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Gran had always said it was a Stackhouse's duty to help those who were suffering, which is why Jason had spent a large portion of his childhood helping Sookie nurse abandoned puppies back to health. Sookie had always been able to make people feel better- of course, she always seemed to know exactly what was bothering them- just by being there, and was more than willing to hug someone who seemed down, just as Gran always seemed to have a slice of pie and a glass of lemonade on the table to heal all ills. And Jason- well, Jason's version of “comforting” usually ended in sex, but hey, the girls always seemed more cheerful afterwards. But despite the fact that he was, indeed, a grown-ass man, Sookie was always able to guilt him into doing pretty much whatever she wanted, especially after the Fellowship of the Sun incident.
Which is why he found himself standing outside of Fangtasia on a Friday evening.
“Why hello there, Mr. Stackhouse,” the scary, pretty vampire greeted him.
“Uh...hi, Pam,” Jason said awkwardly, trying to avoid eye contact.
“What brings you to our fine, fanged establishment this evening?”
“Um, well, Sookie thought that Eric might still be pretty shook up about the whole, uh, Dallas incident, and I guess she wanted to check up on him, but she's still pissed at him, so she sent me.”
Pam raised an eyebrow at him. “You're here...to check up on Eric?”
Jason nodded.
Pam's expression changed slightly. “Come with me,” she said, leading him away from the main entrance to a side door. She pulled a key out of her cleavage- much to Jason's shock and delight- and let them in. They were in a storage room, filled with crates, chairs, and refrigerators. For one very scary second, Jason was sure Pam had brought him here to kill him, but then he relaxed when she turned on the light.
“I assume you know what happened in Dallas?” Pam drawled.
“Yeah, Sookie told me,” Jason replied. “I'm real sorry.”
“Don't tell me, tell Eric,” Pam said. “He hasn't eaten in a week, he hasn't gone out...he hasn't done anything but sit in his office and stare into space. Frankly, if I didn't force him, I'm not sure he would even bother changing clothes.”
Jason grimaced.
“But perhaps you can do something about it,” the vampire looked at him with a steady gaze. “You're more than welcome to try. Who knows, you might even succeed.”
With that, she pushed him through another door that led straight into an office- Eric's office, Jason figured, because there was the big man himself, sitting on the couch, looking at his hands. The door shut ominously behind him.
This was bad. This was very, very bad.
“Mr. Stackhouse,” Eric began, and all right, maybe he was depressed, but his voice was still scary as shit. “What may I do for you?”
“I just came here to check up on you,” Jason said awkwardly.
Eric looked up at him. “Why, Jason. I didn't know you cared.”
“Well, Sookie sent me,” Jason answered, before realizing what that sounded like. “Uh, not that I don't, you know. Care. Because I do. Care.”
Eric sighed, more for effect than from actual need to breathe. “You may as well have a seat.”
Jason looked around before carefully sitting down next to Eric, who had resumed staring at his hands. His large, powerful, dangerous hands.
“Uh....I was real sorry to hear about Godric,” Jason began, trying to fill the awkward silence. Eric instantly stiffened. “He seemed like a real nice kinda fellow.”
Eric snorted. “You should have meet him in the sixteenth century.”
“Yeah, I bet he was a real badass back then,” Jason grinned.
Eric didn't say anything.
“My girlfriend Amy died a few months back,” Jason said impulsively. Eric just looked at him. Jason felt he had to follow this train of thought, even though he was quite sure there was nobody at the wheel. “And, well- she was murdered, you probably heard about that. We were only together for a couple of months, but I really thought she was the one, you know?”
“Does this charming little anecdote have a point?” Eric growled.
“So, uh, I guess the moral of the story is that you should maybe be happy that you had a thousand years together, instead of, like, a month?” Jason said hurriedly. “And for that matter, maybe you should be happy that he died the way he did?”
Oh shit, that came out all wrong, he thought frantically. Eric gave him a look that would have killed lesser men. “I mean...that he got to choose when he went? Because most people, they don't have a choice about when or where or how they die...and...he did?”
Eric looked as if he might reply, but then he just...deflated, Jason thought, and buried his head in his hands. In that moment, Jason did the unthinkable. My subconscious must have a death wish he thought as he flung his arms around Eric in a very awkward man-hug.
Jason squeezed his eyes shut and prayed, waiting for his head to be torn off, wondering who he would meet at the Pearly Gates- if he even got that far. But nothing happened, except that Eric suddenly sagged into his arms and Jason found himself supporting most of the full weight of a six-foot-four former Viking.
