~~~
“It’s dark. Why is everything so dark?”
“I love you, Moony.”
“Sirius? Is that you? Where are you? Why is it so dark?”
“Come back to me, Moony.”
A blurry sight appeared slowly as Remus opened his eyes once again; he saw a desk, and recognized it immediately as the one in Sirius's old room. The realized that he was resting comfortably on a bed, and as more of his senses returned to him, he noticed that he only had his underwear on, that the bedcovers were up to his waist and that a warm body laid beside him. He turned around slowly to find Sirius's grey eyes bearing down on him.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Remus answered honestly, to which Sirius smiled fondly. Remus tried to frown at his next thought, but he just couldn’t with those grey eyes looking at him. “Why are we in a bed in just our underwear?” he asked, smiling with just the tiniest hint of sarcasm.
“Well,” Sirius replied, returning the smile, “I read in this book that a werewolf’s healing works best when in close physical contact with his pack.”
Remus finally frowned at this; the subject always seemed to cause such a reaction. “I don’t have a pack.”
“Pack: a group of animals of the same kind.” Sirius recited by heart. There was a pause. “In other words, me.”
“So, basically, you spent all the time I was out cold holding me?” Remus asked seriously.
“Yep,” Sirius replied with a smirk.
Remus smirked back. “Isn’t this going too far for a first date?” he asked.
Sirius let out a laugh. “You are feeling better if you’re pulling that kind of comments.”
Remus returned the smile. “So now that we’ve established that I’m better; where are my clothes?”
A mischievous smiled formed on Sirius's face. “Why? Don’t you like this?” he asked, pulling their bodies closer. Remus blushed deeply.
“I do,” he answered after a while, “but I also know that this is not the time for this. I still feel dizzy and most of my body is still pretty numb.”
The playfulness vanished from Sirius's voice completely. “It’s the blood loss. You still need to go to St. Mungo’s.”
“Did you unlock the door?”
“No. I’ve been here with you all the time.”
“So you still have no idea who or what else is in this house?” Remus asked, a little worried.
“Oh, no, I have an idea. I just don’t know how I could’ve forgotten about the little bastard.”
“Little?”
“My mother’s house elf,” Sirius answered in a spiteful tone.
Remus suppressed a laugh. “Are you going to go find it?” he asked, to which Sirius smiled again. “Later. Right now just let me hold you.”
Sirius embraced Remus with more feeling than he had previously shown, and Remus knew that it was meant to be comforting, loving, but instead he felt a cold rush up his spine at the touch. Instead of providing comfort, the embrace caused a slight fear in his heart; there was something desperate about it.
“Is something wrong, Sirius?”
Sirius broke the embrace to stare at him with slight surprise. “No, Moony, nothing’s wrong. Why would you ask that?”
“No, it’s nothing. I just had a bad feeling right now. Like -- like we won’t have this for long.”
Sirius kept an intense gaze toward the brunette, then swallowed hard. “You really scared me when you fainted. I really thought I might lose you.”
A soft smile played on Remus's face. “Just like you told me before, I’m not going anywhere,” he said in a deep tone. “Not as long as I can help it,” he added, emotion deepening his voice further.
Sirius scowled at him. “Maybe we should change the subject.”
Remus blinked. “But what if I die? Or what if you di--” Remus's words stopped instantly as his voice was hushed by Sirius's lips in a deep kiss. The kiss was broken after a short while, but Sirius kept their foreheads together.
“Let’s make a deal,” he said. “Let’s not kill ourselves worrying about what could happen tomorrow, or next week or in a year. Let’s have now, please. Just love me now.”
There was silence.
For a long while Sirius thought that what he had said was the wrong thing, mainly because Remus hadn’t shown the slightest response to his words. He had a point, they both had a point, but Sirius couldn’t live every day dreading when he might die or when Remus might die. What he had right that second, right then, it was priceless, and he wanted to live it without any apprehensions.
Remus passed his fingers through his black hair gently, causing Sirius to take a deep breath. “Deal,” he said with a loving smile as he kissed him softly. “Now can I put my clothes back on?”
~~~
After Remus had fallen asleep, Sirius went looking for the cause of the locked door and finally found Kreacher hiding in a very dark corner of his mother’s bedroom. It only took two minutes to force the decrepit house elf to remove the seal on the door. With the door finally unlocked, Sirius went to get Remus, who was still lying asleep on his old bed. Not wanting to wake him, Sirius picked him up as gently as he could, supporting his legs and back in a strong hold. Remus's head fell on his chest and Sirius let a warm feeling surge over him as he took his beloved out of Twelve Grimmauld Place.