The First Date
It was a warm morning when Sirius found himself getting ready for his first date in The Selection, two days after his lesson with Remus.
To say that Sirius was nervous was an understatement. He was terrified. In his eighteen years of life, Sirius had never been on a date before, and he had no clue on how to act around women.
When he finished getting dressed, Sirius made his way to the third floor, which was reserved to The Selected’s bedrooms. Near the end of the long corridor, Sirius found the door he was looking for:
MISS ALICE FORTESCUE
Alice had been one of the girls he had most enjoyed talking to on the first day. She seemed to be a funny, kind person, and she looked like she wouldn’t judge him if the date ended up being a complete disaster.
Not even three seconds passed before Alice opened the door, a smile directed at Sirius. She was dressed in a short blue dress stamped with yellow little flowers, perfect for the sunny day outside.
“Good morning, Your Highness,” she bowed her head a little.
“Good morning, Miss Alice,” he greeted her politely, before offering his arm so she could take it.
She accepted, and they started walking towards the garden. When Sirius had asked her out on the day before, she told him she would enjoy a place where they could talk and get to know each other better.
“Did you sleep well, dear?” he asked her once they reached the fresh air outside.
“Oh, definitely, Your Highness,” Sirius noticed her expression light at that, “The beds you have here...It’s like I am sleeping on clouds! Or feathers!” She answered, excited.
Sirius let out a small chuckle, which soon turned into a full laugh. Alice looked kind of embarrassed at first, but joined in on the laughter only a few moments later. That did the job of making them more comfortable immediately.
They walked around the garden for about an hour, talking about trivial and casual subjects, but it was nice, and Sirius was surprise to find himself completely relaxed. He had been right about her all along.
Just as Sirius was about to suggest they went back inside, he sensed a slight shift in the mood. He looked down at Alice to find her bitting her lip, an anxious look on her face.
“Is everything alright?” he asked her, suddenly concerned.
She hesitated for a few more seconds before looking up at him.
“I have to tell you something, Your Highness.”
Sirius felt his eyebrows furrow at that, now from confusion. What could she possibly tell him that made her look so nervous?
“Yes, of course, Miss Alice,” he said in the most calming tone he could muster, and motioned her to go ahead.
“I...I didn’t exactly want to come here.” she said after what looked like a lot of struggle.
Now Sirius was beyond confused. Wasn’t she the one that wanted a place to walk and talk, like the gardens?
“Oh, I am sorry,” he apologized, though he still didn’t understand, “I thought here would be a good choice since we were going to take a walk and—“
“Oh, no, no,” she shook her had frantically, “That’s not what I meant, Your Highness. I...I...I meant I didn’t want to come to The Selection.”
Alice finally managed to get the sentence out, and Sirius was sure he failed at containing the shock on his expression this time. That was not what he had expected, at all.
She seemed to take his silence as a bad sign, though, as she began to ramble nonstop, panic evident on her face.
“Your Highness is extremelly handsome and kind, sir. I am really lucky to be here competing for your hand, please don’t get me wrong! I just meant I—“
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Sirius took pity on her suffering and interrupted her, before placing a warm hand on her arm, which was still hooked on his. “You can tell me, don’t worry.”
As soon as Sirius said that, it looked like some sort of barrier had broke inside of Alice, and her eyes suddenly watered. She blinked, trying to contain the tears, but that only caused them to spill down her face.
“I am afraid, Your Highness, that my heart already belongs to someone else.” she told him, voice so low that he almost couldn’t hear.
Sirius stayed quiet for a few moments while his brain processed the situation, trying to understand what he was feeling. He should be angry, shouldn’t he? And sad, and definitely jealous. These are the emotions expected from someone to have when one of his options to marry, the first one that he took out on a date, was in love with someone else.
But he wasn’t feeling any of that, even if he didn’t understand why not. Instead, he felt a wave of compassion hit him.
“Can I ask you why you came, dear, if someone else already claims your affections?” he asked her calmly.
When Alice tilted her face up again, her eyes were wide, looking at him as if another head had popped out of his neck.
“I am not angry at you,” he clarified it to her when a minute passed and she still hadn’t said a word, “I understand.”
Alice shook her had slowly in disbelief, before finally finding her voice again.
“Your Highness is too kind. I do not deserve it.”
