A/N Nothing exciting to report here!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

EPOV

When I came out of the shower there seemed to be a flurry of activity going on. Sookie was simultaneously trying to spoon food into Felicia and dress Amelia, so I offered to take over the feeding.

Felicia gave up after a while and refused to have any more. I sniffed what was in the bowl I was holding and then stuck my finger in to have a taste. It was fucking odd, whatever it was. "What's she eating?" I asked Sookie, who was busy peering into cupboards.

"Lamb's fry…you know, liver."

"Urgh." All of a sudden I needed some water, so I grabbed a glass and filled it from the tap. "Yuck, why are you feeding her that?"

"Because it's good for her. Lots of iron."

I looked at Felicia who smiled at me. Yeah, well. Someone had to stick up for her. "So, do you think maybe she wants dessert? Like…" I peered over Sookie into the pantry, "…um, maybe banana custard?"

"Oh, well if you think she's still hungry."

"Yeah, I think she is." So I grabbed the custard and dished that up. Felicia only had a few mouthfuls, but Sookie wasn't really paying attention so I just finished up what was in the bowl for her.

"Wow" said Sookie, as she saw me rinsing out the bowl, "did she eat all that as well?"

"Um, most of it. I had the last bit so it wouldn't go to waste."

Sookie just patted my arm. "Of course you did" she said. "Hey, can you do me a favour? And go to the shop on the corner and get some wine? I think I've found enough stuff to make a platter of nibbles but we need to take some wine as well."

I looked at what she was doing. "How much food are you taking?"

Sookie stopped chopping celery sticks. "Not much, but we can't go empty handed."

"Yeah, OK". I thought she was fucking going overboard, but she was working herself into a frenzy so I figured it was better to say nothing and just go and get the wine.

When I got back we were pretty much ready to go. I got to hold Felicia; Sookie took the fucking enormous platter, and tried to get Amelia to walk along with us.

"Why aren't we going over the fence?" Amelia asked.

"Because we're proper guests tonight" Sookie said. Amelia didn't look impressed.

"I can still go on the trampoline though, can't I?"

"If Riley invites you to, then yes you can."

"Can I just tell him I want to bounce?"

Sookie crouched down. "Sweetheart, remember its Riley's house, so you have to be nice to him and not be too bossy."

Amelia humphed, and we carried on along the pavement and up to the front door.

SPOV

As soon as we got inside the Bellefleur's I figured out why we'd been invited at the last minute. Everyone else here was part of a couple. No wonder they didn't want to invite the weird lady with the dead husband from next door. Eric made me socially acceptable again. I should be annoyed, but I guess that's just the way these things go sometimes.

Amelia announced she wanted to go on the trampoline as soon as we were in the door, so Halleigh kindly took her and Riley off to the garden. Andy came over and said hello and introduced himself to Eric, shaking hands. I wondered if that was the catalyst for the invitation, Andy seeing Eric mowing the lawn this afternoon. I guess lawnmowing implies a degree of permanence or something.

I went to put the food in the kitchen where Halleigh came in and thanked me profusely for bringing it.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her, as she poured me a glass of wine.

"Oh, well, you know" she said. "Fat, and hot and fed up."

"Yeah, it's fun alright. This time last year that was me!" Halleigh and I laughed, and she left to go and refresh some drinks.

"What was you?" Eric asked, appearing behind me.

"Oh, um, pregnant. I was pregnant this time last year."

Eric looked at me, frowned, and then looked back at Felicia who'd been trying to remove the sunglasses he'd tucked into the front of his shirt. "Really?" he asked.

"Yup. She was born in February."

"I feel like she should be…smaller or something."

"Well, a lot happens in the first year. She'll be walking soon."

"Oh. That sounds a bit fucking frightening."

"Yeah, she's not going to be my baby for much longer." I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "It makes me a bit sad really." I sighed, then shook myself out of it. "Do you want a beer?" I asked Eric, grabbing one out of the fridge. He nodded. "Let's go and grab a seat and we can put Felicia down for a bit."

EPOV

So now I had figured out where all the couples in the world went on a Saturday night. They did this, just stood around in living rooms and talked shit, while a whole bunch of kids ran wild and stomped potato chips into the carpet. It was, interesting. I sat with Sookie and Felicia for a while, but she got involved in a conversation with Halleigh about pregnancy that I really didn't want to fucking hear, so I went to get another beer.

On the way back I stopped by the food and got accosted by some woman with red hair.

"I'm Arlene, from across the road" she said.

"Oh, I'm Eric. From, um, next door" I said, pointing out the window.

"Oh, right. So that's your wife?" she said pointing to where Sookie was sitting with Felicia on her knee.

"Yeah" I said. It seemed far too fucking hard to go through the whole partner thing, which even I wasn't that clear on.

