Disclaimer: It all belongs to the talented CH and semi-talented AB.
Cool fingertips ghosted up her side, barely touching her skin. Sookie's eyes slowly opened. She must have fallen asleep. Sookie blinked through her slight confusion before focusing on the man lying beside her. She silently watched him; his eyes were focused on his fingers as they traced along her skin. She couldn't stop the small smile that formed on her lips. Closing her eyes again, she enjoyed the feelings running through her body and the feel of his touch.
It must be late. She felt the weight of the night on her eyelids encouraging them to stay closed, but she also felt an incredible energy thrumming through her. Cracking her eyes open she watched as the fingers made the return trip down her arm and along her side trailing over the bare skin of her abdomen to circle her belly button before gently coasting back up. The light touch on the inside of her outstretched arm should have tickled, but instead it sent a shiver of expectation shuddering down her spine. The feeling was absolutely delicious as it settled low in her belly.
His head snapped up at the movement of her body.
"Cold?" His voice was rough and raspy from non use. Apparently even vampires suffer from that very human trait. He quietly cleared his throat and repeated, "Are you cold?"
"No."
"Good." A knowing look slid over his face.
The fingers that had paused at their verbal exchange began to move again. This time with a firmer stroke he traced her arm up to where her hands still clutched at the headboard. He gently pulled them free before guiding them down to her sides. Her fingertips tingled as the blood began to rush back into place and she wiggled them to encourage the blood flow. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he watched the movement of her hands. He shifted in the bed and began to press light kisses across her stomach. Her hands landed on his shoulders and she couldn't help but knead the cool muscles stretched out before her.
He glanced up meeting her eyes. Flashing a very fangy smile, he nuzzled his face to her navel again before tugging down the sheet that had been covering her lower half. He quickly replaced it with his body and he began to move up her body with his eyes glued to her mouth. Sookie licked her lips in anticipation and leaned forward to meet him.
"Sookie."
"Yes," she breathed out in a whisper.
"Sookie!"
The warm hand on her shoulder stopped her forward momentum and confused the hell out of her.
What? She quickly looked around.
"Sookie!" From the tone of Sam's voice, she could tell that he had been repeatedly calling her name. She jerked backwards and blushed hotly at where her mind had been.
"Your order's up." He quickly pulled his hand back to steady the pitcher he was filling with Bud Light and gestured with his chin towards the kitchen pick up window. He looked up again and when he finally caught her eyes he stopped the tap and sidled closer to her. Leaning over the bar he whispered, "You okay? You…"
"Yes Sam." Sookie cut him off not wanting to know what he was going to say. "Sorry, must have been lost in my own head for a second."
He cocked his head and thankfully didn't say another word. He did however; continue to give her a hard look. Sookie had no idea what he was thinking; his thoughts were particularly garbled today. Usually she had a fair idea of what was going on in his head, probably due more to their long term friendship than her telepathy. Shifter thoughts were usually harder for her to read, but today his mind was just a jumble of distortion.
He continued to gaze at her, a question mark written all over his face. He had looked at her that way all day. Apparently she was a puzzle that he could not solve, at least not today. And that was just fine with Sookie.
She turned and headed toward the kitchen. Sookie knew she had to be beet red from the heat she was feeling on her cheeks. She couldn't believe she had lost herself in a sex moment at work. Talk about a place where she usually did not think about sex. It was Merlotte's. A nice place and all but it was work; it should be pretty UN-sexy to her.
But apparently HE was sexy enough to even make an UN-sexy place seem sexy. Or had the sex just been so … SEXY. Did that even make sense? She didn't know anymore. Except here she was, thinking about sex at work. And the blush on her cheeks wasn't the only place blood was rushing to at the moment. Ugh. She resisted the urge to run her hands down her arms and adjust her shorts. Shake it off girl, she told herself. Work had been going great tonight and she wanted it to continue that way.
The radio dial rolled across several stations before hot salsa music suddenly came pouring out of the kitchen. Good, Lafayette must have just started his shift. She had hoped he was coming in. With an added skip to her step she popped up in front of the serving hatch to grab her order: fried pickles, two baskets of wings and an incredibly rare burger.
"Hey-a Laf!" she called out loudly, projecting to be heard over the throb of the music. "You better turn it down sister, before Sam comes and rains on your parade. You know how he can be!"
Lafayette turned around, carefully pulling his hairnet on to not disturb his hair. Today it involved at least two scarves and some sort of broach. Sookie seemed to remember Gran having something similar in her jewelry box. She was sure Gran had never worn one quite the same way that Laf did. Then again, not many people did things like Laf….at all. He was truly one of a kind.
