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Grant was a bit nervous pulling into the supermarket drive-way. It didn't really make much sense because Sirius knew he was adopted and he comes over almost everyday. Sirius only talked to his ma in passing which was ridiculous since they'd known each other a bit over two years but this would be the first time they'd more or less actually interact. More importantly, Grant was concerned now that he told his mum he liked Sirius as, well, a boy. Which is why she insisted on this dinner/movie night to "check his palate. I won't stop you but I must judge you silently. Just a likkle bit."
They just finished school and ma was still working her shift at the hospital and Grant would have to pick her up later since he was driving her car. Though it's more because she didn't drive anymore since Grant got his provisional. But since she was working that meant it was up to Grant to make dinner. Which meant he was making scalloped potatoes. Grant Chapman loves scalloped potatoes. So when Sirius crawled over to hop out the driver's side after Grant child-locked him in the car, Grant kind of immediately gave up.
Grant loves Sirius, as a friend first, and as a friend Grant knows Sirius Black has very grabby hands in supermarkets. Anywhere really but specifically the frozen foods aisle. Sirius for some reason likes to try and find the most American, processed thing he can find in the freezer and buy them. Which wouldn't be a problem except he tries to get Grant to eat them. Point being this shopping trip would be much easier if Sirius would stay in the car.
Grant lets Sirius trail after him into the fluorescent dungeon.
Before they go through the automatic doors Grant turns around to grab Sirius' head in both hands and rattle his brain on the edges of his skull. "Do. Not. Touch. Anything." When he stops Sirius is grinning again.
"No promises, Gem."
"The only thing you are allowed to grab from the frozen aisle is icecream. 'N it'd better not be Ben & Jerry's."
"Let's skip your hour long rant about Ben & Jerry's tasting like cardboard, love." Sirius raises a hand to pinch Grant's cheek like he's a little kid.
"You know if I stuck you in a sewage drain, the rats would be the only ones complaining." Grant said in a mocking Barbie voice, pinching Sirius back.
"Nonsense," Sirius said, rubbing both cheeks and tailing him into the shop. "Reggie would."
"Regulus would be writing them condolence checks like he was paying child support."
"That would imply I was bred by a rat. I'm sure that's not what you mean, Gem, love."
When Grant's face pulled and he shrugged, Sirius said he'd get the cheese and wandered off muttering about buying a pig pen. He was very happy Sirius had his hair tucked behind his ears today because Grant could see his ears blush and it was honestly the cutest thing. Everyday he gets a little more emboldened in his idea that Sirius maybe likes him back. No, Sirius definitely likes him. What's not to like? Grant then realised he was staring at a red onion for ten minutes thinking about the mole in the corner of Sirius' eye and the one on his lower lip; and a bit above the dimple on his right cheek.
Grant actively envisioned a cartoon version of himself boxing up all his Sirius thoughts and sending it down a trash chute out his ear. Which is when he came to his senses and felt an old lady in a mobility scooter watching him. He turned to see her with an eyebrow raised at him and then to the red onion he was damn near choking. He dropped it back into the box with the rest of it's family and grabbed a bag of shallots without checking them properly and started speed walking away from her.
Grant checks for Sirius in the frozen food aisle first because Grant can stake every single hair on Sirius' head, that boy has selective hearing when it comes to instructions.
He finds Sirius crouched over the red layered heart bag Mary crocheted for him so close to the glass door his breath is fogging it over. When he gets close enough Sirius latches onto his leg asking if Grant would be willing to make coconut shavings for his sorbet.
"You know you can just buy that right." Grant threads his fingers over the grooves of Sirius' french braids when Sirius pouts and looks up at him.
"It's not the same."
"Well, no chance I'm going to be able to find a fresh coconut to do all that when I still have to cook. Did you get the cheese?"
Sirius hands him his bag and Grant inwardly goes through every single stage of grief tenfold and contemplates if his crush on Sirius is a lapse in judgement.
Summoning every DNA strand of patience Grant takes a deep inhale and holds it before letting it go. "What is in this bag."
"Cheese."
"Pre-shredded."
"Cheese."
"Packed in preservatives."
