Nic: Had to put my reply here as you weren't logged in. Sorry but this fic is not going to be a drama - no suspense, no relapses, no Molly fussing, very little self sacrifice unless you include Remus and Maddy not jumping each other the second they start to realise their attraction :-) It's a little bit angsty but essentially a love story (and an excuse to write sex scenes so Remus can get laid). My stuff usually starts off quite slow as I try and give you some background to the OC and I hope I haven't made Maddy a 'Mary-Sue' (though I've never been really sure what a Mary-Sue is exactly - I'm assuming it's not a good thing). Thanks for reading though, and I hope you warm to it in coming chapters.
As I promised, we jump ahead six months and we have sex this chapter. Yay!! And you know that once I get them started, they don't stop shagging until their hearts give out!
Chapter Four
Six months later
'Merry Christmas, Remus, Maddy, Teddy,' Arthur Weasley said cheerfully, letting them into his house.
He shook Remus' hand and took his coat, then gave Maddy a hug before he took hers as well. Ushering them into the living room, they heard various voices calling out greetings.
'I'm going to give Molly a hand,' Maddy mumbled, waving to the room in general then handing Teddy to Remus, kissing the little boy quickly when he let out a noise of complaint.
Remus watched her as she disappeared, then shook himself out of his stupor and made his way across the room to sit with Bill and Charlie Weasley.
They chatted for several minutes, Harry taking Teddy, his godson, off him and wandering off to the other room.
'So,' Bill said quietly after Charlie excused himself to get a drink. 'How are things going?'
Remus smiled at him. 'Everything's fine,' he told his friend. 'I'm back on my feet and getting on with things. Having Teddy back has helped.'
His son had only returned to him full time in the last couple of months, his recovery taking longer than anyone but Maddy had expected.
'And having Maddy staying with you still must help too,' Bill said slyly and his tone made Remus frown.
'It's not like that, Bill,' he insisted.
'Isn't it?' he retorted knowingly. 'I saw the way you were looking at her just now. You two act like a couple with each other. If it isn't like that yet, it will be soon.'
Remus shook his head and sighed, picking at a loose thread on his pants, trying ignore the little twinge inside of him that said the other man wasn't completely wrong.
Maddy had been set to leave once Remus was well enough to have Teddy back but he'd talked her into staying. He liked having another adult around and enjoyed her company. Maddy had no place to live - having given up the house she and Marc had shared.
'I can't stand being there,' she told him at the time.
She hadn't returned to work, deciding to take a long leave of absence to try and fully recover from the attack and Marc's death. It made sense for her to stay living with him, and it made his monthly transformations easier, knowing that Teddy was being well cared for by his godmother. He knew that it probably wasn't particularly healthy that he and Maddy still lived together; still leaned on each other but he couldn't seem to face her leaving.
Then, there was his current, and more bothersome, problem.
He was attracted to Maddy - not necessarily a surprise after the last six months. It had taken every one of these last months before Maddy stopped jumping at the slightest touch - and it had taken a lot of physical contact with other people, people she trusted, to get her to where she was now. And since Remus was the person she trusted most, he'd been the one to do most of the touching.
'The counsellor called it a kind of immersion therapy,' she'd told him when she'd first asked him to do it. 'I'm sorry to ask you but if you don't mind…I think it'll help.'
She'd asked Remus to use physical contact with her: touching her shoulder, holding hands, arms around each other. All innocent and platonic - but necessary to stop her flinching at the slightest touch. It had been working well: her therapist had ended their sessions several weeks ago and told her that she should start thinking about getting back into the dating scene whenever she was ready.
Remus had agreed to do this for her reluctantly at first, but now the problem was how to stop touching her; stop wanting to touch her.
'It's not Maddy so much as my general horniness,' he kept telling himself, irritably. 'I'd get a hard on looking at Molly, I'm so fucking desperate.'
He couldn't even escape in his sleep . He'd started dreaming about sex, more specifically, sex with Maddy, and he was embarrassed one morning to discover he'd had his first wet dream since he was sixteen.
Six months. Wasn't that too soon to start looking at other women, especially a woman who had been his late wife's best friend?
