(no subject)
Title: yEarning
Fandom: True Blood
Characters/Pairings : (current?past?)Hoyt/Jessica, (pre)Tommy/Jessica, (pre?) Sookie/Sam
Rating: PG-13
Length:: 2,400 words
Summary: There's something Tommy knows he wants, There's something Jessica isn't sure she wants, and something Sam only wishes he didn't want.
Author's Notes/Warings: written for stainofmylove for the Five Acts Meme. Possible squick warning: non vamp drinking TruBlood. Ye've been warned. Enjoy!
He watched her, sometimes he felt like he was always watching her. Maybe he was, but observation was an important part of the hunt, right? Except technically speaking he was not the hunter, but the prey. That wasn’t important. What was important is that she had just set a third set of people in the wrong section, killing the waitress’ rotation. This had lead to the heavily emotional and pregnant Arlene blowing up at her... again.
He had to admit that he admired the control she had gained over herself. Perhaps because of the frequency of the older red head’s outbursts, Jessica hadn’t let her fangs out around her in weeks. Though he could tell from the fire that lurked behind her eyes that she would love to more then she’d ever admit.
Tommy understood those impulses all too well. He had been under fairly good behavior. He was a smart ass, but there was emphasis on smart. He knew just how thin he could wear Sam’s thread until they had found a balance that somewhat worked. Not that he didn’t keep his older brother guessing, it was just too much fun. Nothing could change that tingling that stirred beneath his skin that urged him to break out against the world. Some would call it bad parenting. That was bullshit. Sure his parents did a bang up job of fucking up his life. But that had nothing to do with this. This was what he was, the animal constantly lurking under his human façade.
The customers were starting to stare at the squabble that was gaining volume. Unlike him, Jessica didn’t snap. Instead, she bolted for the back door. Arlene yelled after her. The employees glared. His co-workers distracted, and no tables to clear at the moment he took the opportunity to slip away.
She hated crying. It was just plain gross, and it triggered something in her that loathed the weak feeling that washed over her. She was a vampire, one of the scariest things there was! So why should she feel like this? So wrong and mixed up, and desperate and itching to do anything but shatter. Through her muddled senses, her instincts pricked at the noise of an intruder.
No. Anger clouded her vision as she snapped. She wouldn’t be seen like this. Faster then she ever could have achieved as a human, she spun around. In a heartbeat the person who had dared follow her was now flushed against the dumpster. A low sound of frustration boiled at the back of her throat. Her fangs slipped down. Her forearm pressed into the invader’s windpipe. The gasped choke tore her back to reality.
“Tommy!” She gasped, stepping back as quickly as she had pounced. She almost felt the dead heart in her body pound at the surge that came from his arrival. “I’m-I’m sorry! I don’t know what-“
“Tch. Stop apologizing.” Her closed his eyes, shrugging off the movement with a roll of his neck. She swept her eyes over him.
He was so calm. Even in the brief moment she had held him down she hadn’t registered fear from him. It wasn’t trust, like she knew would have still been mixed with fear had it been Hoyt, it was certainty. It was faith, and a touch of excitement of the unknown. How could he possibly swallow every human instinct he had ever known?
“Hey, you look like the one who had gotten jumped.” He reached out to put one hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been like that half the night. What’s up?” He leaned in closer.
She looked up at him through red-stained eyelashes. She swallowed hard. Why was he always here for her, so kind? He reminded her of her precious Hoyt in that way. So caring, so sweet. She scoffed at herself inside, turning away from him. He didn’t deserve that, the comparison. She couldn’t help it.
She had loved Hoyt. Correction, she loved him. He had been her first in many things He would always be there lurking somewhere. And it was driving her crazy.
“Jessica.” His tone was firm, but not necessarily unkind. “Did he do something to you?” In his question there was a hint of a growl. The sound made a tingle run up her spine. She had heard it plenty of times. And it usually meant her boss would have to jump in and rein him in. It also made her a little scared.
