Eventually, Sam brought Sookie home - she was absolutely high as a kite off of the pain medication she'd be given. Alice left her be with her closer friends, opting to sit on the porch in the cool evening, finally putting her cardigan back on. She was quite happy sitting on her own, until Sam joined her on the step.

"I never see ya without that," he said.

"It makes me feel safe…" Alice muttered in response. "I can't believe it. I can't believe I saw another dead body."

"You okay?"

"I'm sure I will be. It wasn't as horrible as the last one I saw," she gave Sam a half smile. "Vampires turn to mush when they die. It was mildly traumatising to witness."

Sam didn't quite know what to say to that, and merely patted Alice's hand, which she moved quickly from underneath his. He noticed her discomfort and frowned.

"So what's your deal?" he then asked. Alice raised an eyebrow.

"And what's yours?" She quipped back, referring to the fact she had literally seen a dog transform back into him.

He chuckled lightly. "Ahh, cher, would ya believe me if I told you?"

Alice nodded.

"I can shapeshift into other animals," he told her quietly.

"Yeah. I figured as much when I saw a dog turn back into you."

"And you?"

"I don't want to say…"

"Come on, I just told you my thing," he pressed, and she shook her head.

"The only reason you said anything is because I saw you. If I hadn't, you wouldn't have said a word," Alice pointed out, getting a little tetchy. "I can't say what my deal is, because it's probably far more dangerous than you telling me that you're a shapeshifter."

He was quiet for a moment, and really looked at Alice. She almost seemed upset, but he realised it was more that she wasn't used to talking to anyone about this sort of thing.

"Do you want some tea? I'm sure Sook wouldn't mind if I fixed you something."

"When you say tea, you mean iced sweet tea don't you?" Alice asked, and he nodded. "Yeah I'll pass, thanks." She stood up. "I prefer English breakfast tea myself, and I should get back home anyway before-"

"Before I show up and realise you did something stupid?" a deep voice to their left said. The two of them turned to see Eric strolling their way. He stopped a short distance away and leaned against the porch fence, his arms folded and an eyebrow raised.

Sam immediately stood up. "Listen here, fanger, she didn't do anything stupid-"

Alice grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him to sit back down.

"Sam, it's fine," Alice assured him, a cheeky smile then coming to her face. "Watch this," she whispered as she wandered over to Eric. Her mischievous smile turned to something more genuine as she stared up at him and clasped her hands behind her back.

"What do you want?" He was suspicious, but intrigued all the same.

"Could I get a kiss hello?" Alice cocked her head to the side in a cute, almost pleading way. Eric pursed his lips, glancing over at Sam - who hadn't heard what Alice just said. Knowing that the redhead before him was trying to embarrass him (not that it would work), he obliged.

Cupping the back of her neck, Eric hunched over and kissed Alice. As he moved his lips against hers, he decided to nip lightly at her bottom lip, making her squeal a little and jump back away from him. She giggled and glanced over at her friend.

The look on his face was priceless, but there was some obvious anger bubbling under the surface. He came over.

"Now I'm wondering if you've done something stupid," Sam then said, not exactly impressed.

"First of all she hasn't done anything, and secondly I do not fall into the category of stupid," Eric said, grinning. Alice's cheeks went a delicate shade of pink as she understood what he was getting at, and Sam sighed.

"Don't be getting her into trouble."

"Please, she's under my protection and getting into trouble would be counterproductive to the both of us," Eric rolled his eyes, turning to Alice. "Come on, we have to go."

"Do we?" she frowned, and Eric rolled his eyes before grabbing her keys from her pocket, and heading over to the car.

"I'll be fine. Eric's good at keeping his word, which is more than what my previous boyfriend ever did for me in the end," she said to a worried Sam, and then realised her wording. "Not that Eric is my boyfriend, but he's very loyal if he likes you. Not sure why he likes me, but I'll take it. See you soon… and please don't tell anyone in there what just happened."

With that, Alice scurried to her car and got into the passenger seat, leaving a very bemused Sam to stare after the pair. She barely had her seatbelt on when Eric sped off down Sookie's driveway.

"What was that all about?"

"Trying to prove a point," she responded. "People have opinions I disagree with for the most part."

"The most part?" Eric was amused.

"I think people mistake your blunt honesty for being an arsehole, and just the way you act in general. You have nothing to hide and you know you don't owe anyone anything. You're not all bad, otherwise I wouldn't want you anywhere near me," Alice the explained.

"I'll take that, it's not far off," he agreed. "But back to my point earlier - you could have gotten yourself hurt. Leave Miss Stackhouse to Bill Compton, don't endanger yourself for her. She's not worth it."

"She's my friend, Eric." Alice got a little tetchy, and he rolled his eyes. "You might not care for her but I do. Besides, I… I had a vision about Bill burning. I went to go help him and got caught up in all of that."

"Fine. Just don't do anything like that again if you can help it."

"I can't tell if you're concerned or possessive."

"I dislike the word concerned but it's appropriate for the situation."

