Just Breathe

t w e n t y - s e v e n

Remus

I was anxious for Sirius to get back to the hospital. Over the few days he was gone, I kept having nightmares. No one told me my heart stopped during surgery. It was something I just knew.

As the days went on I was allowed to leave my hospital room as long as a nurse or Mrs. and Mr. Evans was pushing me around in a wheelchair.

I got to eat my meals with them in the cafeteria every day, so that makes me happy. In the afternoons, my physical therapist takes me to the exercise room and helps me with my breathing.

First it was walking around, and by the second day I was walking on the treadmill. They made me wear a face mask everywhere in the hospital except for when I was eating or in my room, which was reasonable. I couldn't risk getting sick with my weak system fresh out of surgery.

Every night I would FaceTime Sirius for a long time. We'd talk about basic things, what happened in classes that day and what I'd been up to at the hospital. But he seemed distant and distracted. I tried to confront him about it, asked him what was up, but he got defensive so I didn't ask again. Something was definitely bothering him though, and I was determined to figure out what.

It was that Saturday morning when my friends showed up for the weekend. I was sitting in the cafeteria drinking coffee with Mum when I felt Sirius hug me from behind. "Guess who," he said. I could hear the smile in his voice.

I turned in my seat to give him a kiss.

"I missed you," I told him.

"I missed you, too," he said, kissing me again. Mum cleared her throat. I turned back around, blushing, to find Mrs. Evans smirking.

"You two are cute as hell, but it's too early for all this. I'm going to go, Petunia asked me and your father to meet her and Vernon for lunch and I have to get ready."

I felt my face go warm at how she called Mr. Evans my father and how she referred to herself as my mother. It made me feel so loved and wanted in this harsh world. Maybe my biological parents didn't love me, but these wonderful people did and that's more than I could ever ask for.

Sirius shoved me over on the seat and sat down next to me so we were both only half on the seat. He laced our fingers together in between us and rested his head on my shoulder, closing his eyes. He hummed in content and pressed a kiss to my collar bone.

"Hey stop it's 'too early for all this'," I said and Sirius snorted, leaning up to kiss me again. I smiled into the kiss and Sirius stood, using our interlaced fingers to pull me up.

I had gotten rid of the wheelchair yesterday afternoon, so I still wasn't super steady on my feet so Sirius walked close beside me with an arm around my waist. We took a break in our walking for me to take a quick breath. All this moving around was a little hard on my new lungs. I need time to adjust and adapt.

I pulled my mask out of my pocket and slipped it on over my nose and mouth and nodded to Sirius and we continued our trek. When we got to my room, the other three were waiting for us.

Lily stood, smiling. She pulled me into a hug and rocked us around, careful not to squeeze me too hard. "How are you feeling?" She asked me.

I returned her smile, but she couldn't see because of the mask so I let it hang around my neck. "I'm good. Totally fine. Everything's going smoothly." It was a lie, obviously, but I hoped my genuine tone would cover that up.

Lily seemed to buy it and went to sit on the bed next to James. Soon we were all sitting on the bed, talking about the last few days and how finals were in a month and a half and Lily had already started revising. James scoffed at that, but Peter's wide eyes filled with fear.