witch adherent

★ - praise my muse for a recent accomplishment or action

He had decided to make dinner that night, and Claire had just complimented him on his cooking. 

“Yes, yes. Of course my cooking is good. You should all be grateful.” Though he was acting all high-and-mighty externally, the conversation he was having with himself internally was another story entirely. Her compliment was the closest thing he was going to get to an interpersonal connection with her again. Honestly, it kind of hurt, coming from her-- a person who had no memory of their time spent together. Of Lady Dorothy. She was blissfully unaware of how much her presence itself was a burden on him, and here she was, showing him kindness.

Clearly. “Miss Claire and I searched around.. y-you were out for so long.. sniff hic I thought something happened to you–”

“I don’t want to lose you.. or anybody ge v gever .. aagain.”

i love yuou i love you i love youou goduao welcome home

“Why are you working so late at night instead of resting?”

“Yes... for some reason unknown to me, I find it hard to sleep at night. Working is cathartic and puts me at ease.” Wait. Why did he have to explain himself?! Even if this was Noel, he was tired!

❝ Yeah, but they haven’t, so you can’t.  It’s rich that you think you can do anything to us just because we were forced to stay in your estate against our will. ❞

❝ Have some decency, man. ❞

Appealing to a good nature that Wilardo assumed even Sirius had to have somewhere in that crooked heart of his, Wil’s tone was reduced to being less menacing and more reproachful.

❝ If we’re going to be stuck here together like this for a while, you need to learn how to deal with all of us, or things are going to go downhill fast. ❞

“...” Sirius glared hard at Wilardo. This was simply impossible for him to deal with. Why should he have to tolerate such nonsense...? And yet, he couldn’t deny the truth of the man’s words.

“I realize you’re not wrong. However, I would expect you to understand the amount of stress I’m currently under, having so many strangers constantly going through my belongings and interrogating me late into the night concerning trivial matters.” 

❝ Have you lost your damn mind?  If you think I’ll let it go and run off with my tail between my legs that easily, you’ve got another thing coming.  We’ve always tried not to tread on each other’s toes, and now this? ❞

Wilardo growled, not content to let Sirius step all over him just because he was their host.  It wasn’t as if Wil wanted to be cooped up with the likes of Ashe.  Sure, he’d come for a reason, but he’d prefer missing out on competition… especially someone as untrustworthy as that.

❝ Apologize now, and I’ll consider letting you off the hook.  But I’m not gonna take this laying down. ❞

“You--! What part of ‘don’t show your face’ do you not understand?! Get out!” Honestly, he was quite fed up with this lot! Meddling in his business where unnecessary, forcing him to play host when he didn’t want to... why should he have to deal with any of this? He absolutely didn’t! They should be on their hands and knees begging him to stay! And instead, here they all were, up in his face as if it were no big deal... it was utterly inconceivable!

Especially that Ashe. What an annoying person. Sirius simply wanted one moment of peace and quiet to himself, but it was to no avail. If these idiots didn’t stop snooping around, why, Sirius would... he would...

Ugh!

Sirius would never say it aloud, but he always looked forward to Ashe’s baked goods. They perfectly complemented the tea he chose, and often, he would take the leftovers to his room to snack on as he read long into the night. So, Ashe may not have known this, but-- when he entered his room with cookies, though Sirius pretended to be indifferent to them, he was secretly eyeing them over the pages of his book.

... Hm? Except, these appeared different today. Happy... birth... day. Happy birthday.

Wait.

Noel scratched at the back of his neck, looking over. He wasn’t too beat up, maybe a bit of blood trickled from his side, but Noel seemed not to notice it, 

“No..? No I ah.. you must’ve been mistaken.. They can’t talk, like you said! Ha..”

He winced, holding his side and offering Sirius a soft smile, trying to change the subject as best as he could.

“What’s got you up at this hour, anyway..?”

“...” Sirius seemed doubtful-- until his gaze caught on the blood dripping out of Noel’s side, and he immediately shifted focus. 

“You--!! You’re bleeding!” Quickly, Sirius reached out and gripped Noel’s arm, giving it a tug. He had to administer first aid quickly-- nothing else was important at the moment. Except... the monsters were all over the mansion at this hour, and they had to maneuver past them to the first aid kit. Dammit! “We’ll have to sneak past them and get you bandaged. Can you hold out until then? I... I have amulets if we need them, but...”

Sirius was making his nightly rounds. His unwelcome tenants may very well have been up to no good when he wasn’t watching, and he took it upon himself to check up on them to ensure all was well. Ashe was, by far, the most suspicious-- overall, Sirius had no qualms with Wilardo, and Noel and Claire were... different. But, regardless, he chose to visit them indiscriminately.