today is the tomorrow.

[Xaver]

"Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
Now you know why."

The words haunted him. As did the face from whose lips they had been uttered. A narrow, familiar face, with gentle, knowing eyes.
Eyes that effectively lied, and foretold a story far different than that which lay dormant, just beneath.
Eyes that faked a soul.


Xaver mopped a hand over his face, rubbing at the tired and weary lines that fatigue and anxiety had pressed into the handsome angles of his face, then drew his fingers through the still short, but thick raven locks of his hair. He needed sleep. Badly. But there was never time, anymore, and less, he doubted he'd be able to sleep even if he did find a moment to lay down. Not with the paranoia of his family's safety, with a brand new member on the way, and both the Ministry and Conan Sulai more or less banging down the door of his home and threatening the sanctity of the peace that was always his home-life.

Memories of his old and deceased mentor and friend weren't helping matters any, he reminded himself.
The old man had wanted to see his downfall as much and as greedily as his new assailants did. However, given, the old man had used far more tactic and finesse. Xaver had even loved him like a father figure. The bastard had effectively wormed his way into his heart.
Which is why, he believed, a small part of him had died, in every way as much and as evenly as the old man had died, when he had executed him.

Xaver pulled a face, and set his now empty mug down on the wooden table with an aggressive thump that quivered through the table, and enticed the few allotted stares of those at tables nearest his corner booth. The disgruntled Fallen angel pointedly ignored them, shifting in his plush seat and leaning against the glass pane of the window beside him, staring out into the street, crowded despite the winter blizzard. There was no stopping those determined Humans. He'd surmised that long ago.
With a sigh, that hardened exterior shifted, and faded momentarily, as he lost himself in thought, the dark oceans of his gaze far beyond in the snowy haze. That stone face he always held so effectively, briefly dropped, and what was truly beneath the surface showed with a solemn vigor.
Pain.
Animosity.
Fear.
Emotion that was real. True.
Emotion that truly told that he was, at heart, just a man, who could like any other feel, and hurt, and bleed.

Just as suddenly, his expression faded away - as his eyes slid closed, and he slid into the only escape he'd ever known, before his family; sleep.
His temple pressed against the glass, and one arm draped over the mess of papers arranged in front of him on the table, he fell asleep, sinking into the contours of his seat..

[ChoChangHP118]

Sirius was desperate to escape from the cold that was circling around him, taunting him with joyous howl's of wind everywhere he trudged. 
He had just left Sarah's house, from yet another gruesome visit to his children. Finding it to cold to go anywhere out, he had decided to stay with them and enjoy a leisurely afternoon playing board games by the fireplace in Sarah's cozy cottage.
They had enjoyed themselves thoroughly, until Sarah walked in, her hair askew and her clothes drenched.

Sirius had been able to tell immediately that she was not in the mood for words, so he kissed his children goodbye and stood to leave. Her anger was apparent all around her, the air she let out was harsh as she drug her feet through the house to find a change of clothes. It pained Sirius to leave his kids there when Sarah was in such a state of anger, but he didn't want to press the problem.
He had left in a rush, he had even left his scarf on the sofa he was so quick to depart from his ex wife's presence.

So now he walked through the snow, fighting to get to the warmth of a classy old building up ahead. He saw a roof that promised warmth and nourishment and he was desperate to get to it.
He walked with his head down and though his feet drew lines through the snow on the ground, after just a moment the quickly falling flakes would swarm over the freshly plowed snow by his feet. It was a never ending cycle as he walked, and his footprints always lost and were faded after a few minutes.

He entered the shop, finding it not as crowded as he had thought it to be.
After ordering a drink from the bar area he took his tea to the nearest booth, he ignored others glances and focused on the open chair in front of him.

His feat danced across the waxed wooden floor, and he found himself sliding everywhere. He struggled to keep his balance, but found it hard with his drenched shoes.
One fatal step towards his seat did the trick and Sirius finally completely lost control of his lower body, his feet slipping out from under him backwards. He stumbled forward, the tea in his hands flying from them.

