Work Text:
Remus loves his job, don’t get him wrong. It’s good value, and he actually feels like he’s making some sort of difference in the world. He gets to see people come into the ward sceptical and wary and develop a whole new outlook on the world. But God, was Walburga Black driving him insane.
The woman had only been in the ward for a couple of weeks now, with no one left to care for her at home, her husband dead, and her two children being less than enthusiastic about stepping up to be her carer, she had been transferred to the facility that Remus has come to know as his work.
Aged care was never somewhere Remus from five years ago would have pictured himself working. Him? Working with angry, wrinkly old people? He would have laughed in your face. But he had somehow landed himself in exactly the position he had been convinced he wouldn’t like at the start of his degree. It’s funny how things change like that. He had wanted to be an ICU nurse and work with patients suffering from diseases, intense conditions, or accidents. Yet, in his practice, he saw things he never thought he’d see. He was incapable of helping them in any way after they left. He saw these people for a couple of weeks, maximum, and then never again. He would never know what happened to them, how they were going, if their condition had gotten any better; he only saw them at their worst. And he found himself wanting more. He wanted to be able to help people and see them grow and progress to actively recover. That’s really how he found himself working in a home as a full-time carer. And he loves it. Yes, there are things that he would rather not do, but every job has those things, and Remus is adamant that the benefits outweigh the cons. The residents love him, and that has never changed.
That is, until about two weeks ago, when Walburga Black was brought in. Remus had been assigned as her primary nurse. At her beck and call for most of the day, helping her when she needs it, assisting her with things she can’t do, and doing the occasional test to check everything is running smoothly. Immediately, she had decided that she hated Remus. In fact, hate is probably a generous way to describe it. She definitely detests him. And Remus didn’t even do anything wrong. All he did was greet her smile and help her settle into her room, and she had snapped at him to get out unless she called for help. Remus assumed it was just her getting used to the change in setting and lifestyle, but even after two weeks, the attitude hasn’t lifted. Coming to work is beginning to feel like more of a chore for Remus. With each cold remark from Walburga, he loses about ten per cent of his energy.
Remus sighs as he locks his car and walks into the front of the main building to check in and get started with his day. He hugs his coat tight across his chest, the chill of the January wind stinging against his exposed skin. Remus greets Alice at the reception desk before pushing the double swing doors back and entering through the staff entrance towards the ward.
“Morning!” Lily calls when she sees Remus wander over to his locker and deposit his coat and bag.
“Hey Lils,” he says, trying to summon at least some gusto to his voice and obviously failing because Lily frowns.
“Not in the mood to face her majesty today?” Lily quips.
I had become their nickname for Walburga. ‘Her Majesty’ really refers to how she expected Remus to follow her word like the law, and the air of properness about her, in her speech, her posture, and her actions.
“Lily, I can’t keep doing this. She treats me like shit and I can’t even get her to leave her room. She’s been here for almost three weeks, and none of the other residents even know who she is.”
Lily nods, “Well, you could try today. It is family bingo today”
Remus almost laughs at the absurdity of this, “I haven’t seen anyone come to visit her, I’m starting to believe it’s for a reason. I mean, you’ve met the woman! I can’t imagine she was a very nurturing mother”
Lily just shrugs in agreement, “You could always call. Her family members, I mean”
The thought had never even crossed Remus’s mind.
“You can do that?”
“Sure, you can. I did it last year for Mr Prewitt, called up his kids, asked them to come in, they had a big chat, and then next thing you know, they’re coming regularly for visits, and Mr Prewitt is out and interacting with all the other residents. It might not be you that Walburga hates; she might just be taking her anger out on you over something else entirely.”
“Or she could just really fucking hate me”
“That too,” Lily laughs.
So when Lily leaves, the first thing Remus does is begin searching the database for Walburga’s file. It isn’t hard because she’s only very recently transferred, so he finds it within a matter of minutes.
He searches the contact details provided.
Nothing.
No names.
No numbers.
Absolutely nothing.
It makes Remus strangely sad. He can’t imagine having no one after so many years of living.
He keeps reading through the file when his eyes snag on a number under emergency contacts. A note is written next to it, saying, ‘Only call if emergency’. Remus stares at it for a while, contemplating whether he should call it or not. He figures that it must be one of Walburga’s children, because who else would it be? After a while, he caves and dials the number into the work phone.
It rings.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Four times.
Five.
The line crackles as someone eventually picks up the phone.
“Hello?” The person says, sounding as if they had been woken up from sleeping.
“Hello there, my name is Remus and I’m a nurse at Willows Aged Care. I’m calling about Walburga Black. Do you have any relation to this person?”
