it's in your blood and it's in your making

He heard her words, felt them stir the fur across his coat, and his next breath came out in a quiet sigh. He knew Deathbelle didn’t just mean the children. She meant Sirius, and Zee, when she had released the both of them. Perhaps a part of her had still wished they had returned to her.

Sirius did miss the closeness of his Princess. Especially with how quiet and absent Zee had been of late. He thought of the days when his den had been beside hers, just a yell away if she needed him. He sighed, and leaned his head down, burying it in her neck. Not romantically, just drawing comfort from her. Breathing in the scent of her flowers.

She surprised him with a chaste kiss to his cheek, and he paused, caught like a deer in headlights. How easy it would be, to return it, to forget his worries in her arms. But he was more than that, and that road would only lead to heartbreak. His, Deathbelles, Zees. He was done hurting those he loved. He pulled back, just a little burying his discomfort with a tight smile. “I fear I’ve raised them to be little tyrants, if anything” he joked.