Loneliness and Lime Marmalade
Author Shaggy
Title - Loneliness and Lime Marmalade
Rating - PG-13 (minor swearing)
Disclaimer - Not mine, no profit
Discription - Remus had expected moving in with Sirius to be a lot more fun. He'd expected Sirius to actually be there, for a start.
Remus shivered, huddling deeper and deeper under the blankets until the crown of his head was the only part of him that wasn’t covered in layers of linen and wool (scratchy grey that came with the flat, soft fluffy blue bought by Mrs Potter as part of the New Flat Survival Pack, and well-worn red, stolen from Hogwarts). The flat was cold. Not just normal, run-of-the-mill ‘ooh it’s a bit parky in here, best turn the heating up a notch and pop a jumper on’ cold, but the sort of cold that chills right down to the marrow, cooling the air inside the lungs and forming crystals on the kidneys. Remus was so cold he thought perhaps his brain might have actually frozen-he couldn’t even imagine being warm anymore, which was a shame since thinking warm thoughts was about as close as he was likely to get to actual warmth any time soon.
This wasn’t, he thought to himself resentfully for approximately the eight thousandth time, how things were meant to turn out. When he’d eventually caved in to Sirius’ nagging and moved in with him he’d anticipated a rather more idyllic arrangement involving snuggling in front of warm fires, enjoying the rather eclectic delights of Sirius’ experimental cuisine and lots and lots of sex (Sirius had played the sex card pretty heavily in negotiations about living arrangements). He had not expected to spend the first week in his new home with no heating, no food and no bloody Sirius.
To be fair, the first night had gone more or less to plan. There hadn’t been a great deal of snuggling, and Remus thought Sirius had taken experimentation a little too far with his tropical spaghetti (normal spaghetti cooked in coconut milk, with cinnamon, raisins, a tin of mandarins and some pineapple chunks), but there’d been more than enough sex to make up for all of that. In fact, Remus was so pleased with the whole shagging side of things that he’d been about to suggest that Sirius abandon his attempt to fit jam inside the toast for breakfast (lunch, really) and do something much more interesting on the kitchen table, when chastity inducing doom had arrived in the shape of one James Potter.
James had, he’d explained as he stumbled out of the Floo and set about eating Sirius’ toast experiments, been assigned the most earth-shatteringly dull week-long observation mission in the history of the universe by Dumbledore, and if Sirius didn’t go with him to keep him company he’d no doubt end up chewing his leg off out of sheer boredom, and nobody wanted that on their conscience, did they?
Sirius, of course, was gone within the hour.
Remus had spent the first day feeling frustrated and annoyed, and was rather lonely by the second. On the third day the Heating Charms had worn out and ice had started to form on the insides of the windows by the fourth morning, when he’d-they’d-run out of anything that could reasonably be described as food (unless you counted long grain rice and marmite as food, which Remus didn’t). On the fifth day the owl bearing a message from Sirius turned out to be a pigeon crapping on the windowsill and the silvery shadow of Sirius’ patronus was a trick of the light on a snow flurry. That evening Remus held a small ceremony before using the last teabag.
On the sixth morning he stayed in bed late, alternately imagining James and Sirius lying dead in a ditch after a surprise Death Eater attack or sneaking off to the pub, laughing and joking together; whichever one made him feel worse. He quite enjoyed making himself angry at Sirius; it warmed him up, and he had plenty to be angry about. Luring Remus into the flat with the promise of sex (and snuggling) on which he had almost completely failed to deliver, putting up insane amounts of protective Charms on the flat which prevented anyone except Sirius-Remus included-from using magic in the flat, so Remus couldn’t fix the heating, and not having adequately stocked cupboards being his favourites. Sirius had left the key to his Gringotts vault, and a note telling him to get money out for groceries, but the idea of actually doing as Sirius asked made Remus feel even worse. He only asked you to move in out of pity, said a small, ugly voice at the back of his head, if he really wanted you around, he’d be here himself. The mixture of cold, hunger, disappointment and self-pity was exhausting, and he fell back into an unsatisfying sleep.
~*~
Hours later, Remus was woken by a clattering by the bedside, and the sound of footsteps stomping around the bedroom. With great effort, and some trepidation, he forced himself to peek out from under the blankets.
‘Oh, so you’re awake then?’ said Sirius, looking at Remus and glowering.
Remus felt a rush of annoyance. Not only had Sirius deserted him for a week, he had the nerve to be in a strop with him when he finally deigned to return. ‘When did you get back?’ he asked curtly.
‘Three hours ago,’ snarled Sirius, as though that were somehow Remus’ fault.
‘So why has it taken you so long to come and see me?’ demanded Remus petulantly, sitting up him bed and crossing his arms. He was too pissed off to even notice that it was actually warm enough to emerge from under the security of the blankets. ‘Or were you and Prongs too busy celebrating in the Leaky Cauldron to bother to let me know that you were still alive?’
