The silence was suffocating. Sirius was shifting from one desk to another, all the while casting glances at Remus, who hadn't moved since James and Peter left and was standing with a rather horrified expression fixed at the closed door. Finally, unable to stand it a minute longer, Sirius snapped, "Moony, if you just stand there for another second, I'm going to hex you."

Remus blinked. He'd been hoping to have managed to transport himself somewhere far, far away. Out of this country. Out of this universe. Somewhere that didn't have any other humans.

"Remus!"

On the other hand, just somewhere where he wouldn't be in the same vicinity as Sirius would do at the moment.

He thought about how he could tell him. "Look, Sirius, there's something I have to tell you." "Sirius, this is about our relationship." "I don't know how to tell you, so I'm just going to say it." "I love you, Sirius, you bloody ignorant idiot."

His mind ran through all these options and rejected each one systematically. The problem as yet wasn't even about the words. The problem was getting his mouth to even make a sound at all. Any sound. Before—

"Ow!" Remus yelped, bending over automatically with both hands to clutch his ankle which had been the unfortunate target of Sirius's stinging hex. Originally already pink and swollen from the sprain, the ankle now impressively doubled in size and was slowly deepening in colour. "Bloody hell, Sirius!"

Sirius was now leaning against the wall, wand in hand, arms crossed, looking both smug and irritated. "I did warn you."

By now, Remus had slid down onto the ground and was sitting with his legs extended. He pulled off the shoe on his right foot so he could examine his ankle more closely. It now looked more like an inflated angry red balloon than an ankle. Now he couldn't even make a run for it, which had been his backup plan. "Why the hell did you aim at my foot? Can't you see my ankle's sprained?"

The self-satisfied look slid off Sirius's face and concern immediately replaced it. "You sprained your ankle?"

"While I was running here. Which you would have noticed earlier if you weren't so busy playing bloody musical desks—"

Sirius had pushed himself off the wall and was now hurrying over to Remus, his face a mixture of guilt and anxiety. "Wait, Moony, I can fix it," he said confidently, leaning over Remus to point his wand at the swelling ankle. Without thinking, he rested a hand on Remus's thigh. The next second, he found himself flying across the room and felt his back hit the opposing wall. He stared at Remus, who was looking sheepishly at his right hand.

"Sorry, I forgot. Werewolf strength," he mumbled, cheeks turning pink. Damn it. Way to give yourself away, Remus. No normal person would have such a strong reaction to his touch.

Sirius felt his patience give one more feeble effort to hold out, and then finally expired. He pushed back his raven black hair and put both hands on his hips in what he hoped was a demanding posture (but which Remus thought made him look more like a petulant little boy. Scratch that, an adorable petulant little boy). "Remus, if you don't tell me what the hell is going on this minute, and I mean this minute, then I'm going to—"

"Oh, all right," Remus said wearily, before Sirius could launch into his list of Black's Top Terrifying Threats. Sirius had been steadily adding to this list for the past two weeks. The latest threat Remus had heard was an elaborate plan that involved a love potion and Snape, which was enough to make anyone's bones turn to jelly.

He realized he was tired. Exhausted, really. Exhausted from running in circles around Sirius, from constantly having to hide his feelings, from needing to suppress the overwhelming desire to hit someone whenever he saw Sirius with a new girl. Suddenly he didn't care anymore about Sirius's reaction. He would tell him and to hell with the consequences.

He beckoned to Sirius with one hand. "Come here."

Looking wary, Sirius slid across the floor a few inches.

Now impatient to get it over with and succumb himself to his fate, Remus snapped, "Closer."

Looking more suspicious than ever, Sirius shuffled a few inches closer to Remus, leaving about two feet between them.

Taking a deep breath, Remus opened his mouth – and closed it again. He could feel the words choking in his throat. I can't do it. I can't say it.

In despair, feeling like he was a man standing on a cliff edge about to plunge to his death, Remus reached out with both hands and in one smooth motion took a firm grip of the front of Sirius's robes, pulled him towards himself and kissed him soundly.

He heard Sirius give a muffled squeak of surprise against his lips and go completely still. Remus's heart was hammering at an uncontrollable speed, it was beating so fast he thought he would die of a heart attack at any moment. He held his breath, waiting, eyes squeezed shut in determination.

Then, slowly, Sirius relaxed. He parted his lips, Remus's own mouth opening in surprise, and suddenly they were kissing, kissing furiously – snogging, Remus thought hazily, the right word is snogging. I am snogging Sirius Black. Oh Merlin.

And it was incredible. Sirius slid between Remus's outstretched legs, one hand around his waist and one hand gently curving around Remus's face, and it was like a missing puzzle piece sliding into place. They fit together, molding to each other's bodies perfectly. Sirius tasted of sweets and cigarettes, and Remus felt like he was floating on air.

The next thing he was aware of was lying on his back and watching Sirius's black robes swirl out of view as he ran out of the classroom door.

There, lying on the floor, ankle throbbing like hell and trying to get his breath back, all Remus Lupin could think was, he's gone.

A/N: Oh dear. I do feel rather guilty for posting such a short little bit. But I'm writing this as I go and this is all I've gotten up to and seemed a good place to stop. There will be one more chapter to come! All will be resolved.