Sanders Sides One-Shots

Absences

TW: Angst.

I'm sorry (no i'm not)

Stepping into the house Remus let out a sigh of relief. It had been a long week with his job keeping him busy from morning to evening; It didn't matter how many clients he satisfied, it never seemed to be enough for his superiors, it was always lacking something; at least it helped distract him, it helped him forget.

He stayed still for a few seconds, his ears buzzing, then he grabbed the remote left beside the old candle holder he and his room mate had put in the entrance, a souvenir from a vacation that now seemed to have happened centuries before. He went to the living room and turned the tv, his shoulders relaxing when the suffused voices of a television program started to drown out the buzzing, filling the room with mindless chatter.

With slow and calculated steps he made his way to the stairs that lead to the upper floor, deciding to lay down as he waited for his room mate to come home; then they would have greeted each other with a tight lipped smile and, silently, they would have eaten dinner, ignoring the thin layer of dust that had started to cover one of the chairs gathered around the table.

He sighed, he was doing it way too often this days, and he brought a hand up to gently massage his forehead, trying to lighten the pressure growing behind his eyes. The lack of black nail polish and goth like style, clashed with the man's usual persona like a red stain on a white dress.

Without even realizing it he had stopped walking and now he stood still in the middle of the hallway, back bent, head between his hands and his eyes closed.

If anyone could have seen him in that moment, they would have mistaken him for a ghost, an aching soul stuck on earth.

He took a couple of deep breaths to recompose himself before straightening his back; he was about to start walking again, when his eyes lingered on the door he had stopped in front of.

Before he could even realize what he was doing, Remus turned the doorknob and entered the room; the slight movement of the air had made the aeolian bells hanging beside the window jingle, it had been a gift from grandma, "it keeps the evil eye away", she had said.

He took a step forward, his eyes running along the room, as if seeing it for the first time. And in a way, it felt like it was: the light colored wooden desk in the top right corner seemed foreign, almost unreal; the empty Nutella jar filled with small objects almost seemed misplaced. The small succulent in the brighter corner, now dead, seemed wrong, almost obsolete.

On the bed there were still the clothes that should have been thrown into the washer months before, and on the nightstand beside it an incense stick laid broken beside a bottle of soap bubbles. Remus smiled; he remembered that bottle: Roman had bought it a few months before and had come home laughing.

"Aren't you a bit too old for those kind of things?" Remus had asked him, looking at his 20 year old brother blowing bubbles out of the window.

The man did nothing but smile and shrug his shoulders. "I like them." He said, and the conversation was over.

He stopped, a hand flying up to his cheek to find it wet. Quickly he looked away, trying to shove down the memories, and his eyes landed on a shelf built on the opposite wall. He quickly went through all the objects on there: a , a six faced die forgotten right beside it, a few books, a spinning top...

His breath hitched. He had almost forgotten that ukulele; He and Patton had gotten it as a gift for his birthday a couple of years before, the memory of the brilliant smile that Roman had given them hitting him like a punch in the stomach. How could he forget? That instrument had essentially become a part of his body, accompanying him even in the smallest of adventures. He had become good at playing it, and what once were just noises had become sweet melodies.

Only when a pair of strong arms wrapped around him, he realized he had fallen to the ground, his legs not able to hold up his shaking body. He hadn't heard his room mates' car, nor the engine turning off or the front door opening.

He sobbed, trying to calm down with the help of the comforting words he knew the man was whispering in his ear.

A hand grazed his collarbone, the light touch on the still sensitive skin of the scar making him shiver, reminding him why, in the past few months, it had been his feet taking him to work and not the red Toyota parked in the garage. Reminding him why wine started to taste like ashes.

Janus shushed him gently, "I know, Remus, I know. I miss him too."

Not gonna lie, this was a uni assignment lol but the prof complimented me so i felt like i had to translate it and post it!

Let me know what you think of it and if you find any typos/mistakes!

Bye babes,

Ali c: