Author's Note-Sorry for not posting as much as I used to, rest assured I am still here but work has been busy and I just don't have the time like I did before. So I wanted to post a little one shot story…enjoy!
It was her favorite place she had been yet in all their trips together, far removed from the supernatural magnet that seemed to be what Bon Temps was known for now. Not that it was a bad thing, not as of late. But to be somewhere this peaceful, so different from home, Sookie felt it was something sorely needed in her life. And she was especially glad she was unique in the way that she couldn't get too hot or too cold, thanks to her mixed blood. Still, she got a chill as she stood out in the balcony of the rented luxury cabin, looking down on the snow covered trees here in Aspen. Nothing but the best, she knew had been in the cards but when she had first set foot in this place, she still felt like it was too much, too much of an expense. Not that he couldn't afford it, she knew he liked spoiling her and it had been all of a whole week since he had spoiled her with a spa day with Pam, Jess, Ginger and Arlene. Girls day, Eric had said with a grin as he spring the surprise on her. And yet, before the day was done, that hadn't been the only surprise spring on her. As evidenced by their room the day after, the day that she and the girls went on their little break away from their lives. Looking back on the three years since she had been in the hospital, beaten by her then hubby, than she had so embraced her reunion with the Viking, and after everything the had endured these past few years, life was good, though there was no mistaking that they both missed those that they had lost deeply. Nothing could ever erase that pain, the memories of their loved ones lost but it was good that they could take comfort in those still with them. But for the next few days, they had only each other. She wandered to the windowless room he was resting in, thankful that nowadays, more and more resorts were becoming vamp friendly, and though he could linger in the sun for a few hours thanks to an exchange that had left them both changed permanently, he could still burn. And so she peeked into their room where he slept and as she closed the door, leaving him to it, she was unaware he hadn't been asleep but was himself lost in thoughts. It was ironic, he thought as she left the room, careful not to disturb him, that she was wearing the same dress he had first met her in what seemed like forever ago.
Years back, he had been cold, untrusting of anyone save for Godric and then later Nora and Pam. But with all the years had made him cynical, jaded. Rough. Almost to the point of being the soulless monster that he had once feared he was to become after being turned. But she had done so much, given him so much and seeing her in the doorway in that dress. He liked treating her like a queen, wishing he could repay her fully for all that she had given him. Sitting up, he couldn't get back to sleep, haunted by the past, thinking back on how things could have been if only she hadn't even crossed paths with him. That she had hated him at first and that he had played around with her with slight malicious intent at first, those intentions changed to more loving, protective ones the more he was exposed to her. Until finally she had thawed that cold, silent heart of his. "Nothing I do could ever be enough for her…." he muttered to himself, getting to his feet and clad only in silk black boxers, he crept from the room and out to where she stood on the balcony, looking out at the landscape before her. She felt the hands reaching around her, stroking her hair as only he could. "Have I ever said how grateful I am for you?" he asked softly, his gaze going from the scenery to her. Turning around, she frowned. "You should be asleep….I don't know if the bleeds are covered in the payment for this place…."
"Its vamp friendly, they change the sheets after every guest, knowing full well what can happen with guests such as myself…..though I think the sheets at home are vastly superior…you taught me a lot about thread counts and which is better…."
She laughed, reminiscing about their recent trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond, to which he had looked floored with all the options for pillows, sheets, bedding….it was a far cry from what he had been brought up with in his human days, that was for certain. "I never thought you would be picky about something like sheets…but here we are."
"Here we are…..somewhere I never thought would come anywhere close to being back home." he said and she took note of the look in his eyes, a almost reminiscent look. That she had been thinking back on things was kind of a coincidence.
"Penny for your thoughts?" she said after a few moments, both of them now leaning forward on the railing of the balcony, looking around at the natural beauty around them. "Or a euro….or whatever your people use for money….kroner?" she said with a smirk, the joke landing , he managing a crooked grin. "I may be biased but I think the Scandinavians are pretty cute."
"Well, I think that would be a understatement….." he replied, stealing a glance at her. "you're right, by the way, way to learn some of my culture….I have been impressed on you learning the language…..and not just from the signs at Ikea. Of which I think my people in my time, their furniture may have been more rustic but at least it was sturdy…."
She laughed but they had diverted from the subject. "What were you thinking, you looked far away for a moment."
"I was thinking about the past…and I know there isn't anything that can change the bad things but I was thinking on the things that led us to be in the here and now. Its never been easy and I can't believe how I used to see you. As little more than a meal in a pretty little package." Eric looked almost abashed by this admission. "Everything changed for me the night I met the girl in the white dress and its not lost on me you wore that very dress."
"When you said we were going somewhere special, I figured it would be a nice touch….glad I still fit into it, I may be a hybrid but I think I may still be able to pack on the pounds. you're lucky that you cant get fat off blood, 'cause you'd definitely not have that figure of yours."
"I like to look svelte." he said with a mischievous look, wiggling his hips suggestively, which didn't take much effort. It was rather unfair how he looked so damn good. All the time. And when she said as much, he had that typical bravado, that swagger. "Are you really that shocked?…..Seriously, though. I was thinking on how if some things had not happened, perhaps your path and mine never would have merged and who knows where either of us would be….you could have ended up with some random bearded guy and me…well, I think the life of constant flings and behaving like a ….playboy…" the term felt and sounded foreign to him as he said it, every now and again having trouble with modern vernacular. "That you know my history with women, with those I used…that you still even want anything to do with me….."
