[ID: The Bugs Bunny “pleasant evening” meme. Bugs Bunny stands to the right wearing a tuxedo. Text to the left of him reads: “I wish all people on the asexual spectrum a very pleasant international asexuality day.” End ID]
asexuals before realizing they’re ace: isn’t it weird how we call people “hot” when we just mean, like, pretty? it makes it sound like you actually feel hot when you see them. which isn’t a thing. anyway
ok i am absolutely losing it over the sheer number of people who found out what hot means from this post
Man, this is like the time my therapist explained that watching characters with “chemistry” is supposed to make you feel aroused. Who knew, right?
I’m sorry what?
I thought it was supposed to make you intrigued like any other plot device
For people who can’t see the image for some reason:
It’s a “Dear Abby” column, published in 1995. The letter writer, “Not Looking for a Girlfriend in New Jersey,” identifies as a 53 year old male virgin with no interest in either women or men, despite coworkers having assumptions that his lack of a family means he must be gay.
This man expresses no concern about his situation (other than the presumed exhaustion at being continually misidentified), and suggests he was writing simply so other people could see that “a man who had no interest in sex” exists.
Abby blows it out of the ballpark with her response:
People who have no sexual feelings are called “asexual.” Since it doesn’t appear to bother you, it should present no problem. You are accountable to no one except yourself [emphasis mine].
Here we have the bastion of middle American, the “nice White lady with all the answers”, normalizing this man’s experience and literally telling him to ignore the haters. Pre Millennium. She even calmly supplies this man with the language to identify himself, since he seems not to have encountered it before; that must have been so empowering for him, to have a word for his experience and identity, and to hear that others sharedit.
Everyone, you are valid, and your identity is accountable to no one except yourself.
What’s your answer to people who say you haven’t met the right one yet?
Beth Damio: It would be like saying to you, “Well, you just haven’t met the right guy yet.” It’s very dismissive, and it’s annoying as heck. It’s making sex about the other person; it’s making your enjoyment of sex contingent on someone else.
Unicorn March is all about pride for the most forgotten and endangered parts of the community.
Sometimes, pride means knowing more about the struggles that people like you face. Pride from within, from knowing what you’re surviving. Pride from other community members and outsiders, supporting you and loving you for what you are, not just what you overcome.
This infographic collects all the current data on ace-spec oppression into one thread. (It exceeds Tumblr’s image limit, so if you’re only seeing the first post, check the notes for the rest.) Feel free to save any of these images to share. Tag @unicorn-march if you can, when you use these in a reply or your own posts; it would be great to see how this info helps people. Image descriptions are in the alt tags.
Links to all the sources, in the order that they appear:
The Williams Institute. (2016) LGB Within the T. This paper crunches the data from the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, which did in-depth interviews of 6,450 trans people of all orientations.
Bauer et al (2018). The 2016 Asexual Community Survey Summary Report. This is an ongoing annual online survey of major asexual communities; the 2016 survey received a total of 9,869 responses (Ace = 9331 and Non-Ace= 538). As it’s not a peer-reviewed published study, it’s used even more sparingly here; the only data used here from this report is the percentage of cis aces who had considered suicide.
so i came out as ace last year and ive been in my first healthy ace relationship for six months now and im so happy. its weird having to come out twice and wrestle with the Shame and internalized acephobia but six months in im already starting to take for granted not having to think about sex and its such a relief to exchange ace stories and ace feels together. i wish everyone who sees this post, regardless of sexuality, lots of love and blessings.
I’m doing a Philosophy paper on Asexuality. Please reblog if you think Love without Sex is possible! I really need the data. Like if you think love has to have sex.
regularly watches anime (~3.5% of the world’s population)
is vegan (.5-3% of the world’s population)
has a phd (1.1% of the world’s population that has been to university)
knows how to code (.5% of the world’s population)
can dunk a basketball on a regulation sized hoop (1% of the world population)
lives in california (.5% of the world’s population)
the chances are pretty damn good you know someone in an above group. i’ll admit, the numbers aren’t perfect. but just think about it. what are the odds you know someone who is ace?
especially when more and more people are realizing they’re aspec due to more visibility
Now seems like a great time to point out that as of 2021 the global population is around 7.8 billion. What’s 1% of 7.8 billion?
78,000,000.
Thats 78 million. There are at least 78 million aces in the world.
The country of France has around 67 and a half million people. There are more asexuals than there are French people.
Furthermore, 1% is a conservative estimate. There are other sources that say that as many as 5% of the global population is ace. So at minimum, there are more aces than French folk. Or maybe there’s as many of 390 million of us. Thats more than the current population of the United States.
Finally. My people outnumber the French. We may win yet.
we invade at dawn and take all the cheese and pastries
“Sirius, why has Fabian sent me a letter to apologise to you?” Remus poked him in the stomach with his toes.
“Hmm?” Sirius groggily lifted his head from Remus’ chest, trying to blink the sleep away. “Fabian… oh! Er—”
“He said he’s sorry for, and I quote, ‘inappropriate advances’ towards you, ‘due to some misunderstandings that had inadvertently arisen, I hope this will not come between our friendship—’” Remus read quickly, “Sirius, what happened?”
“Hm.” Sirius slowly pushed himself up onto his elbows, “that’s funny.”
“I for one have not seen Fabian this awkward about anything.”
“All that sounding formal too.”
“What did you do?”
“I umm.” rip the bandage off, “I kissed him. Or really, he kissed me.”
“Oh, so you’re branching out.” Remus drew up his knees and looked at Sirius lopsidedly, “but then why’s Fabian apologising? Unless you aren’t branching out, but you’ve not been dating for a while either, so is that why you— did you think you might be— oh, Sirius. Come here.”
“Huh?” Sirius said a little dumbly, but let Remus take him in his arms.
“Who would have known all that was going on in your head, huh?”
“Is that supposed to be an insult?”
Remus laughed, Sirius scowled.
“Really, though, whatever worked or didn’t work— it’s alright. You know that, don’t you?”
Sirius bit his lips and grunted. “It wasn’t supposed to not work, though.”
“What does that mean?”
“This isn’t normal, is it?”
“What’s normal then? Having sex with boys?”
“Yes, obviously! Fabian’s fine!”
“But Fabian doesn’t want to have sex with girls.”
“Well yeah.”
“So it’s fine to not want to have sex with girls, and it’s ‘obviously’ fine not wanting to have sex with boys, it’s also apparently perfectly fine to want both— then why can’t you just not want either?”
“Yeah but. You have to want something, don’t you? It’s part of being human or whatever.”
“Pads, hate to break it to you,” Remus deadpanned, “but you’re actually talking to a werewolf.”
“That’s not what I—”
“And you happen to be a dog. Not really a ‘human’ are you?”
“I’m clearly more than just a human. So are you. That’s what Nietzsche meant by ubermensch right?”
Remus looked as though he seriously thought about the suggestion, “Sure. Something like that. And the ubermensch cares not about what’s normal, which are clearly all a farce.”
“It’s too early in the morning for this.”
“For what?” Remus said innocently? “Cuddling? You can get out now if you want. Or— is it too abnormal for a manly male friendship?”
“Shut up.” Sirius whined, snuggling even closer to Remus.
“Hiya lads!” James burst in through their door, “ooh have I come in on cuddling hour?” he said, and launched himself at them.
“Gerrof Prongs! You’re all sweaty and gross!”
“I’m joining too.” Peter poked his head out from the toilet, toothbrush still in his mouth. He ambled over and curled into Remus’ other side, butting off James to sprawl across the foot of the bed.
-
“Wait a second.” the thought occurred to Sirius halfway thought the day, “Remus, how did you know Fabian’s gay?”
“Oh well,” Remus said breezily, “he told me he had a crush on me once.”
—
The Marauders had a motto— they did whatever they liked, long as no one got hurt. (well, no one who wasn’t a git).
Then came the night when Sirius first failed his promise of never leaving Moony alone on a full moon. And—
“When we said we could do whatever we liked long as no one got hurt,” Remus said coldly, not looking at him, “this wasn’t what I meant.”
It was the morning after, when Sirius tried to visit feeling like he had a rotting pit for a heart. And sure, of course, whatever he did or wanted to do was precisely who he was. But it was clearly far from fine, or normal, or good.
—
He talked to the boys about it at the start of sixth year. Everything in their dorm, the window panes, the bed curtains, hung exactly where they’d always been. Yet everything felt so strange. Remus was standing in the corner, listening carefully, but the air between them was still stilted.
“I get it, I think.” Peter said, “I might be the same. Is it like, you don’t really care what the other person is? Boy, girl, whatever?”
“Got it in one, Pete.”
“Yeah. I think I’m like that too.”
“Oh. Thanks for telling us.”
“But then,” Peter continued, “you don’t really want to kiss them or have sex with them.”
“That too.”
“Yeah, that’s the part I don’t really get.”
“It’s just,” Sirius scratched his head, “I don’t look at a person and think, I want to have sex with them. Ever. Or even kissing, but that’s— fine, I guess. Could do without it, though.”
He glanced over to find Remus looking straight into his eyes, gaze sharp yet unreadable. At what must have been Sirius’ worried look, Remus pressed his lips together in what could have been a tight smile. Sirius felt acknowledged and reassured nonetheless.
—
Having been paired with Lily Evans for Charms, with James looking on in resigned despair, must have been the funniest thing to have happened to him— in some universe where it didn’t happen because Remus probably had asked to not be with him.
“I swear, Black, if you’re going to spend this whole time advertising James Potter to me I will make your life miserable.”
“Yeh. I know you could. But do you want to hear about the time he laughed so hard at something you said soup came out of his nose?”
But it turned out that it was just James who Lily was a threat to.
-
“You have a
“You have a crush on Remus.”
“What?”
“You do. You’re staring at him all the time.”
Sirius couldn’t quite talk about why he was looking at Remus rather than being with him; or about how every new day he still felt like guilt was being kneaded into him like dough. “Am I, not allowed to look at my friend?”
“You don’t stare at Peter like that, do you. Not even James.”
“Yeah well, what’s there to stare at?”
Lily laughed. “Sure.”
“It’s not like— I want to kiss him or anything.” Sirius said lamely.
“Oh come on. You think that’s the only symptom of having a crush? And it’s not like you have to want to kiss them to have a crush on them.”
“Nope Evans. You’re making no sense.” Sirius decided, “what does it even mean to have a crush, huh? Can you tell me that?”
