Title: Comfortable Place on the Couch

Author: tarotgal

Fandom: Harry Potter

Pairing: Sirius/Remus

Rating: G/PG

Disclaimer: Oh, the pups are SO not mine

Summary: A comfy couch, and a little more suffering!Sirius. Sequel to 'You Stroke Me like the Rain'

Note: The title is also the title of a Midnight Oil song

Comfortable Place on the Couch

     James inherited it from his parents. However, as he and Lily had money enough for a proper couch, it had passed to Sirius and Remus when they bought their flat together. It was old and falling upon, but if you looked at it right, it was just worn in and well loved. There were rips and tears in the fabric, and the springs were all uneven and weakened. There was a stain on the back that was not hidden by the cushions, which were in and of themselves less firm than they once had been.

     Sirius knew the couch well, having slept on it for a few nights when Mr. and Mrs. Potter took him in and hadn't gotten their guest bedroom fixed up yet. It had been one of the first impressions of the Potters and their home, the beat up old couch that at least looked more beaten up than he had been, which was saying something. He felt for the old couch, and had snuggled into its cushions to let it know he appreciated what it was. In turn, it had showed him how good and how comfortable old, hurt things could be when people gave them a chance.

     Even if Sirius had let him, which he had not, Remus wouldn't have wanted to fix the old couch. He felt at least as damaged physically as it did. Its rips and tears were like his own scars. Once it, too, had been young and perfect. But the best of things were never perfect. And Remus liked to take comfort in the fact that not everything scarred and hurt needed the same sort of fixing. Sometimes it just needed to be useful.

     The couch was the most comfortable either boy could have imagined. The lumpy but soft cushions made them just sink down into it and never want to get up. The places where it sagged were exactly the right places for it to sag when you sat on it. And when you lay on it, your weight was well distributed as you sank deep into its softness. If it hadn't been for the fact that it was smaller than their bed, they might have returned their mattresses for money and slept solely on the couch.

     As it was, they spent many hours napping or playing or simply sitting on it. It was where Sirius collapsed after a long day at work, and where Remus sat to do his correspondences or reading. It was where they slept when both were too tired and too comfortable to get to bed. It was where they made love when they couldn't make it all the way over to the bed.

     It was where they lay now, in their usual position, as their usual position was one of the few that let them both lie comfortably upon the couch. Sirius lay on his back, crammed up against the side of the couch, with his head on one of the cushions as a pillow. Remus lay on his side, facing Sirius and the back of the couch, using Sirius' chest as a pillow, being held by the black-haired man so he would not fall off. Though, this time, Sirius was also holding him to keep Remus' warmth as close to him as possible. The flat was relatively chilly, even with all the warming spells they performed to keep the cold out. They were snuggled under their only comforter, but it was easily large enough to cover them both with room to spare.

     "Better?" Remus asked, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek along with the question.

     "A bit," he replied, rubbing at the side of his nose with one finger, then rubbing his whole nose straight on with his whole palm. "I'd be great if my nose could stop tickling for just a few minutes. It's making me nuts."

     Rather than attempt to explain to Sirius that he was already a bit nuts, Remus just nodded sympathetically. "You want me to get you another handkerchief?"

     Sirius shook his head strongly. "Want you here to keep me warm."

     Remus reached up and felt his forehead for fever. Sirius could certainly have one, but it was hard to tell when the room was so cold. "All right," Remus agreed, and snuggled closer. "Just warn me when you have to sneeze so I can--"

     Remus was cut off by Sirius sneezing. Strong, forceful, and wet. Remus cringed and dragged a sleeve over his face. "Damnit, Siri." Behind his anger, however, he was smiling a little.

     Sirius grinned and sniffed hard. "Sorry. Nose tickled. What was it you were saying?" He sounded stuffier now, as though needing to blow his nose.

     "Nothing," Remus said, shaking his head. They'd been giving this cold back and forth to each other for a couple of weeks, so long really that Remus couldn't quite recall who had come down with it first. Though they had spent a few days in bed together sniffling and sharing tissues, there hadn't been much overlap, thankfully. They took turns getting the sneezes, and dragging the blanket over to the comfortable couch to curl up for naps. And they took turns making tea and soup and snuggling the other until well again. They figured they really should just back off for a few days, but they hadn't been able to keep themselves from snogging, let alone going completely without contact.

     Pulling himself out from beneath the comforter, Remus rose from the couch. Sirius pouted. "But I am going to go get you a handkerchief. Or a box of tissues. Got a preference?"

     Sirius rubbed two fingers under his nose, looking up rather innocently. "Hanky if we've got 'em. My nose is kinda sore."

     Remus headed to their bedroom, sitting down on the edge of their rather bare bed while he went through the dresser drawer, finally locating a clean handkerchief. He could hear Sirius coughing and snuffling in the other room from congestion. And he could hear the occasional sneezes as well. It seemed that rainstorm had indeed made his cold worse. Remus could have sworn he'd been on his way towards recovery. But here he was sneezing again like it was day one of the cold. "Hey, is it possible to catch a cold on top of another... cold...?" Remus stopped speaking again, finding that in his absence, Sirius had curled up into a ball on one side of the couch and had fallen asleep.

     With a sigh, Remus sat down on the other side and covered himself with the extra part of the comforter. He tucked the handkerchief into his pocket for future use. They were going out on another mission for the Order tonight and it would probably still be raining if their luck was still on the downward spiral it had started out on.

     Remus put a hand on Sirius' back to let the sleeping man know he was there. Then he bent his arm and rested it on the arm of the couch, leaning his head against his palm. He thought Sirius had an excellent idea about catching up on sleep. They'd need all they could get for the mission, and Remus had been up half the night fetching one thing or another for a sniffley Sirius. The couch seemed to pull him in and hold him there amongst the squishy cushions. Caught in complete comfort, Remus fell asleep beside Sirius.