The person on the other side of the line sighs, “I’m her son. Has she passed then?”
Remus’ thoughts screech to a halt. Passed? Her son thinks he’s calling because his mother is dead?
“What? No!” Remus says, shocked, “I was just calling because, as her nurse, I’ve noticed that her transition to life in our home has been rocky. She doesn’t leave her room, talk to anyone, and she rarely lets me do any assessments. Today we’re holding a family bingo afternoon, and I just thought that she would be more likely to leave her room and join in if she had a family member present.”
“Have you met my mother? She does what she wants and only what she wants; no one being there can change that.”
“That’s true,” Remus chuckles, “But I really think it is integral for her to become a part of the community in some way, and I’d like to give this just one try. Would you be able to make it this afternoon?”
There’s a pause. Then a sigh.
“Listen, Randy,”
“It’s Remus”
“Right, I would love to come along and help with whatever experiment you want to conduct to help my mother, and I would come this afternoon, truly, but I’m in California right now, so there’s no way I’d be able to make it.”
Remus lets out a disappointed breath. Well, it was at least worth a shot. He turns back to the phone to say thank you and end the call, when the voice speaks again.
“But, if you’re really desperate, I could give you my brother’s number”
Remus feels his pulse pick up with a mixture of hope and excitement. This still had a chance at working.
“Yes, please, that would be perfect.”
The man across the line sighs again, “I have to warn you, though, my brother and my mother don’t get along in the slightest. As in, disownment level hate. So he’ll put up a fight when you suggest this to him, and I suspect he’ll show up either way. But I can’t guarantee that my mother will be happy to see him.”
“That’s fine”, Remus says, a chance is still a chance. He scribbles down the number as the man recites it and then writes down the name ‘Sirius Black’ next to it. He thanks the man and then dials the new number into the phone.
It rings once.
Twice.
Three tim–
“If you’re trying to sell me something, or you are a pyramid scheme, kindly fuck off.” The person Remus assumes is Sirius says by way of greeting.
“Errr, no,” he says, rather amused by the man’s obscure greeting, “I’m neither of those. Am I speaking with Sirius Black?”
“The one and only” is the only reply he gets.
“Hello, Sirius. My name is Remus, and I am a nurse at Willows Aged Care. I’m calling about your mother.”
He waits for a response. He gets nothing, just a tense silence.
“Are you still there?”
“Is she dead?” He asks shakily.
Jesus, what is it with these brothers and assuming their mother is dead? Walburga must have really pulled a number on them.
Remus resists the urge to laugh, “No, you’re brother assumed that too”
“My bro–You talked to Regulus?”
“Yes, that’s how I got your number”
“Oh. Well, what is it then?”
His tone changes to become rather annoyed, now that he knows nobody is dead.
Remus explains the situation like he did with Regulus, focusing especially on how he is worried about the woman and only wants to try every option.
“No. Absolutely not,” Sirius says firmly.
“Please,” Remus says, sounding dangerously close to begging, “You don’t even have to stay for the whole time, I just need to see if it has any effect on her behaviour. If she sends you away, feel free to leave and never come back. But if there’s any chance that we can even get your mother to leave her room, and even just sit in an environment with other people, I will take it, because it is crucial to both her physical and mental health”
Sirius sighs across the phone, sounding extremely similar to his brother.
“Fine, I’ll come. But only to prove that it won’t work”
“Thank y–”
Sirius hangs up.
***
Remus waits around rather impatiently for the rest of the day, completing his daily tasks and jobs, tending to his patients, getting sent away by Walburga multiple times, he decides to leave her alone until Sirius gets here.
Throughout the day, he becomes curious. What would Sirius look like? It’s hard to imagine any person has come from Walburga, let alone two. She has no evidence that she even has any children. Her room is completely empty and bare. Anyone could be living there. She has no personal items, no coloured blankets or curtains and most definitely no photos. Remus assumes that she must have been rather beautiful back in her day, if her perfectly placed hair and her vanity when it came to dressing had anything to do with it.
Remus didn’t know what he was expecting Sirius to look like, but it definitely wasn’t what he actually looked like. Remus had gotten paged at around half past two; that one, Sirius Black, was here to see Walburga. He had rushed to the reception to greet the man, and he’d had to physically take a breath at the sight of him.
Standing with his back to him, clad in jeans, black boots and a leather jacket, was Sirius. Not at all what Remus was expecting. He had black hair that fell to his shoulders, shiny and wavy. He was chatting Alice’s ear off when he seemed to notice Remus’ presence. He turned around, and once again, Remus had to take a deep breath because this man was beautiful. His pale skin contrasted with his dark hair, making him look angelic. His cheekbones sit high and defined. And his eyes are the most electrifying shade of grey Remus has ever seen.
