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]

He does his best not to look as grim as he feels as the night gets darker. When he'd gone to shower, he'd added back all the weapons he'd set aside for their picnic, and feels at least a little more prepared to face the vampire - household barrier or not.

"You ready for this?" he murmurs, softly.

[feel_human]

She nods, though her own good humor has slipped wistfully away, and opens the inner front door, leaving the screen door to the porch closed, the little locking hook slipped through its eyelet -- much good that would do, if Sam's information is wrong, but she can't see how it would hurt.

Outside, the heat of the day has finally settled into muggy dark, a breath of wind whispering through the trees. She stares out at the sloping front lawn, trying to see any movement. And still, somehow, she misses when he arrives.

Bill stands on the lawn, his hair neatly arranged, his shirt pressed and tidily tucked into his trousers. "May I approach?" he asks, politely, and Sookie takes a breath, steals herself.

"You can come up on the porch," she tells him. "But that's all."

[gavemea_45]

Sam appears behind Sookie, watching mistrustfully as the vampire stands there in the yard.

"Just so we're clear," he says. "I wouldn't suggest trying to push any boundaries."

[feel_human]

"I wouldn't dream of it," says Bill, dryly. He strolls up off the lawn and comes to stand on the porch, a polite distance from the door, and slips his hands into his pockets as he considers them.

"I expect you both have some questions for me."

[gavemea_45]

"Uh-huh." Equally dry. Sam looks down at Sookie. "Do you have anything you want to ask him first? If not, I've got a few ideas."

[feel_human]

She watches Bill closely, her arms crossed. "Did you feed on the Rattrays? And cover it up by destroyin' their trailer?"

"Yes." He doesn't hesitate or sound guilty in the least. "I had to replenish. You drank a lot of my blood."

She makes a face and hopes Sam won't suddenly be freaked out by her.

[gavemea_45]

Sookie's flinch is tiny, but as closely as he's watching he can see it, not to mention the expression on her face is pretty clear.

Sam sets a gentle hand on her back and runs it up and down, just a little, trying to soothe.

[feel_human]

She sets her jaw, ignoring the way Bill's glance flicks to where Sam's arm disappears behind her back. "What will that do to me?"

His eyes flick toward Sam once more before he meets her gaze. "Well, you'll have keener senses."

That explains her enjoyment of the food today, and of the sun. She spears him with a look. "What else?"

There's a tiny flicker of something almost like amusement, but it's gone before she can put her finger on it. "Your libido will be more active."

She blushes, embarrassed, thinking of the night before, and even of the hours spent on the picnic blanket in the dappled sunlight, but marshals herself. "Is that it?"

His eyes are very dark as they meet hers. "I'll always be able to feel you," he says, almost softly. "I'll be able to find you fast."

He lets that rest in the air for a moment, before continuing, like there's anything good about what he just said. "If you're ever in trouble, that could come in quite handy."

[gavemea_45]

He's pretty sure the vampire won't be able to find her any longer once he's been eliminated from existence, and Sam's real damn tempted to do just that, right now. He leaves his hand resting gently on Sookie's back even as his jaw sets in hard lines.

"Always?" he repeats, coolly.

[feel_human]

Bill gives him a cool glance. "Until one of us no longer exists, yes."

Her head swims. She's grateful for Sam's hand at her back, not sure that she wouldn't just swoon and lose her balance without it.

[gavemea_45]

"Better believe me when I tell you it won't be her to go first." Hard and flat.

[feel_human]

Bill seems to be the only one of the three of them who's still relaxed. He smiles, showing flat, normal teeth. "Of course," he says, polite and patronizing. "What gentleman would suggest otherwise?"

Sookie swallows hard, trying to maintain her equilibrium by hauling on the thread of her prepared questions. She'll just have to think about it later. "How old are you?"

Bill's dark glance returns to her face. "I was made vampire in 1865," he says, quietly. "When I was thirty human years old."

She can't quite hide her surprise. "You look older than that."

He huffs a small, unamused laugh. "Life was harder, then."

[gavemea_45]

"A long time ago," Sam observes, keeping his voice as neutral as he can. "And you're only now swinging back by Bon Temps?"

[feel_human]

"Only now can I reclaim my property without evicting a living descendant," Bill answers, smoothly.

[gavemea_45]

"Uh-huh. And where have you been all this time?"

He's still careful not to look the vampire in the eyes, but that doesn't stop him from confronting him as directly as he can.

[feel_human]

Bill looks faintly amused. "A great many places. As might be expected, when one suddenly has almost infinite time on one's hands.

[gavemea_45]

"Uh-huh," Sam says again. "Have you been waiting to reclaim your property all this time?

[feel_human]

"No," Bill says, easily. "But I am not one to pass up on an opportunity when it presents itself."

He looks back at Sookie, who meets his gaze unflinchingly. "If you're so old," she says, challenging, "I guess you've killed a lot of people."

He doesn't glance away, or prevaricate. "I killed a few by accident at first," he admits. He sounds apologetic, but how much of that is real? "I was never sure when I was gonna get my next feed. But it's all different now. I can get donor blood from a clinic. Or I can glamour someone into letting me feed on them for love...and then they'll forget all about it."

[gavemea_45]

"Answer me this." Everything about his cool, level tone screams of careful control.

"Why were you stalking Sookie?"

[feel_human]

She folds her arms a little more tightly and watches Bill carefully. He glances to Sam and back to her again. "I was doing no such thing," he says, and his own tone is carefully even.

"I am... interested in her."

[gavemea_45]

"You waited outside Merlotte's until she got off work and you could get her alone," Sam counters. "You cornered against her car. That's stalking. But whatever."

He lets that sink in for half a second, then says, "I asked you this before and you said it wasn't my business. Well, it sure as hell is hers. So I'll ask you again: what is the nature of your interest in her?"

[feel_human]

"I could ask you the same thing."

He studies Sam, unblinking, through the screen door. "I was not the only one waiting outside her place of work that night. I may not even have been the most dangerous thing doin' precisely that."

His gaze tracks, insolent, down to Sam's forearm, where the knife had been stashed that night. "I wonder, Sookie, if you've asked your beau here how many lives he's taken?"

[gavemea_45]

"You're right," he admits, without hesitation. "I was. I figured there was a chance you'd come after her, and I wanted to make sure she was safe."

Sam shrugs. "Sookie can ask me anything she wants to, and I'll tell her."

[feel_human]

"I think we might be gettin' a little off track," Sookie cuts in, a little hastily. "Bill, just... tell me, please. Is there a reason why you're... interested?"

He looks at her for a long, long moment. "I think you know why," he says, and it's honestly gentle. "There are things you can do which you cannot explain. Am I right?"

She watches him, wide-eyed and wary, as he goes on. "I knew you were different from that first moment you came to take my order."

For a second, he looks almost pained, his face full of a bone-deep longing she can't explain. "I can... smell the sunlight on your skin."

[gavemea_45]

As he takes in that expression, he wonders for the first time how Bill became a vampire in the first place.

"Do you know why she can?" he asks, not exactly gentle, but with less animosity than before. "What does that mean to you?"