Rating of R.

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

As a hired hit man, Sirius Black's newest target is a potential danger to the motives of the Death Eaters. The only information that is available to him is an age, gender, location, and the condition of werewolf. Werewolf narrows it down a fair bit, yet that's not going to help him when the location just happens to be an all werewolf school.

Major Alternate Universe alert and mild slash.

Coffee Stains

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"So this Milbrook chap...you killed him?" Remus asked quietly in disbelief. He had stood quietly behind Sirius while the other man talked steadily to the bottom of his coffee mug once more. It was empty again, but neither of them moved to fill it. Shaken, Remus felt as if all his strength had gradually receded from his being as Sirius continued to talk emptily about his endeavor with the Milbrook family.

Sirius laughed bitterly, a soulless sound that contained no hint of mirth or humor. The hair on the back of Remus' neck stood on end and he gripped painfully at the back of Sirius' chair for support.

"My first job, my first kill and the whole thing was going so...so smoothly. I trailed Milbrook and his family for two weeks. I learned more about the whole damn family in two weeks that they would ever know about each other."

Sirius shook his head sadly. As he next spoke, he raised the fingers on his right hand to count the secrets of the Milbrook family.

"Unbeknownst to his wife, Harvey Milbrook kept a healthy sized second bank account separate from the joint account that he shared with her. He also had a fully functional fake identity at the ready." Sirius shrugged. "As far as I know he never had the chance to use it. Tina Milbrook had been in a steamy relationship with her boss for about three years by the time I entered the picture.

"Poor little Gracie Milbrook, ignored by both of her parents, she found solace in her uncle's open arms. He was a soulless coward who sexually abused a little girl that had no where else to turn. Lawrence Milbrook became involved with some shady people. It was all typical teenage stuff, really. Drugs and sex mostly. These were all petty things that made his parents go over the edge. His parents never had the chance to find out the really bad stuff. Kid got in deep with a local cult.

Sirius glanced at his open palmed hand in disgust and then closed his fingers in a tight fist.

"I guess those are the important ones. The big ones. I don't remember all of the fine details. Probably in my notebook somewhere."

You're a liar. You know everything about that man and his family. You've memorized everything you've ever written down in that damn notebook that you ever learned about the Milbrook family.

"Sirius." Remus' voice was so soft that it was inaudible. "What did you do to them?"

"You weren't the first person that I tried unsuccessfully to kill. I tried the killing curse on Harvey Milbrook too."

Remus' mouth suddenly went dry and once again he found himself longing for the comfort of his bloody shard of glass. At least he would have something to protect him from the murderer across from him.

"Why didn't it work? I don't understand."

"You have to be so full of hate," Sirius sighed heavily, banging his fist on the table in a show of passionate emotion. "You have to really want it, with everything you've got. You have to want someone dead."

"So you couldn't kill me," Remus began slowly, his heart beating a painfully fast tempo in his chest. "because you—"

"I love you, Remus, and I sure as hell didn't want you dead," Sirius snapped, his voice raised in a half yell.

Remus leaned over the table, an angry expression on his contorted face, but his mouth formed around an aborted word. He was speechless and rested back comfortably in the hard backed chair out of defeated contempt. He tried once more to summon the stubborn words, but they failed him and left him surrounded by silence once more.

"I love you too, Sirius," Remus whispered back, inaudibly. His fingers curled in the linen tablecloth and thin valleys and deep ridges formed where the linen became distorted.

"Harvey Milbrook's last day on earth was on November twenty-second. It was perfect. It couldn't have been more perfect if I had personally planned every aspect of that day myself.

"Harvey had taken to the comfort of cheap whiskey. There hadn't been a day in the past week that the man had been coherently sober. He and his wife had taken to fighting quite a bit.

"I was getting stressed about then," Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You know, this isn't easy for me."

Remus blinked rapidly and shook his head, he had become so engrossed in Sirius' tale that he had to physically detach himself from Sirius' haunted voice.

"Come over here." Sirius extended a hand toward Remus. His voice had already grown hoarse from the long, one sided conversation. Remus didn't have time to think as he pushed his chair back and stood up. He crossed over to Sirius, operating on a strong sense of trusting instinct.

Trusting him could get me killed, Remus thought, unconcerned as he placed his hand in Sirius' own. Remus' eyes never left the other man's as he stood up and silently led Remus into the living room. The strong smell of recently brewed coffee had settled in the connected room as well and washed over Remus in a emotional wave of nostalgia.

