Will-o'-the-Wisp

Lily was waiting in the doorway as Sirius parked the motorbike in front of the little house in Godric's Hollow. "Are you two all right?" she asked anxiously, hurrying up to them. "You weren't trapped under the rubble or anything, were you?"

"No, we're fine," Remus assured her, brushing a stubborn strand of hair out of his eyes. "We were at work."

Lily looked relieved as she hugged them both, then kissed James on the cheek. "Peter called, by the way...he heard about the fire and was calling to ask if it was your house or your neighbours'."

Sirius rolled his eyes as he handed Remus one of the panniers. "I swear, Peter wouldn't remember his own address if he didn't go home every night."

"He doesn't. He was calling from a friend's house." Lily suddenly did a double-take. "Remus, what happened to your neck?"

"Huh?" Remus rubbed his neck. Sirius looked confused as well...until he saw what Lily had noticed. There were four purple marks on the left side of Remus's neck and a single one on the right...bruises left from when the pervert had choked him the previous night. Remus winced as he touched a bruise. "Oh...that. Someone tried to strangle me last night...I'm fine."

Lily looked horrified. "Why?"

"Long story," Sirius intervened.

"Simply put, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Remus told her. "Really, I'm fine, it was nothing serious."

Lily didn't quite look like she believed him, but she waved the two men into the house and directed them to a room down the hall. "Here's the guest room...sorry, there's only one bed..."

"We'll manage," Sirius said quickly. James smirked at them behind Lily's back. Remus blushed.

"I'm sure you will, you usually do." Lily's eyes narrowed. "But if you give Remus a hard time, so help me God..."

"I wouldn't do that," Sirius laughed. "Thanks, Lily."

"No trouble." Lily bustled out of the room, but James hung back.

"Are you two sure you're all right?" he asked anxiously.

Remus nodded. "Positive."

"Only fools are positive."

"Are you sure?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Positive--damn," James groaned. "I can't believe I fell for that."

Sirius laughed. "We're fine, James, really. Sorry we worried you."

"You guys didn't do anything," James pointed out.

"And that doesn't worry you?" Remus said quietly.

"Good point."

"What point?" Sirius asked, looking bemused. "I didn't hear a point."

Remus shook his head. "My point, Sirius, was that neither one of us did anything to cause the fire. We don't smoke, nobody in our neighbourhood does, we didn't let anyone use our house, we didn't leave the fire burning...you even remembered to turn off the stove after you made breakfast, not that I didn't check. Which means..."

"The fire was deliberately set," Sirius finished. "Great."

"You don't think it was that guy who attacked you last night, do you?" James asked Remus.

Remus shook his head again. "No...that guy was a pervert, not an arsonist. Besides, he knew our schedules--he had to--and he would have known we weren't home. To burn us out would mean he wouldn't know where to find us."

"Oh."

Sirius sighed. "Any rate, we're alive, we're unhurt, and we're greatly indebted to you, James. Don't know how we're ever going to repay you."

"If we ever have kids, and anything happens to us, you two have to take care of them," James charged.

Remus rolled his eyes. "That's not repayment, James, that's obvious."

"Yeah, we'd do that anyway," Sirius added.

"Well, I have a nasty feeling that it's actually going to become necessary...I'd just feel better if I knew you two were going to protect my kids, look after them and all that." James grinned at them. "Come on, it's just about dinnertime."

The meal was a fairly pleasant one; Lily remembered Sirius and Remus's favourites and went out of her way to prepare them, despite Remus's embarrassed attempts to get her to "just cook whatever". James and Sirius bantered easily; Remus rolled his eyes for Lily's benefit and continued eating his meal. Lily basked in their praise of her mighty culinary skills and presented them with a towering dessert.

Afterwards, Lily dug out a deck of cards and insisted they play a "nice, normal Muggle game of cards", so Remus and Lily wound up teaching James and Sirius how to play Hearts. Sirius won the first game, James the second, and Remus the third; Lily refused to play a fourth game, citing as her reason the time. "Don't you two still have to get up for work in the morning? And James does too..."

"Oh, we've pulled all-nighters before and still made it to work the next morning," Sirius assured Lily, but James demurred.

"So have I, but I think she's right. This was fun, but it's starting to give me a headache."

Sirius and Remus gravitated towards the guestroom; James and Lily disappeared into their own bedroom. Remus yawned and looked longingly at the bed. "Man, that bed looks so good right about now."

"Bet it's uncomfortable," Sirius surmised.

"At this point, I swear I would sleep on a boulder. It has been a very long day."

Sirius chuckled and started unbuttoning his shirt. "They're only going to get longer, love."

Remus shook his head and sat down to take off his shoes. A few moments later both men heard a soft thump through the wall, followed by an animalistic cry.

Sirius started laughing again. "Do they realise we can hear them through the walls?"

"Be fair, Sirius," Remus chided Sirius gently. "James knows it won't bother us, and Lily...well, Lily just probably isn't used to other people being in the house at night."

Sirius caught Remus by the lapels of his shirt and pulled him closer. "She's not the only one," he breathed in Remus's ear.

"Siri..." Remus began to protest, a familiar feeling creeping up his spine, but Sirius cut him off by covering Remus's mouth with his own. He drew back a second later, his eyes sparkling with a look Remus knew well. Deciding to go with the moment, Remus leaned over and kissed Sirius behind the ear.

Sirius slipped his arms around Remus's waist and leaned over; his lips met Remus's neck. Remus moaned softly as Sirius, still kissing him, lowered him onto the bed.