"Here," I said, handing Remus a cup of black tea. "Drink this."

He took the cup from my hand and slowly brought it to his lips, taking a long sip. I sat beside him on the couch and looked around the room. We were sitting in his living room, and I was struck with how strange it was to be there. After Sirius left, Remus had continued to cry on my shoulder until I had shaken him off. Deciding he was in no state to drive himself home, I offered to give him a lift back to his place. Now here we were, sipping decidedly bitter tea and having cookies. From what I'd seen of the house, Remus wasn't well off. In fact, most of the structure was in some state of disrepair. His living room was messy, scattered with books and papers of all sorts with odd trinkets and memorabilia on shelves and in cases lining the wall. The furniture was old and threadbare, as was the rug underneath which did little to keep out the chill of the bare floor when you put your feet down. Most everything was drab and well used. The living room lead off into the kitchen where the wooden cupboards were mostly empty, as I had discovered while making tea and scavenging for any available snack food. The fridge was stocked with beer and the fix ins for sandwiches, but not much else. His dishes were chipped, the designs were faded and the utensils were all slightly bent out of shape. It was difficult trying to find a mug that was fit enough to hold water. I could only think what he must go through every morning for a simple but necessary cup of coffee! It made me wonder where he was employed that seemingly paid so little, because it didn't seem like Remus spent a pound on anything other than the bills to keep himself in the house.

Remus seemed to notice my curiosity as he said, "I don't have time for much around here, so I apologize for the mess."

I waved a hand at him. "It's fine. Not like I'll be staying for too terribly long at any rate."

This seemed to startle him. "What do you mean? You're more than welcome to stay."

"Why would I?"

"Well, now that you've forgiven me for something I didn't even know I did, I thought we could… talk. You know, about what happened and stuff, like what's been going on in our lives. Catching up!"

I regarded him suspiciously and said, "Why would I want to do that?"

"Because. I just thought…" Remus deflated and hid his face in his mug. "Never mind, I guess not."

We sat in an awkward silence for a while before I couldn't take it anymore. He looked so… dejected. I heaved a sigh.

"What do you want to know?"

We spent the rest of the night and early morning talking. I told him about graduating collage with a Masters in Chemistry, and I told him about the death of my parents. Remus laughed about almost getting married to one of his old school acquaintances, Nymphadora Tonks, until her eccentric mother had chased him off and forbade him to speak with her, and about how he couldn't hold a job for more than a year. It turns out Remus had been virtually always unemployed, which surprised me. Back in high school, he was always the one everyone thought would make it, and here he was in a rundown old house with shabby furniture and broken dishes. Who would have thought. He mentioned being part of James and Lily's wedding, meeting Harry for the first time, and how hard it was living without them. I told him I was ashamed of not being a part of the best moments of Lily's life, despite my grudges.

"Not a day goes when I don't think of her and how much I miss her terribly. I kick myself when I think about my childish reasons for not being there with her and not even meeting her only son until almost eighteen years later! I really was a horrible friend to her." I said, then taking a gulp of my tea to keep from speaking more. My betrayal of her wasn't something I liked to talk about.

Remus only nodded and placed a hand on my shoulder. "She missed you too, you know. All the time. She was happy with James and after Harry was born, she claimed her life was the best it could get, but there were times when she'd just look of into the distance, or she'd see something that reminded her of you, and she'd sit there with a sad smile on her face, thinking of you. It broke James' heart, and if he was still alive, he would have kicked your arse."

"Kind of how like you kicked Black's?" I asked with a small smile. He grinned at me and replied, "Worse, actually."

Eventually we both drifted off to sleep, and when I woke Remus was gone. There was a hastily scratched note on the table next to the couch in his handwriting saying,

Severus,

Gone grocery shopping and will bring home breakfast. Please stay. You can borrow clothes and take a shower if you'd like.

Remus

I smiled and stretched. A shower did sound nice, although if his bedroom was anything like his living room, I doubted I would enjoy having to scavenge for clothes like I did last night's snacks. Oh well.

I made my way down the hall, opening doors as I passed and trying to find Remus' bedroom. It wasn't like he'd given me a tour yesterday. I finally managed to locate both the bathroom and his bedroom, both were surprisingly clean. Cluttered, yes, but not messy like the rest of his home. I walked over to his dresser and opened the top drawer. A book lay on top of the socks, like it had been thrown in in a hurry. It looked familiar but I couldn't place why. Shaking my head, I closed the drawer, with the thought that sharing briefs was a line I'd rather not cross, and opened the one below it. I pulled out an old looking black shirt and a pair of sweats, then headed to the shower. As the water cascaded down my body, which ached from sleeping in an awkward position on the couch all night, I thought about how this would make for a good plot for one of my novels: the old flame, the misunderstanding, talking through the night and waking up to breakfast. All that was missing was the makeup sex, but I figured I should count that one out of the real life scenario. Although my dick was twitching happily at the thought, I didn't think I was ready for that. Remus and I still needed to work through things, and even through the saying 'making up for lost time' did have its appeal, we were missing too much of each other's lives for it to count as anything other than a mindless fuck. That I definitely wasn't ready for.

I turned off the water after washing my hair and dried myself. After drying my hair, I threw on the borrowed clothes – the shirt was a bit too tight and the pants a bit too short – and exited the bathroom. I found Remus in the kitchen in front of the stove where a pan of bacon and eggs were sizzling away. He smiled nervously at me and flipped the eggs.

"I heard the shower, so I just assumed I should make for two.," he explained.

I nodded. "Thanks. Hey, where do you store your coffee? I'll make a few cups."

"Oh! There, in the cupboard by to the coffee maker. The one below!" He said as I reached for the top one. I stopped and bent over to peer inside the lower cupboard and heard a sharp intake of breath from behind me. I turned around. What? I questioned silently, cocking my head slightly and raising an eyebrow for emphasis. Remus flushed and turned away. "Umm, not to be weird or anything but… are you going commando?"

I felt myself blush to the tips of my ears. "Y-yeah. I kind of thought it might be strange to borrow a pair of briefs. Sorry."

"No, it's not a problem. I'm sorry you felt awkward about it." Remus said, turning the stove off and grabbing two plates and filling them both with bacon and eggs.

I dipped my head in thanks as we sat down on the couch to eat. Maybe I really will use this as the base for a story. I'm supposed to start on a new one by the end of this month, I thought as I munched on a piece of perfectly cooked bacon.

"So," Remus started, "will you be staying long, or do you need to… rush out?"

I swallowed the food in my mouth. "I really should head out. I've got some work I need to do."

Remus hung his head slightly. "Oh. Okay."

I paused for a second before saying. "When will you be over to get your clothes? Or would you rather I brought them back here when I get the chance?"

"Either works."

"Then why don't you come over next week for them?"

"Okay. Sounds good."

"And then we could go for a few drinks." It wasn't really a question. Remus looked at me, clearly confused.

"What?"

"Yeah," I said, shrugging, "There's this nice little pub a few minutes away from my place. The alcohol's cheap, but it isn't bad. The food's pretty good too." I spared him a glance before saying, "How does that sound?"

Remus practically beamed at me as he said, "That sounds great, Sev."