Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine. The story is though :)
Remus was sitting out on the porch on the back of Grimmauld. It had been a devastating night, and yet, for some reason he was able to find some comfort in the stars. He had to close his eyes when they came across that all to bright beacon in the sky. "Sirius," he murmured under his breath. He sighed heavily and buried his face in his hands.
He could still hear his best friend's laugh behind him. So he looked up and he could swear he still saw him. "Go away," he snapped angrily at his own mind. That's all it was, his mind. That's what he could keep telling himself . It worked until he felt the vibrations of the heavy steps caused by the motorcycle boots his friend had always worn. Remus struggled to keep everything in the past tense. Sirius was dead. He had fallen through the veil. He'd watched. He'd held Harry back from running in after his godfather.
Remus drew in a shaky breath. He looked back up at the stars. It seemed that whatever was torturing had taken a break for the moment at least. He still didn't dare to look up lest his eyes betray his mind again. His mind began to drift as he started to study the patterns of the bright spots that were splayed against the sky. He could think as far back as his childhood and his ongoing fascination with them. He'd always seen them for what they were, burning balls of gas spread millions of light years across the universe. It really wasn't until he went to school and he met his friends that he saw them as beautiful and nothing else.
He was jolted out of his reverie when he realized that someone was, in fact, sitting next to him. Remus froze. After all these years of losing people, he himself had finally lost it. It wasn't until he heard the broken sob next to him that he realized that who he'd seen and what he'd heard wasn't Sirius. He looked up next to him to see Sirius's cousin sitting next to him. Remus raised his eyebrows gently, she had never seemed the type to let her guard down around others.
Remus pulled a piece of chocolate out of his coat pocket and offered it to her. Tonks let out a watery laugh. "Is that your answer to everything?" she asked softly. He shook his head quietly. A heavy silence passed between the grief stricken pair. Neither seemed to want to upset the other by saying the wrong words of comfort. Tonks was the one to break it eventually.
"Y'know when I was a kid, Sirius would take me out at night when he sat for me," she whispered, "He told me about the constellations and the stories behind them. But he never answered me when I asked what they were. He always just said whatever you want them to be." Remus gave a weak smile. He was the one who had "ruined" the stars for Sirius and his friend had sworn he'd never do the same to anyone else.
Remus looked up at the woman sitting next to him. Her hair was dark and hung limply around her face but her eyes were focused and fixed fiercely on him. It was rather unnerving to be looked at so closely. Tonks raised a hand tentatively and put it on his face. Remus unconsciously leaned into the touch before stopping himself and drawing back sharply. He couldn't do this. Tonks turned so she was facing the yard as Remus was again.
"Eyes," she murmured, "I always fancied they were eyes of everyone we love watching over us after they've been taken." Remus stood up abruptly, suddenly finding this moment to be far too intimate for his liking. He paused for a moment before he went inside.
"They're only balls of gas atoms burning millions of light years away from us," he said bitterly. He left Tonks there, fighting back tears until she was sure she was alone. Remus leaned against the door once he was inside. He let out a heavy sigh. He was too old, it was too dangerous, he couldn't lose someone he loved again.