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Classical music on the radio. Strings, slightly tinny through the speakers, but still, bright and cheerful.
Remus’ hands on the steering wheel were cast startlingly red by the traffic light.
He saw the spark out of the corner of his eye, and glanced up into the rear view mirror in time to see the warm glow of Sirius’ cigarette.
Normally this would be enough to ignite an argument, but Remus sort of felt like this was an exceptional case. He could smell the metallic tang of blood from where he was. He thought that, in retrospect, they should’ve just called an ambulance.
It couldn’t have been twenty minutes ago. Sirius’ grey eyes widening, as he slipped from the sill, Remus grabbing uselessly after him through the empty space of the open window. The noise of his own shoes as he touched down on the concrete, before he’d even made the decision to jump. The pair of them somehow staggering to the car, droplets of blood, black in the darkness, marking their progress.
Remus twisted around to assess the casualty. Sirius took a long drag, blew it out slowly, unhurried. His boots were up by the opposite window like he was a delinquent waiting in the headmaster’s office. His lashes cast stark shadows on his cheeks. His hair, his clothes, seemed to melt away into the darkness of the backseat.
“Hey,” he said around his cigarette, his voice just a little stiff. “Lights.”
Remus turned back to the road. Poisonous green light illuminated the raindrops on the windscreen.
It might’ve been the secondhand smoke, or the vertigo of too many sleepless night, or the adrenaline, his heart throbbing in his chest. But as Remus put his foot down on the gas, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was what falling in love was supposed to feel like.