the_debt_of_time

Richard nodded as though he genuinely understood. Sirius wondered
why all Muggles could not be this understanding and friendly. No, there just had to be
arseholes like Vernon Dursley existing in the world.
"I spent six months trying to get up the nerve to ask my Helen," Richard mused.
"And then another four months trying to figure out how to do it. In the end, I took her on
a trip to Sicily." He leant back against the counter, resting his elbows there as he told the
story with a grin on his face. "We took in a show, dinner at a fancy restaurant, then I bought
her this antique collection of Shakespeare works. Tied the ring on a ribbon bookmarking
her favourite sonnet. That's how you do romance, my friend."
"Wouldn't work for me," Sirius said with a smirk. "The books sure, but my
girl hates Shakespeare. Some other bird sent me a poem back in school, and my bird lost
her bloody mind over it. Eyes flashed, hair sparked, and then she cursed her and any other
girl that blinked my way twice." Sirius said the words and then immediately swallowed hard,
realising that he had just said several Wizarding terms to a Muggle.
Richard simply laughed. "You got yourself a spitfire there."
Sirius let out a sigh of relief and joined his new friend in laughter. "You have no
idea."
"So why the hesitation to marry her?"
Sirius shrugged and threw back the shot of whisky, making a face when it did not
burn right going down. "It's complicated. She's keeping secrets."
"Everyone does."
"She keeps a lot of secrets, mate," Sirius said, reflecting back on all of Mia's scars,
the strange way she started stuttering out of nowhere in the past year or so, her vague
references and unwillingness to talk about the future, the crazy way she would burst into
tears around certain people—not to mention her outright disdain for Peter that went above
and beyond what the little tosser deserved for spying on her once back in school.
"You think she's got another bloke?"
Sirius shook his head immediately. "No. She's only ever been with.. ." Remus.
"We're supposed to end up together, y'see. Destiny or something stupid like that. Between
knowing that she's it for me and her not telling me the truth, I feel like all my choices have
been taken away. Like fate expects us to end up together, but it failed to mention how
that's supposed to happen."