Rating of R
I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.
Blood Chronicles.
"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter adn the Half-Blood Prince, 334
What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.
Beta read by the most wonderful shimi. For what's right, thank her. For what's wrong, blame me.
Slash and also the main reason why this fic has an R rating. Please do not read if this bothers you. I'm not just talking about a little peck on the lips, either.
Blood Chronicles
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"Petticoat," Sirius said in triumph, leaning over to point at the far edge of the paper that was spread out between the two boys.
"Where?" Remus asked, pen hovering as he searched for the word that his companion had already found.
"Over here," he nudged the pen's point so that it lingered over a small black print 'p'. Then he mapped out the rest of the word with his finger. Remus circled the word while his eyes flew to the list on the right hand side of the page to see what their next word hunt would be after. The further his eyes scanned down the long column, the further put out he became.
"Well," he sighed and laid his pen down on top of the word find book. "That's all of 'em. We've finished another one."
Remus flipped the page, picked up the pen and prepared to start on the next word find challenge. Sirius watched him for a minute and then leaned forward and closed the thin word find book.
"Hey! I was working on that!" Remus snapped in protest and made a grab for the book that he'd had for over two years and was still nowhere near to finished. Sirius pulled it out of his reach and tossed it onto the desk top.
"Yeah, yeah, that much I know," he rolled his eyes. "You might wanna save that for a rainy day."
"But-"
"And besides," Sirius spoke louder, overriding him, "I'm hungry."
"Point?" he stood up, crossed the room to his beaten desk, and flipped through the book with his head tilted, letting his hair fall into his eyes. Haircut, his mind whispered but he brushed the thought aside. Tried to find his page.
"My point is," Sirius said as clearly and slowly as he could through his gritted teeth, "that I'm hungry and it's dinner time."
"I still don't see your point," Remus muttered, at last finding his page and going to sit down again to continue to work on his puzzle. Sirius sighed and crossed his arms.
Fine, don't listen to me, he thought with exasperation. But I know how to bend you.
Just as Remus was about to sit down, head hidden behind the green and orange cover of the cheap entertainment book, Sirius took two quick steps backwards. The invisible rope, the cruel result of the blood bond, tightened around Remus' waist and yanked him back. He lost his footing and fell backwards with a surprised yelp, the book falling out of his splayed hands.
Sirius bent over him with an innocent expression plastered on his face. He tentatively offered the word find book to Remus.
"Now can we go eat?" Remus mumbled something incomprehensible, but Sirius caught a total of six different swear words. "So am I to take that as a yes?"
"C'mon," he sighed, and they left for dinner. Remus felt rather dejected that he hadn't gotten the chance to finish his word find. And Sirius felt very self satisfied that his growling stomach was finally going to get what it needed.
When they arrived at their destination, it was to find a room full of aggressive, hungry werewolves. They fought over who got to eat what. Who got the best of the meat, the ripest of the fruit, who had to eat the vegetables and who didn't have to. The only content and quiet one was Greyback, who was leaning back in his chair at his ease, a plate piled high with an array of food. His piercing eyes stalked Remus and the boy he was bonded to as they moved across the room to their usual spot, next to the boy Remus had taken in as his own.
"Remus," the name was spoken with a sharp tongue. Above all of the noise it had no problem ringing out to be heard by the entire room. All the talking and bickering ceased abruptly and all eyes traveled to land squarely on Remus.
"No need to yell, I'm not deaf," Remus answered to his name coolly, fingers busily peeling a ripe banana.
"Sometimes I really wonder."
"You know," Remus said loudly, tossing the banana peel over his head so that it just cleared Greyback's shoulder. He handed the fruit to Aaron who was sitting next to him. Being a pup, he'd get the very last of the food, the scraps. "Wouldn't it be nice to carry on a conversation without an audience?"
Taking the hint, the others went back to their meals with their usual banter and backbiting. Their ears were strained to catch any scrap of conversation.
"Aren't you authoritive," Greyback growled, picking out the stringy meat from between his teeth with one long fingernail.
"Very"
"Get me a beer."
Remus gnawed on a piece of beef jerky that he'd borrowed from someone else's plate and waited until he swallowed before answering.
"Get it yourself."
"I said get me a beer."
"Get your own damn beer, I'm not your servant."
