Remus and James are still having tea when Regulus and Auguste enter the cafeteria. James doesn't see them until they grab two chairs and sit down with them.

"I almost had a heart attack," James gasps, clutching his chest.

"Unfortunately, only almost," Auguste mutters.

James gives him a look. "What's your problem?"

"We are so not doing this right now," Regulus rolls his eyes. He turns to Remus. "Can we go see Sirius now?"

"Yeah, of course," Remus drains the remaining third of his tea in record time.

"Have you paid already?" Auguste asks.

"Yeah, we have," James says, a little coldly. He mutters something else under his breath, but no one hears it.

Auguste gives him a nasty look, and James returns it with no hesitation.

"Come on," Regulus sighs, standing up. He takes Remus by the hand and pulls him up as well. "I can't wait until either one of these two kills the other and I won't have to listen to their whinging anymore. Do you know how long I've had to put up with this?"

Remus turns back to look at the two, who are now following Remus and Regulus, almost sliding along opposite walls of the corridor to stay as far away from each other as possible.

"Why are they like that anyway?" Remus asks, keeping his voice down.

"Salazar knows," Regulus huffs, "It's been like that since forever. Ever since they first met, when Auguste and his family came over for Christmas holidays when I was in second year and Sirius thought it would be a good idea to invite James over."

"It didn't go over well?"

"Not at all. I thought someone was going to die. I have a feeling it might've happened if Aurelie wasn't there."

Remus thinks he's heard that name before, but he's not sure. "Who's Aurelie? And what did she do?"

"Auguste's sister. She's so pretty. I think James was torn between wanting to kill Auguste and kiss Aurelie," Regulus lets Remus' hand go as they reach a staircase.

Regulus walks quite fast, so Remus is panting by the time they get to the floor where Sirius' room is located. They wait for James and Auguste to catch up.

They walk up to room 408, and Regulus peeks in through the little glass window on the door.

"Still not done," he frowns, moving away.

Remus places a hand on his shoulder and gives a small squeeze. "After we see Sirius, you should really go home, you know," Regulus tells Remus.

Remus goes to protest, but then remembers that he's spent a long time in the hospital, and that he's more tired than he's probably ever felt.

"Yeah," he agrees, "I should."

"I'll come with you," James offers. "We can all take turns staying with Sirius, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Regulus leans against the wall, right next to the door. He shoves his hands in his pockets and leans his head back, closing his eyes.

Remus watches him quietly. He knows how worried Regulus must be, but he doesn't know what comfort he can offer. And so he resorts to simply standing next to Regulus.

They wait in tense silence. Remus can feel his eyelids start to droop. He blinks several times to push his sleepiness back.

After some uncomfortable minutes, the door opens. "Hello," Miriam Derwent raises an eyebrow, "Quite the party we have here."

"Hello," Regulus pushes himself off the wall, "I'm Regulus Black, Sirius' brother,"

"Ah," the Healer smiles, "He asked about you yesterday, when he first got here,"

Remus was under the impression that Sirius was unconscious when he got to the hospital. He doesn't know why he assumed that.

Regulus looks pained. Miriam reaches out to pat his shoulder. "There's not much to worry about," she says kindly, "Come, let's have a talk in my office."

Visibly conflicted, Regulus looks at the door and then at Remus. But he lets himself be led away. The door opens again and the nurse from earlier steps out. She smiles shyly at the boys before hurrying off.

"Shall we go in?" Auguste asks, eyeing the door.

"No, let's just stand here and stare at each other," James rolls his eyes.

Remus grabs his wrist and gives it a small squeeze, giving him a stern look. James sighs. "You go first," he mumbles at Auguste, who doesn't waste much time in doing as he's told.

Sirius is sitting up. "Hi," he smiles sleepily at the three boys.

No one speaks for a long while.

How awkward, this.

"Know I'm pretty, but it's a bit uncomfortable," Sirius' words are a little slurred as he speaks, "when you stare like that,"

"Sorry, Padfoot," James pushes out a tight smile, "You do look dazzling in bandages,"

Sirius looks down at his arm, like it's the first time he's noticing it.

"I look dazzling in everything," he mumbles, flexing his fingers.

This is when Remus realizes that he's left his comfort bottle at the cafeteria. He watches Auguste walk over to Sirius and sit down next to him, on the chair Remus fell asleep on.

"Are we leaving now?" James asks Remus.

"Let's wait for Reg," Remus replies, dragging James to a corner of the room. "We can go when he gets back."

***

"God, with the way they're acting, you'd think I've starved them for a month," Remus huffs tiredly, pouring food into his cats' bowls. The bowls which Sirius had bought one day while he was out grocery shopping because Remus was repurposing old newspapers as plates for the cats and according to Sirius, that was just sad.

Remus sighs, giving Marshbutton a soft pat on her back as she bounces over to fulfil her lone purpose in life. Eating.

James watches, leaning against the fridge.

"Which one's that? I can never remember their names," he frowns.

"Marshbutton," Remus says, standing up.

"How'd you come up with that?" James raises an eyebrow.

"The tooth fairy told me," Remus shrugs.

"Wait, I thought she wasn't real..."

Remus gives him a look.

"You're so mean," James huffs. "Are you done now?"

"Done with chores, not done with laughing at you," Remus smiles at him. James gives something like a laugh. More like a deliberate exhale.

"Do you want tea before you leave?" Remus asks, putting the cat food away.

"Um, we just had tea before we left, and... I was thinking of crashing here, actually,"

"But won't Lily be worried?"

James bites his lip. "Yeah, you're right. I should go home. I'll catch a Knight bus."

"Alright," Remus says, "Send me a text when you get home, okay?"

"Yes, mom," James rolls his eyes. Remus walks him to the door and watches him leave. "Bye," he calls as James turns to wave at him, almost tripping over his own feet.

Once James has disappeared, Remus closes the door and leans against it. He takes a deep breath, because he feels like he hasn't been able to since... since everything.

He was supposed to leave yesterday. If Sirius didn't hurt himself, Remus would be somewhere else. Where? With Miss Hall? Or with his mom? Somewhere. Just not here. Remus sweeps the living room with his eyes. It feels so frighteningly close to home.

Sighing, he goes to climb the staircase, but a series of knocks on the window stops him dead in his tracks. He hurries over to it and throws it open.

"Thank you," he mutters, taking the letter from the owl, and closes the window. It's for him. He opens it and reads through the few lines with haste. By the time he gets to the end, his lips are pursed and his forehead is creased.

He gives the letter another read. He then pulls his wand out and vanishes the parchment, watching it disappear in a shower of sparks. And then he resumes his journey to the guest room, where he falls on to the bed and into a deep, tired sleep.