"Well, my husband, Rene, is around here somewhere…oh there he is." She pointed to some guy standing by Andy. "And I think my kids are outside with the rest of them."

"Right" I wasn't sure what else to say. Just then though Amelia appeared beside me "I'm hungry!" she announced.

"Oh, well, um, have this." I passed her something that looked like a piece of toast with hummus on it. She took one bite, pulled a face and handed it back to me. "I want something else." I grabbed a handful of the chips and gave her those. They were obviously better because she headed off again.

"Kids!" said Arlene. "They're all the same. Fussy little buggers. Coby's 7 and I still can't get him to eat vegetables!"

"Oh, you should try putting them in macaroni cheese. That's what Sookie does."

"Right, well I might do that. Well, it was nice to meet you Eric!"

"Yeah, you too." With that she left, leaving me clutching the half-eaten bit of toast Amelia had handed me. At a loss with what else to do with it, I ate it myself.

I chatted to a few other people, including Andy himself for a while. He seemed like an OK guy and had some interesting stories from his job. A few of the other guests asked where I lived and I just said next door, at which point they all clicked and realised that I was with Sookie. I guess some had known Bill because they asked how long I'd known her and stuff like that, but some had no fucking clue I was new here.

At one point I realised that Sookie was now talking to the Arlene woman and I could see her frowning in my direction, but I didn't realise why until we walking home. I was carrying Amelia, who after an evening of running around was tired out, and Sookie was carrying Felicia. "I can't believe you Eric Northman!" Sookie hissed over Felicia's head.

"What did I do?" I asked.

"You were telling everyone we're married!" she hissed back.

We'd reached the front door by this stage, so we paused so Sookie could unlock it. I put Amelia down inside and Sookie told her to head to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"I didn't tell everyone" I said "I just didn't correct one person who fucking assumed it. There's a difference."

Sookie whipped around to look at me "No there's not. Don't try to justify it. I'm going to put the kids to bed."

I left her to it and went into the living room to watch some TV. After a while she appeared and started up again "It's not nice to suddenly find out we're married! I would have liked to know beforehand!"

"Yes, fine, Sookie! I get the fucking memo! No surprise marriages, they piss you off. I get it, you can stop fucking going on about it." Now there were no kids around we were a lot louder.

Sookie didn't say anything to that though, but just stomped off. I went back to what I was watching. Fuck, I thought, I wonder if I should just sleep out here if she's going to be in a fucking mood the whole night.

After a while Sookie reappeared in her pyjamas and sat down next to me. I eyed her warily, waiting for the accusations to start up again. Instead she said "Do you want coffee?"

I didn't say anything; I assumed there was something more to come. But all I got was her saying "Well?"

"Oh, um yeah?"

"Well you can make it then."

"OK" I still wasn't sure what was going on. "So, you're not pissed anymore?"

"Well, I'm still a bit annoyed, but I told you that I was, so I'm mostly over it now."

"Sooo, you're not going to shout at me any more?"

"I wasn't shouting at you in the first place! But no, no more tonight."

"Oh."

Sookie's eyes narrowed. "What does 'oh' mean?"

"Just…oh, I didn't think you'd be over it tonight. You were so fucking pissed before."

She shrugged. "That's how we fight in my family, we say our piece, and then we move on. Worked for mum and dad."

"I thought women all held fucking grudges" I said, then realised I was in danger of jeopardising the fragile truce that Sookie had called.

"Phft" she said. "That's a generalisation. I've known men that could hold terrible grudges. And sulk for days on end."

"Bill?" I asked.

"Yeah, Bill. At any point in time half of his family isn't talking to the other half. I can't stand that kind of shit. So I just get it over with. Anyway, you said you wanted me to tell you when I was mad with you."

"Yeah I did, I guess. Not sure I had quite that in mind."

"Well, if you don't want me to be annoyed with you, don't do dumb shit like let people think we're married. It's really quite simple Eric." I thought for a minute we were back to the place where Sookie was pissed with me, but she was smiling at me, and she put her hand on my shoulder. "So do I get my coffee now?"

"Jesus, what's the rule about nagging around here?"

"Ha ha. I'm allowed, but it's not nagging, it's gently prompting you to make the correct decision."

"You should have been a fucking lawyer" I said standing up.

Sookie giggled. "Hey do you want a mince pie?" she asked.

"Yeah, possibly several. We seem to have missed dinner somewhere."

"That's the problem with nibbles and drinks, they're not really filling. Luckily you had all that banana custard before we left."

"Um, it was just a bit."

Sookie snorted.

So we sat on the couch and watched some crappy movie while eating mince pies, then Sookie decided she was still hungry so we had cheese on toast as well. I couldn't believe the turnaround from earlier in the evening.

