the nice strangers
remus didn’t like running.
let’s just get that out in the open.
and by ‘didn’t like’ i mean he loathed it.
as a child, a vital part in his diabetic treatments was exercise. his doctor had explained that he needed to stay active to keep his levels right, but at the age of six, when had tried a million different kinds of activities, nothing ever stuck.
that was simply because, every time he would spend more than half an hour in any kind of fast paced activity, his blood sugar would plummet.
they had tried lower dosages on sport days, having extra carbs before any activity, and even no insulin for meals before, but his blood sugar would drop so quickly and drastically, that he would practically be incoherent by the time he realised he had dropped.
so he stopped all of the sports. his metabolism was enough to keep his body a healthy weight, getting his daily steps in to keep himself fit,
therefore he settled into being the bookworm of the dorm.
and he enjoyed reading more than all of the sweat, the yelling of team sports, and well- it was just a bonus he no longer spend hours a day feeling utterly horrible from low blood sugar.
today remus was on a jog.
yes that’s right, a jog.
james had been begging someone to go jogging with him cause he was feeling extra jittery, and they had made it a rule that when james goes running while jittery, that someone had to be with him so he didn’t run into traffic somehow. (he claims it was only once but they all know it’s was atleast three times)
despite his begging earlier, james now stood sheepishly watching remus chug juice before they left for a jog around around the neighbourhood,
all the boys knew why remus was always excused from some sports, but remus had told james that he actually was thinking of doing some kind of activity nevertheless, so he could go and jog with him.
as surely he had grown out of his quick low sugar drops by now, and fitness was important as he gets older.
he was wrong.
very wrong.
it had taken fifteen minutes before remus felt himself drop, slowing significantly in their strangely fast paced jog.
this caused a cautious james to whip his head around quickly, pulling remus onto a convenient park bench a few meters away.
“moony are you dropping?” he asked firmly, watching as remus moved a shaky hand up into james’ eye level.
it was shaking so much that james could almost think the blur was from not wearing his glasses.
“fuck ok” james cursed himself before reaching for his phone
fuck.
he left it at home.
he checks for remus’ quickly, cursing once more when it’s no where to be found.
he thinks for a moment, head racing as he looks towards his friend, clearly just trying to keep his eyes open.
“okay re” james started, gathering the boys face between his hands, forcing remus to focus on him.
“you gotta stay awake for me okay?” he spoke firmly, debating his options for a moment.
remus blinked his eyes slowly, slurring his words as he murmured back to james “dont feel good”
james decided quickly what to do, “remus i’m going get you on my back okay? you’ve just got to hold on okay, you understand moony?”
remus nodded slowly, wrapping his arms tightly around james’ neck as james hoisted him up, beginning his walk to the closest house that he could see people inside.
usually james’ anxiety would never let him do something like this, but this was for remus- and it was an emergency.
he knocked urgently on the grey house, setting remus down on the small bench at the entrance.
two women could be seen watching tv through the window. (it sounds creepy but he needed to see someone so he knew they could answer.)
a young, pale blonde women cracked open the door, looking slightly apprehensive at the near unconscious man the stranger had just murmured to.
“hello?” she spoke loudly, gaining james’ attention
“oh!” he replied relieved, “ i’m james and my mate remus here is diabetic, and he’s got really low blood sugar and we forgot our phones and- “he panted out quickly, watching as the women darted her eyes between the pair before cutting james off, yelling somthing into the room behind her.
“woah, don’t worry, my best friends diabetic i understand” she opens the door completely, stepping towards them, “i’ve just gotten my wife to grab a juice box, will that be okay?”
james teared up at this strangers kindness, tearfully smiling and thanking her profusely, before bending down to speak to remus,
“hear that re? it’s all gonna be okay, stay with me alright? juice is coming”
a tear dropped down james’ cheek as remus blinked his eyes open, with a murmur of “need padfoot”
james felt eternally guilty for making remus go for a run, no matter remus’ insistence he would be fine.
