The sun was about to creep over the horizon when Remus finally returned to the dorm the next morning. James and Peter had been asleep for a while now, even after vowing to stay up with Sirius until Remus had returned, but he had been wide awake all night, worried for his friend.
He had watched two figures, confident it was the werewolf and the nurse, retreat to the new willow they had put in Sirius' first year. They had also come back through there as well; that's how Sirius knew that they were coming, and that Remus was still alive.
Sirius paced around the room after they were out of his sight. It seemed to take forever to get up to the Gryffindor tower from the field below. Or maybe they weren't even coming up here at all... Maybe he was supposed to be going to the infirmary. Sirius started towards the door, and just when he was about to open it, it was pushed by Remus himself, entering the dorm room where he had been watched a few moments earlier. His eyes popped in surprise, at seeing Sirius still awake and waiting, but the boy didn't waste anytime before rushing his friend and pulling him into a big hug.
"Aahh... Get off!" Remus yelped, pushing his friend away. Sirius wouldn't let go, but he did lessened the pressure he had been putting on his friend's body.
"What's the matter?" Sirius asked seriously.
"Nothing..." said Remus shyly, turning away from the piercing gaze.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"That wasn't very convincing! Where at?" Sirius sounded extremely concerned.
"It's no big deal, I've had worse."
"So you are hurt. Where?"
"I'm fine," Remus tried to pull away again, but the other boy didn't budge.
"Remus," he started, but got no response. Sirius tried to find any signs of injury, but it was very difficult in the dark, so he began squeezing various parts that he thought might be hurt. The wolf gave almost nothing away, but his eye twitched when Sirius touched his upper left arm.
"Take off your robes. And your shirt, please." Sirius backed away to give Remus a little room to follow his instructions, but the other boy didn't move. He looked exhausted, but Sirius was more set on healing the creature than letting him go to sleep. After a few moments of no movement, he leaned forward and started undoing Remus' robe clasps, but he just shooed Sirius away and began taking it off himself. He was mumbling under his breath the whole time, until his chest was finally bare.
Obviously Remus had had a bad night. Not only was his arm bloodied up, but he also had what appeared to be a slash mark, with four lines, across his abdomen, and they looked pretty deep. There was also a fresh bruise on his back hip, but other than that, he seemed pretty safe.
"Go lay down," Sirius instructed again, "I'll be right back..."
He returned a few minutes after Remus had crashed onto his bed, and almost fell asleep while he was waiting. Sirius had brought a healing spell book that was kept in their bathroom, and some kind of wrapping that was supposed to be in the hall closet.
"Just wanna see if this will work first," he started, opening the book to a page in the middle, "it's not supposed to work on 'cursed creatures' though. Man, any sort of werewolf spells or potions are pretty delicate, so we can hope it works, at least a little, right?" he gave Remus, who now looked worried, a guilty smile.
Sirius retrieved his wand from his dresser and leaned over the half naked wolf, trying not to waste any time staring. Remus was sprawled out on the red cotton covers, and was making an effort to not move his arm, but get it comfortable. Sirius felt even guiltier when he had to pick up the injured arm and move it to complete the spell.
It didn't work. Sirius tried the spell three times, and nothing happened, which could either be good or bad. Remus wasn't hurt anymore, but at the same time he wasn't healed either. He sighed, and returned to his gauze.
Sirius made another trip to the bathroom for a sanitizing potion and a clean towel, trying to service the wounds before Remus couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. It was a rather painful process, at least for the patient, and Remus complained that the potion stung his wounds. Finally Sirius had his whole chest and left arm wrapped up as best as he could.
"I hope that helps..." he sighed again, helping Remus pull on his pajama shirt, and lean back on his bed. The doctor felt better now that he knew the wolf was safe and on his way to healing completely, and so he turned to retreat to his own bed, but Remus coughed loudly and stared at him.
"The nurse usually gives me some sort of reward for being so cooperative," he commented, with a glint in his eyes. Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"I'm all out of sweets," he admitted, moving closer to the bed and leaning over the other boy again. They both already knew that candy didn't keep well around the dorm; if Peter hadn't eaten it already, Sirius had.
"Well, you shall have to come up with something else then."
Sirius knew what he wanted to do right now, ever since last week even, when Remus had taken the initiative and took that small kiss from him, but it was too bold. Even if Remus did want it, as Sirius has suspected, their friends could shun them, plus, what would his parents say? Maybe he should just leave well enough alone.
