Hey guys. Sorry I keep writing new stories; This idea came to me and I thought it would be fun to write, where Sookie is a 10-year-old, troubled homeless girl and Eric finds her, where they get up to all kinds of mischief together. It's probably silly but I would love to know your thoughts whether it is something worthy of continuing, just as something fun?

Lost and Found

EPOV:

At first, Pam and I had assumed there were just cats hanging around outside the bar. Particularly near the area where the bins were located.

We started hearing strange crying noises every single time one of us stepped outside. The cries had certainly sounded like nothing more than a litter of pissy, little stray kittens mewling for their mother to return with milk at the time, so neither Pam nor I felt concerned enough to do anything about it.

Yet, tonight, as I threw on my leather jacket while walking towards the back entrance, preparing to leave the premises as I had work to do as part of my duties as Sheriff of the area, I heard that concerning noise again.

There was a soft sobbing noise, followed by the sound of a body scraping against cardboard. It had been drizzling with rain tonight, and as I followed the noises, treading around the corner of the dustbin, I noticed something was majorly different than how it usually was.

There was a flattened piece of cardboard box laying sideways against the wall, and I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt then that something- or someone- was huddled against the wall beneath it, trying to keep warm with the cardboard acting as shelter from the drizzle.

As I listened carefully, I also let myself sniff around while trying to keep as quiet as humanly possible on the soles of my leather boots as I walked around near the bin.

I could hear a human's heart beating furiously in their chest. I could tell the difference between a humans heartbeat, and an animals; It definitely sounded human to me. Maybe it was a drunk and pathetic human who decided to camp out here for the night, rather than having to face the reality of going home and getting shit from their loved ones? Or maybe it was just a homeless bum who decided to make a resting place out of our back entrance of Fangtasia for the night?

Either way, I decided I would very much like to find out. Now was good enough a time as any.

Using the tip of my boot, I edged it under the bottom of the cardboard box. Then with one light and gentle kick, the box fell away, leaving what was previously hidden unconcealed to me.

What I saw, it made my eyes widen and my breath hitch in my throat. What the hell was this?

It was no homeless bum, or a drunken fool. It was no kitten either but a child; A little girl with matted, dark blonde hair, who screamed shrilly at me as I looked down at her. She made herself smaller, huddling into a ball; covering both her head and her face in her arms. She was only wearing a grotty white T-shirt and torn jeans, with old shoes, and she looked to be trembling violently. She was freezing. As for myself, I no felt neither hot nor cold no more; The varying temperatures of hot and cold no longer affected me. But this little thing, she was suffering.

While I liked to put on a show and a heartless bravado every now and then, I didn't believe I was that heartless as not to feel sorry for some pathetic little human girl.

I crouched down easily in front of, noticing the jerk of her body at my movement. Poor little girl, she was petrified of me. And, usually, humans had good reason to be. I was not above and beyond harming a little human, I admitted; Though, with this one, I had no desire to hurt her in the slightest, considering she already seemed to be hurting.

I cleared my throat gently before forcing myself to speak, in a hopefully gentle and harmless voice, "Hello there, little girl. Have you been the one that has been out here all this time for weeks now? The one that was making all of those... kitten-sounding noises?"

She peeked through her arm at me, showing me wide, fearful light brown eyes.

"Y-yes," she squeaked out quietly. "I... I think it was me?"

"And why is that? Why aren't you at home with your family?"

"I... I don't got one anymore," she whispered, finally taking her arms away from her face. She laid them down over her stomach tightly, as though that alone would protect her from me. "I... I had nowhere else." Tears trickled down her cheeks silently as she stared at me forlornly with a loud sniffle through her nose. She had a Southern twang to her tiny voice. "Please, you don't got to... to hurt me, mister. I... I can leave."

I felt a strange sensation at her pleading; I felt a tightness around my chest, though I couldn't be certain what that was. Maybe she had me feeling a little sentimental by how tragic she was?

Despite it all, I felt the corner of my mouth twitch while I tried to suppress a smile. "And what makes you think I would stoop so low as to hurt a defenseless little girl like you?" I asked her quietly.

"Because you..." She hesitated for a moment, her entire face trembling. "You're one of them, aren't you? I... I saw it when you-all came out on the news? You're... your a vampire, aren't you, mister?"

"Indeed." How perceptive she was, this little girl. "Am I that obvious to you?"

"N-not exactly," she said in her tiny voice. "You just... you're just quieter than all the rest."

I arched an eyebrow at her skeptically. "Quieter?" I had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

"Y-yes, q-quieter."

I scrutinized her carefully, from her head, down to her toes. All the clothes she was wearing were extremely dirty and stained, tattered and torn. It was truly no wonder she was so fucking cold. When I looked her face over carefully, I saw she had a graze on her left cheekbone. It seemed recent to me; Dried red blood was smeared across it. Without realizing it, I let my tongue slip through my lips, licking them. I could only just imagine how she would taste; A child's blood always tastes purer, less... contaminated.

She swallowed loudly, a terrified gulp slipping through her. More tears trickled down her cheeks, her eyes welling over.