Lily rolled her eyes “can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”
-
It was quite unlucky the way Lily planted the idea in his head. It was quite unlucky the way he was noticing how much he noticed Remus. Remus, who sang Joni Mitchell in the shower and talked in his sleep. Who liked David Bowie way too much and gave the best cuddles. Who Sirius would clearly do anything for,
And he wondered.
-
The answer came on an unremarkable afternoon in the common room. Remus was playing chess with Peter, and when Sirius approached them, Remus looked up towards him, and unhesitatingly smiled. It was open and careless, a smile Sirius hadn’t seen directed at him for months. Then Sirius suddenly knew that they were okay. So much more than okay.
Remus, however, quickly went back to scowling at the game between him and Peter. He was so clearly losing.
Instead of directing his next play with his voice, Remus took out his wand, and started poking at his tragically few remaining pieces.
“Remus, hey, what are you doing?” Peter immediately tried to grab at Remus’ wand, almost upsetting the board.
Remus showed no sign of relenting. Peter grabbed the board to take it away, a suddenly movement that badly startled some of the chess pieces. They started pointing their tiny arrows and canons towards Peter, firing at him.
“Ow! Alright.” Peter put his hand up. Remus smirked.
He stabbed at his remaining pawns until they looked like queens— with crooked crowns and third-handed gowns. But they apparently didn’t mind
“Queen to D4, queen to E5, queen to F4.” Remus said triumphantly, tapping at each of the transfigured pawns, “Oh hell yeh. Checkmate, Pete!”
Peter groaned. “I hate you!”
“I didn’t know you could be so blatant with cheating.” Sirius said breezily
“Sorry buddy,” Remus said, grinning, not sounding sorry at all. As Peter’s king has been felled, he waved a finite over the board, then stood to give his seat up. “Go on then, Pads.”
And he sat serenely with a book, watching Sirius getting absolutely destroyed by a still-fuming Peter three games in a row. And Sirius could hardly pay enough attention to mind, because he’d just gotten Moony back, who was smiling and grinning and smirking at him, and all was alright in the world.
—
It was a sunny weekend afternoon. The common room, albeit bright and warm and cosier than ever, was abandoned as expected. Except.
Sirius caught Remus sitting at the piano, stumbling through the chords of Starman, while singing along under his breath. Sirius grinned widely, creeped over, lightly pushing Remus till he budged over, and plopped himself down right by him.
“Want me to teach you?” He doesn’t wait for an affirmative, “Like this, see—” he wound an arm around Remus to place his own hands over Remus’.
He shuffled their hands to correct Remus’ awkward finger positions, one chord at a time through the whole song, then back to the start and again. It was slow and awkward, punctuated by intermittent laughs, huffs of frustration, Sirius playfully slapping Remus’ wrist when he got it wrong, again.
“You are literally breathing down my neck.”
“This isn’t fair. You could be so good at this, your hands are so big. You barely need to spread your fingers for the octave.”
“What’s that got to do with the timing? My brain is literally trying to split apart—”
After another suppressed grunt that escaped as a squeak, Remus laughed softly and shuffled away from Sirius.
“Alright you, go on.” At Sirius’ raised eyebrow, he added, “You’re clearly itching to play yourself.”
“Well, alright.”
Sirius dramatically cleared his throat, wiggled his fingers in the air. Slowly, he lowered his hands to the keys, and then he was off. The familiar chords filled the room, ringing more crisp and delicate than the twangy guitar of the original song. His fingers raced up and down the keys, at times leaning close into Remus to reach the keys. Remus leaned back into him. As the chorus came up, he turned his head to look at Remus, grinning madly as he belted about starmen and children losing it. Remus had the crinkle by his eyes, head nodding in beat as he softly hummed along. His eyes flitted between Sirius’ eyes and the way his fingers flitted over keys, adding flourish between lines of lyrics almost by instinct.
Finishing on a glorious glissando, Sirius let out a long happy sigh. He took a moment to ponder almost in amazement at the way his hands were poised on the piano. This was the most fun he’d had playing the instrument perhaps ever.
Sirius turned his head, and it was to catch Remus with a small smile again.
“What?” Sirius said, his own grin softening.
“Show-off.” Remus said fondly, shoving at him.
Sirius laughed brightly, “Hey, here, let me teach you a couple more—”
That’s how Lily found them, huddled close over the piano. Low laughs between them underscoring melodies that edged between rock and classical.
Remus was the first to see her, a curtain of sunlight away, standing near the common room entrance. “Lily! Come here!” he called her over.
Sirius wondered how long she’d been standing there watching them.
-
“Sooo are you in a relationship?”
“Who?”
She gave him an unimpressed look.
“Alright, alright.” Sirius laughed, “But no, obviously not. Remus doesn’t even want a relationship.”
“How dare you decide what he wants or not?”
“No, I’m Serious,” he said— Lily glared at him, daring him to make the joke, so he had to let it pass— “Moony doesn’t care about girls— or boys. Moony cares about books.”
Lily rolled her eyes, “well he could change, couldn’t he?”
Sirius rose to retort, but snapped his mouth shut at Lily’s single raised finger.
“And this isn’t really about Remus. I’m asking you, Sirius. Would you want to stand and watch Remus in a relationship with someone else?”
The thought left a funny feeling in his stomach, though decidedly unpleasant.
“… No.”
“I thought as much. So you want to be in a relationship with him.”
“I mean— not really, not like that.”
“Like what?”
“I dunno, like James wants with you?”
“God. You just had to bring him up.”
“As is my duty.”
Lily sighed. “But think about it, won’t you? About what you feel about or want with Remus. You’ve got to at some point.”
-
It all came out in a rush, when the two of them were alone under their tree by the lake.
“I am in love with you, I think.” Sirius said into the sun.
Remus lifted an eyebrow. “You think?”
“I— think. Yeah.”
“But what does that mean? That you’re in love with me? Rather than plain old loving?”
“I don’t know. Just, more. Possibly.”
“How exactly?” Remus asked in a murmur.
“I… don’t know.”
This wasn’t how Sirius thought it was going to go at all.
“You love me, Moony, don’t you?”
“‘Course I do.”
“But in the same way you’d love James and Pete.”
“Obviously not,” Remus closed his eyes against the sun, “you’re not James and Pete.”
“But I mean like—”
“I know what you—”
“— As a friend. You love me as a friend.”
Remus opened his eyes, turned to look at him. He pushed himself up onto his elbows.
“Well, what’s the difference between your closest best friend and your boyfriend or girlfriend?”
“Pft. Boyfriends and girlfriends are so much sillier.”
“What about, say, soulmates?”
Sirius didn’t answer for a very long time.
“There’s no difference, is there?”
Then Sirisu saw. It’s what Remus has been trying to show him. Remus has been trying to show him for years. Every act of trust and loyalty and forgiveness and tenderness, though Sirius didn’t realise, they had been talking with their souls.
And Sirius saw in Remus what Padfoot, as a dog, had known since he laid eyes on Moony the very first time.
The realisation hits him with the weight of the entirety of the blue sky. Bright light and white clouds stood as witness.
The sun was on his neck, the wind was in his face. And Sirius felt so high like he was sailing.
“Moony?”
“Yeah?”
“I think you are my soulmate.”
The shock of a smile that emerged on Moony’s face— so careful and tender and subtly making his entire face glow up from his crinkled eye to his lifted cheeks. It made Sirius want to bottle it and hold it forever. It made Sirius feel so proud to have been its cause.
Early December of fifth year, Sirius turned into a dog.
He was the first out of the three of them to get it. In the tiny space between their beds, a huge black dog jumped around ecstatically, tongue rolling out by instinct, beaming back at three huge grins of the other boys.
It took a while to settle into Padfoot’s mind, it took a while to understand the words again as a dog. But that first time, all he could remember feeling was that when looking at Remus, there was something he recognised in him with a bone-deep conviction— and he knew Moony must have felt it too. All he could remember seeing was the way Moony looked back at him, reached out to him, bursting with disbelief and awe and happiness.
James tried to pick him up from behind, Padfoot tried to shake him off. It ended up being a bear hug and a tumble onto the floor.
“Oy Pads you’re so heavy — Mhmhrg—” he screwed his eyes shut as Padfoot licked all over his face.
-
Sirius knew it was going to come up like this. But that didn’t lessen how awful he felt.
“Remus, please.” he pleaded again, looking at the ground between their feet.
“I can’t let you.”
“Wasn’t this the whole point? Letting us come with you?”
“Not with only one of you! Fuck, Sirius. I know the wolf, you know what the wolf would do. You think I will lock you in there all night alone with it?”
“I will bloody well go find you then!”
“No don’t you dare.”
“But how could I just sit in the dorm doing nothing while you’re out there—”
“You’re not doing nothing! You’re keeping me safe by staying safe yourself— If I’d hurt you, Sirius, I would— fuck. I’d rather I died.”
Sirius rushed forward, closed his arms around Remus and held on as tight as he could. “Don’t. Don’t say that.” He said, voice low. It terrified him to know when Remus said something like this, he’d truly meant it. “Before the next moon. James and Pete will have gotten it too. You’ll let us come with?”
“I—” slowly, Remus lifted his arms to wrap around Sirius’ back, “we’ll have to see. You need to be powerful enough to hold me down. I can’t risk hurting any of you.”
“The last.” Sirius pulled back, grabbing his hand and seeking his eyes, “This is the last moon you spend alone. I promise.”
Remus looked away, “I can’t promise you that, Sirius.”
-
“Sirius, stop.”
Ever since Remus has gone down to the shack alone, Sirius had been pacing the room back and forth. Even Peter had started to protest.
“Pete I just, I can’t believe I’ve still got to sit here, not able to do anything.”
“Your walking a hole into the floor is not going to help him.”
“Argh.” Sirius pulled his hair in frustration. “I can’t stop thinking about it, alright? I should be there!”
“You’re not, and you won’t be tonight. It is what it is, just sit down!”
Sirius was stunned to a stop. Peter was almost never this blunt. James came out of the bathroom then, already in pyjamas, and pushed past him towards the door.
“Prongs, where are you doing?”
“I’m going to find Dorcas, and ask for Care of Magical Creature notes, because Remus was too distracted today,” James said quietly, a hand on the door, “and then I’m going to bed, so I could wake up at sunrise to get Remus from the shack.”
He pinned Sirius with a look, then slipped through the door.
Sirius breathed hard through his nose. He glared at the closed door and tried to push down the flare in his chest, before marching towards it himself.