He opened his mouth to speak but suddenly closed it when he saw her. He turned his head from one side to the other as if trying to decide something. Narrowing his eyes in concentration he ran them over Sookie again from top to bottom, or at least as much as he could see through the window. What was wrong, she thought. Was she still blushing? Did she have something on her face?
"Mmm…..mmm, mmm." Something was different, something about her. He shook his head. "Damn woman, you are looking mighty tasty today!" He took a couple steps closer to get a better look, "You got a new beauty secret you wanna share with your good friend?"
All she could do was laugh and shake her head at him. She really loved Lafayette, she really did. They had been friends before everything 'went to shit,' as he had taken to calling it. Tara, Lafayette and Sookie had done their fair share of raising hell and adding to Gran's white hairs back in the day. But now, after everything they had gone through, they were bonded in a way that neither of them would have thought possible before.
"The only thing tasty back here is your cooking. And you of course," she drawled back at him with a smile.
"That is true my dear" he said with a laugh. "That is so true." He was still smiling, but his eyes were intently watching her. She flushed again and hurried to load her tray with food. Sookie could feel his eyes remain on her as she beat a hasty retreat.
Sheesh! She had been expecting the extra scrutiny from Sam, but not from Lafayette. In fact she had been a little scared to go anywhere physically near to Sam today, trying to avoid him and his nose. In addition to her shower last night, she had made sure to thoroughly wash herself two times in the shower this morning. Had she been able to wash the scent of vampire off? Sam had that damn bloodhound supe nose and seemed to be able to smell everything, vampire included. Earlier when he walked into his office as she was putting her purse away, she held her breath as he passed by to reach his desk. So far, he hadn't said anything about it. Thank you Dial and her Peach Bellini body wash.
Now Lafayette was looking at her funny too? That was one she hadn't planned on, but she should have. He knew her; they had walked through some deep despair together. So what was he seeing when he looked at her? She had no idea. A quick glance at her watch had her groaning; it was only 5:15. It was going to be a long night.
"So spill it. Come on now girlfriend – I would love to have some of whatever you are taking. You are looking so fine. And you have a smile on yours face. What's up with that?" Lafayette was not giving up. Every time she had to pick up an order he would ask in some form or another.
She shook her head, just as she had the last five times.
"Come on! You gotta share so the rest of us bitches have a chance. You look fan-fucking-tastic." The word had barely rolled off his lips when his eyes jumped back to hers. His kohl rimmed eyes went wide.
"That's it," he cackled. "You. I figured it out. You!" He spun around and danced side to side before sliding up to the kitchen side of the window with a knowing grin. "You little minx, you got laid! You had fantastic sex last night! Good for you sister, you needed it."
Sookie tried to shake him off, "No, no Laf, I didn't." She forced herself to laugh, aiming for a light you've-got-to-be-kidding type laugh but she failed miserably.
She really did not want to be having this conversation. Not right now, not at work. Well maybe she did. Lafayette would listen, but definitely not here at work! She figured she was telling the truth. Yes, she had gotten laid and yes, it had been fantastic, but it had not been last night. Nope. She had been all alone last night. No nightly visitors for her. None.
She honestly didn't know if she was relieved or sad about that fact. She had practically convinced herself he wouldn't pay any attention to her note and come hunt her down. And maybe more than half of her had been slightly disappointed when she woke to bright sunshine and the birds singing after NOT being woken up in the middle of the night for a repeat performance. Once again she forced herself to focus on the fact that she had gotten a good night's sleep. And really, didn't she need that more than she needed great sex?
"Please bitch," Lafayette continued after a silent minute waiting for her to keep talking. "Who do you think you are talking to? I'm not buying what you are pathetically trying to sell Miss Stackhouse. You – YOU – got fucked six ways from Sunday, maybe even seven. Maybe not last night, but since I saw you last. You have that look."
Sookie blushed. She never could keep a secret. "Shhhhh,' she hissed leaning in close to him. "What look?" The words slipped out before she could stop them.
"That look! The one all over you. The one that screams I had an orgasm … and it was go-oo-od!"
Sookie could only gape at him. How could he see that? Was it really noticeable?
"So tell me. Come on now hookah – you wouldn't hold back on me, would you? So who was it?" Sookie didn't think his eyes could get any larger. "Did you make a decision between Fang One and Fang Two? Who exactly rocked your world?"
When she didn't answer he opened his mouth again.
Sookie quickly regained her tongue, "Oh no. You didn't! You did not just mix vampires into The Cat in the Hat!"
