Roll With the Changes

soon as you are able
Woman I am willing
To make the break that we
Are on the brink of
My cup is on the table
Our love is spilling
Waiting here for you to
Take and drink of

"I hate this life," she huffed, crossing her arms.

"There's love," he replied, touching her arm and leaning forward.

"What is love?" she asked, pulling away. "Other than an excuse to indulge in guilty pleasures, to lie and scheme, and proclaim it all in the name of love? What is it? Other than an excuse?"

"Love is simple."

"Love is ridiculous," she concluded, turning her back to him. "Love is forgetting all other commitments. Love is hurtful." She spoke with spiteful experience, and the ache of past relationships cut her speech into jagged shapes.

"Love is understanding," he whispered, moving closer. His voice wrapped itself around her, soothing her, comforting her. "Love is feeling your pain… your heart break."

Vala sighed, and faced him. Her arms dropped in defeat. "You were never there to piece me back together."

Sirius stepped forward, his eyes catching the light. "I am now."

Vala tossed and turned. Her eyes sprung open, and she bolted upright, inhaling deeply. The sun was setting; Gale was watching it in serene silence.

"We leave at seven," she said. "Get dressed."

"I'm not-" Vala began.

"It's time we faced our fears," Gale interrupted. "Tonight we return the bride he married."

~+~+~+~

"Just a kid," Billy grunted. "Just a bloody kid with a bloody rifle… Bloody idiots." His spurs chinking against the cobblestones, he walked in a bow-legged march. He shined his rifle, a classic Henry Repeating Rifle, and made his long journey to the Malfoy Mansion.

The sky bled red, and he continued towards his target. A mission that had never been accomplished.

~+~+~+~

Big, black paws padded down the street, head swinging in all directions. He'd lost her scent awhile back, but he had a good idea where she was.

~+~+~+~

"Argle… funk."

"Muph, de funk?"

"De funk… murk."

"Jesus funk."

"What is it with you two? We really oughtta go."

Napoleon glared at Charlie. "I'm gonna kill 'im."

"You act like you've never drank before," Charlie retorted, crossing his arms.

"Why, bluh?"

"Because if I know Ben," Charlie began slowly, "And I don't… He's probably doing something whack."

"Shootin' up some innocent bystanders, no doubt," Seth answered.

"Check da drawer… maybe he din' take da gun."

Charlie opened a few drawers at random. "Which one did you say?"

"Fuck," Napoleon breathed. "He took it."

"Funk?" Seth answered, lifting his arm from his eyes, looking to his black brother.

~+~+~+~

"I… It doesn't fit."

Gale eyed Vala critically. She stepped forward, and circled the girl. In comparison, Vala was a lot older than Gale. However, in their current standpoint, Gale had become the leader and the mother, while Vala had fallen to the place of a child trying on her mother's over-sized ball gowns.

"Not too bad… We can make adjustments, yes, but not too bad."

"Not too bad?" Vala repeated. "Are you seeing the same thing I am?" She lifting the shoulders of the dress, a habit of hers whenever something didn't fit quite right. "This dress is made for a woman with curves, and I don't have any!" She banged her hips with the heel of her hands. "Look, nada, nothing. I'm flat as a rack!"

"Hmm…" Gale rubbed her chin. "No, I think it'll do."

Vala looked into the mirror, and missed the potential Gale insisted was there. The dress was gorgeous. Absolutely luscious, on the right figure… a figure Vala had never possessed. It was a midnight blue, sleeveless, with fabric looping at the hip and the shoulders, and… it was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous… on the right figure. And it tried to give Vala that figure, give her curves and give her height and beauty, but it failed. It failed miserably, and Vala was a walking testament of that.

"No, it's lacking, it won't do," Vala ended, tugging the dress off her shoulders.

~+~+~+~

Romulus finished the whiskey, and tossed the empty bottle in a dusty corner. He banged his back against the wall again, a sign of restlessness. He checked his watch again. "Women" he muttered.

Gale poked her head out the door; he had been occupying the hall. "Go to a flower shop, and pick me up some night lilies."

"Night lilies?"

"Yes," she replied, kissing his cheek and slipping back inside.

"Night lilies," he repeated. "Night lilies… What could she possibly do with Night Lilies?"

He propelled himself from the wall, and started down the creaking stairs. "Hmm… that was some excellent whiskey," he said to the world, "I'll have to ask where he got it."

The door swung open, and Gale yelled after him. "Scratch Night Lilies! We need Fire Lilies!"

"Fire Lilies…?" He began to turn, but the door slammed behind her.