Sirius blinks at him, mouth open like he’s about to say something, but then closes it at the last minute. Shit. Remus definitely looks rough. He’s been at work for at least six hours already. He resists the strange urge to fix his scrubs and his hair.
“Sirius, I assume?” He says, words miraculously finding him.
Sirius nods, “That’s me. And you’re…Remus?”
Remus nods and gives the man a shy smile. God, pretty people made him so self-aware.
“This way,” he says, before turning around and leading Sirius in through the main door to the ward. He just trusts that the man is behind him, because a small part of him is afraid he won’t stop looking if he turns to check. But Sirius is there, following him blindly through the ward. Remus turns around the hallway, eventually making his way to Walburga’s door.
“Well,” he begins rather awkwardly, “here we are. I’ll go in first just to make sure she’s ready to receive visitors, then you can feel free to go in yourself”
Sirius snorts as if the idea of being alone in a room with his own mother amuses him. “Okay, but if you hear screaming and then prolonged silence, dispose of my body carefully, won’t you?”
Remus decides not to comment on this strange joke and only nods with a small smile before knocking on the door and entering.
“Good afternoon, Walburga. How are you today?” Remus says, greeting the woman in his most gentle voice.
“How do you think I am? I’m in this Godforsaken place, sterile and ugly. I’d rather be in my grave, at least that would be custom-made, black velvet.” She says, managing to look down at Remus despite the fact that he towered over her small frame from where he stood.
“Charming as always,” Remus mutters.
Walburga pays no attention to his comment; she just crosses her arms and looks at him distastefully. “So, what are you here for then? To take more blood from me? To do more idiotic tests?”
“No, not today”
“Good, they’ve finally slapped some sense into you. So why are you bothering me then?”
“You actually have a visitor”
Walburga tenses. Her whole body straightened and froze like a statue. Her face goes a greyish colour, and her eyes fill with dread and annoyance. She seems to shake it off very quickly, her usual annoyed demeanour returning in the blink of an eye.
“If it’s Andromeda, tell her for the last time, no. I will not be adding her back to the will. Not after what she did.” She spits.
Remus is curious, he has to admit, but he doesn’t stay on her suggestion for long.
“It’s not her,” Remus says, unsure of how to pronounce the name Walburga had stated before, “It’s your son, Sirius”
“What?” Walburga snaps, eyes narrowing. “You have the wrong person. Sirius doesn’t want to see me, and I don’t want to see him,” she says, but the longer she talks, the less Remus believes her.
So he just steps back and opens the door, allowing Sirius to step inside.
“Mother,” Sirius says by way of greeting and steps forward into the room, letting the door swing closed behind him, trapping Remus outside the room.
No screaming or fights come from the room in the next half an hour. In fact, it becomes eerily quiet. So quiet that Remus begins to get fearful. That is, until Sirius steps back through the door.
He sighs heavily, looking incredibly tired after just one conversation with his mother.
“She said she’d come, but she didn’t say she’d play,” is all Sirius says.
And it’s better news than Remus was expecting. She was going to leave her room for the first time in weeks. Even if she didn’t participate in the activities, she was going to leave her room. It’s a crazy milestone for her and for Remus as her nurse.
He grins at Sirius, widely, “This is great! I can’t thank you enough. You will stay for the bingo, right?”
Sirius just looks at him weirdly, before blinking and nodding, “I suppose so”
And Remus just smiles at the man even wider.
Walburga doesn’t play at all. The bingo consists mostly of her just sitting at the corner of the table and glaring at everyone who came into her general vicinity, even Sirius and Remus. But Remus didn’t care. She was out of her room. If you had told him this a week ago, he would have never believed you.
Sirius and Remus each have their own sheet for bingo and place counters down accordingly as Lily calls out the numbers.
“57,” Lily calls out from the front of the room, and Remus watches as the old residents slowly put their counters on their sheets of paper.
“Bingo! Bingo!” Sirius calls from beside him, looking adorably invested in the game.
Remus raises an eyebrow at the man.
“I won’t believe it till I see it,” he says, gesturing to Sirius’ sheet.
“Fine,” Sirius says, turning his piece of paper around so Remus can see the row of counters.
Remus just shrugs and turns to Lily.
“We have a winner!” He announces to a very disappointed group, as Sirius makes his way up to Lily to receive the prize, which is a ten-pound gift card for the gift shop.
Sirius accepts the prize from Lily and then dramatically passes it on to Walburga, who just scoffs at her son but snatches the prize from him anyway. She then demands to be brought back to her room.
