He wants to be loved. He also, in a vague sort of way, wouldn't mind loving someone in return. It's all a bit ironic - that he could be so cut off from something he wants to feel, while he feels everything else so hard it hurts. 

Iain-verse pt. 1 

For HPFT's Great Collab, Theme: Back from the Brink, Challenge: Internalized Oppression. Banner by me!

He should leave, he thinks, his heart hammering in his chest as he watches the rise and fall of Iain's breathing. He should do it now, while Iain is asleep - he can leave the spare key on the bedside table and avoid the messiness of a real goodbye. Because Iain wants him to stay, and Sirius can't say no. He'd tried, he really had, but he'd caved so easily that he might as well not have bothered.

Part 3 of Iain-verse, sequel to Crushed Little Stars.

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"I have something to ask you," Iain says one afternoon. He reaches over Sirius to turn down the radio - which Sirius pouts at him for, as he'd been listening to that song, thank you very much. Iain just rolls his eyes fondly and plants a kiss on his forehead, which does, predictably, make him stop pouting. His heart wasn't in it anyway.

"What's up?" he replies, sounding impressively relaxed for someone who's catastrophizing as hard as he is.

"Would you laugh at me if I asked you on a date?"

... Okay, that wasn't one of the questions he'd been anticipating.

The fifth and final instalment of a body from the balcony, aka Iain-verse.