After a moment he found himself sprawled on the wet floor, his face just inches from feet that were slid under a table.
He slowly worked his way up, curious to know where his tea had landed.

His eyes widened, he stopped dead in his rise. Somehow his green colored mug filled with hot, sweet tea had landed on the floor after enjoying a nice ride through the air, drenching the patron behind where he was to sit.

The person it had landed on most unexpectedly happened to be one person that probably wouldn't appreciate a hot substance poured on him by Sirius Black.

Xaver Xian.

[Xaver]

For reasons still left unaccounted for, but some that he could probably guess a wager at, fate had always hated Xaver, and a blissful slumber didn't ever seem to be in his cards anymore.
Not a long one, anyway.
It was not common for Xaver to let down his guard in public - beyond rare, actually. He liked few, and trusted less. For him to fall into a quiet sleep was beyond that of strange, though, as apparently fate would have it, it wasn't destined to last, anyway. The amazing never was.

He dreamt of streams. Long, langorous slopes and valleys lush and thick with full and healthy grasses, spotted with varying shades of flowers and weeds.
He was flying above it all, the vast, undistilled wilderness - and he was free.
Fresh, content.. and hot.
Burning hot.
HOT.

Xaver grunted as he stirred back to consciousness, a very sweet smelling liquid seeping, in all its heat and intensity, through his jeans to smolder over his thigh, and droplets of it dribbling down the contours of his neck and searing rivulets to his shoulder. He jerked at the sudden sensation, blinking, half awake as he began to curse in a mix of languages.
"D*amn..  Merde! If.. Xi!"
He shivered violently and rubbed a hand over his burning thigh, then the slope of his neck, the sensation disappearing as quickly as it had come as he leveled out the heat of the liquid with a touch of magic, but the lingering effects draining his energy more efficiently than he'd ever imagined.

Sinking back into his chair as his gaze moved to Sirius, his expression was exasperated.

"I'm awake...?"

He blinked at him, tones low and groggy.

[ChoChangHP118]

"Next time I'll have to be sure and make sure she's sober. Then it'll really be good." He [Sirius] smiled, draining the glass before turning back to Xaver.

Xaver was gone from where he had been standing idly, to gripping Sirius's throat, dragging the man from the booth, and slamming him into the nearest wall with enough force to implode the brick.

You are cold, ignorant sloth,"

Xaver's grip tightened, his fingernails, even if tastefully short, embedding roughly into Sirius's skin, drawing blood that dribbled, aimlessly, in rivulets down the expanse of his throat. Xaver pressed harder, cutting off his airway.

"I wouldn't kill you," he murmured, darkly. "I would.. skin you. I would enjoy the slow, agonizing process of ..tearing you apart. And, you would watch me do it. Watch, as you bled from every f__king orifice you possess in the sack of bones you so pathetically inhibit."

He delivered a sweeping, harsh kick to the underside of Sirius's jaw.

Xaver's eyes blazed, darkening, and growing angrier by every passing moment...


Sirius's gaze stayed on Xaver's face remembering that moment that had been locked in his mind forever. On Sirius's face and neck scars could be found when looking closely at either, all of which were courtesy of the thing that Sirius still knelt by.

He was cautious as he stood, not taking his now cold purple eyes off of Xaver. He was terrified, Xaver's words ringing through his mind.

"Last time I checked you were awake," Sirius responded to Xaver with unease. He dried his pants with his wand, then stood awkwardly next to Xaver.

He tried to stay calm, but even being in his presence made his stomach sick from thought. A charming fellow from behind the bar greeted Sirius with another tea, he was careful to hold it in his hands. His eyes dared not leave Xaver's, wanting to apologize or something but feeling to 'little' to do so.

The feeling that being around Xaver brought about him made Sirius feel impossibly useless. Xaver was in a way a sort of mentor to Sirius because of his abilities. Sirius loathed Xaver's abilities. That was yet another reason Sirius hated Xaver.

[Xaver]

"Last time I checked you were awake.."

Meaning Sirius hadn't seen that he was asleep.
Meaning that Xaver didn't have to explain himself..