Sirius looks up at him still locked onto his leg with his eyebrows scrunched up. "Why do you care about preservatives all of a sudden?"
"The pull isn't the same."
Sirius wiggled his eyes at him and Grant smacked him upside the head.
"Real mature."
"R-rated even."
Grant's right eye started twitching. "I will leave you here in this fluorescent hellscape. My point is it just doesn't melt the same. I am overwhelmingly concerned for the size of the brain tumor in your head if you can't differentiate fresh cheese from cheese that melts like a bird's nest."
"That is a starter pack bird nest for people like me, who just don't feel like doing it!"
"You mean to say that you don't feel like shredding cheese but you want me to go make you fresh coconut flakes?"
"It tastes better!"
"Exactly! So why didn't you just get the blocked cheese and the bag of mozzarella?!" Grant was feeling a headache come on.
"That mozzarella bag is the slimiest, most overstimulating thing in the universe. Why is there water inside? It's disgusting; I don't wanna touch it. Also why is it a blob? And when you pull it apart it looks like matted hair! It's nasty!" Grant could feel his face twitch and wondered if it was really a good idea to put this boy in front of his ma when Sirius doesn't even understand the fundamentals and satisfaction of freshly shredded cheese.
"Sirius, you say that as if I let you past the bar stools at the kitchen counter!"
"It's slimy!"
"You won't even be touching it for more than the two seconds it takes to drop it in your bag!" Grant was erratically moving his hands out of exasperation and it probably looked very strange for someone to be arguing with a big teenage boy attached to their leg.
"You vile creature. I would never do that to Mary's bag. It's a gift, you animal."
"Says you, princess . You probably didn't pick up the block cheese 'cause it'd take too long to shred it with your punk noodle arms."
"But it's so tedious!"
"I didn't even ask you to!"
"Yet!"
"I would sooner put American cheese on my beans and toast. If I asked you to shred cheese you'd somehow end up breaking a gas pipe." Grant started again toward the dairy aisle, with Sirius still dangling off his leg, to put back his bird nest cheese, still loudly bickering when he gets stopped by security asking both of them to leave the store.
"See what you've done, Sirius? True marauder you are."
Sirius gasped loudly, well and truly offended. "What I've-" Grant wiggles his leg to get him off.
"Yeah, what you've done! Now, get the bloody hell off. So damn heavy you'll fucking amputate me." When Sirius finally stands up he trips Grant and Grant slams into the guard's giant chest. Then he's back on his feet chasing a cackling Sirius through the store, swearing loudly, "You mangy flea-bitten, hollow-headed mutt!"
"Bit harsh, no?!"
When they get to a different shop Sirius stays in the car. When Grant gets back, it smells like shawarma. He twists in his seat feeling dejected when he doesn't see any for him. Sirius is balled up in the passenger seat, his uniform pulling at every curve and dip and muscle. He has shoes off and Grant can see the rainbow cat socks Regulus got him spontaneously two weeks ago claiming it was an early birthday gift.
"You alright?"
Sirius doesn't move and Grant can't really tell if he's sleeping or not with Sirius facing the window. It's really fogging up with his breath so close. Grant scrunches up his lips. He grabs the steering wheel with both hands then slumps his back into the driver's seat. He feels tense though so he glances over as Sirius, "You mad with me?" Sirius doesn't say anything. Grant rubs his back with one hand and hopes he's sleeping then pulls out the lot.
When they get home Sirius immediately changes into just Grant's big, yellow, cuddle sweater and keeps his plaid boxers. Then he burrows himself in Grant's bed to take a nap.
Grant Chapman remains unsurprised and unimpressed. He's thinking Sirius is just cranky from a full day.
When Grant gets to the kitchen he starts making the cream sauce first, which he always does for some reason. Onions and garlic and this and that, then while it thickens a bit he leaves it to wash and slice the potatoes. Then puts both of them in his low casserole pot on the stove and covers it, mindlessly like he's on autopilot.
