Author's Notes: Once again, thank you to mrsspock for letting me know about the formatting of the chapter. And also, for taking the time to read it!

Sunday now, and Remus had barely left his apartment. Three nights since he'd left James' parents, and he'd only left to buy some groceries. Just in case anyone did coming over without letting him know. He'd learnt from that mistake, he didn't particularly want anyone else coming over and discovering empty pantries. Not that the turn of events with Sirius had been unpleasant. Andromeda and Ted had been great, and of course, Dora had been just amazing. Nothing had been unpleasant until he'd fucked it up. So there was that too.

He'd spoken to James every day since he had left. After all, he still wanted to make sure James was okay. It was a big Remus insisted on not being a complete monster. As he expected, Lily had sent a text with a fairly lengthy list of places he could go get some help. She was probably right — she usually was — but if he was going to sort out whatever the hell was going on with him, he'd need more than a once off ranting session. He didn't have the time or the money for that. Or the energy, come to think of it.

These past few days, he'd been in incredible amounts of pain. So ingrained into his body, he almost didn't think he'd ever be rid of it. Painkillers, he'd taken painkillers. He did his very best not to take anything. He hated being dependent on something to function, and plus, they couldn't be good for him anyway. So he avoided them like the plague, but the plague had caught up to him now, and he had to choose. Functional on medication? Or nonfunctional, off medication? So he chose the former, however reluctantly. He couldn't spend days just sitting around doing nothing. He'd drive himself insane. Maybe he was already insane. Confused, conflicted, and hopeless. That seemed more accurate.

Most of all though, he was frustrated. Frustrated with his illness. Frustrated with his inability to function without painkillers. Frustrated with his own running away. Frustrated with himself for not being able to deal with the whole Sirius thing properly. He didn't know how to fix the things he broke. Was it too late? He didn't want that. He didn't want that at all.

James had told him to just send a message and see what happens, but Remus hadn't quite worked up the courage yet. Hoping, hoping that Sirius would come bursting in, as he so often had. But Sirius didn't, and Remus was running out of options.

He would end up caving in. He almost always did. He was good at giving in. Gilderoy could attest to that, Remus thought bitterly. Bitter at Gilderoy, bitter at himself. At Gilderoy for being an abusive arsehole. At himself for being so fucking stupid about it all. A tosser if there ever was one.

But not yet, not yet. Coffee next to him this morning. Recipe files to the right, coursework to the left. Accompanied by an overwhelming sense of exhaustion — hence the coffee — smack dab in the middle of it all.

Pushing that aside, he got to work. Things needed to be organised. It wasn't long before the bakery would be open again and he needed to make sure everything would be okay for that.

—

After hours spent reviewing recipes, prices, wages, and much, much more, Remus was exhausted. Even more exhausted that was. And that was with the four cups of coffee he'd had. Healthy? Maybe not so much. But, productive? Absolutely.

He could only hope that he didn't look back over it all and find out that he had completely looked over the things he was meant to keep an eye out for. He'd get Lily, and possibly Marlene to check it out before applying it all. They were the most likely to know what he was doing right and wrong. James was hopeless with noticing details. Lily in particular, would be very helpful, and quietly too. Not that he really minded, but it did seem to be that she was the only one who'd learnt even a little silence. She wasn't quiet as a person rather the opposite in fact, but knew when to keep her voice down. And he appreciated her tremendously for that.

Of course, it had always been Remus who took the place as the quiet one. Quietly mischievous, sure. But definitely quiet. Most likely, that's how it would always be. He didn't know a time when it hadn't been like that. A strong moral compass put to waste because of his quietness. He was the quiet coward. A simple enough title, right?

—

That evening and he'd not spoken to anyone. He'd not left the apartment. He'd eaten an apple and some soup, along with a shit load of coffee. A weird day, that was for sure. Most likely it was enhanced by the coffee. He rarely drank coffee, it tended to make him even more anxious, and that wasn't something he needed. But today he had decided — for some strange reason — that he needed to kickstart the day. Clearly, he'd kept with the theme. The last time he remembered drinking so much coffee was when he was fifteen and had practically decided it would be a good idea to run purely on coffee and repressed emotions. A bad decision, that was a definite. Truly though, it would've been sad if his best ideas came at fifteen, though he couldn't deny, some of the pranks had been glorious.

Pranks… that brought him back to James. James who hadn't called, hadn't texted. Meaning that Remus had to. Not that he minded, it just seemed to be a thing that had fallen into place over the years. If they didn't see each other in a day, they'd message. Funny, being friends for so many years and none of them had gotten tired of each other yet.

Of course, Peter, James and Remus had promised "forever" all those years ago, but how often was that true? It seemed James and Lily would vow their "forever" soon enough. And Remus didn't know what would happen with Dorcas and Marlene, as friends they'd been around for a long time, but together? A year? But they were all nineteen and twenty, things would change. Things were allowed to change. Why would they all settle now? Hopefully not even a quarter into their lives, they didn't need to have everything sorted out now.