“Where are you going?”
“For a walk.”
-
Sirius had almost made it out of the common room when a voice called out.
“Hey, Sirius?”
“Not now—”
“No, Sirius, wait—”
Sirius turned around. It was a girl from his Runes class, looking at him expectantly. He almost cried out in despair— not now of all times.
“Monica?”
“Yeah, I thought, well.” She peeked up at him, a shy small smile at her lips, “I wouldn’t have come up to you, but it’s almost Christmas…”
The common room was quiet at this time, but there were still more than a few pairs of eyes looking towards them. He could almost hear the other girl’s heart pounding out of her chest.
And Sirius, truly in accordance of all his self-destructive tendencies, thought, fuck it.
He forced a weak smile which could have passed for a sly smirk, and said, “Well, do you want to go for a walk with me, then?”
Her eyes widened, “yeah, that sounds good. Really good.”
“Where do you want to go? Out of the grounds?”
“But how could we?”
“Oh, I know my way around. Don’t worry.”
-
Whatever possessed him to take Monica out here to Hogsmeade, to the clearing looking towards the Shrieking Shack, he regretted it now. The ramshackle cabin stood not half a mile away. They could hear the noises coming from it. It made Sirius want to tear out his chest— and to know that was probably what Remus was doing to himself now—
They hear a howl.
“What’s that?” Monica grabbed his arm tightly in alarm.
“Oh, it’s haunted. Didn’t you know? Most haunted house in Britain.”
“Really?” her eyes widened, flickering in the moon. “Sirius, I’m scared.”
Sirius laughed flatly, “What’s there to be scared of? You live in a castle full of ghosts.”
“But— what could be making those noises? That can’t have been a ghost.”
“What do you know, must be Moaning Myrtle’s party.”
She chuckled tensely. “Yeah. Must be.”
“Stop you worrying. We’re fine.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just do.”
“Oh.”
She was trying to look into his eyes now, though he could barely see her face. With where they were standing, her visage was entirely hidden in shadow, while Sirius’ own was fully lit by the moon. He sighed to himself. Tomorrow she’ll probably be telling her friends all about seeing the moonlight in his eyes, or something. She started to lean in towards him.
–
“Sirius, Sirius wake up.”
“Hmm? Moony?”
It wasn’t Moony, it couldn’t have been. It was a small, feminine hand that was shaking his shoulder repeatedly. They’d fallen asleep in the kitchens after they got back.
“It’s morning. We’re going to miss class. Who’s Moony?”
Sirius snapped up. He missed the sunrise.
“Fuck.”
“Hey, it’s alright. Breakfast’s just started, I think. And we could just eat here.” She walked around the baskets of fresh pastries, but all that the smell did was make him sick.
“I’ve, I’ve got to go.” He said, scrambling towards the door. He didn’t stop to explain or to placate the startled girl.
“Oh, alright. See you soon—”
Sirius raced through the empty halls, breath wheezing painfully in his throat, heart pounding louder than his echoing steps. If breakfast was starting, then it must have been around two hours since the moon has set. Fuck. He wanted to punch a wall, he wanted to punch his own face. He could have cried because how could he?
-
It was clear from the moment he fell by Remus’ bed with the others that he wasn’t the only one furious with himself.
“Remus, hey.” he said breathlessly, “Hi, you guys.”
“Hey Pads.” Peter replied quietly. Remus gave him a closed-lipped smile that didn’t reach his eyes, and James wasn’t looking at him.
“Remus, how are you feeling?”
“Same as always.” he shrugged.
“I’m so sorry I’m late. I’m sorry I didn’t go pick you up.”
“It’s alright. You never had to.”
“No—”
“Yeah, it’s fine. We managed alright with the two of us.”
“Hm.” Remus snorted lightly, “only needed two babysitters today.”
“Is there anything else you need?”
“Well, I suppose not. Pomfrey has got me all patched up.”
“We could get some food.” James spoke for the first time since Sirius came in. He looked straight at Sirius. “Padfood? Should we nip down to the hall?”
Sirius nodded slowly, stood up, and followed him out.
-
It was rare to see James Potter angry. It was even rarer to see James Potter angry at Sirius Black.
“Right. So out with it. Where were you all night?”
Sirius looked for the words to explain.
“Peter said you went for a walk. But you weren’t just strolling around moping by yourself, were you?”
Sirius looked away.
“Were you with someone else?” James asked sceptically. “Sirius, who were you with?”
Sirius took a deep breath.
“Monica.”
“What?”
“It was Monica. Gryffindor girl from Runes.”
“Sirius, what the fuck?” James stopped in his tracks, and pulled Sirius by the arms to face him.
“She came up to me, alright?”
“Why the fuck would you have— you said you were worried. Your way of showing that is to find some girl to snog and gallivant around all night?”
“That’s not what I—”
“So you’re saying you didn’t go around with a girl instead of sleeping and coming with us this morning?”
“You’re— not being fair— that’s not what it was like.”
“Then tell me what it was.”
“Well let me explain then.”
“Alright, go on.” James paused at the hall entrance, arms crossed and disbelieving glare sharp behind his glasses.
“I was— worried, I told you. I—” Sirius paused and took a couple of deep breaths. This was James, he reminded himself, James out of anyone wouldn’t hate him. “I’m not like you, the way you always just know how to mother hen us, how to be the most help rather than proselytising or sulking, I—” Sirius peered at James, who was now biting his lips and looking more worried than angry, “I got carried away brooding rather than— doing. The girl just— got in the way. I didn’t want her there, not really. But I know. I’ve been a piece of shit to everyone.” he said quietly to the ground.
Sirius heard James’ long sigh as they began walking again.
“Padfoot?”
“Yeh?”
“You’re such an idiot.”
“I’m sorry—”
“Nah. It’s alright. It’s not a big deal.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
“You got us so fucking worried, Pete thought you must have gone down to the shack, but. Well, as you said, it wouldn’t really help anyone, would it?”
“Prongs—”
“Also, I just don’t understand why you still do it. This whole girls thing. Has it ever ended well for anyone ever?”
“Well I don’t know what makes you keep going after Evans even though you clearly annoy the fuck out of her.”
“Bloody hell, you’re such an ass.” James said as he pushed open the hospital wing door.
-
“You guys alright?” Peter asked, head tilted.
“Padfoot is being a git.”
Remus lifted a questioning eyebrow.
“Nah, we’re alright.” Sirius breathed out, shoving the basket of food at Peter.
-
“So have you told James or should I tell James?”
Sirius’ head snapped up from where it rested on Remus’ hips to look at him. Peter and James had gone to class; Sirius quietly elected himself to stay.
“What do you mean?”
“What you were doing last night? Who was it this time?”
“I— what?”
“You came down, didn’t you? To the shack.”
“How… did you know?”
“The wolf could smell you.” Remus gave him a dry, wry smile. “The both of you.”
“Did you know who it was?”
“It did.”
Sirius’ heart dropped. He hadn’t realised. “It didn’t make things harder?”
Sirius looked down, carefully reached for and held the bandaged arm. Remus didn’t push him away. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t understand. Sirius, I simply don’t understand.”
“The girls thing?”
“Whatever you’re calling it.”
“Yeah. Prongs said that too.”
—
On Christmas morning, Sirius received an enormous blurry picture, taken by Peter, of the most magnificent stag— and a howler from James yelling excitedly about it. In his room, Sirius cheered to himself, loud enough to rival the howler. It was worth everything Walburga might have put him through.
In January, it rained on the night of the full moon. The grounds were slippery and freezing and wet with mud, but they led Moony out of the battered cell, tumbled around and chased each other with so much freedom he’d never known. And in the morning, as they picked their way back in the grey light, muscles bruised and aching, teeth chattering and limbs about to freeze off, Sirius could only think it was all so worth it.
—
When Monica finally approached him after days of glaring from the distance, Sirius was almost relieved to get this over with.
“The entire holiday, no notes, no letters, what was I supposed to think?”
“I told you, I can’t send letters from that madhouse!”
It took a turn, however, when Monica grabbed him and tried to kiss him— Sirius flinched away.
“Why don’t you kiss me?”
“I just don’t feel like it, alright?”
“And why have you never asked to have sex with me? In fact, I don’t think you’ve asked any of the girls you’ve been with.”
“Morgana’s fuck. Have you been asking around? How fucking petty can you—”
“But why is that? Is it ‘cause you don’t know how, or because you can’t?”
“Woah, lay off, won’t you?”
“—Because you’re a bit of a freak, aren’t you?”
Before she could have gotten another word in, Sirius pulled out his wand and hexed.
He’d hear about a detention by the end of the day, but having to be seen walking to the hospital wing with nose hairs trailing to the ground might just get some of them calling her a freak as well.
-
Sirius found Remus just where he expected to, curled into a sofa with a book. Sirius made a beeline towards him.
“You have five seconds to get off me.” Remus said, eyes not leaving his page.
Sirius whined, face buried in Remus’ lap. “I could blackmail you into keeping me.”
“With what?”
“The fact that you talk in your sleep.”
“Where did— that come from?” Remus lightly knocked his head with the book’s spine, “also, I most certainly do not.”
“Did too.”
Remus groaned.
“You really should stop drinking tea before going to bed.”
“Shut up.” Remus muttered.
Sirius smirked into his thigh.
—
Fabian came to visit McGonagall for some war business in spring, and he made time especially to catch up with Sirius, the good chap. They were on the far side of the lake when the-girls-thing came up.
“So, who’s the latest bird in your series?”
“Oh, um. There’s really not been anyone for a while.”
“How come?”
“Got a bit bored, I suppose.”
Fabian laughed, “What, so they’re up to your standard now, are they?” he said, waggling his brows.
“I mean. It’s just girls, it’s just kissing. No big deal.”
Fabian looked at him curiously.
“It wasn’t particularly interesting.” Sirius continued, “But I just thought I might as well, since the girls seemed to like it so much. I could probably do without all the nonsense that comes with, to be honest.”
“Mate. Why are you doing it if you aren’t having fun?”
“Oh you know. I thought it’s just something you do for them. Stuff like buying flowers and chocolates.”
“Buddy, you know your average bloke actually enjoys that kind of stuff, for himself?”
“I do too,” Sirius said quickly, “sort of.”
“Oh, but you know what I mean.”
Sirius lifted an eyebrow, and looked at him. Do I?
“Then what about you?” he eventually asked.
“Me? I am an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort.”
Fabian winked. Sirius felt his cheeks warm— as he never did, with a girl.
