DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything you recognize.

Hey, everyone. Sorry for the delay with this chapter, but its up now! I hope you all like it. More reviews would be great, but I'm not going to demand them. Although, it would be nice to know that people are actually reading my story, ha ha :) It's kind of depressing to think I'm writing for no one. Anyway, I hope you all like this!

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Saylie's Point Of View:

"Bloody hell!" I had been walking along the third floor, on my way downstairs to see where Tonks had gone, when a long string of swear words erupted from a nearby room. "Blimey, you disgusting brute. AARGH! All right, all right!" I heard a loud snarling and the sound of clicking nails. I knew who that voice belonged too, and it didn't sound happy.

I tip-toed lightly over to the second room on the right, where the door stood ajar; peeking inside, I saw Sirius on the ground, cradling his arm and glaring menacingly at none other than Buckbeak the hippogriff, who was dancing around the room with agitated motions. His beak was opening and closing in fury and he squawked loudly, flapping his wings at the muttering man on the floor.

"I'm getting pretty brassed off with your attitude," Sirius growled at the large creature. "You're lucky I keep feeding you." I giggled silently, watching his face as it went from an angry flush to dull grey in about ten seconds. I thought he was calming down, for a second - until I saw the blood.

Stepping into the room, I looked down curiously at his arm. Sirius looked up in surprise, but I ignored his hello and sat down beside him on the floor, against the wall.

"What," I asked slowly. "Happened to you?"

"Er," Sirius shrugged, wincing as the action made his arm smart. "Buckbeak got a bit frustrated with my slow reflexes when getting him his dinner." He nodded with his strong chin towards a huge bag of dead rats, covered in blood.

"Let me see it," I demanded. He glanced at me quickly, snorting in response.

"It's fine."

"Let me see it," I said again, but didn't wait for his reaction this time. He'd always been so masochistic. I gently closed my hand around his left wrist, pulling it out of the grasp of his right hand, which had been holding his arm in place. He was warm and I could feel the muscles in his forearm against my fingers. Ignoring these thoughts, I studied the wound in a practiced way, calling on my years of Healing: there was a very long gash running from his bare shoulder down to the crease in his elbow, probably the work of Buckbeak's sharp talons. It was quite a wide gash and would definitely need to be sewn up with a wand. Blood was pooling all around his arm, dripping from his elbow onto the floor.

I looked up to find Sirius watching me curiously. "Well," I said practically. "It'll need to be cleaned. I have some potions for these kinds of wounds in my room, I brought all of my healing equipment with me. I'll go get everything I need and be right back. But cleaning won't be enough," I warned him. "Buckbeak sure did a good job on you. I'll have to sew it with my wand." I waited for a flinch or a shudder at the thought of getting the injury sewn up, but Sirius just stared back calmly.

"Okay," He said finally, his voice bored. I turned abruptly, heading straight to my room. Once I had opened the door, I went to my trunk, rummaging through it noisily.

I grabbed a bottle of this mucky, acid green potion, a bag of cotton balls, some gauze and a roll of paper towels to wipe up the blood. Checking to make sure I had my wand, I went back to the room where Sirius still sat, looking uninterested but moody.

"Here we are," I said brightly, marching in with the supplies. I sat down beside him again, watching his face. "Does it hurt?" I asked softly.

"No," He barked, laughing. "'Course not." I rolled my eyes, opening the bottle of potion. "What is that stuff?" Sirius asked warily.

"It's Gilopterum," I replied. "It will clean the cut effectively, getting rid of any infections or germs. Plus, it'll help close the gash. Though, yours is pretty wide...I'll still have to stitch it with my wand." I grabbed his arm tenderly again, putting some potion on a cotton ball. "This will sting," I told him seriously. I lightly trailed the cotton ball down his arm, watching as the cut magically stopped bleeding and became slightly less gory-looking.

"Blimey," Sirius said, staring at his arm. "That's loads better."

"You're not done," I snapped as he tried to pull his arm from my grasp.

"Saylie." He sighed frustratedly. "It's fine." I whipped out my wand, pointing it at his forehead.

"Don't. Move." I smiled sweetly. He rolled his eyes, but held his arm out obediently. I took my wand and muttered the charm as I moved it slowly from his shoulder to his elbow, watching as the cut closed with dark strings attatched to the skin. Picking up the gauze silently, I wrapped it around his arm a few times, taping it down with muggle medical glue, which was surprisingly effective for their advancements in medicine. "There," I said cheerfully, looking into his eyes. "All better."

"No," Sirius disagreed solemnly, shaking his head. "It's not all better."

"What are you talking about?" I asked tersely. He leaned forward, touching my cheek with the calloused fingers of his uninjured hand. He cupped my face gently as our intense gazes clashed, silver on gold. I stayed like that for a moment, staring back dazedly. He was making me dizzy.

"You're not better, Saylie. You can't run from this forever." Sirius watched me closely, judging my reaction.

"I try to help you, and this is the thanks I get?" I said wildly, jerking away from his hand. How dare he, I thought, standing up. "And don't forget, Sirius." I sneered his name furiously. "You're the one who ran."

I turned quickly to go, but his hand caught my wrist as I spun around. "Saylie," He said quietly. "I'm sorry. I never apologized for what I did to you, and I'm sorry. I wanted to keep you safe - "

"Don't." I held up my hand, turning to face him again. I wanted to hurt him as much as he hurt me. "You're a lot more like your family than I thought, Sirius."

His eyes clouded over with anger, but he did not let go of my wrist; in fact, his hold became tighter. "That's not true and you know it. I wanted to protect you! I didn't want you to get hurt."

But I'd had enough of his tired explanations. "I hate to break it to you," I said coldly. "But I can take care of myself. I always have in the past."

