The Star Craves The Moon

sirius: "reg i'm warning you now, you might fall in love with him. if you do keep it to yourself, ok? it's going to be really difficult but try and contain yourself"

enter remus: freakishly tall, horrible posture, curly hair that he obviously has no clue how to tame, crooked teeth, wardrobe of a 70 year old, scarred head to toe, possibly the most awkward man to ever live

@wolfstarmicrofic June 11, word count 542

“CASSIE!!!” Sirius shouted up the stairs. “IT’S DINNER TIME!!! GET DOWN HERE!!!” Cassie didn’t answer, but he heard a bang, so he guessed she’d heard him. 

“She’s coming,” he told Remus as he dished up their dinner. Lasagne, Sirius’s favourite. They sat down and started without their daughter. Cassie rocked up ten minutes later when Remus was already halfway through his seconds and eyeing up what was left for thirds. 

“Hello, darling,” Remus grinned at his daughter as she pulled out her seat. 

“Hi Daddy, this looks amazing.”

“Cassie, light of my life, the best thing to happen to me apart from Remus, my angel on earth, what’s with all the black?” Sirius gestured to her outfit, which was black from top to bottom. Her nails were black, her jewellery was black, and her makeup was black. Now don’t get him wrong, she looked stunning, the black making her pale skin look even paler; any more, and Remus might have to excuse himself lest her moonlight skin start a werewolf transformation. 

“Leave me alone, Dad! Just because you and Daddy run around like bloody rainbows doesn’t mean the rest of us do as well,” Cassie huffed, taking a huge bite from her lasagne. 

Sirius looked down at what he was wearing. A blue shirt and black jeans. Then at Remus; grey cardigan, blue shirt and a pair of nice trousers. He narrowed his eyes at his husband’s shirt. Shit, they were wearing the same shirt again!

“You look like your uncle,” Sirius told her, feeling suddenly sad. 

“What? Like Uncle James?” Cassie said in horror. 

“No, you dolt. Like your Uncle Reggie.”

Relief crossed Cassie’s face. 

“Thank Merlin, because Uncle James has zero fashion sense.”

Sirius couldn’t disagree. Even with Lily’s help, James was a disaster. “I’m going to a black and white party, alright?” Cassie confessed. “But I’m not sure if this is working. Maybe I’ll go and find something else.”

“Cassiopeia Lupin-Black, don’t you dare put yourself down. You are beautiful inside and out. You look utterly amazing in what you’re wearing now, and if anyone says anything to the contrary, I’ll send your Daddy after them.”

Cassie jumped out of her chair and threw herself at Sirius. 

“I love you, Dad,” she sniffled in his ear. 

“I love you too, more than I can ever say,” he replied, his voice getting a bit squeaky as he hugged her tighter. 

They finally pulled away, wiping the tears from their eyes. “Would you like to borrow my leather jacket to complete the look?” Sirius asked, and Cassie’s entire face lit up. 

“Really? Are you sure? Yes, please!” 

Sirius summoned it and slipped it on over his daughter’s shoulders. 

“Perfect,” he said, smiling teary-eyed at her. 

“Thanks, Dad. See you both in the morning,” Cassie said, waving at them as she left the house. 

“That was very nice of you, sweetheart,” Remus said, wrapping his arms around Sirius’s waist and pulling him against his chest. 

“I already regret it,” he said, pulling out of Remus’s arms and running to the door. 

@wolfstarmicrofic July 3, word count 477

Due to popular demand and because I really wanted to, we have another mini-series. Enjoy!

First part

“Right, first things first, you need to stretch, and I mean a lot, not just a few pathetic cross-body shoulder stretches,” Sirius told him. He demonstrated the stretch he meant when Remus had looked at him as though he were speaking another language, which he was. He had no idea what half the gym lingo was. Sirius grabbed his opposite wrist and stretched it across his body. 

“It’s important to stretch and warm up properly before you get into a proper workout. If you don’t get your muscles going, you’ll never be able to train to your body’s full potential, and then what’s the point? Think of your muscles as elastic bands.” He pulled out a rubber band from his pocket and pulled it. If you don’t stretch them properly, they won’t be able to extend properly.” He tugged on the ends of the band, stretching it much further than Remus thought it would before letting one end go and eliciting a satisfying snap from it. “Shall we begin?”

They started off simple. Remus’s body wouldn’t stretch as far as Sirius’s, but Sirius said that was normal for someone just starting out. He'd been doing it for years, so his muscles were used to it. 

Sirius placed a hand on the small of Remus’s back and corrected his position before he tried another squat. Sirius went down with him, keeping his hand firmly on Remus’s back and gently pushing on his thigh with his other hand, deepening the squat until Remus’s muscles cried out in pain. Sirius seemed to sense this and helped him rise again. Remus had had to think about some truly awful stuff to stop his body reacting to Sirius’s touch. It had been a long time since anyone had touched him who wasn’t a doctor or a nurse. He knew Sirius was only doing his job, but did he need to look and smell so nice? Seriously, who the fuck smells that good when they work out in a gym all day?!

