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Tweak says, "I live down at District X!"

Sirius O. Black (pad_foot) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-07-03 22:40:00

Entry tags:

ariadne, sirius black

Who: Sirius and Ariadne
What: Uncomfortable conversations and paint abuse.
Where: Ariadne's work.
When: This afternoon.
Rating: TBD. Swearing, almost definitely.
Status: In progress.

Sirius was leaning over the counter in the shop, his long arms draped over the surface with the kind of careless elegance that came naturally to him. He'd asked the bloke at the counter for Ariadne, who was apparently back in the stockroom (probably just to be difficult) but was being fetched. As he waited, the animagus swept his hair from his eyes, his attention drifting quickly over to tubes of paint that were arranged a little distance away, lined up in a rainbow of cylinders. Sirius fished his wand from his back pocket and summoned a tube of Gryffindor red over, catching it neatly and trying not to think of Lily's face as she told him he didn't have to use magic for every little thing.

Sirius unscrewed the cap, squeezing a drop of the vivid red paste onto his fingertip. He hadn't been sleeping too well these last few nights (Or even less well than he usually did.), finding himself jarring awake in the middle of the night with cold sweat on the back of his neck and the bedsheet twisted around him like a straightjacket.

Maybe he just missed Remus, but that thought made him feel so bloody pathetic he rather fancied the idea of crawling into a hole and hiding there until his balls grew back. He didn't even have James to talk to, which was just as bad. Without the pair of idiots he called his best mates, he was starting to find himself at something of a loose end. There was only so much flirting he could do before he got bored, after all, surprising as that was. He didn't think he'd hit that particular marker for a while.

Suddenly there was a person stood un front of him. Sirius look up sharply, then greeted Ariadne with his usual lazy grin. "Alright trouble?" Before she could do anything, he reached out with his painty finger and left a bright red smear across the bridge of her nose. "I'm bored."

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labyrinthine
2011-07-04 06:47 pm UTC (link)

Sometimes Ariadne felt as though all the men in her life had been specifically designed to test her patience. Alternately, it said something really weird about her taste that all the men she was closest to enjoyed pushing her buttons. Sirius was probably the worst, though, as he didn't make it up to her. But she was still quite fond of him. Even if it was hard to remember that at the moment.

"I know I look good in red," she said, tossing the crumpled paper towel at him. "Why do you think I wear it so often?" She came over and leaned against the counter, poking his knee.

"Things are okay, I guess. Or as okay as they can be when I can't see or touch either of my boyfriends. Which is creepy as hell. But other than that they're fine." Ariadne looked up at Sirius, past the paint and the smirk. "How are you doing?" He had more people to miss, after all.

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pad_foot
2011-07-04 11:42 pm UTC (link)

Sirius grinned and absently unfolded the wad of paper towel she'd chucked in his direction, adding another dab of paint to his finger and beginning to draw a stick man across the surface. He glanced up as Ariadne poked his knee, smirking at the sight of her with the remains of paint on her nose.

"Missed a bit," he grinned, pointing with his not-painted finger before using it to dab it off. Sirius grinned as if he didn't have warpoint decorating his features, then turned back to his painting. Or his attempt at a painting, which McGonagall would say looked like a drunk spider had fallen into his inkwell then trekked halfway across the page. And then died. And exploded. Sirius nodded absently at Ariadne's words.

"I'm fine," he shrugged. "I hung out with Gwen and Abigail the other day. Morgana. Lexi and Elena..." Sirius shook his curtain of dark hair from his eyes to peer across at her. "Bit weird not talking to Prongs and Moony. Don't think I've gone more than a few days without talking to James since I was eleven. I mean... You know... when we're on the same planet."

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labyrinthine
2011-07-07 10:52 am UTC (link)

Ariadne made another face, then watched him. It made her miss Eames even more; the forger was always doodling something ridiculously impressive, or painting something beautiful. And he kept the paint on the canvas and not on her face.

"It's very hard being attractive and popular," she quipped, then caught the look on Sirius' face and softened. "I can see how weird that must be." Of course, Ariadne had happily left behind everyone she knew to go to university across the ocean. But she'd at least been able to keep in touch. And she'd become far too comfortable with Arthur and Eames always in her business - none of them were clingy, exactly, and their schedules overlapped in baffling ways, but she usually didn't go for a week without seeing them. "I think the worst part is knowing they're in the apartment but not being able to see them."

