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He woke to the sounds of groaning—but the rather unpleasant sort. There was a gentle, filtered light coming through the window, and Sirius peered one eye open at the nightstand. His mobile perched on the edge, he flipped it over and lit the screen.
Half six.
It was too bloody early for him, which meant it was far too bloody early for his lover who treated sleep like the most precious thing on the planet. And yet Remus was awake. Or at least sort of. He was moaning and, as Sirius drifted close enough to consciousness to notice, shivering.
Rolling over, Sirius laid his palm flat against the centre of Remus’ naked back, then pulled away. “Oh shit. You’re burning up, love.”
“Mmphff,” came the muttered reply.
“No. No this is dreadful.” Leaning up on his elbow, Sirius prodded at Remus’ shoulder until his lover rolled onto his back. His eyes were open, red-rimmed as they moved back and forth. Sirius pressed the flat of his wrist to Remus’ forehead. “Fever,” he said decidedly.
As he pulled away, Remus’ hand shot out, groping until he found Sirius’ and pulled him back. “Feel like shit,” he rasped.
“You sound it, love.”
“Thanks,” Remus muttered dryly. “Fetch me something, will you? Cold flannel, something for the fever?”
“Course, love.” He tried to sound confident, but the truth of it was, Sirius had never taken care of anyone who was poorly. When he was, it had always been down to James and Lily to baby him—because he was a giant, sodding baby when it came to stuff like this. And whenever one of them had been, well the other one was always well enough to do the taking care of. And Sirius’ job had been to stay away so he didn’t catch anything.
Which was not an option now.
He was in a near full-blown panic as he reached the bathroom. He plucked a neatly folded flannel from the shelf, ran it under the cold tap, then folded it against the side of the sink. He opened the small cabinet where they kept their supplies, and rummaged round for bottles of medications. “Fever, for fever,” he muttered to himself.
He finally found the bottle which claimed to reduce fevers, and he shoved it into his pocket. What was next? “Oh Lily, it’s too early to ring you,” he muttered to himself. Being that she’d only had her baby three weeks ago, he didn’t think James or Lily would appreciate being rung up this early to ask for poorly boyfriend advice.
“Soup,” he wondered. “No, Tea!” Lily always gave him tea. Herbal, actually. With loads of honey and maybe even a bit of lemon, though Remus didn’t like lemon so that was a no.
“Sirius” came a croaking voice. “Did you get lost? Fall into the toilet?”
“Oy!” Sirius replied, poking his head out of the door. “I’m trying to save your life here.”
“Bloody hell, it’s just a fever. Bring me the fucking flannel before I find my way out of this bed and get it myself.” Which would have been a lovely thought if Sirius didn’t hear the absolute threat behind it.
So he trudged back to the bedroom where Remus was sat up against the headboard, his eyes closed, clutching the duvet high toward the centre of his chest.
Sirius felt a wash of pity because he very much loved his boyfriend and did not enjoy seeing him in this sort of distress. Leaning one knee on the mattress, Sirius leant over and pressed the flannel to Remus’ forehead. After a long, eternal second, Remus let out a small sigh and a smile played at the corners of his mouth.
“I’ve got you something for fever,” Sirius said. “But I think you should take some herbal tea first. And a bit of toast, maybe?”
“No,” Remus said, his voice still barely above a scratchy whisper. “Don’t think I could manage toast. Have we got porridge?”
“Yeah. It’ll only take me a few minutes. Lie back, alright? What herbal did you want?”
“Jasmine,” Remus said from behind a sigh. He took over pressing the flannel to his forehead, but before Sirius could pull away, Remus’ other hand caught his. “Ta, love.”
“Course,” Sirius said again. He contemplated kissing Remus, but thought perhaps now was not the time. Instead he got out of the bed, headed for the kitchen where the draft was annoyingly cold on his bits as they were hanging low in his boxers. He scowled, wishing he’d remembered his dressing gown at least, but Remus’ wellbeing took priority.
He flicked the kettle on, rummaged round—trying to be very neat and not mess up the system Remus so relied upon—and finally managed to find the herbal teas which were tucked behind the much more preferred and coveted boxes and tins of various black teas. Sirius looked longingly at them, then decided two mugs were okay, and got himself a bag of Yorkshire.
Heading straight to the cabinet, he got out some of Remus’ ridiculous, gluten-free, organic porridge he was so fussy about, and went about making it. Luckily it was the fast-cook sort, so within ten minutes he had a small tea tray—one they never used for actual tea—loaded down with porridge and honey and two mugs of perfectly steeped tea.
Heading back to the bedroom, he found Remus tucked back under the duvet with the flannel pressed to his forehead, but he was still shivering a bit so clearly not asleep.
“Love?”
Remus grunted in reply, and Sirius set the tray on the desk.
“Come on, up you get. You can eat this, then take some fever reducer and sleep. I’ve got porridge with honey.”
“The raw honey?” Remus croaked.
Sirius rolled his eyes, then said, “I’m rolling my eyes at you because of course. We don’t have any other sort.”
Remus huffed, which sounded a bit like a laugh, and he pulled the flannel from his face as he sat back up against the headboard.
“Stretch out your legs, love. Let me put the tray on them.”
Remus complied, and Sirius carefully balanced the tray, sans tea, over his lover. Remus’ hands reached out carefully, found the bowl with the spoon already in it, and the small pot of honey which he added nearly all of. He took a test bite, then smiled. “It’s lovely.”
