Remus was lurched back to wakefulness with a start as he felt a pressure on his hip. He had fallen asleep where he was sat on the sofa, with his head tucked into the dip between two cushions.

Sirius had pulled his legs up onto the seat and stretched out. He had his foot pushed into Remus' side, which would have been fine if Remus had not already had bruises there from the last time Sirius had kicked him.

Sirius pushed him lightly with his foot again, and Remus twisted around with a groan.

'You're finally awake then?' the auror asked, tossing his hair back as he leant over to get a good look at Remus.

The clock read ten minutes past four. Outside the sky had already gone dark.

Remus could not believe he had been able to sleep for so long. He did, however, feel a whole lot better for it.

'Oh, Merlin, my muscles feel like they want to fall out of my skin,' Remus mumbled, wincing as he stretched out his own legs. His cuffed arm twinged from the way it had been pulled out at an odd angle.

'You've been out of it for hours,' Sirius said, sounding bored.

Remus could feel a headache coming on. He was craving a cup of tea, but more than that he was craving a cigarette. Unless his dad had found and subsequently got rid of them, he was pretty sure there was still a packet of fags stuffed under his bedroom floorboard.

'No offense, Remus,' Sirius continued, 'but I can't wait to get these handcuffs off.'

Remus stood up, stretching out his back as he went. 'I have to say, I agree with you. I really wouldn't mind a hot bath.'

Sirius got up too, pulling down his jeans where they had bunched up around his legs. 'It would be nice to be able to go to the bathroom too, without you standing there covering your eyes.'

They headed out of the living room, and Lyall came out from the kitchen into the hallway to meet them. His fine grey hair was sticking up with static electricity, as it often did when he had spent hours brewing potions.

He looked between them both for a moment, then said measuredly, 'It's ready.'

They both followed him through to his potions room. Remus felt his nostrils twitch, and he scrunched his face, suspecting his father had some wolfsbane lying around somewhere.

The lab was just the same as Remus remembered it, perhaps with a few more colourful bottles lining the shelves, and different dried plants hanging from the ceiling.

Remus had always liked sneaking in there when he was little, opening apothecary drawers to find mysterious powders, or grossly fascinating ingredients like dried beetles or flakes of dragon hide.

The cauldron had been taken off the fire and placed on the central table. It gave off a pungent aroma that smelt like a mixture between sour gooseberries and woodsmoke.

Lyall had already taken his wand out of his pocket. 'The handcuffs need to be submerged in the potion, then I will say the counter-curse.'

'You're sure you know what you're doing, Dad?' Remus asked, peering into the cauldron. The potion was a warm orange colour. A thick, shiny skin had formed on top.

'Yes, Remus,' Lyall said with a sigh. 'It will have cooled down enough by now. Go ahead.'

Remus' dad had a manner of speaking that was not unlike a very bored school professor. Remus should have been used to it, but it still managed to put him on edge. Sirius looked just as guarded around his father, but that was more likely down to the way Lyall had threatened him.

'We had better roll our sleeves up,' Sirius said. 'Here, I'll do yours.' He twisted his hand awkwardly and pulled up the sleeve of Remus' coat.

It felt like a friendly offer to make, and after their conversation earlier in the day, Remus hoped it was Sirius making an effort to be normal around him.

'It'll be alright, leaving this on, right?' Sirius asked Lyall, pointing at the cloth Remus still had wrapped around his wrist.

Lyall only nodded. Remus returned the favour for Sirius, and then they dipped their hands into the cauldron and watched at the thick potion sludged up to engulf their hands. They waited for a good minute before Lyall spoke again.

'Now take it out and place it here,' he said, pointing at the table.

They did as he bade them, splattering orange potion everywhere. Sirius stepped back hastily, but he still ended up getting droplets of it on his jeans.

With an elaborate wave, a muttered unlocking spell, and a tap of Lyall's wand, the handcuffs unlocked neatly at both ends and fell empty onto the tabletop.

'Yaheyyy!' Sirius cried, holding his dripping hand up and away from him whilst taking a towel that Lyall gave him. He dried off his arm quickly and then rung his hand around his wrist, clearly relishing in the sensation of having nothing hanging off it anymore.