Sirius scowled at him. ‘Prongs isn’t back yet. After I came home early, I had to reset all the Heating Charms from scratch, because someone didn’t bother keeping them up while I was away,’ he said. ‘And then I had to go shopping, because there wasn’t so much as a loaf of bread in the flat when I got home. Honestly, Moony, what the fuck have you been doing all week?’
‘My wand wouldn’t work because of your Protection Charms,’ retorted Remus angrily. ‘Which is why I’ve been freezing my bollocks off for the last few days. And there was hardly any food when you left, anyway.’
‘What?’ Sirius stared at Remus, opened mouthed in amazement. ‘Did you not read the note I left you? I set all the Charms to work for you, all you had to do was recite a quick incantation to activate them.’ He watched Remus quizzically for a moment, head cocked to one side. ‘But of course, you didn’t read that far, did you? You threw the note away when you got to the bit about using my money for shopping.’
Remus looked down, fiddling with the edge of one of the blankets and feeling embarrassed. ‘Didn’t like to,’ he mumbled.
Sirius let out a huff off annoyance and looked like he was refraining himself from shouting with great difficulty. ‘Your breakfast’s getting cold,’ he managed at last, pointing at the bedside table.
Turning his head slightly, Remus saw the source of the clattering that had woken him up-a tray carrying a steaming hot mug of tea and two slices of toast. He was tempted, briefly, not to eat the breakfast, to tell Sirius that he expected a bit more than tea and toast as an apology for his neglect, but his stomach growled mutinously at the thought, and the mere sight of the steam rising slowly out of the mug was making his mouth water slightly.
At the first sip of tea, Remus’ annoyance began to evaporate. The tea was warm, sweet and milky, and not too strong-just the way Remus liked it. Sirius was studiously ignoring Remus, turning his back to him while he wriggled out of robes. Remus might have felt slighted if he hadn’t been treated to a particularly fine view of Sirius’ arse as he bent over to remove his socks. Remus felt a sudden urge to leap out of bed and sink his teeth into those delicious, firm buttocks, but he knew Sirius wouldn’t appreciate it, since he obviously didn’t even want to talk to him, so he made do with sinking his teeth into a slice of toast instead.
‘Mmm,’ murmured Remus, tasting thick, crispy toast, smooth melting butter and the bittersweet tang of his favourite preserve. ‘Mmphf, lovely,’ he muttered between mouthfuls, spilling sticky crumbs down his front. ‘I didn’t think you had any lime marmalade.’
‘We didn’t,’ said Sirius, pulling an old t-shirt over his head as he turned to face Remus. ‘Nor did we have bread, milk, tea, sugar or butter. I told you, I went shopping.’
‘But you don’t like lime marmalade.’
‘Of course not,’ said Sirius, sitting down on the other side of the bed. ‘It looks like congealed troll bogies and is an insult to the noble orange.’
Remus bit his lip and set the breakfast tray back down on the bedside table as Sirius climbed under the blankets next to him. Now that Sirius was closer, he could see the dark circles under his eyes and that his skin looked a shade paler the usual, the way it always did when he was excessively tired. ‘I’m the world’s crappiest boyfriend, aren’t I?’ he said regretfully.
‘Nah,’ said Sirius, yawning widely as he settled himself down on a pillow. ‘Second crappiest, after Prongs.’
‘And how would you know what sort of a boyfriend Prongs makes?’ asked Remus, shuffling down under the covers to face Sirius.
‘Met up with Lily at Fortescue’s for a Midwinter Sundae and a Whose Got the Worst Boyfriend competition after I went to Gringotts,’ said Sirius, with just a hint of a smile. ‘She won by miles.’
‘Did she now?’ laughed Remus. ‘I suppose I should be grateful that your girly chats with Lily make you appreciate me a bit more.’
Sirius pulled a face. ‘I do not have girly chats,’ he insisted.
‘Oh, right,’ Remus nodded. ‘Meeting a girl to eat ice-cream and bitch about the menfolk couldn’t possibly be described as a girly chat. My mistake.’
‘Watch it,’ said Sirius warningly, but the corners of his mouth were twitching. ‘I haven’t forgotten that you spent the whole time I was away sulking.’
‘I wasn’t sulking!’ said Remus hotly. ‘Well…maybe just a little bit.’
Sirius leant across and kissed Remus softly on the cheek. ‘Not going anywhere for a bit,’ he mumbled drowsily as he settled back down on the pillow.
‘Good,’ said Remus, returning the kiss with a brief peck to the forehead. Sirius wiggled happily against him, settling his arm over Remus’ waist as his eyes fluttered shut. ‘Missed you,’ he whispered as Sirius drifted off to sleep beside him.
