Title: This is This, That is That
Disclaimer: Characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
Warnings: R/S slash. Don't like, Don't read. OOTP, POA, and light HBP spoilers.
A/N: This is a bit experimental on my part. A comparison of R/T and R/S. The parts in italics are the past, the rest is the present. Enjoy!
It's something new. The way he watches her move. The way his eyes linger on her lips. The way he memorizes every laugh, every word. She reminds him of music. Lyrical and mesmerizing. Her touch is gentle. An offering of comfort. Because she understands. She hurts to. Not the way he does. She's not suffocating under the weight of his absence. She can hold herself together. She can give him the strength to keep going.
It's something old. The way he watches him move. It's familiar terrain. He knows those lips, those hands, that body. It's like an extension of his own. He clings to every breath, every word, ever laugh. Thirteen years of absence forces him to capture each one, all too aware that each one could be the last.
She was there, when Sirius fell. She was there when he was just too far away to reach... In the days that followed she pulled him back. She was with him every moment, because she saw how close he was to falling himself.
He was there. He was alive. He was back. And he wasn't a murderer. He was just Sirius. Remus thanked every deity he had long ago cursed.
She was cautious at first. Weighing her words. Measuring her actions. She gave him time. Every moment she sacrificed made her ache.
They slipped back into their roles as if no moments had passed. As if no trust had been broken. As if there had been no doubts. They were Moony and Padfoot. Older, greyer, sadder. But it didn't matter, the important things hadn't changed.
They danced around what they were becoming. They denied it at first, but soon she embraced it. He ran.
He had been the only one. There had been no 'before' Sirius and on nights like this, when the half moon cast pale shadows on the man beside him, he was quite sure there would be no 'after'.
He had been the only one. There had been no 'before' Sirius but on nights like this, when the half moon cast pale shadows on the woman beside him, he thought maybe...just maybe there would be an 'after'.