orchid
a/n: thought about splitting this one up into multiple parts, but no, you're just getting one big fic. yet again, just a daydream I had that I scribbled down, just vibes, nothing fancy. also the tiny apartment she lives in, that's just where I lived a year ago. like a ghost in the attic (also also also, I almost exclusively worked on this in the middle of the night, so if it’s not up to par with the rest of my works, I do sincerely apologise)
update: i will not write a part 2 for this story so please stop asking me! you are giving me a stomach ache
summary: “Alright, so even though I’m not, why is it that it would be such a bad thing if I theoretically had a thing for him?”
warnings: Sirius Black x reader, modern!au, college!au, starving artist!reader, posh boy Sirius, very light enemies to lovers energy, probably extremely inaccurate country club, reader works at the country club, playing 20 questions, kissing, sexual comments and references but no actual smut in this one, alcohol consumption, a little bit of light B & E as a cute date, small tolkien reference, open ending (kinda)
word count: 6023
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“All right, listen up folks,” bellowed the short snappy figure of your boss, “it’s gonna get a lot busier starting today since a lot of the member's kids are coming home on break from boarding school and university and whatnot, so that means not only will there be more people to keep happy but also a lot of stressed-out parents who await the luxury that they are paying for. I expect you all to be on you’re A-game, is that clear?”
“Yes, Mr Barrett,” echoed throughout the room like a choir.
“Good. Now get back to work everyone!”
Just as the herd started to thin, Mr Barrett waved you over before you had a chance to slip out, “Y/l/n!”
Watching your work friends duck out before he could call upon them as well, you gave in to the newly formed reflex and said, “yes sir?”
Not lifting his eyes as you stepped closer, he kept them glued to the clipboard in his hand and ordered, “go restock all the bars.”
“Um, why? Didn’t Tim just do it last Monday?”
“He did,” Mr Barrett finally glance up at you and explained sternly, clearly already being over this conversation, “and now I’m telling you to go do it again. Look, these folks' kids are coming home. So, trust me when I tell you that it needs to be fully stocked.”
“Alright,” you exhaled and scurried out at the irked wave of his hand.
You hadn’t been working here at the Millington club for that long, but even when you consider the fact that you had to mosey up to a bunch of insufferable rich folk, the paycheck was still a lot better than any other place you’d ever worked at, consequently making it tolerable.
Now balancing a heavy cardboard box jam-packed with various clanking liquor bottles, you made your way through the glamorous halls of the club, first making your way down towards the east side lounge. Glancing down at the clinking flasks, you couldn’t even begin to calculate how many months of rent you would have to give for even just one of these lavish drinks.
As you entered the posh sitting room and made your way over towards the bar, a collection of rowdy voices caught your ear.
“No way, I don’t believe it.”
“No, I’m telling you, mate,” you sat the box down on the marble countertop and glanced over to spot the young raven-haired man answering his friends, “it’s true, right there in the library.”
“What genre was it in?” one of the two young men asked. They were all three spread out on a few small queen Anne couches, clustered in the corner, as if they owned the whole establishment, “biography? That corner’s pretty private…”
“Um, I was a little too preoccupied to notice,” the cocky boy scoffed, “you know, with my head being all the way under her skirt and all.”
Kicking his feet up onto the mahogany coffee table in the middle, the bespeckled one in the group chuckled, “only you mister I lost my virginity in a threesome could just casually have that happen to him on a Tuesday afternoon.”
“Who was it with anyway?” the other one asked.
Furrowing his brows, the man in the centre of the story genuinely didn’t seem to remember, “I think her name was Emma? Something like that.”
“Didn't your mother tell you it’s creepy to stare?” you flinched at the sudden and sneaky arrival of your co-worker’s familiar voice, uttering directly into your ear.
“Jesus fuck, Lucy! Don’t scare a girl like that! I could have dropped one of these,” you held up the expensive bottles in hand, then swiftly went back to putting them away.
“Please don’t tell me you have a thing for him,” she ignored your annoyance, crossing her arms.
“What?” was she referring to the brash handsome man you couldn’t rip your eyes away from just a second ago? “No! I don’t even know who he is.”
“Wait, you don’t know who that is?
“No.”
“Seriously?”
“Nope.”
