Chapter Eleven
August 13th, 1976
Sirius had a good feeling as he emerged from the Knight Bus in the early afternoon. Of course, that could have had a great deal to do with escaping the bus – a little girl traveling with her parents had thrown up all over the armchair next to the one Sirius had been sitting in.
Yet, with the sun shining and the occasional car whizzing by him as he walked a small distance along the highway, Sirius could not help but to feel…happy.
He was not singing aloud with the sound of music, but there was a definite spring to his usual trudging step.
The entrance door to the diner swung open easily when Sirius pulled the handle upon completing his leisurely jaunt along the highway, and a millisecond later, the bell sitting above the doorway chimed merrily to alert everyone of his entrance. Rather than shy away from this fact, Sirius pursed his lips together into half of a smile and walked towards the counter.
A balding head popped up from the abyss hiding behind the countertop. "Oh! Hello, Sirius!"
"Afternoon, Boyd."
Martin Boyd wiped his hands, which were covered in what appeared to be either salt or sugar, onto his red apron and then pulled out a vast pot from underneath the counter. "Very good to see you. My, is it past two already? Just about to boil some potatoes," he said distractedly. "Susan's peeling them in the kitchen. Won't stop yakking until I find the right pot to put them in. No clue what her problem is today-well, besides the fact that it's a day that ends in the letter 'y,' yeah?"
Boyd chuckled feebly at his own joke.
"MARTIN! Where is that pot? You better not be fooling around with the coffee again! I told you that no one will want to drink it if you make it too strong!"
Boyd rolled his eyes as he gave Sirius a rather tired look. "Don't get married," he grumbled.
"Wasn't planning on it."
"Martin!"
Boyd sighed heavily and grabbed the voluminous pot. "Sit down," he urged Sirius. "I'll cook you up something to eat and have it brought out."
"Mart-"
"I'm coming woman! Would you give me a sodding second before you call out a search party?"
"Well, how long does it take to get a pot?" Sirius heard Susan say in that superior tone she often acquired when talking about things related to cooking.
"Have you seen the state of the shelves?"
"Well, if you would just listen to me when I say they need to be replaced by a storage unit!"
"And where are we going to get the money to do that?" came Martin's exasperated reply.
"Give me that pot or it'll be alimony, you wanker!"
"Now, really, dear!"
Snickering to himself, Sirius shook his head and then walked over to slouch down into his booth. He was surprised to see that it had a few crumbs on the table, which he easily brushed off. Someone must have eaten there before him in his absence.
Sirius took a few moments to get re-acclimated with the worn, vinyl material of the booth. It had been a few days since he had sat in his usual spot. He braced the table and then stretched out his back, allowing his feet to rest themselves upon the opposite seat.
The kitchen door opened, and Susan came blustering into the dining area. She used her free hand that was not laden down with a tray of delightful dishes to sweep back the wispy brown hair that was flying into her face. She passed by Sirius's booth without much thought before she paused and retraced her steps.
"Sirius!" she cooed. "How lovely to see you! I must admit, I had been getting a tad worried. For a tick, I even thought of finding you in the phonebook, but your motorbike was still here, so I knew you'd be back. And here you are!"
"I've only been gone for five days," Sirius replied slowly.
"Well, yes, of course, I know, pet. It's just that you'd been here pretty much every day up to that point, and it was rather odd not to see you sitting here. Eliza was in a right state. Silly girl."
"Where is she?" Sirius asked, craning his neck to peer around Susan to see the deserted counter.
Susan waved her free hand in the air. "In the kitchen, I suppose. She's been making loads of pies between yesterday and today. Business has been hectic."
"I'd noticed," replied Sirius, looking around at the various customers. There were about fifteen occupied tables. He had never seen the diner so full.
"Yes, well, with the summer ending, people are heading home from their holidays. We usually get a bunch of people going through London who stop here. Don't want to pay the city prices, see? They're better off coming here and getting a nice, home-cooked meal that doesn't cost them the whole of Buckingham Palace. Hopefully, if we have a few more days like today, I'll finally be able to afford one of those new lava lamps you see on the television these days. It'd be nice to attract the younger generation, yeah?"
Sirius shifted in his chair and looked away to avoid answering. He had no idea what a "lava lamp" was. Though, he highly doubted that molten rock would attract customers. Why didn't muggles just have a simple Lumos spell for lighting?, he thought to himself.
Susan did not seem very perturbed by Sirius's silence because she was too engaged in removing a plate and glass of water from her rather full tray and placing both items in front of Sirius. "It's a new recipe," she told him as she looked at the sandwich. "Just got the idea for it this morning. You'll be the first to try it. It's chicken, cheese, and bacon. I decided on a whim to add a bit of chipotle sauce. You don't mind spicy food, do you?"
However, Susan did not wait for Sirius's reply because a little boy sitting at a nearby table had spilled his glass of chocolate milk and was now crying very loudly as his flustered parents attempted to sop up the mess with napkins.
