Author's Notes: Thank you Wereflamingo for betareading! As usual, this is a crossposted piece and can be found at AO3 too (and perhaps soon in Wattpad as well).

WIP, going to be roughly 4-5 chapters. Wolfstar.

Remus liked gardening.

It was relaxing. He had no clue what he was doing, but who cared. In the years after the school ended he had to find something to do, and after he had moved to this cottage, he made this garden his own little project.

James and Lily had their children, Sirius had his bike, Peter had his small company that he was so proud of, and Remus had his small backyard garden.

Life was good and everybody was content.

Remus was pulling yet another vegetable up that he honestly didn't remember planting, nor did he recognize it as he was turning it around in his hands (what kind of a vegetable has rainbow stripes?), when he heard footsteps. He gave up identifying the strange plant and looked up.

Sirius leaned against the garden gate, looking out of place with his black leather jacket and boots next to the lightly painted wood with flowery pastel ornaments.

Never out of place, Remus corrected his thoughts with his heart aching, not here. This is where he should always be, standing in the sunlight, looking so young and carefree, smiling at him so beautifully.

"This is so you," said Sirius and shook his head. His eyes roamed around the small garden. "You could literally be doing anything in this world, and here you are, isolated and weeding your goddamn carrots."

"I'm not alone. You are here, aren't you?" He didn't add that he had no idea what he was weeding, but it they certainly wasn't carrots.

Sirius opened his mouth, then closed it. He huffed.

Remus smiled, amused and feeling such affection for the man. "I've never been alone or 'isolated' since I got to know you lot. Don't know if it's a blessing or a curse, seriously."

He was teasing, expecting perhaps a groan at the old joke, but all he got was sudden sad shadows on Sirius's face. "You once said that your perfect world would be 'never without one of us', but I didn't believe that you'd still think so. Where did we take the wrong turn, then?"

Remus had to look away from Sirius. His words didn't belong here, not in this garden, not in this sunny day. There was sharp pain hidden behind those words that could cut a heart open that made him want to steer away. "Stop being so weird and come help me. Dinner won't make itself."

After a moment he heard the gate open. Sirius kneeled beside him. "So. What are we having for dinner?" A pause, then, "What the heck is that?"

"I don't know," said Remus. "I was hoping you could help me identify it. I'd rather not try to cook it before knowing whether it's poisonous or not."

"It's your garden, mate," muttered Sirius and poked at the rainbow coloured plant that distantly resembled an octopus. "Bloody hell. Are you doing illegal cross-species experiments here or what? I knew that there had to be something more interesting going on here than just carrots and potatoes."

Remus sighed. "I guess I'll research it later. Let's go inside and see if there's anything edible there."

He put the weird plant inside a sack that he had been filling with the strange products from his garden the whole afternoon. The sack was almost full and looked unpleasantly heavy. He glanced at Sirius. "Help me carry this inside?"

"Of course. That's what I'm here for, after all. To help carry your burdens, which apparently are in the form of disfigured veggies."

Remus rolled his eyes and shoved him slightly. "No need to be so dramatic. It's just a bag of veggies." He took a good hold of the canvas and looked at Sirius. "On three?"

"Nothing is ever just a bag of veggies with you," said Sirius, with an odd, crooked smile. "You know, you do fit here in the garden. You're like an onion. Layers and layers of jumpers and secrets. One."

"I could say the same about you. Well. Minus the jumpers. Two."

"I'd look dashing in your jumpers. Three."

The bag was heavy, but together, they managed to carry it inside the little cottage.

After the bag of questionable vegetables had been abandoned in the living room (it was the room closest to the garden, and the rug was already old and spotty anyway), the men went to the kitchen.

"Cozy," said Sirius, looking around. "Reminds me of your parents' place."

"That's what you always say when you come around," said Remus absentmindedly while rummaging through the fridge and the freezer.

"Oh, do I?"

There were fish fingers and fries in the freezer, which wasn't exactly the sort of the meal he had been envisioning for them today. He must have forgotten to go to the store. "Just before you start to badger me about moving into your place."

Sirius laughed. "That does sound like me."

"Do you mind fries and fish fingers?"

"Sounds like a delicious, authentic countryside meal. Did you grow the fries in the garden?"

Remus threw the bag of frozen fries at his head, but Sirius caught it with a grin. Remus smiled and said, "Shut your mouth and help me with the meal, will you?"

"You are a shame to all backyard gardeners. What do you want me to do? And by the way, why don't you live with me?"

"Turn the oven on. And you know why, you berk."

"Muggle way, eh? And I don't know, so please go ahead and enlighten me."

"I've told you once, and I'm glad you took it well and it didn't change anything between us, but you are not going to make me say it again."

Sirius raised his eyebrow and looked at him sideways while putting the fries on the oven pan. "Now I'm intrigued. Maybe I forgot and you should tell me again..?"

Remus gave him a flat look.

Sirius raised his hands and smiled disarmingly. "Fine. I'm sorry. But I'm certain that I told you then that it wouldn't matter, and that you could still come live with me, whatever it was. And why would that have changed since then?" There was a pause, and Sirius hesitated before continuing in a more solemn tone. "You've never been good on your own. And neither have I. Maybe we could have avoided this whole mess if we had stuck together." Sirius swallowed. "Fuck, it's so easy to keep forgetting that this isn't… And then… " His voice faded away and his eyes became slightly unfocused, distant.

