Fortesque's was in the midst of their mid-afternoon lull, but the dining room was still bustling. It always was with five boys living just upstairs to fill in the gaps between customers. Especially when four of those five boys were jostling to steal attention away from the fifth, who was trying at going over some quidditch theory with his personal trainer, with whom all five boys had a particular fascination.

James laughed as Eli Odair reenacted portions of a muggle variation of quidditch that they'd played, while Michael Odair snuck onto the seat next to James and tried to watch what Oliver and James were talking about, eager to find out all the more about the game that he now knew he would one day get to play on a real broomstick like his older brother. Kevin and Nate were also interested in what James and Oliver were talking about, though they were also quite jealous because their broomsticks hadn't lifted off the ground the way Michael's had and Jasper had a suspicion that perhaps at least Kevin was trying to distract James off the topic of proper quidditch so that Jasper kept going over and clearing out the boys so James and Oliver could stay focused.

"Eli, heres a strawberry for Yertle," Jasper called, holding out a dish with cut up strawberry bits for the youngest boy.

Eli rushed to a table in the corner to feed the fruit to his turtle and Jasper was relieved when Nate followed, eager to help present the snacks to the pet.

"Kevin, why don't you come help me with the flavor of the week? Let's think up something really original, 'ey?" Jasper called and Kevin hesitated, then dragged himself away to the back room with Jasper. Michael, Jasper decided, wasn't a menace, so he left the last boy to stay kneeling beside James and Oliver as they talked over technique.

Jasper had just got Kevin going on coming up with ideas for new flavors when the bells from the gate for the outdoor seating jangled and Jasper excused himself to go see to the customers. He passed Michael, Oliver, and James's table, their head down over a play James was talking the boys through, and out onto the patio. He chuckled - it was Remus, Sirius, and Bradley Scamander, Remus setting the suitcase full of creatures on the fourth seat at the table they'd taken up. Bradley was talking animatedly as Jasper approached.

"Hullo!" Jasper said, stepping up to the table with a grin, "Out and about, are we?"

"Yes, having a bit of a day wandering about and this one wanted some ice cream so of course we had to make a stopper by our favorite shop," Remus said, smiling up at Jasper.

"Do you have mint?" Bradley asked, looking up.

Jasper nodded, "We do indeed - Peppermint Twistie."

"YUM!" Bradley declared.

Jasper laughed, taking out his order slips and jotting down the order for the Peppermint Twist. "Double Chocolate Fudge for Remus, yeah?"

"Always," Remus replied.

"And that leaves the wild card. What do you want, Sirius?"

Sirius thought a moment, then, "Let me see... You always have new flavors..."

"I have a few new ones," Jasper nodded. "I have the Black Current Lime Stripe, and a Pistachio with Mini Freddos with a Fudge Ripple that we're calling Frog Pond Scoop. That one's made up by Nate just yesterday, as new as it gets."

"That sounds just disgusting enough that I must have it," Sirius declared.

"One Frog Pond Scoop coming up." Jasper jotted that down, "Be right back." He grinned and ducked away into the shop. He'd just gotten back behind the counter when the door opened again and Sirius came sidling up to the counter. "What's the matter, change your mind?"

"Nah," Sirius replied, leaning against the counter and watching as Jasper pulled cups from underneath the counter. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

"Fire away," Jasper answered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw James Potter look up from the table where he sat with the boys, looking over at Sirius's back, a glint of mischief in his eyes. Sirius hadn't seen James when he'd come in, and now he was too focused on Jasper to notice the smirking face of his best mate looming behind him. Jasper chose to keep his silence, and grabbed the scoop for the double fudge for Remus's dish of ice cream.

"When I was incarcerated," Sirius began, using what had to be the most dramatic word for his 48-hour hold, "You popped in and you were talking about your little club thingie you do, with the healing and all that, the one you said you hold 'round about that church or whatever...?"

Jasper nodded, "Yeah."

"You still do that?"

"Yes."

"You said it's like AA."

"Sort of. But for all sorts of maladies and things that are bothering folks." He packed down the ice cream scoops and added a bit more to the cup, then slipped in a wedge of sugary, crispy waffle and a hot pink plastic spoon and put it down on a small try before grabbing the next cup. "We talk about things and support each other, things that are bothering us, and anything we say there stays there, it's a very loving little group."

Sirius shifted his weight. "Well my question's this, a person who - who did a program like that, like an AA or something... They're really trying at bettering themselves, aren't they?"

