A/N: I wanted to say thanks to those of you who were kind enough to review. Sorry this update has been a long time coming. I've gotten myself into a pickle with 3 stories that need to be updated, a new story for the winner of the last Fan Fic Lotto: fiddle child, concocting another story for Eric and His Great Pumpkin Contest, and all of my midterms are this week. In fact, I'm supposed to be studying for my astronomy test right now. Oh well, I guess I'm just a masochist. I hope that for now this update will do until I can find time to really sit down and write again. Enjoy! :D

Eric's POV

My eyes go wide as I hear her soft voice, begrudgingly say she agrees with me. This talk had been a long time coming and I felt myself actually get giddy at Sookie's acceptance. I pondered for a moment what I should start to say first. There were quite a few things that needed to be discussed. She might be overwhelmed if I go straight to our feelings about each other, and she's stubborn enough that she's certainly not going to admit it right away.

I stare down at her. She looks like a deer in the headlights and is probably still just as skittish as one. Somehow, I need to give her the power in this conversation.

"Sookie" Her eyes flit upwards and her breathing starts to quicken. The fight or flight response was definitely kicking in. "I'm glad that you agree with me, but I know this talk isn't going to be easy for you, so I'll make you a deal."

I pause for dramatic effect, waiting for her to encourage me to continue. She silently nods her head and takes a deep breath, bracing herself.

"I brought you to this place because here we can be alone without interruption from anybody." She starts to fidget with her hands and her foot lightly taps the ground. She clearly doesn't like this place, but I know if I tried doing this in her house, she'd do something childish like try to rescind my invitation. No, this needed to be done.

"I don't want you to feel uncomfortable, Sookie. I want you to talk to me, and so, for this night only, both of us should drop the act and just speak freely about what's on our minds. You can say whatever you want about me and I won't get angry, but in turn you have to give me the same courtesy. We're both adults and we can discuss this in a calm, controlled fashion. What do you think?"

Of course out of all the emotions she could of reacted with, she chose to be indignant. Nothing I couldn't work around.

"Oh listen to you. You're allowing me to speak freely? What gives you the right to tell me when I can or can't speak? Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"To answer your question, I am your bonded. I merely wanted to make you feel at ease during this talk and let you know that nothing you say here will make me angry."

"Oh really?" She stood up with her hands on her hips. "Bill and Quinn were better boyfriends than you." I moved myself at vampire speed so that I was now inches in front of her.

"I know that you are saying that out of spite. You're trying my patience Sookie and that's counterproductive in our current situation."

"Always the pragmatist aren't we Eric?"

"Sookie" I sharply warned her. I was not at all happy with how this conversation was going. Getting angry only makes her angry as well. Maybe I could try another approach. My expression changed from one of wearied frustration to calm and composed.

"Perhaps I did choose the wrong setting for this talk. Would you feel better if we took a walk? I know how your claustrophobia makes you uncomfortable." Admitting an error on my part, should have loosened her up, but she became angry again nonetheless.

"I am not claustrophobic Eric!"

"After what happened with the Fellowship of the Sun and within that trunk with Bill, it's perfectly understandable that you would have some fear of small spaces."

"Don't you dare start acting like a shrink to me. You've got your own issues buddy." Though it hurt to hear her say that, I could tell I was bringing her further out of her shell by replacing her fear with anger.

"Really?" I goaded her on.

"Let's not forget that YOU are a total micro-manager. You have to be in control all the time of everybody's lives. You're selfish and you don't trust anybody. Everything is always complicated with you. There's always some damn vamp politics that I have to worry about. You never just tell me honestly what's going on. I waited months for a call from you after the whole overthrow, because I was worried about you, and all I get is Pam telling me you're busy? I wait months and THIS is how you greet me? You abduct me and tie me up, and act like you're entitled to because of the damn blood bond? You are a sick, sneaky bastard and I don't want a damn thing to do with you!!"

I hold my tongue and wait to see if she's through. "If you're finished ranting, I thought we could go outside and take a walk?" I hope a change in scenery will change her mood for the better. I can't wait to see her face when she figures out where we are.

A/N: So where do you think he took Sookie? I hope you're enjoying the "talk" so far. What? Did you think that it was going to be easy? No way. Both Eric and Sookie are stubborn as hell. There's no way that I could easily wrap this all up within a few chapters since this deals with a bunch of internal issues as well as issues each other. It's nice to hear them both be so frank and honest though isn't it? Please let me know what you think in your review. I'm going to go study for astronomy now. Wish me luck!