“That’s Sirius Black,” she told you as if the name alone was common knowledge, but then continued as the lightbulb over your head clearly didn’t turn on, “Orion Black’s oldest son?” still nothing, she tried one last time, “as in the Black automobile company? That super old posh one?”
“…the one that the royal family drives around in?”
“Ding, ding, ding!” she threw up her arms and continued to look at you as if you were an idiot.
“Alright, so even though I’m not, why is it that it would be such a bad thing if I theoretically had a thing for him?”
“Because that man right there, gorgeous as he might be, is the biggest playboy on the planet. He doesn’t even know what the definition of a relationship is, let alone love. Y/n, I know you. You, my wonderful friend, is a relationship type of girl, not a casual sleep-around like it’s nothing type of girl. So, trust me when I say, don’t go there.”
“I wasn’t gonna!” you said defensively as she finally turned around and left you to your work.
Bending down to open up a small cabinet, you kneeled on the polished hardwood floor and scurried to finish your work of restocking the bar.
“Hey love,” you heard after only a minute had passed. Glancing up, you saw the very same man you had been so fixated upon earlier, casually leaning his forearm against the counter. He looked like he could have just stepped out of a ralph lauren ad with how impeccable his clothes were.
Shooting up, nearly bumping your head on the way, you felt your heartbeat pick up as his dark eyes bored into you, “hi! Can I help you with anything?”
“Me and my mates over there were just about to go do something a little more fun than what this snooze fest has to offer,” he gesticulated, then added rather smoothly, “you look like you could use some fun, you should join us.”
“Sir, I can’t just leave,” you cocked your head, “I’m in the middle of my shift.”
“So, when do you get off?” he asked, but then as you simply averted your gaze, scrambling for a polite way to untangle yourself from this mess, he pushed, “oh, come on, I know you want to.”
Keeping your eyes low, you shook your head, “I’m not really supposed to socialise with members.”
“Ah,” he leaned in a little closer, lowering himself to your eye level, “you’re a real good girl, aren’t you?”
Eyes growing wide at his suggestive word choice, you blushed, “e-excuse me, sir?”
“I noticed the way you were looking at me,” his studying gaze didn’t waver for a second.
“Oh, that wasn’t-“
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell if you won’t.” He then leaned in even closer, “hey,” nearly whispering into your ear and effectively sending shivers down your spine, “if it fits your schedule better, we could just go into the billiard room right now…”
“Why would we-“
“My friends can stand by the door if you’re nervous,” he interrupted once more, reaching up to push a lock of your hair behind your ear, “no one will bother us, promise.”
Completely stunned by his bold proposal, it took you a few seconds to decline, “sir. I-… I’m gonna go back to work now…” then slowly picked up the now empty cardboard box and exited the room, leaving Sirius alone to pick up the pieces.
“She’s new… I want her.”
That was all Sirius had uttered to his friends before making his way over to hit on the new girl, occupied restocking the bar.
Now standing there, alone and blinking hard, not understanding why his usual charm hadn’t worked on you, he heard his friends come up behind him.
“How did it go? You meeting her in the bathroom or what?”
“She turned me down…” he was still frozen, staring out the door you’d disappeared through, with a stunned smile on his lips and a determent glint in his eyes. His words didn’t sound unhappy, simply surprised and even a little amused.
“That’s nice, good for your health to be turned down by a pretty face such as hers. Also means you are in fact human after all,” Remus pulled out his box of cigarettes and swiftly tugged one into the corner of his lips to lite it, “so, that’s nice to know…” noticing the look in Sirius’s eye, “come on,” he wrapped an arm around his neck, “we’ll just go out tonight. Get you nice and pussy drunk. That’ll make you forget her in no time, promise.”
“Funny seeing you here,” you didn’t even bother to look up as the slightly familiar voice found your ears.
“Yeah,” you kept your eyes on the list in your hand just a little longer, “it’s almost like I work here or something.”
Finally glancing up, you met the intoxicatingly dark eyes of none other than Sirius Black, “you’re funny…”
“So,” you started moving along, not letting his bugging hold you back from executing your work, “is there anything I can do for you, sir?”
His long legs made it a piece of cake for him to follow along with you, “go out with me.”
Stopping your stride, you sighed, “Mr Black-”
“Please, call me Sirius,” he interrupted you with all the charm in the world.
“Mr Black, excuse me for being blunt but when will you get the hint?”
