Aisles

Chapter 7

Saturday, October 19th

Remus sat on the edge of his sofa with his head in his hands. He couldn't face going back to work on Monday. He couldn't face seeing Sirius, or even James. He was annoyed that James had just told Sirius with no regard for the consequences - can't he come to terms with it by himself first without having to bother about what everyone else thinks?

He switched his phone on to order in some food when it buzzed with a flurry of messages from Sirius:

homophobic?? wtf Remus?

look im sorry for being a moody git but it wasn't because ur gay

not that im assuming

I understand you could be bi

I really am sorry

I don't care I was distracted abt something else

remus?

And then, sent only a minute ago:

im outside ur flat, can we talk??

As if it punctuate Remus reading this message, he heard the buzz of the intercom. He sat up quickly as a familiar voice rang out:

"Remus. Let me in or I will wait here all night,"

"For fuck sake..." Remus grumbled as he buzzed Sirius in. He knew not to doubt that he really would wait there all night. "Stubborn bastard,"

Sirius knocked on the door a minute later and Remus let him in, his jaw clenched. He had started to feel a little embarrassed that he'd assumed Sirius' low mood was anything to do with him but he was working hard to push that away - he'd heard Sirius' reaction to James telling him. Can't have been a coincidence.

Remus raised his head to look at Sirius.

"You asked to talk, go ahead, talk," Remus said, irritated. Sirius sighed.

"So, I'm guessing you heard mine and James' conversation-"

"Obviously," Remus interrupted. He started to make himself some tea so that he would have something to do with his hands. He did not offer Sirius any.

"Well, the reason why I was moody the whole shift was because I'd been sad you'd left on Friday," Sirius said, as he started pointedly at his shoes. Remus paused and turned to look at him.

"Whilst I was off from work, everyone was telling me about how nice and funny you were and I'd wanted to get to know you, catch up," Sirius continued. "I know it was selfish of me, but I was a little annoyed that you'd left without saying anything to me- I mean, to anyone. And just to hang out with that Gideon guy, who you already knew,"

Remus had flushed at the compliments and felt slightly uncomfortable. Sirius just looked so... vulnerable, stood in front of him. He was again hit with the feeling of protectiveness over him and, against all forms of common sense, he wanted to apologise for ever making Sirius feel bad in any way. He didn't, though. He instead took a deep guttural breath and pulled another mug out of the cupboard.

"Tea?" He offered, before beginning to make a cup before Sirius even answered. "I'd like to get to know you, too, Sirius. And... I'm sorry for not saying goodbye properly. I had a bit of a crisis, and didn't want to have that in front of work-friends. Not that it even matters, but I didn't go back with Gideon. Like I said, I was with Mary," Remus made eye contact with Sirius and held it as he passed him the tea.

"I want us to all be more than just work-friends, eventually. Friends-friends," Sirius said, his voice stronger and more confident than it had been a moment before. Similar to how it usually was.

Remus smiled at him.

"Yeah. That'd be nice,"

They each sipped their tea before something occurred to Remus.

"Wait, how do you know where I live?"

Sirius grinned slyly.

"Detective work,"

"Seriously?" Remus rolled his eyes.

"Nah. It was on those forms that you signed when you started working at the shop, I just went back for them," Sirius shrugged.

"You are the strangest person I've ever met," Remus shook his head in disbelief.

"Thank you," Sirius grinned.

--<>--

Sunday, October 20th

Remus spent his Sunday catching up on university work - he'd been planning on getting at least something done the night before but Sirius had stayed round for a couple of hours. Remus was secretly very pleased that Sirius had expressed an interest in getting to know him and hoped that he wasn't disappointed thus far. He worked from sunrise to sunset, and was still working when his phone buzzed incessantly in his pocket.

"Mary?" Remus answered the phone.

"You didn't reply to my text!" Mary scolded.

"Sorry, been working all day, haven't even moved from my desk," Remus replied honestly, wiping his eyes.

"At all? Not moved once?" Mary's voice was quiet.

"I mean I got lunch at some point..." Remus backtracked.

"I'm coming over,"

"What? No, don't-" But Mary had already hung up. Remus sighed and pushed his textbook away, wiping his tired eyes again.

Fifteen minutes later, Mary sidled through the door holding an entire plastic bags worth of food and began to fiddle with Remus' oven.

"Mary, you don't have to buy me food, I can look after myself," Remus said pleadingly.

"Well, evidently, you can't," Mary chided, not looking up from her food preparation.

"At least let me pay you back,"

"Can't. Lost the receipt, no idea how much it all is. Tough," Mary responded.

"I'll just transfer you a random amount then..."

"Remus, for fuck sake, just let people care about you, okay?" Mary finally looked up at him. "Besides, it gave me an opportunity to see Marlene and get all the news about her and Dorcas so really I should be thanking you,"

"Marlene and Dorcas? Seriously?" Remus gave up, too tired to argue and sat into the stool at his kitchen-island.

"Yes? Friday? You were literally there? Honestly," Mary said, "They are very cute together. Well, not technically 'together', you know, they want to take it slow but if I know Dorcas, that will be out the window very quickly..."

Remus succumbed to Mary's chatter and began to relax, the knot of anxiety that had been building up in his stomach unwound. He'd had a stressful few days - from his big realisation, to his argument with Sirius, to his making-up with Sirius and then finally his anxieties had switched to his university work. Remus' anxiety always needed something to work at and work at until it swallowed him up inside. It was exhausting.

Mary knew this, knew all of this, and he felt a sudden swell of affection for her. She'd never judged him, and this was not the first time that she had known exactly when Remus needed her (even when Remus didn't know it himself). They ate together and when Mary eventually left, he was significantly happier and very grateful for her visit.