Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) Book Three (Marauders Era)

Chapter Six - A Date

Author's note: Well I'm back! I'm excited to be back and posting chapters again and I hope y'all are excited too!! In regards to this chapter obviously some things are changed from the original version and I would appreciate it if we just... moved on. Please. I am begging everyone for this. I'd prefer no comparing this one to the original version or anything either, please and thank you. Let's just enjoy the story!

I have some other news I want to talk about but I'm going to put it in the note for the next chapter. Also right now I am going to be only doing one chapter a week for a few weeks as I get back into things. I'll be posting every Tuesday. I can't wait to get back into two a week but I don't want to push myself too much right now, which will be clear why in chapter 7's author note.

Also I decided to keep the "screw it" chapter up because of all the amazing and supportive comments, so I hope that's okay

-x-

When Remus came to in the morning, he was rather confused for a few fleeting seconds. There was an arm draped across him, and a leg on top of his own. At first he closed his eyes again, relishing in the sensation, until it kicked in...

His eyes snapped wide open and his heart jumped into his throat. During the night Sirius had snuggled close to him and was partially wrapped around him, his quiet breathing fluttering against Remus's ear. He was snuggled right up against him like he had been the last time they were in a bed together. This time, however, there was no James on Remus's other side to balance things out.

Don't panic, he told himself as the need to panic almost overwhelmed him. You've seen him like this with James loads of times. Usually when James and Sirius shared a bed, they'd wake up tangled together. He wondered if James ever woke up feeling the same sense of comfort and enjoyment that Remus felt.

Right, need to get out of bed, he thought, not sure what time it was but figuring the alarm would go off any minute.

Or you could stay curled up in Sirius's arms, whispered a nasty voice.

No, he thought, trying to slide free. He wasn't going to deal with wrong feelings today. He refused.

Are they wrong?

YES!

It took a lot of slow finagling, but finally Remus got himself free of Sirius's arm, putting a pillow in his place. Sirius wrapped his arms around the pillow, burying his face against that.

Remus tiptoed as quietly as he could across the floor, since Sirius was notoriously a light sleeper. You could hardly do anything without waking him up. The rings of curtains made their soft shlink sound as he closed the curtain, and he suspected even that woke Sirius up.

He waited and when Sirius didn't make any noise, he sank down onto the toilet. Only then did he manage to breathe, putting his hands against his face as he tried not to think about how nice it felt to be held so close to someone. How nice to be held by someone male. The nasty voice kept trying to bring up arguments and he shut them down. I'm not, I'm not, he repeated, trying to convince himself it was completely normal to feel safe and content waking up in your male best friend's arms.

After a few seconds he nervously used the loo, knowing perfectly well that it would definitely wake Sirius up if he wasn't already awake. Sometimes it amazed him at how light a sleeper Sirius was. The slightest sound!

"Remus?"

"Er, in here," he answered as he washed his hands.

"What time is it?" Sirius yawned.