A/N: Sorry for the late update, this has been the hardest chapter to write and though I'm not as happy with it as some of the other chapters I didn't want to wait any longer to post. Still I hope you enjoy it!

Friendship

Being friends isn't very easy. Apparently friends don't touch much, especially not in public.

"No Ben!" She whispers scandalized even as she slaps his hand away. Ouch.

"We can't even hold hands?"

"According to the town we just met, I can't go around holding some boy's hand in front of everyone especially when he hasn't met my Gran." Warlows looks down at the dirt pathway, they had just passed what was considered Main Street where the police department, fire house, and the town's main store "Super Save-a-Bunch" was located , now they were on an isolated road that looked like it headed nowhere.

"Sookie there's no one around." He reaches for her again but she twirls away from him. Her charm bracelet jingles, taunting him.

"There's always someone around trust me, plus since you're new and all, Mrs. Fortenberry and her "prayer group" AKA the gossips of the town are probably gunnin for you." She smiles and even though he's irritated because he just wants to touch her, her smile forces him to grin back.

"I'm going to meet your Gran later." He reminds her.

"Then maybe you can hold my hand later too." She giggles at her own retort but though she's adamant that he simply not touch her she does walk a little closer to him. Suddenly her face becomes more somber and he knows they're going to have a 'serious' conversation now.

"Speaking about Gran, what… what do you want to tell her?"

"What do you want her to know?"

"I don't know she's… happy thinking I'm normal and whatnot nobody thinks I'm crazy anymore. So maybe for right now you can just be Ben, normal run-of-the mill human guy just moving to Bon Temps?"

"Not a fairy or a vampire got it." He could be whatever she wanted him to be, sometimes being a fucked up hybrid had it's perks, after all he could still play Human pretty well.

"I'm not ashamed of it or anything…" He looked at her queerly, she's speaking to him as if she just asked him to do something reprehensible.

"Ashamed?"

"Yeah it's not like that, I mean you're still a person…just dead?" She was acting like he was her secret lesbian girlfriend or something.

"How progressive of you." He laughs, he can tell she's honestly worried about hurting his feelings with this.

"You know what I mean, you're not a monster. I couldn't handle it if she took it the wrong way."

"Well we don't have to tell her, I can be human… well I can fake it at least."

"I'm sorry, I don't want you feel like I'm embarrassed of what you are."

"Sookie, I'm a vampire/Fae I'm not exactly looking for social equality here. I know I'll have to pretend and say lies that's nothing new, but I just want to be with you. " He thinks back to all the information he's gathered over the past years, the Great Revelation had the vampire community buzzing, it was close. There had even been talk of rebellions that the Authority had handled in Europe. Is this what the Authority wanted for creatures like him? To be able to have tea and cookies with someone's grandmother, without having to lie? He wasn't sure it was worth it.

"Ben…" Her voice had a warning in it, so he was quick to correct his statement.

"As friends." For now. He hadn't brought up the human boy all day, since he wasn't keen on starting another argument. He had just gotten her back and didn't want to waste time arguing, still he knew he would have to handle that situation soon.

"Okay, sorry I just…"

"I accept you for who you are completely, and I know you accept me. That's enough for me." And it was, he didn't need the Great Revelation, he didn't want civil rights, didn't want to drink synthetic blood to please other humans, he just needed her.

"Ben, that's enough for me too. You never stopped being my bestest friend." She's actually touching him, her hand is on his arm and it warms his entire body, and her small smile unravels him.

"You never stopped being my only friend." She smiles at him adoringly, obviously pleased.

"Well okay we can hold hands until we reach the next batch of stores." She lets his fingers lace with his. "But that's it okay." That would be enough for right now, at least I can feel you now.

"So this is where you sleep?" She's touching the dresser, noticing the fine layer of dust it had accumulated over his stay. She had been so hesitant to coming into his room, it wasn't proper after all, yet it had simply taken one of the more seedy hotel residents to come out in nothing but a towel to have her scuttling after him. Still she had maintained they leave the door completely open, while they were inside.

"Well I guess. I mean I don't sleep much, and it doesn't feel like sleep." He's rummaging in the small closet by the bathroom where he's shoved all his things into. He had carelessly forgotten his wallet and though she had insisted she could pay for lunch, that simply was out of the question. He also didn't think she'd be pleased if he glamoured the waitress for free food, so he had to find the wallet.