~+~+~+~

"This one is nice," Gale offered, lifting a dress for Vala to see.

"It's black."

"I know. Isn't it lovely?" She dropped one end, and a thousand stars leapt and sparkled from the satin fabric.

"Lovely, yes. Will I wear it? No. I'm pale, Gale, I'd look like a ghost."

"What's so wrong about that? The Grey Lady looks charming enough."

"That's fine enough for her," Vala snapped, "But I'm alive and breathing. I won't look like Death before my time."

"It'll be your time soon enough," Gale muttered under her breath.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. Oh, this one is a beauty," she rushed, changing the subject. "How do you like this one?" Gale held up a gold one, which, like the others, sparkled far too much.

Vala turned her face away. "Do all your dresses really require enough reflectors to produce your own personal disco ball? It's enough to light a room."

Gale sighed in defeat. "I give up, then. All I've got is this green one. I wore it to a Malfoy wedding."

Vala shared Gale's disinterest and exhaustion. "Which one?"

"One that I did not intend on showing up the bride," she replied indifferently, pulling the last dress from the closet. It was plain, Vala would admit, but at the point she had reached, less was more.

"Let me try it on."

~+~+~+

"I've got the Fire Lilies," Romulus called importantly, poking his head around the door. He held the flowers forward, ready to be welcomed with gracious blessings and showers of love and kisses.

"Take them back," Gale replied, making adjustments to a pure green gown, wrapping itself sadly around Vala. "We need roses."

"Roses?"

"Yes, black ones."

"Black ones?"

"Yes, now hurry."

~+~+~+~

"I don't know."

"I do. And I like it."

Vala was uncertain. She looked the dress over, examining it from every aspect. She was ashamed to admit it, but the dress wasn't half-bad. It dipped low on her back, and bunched just above expostion. It streamed down in separate channels, and reached high in the front, cuffing her neck. At first, it had been a bit big around the hips and bust. But Gale had changed that. She had tightened the bunch in the back, making the channels thinner and uncountable. Vala spun once more, looking it over.

"Your roses," Romulus interrupted. "Black as night, sharp as knives."

"Darling," Gale smiled, gingerly taking the flowers from him, kissing his cheek.

Vala watched their interaction in curiosity, but noticing herself, looked away. A second sooner, she would have missed it, and she wished she had. She closed her eyes and wished it away, but it was imprinted on her soul. Tattooed in red, flaming letters, and she wished death upon herself than see it again.

"Place a shrinking spell on these, will you, love?" Gale requested, resuming her businesslike manner. "I need them a good few centimeters smaller."

"The sky, my love, the sky," he promised, clipping the flowers from her and turning in a flap of over-sized bell sleeves to perform a simple shrinking spell.

~+~+~+~

Vala gazed in the mirror, not really seeing. Romulus and Gale had left her alone; to admire the finished product, she imagined. She watched the dress flow as she turned this way and that, but her mind was elsewhere.

"I wished for love," she whispered to herself, "And when I found it, I was already married." She wanted to cry, but tears had never saved her before. What she wanted, and what she needed, was gone. "I was granted a family," she continued in hushed silence. "I lost that family, and wished for death. But I did not know pain, and I did not feel my heart truly ache until I lost that of my second family… Until I lost those I thought I knew, and those I trusted. My father, my friend… why are the first to promise, always the first to break?"

She bowed her head in reflection, and knew nothing could save her now. She was involved in some ridiculous scheme, one that in involved Saxon none the less. She did not know all the details, but she knew enough to know she didn't want a part of it. This was her revenge, they told her, but she knew it was a lie; it was revenge through her.

A knock and Gale reentered. Romulus kept by the door, as if afraid to cross over some invisible barrier. She stepped up behind Vala, and whispered near her ear. "It's time," she said, and she slunk back into the darkness. Vala looked over herself silently, seeing the curves the dress attempted, and the awkward angles poking out in place.

Now or never, she told herself. She'd wanted revenge for a long time, but had let it slip away with age. She was still young, and she was no ones. She rose her chin, and peered at her own reflection. This was her revenge, whether or not Romulus or Gale chose to take part in it. She swept away from the mirror and past Romulus, who had bowed his head in a certain respect, and glided down the stairs in an air she was born with and suspected she'd lost long ago.

(A/N: Damn it's been a long time… I'm busy with schoolwork over the weekdays and I'm busy with work work over the weekends. Not much time to sit back and write. I did manage to produce two chapters for you guys though, ;) And I'm working on chapter 45 right now. You guys are great. Thanks for your patience, sexah. -Vouivre)