Sirius' hands were raised as if he wanted to grab Remus, but was stuck between the decision to shake or embrace him, and his mouth hung open in a stunned expression as if he had just been slapped.
"By me," he finished for Remus, and looked at his own hands before lowering them. "Moony, I would never intentionally hurt you."

Remus pressed his lips together, closing his eyes. "It's not the intentional I'm worried about. It's the unintentional that makes me concerned," he said softly, and finally looked up at Sirius again. "I know you would never hurt me intentionally."

"What, because I've hurt you in the past?" Sirius snapped. "I didn't know, Moony. You can't punish me for that, and you can't punish me for potential hurt I could cause you. I mean, you can, but where will it get you? Where will it get us? Just-"
He gritted his teeth and sighed a breath. "Do you want to do this, or not?"

Remus ran his hand through his hair, ignoring the tears pricking the back of his eyes and swallowing them. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I want to do this, but I'm making it so damn hard for myself..." He wrapped his arms around himself, closing his eyes. "I don't trust myself not to hurt you, either, and it's just really hard for me to suspend that fear."

There had always been something there with Moony - something small and hardly distinguishable from an alcohol buzz or a high from just hanging out with the Marauders, definitely to somebody who didn't really want to notice it. But in hindsight, Sirius knew it was there, in the way he joked with, and touched, and sometimes looked at Remus, nothing like he did with James or Peter.
"You are making it hard," Sirius agreed harshly. "Forgive me for thinking you'd, oh, I don't know, crack a fucking smile that I actually feel the same way! Tell me, Moony, do you ever get annoyed with yourself for the way you squeeze all of the excitement out of something by overthinking it? Because I do."

Remus closed his eyes even tighter. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to live inside my head? The constant paranoia, inability to enjoy life. It's fucking annoying, but I have no way to stop it, and if you don't want to deal with it...you may as well leave. Because I'm not going to let you stick around and watch me fall apart. Of course I'm happy as fuck that you're even still talking to me after all the shit that went down last night. And I want to tell you that, or show you somehow, but my over-analytical, ridiculously paranoid mind won't allow me to express what my heart feels!" He took a deep, shaky breath, voice falling to a hardly-audible whisper. "All I want is to be happy. With you."

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to live with you? Look, I've been coping with your inability to enjoy life for four years, Moony," Sirius reached out and curled a hand into the shoulder of Remus' jumper, holding him at arms length so he could look into his face and get the point across. Amusement touched the corner of his mouth as he spoke. "We've been friends for four years. You're a ball of constant paranoia and I'm a reckless idiot, but we're still into each other. So you can stop overthinking that part now. We've just got to get on with it, so would you please just shut up and fucking kiss me already?"

Remus listened to Sirius silently, avoiding eye contact by staring at the other boy's shoulder. He smiled slightly and slipped out from his grip, closing the distance between them and kissing him gently.

Sirius pulled back a little with a satisfied smile. "Can we try not to make a habit of arguing before every kiss?" He asked quickly, before diving back in to claim Remus' mouth.

Remus avoided the kiss, smirking. "Yes, yes we can," he murmured, finally kissing Sirius again. He smiled into the kiss.

Sirius curled an arm around Remus' waist until they were flush up against one another, then reached the other up to tangle in his hair. He realized, as he sighed into another lingering kiss, that they should probably have been aware of someone spotting them, but found it very difficul to care enough to stop.

Remus moved one of his hands up to Sirius' shoulder, pulling away ever so slightly. "Someone could see," he breathed.

"Lucky them," he joked, breathlessly, but loosened his hold on Remus. Sirius stared for a second, caught off guard by the colour of Remus' mouth, kiss-swollen and redder than before, and pressed his mouth up against it one more time. "We could carry on somewhere more secluded?"

Remus could only smile until he was actually asked a question. He looked up at Sirius through the fringe of his hair, biting his lip. "Of course," he breathed.

"You are- You're a proper dark horse under all that, aren't you? I bet you've fucking dreamed of me asking you that," Sirius grinned wickedly at Remus biting his lip. "Where to then? Shrieking Shack?"

"You're awful!" Remus breathed, though he caught his lip in his teeth again. "Shrieking Shack sounds good."

"Your dreams, Moony!" Sirius laughed as he moved away and took Remus by the wrist instead, heading off toward the Whomping Willow.
"I'm gonna have to go Padfoot to get in," he added, seemingly to himself, as they trekked across the grounds. "You'll have to bring my clothes when you come and try your hardest not to cop a look, you dirty thing!"

Remus blushed furiously. He didn't think like that- did he? He shook his head. "You act as if I've never seen it," Remus pointed out. "You're pretty shameless about walking around, naked as the day you were born." He lifted an eyebrow up at Sirius. "However, I will bring your clothes, if not for your comfort, then for my own," Remus ran a hand through his hair, gaining his confidence.

Sirius chuckled at the truth in Remus' words. "I wondered what you'd been using to tide yourself over all these years. Getting off on watching me change back, eh?" He winked over his shoulder, smirking wildly. "Now I know you're looking I may have just come over all self-conscious!"

"Oh, fuck you, Padfoot," Remus rolled his eyes. "You and I both know I didn't." He was smirking despite his honesty; he didn't do...that. It just wasn't something he'd necessarily ever thought about. He looked up at Sirius, waiting for another joke.

"Fuck me, indeed," Sirius retorted quickly with a glint in his eye that Remus possibly could have read something into, but disappeared as they approached the boundary of the willow.

"Alright, well, this is gonna be embarrassing." Sirius sighed, knowing exactly how difficult it was going to be to accomplish something that a creature the size of a mouse usually did. "Any chance at all I could convince you not to watch?"

Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius' comment but bit his tongue. "It will be difficult. You know, since Peter's animagus is about eight inches standing on his hind legs," he said, a bit sarcastically. "I won't watch, promise." He closed his eyes. "See?"

"No shit. Which is why you're going to look away while I get beaten and humiliated by a tree. The things I do for you, Moony!" Sirius muttered, pushing Remus by the shoulder until he was facing the other way and then shook himself into Padfoot.
It took considerably longer than when Wormtail did it, but after a couple of close-calls with the branches and one side swipe to the back leg that Sirius somehow managed not to let take him down, he smacked into the knot and the willow froze.
The dog gave a short, sharp bark to Remus and stood panting by the entrance to the tunnel.

Remus turned and retrieved Sirius' clothing, then made his way fairly quickly to where he waited. He ducked into the tunnel entrance, knowing Sirius would follow suit.

Sirius nudge Remus' hand with his head as he passed, and moved further into the darkness of the tunnel to change back.
"Chuck my stuff up here, then we can get a bloody light on" he said hurriedly, teeth beginning to chatter.

Remus did as he was told, rubbing his arms as he was chilled.

Sirius finished getting dressed by pulling his sweater down over his haphazardly buttoned shirt and tugged his wand from his pocket. "Lumos," he muttered, and held his wand arm outstretched toward Remus, grinning when his face came into view. "Alright, I'm decent. For now, anyway."
Sirius lunged forward and grabbed Remus by the hand to begin stumbling through the tunnel until they reached the entrance beneath the Shrieking Shack, both gasping for breath.