InsaneJournal

To say Sirius had had a shitty day at work would be an understatement. Everything that could of gone wrong had, and had gone wrong in a bloody spectacular manner. Now all he wanted to do was crawl onto the sofa and have a drink and then maybe, if he wasn’t feeling like punching someone any more, go out and drag someone to a bar. But before all that he had to swing by James and Lily’s and collect a few things.

That was the problem with having them so close. Of course, Sirius loved it, having them just up a flight of stairs was always preferable to having them hidden away from some maniac Dark Lord. And he got to see James whenever he fancied. More or less. Lily did sometimes put a stop to that. But even so he did spend so much time there they seemed to have most of his possessions chucked around their living room. A lot of the time he wasn’t sure who’s flat he spent most of his time at.

Sirius didn’t bother to knock, just turned the handle and wandered straight into the Potter’s sitting room, looking around curiously. “Prongs?” he called out, “Evans?” There was no obvious reply straight away, and Sirius loped a little further in, peering over the back of the sofa. Not finding what he was looking for, the animagus gave a great huff and straightened up, his tone irritated as he called out once again. “Have you got my black jacket in here? It’s fucked off somewhere!”

Lily was craving chocolate cake like it was going out of stock. She had been since she woke up and had greatly dropped her few bars of chocolate in a bowl to melt. She had hoped that would help her get over the craving, wondering if maybe it was the chocolate topping, but it had only made it worse. So she had sent James out to go to the shop near by to deal with it. He was good to her, she knew that, and only grumbled if she sent him out at three in the morning to get a peach or something.When she heard the door open she finished tidying up in the bedroom, but the voice that called for her wasn’t who she was expecting.

“It’s over a chair in the kitchen,” she called out as she closed the wardrobe, walking out a few moments later. “You left it when you were over the other day.”

She had assumed he would be back at some point so there wasn’t really much of a point in worrying about it. He normally came here straight away when he realised something was missing.

Sirius was already trudging irritably into the kitchen when Lily emerged, looking around the room like the world had some mad evil plan to prevent him claiming his jacket back. “What are you on about?” he hollered. “No, it isn’t! I can’t.... oh.” He reached out, grabbing the jacket from where it was slung crookedly over one of the kitchen chairs. Shrugging it on over his t-shirt, Sirius stuck his hands into the pockets and felt like things might be looking up when he discovered a forgotten box of cigarettes abandoned there.

“Thanks.” He slipped the box back into the pocket as Lily finally appeared. “James about?”

“He’s out just now. Getting me cake.”

She walked into the kitchen leaning against the door frame as she watched him, her hand absently running along the bump that seemed to be even bigger all of a sudden. Okay she knew that would happen a lot but that didn’t matter, it still slightly annoyed her at times. At least it meant the baby was growing well and that was all that really mattered in the end. Smiling a little at Sirius, she pushed herself away from the door frame and back into the living room.

“You can hang about if you want to talk to him. He hopefully wont be long, I’ve been desperate for this cake all day,” she said with a laugh, picking up a magazine to settle on the couch with.

Sirius could help but roll his eyes. He was tired and grumpy and he had motorbike grease on the back of his neck through no fault of his own and he just wanted to kick around with James. He loved Lily, he really did, but it wasn’t the same as the easy, natural relationship he shared with her husband. He snorted a little, moving through to the living room where Lily had vanished.

“Don’t your legs work?” It was muttered under his breath but perfectly understandable. Sirius slouched against the door-frame where Lily had just been standing, arms crossing over the plane of his chest as he eyed her coolly.

“What?”

Had he really just said what she thought he had? Frowning, she put the magazine back on the coffee table as she turned to look at him. His stare was not the most welcoming in the world and Lily raised her eyebrow, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. What on earth had gotten into him today? Sometimes she swore he was more of a girl than his hair let on the way his moods swung.

“Yes of course they do, but James wanted to go get it for me. That’s what you do when you love someone, after all, you go do things for them when they’re not one hundred per cent.”

“Yes, thank you, Lily” Sirius scoffed, “Crippled and patronising today, are we?” He was suddenly very much in the mood for an argument. He wasn’t sure why - it was probably a build up of little things, not to mention it had been a good while since Sirius had really argued with anyone and it was all building up inside him like a wave, putting pressure on his chest. He stared challengingly across at the redhead, a proud tilt to his chin that made him look more like a Black than he was completely comfortable with.

“I just don’t get why you have to have him scurrying around after you like a fucking puppy all the time,” he remarked, pushing away from where he was slouched and uncrossing his arms, stuffing his hands into his newly-retrieved jacket pockets instead.


Lily was even more shocked by what he said next. Honestly, that really was no needed. Far from it. Had he really just called her a cripple in a way? She really would like to hit him quite hard, but it would take her a few moments to stand up. However her wand was certainly burning a hole in her pocket since she knew that her wand would be her best bet rather than her fists or foot since she couldn’t really get her foot where she would like to kick.

“You try being pregnant, you ignorant sod.”

Really, he knew that things weren’t easy. Her legs were cramping up, her back was killing her and her ankles were certainly three times the size than normal today. And if she wanted to ask her husband to go to the nearby shop and pick her up a cake she would. It was the least he could do since she was the one carrying the baby and would be the one to give birth.

