7
“Pads we’re going to need you at the house tonight”
“Oh, is everything okay?”
“Godfatherly duties my friend”
Sirius couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “I’ll be there early! Can’t wait to see my little HarBear, my sweet Prongslet, the apple of my eye”
“Yeah yeah just get your ass there on time or Lily will have your head. She doesn’t like to be kept waiting too close to dinnertime”
Sirius rolled his eyes “I’m aware Prongs”
“Sirius we’ve gathered here tonight to stage an intervention”
Sirius looked up from where he was lying on the floor with Harry sitting on his stomach “huh?”
“James! We agreed to begin together, also you need to wait until he’s ready to pay attention”
“To be fair Lily, I’m unsure when Sirius is ever ready to pay attention to anything…other than Harry” Remus laughed
“Or perhaps his new boyfriend Rabastan” James added in quickly
“Okay first of all wipe that smug look off your face James, you don’t have the bone structure to pull it off. Not like my sweet little Harrykins here” Sirius scooped him up and gave him some wet kisses “second of all, he's not my boyfriend”
“We know he’s not your boyfriend, he’s engaged, Sirius. As in engaged to be married to someone, someone that is NOT you.” Lily interjected with all the finesse of a hipprogriph. Dear Merlin, pregnant Lily took no prisoners.
Sirius fidgeted “I’m aware thank you very much” It's something Sirius had been pointedly not thinking about for quite some time now actually, so it was a little strange to be reminded.
“Yes and you’ve also been out to dinner with him almost every weekend the last month and quite a few weekdays as well. You’ve barely made it here on weekends to watch me get round. When I was pregnant with Harry we could barely keep you out of the house!”
“Yes well, when you were pregnant with Harry, it’s not like I could let old Prongs over here wander into muggle grocery stores on his own to find your cravings”
“Sirius, don’t think I don’t notice the way you float into the office the morning after a dinner with Rabastan. Remember when you somehow ended up apparating to Paris that Thursday night? You were completely useless on Friday! You'd only wake up to tell me about the food, and what you spoke about with Rabastan." Sirius stared at his feet, he didn't know what to say. So he opted for making faces with Harry. "The other day while you were telling me about your dinner DATE at The Whispering Apple you looked completely besotted. Possibly worse than how I look when I talk about my sweet Lily-flower”
“Okay puke, punch me if I ever talk about anybody the way you wax poetic about Lily.” Sirius pretended to gag which drove Harry into a giggling fit “See my Prongslet gets it. No matter how fit I may find Rabastan I’m not going all loopy over him!”
“So you admit that you think he’s fit!”
"Yes Prongs, I obviously find him fit! I do have eyes you know, tell me do you guys have a point?"
"Tell me this Siri, how do I know he was wearing a blue button-up when you two went out to try the new sushi place in London? I didn’t even know what sushi was before that”
“ Actually you never even told us what sushi was" Remus sighed "all you told us when we asked about that restaurant was how Rabastan absolutely loved it and how his eyes looked so bright and blue with excitement that they almost matched his shirt.”
"I think your exact words were, and I quote 'I'm not the only one that loved it Rem, Rabastan did as well and RABASTAN thinks you should bring Kaitlyn there ‘for your next date’"
Sirius tried to keep his face as innocent as possible. Maybe he had gotten carried away these past few weeks, but they were really making a big deal out of nothing. Right?
Remus crosses his arms in front of him, he doesn't look convinced, he's beginning to remind Sirius of 'Prefect Remus' "Rabastan thinks I should take my girlfriend to the same restaurant he brought you to? A restaurant good for dates?"
“It's all I wonder if Rabastan would like this, Rabastan said that...Plus you’ve been to that Mexican place by my parents' old house twice without me Siri. Twice! Both times you went to La Caridad, you told us more about what Rabastan ordered, his travels to northern Spain, and his possible new contract in Africa that would take him away from you for an entire two weeks so he’d never get around to taking you to that Brewery you’ve been wanting to try than you did about anything else you'd been up to for the rest of the weekend! AAAAANDDDD you didn’t even bring me back any salsa! I’m pregnant, Sirius! Pregnant people need salsa! It’s just a fact”
“Yes and for that I am so sorry, I'm going to bring you some salsa next time!" Sirius looked over at Remus who was still looking like a prefect and decided to give up the jig "Okay so maybe I have a small little crush BUUUT It’s no big deal.” Sirius looked around at them "Trust me!"
“Small little crush, Si? We know you better than that, this feels like more than a crush. It feels like you may be the one getting crushed here in the end”
“I get it! Bad puns aside, You think I might be in over my head. I’m not, guys, don’t worry.”