"No, you're not…" Greyback trailed off, eyes fixed dangerously on where Remus sat calmly. The other werewolves had once again grown quiet and were watching the duo apprehensively. "What are you all fucking looking at?" he roared, eyes never leaving Remus' pale profile. He leaned in closer to Remus so that his lips brushed the boy's ear and whispered lowly, "No, you're certainly right. You are not my servant, not by a long shot. You're my slave."
During the whole meal Remus had been constantly reminding himself not to rise to any bait that Greyback may or may not offer. When those words registered, all further advice to himself was instantly forgotten.
Remus threw himself across the table at Greyback, who reacted quickly by lunging forward and slamming him painfully hard into the table. Food and plates clattered to the floor and the werewolves close by stood and retreated swiftly to the other end of the room.
"Now, get me that beer, boy," Greyback growled lowly, too low for anyone else to hear and ground his knee in between Remus' legs, hard. Sirius flinched and dropped his eyes, his appetite fleeing rapidly. Remus bit his lip and nodded. The last thing he wanted, needed, was for the alpha male to berate him in front of the entire pack.
Head low, he swept like a shadow to a large, blue ice box at the back of the room and returned with a green glass bottle full of a murky, amber liquid. Remus stood directly behind Greyback's chair, painfully aware of all the eyes on him, and mimed bashing the bottle over the alpha's head.
Whenever kicked, Remus always made it a point to kick right back. No matter what, he'd never go out without some kind of fight. He'd never be the one to turn and run like a dog with his tail between his legs.
"Your refreshment, sir," he gave a mock bow and set the glass bottle carefully in front of Greyback. "If there is anything else, anything at all, just call." Remus dropped the London butler accent and sank back into his chair, glaring at anyone who dared to even try to look him in the eye.
"Pour it."
"Excuse me, sir?" the London butler accent had made a come back.
"Pour it." Greyback slammed a dirty glass beside the beer bottle. Remus stood and examined the glass for a second.
"Are you sure, sir, that you want me to pour your refreshment out of the clean bottle and into the filthy glass?"
"Pour it."
"As you wish, as you wish," he muttered and uncorked the bottle with more force than was needed. Remus poured all of the contents of the bottle into the glass, letting it over fill and spill down the cool side of the glass. Greyback picked it up anyway and drained it in a single, long pull.
"Another." He slammed the glass back down onto the table, and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. The room was completely silent, eyes turning from Greyback to Remus and then back again. Neither one commented on this silence. Greyback approved of the audience that got to see his leadership enforced.
"Certainly." Remus loved it too when he half turned, spun back around on his heel, and bashed the bottle over Greyback's head. The green shreds went flying, catching the light of the dim overheads and making them glisten. The soft, twinkling sound they made as they hit the floor and scattered mixed with Greyback's roar of half outrage and half pain.
"REMUS!"
Remus yelped as he was slammed back onto the table's surface again, something sharp dug painfully into his lower back. He wasn't out just yet. Remus grabbed a handful of Greyback's hair and tugged, tugged hard. Greyback howled and when Remus drew his hand back there was a clump of hair clutched in his fist. He kneed the werewolf above him in the stomach before the alpha's mouth descended on his in a brutal, blood drawing kiss. Not yet.
Remus rocked their combined weight violently so that they rolled with a crash to the floor. Greyback's fingers were busily working on the button of his jeans. Remus spat in his face and crawled out from under Greyback just as the older man's fingers got the button undone and the zipper down. He bolted for the door, knowing when things had gotten too far, Sirius following quickly after him, jumping over up turned chairs.
He didn't stop running until he reached one hundred yards past the shower stalls. Remus stopped short, breath exhaling calmly from his nose, and paced from tree to tree.
Sirius skidded to a halt a moment later, bending double at the waist to draw deep breaths. He sank down to the ground, panting quietly, and rested his back against the tree trunk behind him. Sirius watched as Remus paced rapidly, lashing out occasionally at low hanging branches. His anger was absolutely radiating off in waves. So intense that Sirius could almost see it rippling off of him, and so intense that he could feel it rippling off of Remus.
In all his life, Sirius had never seen anything as powerful and horrifying and strangely beautiful all at once as he saw when he watched Remus struggle to control himself.
Remus reached out and cleanly snapped a thick branch off of a passing tree as if it were a twig.