His tone suggested that was the end of that conversation. Silence was a usual companion with the two of them, due to Eric not being much of a talker and Alice being a dangerous mix of introverted and anxious. It was a good pairing - it meant conversation wasn't absolute necessary unless it was important.

"Do you… fancy going for a drink?" Eric asked carefully as they eventually turned off for Shreveport.

"Where?" Alice eyed him suspiciously.

"Not Fangtasia. I'm buying."

"Alright. What's the occasion?"

He glanced at her. "Looks like you could use one. And, admittedly, I'm quite impressed."

"Why?" Alice snorted.

"You're not crying about a dead body."

"Doesn't mean I'm not unnerved - it just wasn't horrifically messy, and I was able to avoid looking at it."

He nodded and soon enough they were at some quiet, fancy looking place in the depths of Shreveport. The area around it was pretty much deserted save for a few Mercedes in the car park outside the mysterious establishment.

After they both got out the car, Eric zipped round to Alice's side and offered her the crook of his arm, which she cautiously took. They walked towards the building and down a set of stairs, where they were greeted with a neon sign and a security guard at the door, who let them through without even asking for ID.

Eric winked at Alice, and they made their way into the posh bar, all black leather seats and gold embellishments. The human wasn't sure if she'd seen anything like it, and the place was pretty empty too. Elegant music played in the background.

The vampire led her to a high table where they sat on stools. She couldn't help but notice that when one of the bartenders spotted Eric, rushed over to them.

"Get the nice lady something as orange as her hair," Eric told him. The bartender went away without a single word uttered.

"Come on, there's got to be another reason you took me here," Alice prodded at him. "Is this our equivalent of a date?"

Eric looked disgusted at the very idea. "Please, sweetie, this is just me being nice. Do not get any ideas. Besides, I don't know much about you."

Her drink was brought over and placed on the table atop a napkin. Alice muttered her thanks, and took a sip.

"You do realise this is a Sex on the Beach, right? The most default orange coloured cocktail you could get?" She laughed. "But don't worry. It's probably the nicest one I've had. What do you want to know? I won't answer much, though. I don't know if I can properly trust you yet."

"That's fair. Okay… so… why did you move to Shreveport of all the places?"

She was silent before deciding on how to answer him - if anything, he probably did deserve to know a little more about her, all things considered. He was being nice to her right now, after all.

"Honestly, it was the result of a game. I was trying to figure out where to move and it had to be as random as possible. Pulled a continent out of a hat, followed by the country and a state. Then I got a map and shoved in a pin in it with my eyes shut," Alice eventually said. "And here I am."

"Here you are, sitting with a vampire, finally opening up to someone - to an extent," he pointed out. Her face fell.

"Don't," she said. "Don't… push it. You're lucky I didn't ask you to drive me home and actually entertained your offer."

He was silent for a minute or two, calculating the best next question.

"You must have been planning this a while - the move, that is."

She nodded. "With help from one of my sisters."

He was intrigued. "Oh, there's more of you?"

"I'm the baby in the family - an older brother and two older sisters. All of them in nice perfect family units of some kind…" she practically spat that sentence in a tone that was akin to spite and-

"Is that jealousy?"

She was then promptly ashamed of the way she spoke. "I'm usually not unless it's brought up. All I feel normally is… anxious, and scared. They're what got me here, and they're all I know. I've forgotten what it's like to feel everything else properly and then it comes to the surface. I don't like it when it does. It means I've let my guard down. It's why you're stone cold, isn't it? You don't want to let anyone in because it's easier that way, but here we are, at a bar, with both our guards let down."

Eric didn't say anything, and merely chewed over Alice's words as she carried on drinking down the cocktail - worry was etched across her face, as she realised she had spilled more to him that necessary. He couldn't dispute what she had said, but he didn't want to let her know that she was right about him. Instead he focused on the beginning part of her little speech - the part about herself.

Something had always seemed odd about Alice, the way she obsessively wanted to keep to herself, was permanently anxious, and didn't want to let anyone in.

"Whoever hurt you to the point where it was easier for you to live in constant fear - if I ever find out who they are, they're dead meat," he told her fiercely. "You were right about loyalty earlier - I like you. You're under my protection too, and it's not because I proclaimed it recently, but because I made a promise to someone a long time ago."

"What was the promise?"

"If we ever crossed paths that I would do what I can to help you, and to always protect you."

"So whoever it was knew that I would be… different?"

"Yes."

"Who was it? Who knew? Who made you promise?" There were tears in her eyes - not out of anger, but because deep down she knew. Somehow she knew who asked Eric to make sure she was protected.

"Two people. My maker, and… your grandmother."

Alice was gnawing on the inside of her lip silently as she forced back tears. She didn't know what to say to that. Her hands were beginning to shake - as she usually did in a situation like this, she got off her seat and made a beeline for the exit.

The moment her face wasn't in view of Eric's, she allowed herself to cry - why hadn't he told her? From the minute they met, why didn't he think it was a good idea to tell her about how he was involved in the first place? Was he only doing it because of that promise? Or did he also actually not mind her as a person? Was this all done out of begrudging respect for others?