"Be right there!" Susan called out to them as she hobbled over, the tray still in hand and her hair flapping around once more.
Sirius watched her long enough to see her pull a dishtowel out of her apron and start attacking the seeping milk before he turned his attention back to the sandwich waiting before him and took a large bite.
"Hot!" he gasped hoarsely as he reached for his glass of water and then promptly downed its contents. Sirius then grabbed his napkin and scrubbed his tongue with it. He sat in his booth, his shoulders heaving a bit, as he waited for the burning sensation occupying his mouth to diminish.
"Too spicy?" Susan questioned him as she strode by his booth with an empty tray, obviously oblivious to his latest actions.
"Perfect," he managed to croak out.
Her face broke out into a huge smile. "Ahh, wonderful. Wait till I tell Martin. Anything else I can get you, pet?"
"Water."
Susan took his empty cup from him with a smile and then disappeared into the kitchen. When she emerged again with a full glass, she was followed by someone with the same shade of brown hair.
The fire that had erupted in Sirius's mouth seemed to spread like molten rock. He had become a human lava lamp.
Grinning widely, Sirius stretched up in his booth so that he could be seen easily as he tried to make eye contact with Eliza.
The girl, however, stared very decidedly at the wall in front of her before she positioned herself firmly in front of the cash register.
"Eliza!" Sirius called out to her.
Besides slamming the cash drawer shut with a bit more force than really necessary, the girl made no sign that she had heard him.
Sirius did not call out to her again, but rather, resigned himself to just watching her with a very bemused expression.
Very briefly, he could have sworn he saw her eyes flick up to him, but her nose was stuffed back into the crisp bills she was counting so quickly that he could not be sure.
Sirius switched positions so that his back was resting against the wall so that he could watch her openly.
Susan broke his eye line when she came over and gave him his new glass of water. "There you are."
Sirius nodded his head in Eliza's direction and then quirked an eyebrow curiously.
"Hell if I know," Susan told him matter-of-factly. "I told you she was silly."
Sirius thanked Susan for the water and then continued to study the girl refusing very stubbornly – and seemingly with a great deal of difficulty – to look at him.
Chuckling lightly to himself, he picked up his forgotten sandwich, wiped off all traces of sauce from the bread, and then finished it off.
Eliza's eyes found him again before she pretended to be ruffling through her apron.
The song and danced continued for about three more hours. While it was insanely irritating, Sirius found himself extremely entertained by how poorly Eliza was dealing with her newfound resolve to avoid him. Her face was flushed in anger, and she would suddenly break out into random bouts of cursing, which had greatly frightened a poor, unsuspecting bloke about an hour ago. Sirius found that he could wait for her very patiently as long as she would continue to make it so enjoyable for him. It was all really rather charming.
At around six o'clock, Sirius decided that he had spent enough time sitting in a diner booth. His legs were rather stiff from disuse, and he very much desired to tinker a bit with his motorbike. The new parts for his bike would be arriving at the end of the week, and he could not put into words how badly he wanted to ride it again.
His mind made up, Sirius cracked his knuckles as he stretched out his arms in front of him and then emerged from his usual seat.
Johnny, who had been sneaking peaks at Sirius surreptitiously for the last half hour as he sorted out the disarray of pots and pans underneath the counter, got to his feet when he saw Sirius stand.
"You're leaving?" he asked, sounding not at all saddened by the thought.
Sirius shoved his fists into his trouser pockets and rocked on his heels. He's not so big, Sirius thought to himself as he sized up the tall, light-haired boy behind the counter, I could probably take him.
Johnny seemed to be having similar thoughts. "Yeah, well, try to make the departure stick this time, eh?"
"Would you like that?" Sirius asked, a bit of a smirk forming on his face.
"Very much so."
"Mmm, and, of course, the single aim of my life is to please you."
The tips of Johnny's lips quivered as a low growl left his mouth. "Watch it, Black," he warned as he placed his hands imposingly onto the counter.
"I do. I watch a lot of things." Sirius eyes strayed over to the entrance to the kitchen, behind which Eliza had disappeared not five minutes ago. He knew he probably should not have been goading Johnny like this, but it was quite fun; he had been getting rather bored just sitting around.
"Oh, I'm sure you do."
"Your little sister, in particular." Sirius smirked widely as he leaned over the counter to hiss very quietly into Johnny's ear. "Though, of course, she provides much more than just a view."
This, apparently, was too much for Johnny because he slammed a pot very angrily against the countertop, which would have hit Sirius's hand, if he had not retracted it a split second before.
Sirius folded his arms across his chest as he snickered to himself in amusement at the purplish color of Johnny's face. He stopped laughing when the kitchen door opened, and Eliza, herself, appeared.
Immediately, Sirius straightened up. "Yes, well, lovely talking to you, mate," he said to Johnny as he patted him in the shoulder.
Johnny's fury seemed to go beyond words; he merely gaped at the spot where Sirius had touched him.
