saturday night and the moon is out

[feel_human]

Tucked away off the road in Bon Temps, there's a road house. Warm light spills from its windows, and the sound of a jukebox playing drifts out into the muggy Louisiana night. The regular assortment of trucks and Hail-Mary-please-keep-this-lemon-goin'-just-a-little-longer cars sit in the dirt parking lot; what amounts to about half the town's small population... or, at least, of those of the 'drinking age and above' persuasion.

Inside, it's a bar of the type scattered all across the American South: homey, no-nonsense. Booths and tables. A man in a plaid flannel shirt wiping the bar; a crossdresser in the kitchen singing Gospel hymns and rolling his hips in time with the words just to scandalize the prep cook. A handful of waitresses, bustling about.

Sookie makes her way briskly through it all, a tray balanced on her palm and her eyes kept stubbornly front, as voices swarm around her. Aloud, and... less so.

...I’m just going to have one beer tonight Jesus one beer that’s all...

...better not gripe about me eating fries not after what I did for him last night...

...I cannot wait to get the hell out of this podunk town...

 

 "Well, make sure you do, and before it’s too late," she responds, thoughtless, to the young man. "Because every year you wait? You just get more and more stuck here. Believe me, I know."

He stares at her. So do his parents.

So does the other table. And she realizes, too little too late, that he hadn't said that out loud, not at all. She laughs, uncomfortable. "I’ll get y'all some ketchup," she says, brightly, and flees, ponytail swinging against the nape of her neck as she goes.

Stupid, Sookie, she chides herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

Comments

[gavemea_45]

"I guess I should too." Sam sighs. "I've never known a vampire to do that."

[feel_human]

"Maybe he just didn't want to owe me for helpin' save him before."

She trails her fingertips lightly over his forearm. "And now we're square."

[gavemea_45]

"You are. Which doesn't mean you should trust him not to be other than he is," Sam cautions, even as a faint shiver runs through him at her light touch.

"But I guess we'll talk with him tomorrow and see what else we can learn."

[feel_human]

"Uh-huh."

But she doesn't really want to talk about Bill, or even to think about Bill. She's grateful he saved her life, but she doesn't trust him further than she can spit, and it's clear Sam trusts him even less.

And he's not the one who saw her home, now was he? "I'll be careful." She realizes, and grimaces. "More careful."

[gavemea_45]

"Thank you," Sam murmurs. "I'd really like it if you did." He searches her face. "How are you feeling?"

[feel_human]

"I feel completely fine."

Her fingers curve gently over his forearm, and she focuses on his warmth, the way sparks seem to skitter under her thumb when it brushes his skin. "A little shaken up, but physically I feel better than I have in ages."

[gavemea_45]

"Good." Her thumb runs lightly over his arm and he shivers again, his eyes darkening a little.

"I'm not surprised you're shaken up, though," he continues, softly. "What can I do, Sookie? Anything?"

[feel_human]

"You're doin' plenty."

He shivers under her touch and his clear eyes grow a little darker, and she feels a kind of thrill of discovery. "You came and found me, and you got me safe back home, and you're protectin' me."

And making her head spin, but that's neither here nor there. She studies him, her glance dropping to his mouth and then meeting his once more. She slides her fingers up toward his wrist, then curls them around his hand and coaxes it down and away from her cheek, though she doesn't let go. "Push back your chair a little?"

[gavemea_45]

He lets her draw his hand away and hold on to it, and pushes back his chair as she asks. Curiosity is in his eyes, but he doesn't ask why.

[feel_human]

She gets up and steps around the curve of the table toward him, then perches lightly in his lap, her hands going to his shoulders as she looks at him.

"Is this okay?"

[gavemea_45]

"More than okay." He puts both arms around her, snuggling her a little closer and holding her secure, and smiles a little as he looks up at her.

[feel_human]

Bill must have spoken the truth, because she doesn't find herself wanting to bite Sam or drink his blood – ew – but she does want to fold herself against him and set her face into the curve of his neck so she can breathe in his scent. She smiles back at him, slight, and runs her hands up over his shoulders and over the sides of his neck to cradle his head before she leans in to kiss him, soft and sweet.

