Title: Two Thousand Years: In a Heartbeat
Author: Sarai (aka Princess Emma)
Archive: FF.Net, hopefully Azkaban's Lair, and anywhere so long as I'm informed
Summary: Sirius has a nightmare and Remus does some thinking. Short and sweet.
Spoilers: PoA, mostly, I think
Rating: G
Disclaimer: No character belongs to me; neither do the lyrics. I'm just amusing myself with them.
Originally posted: FF.Net
Notes: I've been dying to write this forever but could never get it right. And then, the day after Valentine's day... Voila! I'm just happy right now... Happy belated Valentine's Day!
Warnings: Slash; Remus/Sirius. But absolutely nothing but warm, gushiness.
Dedications: Uh... To Zoe and Arnica, who forced me to see how cool this pairing really is. And Aradia 'cause I can't leave her out. Love you guys!
Feedback: LtJupiter@aol.com



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Too many kingdoms
Too many flags on the field
So many battles, so many wounds to be healed
Time is relentless
Only true love perseveres
It's been a long time and now I'm with you
After two thousand years

 ~ Billy Joel; "Two Thousand Years"

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Sirius was having a nightmare. I knew it before I'd even fully woken, and rolled over to shake him gently. I watched him wake with a start, his breath catching and eyes opening too widely. They flitted around the room wildly until they found mine and he fought to get his breathing under control. He was cold and clammy and beneath my hand his heart beat frantically. A strand of dark hair fell over one haunted eye and I reached up, gently brushing it behind his ear. I trailed my hand to cup his jawline and brushed my thumb over his cheekbone. He closed his eyes and leaned his face against my hand, sighing.

"Oh, Sirius," I breathed with a sigh of my own. His nightmares were common affairs, though fewer and farther between nowadays. They tended to resurface when it began to turn cold, or when he was especially worried about Harry- which seemed to be a more and more frequent thing these days. In any case, they always left him cold, shaking and depressed. It made my heart ache for him.

I dropped a kiss on his shoulder and pushed myself further up in the bed. Positioning myself against the pillows, I wrapped my arms around him and he sighed again, smiling weakly and rolling over, settling into my embrace. He lay his head on my shoulder and I leaned my cheek against the top of his head. I sighed, feeling him tremble minutely as I trailed my fingers down his back. Tightening my hold on him, I turned my head to kiss the top of his head and breath in the smell of his shampoo.

I felt him smile slightly against my collarbone and he began to idly trace the scars on my chest with his fingertips. We lay like that for a long while, until Sirius' heartrate returned to normal and he stopped shaking. Even after that, we lay there in each other's arms, absent-mindedly tracing invisible patterns on each other with the pads of our fingers. His breath against my bare chest gave me goosebumps, but I wasn't cold.

A lump formed in my throat and I clenched my jaw, biting my tongue to ignore it. I shut my eyes and held Sirius to me, trying not to shake myself. It was just suddenly too much. Too much time, too much pain... We'd been though too much. If someone had told me twenty years before that James and Lily would be dead, Peter a traitor, Sirius a wanted murderer and me completely alone... I wouldn't have believed them. But it was true. All of it. And neither Sirius nor I were- or ever would be- the same. We were different people... But I still loved him. With every fiber of my being I loved him and it killed me to see him hunted and haunted, tortured for something that wasn't his to be punished for. I buried my face in his hair, wondering at the act as I did it. It was beyond my comprehension how it was that I held him in my arms now. He was here and real and alive... and innocent. Deep down, I'd always wondered... It hurt to think of it.

I didn't realize that I was crying until Sirius pulled back and looked at me with concern on his face. He reached up and brushed my cheek. "Remus..." he murmured wonderingly. It had been a long time since I'd broken down like this.

I managed a shaky smile. "I'm all right," I said quietly. "Just..." I trailed off, trying to find a word for it. It was an ache, a pain I'd carried along with me since the night Lily and James died and I didn't know what to do with it. I saw the way Sirius looked at me and all I could think of was how lucky we were, to be alive and together. "Happy," I managed to whisper, knowing it was the wrong word, but not sure what else to say.

Sirius eyed me for a while, then kissed me gently. "That's not what you mean," he whispered, amazing me. He smiled and ran his eyes over my face, the smile fading slowly and a look coming into his eyes I couldn't quite place, except that I knew it must be the same as the one in mine. "I..." he stopped, swallowing. He kissed me again. "I love you, Moony," he said finally, his voice shaking.

I smiled up at him with tears in my eyes. Kissing him back, I managed to whisper, "I love you, Padfoot. More than life itself."