A/N: This is a prize fic for the Krystal Kat who has some amazing stories. You should really go and check them out.

The electric lights were bright and gave off a yellow glare. Sirius shielded his eyes against them, more used to the softer light of candles. Remus stood beside him, awkwardly moving from foot to foot. The two men stayed in the front hall, each glancing towards the door that led into the living room and almost taking a step forward, but not moving in the end.

"We should go in," Remus eventually said.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. Neither one of them moved.

The sudden death of Lily's mother had surprised them all. She had fallen down the stairs and broken her neck. Sirius hadn't really known Lily's mother and he suspected Remus hadn't either, but James had asked his three friends to be there for Lily. (He might have been asking for himself, too. After all, he had gotten along very well with his mother-in-law.)

Peter was probably already inside. He was surprisingly good at comforting people. Maybe it was because he had always needed so much comforting himself.

Remus was also usually good at comforting people. He didn't know how to deal with death, though. He had a suspicion that whatever he said would not be the right thing and didn't want to hurt Lily or James.

However, while Peter was fine and Remus was only uncomfortable, Sirius was scared. He had never been good at consoling people, not even himself. The pain of Regulus becoming a Death Eater, like so many other things, had never left. It was there, just below the surface, always waiting to burst out. Now it seemed it was going to overwhelm him.

"Remus," he said suddenly, "I'm not the right person to do this. You go in alone."

"No," Remus said, a little harsher than he had meant to. To make up for that he reached out his hand to hold Sirius'. "I can't. Besides, James needs you. They both need you."

"Why do they need me? Rem, you know I'm no good at being the guy who helps everyone. I would make thing worse. Please, go in alone."

Remus squeezed Sirius' hand a little tighter. He couldn't go in without his friend. The uncomfortable feeling was growing the longer he waited, heightened by Sirius' insecurities.

"Sirius, they need you because you're you. You wouldn't make things worse. You would make things better by being there-by being you." Remus wasn't sure, but he thought he was comforting himself, too. He certainly felt better. So he didn't expect what Sirius said next.

"Regulus didn't need me. I didn't make things better for him by just being there." He was looking down at the floor, shuffling his feet. He felt Remus' surprised gaze on the back of his neck and was desperately trying to avoid it.

"He died. He was murdered and I wasn't there for him!"

Remus dropped Sirius' hand. "Sirius, you couldn't have saved him. Nobody could have saved him. Just like Lily's mother. It was over before it began."

"No, it wasn't like Lily's mother! She slipped and fell. My brother was murdered. If I had known I could have stopped it somehow. He could still be living! He could be standing here with us!"

"There was no way to know, Sirius. If you had known, you would have stopped his death, but there was no way to know."

Sirius turned to look at Remus with a strange look in his eyes. Remus had never seen that look before and wondered if he had made things worse. When Sirius moved his body towards Remus he involuntarily took a step backwards. Then Sirius was leaning on him, crying and sobbing for the first time since he had heard of Regulus' death and whispering "thank you" over and over again.

And so, Remus found himself comforting quite a different person than the one he had set out to comfort that night.