Maddy greeted Molly and her daughter in law, Fleur, with a hug then sat down to help with the vegetables. She and Fleur spoke quietly for a while about the other woman's new pregnancy then Maddy told her that Teddy had taken his first steps last week.
'It was only one or two,' she said with a big grin. 'But you should have seen his face. He looked so proud of himself. And Remus shot a whole roll of film. I told him to wait a week or two and he'd be walking everywhere but he was too excited.'
Molly and Fleur exchanged a look and Maddy frowned. 'What's wrong?' she asked and Molly sat next to her.
'You and Remus have become very close,' she said delicately and Maddy's frown deepened.
'We have,' she agreed, her voice holding a dangerous tone, warning them she'd only tolerate this line of questioning so far.
'You don't think you might be getting too close?' Fleur asked.
Maddy's jaw clenched and she didn't answer immediately because she didn't want to lie. Yes - she did think they were on the verge of overstepping the boundaries that had been looking a little shaky over the last few weeks. She was reluctant to admit that she thought about Remus in that way, feeling a little like she betraying both Marc, by being attracted to another man, and Tonks by being attracted to her husband, but it was getting harder to ignore the sexual tension in the house when they were alone.
'If you want to say something to me, please just say it,' she told the two women now.
'It's simple to just fall into the habit of being with someone because it's uncomplicated and familiar,' Molly said gently. 'If you and Remus have plans for a future together…'
'We don't,' Maddy said firmly.
'Then don't you think it's time to stop leaning on each other and to try and get on with your lives?' Fleur said. 'How are you going to be able to move on, maybe find someone else, if you are so reliant on each other?'
Maddy sighed and put down the peeler. 'You aren't saying anything Remus and I haven't said a thousand times - to ourselves and each other,' she said, leaning back in her chair. 'It's just…it's hard to move on. I guess it's easier to stay as we are.'
'Easier,' said Molly. 'But not necessarily healthier.'
Maddy nodded and stood up. 'I'm going to go for a walk,' she told them, seeing their frowns. 'I'll be careful. I just need some space.'
She rugged up against the cold and went for a walk in the woods, coming back twenty minutes later to see Remus sitting on the stairs of the porch, staring off blankly into the distance.
'Hi,' she said and he looked over at her.
He grinned and shifted so she could sit down beside him. 'Hey,' he said as she sat. 'It's cold out here, isn't it?'
'Yeah,' she mumbled, her whole body felt frozen. She shivered, Remus noticed and put his arm around her shoulders, rubbing her arm to try and warm her up.
'Don't let Molly see you doing that,' she said softly, leaning her head against his shoulder. 'She's already given me one lecture today.'
'About how much time we spend together?' he asked and she nodded, looking up at him.
'Did you get one too?' she asked and he shrugged, drawing her gently back to his chest.
'Kind of,' he told her. 'Bill's not as good as Molly at lectures but he got the general point across. They think we shouldn't live together anymore.'
Maddy sighed then pulled away from him. 'Not bad advice,' she admitted, looking at him. 'We've discussed this before.'
He sighed as well, not liking where this was going. 'You're moving out, aren't you?' he said resignedly and she nodded.
'As soon as I find a place,' she said softly. 'We'll still see each other…'
Remus' jaw clenched and he looked back out over the yard, pulling her back against his side. They were quiet for a minute then Remus said in a half whisper, 'I'll miss you, Maddy.'
She swallowed hard then said, 'I'll miss you too.'
A door opened behind them and Charlie poked his head out then waved his wand. 'Come in from under that mistletoe and have some dinner,' he called with a mischievious grin then disappeared again.
Maddy and Remus both looked up at the same time to see a sprig of mistletoe hanging above them that had definitely not been there before Charlie appeared.
'Childish,' Maddy chided then looked at Remus.
'It's bad luck not to kiss under that stuff, you know,' he told her with a smile and she let out a soft breath of laughter.
'I don't think I could be any unluckier than I've already been this year,' she said, standing up.
Remus stood up too and, when she turned to walk up the stairs, he grasped her arm. 'I'm not prepared to take the chance,' he murmured then quickly leaned over and kissed her.
