Disclaimer for all chapters: If the Potterverse was mine, things would have gone very differently. That said, many thanks to JK Rowling for letting us play in the world she created. It's one hell of a sandbox.
"No… Leave them alone… No… Noooooo, not them…" Moony moaned, waking Sirius from his slumber.
He sighed. The nights leading up to a full moon were terrible, but the night immediately after was always the worst for Remus. Sirius slid out of bed, shivering as his feet hit the stone floor, and parted the bed hangings like he did every time Moony had a nightmare.
He was curled up in a ball on his side, shaking and beginning to thrash. Sirius climbed carefully into bed with him, making sure not to wake the other boy. As soon as his arms wrapped around Moony, the teenage werewolf quieted. After a few minutes he drifted once more into peaceful sleep, his head on Sirius's chest.
Sirius often felt a few butterflies in his gut when Remus looked at him a certain way. But on nights like this, when the other boy was so vulnerable and yet so comfortable in his arms, Sirius thought his stomach would burst with the fluttering of a million tiny wings.