Remus dried his hand as best as he could and thought it was as good a time as any to start peeling back the bandage.

'Come through to the kitchen, Remus, and we'll have a look at that wrist,' Lyall said. He muttered a quick Evanesco to clear up the spilt potion, and then left the room.

Sirius stood there, grinning at Remus, and feeling caught up in the joy of the moment, Remus could not help but grin back.

'I was trying to play it cool,' Remus admitted, 'but I'm really relieved that worked.'

Sirius nodded. 'Me too.'

'Now we can use both our hands to fight the forces of evil,' Remus remarked, wincing a little as the cloth pulled away pieces of his skin that had stuck to it.

Sirius gave him a quick once-over. 'I thought you were the forces of evil.'

Remus narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, but Sirius' silver-grey eyes were soft, his shoulders relaxed and open.

'You want more of this potion on those jeans, Black?' Remus asked, gesturing with his gaze.

Sirius' eyes flared. 'See, I knew you were wicked really.' He then stepped forwards and peered down at Remus' wrist. 'How does it look?'

'Ah, it's still a bit sore,' Remus said, dropping the soiled cloth onto the table. The silver had cut into his skin so deeply on one side Remus was pretty sure he could see a bit of bone, but he kept that knowledge to himself.

'Remus,' Lyall called from the next room.

Remus followed his father through to the kitchen, Sirius tagging along behind him. Lyall made Remus sit down, then set to work. Remus was quite willing to let his father take charge, because just looking at the wound made him feel a bit sick.He was used to getting cuts and scrapes, and even the odd open fracture, but his full moon injuries were never anything that looked so festered and swollen.

Lyall cleaned up the rest of the potion and dried blood away from the wound, his jaw fixed and his expression grim.

As Lyall worked, his great grey owl, Teyrnon, flew onto the outer kitchen windowsill and peered into the room. The bird's fierce yellow eyes fixed on the three of them sat at the tale, before he pried open the window with his beak and let himself inside.

Sirius did not seem to notice. He was leaning his elbow on the table, his chin in his hand. Every so often his gaze fell down to Lyall as he dabbed a mixture of dittany and murtlap essence onto Remus' wound, but mostly Sirius kept his attention on Remus himself, an intense look in his eyes.

Remus kept his gaze averted, shivering as a breeze blew in through the open window.

By the time Lyall was wrapping Remus' wrist in a fresh bandage, the wound was feeling so much better that it almost made Remus tear up from sheer relief. He pulled his wrist to his chest and cradled it involuntarily, the possibilities of what could have been hanging over his head. It would have been awful… if he had had to… his wand hand…

But there was no point thinking of that now. The problem was solved. Remus muttered a quiet thank you to his dad, who only nodded in response.

'So, we're finally free of each other,' Remus directed at Sirius.

Sirius had finally stopped staring and was busy shrugging off his leather jacket, muttering about how much he had been dying to take it off.

Remus wanted to do the same with his own coat, but he was not ready to let go of his precious hand just yet. 'You really can leave, if you want to, Sirius. I know it's a lot to deal with.'

Sirius seemed to be in a practically jovial mood now that they were free of the handcuffs. 'I can't just leave you in the lurch now, can I? And I'll have to go into hiding anyway. Two heads are better than one. We have to do what we can to take down that mouldy bastard.'

'Mouldy?' Remus queried, failing to supress the small smile that came onto his face.

'Voldy, Mouldy.' Sirius waved a hand, grinning rakishly. 'You know who I mean.'

'Do I?' Remus pressed, raising an eyebrow.

'He's the mouldiest wizard out there, Remus,' Sirius replied. 'You have to know who I'm talking about.'

Remus was grinning fully now. It really was nice, knowing that he did not have to face this terrifying venture alone, and Sirius, it seemed, was going to make for very interesting company.

He glanced at his dad. Lyall was looking between them both shrewdly, but he did not comment. Instead, to Remus' surprise, he stated, as if it was an undeniable truth, 'You'll both stay here for a bit.'

Remus shared a look with Sirius before turning back to his father. 'I can't stay here, Dad.'

Lyall pursed his lips tightly, like he was holding back a flood.