-
At some point, they had started kissing. And Sirius had immediate thought, yeah, this makes so much more sense. And for a moment he was perfectly content, everything was glorious clear, until—
Until Fabian’s hands wandered down and down and pressed between his legs, Sirius froze. There was precisely one memory his entire brain short circuited to.
He shifted his legs unfortunately over Fabian’s lap, only to find that Fabian was hard. He sprang up.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Fabian looked at him in confusion.
“I’m sorry, Fab, mate, but— no.”
-
Remus was sitting on his bed, again with a book. Sirius immediately crawled in next to him, curling into Remus’ side. It was warm and safe and familiar and comfortable and was about the only thing that would have made him feel better.
-
“Argh!” Remus cried out in frustration, snapped the book shut and threw it down onto the bed.
Sirius, who had draped himself across Remus’ back and was reading with his chin on his shoulder, jerked up in alarm. “Wait what’s wrong?” He said, startled.
“I can’t stand him. Anthony is such a prick.”
“What are you talking about? I like Anthony!”
“Why in Merlin’s hell would you say that?”
“Well he’s cute. And soft. I like it when they’re all quiet and gentlemanly on the outside but burns on the inside, you know? Sensitive and passionate and hey, you know, he’s a bit like you, isn’t he? The sarcasm streak checks out for sure.”
But Remus was looking at him with creased brows and mouth slightly agape. He looked a bit horrified. “Oh god. You’re right.” Remus muttered, and sighed resignedly, “fair enough. Another one of those, huh? Can’t make his mind up about anything, spends his time daydreaming about ideals and pretends to have principles but doesn’t do a thing in real life to fight for them.”
“Hey, that’s not what I said!”
“Same difference.”
“That’s not how it works, you’re supposed to see that he’s a good person.”
Remus rolled his eyes, “then why’d you tell me Anthony’s like me?”
“Stop that, Moony.”
“Oh, I mean. Sure, one might enjoy seeing themself reflected in a character, therefore catching where you shine and accepting your flaws,” he said robotically, “But I don’t. I don’t want to read about myself. I annoy the hell out of myself!”
“What are you even hating about Anthony?” Sirius said bewilderedly.
“Come on, Pads, are we even reading the same book? Obviously Anthony should have stuck with his wife and child! Instead of running off with that boy. Gods. And the way he made Terrence drop everything in his life too—”
“Yeah but think what he’s feeling— he’s lost a family once, he must be terrified of losing it again.”
“Oh he’s such a coward! Running off to have his adventure because he’s scared of what his past meant, running away whenever things start to intimidate him!”
“It’s not just some adventure, what if they were unhappy about what their life was? What if they felt so hopeless the only thing they could do was to run?”
“They weren’t hopeless, they were so far from hopeless! Anthony could have had a happy home— he could have had a family! And Terrence, Terrence had everything set up, a career, a community, a future, and how could he have just thrown that all away?”
“Yeah but he’s gay! He’s trying to be true to himself!”
Remus blinked, “He’s gay? I didn’t think he was?”
“Remus!” Sirius keened, caught between a squeak and a laugh, “He’s literally running away with a boy.”
“Though he clearly liked women too?”
“Where did it say that?”
“Well where did it say he was gay? Anthony adores his wife!”
“If he does then why would he be running away?”
“Exactly! He’s a coward!”
“That’s just what you see!”
“And Terrence too. This whole thing of ruining your life but it’s okay and it’s romantic because it’s for love, it’s just— I don’t understand why anyone would think that’s worth it. And for Godric’s sake, it’s another person you’re giving up everything for. It makes no sense. Who in their right mind—”
“How d’you know it makes no sense for someone else? I mean just look at James with Lily, he’d clearly do anything for her, and it doesn’t always mean you have to ruin your life, Merlin.”
Remus shook his head slowly, “No you’re right. I still just don’t understand. Not James either.”
“Well then don’t say it like it’s something universal if it’s only you who don’t get it!”
Remus’ face did a funny twist. Then he let out a huff of air, and turned to Sirius who instantly grinned at him. Remus shook his head again and laughed.
“Ugh. I want to read something else.”
“Yeah alright.” Sirius flopped onto his back, “have you got the Muggle philosophy books? Nietzsche maybe?”
“He’s a bit weird about women and all.”
“Moony he’s weird about everything. I think he’s funny, and anyway we can make fun of him and laugh at how he’s wrong.”
Remus chuckled, pushing off the side of the bed towards their bookshelves, “As you wish.”
-
“Do you want to kiss me?” Sirius suddenly said, some time later. The two of them were still curled around a book in Remus’ bed, close and warm and comfortable under the duvet.
And Remus looked like he wanted to laugh, “Not particularly, why?”
“Oh.” Sirius said, and then started to grin. “Well, good. Me neither.”
And Sirius felt a weight in his chest evaporate into thin air. It was so easy. It was as simple as that.
“Okay, how about this. The beaters flank the three chasers, spiral around them— and the chasers can— do their own spiral across the field to dock and misdirect— and there’ll be like a spiral around a spiral, it’ll be like the moons around the planets around the sun—”
“James,” Sirius groaned, barely listening, “can’t you at least wait till you’re captain of the team?”
They were on their way from Transfiguration to Charms. Remus and Peter walked ahead, talking animatedly about plants or books or animals or whatever, and James beside him was deep in his impossible Quidditch fantasies. A group of girls walked past them, faux-discreetly throwing eyes at Sirius, and giggled amongst themselves when Sirius grinned and winked at them. He recognised the girl huddled in the centre of the group with the yellow butterfly hairslide. The next Hogsmeade weekend is coming up, he might as well ask one of them out.
Sirius didn’t know exactly when it became his defining reputation, but by fourth year he was definedly known as the bachelor of Gryffindor tower, ladies’ man, heartbreaker, whatever. James found it hilarious, Peter was probably a bit jealous, and Remus, well, Remus looked upon it as he looked upon most of the stupid things they did, with an eyeroll and a sarcastic jibe, familiar and annoying and strangely endearing like bread crumbs in the butter tub.
—
Sirius was beginning to suspect that Remus was more than long-sufferingly nonchalant about Sirius’ chain of girlfriends that came and went from beside him at the Gryffindor table.
“So Sirius, what are you doing this evening?” Anne asked cloyingly, leaning towards him, chin on a hand.
“Oh, nothing much,” Sirius said in his designated flirting voice, “what about you, baby bear?”
Remus faked choking on water from across. Good thing Anne didn’t notice with her eyes fixed on Sirius. He threw Remus a look, which caused him to snort and started coughing in earnest.
“Oh, what a coincidence, I’m not doing anything either.” The girl smiled, batted her lashes, “want to go venturing after dark?”
“Sounds amazing. I know quite a few hidden spots… want me to show you around?”
“But Sirius,” Remus interjected, sounding deliberately casual, “thought you said the four of us were going to look through the new Quidditch monthly tonight?”
Which was a ridiculous thing for him to suggest, because “Remus, you don’t even care about Quidditch.”
Remus narrowed his eyes, and tightened his lips just so.
“Ooh, do you guys do that every month?”
“Mhm. Quite the event, it usually is.” Remus said, polite and flat and bitingly.
“That’s so sweet of you. Sirius, what a good friend you are.”
“Course he is.” Remus pushed away his half-eaten plate and stood up, turning to Sirius with a hard look, “I need to go get something from the tower before heading to the library. Have a good evening, you two.”
“Yeh. Of course, mate. Catch you in a bit.”
“Bye, Remus!”
Staring at Remus’ retreating back, Sirius bit his cheeks and wondered. It’s been a while since he’s noticed the way Remus was shifty, restless, more flammable than usual around the girls. So perhaps…
“Hey, Anne, I’ve just remembered I needed to get something. Wanna just meet later outside the tower?”
-
“You’re jealous.”
“What the fuck are you on about?”
“You know what I’m on about.”
Remus didn’t go to the library. Of course he didn’t. Sirius found him tucked into bed aggressively flicking through the Quidditch ‘zine that arrived that morning— which he understood none of, obviously.
Remus scoffed, “You think I want a string of girls to fawn over me and fake interest in?”
“No!” Sirius laughed, “you’re jealous of them.”
“You are a preposterous piece of shit.”
“I’m right, aren’t I.”
Remus glared at him, before finally relenting. “Fine,” he said shortly.
Sirius grinned.
“I wouldn’t call it jealous.”
“Then what are you?”
“Just annoyed.”
“Why?”
“Why what? Why wouldn’t I be annoyed. You’re spending so little time with us.”
“With you.”
“Huh?”
“You meant I’m spending less time with you.”
Remus huffed, rolled his eyes. “Fine. With me. I miss you, ‘kay?” he admitted. And he would have been embarrassed of the admission had Sirius not immediately beamed at him. Remus smiled back carefully, and Sirius felt his heart do a little jump.
“But Moony! You know I’m not going anywhere! You’re stuck with me—” he tackled them both onto his bed, pushing down Remus’ skinny shoulders before starting to madly tickle his sides, “forever—”
Remus laughed breathlessly as he tried to shove him off, “yeah alright, alright! Gerroff me now!”
-
However, all that was forgotten the moment Peter and James barged in the door, breathless with laughter, shouting “Mate, you won’t believe what we did to Filch just now!”
“Is that why you missed dinner?” Remus muttered, “you tossers.”
“Oh no, it was so worth missing dinner for.”
“I don’t know, Prongs. Aren’t you hungry? I’m hungry.” Peter’s stomach grumbled on cue. He looked at them hopefully, “haven’t got any food, have you?”
Sirius shook his head, but Remus smirked, producing two wraps from his bag.
James cheered, “Oh Moony, you’re the best!”
“Now let’s see… what should I demand for this?”
“Name your price!”
“Hmm. What about the astronomy charts for a week?”
Peter snorted, “as if you’ve ever done yours.”
“Sure I did. In first year.”
-
Time disappeared in stretches of hours when it was just the Marauders bundled together in a room. Therefore, it was nearly two hours later that Remus suddenly sat up and kicked Sirius in the shin.
“Ow! What!”
“Sirius, didn’t you promise Anne to meet tonight?”
Oh.
“Who’s Anne now?” Peter asked, head hanging off the side of his bed, on which James was standing eulogising the greatness of the Czech national team.
“Sirius’ girlfriend?”
“Awh.” James paused in his act, jumped down from the bed, “have you got to go now?”
