Sirius wasn’t entirely certain how he’d annoyed Molly so deeply that reparations were necessary. All he’d done was banter the way he always did, which most of his friends seemed to be more than fine with. Many people found it charming, even.

Honestly, maybe it was those pregnancy hormones she was always talking about.

Regardless, he didn’t like the thought of Molly Weasley being seriously irritated at him, not at all, enough so that he was willing to make said reparations even if he wasn’t entirely sure that he’d actually done anything wrong. Discretion was the better part of valor, or whatever nonsense bookish types were always saying, after all. Butterbeer and pastries were a small price to pay for the good graces of his second mother (second, after Euphemia Potter; Walburga didn’t deserve to be in the count.)

And so he gathered a six-pack of the former and a parcel of the latter and Floo’d into the Burrow, calling out a cheerful “Delivery!” in greeting as he came through so as not to startle anyone too terribly.

Bill was at the kitchen table looking at Arthur’s old school books and some Gryffindor memorabilia. He only jumped a little when Sirius came through the fireplace and grinned immediately. “Sirius! Did you know Mum is taking me on a tour of Hogwarts next week? We’re gonna meet Headmaster McGonagall and even go into Hogsmeade with Uncle Fabian and Gideon.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially to add, “And no one else gets to go but me.” He seemed quite proud of the last.

“Bill!” Sirius replied, sounding just as pleased to see the boy as the boy sounded to seem him. “I did not know that! Lucky fellow, you, I’m jealous. You should make sure to make your uncles take you for a butterbeer. Do not let them say ‘no,’ d’you hear me? I think as uncles taking you to Hogsmeade, they’re legally obligated.”

He grinned and set his things down on a counter. “Where’s your mum?”

The young man grinned widely. “Of course they will. Why else would we go to Hogsmeade?” At the mention of his mother, he shrugged. “Probably crying while she changes Ron’s nappy.”

Molly chose that opportune moment to show up in the kitchen and glare at her eldest son with Ron on her hip. “William Arthur.” The words were quiet and even but the threat loomed in them all the same.

“Sorry, Mum.” He stood up slowly and glanced around the room like he was lost before saying, “I’m just gonna go upstairs,” and bolted from the room.

With a short sigh, Molly hefted Ron onto the table and he pulled an old Gryffindor pennant flag into his mouth to chew on. “Hey, love,” she directed at Sirius.

“Were you crying while changing nappies?” Sirius asked, and then quickly threw up his hands. “Joking! That was a joke. I brought you sweets! Ron, quit chewing on that.”

Molly glared half-heartedly at her cousin, but she didn’t reply to that. Instead she was excited to see the pasties and butterbeer. “Oh thank Merlin,” she groaned and was already descending on the counter. She cast a spell over her shoulder to keep Ron from wandering off the edge of the table while she stuffed pasties into her mouth.

Sirius chuckled and absolutely did not comment on the enthusiasm with which Molly was devouring his offerings. No need to invite death or maiming, here.

Rubbing absently at his neck, he watched the redhead eat with a grin. “There. Do you forgive me for being irritating now?”

Molly opened a butterbeer and maybe drank half the contents of it before addressing Sirius. “It isn’t like you’re ever going to stop being obnoxiously obtuse.” She leaned against the counter a bit as she eyed her cousin. “At least not any time soon.”

“Probably not,” Sirius admitted with a one-shouldered shrug. “But would you recognize me if I changed? You'd think I was a Polyjuice imposter. You'd call the DMLE on me. Course,” he added wryly, “given their response time, I'd probably get away.”

“Anyway,” Molly said, rolling her eyes. “I wasn’t looking for an apology, just some bloody honesty. But also food. Your schedule is more flexible than Arthur’s and I don’t want to bother him with my cravings. Lucky I’ve got you to bother instead.”

When she finished eating a few more pasties at the counter, she sat down at the table and lifted the enchantment on it so Ron could crawl over to her and start tugging at her hair and babbling about the pennant he held. “How’s Hogsmeade since the Mark showed up? I gather there hasn’t been any news.”

