Paisley Higgs | (Sirius Black)

Chapter 6- You're Allowed To Call Me an Arsehole

My face burned and my stomach turned to static.

I didn't mean to scare him. I just didn't want him to break the artifact.

He composed himself quickly, however, and slowly looked back at the heap of metal. "Good call—probably jinxed."

Jinxed?

"But that's not why I—"

"Come on, let's get out of here."

"But I—"

"There's a dress shop down the road right next to Quality Quidditch Supplies—You can look around while I pick up some gear," he said, flipping through a dusty book on werewolves of the Middle Ages, eyeing it critically.

I didn't want to go to a dress shop.

I didn't even like dress shops.

I wanted to stay where I was.

My protest rose in my throat... but in my throat is where it stayed... because I am merely anxiety clothed in human.

He closed the book with a thump that sent dust particles wizzing around the alcove and I felt his eyes on me once more. "What's with the face?"

I blinked up at him. "What—what face?"

He frowned a little. "You made a face."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did. I mentioned the dress shop and you—well, you made a face."

"I literally have no idea what you're talking abou—"

"There! You did it again!" He pointed his aristocratic finger at me.

"Did what?!"

"The face!" he said with more expression of his own than he'd made the entire time we had been alone together.

I still had no idea what 'face' he was referring to, but if I had to stake a guess it was probably linked to the amount of annoyance I felt for him at any particular moment.

Uninterested in having my facial expressions scrutinized any longer, I shouldered past him, walking pointedly towards the exit, muttering, "Let's just go so I can... look at the dresses... or whatever..."

I pushed the door open a little too forcefully (and felt guilty because I nearly hit him in the face when it swung closed), then went out onto the cobbled street even though I had no idea where anything was. Once again my temper was the one calling the shots.

He trotted to join me with ease. "You're making the face again."

I rolled my eyes and kept walking towards nothing in particular. 

"Do you even know where you're going?"

I should have said no. Or maybe even lied and said yes. But instead what came out of my mouth was a particularly scathing, "Away from you."

Sirius was still following after me. "Merlin's Beard, you buy a bird some ice cream and this is how you're treated—"

I rounded on my heel to face him, much less gracefully than planned (my hair got in my mouth and I had to sputter to get it out), then said, "I'm not a bird and I never asked you to buy me anything!"

The beginnings of a smirk pulled at his lips which only infuriated me more. "I was being a gentleman."

"No, a gentleman would have asked what I wanted first! You were being a-a—a—!"