~*~
A/N - Feedback is warm and sweet.
Title - Loneliness and Lime Marmalade
Rating - PG-13 (minor swearing)
Disclaimer - Not mine, no profit
Discription - Remus had expected moving in with Sirius to be a lot more fun. He'd expected Sirius to actually be there, for a start.
Remus shivered, huddling deeper and deeper under the blankets until the crown of his head was the only part of him that wasn’t covered in layers of linen and wool (scratchy grey that came with the flat, soft fluffy blue bought by Mrs Potter as part of the New Flat Survival Pack, and well-worn red, stolen from Hogwarts). The flat was cold. Not just normal, run-of-the-mill ‘ooh it’s a bit parky in here, best turn the heating up a notch and pop a jumper on’ cold, but the sort of cold that chills right down to the marrow, cooling the air inside the lungs and forming crystals on the kidneys. Remus was so cold he thought perhaps his brain might have actually frozen-he couldn’t even imagine being warm anymore, which was a shame since thinking warm thoughts was about as close as he was likely to get to actual warmth any time soon.
This wasn’t, he thought to himself resentfully for approximately the eight thousandth time, how things were meant to turn out. When he’d eventually caved in to Sirius’ nagging and moved in with him he’d anticipated a rather more idyllic arrangement involving snuggling in front of warm fires, enjoying the rather eclectic delights of Sirius’ experimental cuisine and lots and lots of sex (Sirius had played the sex card pretty heavily in negotiations about living arrangements). He had not expected to spend the first week in his new home with no heating, no food and no bloody Sirius.
To be fair, the first night had gone more or less to plan. There hadn’t been a great deal of snuggling, and Remus thought Sirius had taken experimentation a little too far with his tropical spaghetti (normal spaghetti cooked in coconut milk, with cinnamon, raisins, a tin of mandarins and some pineapple chunks), but there’d been more than enough sex to make up for all of that. In fact, Remus was so pleased with the whole shagging side of things that he’d been about to suggest that Sirius abandon his attempt to fit jam inside the toast for breakfast (lunch, really) and do something much more interesting on the kitchen table, when chastity inducing doom had arrived in the shape of one James Potter.
James had, he’d explained as he stumbled out of the Floo and set about eating Sirius’ toast experiments, been assigned the most earth-shatteringly dull week-long observation mission in the history of the universe by Dumbledore, and if Sirius didn’t go with him to keep him company he’d no doubt end up chewing his leg off out of sheer boredom, and nobody wanted that on their conscience, did they?
Sirius, of course, was gone within the hour.
Remus had spent the first day feeling frustrated and annoyed, and was rather lonely by the second. On the third day the Heating Charms had worn out and ice had started to form on the insides of the windows by the fourth morning, when he’d-they’d-run out of anything that could reasonably be described as food (unless you counted long grain rice and marmite as food, which Remus didn’t). On the fifth day the owl bearing a message from Sirius turned out to be a pigeon crapping on the windowsill and the silvery shadow of Sirius’ patronus was a trick of the light on a snow flurry. That evening Remus held a small ceremony before using the last teabag.
On the sixth morning he stayed in bed late, alternately imagining James and Sirius lying dead in a ditch after a surprise Death Eater attack or sneaking off to the pub, laughing and joking together; whichever one made him feel worse. He quite enjoyed making himself angry at Sirius; it warmed him up, and he had plenty to be angry about. Luring Remus into the flat with the promise of sex (and snuggling) on which he had almost completely failed to deliver, putting up insane amounts of protective Charms on the flat which prevented anyone except Sirius-Remus included-from using magic in the flat, so Remus couldn’t fix the heating, and not having adequately stocked cupboards being his favourites. Sirius had left the key to his Gringotts vault, and a note telling him to get money out for groceries, but the idea of actually doing as Sirius asked made Remus feel even worse. He only asked you to move in out of pity, said a small, ugly voice at the back of his head, if he really wanted you around, he’d be here himself. The mixture of cold, hunger, disappointment and self-pity was exhausting, and he fell back into an unsatisfying sleep.
~*~
Hours later, Remus was woken by a clattering by the bedside, and the sound of footsteps stomping around the bedroom. With great effort, and some trepidation, he forced himself to peek out from under the blankets.
‘Oh, so you’re awake then?’ said Sirius, looking at Remus and glowering.
Remus felt a rush of annoyance. Not only had Sirius deserted him for a week, he had the nerve to be in a strop with him when he finally deigned to return. ‘When did you get back?’ he asked curtly.
‘Three hours ago,’ snarled Sirius, as though that were somehow Remus’ fault.
‘So why has it taken you so long to come and see me?’ demanded Remus petulantly, sitting up him bed and crossing his arms. He was too pissed off to even notice that it was actually warm enough to emerge from under the security of the blankets. ‘Or were you and Prongs too busy celebrating in the Leaky Cauldron to bother to let me know that you were still alive?’