"I'm just callin' them like I'm seeing them. That Cat was probably pretty darn kinky himself!"
Sookie tried to look scandalized, but couldn't pull it off. She could only shake her head and laugh. They had loved that story as children and Gran had read it over and over and over again. Gran had even nicknamed Tara and Layfette, Thing One and Thing Two as they always seemed to cause a whole lot of trouble whenever they came by.
Sort of like some vampires she knew. It did sound familiar… maybe Lafayette was on to something?
She cocked her head, a challenging gleam in her eye, "Do you remember the book?"
"Do I remember, do I remember? Who do you think I am? Bring it bitch," he responded with attitude.
She took a breath, trying to remember herself, "The sun did not shine."
"It was too wet to play," he didn't miss a beat.
"So we sat in the house."
"All that cold, cold, wet day." He quickly recited, finishing the first page of the book they had known by heart as children.
They both looked at each. After a moment of silence, Sookie broke first. A quiet giggle escaped the straight face she was desperately hanging onto. Soon the giggles were replaced with out-right laughter. The whole thing struck Sookie as being so absurd, so ridiculous that she couldn't help but laugh. Lafayette was soon sucked into Sookie's giggle fit and every time they looked at each it would start all over again. Tears began to run down her face as she braced her hands on her knees in an attempt to stop the laughter. She honestly tried to stop, but she couldn't.
Sookie couldn't believe how good it felt to laugh and laugh hard. She had been having a great day and this was just icing on the cake. She felt freer than she had in months.
"Stop it!" She ordered him as he continued to chuckle, which in turn caused her to lose it again. She madly tried to wipe away the tears as Sam came through the swinging kitchen door. He looked suspiciously between the Sookie and Lafayette, both looking guilty as sin.
"Everything okay back here?" Sam's head continued to pivot back and forth between the two of them. Getting no further response he said, "Sookie, table three needs some refills."
"Yes sir" she wiped her eyes once more before grabbing her orders, turning to leave. Lafayette was close enough to hear her mutter under her breath, "Sam-I-am, Sam-I am. I do not like green eggs and ham." Laf coughed into his elbow to stifle his laugh. She glanced back at him with a sly smile and walked away with a little added swing to her step leaving both men shaking their heads.
She heard Sam as he turned back to Lafayette, "What was that all about?"
Lafayette looked right at Sookie, "Sam- I-am, Sam-I-am. I do not know. But maybe she does like those green eggs and ham." He smiled again, shooting her a wink before turning to leave Sam looking slightly bewildered.
The rest of the evening each time Sookie picked up an order, Lafayette would ask a question. He wasn't giving up.
"Did you do it here or there?"
"Would you, could you in the dark?"
"In the rain, on a train?"
"Did you do it in your house?"
"Were you quiet as a mouse?"
"With a fox?"
"In a box? I know, did you let him eat your box?"
"Lala – that is enough! No more. Stop," she sternly shook her finger at him. She leaned forward and whispered, "Not here, 'kay? Later."
He smiled. She was sure it was because she had finally given in. Nodding in agreement, he turned back to work without another word.
Later however, came a bit faster than Sookie anticipated. She figured they'd talk tomorrow since they would both be at work late. He would close down kitchen service for the night, finish tomorrow's prep and do a final cleanup long before the bar closed. He wouldn't want to wait around for her.
Only a couple hours had passed before she found herself alone with him. Sick of Arlene's whining about the overflowing trash cans, Sookie had taken matters into her own hands and was throwing the full bags into the dumpster behind the restaurant. She never saw Lafayette leaning against the building enjoying his after dinner rush smoke break until he spoke. Taking a deep drag on his hand rolled, he tried again to get her to spill.
"Come on Sookie, it's just you 'n me now." He exhaled slowly, "So tell me…Fang One or Fang Two?"
She rolled her eyes, "Didn't anyone ever tell you that a true lady doesn't kiss and tell?"
"Well I'm pretty sure that you were doing more than just kissin'," he said suggestively. "Well you don't have to tell me about the kissin…"
When her only response was to shake her head, he dropped the teasing tone. "Are you okay? In all seriousness – and yes, I can be serious. You okay?"
Sookie leaned against the building next to him, "Yes Laf, I'm okay. I'm….," she thought about it for a moment, "I'm good. I think I'm better than I have been in a while. And you? You seem pretty darn good yourself."
He nodded in agreement.
They both stood there watching the oncoming night in companionable silence. Sookie leaned a little closer and rested her head on his shoulder as they watched the murky night sky darken.
