Wounds
Remus
“Sirius, be careful!” Remus jerked aside, resisting the urge to shield his chest. “It hurts!”.
“Stop complaining like a little kid and just sit still” Sirius snorted, grabbing his arm to pull him back towards him. He lifted the fabric tissue and wiped it over Remus’ wounds once again. He clenched his jaw, narrowing his eyes as the cuts started burning again.
“Stop it” he inched away and Sirius let his arm fall by his side.
“Remus, I need to clear your wounds. So, sit still and let me finish”. Remus sighed, allowing him to come closer. He stood in front of him, dipped the tissue back in the disinfectant and Remus shut his eyes again, grabbing his free hand.
“You’re really making a big deal out of it” Sirius complained, though Remus could sense the smile curving up his lips. “We’re almost done. Just a few more cuts”. He’d already bandaged the ones on his left arm and applied a patch on his cheek. “New scars to match your already existing ones, uh? I wonder how you got them”.
Remus wetted his dry lips. “Death Eaters. I got injured while fighting”.
“I told you I should have come too. If only Dumbledore hadn’t requested mine and James’ presence at the last minute…”.
A hint of worry still permeated his voice. That was totally reasonable: he’d come home covered in wounds, blood staining his white shirt. Sirius had blanched, burst out in anger, then he’d sighed and obliged Remus to sit still until he was done taking care of his freshly open cuts.
“I’m fine, Pads. They’re just a few wounds”.
“Remus, I thought someone had tried to slit your throat from the cut on your neck”.
“Because that’s exactly what happened”.
“You’re not going out without me anymore”.
“I’m fine, really” Remus repeated as his boyfriend finally put the tissue down, reaching for the roll of bandages. He started wrapping the gauze around his torso, smoothing the fabric down with his fingers: they felt cold against Remus’ skin, so he took his hand again and squeezed it.
“What the hell happened in those streets, Moony?” Sirius questioned, seriousness filling his voice. He secured the bandaged, Remus reached for his cheek, ignoring the pain shooting through his chest as his muscles twitched. He grazed Sirius’ skin with the pad of his thumb, he rested his forehead against his.
“We were just surprised by Death Eaters while patrolling the area, one of them set fire to a building, chaos spread, we got involved in a pretty bad fight, in disadvantage because of the odds of the circumstances, though we managed to escape. Aurors arrested the responsible, though two of them escaped”.
A lump started forming in his throat. Two of them. Including Regulus.
He would have never expected to meet him so… casually. Especially not on the battlefield. Regulus had become… different: paler skin, thinner frame, dead eyes… Something had made Remus’ heart shrink: the frightful look in his eyes after he’d shaken his head in response to Pandora’s plea. An expression of fear, yeah, but also resignation. Deep sorrow. How he’d simply slipped away from them without him being able to do anything to keep that from happening, not hurt as he’d been.
He had to tell Sirius about that. About Regulus’ last words before disappearing: ‘I don’t belong to your world, I can’t fit in it anymore’.
Remus swallowed, as Sirius went on, resting his hands on his shoulders. “There are no more wounds I need to take care of, right?”.
“No” Remus hastened to say, and he shook his head with a laugh. “You’re worse than Regulus when I tended to his scraped knees when he got hurt while playing when we were kids. He used to be so dramatic when he was younger, even for the slightest thing”. He smiled in sorrow, and Remus pulled him close, resting his head on his chest. He was starting to get cold, though he didn’t ask Sirius to hand him the clean shirt lying on the table next to him: he liked the feeling of his hands rubbing his back in comfort.
He needed to tell him. Now.
He cleared his throat. “Sirius?”.
“Yes Moony?”.
“I think I need to tell you something”.
He understood that they were no good news, though he still nodded. “Go on”.
“Before leaving Diagon Alley, I… I saw Regulus”. Sirius’ hands stopped.
“And Pandora…”. Remus didn’t know why, though he couldn’t seem to put the memories back into words: they all felt like pieces of a puzzle that he couldn’t assemble. He let out a sigh, resting a hand on Sirius’ waist and lifting his head to meet his gaze.
“Tell me, Remus” he encouraged him, his words full of the same resignation in Regulus’ eyes, hours before.
“He refused her help”.
Sirius let out a bitter laugh, hurting filtered from it. “Of course he would. He’s never been easy. The key with Regulus is not giving up. Giving him time. Understanding him. We can still try-”.
“He doesn’t want us to try”. Sirius fell silent. After all, he had no idea what Remus had seen in his brother’s eyes that night. And he wasn’t that sure he could describe it to him. Too many mixed emotions. Definitely too much pain.
“He’s not coming home, Sirius”.