Soft, short and, on the surface, perfectly innocent but enough to make their cold bodies suddenly begin to overheat. He pulled away, the kiss only lasting a few seconds, but he could see on her face that it had shaken her as much as it had him. The soft press of their lips had made him hotter than he could remember being in a long time.
'God, I really need to get laid,' he thought.
'We should go in,' she said a little shakily then turned and left him trying to will his erection to deflate.
They ate Christmas lunch without saying a word to each other, confused and aroused by the kiss, both of them cursing the fact they wanted to do it again - properly this time. Remus was taking Teddy to Andromeda's after lunch and Maddy apparated back to his place, trying to read then giving up and turning on the record player, finding some old songs she loved. She sang along softly, swaying to the music as she cleaned the kitchen cupboards out, needing to do something with her hands. She could feel the imprint of his lips on hers and her whole body was tingling still from the tiny kiss.
'How could I have let this happen?' she mumbled as she rubbed vigorously at a spot of spilt sauce. 'He's my friend. I don't want anything to get in the way of that.'
Remus heard the music as he walked in at sunset, then watched affectionately from the doorway as Maddy's ass moved from side to side and she sang softly along with a Billie Holliday song.
She turned around, jumping when she saw him.
'Sorry,' he said quickly, knowing she was still a little skittish when surprised.
She shook her head, blushing when she realised he'd been watching her.
'You want a drink?' he asked, moving into the room and she looked surprised.
'Where's Teddy?' she asked, knowing he'd never drink with his son in the house.
'He fell asleep at Andromeda's so I left him there for the night,' he said, getting two glasses out of the cupboard and a bottle of fairly potent mead. 'She's thrilled and I'm kind of glad. It's been a long day and I feel like getting shit faced.'
Maddy stared at him then giggled. 'It's weird hearing you swear,' she told him when he looked questioningly at her. 'You don't do it very often.'
She took the full glass he offered and took a sip. Remus walked out to the living room and sat down, taking a large gulp of his drink. Maddy moved to turn off the music but he stopped her.
'Leave it on,' he told her.
She sat down next to him and they drank in silence for a while just listening to the music. Remus refilled their glasses after they were quickly emptied.
'Should we talk about it?' he asked suddenly, after they'd both downed half of their second glass. Maddy glanced over at him then looked away as he turned his head towards her. 'Maddy?'
'There's nothing to talk about, is there?' she said quietly. 'It's not as though we made out, Remus. It was a quick kiss under the mistletoe for good luck.'
She took a long pull of her drink, nearly finishing it. 'Those kids kept moving that stuff around all morning. I also got caught by Charlie under the mistletoe - he stuck his damn tongue in my mouth, and, if I saw correctly, you kissed Molly and Hermione.'
'Kissing Molly and Hermione didn't give me a hard on,' he muttered under his breath.
'Sorry?' she said, finishing the mead.
'Nothing,' he said louder, grabbing the bottle and pouring more into his glass then filling Maddy's as well.
'I feel guilty,' Remus said with a frown. 'I feel guilty sometimes that I'm happy or that I'm laughing. Like I shouldn't be smiling without her.'
'I know,' she murmured, curling up into the corner of the couch. 'I'll forget for a while then feel bad that I'm not thinking about him. Is it too soon to not be thinking about him all the time?'
'I don't know,' he admitted, shifting on the seat so he was facing her. 'It's been just over six months. Seven months for you. Everyone's started talking about me trying to get out there and date again.'
'Mmm, they've mentioned that to me as well,' she admitted with a frown. 'I don't know if I could face that. Being alone with men I don't know. I can't imagine letting a stranger paw at me.'
Remus murmured an agreement, then frowned a little. 'Do you miss that contact though?' he asked and she looked surprised.
'What? Men pawing at me?'
'No,' he said with a smile. 'Just…affection. You know, touching and hugging and kissing.' He sighed. 'Sex…it's been so damn long I've almost forgotten what to do.'
Maddy giggled and finished her drink, pouring herself another. 'It's just like riding a bike, they say,' she told him and he chuckled, holding out his glass for her to fill it with the last of the mead.