He didn't know what Sirius was thinking - he could feel the strongest of his emotions, but he was too guarded, himself, to be able to read others' thoughts anymore.
And he preferred it that way.

Xaver's calculating gaze remained fixed on Sirius, unmoving even as the waiter came and left, his dark orbs watchful, and curious, and paranoid. It was hard to not be - there was no sense of time, in sleep. He didn't know how much time had passed.. What he had missed...
His gaze fell to the mess of papers spread over the table, and without comment, he began to mill over them, drawing them into a pile, and stowing them into an ever pending folder. He stared at the thick manila folder for a moment, temporarily ignoring Sirius's presence as he collected himself, running both his hands over his face, then raking them through his hair.

Folding his hands over the table in an idle steeple, his dark orbs slid over to Sirius, as wary and unrelenting as ever.
But far more tired, and worn than he could conceal.

"Throwing things at me, now?"

A phantom of a grin flickered at a corner of his mouth.

[ChoChangHP118]

"Physical contact between the two of us just doesn't seem to work out for me in the end, new form of torture actually, torment from a far. How did I do?" Sirius's expression danced from scared to a soft tone, sarcastic with his speech.

He took a sip of his tea, watching Xaver's every movement. He felt more relaxed, more collected then before. He studied Xaver's movements, his guard still on waiting for any moment where he would find himself needing to throw his new tea on Xaver.

Xaver was presenting no such situation of violence, Sirius was confused but knew not to think to much of it.
He rocked with his cup of tea, a mesmerising stance still set on Xaver. Why was he not angry? Why did Xaver not present any disliking towards Sirius?

He knew he should be happy, but was curious of Xaver's actions.

[Xaver]

"Successfully.. You did, successfully."

Not sure whether or not to be amused or annoyed, Xaver settled on the former - finding it easier.
Much easier.
He didn't want to think about the previous encounters he'd had with the other male.. Few of them had been good, and less, had ended without at least one of them being hurt. Mentally, or physically.
Sirius was right.. Especially if their last true encounter was counted in the draw.

He'd been so angry.
Ripples of that anger bubbled, then, at the memory of it all, but Xaver suppressed the feelings. It would do no good, and he was so tired...

Yawning, he propped an elbow on the table, resting his head in the ball of his palm and rubbing his fingers over his temples.
"Can I help you, Sirius?"

[ChoChangHP118]

Sirius watched Xaver carefully, a protective stance and yet a casual feel about Sirius took over. He wanted to trust Xaver, but found it hard to relax around him.

"Well to be honest I had no intention on spilling anything on you today, funny how that worked out," Sirius commented cooly. He was sarcastic... Tense... Strict in manner... And even yet another air about Sirius could not be understood.

He felt so many things towards Xaver. He pitied him, he was terrified of him, he found him very intelligent, he was jealous of him, and he was unknown to Xaver. Sirius didn't understand his entire feelings towards Xaver, he just knew that Xaver pulled something deep inside Sirius, something that should never be touched unless one wanted to provoke things that should be left hidden.

Whether unintentionally or not Xaver was able to control Sirius's emotions in a sort. Sirius does not realize this, and he isn't enjoying the frenzy his mood was on at the moment.

His eyes remained purple, though hints of every color could be found in the depths of them, just showing the incredible amount of emotion he was feeling.

"I wasn't even meaning to interrupt whatever you were doing just then," Sirius sipped his drink, and realized he was in the way of customer's trying to pass by. He stepped forward a bit, taking a seat in the chair he was originally headed for.

His back was to Xaver as he sipped his tea, his mind focussed on emotions and words that he kept at a stand still with every fiber of his being.

[Xaver]

"Well, I'd hope not."

Spilling something on him was one thing - but intentionally?
Xaver was glad, worse for wear, that Sirius had admitted up front his own faulty of accident.
Once again, so much easier..
Much easier than things had ever been, between them.

How odd.


Xaver blinked at the other, as he moved, and found his seat, and for a long while as his back was turned to him, simply stared. Taking in the small, minute details - from Sirius's posture, to the idle way he sipped the same sweet smelling tea that was a match to the cool spot on the knee of his own jeans, and damp against his shoulder. Xaver could have, easily, dried the spots - but he couldn't find it, within him, the energy or urge enough to do so.
He didn't care.

