CHAPTER TWELVE
By: The Demonic Duo
Remus's eyes fluttered open slowly, the smell of damp soil mingling with the fragrant plants surrounding the area. He was cold, shivering softly but, nevertheless, content. Life was always better after a relaxing nap during a rather tumultuous thunderstorm. He felt a rough tug on his arm and a loud scream. That most certainly wasn't from him.
"Are you nuts!" Was the familiar voice of Sirius, hollaring at something or other. Maybe he, himself, was the one being yelled at? "Don't pull him away, he'll rip my bloody hair out!"
That caught Remus's attention, causing him to open his eyes more widely and focus. He began taking in the scene. Sirius was cupped around him, his head on his stomach while Remus's head was on Sirius's thighs, which made his neck crane with only a little discomfort. The bushes were pushed aside and there were several nurses staring down at them both, angry and startled. He realised that he and Sirius must have been outside, which was out of the question at night. Frowing, he dully noted that his shower was all for nothing. Damn.
"How about you try unhanding my hair?" Sirius scowled at him, though not in anger. He brought his hand up and gripping Remus's wrist firmly. Remus twitched, releasing Sirius's hair instantly and being yanked up from his spot in the mire.
The sudden change of position caused his neck to hurt, leaving Remus distressed, his body shaking more violently as he clawed unhappily at the nurses holding onto him. One nurse made the mistake of putting her forearm in front of his face, not reacting quick enough when Remus bit down. Screaming, she tried to pry Remus's jaw open, only making his situation worse. Remus bit down harder, breaking the skin, somehow knowing that Sirius was watching in bemused silence.
Sirius frowned at the commotion between Remus and the young woman, stepping forward and pinching Remus's nose shut. Remus turned his angry eyes at Sirius and growled, relinquishing the woman's arm from his mouth. They stared at eachother in challenge before Remus glanced away.
"So, are we in big trouble?" Sirius asked the nurse, relieved to see that Remus calmed down some. He was breathing a bit harshly, but other than that he seemed composed. Well, that's what Sirius hoped, anyways.
"Molly wants to talk to you both, but I suppose you two will have to clean up before you get completely sick." Someone from the small crowd responded, Remus not noticing who. He was too busy seething, feeling increasingly aggitated with the amount of people surrounding him, shining flashlights in their faces.
Sirius shrugged, pushing some mud off of his chest and flicking it to the ground. He was comfortable in his own filth. Remus, however, was not...
They both scooted out from behind the bushes and into the building, leaving a long trail behind them as they trotted towards the shower. The two male nurses, that even Sirius didn't know, followed them into the shower area, letting them strip. The tall and lanky man took the sopping clothes and left to find replacements.
Sirius turned the water on, adjusting it to his liking before standing under the stream calmly. Once again, Sirius was unphased to the lack of privacy, and Remus realised that he might simply be used to the entire process. That, or he was just very content with being nude. Remus paused at the thought.
Standing under his own showerhead, he turned the water on and made the temperature tollerable. He rinsed his hair and body off, staring at the tiles on the wall and trying to ignore Sirius, whom was standing next to him, just minding his own business. Remus was starting to feel restless and began fidgeting. Finally he grabbed the soap and cleaned himself off completely, paying special attention to every part of his body to make sure he got all of the soil off.
The lanky nurse returned, leaning against the wall with their clean outfits folded neatly. They were both dark and Remus figured all the clothing he'd recieve after a shower would be black, and he had a small suspicion that it was because white fabric was awfully sheer while it was damp.
He made sure all the shampoo was out of his hair before turning around and accepting the smaller set of clothes, stepping over to a drier area to get dressed. Considering they didn't want them sick, they could have at least provided towels, but they didn't and at the moment, Remus was far from caring.
Sirius joined him a second after he was fully clothed, dressing quickly and twisting his hair into a thick rope and tying it up akwardly. The result was that Sirius had a half bun behind his head, draping damply over his neck and sticking up in odd angles. It suited him well, Remus figured.
"Are you two finished?" The shorter, fatter man asked grumpily.
Frowning, Sirius nodded for them, grabbing Remus's arm and tugging him along gently, walking out of the room and shivering from the cooler air. Remus sighed, following after Sirius moodily, his shoulders slouched and arms limp. He pointedly ignored the two men that were watching over them.
Molly was finally in view, looking very peeved at the two of them. She glowered disapprovingly at them both and Remus stood behind Sirius, glancing away.
"What's the matter with you two? Sleeping outside in the rain! Honestly, I've never met anyone so completely daft! Do you realise how dangerous it is for you to be out there while there's lightning? You could have gotten electrocuted. Honestly, in the mud like that... what were you thinking?"
"Oh, I know what I was thinking, Molly!" Sirius chirped with a large, shit-eating grin. "I was thinking. 'MMMM SLEEP.'"
"SIRIUS!" She bellowed, breathing through clenched teeth. "That was completely uncalled for, and you know it! You should be ashamed of yourself."
"What? Why?" He and Remus blinked, glancing at eachother and shrugging.
"For bringing him outside in the rain like that!" She hissed.
Gaping, Sirius cackled and shook his head. "Nope, didn't do it."
"Don't you dare try to lie to me right in front of my face, Sirius Black" Molly's eyes were rather furious, and her body language screamed rage. Sirius's little laugh didn't exactly help, either.
Sirius narrowed his eyes at her before glancing at Remus. He watched Remus's eyes twitch and his hands fidget curiously. Taking a deep breath, he sighed and looked at Molly sadly.