Sirius let out a breath as he sat down with both mugs gripped by the handles. “Good. You’re…I mean you’re going to be alright, won’t you? You don’t need hospital or…I could call emergency services or…”
“It’s a cold, Sirius,” Remus said a bit sharply, then sighed. “Haven’t you had a cold or flu before?”
Sirius shrugged. “Well I have, yes. But…”
Remus snorted. “But James and Lily took care of your sorry arse, didn’t they?”
Sirius sniffed, raising his nose into the air. “They might have.”
Remus snorted again, then held his hand out toward Sirius. “Tea?” Turning it, Sirius pressed the handle against Remus’ knuckles and waited for him to take it. His lover took a long sip, then let out a groan. “Aye. It’s perfect.”
Sirius preened. “Thank you.”
“Don’t let your head get too big now. Barely fits into the bed as is.” Remus’ voice was already sounding stronger as he finished half the bowl of porridge.
“Well luckily if that happens, no one will mind. I’m very pretty you know.”
Remus hummed. “So I’ve been told. As I’ve no direct evidence…”
“Oy,” Sirius said, indignant. “You tell me all the time how lovely I am.”
“Well I’m biased, aren’t I? On account of how much I love you.”
Sirius felt his cheeks go a bit hot, and he couldn’t help but lean into Remus just a little. With a happy sigh, he reached into his pocket for the bottle of medication and pressed it into Remus’ hands. “Bottle says take two.”
“Aye,” Remus said dryly, “I have, in fact, given myself a dose of fever reducer before.”
“Prat,” Sirius breathed, feeling very sleepy all of a sudden. This taking care of someone whilst poorly business was exhausting. Which he said aloud, then added, “I imagine James and Lily are going to feel this tired all the time, aren’t they?”
“Considering they’ve got a small bundle of tiny human which will depend on them for every single thing from now until the rest of their lives?” Remus went silent as he chased the pills down with a gulp of his tea. “I reckon so.”
Sirius contemplated his level of tired, then shook his head. “We might want to reconsider getting ourselves one of those.”
“Those?” Remus asked. He shoved the tray at Sirius who promptly removed it, sticking it back on the desk.
“Babies. You know, the sleep-stealing, exhaustion-making things. The things that had Lily all…all cross and hungry and soggy round the mouth all the time.”
Remus snorted a laugh and pulled Sirius down under the duvet with him. “Well I’ve heard, and mind you this is just rumours, that the pay-off is worth it.”
Sirius snuggled down, nuzzling his neck against Remus’ neck which was still quite warm. He reached for the flannel, gave it a wave in the air to cool it back off, then pressed it against Remus’ forehead again. “How so? How’s the pay-off worth it?”
“Well,” Remus said thoughtfully as he closed his eyes and leant into Sirius’ hand, “I’ve heard they are very cute.”
“Remains to be seen. Harry’s still all squishy about the face, and doesn’t do much more than cry. And soil nappies. James even said last week Harry vomited straight onto his face.”
Remus snorted into Sirius’ shoulder as he turned over. “Wish we’d been there for that.”
“He cried for two days,” Sirius said, pulling Remus even closer.
“I suppose that’s not really an even trade, cute for vomiting and soiled nappies,” Remus mused. “I have heard they love their parents an awful lot.”
“Until they don’t,” Sirius said very solemnly. “I loved my bitch mother a great deal until I realised she was a horrid bitch.” Sirius huffed and kissed Remus on the temple who gave a hum of appreciation. “Besides, I love you an awful lot.”
“That’s true,” Remus said. He reached up with one hand and traced his fingers along Sirius’ jaw. “You do love me an awful lot.”
“Which I hope the sentiment is returned.”
“I rather think it is,” Remus breathed. “Even if you are a ridiculous person.”
“Thank you,” Sirius said, very solemn.
Remus laughed, which turned into a cough. “Buggering fucking sodding shitting cold.”
“Also I’m not sure we could have a child with your foul mouth,” Sirius said when his lover was done swearing.
Remus huffed. “I swore this much as a child.”
“And I suspect spent loads of times in detentions for it.”
“You have no room to complain,” Remus pointed out. “I’ve heard the stories.”
Sirius grinned as Remus’ fingers moved from his jaw to tracing his bottom lip. “Yes well…that’s hardly the point.”
There was a long pause, and for a while Sirius thought maybe Remus had gone back to sleep. “Were we actually considering having a baby? I mean, I thought the joys of godfathering was to borrow the baby then give Harry back to James and Lily.”
Sirius grinned and pulled Remus in tight. “Well I don’t want to discount the idea completely, you know. I think we’d be great parents. Or at the very least extremely cool ones.”
Remus laughed. “Yes. We would.”
“But not quite yet. First we’ve got to make sure you aren’t dying.”
“M’not dying, you git,” Remus huffed. He put his face right in the crook of Sirius’ neck where he liked it best, and breathed in. “And I’m being very well taken care of.”
“Oh,” Sirius said, and his cheeks went flush with pleasure. “Well…that’s…that’s good. Good.”
Remus laughed. “Aye, it is rather. Now shut the hell up so I can get sleep. I want to be better before you catch this and I’m stuck taking care of you. I can only imagine what sort of dreadful, whinging piss-baby you’re going to be.”
Sirius grinned. “Oh love, you have no idea.”