“i know mate, once you’ve got this juice into you, we’ll go home.” james was replying, when he felt a tap on his shoulder,
a darker skinned women stood behind him, a juice box in her hand, open, and stretched out to him.
“thankyou so much oh gosh” james answered quickly, pushing the straw between remus’ lips, and murmuring quietly for him to drink it.
once the juice was empty, james turned his attention to the women still standing behind him.
“i’m marlene and this is dorcas” the blonde women spoke, gesturing to her wife beside her, sending him a soft smile as james seemed to pull himself together.
“i could never thankyou guys enough” he gasped out
turning back to see a still incoherent remus not looking much better,
“fuck” he cursed, tapping the side of his friends face as he murmured for him to keep his eyes open.
dorcas ran inside for more juice as marlene pulled out her phone, calls open on the dial function,
“here” she spoke, thrusting the phone towards him, somehow understanding exactly what he needed.
james listened to the phone ring as dorcas returned with the juice, same as last time, as he held the straw to his shaking friends mouth.
“hello?” a familiar voice answered
“sirius??? fuck, it’s james can you hear me?” he raced out, hoping sirius would understand from his tone something was up.
“james? what’s wrong? is moony okay?” sirius was getting a tad frantic.
“we’ve had to get some juice from some nice strangers because he’s dropped real bad.” he gasped out, listening as there’s immediate rustling on the other side of the phone.
“reg and i are coming now, send me your location okay?” sirius seemed to be unusually calm.
although james finds it strange, he realises he’s probably trying to keep everyone calm, so he takes a couple deep breaths and sends his location. watching as marlene speaks to remus quietly, trying to get him to keep drinking as james speaks to sirius.
a few minutes go by and the time is spent with james sitting on the bench, remus’ head lying on his lap as his blood sugar slowly begins to rise, and the two women speaking quietly with an extremely grateful james.
he learns that the pair have been married for a year, and were only a year older than them themselves. and !! they, recently this week, had moved here from wales
(james piped up excitedly that remus was from there at that)
and that their friend lily, who was the diabetic, was moving here with her partner in a few weeks.
their chatter was interrupted by the screech of a cars breaks, the small group looking up to see two similar, yet familiar (to james) faces approach quickly,
james let’s out a sigh of relief at the sight of his best friend and his boyfriend, quickly making their way over to them.
(earlier)
the moment the call came through sirius was on his feet.
he had been a basket of nerves since he had gotten home to regulus saying remus and james had gone for a run, being fully aware of remus’ low sugar problem.
his heart gave a squeeze when he noticed the pairs phones on the kitchen bench.
he thinks that maybe it’s a bad thing he is always expecting the worst, as he sits with his shoes on, keys and phone in one had and remus’ emergency low supplies in the other, but as his phone rings and james’ ragged breathing is one the other line, he is grateful for his pessimism.
the rest of his call is a bit of a blur of panic, as he tried to stay calm for his moony and james.
suddenly, he blinks and he’s in the passenger seat, with regulus driving a little too fast for the speed limit, who speaks unusually softly as sirius moves around for a moment.
“you with me?” he questions airily, probably trying not to act like he cared about his brother too much.
“mhm” sirius grunts, looking to the supplies in his hand as he remembers what was going on, head clearing immediately as worry for his remus overtakes the fog.
“fuck okay” he runs a hand down his face, “are we nearly there?” he asks quickly.
regulus simply nods his head infront of him as he slows to a stop infront of a small grey house.
sirius unbuckles himself quickly, eying the blur of people on the front porch of the house.
he races up onto the porch, and sends a thankful smile to the two women who he assumes were the aforementioned ‘nice strangers’ before pulling james into a quick hug, who had helped remus into a sitting position,
“hey moons, i’m here, it’s okay” he whispered to remus, who took a moment to focus his eyes on the face infront of him.
“pads? m dropping again” he whimpered, leaning himself forward into sirius’ arms
“yeah its me love, you’ll feel better soon” sirius assured him, a hand pushing through his moonys curls as he spoke.
