By the time they got back, dried off and bundled up in the common room, now actually feeling the chill of the first colder evening in months, Sirius noticed something.

Moony looked exhausted.

Ruffled, still a bit like a puppy left in the rain, still so attractive that Sirius' heart just wouldn't stop pounding, but so incredibly exhausted.

Dark circles under his eyes were too prominent for a healthy state, and his eyes kept closing slowly, as he obviously fought them with all he had.

His posture was not as perfectly straight as usual either and that meant that he had to really have felt tired as perfectly state was the only state Remus would ever allow others to see him.

Sirius immediately began doing mental math, almost an instinctive reaction to anything out of the ordinary that had to do with Remus.

"Oh, Merlin, Moony, it's tomorrow, isn't it?" Sirius tried his best to keep his voice down and sound adequately angry at the same time. He was angry both at himself for forgetting and at Remus for pushing himself and as Remus looked up at him with a soft smile and an innocent glint in his eyes it only served to ignite the anger more.

"Oh, that, yeah." Remus nodded and closed the book laying in his lap.

A group of girls giggled in the corner of the room which made Sirius lower his voice even more.

"You should've stayed in today then." He grunted.

"I'm fine, Padfoot." Moony rolled his eyes.

"You're exhausted is what you are." Sirius retaliated shaking his head in disapproval.

"I couldn't just let you go out there and do that and not do anything about it, now could I? So, shush." Moony replied and gave Sirius an exasperated look.

"Wait. Oh. So you actually followed me? I thought that was accidental." Sirius scrunched his eyebrows.

"I followed you." Remus shrugged.

"How did you know?" Sirius asked confused.

"Sirius, how long have we known each other for? Even if I pretend that I don't sometimes, and let you do as you please, I always know when you're up to something. That and Peter said you were acting weird. Maniacal laugh and all that." Remus explained.

"The poor guy's confused. That was obviously an evil genius laugh." Sirius stuck his nose up and said indignantly.

"Whatever you say, Padfoot." Remus grinned and Sirius couldn't help but feel relieved that the guy seemed to be in a better mood now.

Someone entered through the portrait hole and they turned to see who it was.

James helped Lily climb in holding out his hand and smiling like it was just about the happiest day of his life.

"They're back." Remus noted. "Someone's going to get it now. Better hide."

"Now, Moony, wouldn't you protect your best friend from the vengeful James Potter." Sirius grinned and jumped up pushing the book off Moony's lap and replacing it with himself.

He realised his error just a second too late when he was already pressed up against the warmth of Remus' body and their faces were about five centimetres apart.

Sirius needed to be more careful or he was going to do something stupid one day. Like kissing those slightly open lips that looked so, so, so very inviting.

"At least don't do it in public." James said approaching them as Lily went up to the girls' dorms.

"Get off, Sirius." Remus breathed out at the same time while squirming under Sirius' weight trying to push him away. "Everything hurts as it is, without your heavy arse crushing my poor limbs."

"Are you calling me fat?" Sirius exclaimed acting scandalised, but listened to the guilty feeling in his gut and got off immediately.

"If the shoe fits…" James interjected.

Sirius huffed and crossed his arms dramatically.

"Some friends." He grunted.

"Anyway, why does 'everything hurt', Remus?" James tilted his head to the side.

Remus stayed quiet while Sirius caught James' eye and gave him a glare that obviously said that he should know already.

After about a minute of awkward silence understanding almost visibly dawned upon James.

"Oh. Right. Wait, is it tomorrow?" He asked suddenly alarmed.

"Yeah." Sirius replied suddenly a bit annoyed with James for forgetting too.

"Shit." James muttered.

"What?" Moony asked looking up at him.

"I asked Lily to meet me after curfew tomorrow." James hummed sheepishly.

Sirius exchanged a look with Remus.

"So? Cancel it." Sirius replied his annoyance growing because it shouldn't have even been a problem to begin with.

"Don't." Remus snapped before James could even open his mouth.

"Yes, cancel it." Sirius said giving Remus an aggravated look.

"No, it's fine. Really, it is. Don't cancel, it's okay." Remus argued.

"You sure?" James asked Moony.

"What? No!" Sirius exclaimed, feeling his muscles tense with fury.

How could James be such an asshole?

"It'll be fine, James, just go." Remus said, trying to silence Sirius with a scowl.

