Thank you all so much for your sweet reviews. I am glad you seem to be enjoying the story still :-) Love you peeps, you are all truly wonderful and amazing! I do try to update as often as I possibly can, real life just gets in the way sometimes, as you all probably know. Still, I hope to hear your thoughts on this one, I always enjoy your perspectives. x

Chapter Thirteen

I didn't know how long I stayed in my room for, keeping him out.

But as the sun slowly went down and darkness began to fill the room, I guessed it had to have been a little over four hours. During that time, somehow, Eric had slipped away. When I creaked open the door an inch to peek and see if he was still standing out there, waiting for me to come out and talk to me, I was a bit surprised to find he wasn't there anymore.

I suppose, after a bit of time by myself, I had managed to calm down a lot. I didn't feel as panicked as I first felt, when Eric revealed to me he had murdered and beheaded over four men. I was still outraged, though. I was acting a bit like a hypocrite, though, wasn't I? Eric had tried his very hardest to live by my societies rules, without protest. I ought to have done the exact same in trying to understand as reasonably as I could, without judging him, the ways in which he existed in his world. Clearly, fairy practises and beliefs were far different from the ones held in my world. It didn't feel right though, because I certainly hadn't done something as wrong as murdering human beings, for sport. Still, I had managed to calm down during those four hours. I felt ready to talk it out, like two adults should. I didn't want to run and hide from it any longer.

When I went downstairs slowly, I couldn't find Eric anywhere in the house. That had made me feel a bit worried, because I got to thinking, what if he left? What if I never saw him ever again? I didn't want that to be the case, because I definitely didn't feel ready to say my goodbyes to him yet. Then again, I didn't think I ever wanted to.

I found Eric sitting by himself outside on the front porch, in the developing darkness, watching the sky close in on itself. I caught him stiffen at the sound of my approach; He clearly wasn't sure how I would react to him, now that I wasn't hiding in my room with the door blocking me from him. I was torn; I didn't want to come across as too accepting, because who knows? What if that gave him the motivation to go off on a head-hunting spree in my world? Yet... I didn't want to seem far too harsh and unforgiving, either. I wasn't condemning him for anything. I still felt he was very much that same unbelievable man I liked, and enjoyed being around so much. He had just...altered in my eyes a bit. He wasn't as sweet and gentle in my view anymore; He could also be powerful - as he had illustrated with his tiger, Godric- and a fighter, who knew how to defend himself.

I stood around hesitantly, before I sat down next to him, curling my arms over my knees. After a while of just sitting, he worked up the courage to put his arm around my waist. I leaned into him, resting my head against his shoulder. He obviously wasn't sure whether touching me was still allowed or not. He probably feared I would get angry, or react badly to it. I did neither.

"I'm sorry for reacting the way I did," I started tentatively. "I just... it scared me. I never meant to run off on you, like that. It was just a completely different side of you that I never knew existed. I've had a few hours by myself to think it over, and I think I can understand. I won't judge you. What's done, is done. But that doesn't mean that I excuse what you did. It's just... I don't know. It's a lot to take in."

"If it's too much for you, I'll leave then," he offered petulantly, and he even was about to get to his feet to do so. I grabbed one of his hands quickly, and pulled it down into my lap to stop him. He glanced down at me confusedly, before he sat back down next to me. "Sookie, I don't understand what you want from me? What you said... about it being done, I cannot take it back. Not even if I tried."

"I don't want anything from you." I intertwined my fingers through his, and gave his hand a firm squeeze. "Well, I know what I don't want from you, and that's you leaving right now."

"Then I won't." He returned the hand squeeze tightly back to me, and in that moment of time, it felt like the most reassuring thing in the world. I felt a small smile curl my lips.

"I just wasn't expecting that from you."

"Expecting what?"

"What you said, about... cutting off heads for trophies, and that you've killed over four men. It was just a shock to take in, the fact that you're... like that. I wasn't expecting it. I didn't know how to react, to be completely honest."

