A/N: This is stupid. Stupid beyond belief.

But heck, it's the result of me with jetlag and free reign over internet.

Sirius walked up the dirt path leading through the yard towards the Japanese styled house. He didn't know how he got here, nor did he wonder. He was here for one purpose only, and damn it all to hell if he doesn't achieve it.

There was a lanky boy sweeping the stairs, and he jumped upon seeing the wizard. The bespectacled teen immediately jumped down from the step and hastily bowed.

"Are you a customer, sir?" he asked.

The man nodded without hesitation, eyes sweeping over the house. "Is the shopkeeper in?"

"Why of course," floated a smooth, melodic voice from behind Sirius. He smiled softly, and turned to greet the willowy woman before him.

"Ms. Yuuko." He bowed to kiss the back of her hand. "How are you?"

"Same old, same old," Yuuko replied, smiling. But then the cheerful grin suddenly turned more meaningful and serious, and - dare Watanuki even think it - slightly melancholy. "What may I do for you, Sirius?"

"Not even going to invite me in?" the man joked, smiling and cocking his head to his side. Yuuko just slightly shook her head.

"What you need should be settled out here," she answered.

"If so, then why ask in the first place?" Sirius replied as if on instinct. Watanuki carefully watched the exchange of the two with bated breath, tense for some reason.

"...You think it impossible," Yuuko finally said after a light staring contest. The man visibly stiffened, but then forced himself to relax. "Yet you still have hope. Why is that?"

Sirius turned his gaze towards the sky with a faraway look in his eyes. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, then answered carefully, "If I don't have hope, Ms. Yuuko, Harry might as well be dead."

"You say that is if he's not."

The man jerked his head down, gazing intensely at the shopkeeper, who seemed completely unfazed by that smoldering stare. "He's not, Ms. Yuuko. He's not if I don't want him to be."

Yuuko sighed, long eyelashes fluttering with her closing eyelids. "Sirius..." she started carefully. "You know there's no possibly price you can pay for someone's life? If you pay with your own life, that means you value it above the other's, thus nullifying its value. You can't pay with another person's life since it's not your's to give. So why is it that you are here?"

"Ms. Yuuko." There was an air of seriousness never once heard in the man's tone by anyone he has ever known. "I came not to buy life, but to buy time. I'll offer you everything I've got in turn for giving me the lost time."

Watanuki's mouth gaped. Buy time? What was the man doing? Even if it's for someone important to him...

"Sirius..." The shopkeeper closed her eyes. "You can't buy time. My power can transcend dimensions. Not time..."

"I know," Sirius said, reaching into his pocket. "Your powers can't. But if you have magic, then you can, correct?"

Magic?

"Magic, you say?" Watanuki couldn't help but hear the intrigue in Yuuko's voice.

"Yes," the man confirmed, drawing out what looked like a dense, miasmic sphere. "My magic."

"Your magic," she repeated. "I use that to give you time. But what do you offer me for that service?"

Sirius shrugged, the furrow gone from his brows, expression holding a soft, relieved air. Watanuki suddenly noticed the foreigner was quite handsome, if not for those haunted eyes...

"I offer you me. A wizard's body. One that can produce magic all on its own."

Even the bespectacled boy could tell it was a great price. A magic different from Yuuko-san's, and something able to reproduce that indefinitely? It sounded more than enough to Watanuki as a price to bend time. Yuuko surely won't refuse.

As expected, she didn't disappoint.

The shopkeeper sighed, then reached out for the sphere. The man gladly handed it over.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Never been more sure in my life." Sirius was confident this was the right thing to do. If he could save Harry, he'd do anything... Anything to keep that promise between him and James... "I'm ready."

Yuuko closed her palms over the orb, and Watanuki could feel the different type of magic surge over the shopkeeper's being. A magic circle expanded from her extended finger, then minimizing once more as it pasted itself onto Sirius's forehead.

"Go back to that time, and the circle will keep you there," she explained. "Do what you need, please, and come back soon as the price."

"I am indebt to you, Ms. Yuuko," Sirius bowed. Yuuko reached forward and caught the man's chin, gazing into his eyes.

"You won't be," she whispered. Then, her melancholy gaze suddenly turned into one akin of a parent reprimanding a child, albeit lighter and more teasing. "And do try to take care of yourself, won't you?"

"Worried?" he grinned.

"For the merchandise," the shopkeeper replied smoothly, kissing Sirius's cheek softly. "Now go."

The wizard nodded his head once, then faded into a patch of shimmering blue light. Watanuki watched Yuuko as she stared at the spot.

"Was that someone dear to you, Yuuko-san?" he asked softly, afraid to touch a nerve. But, to his surprise, the shopkeeper turned with a wide grin.

"Nope!" she answered cheerfully, bounding towards the shop. "Just another customer. Now, I need some sake!"

The bespectacled boy sighed, then started sweeping once again. He looked up just in time though, to see a faraway look on Yuuko's face.

"Oh, and Watanuki? Keep an eye on the doorway for when Sirius returns, if you will."

Watanuki whirled around, only to find a frame with a silvery gray veil hanging from it in place of the blue haze. Now where had that come from?!

A/N: The ending sucked.

I know.

But well, I figured if this happened, everything would make sense somehow.

And if you're confused about Sirius and Yuuko's familiarity, in my mind, they had already known each other, preferably when Sirius made a wish the other time.

x33

So yah~~

Review, and tell me how much it sucked?