Working Late
On Monday Sirius was enjoying the quiet, cleaning and organizing the flat throughout the day. On Tuesday he grew restless, hating the silence that followed him. Thankfully on both days Remus got home before dinner. By Wednesday he was exhausted and tired of being holed up, waiting like a mangy stray for Remus to return. On Thursday he grew angry, Remus wasn't home til late and Sirius had blown up at him for leaving him there all alone. Today was Friday, Remus still wasn’t home and Sirius paced the floor. He knew how dangerous Remus’ job was and once it was after 7 he began to worry himself half to madness. He hadn’t eaten and had no intention to without it being that stupid blonde’s cooking. It was safe to say that once the clock hit 7:30 Sirius began panicking, his vision became blurry and his breaths came all too quickly. Where was he? Where was Remus? It wasn’t like he could leave to check on him, there was no way out of this flat without setting off a multitude of alarms. He was trapped. There was nothing Sirius hated more than being trapped.
That’s how he ended up on the floor, phone next to him in case any messages came through. There were holes in the drywall behind him. The world didn’t feel real and his eyes burned horribly. He had tried to drink some water but threw it up not even ten minutes later. An unfortunate product of his overly anxious mind. All of the worst possibilities swarmed in his head, Remus could be injured, alone, or worse dead. Eventually he worked himself up to such a point he passed out from a lack of oxygen. His dreams were even worse. Police lights hit his eyes like bullets and his ears rang as James and Peter explained some horrible situation. They had taken him to the hospital where thousands of monitors swarmed an unconscious Lupin. He smelled of smoke and metal, blood. Monitors disappeared and the familiar ring of a flatline echoed in his mind. His brain must’ve felt particularly despicable because as the tone continued Remus’ form morphed to Regulus’, Narcissa’s, Bellatrix’s, Andromeda’s, and then finally his own. That’s when he woke, the sound of a car pulling up drawing him out of, albeit fitful, sleep. He jolted upright, shifting closer to the corner, hiding. He was still only half awake and somehow thought Maman was the one at the door. Fear rattled him as keys turned in the door lock. It was only when a head of messy blonde hair came into view that he exhaled. Before he even registered what he was doing he was across the room and in Remus’ arms, nearly knocking him off balance.
“Woah there, you okay Sirius?”, the startled blonde held a shaking Sirius, holding him close. The time was near 10pm. Sirius had begun crying out of relief, when did he get this attached to the once troublesome guard. He sighed and pulled back, straightening himself and wiping his tears, Remus didn’t deserve this much care from him.
“Fine, sorry.”, he muttered in careful monotone. Sirius turned stone cold and walked to his room, hellbent on never giving Remus’ pitiful existence that much thought again. Once the door was shut he found an old notebook and mangled pencil from his side table. He chewed the eraser as he found a blank page. The title simply read “Rules” and Sirius got to work listing out the things he simply would not and could not do, especially in the presence of someone who worked for his godforsaken mother.