Dark Beauty /Sirius Black/ [2]

Dark Beauty - 41.

Chapter 41

The morning dew dripping from the grass seemed to peak Adria's interest during the early morning hours. The clock barely passed four, and summer had brought the early morning sun to peak over the horizon just short of her getting up from her bed.

She couldn't quite sleep - and she knew that the three that had left that prison with her hadn't slept either. The thoughts kept her mind awake, her mind was always awake to the point that her exhausted body would leave her mind behind as it slept in her bed.

Sleep paralysis was something she couldn't cope with, and so sleeping didn't come easy - it never did.

The day she returned with a crack to her living room was a frenzy she would never forget. When the sound of the glass shattering and a scream for Sirius from her best friend's lips had echoed through her ears and all she could remember was the commotion.

When a weakened Regulus lay Isaac on her couch and wouldn't leave the unconscious boys side. He felt responsible - he had never lifted a finger to any muggleborn, and yet he knew that his words were wounds in itself and he couldn't bear to think of the pain he had caused.

He couldn't bear to think that the girl who was quick to take him in, who provided him with his own room and warm food and light was someone he would frown upon.

Sirius fell to his knees in front of Adria who was already kneeling when she arrived in the warmth of her home, cold and shaking and in pain. Her hands were as freezing as they looked, with her fingertips darkened purple and the slits that crossed her skin trailed from her hands to her arms.

Sirius held her that night with tears streaming down his face when the first night she slept - her shirt rose up and the wounds she obtained were visible to him. He couldn't sleep as much as she couldn't, it was different from an order mission - it was brutal torture and he couldn't think of it for more than two minutes without fury clouding his mind.

She had survived something she never thought she would because of his brother and Regulus was wary about Sirius - about his reaction to him being there. To seeing him.

And when Sirius finally caught sight of him...when he saw him with extremely pale skin and dark bags under his eyes. When the bones of his fingers practically stuck out because of the little weight he had and the lack of colour to his face, all he could do was stare.

Stare for so long that Regulus felt more than uncomfortable, like he should have realised just how wrong his ideals had been - like every judgement his brother had for him fell on his shoulder in that one stare and he couldn't bear the weight for the small amount of time he had left Isaac's side just to allow his brother that stare.

And then it seemed like that weight bearing down on him had lifted in seconds when Sirius all but ran towards him and threw his arms around him so tightly that his breath left him for a long moment. Regulus didn't have his own beliefs before, and Sirius was mature enough to know that - to know that he was a child blinded by his own need to be wanted.

Regulus risked his life to free Sirius' wife, something he would never forget. And for that long moment shared between them, it felt like they finally had each other back.

Adria's sigh left her lips and mixed with the cold morning air. It never did get sunny until around noon and she enjoyed the feeling of the coldness on her skin, it made her feel something other than the pain that had taken over her the past few days.

The feeling of arms wrapping around her brought her mind from the wormhole she had allowed herself to fall down. Of the many what if's that ran through her mind several times a day and soon did Sirius pull her into him even tighter, his head on his shoulder and his warm breath hitting her skin.