“Let me be the judge of that, will you?” Sirius retorted friendly, being rewarded with a soft smile from the girl. “Why don’t you tell me why you came here?”
Alice’s face gained a slightly pink color before she started talking.
“My boyfriend and I...we were going to get married,” her voice broke down at the end of the sentence, and Sirius could see she was fighting hard not to start sobbing right then and there, “We were so happy. But one day he went to my house and told me he was going to enlist because his family needed the money. We didn’t know where he would go to, and he said he didn’t want to be a burden. We argued, and then he told me to forget about him. We are not together anymore.”
She wasn’t trying to hold her sobs back any longer, crying freely.
Sirius didn’t know what to say. He felt terrible for Alice, her suffering was so strong it was painful to watch. But at the same time, as weird as it sounded, he was a little envious, and caught himself wondering if he would ever love someone that intensely.
He realized he had stayed quiet for too long when Alice continued her speech.
“Participating on The Selection was the best way to help my family, Your Highness.” she looked down as her blush increased, but Sirius could still see her embarrassment clearly.
“I am a Four, so even if we don’t struggle like so many others do, life hadn’t been exactly kind to us either. Money has been tight, and as all The Selected receive a significant amount of money for their stay, I thought...” she trailed off, unsure on how to continue.
But she didn’t need to. Sirius immediately understood, and his esteem for the girl only grew.
“I respect you a lot, Miss Alice, for your bravery and your honesty towards me,” Sirius told her once she stopped talking. “I will let you go back home whenever you wish, but in the meantime, I would love to have you as a friend here.”
The smile that Sirius received in return was one of the most genuine he had ever seen, and he saw himself mimicking it without even meaning to.
‘Well, if everything goes wrong, at least I made myself a friend.’
~
A few hours later, right after finishing his lunch, Sirius was walking through the gardens again, looking for the peace and quiet that helped him calm his agitated thoughts, when he suddenly spotted it.
A short haired figure sitting in a bench a few yards away, looking extremely peaceful, a book safely in its hands. Remus.
As Sirius moved towards him, he couldn’t help but observe Remus. He was wearing the kitchen’s uniform, probably taking a break from work, and he had a look of pure concentration on his face as his eyes scanned the lines on the pages.
Remus’ hand moved to his hair for a moment, making it more messy than it already was, and Sirius saw that it almost looked like gold in the sun light.
Sirius felt a strange warmth rise through his body, and he suddenly felt a little too hot.
‘It must be the sun,’ he thought, slightly confused.
However, that was the moment that Remus raised his eyes from the book and spotted him, already only a few meters away, and all of Sirius’ thoughts evaporated from his mind when he saw Remus smile.
“Sirius, good afternoon!”
Sirius’ heart skipped a beat at how effortlessly Remus had called him by his name this time. His surprise was probably obvious, since Remus chuckled a little and eyed him in a playful way.
“Why are you so surprised? You told me to call you Sirius, and I am not about to disobey orders from a prince.”
Sirius smirked teasingly at him, propping down on the bench next to him.
“Smart choice, young man.”
Remus only laughed at him before turning to his book again, biting his lip from time to time in parts Sirius assumed he had more difficulty. Sirius found that rather adorable.
“Are you making progress then?” he asked Remus after a few moments of comfortable silence.
“Yes, I am,” he answered brightly, eyes shining, before adding quickly. “No spoilers though!”
Sirius threw his head back in laughter at Remus’ desperation, before crossing his fingers in front of his heart like a promise.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Smart choice, young man.” Remus joked before changing the subject. “So, how is The Selection going? If this is not too intrusive to ask, of course.”
“Of course not, don’t worry,” Sirius reassured him quickly. Remus was starting to feel more at ease around him, and he didn’t want that to change.
“I am just...” he continued, not sure of what to say, “Well, I am a bit of a mess right now, to be honest. This Selection is messing with my head.”
Remus hummed understandingly, seeming to examine Sirius throughly. If someone came up to Sirius and told him about the faint blush that crept on his face at that moment, he would deny it to his grave.
That went unnoticed by Remus, though, who continued talking after seeming to be done with his examination.
“That’s completely understandable, you know? If it was me, I would be a total wreck.”
“I guess I am just...” Sirius trailed off, feeling a little embarrassed, “Scared, I guess. I mean, I have thirty five women to choose from. And then... what if I don’t match with any of them? What if...”