Taking a moment now that his breath was even, Sirius took in his surroundings. He noted that this section of the forest seemed to be attuned to Remus' abuse. Signs of past neglect showed on the trees and landscape well. It seemed as if the young werewolf had somewhere to vent his rage.
Which is probably a good thing, Sirius thought as his eyes landed on five parallel slash marks engraved into a pines tough bark. Or else he would have torn them all to shreds a while ago.
His attention snapped back to Remus when a loud crack echoed through the natural enclosure. Remus had taken to punching things again and Sirius was completely surprised when he started to pace again, unharmed and knuckles unshattered.
It was hypnotic, that's what it was, hypnotic to watch a werewolf express the potential of his unyielding strength. Sirius was drawn to this wild, untamed creature like iron was to a magnet. And all in an instant he knew what he wanted. He wanted to tame that foreboding, reckless fireball. Wanted to break him, wanted to make him his. Wanted to try what Greyback had been trying to do for years.
Sirius shook his head, trained his eyes on Remus and tried to catch the other's gaze. His eyes were sidetracked by the hair brushing just above his shoulders, longer the day before, shorter now because Remus had been annoyed with the way it fell into his eyes when he bent his head to read, pulled out his pocket knife and sheared it off, uneven and short now. Enthralling, like his eyes and the way his body moved, all hard lines beneath loose clothing.
When their eyes finally locked, all Sirius wanted to do was push the other boy to the ground, grab a fist full of his impulsively cut hair, grind their hips together. Wanted to feel, had to know. Had to know if Remus was as hard as he was, had to know if he wanted this as badly as he did.
He stood up slowly, Remus paced away, eyes snapping away from Sirius'. Remus turned sharp on his heel, started in the opposite direction, and was immediately forced to jump back a few steps as Sirius stepped into his path.
"What the fuck?" he snarled, shoving past a solemn faced Sirius roughly. Sirius latched onto familiar territory around Remus' wrist. The werewolf didn't take very kindly to this show of restraint.
Dominance, a voice in the back of his mind whispered, and a shiver coursed down his spine.
The werewolf didn't take very kindly to this at all, and tugged violently away. He turned to face the other teen sharply.
Remus was shocked when Sirius' grip didn't subside and instead he found himself being pulled tight against the hard panes of Sirius' body.
Sirius shuddered under the feel of withering muscles reacting to his touch, like live snakes, in the body kept forcefully against his.
"What the hell-" he spat, something akin to fear and desire brewing in his voice and eyes. His hand darted instinctively to claw down the sable haired boy's shoulder. Sirius shrugged off the blow, sharp nails grazing over his fevered skin. Remus twisted quickly to the left as Sirius fingers took a moment to struggle for their firm grip.
Fine, you wanna go left? I'll let you go left.
Sirius moved with him, twisted an arm behind his back, and pinned Remus face first into an old pine tree thick with rich colored needles and pine cones littering the ground at their feet.
"Get off me," Remus moaned and hooked one of his legs around Sirius' to kick him hard in the back of the knee. Sirius buckled from the strike to the sensitive area and gasped slightly in pain.
Remus took advantage of Sirius' pain to slide down the tree trunk and crawl out from between Sirius legs. He regained his footing as Sirius turned, both sets of eyes burning with a deadly fire.
"What are you doing?" Remus' voice had been reduced to a low growl, one that rivaled Greyback's quite well. Sirius climbed to his feet, clothes dusted over with the pine needles that clung to him.
"I-" he was cut off and suddenly found himself breathless as Remus shoved him ruthlessly into the same tree that he'd been trapped on only a short moment before. His reflexes were quick enough to jerk his head to the side so that his cheek collided with the harsh, unforgiving bark, instead of the front of his face. Blood trickled from the scrapes that plowed the side of his face.
"How do you like it?" Remus growled, chin resting on Sirius' tensed shoulder, the husky words ghosting over the outer shell of the raven hair's ear. Sirius gritted his teeth together and fought to free this trapped arms.
This was not what he had in mind. His shirt was being tugged hastily upward and it was then that he realized he wasn't the only one who wanted something to call his own.
The offensive cotton tee shirt fluttered to the ground and Remus flipped him over so that his back pressed painfully hard into the cutting bark. It was the first time he'd been able to see those radiant eyes up close and when he did, breathing ceased being a concern.