She took a deep breath, "I decided a couple mornings ago that I was done being sad. At least I gotta try to be. I need to move on… move forward, you know? I've been wallowing for too long. Gran would be appalled at my attitude lately."
He took another slow drag, "It's about time, about damn time. It took me a while to get there too. I figured you would sooner or later. You always were a little slower than me," he said with a poke to her side.
"Soooooo…," he exaggerated the word. "You gonna tell me which one came a knockin'?"
"Why does it have to be Eric or Bill? Maybe I met somebody new," she straightened up still hoping to distract him.
Apparently he was having none of that. "Well I know you Sookie-girl and you are so not the DTF type so it had to be one of the two of them."
"DT what? Laf, I have no idea what that even means." she threw her hands up in exasperation. Knowing Laf, she knew exactly what the F stood for, and she wasn't even going to go there on the rest of it.
"Okay sis, I leave you alone. At least for now, just tell me one thing," he was back to waggling his eyebrows suggestively leading Sookie to brace herself for his next words. "So, was it vertical or did you manage to find a bed for some horizontal action?"
Since he had dropped the serious tone, she did too. Sookie reached over and grabbed the dwindling cigarillo out of his mouth. Tossing it to the ground, she put it out with a quick turn of her heel. She grabbed the screen door and flung it open to head back inside. Catching the door on the rebound, she looked him right in the eye, "Both!" The look on his face was priceless; she had finally managed to surprise him. She laughed all the way back to inside.
It had been a good night. Sookie stared in disbelieve as she counted her tips. She had made more tonight than she had all last week combined. Clearly, she needed to be in a good mood more often. Sookie quickly separated out the amount she owed Laf in the kitchen and the busboy. She added an extra twenty into Lafayette's share figuring he was partly responsible for her good mood. Well him and Dr. Suess.
Her duties done for the night she grabbed her purse and hoped to leave without running into Sam. He hadn't said a whole lot all night, but she still wanted to stay away from him and his nose. Lafayette had sniffed out her secret, well not entirely and she really didn't want a repeat performance with the blood hound. She was happy and she really didn't want anything to spoil her good mood.
She should have moved a little faster. Sam managed to catch her coming out of his office. "Sook, got a second?"
"Yep. What's up?" Might as well get it over with, she figured.
"I just wanted to let you know that it's good to see you smile."
"Yeah, I think the whole town noticed. I really raked in some good tips tonight."
"And I wanted to ask you something."
The easy smile that she had been wearing slipped a little as she mentally prepared herself for Sam's next words. She had no idea what they were going to be, but she geared herself for the worst. Was he going to fire her again?
"Are you…," he cleared his throat and started again. "Does Northman still own your house?"
Oh that. "Yes."
"And you're still living there, right?"
"Yes, Sam. He may own it but it really is MY house," she said a bit defensively. This was not what Sookie had expected and he had unwittingly brought up a sore spot with her. She had quite successfully managed to brush off the uncomfortable situation for months by just plain ignoring it. Eric hadn't said anything to her and she had just continued to live there. She figured they were both choosing to overlook that particular elephant in the room.
"I know Sook, I agree," he quickly stated holding up his hands in surrender. "I'm only asking 'cause I'm concerned about your safety."
Before she could open her mouth in protest he continued on, "If he owns the house then any vampire can come and go as they please. If anything ever happened you couldn't rescind their invitation."
Sighing loudly, she plopped down on a bar stool realizing that she had to face this sooner or later and apparently Sam was making her do it tonight. "I know Sam, you're right…but I don't know what to do. Nothing's happened so far."
"Have you talked to Eric about it?"
"Nope. I…I really haven't talked to him since that night. The night Tara died."
A shadow of doubt crossed Sam's face, "What about Bill? Since he's the king, could he do something to …uh help you?"
"Believe it or not Sam; I haven't really talked to him either. I know. It is strange. One of them owns the house I'm living in and one of them lives next door, but our paths don't seem to cross….at all. I think we are all trying to avoid each other. Really I'm just trying to live my life," she shrugged her shoulders, "perhaps they're avoiding me."
She wasn't lying, well not exactly. There really hadn't been any talking the other night. Yes, some words had been spoken but really nothing of any substance; definitely not things that needed to be said. Nope. All of that had been pushed aside for a more basic type of communication. They had chosen to converse with their mouths in a different way, along with their hands and other body parts.
Sam shook his head in disbelief. "You really think this is you living your life?"
Sookie could only sigh. She knew what he was thinking, it was written all over his face. "Sam…"
"Listen I'm just worried about your safety."
