Work Text:
January 14, 1979
Remus was barely aware of his surroundings as he came to. Fuzzy images of James and Sirius fluttering about in a snowy abandoned field, healing spells gently being cast, and being swaddled in clothing, or blankets, or something along those lines.
Apparating was always a bitch afterwards, too.
Remus snuggled farther into his blankets, wishing they would just swallow him whole. Or at least accept him as one of their own so he’d never have to leave.
He awoke again after about an hour or two to long fingers gently running through his hair, still damp from the snow.
Remus shifted slightly, grunting in acute pain as he lay on a particularly bad bruise on his shoulder. The fingers stilled momentarily before the werewolf nudged them with his head to continue.
Sirius chuckled, and continued to run his fingers through his boyfriend’s hair. They were slower, a bit unsure at first, before resuming their previous pace.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I ripped my skin off, turned into a bloodthirsty monster for a night, ripped my skin off a second time, and had a series of shoddy spells performed on me.”
“Oi! I’ve been perfecting those shoddy spells since second year.”
“I know, thank you.”
“Want anything?”
“No.”
“You should drink some water.”
“I don’t wanna.”
“You need to keep hydrated!”
“No.”
“Sit up.”
“No.”
“Moony.”
“Padfoot.”
“Remus.”
“Sirius.”
“I’m being serious right now.”
Remus snorted. “That pun is so first year.”
In spite of his fragile condition, he was forced to sit up and drink the water Sirius had summoned. He scowled through the entire process and clung to his Snuffles stuffy.
“You’re not going to make me do anything strenuous, are you?” Remus asked his stuffy.
“Only if it will make you feel better.” Sirius voiced the stuffy, in a strange, cartoonish version of his own voice.
“I hate you both.”
“No you don’t!” Sirius grinned, resuming his previous job of gently massaging his boyfriend’s scalp.
Remus refused to acknowledge how utterly wonderful it was, and how it made his heart to a jaunty little jig, and his insides turn to complete mush.
“You hungry? I can make you French toast, or we could order something. It’s nearly three. I could ask Evans to whip something up for us, or—”
“Bloody hell, Pads! I don’t need you to hover over me like this. You haven’t been this bad since second year. Isn’t that right, Stuffed Snuffles.”
“I resent that name,” Stuffed Snuffles replied, “And maybe your boyfriend is trying to do his very best to help and not muck things up.”
Remus rolled his eyes, but a soft smile played on his lips. He managed to shift a bit to stare over at Sirius.
“You’re not going to muck things up, you wanker. You don’t need to change how you act just because you’re my boyfriend now.”
“I know,” Sirius shifted uncomfortably. “I just want to do everything right, that’s all.”
“You’re perfect.”
Remus was rewarded with a smile and a smattering of gentle kissed all over his scarred face.
“You sure you’re not hungry?”
“I’m positive, Pads.”
“I have something for you then.”
Remus did not whine when Sirius leapt out of bed, leaving his left side unpleasantly cold, no matter what Sirius would later say. He merely protested lightly that his boyfriend had stepped on his foot in his mad dash out of bed. Stuffed Snuffles would concur. Unless Sirius was within earshot, in which case, Remus was quite unhappy with the pair of them.
He heard water running, and prayed to anyone who would listen that it was being supervised.
Sirius was shuffling about outside, going from one room to another.
“Are you wearing my slippers?”
“No!”
After glancing down at the floor beside his bed, he scowled. Sirius was wearing his slippers.
“Why didn’t you buy yourself a pair?”
“For the same reason I don’t buy jumpers. I like yours better.”
The werewolf’s insides did not go all fuzzy.
“You can come out now!”
Remus groaned. It took him a few extra minutes, but he managed to roll out of bed, wrapped up in his comforter.
“You did take my slippers.”
Sirius kicked them off and carefully stuffed Remus’s feet into them.
“Happy now?”
“Yes.”
“Good! In here.”
‘Here’ was the bathroom (which thank MERLIN wasn’t flooded).
Inside was a spectacularly drawn bubble bath, with a hint of… what exactly was that? Remus sniffed several times before he could place the smell that the bubble bath was emitting.
“Lavender?”
“… Yes.”
“You want me to smell like lavender?”
“Sod off! Sarah said it’s good for stress!”
“You went and saw Sarah already?”
“No, I asked her a few days ago,” Sirius mumbled. Remus could have sworn he saw a light dusting of pink on his aristocratic cheekbones before his untied hair fell over his face. “I didn’t want to leave you alone.”
“Thanks Pads, it looks lovely. Even better than the Perfects baths!”
Sirius lit back up like a firecracker from the New Years Incident of 1978.
“Ta, Moony!”
Remus shrugged off the comforter with the mental note to pick it up later and padded into the bathroom.
Sirius stood awkwardly outside.
“What?”
“Umm, er—”
“What’s wrong Pads, I don’t want your perfect bath to get cool.”
Sirius still hesitated.
“I don’t want you to fall asleep and drown.”
Remus’s mouth twitched. He almost laughed until he saw the genuine concern drifting across Sirius’s face.
“Sirius, I’m not going to drown.”
“But what if the lavender is too soothing and you fall asleep?”
“I’m not going to fall asleep in the bath!”
“But what if you do!”
Sirius was actually getting upset.
“I’ll leave the door open a bit, and you can wait just outside, okay?”
Sirius pondered this.
Remus limped back into his room.
“What are you—oh.”
Remus set Stuffed Snuffles down in the bathroom near the door.
“Happy now?”
Sirius nodded.
*five minutes later*
“You okay?”
“I haven’t even put a toe in the water yet, Pads.”
*10 minutes later*
Remus groaned. He made a mental note to thank Sarah for suggesting lavender. Sirius would get thanked differently, when he wasn’t feeling quite so shite.
“How is it?”
“Perfect.”
“Glad you haven’t drowned yet.”
“Me too.”
*5 minutes after that*
“You’re still alive, right, haven’t drowned or anything like that?”
“If you keep asking me if I’m drowning, I will worry more about myself than I already do.”
3:38 p.m.
Remus ran a towel over his damp hair as he exited the bathroom.
Sirius was sitting on the ground next to the door. He looked up from the cookbook he was reading.
“Wotcher Moony. Nice bath?”
“Yeah, it was lovely. Is that Lily’s cookbook?”
Sirius grunted as he stood up.
“Don’t tell her. Happy you didn’t fall asleep and drown.”
“Well, I had a guard dog and a boyfriend to look out for me.”
Sirius bumped his nose against Remus’s.
“Feeling better?”
“Much.”
“Good.”