"Yes," Jasper said, nodding. He scooped some of the Frog Pond ice cream into a dish next. "You get out of it what you put into it. Everyone tries really hard, honestly, though, at our program. I suppose there's probably people who don't sometimes, but I think if you're taking the effort to be involved in something like what we do, as long as it's by your own choice - which all our people are - then it's something you really have to want quite a lot and healing and getting over the things that have haunted your past is something you have to be taking seriously to want to work on, you know?"

Sirius nodded.

Jasper pressed another scoop into the cup, "It isn't always about quitting drinking or what have you, either, it can just be - like if you need to talk to somebody and you dunno who to talk to, you know? You don't want to burden the people in your immediate circle, say, but you've something on your heart you need to get out. It's like that. Sort of a group therapy session."

Sirius nodded. Jasper slid the Frog Pond filled cup onto the tray, a green spoon and another wedge of the waffle slid into the ice cream and finally he turned to the case for the peppermint, though this time he used a cone - kids always preferred cones, he'd found, and he lined the inside of the cone with a bit of fudge before putting in the peppermint ice cream.

"You thinking of coming by?" he asked.

"No, not yet anyway. More - I met an old acquaintance today who did some shit to me a few years ago and he was showing me his AA chip, how he's trying at cleaning himself up." Sirius played with a small fox-shaped figurine that sat beside the register, a little bank which people could put tips into. He focused on that, and continued, "I suppose I was curious about the sincerity of the apology I was offered is all." He set the fox aside, then looked up at Jasper. "I realized as he was giving it that I didn't need it, but - I guess it's good to know that he meant it at least. Yeah?"

Jasper nodded. He wondered what Sirius was on about, but didn't want to ask, afraid to pry.

"Thanks Jaz for listening to my stupid rambling."

"Of course," Jasper nodded. He finished scooping and Sirius plucked the tray up from the counter and Jasper handed him the cone for Bradley and Sirius slipped out the door, carrying the treats.

Jasper looked over and saw James was still staring across the room, having never made himself known to Sirius. Oliver and Michael were looking at the playbook before him still, and laughing about something they were whispering to each other about, but James and Jasper's eyes met and Jasper walked over. "Anyone need anything over here?" Oliver and Michael shook their heads, continuing on with their whispered conversation, and James looked up at Jasper. "Alright Potter?" Jasper asked.

James nodded. He hesitated, glancing at Oliver and Michael. Oliver was telling Michael more about the rules of proper wizard quidditch, pointing at the diagram that James had drawn, and Michael was asking him questions about the scoring, thoroughly distracted. James looked back to Jasper. "Say, Odair. What was that group you were talking about just now?"

"Oh... It's a program I go to. It's sort of like an AA, but for all kinds of maladies, and just a good proper support system for - you know - health - of the mental sort, that is... It's just about healing, you know, from the inside out." Jasper smiled in a friendly manner, "We meet a couple times a week out at an old church - nothing fancy, just a little get together. There's muggles, too. My mum introduced me to the group, she goes on account of the stuff she went through with my dad and losing Edgar and all... and she knew I'd been drinking a bit more than I ought to do, trying to cope with all the rubbish." Jasper now glanced at the boys, too, and though he thought he saw Oliver's eyes flickering toward him a bit out of his peripheral vision, the boys were still deep in conversation. "Just trying to get through the days for awhile there. Anyway, the group's saved my life in a load of ways and it's just --" Jasper sighed, lacking words. "It's good, Potter. It's good."

James nodded, "It sounds it."

"Here," Jasper reached in his pocket, fished about, and found a business card with the information about the program on it. He handed it over to James. "Here's the information on it."

James tucked the card into his pocket. "Thanks," he said, nodding, then he turned back to the boys and Jasper went back to see what Kevin had come up with so far.

That night, Remus Lupin was doing up the bed sheets and blankets on the bed after having taken them off to wash them - the muggle way because he liked the way they smelled after a good muggle-way wash compared to a simple cleaning spell. His mum had always done their laundry the muggle way, and the scent of the detergent reminded him of her. He was also incredibly meticulous about how the bed ought to be made. This was something that, no matter how hard he tried at explaining to him, Sirius just couldn't understand. Especially the nurse's corner when folding in the bottom of the sheets. It was terribly important to Remus, however. A good tucked in sheet for your bare feet to kick about in before falling asleep was a bit of heaven to him, honestly.

Sirius sat in the window sill, staring out, eyes roving over the waning-moon-lit world outside, hugging his knees.

Remus finished up his work and announced, "Alright. There we have it. A freshly made bed, all ready to get into." Remus turned around, his eyes full of mischief, about to make a joke of Sirius-worthy proportions, but hesitated when he saw his husband's face as he stared off into the dark. "Love?"

Sirius stirred. "Huh?"