"Well, I think your first instinct was to run."

"Yes." I laughed sadly. "I think it was, too. It's just not everyday that somebody says something like that, admitting to killing four men, and then hacking off their heads. I just-"

"You knew how different my world is compared to yours."

"I know now," I admitted quietly.

"Just like you explained certain standards of living in your world, with wearing clothes and concealing your bodies with them... I have different customs in mine, also."

"I get that now."

"Masculinity is prided high in our world. We show we are men by hunting. I don't know what men do in your world, but I-"

"- Men, in my world... they just get jobs and show that they can provide for their families, and children. Nothing as hard-core as going out and showcasing their strength by killing. They are considered real men, when they have a good-heart, and they show it to their family, and those closest to them. A real man is a man with a decent set of values, and morals. He doesn't have to collect heads to show that to those around him."

"Hmmm." Eric looked out into the yard for a while pensively. Then, he slowly turned to me. "And would you consider me a good-hearted man worthy of you, if I got a job, and lived like the real men in your world?"

"Don't ask me questions like that," I told him defensively.

"Why can't I?"

"Because it insults me."

"How so?"

"I don't know." I wriggled uncomfortably underneath his gaze, and fixed my eyes on our hands. "It's just... maybe, you're already a wonderful man in my eyes, and nothing could ever change that, or make you into... more of one. Even if you do have tigers as pets and walk around constantly in your birthday suit, and... collect heads."

"Oh." He sounded playfully disgusted. "Now I see very clearly; The good men you speak of in your world, and myself... we are completely different species altogether."

I laughed. "Not entirely in a bad way."

He opened his mouth, and then paused for a moment uncertainly, before asking softly, "Are you still displeased in me?"

It took me a moment to seriously mull it over inside my head. Was I still horrified over his confession? Maybe, a little bit. But he was sort of growing on me again. I was gradually working past that shocking titbit of information about him. Did that mean I was a terrible person, in forgiving him so quickly? "Maybe not so much," I confessed reluctantly, after a bit. "Maybe not as much as I was. It's still... frightening to digest that about you, though, especially when you seem like such a sweet and gentle person most of the time."

He looked very relieved. Without warning, he stood, and tugged on my hand. I wasn't sure what he had in mind, and I was still a bit miffed over everything. Still, I let him pull me upstairs to my bedroom regardless. I really had hoped he wasn't in the mood for sex, because I sure wasn't right now. Rather instead, he did something else I wasn't expecting.

He kicked off his shoes and took a flying leap onto my bed. The springs squeaked loudly on my mattress as he jumped around., his long arms outstretched as though he was a bird flying. His head was that close from hitting the ceiling, but surprisingly, it was the last thing that worried me. I was giggling so hard at him like a giddy drunkard. I realized, this was one of the many reasons that I enjoyed Eric's company so much; He did things I wasn't expecting. He found enjoyment in the simplest of things that I certainly wouldn't have, because I was used to them. Now, he was blissfully content doing something as childish as jumping around on my double bed as though he was a child on an air inflated, jumping castle. I absolutely loved it, and I think it about made me fall for him even more.

He bounced closer to the end of the bed, and he held out a hand to me. "Come up here, Sookie!"

"Oh, I don't know, honey," I said anxiously. I got a bad feeling about it. "I don't think my old bed will be able to survive two crazy adults jumping on it!"

Still, he insisted. He wrapped his fingers over my wrist, and yanked me forward. "Come on up! This is fun!"

Oh, what the hell!

Clinging onto his hand as if my life depended on it, he pulled me up, and I staggered on the spongy mattress into him. Without preparing me beforehand, which might have been nice, he started jumping again, almost colliding into me. My balance wasn't very good, and with every bounce he made near me, it sent me half a foot into the air. Once I grew more confident, we were like two overgrown children, having the time of our lives. There wasn't much distance between the headboard and the wall behind it, so my bed went, squeaking loudly and thudding against the wall with every jump we made. It was astonishing how wonderful I felt, in doing something like this with Eric; Something so simple, and childish. I couldn't remember the last time I ever jumped on a bed- maybe when I was a little girl- and not once did I ever dream I would be doing it again, at twenty-five years old. And, just like that, I felt almost like a little girl again. It was oddly liberating to act so silly again.