They repeated the stretches until Sirius was happy that Remus was warmed up enough and then led him over to the treadmill. 

“Ten minutes on here and then we’ll move on to the weights.”

Remus was beginning to regret signing up for the gym. 

“I think I’ll be alright now, thanks,” he said, hoping Sirius would take the hint, and then he could go at his own pace. 

“Not a chance, sweetheart. I can already tell you need to challenge.”

Remus pouted like a petulant child, but Sirius had his number, and before he could call out any more truths he’d figured out from their short interactions, Remus got on the treadmill and began a slow jog. 

1.1k words, fluff

It smelled like rain, dirt, and sweat. It always did at these stupid matches. Remus swore he would stop going to them in second year, long before Sirius Black became anything more than an annoying friend of James's. As he closed his eyes at another roar from the crowd dressed in crimson and gold, he wondered why he ever changed his mind. Loud, cold, and wet. That's all these dreadful things ever were. Upon opening his eyes again, he was reminded exactly why he changed his mind.

Sirius was perched on his broom as a lion would perch in the savanna's grass, grey eyes dangerous and sharp. He was taught, strung as a live wire atop his Nimbus. His hair had long since escaped the haphazard bun he threw it in before every game, hanging wetly infront of his eyes. Remus could see his shoulders rise and fall with every breath, deep and controlled to settle the racing heart behind the other boy's ribs. Remus hardly heard the crack of a bat against a bludger before Sirius was off, vanished back into the game.

Remus swallowed and released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Lily nudged him in the ribs, her green eyes holding a knowing look. "I've never seen you this into a game, Moony," she teased, voice thick with sarcasm. He rolled his eyes and bumped her shoulder with his. "Shove off, Evans. Haven't seen you peel your eyes away from your darling stag all game, have I?" Her freckled face flushed a bright red at his words, something escaping under her breath he couldn't make out.

At age 12, Remus had started to believe that maybe he was almost normal, that he too could live a normal life at least most days of his life, that maybe he too could have friends who were not scared of him or worse, disgusted by him.

By age 14, Remus had started to believe that he WAS normal, like any other kid in his class, maybe even "awesome" if Sirius was to be believed, and Remus usually did believe Sirius. He'd started to believe that his life was normal—except for one night per month—but even those nights have turned into something fun now, so really, he had nothing to complain about. Most important of all, he had started to believe that people could not only be friends with him, but they actually loved him. Lily, James, Peter, and Sirius. They all loved him, and he loved them all back so, so much. He'd started to believe that he deserved to be loved and that he was allowed to be in love.

At 15, he realised he was in love with his best friend of four years and, for once in his life, he let himself be brave and dream. And his bravery was rewarded in the best way possible when Sirius admitted that he loved him back, and so Remus let himself dream a bit more.

He'd let himself believe that his changing to a bloodthirsty wolf once every month didn't actually affect how people saw him at all, because after all, his friends loved him. He'd let himself believe that his furry little problem—as the marauders had taken to call his lycanthropy—was just that, a little problem, a little condition that caused his joints to ache every now and then and nothing more.

He'd foolishly let himself believe that his unconditionally uncontainable amount of love for Sirius would make up for him being the beast, their 'fantastic beasts and where to find them' textbook so clearly classified him as.

Foolish because at age 16, Remus learned that he could never run from who he truly was. No matter what anyone said, or promised, he would always, ALWAYS be punished for being a werewolf. Foolish because he had let himself believe Sirius's words when he called him beautiful, when he told him he was perfect, when he told him he loved him, that he was home. Because if those things were true, then why would he use him as merely a means to hurt someone, to kill someone?

The worst part was, he still couldn't stop loving Sirius even after what he did, couldn't hate him for it, couldn't be mad at him for it for more than two days. He wasn't mad, he wasn't angry. He'd already forgiven Sirius on the second day of him incessantly asking for his forgiveness, and he still would have even if Sirius hadn't asked for it. Yeah, that's the worst part. That he loved him so much that he was actually more sad than angry at what happened, sad that the person he trusted the most, who let himself be vulnerable in front of the most, who he loved the most, could do something so cruel to him. The next five days it took him to start talking to Sirius or, really, anyone again were to contain that sadness.

Any illusions that he'd let himself believe in since the last four years were now broken. The memory of Lyall's agonizing screams and sobs, the night he was bitten—"a monster! He turned my boy into a bloody monster! All my fault! My fault!"— had sharply returned to help him remind him what he truly was and always will be, no matter what anyone said.

His love for Sirius and his greed for his affection and love in return won in the end, though, and he decided to let himself have it if he couldn't have anything else in his life. He at least wanted this, for however long Sirius would let him.