It occurred to Remus that Sirius had been quiet through the entire process of bed-making, a very un-Sirius-like thing. Usually, it was full-on mockery whenever Sirius watched Remus make the bed. Well. Mockery or cat-calling, depending on Sirius's mood of the moment. Not a single wolf whistle had come from Sirius, though, Remus realized, not a single snide remark about perfectly folded corners.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked.

"Yeah," Sirius said.

Remus frowned, a sinking suspicion that maybe Sirius had spotted Ace Dante in Cardiff after all coming over him, and he went over to the window. "Sirius? What's going on?"

Sirius shook his head. "It's nothing really."

"Something enough to have you distracted."

Sirius hesitated then declared, "I ran into Ace Dante today in Cardiff."

Remus drew a deep breath, then, "I thought I saw him, but then I wasn't sure if you had and I didn't want to bring it up if you hadn't and --" he paused, looking Sirius in the eyes carefully. "Wait. You ran into him? As in - as in you talked to him? As in he talked to you?" Remus's brows cinched in a mixture of concern and anger.

"Yeah, he talked to me, but --"

"That fucking pig's got some nerve!" Remus interrupted and his eyes were suddenly a lethal mid-tone between brown and green, "I'd have hexed him on the spot if I'd had any idea that he so much as dared to think about speaking to you! What was it you lot came up? A cockus deletus?"

Sirius's eyebrows were raised and he stared at Remus, who was now on a roll.

"You know, no - no a cockus deletus is too good for that bastard. Neutering isn't enough. Neutering is something you do to a dog -"

"Hey now," Sirius intoned.

"- and people like dogs! That filth deserves to be strung up by his cockus on the spire of a lightning rod --"

"Merlin's tit, Remus."

"-- during a good thunderstorm, see how he likes that excitement."

Sirius slid off the window seat and caught Remus, who had started pacing as he spoke, stepping in front of him, sliding his hands onto Remus's face and stilling him, turning his face so they looked into each other's eyes. "Hey."

Remus stared at Sirius, eyes searching eyes.

"I'm alright, Remus."

"Really?"

"Yes, I really am. I --" Sirius thought a moment, then a small little smile came upon his mouth and he looked up into Remus's eyes with a breathy chuckle. "I'm happy. That's what I told him. He said he's cleaning himself up and he's trying to get better, and he was sorry for what happened... and I told him, like, good for him, you know? But I realized I didn't need that apology. I didn't need it because I'm happy. And I told him I didn't want to see his fucking face again - and I don't - but I realized I don't wish him ill will because nobody really deserves ill will and surely something led him to the place where he was when he hurt me and I'm sorry that he had to go through the things he went through that led him into the place that he caused the things I went through. It doesn't mean that I have to be a little bastard to others and continue that cycle. And I hope he's changed and he doesn't have to keep on in the cycle, either. It's over and it's done and I've overcome it and I hope that he overcomes it, too. But I'm happy - and that's what I was thinking about just now. How happy I am."

Remus blinked in astonishment at this. "Sirius," he said, "That's possibly the most mature thing I've ever heard anyone say. Ever."

"You sound shocked."

"Well yes I'm shocked because I never thought that of all the people I knew it would be you who would say the most mature thing I've ever heard."

Sirius laughed. "Thank you for the vote of confidence, darling."

"It was just extremely unlikely to be you," Remus said, "You know that I'm right."

"I'm actually perfectly shocked it was me, too. It ought to have been Lilith or Prongs."

"Right?"

Sirius grinned and Remus grinned back. They stood there a moment like idiots just grinning at each other.

"It's rather sexy, you know," Remus finally said after several moments had passed, "You being so mature."

"Oh is it now?" Sirius asked.

"Mhm," Remus nodded, "Incredibly."

Sirius's grin only widened and he whispered, "As sexy as a perfectly pleated corner on a bedsheet?"

Remus shook his head, "Nothing is as sexy as a perfectly pleated corner, don't be ridiculous."

"Except for a perfectly organized sock drawer, am-I-right?"

Remus shivered. "Ooh."

Sirius leaned closer and whispered in Remus's ear in a sultry tone, "The Dewey Decimal Classification."

"Are you talking dirty to me?"

"I'm talking nerdy to you," Sirius's voice was breathy.

Remus laughed and grabbed his shirt front and pulled Sirius into a kiss.

Looking back, Jasper reckoned he shouldn't have been surprised the very next evening when, five minutes after the meeting had started, the church doors opened and James Potter quietly stepped in, sliding discreetly into a chair in the far back row.

He also reckoned he ought not to have been surprised when James appeared there nearly every Thursday evening from then on - but it would be a couple weeks before James did anything more at those meetings than sit in the back row.