . . think again."

"Bonnie wasn't as scared." Before Matt could unfreeze long enough to really hit him, Stefan added, "And I don't care as much about what Bonnie thinks of me. Bonnie was Elena's friend."

"Just suck up my blood, all right?"

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Damn!" Matt waved a hand, his brain stalling. He knew Stefan knew how many times he'd been injured; that was part of the game. "Do I have to tell you about how I broke my arm when I was five and nobody knew for about a week because—"

"You really don't understand, do you? At least, not consciously. Taking somebody's blood when they're resisting hurts. More than anything you can think of."

"I'm not resisting."

"You will be."

"Just quit with the mindreading or the psychoanalysis or whatever. This could've been over by now."

Matt's eyes had adjusted enough by now that he could make out some features in the dim figure that faced him. He could see Stefan's mouth twist grimly as well as hear the little sound of exasperation.

"Fine. You don't have to take that off. There's a vein in the wrist that works just as well."