"They wouldn't hurt me Sam. I know….I know we've had some differences, but I know that they wouldn't hurt me."
"And this isn't hurting you?" He threw up his hands, exasperation coloring his words. "I'm not talking about physically hurting you Sookie! From where I'm sitting, what this has done to you… This…this is worse."
He took a deep breath and started again, "Cher, I'm in no position to tell you what to do. I just want you to be safe. That's why I'm asking. Here." He reached across the bar and pressed a ring with two keys into the palm of her hand, closing her fingers around it. "Those are the keys to one of my rentals. It's empty and I want you to use it, if you want."
"Sam, no. I couldn't." Sookie shook her head trying to hand him back the keys.
"Yes Sookie, it's empty. I'm still in the process of getting it cleaned and ready to rent. I've still got some repairs to do and I've got some new carpet coming in, so I can't rent it right now." He took a deep breath before continuing. "But I own it so it's … it's vampire proof. Well as long as you don't invite them in, of course."
Sookie searched his eyes carefully. He wasn't judging, he wasn't looking at her with pity. Again, he closed her hands around the keys and simply kept both his hands on her. She knew what he was doing; he was inviting her into his mind. He knew the physical contact would make it easier for her to read him. She held his eyes as he held her hands. The inside of his head matched what was coming out of his mouth. He had no ulterior motive. He was honestly concerned and wanted her to take the keys.
"Please keep the keys, if you need a place to go you can use it. You can sleep there or just use it if you need to be alone, or safe …. or whatever. Okay?"
"Okay," she said a bit reluctantly. "You let me know when you are ready to rent it and I'll give you the keys back."
When he nodded his agreement she stood and walked around the bar to give him a hug. "Thank you Sam. You are a good friend." She whispered into his embrace, touched by his unexpected kindness.
His hug was warm both in sentiment and temperature and he held onto her a bit longer. "You know you can always talk to me, right? I want you to feel free to come to my place too. 'Kay?"
She nodded against his chest and gave him one more squeeze before she turned to leave.
After a quick stop at the grocery store Sookie headed for home. The night was balmy enough that she drove with her windows down and the radio up. Grabbing her mail from the box she threw it in one of the grocery bags to be dealt with later. The only thing left on her agenda for the day was a hot, deep bath. It would be an excellent way to end the day and wash the general bar and fried food smell out of her hair.
Sookie started the water, adding a generous helping of some peach bath salts and went back down to grab her mail to sort while the tub filled. It looked like a whole lot of junk: two credit card offers, a sales flyer from a new clothing store in town, a bill and a small padded jiffy pack envelope. The bill went on the counter, the junk in the trash. She flipped over the padded envelope to see who it was from. Written in very nice penmanship in the center of the envelope was her name and only her name. No return address, no stamp, not even her address; just her name. This had been hand delivered to her house. She cautiously gave the mystery package a quick pat. The contents appeared to be rather small as the envelope was practically flat. Very interesting.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she ripped it open and peered inside. Without a word she tipped the package over and out tumbled a scrap of fabric, her missing panties. No note, just her underwear.
Sookie just stood there, silently transfixed by the sight.
Without thinking she lifted them up to her nose and took a deep breath. They were clean. A soap different than the one she usually used tickled her nose. It was pleasant. She inhaled again.
He had washed them….er more likely, had them washed. Did vampires do their own laundry? She really hadn't thought about it before, but couldn't picture any of the vampires she knew doing something quite so domestic as a load of laundry. So either he had washed them himself or sent them out to be cleaned. She absently wondered if that was an unusual occurrence. How interesting.
Suddenly remembering her filling bathtub she ran upstairs just in time to turn the water off. Settling into the delicious warmth of the water, her eyes strayed to the cream colored hip huggers she had tossed next to the sink.
Sookie didn't know what to think. Why had he sent them? It was nice, very nice that he had returned them. And that they were clean too. Was he trying to tell her something? Or just make her think about that night and think about him? (Like she could forget!) Was she reading more than she should into an innocent gesture? "Yeah right!" she snorted. Innocent and vampire were two words that just did not go together. There was nothing innocent about him.
Sookie knew she had to stop thinking about it; otherwise she would be up all night. She was going to take it at face value as a nice gesture and be done with any further thoughts. She would just deal with it all later. With that decided she firmly pushed all remaining thoughts of vampires and panties out of her head and took a deep breath before sinking beneath the water. She could always think tomorrow.
Pretty please, let me know what think. Please leave a review. Thanks!