"Eric, you make everything fun!" I told him, through all the noise breathlessly. "I feel like I'm in kindergarten again!"

He swung his body around to face me more directly. We were bouncing so close together, I was almost afraid I was about to head-butt him, which wouldn't have been very pleasant on either one of us. "I make you feel like what?"

"Kindergarten," I squealed at him, through a painful fit of laughter that came on, so suddenly and violently. There was no chance in hell of stopping it. The endorphins were rushing wildly, and I could feel all the blood in my body rushing to my brain.

"What?" he yelled back at me loudly, misunderstanding me yet again. "I don't know what that is?" That just only made me giggle louder. It was growing difficult to breathe, from our sudden bout of activity. I felt like a very unfit person yet again in front of him. Gasping joyfully, I plopped down onto my side on the bed, clutching my ribs. My insides felt beaten from laughing so hard non-stop.

He grinned down at me in a way that made my stomach clench, and he resumed with his jumping again. More than a few times,he was about to trample my legs with his feet, but luckily, he missed by an inch or so. He got bored with being the only one treating my bed as a castle to jump on. He stripped out of his shirt, and just as I was peeling my socks off, and goading him to take off his jeans, there was a startling noise, and... right before my very eyes, his jeans were falling over my face in a bundle, and Eric was... nowhere to be seen. I scooped his jeans off my flushed face, clutching them tightly to my chest, feeling the warmth of his body still contained in the worn denim.

I waited for a few minutes, lying around as patiently as I could, wondering when he was going to return into view again. Maybe he went downstairs to get something? After ten more unbearable minutes went by, I flopped over onto my stomach and peered underneath my bed. Nope, not hiding underneath it. Where the hell did he get off to, and so quickly?

Clenching my teeth in irritation, I got up and went downstairs, inspecting the house, still holding his jeans to me tightly, like a security blanket of some sort. He was... nowhere. All the rooms were empty. It was almost as if I was living all by my lonesome again; a twenty-five year old single woman, in a quiet and empty house. The only evidence I had that reminded me that Eric was real, was his pair of jeans I was hugging, and his bulky duffel bag he had lying around in the living room.

How could a person just mysteriously vanish?

I sat down on the last step of the stairs, pondering that. How could Eric be there one minute, and disappear in the next? It just didn't make any logical sense to me. I considered calling the police, and asking them to be on the look-out. Maybe he had somehow disappeared outside? But then, how is even that possible?

It took me a moment to realize his clothes were here, in my house. So, if Eric did so happen to have mysteriously vanished somewhere, he did not take clothes with him. He was probably outside, stuck in the cold naked.

If so, that wasn't very good. That wasn't a good outcome at all.

Who knew what somebody would do to him, if they found him walking around, naked as the day he was born? Not to mention how uncomfortable and cold he would be right now. I was on the verge of losing it; I almost felt like crying. My stomach kept churning, and I felt incredibly ill suddenly. I was thinking too much, weighing over all these terrible outcomes. Thinking definitely wasn't helping to put my mind at ease; I had to be proactive here. Though I knew it probably wouldn't have been a success, I decided to call the police to put out word that he was missing. At least, if the police were actively searching for him, then it would be an even greater success in finding his whereabouts, right?

The dial tone rang through eight times, before the police finally picked up. Much to my dismay, it was Officer Andy Bellefleur who answered; During my relationship with Bill, the two of them had become quite close. I wasn't looking forward to explaining to him why I was looking for another guy, who was potentially stumbling around naked somewhere.

"Hey, Sookie," he greeted cheerfully, once he recognized my voice. "What can I do for you this evening?" His joie de vivre seemed oddly out-of-place given the situation.