"I know that. But if you knew too much...Saylie, I didn't want to give Voldemort any reason to come after you. We were in league with the Potters, and in his eyes we deserved to die. He was on a rampage, killing everyone in sight just because he could! Or did you forget? Our best friends died at his hands." His voiced turned harsh at the end of his statement and he had the nerve to glare at me. As if I was the one who had started this.

"I could never forget that, Sirius," I said, deadly calm. I didn't want to attract anyone to the room with our shouting. Here I was, in the midst of a fight, and I was still trying to be careful. I'd changed so much and I knew that Sirius could tell. "Because of you, I never got the chance to say goodbye." My voice broke on the last word, but I held my chin up defiantly. His face softened, and he reached out to pull me closer to him. "Don't touch me!" I shrieked, jumping away from him.

"I'm sorry," Sirius sighed. "I said I was sorry. What else do you want me to do?"

"I trusted you," I said, ignoring his question.

"I didn't know what would have happened if you knew," He said boldly. "I'm sorry I lied, but I'm not sorry that I tried to keep you safe. I loved you. I may have lied to you, but it was to protect you. Believe it or not, I loved you, Saylie."

"And I loved you," I said softly. I could feel this weight of misery in my heart, pulling all the way down to my stomach. I'd avoided this for so many years, but I couldn't do it anymore. Sirius was really screwing with my 'Everything's Perfect' façade. "But I guess that wasn't enough for you, was it?" His face was etched with lines of sorrow, but he narrowed his eyes angrily anyway.

I couldn't look at him anymore. I couldn't look at his extraordinarily handsome face, knowing the hatred he would see in my own expression. Without another word to the love of my life, I walked out of the room.

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Sirius's Point Of View:

"I heard shouting." My cousin stepped into the room with an uncharacteristically grim expression, shaking her bright pink hair out of her violet eyes. She stared down at me where I still sat on the floor of Buckbeak's room. I snorted, looking up at her irritably.

'Well," Tonks said tentatively, coming to stand by the wall next to me. "What was all that about? Saylie just went to her room in a bit of a huff..."

"I told her she couldn't run forever. Then I said I was sorry, and she started freaking out," I explained, trying not to sound too stubborn. "What'd I do wrong?"

"Sometimes it's not what you do," She mused. "Its how you do it." Tonks looked at me impatiently.

"I touched her face," I admitted, shrugging it off as if it were nothing. But it was something, to me at least.

"Sirius." She sighed exasperatedly. "Saylie's really confused right now, though of course she won't admit it. We all know she's angry, we heard her shrieking. Nearly set your mum off again. But can you please try to respect her feelings?"

"When did you become such an expert on feelings, little 'cuz?" I asked scathingly.

"I'm not." Tonks rolled her eyes. "Remus and I have just been...talking."

"About me," I stated knowingly.

"And Saylie," She added quickly. "You two have been so uptight since she arrived, you haven't even begun to see the real Saylie after twelve years. And now you two are at each others' throats. You obviously still care about her, so - "

"What do you know about that?" I interrupted angrily. Even if I did still care about her, I wasn't going to admit it. Even to myself. How pathetic would that be? Especially since she hated me now. She had changed so much over the years. She wasn't the old Saylie I knew, the one who was always smiling and laughing. Everything she did seemed so...fake, as if she were trying to convince herself that everything would be alright. She wasn't talkative or upbeat anymore and she never drew attention to herself. Now she was careful and quiet, wary and cautious. And I knew that I had done that to her. Saylie was the only girl who had ever turned me down, and she continued to do it, even now. Sirius Black has never waited around in the past, nor has he ever begged or wasted his time on only one girl, I thought to myself. Maybe you should start now, an annoyingly peaceful voice whispered in my ear. The voice sounded oddly similar to Saylie.

"I can tell," Tonks said confidently. "We're related."

"Not that you've had time to see me much, or anything," I spat at her. "Azkaban. Remember? I do."

"Oh, stop feeling sorry for yourself," She snapped back. "Have you told Saylie that you were going to - "

"Remus told you about that?!" I jumped up from the floor in outrage. Was nothing sacred? "You have got to be shitting me."

"Er," Tonks said, starting to shuffle her feet uncomfortably. "Yes, he told me about it. But we've been getting closer lately and...we just want to help, Sirius. Remus is your best friend and Saylie's mine....We're concerned." She smiled brightly at her explanation.

"Forget it," I muttered bitterly. "It doesn't matter. I lost the ring, anyway."

"You lost it?" She said in disbelief.

"Twelve years ago," I told her. "Probably when I found Lily and James at their house; I'd had it in my pocket and it most likely got lost in the rubble. Everything was a big blur."

Tonks nodded gravely. "But...you really haven't told her?"

"Of course not!" I exclaimed, incredulous. "She'd bite my friggen head off if I told her that I was going to propose the night before I was arrested."

I remembered that night, holding the ring in my big hands before I went to check on Wormtail. It had been such a beautiful ring, exactly what Saylie would have wanted. It was a golden band with a small diamond in the middle and a web of fragile golden twines weaving through it. I remember trying to get ready to ask her, preparing what I would have said. I remember...

"I see your point." Tonks interrupted my thoughts. "But...I still think you should tell her. Maybe she'd understand better, if she saw that you really intended to love her forever. It's been hard to believe you in the past, after all, Sirius. Plus, I think if she knew that you wanted to marry her, she'd actually appreciate your protectiveness that happened to be in the form of a lie."

"Why do you always have to be so optimistic?" I said, smiling in spite of myself.

"It's a talent." She smiled back wryly. "Think about it, okay?" She added softly.

"Yeah, okay," I lied. There was no way I would tell Saylie I'd wanted to marry her. She probably wouldn't believe me anyway...I was a decietful liar. It seemed like no one could be trusted.