About a week later, little had changed at Grimmauld Place. When Remus was around, he forced Sirius and Morrighan to be responsible adults and do their work: whether learning or teaching or cleaning. When Remus was gone, Sirius and Morrighan got pissed and behaved like a couple of rowdy teenagers. In reflection, Morrighan thought that while they were capable of being mature adults, Sirius and Morrighan were really both teenagers at heart, and maybe they always would be.

After all, Sirius had been frozen maturity-wise at the same state he had been when taken to Azkaban, which was about Morrighan's age exactly. While Morrighan adored and respected Remus tremendously, Sirius got her in ways Remus never could.

One afternoon, Sirius and Morrighan had planned to drink themselves silly, when they found that Remus had not yet replenished their alcoholic reserves.

"Well, bugger all," Sirius said with a frown. "There goes our day."

"I suppose we could hang out sober," Morrighan said with a shrug.

Sirius looked at her strangely, biting the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. Finally, after several minutes of considering something, he said, "Actually, there was something I wanted to talk with you about, and it's one of those conversations that really ought to be had sober."

Morrighan raised an eyebrow.

"And, what is it? Why haven't we had it yet?"

"Because," he said with a strange sort of laugh, "I've already told you, I have a hard time talking to you when I'm sober."

She cocked her head questioningly and said, "What are you so scared of, Sirius?"

"The inevitable," he muttered, almost to himself, and Morrighan couldn't make anything out of that small statement. Then he heaved a great sigh and said, "But those who live in fear never get anything out of life, so I have to do this, and now is as good a time as any."

"All right, then," Morrighan said. "What is it you've wanted to say?"

Sirius frowned slightly, took a deep breath, set his jaw, and said, "Morrighan Capilla, I think I've fallen in like with you."

It took a moment for his words to process through her brain and then she chuckled a little.

"And what does that mean, exactly?" she said, ignoring the happy flutter of her heart at his words. Flutters were not something to make informed decisions by, and even matters of the heart, she had learned, ought to be dictated by informed decisions.

He considered her for another moment, and then said, "It means that in the short time that I've known you, you've become such a fixture in my life that I can't imagine the world without you anymore. It means that if you ever left I wouldn't know what to do. It means that I want us to be more than what we've been, or to try, if you'd like. I mean, Remus is great, but he's my best mate. But you…when I look at you, I don't want to be your best mate; I want to hold you. And I think about things like how your lips taste and if your skin is as soft as it looks and what your hair would feel like around my fingers and I want to know these things, not just sit and wonder about them. And…and I think I might be falling for you, but I know it's too soon to really say, so I guess I've fallen in like with you, and that's the best way I know to say what I feel."

Morrighan felt like she couldn't breathe. She was dizzy and dazed and felt marvelously warm and fuzzy all at once. He liked her. He wanted them to be more than friends. He was only the most attractive, rich, wonderful people she'd ever known in her life, and he had the quality she craved most in any sort of relationship with another human being and he had it in spades: loyalty.

But what to say in response to his great little speech?

"Sirius," she said softly, "I have to tell you that I haven't dated anyone in a really long time, and there are some very good reasons for that. I really like you, but there are things I want you to know about me before we can decide how to approach anything from here on out."

After all, she'd never told him any of it when she was sober, and he often forgot things she said when he was wasted.

"Of course," he said, but a goofy smile was already covering his face. If not for the gravity of what she had to tell him, Morrighan was sure she would have had a smile that mirrored his.

For the next half hour, she described to him in detail that need not be expressed here the horrors of her intimate "relationships". It didn't take long for the smile to slide right off his face, and he moved from sitting across the table from her to sitting beside her, wrapping an arm around her, and holding her tightly to his chest as she sobbed.

"So that's what your nightmares are about, then?" he said softly when she'd finished her story. "You're reliving your rape or sexual assault or something?"

"The sexual assault," she said, nodding, sniffing. "I hardly remember the rape, my therapist says I've blocked it out almost completely as a defense mechanism, but I can't forget it…. He was someone I thought I knew so well, and I can't get his face and his voice out of my head when the lights go off. I wake up in the night, and it's like he's there, watching me."

He squeezed her tiny frame just a bit, sighing.

"Oh, love. If I could, I would gather up everyone who's ever hurt you and make them suffer what you suffered. Believe me, I wish I could."

Morrighan believed him. She knew he was being sincere, and when he placed his hand under her chin, lifted her face to look up at him gently, and pressed his lips to hers in a searing yet sweet, delicate kiss, she could feel his sincerity in the act.

"So I'm sorry if I can't be everything you deserve, at least, not right away, and it's okay if you don't want me after all," Morrighan muttered, so sure that he was going to withdraw his previous offers, that he wouldn't want her anymore, and mentally prepared herself for this outcome. After all, who wanted to pick up the pieces of a shattered heart they didn't break?

