The ink bled slightly.
His hand was shaking, but the words were still legible.

“I can’t do this anymore. I don’t care if he finds out — I’d rather be dead than keep living like this. I’ll leave. Anything. Just… not another night with him.”

Severus snapped the journal shut, breath catching in his throat. His eyes darted to the door. No footsteps. No voice. No Sirius.

He slipped the journal under the loose floorboard near his bed, the one no one had touched in years, and stood slowly, heart racing.

That night.

Severus returned from the library, his heart thudding low and heavy in his chest. He pushed open the dorm door and—

Click.

The sound of the journal hitting the floor froze him.

Sirius was sat on his bed. Legs crossed. The journal in his lap, flipping through it like it was the evening paper. Calm. Smiling.

“Touchin’ stuff, really,” he said, not looking up. “Bit poetic, even. Thought you were more of a bitter little bastard, but look at this… ‘not another night with him’, you wrote. I’m gutted.”

Severus didn’t speak. His throat had gone dry.

“You were gonna leave, Sev.” Sirius finally looked up. There was no smile in his eyes. Just fire. “Run off like some frightened little stray. Thought I wouldn’t find out?”

“I had to.” Severus's voice cracked. “You—you don’t let me breathe.”

Sirius stood slowly. He closed the journal with a snap. “You don’t get to breathe without me sayin’ so.”

Severus backed up a step. “Please, Sirius—”

“Please?” Sirius echoed, voice going soft and mockingly sweet. “Please what, my love? Please don’t punish you? Please don’t make you regret sneakin’ about like a filthy little rat?”

He crossed the room, cornering Severus.

“You were mine,” he whispered, lifting Severus’s chin with two fingers. “Still are. You don’t leave me. You never leave me.”

Severus’s voice shook. “What if I did?”

Sirius’s smile was sharp. Cruel. “Then I’d burn the world down just to find you. And when I did…” He leaned in close. “You’d wish you’d stayed.”