Best read following Chapter 8 of Seirios Aster's Some Nights, "Trying to Forget".

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Higher Ground

"I'm so darn glad He let me try it again [...] Gonna keep on tryin' till I reach the highest ground.." ~Red Hot Chilli Peppers

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Sirius black's life had become extremely surreal extremely quickly after the agreement that had been struck was put into practice. At first, it had just been the mechanics - Reg's belongings, including a sad excuse for a bed if we were being generous, and clothes so that his brother was less likely to be guilty of absconding with the Dog Star's things whenever he had need (because presumably he wouldn't). After that, it had been on to that thing that was quickly becoming a foreign concept to the eldest Black spawn - namely solid food. Neither of the two were gourmet chefs or anything, so what that really meant was a trip to the grocery shop to pick up essentials, and take out pretty much any other time. Not that that was a problem or anything; despite his recent downward spiral and sincere attempt at pickling his somehow still functioning liver, he still had a regular job, whether he was on a mandatory leave from it or not, and was still being paid for it. The end result was, especially with cutting booze out of his diet, that he could likely expect to have significantly more coin to throw around. And even if he couldn't, he knew that he'd let Remus talk him into putting money into his own personal vault at Gringott's for a reason. It was far more effective at forcing him to save money; being guarded by those creepy-arsed goblins and all, he didn't really go there unless he was truly desperate or had no other choice.

And besides - he didn't care about whatever cost he incurred with his brother staying with him. He'd gladly pay it and keep quiet about it, if only for the constant reminder that Regulus was alive and well and safe.

Letting out a deep breath, Sirius ran his fingers through his hair, ignoring the mild shaking that they were doing. He had just been to St. Mungo's, and several witches and wizards bustled in and out of the room he was put in to see him and perform various examinations. The last medwitch that had been in had given him a look when she'd noticed the tremors in his fingers and hands - Sirius hadn't kept eye contact with her, and she didn't pursue it any further than the initial glance, thankfully. She had given him another part of the physical, which he had complied to only because he didn't have any other choice if he wanted to be given the ok to return to work, and he personally thought he had passed with relatively flying colors.

The previous medical staff had asked him a series of questions concerning his health and wellbeing, both physical and mental, the answers to which were recorded by a quill that was constantly floating along with a long piece of parchment a few feet away. More than once when one person had left and he was waiting for another to come in he'd had the urge to look at what notes it was taking ... But he'd refrained for fear of being caught and somehow having that count against him or something. After the pseudo interview, he had immediately asked the last nurse if he had passed the tests - of course, in the most charming way possible - and though she hadn't seemed the least bit impressed by his antics or smile, she did tell him that both he and the ministry would receive the hospital's recommendation via owl. Which was extremely irritating, because Merlin only knows how long it will take for them to decide on giving a recommendation at all, let alone what it would actually be.

Even with Reggie in the same apartment - he'd only been there for just under a week - Sirius was starting to go a little stir crazy. It didn't help that he wanted to tell James, Lily, Remus, et al. of the people he worked with that his brother wasn't dead and he isn't insane ... But obviously that wasn't an option - it was just really frustrating because he knew he was on leave at least in part because of his brother's death ... but he's not dead. But no one could know that.

You see the circular dilemma he was facing?

Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair; Sirius was supposed to be back a little while ago - he'd told Reg four o'clock or so, and last time he'd checked a clock it was half past - but he didn't want to aparate right away. Instead, he wandered down the streets of muggle London; he was already late, and honestly, he was sure his brother probably didn't mind having some time to himself. To be fair he'd been up Reg's arse since the boy had moved in with him, so he wouldn't blame him... Or maybe that was just him rationalizing because he realized a little belatedly that his feet were taking him to what had become one of his more frequent stops in the past few months - a certain tavern that was a bit out of the way, but was open at almost any hour, which suited the brunet's work schedule, since sometimes being an Auror or part of the Order of the Phoenix meant painfully long, grueling hours.