“What do you mean don't worry?! Sirius, we know that when you fall you fall really hard and we’re just trying to save you from some heartbreak. He’s about to be married to someone else and you’re out there going on dates with the man staring into his blue eyes, and I know you well enough to know that you’re probably staring at his arms and chest while you’re at it”
“Well he is quite fit, I know he does a lot of dueling and has even adopted some muggle exercises into his daily routine. I told him we’ve started to do some as well in the aurors” Sirius stopped himself “okay I guess I see what you guys may be getting at. But don’t worry; it’s nothing I can’t handle”
Sirius was nervous about his not-date with Rabastan tonight. He hated that he kept mistakenly referring to it as a date; his friends had really gotten into his head this week. He knew they were only worried about him and they were possibly making good points. I mean he hadn’t told any of them where he was really going tonight. Technically, he had no reason to lie to them. It was just a little crush and he was determined to prove it to them once and for all that he totally had this under control.
He absolutely did not have this under control. In Fact, this was all out of control. It would be hilarious how wrong he had been about his little crush on Rabastan if it wasn’t so frightening.
Rabastan had come by his flat to apparate them to the first brewery he and his brother had ever gone to because he was determined to have Sirius try American style Hamburgers at Poppies, the restaurant connected to the brewery. They had been having a great time with a flight of beers and some crisps and sometime over hamburgers, when Sirius found himself staring into Rabastan’s blue eyes and thinking about what’d it be like to kiss him. As he shook those thoughts out of his mind and tried to pay attention to what Rabastan was saying he noticed how big and strong his hands looked.
Well to be honest Sirius had noticed his hands a while ago considering they had been sneaking their way into his wanking sessions as of late.
It wasn’t his fault Rabastan was just so easy to be around. He was smart, thoughtful, generous, and absolutely gorgeous. Sirius knew he would be able to manhandle him in bed exactly how he liked. Maybe take both his wrists into his big hands and hold them over his head as he...WAIT NO
‘Ahh Sirius, focus’ he pinched his thigh to try to refocus as he gave himself a pep talk.
“Sirius are you alright?” Rabastan interrupted his inner monologue with a frown "You've been more quiet than usual, and you suddenly look quite pale"
Sirius tried to smile at him but he’s sure it came out like a grimace
“I think I may be coming down with something Basti, I’m sorry but I think I’ll need to duck out early today.”
“Oh no Sirius, I’m so sorry. It’s okay we can come back another time, the brewery will still be here and the ice cream shop down the street will be as well” Rabastan then winked at him
Sirius had a flutter in his chest just thinking about Rabastan’s wink, that and the thoughts of Rabastan licking ice cream off a spoon…feeding Sirius a taste of this ice cream. ‘Oh no, rein it in there boy’ Sirius thought to himself. A heavy weight settled into his stomach as his friend’s words came back to him. Rabastan is engaged, he doesn’t know a lot about her Rabastan rarely speaks of her but he knows they’ve been to dinner a few times lately.
“I think I may be sick” Sirius swallows down some bile rising up in his throat. He’s been fantasizing about another woman’s soon-to-be husband. Those daydreams about Rabastan feeding him, about running his hands all over his body, quiet talks in bed catching up after a long day... all of them were never ever to be his. He’d never jump into bed with a married man, not that Rabastan saw him in that way at all. Sirius was probably his only friend that ventured into the muggle world in London. Rabastan trusted him with a side of himself that a lot of people they had grown up with didn’t know about, and Sirius is out here falling in love. He’s fantasizing about his friend, his engaged friend, and wishing for things Rabastan could never give him.
Rabastan stood up and put his hand on Sirius’ shoulder, full of concern “Would you like me to escort you to the loo?”
“No, ah, I think I’ll just head home”
“Okay, well let me settle up the bill, and I’ll come with you”
Sirius felt like an absolute arsehole as Rabastan left a stack of bills on the table and kept one hand on his shoulder as he walked him out to a place where they could safely apparate home.
Once they got to his flat Rabastan called his own elf over to leave some pepper up and stomach soothers, along with a mild sleeping potion at Sirius’ bedside as he told him to go into his room and sleep.
“I’ll see you this week, Siri. I hope you feel better soon.” Rabastan smiled at him and left
As Sirius sank into his bed he thought about the last few months and how much Rabastan had monopolized his thoughts. He lay there just going over their letters and conversations, all the places they’d eaten together.
He thought about how they’d get so wrapped up in conversation that they’d often take after-dinner strolls together and end up in coffee shops or that dessert place they found in Paris to keep chatting the night away.
It had been so easy to fall for Rabastan because it had happened so organically that he’d barely even noticed. He realized that his friends were right. This was much more than a crush. He was beyond liking the man, he was well on his way to being half in love with him and he absolutely needed to get away from Rabastan as fast as he could because it wouldn’t end well. Hopefully, he'd find a way to salvage his friendship with Rabastan when and if he was able to get over the man.
Right now Sirius just wanted to cry himself to sleep.