Words: 724

Description: Remus tries to convince Sirius to leave because it's going to be a bad moon, but eventually caves and lets him stay.

Story:

Remus has been shaking since he woke up that morning. Granted he'd slept in quite a lot, but Sirius had been monitoring his condition for a few days now and it was apparent that Remus had a fever for the first part of the morning.

Sirius, never one to care much about missing classes, stayed back with his sickly boyfriend for the day until they decided they'd better head out to the Shrieking Shack.

James wasn't able to accompany them for that month's moon because he had a quidditch game. He'd apologized profusely and was visibly upset that he couldn't make it, but Remus assured him it was alright. And of course, Peter didn't want to risk going if James wasn't, so it was just the two of them.

Remus had been mulling over ways to convince Sirius to leave all day. He wasn't very confident in his abilities to convince him, though, as Sirius was quite stubborn.

But Remus knew that it was going to be a bad moon. He could feel it in the way his bones ached and the constant tremor in his muscles.

The two of them walked silently through the Whomping Willow tunnel, Remus's arm slung over Sirius shoulder as his legs were too weak to make the journey on his own.

Once inside the old shack, Sirius helped Remus settle on the musty couch, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders and sitting beside him, pulling his shaking boyfriend into his side and smoothing his hair. Remus soon fell asleep like that.

It was a few hours later that the sun started to set and though he didn't want to, Sirius shook Remus awake. Remus startled when he saw the position of the sun. The pretty pinks of the sky made the pit in his stomach grow. He hated sunsets. He knew they were supposed to be pretty, but he'd developed a fear of them over the years. The sunset only ever brought him bad things.

"Sirius, you can't stay here tonight. You must know that."

Sirius was quiet for a moment as he thought about how to answer. "I'll be fine, Remus. I know you think you'll hurt me, but you won't. We've been over this many times, I know how to get away from you if I need to. I'm not leaving you here on such a bad moon."

Remus tried to push himself up on trembling arms. "You don't understand, it's bad tonight. Really bad. I could...I could kill you Sirius—"

"I'm staying," he interrupted, grabbing Remus's face in his hands and looking him deep in his eyes, making sure he got his point across. "I'm staying with you, end of story."

"But—"

"Hey, love, it'll be alright. Just a few more hours and it'll be over and everyone will be fine. Okay? Breathe with me, it'll be over soon."

Remus went quiet as he squeezed Sirius's hands tightly, breathing through the pain as the sun continued to set outside the shack.

As soon as the pain got to be too much, when he acknowledged somewhere in his brain that he couldn't take it anymore, that's when he knew the moon was coming up.

And the fear settled in. He started hyperventilating as he panicked, worried out of his kind as his thoughts spiraled through all the possibilities the night might bring. Of course the majority of them were screaming that he was gonna kill Sirius, but some poked at him, wondering what he would do to himself.

As much as he hated his miserable life, he didn't want to die.

And as much as he wanted to push Sirius away, he needed him. He knew Sirius would do everything I his power to keep him safe.

So eventually, he caved.

Terrified, he turned to Sirius, tears brimming his eyes, hardly able to focus through the immense pain he was in. "Please don't leave me alone," he whispered, hanging onto Sirius for dear life.

Sirius held him close, kissing his forehead. "I'd never dream of it, love," he said.

And then Sirius let him go and stood back from the couch, transforming into a dog as Remus's transformation began.

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