“Y/n, hey!”
This dude really doesn’t quit.
“You know my name now,” you couldn’t stop your eyes from rolling even if you wanted to.
“Yeah, well I asked around a bit about you. That was just one of the many tantalising facts I learned about you,” he winked, and you tried your best to ignore the butterflies that cheap trick had successfully sent fluttering throughout your stomach.
Moving to leave the room, he swiftly blocked the door, making you see nothing but his annoying smirk, “seriously dude, what will it take for you to just leave me alone?”
“Go out with me,” he shrugged lightly and crossed his arms.
“No.”
“Why not?”
Feeling like you might explode if he didn’t get out of the way, you exclaimed, “because I’m not I’m not gonna sleep with you!” your eyes grew a bit wider at the proclamation you’d let slip out.
“Oh really?” he simply smiled, clearly just taking it as another challenge.
Squeezing your eyes shut, you hoped that the conversation would get less uncomfortable if you couldn’t see his jaw-dropping visage anymore, “yeah, I’ve heard what people say about you.”
Completely loving it, he clearly took that as a good thing, “really?”
“Yeah, well it’s like a fucking ghost story around here, so I didn’t have much of a choice. You’re just that kind of guy and that’s fine! But you just need to know, all that charm, it won’t work on me, so you might as well just turn around now. I am not just gonna be another notch in your belt, another hot new little thing for you to pass the time with, okay?”
Eyes still shut, you thought for a second he had left with how long he took to answer you, “okay, fine.”
“Fine?” you finally blinked your eyes open.
“Fine,” he smiled, “I won’t sleep with you.”
“Great!” you threw up your arms and moved to exit the room, though he stepped in front of you again, leaning down to be at your height.
“I mean, it’s probably gonna be really hard for you to resist after the date I’ve got planned out, but sure, if you don’t want to.”
Gnawing the corner of your bottom lip for but a moment, you gave out, “if I say yes to go on a date with you, one date, will you leave me alone?”
Face only inches from your own, his smile grew wider as he agreed, “deal.”
“Mr Black! Welcome back, sir,” not only the security guard but also an older gentleman in a crisp suit had greeted you both at the entrance of the unusually vacated museum, “enjoy your evening.”
“Thank you, Henderson,” Sirius politely shook his hand before planting it on the small of your back, guiding you further inside.
Glaring up at him as if he was an alien, he finally questioned your gaze, “what?”
“What are we doing in here?” you spoke in a near whisper, “the museum closed like 2 hours ago.”
“Yeah, well,” he shrugged, climbing the big stone steps that lead up towards the first exhibit, “my family’s a big donator to this place, so I just pulled a few strings.”
Fighting the urge to roll your eyes, you simply followed him into the first breathtaking room and breathed out, “okay…”
Even if the company was somewhat challenging, you couldn’t deny how the beauty hung up all around you made the evening at least tolerable. Your little art heart was too weak not to swoon at the sight of all the impressionistic pieces that were on display in this season's unique exhibit. Iconic pieces you could have only dreamed about studying this close.
After a surprisingly long while where Sirius miraculously shut up and simply let you roam and relish in the paintings, you took a deep breath and decided to actually make the smallest of efforts to test if your companion did in fact have any more depth than a teaspoon.
“So,” you started as he settled in beside you, his dark eyes washing over the landscape in front of you, “you’re home from uni for a bit?”
“Yep,” he buried his hands in the pockets of his black trousers, “oxford.”
You felt so strong for not just bolting in the opposite direction. “You’re an oxford man?” you scoffed, “should have figured…”
“Like my father was and his father before him,” he added rather coldly, sounding like this was a rehearsed reply that pained him to recite.
“What do you study?”
“Business,” he kept his answer short.
“Oh yeah?” you glanced over, trying to break through and see if his outsides matched his insides, “is it fun?”
Brows furrowing, he turned to meet your gaze, “what does that have to do with it?”
“You don’t enjoy your major?”
“It’s just,” he inhaled deeply, uncomfortably trying to end this specific chat, “school, you know?”
“No, I actually don’t,” you informed him, slowly moving towards the next painting.
“No?” he followed.
“I don’t go to school,” you informed.
“You don’t?”
“No.”