“i know you’re not feeling good love, so how about we go on a drive to poppy and minnie’s , when you’re okay to move, yeah?” sirius questioned softly, unaware of the confusion of the two almost strangers behind him.
regulus pulled his anxious boyfriend into his arms the minute he stood up,
“it’s my fault” james spoke into his ear miserably, looking forlornly at the pair on the bench, as remus chewed on some glucose tabs.
regulus ached at the guilt in his voice, “james baby, i heard remus when he volunteered to go, we couldn’t have known his sugar drop had gotten worse love”
he watched as james nodded his head numbly, sighing as he scrubbed at his eyes harshly with his hands.
“don’t do that, you’ll hurt yourself” regulus scolded, carefully prying his boyfriends hands from his face, locking his pinky around one of james’ as he turned to the couple who stood with small smiles on their faces, hands clasped tightly.
“i could never thankyou guys enough for this” he expressed with gratitude.
the blonde (marlene he would like come to know her as) huffed out a laugh, amusement taking over her every feature as regulus stared confused,
she received a light smack on the arm from her lover as she howled with laughter.
“sorry about her, i’m dorcas by the way” the crystal clad women spoke, surging her hand forward for a handshake,
regulus narrowed his eyes, confused as he stretched out his own the shake her hand, “regulus, james’ boyfriend.” he spoke sheepishly
“well regulus, i’m sorry about marlene here, it’s just that james was telling us you and him were very different” she stopped to huff out a quiet laugh, “but you just said the exact same thing james said about five minutes is all” she smiled, amused at the way regulus was gaping a little like a fish right now,
which he was doing not in embarrassment or surprise that they had noticed, but just surprised that in the ten minutes james had known these people, they had already become so warm and familiar with one another.
james was blushing like he’d just run a mile.
regulus supposed he probably had, but he knows that as fit as james was, this had to be because of him.
the four chatted quietly for a few minutes, about everything from jobs to friends to schools, where dorcas exclaimed happily that she had almost attended hogwarts, and the james had gushed about how the world was such a small place.
it was one of his favourite things to ramble about.
it was about ten more minutes before there was a call of his name, and regulus turned towards his twin, who was helping remus stand to slowly usher him towards the car.
regulus winced at the state of remus, not looking any better than when they’d first gotten here,
next to him, james rushed to help sirius get remus sorted, tilting his head towards the girls in a question.
before regulus can move, marlene pipes up beside him.
“is he going to be alright? i mean- i’ve never seen lils drop like that, and if she was ever this low we had to call an ambulance?” she rambled out, and regulus thought it was sweet how she cared about someone she had just met
regulus smiled sadly “yeah he’ll be alright, he’s got some kind of fast metabolism or somthing? the doctors could never really tell us, but it means when he’s low- he’s really low” he begins, wondering how much to tell these not quite strangers.
in the end, the way dorcas and marlene were looking genuinely curious and concerned, convinced him to keep going.
“we probably should take him to a hospital yes,” he grin’s sheepishly, “but remus absolutely hates hospitals, sends him into all kinds of panic which makes it worse” he gestures airily around him, turn towards the car to see his brother and boyfriend helping remus into a passenger seat.
“we’re all still close to our boarding schools nurse who’s looked after him for years and years, and they live close by so we’re probably going to drop by there” he looks up to see dorcas scribbling on a post it note.
she thrusts it towards him and he realises this must be their numbers,
“let us know how it goes alright?” she smiles softly, probably picking up his badly hidden anxiety
he smiles grratfully before turning to leave. he’s stopped by a hand clutching his shoulder, the hand belonging to marlene.
“if you ever need anything, let us know- we don’t know too many people around here anyways”
regulus let’s put a relieved sigh, “of course, and if you guys need anything we owe you a big one so don’t hesitate okay?”
after a moments more of goodbyes regulus moves quickly towards the car, buckling himself in and turning the engine on.
“minerva’s?” he asks quickly, eyeing a near unconscious remus in the back seat, head cradled by regulus’ anxious twin.
said twin looks up,
“and fast.”