"Sirius," Remus kneels down next to Sirius on his living room floor. Several sad scrolls lie idly on the floor, victims of Sirius' rushed quill strokes. There's a splatter of violet ink on his wrist, and his eyebrows practically touch as he glares at the plan he's drawn. Mavis and Mentos have made themselves content by ripping a discarded scroll into tiny shreds. Remus doesn't feel like yelling at them when they look so damned cute, lying on top of what remains of the poor parchment.

"Hey, take it easy," Remus laughs at Sirius' frustrated expression. "It's just three walls."

Sirius looks at him as if he just proposed mass murdering the cats. "Just three walls that will make up your shop," he purses his lips. Remus wants to laugh.

"I'm designing a sign for it. Lupin's Potions. I forgot to fit in the fucking apostrophe, look," Sirius sighs, pointing at the discarded scrolls of parchment. One reveals a square with Lupins Potions with a sad little apostrophe squeezed in between two letters. "Now I have to redraw it and take new measurements," he sighs again, long and heavy. "I hate myself," he mumbles, rolling his eyes.

"Hey," Remus tries again, this time placing a hand on Sirius' wrist. God, his skin feels so warm. He notices that Sirius is left-handed. Remus can see the small blue veins running under his pale skin, dividing into smaller and smaller branches like a bolt of lightning that spreads through the sky.

"Come eat something, okay? We'll work on this after lunch." Remus struggles to breathe properly. There's something so intimate about having seen his hands. About having seen the way he holds his pen, with his thumb and his index finger, somehow balancing it between just those two fingers. And those faint lines in blue and green, so delicate.

"I'm not hungry," Sirius sighs, looking up at Remus. Their eyes hold each other in place. Remus has never been able to look at someone's eyes so closely. Not for this long. Not with his pulse audible in his ears, with his breath lost.

It's so grey, it's so beautiful and Remus doesn't know why it makes his heart ache. It isn't pleasant like Remus has read in books. It hurts right in the middle of his chest, as if Sirius' eyes are the windows to a dull and dead world, and Remus should know better than to look.

It makes him draw back. He quickly gets to his feet. "Come on," he offers his hand to Sirius, not daring to look in his eyes again. Sirius puts his quill away and takes Remus' hand, letting himself be pulled up. He's surprisingly light.

Remus tries to get him to eat. His leftover pasta isn't really fit for the Queen's feast, but it's not bad either. Sirius refuses to touch it. After a very strict lecture from Remus, he ends up eating two very precise forkfuls from Remus' bowl. He's saved by someone knocking on the door.

"Must be a customer," Remus stands up quickly. " I'll be back soon, okay?" He quickly moves Sirius' things into the kitchen. "Stay here," he tells Sirius before getting the door.

Of course Sirius doesn't stay there.

"Hello, Madam," he smiles at the old lady in Remus' living room. "You look ravishing. How can we help you?"

It's almost embarrassing to see how Madame Pamplemousse turns red. All she needed when she came in was a bottle of Felix Felicis, but she somehow ends up spending almost four times its cost, so Remus can't really complain either.

"Do come again soon!" Sirius waves at her as she hobbles out of the house. "With pleasure, my dear," she beams at him before walking away.

"Why didn't you tell me how charming your customers are?" Sirius grins at Remus, who busies himself with putting their plates away. "They're not charming," Remus shrugs, "Not usually, anyway."

"Anyone can be charming, you've just got to try hard enough to bring it out," Sirius picks Mavis up and kisses her nose. "Don't you think so, cat?"

Remus rolls his eyes as he reaches for the jar of cat food.

"Yeah, anyone except him," Sirius says to Mavis, throwing a furtive glance towards Remus. "He can kill the fun in anything."

"I sure can," Remus says and gives the jar a rattle. In a flash, Mavis is at his feet. "Ah," Sirius hisses. "The traitorous bitch," he glares at the cat, which couldn't be bothered any less.

He rubs at the scratch left behind on his arm. Once he's done with feeding the cats, Remus shoves them all out the back door and walks over to Sirius, who's still pouting. "Is it bleeding?" He takes Sirius' arm. God, he's so warm.

"Here, let me just..." he drags Sirius over to his Potion cabinet and takes a dark brown bottle out. "Oh no, no," Sirius tries to free himself. "No, that's gonna sting, oh no-"

"It won't, you big baby," Remus laughs, uncorking the bottle. It doesn't take long for the strong smell of the liniment to pervade the air. Remus gently rubs some of the milky white liquid over the cut. Sirius watches in awe as the scratch mark disappears right off of his skin. "Whoa, what's that?"

"It's this little liniment I've been working on. I'm trying to make it smell a little better," Remus smiles at him. "What's it called?" Sirius asks.

"Haven't named it yet..." Remus shrugs.

"What? That's so sad. Let me think... Remmy's Magic Milk," Sirius grins.

"That sounds... a little... no."

"Hmm..." Sirius frowns, "Milk of Remmy! Like that Muggle thing... Milk of magnolia-"

"Milk of magnesia," Remus corrects him, "And if you insist on naming my product, do choose a name which won't imply that I'm a lactating mother, thank you very much."

***

Author's Note

Yes, I called her grapefruit. Yes, I'm too lazy to think beyond that.