Sirius rubbed his thumb in small, soothing circles over the back of Remus' hand. He used his free hand to unsheathe an old vinyl record, set it on the track of the record player, and dropped the needle. Remus was taken aback by the soft, smooth opening notes of the record. It was music that someone like his father, or at least someone his father's age, would be partial to. The instrumental opening was soothing like silk against bare skin.

"You like jazz music?" Remus whispered as Sirius returned fully to him. Although it should have shocked him, Remus wasn't at all surprised when Sirius wrapped a protective arm around his waist. "I...I don't know how to dance," Remus mumbled as their feet began to move.

"My parents never had music in the house while I was growing up. It wasn't until I was out on my own that I was properly introduced to it," Sirius laughed hollowly and slowly guided Remus around the living room.

Remus thought how odd this slow moving dance clashed with the percussion instruments issuing from the spinning record.

"This old lady lived on my floor. She was always very fond of me...used to invite me over for dinner every Tuesday. This," Sirius said, absently jerking his head in the direction of the record player behind him. "Was the type of music she always played. Softly. So softly."

"Sirius—"

"Sorry. I just needed a distraction. Chance to gather my thoughts," Sirius said as Remus rested his head on his own broad shoulder. "Remus," Sirius sighed, stopping mid step and resting their foreheads together.

"I'm a distraction?"

"Only because you consume me completely and entirely."

Remus hid his satisfied smile against Sirius' shoulder and nuzzled his neck affectionately. The jazz music drifted gently in the background as Sirius led the young werewolf over to the armchair in the corner. Sirius seated himself and tugged at Remus' slim fingered hand. Remus sat on the arm of the chair and regarded Sirius with a deep, somber gaze. He had a hard time connecting the man before him as the same person that had tried to kill him that morning.

As if remembering some piece of some long forgotten knowledge, Remus startled and glanced out of the large picture window across the room. The dark, starless sky beyond the windowpane was just starting to lighten as the sun began to breach the horizon.

"All night. We stayed up all night?" Remus murmured in slight wonder, a mere pondering dedicated to himself rather than meant for Sirius' ears. Sirius sat in silence, gathering his thoughts and making elaborate patterns on Remus' back with the tips of his fingers absently.

"I was getting worried. Here I had a family that I had been following for two whole weeks. All of my...research..." Sirius' eyes flickered nervously up to Remus, but the younger boy's eyes were firmly fixed on the rising sun beyond the large picture window. "Had been completed. I was so restless. Waiting. Just waiting for the opportune moment. I never thought that Tina Milbrook would hand me such a moment on a finely polished silver platter."

Sirius grew quiet again and his eyes shifted to watch the sun light up the morning sky. The darkness had been banished and replaced by light shades of orange and pink. It was stunning. Sirius tried to remember the last time he had witnessed such a a beautiful sunrise and was unable to do so.

The faint aroma of coffee lingered around the room. Sirius couldn't help reflect that, had he been a normal man living a normal life on just another normal day, he and Remus could have just rolled out of bed to enjoy a cup of coffee and a gorgeous sunrise together.

In the background, the record player had fallen silent, its soulful jazz tracks now finished. The record spun on in silence, the needle skipping over the small rifts on the record quietly. Normally such a quiet noise, it had become intensely magnified by the comfortable silence.

"I think I've said enough," Sirius muttered, starting to stir from his seat with a fresh pot of coffee on his mind. It had been one long, stressful night. He stopped when Remus gently rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I want to hear the rest." As Remus spoke his eyes moved from the morning sky outside to Sirius' haunted face.

"You've come this far and," Remus paused and drew in a long, slow breath. "I remember one time...a long time ago...when you stayed up all night to listen to another person's problems."

The first real, genuine smile that Remus had seen on Sirius all day, and into this new, glorious one, slowly molded his lips upward. Sirius squeezed the werewolf's hand for encouragement and, for the first time since he had begun explaining, did not break eye contact from Remus' dark eyes.

"Tina Milbrook was taking the two children and leaving for her mother's place. She made it exceptionally clear that she did not intend to return. With her and the kids out of the way, my path to Harvey was finally unobstructed.

"I thought a lot...on how to kill him," Sirius admitted, his eyes shying away briefly in shame. "At first it was hard, planning to kill a man that had never done wrong by me. But during all that time...watching and waiting...it become easier." Beside him, Sirius' fingers had curled into a fist.

"After watching what this neglectful man let happen to his family...his children—God. That poor little girl."

Sirius' voice had flared up with passion once more. Beside him, Remus had started to gently stroke Sirius' back in an attempt to comfort him. Slowly, the muscles in Sirius' shoulders and neck began to relax. His clenched fist uncurled and traveled up to rest on Remus' thigh. The small gesture seemed to spur him on and when he continued to speak, Sirius' voice was steadier and much stronger.