"You are in a weird mood today," said Remus lightly, trying to hide how much Sirius's rambling was starting worry him.

"I'm sorry. It's been a bloody weird day. Days."

"What happened?"

Sirius looked at him and shook his head slowly. "I'll tell you later. Let's just… enjoy this. Let's finish dinner. Because this is nice." He took a pause again, hesitated, then blurted out, "I've missed you."

Remus reached out and laid his hand on Sirius's shoulder, smiling comfortingly. He ignored the way Sirius flinched at the touch, and then looked down at his hand with surprise. "Hey. Don't get sappy now. I've not gone anywhere."

Sirius grasped his hand and held onto it tight. There was pain in his eyes when he looked back up again at Remus's eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm just scared that I'm going to muck this up for you, Moony. I… I should have let someone else come here first. But I had to see you. I didn't think it would be like this. Lily warned me, but I didn't really get it until there you were, just... bloody weeding your mutant garden and smiling up at me like nothing was wrong. You looked so happy."

His words twisted Remus's stomach and he swallowed. He tasted something metallic in his mouth and he swallowed again to get rid of it. He tried to ignore Sirius's words, tried to dismiss them as mad rambling. He looked away and said tightly, "The fries are burning."

Sirius blinked, and looked away towards the oven. His mouth twitched. "I just put them in. You made them burn."

"I didn't," said Remus indignantly because he hadn't. "It's a… powerful oven. A fast one."

Sirius gave him a fond smile and shook his head, which seemed to clear away the sombre thoughts out of his mind, before letting go of his hand and stepping away to take the fries out of the oven. "I'm sorry, I got carried away. What about the fish fingers?"

Remus looked at the fish finger box on the counter. "We should have put them in there with the fries." It wasn't just Sirius who was weird today, he reflected. It felt like his mind was nowhere and everywhere, and things kept slipping by.

Sirius shrugged, not looking bothered at all. He took out a plate from the cupboard, dropped the slightly burnt fries on it, and then opened the fish finger box. "I don't think our fries will get a chance to get cold before these are done, not with this super oven."

"Probably not. Can you help me with the cutlery?"

Sirius gave him a curious look, but nodded. They worked silently for a moment, laying down plates, forks, glasses and the milk on the table.

Remus sat down at the table while Sirius went to take out the fish fingers. Sirius didn't look at him while saying with forced lightness, "You are asking me for help. A lot. First in the garden, then with the food."

"Can't just let you stand there and make me do all the work."

"Don't get me wrong. It was just an observation. I'm happy that you are asking. You usually never let me know when you need help."

"I need your help now," said Remus with desperation, his voice rough and needy, and then he blinked and wondered where that had come from. He looked out of the kitchen window. The dark clouds were gathering in the sky. There was going to be a storm. It was good that they had got the vegetables out of the garden before the night. It would have been unpleasant to take them out from the muddy ground.

Sirius put down the oven pan and turned to face him. His hand was shaking as he reached up in a very Prongs-like gesture of nervously running his hand through his hair. "I want to help you. I don't know how. I don't know what I should do."

"It's going to rain," Remus said absentmindedly, his voice flat and distant. He nodded towards the window. "Did you come with your bike?" If so, they should go and take the bike inside the shed.

Sirius sat down heavily across the table and stared at him for a long moment like he thought that Remus had lost his mind. Then he shook his head, ran his fingers through his hair again, and looked like he was starting to lose his mind. "Part of me just wants to leave you here to be happy. I want to stay here and be happy with you, because right now, everything fucking sucks out there, and I want to forget about it all too. But we can't, Remus, we can't. I don't know why you turned on us, but I refuse to believe... You were never a killer, Remus. You would die before hurting anyone. So I think they forced you, and maybe, maybe you can give us a good enough reason to give you a second chance. You can't want to go back to them now, I don't believe it'd be possible for you to have changed that much. We are working on getting you out of here, but… I think we are all scared about the afterwards. What we will do with you. I can't… just why , Remus?"

Remus felt something dripping from his lips down his chin. He raised his finger to touch his lips and when he drew it back, he saw that it was blood.

Sirius was looking at him horrified. "Moony… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

In the distance, the thunder roared.

'Don't chase the dog!' screamed Bellatrix Lestrange from the doorway, and Sirius jumped up from the chair, knocking it down with a loud crash. Her shrill, cold laugh hurt Remus's ears and he cowered, shut his eyes. 'Stop! Come back, your job is not finished here!'

Remus didn't know which one was shaking worse - him or the house. Perhaps it was the reality around them that was shaking, he thought distantly, or his sanity, because nothing of this made sense. The blood kept dripping from his jaw, it felt like his whole mouth was full of it, and his long, pointy wolf teeth ached.

With all his willpower Remus managed to open his eyes, ignore Bellatrix and look straight at Sirius, who seemed frozen in place and helpless. In the corner of his eye he saw Bellatrix in the doorway, cackling, pointing her wand at him.

Just as the world around them started to melt away into darkness, he pleaded, "Padfoot. Please help me".

"We will," said Sirius in a broken voice, "we will, Moony, I'm so sorry. Just hang in here. Everything will be alright. We'll figure this out and-"

The house with the beautiful garden, Sirius, and Bellatrix melted away.