Chapter 1
“I’m telling your Remus that fucker doesn’t deserve a single bit of the recognition he gets,” Sirius said gesturing towards the newspaper in his right hand.
“Mhm,” Remus hummed in agreement for the third time this lunch. He always spent his lunchtimes listening to his boyfriend go on and on about his ‘nepo baby’ brother. He would much rather eat his meal deal in peace, but of course, he could never say that to Sirius, who would almost certainly throw a fit if Remus showed even a fragment of disinterest.
“It’s just that dick doesn’t deserve anything he has, it’s obvious Walburga and Orion fully funded that asshole. See, when I left I didn’t have any of their money to rely on and now I’m stuck in this minimum wage hellhole and he’s the country's newest millionaire,” as he complained he tossed his silky black hair.
“I know love.” Remus replied.
He was starting to think the only good thing about him was his hair. He loved how it curled effortlessly at his shoulders, beautifully framing his face, and contrasted his pale complexion.‘Lunch is nearly over,’ he thought as he looked at the clock behind Sirius.
“and the worst part is that- hey are you even listening to me? Remus?” Sirius exclaimed.
“Yeah sorry, I’m just tired- not much sleep,”
“I guess that explains it, but then again I can’t remember the last time you slept normally, so I guess your excuse isn’t that sound-”
Before he had finished his sentence Remus stood up, pushing his chair backwards and reaching for his crutch,
“It’s time to go, come on.”
With a groan Sirius got up and followed his boyfriend. In Remus’s mind ‘boyfriend' was a bit of an overstatement, initially the title had felt nice, it made him feel like he belonged to someone, meant something important to Sirius. However it was at times like this, when Sirius spent his days slagging off his brother and ignoring Remus that it became clear to him that the situationship they found themselves in after a series of one night stands hadn’t really developed into a healthy relationship, but rather festered into a one sided act that Remus felt compelled to keep up. Because any way you looked at it Sirius had been a help. When Remus was short on cash it was into Sirius’ house that he had moved in. Sirius had had to sell his motorbike to drive them both to work comfortably. It had also been Sirius who had helped him secure his job, minimum wage as it was.
“Oh and by the way, “ Sirius continued, “ I have a surprise for you later.”
Remus snapped out of his thoughts and absentmindedly gave Sirius a small hum of acknowledgement. He was too tired to think about it properly now, but he quickly wondered if this was actually something pleasant. When they had first met, Sirius had been nice enough, but recently his growing drug addiction had made for some interesting ‘surprises’. For example just last week Sirius had hired a man claiming to be a wizard to ‘cure’ Remus’ chronic illness. Remus hadn’t been sure who was more high, Sirius or the ‘wizard’. The whole scenario ended with Remus having two grown men dancing around him and he had been carried around the room for half an hour before Sirius sobered up enough to realise this man probably wasn’t actually a wizard and made him leave (with a tip a bit too high for Remus’ comfort). But as long as no more wizards were involved, he should be fine, Remus thought to himself, besides Sirius seemed sober enough this morning and he had a personal rule not to take anything whilst at work ( after being caught by their boss several years ago and told in no uncertain terms that if he was caught high at work again the police would be called, he figured it was for the best).
“Oh we’re here,”
Remus looked up and realised that they in fact had not gone back to their office room,
“These aren’t our desks Siri”
“ Yeah I know,” Sirius replied, rolling his eyes, “obviously it’s your surprise.”
“Right, in an empty meeting room”, Remus questioned, scepticism clear in his voice.
“I don’t see the issue,” Sirius said, gesturing to a seat, “Here,sit.”
Reluctantly, Remus sat down wondering why on earth he had been led here of all places.
“Perfect, now I’ll just take this” Sirius said as he took Remus’ crutch and started walking out.
“Hey-“ Remus called, scrambling in his seat to get it back, however Sirius had moved away too fast.
“Don’t you worry, I’ll call someone to help you out soon, it’ll be so good, you’ll laugh so much watching this back.” Sirius said whilst walking to the door of the room.
“Fuck you Sirius Black!” Remus called after him, panic and anger clear in his voice.
Sirius took his phone out of his pocket and waved it at Remus before walking out.
“What the fuck.” Remus murmured under his breath, “How am I supposed to get out of here, who in their right mind would leave a disabled person without their mobility aid in a locked room-”
Except apparently the room wasn’t locked because less than three minutes later Severus fucking Snape had walked in. Ever since Remus began working at Hogwarts &co. Severus Snape had looked down on him because of his disability. The first few weeks had been a living hell with Severus denigrating him to his co workers, ostracising him from the start up until their manager Minnie had found out and threatened to fire Snape unless he apologised to Remus and stopped immediately. This had made his job less of a living hell and more of a chore where he was constantly surrounded by a group of people who hated him. Severus was the ringleader, Remus had always thought this kind of thing ended in secondary school but apparently he was wrong. And that was when it clicked. Sirius’ idea of a ‘joke’. He had thought that this way Snape would have to help Remus out. The very person he despised most. And Sirius was waiting outside to film it all. He obviously hadn’t considered the embarrassment that Remus would have to go through.
“Severus, good afternoon, sorry I was just leaving”, Remus greeted the greasy haired man.
Snape continued to look down at him in silence. Remus grabbed the table edge and hoisted himself up. Wearily he took a step leaning on the table. It hurt but at least he was moving he thought optimistically. He kept going until there was no more table to lean on. Just a few more steps past Severus to get to the door. With no support. ‘Fine’ he thought to himself ‘ then I can kick that fuckers arse for leaving me here’.
He took one step. That was all it took before he lost his balance and fell to the floor. Right in front of Severus’ feet. Remus looked up at his amused face as he let out a snicker. Flushing red with embarrassment, Remus tried to pull himself back up. Without a word, Severus walked right past him, Making a point of stepping on Remus' hand as he walked past,
“Oops, accident,” Snape scoffed, clearly taking satisfaction at the way Remus' face winced at the pain. At his expression Remus snapped,
“SIRIUS I SWEAR TO GOD YOU COC OEN!“ It was the Welsh in his sentence that made Sirius realise he had fucked up. Hearing Remus scream from the meeting room he saw red. He immediately stopped waiting for him to come out and ran inside. The scene before him shook him more than he would’ve liked to admit. Remus was strewn across the floor with a bruise forming on one of his hands- Sirius had been sure it wasn’t there that morning. He looked up to see Severus Snape was taking a seat at his chair at the end of the meeting room.
“ Remus fuck I’m so sorry I-” Sirius began.
“Crutch” Remus deadpanned.
“ here let me help you up I-“
“CRUTCH!” Remus yelled, impatiently grabbing at the mobility aid in Sirius's hand and pushing him aside. Slowly, he dragged himself up and stormed out the best he could,wincing with every step as pressure was applied to his bruised hand every time he leaned on his crutch. The door slammed behind him.
“Lost your pet?” Sirius heard from behind him,
“Oh fuck you Severus” Sirius said without turning back. He couldn’t bear to look at that smug face again. Instead he ran after Remus.