“No.” She snapped, turning around only to find him much closer then she had expected. He was shorter, but she could still feel his breath tickle at her neckline. She could smell his adrenaline jet for a moment. She also knew that he heard her shiver. “No.” She lowered her voice to a whisper.
“I just…” What?
“You’re not good enough for him?” He guessed. She avoided her gaze. Even after their reunion the guilt and lingering thought hadn’t left. She was ashamed to admit how many times Tommy had heard some variation of her relationship woes…and still stuck around. Something she didn’t think was possible.
Inhaling deeply, Tommy looked at his feet, nodding. Wordlessly, his tongue passed over his lower lip as he grabbed her hand. Dragging her over to a fallen log, he made her sit down. She looked around them. When his knee knocked hers she noticed what he had I his hand for the first time.
“I thought you could use a drink… Didn’t know how much.” HE said with some weight as he handed over the bottle of TruBlood. “It’s a little cold now, though. Sorry.”
“Thanks.” She smiled, taking the bottle from him. It was a little colder then when it had been heated, but not for the first time Jessica noticed that it was far warmer then if most people would have been holding it for that long.
Quickly she tried to stop that train of thought with a sip. He had even memorized her preferred blood type. She felt his eyes on her, and looked away again, blushing. Most people could barely stand the sight of one of these bottles.
“Why do you keep turning away? I’ve told you. I don’t care about that stuff.” Vampire stuff, she translated in her head. He nudged her again. “Let me see.”
She was about to shoot back a snarky remark about drinking alone being unlucky when she realized that he wasn’t talking about watching her eat. He was holding his hand out. She looked down at the bottle. “You. Can’t. Be. Serious.” She looked between the figure and the container. He half laughed at her and snatched it away.
Jessica’s jaw dropped when he took a swig. When the bottle came down Tommy sniffled through a wrinkled nose, shrugged, and handed it back. “Not so bad. Not exactly right, but… eh.” He flicked his gaze at her, her fingers taking the bottle back with caution.
“…How could you…It’s disgusting.” She gaped. It was his turn to look away, taking a small sip herself as if she were trying to prove her statement only to find a faint taste that was so...him.
“It’s not a hobby or anything.” He assured her. “Just… when you get into as many scrapes as I have, you kind of get used to the taste of blood. It’s just, usually your own.”
The vampire looked at him quizzically. There was so much about him that she didn’t know, and yet she spilled her heart out to him. There was something…not quite the same with him. He was a little more, well, wild then any human she had ever met. She couldn’t help but admit it. There was something so freeing about him. She didn’t have to work to feel comfortable She didn’t have to think. He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t restrained. He just WAS. It was inhuman. It was like her.
His breath was on her skin again, warm and moist. She wasn’t sure when she had started leaning into him. She didn’t know when he put his hand, pulsing with heat, had come to her cheek. She didn’t know when her eyes had started to droop. But she did know how it stopped.
“Tommy.” A cold, hard, voice ripped them to their feet and away from one another. “Table five needs busting. Jessica, we’ve got a line. Break’s over.”
“Yes boss!” The vampire blinked away the haze that had settled over her brain as she sped into the barroom before her temper could kick in, or her youth.
“Thanks, bro. Thanks.” Tommy glared at his brother, stomping past him. A strong hand caught his shoulder and spun him around.
“I thought I told you to stay out of her business.” He brother growled.
“And if it’s not MY business, it sure as HELL isn’t yours.” The younger man yelled back.
“She’s a nice girl, Tommy. She deserves a chance with someone who can give her more.”
Sam yelled after him.
“OH, so I’m a less of a person? THANKS, bro.” He snorted. Sometimes he wondered how much better off he was here. At least his ma never expected more than he could deliver.
“With you flying off the handle all the time, yes you are!” Sam got up in his face. “Now I’ll give you this, you have been nice to her. But until you can get your head on straight, that poor girl doesn’t need any more confusion in her life!”