After, slowly like it's taking more energy and focus he makes coconut flakes for Sirius. Fresh. Cracking it open, drinking the water, carving out the meat, cutting, shredding, frying, the whole shebang. Then he put the finished coconut flakes in a jar with just a thin cloth covering it, held tight by a rubber band. When it drops with a clunk on the counter, he goes to his room to snuggle in next to Sirius for twenty minutes specifically, on a timer he set, specifically , so he wouldn't forget he's cooking something.
This wasn't the first time Sirius took it upon himself to take a nap in Grant's bed or the first time it turned into a sleepover when Sirius completely conched out until the next morning. So while sleepy Sirius was nothing new to Grant it always made him feel special when Sirius would curl up under his chin like a cat. So when he climbed into bed and Sirius drifted towards him like a ship at sea, it was nothing out of the ordinary. A bit out of place though was the dried salt at the corners of his eyes.
So he resolved to ask his mum what to do when he left to pick her up from her shift later. For now, he just gathered Sirius in his arms and held on tight.
-
Grant was wringing his fingers together parked near the exit of the ER. He pulled the car around when he saw his ma walking through the automatic doors because it was pouring and she would forever refuse to bring an umbrella. When she hopped in the car in her scrubs, the first thing his ma did was grab his face and kiss his cheek then immediately started bugging him about driving off.
"Mommy."
"Dahlin'."
"I- What are you doing?" She was twisting in her seat looking around and opening the center cubby, absolutely puzzled.
"The car smell like food." When she popped the glove box, the smell of it hit him like a wave. There was a white plastic bag in there and Grant took it from his ma to check inside. The shawarma he was smelling earlier was in it, completely wrapped in foil paper. It was somehow still a little warm so he one-handedly unwrapped it and just let his mum eat it. Thing is though, it couldn't have been for Grant. Grant hates tomatoes and that shawarma had tomatoes on it. So he sticks his hand back in the plastic looking for a receipt and he does find it, albeit a bit soaked through. There was only one shawarma on the receipt and suddenly it clicked for Grant what he did wrong.
Stopped by a red light at the intersection, Grant dropped into the back of his chair. "Ma, I think I called Sirius fat."
She paused mid-bite and gave him an unimpressed look out the corner of her eye then just kept eating. "What you telling me fuh? I must feel bad fuh you? I don't feel bad fuh you. Anything he do you, you did deserve it."
"He didn't do anything."
His mama gave him another unimpressed look then smacked him upside the head. "Boy, me ain't know what it is wrong with you but it something special indeed."
"Rude?"
"You can't go telling people dah. Whoo raise you?"
"Who you think?"
She didnt even take the time of day to look at him, "Excuse you?"
"Sorry, Maman."
This time she turned her whole head to him and looked him over. "You best watch yourself. Drive."
"I don't see why being fat is such a bad thing anyway. Who even came up with that? If you're fat, happy and healthy whose business is it that you're fat and why does it even matter. It's not fucking shameful."
"First a all baby, you ain't old enough to be cussing in front of me." Grant immediately said sorry and reversed to park in their driveway. "Second, it don't matter."
"Mommy, how you mean it don't matter?"
"Doux-doux, dah not relevant. It matter who make the mess or how you gonna clean it? Yeah, I find it very strange people does make fat people feel bad for how they look. When I was growing up it wasn't nothing, you done know what Granny look like. Dahlin', honestly, men, people really, are often too stupid to care unless you tell them what to care about." She just sat there in the parked car saying it all casually like it was nothing. 'Cause it was; nothing. She had leaned up against the headrest looking at the car ceiling. "It's strange to me that people tread around the word 'fat' like it's some kind of disease. Kind of like how white people are scared to say 'nigga'." She chuckled then shrugged.
"All in all baby, it don't matter." She threw her hands up helplessly. "What you want me say? Apologise? Boy, if you don't know to do that already you shouldn't even be interested in a relationship. Turn off the car." Grant gave her his jacket from the backseat to throw over her head then they ran inside.
"Blasted weather." his mum muttered under her breath.
"Nikoya, I in the kitchen. I brought you my good wine from France."
