SECURE | REMUS LUPIN

16 ; you could never ruin us

SECURE — CHAPTER 16

[ Remus let out a sad, hollow chuckle, his gaze not meeting hers. "Have I ruined us?" ]

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Soon they ended up on his bed, laying on their backs next to each other. The comforter rose and fell with each of their breathy chuckles from something the other had said. The tension was slowly melting out of the room - there was no longer a heavy weight on either of their chests.

The moment felt refreshing, like a breath of fresh air after being forced to hold your breath for some time, or waking up to a day you knew was going to be great.

"Thank you, Kate. This means a lot to me, more than you'll ever know," Remus told her, turning his head slightly to flash her an upturned grin. Katie hadn't realized until then that she hadn't just missed Remus himself, but that she'd missed all his tiny quirks that seemed so deeply ingrained as almost a part of who she was now too. That small upturned smile was a part of him that she carried around with her like a hand to hold to.

Katie smiled cheekily back at him. "You can pay me back by promising to never let me sit through another one of those insanely awkward library conversations that we had. Think I might just go insane if I ever have to go through that again." She held up her pinky finger between them. Lily had explained to her the mannerism in their first few weeks of being friends.

Remus' smile widened at the gesture, intertwining their pinkies together. It may have been childish, but Katie got the slight impression that Remus went along with it because he didn't quite have a childhood as free and as fun as she did. "Promise," he breathed, his voice so quiet she wouldn't have heard it if she wasn't so close.

Katie scoot closer to Remus, angling her head to lay on top of his shoulder. Remus' cheeks brightened slightly at the proximity, but he didn't move. Both realized that they'd slowly become more intimate with one another - brief hand holding, hugs that always seemed to be a second longer than usual, a slight touch to the shoulder, or even a shared glance that just held something different.

But somehow it all still felt natural, like they were still in some ways the Remus and Katherine that met on the train all those years ago.

Katie felt a pull to the curve of his lips, slanted and full. Something akin to desire bubbled up in her stomach - even though she wasn't staring at his face, but rather the ceiling, the thoughts the pervaded her mind didn't seem like something that should be thought when the person in question was laying not even a centimeter away from her shoulder.

The things of desire felt fleetingly familiar, though she couldn't remember ever feeling the way she did at that moment. Quick as lightning, a flash of a memory flashed through her - lips and hands and Remus' hair - but it was gone as soon as it came, and as much as she tried, she couldn't remember a single detail of the memory that had just flitted through her mind.