Tommy wasn’t sure what was worse; that his brother was pushing him again or that somewhere in the back of his head there was sense in it. But Tommy wasn’t a logical person. He had priorities. And for now he’d pretend that Jessica’s wellbeing wasn’t one of them.
“Oh. I see. Is that what you tell yourself?” He folded his arms, leaning backwards and taking a strong stance against the older shifter. His brother looked at him like he had no clue what Tommy was getting at.
“ I’m not enough for her. She doesn’t need my baggage. I’d only make her life more complicated. She’s already in a relationship-sort of. She’s TOO GOOD for me.” He threw his brothers words back at him. “Is that what you tell yourself to try to stop pining over Sookie?” The infamous waitress had only been back for a short time. But if he hadn’t been able to see his brother’s longing he really sucked at being who he was.
“You leave her out of this.” He could sense the hairs on the back of his brother’s neck rise up. He smirked. That was it, the anger of the beast lurking.
“No, I don’t think I will.” He stood his ground. He’d be damned if he’d let his brother hide his own flaws. “Being there for her, standing in the shadows, trying to redeem myself for her. Well all those things might be good enough for you...but they sure aren’t good enough for me.”
“So yea, I am going to make her business mine. Maybe she is involved with him, but he throws her around emotionally in a way she sure as hell doesn’t deserve. And he sure as hell can’t understand her like I do. Neither of them can!” He added, pointing his finger at his brother in an eerily mimicking way.
“Hoyt sure as hell doesn’t know what it feels like having to repress what you are. And that Bill guy…can’t even begin to know what it’s like to be everything but human.” That little voice tickled in him, almost reminding him that he had Bill to thank for Jessica.
“ Sure they’ve had to blend and all that shit. But they ALWAYS knew what they were. Guys like you and I? We can’t just disappear or glamour those we mess up with. We have to live with our own shit. And so yea, we have demons. News flash. We don’t all live in white picked fences and go to church every week. Not all of us had that choice!”
Sam stood looking Tommy. His fists had loosened. His anger had faded to shock. He was used to their fights, the banter, and the occasional fist. He hadn’t been prepared to hear the reasons.
“Maybe they ARE too good for us. Fine, I admit it! I’m trash in comparison.” Tommy relented, his voice cracking slightly at the revelation. “But if anyone in this damn world could ever cope, let alone accept, the shit we’ve been through… don’t you think it would be someone like them? Maybe they don’t need m ore shit, but did it ever occur to you that for all your hearts and hugs act to me, maybe they’re not the only one who needs a shoulder to lean on.”
Tommy shrugged. This was too revealing for his own comfort. He didn’t like to reflect on his investment. Tommy didn’t let that bother him. This wasn’t about Jessica now; it was about his brother’s issues coming off onto him.
“You can give up on your dream if you will. But don’t tell me how to fucking run my life or hers. I want Jessica. And I won’t stop until she gives me the chance I’ve damn well earned.” He walked backwards towards the entry.
“If you’re half as smart as you’d like to think you are, you’ll stop being such a bitch,” he meant in the gendering sense, “get your ass in there, and drag Sookie into your office to let her know just exactly how pissed off this whole Bill thing makes you before you loose any chance you might have left with her.”
“People aren’t things you can EARN, Tommy!” He shrugged off the retort.
Tommy swung open the door only to see the blonde waitress he had been speaking of standing with her hand outstretched towards the handle. Her frozen expression was more telling then if either of them had her ability. Tommy looked quickly back at his brother, before releasing a single bark of a laugh. “Maybe she’s the one you should be telling that to.”
With a smirk of delight at the pin he had dropped in his oh-so-caring brother’s pants he slipped back into the crowded bar. His work had piled up around him; in more categories then dirty dishes and crumpled napkins. He pulled up his sleeves. This was going to get messy.