"You and I have changed in so many ways and some things aren't any different. You still have that swagger, that cockiness and know you are adorable. And yet you've never once betrayed me. And as for me…..the distaste I had for you back then, it became something else, evolved and here we are." she said, wriggling her left hand where the intricate teardrop shaped diamond rested on her ring finger. "Life, fate, has a funny sense of humor I think."
"What would you change about me, if you could, out of curiosity. Not that you've not done a good job with me….but what would you still change about me if you could because lets face it, I am not the usual fixer upper, guy project you women take on."
It was nice to her, these moments of normalcy, conversations like a average couple, though they were anything but. And she thought hard, knowing no one could be perfect, that everyone had their plusses and minuses. That was the fact of life. "I could do without your blood-soaked clothes being thrown on top of the washer…I mean I know its not that often but often enough to get on my nerves. I know you like helping keep the bar secure but you pay others to do that for you. You could stand being a little less….hands on…..fangs on I guess I should say." she paused. "Oh and if you would stop putting your feet on the coffee table in the living room, its scuffing the varnish a little…..and I guess I wouldn't mind-" she was stopped as she was tickled in the robs by a amused and appalled looking Viking.
"I only wanted one example, how many were you gonna say?" he looked amused.
"Well, what about me, what would you change?" she asked, eager to know. And after a good, long thought, he sighed.
"That's the thing…I wouldn't change anything about you. Even when I was hurt by you, even after things between us…drifted, cooled….I always thought you were the perfect mix of sassy and sweet, ballsy and timid…I truly can't think of anything id change about you, to me you are perfection."
She laughed, a tinge of coldness to it. Shaking her head, she spoke. "I am far from perfect, after everything in the past….how I turned you down, how I actually went back to…" she didn't like dredging up the past. "I feel like we rehash this over and over but maybe…..maybe this was something that needed to be faced once and for all, kind of a chance to purge it forever."
He gave a almost bitter laugh. "Vampires can't be glamoured. Sometimes that's a shame because certainly what I revisited…..the memories…I sometimes with I could forget…..but then I think about the fact I wouldn't remember those lost I cared about….it's a double edged sword.." there was a silence and she wasn't used to him being so furtive, quiet. It was his other side making an appearance, the humanity she had sparked to life back in him coming out and it made her love him even more and yet also pained her seeing, knowing that things weren't ever going to be fully healed for him. Or herself for that matter because some of those he had lost she had come to know and care for herself.
"We have to take things as they come and move on with our lives because if we keep dredging up the past, dwelling on it, we tend to miss other things that could make our hearts happy, grateful. Fare can be a bitch, I have to say, the road that led us to this moment in time….its been a little bumpy." she said with a half smile.
"That's the understatement of the year."
She laughed and shook her head, playing with her hair awkwardly. As fierce as she could be, he thought it was rather cute when she did such….human things. Though she was far from being that now. "I couldn't imagine life being anything other than it is now….even with the heartbreak, the drama and the violence…..I am at peace with the decision I finally made. And I don't regret anything anymore, I learned not to let things eat at me. Because when I did, I found out it drained my happiness, made me someone I didn't want to be." she sighed as she looked out at the sprawling wintery scene before them. "I made so many mistakes and I worry about the ones I do keep making. Because if his wanting to help protect me and help me out, I got plenty of good people killed. Alcide is dead because he got mixed up with me." she bit her lip. "I hate myself every day that I let him get involved."
"He knew there was danger. I have no love for wolves and with good reason as you well know…but he was….good and decent. I always admired his brawn, though I never thought him the brightest bulb." she shot him a warning look but he raised a hand to stop her before she could speak. "I respected him more than I let on. He was smart enough to want to help you out and he knew there was always a risk getting involved in your troubles."
She looked appeased by the answer and took his hands into hers. "I want things to be as they are now. I wish I could keep things as peaceful and as bloodless as it is now….as much as you enjoy a good bloodbath….." she paused. "But at least I have become more than just the girl in the white dress…..not that I minded being just that."
"You have nor will you ever be, 'just' anything. That girl, that sweet girl I met years ago was the best thing to happen to me in a long time….don't ever tell Pam I said that." Eric said with a grin, looking relaxed and, dare she think it….truly happy for the first time in a long time. With all the bloodshed and the death they had endured in the past months, it was certainly a interlude they had both needed. "How about we go for a hike? This air, its so crisp and its just like home…."
She said noting but laughed as she flung herself over the edge of the balcony, landing in the snow without a care in the world in regards to her feet being bare. And as if the snow ere water, she dove beneath the surface, tunneling through the snow like bugs bunny in those old classic cartoons. Amused at her spontaneity, something he knew she hadn't been great with in the past, he also leapt up and over the balcony, seeing her movements under the snow, watching as she sent glowing blasts upward, sending snow flying back towards him. It was times like these he was all the more appreciative to the one who had unfrozen his heart….the girl in the white dress.