"I coming." Grant's mum looks at him before she walks off into the kitchen. He wouldn't dare roll his eyes but she knows he wants to. As he walks off to his bedroom he can hear her voice travel from the kitchen arguing with Mary's mom from next door because Auntie Angie only brought the wine to appease his mom because she couldn't be bothered to make oxtail and brought KFC instead. He had to pause at his bedroom door to stop laughing before he went in to wake Sirius.
Not that it worked because when he walked in Sirius was already looking at him from under the covers, his eyes glowing from the light on his phone. Grant flicked the lamp on immediately. "How many times do I have to tell you that's bad for your eyes. You'll need glasses before 30."
"And I'll look hot wearing them."
Grant smacked him on the back of the head then sat on him. The first thing out of Sirius was the harsh rasp when Grant dropped himself down.
"Yeah, sure, plant your giant ass on my chest. You know, where my ribs and lungs are. It's not like I can't breathe."
"I'm sure you like my giant ass right where it is."
"I'm sure you think so."
Grant slid backwards off him but kept his legs over Sirius' stomach. "Sirius." He glanced over and Sirius turned his head against the pillow. "I wasn't calling you fat earlier. I wasn't shaming you for being heavy either. I just-" He could feel Sirius' fingers over his knee where he start to pick at Grant's sweatpants. "I don't even think you’re fat by the way. Because I don't give even a sixteenth of a rat's shit. Even if you were, I wouldn't care 'cause it doesn't matter."
Grant could almost feel Sirius rolling his eyes. "Sirius, I really couldn't care less how fat you are unless it lands you in a hospital. So earlier? I wasn't calling you fat—also fat is not a bad thing—I was just joking."
"Mm."
"That said, I'm apologizing now if I ever made you feel bad or less of yourself. I'm sorry if I ever said something, anything, that made you think you should starve yourself." Grant trailed his fingers over Sirius' arm and neck and through his hair. He could hear the rain outside pick up into a storm. "Most importantly, I'm sorry I made you feel bad."
"Mhm."
When Grant sat up again he realised by Sirius' wheezing that he just sat on him again. "Oh, sorry, love." When he could stand Grant grabbed Sirius' head with both hands and smacked a kiss on his forehead and Sirius swatted at him like a mosquito. He turned around halfway through the door.
"Speaking of love," There wasn't really anything stopping Grant from telling Sirius he likes him other than wanting to tell his mum first. So in his mind, now seemed like a good time. "I like you. In that way. Romantically, I mean. And your tummy." Then he closed the door when Sirius jolted straight up and started sputtering.
At dinner his mum did in fact not forgive Auntie Angie because while she did bring the fancy French vineyard wine and have Mary make fresh pizza to appease his mum, she wasn't having it. In her mind not only did it not make sense, it's just that nothing really went together, other than the pizza and the wine, which she did eat. The whole point though was to have Sirius over for some nice, soul food, which Auntie Ang failed to deliver. Safe to say she was not welcome until she showed up with Oxtail, one way or another.
After dinner though they were just going to have icecream and watch a movie. So the kids were in the kitchen scooping icecream. Grant was washing the dishes on one side of the island and Mary and Sirius were across from him. And Sirius, he was interrogating her.
"Mavis, no way you learned to make that pizza dough from a YouTube video. Who. Are. You. Seeing. Italian guy, clearly, but which one and from where and does he go to our school?"
" 'M not sure it's much of your business, Mistress Black."
"See? You've already demoted me to mistress! How's it not my business? You're cheating on me with the enemy!" Sirius slid the first sundae bowl with three scoops of just pistachio.
"Who's the enemy again?
"Italians."
"What's your thing with Italians."
"Julius Caesar. Need I say more." Grant jumped in the conversation then moving his head somewhere between nodding and shaking, "That's homophobic I think." Mary jumped on that train immediately, "Yeah, Sirius. Are you really hating on the Romans? The founding fathers of all things queer?"
Sirius threw his hands up, "I wouldn't call them the founding fathers."
"And I'm sure you think kissing our dear Gem here is just a show of brotherly affection, hm?" Sirius locked his eyes on Grant's humongous smile and felt his ears get very, very hot. Mary nodded at him, talking over him when he tried to defend himself. "Julius took women so he's not queer enough 'cause he's bi, huh? All boils down to your bi-phobia, doesn't it, Sirius?"
