Shooting Star

Chapter Thirty-Four

"Mummy!" Harry held his arms out to me from Remus'.
"What?" I asked.
"Hug!"
I went over there and gave him a tenth hug. "Bye, love. Love you." I kissed his head.
"Bye, Mummy." He grinned.
I kissed Remus' cheek. "Bye, thank you."
"Of course." He smiled.
"Hello, love." Sirius said, coming in the room.
"Hey." Remus grinned.
He gave him a look. "Does it look like I was talking to you?" He glared.
"Well, you did say love." Remus shrugged.
"Get out of here."
"Daddy!" Harry waved.
"Hey, kid. What's up?" Sirius asked.
"Hug!"
Sirius walked over to Remus and hugged Harry. "Bye, kiddo. Love you."
"Now you've got to kiss me like she did." Remus grinned.
Sirius made a big show of kissing his cheek, causing Harry to laugh.
"All right, food time." Sirius pulled me into the kitchen.
He pulled the chair out for me and sat a plate in front of me. I didn't want to tell him that this was typical of him too. "Thank you." I smiled.
"Fish?" I asked. "Who cooked this?"
"Me, of course."
I gave him a doubtful look. He's never cooked fish.
"Remus." He admitted.
"Ah, okay."
We prayed, and then we ate. It was quite delicious.
"Hey, Sirius?" I asked as we ate.
"Yes?"
"What's the real reason you never asked me out at school?"
"Because it wasn't safe." He said casually.
"You dated other muggle borns."
He looked up at me like I wasn't supposed to remember that. "I don't know."
"You used to be selfish." I grinned.
"I'm still selfish!" He said, offended, and I laughed. "Okay. Well. You were nice."
"I was nice?"
"Yes."
"You didn't ask me out because I was nice?"
"Yes. You would have felt bad saying no, so you would've been stuck with me."
"Oh, I would've told you no." I assured him.
He blinked.
"I wouldn't have felt bad. I would have said no if I wanted to."
"Still. You were too nice. I was a douche."
"Yeah, you kind of were."
"Thanks." He said sarcastically.
"Sure." I smiled.
"As long as we're talking about the glory days, why'd you say yes?"
"I didn't."
"Obviously you did. You dated me."
"You never asked. You were still a douche. I was still nice. You cleaned up after that."
"That's so not how it happened. You begged me to go out with you and, out of the kindness of my heart, I did."
"Uh-huh. Sure." I laughed. "Remember, though. You said no one could get in my pants but you and sulked out. Hence the douche. I felt bad and followed you, hence the nice. Then I straightened you out."
"If that makes you feel better, you can think that."
"Hey, I married you. You should be grateful. Who else would put up with you?"
"True." He nodded. "Very true."
"Remember when you said you couldn't afford to love me? Because you thought I'd hurt you?"
"Yes. I was quite certain you would. And before you ask, yes, I was quite mistaken. But it would have been worth it even if you had."
I smiled. "I'm glad. But what exactly is your plan for the night?"
"Can't tell." He grinned.
"You really don't have to do this." I said.
"I do. I rather disapprove of my previous proposal. Consider this a vow renewal."
"All right." I smiled, a bit uncomfortably.
After we finished dinner, we went out on the back porch. I went to sit down in a chair, but he pulled me down into the yard. I looked up at the crescent moon, not expecting to see shooting stars. I hugged Sirius tightly, the force of my impact causing him to lift and spin me so as to not fall. "I love you, Sirius. You're the best." I smiled.
As we laid down and stared at the shooting stars, I couldn't help but miss all those times at Hogwarts I'd woken everyone up to come watch them with me. I knew he was thinking about that too, but he didn't say anything, so I didn't either.
"Thank you, Sirius." I said quietly after a while. "I love you so much."
He rolled over and kissed me. "I love you too."
I wondered if he would actually do this. I can't imagine Sirius Black randomly bursting into declarations of affection sober and sane. I guess we'll see, won't we?
I hoped Harry and Remus were okay.
"Are you all right?" He asked, laying perpendicular to me and resting his head on my stomach.
"Yeah. You?"
"Yeah."
"Hey, Sirius? You have weekends off, right?"
"Yeah."
"Perhaps I could stay home with Harry during the week to school him, and work on the weekends?"
"Is that what you want to do?"
"If you wouldn't mind. Unless you'd like to school him."
"I'm out of school. I'm done with it."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. Do you want to do it?"
"Kind of."
"Why only kind of?"
"Well, I don't really know what to do. About anything. At all. I don't want to mess up him and his education."
"You'll be a great teacher, I'm sure. And you're a good mother, too. He'll be all right."
I didn't want to say that Lily should be the one doing this and bring down the mood. "I'll talk to Ms. Strout Monday, then."
"Okay." Sirius said, turning his face into my stomach.
I felt his breath through my shirt as I reached down and messed with his hair.
We started going in after a while. He turned me around and made a histrionic display of kneeling before me. I looked down at him, eyebrows raised.
"We both know I never would have made it through school without you. Or life, for that matter. I've never been happier anywhere than I am with you. I want to wake up every morning beside you, and I want to go to bed beside you ever night. I'm so lucky to be loved by you. I love you, Eliza." He said. Just when I thought he was being serious, he added, "Will you pretend marry me again?"
"I'd be delighted." I smiled, because he's Sirius Black, and that's about as good as it would get. "Oi, Black. My eyes are up here."
"I hope you're happy with yourself." He stood. "You've completely ruined my beautiful proposal."
"Apologies." I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek before dropping my forehead onto his shoulder.
We stood like that for a minute, and then I finally pulled away.
"What do you say we take this to the bedroom?" He smirked.
Classic Sirius.