Shaking his head, Sirius followed and took his own seat. “No. The village has been sort of subdued, but it's going back to normal, really. No news, no actual death, it's easy to think it was a nasty prank.”

His expression said quite clearly that he didn't agree with that assessment.

She wasn’t particularly surprised that whatever had happened in the village hadn’t been investigated to the fullest yet and it made her particularly uneasy about the idea of bringing Bill there, but if she had Gideon and Fabian with her she couldn’t exactly be too worried about something happening to him. They were both in the Order after all, not to mention that they would protect Bill with their lives if need be. Of that she was certain.

Molly looked over at her cousin while temporarily lost in her thoughts but they derailed as soon as she discerned the darkish coloured bruise on his neck. “What the--” she trailed off and grabbed Sirius’ chin in one hand, turning his head to the side to see the mark better. “You bleeding liar,” she accused even as a smirk formed on her face.

Sirius had no particular shame about the mark on his neck, and when Molly grabbed his chin he didn't try to shake her off. He did, however, glance sideways at her, grinning.

“Not a liar,” he protested, looking not at all distressed. “I'm very truthful, me. Pretty, innit?”

If Molly started to keep count, there was probably an exuberant amount of eye rolls when she was around Sirius. Though that wasn’t exactly surprising. Nor was this, really. “So are you shagging him now?”

Sirius rolled his eyes right back. “Shagging who? And also, I'm not going to give you details of my hook-ups, Molls, Merlin. And definitely not in front of a baby.”

“I didn’t ask you for details, I just asked if you were shagging Remus.” She had to laugh at that comment. “Are you worried Ron’s going to tell? He slept beside our bed when we made this one, y’know.” Molly patted her stomach with an amused grin on her face.

Well. That was disturbing. Sirius's nose wrinkled. “Isn't he...you know, impressionable? And that?”

Molly lifted Ron off the table to set him on the floor with a cushioning charm around him so he could wander freely. “Are - you - shagging - your - best - mate?”

“No,” Sirius said with complete sincerity. They had not, in fact, shagged, after all. “No, I am not shagging Remus. More's the pity, lad could do with a good shag.”

“But you’re snogging him now.” Molly said without asking this time. She couldn’t fathom Sirius breaking his dry spell with anyone else considering how he acted around his friend. And how Remus acted around Sirius.

Sirius gave Molly a Look. He didn't want to lie to her, but actually admitting to it seemed like a bad idea. He wasn't sure why. Nor did he want to examine that feeling. “I don't understand why you're so convinced of this theory,” he said, sounding grumpy. “Moony and I are friends.”

She shook her head easily. “Because I’ve gone through the same thing and I know what it looks like. I can see it on your face just as I saw it on mine years ago.” She paused for a moment before adding, “Also I’m not an idiot, Sirius. I spent the first two decades of my life trying to delude people too. You can’t fake a faker.”

“I'm not going through anything,” Sirius grumbled. “I did all my going through years ago. From now on it’s smooth sailing. And snogging my best friend would be REALLY stupid, huh?”

That last bit came out more plaintively than he intended.

There were plenty of things Molly could say to address the first bit of Sirius’ statement, but it was smarter at this point to let that go. She tried for a nonchalant shrug. “It might be stupid. It might not be stupid. It generally depends on the two people involved. Things worked out alright for us in the end.” Molly put her hand on her cousin’s arm for a moment. “Nobody knows for certain what will happen in these situations.”

“Yeah, well, you don't have a particular skill for fucking up relationships, do you?” Sirius muttered, glancing down at the hand Molly had briefly put on his arm and then away again. “It would definitely be stupid if I was snogging Moony. I'm aware of that.”

If she wasn’t worried about Sirius losing his temper she would have laughed. “I absolutely had that particular skill. I still do. I just happen to have an extremely patient partner who loves me in spite of my idiocy.” It surprised her sometimes to realise how similar she and Sirius could be. “Love, it’s not stupid. It’s just a very… precarious situation that requires, er… a sort of specific type of handling. Like thoughtfulness.” Merlin, when had she started giving advise like this? She sounded loony.

Sirius gave Molly an incredulous look. “Is that supposed to make me feel better? I- you've met me, right? Thoughtfulness?”

