sweet mint shampoo
Remus woke to hushed voices surrounding him. He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep. He took a deep, slow breath in an attempt to wake himself up a bit more. As he did, a mixture of smells filled his head. Sweet minty shampoo, worn leather, something posh and strangely French, and most of all, dog, in the best possible way a dog can smell.
Sirius.
That’s when he remembered where he was. Lying on the chest of Sirius Black.
SIRIUS FUCKING BLACK.
His first thought was to immediately sit up, get off of him, and apologize for breaking down on the other boy. Then maybe die of embarrassment in a dark hole somewhere. But before he could do anything of the sort, he heard the voices again. Sirius and Lily. From the absence of background noise, he figured they were the only ones still in the room. His curiosity won over the embarrassment. Remus was careful to stay still, not wanting to alert either that he was awake. He just lay there and listened, head buried in the crook of Padfoot’s neck.
“I thought we had another week and a half until the next moon. Is he sick, or is my calendar wrong?” Lily. They were talking about him.
“Neither,” Remus could feel the slight vibrations of air moving through Sirius’ chest as he spoke. “He came in about an hour ago acting strange, then practically fell over onto me and started crying. He fell asleep pretty quickly after that.”
“Shit, really? Do you know what happened?”
Sirius began to lightly scratch Remus’ scalp absentmindedly, moving his finger in small circles slowly getting bigger and bigger. It sent a tingly feeling down Remus’ spine that almost made him shiver.
“No clue. Everything seemed fine last time I saw him, and I didn’t want to ask the moment he could speak again. I don’t want to push him, especially right now, when whatever is wrong is so fresh. He’ll come to me when he’s ready. For now, all I need to do is make sure he knows I’m here to support him.” A bright smile tugged at the sides of his mouth that he had to fight off with everything in him. Merlin, he loved that idiot.
“You’re a good friend Sirius.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
There was a pause. They were having another one of those silent conversations they were both so fond of when Remus or one of the other Marauders was having a hard time.
Sirius took a deep breath. “Tell Marles and the boys I won’t make it tonight but to have fun, alright?”
“Are you sure? I can stay if you’d like. I’m sure James and Peter would too. We’re all here to support Moony.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. You guys go, have fun. I’ve got him. He wouldn’t want a ton of attention about this anyway.”
“Okay. If either of you needs anything at all, just come down and find me, alright?”
She began to step away from the couch.
“Alright, love you Lils.”
“Love you both too.”
Remus waited until he could hear the portrait slide closed before he lifted his head to look at Sirius.
Sirius turned quickly, startled by the sudden movement.
“You didn’t have to do that. You should go.” His voice was, somehow, even worse than it had been before.
Sirius’ eyebrows scrunched together at the sound of his voice. Without answering him, he reached his hand into his own bag for his wand, summoning a glass of water from their room, the one that always sat on Sirius’ bedside with the small chip on the side. He nodded his head for Remus to sit up a bit. Having given up on fighting Sirius a long time ago, he pushed himself up, sitting half on Sirius’ lap, and took the glass.
The cool water ran down his throat, instantly making it feel much better. He also felt quite a bit less like he was going to pass out from dehydration. Always a good sign.
Once he had downed the whole glass, Sirius propped himself up on his elbows and looked up a Remus.
“Feel better?” He cocked his eyebrow in such a classic, Sirius ‘I told you so’ kind of way. Even though he technically hadn’t told him anything.
Remus rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”
“Well, your voice sounds less like shit, so I think I’ve gotten my answer.” He winked.
Damn that wink.
Remus looked away, trying to hide the blush that had crept over his face. “What’s the time?”
“‘Bout nine.”
Remus sighed. Padfoot had already missed dinner at this point, and it was all his fault. Missing a huge party that even Lily Evans was attending felt selfish.
“I meant it when I-” Remus was cut off by Sirius’ hand on his jaw, gently turning his face back, so their eyes met again. He reached up and wiped off the residual moisture from crying that was still on Remus’ face. His hands were softer than most people would think for someone who is always doing something with their hands. Painting, writing, playing quidditch, etc. Remus, of course, already knew this from being healed up by Sirius every month after he left the hospital wing, but it was nice to be reminded. He leaned into the soft touch.
“What were you saying?” He was still running his fingers over Remus’ face, not meeting his eye, instead choosing to look at his cheek.
“Um,” It took a moment for him to remember what he was even planning on saying, still focused on the beautiful boy in front of him. They were so close together now. “Oh, yes. I want you to be able to go to that party. It’s not fair of me to ask-”
He was cut off once again.
Sirius stopped wiping his face, his hand freezing in its place on his jawline, and met the werewolf’s eyes.
“Don’t even Remus. I’m not playing this game with you tonight. You didn’t ask me to stay. I made that decision by myself. I’m going to be much happier just sitting here with you, Rem, then at some stupid party. Everyone is probably blazed out of their minds and barely able to form a coherent sentence anyway. I choose to be here. I want to be here. Okay?”
Remus swallowed. The animagus’ silver eyes were piercing into his own. They were beautiful, probably the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, but they could be terrifying. Like a thunderstorm, beautiful and magical most of the time but could induce great fear in just a second. Sirius Black as a whole was quite like a thunderstorm. Remus could remember clearly, times when the boy’s eyes had hardened and become cold. His anger would practically radiate from them and send a chill down your whole body. Luckily this wasn’t one of those times. If anything, quite the opposite. Although they were forceful of his point, his eyes were warm and full of caring. He was genuine. He wanted to stay.
“Okay.” Remus’ voice was quiet, almost a whisper.
“Good,” Padfoot smiled so widely Remus couldn’t help but return it. “Alright, come on.”
He slowly pulled his hand away from Remus’ raw and stood up in front of the couch, grabbing both of their bags and swinging them over a shoulder. The other hand, he held out for Remus.
“Where are we going?”
“Dinner, Moons. Dinner.”