A sudden cold drop of water hitting his forehead made him jump slightly, surprising him out of his fond musings. Glancing upwards, it seemed as though the rather pregnant clouds above were about to birth a storm, and Sirius wasn't sure he wanted to be outside when that happened. It also gave him a fine excuse for drinking as well, as shameful as that was since he'd told his brother he'd quit … However, this was getting to be a good deal harder than he'd originally thought it would be. He hadn't had more than an hour or two of sleep at a time in the past four nights, Sirius often caught himself thinking about going to the store and getting something … It was enough to drive him, ironically, to drink.

Besides, it'd only be one drink … he thought to himself as he looked at the door, another few drops of water landing on his cheeks and nose. What could it possibly hurt? Certainly not his liver, any worse than it already had been. And what Reggie didn't know wouldn't hurt him … right?

Looking at the door for a long few moments, it was more the water that started to come down than anything else that convinced him to go inside, pulling it open and hearing a familiar bell ring to signify someone had entered the establishment. Inside it was far more dull than it was outside, presumably to be less offensive to those that already had hangovers and had returned for more abuse, so it took a few moments for his blue eyes to adjust to the lower level of illumination. When he did though, he was a little surprised at what, or rather who he saw, sitting on the other side of the tables at the bar.

"Jamesy!? What on earth are you doing all the way out here mate?" Sirius' loud call must've startled his friend because said moppy haired Auror jumped and looked disoriented for a moment before recognition dawned on his face. Sirius frowned slightly when he saw the squat glass of alcohol in the former Gryffendor's hand; Prongs wasn't much one for drinking, and especially not alone. Yet there he was, sitting by himself on a stool in a bar he didn't know Sirius had often frequented after hours in the recent past, alcohol at the ready.

"Pads - lad, what're you doing here?" the dog animagus didn't need to use any of his canine senses to know that the smile he received was forced; he could tell even from where he was standing clear across the room. Something was very wrong, or his name wasn't Sirius Orion Black. However, he didn't say anything about it; clearly the old bean was there to forget whatever trouble it was that had him here, so no reason to bring it up immediately like a right arse. Instead, he proceeded to sit on the stool directly next to James Potter as if his coworker had offered him the seat.

"Well, I was walking from St. Mungo's, and it started to rain, so I figured I'd duck in here for a bit to avoid an undue shower," he lied with a grin. However, he couldn't very well drink when something was clearly going on with one of his best mates, now could he? So really it wasn't so much a lie as it was that his intentions had changed slightly once he'd seen who was sitting at the bar.

"I see; wouldn't do for you to catch a cold and all - you'd be out of work even longer, eh mate?" James quickly knocked back the rest of his booze; the bartender, a good guy that Sirius had encounter on a few occasions when he'd actually gotten out of work on time, noticed this and went to do one of the things that made him so good - immediately refill the glass. Jamesy put his hand over the top of it though to signify he was done, and the barkeep nodded in understanding, going to deal with someone else instead. The rain started coming down pretty heavily outside, and several people did what Sirius claimed he'd been up to; came inside the bar to escape the presumed torrent.

"Looks like I made it just in time too," Sirius commented absently, turning on the seat so that his back was to the bar and absently propping his elbows on it so he could lean comfortably. He saw James nod out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't respond otherwise. They stayed that way, in silence for a minute or so before Sirius thought it was time to ask what was really going on, now that the pleasantries were out of the way. However, James beat him to it and spoke first.

"Don't Sirius." Blue eyes blinked in confusion, and he looked at his friend with the same expression. Never fear though; the stag clarified a moment later. "Don't ask. I can't tell you, so just don't ask."

"Don't ask …? Jamesy, you're sitting alone in a dark bar drinking. Not exactly your normal MO, mate; I have to as—" However, at the slightly jovial quip, the tousle-haired brunet pushed a few strands out of his face.