“Oh, okay…” he averted his gaze, but still felt the need to explain his confusion, “I knew you liked art, so I just kinda assumed that you went to school for that or something…”
“Why bother paying a ridiculous amount of money in order to learn about something that I’m already really good at? No one is gonna deny me the right to create art just because I don’t have some fancy degree in it. If it’s a masterpiece, then it’s a masterpiece.”
“Yeah, I guess so…” you could tell how foreign your words were to him, “so that’s what you do for a living? You paint?”
“It doesn’t pay the bills, but that’s not really the point now is it?” you reflected with a small smile, “just because it’s what I do doesn’t mean I earn a large profit from it, if any at all.”
For a moment, he just went quiet, staring at the many paintings with a slightly glossed-over look in his eyes. You were trying to catch his glances, read what it was that was going on inside that head of his, but your timid attempt at finding a new topic to blossom suddenly became the most effortless task in the world the second that he casually rolled his sleeves all the way up to his elbows.
“Wait, you have tattoos?” tumbled out of you as soon as you spotted the ink.
“Yeah,” he gave a small shrug.
“How did I not know that?” you asked, sounding genuinely interested.
“Guess my pretty face was just a bit too distracting for you to notice,” he winked, regaining a bit of his usual confidence, “do you have any?”
“Yeah, a few. Though they’re just some stick-and-poke ones one of my friends gave me.”
“Aw, my first tattoo was a stick-and-poke one! I was 15 and it was at boarding school in the bathroom,” he remembered fondly.
“Oh yeah? Your parents must have loved that,” you chuckled.
“Oh, they don’t know.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, well, clothing can hide a lot and they only really see me a handful of days out of the year anyways, so… what they don’t know won’t hurt them.”
Maybe he wasn’t so terrible after all… After finding a sliver of common ground, the rest of the conversation just flowed after that, making the remainder of the evening not just tolerable, but even enjoyable.
Nearing the end of the tour, you felt his shoulder lightly bump yours, “you like it?” ripping you out of the trance the art piece in front of you had induced.
“I mean, it’s a Monet,” you gestured towards it, finding his question a bit silly, “I think it’s physically impossible not to like it.”
“Darling, I wasn’t talking about the painting,” he clarified, smiling warmly down at you.
“Oh,” you looked up at him and couldn’t help but be blatantly honest, even if it meant that you had been wrong, “yeah, I guess it wasn’t half bad…” then cast your vision back on the painted pond and added as casually as you could muster, “but we are so not doing anything like this next time.”
“Next time?”
“I swear to god,” you sighed, shutting your eyes, “if you don’t shut up in less than two seconds, I won’t hesitate to change my mind. You were just starting to grow on me.”
“Yes, ma’am, wouldn’t dream of it, I’m just standing here, looking at the art,” you heard him smile and peeped your eyes open to find him boldly still staring at you.
“You sure we’re allowed to be up here?” Sirius asked, following you up the last bit of the clinking metal staircase in the seemingly abandoned factory you’d without context dragged him into.
“Oh, don’t tell me that you're scared,” you playfully glanced over your shoulder at him, “doesn’t your daddy’s lawyer always bail you out of all the shady fun you and your friends get into?”
“Who exactly do you think we are?” he scoffed lightly, though didn’t deny your claim.
“So, you’ve never committed a petty crime before? A party animal like you?”
“I have never done anything wrong in my entire life,” he shot back sarcastically.
“Right you haven’t,” you chuckled, trying without success to bust open the rusty door, putting all your weight into it, “give me a hand, would you?” you requested breathlessly, his frame quickly following your command, stepping right up beside you, readying his shoulder and waiting for your go, “okay, one, two, three!” you both gave it a big shove, making it fly open and reveal not only the factory’s small, flat rooftop but also the most breathtaking view of the city’s skyline and the rabidly disappearing sun.
Seemingly not impressed by the dingy surroundings, Sirius grumbled, “now do I get to know what we are doing tonight?”
“No sense of adventure…” you sighed teasingly, “I’m not telling you, you’ll have to find out yourself,” you sauntered over towards the small ledge by the section of the roof that sunk down a bit and had a bunch of vents and things. Taking a seat, you gestured to the cold concrete beside you and said, “now, sit.”
“You want me to sit?” he eyed the dirty surface mistrustingly.
“Yeah,” you smiled, patting the spot with your fingers, “come on, you can sit on my jacket if you’re such a wuss.”