Sirius started muttering about how Mary was the only bisexual he could ever be bi-phobic to because she was a rancid bitch but Mary just cackled at him, having won. "I'm almost absolutely certain your dislike of Italians stems from your unbridled hatred of History, if not the History teacher." she said.
Sirius groaned and dropped the icecream scooper to grab his head like an immediate migraine came on. "Mavis, love, please don't bring him up. I won't burst an aneurysm, I'll birth one. Siriously. If I ever see that man again after I graduate, it'd be an omen for my death. Sometimes after I have class with him I feel like I should be sleeping in a ring of salt."
When Sirius slides her a sundae bowl with butter pecan and tiramisu she picks up both and gets off the barstool to give them to their mums. "Yeah, cause he'd give you an aneurysm so bad you'd grow a vagina and birth it." Grant calls her over to pass her the glass jar with the jar with the coconut flakes. Sirius doesn't see because he's busy breaking his arm trying to scoop the basically frozen icecream.
"The fact that he exists makes it possible," he muttered under his breath. Mary paused and leaned back through the archway to raised an eyebrow at him. "Bloody hell! Mary Mavis Macdonald, you are beyond disgusting!" Grant could hear her cackling all the way to the living room even over the loud thunder outside. When she comes back she's smiling unapologetically.
"Mavis. You are a pervert."
"Sirius, dushi, you are infinitely worse than me. I didn't even say anything, you talk in sexual innuendos only. I can't even step foot in a tram with you and not end up visualising some graphic depiction of a sex joke you made. And that's on public transport. In front of old people and babies."
Sirius shrugs dramatically and sputters because he's said it once, he's said it a million times. "It's not like they can understand me!"
Mary eases herself onto the barstool like a new mother to troublesome triplets. Sirius slid her pistachio and tiramisu to her like a bartender. “And no, he’s not Italian but he did learn it from an Italian guy he was dating.” When she opens the jar with the coconut flakes and puts them on Sirius' icecream, Sirius freezes.
Grant fumbled with a plate and looked at Mary with wide, shocked eyes and his mouth hanging open. “Who, Tomny? Tomny Armstrong? Lives directly across the street from me, Tomny Armstrong? Childhood friend since I was in an orphanage, Tomny?” When Mary just shrugged and smiled her down turned smile, Grant looked scandalised. “Mary Mavis, you sneaky bastard. Well done. Hats off, you’re no longer bi yourself.”
Mary rolled her eyes at him. “Overlived, love.”
Grant quickly dried his hands and pulled his phone out. “You know what, I’m telling him to come over.” Mary’s eyes shot up and she nodded to the window, “Now? It’s storming, Gem.” Grant shrugged and texted Tomny’s mum for good measure but it’d be fine since Tomny literally lived right across the street from him. Sirius, though, was completely zoned out of the conversation and still entirely focused on the jar of coconut flakes. "Where'd you get that?"
Mary slowly continues to put on coconut flakes though a little confused. "Gem gave it to me."
"He said he wasn't gonna make 'em." Sirius looked up at him confused with his face scrunched up and head tilted.
Grant just shrugged, "I did it before I went to pick up mommy." Sirius smiled to himself, a soft, gentle thing and it made Grant feel that tingling feeling like when steam hits your face. It was a nice feeling; strange and special.
Mary went and got herself a big spoon and at least 3 more tubs of icecream out the freezer and sets them on the counter to build her monstrosity of a sundae. While Sirius just used his hands to warm up the sides of the hazelnut tub so the entire thing could just slide out of it straight into Grant's glass. "Auntie Nikoya's a nurse and she lets you do this?"
Grant grabs a hand towel so he can dry the oven dishes and put them away immediately. "I mean, she's not a dentist."
Mary nods, "Fair enough. Why do you keep so much icecream though?"
"Life is a marathon, you must be prepared for any situation and kind of stress that requires icecream and a movie." Sirius said in an entitled voice and a fist to his chest.
Grant's answer was simple though, "Sirius likes icecream."