Fandom: True Blood
Characters/Pairings : (current?past?)Hoyt/Jessica, (pre)Tommy/Jessica, (pre?) Sookie/Sam
Rating: PG-13
Length:: 2,400 words
Summary: There's something Tommy knows he wants, There's something Jessica isn't sure she wants, and something Sam only wishes he didn't want.
Author's Notes/Warings: written for stainofmylove for the Five Acts Meme. Possible squick warning: non vamp drinking TruBlood. Ye've been warned. Enjoy!
He watched her, sometimes he felt like he was always watching her. Maybe he was, but observation was an important part of the hunt, right? Except technically speaking he was not the hunter, but the prey. That wasn’t important. What was important is that she had just set a third set of people in the wrong section, killing the waitress’ rotation. This had lead to the heavily emotional and pregnant Arlene blowing up at her... again.
He had to admit that he admired the control she had gained over herself. Perhaps because of the frequency of the older red head’s outbursts, Jessica hadn’t let her fangs out around her in weeks. Though he could tell from the fire that lurked behind her eyes that she would love to more then she’d ever admit.
Tommy understood those impulses all too well. He had been under fairly good behavior. He was a smart ass, but there was emphasis on smart. He knew just how thin he could wear Sam’s thread until they had found a balance that somewhat worked. Not that he didn’t keep his older brother guessing, it was just too much fun. Nothing could change that tingling that stirred beneath his skin that urged him to break out against the world. Some would call it bad parenting. That was bullshit. Sure his parents did a bang up job of fucking up his life. But that had nothing to do with this. This was what he was, the animal constantly lurking under his human façade.
The customers were starting to stare at the squabble that was gaining volume. Unlike him, Jessica didn’t snap. Instead, she bolted for the back door. Arlene yelled after her. The employees glared. His co-workers distracted, and no tables to clear at the moment he took the opportunity to slip away.
She hated crying. It was just plain gross, and it triggered something in her that loathed the weak feeling that washed over her. She was a vampire, one of the scariest things there was! So why should she feel like this? So wrong and mixed up, and desperate and itching to do anything but shatter. Through her muddled senses, her instincts pricked at the noise of an intruder.
No. Anger clouded her vision as she snapped. She wouldn’t be seen like this. Faster then she ever could have achieved as a human, she spun around. In a heartbeat the person who had dared follow her was now flushed against the dumpster. A low sound of frustration boiled at the back of her throat. Her fangs slipped down. Her forearm pressed into the invader’s windpipe. The gasped choke tore her back to reality.
“Tommy!” She gasped, stepping back as quickly as she had pounced. She almost felt the dead heart in her body pound at the surge that came from his arrival. “I’m-I’m sorry! I don’t know what-“
“Tch. Stop apologizing.” Her closed his eyes, shrugging off the movement with a roll of his neck. She swept her eyes over him.
He was so calm. Even in the brief moment she had held him down she hadn’t registered fear from him. It wasn’t trust, like she knew would have still been mixed with fear had it been Hoyt, it was certainty. It was faith, and a touch of excitement of the unknown. How could he possibly swallow every human instinct he had ever known?
“Hey, you look like the one who had gotten jumped.” He reached out to put one hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been like that half the night. What’s up?” He leaned in closer.
She looked up at him through red-stained eyelashes. She swallowed hard. Why was he always here for her, so kind? He reminded her of her precious Hoyt in that way. So caring, so sweet. She scoffed at herself inside, turning away from him. He didn’t deserve that, the comparison. She couldn’t help it.
She had loved Hoyt. Correction, she loved him. He had been her first in many things He would always be there lurking somewhere. And it was driving her crazy.
“Jessica.” His tone was firm, but not necessarily unkind. “Did he do something to you?” In his question there was a hint of a growl. The sound made a tingle run up her spine. She had heard it plenty of times. And it usually meant her boss would have to jump in and rein him in. It also made her a little scared.