“Oh my god, fine, I’ll sit down,” he moved towards you, “just keep your jacket. Don’t want you to freeze to death.”
“You don’t? That’s reassuring to know,” you jested as he carefully took a seat beside you, dangling his long legs over the edge.
“So… this is your big plan?” he asked, completely unimpressed, “sit on a filthy rooftop together?”
“Don’t mock when you don’t even know what it is yet,” you raised a defensive hand and then proposed confidently, “now, ask me a question.”
Furrowing his dark brows, he bit his lip in order not to stifle a laugh, “a question?”
“Yeah, you’ve got 20, so use them wisely,” you explained the childish game.
“Oh my god…” he groaned as he caught on, although still played along, “okay, is it a thing?”
“Yes.”
His pristine hair blew in the wind as his eyes scanned the city below for clues, “is it big?”
“No.”
“Am I physically close to it?”
“Yes.”
“Can I see it?”
“No.”
“Okay, so it’s small and close by, but I can’t see it…” he recited underneath his breath, “is it, fuck, I don’t know,” he grumbled, both completely over the game yet also way too invested to just quit immediately, “your phone in your pocket?”
“Good one, but no!”
“Fuck, I don’t know! Am I even close?”
“You are closer than you might think.”
“Can I just get a little bit more of a hint?” he pouted in your direction.
“Fine, it is within a meter of you.”
Head whipping around confused, “um, that’s literally just you. Is it you? Are you really calling yourself a thing right now?”
“No!” you snapped, slightly offended that he’d even think that, “just use your imagination for fuck sake. Don’t they teach you that at boarding school and fancy universities?”
Letting out a long exhale, he just kinda zones out a moment, genially scrambling for the answer and scanning every visible inch of you. “…I truly don’t know,” he then squinted his eyes at you, “was this some sort of test? Did I fail it?”
“No, calm down,” you pulled your backpack around to the front, ripping the biggest compartment open and fishing out a bottle of bargain beer for the both of you, “here,” you handed him one.
“What is this, a price for losing?”
“No, that was the thing,” you placed the corner of the bottle’s cap up against the hard edge below you and gave it a swift tap, effectively popping it off and sending a lava flow of bubbles soaring down the dark glass and soaking your hand.
“This was it?” he hesitated, but eventually mimicked your manoeuvre to open the lacklustre beverage.
“Yep,” making the last letter pop as you raised the bottle up towards your lips.
“You’re terrible at twenty questions,” he chuckled, taking a small sip.
“You’re the one who couldn’t figure the answer out!”
“Yeah, because there was no way I was ever going to be able to figure that out! You can’t just be like Bilbo and ask for a person to guess what’s in your pocket, it has to be something the other person would be able to figure out.”
“That’s never how I played it, but if you wanna go again, play by your rules, then go right ahead, I’ll guess this time.”
After the last of the beers, you’d brought with you were a thing of the past, after several rounds of that child-like play had flown by, the harsh chime of his phone interrupted your guessing of what you were pretty sure was the small spire visible in the horizon before you.
Like a reflex, he fished it out of his pocket, and you watched as the soft smile quietly vanished from his features as if it had never been there to begin with, snuffed out and forgotten like last season’s fashion. It hadn’t been the first time you’d witnessed his phone be a mood killer, it happened at least once whenever he had been in your presence.
“What is it?” you asked, tossing the game to the side to make room for the growing concern you simply couldn’t ignore any longer.
“It’s nothing,” you watched his face twitch slightly as he read the message that plainly bothered him. Taking a deep breath, he tugged it away in his jacket and circled back to the quickly forgotten game, “you, um, still have 4 more questions till you run out-”
“Sirius,” you cut him off, determined to figure out what was troubling him, “who was that?” not giving you an answer, he simply averted his gaze. “I’m not gonna tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about. Who do you think I know that I could spill all of your deep dark secrets to? My neighbour Mary who’s about 90? Oh yeah, she would have a field day, if she actually remembers to put her hearing aid in,” you joked, in an effort to get him to relax and open up, “come on, you can tell me.”