When Remus comes back, Sirius has already left, and he’s greeted by Lily’s smug face.
“Well, he was cute,” she states, trying to sound innocent and casual, but Remus knows exactly what she’s doing.
“No”
“No? No, what?”
“No. I know what you’re doing, and I do not like him,” he states, before Lily can even begin teasing him.
“If you say so,” she sings with a grin.
“And even if I did, it doesn’t matter. Because I’m never going to see him again.”
But Remus did in fact see him again, because the next week, who showed up at the reception desk? Sirius Black.
Remus had been shocked that he came back, but not nearly as much as Walburga.
They played bingo again. Sirius had won.
Remus just raised his eyebrow at the man.
“I won’t believe it till I see it”, he said, once again.
But in truth, Sirius must just be really good at bingo, because for the last consecutive five weeks he had shown up on family bingo afternoon and every week he had said bingo first, waiting like an excited puppy for Remus’s ‘I won’t believe it till I see it’, before collecting the prize and giving it to his mother who was still indifferent towards him.
And over the weeks, Remus had started to find it harder and harder to be in Sirius’s presence. He would catch himself staring at improper times, he’d go home, and he’d think about Sirius, he’d look forward to the days when there was bingo. But he knew Sirius would never feel the same about him. Some random nurse looking after his mother, there’s no appeal.
By the sixth week, it was beginning to drive Remus insane, eating his brain from the inside out, consuming all his thoughts. When he gets a familiar page from Alice that Walburga has a visitor, he pulls Sirius aside by his arm.
“I know this probably makes me seem so unprofessional, but I literally can’t do this anymore,” Remus begins, still gripping Sirius’s bicep as he hides them away in a corner. He seems put off by the fact that Remus is touching him, so Remus lets go cautiously.
“Remus, what is it?” Sirius asks
Remus takes a deep breath, it’s now or never. He’s not going to sit through another week of bingo with constant ‘what-ifs’ lingering in the back of his mind, and pining stares at his patient’s son.
“Sirius, I like you. Like I fancy you, and I know it’s an odd situation because I work to help your mother, and it’s a conflict of interest if we were to have anything, but I had to tell you. And I know you probably don’t even think about me in that way, but I don’t even care. You’re funny and genuine and so gorgeous, and I just couldn’t live with myself if I never told you, and I–”
“Remus,” Sirius says, tone softening.
Shit. He’s about to reject him.
“I just–” Remus continues, hoping to delay the blow.
“Remus!” Sirius interrupts again.
“What!”
Sirius smiles at him softly now, a tinge of pink to his cheeks. Did Remus cause that? Or is it just really hot in here?
“Why do you think I kept coming back? Because it definitely wasn’t for my mother, she doesn’t even want to see me”
Remus blinks, “So you kept coming back, to see… me?”
“Now he’s getting it!” Sirius grins, clapping his hands together like some sort of game show host.
“You like me?” Remus says in disbelief.
“Yes, Remus, I like you. I fancy you. I was going to ask you out before you dragged me over here and confessed your undying love for me!”
Love? Remus never said anything about love.
Did he?
God, he hopes he didn’t.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that’s exactly what happened,” he counters.
Sirius just grins, reaching out to grab onto Remus’s hand, linking their fingers together. “It so was, and you know it”
“So, you like me then?” Remus repeats.
“Have since the very first phone call”
Remus raises his eyebrows at the other man, “I won’t believe it till I see it”
And Sirius lights up. Using their interconnected hands, he pulls Remus closer to him until they’re standing chest to chest. Remus looks down to stare at Sirius in awe. In the back of his mind, he’s vaguely aware that he’s at work and he probably shouldn’t be doing this here, but he can’t find it in himself to care.
Sirius moves closer and closer until Remus can feel the tickle of his breath on his lips. Sirius looks up to Remus, a question in his eyes, and Remus nods ever so slightly in return. Sirius stretches up on his toes and gently presses his lips against Remus’s. It was soft and gentle and just perfect. Sirius leans back to gauge Remus’s reaction, and when he leans in again, Remus has to physically plant a hand on his chest to stop him from kissing him again.
Sirius suddenly looks insecure. “You didn’t like it?” He asks, self-consciously.
“No, I did like it. I really did. I’m just–I’m at work, Sirius,” he says, turning to look at their open surroundings behind them. Nurses walk around with residents in step. Anyone could have seen them.
Sirius seems to realise this too, because he lets out a small puff of laughter.
“Fine then, Remus Lupin, would you care to accompany me on a date?”
And Remus grins.
“Yes. Yes, I would”
And Remus never thought he’d say this, but he’s glad Walburga Black was assigned as his patient.