Remus

I was sick. I caught a cold from the funeral and I was determined to hide it. Sirius had enough on his plate without worrying about me. It almost worked in my favor that he was so distracted, because he didn't notice how out of it I was.

But Lily did. I was able to hide it from her for three days. That was it. I swear she has a sixth sense for whenever something was bothering me.

It was that third day, after I'd spent the previous night with Sirius, that I bid him farewell for awhile, planning to head over to my own apartment for an hour or two to get my pills and shower and such.

After getting out of the shower and getting a fresh change of clothes, I sat down at the counter and pulled the basket of my meds towards me and sorted through them, finding the ones I needed to take. I fell asleep at the counter not too long after that.

Lily found me there twenty minutes later. She shook me awake, James standing behind her.

"Rey, you're hardly ever this tired, are you alright?"

I sniffled. "Yeah I'm fine," I said, voice sounding nasally.

Lily frowned. "You've got a cold."

"I don't," I said too quickly.

Lily cocked an eyebrow. "You're breathing's sounding awfully wheezy, your nose is stuffed up, you fell asleep on the counter, you've definitely got a cold."

"Don't tell Sirius," I begged.

Lily's eyebrows knit in concern. "Why not? Shouldn't he know for like, safety reasons?"

"He's got enough to worry about right now, I don't want to bother him with taking care of me on top of everything. Please, you two."

James pursed his lips, waiting for Lily's verdict. She obviously wasn't too keen on the idea, but she sighed, anyway.

"Fine. But be careful. You're stubborn, I know you. But if think it's getting worse and you need help, you need to ask for it."

I nodded, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"We are going to the hospital though, Remus. Just to make sure you're fine."

I groaned loudly, sending myself into a coughing fit.

Lily raised an eyebrow and grabbed my arm, pulling me up from the stool.

"Up you go," she said. I begrudgingly followed James and Lily out of the apartment building.

"I've told Peter to distract Sirius while we're gone, so they're playing Minecraft," James informed us, looking up from his phone.

"Ah, perfect," Lily said, getting into James's van. I crawled into the backseat, listening to the lull of James and Lily talking, my head on the window. It was only a fifteen minute drive to the hospital in London, but I managed to fall asleep anyway.

Lily shook me awake when we got to the hospital. I'd been to this hospital before, back in December when I stayed for a week and a half, but my usual doctor, the one I'd been seeing since I was little, was in Oxford, where Lily and I grew up. It was also an hour drive, and fifteen minutes was much more reasonable for a quick check up.

Once we got checked in and waited for a little while, a nurse came back to get me. Lily came with because she said 'she needed to make sure she got all the information because she knew I wouldn't tell her the whole story'.

The doctor listened to my breathing for awhile and determined that I was a bit wheezy and that I did have a cold, both things I already knew. She prescribed me some meds and told me to come back if it were to get worse.

I fell asleep on the car ride back to Godric's Hollow as well.

*******

Sirius was especially sad the next day. I didn't leave his side once, we mostly cuddled, napped, or played chess with James's fancy set his mum and dad gave him.

Sirius was oddly quiet, sort of removed from the environment that was our chest game.

"Pads, you okay in there?" I asked after he'd made a particularly horrible play and didn't react when I took his bishop out of play.

Sirius glanced up and forced a smile. He nodded. "Just tired. And thinking, I suppose."

I studied the chess board and made a move. "About what?" I asked, though I already knew.

"You know, Regulus. And Mother and Father. The usual."

I hummed, watching as Sirius moved his piece.

"Checkmate," I said. Sirius sighed and pushed the board away.

"I just need some time to...get over it I guess. Just give me a few days to grieve and I'll be back to normal in no time!"

"Sirius--"

"Back to walks to the coffee shop, date nights, having fun with everyone, pulling pranks with James...

"Sirius, you can't put a timer on grief. It doesn't work like that."

Sirius got quiet again.

"It's alright if your hurting and you need some time. You don't have to apologize for it and you don't need to go making excuses. Alright?"