After a good long moment of him thoroughly biting his inner cheek, he finally spoke, “it was my dad. He wanted to remind me that I’m supposed to start sitting in on meetings beginning by tomorrow. Start doing my part for the family business and finally grow up. He wants me to follow in his footsteps. And I know that it must sound fascinating, running a huge company like that, but it truly isn’t. It’s just a bunch of long boring meetings with boring money-hungry people talking about boring numbers. It has absolutely nothing to do with the cars themself.”
“And that’s not what you want?” you asked softly.
“That’s not the point,” he uttered, sounding downright exhausted.
“Isn’t it? Do you want to follow in his footsteps?”
Staring out into nothing, he slowly let the truth slip out past his lips, “no...” the tiny word instantly hitting him like a truck, “fuck. I’ve never actually said that out loud before… I don’t wanna do that… I don’t know what it is that I want to do, but I sure as hell know it isn’t that. I don’t wanna become another soulless businessman like my father.”
“Can I ask you something?” you asked him gently.
“Sure.”
“Why are you still studying business if you know that’s not what you wanna do?”
Exhaling heavily, “because I think what scares me even more than this future they’ve got all mapped out for me is the unknown. I don’t know what will happen if I hop off the train, but at least I know what it looks like inside and I know where it’s headed.”
Without giving it a second thought, you reached out and took his hand in yours.
“You’ll get off. Might not be today, but someday you will.”
A soft smile spread across his lips as the stressful thoughts slowly melted away with the aid of your touch and he turned his attention back to the date. “I gotta admit, this wasn’t at all what I expected.”
“What did you think? That I was gonna take you to dinner at a michelin restaurant? Some day you will learn that money can’t buy you everything. I mean, just look at that view,” you nodded towards the blushing skies above, the sun now nearly disappeared down behind the many roofs of the city.
“Yeah,” he breathed, not taking his eyes off of you for a second, “it’s beautiful.”
Not soon thereafter, when the dark night started to bloom and the date was due to end, you took him up on his adorably chivalrous offer and let him walk you back home. However, when you reached the outside of your building, he wasn’t the only one anymore that wasn’t ready to part ways yet. When you fumbled with the keys and he eagerly asked, “could I maybe walk you all the way in to your front door?” all you did was nod, because right now in this very moment, just one more minute of his charm was all you desired.
“Just what floor did you say you lived on?” he puffed from behind you once you’d reached the third floor of the old apartment building.
“I didn’t,” if you’d told him that you lived on the fifth floor, right underneath the roof in a tiny shoebox of an apartment, he properly wouldn’t have dared to climb the steep stairs with you. “And just because you're walking me to my door doesn’t mean you get to come inside, okay?”
“Got it.”
Even though he looked to be in phenomenal shape, you still noticed his attempt to hide how much of a tole this trek really was for him.
Once you finally reached the small dark door to your home, out of sight and out of mind down a narrow hallway, creaking it open, his eyes widened at the sight of your tiny apartment, “oh my god, that’s your apartment?” he didn’t even have to poke his head inside to be able to view every single millimetre, seeing as the whole flat in its entirety was probably the size of his bathroom.
“That’s my apartment,” you confirmed, not finding the size as jarring as he did.
“Is it even legal to live up here? Aren’t these attic rooms for storage or something?”
“They used to be, but now I promise it's totally above board.”
After letting out a small chuckle, he then took one last long look at you standing in the doorway, smiling warmly down at you, “I had a lot of fun tonight.”
“Yeah, me too,” you smiled, and when he then turned to take his leave, you stopped him, “hey Sirius?” still close, he turned around, “can I-, could I maybe-…”
Taking a step closer to you, he stared down at you and uttered, “what?”
“…can I kiss you?”
Not hesitating for even a second, probably just in case you would change your mind, Sirius bent down and boldly kissed you. The feel of his soft lips pressed against yours and his tongue confidently asking for entrance surprisingly didn’t increase your nerves, it minimised them. It felt oddly comfortable. Like you’d already done it a thousand times before.
“Goodnight,” he breathed out, lingering just a little longer.
“Night.”
The persistent knocks at your door finally came to a screeching halt as you swung it open and revealed the unexpected figure of Sirius.
“I need to talk to you,” he insisted, sounding out of breath, probably having sprinted up the stairs.
Furrowing your brows at the less-than-warm greeting, you asked, “Sirius? What are you doing here? It’s 11 o'clock at night,” pushing past you, the small stumble he took as he crossed over the threshold didn’t manage to escape your perception, “hey, what’s going on?”
