Hands were tangled in his hair, tugging gently enough that it wasn't quite painful but still urgent as he felt lips on his own. He smiled against the warm skin and butterflies fluttered in his stomach.
"Sirius…"
Hearing Remus say his name sent shivers down his spine. He continued to kiss those soft lips…
"...Sirius…"
"Sirius?"
Sirius jerked awake, panting and staring right into Remus' concerned eyes.
"Are you alright, Padfoot? You sounded like you were having a nightmare…"
Sirius blinked a few times and swallowed. His mouth felt incredibly dry. "I…" he cleared his throat and nodded. "Yes, I'm fine, Moony. A nightmare… yeah," he forced himself to meet Remus' eyes, desperately hoping that he didn't give away that the dream was definitely not a nightmare. "You should be asleep, Remus. You need it."
A smile tugged at the corner of Remus' lips and he shrugged. "I'll be fine. This month wasn't so bad… it hasn't been bad at all since you lot have been with me," he slid under the covers beside Sirius who moved as far over to the other side of the bed as he could without tumbling off. He stared up at the canopy of his bed, reciting arithmancy equations in his head, trying to block out the fact that Remus' thigh was pressed against his own… had these beds always been so small?
"Do you want to talk about it?" Remus asked quietly after a moment.
"W-what?"
Rems turned on his side to face him. The curtains weren't closed all the way around the bed and the waning moonlight made his eyes glow, still more wolfish at this point. "The nightmare?"
"Oh… right… it was nothing," he forced a smile but Remus didn't seem convinced. Sirius shifted under the cover and he honestly thought he was going to die. "Sorry," murmured the werewolf, sounding a little embarrassed. "Not as much room as there used to be, eh?"
Stupid bloody lanky git…
"Worried about going home for the summer?"
Technically, that was true, Sirius reasoned with himself and he nodded. "Yeah… but I'm supposed to go to James' after about a week anyway so it won't be too horrible," he swallowed again. He wished he had some water, his tongue felt like sandpaper. "You're coming to James', right?"
Remus nodded. "I am. For three weeks in July and then again at the end of August before school… I'd stay the whole time but… well… y'know."
"I'm sorry," Sirius breathed.
"For what? You've nothing to be sorry for, Pads. It's not your fault I'm a mon-"
"Will you cut that out?" Sirius gritted his teeth. Remus was most certainly not a monster, and how dare anyone suggest it? Even Remus himself. Especially himself! "You know I can't stand it when you call yourself-"
"What am I supposed to think, Padfoot?" Remus muttered sadly. "When there's a whole four chapters in our Defense Against the Dark Arts texts that tells me that's exactly what I am?"
"Well, whoever wrote it never properly met a werewolf," grumbled Sirius, huffing in annoyance.
Remus laughed softly and shook his head. "You're something else, Pads," he sighed. "You alright to go back to sleep?"
"Yeah. You don't have to stay if you don't-"
"Don't be silly, Sirius. You've always stayed with me after a nightmare."
You probably weren't dreaming about snogging me. Sirius thought bitterly. He turned onto his side, facing away from the other boy. "Night, Moony."
"Goodnight, Padfoot."
—-
The rest of the year flew by. Between planning every full moon, plotting their end of the year mischief, and studying for their exams, it was as if they blinked and suddenly they were back on the Hogwarts express to go home.
Remus could feel the jittery, nervous energy that radiated off of Sirius as the train hurried along. He was far too quiet and his eyes were glued to the window, watching everything speed past him and counting the minutes until he would be stuck back home. Even if it were just for a few days, then he could escape to the Potter's, they all knew those days would be an eternity to him.
"Sirius?" Remus inquired softly, under the excited chattering of James and Peter who were going on about Puddlemere United.
"Hmm?" Was Sirius' dictated reply, still staring off into the darkness outside the window. His eyes, which Remus could see in the reflection of the glass, looked woeful and dull and did not hold the mischievous, defiant glint they normally did. He was also tugging on a strand of hair that had fallen loose from the messy knot on top of his head, as he commonly did when he was anxious or upset. Remus chewed his lip for a moment, trying to decide his next action. Everything in him wanted to pull the other boy to him, kiss his pouting lips and make him smile that ridiculously goofy smile that was so uniquely Sirius Black. That, of course, was simply out of the question… But there was another way to calm the storm that raged inside Sirius' mind. One that had only started to make itself known once Sirius became an animagus and bits of his animal counterpart started to mesh with his human personality. With a quick glance at James and Peter, still too involved in their conversation to notice anything else, Remus sighed and tentatively reached forward, pulling Sirius' hair free of its tie and letting it fall like spilled ink down his back. He began to run his fingers through the soft waves.
"Stop pulling at it," he scolded gently. "You'll wind up going bald and then I'll be the one who has to tell you you still look dashing. Your ego is far too delicate for baldness, Padfoot."
He saw the tenseness in Sirius' shoulders subside almost instantly as he scooted closer, still combing through the thick black locks, gathering it all at the nape of Sirius' neck where he started twisting the strands into an intricate braid. Sirius exhaled and leaned back, practically in Remus' lap and their eyes met briefly in the reflection of the window before Sirius' eyes fluttered closed, finally relaxed.
"Hey, Pete," James said quietly, watching the other two from the corner of his eye. "What d'you think?"
Peter snorted and shook his head. "I think that every dog has his owner, and Padfoot has always belonged to Remus… even if they don't know it yet."
James nodded. "You're a smart man, Wormy."
—-
The train pulled up to Kings Cross and students rushed off the train to greet their families with hugs and kisses. The Marauders took their time, not quite ready to leave each other just yet. Sirius could see his parents greeting his brother in the distance, feeling a knot forming in the pit of his stomach. Remus didn't want to say anything to upset Sirius further, but his own anxiety wasn't exactly staying quiet either, and he was truly dreading his return home to spend the next three full moons without his friends there to keep him company. James came up behind them, clapping them both on the shoulder.
"Sirius, I'll see you next week, right? Remus, next month?"
"Yeah…" both boys muttered in response. They both got a bone-crushing hug from the bespectacled boy, who then took off to join his parents leaving them on their own.
"It'll be alright, Sirius," Remus assured him as they stood shoulder to shoulder, staring off into the crowd of students and their parents. "Won't it?"
Sirius nodded. "Of course it will…" between them, their fingers brushed, and with a surge of courage, or perhaps stupidity, Sirius grabbed Remus' hand and squeezed it. "We're Marauders. We'll be fine."
(A/N) Hey guys, this is the last chapter for the year. I will be back after the holiday. I am going on a trip to Disney World with my school's music department and won't be back until January 2nd. The next chapter will probably be posted on January 6th. I figured this chapter was a nice place to end for the year and we'll come back in the new year with Summer 1975.