“Yeah… probably.” He glanced towards Remus, who was giving him an unreadable look. He remembered their conversation just earlier. “But… it’s already so late. She’s probably already gone.” Sirius shrugged.
“Huh. Alright then. No harm done, yeah?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
-
“I waited for you outside the Gryffindor dorm for so long. What do you take me for? A fucking doll at your beck and call?”
Sirius looked skywards. Only to be met with centuries-old wooden beams and vaulted ceilings. He had a sudden bizarre vision of the sons of Gryffindor himself walking these halls bracing themselves through petty teenage affairs.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Sirius winced. “Sorry Anne—”
“Oh, you are a right bastard aren’t you? Good day, Black, hope you have fun with whatever you did before me.” She spat, before she spun on her heels and marched away.
Sirius sighed. He probably deserved that. Oh well. All this was only fun till they started wanting to be around all the time, anyway.
—
“You don’t always need a girl by your side, you know?”
“What you do mean,” Sirius gasped, faux scandalised, “course I do, I’ve a reputation to uphold!”
“Hey, I’m serious.”
“No, I’m Sirius.”
Remus ignored him. “You shouldn’t be dating because you feel like it’s something you need to do.”
“Moons, that’s ridiculous. What even gave you that idea?”
—
Sirius felt all the butterbeer bouncing in this veins, and his grin was jaw-achingly wide as he watched James, two ridiculous pointy hats on his head, trying to drag every passer-by into the party that was growing louder and more crowded by the minute. Not even another rejection by Lily Evans could deter his birthday spirits.
However, Sirius was far from as robust a soul. He was just as second too slow ducking behind the record player, and Zoe had caught him by the wrist.
“Now where are you going? Don’t you want to hang out with me?”
“No, why don’t you leave me alone?”
“Sirius, what the fuck?”
“Merlin, it’s my best friend’s birthday, I’ve gotta be with him!”
“Why did you invite me, then, if you were going to ignore me all night long?”
“Well you wouldn’t have been happy either if I didn’t ask you to come, would you?”
The girl scoffed, “you’re not trying to blame me, are you?”
“No, of course not, I—” he ran a hand through his hair, and scanned the crowd. “Hey, Remus!” he called out, then turned back to the girl, “Look, Zoe, we’ll talk later, alright?” he said, without a shred of intention to continue this conversation.
He tried to put a hand to her arm, but she shirked him off. “Suit yourself then, Black.” she muttered in a dangerous undertone, then spun on her heels and disappeared through the crowd.
It was just what he needed to turn around and see Remus approaching, looking at him disapprovingly. “What was that about?”
“Oh, nevermind. Can we go get the cake now?”
-
The Friday afternoon after James’ party, Sirius sat by the lake alone waiting for Zoe to show up. He had with him a bunch of flowers, as a half-hearted gesture of apology. The moment he saw the expression she approached him with, Sirius groaned internally. Why does this happen every time?
“Yeah. So I’ve been thinking. We should probably stop seeing each other.”
“Oh, what happened?” Sirius said disinterestedly.
Zoe narrowed her eyes at him.
“Fair enough.”
She shook her head. “I can’t believe you, Black.”
“Yeah. Whatever. See you around.”
She huffed, and left without a response. Sirius took the long way back just to walk in a different direction.
-
When he was back at the castle gates, Sirius was still holding the flower bunch. He sighed, motioning to toss it away, but stopped himself at the last second. It would be such a waste, wouldn’t it? And in any case, why didn’t he buy flowers and chocolates for his friends? The thought filled him with excitement, and he raced to the common room with newly lifted spirits, thrusting the bunch of flowers at James the moment he found him.
“Here— these are for you!”
“Mrmgph,” James said through a faceful of flowers, “the date went well then?”
Sirius snorted. The oblivious bastard. “What date?”
“The one you had just n— OH. I see, alright.”
“I don’t know what you’re seeing, James, must be a smudge on the glasses. Anyway, I got these just for you!”
“Really,” James said, amused. “What suddenly gave you the idea?” His eyes twinkled teasingly behind the glasses.
“Oh well, I just thought we should. Why don’t we buy flowers and chocolates for each other, you know?”
And there started the legendary week during which their dorm overflowed with bunches of all kinds of flowers, as Sirius and James sought to one-up each other with their loving proclamations. By spillover, everyone started finding flowers in their bags and their clothes. The unfortunate ones with an allergy cursed the living daylights out of them. Remus quietly stashed away all the chocolate that came with.
Sirius had even managed to steal a small sprig of hyacinth into Remus’ hair behind his ear without him noticing, and he’d gone around for the greater part of a day with the purple flowers tucked in his curls. The sight had made him ridiculously bubbly.
-
A week later at breakfast, Remus was, without explanation, suddenly staring intensely at him.
“What are you looking at?”
“Don’t look away.”
“Ooh, staring contest?” Peter said from beside them, between mouthfuls of food.
“Huh I see. You’re on, Moony.” Staring back into Remus’ eyes with as much concentration.
Though moments later, Remus snapped his finger, Sirius blinked, and a flower crown appeared on his head, of primroses and daisies and soft pink roses.
James laughed delightedly, “you totally had that coming, Pads.”
Remus smirked satisfiedly. Sirius tried to lift the crown off his head, but the curling strands furled right back onto his hair. Well that’s impressive.
“It won’t come off till dinner.”
“Good thing I pull it off, then.”
“Yeah, you sort of do.” Remus said, smile turning soft.
-
It was just his luck that one of the letters from his mother arrived for him in Hogsmeade, on his date, of all times and places. He couldn’t help the dark mood that followed him like a raincloud on steroids all afternoon, and try as he might, he simply couldn’t muster up the energy to pay attention to the girl beside him.
He couldn’t decide if it was a blessing or a curse that she’d clocked why.
“I could help you, Sirius.”
“Greta, no really, you don’t need to worry about it.”
“You should talk about it with someone else, shouldn’t you? And I could be there for you, just let me know what’s going on.”
“I mean, if this your idea of a good conversation topic for emotional bonding—” Greta looked affronted, “it’s not, alright? I’m not going to tell you about my family.”
“I’m only trying to be considerate! And don’t you shout about your family all time time?”
“Well yeah. But what happens between my parents and brother stays between us.”
“So it’s about your brother— are you fighting?” She creased her brows and put on a concerned voice.
“Can we, maybe not?”
“Why are you being so stubborn about this—”
“I don’t want it going around in the gossip mill, alright?” Sirius almost shouted.
Greta’s face contorted, froze in a shocked grimace. “Is that all you think of me?”
“Oh schlizers.” Sirius ran a hand over his face, “I didn’t mean to say that.”
“But you thought it?”
“No, I—”
Sirius stopped at her look. She bit her lips, expression stony and on the verge of tears as well. She glowered at him for a long moment, then began:
“I thought you wanted something with me, Sirius Black. I thought we were onto something here. And what did you think? That I came from the gossip and will be to the gossip? God I can’t believe—”
“Hey, wait a second. When did we ever say we were going to be more? It’s you who kept pushing—”
“What did you want then? Snogging at the back of greenhouses and tossing the girl out once you get bored? Should you have wanted us to sign a contract on it to say I was okay with it?”
“Look, I don’t know where you’re dragging in all that from—”
“Black. No, I’m not going to stand this. If you could take one moment to try and be less selfish—”
-
The thought stuck grimy in his mind long after Sirius had stormed off. But he wasn’t selfish, inconsiderate, was he? He wasn’t a bad person and friend, was he? As though to prove himself a point, he took a long detour all the way to the kitchens to pick up a chocolate fudge cake, a lemon meringue pie and a whole basket of overbaked naans.
—
“Sirius Black!”
Sirius sighed, paused in his steps, and turned around down the corridor. “What is it?”
“I need to talk to you, now.”
“Yeah, sorry Kat, not now, alright?”
“Yeah well. You’ve been saying that for a week.”
“I am genuinely sorry. Look I just, I’ve got somewhere to be right now.” It was the full moon that night, and the Marauders stuck around Moony, doing whatever they could, before and after the moon every month. It was unnegotiable. They’d figured out what their animagus forms were going to be just after new year’s, and he couldn’t wait until they were finally able to actually accompany him.
Kat was still glaring at him. “Tomorrow then.”
“Yeah, can’t do that either.”
“Why?”
“Can’t really tell you.”
“I just want to talk to you, what’s so hard about making time.”
Sirius was starting to get annoyed. “Look, if you want something else, why don’t you go find someone else?”
-
The moment Sirius made it through their door, Remus’ head snapped to him, “what’s up with you now?”
“Nothing! Kitchen mission has been successful—”
“No, no.” Remus pointed a finger at him, “you reek of psychological distress.”
“Oh right. Fine.” Sirius never ceased to be absolutely awestruck by the wolf peeking through, “Well, um. Another one down.”
Remus snorted. “Not again, you.”
“Unfortunately, yeah.”
“What’s it this time?”
“She thinks I didn’t care about her feelings.”
“Classic. Don’t it make you wonder if it just might be true?”
“What can I say? Everybody’s looking for sympathy but nobody’s ready to give them,” Sirius intoned dramatically, “I just want love, Moony! Is that too much to ask for?”
“I told you to stop stealing James’ crappy romance novels.”
“Hey— I most certainly did not—”
—
“Do you want to have sex?” Elena asked him under her breath, the two of them having broken apart for air behind one of hidden alcoves.
“Why, do you?” Sirius asked, a little startled and trying not to show it.
“Yeah. You’re so handsome.”
“Oh I know love,” Sirius smirked, and tried to distract them by pulling her back into the kiss.
But she caught his hands, “And so gentlemanly too. You never asked for more, never pushed us to do anything else. But here—” she left his hands at his side, and started reaching for the buttons of her blouse.
Sirius was stunned. He didn’t know what to say or do. Having taken his widened eyes as a sign of encouragement. She continued undoing the buttons until the shirt was hanging open between them. She wore only a thin cotton bra underneath. He could see the shape of her nipples.
“Do you want to—” Elena took both his hands in hers, and drew them to her chest.
Sirius had completely frozen, even when she placed her hands over his and squeezed a little. Her flesh was too warm, too full under his hands, even through the material. Some deep-seated voice in his mind told him that he was feeling full-bodiedly uncomfortable.
“Or do you… just not want to.” Elena said questioningly.
“I—” Sirius tried to push past the tightness in his throat.
Looking at him for a couple more long moments, her eyes widened a little, as she appeared to clock something in her head. “Hmm.”