"So, you're really over it?" I asked, as we were going to bed.

"Yes, Eric. I really am. Honestly, you don't have to worry. It doesn't mean I like you any the less, or that I'm going to kick you out or anything." My face must have betrayed me because she peered at me closely. "You thought I was going to kick you out, didn't you?"

"No. Well, I didn't fucking know. I don't know how these things work."

"What, fights?"

"Yeah, I don't really…have them."

"OK, so what you just let women yell at you and you don't fight back?"

"No, I just don't stick around long enough."

"Oh." Sookie looked worried, fuck.

"But I wouldn't leave you" I said. "Not, just because you yelled at me anyway."

Sookie was quiet for a minute. "What about your parents? How did they fight?"

"They didn't. Just one day my mom wasn't fucking there."

"Jeez, I can't imagine doing that."

"No, well I can't imagine you doing that either. And then my dad's…girlfriends, well he fought with them; there were a lot of fucking nasty fights after that. It always ended with someone leaving." I laughed. "Me, if I could fucking get away from it."

"Oh, that's really shitty."

"Yeah, but it's a long time ago." It was a fucking long way away from anything I had with Sookie. Fuck, I was lucky I hadn't ended up like my dad.

Sookie lay down and stretched out. "It's nice to be in bed" she said. "It seems to have been a long day."

I lay down next to her "Yeah, but mostly it's been a good day."

"Yeah, mostly good. I think that's what you should hope for really. Mostly good."

"I don't know, I think it's possible to get better than that. How about almost completely good, with some excellent parts?"

Sookie turned to look at me. "And what would the excellent parts of today be?"

I wanted to tell her that one of them was finding out I was part of the family, but after the fucking marriage debacle I didn't want to risk ruining anything. "Well" I said, "maybe we could try for an excellent part of the day now?"

"What are you proposing?"

"I thought proposing wasn't allowed?"

"Now who's playing with language?"

"OK, then, how about we do this?" I kissed her neck, "Then this?", I kissed her collarbone, "Then this?" I kissed the top of one breast then the other.

"Yeah, that's definitely heading towards excellent."

"Well, let's get you out of these clothes", she sat up so I could pull her top off, then kicked her own pyjama shorts down, "then we can keep going." I kissed her between her breasts, then in a line down her stomach, before veering to the side to kiss her hip bone and down her thigh, repeating the process with the other hipbone and thigh.

I moved so I was between her legs, which she obligingly opened for me. I fucking loved that she was so less inhibited now than she had been. She was over her fucking stupid need to keep a sheet covering her at all times and I loved it when she was laid out for me like this, a real feast for the eyes.

"Fuck, you're beautiful Sookie" I said looking up at her face. She looked at me, sort of frowned and bit her lip, like she wanted to argue but was holding herself back. "Thank you" she said in the end, and smiled at me. I smiled back, before dipping my head to kiss her clit. She shuddered slightly. I used my tongue to lick her slit, and then I sucked her clit gently while Sookie moaned "Ohhh, Eric." Fuck, I'd never get tired of hearing Sookie say that.

I kept my mouth working, while placing one then two fingers inside of her. She was so warm and wet, and then she was tightening against my fingers and her hips were doing their best to buck me off as she came.

I moved back up the bed to lie beside her. "Yeah" she said "that was an excellent part of the day."

"Well it's not over yet" I said, and I got a condom out of the drawer, before taking off my boxers. Sookie had rolled onto her side and she reached down and stroked me a few times, which made my need to be inside her even more desperate. I rolled the condom on, lifted her leg and pushed in, with both of us still on our sides. We lay like that for a minute, before I began moving, just slightly.

"Still excellent?" I asked.

"Better than excellent."

I pushed Sookie onto her back and began to move in a more regular rhythm. Sookie clutched at my back as she came again and I stilled for a moment. "Don't stop" she whispered. I hooked her leg up with one arm and began moving again.

I felt her twitch and tense again as she had another small tremor, and then I was lost to my own orgasm, collapsing on top of Sookie.

"Yeah, that was fucking excellent" I said. "You're fucking excellent."

"So are you"

We looked at each other for a moment, and it felt like there was something unspoken in the air between us, something that had been building for a while. But I didn't have a fucking clue what I wanted to say to Sookie, or how I wanted to say it. I just hoped she somehow knew what I felt, even if I didn't. The way she was looking at me, it seemed like that was possible.

Later I held her tight to my chest as she drifted into sleep, and I just listened to her breathing. I was close to sleep myself when I was hit with a sudden realisation. Fuck, I thought, is this what love's like?

My original thought for this sequel was that it might be about 8 chapters, but it seems to be growing. So I hope you guys aren't getting too bored now the angst is dialling down and they're a lot more together. Just tell me if you are!

Thanks for reading!