Remus was about two seconds away from drifting off to sleep when he heard the click of the hospital wing door unlocking. "Madam Pomfrey?" he murmured, rubbing open his eyes. He was confused: Remus was the only patient sleeping in the wing, and he was less ill and in need of checking up on than he'd ever been before after a full moon.
"Guess again," said a voice that was decidedly not Madam Pomfrey's. Sirius creaked open the door and stepped inside with his wand lit, his hair tied back in a messy bun and his pajama pants swishing around his bare feet. Remus sat up and narrowed his eyes. This was unexpected, too—the Marauders had made late-night visits to the hospital wing before after particularly bad moons to keep Remus company during his inevitable post-transformation nightmares, but he didn't feel in any need of saving from nightmares tonight.
Sirius stepped up to his bed and muttered an incantation—"Lumos Sperius"—to send the light from the tip of his wand floating over Remus's head, growing into a large orb that was bright enough to bring color to Sirius's figure. Although he appeared slightly disheveled and was afflicted with a serious case of bedhead, he was as eye-catchingly handsome as always.
"Sirius," Remus murmured, biting back a yawn. "What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't sleep." Sirius jumped onto Remus's bed and swung up his legs to sit cross-legged beside him. "James and Peter collapsed in their beds right after dinner, but I can't stop thinking about how amazing last night was, Re."
"So you decided to ruin my sleep instead?"
"I thought you'd be up too," Sirius said, sounding a little guilty. "I thought you wouldn't be able to sleep either after how everything went." He nudged Remus playfully with his shoulder. "We should go to the Ministry with this, you know. The four of us have discovered the secret to keeping werewolves from trying to kill themselves whenever there's a full moon."
"Oh, the Ministry doesn't care about helping werewolves," Remus said wryly. "They'd probably love it if we all ripped ourselves apart during the moons."
"Well, the Ministry's gone to shit anyway," Sirius said. "Heard they've been infiltrated by the Death Eaters now." He gave Remus one of his infamous crooked smiles, succeeding as usual in making his heart beat as fast as a speeding hippogriff. "My new cousin Lucius got himself Dark Marked over the summer. I overheard my parents talking about him doing some recon work over there for Voldy."
Remus crossed his arms, willing the flush of color to leave his cheeks. "I can't believe you just referred to the most dangerous wizard in the world as Voldy, Sirius."
"Well, he doesn't deserve a respectful title," Sirius countered. "Only the most deserving get to be given names as prestigious as Moony and Padfoot."
"Oh, God, James's names again."
"They're good names, Re!"
"If you say so." Remus's muscles were always sore after his transformations, and his back was beginning to ache from sitting up unsupported, so he plumped up his pillows and leaned back against the wall with Sirius's help. Sirius settled beside him, and suddenly the two of them were only separated by a few inches, the fabric of Sirius's pajama shirt brushing against the ratty old T-shirt Remus usually wore during his hospital wing stays.
"I must look terrible," Remus murmured.
Sirius's eyes flicked immediately to his. "What did you say?"
"N—nothing." Why had he said that out loud? "I know it's a dumb thing to worry about, and I probably look a whole lot better this month than I usually do. It's just…you…." God, he needed to stop talking.
But Sirius wasn't going to let him get away that easily. "Me what?"
"Even right now, in your pajamas, you're the best-looking person in this school," Remus said matter-of-factly. "And me…I get maybe a couple weeks a month where I can look somewhat decent, as long as I cover up all my scars, and the rest of the time I'm all pale and sickly and ugly-looking. And next to you, when I look like this, it's just…really obvious." That wasn't really the reason Remus suddenly felt so self-conscious sitting beside Sirius, he knew, but it was close enough to the truth. "Oh, Merlin, I sound so vain. I don't care about things like that, really, I don't, but—"
"You're not vain, Moony." Sirius said. "James is the vain one of our group. And you're never ugly, no matter what your wolf does to you."
Remus rolled his eyes. "You don't have to lie to me, Padfoot. I appreciate the effort, though."
"I'm not lying," Sirius insisted. His eyes were bright with intensity—their gray orbs, Remus realized as a trickle of ice coursed down his spine, resembled a pair of full moons. Sirius's voice quavered a bit as he spoke. "You have…Merlin, you've got the deepest green eyes I've ever seen, and this perfect little smile, and freckles on your cheekbones that look like stars, and gold streaks in your hair that shine whenever they catch the light, and…just…you, Remus John Lupin, are absolutely bloody beautiful. Okay?"
Remus blinked, startled; he felt strangely as though he were levitating off his bed. "Okay," he murmured.
Sirius leaned forward then, close enough for Remus to feel the warmth of his breaths. Remus's eyes drank in every inch of his face, his sharp eyebrows and long lashes and perfectly-chiseled nose. Everything about him betrayed his good breeding, his descendance from an ancient line of wizarding royalty. And yet here he was, holed up with Remus in the hospital wing, looking at him like he was the most precious thing in the entire world.
Almost on instinct, moving faster than his rational mind could restrain him, Remus closed the gap between them and pressed his lips to Sirius's, breathing him in as if he were satiating some primal hunger deep inside of him. Sirius gave a soft moan and kissed him back, his palm cradling the back of Remus's neck as he pulled him closer. Remus dug his fingers into Sirius's hair and untied his bun, letting his raven locks swoop down over his shoulders. "Moony," Sirius whispered when they broke apart for breath. The word sounded somehow melodic on his tongue. "Moony, Moony, Moony…." Remus slipped his hands underneath Sirius's shirt and let his fingers skim across the strong, bunching muscles of Sirius's back as they kissed and kissed and kissed….
"Remus?"
Remus gave a startled yelp as the sound of Madam Pomfrey's voice, pulling back from Sirius as if yanked by a rope. "Remus, are you all right?" she called.
With a string of colorful curses, Sirius dove under the covers and buried himself as best he could: Remus extinguished the orb of light overhead with a hissed "Nox!"
Madam Pomfrey drew open the door, a lantern swiveling in her grasp. "Remus, what was that light all about?" she demanded. "I could see it from all the way down the hall."
"S—Sorry, Madam," Remus stammered. "I was doing some reading."
"It's the middle of the night, Remus," she said exasperatedly.
"I couldn't sleep."
"I could fix you up a potion—"
"No!" Remus yelped as she took a step towards him. "No, Madam, I—I think I'm all right to sleep now. Thank you."
"No more late-night reading," Pomfrey said sternly. "You need your rest to recover properly."
"Yes, Madam."
Pomfrey turned to leave with a sigh, closing the door behind her; as soon as she was gone, Sirius poked his head out from among the blankets.
"Did we really just snog, Remus?" he asked, sounding a bit in awe of himself.
"I believe we did." Remus half-wondered if he was stuck in a dream, a dream where snogging other boys in the dead of night was a perfectly normal thing to do. But Sirius's lips against his had felt far too real to be a part of any dream. He wanted to kiss him again, but instead he settled for stroking his fingers softly through Sirius's hair. Sirius looked up at him with smiling, mischievous eyes, eyes for him and him alone, and Remus felt a thrill of pleasure somewhere inside of him. No, this wasn't a dream—this was the most real and awake Remus had ever felt.
"You know, Sirius," he murmured, "Moony doesn't sound like such a bad name to me anymore."
