Christmas Day! So you all get an extra long story! I had a lovely christmas and I'm just really pleased with how everything turned out, how I've managed to write this and actually do it this year...and I want to thank everyone who's review this, even if it was just one time, and I'd love it if you review just once...just once more!

So please do, and I hope you all have had a lovely day. Thank you all so much! 3

James stood at the edge of his bed. Staring at the lummpy, blanket covered shape that was Sirius Black curled up in a ball.

His feet were cold on the hardwood floor and his room was reduced to dark shapes and shadows with the curtains pulled shut.

After a long breath he pulled back the covers and slipped in beside Sirius, who groaned softly but didn't wake.

As soon as James had guided him to the bed Sirius had been out, in a dead sleep, leaving James to clean things up and worry. The clock on his bedside table said it was a little after three and his parents still weren't home. Which might have been good...might have been bad too though.

Sirius shifted beside him and James stiffened, but then he felt Sirius hot skin on his and he shifted himself, letting Sirius curl himself around him.

They had shared a bed before, many times before actually. When they were kids, they were technically still kids, but when they were younger. When there were bad dreams, and screams, and shaking, and tears (only from James, never Sirius) they had curled up together and talked in low soft voices. Sometimes they made up stories for each other, depending on who needed the comfort, Sirius' stories were always wild, reckless dreams with dragons and powerful wizards who went of quest to strange, faraway lands. James' stories were always extravagant, theories of the future, of the great deeds they would do, the pranks they would pull, the hero's they would become, the women they would woo and the lands they would conquer.

Now James was lying in bed with damp hair after having cleaned the blood off the tile in his bathroom and Sirius was passed out next to him, broken and beaten.

Exhaustion flowed over James like sliding into a swimming pool and he almost felt his limbs go slack, his eyes slide closed and the last thought he had before the soft claws of sleep grabbed at him was that the painful pit of worry in his stomach was gone. Because Sirius was right here.

And he would keep Sirius next to him if he had to die trying.

Remus,

Shit has officially gone down.

Like...down down. Basically Sirius got the stuffing beat out of him, I'm not kidding, he's in bad shape, but his family kicked him out, he also left at the same time...basically it was mutual leaving/kicking out, but he's been disowned, officially, blasted off the family tree and shit. Regulus let me know about it because Sirius kinda...went missing for a bit. But don't worry! I found him, or rather he found me. Walked across the bloody country to get to my house. Look...there's a lot of shit we need to talk about, us as Marauders, you and Sirius, Sirius and me, Peter, the whole gang. So...if you wanna drop by...that'd be good. Write soon please? And...just...Sirius is in bad shape...he needs us, no matter what.

James

"No."

"This isn't a bloody democracy Sirius, we're going to St. Mungos. You need help."

"No."

"Sirius, you fucker, don't make me do this..."

And just like that the fight went out of Sirius, his shoulders sagged and his eyes studied the floor like it held the secret to life. On one hand James was pleased that he didn't have to hex Sirius or manhandle the Black to the hospital, on the other hand he was worried. Because Sirius never used to be like this, he would have fought tooth and nail, he would have glared at James with a look like death in his gray eyes.

He used to be all fire and ice, hot and cold and constantly fighting, no matter what the battle was.

Now he shuffled around James' house like a turtle, hiding in his shell. His kept his eyes on the ground and when he did look James in the eyes, that once fierce gray was dull and lifeless and...hopeless.

They had broken him. They really had. And James' heart was breaking every time he looked at Sirius that he hadn't even brought up the whole...Prank.

In the cover of night Sirius seemed better. More...himself. James found him slumped in the corner, a bottle of his father's cheap firewhiskey held delicately in his long thin fingers. Grasshopper like legs curled up underneath him, like he was trying to make himself as small as possible.

"Eh Prongs, thirsty?"

James stared at him for a long moment before sliding to the floor next to him, pulling the quilt off his bed and tucking it around his shoulders.

"I'm going to get in trouble for that. You realize?"

Sirius didn't look at him, eyes staring out the window into the darkness. "Just drink James."

