I own nothing to do with True Blood. I'm just having an awesome time mixing up the characters.

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Chapter Four

The last male I had living in my house with me, was my ex, Bill. So, surely, you could imagine the trepidation I felt at having another man inside my house, another man who was still practically a stranger to me, in so many ways.

When my shift ended for the evening, I drove home with Eric in Jason's car. At first, he seemed nervous as he peered outside the window, clutching onto his duffel bag for dear life, like he was very frightened. Then, once we arrived at the house and I pulled into the driveway, alarmingly, Eric gasped, and started laughing.

My hands tightened over the steering wheel as I stole a look over at him. His mouth was hanging agape as he scrutinized the yard curiously. "What's so funny?" I asked, nervously.

"I've never actually seen such a large house before. Does it all belong to you?"

"Of course not. Part of it belongs to my Gran, she lives in there," I explained, pointing it out to him. "The smaller house connected behind it, is where I live. I live separately from her."

"Interesting." Oddly, he sounded as if he truly meant that. He was such a strange man to me; His odd reaction to seeing my Gran's house almost had me in hysterics. I couldn't say I believed him entirely with what he explained to me in Merlotte's about being banished away from his home, at first. But whenever he made reactions like this, so completely out of the ordinary, it kind of stuck to me that maybe he was just telling me the truth. Clearly, this world did baffle him greatly. When I parked around the back of Gran's house, and he followed me to the door of the outhouse where I mainly lived in, he was even interested in the bristly 'HOME' mat I had gracing the front steps to the front door. I presumed he knew that word well, since he was searching for his home himself.

I unlocked the front door, and stepped aside to let him go in first.

He seemed like such a man out-of-place. There was just something incredibly childlike about him, as he took in the rooms with his eyes. It was incredibly endearing.

We went into my modest living room, and sat on the couch for a bit. He stood and sat, stood and sat, several times, as though he was amazed by how soft the cushion was. I had to bite my lip to stifle a grin. Then, he slowly turned to me.

"Would you happen to have a pen and paper by any chance?"

"Sure." I searched around the living room, until I found a blue ballpoint pen and loose piece of paper. "Here." I handed it to him, and then he threw himself into drawing, almost manically. I sat beside him, curling my arms around my knees, as I watched him draw with interest. Admirably, he was very good at drawing. Impressively, so.

Once he was done, he showed the drawing to me. I didn't know what it was at all. It was just a creation of various intricate lines in blue pen; swirls and ripples. "I need to find this portal to get back home. There are many in different counties, but I think we ought to focus on finding the one here." He jabbed a finger at the picture, very urgently. "It would have been the one I came through, also."

My eyes widened. Right. So, it was a picture of a... portal? For the life of me, I hadn't two wits about what a portal was.

"What exactly does a... portal look like? Like that picture you drew?"

"Oh, you probably won't be able to see it unless you're part what I am. It is usually invisible to the human eye, for our safety."

"And just what exactly are you?" He hadn't fully explained it to me. Something about elders, and needing to find home, and banishment by his father, yes. But not exactly just what he was.

"I am a... Fairy, Sookie." He stared at me anxiously, almost as if he was frightened how I would react to that. All I did, uncontrollably, was start to laugh. I just couldn't help it. The entire thing was unbelievable. He rolled his eyes as my laughter increased. "Yes, I know," he murmured through my laughter, embarrassed.

"Oh, Jesus." I tried to hold it all in. "I'm sorry." I smiled at him apologetically. "It's just... a Fairy, really?" I raised my eyebrows dubiously. "You hear about them... and you kind of assume they're women. You know? Like all those paintings you see depicting Fairies as naked women?"

"You don't believe me," he said, irritated.

"No, it's not that at all. I just-"

Suddenly, he held out his hands and a burst of light shot through his fingertips. If I was laughing before, now I was squealing at the unexpectedness of it. Having a man throw light from his fingertips through the air, was hardly something you'd expect in a normal world.

And then it suddenly struck me. The burst of light last night. The similarities.

"Oh, my God," I whispered, feeling breathless. "It was you, wasn't it? It was you last night, who did that light thing that made that guy seizure, wasn't it?" Surprisingly, I didn't feel afraid or horrified at all. I simply felt relieved, now that it occurred to me.

He stared at me miserably, like a little child getting caught out stealing something. Then he said it, almost inaudibly, "It was. I find there is something in you that I am drawn to." He was whispering it out through clenched teeth, a little on the helpless side. "A kindness, and geniality that I like. No one should ever take advantage of that and harm you. Are you angry now?"

Angry was the last thing I was feeling right then. "Not at all."

"Then if not angry, you are frightened of me." He sounded so certain of that. He brought his hands to his face, and rubbed at his chin with his large fingers.

"I'm nothing, really." It was a struggle to keep my voice to a normal level. "I'm mostly... happy."

He let his hands fall to his sides, and stared at me. He was shocked- clearly he wasn't expecting that, for some reason. "You are happy?"

"Yes," I smiled. "I hate to think what that boy might have done to me had you not intervened the way you had. Plus, he had a huge knife. He could have... stabbed me." I shuddered at the possibility, but then had to remind myself, it was over with now. I was alive, and thank God for that. "It was very thoughtful of you, what you did. What would have happened to him, though? Is he going to be all right?"