"What's it feel like?" He can feel her eyes on him, he wants to turn and meet hers but he knows she'll turn around and stop perusing his body, she was so hesitant about openly admiring him, it was sweet. It worried him a bit that she was so sweet and wholesome, why doesn't she hate me? She constantly questions him about himself about how he… functions and idly he wonders if one day this will become too much for her to handle.

"Like nothing." It was hard to explain, he knew that other vampires died when the sun rose but that wasn't true for him, he figured he ended up in limbo for his rest.

"What do you mean?"

"I kind of die when I sleep."

"You die!" She looked at him startlingly, he wonders if she expects him to drop dead at the moment.

"Sort of, everything just shuts down, I know I'm not dead but it feels like it. " Another thing he attributed to his hybrid status, he knew his body stopped living, but his mind didn't, not completely.

"So you die every night?"

"No, I don't need to rest much, and usually when I do it's easier in the day."

"So you're awake all night and all day."

"Pretty much."

'What do you do?" Stalk you, yeah he didn't think she'd appreciate that answer.

"Read mostly." She bites her lip and nod as she continues to walk around his room. He hadn't thought twice in bringing her in here now he wonders if he should have. What are you thinking? She looks at the bed with keen interest, before blushing and looking quickly away. Someone's not as wholesome as she seems. He grins before snatching his wallet from the pocket of another set of his pants. "Got it!" He waves it in the air triumphantly."

"Finally macho man, I'm starving, and we better hurry Debbie's Diner closes at two." She grabs his arms and pulls him out of the room as quickly as possible before letting him walk on his own on the outside.

"So Ben what brought you to Bon Temps." Adele asks him after she settles into her armchair, she's fixed up a tray of sandwiches and tea for him which is on the small coffee table in front of him. He's just happy Sookie is sitting by his side, though she sits as a 'proper lady' should with a respectable space between them.

"I was looking for a nice quiet town to settle down in, decided this was the best one for me."

"Our town is small but very connected, I'm sure glad Sookie's been able to show you around." Adele smiles as she looks at her granddaughter proudly. She loves her a lot. He's never felt guilty for killing Sookie's parents, they were going to harm her and he couldn't allow that, but he does admit sometimes he wondered if her grandmother was enough for her.

"Oh yes Ma'am your granddaughter has been nothing but polite."

"Gran I couldn't let him walk around all confuse and such, that wouldn't be very Christian of me." Christian? Idly he wondered how religious Sookie was and where she put a creature like him into the grand scheme of things.

"Oh good." Adele smiles fondly between the two of them as if she can't believe her eyes, following Sookie's lead he grabs a sandwich of his own and bites into it.

"Mmm. Mrs. Stackhouse might I say this sandwich rivals my own mother's cooking, and she always won the blue ribbon at the fair for her apple pie." He can see Sookie choke down the last bit of her sandwich, they hadn't discussed his back story but he wanted to be the perfect kind of guy her grandmother could want for her. He didn't dare to read Adele's mind since Sookie had reacted so negatively to it the day before but he could see Adele wanted a proper gentlemen for Sookie, what southern grandmother didn't?

"Oh my thank you, are your parents very upset with your move?"

"Unfortunately they haven't been in my life for a long time now, they died in a flashflood when I was just a boy."

"Oh no I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope Bon Temps can be a place you can live happily then." She sounded genuinely sorry and he was almost sorry he had spun that sad tale, yet he was glad she had believed it.

"I hope so too." He smiles at Sookie, and though she's been holding back a laugh since he started his tale, he hopes she knows he's sincere about the last bit.

"What is it you do Ben? Or are you looking for a job, I know Jason and his friends all work on the road crew it seems to be a job the younger folk like."

"Oh Gran I don't think…" Sookie is quick to ward off the topic.

"Actually for the moment I'm living off my great-grandfather's inheritance, but thanks for the advice." Inheritance was always the best case scenario in these instances, it left less questions.

"That's just how Jesse Compton lives his days, he comes from a very old prestigious family, he's our neighbor."

"Kind of, you have to cross the cemetery to get there." Sookie points towards the door. "But he's closer than the actual town."

"He's part of the Descendants of the Glorious Dead, had a relative who died in the civil war."

"Glorious dead?"

"It's a group meant to honor those who fought in the civil war." Sookie clarifies for him

"We accept anyone who had a relative who fought in the civil war, north or south doesn't matter much to us."

"I'm not sure if any family member fought, no ones ever mentioned it." He remembers the flocks of vampires that came to the new states, a war was always such a feeding frenzy. "I think that would be a nice research project though."

