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The white walls glared at Sirius in a way that he was sure was meant to torment him, but he didn’t at all feel guilty for painting over the family tree that had spanned the walls of Grimmauld Place for far too long. Pureblood supremacy and the years of supposed history that it held meant nothing to those that lived within these walls anymore. The problem, however, was that he didn’t feel like white was the way to go either and now he was faced with the decision of what to put on the wall instead. He was pretty sure that underneath the paint, the family tree was screaming, and that was maybe why he was facing a creative block.
Well, that and the fact that he couldn’t paint pictures to save his life. But that was why he had called in reinforcements in the shape of Remus. Remus would never admit it, but he was quite the artist. He had his heart set on being a teacher again one day when this war was over, but he had a talent that couldn’t be ignored, even if it rarely saw the light of day.
Sirius headed out into the hallway where he checked the clock on the wall. Remus was usually punctual, but for some reason, he was running late today. Sirius did his best to ignore any paranoid thoughts that tried to tell him that it was because a) Remus wasn’t coming at all because he didn’t want to spend time alone with him, or b) that something had happened to him to stop him from coming.
He made his way to the kitchen where he poured himself a whiskey and did his best to ignore the look that Tonks was giving him from where she was sitting up on the table. He wasn't exactly happy that she was sitting on the table with his legs crossed underneath her, but he knew that arguing with her just now wasn't a good idea.
"Alright?" She asked after he downed his whiskey and set his glass down on the counter in front of him.
Sirius made himself take a slow breath before he turned to face Tonks. He knew that he couldn't explain why he was feeling this way to her, even though she was probably the only one who would understand what he was feeling. He'd seen the way that she looked at Remus, after all, but neither of them talked about that.
Fortunately, there was a noise from the living room that stopped him from getting much further than "yeah" and he went to check to see if it was Remus, leaving Tonks in the kitchen and hopefully not too butthurt that the werewolf was there to see him and not her.
"Hey, there Moony." He greeted the man as Remus dusted the soot off of his clothes. He looked tired, which was always Sirius' first thought when he saw the man that he had been in love with for the majority of his life.
"Hey, Pads." The smile that spread across Remus' lips distracted Sirius from his thoughts as it always did. "I thought you said that there was some sort of disaster? You look relatively calm for that…"
"It's a decor disaster," Sirius told Remus as he took the man's hand and led him through to stand him in front of the big white wall. "I need your expertise here. Can you paint it?"
There was a slight frown on Remus' lips and Sirius knew that it was because the man was thinking about what exactly it was that Sirius had covered up, but Remus didn't mention it, which was something that Sirius appreciated. The sooner he could put the entire Black Family behind him, the better, which wasn't at all easy when he was imprisoned in the Black Family home.
"I can work with this," Remus said with a smile and a nod.
"I'll go get us some drinks." Sirius smiled as he let go of Remus and left him with the wall, passing a slightly confused Tonks who was standing in the doorway on his way out. He couldn't - and wouldn't - explain anything to her. He didn't owe anyone an explanation.