"It's classified, Padfoot. Yeah I'm here after work having a drink by myself before I go home. But I can't talk about what's bothering me, so just don't ask. It'll be easier on both of us." Sirius' blue eyes narrowed in vague confusion at the statement, not understanding why that mattered at all. Laughing a little uncertainly, he voiced his lack of understanding.

"Classified? Prongs, mate, did you forget we're partners? We work in the same department? Anything you know, you can tell me –-" however, he trailed off as James shook his head.

"Not this time, Sirius. Not now …" he sighed heavily as he ran his fingers halfway through his moppy hair, letting them get stuck and not tugging them loose for a minute. "… Orders are that if you're not in the office, you can't know. That goes for anyone; you know that." Blue eyes stared in disbelief for a few minutes.

"Oh come on Prongs; that doesn't apply to me—" he trailed off at the distant look in his friend's eyes; it was like James wasn't even really hearing him; like he was just some sort of civilian that had nothing to do with him … It was almost like for a moment, they were strangers.

"Yes, mate, it does." Sirius could only watch as James got up; he noticed that hand shake a little as he put some money on the counter to pay for his drink. In that moment he could tell how worried and upset James was, and he felt entirely helpless; he had no idea what was going on, but it was something. Something big; something important. And Sirius could tell that his best mate wasn't going to let him in on it.

"Listen, I have to get home – Lily and Harry are waiting for me." It was an excuse, and they both knew it, but Sirius had no idea what to say or do. James hadn't ever acted like this, not in all the years he'd known the brunet, and that had been a very, very long time.

"Wait – James, I—" He felt like he needed to say something; Sirius didn't even care that James wasn't telling him something work related, or that whatever it was bothered him enough to send him drinking. He was floored by this sense of distance that he was suddenly feeling, and he was frantically trying to figure out what to do to get rid of it. Before he could get anything useful out though, James interrupted him.

"Shut up and worry about yourself, Pads; let me worry about work. Keep out of that bottle and I'm sure you'll be back in no time, old boy." The smile was once again forced after those quiet words, and before the Dog Star could say or do anything else, his coworker waved to the barkeep and went out into the heavy shower that echoed outside.

"So … what'll it be?" The barkeep's voice almost didn't register for a few moments as blue eyes stayed trained on the door his best mate had just disappeared out of. Shaking his head slightly to clear it, he turned, looking dazed and non-comprehending at first, until he replayed the most recent words he'd heard and applied them to his current situation.

"Oh uh …" he'll trail off slightly, eyes roving over the bottles of alcohol on the shelf behind the barkeep's head. Keep out of that bottle … Suddenly Sirius felt pretty nauseous at the thought of drinking, defying all logic as far as he was concerned. "I'll just take a glass of water, thanks."

It looked like it was about to rain again, judging by the state the sky was in, so why Sirius was taking the goddamned scenic route was beyond him. And yet there he was, strolling down the road a good ten or fifteen minutes out of the bloody way. He'd avoided the first round of precipitation when he was at the bar, but that didn't mean he was interested in seeing what he'd missed out on. Unfortunately he realized a little belatedly as he skipped over a puddle that his feet were once again directing him somewhere he had been frequenting as of recently, and it wasn't a particularly jovial atmosphere he found himself striding into. No, this was a cemetery. And not just any collection of bodies buried under decorative rocks... it was the one his brother had been laid to rest in.

Sighing, he didn't fight his body; at this point it was shorter to cut through the graveyard than to walk around it anyway. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he haunched his shoulders against the wind on this ugly, gray afternoon and started down the path. As he walked, like he often had in the months since the funeral, he told himself he wasn't going to walk to the gravesite. And as per usual, he didn't heed himself in the slightest, because his feet moved along the familiar rows and lead him to an even more familiar spot. However, there was a distinctly unfamiliar object in said familiar location.

