All the Way Down
Part II.
We enter touch entirely. No one's alone.
--Anne Sexton "The Truth the Dead Know"
Remus felt a familiar tugging at his naval just as he began hearing the alarm sound of screaming and glass breaking coming from the other side of the bathroom wall.
He mumbled incoherently into Severus's robes as the couple reappeared in a small dark hotel room. Severus helped the shaking smaller man sit onto the room's only bed and gently eased him down.
Remus tried to move his head to look around the cluttered room, but found the task nearly impossible. The apparition had left his head stuffed with cotton. It was a feat in itself to pull any distant thought through the thick fog in his head. With a growing concern he tried to concentrate on the sound of Severus's purposeful footsteps and frantic movements around him.
"Drink this" Severus instructed, pushing a vial to Remus's lips as he carefully tilted the man's head back. If Remus wanted to protest, he couldn't.
Satisfied that the werewolf had ingested all the potion, Severus allowed himself a moment to slump into the lumpy bed next to his sick companion. Remus's head lie curled into his chest and his hair lie on the sheets in damp clumps. Severus placed his thin fingers onto the sleeping man's shoulders until the unnerving jerky shaking of Remus's arms and hands subsided. He listened to the other man's breathing as he drug slowly on a cigarette he had retrieved from the end table pressed against he bed.
After a few silent moments, he rose from the bed and glanced into the bathroom mirror with a dissatisfied sneer before disappearing from the apartment with a quiet pop.
Remus couldn't be sure how much time he had slept when he woke. The only concern he wanted to address getting warm. He concentrated with growing clarity on the fog retreating from his mind. His skin was clammy and he wanted to bury himself more in the unfamiliar bed. Before realizing, with every minute that passed, exactly how unfamiliar the bed was. He quickly tried to assess his last memories, but the mere action hurt his head.
There was a girl he had been vaguely introduced to by Sirius. Sirius. Sirius kissing someone. He groaned softly into the mattress. His slow frustration at his momentary blackout was quickly growing into frantic alarm. He propped himself on his elbow and assessed his surroundings. No nameless lover, that was good. Maybe, his unconscious chided him, he noted with annoyance.
He turned on the lamp next to the bed and took in his surroundings. The small space was cluttered with newspaper and vials. There were pillows and sheets lying on the floor next to open textbooks and half full tea cups, and the lingering smell of alcohol beneath it all.
Severus Snape strode through the deafening club with expert intent. An emaciated green haired singer screamed into a microphone while floating above the hands of a comparatively dressed audience. Severus weaved his way through the thick crowd to the bar.
He frowned in recognition of what he had come for. Striding confidentially up to the crowded bar he pushed on the shoulders of a stylish young man and spun him around.
"What the hell is going on." He spit into the face of the man who may have been handsome if his eyes hadn't been coated in mounds of eyeliner.
"Sev!" The man said as he dove into Severus's chest for a hug.
"You never take me up on my invites! You'll be glad you came," the man's blue eyes ran over Severus's thin figure, "and look how sexy," he finished with a smirk.
"No Regulas. Listen to me," Severus spoke urgently in his deep monotones into the man's ear. The younger man sobered quickly.
"I'll take care of it" Regulus responded softly into his drink. Severus nodded; knowing the man well enough to be confident of that he was serious.
"Fuck" he said as he reappeared in his apartment. Remus was laying unsteadily on a pile of text books in the center of the hotel room.
"Off the spine Lupin!" He commanded, casting a concerned glance to his manual on magical unwater herbs, as he hulled the wobbling man to his feet.
"What the fuck is going on Snape" Remus commanded roughly with more confidence that he could back without full control of his limbs.
Severus half carried the man to a nearby chair.
"You can't remember?" Severus asked, rising an eyebrow as Remus glared suspiciously. The tawny haired man reluctantly shook his head, but the glare remained.
"You had too much to drink Lupin," Severus divulged with a long sigh, "You practically begged me to allow you to come back with me. And since I'm in no way that desperate, I graciously allowed you sleep it off," Severus finished, digging in his pocket for a cigarette.
"Bullshit," Remus managed to say with more certainly than he could feel.
"I don't have time for this" Severus responded, placing a cigarette to his lips and lighting it.
"Where is Sirius?" Remus asked, suddenly remembering his companion.
"I'm not Black's keeper" Severus sneered as he blew smoke. The dark eyed man turned the lights on in the messy room with a flick of his wand.
"I want to leave now." Remus said with as much composure as he could muster.
"No," Severus replied striding across the room and put a kettle on the stove, "Absolutely not."
