Puppies in the rain
There was very little Remus Lupin liked more than waking up in the morning to the sound of the rain. The tiny London flat he shared with one Sirius Black, master of all things pranking, and boyfriend extraordinaire (his words, not Remus's), was on the top floor of their building and he could hear the light tapping on the flat roof above their heads. He sighed in contentment rolled over so he could look at Sirius, who was still sleeping with his back to Remus under most of their blankets, and in possession of most of their pillows. He reached out to stroke Sirius's long hair, spread across the pillow and glistening in in the watery gray light from the window.
"Rem, wha's it?" Sirius grumbled into his pile of bedclothes.
"It's raining. Can you hear it?" Remus scooted forward so he could drape his torso across Sirius's, and grab a quick good morning peck.
"Sure babe. But it's too early to be listening to the rain."
"Nope. You're supposed to be at work in half an hour."
"Shit!" Sirius exclaimed, and sat up quickly, dislodging Remus in the process. He reached across Remus to pluck the alarm clock from the nightstand and stared at it in consternation.
"I'll make breakfast," Remus told him, climbing out of bed and starting toward the living area. Behind him, he could hear a thump and a certain amount of cursing. Out in the tiny kitchen, he put some toast and the kettle on, before throwing open the window to let the rainy air in.
The only time he ever opened the windows was when it rained. As wonderful and interesting as London was, it also smelled. Not too horribly to a human nose, he was sure, but to him the city smelled heavily of gasoline and exhaust, cigarette smoke and piss. On summer days when the air was particularly hot and still and close, it was sometimes enough to make him nauseous. But the rain washed all of those smells down, at least for a while. All he could smell was water and ozone and dust settling. He took in a deep breath of the clean air and sighed in contentment before turning back to the stove to prepare Sirius's tea (lots of cream, no sugar) and toast (heaped with butter and blackberry preserves).
Ten minutes later, Sirius barreled out of the bedroom. "Thanks, babe." He scooped up his toast and leaned in to grab another kiss from Remus, who was seated at their tiny kitchen table with his own breakfast, reading the daily prophet. "Does it say if this will go on all day?"
Remus scanned the weather section, which consisted of a moving picture of the weather-wizard gesturing at tiny enchanted rainclouds scuttling across a map of the UK. "Looks like."
Sirius grinned, big and mischievous. "I'll see you after work then, for some fun?" Sirius loved the rain too – he thought it was best to be out in it, splashing in all of the puddles and getting thoroughly soaked.
Remus entirely disagreed that this was the best way to enjoy the rain, or even a remotely good way to enjoy the rain. He sighed and considered putting his head into his own toast, but it was always hard to deny Sirius anything. And although it was close to the full moon, he felt like he might just have enough energy to indulge his boyfriend. "Yes, yes. Now get going. You'll be late." Sirius's eyes lit up, and he gave Remus a mock salute and a "bye Moony!" before making his way off to the ministry, for auror training with James.
As for Remus, he mostly stayed home. He knew he couldn't ever hold a job in the wizarding world for long. So he did some writing here or there, and took odd jobs in muggle London to pick up some of the expenses (because really, did it matter that much if they bought their potatoes from a wizard or muggle shop?). But today, he was going to enjoy the rain the way he liked, curled up in the overstuffed armchair in the living room with a good book. At least, until his over-excitable puppy came home and insisted they go outside.
True to form, Sirius showed up in the late afternoon, already drenched from the trip home. "Moony," He exclaimed as he came through the door, and then flung off his outer coat in his typical dramatics, causing water droplets to spray in every direction. "Let's go on the roof!"
Remus looked up from the page of his book, now decorated by a few water droplets and raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to shake like a dog too, Padfoot?" he teased.
"Now that would entirely defeat the purpose, given we are about to get totally drenched all over again."
Remus smiled his own mischievous smile, and made a show of carefully marking the place in his book and laying it on the side table, mainly to watch Sirius fidget with barely contained energy. "Alright, let's go."
Sirius grabbed Remus's hand and bounded out the door. They made their way to the maintenance stairs for the building, and climbed up to the top. The door was supposed to be locked, but no one ever really noticed a small alohomora charm. Remus shivered as he was pulled out onto the rooftop. It was raining steadily; not pouring-level rain, but he was guaranteed to get sufficiently wet and cold.
At this point, Sirius took Remus's other hand, and spun the two of them in a circle. Although Remus wasn't too fond of being out in the rain, he was more than willing to put up with it to watch Sirius with his head thrown back, laughing a big belly laugh, and with his hair flying in wild, wet tangles around his face. The world hadn't exactly been a safe place since the two of them had graduated from Hogwarts, so he knew to take these moments as they came.
When they stopped spinning, Sirius dropped to all fours and bounded off through the rain as Padfoot. Remus followed along as Padfoot made it his mission to run through every puddle possible. Once he had accomplished this, he rolled over onto his back in the biggest puddle on the roof and wiggled, feet twitching in the air. Remus knew he did it to make him laugh; it always worked. Sirius changed back then, suddenly a soggy boy lying on his back in two inches of dirty water, head tilted back so he could watch Remus laughing.
"I'm going to have to wash those now, you wanker of a mutt," Remus commented as he offered a hand.
Sirius let Remus haul him up. "I'm a purebred, I'll have you know," He sniffed. "And I love you too." He leaned in for a slow kiss, and Remus let himself be wrapped up in the warmth and comfort of Sirius's arms, even if he did smell like a wet dog.
