RP: A night at the World's End

[tt_sirius]

Date: 14 Aug 2002
Characters: Sirius Black, open
Setting: World's End Pub
Content: TBD
Status: Public : Complete



Sirius let himself into his house just after 5 pm, tired and with a head full of magical incantations from debriefing Kingsley. He took a long, hot shower and dressed as he normally did in jeans and a dark t-shirt, only running his fingers through his hair before locking up again. The walk to the World's End cleared some of the clustering enchantments from his head, the fresh air soothing and cooler as the sun began to set on the horizon.

He found a table near the windows and took a seat, content to wait until the barmaid came by to take his order.

Comments

[tt_cecilia]

“I only have experience with Jamie,” Cecilia chuckled softly. “And he went to bed one night, just being the big boy that he was, and the next morning a teenager joined me for breakfast.” It was the best she could explain it, because it had been the same Jamie, of course, he just seemed… taller, bigger, older, like he had grown sharper angles overnight.

Looking up into Sirius’ eyes, she tilted her head slightly. She worried her lower lip as she listened to him, missing him more than she had in months, even if he was sitting right there. It was as if while they had been apart, she could pretend that they were at least still friends, but hearing him searching for words like he did now made her think that it really only had been pretending she had been doing. “You’re important to me, too,” she said quietly, rolling her hand to the side to brush her knuckles against the back of his hand. She swallowed down, a myriad of questions popping into her head, though she didn’t want to shoot them all at him at once and risk pushing him further away than she already had. “What is it you keep thinking about?” Moving just a little closer to him, she wanted to keep their conversation between the two of them. This wasn’t any of the other patrons’ business.

[tt_sirius]

"That sounds about right," Sirius replied with an echoing chuckle himself as he thought about Harry during the time he'd been able to talk to him, even through a Firecall to Hogwarts.

The brush of her knuckles made his hand unclench and Sirius reached out to take her hand in his gently. Something about the way she said that, it bolstered his resolve for a moment, then put him on caution again. It seemed he wasn't the only one confused by all this. She moved closer and Sirius adjusted on the bar stool to give her room.

"Our time on Australia, that's what. Can you tell me honestly that you haven't?" Sirius replied, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.

[tt_cecilia]

Cecilia watched their hands, watched how easily her own fingers closed around Sirius’ warm ones. It felt good to touch him again, even this small, almost innocent gesture. While it didn’t make the words flow, from either of them, it didn’t bring back the memories of what they had gone through together.

Idly she caressed his thumb with her free hand, looking up to meet his gaze when he finally spoke. Slowly Cecilia shook her head. “No,” she said. “I can’t honestly do that.” Licking her lips she drew in a deep breath. “I think about it… quite a bit, actually.” The brush of her fingers against his continued, even as she looked away from him. “What about it?”

[tt_sirius]

He didn't miss the way her gaze dropped to their joined hands, or the way her own fingers closed around his, accepting, not pulling away or distancing herself from him. That was promising.

When she finally lifted her gaze to his, Sirius couldn't have guessed what she was going to say. The only woman he really knew these days was Lily and she had always been an open parchment to him. "What about it? Merlin's beard, woman, what do you want me to say? I gave you space, whatever that bloody well means."

Sirius sighed, swallowing hard. He wasn't the kind of guy who put his heart out on his sleeve. He wasn't even sure it was his heart that was doing the primary talking here, but he knew he missed her. "I miss you. I think about what we couldn't... do, when there was no magic."

[tt_cecilia]

With a sigh Cecilia rubbed her forehead. She hadn’t meant to upset Sirius, little less make little of the fact that he was still thinking about what had happened on Australia. “I just meant what about it is it you’ve been thinking about.” Aside from the obvious point that they had been stranded hundreds of miles from the nearest people with no magic, the fact that they had managed to navigate a predator filled, hostile landscape with no injuries worse than scratches was something she could imagine would fill a lot with everybody. And then there was the tension that had been there…

…which apparently was also what had been on Sirius’ mind. Or at least the physical aspect of it. “I miss you, too,” she whispered and swallowed down. “So fucking much you wouldn’t believe it, especially with the way I’ve acted.” Even she could see that. “I think about that, too, and about how I’m grateful that if it had to happen, there’s nobody else I could imagine to ever have gone through that with but you.” And then there were all those other thoughts that kept coming to her. Like how she wanted to tell him everything but hadn’t and couldn’t because it was not how she did things. It wasn’t how she had ever done things. This was her problem, her business and it was hers alone to deal with. Nobody else’s, and she would never expect Sirius, or anybody else for that matter, to help her with it. Wasn’t that what she had experienced her whole life? Life was tough, but you dealt with it, and if you really needed help it was your family that helped you, and in lieu of those you dealt with it yourself. You didn’t pry in other people’s life and in return they didn’t snoop in yours. Oh, but how she wanted to tell Sirius everything right now. “I asked you for space because I needed to… to deal with some things, come to terms with them. I’ve no secrets, Sirius, I just don’t know how much I can or should tell you, because they're my concerns to deal with.”

[tt_sirius]

He shifted a bit closer as a sudden flare-up of noise happened in the pub, which wasn't unusual. Sirius caught what Cecilia said, feeling a wave of relief that his little outburst hadn't closed her off again.

"Cecilia, you can tell me anything you want to tell me," Sirius stated firmly, giving her hand a squeeze just as his datapad starting beeping frantically. "Son of a... dammit," he growled, pulling the datapad out and glancing at it before sighing in frustration. "Look, I have to go. There's been an incident at the dock. But this isn't over, all right?"

He lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a quick kiss there, before standing, waiting just long enough for her nod of understanding before he disapparated.

[tt_cecilia]

Cecilia looked at Sirius, once again not saying anything while she tried to find the right words. She wanted to tell him everything, but didn’t know where to start or even to what end, other than to show him that she really didn’t have any secrets. She got as far as her lips parting, when his datapad started beeping, and it was with equal parts relief and regret that realised that anything she wanted to tell him would have to wait until later. “All right,” she assured him with a soft smile.

She swallowed down when he kissed her hand, holding his gaze for a moment before she nodded. She could do this, she understood that he had to go, even if she didn’t want him to.