#verse001

‘ alright, we knew this day would come ; for once, i need to borrow your homework. no way i’ll finish this myself before class... ’

‘ sirius... please tell me you didn’t buy a dog. ’

almost a month had gone by since they’d uncovered the tunnel. remus used every excuse he could drum up to return to the fourth floor with sirius, climb through the looking glass and follow the rabbit hole to explore their own wonderland– but otherwise, nothing had changed. he couldn’t complain about their time together under the cover of darkness, not at all. remus simply wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand pretending sirius was just his friend all the time, that their trysts never happened, or worse, that they meant nothing at all. he almost didn’t want to know what sirius thought of them, wished he could be satisfied kissing and touching and ignoring whatever was between them after the fact. as it was, remus was not satisfied. it had been eating and eating at him, until one spring day, on their way to another fourth floor rendezvous, remus finally mustered the courage to say something. ‘ hey… ’ remus stopped in the middle of the corridor. he gulped air thickly, hands curling into fists at his sides so they would not shake. ‘ sirius… what are we doing? ’

         ‘ where did that hideous thing come from? ’

‘ It’s a flower crown, of course. ’ He was soaking up sunshine, Spring breaking through the long winter’s cold. The lawn of the grounds had little daisies popping where Remus built a snowman over christmas, and he busied his hands with chaining them together through the blue-sky afternoon. he gave a lazy bow as he bestowed the fruit of his labor, still laying back on his book-filled satchel. ‘ Your highness. ’

He woke from being shaken and opened his eyes, stinging with salt. He gasped shallow breaths, sitting up, trying to make sense of what was going on. Remus gripped his blanket in his arms, affirming that he was safe in bed ; glassy eyes turned to Sirius. ‘ Wh- what? ’ First came enormous relief to see him unharmed. He processed the other’s words with sluggish gratitude : it had all been a dream, they were all safe. A clammy hand wiped his brow, recovering air with elongated breaths. ‘ I was... you were all... dead, and I watched myself do it... as the wolf... ’ His voice was both groggy and manic at once, and he kept repeating in his head that it was not real, despite how his muscles were still tensed from the terror of it.

          ‘ can’t a man read in peace? ’

          ‘ how did you get up there? ’