He took a deep breath and then let it out with a long sigh, turning to stare at Remus’ eyes.
“What if I don’t find anyone?”
The way they looked at each other at that moment was different. Sirius felt as if Remus would be able to read his entire being, his soul. They felt... connected.
“You are an amazing person, Sirius. I know you will find someone. You just have to believe in it, too.” Remus told him, his eyes and voice so sincere that the intensity of it threw Sirius out of balance.
But before he could even blink, Remus quickly diverted his eyes from his. Sirius thought he caught a redness spreading through Remus’ cheeks, though he just blamed it on the hot weather.
“I think I need to get going,” Remus said in a sudden rush, checking his watch. “My lunch break is almost over.”
“Oh, right, of course,” Sirius nodded, a bit disappointed, but stood up to follow him anyway. “I will walk with you.”
As they walked back, side by side, Sirius’ curiosity took over and he asked what he was meaning to ask Remus since they met.
“So, Remus...what did you think of the palace?”
Sirius didn’t know why, but he was kind of nervous about Remus’ impression of his home. However, his worries went away when Remus answered him.
“It’s gorgeous, really! I used to live in a small village, a bit far from town, so I had never seen anything like this before.”
Sirius fought against his will to ask more about Remus’ life. There was so much he didn’t know, and he desperately wanted to. But he didn’t want to upset Remus if he happened to find it too invasive.
“Why did you decide to come work here?” he settled for asking instead.
As soon as the words left Sirius’ mouth, he wished he could take them back. He saw Remus’ expression fall and cursed himself quietly.
“Do you remember when I told you my mom died when I was younger?” Remus asked him not a moment later, so Sirius didn’t even have time to apologize.
Once Sirius nodded, he continued.
“Well, she died when I was eleven,” he made an almost unnoticeable pause, and then... “My father died three years later.”
The revelation shocked Sirius so much he tripped in a rock right in front of him. He would have fallen face first into the ground if Remus hadn’t caught him by his waist, steading him.
Sirius was starting to notice that he quite liked the feeling of Remus’ arms around him when Remus took a step back, letting him go.
“Are you alright?!”
“Yeah, I am okay,” Sirius answered, still aghast, “Shit, Remus, I...”
Sirius was a loss of words, and he didn’t think a simple ‘I am sorry’ would be enough anymore. But Remus could sense his condolences, because he simply gave him a sad smile and mouthed a quiet ‘thank you’.
“Anyway, I—“
“Wait, Remus, you don’t have to tell me if this is too painful for you,” he interrupted him.
“It’s okay, Sirius. I can’t run away from the past, right? Besides,” Remus told him, whole heartedly, “I trust you, Sirius.”
‘He trusts me. He trusts me!’ was all Sirius could think of. ‘I know I’ve only known him for a few days, but God, I trust him too.’
“I trust you, too, Remus.”
That moment certainly lightened the mood a little, and when Remus continued his story he didn’t seem as upset as he was before, even though the sadness was still there.
“When dad died, I went to live with my neighbors. They are a sweet and loving couple, and had been friends with my parents since forever. I worked as much as I could, obviously, to try and help with all the costs, but... they still had to spend some money on me,” he shrugged, and Sirius could tell he was feeling helpless.
“Their youngest son was born last month. They already had two more kids, and me. The food was already little, the costs already high. I couldn’t see how they would be able to afford everything.”
Sirius listened to him quietly, growing more disturbed at every word. Before The Selection, his entire world had been inside of that walls. He had never knew anything other than luxury and abundance.
But now, meeting Alice, and meeting Remus...Here he was, Prince Sirius Black, future King of Illéa, and he didn’t know a thing about his people’s suffering.
“About two weeks ago,” Remus continued, “I saw the announcement on the paper. They were offering more jobs on the palace as The Selection was on its way. So I took it.”
By then, they were almost reaching the palace’s entrance, so they would have to part separate ways, as prince and servant could not be seen hanging around casually together.
Remus took a stop on the shadows above a big tree and faced the palace.
“That’s my story. I came to help them the best that I can. Those people are worth fighting for.”
Sirius really doubted it was even possible to feel more admiration towards someone than he was feeling at that moment. Admiration and something else...that he didn’t quite decipher. Yet.
“I hope you also find someone in here that is worth fighting for,” Sirius told him.
When Remus turned to him, Sirius saw some strong emotion behind his eyes.
“Me too.”