It was easy, when the first rumbles of thunder started, for Remus to feel just how much Sirius loved the sound of a storm. He relaxed against him, going boneless and smiling into the kiss. In stark contrast, Remus felt his own muscles tense, and his back go straight. He didn't mind the thunder; the wolf hated it. It was four days until the full moon, and he had less of a say in his instinctive reactions than usual.
He watched, from somewhere slightly outside of himself, as Sirius pulled back and scanned his face with concern. "Hey, Remmie, are you okay? Do you want to go inside?"
Remus certainly wouldn't mind going in, but he didn't want the wolf to be the reason why. He took a few deep breaths, and tried to push most of the wolf's fear to the back of his mind. But there wasn't any stopping the slight shake that was forming in his hands. He nodded.
Sirius took his hand, a warm little anchor against his palm, and led him back inside. In their apartment, the noise of the thunder wasn't as loud as it was outside, but the storm was picking up. Remus flinched at a particularly loud crack.
"Come on, let's get warmed up." Sirius led them to the small bathroom, and started pulling off Remus's cardigan.
"You know, you're not supposed to shower in a lightning storm," Remus protested, but it was feeble. In addition to the fear trembles from the wolf, actual shivers from the cold were starting to catch up to him. Besides, if they didn't clean up, their bed would smell like wet dog for weeks.
"It will be okay, Mooney," Sirius reassured, "There are plenty of taller buildings around here. I don't think we're in danger." He finished stripping Remus and himself of clothing and turned on the water.
The shower was small, barely enough room for the two of them to fit without someone's elbow ending up in someone else's eye. But that was okay with Remus. When he got like this, he tended to like corners, and small spaces, like the corner where their bed met the wall, or tucked deep into the seat of the big armchair, or best of all cuddled up to Sirius.
Said object of comfort lathered up the soap and started washing Remus's shoulders with firm fingers, trying to massage out the tension and the cold. Remus could feel the tension peeling away, bit by tiny bit as Sirius rubbed his slick hands across all of Remus's favorite spots – his collarbones, just under his shoulder blades and along his spine, down his forearms and the tops of his thighs. He let out a breath, and worked on pushing down the wolf-fear until he felt calm enough to reach for the shampoo and get to work on Sirius's horribly tangled hair. "You're a mess," he said, mustering a tiny smile.
"Would you really have it any other way?"
Remus was working on a particularly bad knot, and debating the merits of trying to get a comb off the counter when there was a particularly loud and close clap of thunder. He yelped, wolf-like, and scrambled back until he was pressed into the corner of the shower. At the same time, Sirius cursed, "Ow, shit," as his hair, and consequently his head, got pulled in the same direction.
His human sense coming back in partial control, Remus disentangled his fingers as gently as he could from Sirius's hair, and then pressed the heel of his palms to his eyes. His heart was still racing. "Goddamnit," he mumbled toward the floor.
"Hey, Rem, look at me," Sirius said, reaching forward to wrap his hands around Remus's. "You're safe, it's all okay."
Remus let his hands fall from his face. Sirius had repositioned himself so he was in front of the werewolf, blocking out the rest of the world. "I know I am. And that's what's so frustrating! I'm here telling myself that I'm safe, that it's just noise. But he doesn't care."
"It's fine. We just have to make you feel safe instead." Sirius reached up and started rubbing his hands along the sides of Remus's neck, working on the new tension there. "Let's finish up, and then we can just lie in bed for the rest of the day. We can even order muggle takeout."
Sirius was not a fan of muggle takeout; knowing he would suffer through it for him made Remus smile. "Okay," he replied, suppressing a shudder at a new, but not as loud, rumble. "But perhaps I should stay away from your hair."
"True. I would have been seriously cross if you gave me a bald spot. But I'm awesome enough that I could probably pull it off."
Remus just rolled his eyes and shoved a wash cloth in Sirius's face in response.
While Sirius washed first Remus's hair, and then his own, Remus scrubbed down Sirius's body. Letting his fingers trail warmth over well-remembered skin. And Sirius always made sure that Remus could tuck his back against him, or into the corner of the shower in case of any more large peals of thunder.
"Remember when we couldn't wash together without shagging like rabbits?" Sirius finally asked, languid in the heat of the water and Remus's hands, and the sound of the storm. He gathered Remus up in his arms and pressed their foreheads together.
"I'm glad those days are behind us," Remus replied, moving Sirius back a step so he could turn off the tap. "The prefect's bathroom had much bigger showers than this, and bathtubs. One of us would crack our skulls."
"Hmmm, I think we could still make it work."
"Not right now love." Remus grabbed a towel and draped it over Sirius's head. He felt better for the contact, and for being clean, but the wolf part of him was still shaky at the core. He wanted nothing more than his fuzziest pyjamas possible, and maybe later that promised takeout.
The pyjamas at least he could guarantee. As soon as he was dry and swathed in flannel from head to toe, he climbed back in bed and scooted toward the wall so Sirius could follow. Sirius did, and pulled the blankets over the both of them, and then cuddled up behind Remus. Remus sighed, and felt the last of the tension leaving his joints. Ever since they had started dating, this had been the only thing that could fully calm him down every time, just lying here with his back pressed against Sirius's chest and Sirius's arms around him. Remus still resented the wolf for making him feel sensations and fears that were not his own, but moments like these, he could definitely live with.