'Those kinds of needs can be met alone though,' he said, the alcohol making him admit to things he wouldn't have discussed with her sober.
Maddy giggled again and turned pink. 'Been doing that a lot, have you?' she teased and Remus' face flamed.
'It has been a while,' he grumbled and she laughed.
'Yeah, well, you're not the only one who's suffering,' she admitted, stretching a little. 'I like sex too. Or at least, I used to. I don't know how I'm going to react to that kind of intimacy now. I want to… I can still…'
She bit her lip and turned pink. 'I still get…you know…needs, and I can still…um, get enjoyment from touching.'
Remus felt his body stir as an image of her touching herself ran through his mind. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying not to groan out loud.
'I just don't know if I'll be able to handle a man doing the touching,' she continued. 'I think it'll take someone a long time to earn that kind of trust. If it's someone I know well…'
She looked as though she'd thought better of what she was going to say and she shrugged.
They drank as one then Remus said, 'The point that I was trying to make was that I don't miss sex as much as I do the other stuff. Kissing. I miss kissing. I'm good at kissing. I'm going to get rusty.'
Maddy laughed and sipped at her drink. 'Yeah, I miss that too,' she admitted. 'Maybe that's why we made such a big deal out of a simple peck today. It was nothing but we turned it into an issue.'
Remus frowned, thinking. 'I guess,' he murmured, finishing the drink.
He was silent for a few moments then said, 'I liked it. It was only a little kiss but…it made me feel alive again.'
Heat swept through Maddy and she quickly gulped down the rest of her drink. 'Sorry,' he said softly, seeing her face redden and sensing her discomfort.
Maddy shook her head and said, 'No. Don't be. I felt the same.'
Remus stared at her then leaned over and kissed her. This time, he let his lips linger on hers for longer before he pulled away.
They stared at each other, trying for a moment to not let this happen but now they'd started…
Remus leaned back towards her as Maddy shifted closer and their lips met. Tentatively, softly at first then, as need hit them hard, their lips parted and the kiss they could have still passed off as one between friends turned into something else.
Their glasses fell unnoticed to the floor as their lips teased each other gently. Remus' hands rose to cup her face as the kiss deepened and grew, and he felt Maddy's hands touch his wrists then slide down his arms to come to rest on his chest, clutching at his shirt a little. His tongue flicked at her lip and Maddy moaned.
When he heard the tiny noise, Remus lost hold of the little restraint he'd been employing and pushed her back onto the couch. Panic seeped through the desire and Remus felt her tense up. He pulled away, breathing heavily as he looked down at her face.
'Too much?' he asked, his voice hoarse.
'Just sudden,' she admitted, wanting him to keep kissing her.
'You want to stop?' he asked, on one hand praying she'd say no, on the other wondering if it wouldn't be best if she did stop this.
'Do you?' she asked, seeing the conflict in his eyes.
'No,' he told her. 'But…maybe we should.'
Maddy bit her lip and nodded. 'Maybe we should,' she agreed and Remus sat up, pulling her up as well.
They sat in somewhat stunned silence.
'I didn't mean to frighten you,' Remus said gently, taking her hand.
'You didn't,' she said. 'Not really. I think you just caught me unawares...'
They were quiet for a moment then Maddy stood up, letting his hand drop from hers. 'I'm going to…' she indicated towards her bedroom and Remus nodded in agreement.
'Yeah, me too,' he said standing up. 'I'm going to tidy up first.'
He picked up the glasses and Maddy nodded. 'Night,' she said, backing away.
'Night,' Remus called as he walked towards the kitchen.
Maddy closed the door behind her and let out a shaky breath.
'He is a good kisser,' she mumbled, putting a trembling hand to her lips.
Her whole body was tingling, every nerve awake and aroused and she cursed herself for the sliver of panic she'd allowed through. If she hadn't tensed up, she and Remus would be…
'Making a big mistake,' she told herself firmly.
But if it was sure to be a big mistake, why didn't it feel wrong? And why did she want nothing more than to go out to that kitchen and finish what they'd started? She bit her lip then turned to the door, putting her hand on the knob before hesitating.
