We walked to the supermarket, crammed under a flimsy umbrella. Rivets of rain fiercely pummeled the sidewalk and assaulted the top of our metal-boned umbrella.
"Curse this rain," Sirius had said, teeth unevenly clacking and clicking like a dyslexic Muggle typewriter. I half expected him to ding.
"You should have worn long underwear," I chided him gently.
"It chafes," he said, squirming. "And I don't exactly want my crotch raw and peeling." He paused, a swollen, sarcastic pause before: "Neither do you I think. No, what I don't understand is why you won't let me at least cast a warming spell or something to repel this damn rain."
"In the middle of a street full Muggles? Are you mad, Sirius? No, don't answer that. I think I know the answer. Do you want to cause suspicion and drag the whole of the Ministry down here to modify people's memories?" I abruptly halted as he sullenly continued to skulk through the rain.
"They'd do best to keep their greasy Muggle noses out of others' business and go back to yanking bunnies out of top hats," Sirius said combatively. He was soused, the rain seeping up his jeans and snaking in winding drips down into his coat. He wound his arms around themselves, embracing his slender shoulders to ward off the biting cold.
He refused to duck under the shelter of the umbrella. He snapped back that he quite liked the rain, thank you very much and if he was near enough he might give into the temptation and gouge it up my ass.
"But wait, first we'd have to remove the stick that 's already up there," he said scathingly and strode faster down the street. He left me stranded foolishly in the swamped street, clutching the tackily plaid umbrella over my head. I had no choice but to trail after him as he stalked towards the supermarket, hovering a dozen paces behind him. I caught each of his tentative glances over his shoulder which morphed into forced scowls when he saw me following him.
He veered off the street, hurtling causally down the slick staircase that led to a dingy, little shop. He sloshed into the store and slamming the fogged window just as I warily tread down the water logged steps. When I entered the store, rank with cigarettes and sour milk, he was no where in sight.
"You probably apparated when no one was looking," I murmured bitterly. The girl behind the counter was intent on snapping her gum and fiddling distractedly with her bra strap. It was unlikely she would have noticed a man duck behind the teetering shelves and with a small crack disappear.
I turned on to one of the narrow aisles. The shelves were laden with such an excess of merchandise they looked as if they would buckle under the weight if they didn't topple over on me first. I scanned the shelves. Porn magazines. Cigarettes. Condoms. Bottles of amber liquor. Merlin, where was the milk?
Finally I spied a row of frosted freezer doors and walked toward them. I opened the door, expecting a surge of polar air but instead the tepid stench of souring milk stung my nose. I slammed the door shut with a limp, wet thwack.
Suddenly I was aware of arms winding around my waist, embracing me tightly from behind. I leaned back, inhaling deeply the sweet and smoky scent that seemed to hover in the air around Sirius. A coil of throbbing pleasure was unraveling in the pit of my stomach, enfolded in the slender, sodden arms of Padfoot.
"Remus." He gently exhaled my name, cradling his chin in the hollow of my shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..." I said but was interrupted by his interlaced fingers clamping over my mouth.
"No. You were right to stop me. I'm a fool, Moony, and I've gotten into a lot of trouble over the years. You should have stopped me so many times. Sometimes I even wished you would. It was like James and I were careening out of control and I wanted you to step in and stop us, make us think about what we were doing but you never did. And then today you stopped me from doing something stupid in front of a street full of Muggles and all I could do was stalk off. It's my fault. I've been so stupid, Remus, so stupid."
"I'm hardly blameless, Sirius. I had dozens of opportunities to stop you and I never did. And I was a prefect but I just let you and James carry on with your schemes however mean or inappriate they were. I guess I thought you would be mad if I intervened. And I couldn't afford to lose you, Sirius."
He eagerly, insatiably kissed my neck, sucking at the pale flesh, gnawing and nipping hungrily. I twisted out of his strong embrace to brush my lips gently against his drenched skin.
"Hey, could you take that outside, faggots?" the girl behind the counter asked. Her words bitterly frothed out of her puckered O of spit-slicked lips.
I glanced out the dingy, paint-tattooed windows of the dank, sordid little shop. The rain was pounding violently against the concrete. The street was swollen with a surge of filthy water coming from the overflowing sewers.
"Sure. I quite like the rain, you know," Sirius said.
Plaid umbrella suspended over our heads, we waded into the torrents of rain, fingers entwined.
Fin