“Everything’s going on!” he bellowed, making you quickly close the door behind him and cross your fingers that the walls in your building weren’t as thin as you feared if he was going to continue at this dramatic volume.
Whirling around to plant his unfocused eyes on you, you saw right through him and asked, “are you seriously drunk right now?”
Fully ignoring your question, he sank down onto your small couch and spoke wearily, staring out into your dimly lit home, “you messed everything up.”
“Excuse me,” you crossed your arms and closed your light robe a bit more to cover your less then modest pyjamas up, on the verge of just ripping the door open again so that you could kick him out, “I haven't done anything-”
“You messed up everything!” his unsteady eyes finally met your glare, “everything was just fine before I met you, there was a plan, a good plan,” he gesticulated with his right hand, “I didn’t see any problem with the plan till you had to show up and turn it all upside down,” you felt your heart start to sink as his intoxicated words impacted, “you ruined it all. You ruined me. For the first time in my life, the world is a truly terrifying place. It’s never been that way till you showed up,” you noticed his clenched jaw begin to quiver, “you are like a bright light, showing me just how dark my life actually is. I didn't ask for that perspective! I was perfectly fine just wandering around in the dark!”
“Sirius,” you reeled back, completely stunned by the tornado that had just interrupted your evening routine, “what are you-”
“You scare the shit out of me, Y/n,” he exclaimed, cutting your question off before it could fully form, “no girl has ever done that, except for you. Fuck, I love you! That terrifies me!” he sank down even further, nearly laying down at this point, overwhelmed by the storm brewing between his ears, “but what scares me even more is the thought of losing you.”
Completely stunned, you found your body slowly dropping down upon the mattress of your bed, sitting there at a complete loss for words, flabbergasted as you watched his low groans and curses gradually fade away until you picked up on how his breaths had slowed, and his lids had grown heavy, exhaustion snuffing him out like a flame.
Curled up on the windowsill, backlit by the morning sun, you raised your eyes from the sketchbook balanced on your bent knees, to reference the dark-haired man still passed out on your tiny couch.
Even after you’d not so silently riffled through your pantry this morning, checking to see if you had any resemblance of a hangover cure hidden away in there, he still slept like a baby, through all the crinkly bags and accidentally dropped containers.
Though now, as you weren’t really making any noise at all, simply emanating the silent scratching of your pen against paper, you saw him stir, inhaling sharply as he awoke.
“Morning sleepy head,” you tried to be mindful of your volume, the light wince your tone evoked from him clearly affirmed your suspicion of the horrible state the night before had put him in.
Craning his neck to look at you, he sat up, squinting in confusion as the bright morning light washed over him, “Y/n, what, um,” his voice sounded like it had been through a meatgrinder, “what am I doing here?”
“You don’t remember?” you sat the sketchbook down beside you but kept your seat in the window, merely shifted a bit.
“I-… Did something happen?” his palm lifted up to shield his mouth in worry, “did we-”
“Oh my god, no,” you got what he was hinting at and quickly cut in to correct him before your cheeks had a chance to turn an even brighter shade of red, “you showed up here last night, completely wasted.”
“Oh…”
“Yelled at me for a little bit and then you kinda just passed out.”
“Fuck…” he sighed, jaw clenching from guilt, “Y/n, I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, you should be,” you crossed your arms tightly across your chest, “what even happened last night? Were you just at some club and randomly decided to come and shout at me a bit?”
“I wasn’t out,” he shook his head, still not meeting your eye, “I was at this stupid party with my family, some fundraiser I think, and became maybe a bit too pissed and got into an argument with my dad,” taking a deep breath in, he spoke, “I told him that I’m dropping out of school and that I don’t want to take over the company.”
“Oh…” it nearly came out as a whisper.
Taking shelter behind his hands, he lightly ran them down his face, “I’m really sorry,” he said earnestly, “I shouldn’t have bombarded you like that. I don’t remember what I said, but you don’t deserve any of it.”
Every word he had uttered the night before still played on a loop inside your mind, “…none of it?”
“No,” he finally met your gaze, “not one.”
Your churning stomach tried to prevent the words from flowing out, but your now fully bloomed feelings eventually prevailed as you found yourself asking him softly, “not even the part where you told me you love me?”
© 2023 thyme-in-a-bubble
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