"Hold on, you knew?" James Potter.

"And you thought it would be a good idea to just... ignore it?" Lily.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Regulus throws his phone on the bed beside him, running a hand through his hair.

"For real, Re," James frowns from where he's sitting on the floor. "Why would you do this?"

"You should've at least written back," Auguste says, eyebrows slightly drawn.

"Or told us," Lily adds.

"Stop it," it's Sirius who speaks up now, his voice clear, nothing like some half an hour ago when it was slow and heavy with the effect of his medication. He shifts a little closer to Remus, letting their arms touch. A silent reassurance. "Let him breathe."

This emergency meeting of the Justice for Remus club has convened in Sirius' bedroom today, because Sirius can't go down the stairs just yet. Remus and Sirius are where they were before Regulus crashed in, Remus practically shrunk into the mattress and Sirius' hand resting on the bed as close to Remus' knee as possible without actually touching it. Then there's Regulus and Lily on the other bed. And James on the floor, and Auguste on Sirius' chair. Even the cats are there, all three of them. Marshbutton on Sirius' lap, Mentos on his desk, pawing at the curtains, and Mittens at the edge of Sirius' bed.

A series of apologies ripple across the room. Remus shrinks even further. "It's okay," he mumbles, wishing everyone would just look somewhere else.

"Where's Severus?" Sirius asks, "Is he coming?"

"Said he's on his way," Regulus replies.

"Okay," Sirius nods. "Go and make the tea while we wait for him, please," he tells Regulus. "There's no point in talking about this without him."

On any other day, Regulus might've said something snarky in response. But today, he doesn't even roll his eyes. Just walks out of the room in silence.

"I'm going to go help him," James scrambles to his feet, almost tripping in his rush to get out of the room. Remus doesn't miss how Lily stares after him, her face morphed into a tiny frown.

"I have a phone call to make," Auguste stands up, too. "I'll be outside," he tells no one in particular before making himself scarce.

"A subtle lot," Sirius comments once the door closes, which draws a huff of amusement from Lily. "Don't leave, Evans. Come sit with us." 

Remus moves away from Sirius so that Lily can sit in the middle. She sits down carefully so as not to hurt Sirius accidentally, and props her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands.

"Hi," she smiles at the both of them, reaching towards to Sirius to scratch Marshbutton's ear.

"Hi," Sirius replies, "How's uni?"

"Dreadful," Lily sighs, "One of our professors told us to sort out our work as important and urgent, unimportant but urgent, important but unurgent and then neither important nor urgent. And then we can prioritize them in that order. But the problem is,"

"Everything seems important and urgent?" Sirius raises an eyebrow.

"Exactly," Lily groans, hiding her face. "It's horrible,"

"There, there," Sirius pats her head. "At least all your ribs are still intact,"

Remus narrows his eyes at Sirius, and Sirius just happens to see it. He makes a small 'o' with his mouth. "Right, yes, can't  joke about that," he pulls an exaggerated pout, "Can we, Marshbutton?"

Lily gives Remus a small smile, reaching over to squeeze his hand.

"You okay, Re?"

Remus finds himself nodding. Lily squeezes his hand again. "We'll figure something out, okay?"

"Okay," Remus nods.

"I'm worried about the both of you," Lily admits with a sigh. "Always looking to take care of others, but you end up forgetting yourself too often."

Remus doesn't exactly agree. He's done less than nothing for Sirius, whereas Sirius has given him everything.

"We worry about you, too," Sirius says from beside her.

"Well," Lily turns to him, withdrawing her hand from Remus'. "Like you said, I'm not the one with the broken ribs, am I?"

Sirius chokes out a laugh, startling Marshbutton. "Evans with a sense of humour?" He muses, "Never thought I'd see the day."

"Stop it," Lily raises her hand teasingly, like she's going to hit him.

"You can't hit a man who tried to kill himself—" Sirius ducks.

"Sirius," Remus can't help it. By the time he realises it, he's already called his name. Sirius looks at him, mouth slightly open.

"Sorry," he mumbles, looking down at Marshbutton. Lily looks from Sirius to Remus and then back to Sirius, a small smile on her lips. "You scared us, you know," she moves Sirius' hair back, revealing the cut across his temple.

"I know," Sirius mumbles, "I'm sorry,"

"You know you shouldn't be," Lily ruffles his hair a bit before standing up. "Now you can go back to pretending you don't want to hold each other's hands," she grins, dropping herself down on the other bed.

"Oh my God," Remus covers his face with his hands.

"Go on, Re," Lily laughs, "Move a bit closer. You know you want to,"

"For God's sake, if you don't stop that right now..."

"But do move closer," Sirius speaks up. "I'd quite like it if you did,"

Remus blushes even harder, like that was even possible. His face feels like it's about peel of.

"I hate all of you so much," Remus groans, but he moves closer to Sirius anyway.

"That's okay, but isn't it so much better like this?" Sirius gives him a cheeky little smile before pressing his head on Remus' shoulder. It's mostly out of reflex that Remus wraps an arm around Sirius, but he can't deny it.

It really is so much better.

The three friends ease into light conversation, each forgetting their worries in the simple joy of being with good company. Unfortunately, this doesn't get to last much longer than ten minutes.

They hear the gates open, a sound stripped of its usual intensity due to distance. However softened it may be, it doesn't fail to make Remus go all tense at his shoulders.

And Sirius can tell. Of course he can. He reaches for Remus' hand, encircling it with his always-so-pale fingers. Remus grips them tight, feeling his pulse rise to his throat. He can only hope he doesn't throw up on Sirius and Marshbutton. That would be a veritable disaster.

Some time later, they can hear heavy footsteps ascending the stairs. And then the door opens, revealing of an odd assortment of four wildly different boys.

"Alright," Regulus places a tray with mugs on Sirius' desk, a safe distance away from Mentos. Behind him, James is carrying a plate of biscuits, which immediately grabs Marshbutton's attention. "Now we're all here," Regulus sweeps the room with an unreadable look. "Let's talk."

***

Author's Note

Idw go back to uni, help me