'I'm a wanted man,' Remus clarified. 'The longer I stay here the more…'

'The full moon is in two days, Remus,' his father said without preamble. 'You can have it here where you're safe, and then get back to this fighting business when you've regained your strength.'

Remus' first instinct was to immediately run a mile, but the thought of having to find a patch of woodland to transform in, all alone, knowing the Death Eaters were out there searching for him, was not exactly an enticing prospect.

'It's Christmas in a few days,' Lyall said, collecting up the spare bandages and tape. 'You can stay until then.' He looked to Sirius. 'You can stay as well, Mr Black, for as long as you need.'

Sirius nodded and thanked him.

Maybe it was easier, Remus thought, and he would be able to sleep in his old bed again. He still felt like he had not caught up on his sleep. 'Alright, Dad, I'll stay, at least until after the full moon. Thanks.'

Lyall only caught Remus' eye. 'Now you're both free, could we have a private word, Remus?'

Remus could not think of a decent enough excuse for not doing as his father asked, so whilst Sirius was sent with a bottle of dittany to the bathroom at the top of the stairs to deal with his own cuts and scrapes, Lyall led Remus back into the potions room and closed the door.

'Are you sure he isn't a threat?'

Remus looked in the direction of the closed door, not wanting to look his father in the eye. 'I know for a fact he isn't a Death Eater,' he stated plainly, keeping his voice low, 'and if he was going to arrest or kill me, he would have done it by now.'

'But Remus,' Lyall started, and he looked almost ill with the weight of his expression. 'You're a werewolf.'

Remus felt the horribly familiar lump of disappointment settle in his stomach. He had not been sure what he was waiting for, but there it was. 'I am aware of that, funnily enough,' he said, trying not to grit his teeth.

'Aurors are taught to see you as vermin,' Lyall said coldly.

'I know it must be hard for you,' Remus cut out immediately, 'to even comprehend someone changing their mind about werewolves.' He kept his face impassive, but inside he was screaming with the injustice of it. 'But I think he really is trying. He's been talking to me quite normally. Only every other sentence does he tell me I haven't got a soul. I think that's progress, don't you?'

'Remus…'

'And honestly, Dad,' he sighed. 'I'm already living on borrowed time as it is.'

'Don't speak like that,' his dad said, sounding quite harsh.

Remus shrugged. He realised he was smiling. Why was he smiling?

'You haven't been in touch for over a year, Remus,' Lyall said. His brow was cinched like his head was being held together by a tight strap.

'So you won't miss me when I'm gone then, will you.' Part of Remus wondered if he was going too far, and another part of him wanted to keep pushing until one of them broke.

Lyall looked stone faced. He was looking up at Remus with his hooded brown eyes. Eventually he opted to ignore Remus' jibe and said, 'A whole year, Remus.'

Remus did not know what to say. Was his dad searching for an apology, an explanation, or simply asking, "Why now? You left me in peace for so long. Why ruin it now?"

'Not one letter, or one visit,' Lyall said, sticking out his chin and clenching his jaw.

'You would want me to visit?' Remus asked.

'Of course.'

Liar, Remus' inner voice screamed at him.

'Remus,' Lyall said, and to Remus' surprised Lyall put a gentle hand on his arm. Remus looked down at it in shock, and then looked back up. Their eyes met. Lyall opened his mouth and then grew still. Finally he said, 'Remind me tonight, and I'll change that dressing for you, alright?'

Remus exhaled and nodded. 'Ok,' he agreed, and that was that.

The three of them did not talk much over their meal that night. Lyall made a dish of pasta in a simple tomato sauce. It was quickly done, but Lyall was a good cook, and the homecooked food, glasses of wine, and fruit cake for pudding would have ordinarily made for a nice, cosy evening.

Remus still wanted to run. That was always the way of it, his reaction to any unpleasant feeling he could not talk his way out of. Run, Remus. Run, and maybe you will leave the hurt behind you.

It was not true though, was it? The ghosts would always follow him, and there would always be new hardships waiting around the corner, new people waiting to hate him.

'Will Mr Black be sleeping in your room with you, Remus?' Lyall asked as he began clearing the empty plates.

Remus, who had been half-way through taking a large sip of wine, immediately choked and spat it back into his glass.

