hii 1st one for the siken mini fic thing (if ur still doing it)
hi bab! of course! feel like this got away from me sorry in advance xx three cheers for james pov tho!!
They’re standing in the little kitchenette, all three of them, and James is making them tea. They’ll have to take it black, he tells them, because they haven’t got any milk in: Sirius hasn’t been shopping for twelve days. In fact, he adds, they’ll have to settle for coffee—there are no teabags, either.
Rain dribbling against the window. A thin, sticky quiet, stretched out like chewing gum. Here is Sirius leaning against the fridge, arms folded over his chest, and there is Remus in the doorway. James stirs a teaspoon clockwise, counter-clockwise, in zigzags, wonders if he ought to leave them to it.
“It would’ve been nice for you to let us know that you’d be getting back today,” says Sirius. “I never know when you’re supposed to be coming home. If you’re supposed to be coming home. Three weeks is a long time to not hear anything.”
His voice is deliberate, stiffened by some voluntary rigor mortis; it’s jarring against his bloodshot eyes, against the tell-tale tremor in his hands and James’ memory of turning up to the flat two nights ago and finding him in a drunken, inconsolable heap on the floor outside the bathroom, clad in boxers and Remus’ dirty, sweat-drenched t-shirt.
(The last three weeks have gone like this: Sirius, denouncing Remus as the traitor in a snarl of cigarette smoke. Sirius, weeping into the side of James’ neck, convinced Remus is lying dead, half-buried in a forest somewhere—where is he? Oh god, my Moony, where is he?)
Remus sways on his feet, scratches at the stubble marring his chin, jaw, cheeks. Dirt beneath his fingernails, dried blood gone rusty at his nose and streaked down the side of his head—he looks as though he’s being held upright by a yardstick tied to his spine, like the slouching plants in James’ mother’s garden. James wants, so fiercely, to hug him. The bastard.
“It all happened really quickly. I only got the instructions a few hours ago—got told I could come back. I didn’t know that they were going to—didn’t want to hang around to send a Patronus ahead,” Remus explains, sheepish. “I’m sorry. Really short notice, all of it was. I just wanted to get back. They don’t tell me anything either.”
The sentiment slides feebly off of Sirius. “Right,” he says, stepping towards him; James accidentally drops the teaspoon against the side of one of the mugs and for a split-second they both turn to look at him as it clinks.
And then Sirius is pressing his palm to Remus’ chest, over his heart, like a makeshift stethoscope. They watch each other for a very long time, and the longer they stay like that the more James feels himself turning to dust motes, to wallpaper. The more ruined everything becomes.
The palm curls into a fist. Briefly, James thinks Sirius could hit him. Something flutters across Remus’ face, moth-like, that suggests he thinks the same thing. They both would’ve appreciated a copy of the script.
“Are you hurt?” Sirius demands.
Remus’ smile, knocked crooked. Familiar. “I’m not sure. I don’t think so, not terribly. But I need—do need to sit down.”
Sirius nods, reaches around wordlessly to tug the rucksack off Remus’ shoulder. It’s at this point that James opens his mouth, and is distressed to find he no longer has anything to say. His friends share a strange, skittish devotion that can be rather frightening, sometimes. It seems to be eating itself. He finds it rather hard to think of it as love.
Three mugs of black coffee, steaming on the kitchen counter. Three dark, round pits. Sirius and Remus disappearing into the bathroom, hand in hand, and leaving James to stare into them.
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