Mary wiggled her eyebrows at him and smirked knowingly and he rolled his eyes. When Sirius saw Mary grinning, the look of betrayal on his face was probably what Caesar looked like when he died.
"Sirius knows by the way."
"He knows? Since when?!"
" ‘Round two hours ago?"
"You haven't even gotten a chance to talk it over then?"
"Nah."
"Evil one, you, Grant Olive Chapman." Grant couldn't help but grin back at her.
Sirius' eyes kept flicking between Grant and Mary. "Mavis. You knew and didn't tell me? Are we even bestfriends?"
Mary, with her beautiful biceps, got through the icecream a bit easier than Sirius and piled a scoop of tiramisu, pistachio, strawberry, lemon, caramel and hazelnut each. Monstrosity is what it was and monstrosity is what she called it. There was enough space on the sundae dish to set the scoops up like a pyramid and that is what she always did. "The three of us are best friends. Since you are both my best friends, I'm obviously in the know and have been cheering supportively from the sidelines, to be fair."
"I want a divorce, Macdonald."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Shame the Blacks are good old-fashioned Catholics then." She grabbed her Monstrosity, winked at Grant, mouthed 'good luck' and went on her way to be harassed by their mums. Not that the icecream thing is new to them, just that it's blasphemy or at least that's what they call it.
Grant just finished scrubbing out the sink and he was wiping down the counter now. Nothing to listen to but the storm outside and nothing to look at except the gorgeous and stunning Sirius Black in front of him. Grant folded his arms and leaned over the kitchen counter to lie down a bit.
"I like your tummy." He said eventually.
Sirius snorts, "You've said."
"I like it a lot."
"I know."
"More than I like hazelnut icecream."
"High praise."
"I know." Sirius wouldn't stop shaking his head and was smiling so hard it looked like it hurt.
"Sleeping over?"
Sirius scoffed and gestured to the lightning flashing out the window. "That rhetorical? I'm obviously not going out again in this storm."
"Perfect." Grant stood up again and started putting away all the icecream tubs. Then quickly washes the icecream scooper Sirius hands him.
"Why?"
"I can kiss you later."
Sirius scrunched his eyebrows from across the counter, picking up both their sundaes and sticking two teaspoons in each absentmindedly, like clockwork. "You can kiss me now?"
"Yeah. And later too." Grant came around the island to stand in front of Sirius and take his glass, Sirius snatched it right back out his hand and set them both on the countertop. Before he could even register it, Sirius had grabbed him by his face with both hands, what was usually Grant’s MO, and kissed him senseless.
It was like his lungs stuttered instead of his mouth and everything in his body braced like at the top of a rollercoaster. But also like your body jump starts and then Grant kissed back, slow and languid. Sirius let his hands slide down Grant's chest, around his torso and let them sit tangled together at the dips in Grant's lower back. It was a nice feeling. Until Sirius pulled back.
"I can kiss you now and you can kiss me later." Sirius gave him one lingering close lipped kiss then grabbed their sundaes and went out to the living room.
Grant could almost swear his heart was beating louder than the thunder out the window and that didn't sound like a good thing but it damn well felt like one. He leaned against the counter and trailed a finger over his lips. Hands still warm, lips still tingling and mind somehow completely blank. So he must’ve missed the door opening because Tomny was leaning against the wall with Mary’s lipstick on his cheek, grinning. So Grant near jumped out his skin when Tomny started singing Cinderella’s ‘So This Is Love”. Grant rolled his eyes so far back, they might as well just pop out his head. He walked over and shoved his hands in Tomny’s face to shut him up then walked straight past him to the living room with everyone else.
Tomny followed him laughing but more wheezing, “Wait, wait, come back. Don’t I get any icecream?”
“You can go get diabetes with your girlfriend.”
"You're grinning like an idiot. Had your first kiss?"
"I hope you break your arm trying to shove your fist up your ass. That was not my first kiss."
"I didn't know I had befriended such a rake."
Grant turned around in the archway to the living room and heatedly whispered to Tomny, "I hope you get blue balls tonight."
Tomny's didn't say anything but you could see it in his eyes he was sincerely offended. "Not on your life."