One Night

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**Obligatorily Meandering A/N that grew so long I just put it as the intro page**

THE BACKGROUND:

This piece was originally written as a “thank you” when I reached 500 site (not email) followers.  It had been intended as a slightly longer one-shot entitled “The Night Eric Northman’s Life Changed Forever” and would be posted in, yeah, one shot.

It grew.

Visions/flashbacks of BNP ensued.  Ah, well, it is what it is…

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THE BANNER/S:

The gorgeous banners are brought to you (and me) by the fantastic Gyllene!  My theme requires a seriously odd size – 1000 x 288…which results in the pictures sometimes being a little distorted.  So…sometimes I’ll post the REAL banner, too, just because I like the pretties.

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THE STORY:

Ok, first off, I love the idea of a more pro-active Eric.

On TB, you know how withdrawn, intimidating, and cold (but with a burning fire hidden within) Eric was when Sookie first met him in Fangtasia?  (He was also, dare I say it:  dangerously bored.)  I figure a lot of that was  pure vampire facade – the face he had to show to the vampire world…and a face that would start slipping almost immediately once he was, well, “face to face” with Sookie.

Bluntly, I can see (my?) Eric being cold and hard and intimidating when he has to be (and when he wants to be) but when given a chance, when given a willing and intelligent (if naive) listener, I can also see his natural generosity with his time and information (what he *can* say, that is) emerging by leaps and bounds.   I also see him as being a natural teacher, too, very willing to share his experiences in the, dare I say it, “saga tradition”. (Shaddup, you know I like them Viking peoples.)

I couldn’t see him magically turning into the Viking version of a marshmallow – he would still have his mind in ‘the game’, but…if he were more pro-active, more inclined toward listening to his gut and that weird echo-y place in his chest…

(My?) Sookie is naive, sure, but she’s no Stoopie…when given the chance in my universe she will ask her relevant questions and she will consider the answers given…and she’ll then ask more (thoughtful) questions. At this point Bill hasn’t had a chance to corrupt her reasoning processes or her common sense – his blood is in her but thus far he hasn’t had all that much success in controlling her with it.

(Let’s all pause for a moment and *shiver-shiver-EW-EW-EW*, shall we?)

This (mostly TB with vague hints of SVM) fic takes place the night Eric meets Sookie – a plotline that has probably been done ad nauseam, but I wanted to put my particular spin on things to see how they’d work out. As per my usual habit, this will go AU at vamp speed. There will be many issues and topics covered during the course of this night.   I want to show the (sometimes meandering) steps Eric could have taken and how his life could have changed in so many ways had he been a bit more open – open with not only necessary information, but open with himself and his attraction to Sookie and with his care for his Maker.

He was initially intrigued by Sookie, so here’s my take on how it all could have gone if he had simply followed through with that – and if Sookie had been more herself.  So many things could have changed – and in just one night.

I hope you enjoy!

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