Hesitantly, Sirius raised a finger and traced the out line of Remus' red, slightly parted lips. For a second he imagined that some of the fire cooled in the werewolf's eyes. Only for a second.
Remus' eyes changed focus from Sirius' face to his wandering finger. When they traveled slowly down to his gradually creasing forefinger they flashed, and in a blur of white teeth, he snapped at it so that the click of his conjoining canines rang like a gunshot.
The finger retreated quickly, thankfully still fully intact. Remus' eyes narrowed, but other than that, neither of them moved a muscle. Their harsh breath entwined, what with their faces so close. And when had that happened?
Maybe a different approach…it's worked on plenty of girls… Sirius thought and began to feel the first sensations of nervousness clawing at the soft interior of his belly.
Yes, seduction had worked on a large number of Hogwarts' ladies, half the time he didn't even need to pull that weapon out of the artillery, but he'd never tried anything with another boy before. It was new territory he was treading in now and he felt as if he were walking straight into no man's land without any defense.
Well, at least I can experiment, Sirius thought.
In the deeper recesses of his mind, however, he had the creeping suspicion that this had nothing to do with experimenting.
He started to work his fingers softly over the exposed skin of the werewolf's neck. Remus wasn't having any of it.
Remus leaned forward and kissed Sirius, closed lipped and hesitant.
When he pulled back his face was a closed book, completely unreadable, and Sirius was surprised at how gentle, how soft that kiss had been. They studied each other for a minute, not exchanging words, there were none to say. Remus descend for a second kiss.
The second kiss was anything but gentle and soft. Sirius made a surprised noise in the back of his throat at the sudden surge of force and neediness behind that one kiss. He would have fallen over backwards had it not been for the supporting tree behind him.
It seemed that the first, hesitant kiss had been a test. A test of his worthiness, of his submission. Sirius had sat and taken it all like a good little puppy. He didn't pose a threat in overpowering Remus and turning the tables the way Remus didn't want them to be turned.
A low moan erupted from deep within Sirius' throat as the other body pressed up tight against his and as a warm tongue prodded at his lips. Sirius' lips parted easily and without coaxing, leaving Remus tongue free to explore the velvet lining of the other boy's mouth.
He'd never been on the other end of the relationship before. Usually it was him pinning partners up against the wall…or in this case, tree.
Damn, I've never been a toy like this before, Sirius thoughts were interrupted by a half groan, half moan as their hips grinded together, sending wonderful friction racing throughout his body.
God, he's good…I'd be his toy anytime…
Sirius set a faster pace for Remus to follow after. Remus growled and nipped at Sirius lower lip because it wasn't he who was setting the rhythm. Their breathing was an uneven and jerky mess as desperate hands started to fumble with buttons and zippers that were seemingly impossible to undo.
Somewhere along the way, they had been subtly edging further and further to the right until Sirius' back wasn't supported by the wide pine anymore. They both fell backwards into a bed of pine needles and autumn leaves. Neither seemed to notice.
Remus slid Sirius' jeans off of his hips after a second of struggling and his own followed not a moment after. Mouths clashed together in a battle for dominance that was neither painful nor blood drawing.
Sirius pushed his weight up on his elbows and kissed back hard with his fingers interlocked in an ocean of amber locks. Remus growled, pushed him back flat on his back. One of Sirius' hands glided carelessly down the length of the other's body, finger tips dancing over battle wounds on Remus' sides, stomach, and back.
His breath hitched as Sirius' clever hands circled around his hips and then crossed the space where torso and thigh met. Sirius smirked, hands dropping even lower, and brushing teasingly light.
Remus swore quietly, head dropping so that his forehead rested heavily on Sirius' chest.
Untamable? Wild? I don't think so, Sirius thought, hands moving up and down the werewolf's hard length.
A moment later he was forced to eat his words when Remus planted wet, lightly snapping, open mouth kissed down his body. They began at his neck, down to the collar bone, traveling even further down his chest and pausing to tease over rock hard nipples, tongue digging around his navel, until his greedy tongue was lapping up the beaded pre come.
Sirius gasped, arching his back off the ground to feel more of that tongue, more of those lips, more mouth, more of the glorious heat. Remus left him with one last, long lick along the underside before descending for another battle of lips and tongue.