“No.” She snapped, turning around only to find him much closer then she had expected. He was shorter, but she could still feel his breath tickle at her neckline. She could smell his adrenaline jet for a moment. She also knew that he heard her shiver. “No.” She lowered her voice to a whisper.
“I just…” What?
“You’re not good enough for him?” He guessed. She avoided her gaze. Even after their reunion the guilt and lingering thought hadn’t left. She was ashamed to admit how many times Tommy had heard some variation of her relationship woes…and still stuck around. Something she didn’t think was possible.
Inhaling deeply, Tommy looked at his feet, nodding. Wordlessly, his tongue passed over his lower lip as he grabbed her hand. Dragging her over to a fallen log, he made her sit down. She looked around them. When his knee knocked hers she noticed what he had I his hand for the first time.
“I thought you could use a drink… Didn’t know how much.” HE said with some weight as he handed over the bottle of TruBlood. “It’s a little cold now, though. Sorry.”
“Thanks.” She smiled, taking the bottle from him. It was a little colder then when it had been heated, but not for the first time Jessica noticed that it was far warmer then if most people would have been holding it for that long.
Quickly she tried to stop that train of thought with a sip. He had even memorized her preferred blood type. She felt his eyes on her, and looked away again, blushing. Most people could barely stand the sight of one of these bottles.
“Why do you keep turning away? I’ve told you. I don’t care about that stuff.” Vampire stuff, she translated in her head. He nudged her again. “Let me see.”
She was about to shoot back a snarky remark about drinking alone being unlucky when she realized that he wasn’t talking about watching her eat. He was holding his hand out. She looked down at the bottle. “You. Can’t. Be. Serious.” She looked between the figure and the container. He half laughed at her and snatched it away.
Jessica’s jaw dropped when he took a swig. When the bottle came down Tommy sniffled through a wrinkled nose, shrugged, and handed it back. “Not so bad. Not exactly right, but… eh.” He flicked his gaze at her, her fingers taking the bottle back with caution.
“…How could you…It’s disgusting.” She gaped. It was his turn to look away, taking a small sip herself as if she were trying to prove her statement only to find a faint taste that was so...him.
“It’s not a hobby or anything.” He assured her. “Just… when you get into as many scrapes as I have, you kind of get used to the taste of blood. It’s just, usually your own.”
The vampire looked at him quizzically. There was so much about him that she didn’t know, and yet she spilled her heart out to him. There was something…not quite the same with him. He was a little more, well, wild then any human she had ever met. She couldn’t help but admit it. There was something so freeing about him. She didn’t have to work to feel comfortable She didn’t have to think. He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t restrained. He just WAS. It was inhuman. It was like her.
His breath was on her skin again, warm and moist. She wasn’t sure when she had started leaning into him. She didn’t know when he put his hand, pulsing with heat, had come to her cheek. She didn’t know when her eyes had started to droop. But she did know how it stopped.
“Tommy.” A cold, hard, voice ripped them to their feet and away from one another. “Table five needs busting. Jessica, we’ve got a line. Break’s over.”
“Yes boss!” The vampire blinked away the haze that had settled over her brain as she sped into the barroom before her temper could kick in, or her youth.
“Thanks, bro. Thanks.” Tommy glared at his brother, stomping past him. A strong hand caught his shoulder and spun him around.
“I thought I told you to stay out of her business.” He brother growled.
“And if it’s not MY business, it sure as HELL isn’t yours.” The younger man yelled back.
“She’s a nice girl, Tommy. She deserves a chance with someone who can give her more.”
Sam yelled after him.
“OH, so I’m a less of a person? THANKS, bro.” He snorted. Sometimes he wondered how much better off he was here. At least his ma never expected more than he could deliver.
“With you flying off the handle all the time, yes you are!” Sam got up in his face. “Now I’ll give you this, you have been nice to her. But until you can get your head on straight, that poor girl doesn’t need any more confusion in her life!”
