A/N: This is the new story I'm working on. I'm kinda taking a hiatus from the wrestling fandom, since I've lost interest in the WWE at the moment. True Blood is my new obsession. I'm a HUGE Lafayette and Tara fan, so this is my story about them. The beginning follows the content of the show, but it'll soon go off in my own direction. Enjoy!

September 2005

"Just get the fuck out!" Lafayette sat motionless, looking for some hint that this was a cruel joke. There was no way it was ending like this. There was nothing in his horoscope, or his dabblings in juju that prepared him for what was happening. All he could do was try to remain stoic to try to save what little dignity he had left.

He had laid it all out on the line this time. He had told everyone about his relationship and how happy he was. He finally stopped running from the inevitable. He had known for months that he had fallen in love and just recently he had completely surrendered to it. There was no more sneaking around. He was out, in the open, loud and proud. He knew that he had never and would probably never feel this way about anyone ever again.

So why was the love of his life telling him that it was over now?

He should have listened to Sookie. Lafayette was one of the few people that understood Sookie's unique gift, even when she didn't. He had dabbled in the occult. He knew she was a telepath, able to hear people's thoughts and even see things that weren't happening where she was, even if she wouldn't admit to it. It's who Sookie was. It was the way she had always been. No matter how much she tried to shun her gift, she was always right. She always knew the inner most workings of other people's minds. So why was it that he tried to dismiss her warning?

She told him that something was wrong and that he should tread lightly because things weren't as jovial as he believed. Sookie even got Tara to try to warn him. As if anything his cousin said ever made him stop and think twice about it. Tara could be a bitch at times, always looking for a reason to start some shit. Maybe if she kept her evil ass mouth closed every once in awhile she, too, could find what he had.

So, Lafayette shrugged it off as jealousy. He though that they were just being over protective of him because they knew how the folks in their town could be. But he didn't listen. He was tired of everyone else dictating his happiness. He was tired of going on dates with women so people wouldn't think that he was a "queer". He was tired of pretending.

True love didn't happen everyday, and when it finally did, he would have been a motherfucker to let it slip away. That's why he went balls out, all the way. The entire state be damned if they didn't like it. He knew that Sookie and Tara were just trying to look out for him, but he knew what he was doing. For once in his life he was following his heart, and his heart didn't lie.

Maybe that's why it was breaking right now.

"But know if you leave, you ain't comin' back. Your ass don't deserve me, no way." Standing from his couch he walked over to the front door and opened it. He looked at the teary blue eyes next to him and instantly dropped his. Everything in his gut screamed for him to put an end to this, but his pride wouldn't let him. He was too stunned to react any differently. He'd be damned if he would ever let someone make him cry again. Without any more words, Lafayette angrily slammed the front door and watched from the window as he walked away.

To hell with him. To hell with love. To hell with everybody.

That was the last thing that Lafayette had ever said to him. That was the last thing that he was ever going to say to him. His world was altered yet again, without any hopes of reconciliation. It had only been five days since it the breakup, and there he was again, sitting on his bed, clinging to a pillow crying like his soul had died.

Only this time it was different.

Sookie sat on one side of him rubbing his back, while his head rested on Tara's lap as she rubbed his head. This had to be a joke. No one in the world was that cruel. "He can't be dead. He can't be." Even though Lafayette had read the papers and heard it for himself, he refused to believe that it was over like that.

Things like that didn't happen in this sleepy little town of Bon Temps, tucked away in the countryside of Louisiana. There weren't shootings there, like there were in big cities. There weren't even clubs there; they had to go to Shreveport for that. And who the hell had ever heard of a shooting in a club in Shreveport? Shreveport! The only thing in Shreveport, to speak of, was this underground vampire bar, and there was no reason in hell for him to ever go there.

It didn't make sense. Nothing made sense anymore. And nothing in Bon Temps ever would again.