She was nearly at the car when Eric called out for her.

"Where are you going?"

"Home. For the love of god - just let me go home."

"Without these?" He held up her car keys, and she sighed, heading back towards him with her hand outstretched.

"Give them to me."

"Only if you let me explain."

She lowered her hand.

"Yeah. That might be better. Eric, why didn't you tell me?"

"You weren't ready to know."

"Bullshit!" she exclaimed, before covering her mouth with a hand - shocked that she had even sworn at him. Eric wasn't phased by it, and waited for her to carry on talking because he knew she had something else to say. This time, she clenched her fists at her sides. "You should have told me sooner! If it was to do with my history, I had a right to know!"

"I'm not disputing that, but you were by no means ready to get more overwhelmed than you already were!" Eric was beginning to raise his voice now, getting frustrated with her stubbornness about the whole thing. "I get that you're scared and anxious and all of that bad shit you just told me, but for fuck's sake - I barely know what I'm doing with this either!"

"So why did you make that promise then?" she countered.

"I - I don't know." He calmed a little, and started to approach her. "At the time my maker probably wanted to teach me a lesson about humanity when he made me agree to it. Same with Rosalind."

"And have you? Have you learnt anything?"

The look on his face was strained - he'd much rather go back to shouting. "I don't know yet. Maybe a bit."

Alice nodded, before her face crumpled and she started to properly cry. "You should - you should have told me… Eric… are you only helping me because of that, or do you genuinely want to?"

"I… It started out as obligation but now I want to."

"Why?"

"You're different from the other breathers," he murmured, finally closing the gap between them and placing his hands on her shoulders. Alice sniffed and turned her face away from him.

"How?"

"Well, the most obvious thing is the gift you have. You don't overshare either. And… despite knowing me for a short amount of time, you have a basic understanding of how I work - most people don't." He brought his hand to her chin and gently moved her head so she would look at him. "You're right, I should have told you sooner, but it was better this way."

She nodded as she stared up at him, now wiping away her tears. "What was she like? My grandmother?"

"Rosalind was similar to you, but very different. Different enough that my maker - who is admittedly fiercer than I - fell in love with her. She annoyed me a lot."

"Do I annoy you?"

He cocked his head to the side, considering her question as it was one he had never been expecting. "Surprisingly, no."

"Can I trust you?"

"Yes, I think you can. Are you only trusting me because you want to or because you have to?" He threw a question similar in style to the one she had asked him back in her face, and it was clear that she hadn't been expecting.

"Both," she told him firmly. "Both, because I'm not an idiot to only go one way with that one."

A half smile came to his face - she was definitely more clever than she let on. "Come on, let's get you home."

That abrupt change in topic startled Alice, but she followed him to her car and got in the passenger seat once more. There was the comfortable silence between them in the car as he drove her home, and they were both grateful for it.

When Eric pulled into the driveway, he switched off the engine and handed back the set of keys to Alice. They sat there for a few minutes longer, before wordlessly getting out of the car and heading to the front door.

She turned to him before going inside.

"Thanks for the drink… you were right - I did kind of need it."

"It was no trouble. I'll see you tomorrow night?"

"Yes. Um…" Alice stepped closer to Eric. After a moment of consideration she got on her tiptoes, cupped his cheek and pressed her lips to his. She could have melted into him right there and then, always appreciative of how cold he felt to her - he didn't help with her sense of restraint, holding onto her upper arms while kissing her. She felt something stir in her belly; it felt familiar, but also entirely alien. It made her press herself entirely against him.

All of a sudden, before it could get any further than that, Alice pulled away from him and blushed. He raised his left eyebrow in that annoying way he always did, smirking too.

"The words you're looking for are good night." Eric backed off her porch with a sweeping bow, before flying off into the night.

Alice's cheeks were positively burning now, and she was almost unable to walk straight back into her own house. God, he was too much sometimes, wasn't he? It was safe to say that for the first time in a while, Alice went to sleep with genuinely nice, calming thoughts thoughts flying around her brain despite some of their discussions that night.

Yeah so I've gone through all the stuff I wrote over Christmas and I've written something ridiculous like 5 chapters ahead... and a third of the Dallas stuff is written as well. This is gonna be fun updating a bit more frequently than once a week! Also... the rating might change to M pretty soon. Heh.

anonymouscsifan: Alice and Godric would definitely be good friends! I've also made my decision on him meeting the sun lol. You'll see Soon. I didn't have Eric be that angry with her, more unimpressed about the fact she knowingly put herself in danger for Bill and Sookie, just seemed too cliche/fanfic trope-y to have him constantly angry when he's not like that in the show at all? Also you'll loving knowing that my NYE party tomorrow night is Film/TV themed and I convinced my boyfriend to do a Bill/Sookie couples costume with me (I had to get a wig, but it was the most low effort but effective thing we could do!) Also tried convincing our flatmate (who is v tall and blonde) to be Eric, but he's gone and dyed his hair purple so... nah haha.

Comment?

-OL.