Dark Beauty /Sirius Black/ [2]

Dark Beauty - 29.

Chapter 29

"Intense," she answered Sirius' question with a shaky breath and her scarred hands clutching tightly onto a ragged cloth. An order mission, her first, and she was just back after being successful.

It was intimidating to walk into that meeting just before, to be paired with her husband and her two best friends, the fighting duo with no mercy - her Lily and her James had that title throughout the order - brave and young and ready to power through and fight.

He had asked her as they arrived home how she felt, how she thought it was - it was intense, but she managed and she was successful and James had commented how she and Sirius would be the next fighting duo if they kept up such adrenaline throughout all missions.

She smiled at that, but she didn't smile at the lifeless bodies trying to kill them and trying to kill the family they had been protecting. She used the killing curse more than she ever thought she'd have to, and all but three were successful and she didn't know if the nausea she felt was because she enjoyed watching the life drain from their eyes - or their bodies drop to the ground.

"For my brother," she spat just before she apparated back to the order's headquarters and Sirius held her hand a little tighter after he heard her words.

"You know," Sirius whispered as he sat on the edge of their bathtub, "that was one of the most intense missions I've been on in months...and you handled it with a clear head and a strong fight. You did better than I've seen in a while...merlin, you did better than Peter the first time."

"Peter can be a wuss sometimes," Adria mumbled quietly, dipping the cloth into the scalding water in the sink, "it keeps him human."

"You're right."

She kneeled in front of him, just crouched ever so slightly and she closed her eyes at his flinching, "I could have stopped that curse."

"You were busy. I should have been focusing more than I was," he whispered. He recalled the fight, he and James had broken off and had been ambushed by a dozen death eaters...that's what they were called - Peter had told him.

Sirius didn't know how the boy knew that, but he didn't ask questions.

He had screamed bloody murder, curses from his mouth and his wand thrown the death eaters way only to be matched with the cloaked figures to fall to their knees to reveal Adria and Lily with their hands clutched tightly in each others and wands in their direction.

When they thought they were in the clear, James and Sirius had started joking about how they didn't stand a chance, only for Sirius to fall to the ground from a curse to his stomach and Adria screaming the killing curse as she killed the man who did it.

"You thought we were safe. He came out of nowhere," she sat down the cloth and lifted his shirt over his head. The order - even the purebloods - realised it was so much easier to fight in muggle clothing, with robes getting in the way and the fashion less sturdy, they could guard themselves with armour under t-shirts and kneepads under jeans, it was better.

She hated that some curses gave real wounds - it was a gruesome sight to see the blood dripping from his toned stomach, and in a way to lighten the mood, she asked, "have you been working out?"

He smiled softly, "is my bloodied stomach turning you on?"

She shook her head with that same smile, "are we renaming order missions to intense workouts? You didn't have those abs in school."

"I probably won't have them after the war anyway," he leaned down and brushed his lips over her forehead, "enjoy it while it lasts."

"I don't know..." she shook her head, nose scrunched and a puff of breath floating from her lips, "if we make more food do you think you'll get your cuddliness back? I think I'd much prefer that, actually."