Sirius nodded, looking down at his hands. He looked up. "Let's go do something. Please?"

We made it as far as the couch, which is sort of disappointing.

My sketchbook was sitting on the coffee table and Sirius asked me to 'draw him like one of my French girls', and I told him he had to keep his clothes on. But that's how I ended up drawing Sirius, anyhow.

I kept repeatedly trying to wipe my runny nose and forgetting my nasal cannula was in the way. I was getting quite frustrated, because I could just imagine how much snot was getting in that thing when Sirius made a face like something was dawning on him.

"Are you sick?" he asked me. And I said no, you know, like a liar.(John Mulaney everybody:)

Sirius frowned. "I don't believe you," he said.

"Are you calling me a liar?" I asked with a grin, trying to get the attention off of my sickness that I was currently lying about.

"I ain't calling you a truther," Sirius said. (Oof, so many references).

I laughed. And then I coughed harshly.

"Okay. Yes, I'm sick," I admitted. Sirius immediately sat up straighter. "Are you okay? Do you need anything? Did I get you sick? Wait, no, I wasn't sick. But what--when?"

"Sirius, chill out, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

Sirius huffed and went back to being a French girl in silence.

And later, we both fell asleep on the couch, all tangled up together.

*******

Sirius

A few weeks later, we spent a few hours in Remus's room. It started with snogging, but Remus wanted to paint so I sat on his bed and watched him. Of course, he still wouldn't let me see the damn thing, so it was turned away from me. But I got to see his cute little face twisted up in concentration as he moved the brush across the canvas. 

Every once in awhile, he would turn away to cough, or else to blow the snot out of his nose. I had been writing an essay for awhile while he painted, but when I looked up I saw his face was quite pale and his hands were shaking badly. 

I frowned and stood up, walking over to him. 

"What are you doing? No, stay over there, you can't see," he complained weakly. 

"I'm not looking," I said back, covering my eyes, taking the paintbrush out of his hand. He tried to protest, but I grabbed his hands and pulled him up off the stool. I pulled him closer to me and pecked him on the lips. 

"Mm, don't. I'll get you sick."

"You won't."

"I might. Just to spite you."

"I don't care," I said with a grin, kissing him again.

He grumbled something that I didn't hear. 

Later that afternoon, Remus and I were just sitting around and I was feeling very bored. I'd spent many days pent up in the apartments grieving and I was sick of it, the grief and the sadness. It was time to get back into a routine again. Part of me felt guilty for shoving off my grief, but the rest of me didn't care.

"Let's go do something," I told Remus, sprawled upside down on the couch, my head where my feet should be. Remus looked down at me, eyes tired but brimming with amusement. 

"And what should we do?" He asked. 

"I don't know, but I'm bored."

"How about a coffee date? We could walk to the coffee shop," Remus suggested. 

I scrambled to sit upright as the blood was rushing to my head, but ended up flipping onto the floor with a thud. Remus giggled at me and I figured I could do that same thing over and over just to hear him laugh like that. 

I glanced out the window to see snow swirling around in the February air.

"Love that idea, babe, but it's snowing. Meaning it's cold out. Plus you're sick."

Remus looked out the window and shrugged. "I'm overheated anyway. I could go for a walk."

And so Remus traded his oxygen cart for his bag and threw on some extra jumpers, an overcoat, a hat, scarf, and mittens, and we were off. It wasn't too long of a walk, but the snow and the wind made it feel like it was much longer. A blast of icy wind hit Remus in the face and sent him coughing for a little while, but once it subsided, we kept walking. 

Finally, we made to the coffee shop. I held the door for Remus and ushered him inside and we both sighed happily at its warmth. We got our coffees and sat down and talked for a long time, holding hands over the table. 

But I did notice that over the course of the month, as Remus's birthday approached, his cold just kept getting worse, developing into more of a chest cold. I tried to act casual about it, but I was watching his every move. I was terrified that something might happen. After all, it doesn't take much for someone's health to spiral.