[for Sookie]

[survivesitall]

Clayton isn't anti-social, Elena would insist, he's just selectively social. He likes his Pack, they are his family and his friends. Everyone else is either useful to him or not, and while a few people manage to make it past his barriers, it's the rare person.

Elena, however, is different. She loves her Pack (even as small as it is here) but she grew up in a city. She's used to the press of people, to always having the voices of others around her. The wolf inside of her loves the solitude and those she knows well, but the girl who lived her first twenty-odd years in Toronto thinks that there is such a thing as too much nature.

Semele's is a good place for both of them. The clientele isn't entirely human, their noses tell them that, and for the most part they keep to themselves. It means it's a good place to meet, have a quiet conversation and a drink. That night, however, she's there on her own. Clay is with Jeremy, out running together. It's something they needed, adopted father and son together in the woods, chasing and running. Elena is happy to leave them to it, but needs to get out of the house herself. She's found dinner near work before heading to the bar she's getting to know now.

Tonight she picks a seat at the bar instead of a quiet table out of the way. Elena smiles at the waitress, another of the people that has something about her scent that tells her she's not entirely human. Not that Elena will ask, she respects privacy too much. "Can I have a beer?"

Comments

[justsookie]

It's been a few weeks since Will disappeared from the city, and while Sookie still doesn't feel like she's completely back to normal over the loss, she's finally feeling able to get herself out of bed without obsessing over the lack of him for hours on end. Semele's is a good place for her to go, usually busy enough to keep her occupied through the hours. And if not, Lafayette's generally there to provide company.

Sookie smiles when she's flagged down by a customer. "Sure! Do you have a preference in beer? We've got just about the whole range of light, dark, ale, local. Or there's what's on tap for the day, which is the Taj Mahal, a pretty standard lager that's lightly carbonated."

[survivesitall]

“Something local is fine,” she says, the list of options going over her head. Elena’s never been a connoisseur of the beverage, and couldn’t care much about the hops or kegs or other additions that seem to be all the rage these days. Her time at the bar is more about being around people and her metabolism means it’s hard to get drunk. “I’m not fussy.”

[justsookie]

"Truth be told," Sookie says, her nose wrinkling as she ducks down underneath the bar to root through the fridge, "I'm not that fussy either. I know it's probably not something I should admit when I'm behind the bar or whatever, but I always thought that the whole fuss over all these beers is more of an image thing than anything else. I'm sure the taste is different and all, but I really can't tell what's better or worse."

Uncapping the beer and carefully wiping away the condensation before passing it over, Sookie leans forward, her elbows resting on the bar. "Or maybe that just means I'm too much of a country bumpkin."

[survivesitall]

Her admission earns a smile from Elena, real and wide. She lifts the bottle and takes a sip, glass unnecessary. "Maybe you just have more interesting things to fill your head with."

"Or you could go country. Before here... We lived in the middle of nowhere. Our local beer store had about three types stocked. I never minded."

[justsookie]

"My boss would shake me if he overheard me saying this, but I'm pretty sure almost anything is more interesting to fill one's time and energy with than booze," she says, wrinkling her nose with a soft laugh. "Though I do love drinking, sometimes. It's a nice way to loosen up and stop... thinking so much. I also lived in the middle of nowhere before I came here, but it's crazy how much stuff ended up happening anyway. Forcing yourself to unplug from it all sometimes was the only way to get by."

[survivesitall]

“So did we,” she says longingly. Elena misses Stonehaven and the ground and woods surrounding it every day. It had made running – as a wolf or human – so much easier. And with the way she and Clayton were always at each other the privacy was welcome. The little house they had here wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t the same. “I loved it, but trouble found us even still.”

[justsookie]

"Oh, yeah," Sookie nods in total understanding, rubbing at her shoulder as she thinks about all of the trouble she'd gotten up to in Bon Temps. "All it takes is one thing for trouble to worm its way in, and gosh, in my hometown at least, once trouble came in... it never left. There was no gettin' out of it. We were suddenly under the attention of way too many people, and it just kinda ballooned over time. Sometimes I still miss it, though. There were so many terrible memories of that place, but sometimes there were good ones, too."

[survivesitall]

"I guess I feel the same," Elena says, considering it. Were there memories about Stonehaven she'd rather forget? Yes, there were definitely things that she wished never happened; friends lost that she'd never get back. "But I miss it. Every damn day."