Sirius grunted, eyes rolling back in their sockets. Remus' fingers played with rock hard nipples, rolling them between thumb and forefinger. Sirius thrust forward and whimpered when he was met with empty air. Remus rotated his hips to provide more teasing friction.
Sirius whimpered.
Remus smirked.
That single action brought Sirius back to reality. He was being teased, taunted, playing the submissive, the beggar, the pleader, the bottom.
Now something's definitely wrong with this picture, Sirius thought and cursed his mouth for responding to Remus fingers and lips with the whimpers of broken fragments of sentences.
He snaked his legs around Remus' waist, stayed like that for a moment to let the other boy think he'd come out on top. He waited until he felt something he'd grown accustomed to over the past twenty minutes push eagerly at his entrance.
Gotcha.
He flipped them over to reverse their positions.
The king was regained his rightful throne, all was right with the world.
Remus looked up at him, eyes still wild, passionate wildness. Eyes still locked with those golden orbs that had hypnotized him, Sirius slid a finger into his mouth. His lips wrapped around it and sucked on it. A second, and then third, joined the first. For a split second, Sirius' eyes left Remus' face and focused on guiding his fingers.
A split second was all it took.
Remus pulled his legs out form under Sirius. Remus pushed his feet hard into Sirius' stomach, sending him toppling off of him. He rolled to his feet just as Sirius regained his own footing.
With fingers flexing, Sirius lunged at the golden eyed werewolf, jumped him so that they fell to the ground again. Remus gasped to regain the breath that had been knocked from his lunges and Sirius took advantage of his breathlessness to push a saliva slicked finger into him.
At that point, Remus was on his elbows. He fell flat on his stomach to the ground, eyes shut and mouth slightly open. The finger crooked and Remus moaned, hands fisting in his hair. A second and third joined the first. They stretched his body quickly and pulled out.
Golden eyes snapped open and Remus growled.
Both were rolling on the ground again, fighting for dominance between gasping breaths, groping hands, and wet kisses. Remus turned their bodies to summersault and in the end sat straddling Sirius.
Sirius' head rolled back limply, knowing what was to come yet exhaustion had already taken over. It didn't matter. His body didn't even want to fight anymore.
There was a moment of smoldering pain and then both fell away into bliss, pure bliss as their bodies entwined together in a dance of passion and fire, lust and ice.
They lay curled possessively around one another an hour later. The sun was sinking lower and lower behind the horizon and the birds had stopped their soft singing, retreating to their nests for the night.
Their chests rose and fell in unison, Remus' head on Sirius' stomach. Their breath and heart beats mingled together and spoke the language of oneness. Sirius couldn't remember a time in his life when he had ever felt more content.
His fingers threaded through soft hair that was damp with sweat. To be completely honest with himself, Sirius had not expected Remus to be as gentle as he was. After their fight for top everything had gone smoothly.
"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Remus muttered against the lean muscle and soft skin of the other boy's stomach.
Remus turned his head up to look at Sirius and for a second Sirius thought he'd read his mind. For a second time that day, Sirius felt himself fall victim to the fathomless golden pools that belonged to the boy he'd spent an hour making love to.
Thinking about calling it love sent a shiver down his spine. He'd never made love to anyone before, he just fucked them.
"You've got such beautiful eyes," Sirius whispered with a voice that was hoarse after the neglect that had been vented upon it.
Almost absent mindedly, his finger moved to trace slowly around Remus' eyes. Remus caught his hand and guided it to his mouth. He turned it palm up and kissed it there.
Something I used to do to dad…Before…When I loved him…I never loved him… Remus thought and his mind battled it out.
"They weren't always like this."
"What? Contacts?"
"No, they're natural. Or at least natural in my real life."
"Real life?"
"Before I was bitten, before I really started to live, they were as green as anything."
"Started to live…" Sirius trailed off.
"If you can call before a life," Remus snapped, eyes flashing and ducked his head down.
"Well, you were alive, weren't you?"
"Yeah," the response is mumbled and so quiet that Sirius needs to strain his ears. "I was alive, but I wasn't really alive. I'm lucky to have this gift…This treasure."
Sirius was silent, pensive as he stroked the top of the werewolf's head.
"You know who you sound like?"
"Me?"
"Greyback."
