Sirius
He heard the phone and he slowly approached it. Now, he wasn't sure who it was. It could be Becky or Remus. And he wasn't sure he wants to speak with any of them.
"Hello?"
"SIRIUS? CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
He almost jumped. For a moment he thought it's his father, but the screamer just continued to scream.
"I'M SO PROUD! YOU DID IT! OH MERLIN. I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT… I MEAN I KNOW YOU RAN AWAY, THAT YOU WEREN'T DEAD OR SOMETHING, BUT JUST THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY THAT FIANCÉ OF YOURS… SHE GAVE ME THIS CONNECTION!... ARE YOU THERE?"
"Yes… please, Regulus, calm down. You can speak quietly; I can hear you very well."
"LIKe that? Can you hear me like that?" He asked again.
"Yes. Where are you?"
"I'm not sure. Hogsmeade, but I don't know this shop…"
"Are you sure nobody's listening?"
"Pretty sure, yes," said Regulus happily.
"How are you doing?"
Sirius sat on the floor enormously relieved to hear him again… He wondered how many people have got some letter from Becky about his contacts. She definitely made sure he will end up embraced with the various company.
He was just starting to feel grateful.
/
Remus
The second date the next Friday wasn't much different from the first one. Remus brought a documentary about modern pirates in the Indian Ocean and they ordered pizza.
When Sirius offered tea he finally got the guts to ask him.
"Have you known? All that time, about me?" he asked.
Sirius seemed perplexed. "What about you?"
Remus gulped. "What I am."
Sirius smiled. Very kindly. "You mean about you being a werewolf?" And when Remus nodded he added: "Yes. That's not something you can hide that easily."
"So why didn't you tell anyone?"
And he was perplexed again. "Have you wanted me to?"
Remus rolled his eyes. "Of course not. But I always expected you to… well… I wasn't sure you know, so… I was always very wary. I hated you for the uncertainty. Now I just don't get why have you never tell. I was awful to you."
Sirius looked away. "I would never… It didn't seem fair."
"How that didn't seem fair?"
"It didn't seem fair to spill your secret just because you weren't friendly. I don't know why I should have been crueller to you than to the others." 'Fair'.
Remus could understand it. Still, he had his troubles. "But it's huge thing. Didn't that bother you?"
"It's not an issue, Remus. It has never bothered me at all."
That Remus couldn't understand.
"I've seen worse," Sirius added.
"You've seen a werewolf alive?" Remus was amazed.
"I have," Sirius nodded, amused. "We've been, Regulus and I… we've been forced to watch various creatures, just to comprehend the suffering and torturing of their preys."
He was speaking about his childhood memories with a light of the happiest child on the planet. Was he really that cynical or was he that skilled in hiding his true feelings. Or, Remus though, he is a lunatic and I'm wasting my time.
Remus slowly shook his head, unable to react on that.
"Yeah…" Sirius nodded again and drowned their tea-bags. "So… do you think you know me better now?"
And with that, he got his third date… and they were starting to create the pattern.
/
When he was thinking about Sirius Black, he tried to avoid certain thoughts. He tried not to get caught in the never-ending loop of doubts and apprehension. He tried not to get in the sphere of astonishment either… because nobody could be that perfect.
His very mum taught him that in his early age. "Nobody, is, perfect… but that doesn't mean you're supposed to stop trying." That's what she said. And it wasn't in that way that everything before the BUT is not counting.
The letter was weird. She seemed to sell Sirius out in the way that was suspicious in the best. He couldn't understand what made her be such a matchmaker and he wasn't buying it. Yet, every adjective she had used to describe her former fiancé was starting to prove right. Yes, he had his bad sites, like trust issues, paranoid issues or food issues, when he couldn't accept pineapples on his pizza, but Remus could understand that he adopted them during his tough upbringing.
It must have been tough, Remus thought, when they couldn't have pineapples on their pizzas. He was perhaps a lucky man, Remus, he never knew they haven't got any pizza at all.
/
Sirius
What have you done, my sweet, sweet Becky… Sirius thought. Isn't there enough suffering on the Earth?
They were spending every Friday evening together now. Just two weeks back they had missed, because of Remus's condition and he still every week expected him not to show up. The weather started to get warmer and warmer, the Spring was coming, the flowers blooming, the wind sweetening the air… Crap. Sirius couldn't enjoy any of it. He was still mostly in than out. Still more in love then out of harm's way. More in-secure than out-going.
"So that's why my dad decided to buy the blue one… As a werewolves' eyes, he suspected to be more used to blue than peach."
He had no idea what Remus was talking about. He picked some documentary about colours and unusually he decided to speak during the projection. Sirius was watching him and it felt as he couldn't listen and watch simultaneously.
"He suspected that werewolves are similar to wolves and wolves to dogs… so that if dogs are colour-blind, werewolves would be too."
His eyes were shining. They were illuminated by the TV light, so there were blue and green flecks in them… but the primary colour was gold. It did good to him, Sirius thought, that he had fair hair and light eyelashes. His eyes looked brilliant then.
"It didn't cross his mind that I would be watching the walls as a human. He wasn't thinking like: "He's a boy, he should have blue walls." But more like: "He is a werewolf, we should paint it in the colour he could recognise." Sirius didn't know the voice and accent of Remus's father, but his impersonation was funny. He would laugh, but he was captured more than just.
Remus looked at him and Sirius startled, frightened. "Another popcorn?" he raised himself from the floor and left to the kitchen.
He was drowning again and he blamed her. He opened the window and stared at the outside. It was dark and welcoming. Jump?
"If you are tired of these, I could pick up something different," Remus said behind his back. "What films do you fancy."
Sirius turned around, the wind messing his hair.
"Comedies, fairy tales… mostly cartoons." Sirius smirked. "But I like these."
"You do, hum?" Remus doubted.
"Yes. I like muggle thinking." Sirius shrugged. "I like their attempts to explain magic with the science."
"What scientific explanation do you think they have for werewolves?"
Sirius contemplated for a while. Then he smirked once more. "I think they would see it as this fairy tale about the Beast. You just need the true love kiss."
Remus's eyebrows shot up. "And you're supposed to be the Belle, right?"
Sirius shrugged again. It was his first flirt and once it was out, he felt horrible. He turned around to look outside and bit his lip hard. "Well, I guess it's still the magic… so it will be some radiation or some kind of illness… I guess."
"Illness?"
"Yeah… Like mental disorder. They wouldn't believe in the body change, but they would think it's your brain, which's tricky."
"I see… Yeah. That sounds possible. Sometimes I feel like ravaging."
Sirius flushed hard and was glad for the opposite direction and the cool air. The tease was just too big.
"So Disney it is… next time," Remus said with a laugh in his voice. "Any preferences?"
Sirius turned around once more and grinned. "I like the Robin Hood film." He was probably getting lost in his enthusiasm.
Remus pursed his lips. "Oh really? I wouldn't guess."
Yes… he loved Robin Hood. The fox was just so smart.
"So.. what about the popcorn?"