“I don’t have him scurrying around. God, Sirius, just because you’re a child and don’t understand what it’s like to be in a serious and committed relationship,” she said as she pushed herself up to stand, her fists starting to clench.

Sirius gave a bark of angry, bitter laughter as Lily clambered to her feet. Things were sliding very quickly, and irritation bubbled under his skin like poison. The problem was that Lily and Sirius both had famous tempers, neither willing to back down or shy away. And it had been less than five years ago that they’d absolutely hated each other. Screaming matches like this across the common room had been a regular occurrence when James and Lily had first started seeing each other, often for no reason at all.

“I know it can’t be brilliant when one person can’t even fucking breathe without the others permission!” he snapped back, his voice still not shouting but not quiet either, balanced on a fine line somewhere between. “Merlin, you’re so fucking selfish sometimes.”

“What?!” Oh she’d kill him. She’d bloody kill him and enjoy it.The bloody, stupid twat that he was. How dare he say that?! In no way did she smother her husband, nor was she selfish. Far from it and she knew it. If she was selfish James would never get to see his idiot of a best friend at all. God she was insane for thinking Sirius actually accepted her, even after all this time.

Her fingers flexed a little as her eyes narrowed to glare across at him. She just wanted to jinx him, hurt him in some way, but she was giving him a chance. He had one more chance then she refused to hold back anymore. Hell if he got any worse she would forget all that stuff about not being able to because of the baby and go over there and kick his arse.

“Take that back, you bloody idiotic arsehole!”

“Controlling bitch!”

Sirius bellowed the final word across the room. He didn’t mean it. Not really. Or maybe he did, in that moment but it wasn’t a feeling that would stay around much longer than his temper, which was currently flaming. Sirius was remarkably good at not thinking things through, especially when he was in a mood like this, and the irritation that had until moments ago been singing through him had distorted into genuine anger, which bloomed and blossomed painfully in his chest. He glowered across at Lily over the room. Where the redhead’s hands had curled into fists, every muscle in Sirius’ long body seemed to be wound impossibly tight, holding the tension and anger like a coiled spring.

“Childish pig!” she screamed back at him.

She would kill him. She really would. She took a few steps closer to him, daring him to say anything else. Even better, daring him to lash out like he normally would if his anger took him there. She was afraid in case something happened to the baby, but she wasn’t going to let him be put at danger. She would do what she could to protect him and Sirius really wouldn’t do anything to hurt the baby, right?

“You know I don’t know why Remus stays with you. He deserves someone so much better than a boy who can’t keep it in his pants.”

Sirius physically recoiled from those last few words, his mouth opening slightly in a silent yell of outrage, brow crumpling in a scowl. He would have actually said something back - probably something filled with swears and completely out of order - but his temper seemed to have manifested as a solid little ball in his throat, silencing his voice. That was the problem of arguing with your best friend - they knew exactly what to say, which raw nerves would hurt most when jabbed. And to have that insecurity used against him... Sirius’ whole body seemed to be too hot, burning up from the inside out.

Normally he would have snapped by now, physically or magically. But she was pregnant, he forced himself to remember. Pregnant with Harry. So Sirius bit down hard enough on the inside of his cheek to taste blood and took a deep, shaking breath through his nose, nostrils flaring angrily. Two spots of furious colour had appeared on the high slopes of his cheekbones.

“You’re so fucking pathetic,” he hissed at her, speaking through clenched teeth. And then, because he couldn’t trust himself to stay here any longer, he turned to leave.

The second he turned his back her wand raised, a jinx leaving her lips before she could even think about it. Suddenly he had a pumpkin for a head and it took her back for a moment. No this was good, a brilliant way to get back at Sirius. Mess up his hair. After a few seconds she stopped the jinx but made sure that bits of pumpkin would stay in that stupid hair of his.

“Didn’t anyone tell you if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all?” she asked him, her voice low before another jinx left her lips. “Langlock!”

Severus had made that one up. Keeps the other person’s tongue attached to the roof of their mouth. For a moment she couldn’t believe she had turned to something Severus had taught her, but she wasn’t going to think much on that. No. Sirius deserved it.

There was a brief second where everything went dark, and then he was back and he really bloody stunk of pumpkin and there was something cold and wet and gloopy sliding down his neck from his hair, pooling in his collar. Sirius whirled back to face Lily, orange pulp stuck to his nose almost comically as he opened his mouth to yell again. Only before he could his tongue was stuck to the roof off his mouth and all he managed to was strangled noise that sounded oddly like ‘glerk’.

She really was a complete bitch, Sirius decided. Only the only method he currently had to put this livid thought into words was a furious glower and a very expressive hand gesture, both of which he manged to express quite effectively.

Red mist seemed to be curling at the edges of his vision, his breath coming quick and short, his heart pounding blood loudly through his ears. Every nerve seemed heightened, making him aware of every inch of his skin. Sirius, in a moment of remarkable clarity, decided he should leave before he punched a hole through James’ sitting room wall. Giving the redhead one last glare, Sirius turned and strode out the flat, letting the door slam loudly behind him.