Dog Star Over the Mountains

(Warning, summary, and ratings can be found in chapter 1.)

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Epilogue- Precious Things

            Remus awoke to the end of a sentence trailing through his mind like the ragged tail of a parade straggling by.  "…tomorrow, and forever," he heard; it had obviously been cut off from a comment made just as he had been falling asleep last night.  What a strange feeling, he mused.  It was as if a radio broadcast had been playing in his head all night and he had only caught the very end of it, those last moments before everything faded back into static.

            He blinked, drawing back the veiled curtains of sleep from his eyes.  An arm was draped over his chest like the sleeve of a coat tossed onto a chair.  Remus heard the familiar morning sounds of waking up next to another person.  The shifting of a body rousing, the slight yawn as eyes opened.  He tried to remember how long it had been since the last time he had heard such sounds.  A long time, certainly— perhaps too long.

            Strands of ephemeral silver webbing still hung over Remus; his sleepy brain could not remember to whom that arm belonged.  He squinted at it, trying to recall.  It was thin, but strong and comforting with an overlaying of fine, dark hairs.  Unblemished, except for a small crescent-shaped scar on the forearm, and Remus realized who it was as soon as he saw that mark.

            He turned his head, and Sirius was there beside him, smiling.  His eyes were warm, like sunlight hitting the slick cobblestones after a storm, and his smile was a door opening to see the new, fresh world.  Too long, indeed.

            "Hey," Remus whispered, and reached over to place a kiss on his forehead.  "Good morning."

            "Morning."  Sirius was hoarse.  Remus wondered if it was from overuse from their conversation last night; doubtless he had had few people to talk with either in Azkaban or his fugitive flight.  He imagined, though, that it was really from swallowing thousands of clear pebbles.  He saw the golden stream of Sirius' voice running over those crystalline stones somewhere inside of him.  It was still early morning, and daily ritual had not yet shattered such flights of whimsy.

            "Did you sleep well?"

            Sirius nodded, drew him closer.  Their bare skin touched, warm and right.  "Among other things," he said; Remus could feel his smile through his skin.  An osmosis of sorts, their bodies were humming and sharing as if those fourteen years had been nothing but a nightmare from which he had just awoken.  "I had almost forgotten what it felt like."

            "Me too," and he truly had.  So long ago, so far from his life.  Last night had been the opening of an old box of mementoes— each precious thing bringing back a torrent of memories.  Every bit of pleasure, or of pain, or of both, was rediscovered.  So exquisitely beautiful, they had reminded Remus of thousands of shimmering planets, pure and spinning just outside of their embrace.  It might have just been the years of desert, but it seemed to Remus that it had never felt better.

            Sirius' eyes widened.  "Moony," a blush spread across his cheeks, "in all the time that I was gone, did you ever…."  He looked away, too embarrassed to complete the thought.

            Remus sighed, a bit of heaviness settling over him.  No, those years had passed; they could not pretend that they hadn't.  "Once," he said, and bile came to his mouth to accompany the remembering.  A muggle coffee shop, laughing blue eyes meeting his, an ultra-chic apartment in Notting Hill, unfamiliar hands and skin and sweat, two names screamed in climax— neither the person around whose body each was twined.  "Years and years ago."

            Sirius nodded, squeezed his eyes shut for a long moment before opening them again.

            "It was a casual acquaintance; I never even knew his full name."  He took a deep breath, clinging to Sirius, though his form had gone rigid.  "I had to do it, Sirius; I had to test your hold on me.  I was still reeling from that awful night, and I needed to know if there was anything besides you.  I had to see whether there could ever be anyone else for me."

            "And what did you find?"  Sirius' voice betrayed an apprehension that he could not keep from his body; he melted into Remus, holding on with fear.  They were like castaways clutching a floating piece of driftwood for dear life, knowing that neither of them could swim in the dark and choppy water that surrounded them.

            "I learned that I'd rather be miserable for want of you alone, than miserable for want of you with someone else."  Remus kissed him again, this time at the juncture where neck flowed into shoulder.  "And that I was never going to rid myself of you."

            Sirius brightened.  "I'm glad I've been such a hard habit to kick," he said mildly.

            He smiled.  "You were my fourteen year flu, in a manner of speaking."  He shifted, turned a bit so that he could nestle more comfortably into the hollow of Sirius' chest.  This had always been his favorite spot; he could hear his heart beating so clearly that it was as if he had climbed into his skin and curled up inside of him.  Every time Sirius took a breath, it ruffled his hair, a summer breeze after a long, hard winter.  His eyes drifted shut once more.

            That wonderfully gravelly voice halted his descent into sleep.  "Do you have anywhere that you need to be right now?"

            Remus shook his head; his social calendar, never all too cluttered to begin with, had been deserted for months.  "Not that I know of, no."  He tilted his head up to look at Sirius.  "Why do you ask?"

            The look on his face could only be described by one word— devilish.  Remus shivered, remembering what had usually followed it.  He pressed his hips into Sirius', realizing that his body had remembered as well.

            "Because while you were sleeping, I decided that neither of us would be leaving this bed for quite a while.  Unless you have any objections."     

            And Remus, of course, couldn't even think of one.

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The End

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(When I wrote Chapter 4, I was honestly pretty sure that I wasn't going to continue this piece.  I was exhausted, and ready to leave this alone.  However, once I got the inspiration to add this bit on, I began to think seriously about a sequel.  I have one diagrammed, and thanks to everyone who's been so supportive of this project, it's coming along really well.  Thank you for your comments and words of encouragement; you don't know how much they've meant to me.

Until the next tomorrow,

-E.H.)