Present day…

The sun beat mercilessly on Bon Temps. It was only ten in the morning and already it was ninety-four degrees. The sticky humidity made it impossible to escape from the heat, even under the shade of the trees. The heat attacked everything it touched, like a fiery blanket. The cooler tucked under the bush to keep the sun's rays from it wasn't unscathed, either. All of the ice cubes had long since melted, and the sodas and sweet tea inside were slowly being boiled due to the still rising temperature.

Rolling his eyes, Lafayette Reynolds reached in his pocket for a rag to wipe the sweat off his brow. It was pointless. As soon as he wiped his head he could feel more sweat start to bead and roll down his dark features. "Chocolate can't be out in this heat." Dabbing at the sweat on his upper lip, he made sure not to disturb his perfectly black lined red glossed lips. It was one thing to be sweaty. But it was something else to mess his face up while working. "My sexy ass is fittin' to melt."

"Good lawd it's a hot one today. Gonna reach a hunert by noon. Watch what I say." Rene Lenier's Cajun accent rang out over the sounds of locusts and other creatures in the nearby woods. Taking his construction hat off of his head, he wiped his brow with his wristband. "Why we gotta fix 'ese streets in all dis heat?" Leaning his weight on the jackhammer in his hands, Rene's eyes stayed trained on the truck pulling to a stop down the road from where the crew was working. "Hey?" Nudging Lafayette's arm with his own, he never took his eyes off of the two people exiting the truck. "What you think 'bout that there?"

Lafayette narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "A bitch in heat is liable to do anything." He watched as his cousin, Tara Thornton, allowed Sam Merlotte to open the door for her before stepping inside. "I don't know what the fuck that's about."

It seemed like everything was all fucked up in Bon Temp lately. First Sookie got involved with that vampire, and then all of those girls wound up dead. If that wasn't bad enough Jason seemed to have lost his damn mind, and now this – Tara and Sam.

"I guess everybody gotta have somebody, huh? Tara and Sam…Sookie and the vampire. Just gotta find somebody crazy 'nuff to take you on, huh?" Rene asked before squeezing the handles of his jackhammer, once again plowing into the concrete.

Rolling his heavily mascaraed eyes at Rene, Lafayette flipped him off. "Ain't a motherfucker alive man enough to handle all of this." There was enough crazy shit happening in their town without him trying to get serious with anyone. Lafayette Reynolds didn't get involved. He had done that once and his heart had been shattered into a million pieces. Let the crazy ass white people do that shit. Let Tara fuck her boss and Jason fuck everyone else. And if Sookie wanted to hook up with all of the undead in Louisiana, so be it. Love and all that bullshit was their thing and he wasn't having any parts of it.

If it was one thing that Lafayette could not understand, it was his cousin's unnatural obsession for Jason Stackhouse. Since they were little kids, it was always Jason this and Jason that. Sookie was supposed to be Tara's best friend, but he'd be damned if he barely heard her name mentioned if Jason was home during one of their sleepovers. And growing up, the more Tara's mama drank, the more sleepovers at the Stackhouse's there were. Hell, Tara practically grew up in the house with the two of them.

Since he could remember Tara had been in love with Jason. The town playboy had captured the heart of his little cousin and refused to let it go. Which was really hard to understand since Tara knew Jason just about as well as Sookie did. She knew him about all the shit that Sookie didn't know, too. All the shit that Jason pulled. All the drugs that he bought from Lafayette. All the crazy shit that he'd done to get those drugs when he didn't have money for them. Lafayette wasn't above using Jason for his own sick fantasies if the boy couldn't pay. It was all in the name of business.

But Tara had seen the kind of man that Jason had grown into. He was a slacker, a part-time junkie, and the biggest whore that Bon Temp had ever seen. He was a nice guy, but definitely not the type of man that Tara would be interested in. But she was, and everyone knew it. Everyone except Jason, apparently.