Clearing my throat again, I tried to distract myself from the musings of how good she would taste, and instead extracted my fangs. She heard the noise they made as they did, of course. She huddled ever so closer to the wall, but I paid her no attention, bringing up my thumb to rip it open with my left fang. Then when as I inched closer, I could smell her, all her fear. Hear the way her heart was beating loud and clear. Her lips parted as a shaky breath escaped her. She thought I was going to kill her, but instead, I showed her the sliced open skin on my thumb.

"Relax, little girl," I told her very seriously, trying to keep her calm. "I just want to help with that cut on your cheek."

Her eyes watched me, disbelieving as I inched closer. When I finally ran my thumb over her cheek, coating her scrape with my blood, she clenched her eyes shut tightly for a moment, breathing heavily like I was paining her. Then once I felt satisfied with my work, I leaned back, and she reopened her eyes. The skin on her cheek had healed up completely now; It was just stained red from my blood marking her.

She sniffled loudly again then exhaled before putting a few slender fingers to her cheek over the wound, feeling around. I caught her brown eyes widening in amazement; No doubt she was now both shocked and relieved that the sore on her cheek was gone.

"Oh, wow," she gushed breathlessly after a moment, before she started sobbing silently again, her chin wobbling.

I had officially made up my mind then; I would invite her inside to the club. It was still under operating hours and packed with humans, but if I could sneak her into my office, she would be both safe and warm there. Pam was not going to be pleased about it, as she both feared and disliked human children, but tough shit.

"Your cold, little girl. You can come inside where there is shelter. The bar is still open and it is bound to be loud with the music, but you can stay in my office for a little while, just until the rain dies down, at the very least."

I stood to my feet again, watching her eye me up and down in suspicion. I guess I couldn't blame her. After all, I did have the tendency of scaring the shit out of humans.

"Why?" she demanded, her voice going surprisingly strong. Honestly, I didn't believe a thing so pathetic and tiny could have it in her. "Why should I go in there with you? I don't know you. For... for all I know, y-y-you could be lying through your teeth just to trick me?" Her teeth started chattering.

While her suspicions were annoying, it was understandable, I suppose.

I sighed loudly, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. Which, for me, wasn't exactly easy. I hunched my shoulders forward, trying to seem shorter and less... imposing somehow. "Do I look as though I am going to hurt you?" I asked her, blinking down at her.

Her eyes trailed up and down me again as she shrugged. "I... I don't know."

"Well, I can promise you this; I have no intentions of hurting you." I tried to look sincere as to ease her mind. "While I admit that I have killed a human around your age before, I have no plans to add another one to that list anytime soon. Now will you come inside?"

The girl seemed to hesitate for a long minute, before finally pulling herself up to her feet. Goddamn, was she small. She hardly reached my stomach. Thin, too. She was lanky and all bony, most likely due to lack of good food. As I made my way back through the door, I held it open for her. She walked behind me, at a slow pace, and I could feel her still watching me, almost paranoid that I was about to instantly flip a switch and attack her.

Once I reached my office and waved her in, I thought it became apparent to her that I did mean what I said. Her shoulders slackened from their rigid, defensive stance, and she let out a long breath as she looked around the red-walls of my office curiously. I caught her staring at one of the advertisements on the wall; One that featured a nude woman spreadeagled out on a sofa with blood trailing down her body.

She made a huff of disgust, shaking her head. "Eww, how rude," she grumbled under her breath, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Tiny humans could be so funny when they wanted to be. I could tell she was going to be especially humorous to have around.

Then I noticed the smears of dirt she had bought in on the carpet when she walked in from her dirty shoes. In fact, she was literally sopping wet, ruining the floor with all the rain water that dripped from her long, mangy hair, from her old clothes.

Moving around my office, I found one of my old jackets that I no longer wore anymore. When I shook it out, offering it to her to put on so that she would be warm and, hopefully, to stop her dripping everywhere and ruining the carpet, she eyed me like I was strange.

"Here," I said impatiently, shaking the jacket at her. "Put this on. You'll feel warmer that way."

When she just stared at me, I got fed up, so I tossed it at her. It landed over her head and she made a girly squeal of laughter before she yanked it off her head. For once, she was grinning at me, her eyes crinkled. She had a gap between her front teeth.

"Do you have a name, little girl?" I asked her curiously, wondering if she would actually tell me.

"I do. Who doesn't have a name?" She laughed to herself again while struggling to slip her arms through the sleeves of my jacket. Once properly on, I almost laughed again. The jacket swamped her entire body, the end of it going down past her knees. She looked as though she was getting eaten alive by my jacket. "I'm Sookie."

"Sookie?" I repeated quietly. I had no idea whether she was lying or not, but her name was... odd, to say the least. "Your name is Sookie?"

"Yes. And yours is?"

"Eric. Eric Northman."

Yes, it certainly could brighten up the atmosphere in having a small girl here. Even if I didn't know the full story, of why she no longer had a family, or why she was now living out on the street.

But I figured I'd learn all about that later...