But to her surprise, he frowned at her and said, "Say something like that ever again and you're not going to be allowed to speak, love. I don't deserve someone as wonderful as you, and yet somehow you're the one being obtuse here. We'll take this at a pace that makes sense for you, darling, but I'm not letting go of you, let's just get that clear here and now."

Morrighan didn't know what to say, so she simply pressed her lips to his in a grateful, chaste kiss. Somehow, though, the kiss changed quickly, and her eyes fluttered closed of their own accord as he nudged her lips open with his tongue and deepened the kiss, allowing the passion to build between them. This time, she didn't restrain herself. She openly sighed into his mouth.

But when Sirius's hands began to explore her torso, she instinctively broke the kiss and jerked away from him. She blushed, sighed, shook her head and said, "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," he whispered, kissing her cheek, close to her ear. "Your pace. If you want to back off, we'll back off. If you feel comfortable, we can move on, but it's entirely up to you."

They sat there in the kitchen for a while, curled up against each other, basking in the silence in the warmth of each other's bodies.

"Remus will be back soon, I imagine," Sirius sighed.

Morrighan frowned. Remus. As much as she adored and respected Remus, at that moment the thought of him was unwelcome. In a world with just her and Sirius, their being together was a wonderful thing, but when other people were brought into the picture… It was less so. She wasn't sure who would understand and who wouldn't, but she was almost certainly that Molly Weasley would be among the less-than-understanding, as would Severus.

"What are we going to say?" she whispered. "If he sees us like this, he'll think we're drunk again."

"I'm sure he will," Sirius said with a little smirk. "Well, I suppose we could tell him, if you'd like. I don't really mind one way or another."

Morrighan bit her lip. She'd kept relationships secret before, mostly from her parents, but she wasn't sure if it was that she was bad at it or that her mother just knew her too well, but Morrighan had never pulled it off for very long successfully. Still, she didn't want anyone to know just yet, to spoil the lovely relationship she hoped to have with Sirius by having it judged and parsed by the world just yet.

"Could we maybe not tell anybody for a while?" she whispered into his shoulder. "I want some time to get used to this, to enjoy just you and me without having to worry about what everyone else thinks. They're all bound to make a big deal of it, especially Molly."

Sirius gave a little bark of laughter and kissed her forehead.

"Yes, Molly will probably think I've corrupted you, you poor innocent thing, and she'll try to make arrangements with Albus to take you away from me, and we can't have that, can we?"

Morrighan smiled and kissed the corner of his mouth.

"No, we can't."

He gave her another quick, deep kiss, but before it could develop, they heard the crack of Apparation, and they quickly parted only moments before Remus came in. He looked around the kitchen suspiciously, a frown on his face. Finally, he said, "What, no firewhiskey this time?"

"We're keeping you on your toes, Mooney," Sirius said with a wink. "If we weren't sober sometimes, where would be the fun in subjecting you to us drunk?"

Morrighan giggled, knowing she wouldn't have had she not been so happy because of their covenant made before Remus's entrance, but Sirius simply winked at her, knowingly, and Remus clearly felt like he was missing the joke.

"Well," Remus finally said, "it would be nice to come back to you two sober more often."

"Maybe you'll get your wish," Sirius said with a shrug, "maybe you won't."

"I suppose that's as good as I'm going to get," Remus conceded. "Would either of you like to help me with dinner? Molly said she'll have more food for us by tomorrow, but we're on our own for the night."

"Why don't you get Muggle takeout?" Morrighan begged, as she had every time they had to wait for more food from Molly (they wouldn't ever have to wait, of course, if Morrighan and Sirius didn't eat when they weren't supposed to, but they couldn't stick to a schedule and both had a tendency to eat when they were bored, drunk or sober).

Remus sighed.

"I suppose you miss takeout?"

Morrighan nodded.

"Like you have no idea," she insisted. "I'm a college student. I live off dorm food and takeout, and typically crave my mother's food, but since I can't have that…"

She paused, daydreaming for a moment of her mother's meatballs, chicken casserole, and French toast.

"What do you want?" Remus said, with a sigh, sinking into the chair, obviously resigning himself to going into Muggle London for takeout for the three of them.

"Chinese and cheeseburgers," Morrighan said eagerly. "Please."

Sirius frowned.

"Chinese cheeseburgers?"

"No," she said with a laugh. "Chinese food and cheeseburgers, the two most important staples of takeout food."

Remus took the orders: egg rolls, spring rolls, beef with broccoli, chow mein, shrimp fried rice, fried shrimp, Szechuan beef, shrimp foo yung, scallops with garlic sauce, fortune cookies, two Quarter Pounders, three double cheeseburgers, and three milkshakes (one chocolate, one vanilla, and one strawberry).