Because one thing was certain now, the other shoe would definitely drop one day, his being a monster would cause him indescribable heartache again one day, it would all catch up to him one day, but until then, he wanted to be a little selfish. He wanted to feel loved, and wanted just like a human again, for before shit hits the fan again. And so, after a week of not talking to any of his friends, not talking to Sirius, not even being in the same room as him, he went back, and he let himself be foolish once again.

At age 21, it finally happened again. They'd been fighting the war for three years now. 3 years of having been living together with Sirius—even though he'd spent almost half of the nights with the packs he'd been ordered to infiltrate—the time they did get to spend together had been some of the most blissful time of his life, apart from the little fights and arguments they have sometimes because of all the secrecy around their missions, but overall it has been as pleasant a time as it could be in the middle of a war. They'd seen James and Lily get married, and then have a child, baby Harry. Sirius is actually a godfather now, and Remus an uncle, to the son of his two best friends.

A boy he could actually kill for. So really, he gets it. The paranoia that came with the knowledge of having a spy amidst them, paired with the intel of Voldemort targeting the potters—and not just James and Lily but also, Harry—he thinks, is actually natural. So he couldn't really blame James or Lily for being a bit extra cautious.

No, what broke him was when the love of his life came home one day with James and a vial of veritaserum and told him it would put both his and James's mind at ease if he could just take a few drops of the potion and tell them about his secret missions, that it's not that they don't trust him, they're just trying to make sure that Harry remains safe at any cost, that it's just something wormtail said that has been gnawing at his brain, and it's really more for their peace than anything else.

Sirius as Padfoot getting hit by dog urges like barking, sniffing, tail wagging and rolling in the grass

Breakdowns where he will be rambling about how he isn’t good enough for Remus. How he is too corrupted…That being a Black, the bloodline that he was didn’t choose to be apart of, had filled his veins with a certain toxin. No. His blood was the toxin. He could never be rid of it, for it was what kept him alive, yet killed him all the same. It made him like her. Like him.

He would sob to Remus, profusely, questioning why Remus even puts up with him. Then, he’d fold in on himself and blame his tears— they are toxic too. He would say that Remus is leaving him, like it was a fact— one that Remus had vehemently opposed.

Remus would look at his sobbing lover in his arms, holding on to him ever so tightly. Sirius began to rock softly, his breath hitching as the ugly tears continued to pour out of his eyes, wrecking his body. As this happened Remus squeezed his grip on Sirius hand, grounding his love, before planning to speak.

“Sirius, would I still be here if I didn’t love you? Would I be here, holding you if I thought that you were some kind of incomprehensible evil?” Remus would say.

It usually took more than that. More of Remus negotiating with Sirius’ irrational thinking before he would return to his usual, but much more worn out disposition.

In the following hours, Sirius would grow anxious that his outburst would be the thing that drove Remus away. In the midst of this anxious energy, he’d say “let’s just forget that this happened?” Remus would agree, they would return to normal…

But, it happens again. The amount of time between the big breakdowns is never known, but it will happen again. It always does. On nights when he starts to feel like his mother. On nights where his blood begins to feel like nothing but a toxin running through his veins. It will happen again.

He especially gets hungry at night and struggles to fall asleep if he doesn't eat anything, so he fills cupboards with snacks he can eat then discard (hide) rapidly to fill his stomach. It makes him feel even worse and guiltier but he's just that hungry, so he'll swallow any junk food he can find.

Remus who just, slowly picks up on it. Gets up at two am with Sirius and realises his boyfriend looks very uncomfortable about it and has just been sipping on his glass of water for five minutes. So he asks if he's hungry and after a lot of hesitation Sirius says yeah.

And it's so casual, the way Remus simply offers to make him some pasta, that Sirius wants to cry. But he nods and that just becomes a thing. If they're sleeping late, Remus will make him a plate of something, no questions asked, no pressure. Sirius doesn't even have to eat it, it can go in the fridge for later.

Sometimes they cook together, often Remus tells him to just sit and look pretty, and that it's an essential part of his process.

Remus always took care of Sirius.

After a tiring quidditch practise, a boring class, when he was ill even in more serious situations like getting a letter from home, running into Regulus in the corridor.

No matter what, Sirius always had Remus’s arms to melt into.

The only time Remus didn’t take care of Sirius was during finals. Remus didn’t really take care of himself either really. Thats why during finals Sirius always made sure to devote his entire time to care of Remus.

cause who needs to study anyways

Sirius was never fussy in caring like Remus was over him, instead his care was shown in small ways. Small ways that satisfied Sirius in consideration to Remus’s well being and small ways that didn’t disturb Remus from his studies either.

Glasses of water magically appearing next to Remus’s books was Sirius’s way to make sure his love was always hydrated.

Remus made sure to drink every glass.

A night lamp which was spelled so it wouldn’t ever hurt Remus’s eyes.

A warming charm around Remus so that even if he studied in the coldest part of the forest he would still feel cozy and warm.

So yes, Remus always took care of Sirius.