She let his hands fall, and started doing the buttons of her shirt back up again.
And finally having found his voice, Sirius felt such a devastating wave of embarrassment wash over him. Godric, what was wrong with him? What in hell possessed him to freeze up? “I’m sorry, I just—”
“Oh, Sirius, dear, don’t worry.”
“I don’t know why—”
“Really, it’s okay!” She smiled to reassure him. It looked genuine.
“Do you want to kiss again?”
“Nah, we’re alright.” she took his hands in hers and squeezed. “I did think you seemed to be more interested in the sneaking around than the snogging, in general, anyway.”
“What do you mean?” Sirius muttered.
She shrugged, lips twitching with a smile.
As they fell quiet. Sirius frowned and looked away.
“I think,” he said after a few moments, “maybe we should, um.”
“Break up?”
Sirius turned to face her, realising that she’d been looking at him carefully this whole while. “Sure.”
“Or did you think there’s nothing to break up if we weren’t really in a relationship in the first place?”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. I just meant we’ll— stop doing, this. Sorry.”
“Oh no, don’t worry. I’ll just have to go after some other fish. Tianze seems like a bright boy, good looking too, no?”
“Oh yeah,” Sirius nodded enthusiastically. “Great bone structure, killer of a jawline. Good height as well.”
She smiled at him mysteriously.
“What?”
“You’re so lovely, Sirius.” She pecked him lightly on the cheeks, “whoever you find will be so lucky to have you.”
-
All the way back to the Gryffindor tower, Sirius couldn’t shake off the overwhelming wrongness he felt under his own skin. He replayed again and again the few moments, wondering, wondering what the hell was broken inside him. What did it mean, what was he going to do.
When he threw open the dorm door to the three boys playing gobstone on the floor in their pyjamas, they all looked up at him in surprise.
“Sirius! I thought you were hanging out with that Ravenclaw girl.”
Remus rolled his eyes, “Elena’s got a name, Prongs.”
“Which one is she again?” Peter said distractedly, “long white hair, brown eyes?”
“I think so. Really smart too.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Anyway, Pads, what happened?”
“Nothing!” He shrugged, flopping onto the floor and upsetting the game, “thought it’s a Marauders night tonight— let’s go do something.”
“Can we get food? I’m famished.”
“We could sneak into the kitchens and make pancakes!”
“Oh Merlin, yes! Wait, I’ve got a recipe somewhere too!”
Sirius grinned. He knew his friends would help take things off his mind. “Brilliant— let’s go now!”
-
Midnight found Sirius laughing his stomach into stitches as they made a riot of the kitchens, covering every surface with flour. Remus was purposefully dribbling the batter all over the place, making a horrific mess of the pancakes on the stove, which was sending Peter into an absolute frenzy because “REMUS that’s my MOTHER’s recipe!” and “can’t you make them circular?”
“Pete, it’s pancakes, they’re supposed to be fucked up! And hey— we’ll clean it up when we leave, don’t you worry about the house elves!”
The whole thing was sending Sirius into fits of laughter, for no apparent reason. His hands shook as he continued trying to make his pancake the shape of a penis.
Remus looked over and shook his head, “you are so fucking dumb.”
And then James hit him on the back of the head with a ball of cookie dough, causing them to descend into absolute chaos, until all four were covered with mysterious mixtures from head to toe. As they lunged and grabbed at each other to make even more of a mess, Sirius wondered why he would ever want for anyone else.
a short series of asexual sirius & aroace remus. fluff packet with attempt at plot. the story starts at spring of third year. pls pls lmk if you think something isn’t right.
As clichéd a characterisation as this might sound, it shall not be denied that Sirius Black was a social being. Sirius wasn’t like Remus, who honest to Merlin did not give a royal fuck about ‘other people’. And to Sirius, it was as admirable as unfathomable.
No, because Sirius instinctively reached for other people, flourished in their company. He bathed in the warmth of companionship and held them as close as they would let him— or as close as he could let himself. Blame it on his affection-less upbringing or what you will, he was constantly seeking, probing; looking for attention, reaction; standing out, acting out, not that there’s any acting involved.
Because damn it, he drank in the way he could build a reputation, win a crowd, intuit all the tiny ways to interact with another. He thrived in other people.
So it is with surprised glee that Sirius welcomed when that pretty fifth year girl— Amelia, her name was— marched up to him in the common room and demanded a date with him, on his first ever Hogsmeade weekend. (He got Orion to sign his permission slip, when he’d been just more than slightly on the side of inebriated, since Walburga clearly would never have.) They’d quickly agreed to meet for lunch in the village, and he pressed himself to play it cool, matching flirt for flirt, wink for wink.
When she smiled one last time and turned away with a flourish, Sirius looked back to see all three of his friends staring at him.
James and Peter were gaping like a fish, and Remus was giving him a funny little look, lips pressed together like he was holding in a laugh.
He opened his mouth to ask Remus what he’s on about, but James beat him to it.
“Mate!”
“I can’t just believe that just happened!” Peter joined him.
“You just got asked out!”
“I mean, of course Sirius was going to be the first to fall out of us.”
“Moony, what do you mean fall? This is brilliant! We’ve got to get you all set up— what do you think you should bring?”
“You could buy her flowers? Or maybe chocolate?”
“On the first date? Seems a bit much doesn’t it?”
“Hmm. But you still could. Get something from Honeydukes on the way, it’s perfect.”
“Oh yea. I could do that.”
“I still can’t believe that just happened.” Peter shook his head, “how did you get so lucky?”
“This is historic,” James said with finality, “we need to do something tonight to celebrate. To commemorate.”
“You’re so dumb. All of you.”
-
When the Hogsmeade day arrived, however, the boys, Sirius included, were all too excited for their own adventures around the village to leave much thoughts for Sirius’ event. They spent the morning roaming the cobbled streets under warm sunshine, stuffing themselves with candies and chocolates, contemplating buying out at least half of Zonko’s.
Around noon, Remus said suddenly, “Haven’t you got to go, Sirius?”
“What? What do you mean?” Sirius creased his brows, puzzled.
“Your date with Amelia?”
“Oh! Right yeh. I have that.”
Peter gasped, turning around abruptly and grabbing Sirius’ arm. “You’ve got to hurry! Can’t be late— or maybe you can. Maybe you should try to be exactly three minutes late.”
“Oh my gosh. I can’t believe we almost forgot!”
“What do you mean we, James, it’s Sirius’ date.”
“Romantic affair of the brother is an affair of the family.” He moved forward to straighten Sirius’ robes, “we’ve got some chocolate, haven’t we? Moony?”
“Nu-uh. No way I’m handing over.” Remus shook his head vigorously, then grabbed a bunch of marigolds from the side of the path. “Here, just take these.”
“Aren’t these actually poisonous?” Peter grimaced.
“Oh they’ll be fine,” Remus rolled his eyes, but tore a side from the chocolates’ paper bag to wrap around the bright yellow bunch, “here.”
“Thanks,” Sirius said. He took out the bunch of Zonko trinkets from his pocket to look for a hairband, to tie the flower bunch at the roots.
“Oh!” James lunged at him, “Give those here! You can’t bring dungbombs to a date!”
Sirius protested as James moved to empty the contents of his pockets. “Merlin! Stop fussing, you’re such a mum!” he laughed.
“Also, we’re walking you there.” Peter said firmly, James nodded.
“Can’t let a brother walk alone into battle.”
“You guys are so ridiculous. Remus, Help me out?”
Remus, who Sirius had the feeling was finding this whole thing very funny indeed, tilted his head just so and looked at him all faux solemnly. “Oh, you know, what they said.”
Sirius groaned. “You three are the worst.”
And he was not at all surprised to see three identical shit-eating grins glowing back at him.
-
“Got yourself an entourage?” Amelia said, smiling as she pushed from the wall outside Madam Puddifoot’s.
“Oh, yeah,” Sirius chuckled, amazed to find himself actually nervous, “Just my friends, don’t worry about them. They’re a bunch of idiots.”
It then occurred to him that this sounded rather like something Remus would say.
He made a face towards them, praying that they’d now go away and leave him alone. Leave they did, though not without excessive thumbs up and exaggerated winks.
Amelia chuckled. “They’re cute.”
“Yeah sure.” Sirius sighed exasperatedly.
“Well, let’s go in then.”
“After you.”
-
The date was alright. They ordered food and talked. And the conversation was interesting enough that Sirius could forget about the density of frills that looked like they were out to choke him. But anyway, he liked to think they hit it off rather well. Sirius told anecdotes about his family and those stupid pureblood circles, which often seemed to be a crowd favourite. When he mentioned Remus and his David Bowie obsession, she’d lit up, and went on such a splurge about muggle music and bands and playing the guitar. He could just imagine Remus finding her insanely cool.
As their empty plates got cleared and they were sipping away on (awfully sweet) vanilla tea, Amelia lowered her chin, and looked at him meaningfully through her lashes. And Sirius realised what was about to happen.
She leaned forward, and gave him a peck on the lips— just a peck. Drawing back, she laughed at his slightly stunned kind of smile, then reached forward again, this time with both hands cupping his neck and cheek, and kissed him full on the mouth.
The kiss itself was neither here nor there. But Sirius felt excited nonetheless. He’d kissed a girl. Wow.
Okay.
He probably should figure out how to properly return a kiss, but Amelia didn’t seem too bothered. As she finally drew back, she smiled so brightly at him, which he could only return.
They left Madam Puddifoot’s shortly after that. And she chuckled when Sirius held open the door for her.
“Does this mean you want to be my girlfriend now?” Sirius asked suddenly, a bit worried.
Amelia laughed again. She was cool like that. Though it did get on Sirius’ nerves a bit.
“No, not really. I just wanted to get to know you. I really like you, Sirius, but nah. Doesn’t have to mean I want to be your girlfriend.”
“Oh good. I mean—” He internally gave himself a smack, “yeah, alright. That’s fine.”
“Yeah. Well, thank you for the date, Sirius. We should go out again some day. See you around?”
“Oh yeah, sounds good. And no problem— see you.”
-
Sirius caught up with the boys as they were strolling leisurely back up towards the castle, the late afternoon sun goldening their skin.
“Sirius! There you are!”
“How was the date!”
Sirius shrugged, “Good.”
“What did you guys do?”
“Normal date stuff. We ate and talked a lot.” He said, feeling particularly powerful as he scanned his friends’ eager faces, “We had vanilla tea.”