I got straight down to business. I was hardly in the mood for pleasantries. "Hey, Andy. " I paused for a moment, searching for the right way to go about explaining. What on earth was I meant to say, without sounding like a crazy woman? That my fairy sweetheart has gone missing, and he's probably naked? That didn't seem the right way to go about it. "I have a friend that's, er... gone missing." I took in a few needed, deep breaths, trying to calm myself. "I need you to look out for him. If possible, could you go patrolling around the area? I'm just about to get in my brother's car and do the same myself."

"Oh. Sure." He sounded stunned, and a little disbelieving that I was asking him such a thing. "What's this friend of yours look like? How long has he been missing?"

Oh, boy. I definitely wasn't prepared for this. "Er, he's a... foreigner. He's from... Europe. And he's not very sure of his surroundings. He's... six-foot-four, or so. And he's blue-eyed, and blonde."

"Ah, all right," he said slowly. He sure sounded as if he didn't believe me. "I'll get right on that. How's Bill, by the way?"

It took everything within me not to yell. "I wouldn't know how Bill is," I remarked icily. "Bill and I haven't been dating for months now. I don't see him anymore."

He sighed heavily on the other line. "Yeah, it's a real big shame about that. You two seemed like you'd go the distance."

"Look, can you please find my friend?"

There was a loud bustle of noise on the other line. Some shouting, and someone sounding as if they were putting up a pretty decent struggle. "Uh, Sookie, funny thing is... some naked guy just got pulled in. He matches your description. What you say his name was?"

Oh, Jesus Christ. "Eric?"

"Eric?" Andy called, and I knew he wasn't talking to me. He chuckled underneath his breath. "Yep, we got him. One of my men said he was found walking on the side of the road, exposing himself to the traffic. We got your foreigner."

"Oh, thank goodness." I could only be grateful that he was in the police's hands. I trusted they would look after him, and not hurt him.

"You coming in to collect him? I mean, we could hold him in a cell over night, if you got your qualms on getting here at this time of the night?"

I was slamming down the phone and collecting my keys quicker than you could scream 'citizens arrest'.

I grabbed some clothes of Jason's hurriedly, because I knew Eric wouldn't be able to get any for himself, and the police wouldn't be that generous either in giving him some scot-free. When I pulled into the station, I ran inside, carrying clothes with me. The receptionist behind the desk looked me up and down, almost as if she was startled at the sight of me. I didn't know how I looked, but I couldn't deny I felt an utter mess.

A young officer came over to me and started asking me questions about why I thought it was my friend was walking around at such a late hour naked. I felt like shoving him head-first into a wall. All I wanted was to see Eric, and make sure for certain that he was all right. When they finally let me in to see him, I discovered they were holding him in one of the empty rooms for questioning. Andy was looking frustrated, when I burst into the room. Poor Eric was wrapped in nothing more but a thin blanket over his shoulders. He was shivering violently.

I motioned for Andy to give us a bit of privacy, and after a moment of obvious reluctance, he did.

"Honey, are you all right?" I whispered once we were alone, feeling very infuriated at how cold he looked wrapped in just a mere light blanket. I wasn't very pleased with how the police dealt with him. Couldn't they see for themselves how cold he was? I felt his forehead, and gasped. His skin was so icy. I wanted to fire away with questions, like why did he disappear on me? What the hell happened? Only, it didn't seem the right moment for all of that. He looked terribly cold and shaken. "I brought some clothes for you. Let's put them on so you're not as cold, all right?"

He looked profoundly thankful, and I managed to help him in putting on the pair of Jason's old track-pants I'd bothered to bring with me. When I helped him button up the shirt I brought for him, also, and looked him over more carefully, I felt my anger flare dangerously.

"What is that?" I asked, bringing my hand up gently to the side of his cheek. He winced, and grunted, in pain. He had what looked like a sore, fresh scratch on his cheekbone. "Did those officers do that to you?"

"No," he replied, quite casually. He was treating it as if it wasn't a big deal, but it was to me. "I fell in a bush."