Sirius scowled at him. ‘Prongs isn’t back yet. After I came home early, I had to reset all the Heating Charms from scratch, because someone didn’t bother keeping them up while I was away,’ he said. ‘And then I had to go shopping, because there wasn’t so much as a loaf of bread in the flat when I got home. Honestly, Moony, what the fuck have you been doing all week?’
‘My wand wouldn’t work because of your Protection Charms,’ retorted Remus angrily. ‘Which is why I’ve been freezing my bollocks off for the last few days. And there was hardly any food when you left, anyway.’
‘What?’ Sirius stared at Remus, opened mouthed in amazement. ‘Did you not read the note I left you? I set all the Charms to work for you, all you had to do was recite a quick incantation to activate them.’ He watched Remus quizzically for a moment, head cocked to one side. ‘But of course, you didn’t read that far, did you? You threw the note away when you got to the bit about using my money for shopping.’
Remus looked down, fiddling with the edge of one of the blankets and feeling embarrassed. ‘Didn’t like to,’ he mumbled.
Sirius let out a huff off annoyance and looked like he was refraining himself from shouting with great difficulty. ‘Your breakfast’s getting cold,’ he managed at last, pointing at the bedside table.
Turning his head slightly, Remus saw the source of the clattering that had woken him up-a tray carrying a steaming hot mug of tea and two slices of toast. He was tempted, briefly, not to eat the breakfast, to tell Sirius that he expected a bit more than tea and toast as an apology for his neglect, but his stomach growled mutinously at the thought, and the mere sight of the steam rising slowly out of the mug was making his mouth water slightly.
At the first sip of tea, Remus’ annoyance began to evaporate. The tea was warm, sweet and milky, and not too strong-just the way Remus liked it. Sirius was studiously ignoring Remus, turning his back to him while he wriggled out of robes. Remus might have felt slighted if he hadn’t been treated to a particularly fine view of Sirius’ arse as he bent over to remove his socks. Remus felt a sudden urge to leap out of bed and sink his teeth into those delicious, firm buttocks, but he knew Sirius wouldn’t appreciate it, since he obviously didn’t even want to talk to him, so he made do with sinking his teeth into a slice of toast instead.
‘Mmm,’ murmured Remus, tasting thick, crispy toast, smooth melting butter and the bittersweet tang of his favourite preserve. ‘Mmphf, lovely,’ he muttered between mouthfuls, spilling sticky crumbs down his front. ‘I didn’t think you had any lime marmalade.’
‘We didn’t,’ said Sirius, pulling an old t-shirt over his head as he turned to face Remus. ‘Nor did we have bread, milk, tea, sugar or butter. I told you, I went shopping.’
‘But you don’t like lime marmalade.’
‘Of course not,’ said Sirius, sitting down on the other side of the bed. ‘It looks like congealed troll bogies and is an insult to the noble orange.’
Remus bit his lip and set the breakfast tray back down on the bedside table as Sirius climbed under the blankets next to him. Now that Sirius was closer, he could see the dark circles under his eyes and that his skin looked a shade paler the usual, the way it always did when he was excessively tired. ‘I’m the world’s crappiest boyfriend, aren’t I?’ he said regretfully.
‘Nah,’ said Sirius, yawning widely as he settled himself down on a pillow. ‘Second crappiest, after Prongs.’
‘And how would you know what sort of a boyfriend Prongs makes?’ asked Remus, shuffling down under the covers to face Sirius.
‘Met up with Lily at Fortescue’s for a Midwinter Sundae and a Whose Got the Worst Boyfriend competition after I went to Gringotts,’ said Sirius, with just a hint of a smile. ‘She won by miles.’
‘Did she now?’ laughed Remus. ‘I suppose I should be grateful that your girly chats with Lily make you appreciate me a bit more.’
Sirius pulled a face. ‘I do not have girly chats,’ he insisted.
‘Oh, right,’ Remus nodded. ‘Meeting a girl to eat ice-cream and bitch about the menfolk couldn’t possibly be described as a girly chat. My mistake.’
‘Watch it,’ said Sirius warningly, but the corners of his mouth were twitching. ‘I haven’t forgotten that you spent the whole time I was away sulking.’
‘I wasn’t sulking!’ said Remus hotly. ‘Well…maybe just a little bit.’
Sirius leant across and kissed Remus softly on the cheek. ‘Not going anywhere for a bit,’ he mumbled drowsily as he settled back down on the pillow.
‘Good,’ said Remus, returning the kiss with a brief peck to the forehead. Sirius wiggled happily against him, settling his arm over Remus’ waist as his eyes fluttered shut. ‘Missed you,’ he whispered as Sirius drifted off to sleep beside him.
~*~
A/N - Feedback is warm and sweet.