E N C H A N T E D

Your baggage is a luxury and mine is a burden

Remus was bringing Max home today and Sirius really wanted to get the house in order before they arrived. The poor sleep he got at the hospital was not helping, but Parker was. He hadn't said a word to Sirius since they met a few days ago, but he seemed happy enough to be tasked with picking up all of the random clutter that had accumulated over the last handful of days. He puttered around with his headphones on and Sirius chose to believe that his appreciation was conveyed, even over the Bluetooth.

The rest of the kids were eating mac and cheese while Sirius sanitized all of the kitchen surfaces. Sirius learned quickly that their comfortability from the first night was not easy to sustain. When the reality that their whole lives were being uprooted had settled in, the difference was night and day. They were overly cautious now, and timid to the point where they seemed hesitant about everything; from asking questions to laughing amongst themselves, it seemed like someone turned their volume down to quiet background noise.

The near silence also unfortunately amplified every other noise, so a bowl falling off the counter sounded more like a car crash than a minuscule kitchen calamity.

Sirius turned to see Kevin, Kade, and Ava looking over at Asher (who was crying now) they each had a spoon in their hand, but Asher's bowl was missing from in front of him. Sophia wasn't in her seat anymore, but Sirius could see her feet poking out from the side of the island; her bowl of mac and cheese had been abandoned at her spot, apparently in her pursuit of cleaning up the mess.

"Ash, what happened buddy?" Sirius asked. The young boy's gaze turned to him immediately and he cried some more.

Sophia stood then, and deposited the partially broken bowl on the counter, out of Asher's reach, and then she immediately hid her hands behind her back. "Sorry Sirius, it was an accident," she told him. Sirius had to commend her bravery because even though she was also obviously near tears, she stood in front of him with pseudo confidence. "He can have the rest of my lunch."

Sirius peered into the bowl she'd placed on the counter. In it was the pasta that she'd collected from the floor and a few pieces of shattered ceramic. Naturally, the time when all of the plastic bowls were dirty was the time one of them ended up on the floor. "It's okay, Soph," Sirius reassured her as he collected the bowl. He wasn't paying much attention to what he was doing because he stepped a little to forcefully on the garbage can lever which caused it to open with a smack on the neighboring counter. Sophia started. "You can sit and finish your lunch." He deposited the broken bowl in the garbage and turned to get the supplies for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to make up for Asher's lost meal.

"It was an accident," she sounded a little bit panicked now and when Sirius looked to the rest of the children, none of them were look at him.

Sirius turned back to Sophia.

"I'm.. can I just go to the bathroom quick?"

"Sure, of course. And I know it was an accident. It's really fine, Soph."

She nodded quickly and turned on her heel to head to the bathroom. When he turned around, Sirius caught a glimpse of red pooling in her hands that had been deliberately hidden.

"Are you bleeding?"

"No!" She spun to look at him again, "I'm okay!"

"Let me come and get you a bandaid."

"I'm okay," she said again, "sorry it was just an accident."

Sirius smiled softly at her. "I'm not mad at anyone," he took two steps forward and crouched in front of her. "I know it was an accident that Ash's bowl fell off the counter, and I appreciate you cleaning it up so quickly. I don't care about the bowl or the food. I care if you're hurt and if you are I need to see what's going on."