“It's okay, dude, it's okay,” he soothed awkwardly, rubbing circles on the vampire's back like he used to do to Sookie, when she came home crying because the other kids at school called her a freak. Of course, then he went and beat the shit out of the other kids, but Jason figured Eric was probably capable of beating people up on his own.
After a very long minute, Eric sat up.
“Oh shit, man- there's blood coming out of your eyeballs!” Jason yelped, startled.
“That's how vampires cry, Jason,” Eric informed him.
“Oh- er. Uh. Never mind,” Jason muttered awkwardly. Sookie had said she'd seen Eric crying in Dallas, when Godric had offed himself, but he'd never thought Eric was anything other than an emotionless hack. Then, in a flash of rare intelligence, Jason realized that Eric was a super-powerful boss vamp, and he wouldn't want anyone to see him in a moment of weakness. He began praying again.
“You may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, Jason Stackhouse, but you've got a good heart,” Eric told him. Jason only processed the fact that he wasn't dead yet.
“Uh...thanks,” he said belatedly.
Eric stood up, stretched, and took a deep, unnecessary breath. Then he froze, before slowly turning towards Jason.
“Jason.”
“Yeah?” Jason really, really, really didn't like the look on Eric's face...
“Do you have fairy blood?”
Jason blinked, before slowly getting up and edging towards the door. “No, man, I don't swing that way, and, uh, I just came by to check on you, and you seem fine so I'll just be going now-”
In a flash, Eric had him pinned against the wall, and his brain began shrieking a cacophonous litany of oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! “You aren't going anywhere, Mr. Stackhouse, until you answer me. And possibly not even after that.”
“I don't know, I swear, I really don't, I would tell you, and what the fuck do you mean 'fairy blood',” Jason babbled. Eric's response was to lick Jason's neck.
Jason made a sound that may or may not have been a very unmanly yelp, and he would have jumped a foot and a half if Eric had not been holding him very, very still.
“I'm hungry, Jason,” Eric breathed into the crook of Jason's neck and shoulders. “I'm very hungry, and I think you'll taste very good.”
Pam's words- he hasn't eaten in a week- ran through his head, and the chorus of oh shit! became oh shit! Hungry vamp! Oh shit! Hungry vamp!
“Uh, dude, I appreciate the offer and all, but really, not interested!” Jason protested.
“Hmmm,” Eric hummed, and Jason felt the vibrations. “Really, now? Because I could make things quite....interesting.” He began trailing a hand down Jason's chest and really, with that plus someone licking his neck, how was Jason not supposed to be at least a little turned on? “Still not interesting? How about...now?” With that, he ground his hips against Jason's, and oh shit, Jason apparently wasn't the only one turned on by all of this. “Or...now?” With a flash of vampire speed and strength, Jason's shirt was literally torn off and Eric was back to sucking on his pulse point.
Jason was definitely interested.
“Do it,” he muttered.
“Do what?” Eric chuckled wickedly, removing his hand from where it had been rather comfortably resting on the front of Jason's trousers.
“Not that!” Jason yelped. “Put that back and bite me!”
“I'm glad you came around, Jason,” Eric said before unsheathing his fangs and plunging them into Jason's neck in one smooth motion.
Jason gasped and shuddered against Eric's powerful frame. Oh god, now he saw what Sookie saw in Bill. Jesus, fuck, God, yes, his brain babbled, and distantly he was aware that his mouth was probably babbling too, but he was to far gone in the sharp pain and even sharper pleasure. Then Eric plunged a hand down his pants and Jason came so hard he was pretty sure he saw God.
It took a few minutes of recovery before Jason was able to think again, much less string a sentence together. When his head finally cleared, Eric was rifling through a desk drawer.
“Here,” he said, tossing a Fangtasia t-shirt at Jason. “Sorry about your other one.”
“It's okay,” Jason panted.
“You may tell your sister that I am feeling better,” Eric grinned, opening the door for Jason. “Oh, and Mr. Stackhouse? I do hope you will come visit me again.”
Jason nodded dumbly before somehow managing to actually walk out the door, through the storage room, and out the side entrance. In a trance, he strode by the entrance, but was stopped by Pam appearing in front of him.
“That's not your shirt,” Pam commented.
Jason shook his head.
“So am I to take it that my master is feeling better?”
Jason nodded.
Pam patted him on the cheek. “Good boy. Off you go. Come back anytime. Drinks are on the house...assuming you make it to the bar, that is.”
Jason wandered back to his car and hit his head against the wheel a few times before he felt sober enough to drive.
Well.
He definitely knew where he was going to be next Friday night.