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[Somewhat guiltily, he jerks his gaze away from the marks, up to her face again--and for a moment, something of his usual self-confidence flickers, leaves him more open than he usually lets himself be. There's something of anger written across his face, but other emotions as well, and all of it complicated. He was there when she was bitten, he saw the aftermath of it, he helped patch her up, a little--but that doesn't mean that he's over it.

A beat; he shifts so he can rub a hand over his face, which makes him roll away from her just a little. (Not too far, mind you. Just a little.)]

Sorry.

Hey. [ she adjusts her arms around his waist to account for his roll, though not by much. he doesn't get to sit here and feel bad about her stupid mistakes. she turns to set her forehead against his, so she knows he's listening. ] It's fine, okay? [ she means it. ]

[He smiles at her, just a little--but he also doesn't roll away any more than he already has, or try and duck out from under her arm, or anything.]

You really aren't going to let me do anything about it?

['Let'. He's a little better about respecting people's wishes, even if it drives him crazy to do it.]

Let you throw yourself at a hungry vampire? No, I'm pretty sure I'm not. [ sorry, sirius. she's still pretty firm on that. ] Which you can totally be pissed at me for if you want, as long as it keeps your stupid self alive. [ 'stupid' here comes out 100% affectionate, a stand-in for 'stupid, reckless, overprotective self that i actually kind of super care about' except there is literally no reality in which she'd actually say anything close to that. ]

[Considering Sirius would use 'stupid' in much the same fashion, if the roles were somehow reversed--he gets it. He's not happy about it, but he gets it, and he's a little sulky in the way that he kicks at the blankets they're laying on top of, like he's intending to pull the covers over them or something, but first he's going to express displeasure via blankets.]

You do know I've got magic, right? I'm sure I've told you. And that we have vampires where I'm from, and-- [He sighs, slumping abruptly.] Fine. But if it happens again, I'm not listening to a word you say on it.

Except it's not happening again, 'cos I'm your bodyguard. But the statement stands.

If it happens again, I'll be ready. [ ready with a knife, ready with a stake, ready with something. but while she doesn't outright say it, if by some stretch it does happen again, sirius and josh and aidan god knows who else are free and welcome to hunt mitchell down. ]

That's my girl.

[He says it with idle affection, a possessiveness that isn't-- exactly right--more as a joke than anything, and he gives her half a grin.]

Though you aren't a true vampire-hunter until you begin naming your stakes--but that's also a slippery slope toward madness, and I like you exactly as mad as you are right now.

Yeah, like, as long as I stay on this side of the line - y'know, the one where the crazy stops being adorable? - I'm pretty sure I'm good. [ his lightening the mood is definitely succeeding. ]

Oh, well, you've got a long way to go, I think.

[He worms a hand up between them, so he can press his fingertip to her cheek, like he's indenting a dimple for her.]

As you're really adorable.

Y'know, I've actually heard that. [ then she gives a teasing little fake-bite at his finger with no intention of actually connecting. ]

Ooh--

[He yanks his finger away, with a laugh, and tries to tap her on the nose instead.]

Guess that means it's true. So-rry.

[ more fake-chomping, but it's less convincing now that she's grinning again. eventually she just reaches up to snatch his finger in her hand. ]

Guess I'll totally have to join a support group - like, for the criminally awesome and adorable? That's a thing, right? [ a beat, then more seriously: ] Do support groups even exist, in space?

You're asking the wrong bloke, y'know. I don't even know what a support group is.

[He shakes out his finger, deliberately, like oh, she's caused him such pain.]

I s'ppose there might be. Space has got everything. Well, nearly.

It's like - where you sit in a circle and whine and everyone else gets it because you're all screwed up in pretty much the same way. It's supposed to be therapeutic or something?

[ but whatever, not important. space really does have everything. she thinks about that for a second, then: ] D'you think the people who go back home still remember this place? [ do you think that if she ever goes back, she'll remember this place? ]

That... sounds dreadful, in so many ways.

[Muggles, man. They are weird. But her second question is a bit more interesting than any strange and foreign mental health practices, so--]

Well-- no. They don't. People sometimes go home and come back, and once they're back, they remember that they were here. Sometimes. Sometimes they forget entirely, as if they weren't ever here in the first place. I dunno how it all works, it's the most arbitrary bunch of memory charms.

[ she thinks on this for a long second, then: ] Is it bad that I kind of don't want to go back? [ knowing she won't even remember... ] I mean, I know the cool thing to do is to pretty much hate everything about this ship, but. I don't know, it's not always that bad.

[He doesn't answer straightaway. There's a great deal that her single question dredges up in him, but all of it comes back to James. The more distance you have from a person, the more you're meant to forget their face, but Sirius remembers James perfectly. He'll probably never forget him, not even after he's dead.]

It's not bad.

[He says it steadily, though he doesn't quite meet her eye.]

Everyone feels differently about it--about the ship, about being here. [A beat, and then he asks, quietly:] Is it really that bad?

[ she shakes her head a little. ] That's what I mean. Everyone says it's so horrible, but like - this sounds pretty bad, but I'm kind of used to horrible.

[ her own voice quiets a little. ] I'll take the horrible in a heartbeat, if it means I don't have to go back and forget. [ she misses so many things about boston, but the thought of everyone she'd miss from the tq is a much sharper ache, even just in concept. ]

[It's difficult to argue with that. Sirius thinks, for a moment, of little sad-eyed Alayne Stone, whose world he had only managed to catch glimpses of. If ever there was anyone that ought to have been allowed to stay on the Tranquility, it was her. And Sally, with her time issues, with her werewolf bite and the house that she haunts--

He rubs the heel of his hand against his eye, with a quiet sigh.]

Maybe you'll be allowed to stay, then, once we-- know what the hell we're doing here. Since we still don't actually know that. [ b i t t e r ] I just want to work out how to remember this place.

[After another brief pause, he huffs a laugh.]

Or maybe we'll be allowed to jump around and visit one another. That might not be so bad.

I don't know - like, I want to say remembering's good enough, but remembering would pretty much just mean I'd miss you guys. Like crazy. [ she's not saying she's changing her mind about wanting to remember. she's saying she pretty much just doesn't want to go back. ]

Yeah.

[He thinks, again, of James, who isn't a thought that can be neatly put away. But he makes himself look at Sally, give her a small smile--]

S'ppose it doesn't actually matter, as there's no sign of us ever getting off of this bloody ship anytime soon.

[ something about all this feels a little off, so quietly after a second: ] My bad, should I not have asked?

[But, quickly, Sirius backpedals, shoving away all idiotic feelings regarding the future and timelines and James. Get out of it, Black; and he can force that in himself if only he tries hard enough.]

Nah. You're thinking about it, 'course you should ask if you're thinking about it. Sorry I don't know more about it.

You're fine. [ she slides her hand over to intertwine her fingers with his, wherever he's set it once he was done poking at her face. ] It's no big deal. [ for now, anyway. ]

[It takes him a second, before he remembers himself all at once and responds to the grip of her hand--squeezes her fingers back, gives her hand a bracing little shake.]

Yeah. Why sit around moping when we could be enjoying the time here, eh?

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