"I believe so." He thought about that deeply for several moments. "Then again, our light can affect many in different ways. I don't know whether it is the same for him, or not."

We fell into silence on my couch after that. I just didn't know what more there was to say right now. All Eric did, was stare at me carefully through the silence. There was a pretty intense look in his blue eyes for me, one that had me inwardly reeling with nerves. It was like- to him- I was just some peculiar creature to scrutinize and look at, evaluating every part of my facial features.

After a few more awkward minutes spent, his avid looking became unbearable.

"Would you like to have a shower?" I offered, far louder than I had intended to speak, because it was unnerving. "I can go get you some of my brother's old clothes, so you won't have to wear your old ones all over again. I'll wash them for you." Considering how torn and stained his jeans looked, it would appear they needed a good old wash.

"Ah, yes. A shower?" By the way he said it, he clearly didn't even understand what a shower was. It seemed I would have to help him out a whole lot more, then, than I first anticipated.

"Yes. Come on."

He followed me upstairs obediently, and lingered behind me while I switched on the hot and cold water tap.

I ran the water in the shower for him, sticking my hand underneath the spray to make certain it wasn't too hot, then pulled the plastic curtain open.

"There you go," I beckoned gently. "You can take however long you like in there."

"Yes. Thank you." And then without any self-conscious doubts whatsoever, he pulled his shirt over his head and flung it on the tiles at his feet.

My breath hitched in my throat.

I didn't want to stare, or make him feel uncomfortable, but it was a bit hard not to- especially when I was standing right in front of him. It was just something I could not avoid. Hey, I'm a straight girl; I can find appreciation in a man's body, like anyone else. His body was beautiful. Very muscular. I had a tempting urge to run my hands over his broad shoulders, massaging various muscles. It would have been super inappropriate, to say the least. After all, I did not know the man all that well. Plus, I wasn't one to easily fall into bed with a man. The man I had only been with, was Bill. But Eric was a completely different physique than Bill all together. He was very toned, firm, and athletic, a bit like those men you saw at the gym who paid extra special attention to their body. Bill never went to the gym a day once in his life. He was mostly all work, work, work.

"All right," I managed, very slowly. "I'll leave you to it."

Just as I squeezed past him, he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You don't have to," he said, sounding both worried and disappointed. "I mean, you could join me, if you'd like? I would not mind it." I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. His voice was extremely husky. He added softly, "Perhaps you could show me how to use the shower?"

The idea was way more appealing than I would have liked. It was indecent, though. There was no way in hell I would be able to act normal, if the pair of us were huddled in my small shower together, completely naked. I had to be appropriate- and act reasonably here.

"No," I whispered, eyes still closed. "I don't think that would be a very good idea."

I broke out into a light jog out of the bathroom. And then I heard the sound of him unzipping his jeans, and I just couldn't resist, for the life of me. I just had to do it. I guess I was simply curious. I looked back. The door was wide open, and he was pulling down his jeans to his muscular thighs. Hell, he wasn't even wearing any underwear. I felt my entire face flare with shame, when he looked back through the open door at me, all innocence, despite the fact he was completely naked as the day he was born. Maybe the naked body wasn't a big deal for him, as a Fairy?

Confusion was written all over his face. "Would you like to join me, then?" he asked throatily.

And then, I just had to get out of there. It was too tempting. I turned, and almost ran for my life to the lounge room. My heart was pounding, almost lethally. I hadn't ever felt that way before- so tempted into doing sexual things to another person, but astonishingly, it was all there for him. This whole 'helping him find home' thing was going to be far more problematic than I believed it would. I was going to have to keep my hands to myself. And yet, how could I possibly do that if he was going to constantly get naked in front of me?

I realized I was thinking way too hard about it. I was restless.

I marched into the kitchen, and turned on the kettle. A nice and relieving green tea relaxed me best.

I grabbed a mug from the cupboard and turned back to the screeching kettle over the stove. Just as I doubled back to pick a tea bag, someone said, "Can I show you what we make as tradition in my land?"

I almost shrieked loudly, when I whirled around on the spot into the direction of his voice.

I felt paralyzed from the neck downwards, when I took in next, that he was standing by the entrance of my kitchen, stark-naked, his large hands covering his manly parts from view. From the front-view, anyhow. No doubt, his ass would be completely visible to me, if I could just...move a fraction to the left... I tossed my head to clear that line of thought. How rude of me, how appealing... uh, appaling. I should be ashamed of myself- and honestly, I was. His hair was damp with water, and beads rolled down his forehead.

"Here, let me show you."

He stepped forward towards me, and then he let his hands fall away from his privates carelessly. I gulped loudly; my eyes fixated precisely on the spot I didn't want them to be. Yeah, I was unknowingly stepping into dangerous territory with him. I felt like a cat on heat, about ready to pounce. Later tonight, I decided resolutely that I would be giving him a stern lecture on clothing.

As for now, however, I was merely enjoying the marvellous scenery of a naked man slaving away in my kitchen, doing lord knows what to my tea. He even ground some pepper into the boiled water filling my cup. And- something about this man making me feel incredibly brave- I dared to test his traditional Fairy drink out and taste it myself. It was certainly out-of-this-world; Exactly like the man who made it for me.

Hope you enjoyed this one? Hope I've made what Eric is a bit clearer! Please let me know, love you amazing peeps! :)