A/N: Another one of my famously short oneshots. I was just craving a little cute puppy conversation, and the FFnet archives weren't giving me what I wanted, so I wrote it myself. Maybe someday I'll write something with an actual plot, hmm? But for now, just enjoy the endless drabbling.
It was an hour before dinner when I went out to sit by the lake. Normally I would be in the common room, trying to keep Sirius from copying all of my homework, but it was getting close to the full moon, and I was getting more tired earlier. I was just sick of the effort of being around my friends, around other people. The sun was low, and the light filtering through the trees was warm and orange. I looked out at the water for a few seconds, then laid back and stared into the sky. Everything I'd been holding in all day, all the tetchiness that I'd learned to keep from showing as the moon drew closer, floated away into the dusk.
I let my eyes close, feeling the warmth soak through my eyelids. When they opened again, the sky was deep turquoise, and the moon that had been a pale shadow was a second sun, throwing yellow beams onto the grass. Something was nudging at the side of my head, and my nostrils filled with rubber and canvas soaked with dirt and sweat. I tilted my gaze and there he was, starting at the battered red of his oh-so-punk-rock chucks and towering up to his pale face, surrounded with a fringe of black as he leaned over me curiously. "You missed dinner," he told me helpfully.
"Gee, thanks." I lifted myself onto my elbows, head hanging back so that my hair fell off of my forehead. "I'm not that hungry anyways."
Sirius lowered himself onto the ground next to me. "You were quiet today. It's getting close, isn't it?"
"Couple more days." I glanced at him with a sigh. "And trust me, my internal monologue was rife with snarky comebacks."
"Last year you would have said them out loud."
"Last year I was a melodramatic teenage werewolf."
"You're still a teenage werewolf, and your diary is still pretty -"
"It's a notebook, Padfoot, and I told you a million times to keep out of it."
"You don't write anything that I don't hear about anyways these days."
"Yes, but it's the principle of the thing. What if I developed a huge secret crush on, um, the giant squid, and I didn't want you to know?"
"I would find out, of course, and have ample warning to go murder that squid before he seduced you down into his murky depths."
"Murder. How romantic of you."
"It is, isn't it?" Sirius put his hand over mine in the grass. "Oh look, it's me. Hi, me."
I studied the sky. "That's not even you. That's...Mars, I think. Did you pay attention at all in Astronomy?"
"I tried. The sky was shiny. Distracting. Wait, I'll bet that one over there's me."
"...The only thing in the sky right now is Mars, so unless you're referring to the moon..."
"That was cruel. You could have at least pretended for me."
"And support your rampant vanity? Your head's big enough as it is."
"I thought that was what you liked about me," he said in a parody of a seductive voice, squeezing my hand.
I snorted. He gave me his best roguish grin. I rolled my eyes. My stomach growled loudly, punctuating the moment.
He laughed. "Come on, let's go find you some food." He sprang onto his feet and held out a hand for me, which I accepted.
I was pulled up, and found my face very close to Sirius's. "You're worrying about the moon, aren't you?" he said.
"Nothing worse than normal. I know I'll get through it, I mean, I'm not exactly new at this..."
He drew his arms around me and pressed his face into my shoulder. I gave a shuddering sigh and returned the embrace, liking how he shielded the cooling night air from penetrating my thin white shirt. He smelled like puppy dander and that horrible aftershave James bought recently in Hogsmeade, which was somehow exactly what I needed to smell.
A few long moments later I pulled away, disconnecting everything except for my left hand from his right. "Food," I said with a nod.
"Food." We turned back to the castle, leaving the matted imprints of our bodies behind on the grass.
Every time you don't review, another fangirl starts writing horrible meanfics about your favorite characters. Think about that next time you x-out without leaving a note.