And so James did, taking a long gulp, feeling the fire burn down his throat and settle, a small pit of warmth in his stomach.

"Sirius..."

"Remus is coming soon isn't he...?"

"Yeah, day after tomorrow."

Sirius snagged the bottle again and took a long sip and James bit his lip.

"Sirius...why did you..." He trailed off and Sirius raised an eyebrow, wordlessly passing James the bottle again. After a drink James found his courage again. "Why did you come here...?"

Sirius shifted nervously and James wondered when Sirius had become nervous around him. When he had become nervous around Sirius. Probably sometime around the time Sirius sent a boy to his death without beating an eye. When James saw red and beat his best friend into the ground, just like his bastard of a father did whenever Sirius went home.

They sat in silence for a long moment and James thought Sirius might just ignore him when he spoke.

"Because...I had nowhere else. No one else."

His voice was raspy and low, scratching against his throat and James tensed.

"They...they took everything James." The whiskey sloshed about in the bottle, glowing amber in the streak of moonlight. "They...they took away everything that made me...me."

Sirius took a long swig and James watched as his adams apple moved under pale skin.

"I...I was sitting there...on the sidewalk right after Da threw me out...and I was bleeding. Everywhere. And it all hurt Jamie..." Sirius shoulders shook but his eyes stayed dry and James wiggled over so he was right next to Sirius, pulling the quilt around both of them.

"It hurt inside...deep inside...and I wasn't...I wasn't right." He went quiet and James frowned.

"What...do you mean?"

"When I send Snape down the tunnel...I...wasn't thinking straight." He floundered, hands fluttering wildly under the quilt until James grasped them tight. "I mean...I meant it. I'm not...making excuses or anything James, I meant what I did. I swear...but I wasn't right. In the head."

"Somethings wrong with me...inside. And it was wrong before mum and da...did this, threw me away, but...it got worse. And I was sitting there...and I couldn't...I couldn't think straight. And everything hurt, and I didn't..I didn't know what to do."

"Because they had everything, they had everything Jamie...and I had nothing...and I just started moving. I didn't realize I was heading...here. I didn't...until I got closer, and by then I was just so tired...I didn't want you to be mad at me...but I was just so tired...and everything hurt..."

James swallowed and slowly pulled the bottle from Sirius' taking another long swig.

"I was worried about you."

"You were?" They're both slightly drunk now, and Sirius drops his head onto James' shoulder.

"I was always worried about you...your brother...told me you were missing, and I felt like I died inside."

"Oh." Sirius says, his lips forming a perfect circle and James pulls the quilt tighter around them.

"I felt like I died inside...and seeing you there on my front porch, I've never been so happy. Ever Sirius."

"I was...I didn't know if you would take me...after Snape."

James' breath hitched in his throat, because...all this time he'd been worried, so worried about Sirius, and about why Sirius didn't come to him immediately.

"You know..there's nothing, nothing that you could ever do that would make me stop loving you Sirius."

Sirius lifted his head slightly, shaggy black hair falling in his face and his gray eyes were practically glowing as he stared at James.

"Really?" His voice wavered, soft and child like and James hugged him close, breathing in the scent of his best friend. All musk and mint and teenage boy with a hint of dog if you really stuck your nose in there.

"Really."

They sat there, finishing the bottle until James got up, pulling Sirius to his feet.

"Come on, it's christmas, we shouldn't be talking about this stuff on Christmas."

Sirius raised his eyes from the floor and stared at James.

"Okay."

"Bed." James said, and it wasn't an order, but Sirius followed it like it was one.

Lying there in the darkness again, with Sirius' hot skin pressed against his, and the smell of Sirius on his pillow James felt safe. Felt like he was officially home, with Sirius next to him.

"Tell me a story." He whispered and after a long moment Sirius started, his breath hot and close, tickling James' ear as Sirius spun tales of two wizards fighting against an unseen enemy...

They drifted off to sleep like that. Together. And safe.

Merry Christmas guys! I hope you like it, I hope you leave a review too!