"I made out my plan. I watched Tina storm out of the house, children and luggage in tow. As soon as they were gone I make my move."

Sirius inhaled sharply and finally had to break his eye contact with Remus. A concerned frown contorted Remus' face and he moved his hand from Sirius' back to grip his hand in assurance instead.

"I'm ready Sirius. You need to keep going," Remus murmured. As Sirius spoke, Remus had come to an understanding that he was helping to rid this man that he cared for of some of his violent inner demons.

Sirius paused for a moment, the only sound breaking the silence was the soft, rhythmic tic of the record player. When he began talking again, he could not bring himself to meet Remus' eyes.

"It was so easy. The night before the family left, I crept into the garage. Drugged his liquor. Just to knock him out of a bit, right? I'd never used the stuff before, how was I supposed to know how much to give him? I wanted him out cold for a few hours, what I got was hardly one.

"He was tied to a chair, I already had all the shades down—thankfully—and a few strong silencing charms on the house."

Sirius ran a hand over his tired face. The early morning light on his face made him look much older than he actually was.

"Harvey Milbrook woke up screaming. I just stared at him. So cold. Emotionless. I let him scream himself hoarse, letting all the hate build up inside me as I glanced around the living room. There were so many pictures on the walls. All of a broken family.

"I...tried killing him. Just like I did you," Sirius said quietly, leveling his weary gaze up at Remus. He waited patiently for the younger boy to launch into an angry and hurt tirade, but Remus merely flinched briefly before his face revered back to the facade that betrayed the anxiety that he felt.

"Did it work?" Remus asked numbly, fingers twirling in his hair above the temple. He could still feel the dried blood matting his hair.

Sirius shook his head bleakly.

"Same as you. Nothing. I...I panicked," Sirius answered quickly. Alarmed, Remus watched as Sirius' eyes began to dart around the room. It was almost as if he were searching for an escape.

"I grabbed the first thing my eyes landed on." Sirius' voice was no more than a whisper. Next to him, Remus sat rapt, unable to move or respond. "Some statue off the end table. I...there was so much blood."

Once again, Sirius covered his face with his free hand in shame. Remus had forgotten how to breath.

"I just kept hitting him. He must have been dead for...I don't know. Half hour? I just...kept...I just zoned out, in a complete panic. There was this screaming. At first I thought it was me. I thought that I had gone insane.

"That little girl. That sweet, sweet, poor little girl. I don't know how long she had been there. I don't know when the family came home. Looking back on it now, with a clearer mind, I still can't be certain of anything."

Sirius stopped again and this time Remus thought he heard the beginning of a sob coming from the other man.

"Sirius."

"They were all there. The three of them."

"Sirius."

"Just standing there. Screaming. Frozen with terror."

"Sirius."

"God. How I must have looked. Dead man. Blood everywhere."

"Sirius."

Both of their voices had been steadily rising. Sirius' in hateful conviction and Remus' in unveiled terror. Remus was screaming before Sirius finally stopped talking and slowly turned his gaze unto the young werewolf's horrified face.

"I killed them. All of them. Those innocent children. That confused and blameless women," Sirius whispered in a defeated voice.

"I...I think I'm going to pass out," Remus stammered. He heaved dryly into his palms and slid from his perch from atop the arm of the chair unto the floor with a graceless thud.

"Remus. Hey Remus?"

From his position half sprawled out on the floor, Remus looked up into Sirius' pale face with glassy eyes.

"You. You're a murderer?"

"I'm an assassin, Remus. A hired man," Sirius said simply, with a mild apologetic undertone in his voice. He sat down on the floor beside Remus and cradled the younger boy's head in his lap. "I never meant to hurt you."

"I...I...kill me? Someone wanted me...dead? You were there to kill...me?" Remus' voice trailed off weakly and his eyes rolled back in their sockets.

The realization, although in the back of Remus' subconscious mind since Sirius had began his tale, seemed much harsher and colder now that he could no longer deny it. There was no way that Remus could ignore what was clearly painted in black and white before him.

"Remus?" Sirius prodded the werewolf uncertainly. When Remus didn't respond he felt the first of many hot tears trail down the side of his face. He tried to hold it together a little longer until he couldn't any longer and cried over Remus' prone body.

"I'm sorry."

Salty tears dripped from Sirius' chin and jaw bone to patter lightly on Remus' upturned and unaware face.

"So sorry."

Sirius kissed each of Remus' closed eyelids and then his forehead softly.

"Remus."

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