Take a shot of holy water

I dont even care what my best friends are doing

Sirius looked amazing. Much to his own chagrin.

It wasn't that he didn't like looking hot (he very much did, and tried to look hot as often as possible) but he really, really didn't need to endure endless passive aggressivities about such an inescapable feat all night. And it truly was inescapable. The one good thing about his Black genes, he supposed.

He was on his way to dinner with his family, and normally they wouldn't have batted an eye at him looking so good, but this was the first time he'd seen or spoken to any of them in over a year and, quite frankly, he'd much rather have blended in to the tablecloths at whatever insanely expensive restaurant his parents had chosen.

Things had been confusing for a long time, and he'd actually gone much longer without speaking to his family before, because he hated the lot of them in ways so visceral it hurt to think about sometimes, but weakness struck at the most inopportune times.

This time, he hadn't exactly intended not to speak to any of them for over a year, but he'd been coming to terms with something he didn't know if he'd ever fully come to terms with, and the only way he could do that was completely on his own. Lily was another story, but he'd been avoiding her for entirely different reasons, which he still didn't want to dwell on too long, lest he turn back the way he came and skip dinner altogether.

The thought had crossed his mind, once or twice or ten times to simply not show up, but he was trying very hard to not be that person anymore, and he was trying very hard to be a better person in general, so there he was, hand hovering over the door, reining in the last bits of his fight or flight response and trying to look as unassuming as possible.

He felt like a different person than who he was when he saw them all last, though he knew he remained unchanged in his core. He was a bad person, to be honest, but his family was full of bad people of a different variety, one that he wouldn't want to match up to even if he tried. The difference between them was that they were bad people who thought that they were good people, or perhaps just simply better than other people. Sirius was the opposite. He knew he was a bad person and hardly believed it when anyone tried to convince him otherwise. Not that anyone had in a very long time.

He didn't like being a bad person, which was also where he differed from his family. In fact, he'd actually put real effort into being a better person over the last year, because he knew he couldn't bear to look himself in the eye if nothing changed.

He'd done the whole bit: working out, eating healthy, abstaining from sex, even when he really wanted a good shag. Looking on the bright side of things, putting as much effort he could into running his cafe without it becoming overwhelming. He hadn't kicked smoking, but that was a bad habit he knew he'd probably never be able to give up entirely. Everyone had their vices, and if he was quitting most of them, he figured he could keep one. 

It was really stupid to now have the knowledge that having a regular workout routine and eating healthy actually made you feel better, because he'd been all for believing it was a hoax every time Lily had tried to goad him into a healthier lifestyle in the past.

There were downsides, of course, like the fact that he looked bloody fantastic and, frankly, couldn't have looked bad even if he'd tried.

By some bout of luck (good or bad, undecided) Sirius arrived inside at the same time as Regulus, who, at first glance, looked exactly the same as Sirius saw him last. It wasn't until Sirius looked deeper that he realized his brother was also different in ways that Sirius couldn't put his finger on.

He froze upon seeing Sirius, like he wasn't totally certain his eyes weren't deceiving him. After an extended pause, he regained his composure. "Wasn't sure I'd see you here," he said, reaching out a hand as if to shake, then pulling it back hastily. "Or ever again, actually."