He shook his head, rubbed a hand across his face. “I mean, hypothetically. It wouldn't hypothetically make me feel better.”

Molly groaned and dropped her motherly pretense -- it seemed that sort of thing only worked on children under the age of twelve. “Alright, look. You’re an idiot so all I’m saying is that if you want this to work out well then you need to be less of an idiot.” While straightforward, it didn’t really explain much. “Stop trying to bloody avoid every single feeling you might have and let yourself be a real human being sometimes.”

“That is frankly a little offensive,” Sirius muttered. “I'm bloody well real. Don't be an arse. And anyway,” he hesitated before pushing on, Gryffindor-like, “easy for you to say. People like you when you have feelings. Except when you're angry. No one likes when you're angry, it's terrifying.”

“Sorry,” she quipped back, sincere but short. “And who doesn’t bloody like you when you have feelings? All I ever try to do is to get you to tell me how you sodding feel, Sirius, and you avoid it like spattergroit. The only one who doesn’t like you having feelings is you.”

That statement was met with a dark look, and Sirius did not answer the question. This was why he liked being Padfoot. Nobody asked dogs questions or tried to get them to talk things out or admit to anything. If only Padfoot was an option here.

“Butterbeer,” he announced, standing to go get one from the counter. As distractions went it was not one of his better ones.

The silence that followed was short lived. Ron started to laugh and clap on the floor before crawling after Sirius and tugging on his leg. Molly sighed. “Okay, consider the subject dropped,” she held her hands up in defense.

Sirius stooped to pick Ron up and settle him on a hip. “No, you can't have any butterbeer,” he informed the little boy, “but maybe Mum will let you eat some pastry. You'll have to ask her. If she's done asking me questions that make me feel like I haven't got any skin, all...eurgh. Exposed.”

Which was the best explanation he could give for why he hated these conversations so much.

Yes, Molly understood the feeling. Yes, she’d had it herself. No, that wouldn’t make her stop talking to him about it in the long run. But yes, she would stop for now. “I’m done! I said I’m done!” she chided playfully. “He can have one. No, maybe half of one. I’m growing a person over here.” Molly gestured at her stomach.

“So is he,” Sirius pointed out, tearing a pastry in ‘half’ and handing rather the bigger part to the baby, who took it with a crow of triumph and in so doing unbalanced and sat back down on his nappy-padded behind. Sirius chuckled at the look of surprise on Ron’s face. “He’s growing himself.”

He took two butterbeers and came back over to the table to pass one to Molly. “Look, don’t tease...anyone but me about this, will you? I haven’t actually told you anything at all, for one, so you haven’t got any proof.”

Molly eyed Sirius’ neck for a moment with a pointed gaze before she looked back at his face. “Right, of course. No proof at all.” She took a drink from her bottle before speaking again. “That is a tall order, but I love you, so I’ll comply. And teasing you is far more fun for me anyhow.”

Sirius shrugged one-shouldered. “I’m fooling around with someone, sure, you can mock that all you want. But you don’t have proof of who.” She obviously knew anyway, but that was beside the point. “So don’t take the mickey out of anyone else. Is all I’m asking. Thanks, Molls.”

Well he was at least taking some consideration with the matter, even if he was trying to remain oblique. That was sort of a step in the right direction. Molly raised her hands in defense again. “I got it, love. I’m not saying a word to anyone.” She offered him a small smile. “Just remember that I’m here. If you need to er, talk… about anything. Nondescriptively, of course.”

Sirius’s smile was a little tight, but it was a smile. Admitting to any nerves would have been an invitation for Molly to try to get into it again, and he wasn’t going to do that. Still, he did appreciate the offer. “You just want me to bring more sweets by,” he replied rather than say so out loud. “Admit it. You love me for my delivery service.”

Molly nodded in response, letting him have his way. For now. She’d learned which battles to fight and which to concede. She smirked a little. “If we’re being honest, it’s the only reason I let you come round still. You’re a bloody menace at the best of times.”

At that, Sirius’s grin went brighter and more real. He did so love being called a menace. “Aww. Flattery,” he replied, smug. “Ta, love. You know me well.”