He had never known if his father knew about his sexuality. Remus had, at one point, planned on sitting his parents down together and explaining things to them properly, but there had never been a good time, and then it had been too late.

Remus and his dad did not talk about anything these days, let alone partners, let alone sexy male partners. Lyall Lupin did not really know anything about his son's life, and Remus wanted to keep it that way.

But it was all irrelevant anyway, because Remus and Sirius were in no way at all together.

Lyall was watching Remus steadily, unfazed by his messy reaction to his words.

'Oh, no. Erm...' Remus turned to Sirius, who did not look remotely fazed. If anything, he looked a bit vacant. 'Sirius can have my bed,' he offered. 'I'll sleep on the sofa.'

Sirius blinked, shaking his head. 'What? No, it's fine,' he said, his words coming out more slurred than usual. 'I'll do a quick transfiguration on the sofa,' he said slowly. 'It makes sense that you have your own bed.'

'Well, it's not really my bed anymore,' Remus rebuffed. 'It's my dad's bed.'

Lyall looked down at the table. His tone was severe when he next spoke. 'Your mother and I bought that bed for you, Remus.'

The statement made Remus' insides squirm. It felt so performative. He wanted his father to throw off his costume, give up the act and tell Remus to go and sleep in the garden shed where he belonged.

'Oh, yes, you see, Sirius, my legs got too long for the old one and the extension charm kept expiring in the middle of the night and giving me awful cramp.'

Lyall looked up at Remus then and smiled sadly. 'You get all the tall genes from your grandfather, you know. They unfortunately skipped my generation.'

Remus had no idea what to say to that. 'Come on,' he said, grabbing Sirius by the arm without thinking and pulling him up. 'I'll show you the rest of the house.'

Sirius nodded woozily as Remus led the way out into the hallway and up the stairs.

'That's my dad's room,' Remus said, pointing to the first door on the left as they reached the top of the stairs. Gesturing to the door on the right he said, 'that's the bathroom, as you know, and that door there,' he said, pointing further down the corridor that snaked around to the right, 'is my old room. My dad's study is just around the corner.'

The door to his room was open, and Remus wandered in without thinking, half expecting Sirius to follow at his heel like they were still physically attached to one another.

The room was exactly the same as how he had left it. His double bed was pushed up against the wall opposite the window, through which you could look out onto the back garden. His Gryffindor blanket was lying atop his bed, and his teddy bear from when he was little was tucked under the duvet. It was the same way his mum had made his bed whenever he came home during the school holidays.

All his books were still in rows on the shelves, his posters still on the walls. The bookshelf that his mum had bought him was stacked full of old schoolbooks and trinkets from Hogwarts. His dad had not thrown any of it away, had not touched a single thing, and yet he had clearly dusted and hoovered, because the room felt clean and fresh.

Remus turned to Sirius and gestured with his hand. 'Shut the door a minute, would you?'

Sirius gave him a puzzled look but did as he was asked.

Remus pulled back the rug and stuck his finger into a hole in one of the floorboards that he had made years ago by pushing out a small knot. With a light flurry of dust the floorboard came up, revealing the hollow beneath and a very grimy looking plastic bag. Inside sat one and a half packets of Benson & Hedges and a red plastic lighter.

Sirius let out a surprised huff of laughter as Remus ripped open the bag and fumbled with the already open packet.

Remus went over to the window, cracking it open. A cool wind nipped at his skin. The lighter hissed as he flicked it, the flame illuminating the dark room as he held it down low to stop it blowing out. He lit one up, letting out a sigh with the first drag, then leant against the wall and watched the dark, leafless trees at the bottom of the garden sway in the gusts of wind coming down off the distant mountains.

It was not, however, enough of a distraction. Thoughts of his father were still swirling around his head. Sometimes Remus wondered if he was misinterpreting behaviour and seeing kindness where there was only reluctant duty, and other times he worried that his own established narrative about his father was leaving him blind. Either way, he detested having to analyse every action or word, constantly searching for the undercurrent of honesty.

'You do look very dramatic, I must say,' Sirius drawled from behind him.

Remus sniffed, blinking his eyes quickly. He tried to laugh wryly, but it came out all wrong. 'It's just a bit weird, being back here.'