"A bush?" It was a struggle to keep my voice low and quiet. "How on earth did you fall into a bush?"

A ridiculous, proud grin came across his face. Heaven knows what he could still manage to feel happy about, in his beaten state... "I teleported. I landed right into a bush, and then... it was all this noise... and lights." He laughed underneath his breath, gesturing with his hands excitedly. It was then I was brought to the attention of how his hands were; It was scratches and bloody knuckles galore. I had a tight ache pinching away at my heart. "All these... loud machines whizzing past me." I was presuming he meant the highway, and all the traffic. "I never knew it was possible to do it in your world. I suppose so."

"Wait a minute," I breathed, holding my hands in the air to silence him. I needed it to stop for a few minutes. The reason he disappeared was because he teleported? He can teleport himself to different places? Well, Eric was certainly a bundle of surprises. Obviously, the surprises weren't ever going to stop. Unfortunately, I couldn't have the extra moment to myself to recoup, because before we knew it, Andy was knocking loudly on the door. "Don't say anything about what happened tonight, all right?" I asked Eric quickly, who gave me a look on confusion in response.

Andy couldn't know about Eric being more than your average, normal man, and the least who were aware of it, the better. And besides, if anyone knew, they wouldn't think twice of throwing either Eric or myself into a mental asylum. They wouldn't believe us, anyhow.

Andy glanced between the pair of us suspiciously, probably catching onto how silent we were, soon as he entered the room again. "So, you're Eric, the foreigner?" he asked, rather bluntly.

Eric blinked at him blankly.

"Yes," I answered for him quickly. "Eric's from... Germany, aren't you, honey?" I gave him a sneaky pointed look to warn him to play along.

He gulped at me nervously. "Uh, yes."

"What were you doing running around at ten o'clock at night on a busy highway butt-naked?"

Oh, crap. "We had a dare," I informed Andy, coming to Eric's instant rescue. It was a pitiful lie, yes. But oh, well. "Eric lost, and so he had to, uhm, do a noodie-run in a busy street."

Andy's eyebrows rose quizzically. I could feel the entire situation going from bad, to even worse by the second.

"Listen, Andy," I sighed tiredly. "As you can damn well see for yourself, Eric's got cuts all over him, and I would like nothing more than to take him home and get him all fixed up. Are you going to place charges? Because, honestly... I'd like to get this over with already."

Andy was obviously surprised by my bluntness. "Uh, no. No charges, Sookie."

"Thank you," I told him sincerely. I took Eric by the hand, and led him out of the horrible room. He trailed after me uncertainly. We didn't say anything to each other, not until we were alone in my car.

"So." I took in a deep breath. "Teleporting, huh?"

"Yes." He sounded guilty, for some reason.

"Anything else I should know of?"

"I didn't only fall into a bush."

I turned to look at him. He couldn't even look me in the eye. "Oh?"

"I ran into a few people, and when I... I explained what I was, they... they reacted to that badly."

"You told them you're a fairy, you mean?" I whispered sympathetically.

"Yes. They... started kicking me."

I felt that anger flare again, almost uncontrollably. "They kicked you?" I asked, very nearly losing it. I felt so lethally enraged that anyone could dare do that. How could they?

"Apparently, fairy can also mean something else."

Bastards. "Oh, Eric," I said sadly. What a terrible night it turned out to be for him.

Finally, he looked over at me. I couldn't really see his face properly, since it was so dark. All I could see was the dark outline of his head. But I could tell he was upset; I mean, who wouldn't be? I reached over and touched one of his hands, surprised that his knuckles felt wet. But then, it took me a moment to remember they were bleeding and scratched.

"I'm so sorry." I couldn't even begin to start on what I wanted to say to him. Apologizing just didn't feel good enough right now.

"I'll feel better if you kiss me," he said gently, sounding real hopeful. So, leaning over in my seat, kiss him, I did. And maybe, it made me feel incredibly better myself. About everything.