"Oh do you enjoy research?" Adele seemed extremely pleased with this new bit of information, and it was true… mostly. It wasn't his fault he lived through the history and didn't have to actually research it.

"I'm a bit of a history nerd, never went to college for it but history books are a guilty pleasure of mine." Adele's eyes widen with obvious happiness and surprise.

"Well now I've never met a young man so into history, I always loved hearing tales of the old times."

"Oh yes, I do think that the world must have been a nicer, gentler place." It wasn't, not really there was always blood and gore spilled unnecessarily. Still whatever got her on his side he would do, plus there was a time and place where the social formalities had been nice.

"Oh yes I agree completely." Adele takes a moment to think before smiling slyly at Sookie. "Well then I don't mean to rush off but these old bones need more rest than they used to. You two don't mind me. It was nice to meet you Ben, I don't think Sookie could have run into a nicer boy."

"My pleasure Ma'am, and thank you for the hospitality." Adele gave him a smile before she left them alone and went up to her room. The door shutting behind her with a thud, that could be heard around the house.

"I'm pretty sure she just gave us permission to ravage each other on this couch." He appraises her and the couch as if he's really considering going for it, not yet. She laughs and rolls her eyes at him.

"Yeah… No, I'm sure she thinks she's being sly and giving me a moment alone with a boy."

"I think she likes me." He grins as he slithers his arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer, thankfully she obliges and leans into his side without hesitation.

"Yes she does, she also might be happy I've brought a boy home for the first time."

"I'm the first boy?" Good I should be your first everything. It scares him slightly how much he simply wants to own her, pleasure her, touch her, how his body just knows she's his.

"Well man I suppose." She corrects herself with a giggle. It would be so easy, to press her down into the couch, to let his hands just glide over her touching everything, tasting everything. Blonde hair fanning around her as she arches into me. She looked so innocent in her powder blue dress and white cardigan, the headband in her hair pushed it back and let her neck become more accentuated. It was so hard not think of her and think of claiming her.

"Sookie Stackhouse I'm honored."

"What can I say, I think she was worried for a while there, one time she even asked if Tara was my girlfriend or my girlfriend." Her cheeks are flushed and she toys with a button on her cardigan. "I think she was relieved and disappointed when I said I was straight."

"We can prove it to her if you like." Without preamble she slaps him on his abdomen. She obviously likes it rough. All day she had been pushing and pinching him discreetly whenever he had made a "nasty" comment.

"Now, no nasty talk do you hear." She chastised even as she smiled. "Besides I'm sure she's glad I'm no Maudette Pickens either."

"Let me guess whore of the town?"

"Eh, I don't know but once I caught her running out of my parents… well I guess Jason's house in nothing but her skivvies. It was… enlightening. Then all that locker room talk the boys spread at school didn't seem like just talk." She shrugs her shoulder, and looks up him curiously. "Anyways, so do you eat? Or have you just been pretending?"

"Huh?"

"I forgot to ask today, I hope you're not repulsed by food or something I could have made something up for my Gran." It's endearing how much she wants to accommodate him in her life. He's happy that though she's determined that they only be friends for now she's still pulling him closer and making room for him, he wasn't too sure that would be the case.

"It's okay Sookie, I can eat and it does nourish me, not completely but it still tastes the same, it just doesn't fill me up." He remembers trying to stuff food down his throat hoping to make the hunger go away, every time ending in feeling more sick than anything while his hunger for blood overpowered him.

"You're going to stay here right?"

"Yes, I told you I would."

"Then maybe… maybe you should find someplace more stable than a hotel room?" Stable? He suppose she was still worried he was the flighty type.

"Well I suppose I'll have to start looking for somewhere to keep up with my cover at least."

"I think a house will do you good." She's still not meeting his eyes, are you that worried I would leave again, do you not believe in me?

"A house, that's a lot of unnecessary room." He knew that he would stay here for a while, until Sookie decided it was time to move on, but he had never actually considered buying a house. Unlike other vampires he didn't much care to own multiple properties he was content in moving from hotel room to hotel room. He should have expected that his intended would want some stability especially in the beginning of their relationship. Idiot, I should have bought a house ages ago.

"Oh, well we don't have apartment complexes here but in Shreveport they do."

"That won't do that's too far from you." Her smile lights up the room and she shifts in the couch to get closer. If you want a house, I'll buy a house.

"Well then we need to find you a house."

"I guess we do." He knew their relationship wasn't exactly where he wanted it to be, but he would work on it and if she needed him to buy house to become more dependable for her, then he would do it.

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think! I would appreciate any feedback you have on this.