"It was actually a pretty bad case of Remus-and-family syndrome." He said solemnly, his face straight. "It's symptoms are running mad and hiding behind a bush and letting Sirius look for him in the entire hospital before finding him."
Confused, Molly glanced at Remus with her pinky finger in her mouth. Remus stared back cooly, defiantly wondering what she's do about it.
"Your parents were here, Remus? You should have told someone, the visits are supposed to be monitored..." She said softly and Sirius turned and banged his head in exasperation on the wall. Of course she didn't mind setting him straight, but when it's Remus she cooes and giggles for him. Sirius sent them both a dirty look, instead beind ignored.
Remus jerked his shoulders up crankily in a shrug, frowning at her. She frowned back.
"I don't want either of you two outside unless you're supervised, you hear me?" Molly instructed them both firmly. She put her hands on her hips, pursing her lips before sighing. "Go to bed, it's still early."
Sirius and Remus looked at eachother, turning around and walking lightly towards their rooms in silence.
The next day began without the chill of a storm. Both young men were dry and warm in their seperate beds. Remus was awake before the nurse could open his door, but he felt lazy and miserable. He was most certain that he caught a cold while he was sleeping in the mud during the storm, but couldn't bring himself to get up and actually ask for cold tablets. They might interfere with the meds they gave him once a week. He heard Sirius mumbling about getting his shots three times a week. However intimidating Sirius might try to make himself seem, he was still a bratty teenager that was terrified of needles.
Tossing the covers back, Remus lie exposed to the cool air as he tried to will himself to get out of bed. A few minutes later he finally sat up and changed into the clothing that was delivered to his door. He brushed his hair back with his new comb and tied it up into a neat ponytail.
He left the room and walked towards the cafeteria, straight past the cafeteria and towards the library. He wasn't feeling hungry, he was drowzy and knew that there were, sadly, coloring books and such that he could amuse himself with.
As Remus rounded the corner, he spotted Sirius peeking into the library suspiciously. Tapping him on the shoulder, Remus quirked an eyebrow at him as he spun around quickly.
"Don't DO that!" He hissed, frowning poutily and Remus glared. He really wasn't in the mood for this. Shoving the taller patient out of the way, Remus barged into the library and picked up a coloring book that still had pictures left to color in and a pack of crayons.
He shot Sirius a nasty look and dropped himself into an armchair in the back and propped the book on his knees. While flipping through the book, Remus knew that Sirius was slinking over to him.
"I thought you liked to read, why are you coloring?"
"..." Remus just looked at him, sniffing wryly.
Staring, Sirius sat down and continued to gawk at him. Irritated, Remus threw the coloring book at him, put the crayola crayons down and stood up, stomping past him. Today didn't seem to be a good day. He passed James Potter, glowering at him again and leaving the man to laugh weakly, probably pondering what he had done to get on his bad side. He was vaguely aware that Sirius was following him, but turned around when he heard James speak.
"Hey." James said, grabbing Sirius's wrist gently and lifting it up and Sirius stood back some to regain his balance, surprised. "How are you feeling?"
Remus watched, his eyes narrowing some as James kept his grip firmly on Sirius's arm. Feeling possessive, he walked forward slowly and growled deeply at James. He didn't exactly see the man, but knew he was there all he saw was a bright, white blind rage.
Sirius and James stared at Remus curiously, who relaxed visibly and instantly tensed and sprung himself at James, scratching at his face and biting down on his left eyebrow, trying to inflict whatever pain possible.
Sirius gasped, punching Remus in the back and yanking him off when he yelped, throwing him into the wall. James stood up, glancing at Sirius quickly before heading towards the infirmiry to get treated and send help while Sirius wrestled the younger, thinner patient to the ground.
Breathing heavily from the struggle, both boys grunted painfully from some blows inflicted from the other, and chuckled or snickered at others. During their fight to gain dominance over the other, they forgot the real reason for even starting this very physical feud.
Remus gasped when Sirius bit his lower lip roughly, closing his eyes and jamming his nails deeply into Sirius's lower back. Hissing, Sirius opened his mouth over Remus's and was surprised to feel Remus's tongue baiting his. Slipping his tongue into the other's mouth, they kissed slowly. All too soon, Remus clamped his teeth around his tongue tightly, causing him to jerk in surprise and pain.
Reaching up, he gripped at Remus's jaw, prying it open. Their bodies were rubbing together from both their struggles. Remus finally released his hold, opening his eyes to stare at Sirius whom was staring back with a small trickle of blood leaving his mouth.
Staring down at Remus, Sirius finally realised what an amount of damage he had done to Remus's lip, because it was also bleeding only more.
"Damn." He breathed, watching Remus calmly stare back. "Are you, like, used to this cannibalistic style or what?"
Silently, Remus was thinking that if he were a cannibal, Sirius and everyone else would know. At this, his lips twitched up in a small smirk.
TBC.
Someone, not from a review, but from an instant message suggested a humorous point of cannibalism. I figured I'd add it. It doesn't really fit, but it doesn't clash either, which is kind of neat.
Anyways. I don't think I'll get the next chapter out to you soon at all. This took me forever to write and it's not even that long. I barely remember what I wrote and I don't have the time, currently, to read over it. We'll have to wait for when I don't have a job that takes up most of my time and energy. Sorry! I really and truely am. I don't even have time to read the next Harry Potter book, either... Which saddens me greatly. :cries: Please review!