Remus can feel Lily's gentle fingers running through his soft, curly hair. His head is in her lap and he's crying, out of sadness and confusion and loss. They sit like this for a few minutes before Lily finally speaks.

"Can you tell me what's wrong, Remus?"

He sniffles and forces the tears to stop falling. Taking deep breaths, he sits up next to her on her bed, back against the wall.

"I told Sirius he needed to stop ignoring me, and then he said we couldn't be friends! I don't know what I did wrong..." and the tears begin falling again.

"Can you just tell me exactly what was said? Because honestly, I think I know what's going on but I need to be sure." Lily had that knowing look in her eyes.

So Remus recounted the conversation basically word for word, having to pause to cry every few sentences.

"Lils, I don't know what I'm going to do without him. I feel like... I feel like my world has fractured. My chest its- I feel like its caving in- I can't breathe- I can't-" Remus begins hyperventilating.

"Darling, I'm so sorry. I know how much you loved him."

Remus' heart rate quickens. Why is it doing that? "Well yeah, I love them all, and now I'm gonna lose all of them..."

Lily deadpans. "Sorry, what?"

"What? It's not weird that I love them, they're my best frien-" Remus' sniffling gets cut off by the scarlet throw pillow that smacks him in the face.

"Remus John Lupin!"

"Bloody fuck, Lils!"

"I'm tired of this nonsense! I don't know if you're too scared to admit it or think you're good at hiding it, or you don't even know it yourself. But anyone with two eyes can see that you love Sirius! You love Sirius. Dammit, Remus, you two have been in love with each other for as long as I can remember, so get over yourself and admit it, before I lose my mind!"

At that moment, Remus' brain really said 'no thoughts, head empty'. Which was probably the warning for what came next.

An avalanche of emotions and memories wrecks Remus.

Sirius' eyes like the clouds,

his voice like a river,

the hair that Remus always wants to reach out and run his fingers through,

the body that he'd curled around in his sleep once before.

The way his laughter rung through Remus' mind, even hours after he'd stopped laughing. The funny glances across the room, and...

And the breakup. Because Sirius had broken up with him, in a friend/crush kind of way. Sirius must've thought that Remus felt the same way he did... and then been crushed when Remus unintentionally friend-zoned him.

Oh god. Oh god, Sirius must be a mess, thinking that Remus doesn't feel the same way. He's got to find him and tell him...

And tell him what?

"What do I say to him, Lils? How do I make this right..." Remus puts his head in his hands.

"Find him and tell him how you feel. You'll know what to say when he's in front of you," Lily assures him. She pulls him into a strong hug and wishes him luck as Remus trudges upstairs to his dorm to find Sirius Black.