Remus raised his head off the pillow, slowly closing the space between the two boys. He didn't actually kiss Sirius again, though. He was simply teasing him, seeing if he would comply with his request or confirm his fears by rejecting him. Remus wanted this too much, wanted someone to care for him and love him the way Sirius seemed to, but as more than a friend. First of all, Remus felt as if his parents didn't even 'love' him, they just tolerated him since the accident. And he had always had enough 'friends' and they usually ended up leaving him because of his curse, but Sirius had been different; he had promised to stay with him.
Finally, after a long minute of tension, Sirius just grabbed Remus and pulled him into a harsh meeting of lips that only lasted a second or two. When he turned immediately to get to his bed, Sirius could feel the heat in his cheeks increasing, and he also knew that Remus had probably seen it as well. The blushing boy climbed into bed and looked at his room mate again.
The werewolf was wearing a huge content smile on his face.
The next day Remus skipped all of his classes, as was normal for an after-changing day, but Sirius had to go even though he was completely exhausted. James woke him up after only an hour and a half of sleep, complaining that Remus had left again. Even though he waited until the very last second to get dressed, Sirius was dragging for the rest of the day. He skipped lunch to nap in the charms room, and nobody noticed even after that, so he was left wondering if he looked this shabby all the time or if there was something going on he didn't know about.
After all the classes were over, Sirius didn't return to his dorm, although he was more exhausted than earlier after his long day in school, because he was positive that Remus was still in the infirmary. So he trekked up to the hospital wing, and as surmised, the wolf was waiting in the last bed, halfway behind a curtain.
When he entered the room, the nurse that had come to get the werewolf the previous night, tried to push him out and tell him that there was no one there, but he knew better and he simply pushed his way in. Remus looked up in pleasant surprise.
"Sirius!" he looked like he wanted to jump out of bed, but of course he didn't. The nurse looked at him quietly and then turned to Sirius.
"Where you what Remus went back to the tower for last night?" She glared and Remus' mouth hung open while he turned bright red.
"Uh... What?" Sirius honestly had no idea what she was talking about. Wasn't it usual for Remus to return to the dorm after his transformation? Of course it would make more sense for him to spend the next couple days here.
"Remus was supposed to report straight here this morning, but he said he had to go back to his rooms for something. He didn't show up for three hours!" she turned to Remus again, who had returned to staring at the book he had been reading, trying not to look at his visitor. "When he got here he said he fell asleep or something, but I think you kept him there."
Sirius looked a little startled, but then slid into his suave mode, commenting "I didn't know where he was, okay? I didn't think it would take him that long to see what was wrong with his mother, so I stayed up until he got back. It was rather boring and I suppose I should probably thank him for coming back at all, as I wouldn't have gotten any sleep last night."
The nurse's eyes popped open, like she had realized that she had given something important away, so she simply turned abruptly to leave the two boys there. Sirius turned on Remus, who appeared to not be paying attention.
"You were supposed to come up here?" he started, raising his voice a little. "You were hurt and you went all the way back to the dorms, when you could have come here to get healed faster?" Remus pouted.
"Well nice to see you too..." he opened his book again, scanning the pages with a frown on his face. There was the common tense silence for a few seconds.
"What did you do today?" Sirius pulled up a chair and sat by Remus' temporary bed.
"Just laid here, mostly. There isn't really anything else to do," he paused, "Did you bring my homework?" Remus looked at Sirius expectantly.
"It's in the room," he cut the subject short and laid his head down on the bed.
"Where's James? And Peter?"
"Gryffindor tower, I think. I left without them."
Remus finally smiled again. He licked his dry lips and then mumbled a thank you.
"For what?" Sirius sat up a little and looked questioningly at his injured friend. Remus leaned forward and hugged him, awkwardly because of the bed.
The werewolf never made a response to the question, and there was no more speaking after that. Remus glanced back down to his book, uninterested now that Sirius was there, and laid it on the bedside table with the pages still opened. A few more moments of silent staring preceded Sirius resting his head back on Remus' blanket clad leg. His tired body was finally able to give in to sleep, knowing that his friend was safe, and that he could be here with him a while longer.
In no time at all Remus had lulled Sirius into a light doze, running his fingers through his tangled black hair.