"But I'm afraid I must go," he continued, as though he did not see the flummoxed boy standing before him. Though, really, Sirius probably took very little notice of him; his eyes were focused on his sister as he spoke in a voice rather too loud for speaking to someone as close as Johnny was to him. "I'll be outside by the bike."
Sirius paused a moment before swiveling around and leaving the diner.
Warmth spread inside him when he saw the almost fixed motorbike gleaming in front of him. "Hey, baby," he greeted as he ran his fingertips over the seat.
Sirius only had to wait twenty minutes before he heard footsteps approaching. Fighting back a grin, he stuck his wrench back into his toolbox, wiped his hands off onto the back of his trousers, and straightened up.
Carrying what seemed to be a plate loaded with casserole, Eliza marched very purposefully towards him and slammed the plate onto the seat of the motorbike.
Sirius waited for her to say something, but when she did not, he merely picked up the plate and started eating the food.
Eliza, whose brown eyes were bulging from the need to speak, was jiggling her foot rapidly.
Sirius took care to make an audible sound of appreciation of the food he was eating. He chewed for a bit before setting the plate down on the curb and returning back to the motorbike.
This seemed to shatter Eliza's very feeble ability to remain silent. She let out an annoyed huff accompanied by a slight stamp of her foot. "I'm ignoring you." The moment the words left her lips, her body seemed to relax exponentially. She stopped rattling her fingers against her arms, but the determination in her eyes did not dwindle in the slightest.
"You are?"
"Yes!"
"How come?"
She made a "pfft" exclamation, and her fringe rose a few centimeters in the air. "Because I'm furious with you."
"You are?" This time it was spoken with even more delight than the first.
"Yes! Just because you don't find me attractive in that way doesn't mean you should just up and leave! A simple 'no thank you' would have sufficed! But, no! You just had to go off for five days without as much as a simple explanation! You should have just told me I had my signals crossed and left it at that."
"Skip"
"No. Don't interrupt me with adorable nicknames!" She seemed to be getting into the full swing of her rant now. Her brown hair was flying the way he had seen her mother's do so often. She stood on the opposite side of the motorbike, but leaned closer to him whenever she spoke a word with particular vehemence. "I don't understand you at all! First you seem all interested with the pathetic 'I'm wet, feed me routine,' and then you completely ignore me. But then we spent all that time together. I thought we formed a – well, it doesn't matter what you call it! I know it was something because we kissed! Granted, I kind of sprung it on you, but you definitely kissed me back!"
Sirius examined her face, ruddy from all the yelling, and swallowed his tongue as he let her continue.
"I mean, I know it's not as though we're 'together' all of a sudden," she said, exaggerating the word with a grand arm flop. "But it would have been nice if you wouldn't have just left. I mean, it's not as though I'm a horrible snog. Granted, there's only ever been Geoffrey Stevens when I was thirteen, but he seemed to have enjoyed it, dammit! Where do you come off, Sirius Black?"
Panting slightly, she finished her tirade and stared at Sirius expectantly, as though daring him to answer.
He shrugged. "Busy," came his reply.
Eliza scoffed in irritation. "What kind of ruddy answer is that? What could possibly have kept you so busy that you couldn't stop by or call for five whole days?"
"I was with friends," Sirius replied, choosing his words very deliberately.
It was true. He had spent the last few days with James, Remus, and Peter. Upon the full moon, they had all snuck into Remus's place to stay with him as he transformed. Without the benefit of enclosure that the Shrieking Shack offered, it had been a tad more difficult to keep a werewolf in check. Thus, he, Peter, and James had spent the next three days recuperating at James's house under the guise of a sleepover. Really, they were just biding time and drinking firewhiskey until their bruises began to fade and their cuts started to heal. Sirius still had a scratch along the back of his neck that had yet to close.
Then, too tired and hungover to do much else, Sirius had collapsed onto his bed in his flat and just slept.
Of course, no abrasion was poorly received. Sirius would have endured much worse in the service of a friend. Besides, it had all been quite fun.
"And that's all you're going to tell me?"
Sirius nodded. It was not his secret to tell.
"Well, that's ridiculous! I want an explanation, Mister! You can't just come running back into my life like this all the time. It's not fair! I'm a self-actualized young woman. I won't fall victim to your rebellious wiles and good looks. I want accountability, I want to know that you won't just disappear, I want – "
She did not have a chance to say what else she wanted, however, because Sirius had moved over from his side of the motorbike and was slowly walking towards her. "What are you doing?" she asked as she backed up, her back ultimately brushing up against the side of the building.
Sirius placed one hand in her long, brown hair. "Ignoring you."
Eliza tore her lips away from his. "So you didn't leave because I'm an awful snog?" she asked, still sounding a bit fretful.
He kissed her again.
Eliza slipped her hands around his neck. "I'm going to take that as a 'yes.'"
"You do that."
A/N: I would just like to point out that I do not mean to offend anyone with the smoking/drinking/etc. featured in this story. I don't support nor condone that sort of behavior. I'm just telling you that Sirius does it (he also falls through veils, just saying).
How are you?
yours,
molly