Tommy wasn’t sure what was worse; that his brother was pushing him again or that somewhere in the back of his head there was sense in it. But Tommy wasn’t a logical person. He had priorities. And for now he’d pretend that Jessica’s wellbeing wasn’t one of them.
“Oh. I see. Is that what you tell yourself?” He folded his arms, leaning backwards and taking a strong stance against the older shifter. His brother looked at him like he had no clue what Tommy was getting at.
“ I’m not enough for her. She doesn’t need my baggage. I’d only make her life more complicated. She’s already in a relationship-sort of. She’s TOO GOOD for me.” He threw his brothers words back at him. “Is that what you tell yourself to try to stop pining over Sookie?” The infamous waitress had only been back for a short time. But if he hadn’t been able to see his brother’s longing he really sucked at being who he was.
“You leave her out of this.” He could sense the hairs on the back of his brother’s neck rise up. He smirked. That was it, the anger of the beast lurking.
“No, I don’t think I will.” He stood his ground. He’d be damned if he’d let his brother hide his own flaws. “Being there for her, standing in the shadows, trying to redeem myself for her. Well all those things might be good enough for you...but they sure aren’t good enough for me.”
“So yea, I am going to make her business mine. Maybe she is involved with him, but he throws her around emotionally in a way she sure as hell doesn’t deserve. And he sure as hell can’t understand her like I do. Neither of them can!” He added, pointing his finger at his brother in an eerily mimicking way.
“Hoyt sure as hell doesn’t know what it feels like having to repress what you are. And that Bill guy…can’t even begin to know what it’s like to be everything but human.” That little voice tickled in him, almost reminding him that he had Bill to thank for Jessica.
“ Sure they’ve had to blend and all that shit. But they ALWAYS knew what they were. Guys like you and I? We can’t just disappear or glamour those we mess up with. We have to live with our own shit. And so yea, we have demons. News flash. We don’t all live in white picked fences and go to church every week. Not all of us had that choice!”
Sam stood looking Tommy. His fists had loosened. His anger had faded to shock. He was used to their fights, the banter, and the occasional fist. He hadn’t been prepared to hear the reasons.
“Maybe they ARE too good for us. Fine, I admit it! I’m trash in comparison.” Tommy relented, his voice cracking slightly at the revelation. “But if anyone in this damn world could ever cope, let alone accept, the shit we’ve been through… don’t you think it would be someone like them? Maybe they don’t need m ore shit, but did it ever occur to you that for all your hearts and hugs act to me, maybe they’re not the only one who needs a shoulder to lean on.”
Tommy shrugged. This was too revealing for his own comfort. He didn’t like to reflect on his investment. Tommy didn’t let that bother him. This wasn’t about Jessica now; it was about his brother’s issues coming off onto him.
“You can give up on your dream if you will. But don’t tell me how to fucking run my life or hers. I want Jessica. And I won’t stop until she gives me the chance I’ve damn well earned.” He walked backwards towards the entry.
“If you’re half as smart as you’d like to think you are, you’ll stop being such a bitch,” he meant in the gendering sense, “get your ass in there, and drag Sookie into your office to let her know just exactly how pissed off this whole Bill thing makes you before you loose any chance you might have left with her.”
“People aren’t things you can EARN, Tommy!” He shrugged off the retort.
Tommy swung open the door only to see the blonde waitress he had been speaking of standing with her hand outstretched towards the handle. Her frozen expression was more telling then if either of them had her ability. Tommy looked quickly back at his brother, before releasing a single bark of a laugh. “Maybe she’s the one you should be telling that to.”
With a smirk of delight at the pin he had dropped in his oh-so-caring brother’s pants he slipped back into the crowded bar. His work had piled up around him; in more categories then dirty dishes and crumpled napkins. He pulled up his sleeves. This was going to get messy.