Sirius opened his mouth to protest further.

"Sirius, shut up. It's fine. I'm going up, I need to finish my homework before tomorrow." Moony snapped and gave a slightly taken aback James an encouraging smile.

Sirius and James stood there and watched as Remus picked up his book and disappeared up the stairs.

Sirius was speechless for a bit and then the first thing that came out of his mouth was the one spinning in his mind.

"You're a prick, James."

He couldn't remember the last time he was this angry with Potter.

"What? He said it was fine." James defended himself.

Sirius looked at his friend disbelieving what he was saying.

"Of course he said it was fine! He's Remus! Doesn't mean it's actually fine!"

James raised his eyebrows and stepped back a little bit.

"No need to bite!" He growled back. "Why are you so angry, it's just one time!"

Sirius could barely hold in the urge to shake James.

He then realized that they were attracting too much attention and ran the conversation back in his head making sure that they were being vague enough. Realizing that the worst thing someone could've gotten from it was that they were weird he relaxed a bit and grabbed James' collar dragging him to the portrait hole.

"Hey!" James objected.

"We need to talk." Sirius gritted out, thinking that James should be glad he didn't simply punch him.

When Sirius found an empty classroom he thrust James into it and close the door behind.

"Are you a fucking idiot? How could you do this?" He asked keeping his voice as calm as possible.

"What's the big deal?" James replied seemingly confused.

"The big deal is that we promised Moony that he would never have to turn without us again!" Sirius ground out.

The blue eyes staring at him defensively were not even close to being pretty right then.

Forget being in love with Potter, at that moment Sirius didn't even like him.

"It's not like he'll be alone! You'll be there… Peter too. No need to get all angry with me." James replied gesturing with his hands wildly.

"That doesn't give you the right to break a promise to your friend just because you don't want to reschedule shagging your girlfriend." Sirius bit out venomously.

Didn't James get that it was not just about physically being there? That Remus needed to know they were all there, never too busy when he needed them?

"Look, he said it was fine. It's just one time! You'll be there. Just calm down." James grunted clearly annoyed.

"But it's not fine! Don't you want to be there? Wouldn't it bother you that your friend is being ripped to shreds and reformed again, writhing in pain while you're doing god knows what with some stupid chit." Sirius groaned at his friend's stupidity.

"Hey! It's Lily, don't talk about her like-"

"I'll talk about her whatever way I want, if you keep acting like this!" Sirius retaliated.

James looked down and stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Whatever, I'm not coming." He muttered and Sirius just about lost it.

It took a bit of time and heavy breathing to calm himself down, but he managed.

"Prick." Sirius whispered under his breath when he was sure he could control his voice. "Have fun tomorrow. Don't bother talking to me afterwards."

He turned to leave.

"I just need to know that you'll be fine without me." James squeezed out right before Sirius' hand reached the door handle.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Sirius turned around and asked raising one eyebrow.

"I mean if something happens to me and Lily, I just need to know that you will be there for Moony, even if I'm not there. That's why I'm not coming tomorrow. I want to see how you get on without me. You know there's a war around us. I just…You're both like kids sometimes. You and Remus. I just want to see that even with your insecurities you'll stick together." James ranted looking down and rubbing his neck with one hand.

Sirius took it all in and snorted.

"That's ridiculous. Something could happen to any one of us. You don't see anyone else acting like idiots, right? And just what is that supposed to mean 'I need to see you'll stick together'. Like what? I don't care about Remus and am only doing this for him because the Great James Potter is leading this charitable way. Get your head out of your arse. He's my friend. I'll stick by him no matter what. We're like kids? Our insecurities? Guess what, I don't actually need your lead to be a good person, insecurities or no, I know who I am and what I stand for." Sirius said looking Potter right in the eyes and feeling like what he was seeing was not the person he knew. Also, saying all this out loud for the first time, he actually realized that it was all true. He would be just fine without James. He would still be the same person. "And if you're so keen on pointing out Remus' insecurities, then maybe you should realise that he needs to know that we're all here. More than anything. More than some stupid little mind games 'oh, I'll take myself out of the equation and see how they act without my noble presence there'."

James looked like he was about to interrupt but Sirius was not finished.

"You've been there since the beginning and now you get a girlfriend and suddenly you're not there anymore. Do you even get how Remus thinks? What kind of conclusions he will draw from this?" Sirius shook his head angrily.