Frowning slightly, Sirius stooped down and looked at it in confusion, as if he expected that it wasn't actually there at all, and would disappear before his eyes if he paid it enough attention. Someone had left a flower; a single, long-stemmed white rose with no thorns, tied with a black ribbon. And it wasn't fading out of existence; in fact, it looked like it had been there for a while, or at least as long as it had been raining earlier. The white petals were slightly battered, and brown in places from lying on the wet, now muddy earth in front of the headstone. How odd; he'd thought he was the only one who still visited his brother's grave all these months later. Dad working around the clock was par for the course; Sirius didn't need to be apart of the family dynamic to know that was what his old man was caught up doing, and his mother was still completely batshit and confined to the house for the good of humanity as far as he knew.

It felt even odder to leave it where it laid, knowing that the person it was meant for was alive and walking around. Maybe it was one of Reg's friends from school - he'd had quite a few, which wasn't surprising with the kid's personality and athletic prowess, being a stellar seeker, if you'll excuse the pun; it could've been someone not well acquainted to him finally getting around to paying their respects. Either way it seemed like a waste to leave it in the dirt like that, so after a few moments, he picked it up by the stem carefully to avoid it losing petals, the wet ribbon tied into a slack bow squishing slightly under his fingers.

Straightening back up, Sirius glanced at the grave again for a moment before turning on heel and striding away. No point in hanging around at a fake remembrance; not when the real Regulus was alive, kicking, and probably going out of his mind with boredom in Sirius' flat while he wasted time taking meaningless detours ...

"You said you were going to be back ages ago." The voice startled the brunet slightly; he'd assumed Reg was sleeping when he got in and didn't immediately see him or a note explaining his absence, so the sudden noise was unexpected. Sirius had gotten to the apartment and gone into the kitchen to get a glass or something to put the flower he'd taken off of Reg's grave in. Honestly, now that he was home with the thing he felt a little stupid having brought it; he wasn't sure how his brother would take it if he knew where it had come from ... So, the older of the two Black spawn decided that perhaps it would be prudent to leave out his impromptu stop at his brother's supposed final resting place when he responded.

"Stuff happened," he finally said with a non-committal shrug, leaving the flower on the kitchen counter. It was almost comical really; he'd opted to put it in a mug because that was the first thing he'd gotten his hands on. The squat, beat up orange mug with the chipped handle against the long stemmed rose that had seen better days with it's crumpled, soggy ribbon almost looked like some sort of social commentary an art student might produce and receive high marks for because it was so deep and profound. Glancing at the door of the second bedroom in which his half naked brother stood, he raised an eyebrow. With that mussed hair and half dazed expression, it was obvious that Regulus had either been sleeping or engaging in more illicit activities ... But the lack of another presence in the flat made the former the far more likely option, and rather than tease his brother about something he knew hadn't transpired, he figured he'd give him a hard time about taking an afternoon nap. (1)

"I thought you said you weren't hibernating." The statement accompanied the already raised eyebrow as he eyed the younger Black. For his troubles all he received was a rude gesture, which made him grin in amusement as the younger Black spawn went back into his bedroom, presumably to put himself in some more proper state of dress.

"Hey, why don't we get something for dinner from that Indian place down the street?" Sirius was sure his brother was itching to get out of the flat; except for a few short excursions to the cafe or grocer that were less than 30 meters away in either direction, the brightest star in Leo hadn't gone out pretty much at all, and Sirius knew for a fact that there was only so far books could get you. Eventually, cabin fever set in, and no one, least of all the Dog Star, wanted to see that happen.

"Eh, sure," the older brunet called, "but, why don't we actually sit down at the restaurant tonight? You are kinda turning into a bit of a hermit." He immediately regretted not waiting until he could see his brother's face before nonchalantly suggesting something Regulus had been wanting his consent on for days. He heard an exasperated noise, but was willing to bet galleons to gillyweed that it was to cover up his shock at what Sirius had said. Or at least, he liked to think it was. Either way he'd never know, which was a tragic but tenable loss. Blue eyes watched the bedroom door as his brother reappeared at the threshold, sporting a shirt and something other than lounge pants.

