After the first harvest moon at Hogwarts since the boys found out about Remus’ ‘furry little problem', Remus had been in the hospital for over a week.
The moon had been stronger that month, and he couldn’t keep the wolf stable enough for the marauders to let him out into the forbidden forest. He’d stayed inside the shrieking shack and the wolf did not like that.
So, he took it out on Remus, who’d been so roughed up the next morning that the marauders couldn’t patch him up alone like they usually did instead of taking him to Madame Pomfrey because Remus hated the infirmary or any hospitals in general.
James had begrudgingly carried him to the infirmary and Madame Pomfrey had taken him into intensive care immediately.
After a while, she’d realised that the resources she had weren’t enough and had to move him into St Mungos.
Where he’d been for 6 days and counting…. 6 days 3 hours and 28 minutes but Sirius wasn’t counting.
For those 6 days 3 hours and 28 minutes Sirius hadn’t slept, nor had he visited Remus. He just couldn’t, he couldn’t bring himself to walk into the room where Remus was probably lying down, completely alone.
Whenever Remus was in the infirmary he requested the bed next to the window with the curtains open because he liked the sun to come in after spending so long in the dark.
And this time Sirius didn’t know if James made sure he got that bed, he didn’t know if he would’ve remembered, but he couldn’t bring himself go ask or do it himself.
So, all he could think about for 6 days 3 hours and 28 minutes was how Remus might not have the sun on him, the one thing he asked for, because of him.
It's not like he didn’t try, he’d gotten permission from McGonagall and Dumbledore multiple times to go to the hospital, but he still hadn’t been able to get to it.
I mean in his defence, he got sidetracked every time. He was totally gonna do it, but every single time someone or the other needed him and he couldn’t let them down.
Which James would call ‘ironic’ to which Sirius would say
‘Jamie, you don’t even know what that means, shut the fuck up.’
The first time he’d tried, the knight bus was late and he’d seen Rosemerta at Hogsmeade and she needed help with a shipment.
“She really needed some helping hands, James, I couldn’t go, do you remember how many times she’s slipped us fire whiskey”
“Sirius, she explicitly said she did NOT want your help. And we had to let the workers go overtime because you significantly slowed down the process.”
The second time he’d actually reached the hospital
“At least I made it into the hospital this time, that's progress, Prongs” “ "It really is not, mate”
The third time he heard the receptionist talking about the gift shop and immediately realised that he couldn’t show up empty-handed.
By the time he’d asked for directions and reached the shop, it was closed. He couldn’t just go without a gift now, so, he’d just have to visit tomorrow and be in time for the gift shop to be open.
“My mother always taught me never to show up empty-handed, James.”
“Pads, your mother is crazy, why have you chosen now to listen to her”
“Everyone has their vices”
“What?!”
“Shut up”
On the most recent try, he reached on time for the gift shop to be open but there were too many options, snow globes, teddies, and t-shirts.
So, he had to have a long look and find the perfect thing because gift-giving was not a laughing matter.
“James, gift-giving is not something to be taken lightly. When I still tolerated my mother I got her a perfume for Christmas, and what I meant by the gift was ‘mother, I literally don't know anything about you but you like expensive things so here’s this perfume.’ but what she saw when she got the perfume what she saw was ‘here is some sex juice, I think you’re a prostitute and believe in the devil.’ Which would now be true, but in that context was not!”
“Sirius, stop. Remus needs you to be there for him and you’re too scared to do that, but that's your problem. Remus shouldn’t have to be at the receiving end of you not being able to get your shit together. So, you need to fix whatever this is and go visit him because he needs you right now.”
“I know but Remus and I have always had this unspoken agreement that he doesn’t need my help or empathy and I was gonna treat him just like one of us no matter what. If I had to see him lying in the hospital bed hooked up to god knows what it's hard to pretend nothing's wrong”
“Don't make this about yourself, pads, sometimes all you have to do is be there. Now go to the hospital and show Remus that you care”
And that made so much sense and it made him hate James. But hating him didn't make it make less sense.
So, the next day the knight bus was on time, the gift shop was open, and he immediately bought the chocolate and cookies.
He had tunnel vision and nothing could stop him.
He got angrier as he was stomping around trying not to psych himself out. The aggressive walking and tunnel vision mixed with his angst about James being right steadily made him angrier as he approached Remus’ room.
He didn’t have to ask the receptionist, he’d been here enough times to have memorised the room number and the directions to the room.
He just stormed past the reception looking for the room threw the door open with a ‘BANG’ where he saw Remus sit up, startled.
“Look who’s in the hospital Remus John Lupin. What a surprise. Well if you think I came here to feel sorry for you, you have another thing coming, because I didn’t feel sorry for you when you told us you were a werewolf, or the time you couldn’t go to class for a week after a bad moon, or the time you fainted in the bathroom, and I’m not gonna feel sorry for you now. Glad you didn’t die. See you when you get out." and with that Sirius had turned and walked out
He had barely reached past the corridor when he’d felt another bout of rage so he stormed right back into the room where Remus was sitting upright like he somehow knew Sirius wasn’t done yet, watching him expectantly.
Of course, perfect Remus always knew exactly, what Sirius was going to do, like the stupidly perfect boyfriend he was, which only made him angrier,
“AND HERE'RE YOUR COOKIES!” He said tossing the pack of sweets towards Remus’ bed storming back out.
Now, Sirius didn’t really know how Remus reacted to that, all he knows is when Remus came back to the dorms he kissed Sirius just like he always did in the morning and everything was back to normal.
But if he’d stayed a little bit longer before storming off, he’d see Remus smiling to himself, look at the patient in the bed beside his and say “I told you he’d come” taking a surprisingly cocky bite of his cookie.