"No, but apparently you do." James murmured quietly. "So maybe you should sweep in and save the day. Isn't that what you want to be for him. A knight in shining armor? Well, go ahead isn't this a perfect situation for you then? Go ahead make me the bad guy. You just forget that maybe he needs to know how to stand on his own. Without us."

"Oh, I think that he knows perfectly well how to be alone. But why should he? I'll do everything in my power to stand beside him. Everything." Sirius gritted out. "And more so, I'll make sure that he knows it."

Sirius spat that into James' face turned around and stormed out.

Right before the door slammed shut, he swore he heard James mutter 'that's what I needed to hear'. But maybe his hearing was playing tricks on him.

"You know, Moony," Sirius hummed as he got back to the dorm and sat down on the end of Remus' bed on which the guy was laying elbows-deep into books and papers. "James is a prick, but he's just making some stupid point. Don't overthink it, yeah?"

"I wasn't going to. The point is quite clear anyway. You're not going to be there forever, I need to rely on you less. I get it." Remus replied emotionlessly, not even raising his eyes from whatever he was reading.

"No. You don't need to rely on us less. We…" Sirius stopped for a moment and decided to speak for himself instead. Right now he wasn't sure where James stood with this and though he wanted to believe he knew that James would always put Remus near the top of the priority list, he didn't know. And Peter was a whole 'nother deal altogether. "I'm here for you, yeah?"

"You won't always be. You have your own life." Remus shrugged and his nonchalance and matter-of- fact tone bothered Sirius.

"And you're a part of it. And yes, I will always be there." Sirius argued.

"That's nice." Remus hummed and Sirius groaned in exasperation.

"I'm not a kid, Remus, don't use that tone with me, and would you please look here when I'm talking to you, Mr. Cold-As-Stone-Don't-Really-Care."

Remus slowly put the quill down and stared at his hands for a few moments before raising his eyes to Sirius'.

"I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." Sirius said slowly and loudly. "Do you understand?"

The golden eyes were distant and empty.

"I should've said that earlier today." Sirius hummed as he realized that this was what he wanted to communicate under that damned tree. "But even if there's no one else. Even if they're all stupid and don't get how nice it would be to have you in their world, I will always be there. And I don't know whether that means anything. I know it's not enough. But that's all I can promise."

For a moment something flashed in Remus' eyes and Sirius knew that he never before had this strong an urge to kiss someone senseless. Not even with James on top of him in one of their wrestling matches. It was a different kind of want. A brand new type of need.

He just wanted do bad to be close. To be there. To make it known that he was standing there with open arms and no conditions.

And it confused the hell out of Sirius. It was an emotional thunderstorm and Sirius was afraid of being blown away by everything.

And he couldn't comprehend where his need for Moony had come from in his mind usually prone to being occupied by Potter. But it was there and now it was too late to try and deny it when it was already noticed. Maybe tonight he was just noticing things that had always been there. Maybe it was because tonight he had never been as pissed off in his life all because James was being a prick to his golden eyed werewolf.

"It actually means a lot, Sirius." Remus whispered looking down, hiding his expression as always.

"Well it's the truth." Sirius replied.

Inside he was beating his feelings back into whatever corner they had emerged from. James or Remus, unattainable was the case.

And he didn't want to do this to himself, because something told him that unlike with James, if he had to watch Remus go off with someone else after Sirius let his heart run away with itself, he was not going to survive it.

"Oh, hi." Peter barged into the room, completely unaware of the atmosphere.

"Hi, Peter." Remus replied. "Where have you been?"

Monday morning Remus woke up aching everywhere. Every single bone in his body was screaming.

He didn't want to open his eyes with hopes that he could fall back to sleep and not feel the pain for just a little bit longer.

But he knew he had to wake up and that Madam Pomfrey would be coming soon.

He was met with a concerned grey eyed gaze.

James hadn't showed up. Peter was gone already.

But Sirius was there. Kneeling over him, checking his body for larger wounds.

And it felt good.

"Morning." Remus rasped out.

"Morning." Sirius replied with a small smile, that didn't quite reach his eyes as he fussed over some scratch above Remus' elbow with his wand in hand.

Remus didn't know why, but it that 'morning' he heard 'I told you, I'd be here'.