"I am not spending too much time indoors." Regulus complained, "besides, you're the one that wants to keep me hidden under a rock." A truer statement was never uttered, and Sirius would be the first to admit it. However, he also wasn't fussed at the moment for whatever reason - possibly because he was trying to appease his younger brother. He had gotten a second chance with Regulus, alive and well, and he sure as shit wasn't going to screw it up by being overprotective. Or at least, he was going to try not to screw it up by being overprotective ... It was a hard reflex to curb after all, but at least he was attempting to take steps in the right direction.

"Well, you need human interaction." The statement came simply, as if it were a perfect representation of Natural Law. "And as you mentioned a while ago, it's Muggle London. Who's going to recognize you?" The Eldest and Moste Disinherited Black didn't like that logic, because honestly anyone could see you wandering around in public like that, since wizards did wander around Muggle London - the two of them were about to be prime examples. But, he was trying to convince himself that this was going to be ok, so why not try to adapt his brother's potentially flawed logic while he was at it?

"Fine. But you're paying." Sirius almost laughed when Regulus rolled his eyes; he was acting as if Sirius was dragging him outside when they both knew full well that the younger of the pair desperately needed to stretch his legs, whether it had only been a few days since his initial entrapment or not.

"Of course I am." He managed to bite back the bark of laughter that almost escaped him before clapping an arm heavily over his brother's shoulders in an attempt to teasingly stagger him a bit. "Come on; let's go. I don't know about you, but I am starving..." For once in the past few weeks, this was actually a true statement - normally he'd be busy ingesting bottles, and the booze would stave off any hunger pangs he might or might not feel but ... Now that he'd put it down, his stomach was starting to realize that food was a thing - a reasonably important, enjoyable thing.

As they went outside, Sirius noticed that the streets were unsurprisingly busy; being rush hour or so would do that in Muggle cities. It was warm enough that a jacket certainly wasn't required, even with the overcast state of the sky, so the eldest Black had opted to forgo the hassle of the extra layer of clothing. The restaurant his brother had suggested they peruse for dinner wasn't far away - in fact, they'd gone to it once before to get take aways. However, they hadn't ever gone and sat down for an extended period of time. Sirius was trying to convince himself that the likelihood of running into or walking past their insane cousin or anyone else from the wizarding community was slim to none; however, it did occur to him that James, Lily, or Peter might be nearby, perhaps planning to stop by for a visit, though he was sure Remus would stay away after the Padfoot's outburst half a week ago. But even if he hadn't, it still wasn't particularly likely they'd be seen. With the Dark Arsehole's war going on, it was a rare exception to have some free time in which one was not stealing a few winks to catch up on lost sleep. Before his birthday when everyone had made time to go to Diagon Alley together, he hadn't seen any of them in months besides James at work and Moony when he'd occasionally stopped by to make sure Sirius hadn't actually drowned in one of the numerous bottles he'd emptied.

And, before he'd accidentally run into Wormtail a few days previous it had been even longer since he'd seen him. Lad was scarce as of late; Peter never was the confrontational type. His mousy personality usually lead him to avoid choosing sides in a conflict, which Sirius was sure was the reason he hadn't been around. The Flight of Death's forces were becoming more daring by the day - the most sensible thing to do if you were trying to stay out of the fighting was to keep your head down and stay as far out of sight as possible.

Eyeing his brother, it hadn't escaped his notice that Reg was being very quiet as they walked, and though the silence didn't bother Sirius in and of itself, the fact that it was coming from his chatterbox of a sibling did make him wonder if Regulus was alright ... And, since his occlumancy was a bit rusty, he figured he should probably just ask.

"So, you're awfully quiet. Not planning out how to orchestrate a daring escape from the captivity of the flat, are you?" The tease was met with a small smile that crossed his brother's face, though the younger Black didn't look at Sirius when he answered.

