The Bug Collector | marauders

The Days That Followed

July 26th 1977

It was still dark in Rose's room, early morning, when Rose crawled back into bed, sent there by Lily and James to wake Sirius.

"Good morning" She chirped, looking down at him.

"Morning." He said, voice still deep from sleep, hands moving up to touch her but being pushed away by Rose.

"We're all gonna go on a walk, those two are already up and ready so we're just waiting on you, Pads." She said, twirling a bit of his hair around her finger.

"Did Prongs sleep on the floor-couch again?" He asked, getting a smile from her, which caused him smile in return. A wonderful smile.

"Of course he did." Rose said as she hopped off the bed, and made her way to door.

"I'll be out in five minutes. Trust me." He said, she looked back at him before joining the others.

—

On their walk Rose and Lily showed the boys around some, even leading Sirius to a quick hiding spot where he could transform into his dog self. He spent the rest of their outing padding along the old half cobblestone half cement streets as a big black dog with pointy ears and shaggy hair.

At one point he ran off, not an uncommon occurrence for Padfoot, but in this instance he returned to the group to present Rose with a single red tulip, origins of which none of them ever asked him.

—

July 28th 1977

Lily and James had finally decided to go out into town alone together. Rose took it as an opportunity and had a bath with both the window and door open. Allowing sunlight to shine down and bring a pink hue to her skin.

"Sirius!" She called down to in the kitchen, once she heard him respond she shifted a bit nervously in the water.

"Could you bring me a cup of tea?" She asked, loud enough for him to hear, and he was quickly there with it.

She attempted to hide a bit, bringing her knees to her chest and smiling innocently up at him.

"There you are." He said. sitting the cup next to her gently, turning to leave before speaking again.

"It's nothing I've not seen before, Thorns." He said before giving a wave and making his way out of the room.

"Thanks" Rose practically squeaked out, hands covering her blushing face as he whistled along to the record playing down the stairs. 

—

July 29th 1977

It was the evening, and they had all been drinking, and Rose had an urge to write an angry owl to Peter so she made her way up to her room to do just that. By the time she had a good paragraph written she heard someone flop down onto her bed behind her, she turned quickly and was greeted by James' smiling face, a bottle still in his hand.

"Thorns. Thorns I have to tell you something." He said, patting the space next to him, instructing for her to sit.

She did so.

"Yeah, James?" She asked, and his smile widened.

"I kissed Lilyflower this morning, Thorns."

Rose freaking squealed.

She flopped around on the bed and tapped on his chest excitedly.

"James! Ah! That's! Oh my god!" She practically squealed again.

"I think she fucking fancies me, mate!" He said just as excitedly(if not more), taking another sip from his bottle.

"She smells like honey and wild strawberries, like the ones you pick when you're a kid, I use to think they were poison, but I actually think they're fine— whatever forget about them she smells so good, Thorns." He continued before Rose bounced around excitedly once more.

That's when Lily and Sirius popped their heads in the door, one stacked atop of the other.

"Hey, lads." Sirius began.

"Whatcha up to in here?" Lily continued for him.

James and Rose shared a look before bursting into drunken laughter.

They each hopped up after that, and Rose gave James a quick fist bump as they followed Lily and Sirius back downstairs.

—

July 30th 1977

The sun had set hours ago, but Rose and Sirius still laid beside one another in the garden, talking and looking up at the sky.

It had been a usual thing over the week for Sirius to glare up at the moon during the night, and this last night was no different.

"I need to be honest about something, Thorns."
Sirius started, Rose nodded for him to continue.

"I haven't really lied, but I haven't told you the truth either, and that in itself is kind of lying."He continued, She propped up on her elbows to stare down at him.

"Go on." She said.

"You— you should be aware, I have another, well I have another situation like ours. I have for quite a while." He said, starring up past the stars.

"Oh." She said, she'd expected he saw other people, but not one other person, not consecutively.

"Well, I've never been with anyone else, but I kind of want to try, I think." She continued, meeting his eyes.

"Would you care if I did that?" She finally asked.

"With who?" He answered her question with his own.

"You've kept yours to yourself, so I'll keep mine for the future." She replied, laying back down beside him.

"It doesn't really sound like I have a choice, but sure. We'll keep it that way for now." He said, standing and rather unexpectedly picking her up in the process.

"Sirius, put me down!" She said tapping desperately on his chest.

"Nope. It's getting cold, and I have to leave in the morning, we are going to bed." He said as he made his way to the door.

"And you may want to stop all that yelling, your neighbors will hear, and what will they think of me?" He asked, smirk playing on his lips as they entered the home.