"I.. Do not, really, know what I was doing.."

It was an admittance that was rare, but through the increasing throb of pain in his skull, and the fatigue that weighed heavily at his limbs and eyelids, there was really no stopping his mouth.
Mind over matter, they say.
Same was for Xaver, when he was exhausted.

He glanced down at the folder, then shook his head.
He should be getting home.. A shower sounded nice.
And a nap.
Maybe he could steal Ginny away from whatever she was doing, and pull her into bed with him, and fall asleep with her next to him.

It was a thought.

..One that had the Fallen lord staring off into space again, out the window.

[ChoChangHP118]

"What does a person of your intelligence dream about when he closes his eyes?"

Sirius was confused for a small moment, had he just asked that?
Where had it come from?
He shook his head, staring at the warm, swirling mist from his tea as if to blame it.

He didn't turn his body, his head was out of the question. He wanted his body language to read he was not interested in carrying on a conversation, and the question that he had just asked he still was confused about.

He thought back on it, and shivered. The way he had addressed Xaver as a human didn't sound right as he played it back in his mind, he had been rude and impulsive, though the emotions expressed in the word seemed to add on to the feelings Sirius was having.

He should have let Xaver go along with his business, and not have bothered him. He had to spill his tea though hadn't he? He had to ask that question just now just like he had to kiss Ginny a few months ago.

Oh...
Sweet Ginny.

He sipped his drink, letting the hot sweetness flow around his tongue as his mind drifted to Ginny. The idea that the man Ginny loved most was behind him didn't bother him as he became lost in his... Fantasies. A typical male instinct at most, and what a godly one at that.

His mind wandered, dreamed, wished. He let no room for Xaver at that moment as her name was submerged on his brain. Sirius saw how exhausted Xaver looked anyway, too exhausted it seemed to care what Sirius was thinking.

He smiled, in his own world for moments more.

[Xaver]

"What does a person of your intelligence dream about when he closes his eyes?"

Xaver's gaze withdrew from the nowhere his thoughts had drifted to, and in a very slow, and calculated procession, his head turned, and his dark, wrathful gaze moved back to the defiantly situated, and ill-mannered and tongued Sirius Black.

A person like him?
Better than beast, he guessed, the anger, frustration, fury, hurt, and anguish he'd been suppressing for far too long boiling defiantly to the surface and clawing his senses awake.


"A person like me?"
Xaver grit his teeth, biting back the urge to scream.
"I dream sometimes of beating the thought out of the heads of people like you, who can't even manage to call me a person without a demeaning little tinge. I dream of renting into those bastards trying to tear apart my family. And, oh, I hunger.."
Xaver was standing now, the blues of his eyes almost lost in the heat, the unrelenting passion, of his newfound anger.
"To destroy, in the most inhumane way possible. Just to prove you conniving f_cks don't have a clue what you're messing with."

His palms throbbed, and after a rehabilitating breath, Xaver looked down, blinking at the maroon, near-black red droplets that now littered the floor, where he stood. His blood - far too thick and undiluted to be any others. He unclenched his hands, and upturned them, then simply looked at them, almost as if amazed at himself.

The expression was gone within a heartbeat.
His gaze moved back to Sirius, though as unfeeling and shuttered, as ever. Even his anger, taking a step back behind the closed doors that were his thoughts.

Xaver opened his palms, four deep crescents broken into the skin on each hand, and dark blood trickling from the spots down and through the length of his fingers, to the floor.

"You see? In the end, I can be like you."
That unemotional wall shuttered, and a flicker of the raw, savage pain that had been ravaging him, relentlessly, flickered through.
"I can feel."
He pressed a bloodied hand to the folder, filled to the brim with papers.
"And I can bleed."

Eyes glittering, he swallowed around the lump in his throat.
Knowing in his heart of hearts that Sirius had not meant to upset him that much - but knowing that the other male would play an important role in his future.. And that it was important..
Just that.. somehow.. He understood...

