* * *
Remus awoke to disorienting darkness and the unmistakable feeling of someone bouncing onto the bed with persistent eagerness. An unwelcome hand was on his shoulder. Shaking him.
"Moony," Sirius whispered. "Moony. Wake up."
He opened his eyes to find Sirius crouching over him, an almost ridiculous expression of joy on his face. "It's snowing," he said. "The first time this year. Really snowing, Remus."
"And you woke me up to tell me that?" Remus said, beginning to go from blank confusion to anger. He struggled to sit up enough to see the clock. "At three in the morning?"
Sirius looked mildly insulted. "Because it's snowing," he said. "Don't you want to see it?"
"I'm tired," he said, rolling over again, away from Sirius. "I'm going back to sleep. Right now."
"Killjoy," said Sirius. The bed bounced jarringly one last time, and Sirius was gone.
It wasn't as if it was the first time Sirius had attempted to drag him out of bed at an impossible hour for his own nefarious purposes. But the annoyance he felt stayed sharp. Sirius could be overzealous and single-minded, but he could usually be counted on to be gentle and solicitous two days after the full moon, when even his bones ached with a tiredness so deep it dragged him down into fuzzy, desperate sleep.
He needed to sleep now, or he would never be able to get up for work tomorrow.
Damn Sirius, and his snow.
The front door banged loudly, and Remus waited for it to bang again, because it was three in the morning and even Sirius couldn't be insane enough to really be running around outside completely alone in the snow.
But minutes passed, and Sirius did not return. Cold minutes, without the dependable furnace of warm skin nearby.
Inconsiderate bastard, he was.
He drifted in and out of a restless doze, but was forced back into wakefulness when the bandage across the front of his shoulder started to pinch. He twisted back over onto his back, and was about to give up on sleep entirely and turn the light on when the front door banged again.
A moment later Sirius came in quietly, shutting the door gently behind him. He sat down on the bed, and handed him what looked like a dubiously clean cup from the kitchen filled with… something.
"I brought it for you," he said.
"What?" Remus struggled to sit up, fighting against the tide of twisted blankets. "What is it?"
"It's snow," Sirius said, as if it should be obvious. "Snow in a cup. So now you can go back to sleep, and you won't have missed it."
Remus took the cup from Sirius, and stared down into it. It was lightly packed, fluffy, powdery snow. The kind of snow that collected only on the tops of bushes, and along the edges of railings.
"It's charmed not to melt for a while," he continued. "So you can touch it, and smell it, and it'll be almost like you were outside, Moony." Sirius was grinning at him, looking flushed and damp and suddenly, almost impossibly beautiful.
Remus reached out and pulled him in close enough for a kiss. "I love it, Padfoot."
"I'm sorry I woke you up," Sirius said more gently. He nuzzled against Remus's neck, all cold nose and wet hair. "I didn't want you to miss it. You've never had to, before."
"It's alright," Remus said. He held onto Sirius for an extra moment, and Sirius squirmed until he managed to kick off his boots and slide the lower half of his body onto the bed. "I'm glad you brought it."
There didn't seem to be much to be angry about anymore, with Sirius curled against his side, and a cup full of snow on the bedside table that would still be there in the morning.