Lady, the Potters’ German Shepard, dropped herself at Sirius’ feet, nuzzling his knee with her snout. She sniffed him, tentatively, then plopped her head on his worn out trainers, then moved it to his thigh, covered by his jeans.
“Hey, girl,” Sirius grinned, scratching her behind her ears, (the way he liked it, too, obviously), which earned him a pleased whine from the dog. “You’re beautiful, aren’t you?”
As an answer, she raised her head and gently shoved his arm. He reached into his pocket and held out his palm, a biscuit in his hand, which Lady accepted gratefully.
Sirius hummed. running his hand down the thick fur on Lady’s back. There was something calming about spending time in the proximity of animals, just as it was when he turned.
The past few days (which had been more than a week, according to his friend), James would say he’d been isolating himself from everyone and trying to escape his feelings. Which would not be entirely untrue, considering the fact that Sirius’ emotions always felt more shallow, less human, when he wasn’t a person. And, besides, he didn’t want to bother with sorting out with all the complicated feelings he was feeling, (including the rather strange dreams he had started having recently which included James (no, he was not going to think about it anymore)), nor did he think the Potters would particularly enjoy his presence.
He wasn’t sulking, though. He was just ignoring most, if not all of the things he felt.
Lady whined; Sirius’ thoughts were disrupted by it, and when she had his attention again, she playfully licked his face, which made him laugh.
“Reckon she likes you,” James said, having jogged towards where his friend had been sitting in the garden. “It usually takes her a while to warm up to people, and she still bares her teeth at Peter from time to time.”
“She probably felt we’re, ah, similar,” Sirius answered, grinning, his nails grazing at the spot between her ears. “Dogs are very smart animals, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had me figured out.”
“Probably why she started barking at me, then,” James added, jovially, spreading his legs and letting Lady lick his bicep. “She’s hot and cold with me, really. Sometimes we’re friends and sometimes we aren’t.”
They sat in silence for a while, until James cleared his throat.
“You’re staying, right?”
“Till I can get back on my feet.” Sirius shrugged. “I’ll probably have to find myself a job in the meantime. I’ve always wanted to tinker with cars and stuff, so I might do that.”
“You know you can stay, though, right? Mum and Dad love you. Which is exactly why I don’t understand why you spend the bare minimum with them. You know they enjoy your company, right?”
He scratched his nose. “Sure.”
James rolled his eyes. “Mate, come on.” He playfully hit Sirius with his fist in his arm, which made the latter look at him and put up his finger in a rather obscene gesture. “My parents like you. They want you around. They’ve both told me that. Come on, help Dad with his crosswords. He’s stuck.”
Sirius pushed against James’ shoulder, standing up, towering over him. “Fine,” He grinned, “but you’ll let me spend time with Lady and you’re not going to be waking me up early. I want to be able to sleep my summer holidays to the fullest, and you’re not allowing that.”
“I wouldn’t even dream of it,” James snickered, standing up looking pleased with himself. He looked for a second too long at Sirius (or maybe he just imagined that, James’ eyes on his mouth) before he pushed Sirius forward and linked their arms together, making their way to the manor.
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Favourite type of post? Ones where someone says something that sounds like something an animal, a plant, a character, whatever would say, even to a comical degree, and someone reblogging it with a little speech bubble and that animal, plant, character, whatever.
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