"Whether or not your people will figure that out too late, I suppose, is only up to fate."

Then, with a shake of his head, Xaver was gone, leaving behind nothing in his wake so much as a breath of magic.
Only a bloody handprint, on a folder full of papers...

[ChoChangHP118]

..."And oh I hunger.. To destroy..."

Sirius froze, his heart as well.
He was left, his mouth hanging open, staring at the place Xaver had just been.

He hadn't meant to provoke such an angry part of Xaver out. The pure hatred in Xaver's eyes, the cold heart heard in his voice, Sirius felt like he had just gotten the wind knocked out of him.

His mind was numb, his body motionless.

"Whether or not your people will figure that out too late, I suppose, is only up to fate."

It took him a moment to register Xaver's disappearance.
It also took him a moment to realize the scolding hot feeling running down his leg.
Looking down he saw to his dismay, tea slowly dripped down his jeans leg. His upper thigh's were hot, but not scolding for which he was grateful.

The man at the counter shook his head out of the corner of Sirius's eye. Sirius looked up, his face beat red. He sighed, shrugging. The man threw down a towel on the bar counter, Sirius suspected he wasn't going to receive another tea this time.

He shook his head, laughing at himself. He took out his wand, and closed his eyes, trying to remember the spell to use. Xaver's words rang in his head, distracting him from his ability to perform even the most simple of spells.

"Whether or not your people will figure that out too late, I suppose, is only up to fate."

Too late? Sirius shivered, grabbing a napkin anxiously and started hand drying his pants. His wand lay uselessly on the table.

[Ginny Weasly]

"Easier if you use magic."

Ginny's voice had a giggly lilt to it, as if she had seen few sights funnier than Sirius dabbing at the tea on his jeans. She was taking her coat off as she spoke to him, revealing her extended belly.
Where some women gained weight all around when they were pregnant, Ginny simply grew in the stomach.

She was smiling at him, looking almost apologetic.
"Would you like a new tea?"

She took a step forward, then froze. A smell had reached her, causing her to turn pale. She looked past Sirius, to the table with the folder. The bloody hand print.
Ginny hated the smell of blood.

What was worse, she recognized the smell of this particular blood.
Xaver.

"What...?"

[ChoChangHP118]

Sirius stood quickly, as a gentleman always should for a lady.
He spotted her look towards the folder, and quickly pulled out his wand. He muttered a few words, cleaning up his pants. He pointed his black, thin wand towards the folder, the handprint slowly disappeared. Sirius remembered how Ginny hated the smell.

"He got angry, angrier then I had intended him to get," Sirius said trying to explain why Xaver's blood was on a lone folder on the table beside them.

What would Ginny think of that? Would she believe him? Would she get mad? He hoped not, he hated Ginny angry.

Sirius was distracted by the blood and the fact that Ginny had so quickly arrived that he hadn't had time to really soak in Ginny's presence. He studied her, starting with his favorite part... Her hair.
His eyes danced wildly, a bright orange of amusement. He worked his way down her perfect body, then stopped at her stomach.

His eyes shot up to her face, his eyes suddenly a scared shade of purple just as before in Xaver's presence.
He took a step backwards, landing himself in the chair again.
His face looked like a deer in headlights. His features rigid, frozen.

Since when? With- Oh, well Sirius could think of whom it was with immediately.
His body was frozen yet again for the third time today.

Once when Sarah had walked in that morning.
A second time when Xaver grew so angry so quickly Sirius hadn't had time to blink.
And finally a third time, when Sirius realized Ginny was pregnant yet again.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny frowned, staring at the folder. Slowly she walked to the table, picking up the folder and holding it against her chest. She took a deep breath and nodded.

She could believe that. For one, Xaver hadn't been sleeping well. For two, he simply didn't like Sirius. Obviously, Sirius would be the one to piss Xaver off without intending.

"He's been under...pressure." She muttered, turning. She looked puzzled at his surprised expression. It only took a moment to realize where his eyes were focused.

Ginny shifted uneasily, "Stop staring. It's freaking me out."