Remus grimaced right on cue. Sirius grinned to himself. Remus hated vanilla.
“Oh also, she kissed me.”
“Oh my god!” James shouted and Peter gasped loudly, right in the middle of the street, “no way! Pads! What the hell! How was it?”
“A bit wet,” he said dismissively, thoroughly enjoying his friends’ antics.
“Well that sounds just delightful.” Remus said, with a smile that betrayed his wording and tone. What a classic Remus.
“But it was still good.” Sirius said quickly.
“I reckon you’ll just get better at it, though.”
“For sure, I’ll be the best.”
“Ah. My man. Can’t believe you get to have all the practice now.”
“We’re never going to catch up.”
“When the time comes, will you teach me a few tricks for Evans?”
“James. Ew.”
-
Sirius went out with Amelia again a couple of times, and they snogged a bit at the end every time. Sirius thought it was rather neat, as he got to know his way around all those usual dating spots, and he was soon feeling rather versed in the ins and outs of going on dates. He, as James said, did also get to practise the whole kissing thing as well. Amelia was obviously quite good at it, but Sirius thought he must be getting better. And in any case, he didn’t think Amelia minded, the way she smiled at him, flushed and breathless every time.
However, he still kept wondering why she’d ask him out in the first place, and every time he asked, she’d laugh and shake her head.
“Come on, Sirius, I’ve told you. It’s just ‘cause I liked you, that’s all.”
“…And how did you even decide that? Do you just look around the hall at boys and decide you like them?”
“Sure,” She shrugged, sounding a little puzzled, “don’t everyone?”
-
After that, Sirius started looking. For the signs. And sure enough, he’s caught at least a couple of girls ‘making eyes’ at him. Apparently, his name was running hot through the lines of gossip, ever since the word had spread that he was going out with a fifth year.
Sirius felt a little thrill run through him at the thought. He could play this game alright.
So one thing that can be helpful for people who are trying to figure out their sexuality is to hear how other people figured out theirs. I can’t tell you the number of times I searched “how do you know if you’re _____” when I was really confused about my orientation.
So here are a few signs that let me know I was probably hella asexual (other aces please add on! Let’s make a master list!)
Didn’t realize sexual attraction was real until I was in college
Thought “sexual orientation” meant “who you want to date/kiss/have crushes on” and had nothing really to do with “who you’re sexually attracted to”
Often forget that people have sexual irl and can’t really imagine anyone I know having or wanting sex (sex in general just feels like a hypothetical concept)
Struggle to understand what sexual attraction really is and still sometimes don’t quite believe that people experience it irl
Didn’t get why teaching abstinence in schools would be so unrealistic (are teens really gonna have sex? like.. why would they even want to?)
Never quite got the concept of the “hormonal teenager”
Thought of sex as something I would have to eventually “deal with” rather than something I was looking forward to
Could never relate with videos talking about “how I knew I was gay/bi/pans etc.” because those stories usually involved people saying stuff like “I found myself imagining what it would be like to kiss/have sex with so and so” and that was never my experience
Felt relieved when I realized that sex was optional rather than a life requirement
None of my ideas of an ideal relationship ever involved sex
Any sexual fantasies I had never involved me as a participant
Always felt slightly disingenuous identifying as other orientations
I didn’t quite relate to the pretty common ace experience of ‘feeling broken until you realize there’s a word for you’ because coming into highschool I just happened to mostly have friends who weren’t sexually active yet, so to me it felt like the few who were and we’re vocal about it were the different ones, and I was normal.
People talking about sex or making suggestive jokes has always made me pretty uncomfortable. (I’m more used to it now, to some extent, but it’s still very context dependent and there’s a pretty narrow range of stuff that doesn’t make me cringe at least a little bit)
Once a guy I was becoming friends with, who I did have a bit of a crush on (or thought I had, at the time) explicitly told me in a text that he was sexually attracted to me, and I was both confused and uncomfortable with it
I grew up my whole life under the assumption that the default setting was to not be attracted to people until you knew them and had an emotional connection- it wasn’t until after I started identifying as asexual, and learned about demisexuality, that I realized that wasn’t the case. (It still weirds me out a bit, tbh).
Im having a blast reading all of these reblogs. And feeling so valid.
In my experience
it was perceiving sex as something other people people do and never put myself in that situation mentally and physically.
I’m a grey so when I lost my virginity I was like “wow this is new and interesting” but after that initial discovery I was immediately turned off and just couldn’t get into it and getting turned on was a fleeting feat.
Thinking that a romance story was boring or “ruined” after the characters had sex because they were no longer pursuing each other
Seeing someone attractive and thinking “I just want to stare at you”
(Or alternatively) seeing someone attractive and thinking “I want to take a nap with you”
Not picking up when someone is flirting with you (until someone else tells you)
Feeling trapped when someone tries to be physically “romantic”
[Handwritten in red and purple: “it’s time for you to grow tf up and learn about how slur reclamation works”]
This is an example of hate.
ok im just gonna quickly mention that an cishet ace tried to convince me i was aroace just to get me into the community so believe it or not cishet aces are dicks too!!!!!!! i should mention it was cuz i had trauma from an abusive relationship!!!!
stop trying to be fucking oppressed you arent
also about the slur reclaimation thing, lol yall cant say q*eer plus ppl are uncomfrotable by the word q*eer!! stop being disrespectful!! yall dont know how it works!!! i see aces saying fag and the d slur!!!!!!!! so shut up!!
[Handwritte in pink and purple: “If aroaces actually felt like addressing the root problems of a society that pushes the idea that everyone wants a relationship/family and that sex isn’t owed to anyone instead of insisting they’re the only ones who face these issues caused by rape culture and mysoginy then MAYBE we would get somewhere in worthwhile discussions”]
This is an example of hate.
Wow, I got certified! Credit me next time you take my post!
It’s just facts, though.
Like, this is legit a matter of misogyny, rape culture, and toxic masculinity (which is a byproduct of misogyny). Nothing about that is a concern unique to the asexual experience. It’s a matter of the human experience.
Plenty of “allosexual” people don’t want to have a family! The child free and VHEMT communities have been around for decades.
Not everyone, including “allos” want sex or a relationship - right now, maybe ever! Why? Plenty of reasons. I literally took about eight years off from dating and sex during early stages of my transitiong, simply because of dysphoria (it’s also not uncommon for trans people to just mentally “shut off” our feelings of sexual attraction because of dysphoria – it’s such a common reaction to dysphoria, and has many decades of documentation, I’m even willing to bet that a strong majority of asexual-identifying trans people actually aren’t asexual, and they’ll discover this at some point in the course of transitioning)
The only reason that I can imagine why there are so many asexual people who believe that these are “unique asexual experience” is some combination of unaddressed misogyny and a case of terminal uniqueness.
[“Terminal uniqueness” isn’t just common to substance abusers, but it’s frankly also a common feeling during adolescence, and most people who feel it as teenagers outgrow it.]
![[Dark purple background with large white text that says 'Unicorn March presents: What Aces Face,' followed by a small ace flag.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/b299ab08ac40f0706ae9ef8fc5d6a404/3a248b3cb03605cb-59/s540x810/db2dd515bef1c57ae5bbac1ea13b817c60ac0804.png)
![[Dark purple background with large white text that says 'First, a few quick definitions.' Smaller white text below it says, 'The 'unicorns' of the LGBTQIPA+ community are groups that are rarely seen, and rarely supported. Asexuals, or 'aces,' aren't sexually attracted to men. Or women. Or any other genders. Some aces can get turned on by the idea of enjoyable sex; some just don't enjoy it, or are repulsed by it. But they don't get turned on by people. The ace spectrum also includes people who are demisexual and grey-ace. Demis don't experience sexual attraction without deep emotional intimacy. Most people go on first dates to see if they feel attraction; demis don't know if they'll ever feel it for a given person.']](https://64.media.tumblr.com/a403a10ecdf86296c292986911491320/3a248b3cb03605cb-2a/s540x810/9d3e987953ca8ccc1d90476c8aa5809abd0177de.png)
![[White text here continues from the previous image: 'Like many grey areas, 'grey-ace' covers a lot of territory. Grey-aces identify with the experiences shared overall by the ace community. But they might feel unsure about whether they sometimes experience sexual attraction. They may experience it only vaguely, conditionally, or, like many demis, very, very rarely. Or they may experience some sort of sexual attraction, but not any particular drive or interest in sex. The beauty of the grey-ace label is that people can connect to the ace-spec community without having to put their reasons into words. If that sounds confusing, try assuming you're experiencing attraction, when really you just want, very much, to date someone. Or thinking you must be bi or pan, because you experience the same amount of (or lack of) attraction to all genders. Or distinguishing between sexual attraction to people, and free-floating sexual arousal in general. Most of us assume that if we have any sex drive at all, it must mean we're attracted to people. But there's a difference... and even when we don't notice the difference, it has an impact on our lives.']](https://64.media.tumblr.com/6923e1c64acf73d7297ccb5ca2d90b21/3a248b3cb03605cb-10/s540x810/695d3172f0037b654892192c5744ccd55209f607.png)
![[Black text on a grey background says In The WorkplACE. The letters ACE are in the rest of the ace pride flag colors: white, grey, and purple. Below this header is an explanation of the bar graph following it: 'The white columns show the percent of each group, at work, that experiences verbal harassment, exclusion from activities, being nonconsensually outed, the threat or act of physical or sexual harassment or violence, or other inappropriate comments or conduct. In order to avoid counting sexual minorities who are harassed for being trans, these numbers are only for cis sexual minorities. Transgender responses were consistently higher: a full third of heterosexual trans people reported similar experiences.' The chart shows that 19.3% of gay people were harassed at work, 23.3% of bisexuals, 28.6% of pansexuals, 29% of aces, and 27.1% of queer people. Additional dark and light purple bars alongside the white bars show stats for cis and trans people living in poverty. Among cis people, 37.7% of gay people in the UK are living in poverty; 59% of bisexuals; 65.2% of pansexuals; 64% of aces; and 57.3% of queer people. Among trans people, 57.9% of gay people live in poverty; 60.5% of bisexuals; 66.2% of pansexuals; 64.8% of aces; and 64.7% of queer people. Black text below this chart gives the source of the data as 'Government Equalities Office, 2017, National LGBT Survey.']](https://64.media.tumblr.com/f6dafec3a32d0792d6972309bac6e820/3a248b3cb03605cb-b8/s540x810/300f9969ec625fa78b49525e7ad1a0892e855bba.png)