"No, nothing so convoluted - just enjoying the fresh air; what about you? You're not using the time to figure out how to get me into magic proof handcuffs and make me a permanent fixture in your apartment, right?" Sirius laughed at the allegation as he stepped up to the front door of the little hole in the wall Indian restaurant that was their destination, and pulled it open, holding it for Regulus who ducked inside ahead of him.

"How many?" came the question almost before Sirius could even realize how swarmed with people the little place was. Regulus recovered first, and along with attempting verbally to overcome the din he held up two fingers to respond to the inquiry. One or the other seemed to get through because the uncommonly short man with the very thick accent nodded and gestured for them to follow. It took some skillful acrobatics and even more impressive reflexes from the siblings to move through the establishment before they were crammed into a small table barely large enough for one very near to the kitchen. Luckily they were both Star Quidditch Players, or some such rubbish with puns, so they made it through just fine.

"Who's grand plan was it to come to this place?" Sirius asked in a mocking-terse tone while eyeing his brother who just shrugged; apparently he was not at all bothered by the older Black's acted disdain.

"Who's grand plan was it to sit down and eat instead of getting take aways?" He retorted, and it was Sirius' turn to shrug - however the action was cut short when someone walked behind him and bumped him forward with enough force he nearly hit his face on the table. "Oi, watch where you're going!" the call was harsh, and held none of his normal jovial tone. He sounded genuinely angry for a moment, which was normally a hard sentiment to come by when Sirius Orion Black was involved. Glaring at the server, who was evidently in a rush to restock something at the buffet, Sirius paused a few tense moments before he slowly turned back around to continue talking to his brother.

"Well it's just a sacrifice we'll have to make in the interest of your socialization ... Though I'm not sure I want you interacting with these particular people; you might pick up some bad habits." If Reg responded, Sirius didn't hear him because suddenly there was a bus boy hastily putting two sets of silverware and two glasses of water in front of them on the table. And right behind him was a waiter that had no interest in giving either of them a menu; no, he was more interested in strong-arming them into partaking of the buffet, which likely was the most cost effective option as far as the restaurant was concerned. Not that it didn't look decent, and it seemed to be a popular choice, what with the number of patrons walking around and filling up their plates, but it still irked Sirius that they basically weren't given a choice in the matter. As such, since it had already been established that he was financing their culinary outing, he decided then and there that the gratuity the server would receive would not be a large one.

Dragging himself up out of the cramped space they'd been forced into, he and his brother both started along the table of food. To be fair there was a large selection that was quite well stocked, if rather poorly labelled. In the end the eldest Black had little to no idea what the mish-mash of things he'd accumulated on his plate was - he could more or less identify everything by its color, and if he decided he liked something, he'd just go back for more of something in that shade. His slightly neurotic brother, on the other hand, he was reasonably certain would be less than thrilled about the cross-contaminated, unlabelled conglomerate they had to take their meal from. Not that the table was particularly messy, but people being people, a few things had probably been dripped across other things, utensils swapped for utensils from other food items, etc. It didn't look as if that was the case, but he could only imagine the thoughts going through the vaguely neurotic younger male's head.

To his credit he didn't seem too badly distracted when they both sat back down at the table; honestly, Sirius probably wouldn't have noticed much if he was. They made idle small talk as they ate every now and again, but the eldest of the pair probably couldn't tell you what they talked about either. This was because he was too heavily focused on getting food from his plate to his mouth without dropping half of it back onto said plate in the interim. Unfortunately, a lot of what they had was of a soup-like consistency, and trying to pile that up with a fork when your hands shook like a small scale earthquake was proving to be quite challenging for the Dog Star.

The meal continued on as such, the two of them half-shouting to be heard, most of the time Sirius' eyes trained on his trembling hand as he tried to will it to stop with this nonsense so he could eat properly. It worked for the most part, however he did look up at one point and saw Reg staring rather blatantly at him - as soon as he realized Sirius saw him he became fascinated with his own plate however, which was so subtle it was painful. He didn't say anything though, so neither did Sirius.

