A/N: Written for Elledreamer's "Growing Up" Challenge. I wish I could find the original I had started a long while back, but I seem to have lost it even though I liked that one much better. If you recognize it, its not mine. Hope you enjoy.
Remus awoke with a start, his body moist with sweat.
A monster. The things I had done, I was so out of control. I couldn't keep the wolf at bay. Always hunting.
Always killing.
Uncontrollable.
He sighed deeply. Something he had come to grips with long ago. His lycanthropy was an incurable menace in his life. He always had to live around it.
Like tonight. It was the last time he would sleep in his own bed for three nights.
Remus turned himself into the moonlight, something he had always avoided doing. He controlled the impulse to shudder. Night by night for the past year, he had been working on his fear of the moon. For her.
Only for her.
She was his everything.
"Remus. I don't know if we will make it through the night."
It had been a dark and fearful night, the two sides going head to head. Green light flashing in all directions. It was uncertain who would win that night, and members of the Order were falling in all directions.
"You're a good man, Remus." She smiled. Through all the dirt and grime covering her, she was beautiful as he really saw her for the first time. "You have to know-" She raised her wand and stunned a Death Eater that had been coming up behind him, and then turned her attention back to him. "You have to know that I love you."
She kissed him. Time seemed to freeze around them. And when she pulled away, she ran off into the fight, dodging spells and firing her own.
He smiled. Remus had figured that it was a moment of death admission that as soon as their lives were out of danger she would claim it never happened.
How wrong he had been.
Someone could love the monster after all.
It had given him hope. A reason to keep fighting. A reason to live.
And with that admission of love, he realized how many people cared about him. Dumbledore, who had offered him work when no one else would; Harry, who fought for the memory of his parents; the Weasleys, who were so close that nothing could tear them apart; and so many more that he couldn't even begin to list them off.
He pulled the woman in his bed closer to him and kissed her neck, careful not to wake her. Life is good. Got a beautiful woman in my bed whom I love, good friends, and a comfy bed under a blanket of stars for tomorrow. Couldn't ask for more.
Sleep soon overtook him, but this time with more pleasant dreams.
A/N: I shall leave his wife up to the reader. I do so hope that you enjoyed reading this. It was fun to write. But now it is complete and I shall be moving onto another project. Please review and let me know what you thought, whether it was good, bad, or indifferent. ~*~ Mynthia~*~