If Jason wasn't her type, than Sam really wasn't. He was crazy in love with Sookie Stackhouse, for starters. That's why the idea of Tara and Sam was so strange. From what Tara said that one night she had spent with him was just that – a one time deal. Now they were dating, and Tara was standing there trying to pretend like she wasn't looking at Jason? Lafayette knew the truth. He stood by the opening of the door looking at Tara and following her gaze across the room to Jason before shaking his head.

It wasn't like Jason wasn't entertaining or anything. And truthfully, Lafayette had thought about him in other than friendly terms before. He was admittedly a fine ass white boy. A little scruffy, and judging by the skanks that always seemed to find themselves attached to his dick, he probably had something. But, given the chance Lafayette would have tapped Jason's tight ass. But that was it. All that other shit that Tara saw in him was completely lost on him.

But there she was still sitting there staring at him as if he was about to open up his mouth and tell her the secrets of the universe. "Why don't you go talk to him?" Draping a cloth over his shoulder, Layette arched his back and leaned over the counter, next to his cousin. All he could do was shake his head as Tara moved hers to face him, but her eyes never left Jason's.

"And say what, Lafayette? Jason knows damn well I'm standin' here." Faking anger, Tara rolled her eyes as soon as Jason's arm slid around the half dress woman leaning over the pool table. It wasn't like she didn't know that Jason hooked up with someone every night. Sometimes more than one a night. But she'd be damned if she wanted to watch it. "I helped him when he needed it, and that was it. I ain't got shit to say to him now."

Pursing his red gloss covered lips, Lafayette reached over for the bottle of Scotch and poured himself a tumbler. "Bitch, you know you full of lies. You sweet on that boy. Always have been. Need to take your black ass over there and give 'em a taste."

"This from a man with a webcam in his bathroom, that pays people in drugs for them to dance naked in his livin' room for fuck jobs on the computer?" She snatched the glass out of his hand and placed her hand on hip. The last thing she felt like listening to was Lafayette giving her dating advice. "Don't you got some work to do or somethin'?"

Lafayette stood to his 6'1" height and placed a hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Baby girl just mad that ole Sammy ain't hittin' that shit like he should. And what the fuck you doin' fuckin' 'round with him anyway? You needs take care of that." With a snap of his wrists, he twirled his hips and sashayed his way back into the kitchen.

Peering out into Merlotte's, all he could do was wonder why in the hell hadn't he gotten out of this little ass redneck town? When he had mapped out his life years ago, he never thought he'd be working three jobs. Construction worker by day, short order cook at Merlotte's by night, and freak all the damn time! But he needed the money. His big plan was to save up enough to get the fuck out of Bon Temp and tell that bassackward town to kiss is luscious, fine, black ass. And if that meant he had to bust up pavement, sling burgers and sell a little happy fixes to the locals to make his dreams come true, then so be it.

Bon Temps didn't have anything for a man of his tastes to do there. He needed to be somewhere a little more open-minded and happening like New York or Chicago. Where he was now, he could count on one hand how many other black people there were in town, although, that seemed to be more Tara's problem than his. And for as little black people as there were, there were even fewer gays. Well, out gays, anyway. "Shit. Baby needs to play." He mumbled to himself watching the way Jason grinded his hips against his conquest of the night. But, until he could get the hell out of Dodge, he had to make due with the local offerings. "I could definitely play with that."

"Lafayette Reynolds!" Sookie Stackhouse placed her hands on the counter and narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't need to hear you talk about my brother like that. And I damn sure don't need to know what you're thinking about doing to him, either!"

With a smile, Lafayette winked at Sookie. She was a beautiful girl. A little strange, but definitely attractive. She had a sweet aura about her - something that his mama had always called a glow. And the only thing that outshined her beauty was her personality.

