"I'm back." Alicia called out as she walked into her friend's house. Sirius followed her inside and his eyes darted around, the house was different than his. It was simplistic where as his was classy and luxurious. He had realized a long time ago that his house was the odd one.

"Did you have fun?" Alicia's mother asked. She was chatting with Mrs. Lang in the living room. She glanced at Sirius and back at Alicia.

Alicia nodded with a reassuring smile. "This is Sirius." She pointed at him. "Regulus' brother. Mrs. Black didn't want me to go back alone so she asked him to drop me off. I asked him to stay for a while." She turned to look at Mrs. Lang. "Is that okay?" She nodded in response.

"It's nice to meet you." Sirius said politely.

"Can we have some ice-cream?" She asked her again. Mrs. Lang smiled. "Help yourself." Alicia smiled and headed into the kitchen with Sirius right behind her.

"Are we actually having ice-cream? I thought that was an excu-"

"It's okay if you don't wan-"

"Where is it?" Sirius asked, not letting her finish the sentence. She took out two tubs of ice cream from the fridge and put them on the kitchen counter.

"Help yourself. I'll be back in a minute."

"Where are you going?" Sirius asked immediately. He mentally cursed himself for sounding overly nervous. But he didn't want to be alone in a house he had entered only a few minutes ago. Not that she was a familiar presence to him but she was the most familiar one in that place.

"I need to change." Alicia gestured towards her dress. "It won't take long, I promise." She went upstairs to the room she was staying in and changed as quickly as she possibly could. When she went back down he was helping himself to Pistachio ice cream. She took out the tub containing chocolate ice cream and filled a bowl with it. She leaned against the counter as she started digging in.

"I'm guessing one of them is your mother." Sirius gestured towards the living room with his spoon.

"Yes, the other one is Vincent Lang's mother." He had a confused look on his face. "This is his house. We don't live in the UK."

"Wait then, why did you invite me here?" He was already uncomfortable to begin with and this didn't make it any better.

"We've known them for ages. I knew they wouldn't mind if you stayed for ice-cream." Alicia said nonchalantly. She looked him over and sighed. She forgot how nervous she had been at the Black residence and now she taking his discomfort lightly. "I'm sorry. I didn't think you would be this uncomfortable. It's unexpected to be honest."

He was surprised to say the least. It was not a big thing but he didn't expect her to be considerate of him since they barely knew each other. "What do you mean unexpected?"

"Well, you always seem confident, like nothing can harm you and you'll give a good fight if anyone tries."

"I'm honored you think so highly of me." He said smugly.

"That was my way of saying your reckless confidence will get you killed someday." She retorted immediately.

He let out a laugh. "I'll pretend you didn't say that. In my head you think I'm brave and gallant as one can be."

"I'll add delusional to your list of 'qualities'."

Sirius' smile grew wider. "You have a list of my qualities? You should stop before I start to think you fancy me."

Alicia shook her head in defeat. "At least you don't seem nervous anymore." She smiled at him. "Why were you so nervous?"

"I don't like going to other people's house. I'm still getting used to my friends' house." He glanced at her to see if she was paying attention. She nodded at him, urging him to keep going. "I don't know what I'll find. A happy, healthy home or a dysfunctional one. I don't know which one I prefer." He whispered the last part. "Unlike someone," He looked at her pointedly. "I would rather mind my own business."

She nodded. The atmosphere seemed tense all of a sudden. The images of the scars and wounds on his back came back to her. She flinched and turned away from him.

"You're thinking about what happened." It was more of a statement than a question. "It's hard to forget." She said without turning towards him. He walked towards her and leaned against the counter beside her. "Do your friends know?" She looked at him.

He nodded. "They have for a while."

"I'm glad you didn't have to keep it to yourself." She let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you didn't have to suffer alone."

"You should really stop." He joked, trying to lighten the mood. "I may take it the wrong way."

Alicia rolled her eyes. "Maybe you would know what niceness looks like if you practiced it once in a while."

"I'm plenty nice!" He pretended to be hurt.

"Of course you are." She muttered.

"Ali I got a letter from Bran." Vincent called out as he walked down the stairs of his house into the kitchen. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the pair. "Sirius Black. And Ali together in my kitchen?" He said in a confused tone.

"He came to drop me off." Vincent still looked confused. "Regulus invited me to his place."

"Right." He said. "I forgot. I never see you around your brother." He said to Sirius. He turned to Alicia. "Bran said he's back. We should start packing."

She munched on her ice-cream. "I already did."

Sirius coughed interrupting their conversation. "I think I should be heading back."

"I'll walk you out." She said and handed the bowl of ice-cream to Vincent, who took it happily.

Sirius walked out of the front door with Alicia close behind him. He turned to her and waited for her as she closed the door behind her. "You're going somewhere?"

She rubbed her arms as the night air hit her. "Vince and I are going to Brandon's house for a few days."

He chuckled and put his helmet on. "You guys are an odd group."

"Because we're in different houses?" She put her hands on her hips. "Like your group didn't already pick on us for that. We almost lost our friendship because of that."

Sirius grimaced. He remembered what she was talking about. He, and his friends, had done a lot of cruel things and waved it off as harmless pranks. "I'm sorry about that. I really am." He looked her in her eyes as he said that. As surprised as she was she nodded in response when she realized he was being sincere. "I don't know what I would do if I didn't have my friends. I'm glad you guys made it through."

She looked at him, her eyebrows scrunched and her mouth partly open. "What?" Sirius laughed at her reaction. She shook her head. "You surprised me. I didn't expect you to apologize sincerely and then be happy for us."

Sirius smiled. "I surprised myself a lot of times today." He said softly. He looked at Alicia to see if she had heard that. She had. She shifted in her place, understanding what he meant, the look in his eyes making her flush. For the first time in that night she couldn't meet his eyes. "I hope in a good way." She replied, meeting his soft tone with hers.

"I never said that." He joked and started heading to his motorcycle. He waved his hand without turning back to her. He thought that was a good enough farewell. She gave a little wave even though she knew he couldn't see it.

She went into the house and closed the door. Vincent was looking at her with a smug look on his face, the ice-cream bowl still in his hand.

"You ate it!" She exclaimed. She took the bowl from his hand and stared at it.

"You gave it to me!"

"I didn't say you could eat it!"

"Forget that." He took the bowl from her hand and placed it on the counter. "You took a long time to see him out."

"And?"

"Be honest." He said and she had guessed what he was talking about. "Are you dating him? How could you not tell us?"

"I'm not dating him." She said. Not understanding why he would think that after seeing them talk one time.

"Sirius Black out of all people." He completely ignored her. "I didn't even know you were on speaking terms with him. But we understand and support you." He smiled at her.

She looked at him like he was the most annoying being on the planet. "Have you gone deaf?" She raised her hand to stop him from talking. "Forget it, I'm not going to deal with this."

She went up the stairs and Vincent followed her while laughing. "Okay, okay. Help me pack then."