![[This page features a purple background and a central white square with the text, 'Barriers To Education: In 2015, the Association of American Universities surveyed more than 150,000 students nationwide about some of the challenges they might have been experiencing. These statistics are from their time in college and graduate school only.' Around this are four sections, with greyscale squares in different sizes showing the statistics for each group. From the top of the page, proceeding clockwise around it: 60.4% of gay/lesbians, 64% of aces, and 69.1% of bisexuals experience harassment during college and graduate school. 10.8% of straight students, 13.7% of gay/lesbian, 18.3% of ace, and 25.6% of bi students experience violent assault. 3.7% of straight, 5.9% of gay, 9.5% of ace, and 9.9% of bi students experience stalking. and 5.2% of straight, 8.7% of gay, 13.5% of ace, and 14.4% of bi students experience nonconsensual touch. The bottom of the page gives the following source: Cantor, David, et al. 2015. AAU Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/614860c9b928478aa751de18582f0c85/3a248b3cb03605cb-8c/s540x810/d0312046aa67bb4a9494062888d66d6b64cddafd.png)
![[A light grey background, decorated with dots and circles in purple and white, with a white bar graph. Purple text reads, 'HOME SWEET HOME: The white columns show the percent of each group that at home, in the past year, experienced verbal harassment, insults, or other hurtful comments; coercive or controlling behavior; being nonconsensually outed; the threat or act of physical or sexual harassment or violence; or other inappropriate comments or conduct. In order to avoid counting sexual minorities who are abused for being trans, these numbers are only for cis sexual minorities. Transgender responses were consistently higher, but followed a similar pattern, ranging from 36.8% for heterosexuals to 58.9% for pansexuals.' Below this, the bar chart shows the percentages: 22.5% of gay people, 34.8% of bisexuals, 39.3% of pansexuals, 32.1% of queer people, 35.6% of aces, and 36.6% of people identifying in some other way. These stats are once again from the UK's national LGBT Survey in 2017.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/c9bff5a3836fd8461023a7d57c908cbe/3a248b3cb03605cb-55/s540x810/0a6b941669c70ee639a27cac6ba47dab621075cc.png)
![[A large, purple-edged, white speech bubble against a black background says, 'So-called conversion therapies, sometimes also referred to as cure, aversion or reparative therapies, are techniques intended to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity... commonly ranging from pseudo-psychological treatments to spiritual counselling. In extreme cases, they may also include surgical and hormonal interventions, or so-called ‘corrective’ rape.' The quote is attributed to 'The Rt. Hon. Penny Mordaunt and the Government Equalities Office. (2017) National LGBT Survey: Research Report.']](https://64.media.tumblr.com/4d4a835706fbb8e026d6c73d9d8f2501/3a248b3cb03605cb-5e/s540x810/6333fbcadc8d9c239c4d46d57fcf897447468aad.png)
![[A cherry-red megaphone against a purple background illustrates the stats for 'CONVERSION THERAPY.' A smaller subheader says, 'The least- studied asexual experience by far is also one of the most damaging -- and most common.' The page goes on to explain, 'In 2017, the UK's Government Equalities Office conducted the National LGBT Survey, which included more than 108,000 LGBTQIPA+ people. Their findings finally validated what aces had been saying for years: a wide swath of the world treats their sexual orientation as a disease to be 'cured.' By force, if necessary.' The megaphone is lined with bold black statistics: Bi, 5.2%. Pan, 6.6%. Gay, 7.6%. Ace, 10.2%. At the bottom, a smaller note says that 'Percentages are of cis people who have had, or been directed to, conversion therapy for their orientation. Trans responses are omitted here for clarity, as they could have been targeted for gender, orientation, or both.']](https://64.media.tumblr.com/bfcaf8680bc24d8be2fbc089453d0c59/3a248b3cb03605cb-89/s540x810/8eb05239120a9db69e37de31e16a607c2edea8de.png)
![[White text on a black background says, 'HOMELESSNESS IS NOT AN EVENT: '...For LGBTQA youth, while disclosures of stigmatized sexual or gender identities typically did not instantly result in getting kicked out, it often arrived in the context of already stressed parent-child relationships and other parental and family struggles that were years in the making. 'Many of these youth eventually left in order to escape the stigma and discrimination they had endured within their families for quite some time. [They reported] some of the highest rates of adversity scores in our survey, often while stably housed.' Samuels, Gina E. Miranda, et al. (2019) Voices of Youth Count In-Depth Interviews: Technical Report.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/c435bb7d5ec7627313d18a080be06960/e1a0de38c01b1afa-73/s540x810/64266ef0a5ea43eb36c28ebe99ef26a839bb4df4.png)
![[White text on a purple background says, 'HOMELESSNESS: A higher likelihood of becoming homeless is one of the most socially visible effects of oppression. According to the national 2016-17 Voices Of Youth Count survey, 114% more homeless youth are on the ace spectrum than youth in the general population. 41% more are gay/lesbian; 50% more are bi; and 83% more are trans.' Below that, a grey bar chart on a white background shows these statistics, as well as showing that cis hetero youth are disproportionately less likely to become homeless.' Source: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. (2017) Youth Homelessness in San Diego County, California: Findings from the youth count, brief youth survey, and provider survey.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/35d414ba931da4f566224c613619f51d/e1a0de38c01b1afa-1f/s540x810/86733d985bc84a975cb7d4223a1a463b4f3c023d.png)
![[White text on a purple background says, 'In 2011, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey spoke with 6,450 trans people, creating a detailed portrait of transgender life. We all know the trans community struggles with very high homelessness rates. So high that even heterosexual trans people have the same likelihood of having been homeless at some point as their gay and bi transgender peers: around 19%. But if you're trans and ace? 27%.' Source: 'LGB Within the T,' The Williams Institute A grey bar chart on the right, against a white background, illustrates the statistics: 19% each for straight and gay trans people, 17% for bi trans people, and 27% for ace trans people.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/db83d75b585d3e8edba444c0dd78abe1/e1a0de38c01b1afa-22/s540x810/95f3f4ff57966f61bd104cbba82cda8f21ab32a3.png)
![[Large white text on a black background says, 'If asexual people feel similar pressure to other sexual minorities to conform to heterosexual norms, then it is possible that they too may have elevated rates of mental health problems.' From Morag A. Yulea, Lori A. Brottob and Boris B. Gorzalkaa's 2011 paper, 'Mental Health and Interpersonal Functioning in Self-Identified Asexual Men and Women.']](https://64.media.tumblr.com/3171c7159d0623cfe041798fbfab519f/e1a0de38c01b1afa-b3/s540x810/6a94dd192d15145ae0fd8e85320e8ab776bb7d2c.png)
![[The header says, 'MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS: These are each group's mean scores on clinical assessments for depression and generalized anxiety disorder. GAD is diagnosed at scores of 10 or higher. Scores of 10-14 on the PHQ-9 indicate moderate depression.' Below this are greyscale stripes going from off-white to black. Each stripe has the name of a sexual orientation, followed by two emoji illustrating their average scores for clinical depression and anxiety disorders. Heterosexuals are illustrated with two smiley faces and the scores 6.15 anxiety, 6.99 depression. Gay Men and Lesbians have upside-down smiley faces, in the classic 'ha ha I'm screwed' emoji, and the scores 7.50 anxiety, 8.83 depression. The other four orientations have sad faces, illustrating scores approaching or above the clinical cutoff for these mood disorders: Bisexuals, 9.92 anxiety, 10.73 depression. Asexuals, 9.24 anxiety, 11.80 depression. Pansexuals, 10.13 anxiety, 12.37 depression. And demisexuals, 11.56 anxiety, 13.47 depression. A purple circle on the right contains the text 'Source: Borgogna, N. C., et al. 2018. Anxiety and Depression Across Gender and Sexual Minorities: Implications for Transgender, Gender Nonconforming, Pansexual, Demisexual, Asexual, Queer, and Questioning Individuals.']](https://64.media.tumblr.com/b8678cc090567d1b203f96f5b87420e5/e1a0de38c01b1afa-59/s540x810/b7adc310a0ba30504674f899c05b758296acca5a.png)
![[A black header against a broad purple background says, 'SUICIDALITY'. Below, in large white text, the number '26% of cis aces' stands out. It continues in smaller text, 'in a 2011 study had suicidal thoughts/feelings in the two weeks prior to the study, compared to 24% of cis LGB and 12% of cis straight subjects.' Source: 'Mental Health and Interpersonal Functioning in Self-Identified Asexual Men and Women,' Yulea, Brotto, & Gorzalska, 2011.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/5e21684f66d0e7c811764665c60bdf80/e1a0de38c01b1afa-15/s540x810/e0dfca294d31ed1ce7a6d50de8dd1121606bca45.png)
![[White text on a gray background says, 'Have you ever seriously considered suicide? 11% of cis straight people have thought about it at some point in their lives. So have 34% of cis gay and lesbian people, and 38% of cis bisexuals. 'In the cis ace community, that number jumps to 43.4%.' A purple bar graph to the right illustrates these numbers. Sources: Salway et al (2019). A Systematic Review and Meta‑Analysis of Disparities in the Prevalence of Suicide Ideation and Attempts Among Bisexual Populations, and Bauer et al (2016). The 2016 Asexual Community Survey Summary Report.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e9502a46142b8d34bb4e4fefc189ab79/e1a0de38c01b1afa-f4/s540x810/91d65df7b540d17019e1c5944c540d4214db9583.png)
![[White text on a black background says, 'Asexual trans people have the highest rate of attempted suicide of all sexual orientations: a shocking 46%.' The number 46% is in large italic purple text. Smaller white italics continue, 'Remember, that statistic only measures those who attempted it. In one study of nearly 2,000 trans people aged 14-30, 95.5% of subjects reported having had suicidal thoughts and feelings at some point in their lives.' A purple bar chart to the right illustrates the statistics: 36% of hetero trans people, 40% of gay/lesbian trans people, 40% of bi+ trans people, and 46% of aces.' Sources: Grant, Jaime M. et al (2011). Injustice at every turn: A report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey; and Kuper et al (2018). Exploring Cross-Sectional Predictors of Suicide Ideation, Attempt, and Risk in a Large Online Sample of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youth and Young Adults.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/458e664c74511ba2ab97d4a5d3a7f530/e1a0de38c01b1afa-82/s540x810/0e978572e4734ce5f76806488d1451fa12edb3bb.png)