'God, what do I want?' she moaned, banging her head not very gently against the wood.
Remus was having a similar discussion with himself in the kitchen, wishing he'd kept his mouth shut about his fleeting doubts.
'Very fleeting,' he muttered, having no such doubts now. He wanted her, badly, and was more than a little surprised that kissing Maddy hadn't felt wrong in the slightest.
'God help me, I'm going to try again,' he told himself, walking down the hall to stand outside her bedroom door.
He took a deep breath then frowned and shook his head, turning and walking back to his room. He put his hand on the knob and pushed the door open then stopped, biting his lip indecisively. He looked over at Maddy's closed door and walked back to stand in front of it, staring at it. Finally he made a decision and raised his hand to knock as the door opened.
'Oh,' she said, jumping a little.
They looked at each other for a moment then Remus stepped forward and kissed her, his heart racing when she didn't hesitate to kiss him back. Their arms moved around each other and the kiss quickly turned hot and hungry, Remus lifting Maddy to her tiptoes, holding her tight against him and moaning at the softness of her body. Her tongue stroked over his and as his teeth scraped her lip gently, she made a desperate noise in her throat. She could feel his long, hard erection pressing against her and was relieved that she felt no sense of panic. Because she wanted him inside her - as soon as possible.
Her hands moved to grasp the hem of his shirt and she pulled away, yanking it over his head quickly. Remus helped pull it off then threw it on the floor as their fingers moved to undo her buttons.
'My room,' he said suddenly before pushing her shirt off her shoulders. 'Bigger bed.'
Maddy nodded and pulled his head down to hers, kissing him again. Remus slid his hands down to her much admired ass and groaned, filling his hands with the denim covered flesh. He walked backwards to his room, fumbling to open the door while keeping his lips on hers.
The next thing he knew they were on his bed and he was pushing down Maddy's jeans as her fingers worked on his fly. Her hand brushed over his hard cock and it twitched, so turned on now he was hurting.
'God, I can't make this slow,' he said desperately into her mouth as they both tugged his jeans and boxers down. 'Maddy, are you sure? Cause this is going to be fast.'
As he kicked his pants off, she yanked her underwear down, making Remus' breath catch in his throat when he saw her completely naked.
'I'm sure,' she whispered then moaned when his mouth fell to her neck, biting gently.
His hand slid over her breast and down her ribs, stopping between her legs. He slid a finger inside her, moaning in relief that she was already wet and ready. Remus shifted, parting her legs then with one long, deep stroke he filled her, both of them groaning at the sensation.
'Jesus, this is going to be even quicker than I thought,' he whispered hoarsely into her ear then he moved, withdrawing only a little before pushing back inside her. 'You feel so incredible.'
'Mmm,' she moaned in agreement, knowing with very little effort on his part, he had her on the edge of orgasm.
She arched up, reaching for the release that hovered just out of her grasp. Remus groaned and moved with her, realising as he did that he had very little left.
'Harder, Remus,' Maddy begged, arching up desperately now.
A surge of lust shook him and he forgot about everything except how she was making him feel. He withdrew and plunged hard and fast back into her heat - once, twice then swore loudly when he felt the burn of his orgasm.
'Fuck,' he cursed, knowing it was too soon but unable to stop it. 'Maddy, I'm coming.'
He thrust once more, crying out as he spilled himself inside her. He collapsed on top of her, breathing hard. He was blown away by how fast and powerful his release had been, then a wave of embarrassment washed over him. He lifted his head and looked at Maddy who was breathing hard as well.
'I'm sorry, Maddy,' he said regretfully, seeing in her face how turned on she was. 'It's just been so long.'
'It's fine,' she assured him but he wasn't accepting it.
'No, it's not,' he said, leaning over to kiss her and, as he pushed against her groin, she gasped a little, his still turgid cock pushing deeper into her.
He did it again and a noise escaped her lips. Two more pushes and she was crying out his name and arching up, one hand on his ass as she held him tight against her, her orgasm strong and long.
A/N: He is human after all!