[gavemea_45]

She’s warm and lovely in his arms, her touch light and teasing and her mouth sweet as honey, and Sam falls willingly into her hands. He tightens his arms around her, pulling her closer, and kisses her back.

Every hunter knows that sometimes after a brush with death, you want nothing more than to prove to yourself that you’re still alive. If that’s what Sookie wants, what she needs, Sam wants it too.

[feel_human]

Her breath hitches as he holds her closer, pressing her against himself, and she makes a small sound, kisses him more deeply.

It's hard to remember why she'd pulled back before. Even with memories flickering like broken film through her mind –

(come sit on my lap)

– pulling away is the very last thing she wants to do. Her fingers slide back into his hair, curving around his head, and when this kiss breaks, she kisses him again.

[gavemea_45]

He still doesn’t know what he did before to make her startle and pull back, but he’s pretty sure he knows one way to avoid it now. Sam lets her set the pace, lets her tip his head the way she wants it, and kisses her back with fast-rising desire.

[feel_human]

Her temperature is rising like a fever, and she releases him so she can start shrugging off the light robe she's wearing over her sleep things. Her skin feels electric and every kiss he gives her lands in her stomach like a grenade.

[gavemea_45]

He keeps kissing her as she wiggles, as he realizes what she’s trying to do. Sam helps her ease the robe from her shoulders, trailing his fingers lightly over the skin of her upper arms.

[feel_human]

She whimpers as his fingers run, butterfly-light, over her skin, and curls her own hands just above his elbows, where his t-shirt sleeves end, leaving his arms bare. Her heart pounds and her blood rushes through her, and every breath tastes like him.

[gavemea_45]

He holds still as she grasps his arms, trying to be sure she’s not trying to stop him. Sam breaks the kiss to ask, “Yes?”

[feel_human]

"Yes."

She runs her hands over the skin she can find, then up over his chest to his shoulders and neck as she leans in to kiss him again, her eyes heavy-lidded and blown dark. "Yes."

[gavemea_45]

He kisses her back, leaning into her touch, even as a corner of his mind takes in the way she looks, adds it to a couple of vague fuzzy recollections, and starts yammering.

- what I need…is to slow down —
- an underground market…a recreational drug -
- it improves their sex life -

“Oh, god,” Sam groans, and makes himself pull back. “Sookie, wait.”

[feel_human]

"What?"

He pulls away from her, leaving her flushed and uncertain, her robe pooled on his knees. "Why?"

[gavemea_45]

The look on her face nearly shatters him right then and there. Sam groans and cradles her cheek in one hand, leaning in to kiss her gently before he tips his forehead against hers.

"I just - I want - I need to be sure," he murmurs. His heart is racing, each beat so loud he can hear it in his ears, and he wants desperately to lose himself in her and let her do the same in him. "I want, oh god I want - but, but I - it - there might - might be a side effect. From - from the blood. I need to know you know that. I need to know you're sure. I need you to know you're sure."

[feel_human]

She stares at him, uncomprehending, until he stammers about side effects, from the blood, and realization hits her like a slap in the face. Her cheeks go white, then color brilliantly as a wave of embarrassment crashes over her. What he must think, when she's throwing herself at him like this –

"I – " She wants to go shove her head under a pillow and never crawl out into the light of day again. "I don't – "

Her eyes search his, startled and unsure. "How would I know?"

[gavemea_45]

She looks like he's slapped her, and for a second he wants to go throw himself in the nearest lake for hurting her. Bayou. Whatever.

"I don't know, exactly. Um." He forces himself to think. He's the hunter, dammit, he's the one who's supposed to be the expert here, so he better figure it out.

"Okay, well, we know -- I mean, before ... you know how you felt before, right?" It's his turn to flush a little, as the back of his neck heats. "Earlier today? When I - when we kissed, then?"

Sam searches her face. "Do you feel like that now? Or, or-- anything fuzzy or distant, like being drunk?"