Title: Brain Stew
Summary: The Marauders can't sleep.
Rating: K
Characters/Pairings: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs; James/Lily, Remus/Sirius if you look hard properly.
Warnings: insomnia?
Length: ~380 words
Genre: Character-centric
Author's Notes: Just a bit of fun with the Marauder boys. Not much to it.
When James can't sleep, he imagines he's holding Lily Evans, cuddling her, just being near her. It's really the single most comforting thought in the world, he reckons, to be near the girl he's been in love with for almost half his life. A third of it, at least.
He puts his pillow on his chest and wraps his arms around it. Most of the times he does this, he dreams of honeysuckle and a warm, crackling fire.
They're really good dreams.
When Peter can't sleep, he imagines he's saving the world, that he's a superhero, tall, built, and smart. Smarter than Remus, Sirius, and even James, and they don't just pretend to want him around, they need his help, like he always needs theirs. And he helps them, like they always help him, because that's what friends do.
He dreams of tall buildings and the ability to leap them in a single bound.
When Sirius can't sleep, he tries to figure out what kind of prank he's going to pull next. Because his insomnia is usually guilt-or-anger-based, they tend to be very personal attacks on a big-nosed someone or a relative. Sometimes, they're not even pranks, just vague ideas of revenge.
They rarely let him get to sleep, but they do usually make him feel a little better.
It's not enough, really.
When Remus can't sleep, he pretends to be normal. He pretends he's not a werewolf, that he's not a nerd, that he's interested in girls.
But what helps is going over to Sirius's bed and cuddling up to a shaggy black dog.
Sirius has never complained, and Remus thinks it helps Sirius just as much as it does Remus.