Sookie was one of the few people in that town that really seemed to get Lafayette. Since they were children, the two of them had always gotten along and it was more than him being Tara's cousin. Best friends with his cousin or not, Sookie was one of the few people that never judged him. She stuck by him when he came out. She was supportive when he decided to go all out and dabble in his unique fashion and makeup practices. Sookie never judged him for his extracurricular activities. She didn't ask questions or give him dirty looks. Sookie wasn't one for ulterior motives. It was one of the reasons that Lafayette always felt more comfortable talking to her about anything than his own family.

Wiping his hand on the dish towel, he rolled his eyes as Sam put the next order at the window. He had things to do and cooking at Merlotte's was definitely not one of them. "Well, stay outta grown folk's heads then." He stood back and folded is arms across his chest and stared at Sookie. Something was definitely different about her. "What the hell you flittin' 'round here for?"

"Lafayette, I don't flit. Just havin' a good day, is all. Can't a person have a good day around here?" Grabbing the canister of sugar from the shelf, Sookie started to fill out the containers that she had carefully laid out on the counter. Was she smiling as big as she thought she was? Did she look like she was about to float out of her skin with excitement? She was trying to keep it to herself, but she couldn't. Not after the night she'd just had.

Curling his lip in disbelief, he raised his brow and shook his head. Did Sookie think that he just feel off the hick truck yesterday? She might have been able to read people's thoughts, but Lafayette could read people's body language. And right now Sookie's was saying that she… "You little skank. You hooked up with vampire boy, didn't you?" He reached his hand out and pushed her on the shoulder before popping his lips. "Ooh child! Tell Mama all 'bout it."

"Lafayette, Bill was like…it was just like…like…I don't know. It was a wonderful." If she smiled any harder her face was going to split in two. She'd never smiled to where her cheeks hurt before, but she couldn't help it. Just the memories of the warmth of the fireplace and the velvety red blanket beneath them…Bill's lips on hers and his body inside of her…It was a wonder she float out of the room at that very minute.

It was all Lafayette could do to keep from laughing. "Well, it musta been. You walkin' 'round here like you got pure sunshine in your drawls." He couldn't even remember his first time, it had been so many partners ago, but he knew for damn sure he wasn't that giddy about it. What the fuck did that vampire have going on? Maybe it was part of his charm. From where he stood, Bill definitely didn't have looks going for him, and that whole being dead thing didn't help his cause any, either. But damn. If it was as good as Sookie made it out to be, maybe there was something else to it. "You let 'em bite you, too, huh?"

With wide eyes, Sookie slowly nodded her head. She knew there was no way to explain it so that anyone would understand. But she did. It was something special between she and Bill. It was her way of completely surrendering herself to him. "Yeah. I wanted him, too. It was so…it just made it better. Like it felt like…"

"Hold on there, Mary Sunshine. I know what gettin' the bottom knocked out feels like. I don't need a lesson in that from you. I just don't know 'bout that bitin' and shit. Sounds a little kinky to me." Shaking a spatula in Sookie's direction, he turned toward the stove and pressed the grease out of a burger, ignoring the hot splats of grease that popped angrily at the pressure. "I'm down for the kink and all, but that's a bit much."

Shrugging her shoulders, Sookie turned around letting her blonde ponytail flop around as she did so. "Until you've tried it, you'll never know."

"Well I ain't 'bout to try it. I don't swap blood with nobody. That shit's a little personal."

Leaning against the counter, Sookie placed her hand on her hip and stared at Lafayette. "And sex isn't? I think that's about as personal as you can get. I don't know. I guess when you're in love things like reason go straight out the window."

"So, you in love now?" Paying more attention to the food on the grill than to the fact that Sookie's eyes were probing him, he lifted a burger and placed it on the awaiting bun. He could remember that goofy love struck look that Sookie had on her face. He remembered feeling like he could float on air. It was cute to see her so happy, but he would be damned if he would ever feel that way again.

"I think so." Walking over to him, Sookie got on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. "You will be too, one day."

Watching her walk away, Lafayette shook his head in denial. "I'll be God damned, first."