~ROAC~ (incomplete)

"You can count on me like one, two, three:
I'll be there.
And I know when I need it I can count on you like four, three, two:
You'll be there.
'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Contrary to Sirius' assumption that she was clueless, Bell had noticed something in her best friend's gaze as he teased her about The Nickname™, but it wasn't an emotion she'd ever seen from him before and so passed it off as amusement or something. That was the only logical explanation she could think of, anyway, and she didn't feel like it was worth any further thought, either, so she completely let it go- and promptly frowned at the parchment Sirius had produced from his pocket.

"How did you already wrinkle it so much?"

He winked at her, giving a flourished toss of his hair, a move that he pulled often to try and get her to swoon (which had never succeeded), and replied in a posh accent; "Well, my dear, it has to do entirely with my knack for making a mess of things-"

Bell unintentionally cut him off with a loud snort of amusement, but he didn't seem to mind; rather, he chuckled along, apparently proud of his somewhat self-deprecating joke. Feeling a little bad for laughing so abruptly, Bell reached for the parchment to smooth it out, but Sirius practically swatted her hand away and she raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"You know, I think we should keep-" He quickly did a scan of his list, which covered both sides of the parchment (as did Bell's, and she was glad to see how committed he was to this idea), and went on, "-three of our desires to ourselves."

'Desires' was a peculiar word to use, but Bell agreed to this spontaneous adaptation nevertheless.

"Alright, sure. As for the rest- do you want to go first? Oh- and should we have a veto or something, just in case?"

Sirius nodded to answer both questions and raised his list to the light but hid the back of it from Bell's view- she supposed this was to keep up the air of mediocre mystery -clearing his throat in preparation to share his goals. From silly to completely solemn, academic to party-centered, light-hearted to deeply-personal, Bell was all ears.

"One: skip."

Already? Huh. This was the very first thing noted, meaning it was very important to him, and Bell was a little awed that he would start off his list with something so significant he wouldn't even tell her. Then again, thinking about the second item on her list, she'd be doing the same when it came to her turn.

"Two: move into the flat my Uncle Alphard left me when he died last year."

Sirius had only once mentioned his uncle's passing last year, the day he got the news through his brother Regulus. Sirius' spirits had fallen for a good two days from this event and although he didn't tell Bell, she'd gathered he was more hurt by how his mother hadn't even thought to send him a letter about it. Alphard was the only older relative of Sirius' who he'd liked, but she'd sent the news to Regulus, who barely even knew the old man. Although Bell had long known of Walburga's demeanor towards her elder son, she began to fully despise Sirius' cruel mother after those two days and when the summer holidays came about that year and the next, she worried after his wellbeing at Grimmauld Place. It was heartening to Bell to hear he was leaving behind that toxic environment as soon as possible.