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pad_foot
2011-07-07 01:57 pm UTC (link)

"Well, it's a cross I have to bear," Sirius grinned cockily across at her. Making friends - or, at least, finding people to hang out with - had always come easily to Sirius. At least, when he wanted it to. Making enemies was also a skill of his when he felt like it. But company was never the issue. The issue tended to be finding people to keep him balanced and stable when his moods escalated, to act as an anchor.

"It's dead weird," he agreed, pulling his wand again as he finished his finger painting. " I can't even see them on the map or using the mirrors." Sirius pressed the tip of his wand into the centre of the painting, muttering in latin under his breath. The stick man twitched, then started to bound happily over the page. Sirius frowned as he examined it, his head cocked to one side wolfishly.

"My dreams are worse again," he commented quietly. Sirius felt a little surprised by the fact that he'd actually said it. It was the kind of thing that, up until a few months ago, he wouldn't have dreamed admitting to anyone but James and Remus. But Ariadne was... it was different between them because she'd seen it. She'd stood there with him and knew what it was he saw when he was asleep. Sirius slipped his thumb into his mouth to gnaw at a hangnail, glancing cautiously up at Ariadne then back down to the animated painting.

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labyrinthine
2011-07-08 11:32 am UTC (link)

Ariadne propped her elbows on the counter and rested her chin in her hands, watching him. Sure, he had loads of people to occupy his time, but how many of them would actually challenge him on things? Not many, she suspected.

"That's kind of creepy. You should be able to find anybody on the map, shouldn't you?" She watched the impromptu painting spring to life. "Hey, could you animate my blueprints so I could move them around? Rotate them for three-dimensional views? Or would it not work since I'm not magical?"

Her gaze snapped up when Sirius admitted to his current problem, and Ariadne watched him carefully. "Do you think it's because you're alone?" Unbidden, the mental image of Sirius surrounded by wreckage and the bodies of his friends rose up; it was something she would have chosen to forget if she could, simply because she had trespassed on something important. Ariadne wanted badly to touch him, but his current pose made that rather difficult. Patting his knee would have seemed silly. "Do... I mean, do you want us to try and help? The offer's still open, you know that."

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pad_foot
2011-07-08 02:33 pm UTC (link)

"Technically," he agreed. "I mean... I dunno about the other one. The one I've got is the one we made - with the apartments? Then Adam created one for James Sirius of the whole planet, and me and James charmed that to work the same. I'm guessing that one isn't working either..." He watched the stick figure run off one side of the page and appear again on the other, his scarlet fingerprint-blob of a head bobbing around confusedly. The animagus shrugged at Ariadne's next question.

"I could give it a go. You could see the paintings move when me and Prongs animated them, couldn't you?" He remembered, not that long ago, sneaking around the portrait gallery with sixteen-year-old Prongs, biting back laughter as a guard nearly fell over his own feet at the shock of being given the finger by some priceless bird in a silver frame. Sirius shook the sudden stab of lonliness away. "Don't see why we couldn't figure something out. You'd have to draw them first them explain them to me though."

"I dunno," came his next reply, short and tight. He really rather hoped that wasn't what had fuelled his sudden uprising of nightmares, because that probably made him the most pathetic sod in the history of the planet and he should probably go get his testicles cut off now, as he clearly didn't deserve them. Sirius was awkward enough when it came to his relationship with Remus, he didn't want to think he'd become one of those people. "I'm just out of sleeping draught," he decided, then glanced sharply up at Ariadne's offer. She was looking at him through large, probing eyes, and the expression in them made an embarrassed flush climb up Sirius' neck.

"No," was his automatic response. Then... "Yes. Maybe. I don't know. I don't-" Sirius bit down on his tongue to prevent himself rambling, narrowing his eyes in Ariadne's direction. Then he sighed. On the table, the stick figure was doing star jumps and Sirius' knee twitched agitatedly.

"I don't want to forget it."

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labyrinthine
2011-07-10 09:48 pm UTC (link)

Ariadne considered the running stick-figure and nodded. "We should try that sometime, then. And I wouldn't mind explaining them to you, although the illusions only work on the page and in the dream. If I tried to build a model of an impossible cube it would collapse. Obviously." That was why they were called impossible, after all.