After a few rounds at the buffet (Sirius hadn't been lying when he'd commented he was starving earlier), they both were sufficiently gorged on spicy ethnic cuisine, and the brunet paid the bill that was brought to them.

"Sirius ... I'm not blind. Or stupid." When they got home, the first thing Regulus said caught the other occupant of the apartment off guard and it was clarified by the second. "I can see your hands shaking. You snap way more often than I've ever seen before, you constantly look like you've been punched in both eyes ..."

"Yeah yeah I know; I'm a goddamned lush. You happy-" he couldn't help getting defensive immediately. He was trying ... Which apparently wasn't enough. He'd been climbing into bottles for months; it wasn't going to go away in a few days. Rev had to know that. Of course, Sirius had been hoping to spare him from the brunt of the knowledge of how bad his drinking had gotten but ... It seemed like that was becoming less and less of an option ...

"No you moron I'm not happy something I did drove you to drink!" The words Regulus' interrupted with made the older male stop short. Oh no; not this. Of course he was doing that blaming himself thing, rather than acknowledging that Sirius was just a stupid depressed asshole that couldn't cope with his own piss poor emotional spectrum.

"Reg, I -"

"Oh come on, it's obvious that's what did it. I told you I'm not stupid, and you'd have to be at least twelve inches thick in the skull to miss that." Sirius will sigh; it's not like he could deny that Reg's funeral was what set him off down this slow spiral ...

"... Yeah well, sometimes you can be that dense." That was his only come back, and it was a sad one at that. Rev crossed his arms with a rather oxymoronic glare that made him look sad more than anything else.

"So can you ... Your liver proves it." The statement was quiet, but firm in its conviction. Sirius loled at Reg for a good long minute before sighing.

"Har har." Blue eyes rolled and his response dripped in sarcasm as he ran his fingers through his hair. Deciding he'd rather this conversation be finished, he turned and walked towards his bedroom; this hadn't been the argument he'd thought it would be, but he still didn't feel good about his alcoholism being brought up like that ... In lieu of speaking any further on the matter, he flopped face first onto his bed, so that any continued attempt at conversation would result in muffled, unintelligible sounds, which would hopefully deter it.

"Hey Sirius ...? Where'd this come from?" He heard the ceramic coffee mug scrape across the counter a little as Reg presumably picked it up. The flower. Shit. Well it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where it was from. Or maybe Sirius was just being absolutely ruddy paranoid and the most likely thought process wasn't 'oh, you must've nicked it off m'empty grave.' Assuming (re: hoping) that was the case, the face down brunet made a few garbled, sleepy noises that may or may not have been words, being sure to sound a bit disoriented, as if he had been nodding off.

Blue eyes closed as he waited for the response that didn't come; after some stretch of silence, he glanced over his shoulder and saw that Reg must've turned out the light in the living room before going into his own room. Click. Yep. That was the light in the other bedroom going on. Letting out a breath, he rolled over, though he was too lazy and unmotivated to do anything else, such as change out of his clothes. That also might've alerted his brother that he wasn't as near to sleeping as he had seemed, and Sirius wasn't interested in holding a conversation right now.

Why'd he brought that idiot flower back? If Reg got any inkling of where it'd come from, it was just going to upset him ... And since Sirius hadn't heard the mug touch back down on the countertop, he had to assume his brother had taken it into his room to torment himself with; probably put it right on his bleeding nightstand if the older brunet had his guess. Pressing a hand to his face, he stifled a groan, making an almost exasperated decision.

If that thing with its ridiculous mug was in his brother's room tomorrow, Sirius was burning it when he got up.

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The End ..?

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Footnotes:

1 - All I could think here was "Alas!" ... +10pts of awesomeness to your score if you get the reference xD