Sirius could feel the way that Remus stiffened beneath his hand. Remus' muscles tensed and he got gracefully to his feet. With his back to Sirius, he stooped to retrieve his jeans and slipped into them.
"C'mon, we'd better-"
"Remus," Sirius whispered from his spot on the forest floor. Remus looked back at him over his shoulder, his silence telling the Animagus to continue. "Just…wait a minute."
After a short pause, Remus sighed and laid back down beside Sirius. He watched as his hands traced lazy circular patterns on the skin of Sirius' navel.
"After I was bitten they turned gold," Remus laughed quietly. "You should have seen me…when I woke up the next morning, I was so surprised that my eye color had changed over night."
"Do all werewolves' eye colors change?"
"No."
"Then why…did yours?"
"I'm not the only one."
"Only some turn?"
"Only a few choose to change their eye color."
"But…why? They're so beautiful…" Sirius felt himself once more being drawn in unwillingly.
"You're the only one to say so. Others call it a curse. I know it's not. How can this curse have cured me? How can a curse cure anyone?"
"Cure?" Sirius asked, laying on his side and supporting his weight with a bent arm.
"When I was younger…I was…very sick. The doctors always said that there was no cure. My father told me that there was no way to get better. They doubted that I'd make it to the age of seven."
A long pause followed, in which both looked anywhere but at each other.
"Why do people see them as a curse?"
"They're proof that I've let the wolf into my life without resistance. I don't fight him, I invited him in with open arms," Remus snorted. "And because I'm more wolf than man I'm evil, vile, horrid, and all the like."
"Why didn't you fight it then?"
Remus shrugged and pulled up a handful of grass.
"What's the point? I don't have to deal with all the mental stress or the agony of the full moon."
"You mean the transformation doesn't hurt?"
"It always has hurt and it always will. There's no way to dull that pain. It's something neither I nor the wolf have control of. The moon holds complete control over both of us. I can't even begin to tell you how much it hurts. It's beyond comparison.."
"Then what do you mean about no agony?"
Remus looked back at him, a slow smile flittering across his lips.
"I don't have to go through what those fools who deny the wolf do. I don't rip myself to pieces. I have control."
"Control?" Sirius asked slowly, rolling the word on his tongue.
What Remus was telling him defied all that he'd ever learned, had ever seen.
"But you can't control it."
"You're right, I can't. I can't control that it happens. But I can control what to do with it."
"Control," Sirius repeated to himself, mulling the word over until every thing clicked into place. "That's why you were acting so weird during the moon."
Remus grinned and swept a stray strand of hair out of Sirius' eyes.
"Finally got there, did you? I was wondering when you were going to ask," he laughed quietly. "You should have seen the look on your face when I took you through Hogsmead. Priceless, simply priceless."
"You'd look the same way if you'd been in my shoes."
"No, I wouldn't have, I would have known what the golden eyes meant."
"Well, I didn't…" Sirius' eyes traveled to meet with those shining, overly bright orbs for the umpteenth time. "So beautiful…So…Familiar."
"Well, I'd hope so. You've been seeing them nonstop for over a month."
"It's almost as if I've seen them somewhere before…"
"Yeah, like every hour of the past month," Remus yawned and rolled to lay on his back to watch as the moon rose and the first stars of the night became visible beyond the thick clouds.
Sirius leaned over him, hair falling into his eyes, with a pensive look plastered across his face.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" Remus snapped, hands scrubbing at his face after Sirius continued to study him like an open book.
Remus squirmed beneath the close scrutiny and his hands fell away as he blinked up at Sirius. Sirius' eyes widened.
"Sirius-" Remus started.
"You!" Sirius yelped, springing away and stumbling over his own feet.
"Me? Well, who else did you expect? The bloody Queen of England?" he smirked.
"It was you! You're the one form the paper!"
"Paper? What the hell are you-"
"Stay away from me, murderer!"
Remus sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Oh, that paper."
Sirius scrambled away, face pale and clumsily put on his jeans and shoes. He couldn't find his shirt in the darkening light.
"I just…Just-"
"Slept with a murderer, as you have so kindly titled me? Why, yes, I believe you have." Remus said coolly.
"You…Killed all those innocent people…Thirteen innocent people…" Sirius said in a horrified kind of trance, the black print of the Daily Prophet flashing before his mind's eye.