"You know, muggles do have sleep aids too," she suggested. Not that she wanted Sirius to become addicted to Ambien or whatever, but a couple doses of a painkiller with a sleeping aid added in probably wouldn't hurt him. She hoped. After all, his liver probably resembled swiss cheese at this point. Did potions damage internal organs in the same way? Sirius probably wouldn't have any idea.

When his knee jumped, Ariadne laid a hand on it as if to steady him. "You wouldn't forget it. As far as I know we can't Obliviate people. But we can help you deal with what you're seeing, help put your head in order so you don't have the same things come up anymore. It's worth trying, isn't it?" This time she might not be able to change the scene. But perhaps if she and Eames were there they could guide him through letting go of his guilt and rage. She hoped, anyway.

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pad_foot
2011-07-13 12:05 am UTC (link)

"Even with magic?" Sirius looked up, mildly interested. Not that he had any idea what an 'impossible cube' was or anything, but it sounded good. Sirius liked anything with an exciting or mysterious adjective. Still, at the comment about Muggle sleep aids, he pulled a bit of a face. Sirius was very good when it came to trying out Muggle stuff and making a complete mess of it, but he drew the line at their medicines and stuff. You couldn't trust a bunch of people who sewed each other up with needles and thread. It was insanity.

Just as he was contemplating this, there was a warm, gentle touch on his knee, and the young man glanced down, a mildly surprised expression touching against his features as he realised his leg was still moving. Sirius made a conscious effort to stop fidgeting (Although in reality it just changed position to his fingers, which were suddenly tapping against his thigh.) before looking back up at the girl stood before him. There was a very long silence, before Sirius released a breath.

"Just you and Eames?"

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labyrinthine
2011-07-14 02:42 am UTC (link)

That was intriguing. "I think so. I mean, they're figures that break the laws of physics. Optical illusions, in reality at least." Ariadne would have demonstrated, but she caught Sirius's change in expression as he suddenly stilled. She didn't realize she was holding her breath till Sirius exhaled, and then she almost sighed in relief.

"Just me and Eames, yeah." Arthur would just confuse Sirius's subconscious, and that would be less than helpful. If they needed someone to look like Regulus, then Eames could Forge it. And Sirius trusted the two of them. That was the most important part.

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pad_foot
2011-07-18 04:18 pm UTC (link)

Sirius went oddly quiet for a moment, a rare enough occurance for it to feel a little uncomfortable. He dragged his tongue absently along his top teeth, his jaw pressing into a hard, sharp angle as he considered. They'd been trying to convince him for a while, and he'd immediately dismissed it. But then Ariadne had seen his nightmares anyway, and she hadn't mentioned them again or used them against him. As far as he knew she hadn't breathed a word to anyone.

And then there was Eames, who Sirius really hoped he could trust. he was sure he could. But then Sirius trusted - really trusted - so rarely it was a loaded question. But the older man would obviously do anything for Ariadne, and if he could trust her not to let anyone else find out... Sirius thought he'd probably die of embarrassment if anyone found out what happened in his head after sunset. Hell, he hadn't even told Remus. Not properly. James knew, but then James knew everything so that wasn't saying a whole lot.

And he'd really like to sleep through a night without a Dementor, his Mother, Peter or his friends' corpses making him start awake.

"Okay," Sirius came to a decision, finally. "Okay. You can give it a go. Speak to Eames when you see him again, I guess." Sirius clicked his tongue uncomfortably, then slipped off the counter, putting the piece of furniture between them. There was an awkward silence, before he pushed the dancing drawing towards her. "Here. Present."

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labyrinthine
2011-07-23 12:07 am UTC (link)

His acquiescence was almost a surprise to Ariadne. Sirius was stubborn as hell, private as the CIA, and exceptionally good at wriggling out of situations that required honesty and acknowledging complicated truths. She was so shocked she almost asked him if he meant it. Instead she settled for a smile and took the drawing, glancing down at it and giggling.

"I will. Whenever that is. Say hi to him for me if you see him, though, okay?" Her smile was a little crooked, and she looked back down at the waving paint. "And thanks. I will treasure it forever."

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