good things fall apart • sirius black

Care

"Yeah?" Sirius asked to make sure she was telling the truth. Ellie nodded, "And what are your thoughts on it?"

"Well, considering the fact that no one's told me what I'm supposed to do or where I'm supposed to go, pretty shitty."

"I'm gonna go and speak to Dumbledore tomorrow." Sirius pursed his lips in concern.

Ellie kissed his shoulder.

"You don't need to do that for me, I'll figure it out."

"We'll figure it out together." Sirius shuffled to wrap his arms around her, "I'm never going anywhere ever again. I promise that. Physically or mentally."

"I know you're not."

"It might take us some time but we'll heal together... You won't always feel lost and I'll learn not to flinch."

Sirius was right, but Ellie's heart still ached. Ached for all the wasted time they could've spent like this; ached in exhaustion over all of their battles. She envied James and Lily's relationship, however complicated that had been too, for it felt as if they were built to be perfect eventually. Of course they were a long way off getting together, but they had no other obstacles other than themselves. In many ways, the fact that Lily wouldn't just accept James' love frustrated the beautiful girl beyond belief. Her and Sirius had open wounds that wouldn't heal, the types that were surrounded by ugly purple bruises; they had nightmares that never gave them peace; they had scars from the darkest magic, the most deranged of people, the nastiest memories.

Their love could never be easy.

Reaching up as slowly as possible so that Sirius had enough time to see what she was doing, Ellie placed one hand on his cheek, bringing their foreheads together. He shut his eyes, taking a shaky breath that she heard as she brushed her nose against his.

"You'll tell me what happened with Flora one day, won't you?"

"One day, I just-" Sirius took another shaky breath, "Just right now I want to forget that she ever happened... I'm not ready to talk about it yet but I'm happy again with you. I'm always really happy with you, Persephone Eloise."

"Well, that makes me happy, 'cause guess what?" A smirk curled up the corners of Ellie's lips, "I love you."

"Then be my girlfriend."

Ellie's hand fell away from Sirius' face as she backed off, lips parting in shock. The night swallowed them whole for a while and nothing was spoken, but the stars continued to sparkle and the moon watched on. Both waiting for what the universe had been planning for a very long time.

Girlfriend - it seemed like such a ridiculous concept with everything going on, with everything that had happened before. Girlfriend - Ellie wanted to laugh in his face, say that the Blacks had tried to marry them off last year and he wanted something so trivial as a teenage relationship. Girlfriend - she'd thrown herself in front of dark magic for him and he still felt like he had to ask? There was so much ridiculousness in how important this moment felt when the first full moon with her as a Werewolf was upon them, when a war was swirling outside the walls of Hogwarts, when they'd lost family for the foreseeable future to childish arguments.

But still, Ellie's heart swelled. It swelled for his confidence, and she was stunned all the same. 

"W-what?"

"Be my girlfriend and let's do this properly." Sirius tried again, significantly less sure of himself now she'd hesitated. "You know I'd give up everything now and marry you on the spot, but that's a bit dramatic, even for me. So be my girlfriend... I promise I'll be able to say those three words back to you one day. I'll try my best to be everything for you."