A/N: Half of its prewritten, half of it isn't. After this, you're going to have to wait.
As he traveled up the stone path leading to Cassie's house, Sirius felt his heart leap up into his throat. His emotions were a tangled mess of anxiousness, happiness, and excitement that seemed to be sucking the life out of him. He felt torn between wanting to sprint the rest of the way to the house and knock vehemently at the door and wanting to turn tail and run. In his hands he was nervously twirling three red roses that were tied together at their stems with a frilly pink bow.
There were four steps lined with potted magnolias leading up to the doorway. Vibrant green vines that grew dark purple flowers had reached up from the ground and twisted themselves elegantly around both of the black metal handrails. Their sweet scent was immensely prevalent and intoxicating, and somehow had a very efficient calming effect on him. He took a deep breath, further slowing his excited heartbeat before grabbing the golden knocker and rapping it loudly against the door.
Cassie had been reading, comfortably curled up on a red wingback chair in the living room when she heard his anxious knocks. The grandfather clock in the hall had just chimed five, an oddly late time for her to receive an unannounced guest. Cassie hurried to the door after placing her book on the coffee table, her long black skirt fluttering out behind her. Taking the key from the gaping mouth of a large ceramic dragon that stood nearby, Cassie unlocked the door and cautiously pulled it open. At first she saw no one behind it, leaving her to think that her ears had somehow deceived her and there had been no caller after all. But as she pulled the door open to its fullest, she looked down to see that seated on her doormat was one of the biggest dogs she had ever seen. It's shaggy black fur was ragged and wild. It's tail was happily thumping the ground, letting fall loose pieces of fur. In its mouth it held three red roses that were tied together in a bow.
Recognition hit her immediately. Her eyes went unnaturally wide at the sight of the animagus canine, her heart hammering against her ribs. In her surprise she took a backward step, catching her foot on the tail of the ceramic dragon and consequently falling roughly on her behind. Seeming to smile, the dog trotted over and gently laid the roses in her lap. She took them in hand and held them close to her heart as, not to her surprise, the dog's outline turned rigid and he became just a bit more human every second until he was no longer. Where he had stood there crouched a gaunt, raven-haired man whose robes were splattered with filth. His cool gray eyes were sunken-in and sad, his smile cracked yet warm. The hand that rested on his left knee was wrapped in a tattered cloth that was stained red with his blood. Seeing the man she had loved for almost all of her life in such a horrid condition brought a tear to her eye.
"S-" she began, but the words seemed to get caught in her throat, their path blocked by the lump that had arisen there. "I don't know what to say."
He gave a fleeting laugh and Cassie couldn't help but smile at him. " How about saying 'hello'?" he asked jokingly. He then extended his uninjured hand to her and helped pull her to her feet.
Taking a long look into his tired eyes, she wrapped her arms around his middle and embraced him, resting her head upon his chest. At first he was tense, apprehensive to return her loving gesture, but after a moment or two he relaxed and hugged her in return, placing his hands at the small of her back. Even though his scent was a ghastly mix of sweat, blood, and decaying earth, she couldn't bear to let him go and instead snuggled deeper into him, relishing his touch for its comfort, yet hating it at the same time for its slightness. Under his clothes he felt like a living skeleton, a layer of skin stretched over protruding bones. She could clearly feel every one of his ribs.
" I can't believe it's really you. It's been so long." she said, her voice wavering. She closed her eyes in attempt to dam the tears that were threatening to pour down her cheeks. "I thought I'd never see you again."
"I never thought I'd see you again, either." he said, briefly touching his dry, cracked lips to her forehead. " But we were both wrong, weren't we?"
"Thank God." she said, taking his hands in hers and stepping away to take in his disheveled appearance. "Look at you…"
"Terrible, aren't I?" he laughed.
"I'll say…You're bleeding…" she said, holding up his injured hand and slowly peeling away the makeshift cloth bandages to reveal a deep slash on his palm. Congealed blood was saturated with the free-flowing fresh that was slowly dripping down his wrist. Jagged pieces of broken skin were clinging to his hand by thin strands. She took in a sharp, hissing breath, repulsed by the severity of it.
" I never was skilled at healing spells." he said matter-of-factly, grinning as Cassie looked up at him, her eyes glistening through their teary glaze.
Sirius watched as she broke away from him to gingerly place the roses he had presented her with in the center of an arrangement of wildflowers that sat on a table opposite an elegant grandfather clock. Closing the front door, he followed her as she proceeded down the hallway and turned the corner, beckoning him. Sirius' ragged reflection appeared in the mirror over the sink as she tossed away his bloody cloth and knelt down to open the cabinet below. From it she pulled a bottle whose cork resembled an overly large band-aid. She poured a bit of the bottle's purple contents onto a cotton ball and stored it back in the cabinet. She then got to her feet and took Sirius' hand, lightly dabbing his wound with the healing solution. He growled as he felt its ruthless cleansing sting.
"Sorry." she said softly, "It stings a bit, but it works fast. Look."
Sirius opened his eyes and looked to his see that his once broken, dead skin was coming alive. It was repairing itself, coming together seamlessly to close his wound. His spilled blood was disappearing right before his eyes, and before long all that was left of his cut was a thin scar.
"You can get cleaned up if you'd like…" she said, disposing of the cotton ball and removing him of his traveling cloak and robes, leaving him with only his suit of convict's stripes. "I'll wash these for you…and you can leave the rest outside the door and I can wash them, too."
He nodded, just then realizing that he couldn't even remember the last time he taken a decent shower. "That'd be nice…I'd feel a lot better…"
She smiled and turned to leave the room, but almost without thinking he had called her name, causing her to whip around with her eyes wide and questioning. He knew what he wanted to say, but the words seemed too far away for him to grasp them. They were those three tiny words that when brought together formed a most powerful saying. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, but couldn't find the heart to.
"Thanks," was all he managed to say, and silently cursed himself for it. She smiled and left, closing the door behind her.
After she had picked up the clothes he had left outside the door and given everything a thorough washing, she returned to the bathroom, the sound of rushing water filling her ears even before she pulled the door open. Laying his clothes on the counter, Cassie could see her husband's rough outline in the frosted glass of the shower, his lower region veiled by a towel draped over its rack. All at once, she was overcome by a womanly urge that she had not experienced in years. For a moment all she could think about was standing naked beside him in the shower stall, letting the water wash them clean as they pleasured each other. Feeling a fiery blush begin to rise up in her cheeks, she turned and left, firmly closing the door behind her. No matter how good it felt to have him back, she didn't think that rushing in on him like that would have been a proper thing to do. Not yet.
To Sirius, her brief presence in the room had not gone unnoticed. He had seen her standing there, peering at him with a sideways glance. He wished he could have seen her eyes. He hoped that in them there had been love and longing, and not some putrid form of disgust that had finally risen up in her chest like a demon breaking free of its hellish prison after all these years. Turning off the water, he damned himself for not telling her how he felt, and promising that he would utter those three tiny words that meant so much before the night was over.