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

[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?"

[feel_human]

"I've never been drunk."

She's only ever gotten close enough to realize it only made things so much worse. But she swallows and tries to clear her head. "But no, nothin's fuzzy, just... it all feels so..."

It's almost impossible to find the words, and her cheeks only get brighter. "It feels so nice. And it did before, too," she hastens to add, not wanting him to think – not wanting to believe the blood is actually having some kind of effect on her. "I guess it's... it's harder to think of any reason to stop."

[gavemea_45]

Sam's smile at that is sweet and warm and a little shy.

"Well, if it did before, and it feels the same now," he says, softly, "just, I guess, take a second to think while we're talking and be sure - because if you are, and if you do want ... I want, too. But if you'd rather wait, that's okay too, I swear."

[feel_human]

His smile gives him those sweet dimples she finds so irresistible, and she doesn't need her disability to tell her he's being sincere.

But she's rattled, now, unsure of herself. She's never acted like this before. Is it the blood? Or is it just giving her the push she'd needed? Is she drugged, or just riding high on healed nerves and the relief of being alive? "I..."

How would she know? She's got nothing to compare any of this to. She casts about for the one thing she is sure of. "It's not like I didn't... want... before."

[gavemea_45]

"I know," he murmurs, his gaze intent on hers. "You said. I remember."

Sam gives in to his own wants and reaches up to run his fingers through her hair, spreading it out over her shoulder like a curtain.

[feel_human]

"Good." She shivers as he runs his fingers through her hair, now dried into haphazard waves. She'd wanted him then, and she wants him now. It's beats through her blood like a drum.

But she can no longer be sure it's just her blood, just her want. She rests her hands on his chest, feeling his steady heartbeat, the way it's sped up under her touch, because of her kisses.

He deserves to know, doesn't he? Everything. "I haven't... ever..." She licks at her lips and soldiers on despite the hot, embarrassed flush to her cheeks. "You know. Been. With anybody. I thought I could never..."

She trails off and looks at him, helpless, willing him to understand.

[gavemea_45]

Understanding strikes, and everything in his expression softens. Sam curls his hand over her shoulder and leans in to give her a lingering, gentle kiss.

"In that case, let me ask this," he suggests, a hint of rueful laughter in his eyes. "How soundly does your grandmother sleep?"

[feel_human]

She gives him a dubious look back. "I don't spend a lot of time tryin' to figure out what might wake her up, Sam."

[gavemea_45]

Sam laughs aloud at the look on her face, and scoops her into his arms to hug her close. He kisses her hair, her temple, and then tips his head to kiss her mouth.

"Here's an idea. Either I carry you upstairs now and we try to be quiet, or else we settle for kisses tonight and then tomorrow, we take that picnic and a blanket and find a nice secluded spot with sunlight and shade and nothing to worry about but just the two of us, and spend as much of the day as we want lost in each other."

[feel_human]

Despite everything, she can't help the giggle that has to escape as he cuddles her close and covers her with kisses. Her fingers curl into his shirt as her smile breaks across her face before she leans to kiss him back.

"You have no idea how much I want you to just carry me off tonight, honey," she murmurs. "But I don't want to rush things with you. Sneak around like you're somethin' to be ashamed of. You're not, you're wonderful."

After a second, she giggles again. "Besides, I don't think you'd even fit in my bed."

[gavemea_45]

That sunshine smile is balm to his heart. Sam grins back at her. "Good point," he admits, and raises a hand to tweak the tip of her nose, teasing. "I am kind of tall."

[feel_human]

Her giggle bubbles up again, relief and happiness and delighted anticipation all mixed in together. She scrunches her nose under his teasing. "Kind of?"