Chapter Eighty;

[May 22nd, 1999]

Sirius was not going mad, not at all. He refused to allow this to make him go mad. In the past month, Severus had cried at least twice a day over something completely ridiculous, once it even being because Aidan was in bed ten minutes past his bedtime. /Ten minutes/ and it had Severus weeping – one would think someone close to him died. He had also the weirdest food cravings Sirius had /ever/ seen – not that he had seen many women or men pregnant with food cravings, but it was odder than Lily – Lily just craved the occasional treacle tart at 2AM – or so he was told by James. But Severus… Severus craved everything he ate had to be dipped in either ketchup or mustard, and if anything was blue – it got him sick and he couldn't eat. Imagine Sirius' surprise when at 4AM one night he asked for pudding… and not just pudding but with those disgusting imported chips of his together. Sirius thought he would lose all three of his meals of the day.

Not just the food cravings, but the mood swings… as stated he had been crying a lot, which Poppy assured him was perfectly normal, and the potions made it better – Sirius would /die/ if he were to see Severus with mood swings /without/ his potions he reckoned. Severus would get mad over the smallest thing and then a few seconds later feel completely guilty about getting mad – as such: A spider had gotten into Aidan's room which made the boy scream, he had reason too, the spider was known to be poisonous and Aidan knew that. Sirius was just coming in from teaching a class when he heard crying coming from Aidan's room but Aidan sitting on the couch, when asked what was going on Aidan had informed him: 'Papa went in and killed the spider and then he started crying because maybe the spider had a /family/'. Aidan usually hugged his papa when he cried, but by now the boy had learned that even hugging him as much as possible would not make Severus stop, he would have to come out of it on his own.

Sirius was /not/ going mad. Nope. Not at all. And the fact that their sex life had completely died was not helping – Severus was gaining weight, which was perfectly normal, the man /still/ looked like a stick, he had only gained about ten-fifteen pounds and that was /only/ because Poppy had put him on a potion that forced him to gain weight – as the first few months pregnant people were known for losing weight – thanks to all the morning sickness – but Severus couldn't afford to lose any more weight. So with those few pounds came Severus freaking out about how he was going to get fat, and cursing at Sirius as much as he could about him being the cause of this problem.

"Sirius!" Came a bellowed voice.

Sirius gulped. "Yes, Severus?" He called from his classroom and through the doors came Severus carrying a muddy Aidan.

"/Your/ son got into the mud."

"/My/ son? Last I checked he's both of ours."

"He's /yours/ when he decides to be a Gryffindor."

"That's hardly fair." Sirius sighed.

"Sirius. Clean him up." Severus growled as he placed Aidan on the ground and stormed out.

"Papa is mad, father." Aidan frowned as he ran around the desk and climbed into Sirius' lap, not caring that he was getting mud all over Sirius' robes.

"Very mad," Sirius chuckled, standing up and carrying his son out of the classroom and heading to their chambers.

"You should um… make a picnic." Aidan suggested.

"A picnic, love?" Sirius chuckled.

"Yes. Um… 'cause Uncle Harry um, he made a picnic with a candle for Aunt Ginny."

"A candle?"

"Yes, to be romantic." Aidan nodded.

"Ah, a romantic dinner?"

"Yes! And then I can stay the night in the Gryffindor common-room!" Aidan beamed.

Sirius placed a kiss to Aidan's forehead and pondered on the words as they walked into the chambers and Aidan ran into his room to take a bath. He hummed to himself as he walked into their rather small kitchen and made a sandwich with the materials set out thanks to the house-elves, when he finished he nibbled slowly on the sandwich lost in his thoughts, he jumped from being startled when he felt something grab onto his legs. He glanced down and gave a smile at the now clean Aidan.

"That was quick."

"I took a shower, daddy. I like showers! Unless the bath has bubbles," Aidan smiled. "I got on my pajamas, so can I please stay the night with Uncle Harry?" He pleaded.

Sirius gave a small smile. "Yeah, go on. But stay out of trouble, and listen to Hermione. If she says no on something than that means no."

"Yes, sir!" Aidan beamed. "Can I go now?"

"Mhm," Sirius hummed leaning down and placing a kiss to Aidan's head before the boy zoomed out of the kitchen.

"Whisper!" Sirius called.

Whisper appeared in a crack of apparition. "Yes, sirs?"

"I need help, I'm making a… er… romantic dinner?"

Whisper grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, sirs! Yes! I will go prepare the meals now, sirs." She nodded before disappearing.

Sirius breathed a sigh of relief and began setting up the table, lighting a few candles as well as slipping a calming draught in a glass of wine for Severus – knowing the potion would be fine and not affect the baby. After everything was set up which only took a few minutes, Whisper appearing with two plates. Sirius gave her a smile and pattered her head as a thank you as he passed her to step into the lounge room just as Severus opened the door and entered.

"Did you get Aidan clean?"

"I did."

"Where is he?" Severus asked as he rested everything in his hands – homework assignments, a few textbooks – on a table.

"Staying with Harry for the night."

"Why?" Severus asked quirking his eyebrow.

"So we can have a romantic dinner," Sirius purred as he came up behind Severus and wrapped his arms around his waist.

"Ugh… Sirius I don't feel like being touched…" Severus groaned though he leaned back against Sirius.

"It's just dinner, love. I promise I don't expect anything afterwards."

Severus sighed and pushed a kiss to Sirius' throat. "Okay…"

Sirius took hold of Severus' hand and led him back into the kitchen, getting him seated before taking his own seat and tasting the food Whisper had brought, humming his approval. "So, love. Did you have a hard day?"

"Somewhat…"

"Care to elaborate?" Sirius rolled his eyes.

Severus sighed and picked at his food. "My father wrote today." He said softly and Sirius stiffened and frozen with his fork in the air. "He saw a picture of us with Aidan in the Daily Prophet while he was throwing it away and demands to be able to see his grandson…"

Sirius blinked. "No."

Severus glanced up. "I told him yes."

"What!" Sirius bellowed.

"Sirius…"

"You're fucking stupid! Last time you saw the man he beat the shit out of you!" He bellowed as he stood up and clenched his fists.

"We're not going to leave him alone with Aidan!" Severus argued. "Plus Aidan doesn't use magic, so he won't have any problem with him hope—"

"Hopefully?" Sirius interrupted to finish his sentence.

"Sirius…"

"No. We're not doing this. I'm not dealing with him."

"Then I'll go alone."

"Fuck no! You're pregnant!" Sirius hissed.

Severus growled. "Sirius he is my father. You may have hated yours, but I don't… I…"

"You hate him."

"I do not."

"Bullshit."

"I cannot hate my only father, Sirius…"

Sirius ran a hand through his hair. "When…?"

"He wants to meet him tomorrow."

Sirius stayed quiet for a few minutes, running everything over in his head. He chewed on his bottom lip and glanced up at Severus who was now pushing food around on his plate. Sirius let out a sigh and grabbed the bottle of ketchup Whisper had sat out, pouring a bit on Severus' plate before tilting his head up and catching his lips in a gentle kiss. "I'm not going to question why you… you want him to be a part of Aidan's life… or any of our children's life, but…" Sirius sighed, not even sure why he was agreeing with this, but it seemed so important to Severus. "Tell him tomorrow we'll meet him at his place for lunch…"

Severus gave a nod and turned back to his plate, now eating the food since he had ketchup to dip it in and Sirius returned to his spot to finish his dinner in silence.