An hour and a half later, Remus was back with a large amount of food.

"Are you sure we even need Molly to make us food right away?" he joked. "Seems like we've got enough for a week right here."

Morrighan shook her head.

"This may not even last us the night."

She was right. Between the three of them, they finished off the food incredibly swiftly.

"Where the hell did you pack all that?" Sirius asked incredulously, poking Morrighan experimentally in a variety of places, as if he was expecting her to explode if he hit the right spot.

Morrighan laughed.

"I have a bunch of people in my family, you forget, Sirius," she said, swatting his hand away. "If I wanted to eat, I had to eat fast and eat lots. Especially because my brothers are a pair of eating machines, I swear." She snatched up her fortune cookie. "Who wants to eat my cookie?"

Remus frowned.

"You're not going to eat it?"

She shook her head.

"No," Morrighan said, prying it open. "I just like to read the fortunes. I hate the cookies."

"I'll eat it," said Sirius, reaching for his own. "What does yours say, love?"

"It says," she said, uncurling the little slip of paper, "'The one you love is closer than you think.'" She frowned. "That's...hmm."

Sirius just chuckled and opened his, snatching the cookie from her hand.

"Mine says," he spat through a mouthful of cookie, "' Love conquers all.' Sounds like something Albus would say. What have you got, Mooney?"

Remus carefully cracked open his cookie and delicately flattened his little slip of paper before reading aloud, "'Your everlasting patience will be rewarded sooner or later.'" He frowned. "What on earth is that supposed to mean?"

"Maybe it's referring to your virginity," Sirius said with a wink, and Remus managed to flush and attractive shade of pink and glare at Sirius all at once.

"Don't be stupid, Sirius," Remus finally managed to splutter. "These things are just silly Muggle sayings. They don't actually have anything to do with our futures."

But Morrighan and Sirius couldn't help but exchange wondering glances at this, and Morrighan looked down at hers, pursing her lips thoughtfully before folding it gently and tucking it away in her pocket for safekeeping. She had always been a bit superstitious, and there was no reason they couldn't be true anymore than there was any reason why magic couldn't exist. And certainly, magic existed. That was another thing she had never really doubted, despite what everyone around her had proclaimed.

"I think I need some sleep," Morrighan finally proclaimed. "All that food made me sleepy. Good night."

She hugged both Remus and Sirius and made her way up the stairs to her room, changing into one of the nighties that Tonks had bought her (for she didn't have anything else clean at the moment), and curling up in her bed for warmth. The room was too dark, so she made a little flame that wouldn't catch on anything and set it in a glass by her bed, watching it flicker in the room, too nervous to put out the flame.

Morrighan had thought about going to Sirius's room instead of her own and waiting for him, but now they had admitted physical attraction, she thought it wouldn't be fair to him to be so close to him without him being able to do what she thought he might want to do. Well, of course, he was a man who hadn't had sex in fourteen years. She couldn't imagine how frustrating that must be, and so she didn't want to put either of them in such a situation.

To her pleasant surprise, however, several minutes later Sirius came in wearing a dressing gown, which he tossed onto the floor as soon as he closed the door softly behind him, and he crawled into bed beside her in nothing but his boxers.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered, trying not to shudder at the feel of his skin on hers.

"You don't like the dark," he said matter-of-fact. "Did you really think I was going to sleep with you in here all alone all night? You'd have nightmares for sure, and I hate it when you cry. No, I'm here whether you like it or not, darling." He pulled the blankets back a bit to get better positioning and saw her nightie. A smirk graced his features. "Oh, look what we have here. It seems as though you were expecting me, darling."

She could tell he was teasing, but it still made her flinch and blush that he talked about her like that, but he kissed her forehead, put out the flame, wrapped his arms around her and whispered, "You look gorgeous, darling. Sweet dreams, love."

And with that, Morrighan fell into a peaceful sleep and subsequently began a cycle of falling asleep in Sirius's arms, sometimes after making out, sometimes when the two of them were too tired for such things, sometimes in his room, sometimes in hers, but always wishing she had the courage and the self-confidence to give him what she knew he wanted, and what, if she was being perfectly honest with herself, she wanted as well. But every night was the same, and it wasn't a bad sort of same, but it could have been better, and she knew it.

After all, Sirius made her feel safe and warm and wonderful, unlike anyone had ever done before. She had that night a thought that occurred to her several times over the course of the next few weeks, and it was that she could so easily fall in love with Sirius that it was almost frightening, but in the best possible way. She just hoped that he was really as different as she thought he was, because she didn't think she could handle being let down by Sirius Black.

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to reviewer Mrs Yaya, who had some nice insights on the last chapter. Review and you might see your name in an A/N in a future chapter! *hint, hint*

-C