The draft from the open window made the bedroom door rattle in its frame. Remus turned back to the shadowed room to see the silhouette of Sirius milling around, examining what he could see of Remus' things.

'You want a change of clothes?' Remus asked, tapping the ash from his cigarette.

Sirius glanced at him, raising his arm to tuck his hair behind his ear.

'You'll have to be careful though,' Remus continued quietly, 'because it is possible to catch lycanthropy from wearing the same t-shirt.'

'I wasn't worried about that,' came Sirius' slow, wine-sodden voice.

As it turned out, making jabs at Sirius was a brilliant distraction from his own thoughts. Stubbing out his cigarette and vanishing the butt with his wand, Remus strode back towards the door to flick the electric light on at the wall, then went over to his chest of drawers and began rummaging around.

He pulled out several spare t-shirts, some socks, a pair of pyjama bottoms that he had long since grown out of, a spare jumper, and an old pair of jeans for Sirius to wear the next day. 'Here,' he said, holding them out.

'Thanks,' Sirius said as he took them.

'You want to have a shower?'

'I wouldn't mind.'

Heading out of his room, Remus fished out a towel from the airing cupboard on the landing. Going into the bathroom, Remus gave Sirius a spare toothbrush from the cabinet. The bright lighting illuminated Sirius' flushed cheeks and dark red lips, a clear result of the red wine they had been drinking all night.

Remus showed him how the shower worked and left him to it.

He was wary of going downstairs and having to talk to his father again, so he waited in his bedroom for Sirius to finish washing. He was afraid to sit down on the bed, scared to touch anything, like it was a historical display and if he so much as brushed against an item from his childhood then a flood of memories would come spilling out.

It was sad, in a way. His school years had been the happiest time of his life, and likely always would be, and they had become nothing more than a set of inanimate objects sat on a shelf.

Remus tried to shake off the thoughts. He did not have any spare energy to deal with those emotions at the moment. Finally deciding it might be better for him to brave his dad and the kitchen if only to make himself a cup of tea, he wrenched open his bedroom door and strode down the hall.

The bathroom doorhandle turned, and Sirius came walking out, accompanied by a curling cloud of steam.

'Oh, ah…' Remus said, suddenly paralysed, because Sirius was naked but for the towel wrapped around his hips, and he had tattoos. Bloody tattoos. There was something on the side of his ribs, and another one above his hip bone, but Remus did not have time to see what they were before he looked away quickly, focussing on the banister and gesturing with his hand. 'Everything worked? All clean?'

He was speaking far too fast. Sirius had started a little when he saw Remus, but then he relaxed into his stance. In his peripheral vision, Remus could see a smirk forming on his lips.

Remus did not wait any longer for Sirius to reply. 'I'll head in there myself then. My dad's left out some blankets and things, and… you know where the living room is? Yes, we were… hum.'

Sirius was full on grinning now. 'Guess we're calling it a night then?'

Remus could only nod. He went straight for the airing cupboard and got his own towel, then awkwardly sidestepped Sirius and shut himself up in the bathroom.

The man had tattoos, black against his pale skin, and Remus wanted to die with the force of it. He was fit too. Slender, but toned, thin and thick in all the right places, and Remus could only hide his face in his hands as he slumped down to sit on the edge of the bath.

Because the man still found Remus disgusting. Or, he at least found a significant part of Remus abhorrent.

Could Sirius Black really be changing his mind? It felt too good to be true, too quick a change of thought. Was Sirius easily swayed, or was he just a lot more open minded than Remus had initially presumed?

Remus ran himself a bath. It was a luxury rarely afforded to him with his rootless lifestyle. When the tub was full, he performed a bubble charm on his wrist to protect the bandage, then sank into the hot water and let his body relax. The water stung on his other cuts and bruises, but for the most part it was glorious.

He lay there for a long while with the light off, half wishing he could fall asleep right then and there. Light from the waxing gibbous moon eventually shone in through the window, illuminating the room with a cool blue light, and Remus wished he could turn off his mind as thoughts of his pending transformation reared their ugly head. It would be interesting to see how long Sirius stuck around after he witnessed that.

It's the full moon tonight in real life ah-woooooooooo!

This is over 60,000words long and it's only been 48 hours for Remus and Sirius so far lol