"Please, I know what I've done, no need to repeat it for me," Remus waved the rest of his stumbling sentence away with a casual flick of his wrist.
"You just…Just stay away from me!"
"Right, because a blood bond makes that so easy to do," Remus snorted, rising and brushing away the pine needles that clung to him.
"Keep away!" Sirius snarled when the other boy tried to move closer to pick up his tee shirt.
Remus flinched.
"Now do you understand why people call it a curse?" he whispered. "We have an agreement, an unbreakable contract, he and I do. He lets me have control of my own body because he and I have the same intentions."
Sirius took a deep breath and bent to pick up Remus' shirt. He walked over to where Remus stood with golden eyes glued to the pine needle strewn ground.
"Rem?" He asked tentatively.
"Hm?" He didn't look up. "Don't call me that, it's Remus."
"C'mon, let's go back."
Remus looked up, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Is it really that time already?"
Sirius did not answer. He was finding out very quickly how the werewolf's soft edged smile had the same hypnotic powers that his eyes possessed.
So beautiful, I think I'm in love, Sirius thought as his mental gate between thoughts and actions broke.
"I love you."
Silver eyes grew wide and he clapped a hand over his mouth, wishing he hadn't spoken three of the most powerful words in the entire English language. Remus' eyes flashed the color of sun hot embers as their eyes met. Sirius' eyes shied away first, a red rose blush creeping across his face.
"What?" Remus asked, not angry like the grim Animagus expected him to be, but confused.
"I-nothing," Sirius shook his head.
"Did you just say that you love me?"
"I-"
"You can't."
Sirius fell silent. Remus started slowly towards where the other boy stood. For every step to took forward, Sirius took one back.
"Did you, or did you not, say that you love me?"
"No," Sirius said quickly before Remus had the chance to get over his confusion and become infuriated.
Remus stopped advancing forward and then snatched his shirt out of Sirius' grasp.
"I didn't think so," he growled bitterly after the cotton tee shirt was hugging his torso again. Remus now thought it a mistake for it to have ever left his body in the first place.
"Look, Remus, it was an accident-"
"You're right, we should go back," Remus cut him off and strode past him, towards home.
Sirius stood frozen to the spot and blinked after him, and then bolted after Remus.
"Remus, wait up!"
"I wait for no one, hurry up."
"Just because I'm not head over heels for you-"
"Like I'd want you to be," he snarled, spinning around and nearly colliding head first into Sirius. "Like I'd want you to be in love with me. I don't," Remus said more calmly and returned to walking on.
"Denial is not only a river in Egypt…It's also the first step," Sirius muttered.
"I don't," Remus snapped forcefully without turning around. "Love isn't real, don't you know that yet? It's just some cheap fairy tale shit that people try to put into cheesy romance novels."
"I don't think so-"
"Yeah, well, I know so. So if it's love you're lookin' for, lover boy, you're barking up the wrong tree"
Sirius fell silent after that and eventually fell in step beside Remus, shoulders brushing as they both walked on. Remus was breathing harshly, but did not say a word and did not protest.
"How about a friend, then?" Sirius asked as they walked beneath the canopy of trees, falling into shadow patches and into moonlit ones.
"Dunno," Remus shrugged. "What are they like?"
"They're awesome," Sirius grinned, mental pictures of James presenting themselves in the forefront of his mind. He felt a pang in his stomach at the emptiness he felt without his brother.
"Yeah? Are they all like you?" the werewolf smirked.
Sirius shook his head gravely.
"'Fraid not, you see, I'm one of a kind, special edition."
"Guess I'm lucky to have a friend like you, huh?"
"Who said I was your friend?" Sirius' face and voice were solemn.
Remus turned away, eyes downcast.
"I just thought that-"
"So gullible, of course I'm you're friend."
They walked on in companionable silence.
"I am not gullible."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not."
The two teenagers with the canine counterparts argued in good humor all the way back to the underground den full of sleeping werewolves. They argued on the way back, argued through the door, argued in lowered tones on their journey down the winding passages, argued until they reached Remus' sleeping quarters, argued as they changed into clean clothes, argued as they lay side by side under the warm blankets.
They argued until Aaron poked his head around the corner of the arch way that opened up into Remus' dark den and told them to shut up. He was, after all, trying to sleep.
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