Morning Air

By silly sooze

“WRAHchuh!”

A loud, bark-like sneeze jerked Remus from his dream, so suddenly it physically shocked him. He blinked his eyes, looking around wildly, and sighing in content as soon as he saw where he was.

He lay in the arms of Sirius Black, with his back against his front, and a shudder racking that lean, slender body behind him from the force of the sneeze, shook him quite awake.

“Huh… oh, morning, Sirius…”

“HETSCHuh!” A deep sniff and a frustrated growl were the only answers Remus got. Sirius obviously wasn't quite awake yet, despite the sneezing. Remus Lupin smiled, a slow, lazy smile of pure pleasure brought on by just lying here, in a comfy state of half-awakeness on what seemed to be a beautifully bright morning, spooned by the man he loved. A man whose every feature was adorable, even his sneezes.

“Moony, you jerk…” Ah, he was awake now. “Did you leave that bloody window open last night?” Remus laughed softly, and hummed. “Mmm. Think I did. Feels good, the morning air.” Then something suddenly dawned on him. “Oh, I am sorry. Pollen troubling you?”

Growl. The man obviously wasn't in too good a mood.

Remus couldn't help it, he did feel sorry for Sirius – but those growls, the scratchy voice, and the unrestrained sniffles… man, Sirius turned him on.

“ESHH!” Still lying with his back to him, Remus felt the sneeze as much as he heard it, Sirius cringing into a comma from the force of it. “WRAHtchhh! HEHTsshh! Hhh-TSHHuh!”

“I'm really sorry I left that window open,” Remus muttered with as much apology in his voice as he could manage through his excitement, turning his face as far towards Sirius's as his neck allowed him. All he saw, though, was a mass of unkempt black hair as Sirius had hidden his face between Remus's shoulder blades, struggling to keep back more sneezes. “I'll go close it if you want.”

“Theresadidea,” Sirius mumbled into his back, so that Remus felt the words resound pleasurably through his ribcage. His arms wouldn't let go, though.

Remus stroked them gently with his fingers, craning his neck to the max again in an attempt to kiss the man's shoulder and whispered “May I climb out of this bed then, for a second?”

“ESSHHuhh! Oh, go ahead.” The arms slipped away and Sirius turned on to his other side, curling up into a ball, folding his hands over his face. “Merlin… what a way to wake up. EhhCHSHH! Hhh-TSCHUH! WRAHHchuh!”

Remus felt guilty for giving his lover such a hard time, but nevertheless he revelled in the sight of him. He stood looking down on Sirius for a second only, then darted to the window and slammed it shut. That problem being solved, he decided it was probably best now to get Sirius something to take, so that he would at least be able to stop sneezing long enough for receiving a good-morning kiss and hug.

“Hey, Padfoot, old sneezynose,” he said very softly when he sat down on Sirius' side of the bed with a cup of soothing potion and some tissues. “Open your eyes and guzzle this down.”

The man in the bed did as he was told, sitting up as he rubbed two fists into his eyes. “Blimey, Remus. Sorry for crabbing at you. It just hit me square between the eyes as I woke up, all those bloody pollens in that good-feeling morning air of yours…” He caught the proffered cup between his hands and swallowed the contents down in one gulp. Then he took some of the tissues, folded them over his nose and turned half away from Remus as he blew strongly into them. “Ahh. Better.”

“Yeah?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.”

“Good, come here then.” And Remus caught his lover's body in a bear hug which made them both tumble flat down onto the mattress. As Sirius pushed the strands of black hair dangling before his eyes aside, Remus saw a brilliant, warm smile spread over his handsome features.

“Well, Moony,” he said in his husky voice. “I wish you a good morning.”

Remus felt himself melt. “Same to you,” he breathed, then kissed him with passion.

---

It was no good, Remus Lupin sighed to himself as he leaned back and stretched his arms. The sun was way too bright to get any of this reading done. He could go and sit inside, of course; but the cabin would be stiflingly hot at this time of the day, and - Remus felt himself grow just as hot at the mere thought of it - Sirius was inside, and he was the reason why Remus had gone to sit out in the first place.

For even though his lover had been all right most of the morning, shortly after the noon hour the allergy had set back in with a vengeance. Sniffling and sneezing, with tears rolling down his cheeks, Sirius had retired into the bedroom and hadn't come out since.

Remus had gone in to check on him once or twice, but he wasn't able to do much more than offer blessings and provide Sirius with tissues, which he had conscientiously done. It felt so unsatisfying to watch his beloved Padfoot suffer, however, that in the end he'd decided to just leave him in peace for a while.

So here he sat now, in the middle of the little grassy patch that was the back garden of their cabin, catching up on some of the literature on his favourite subject, Defense Against The Dark Arts. He knew he'd have to teach at Hogwarts after summer - a dream he'd had for a long time coming true. He was looking forward to it like anything and wanted dearly to make a good impression on the students and the teachers. In short, he had a lot of work to do.

If only there hadn't been this major distraction.

Even here, outside the house, he could hear Sirius battle against the evil pollens with outbursts of muffled-sounding, though unrestrained, sneezes.

"HetSSCHUHH! Ahh… ahhTSHUSHAAH! Hehh… HhTCHUHH! ETSHUHH! HIHtssh!"

Well, honestly. This was too much.

With a resolute snap Remus shut his book and stood up, dropping the ancient volume carelessly onto the grass, and he ran into the house, straight to the bathroom where he kept a range of anti-allergy potions. He wondered a little why Sirius hadn't bothered to take any - or at least, so it appeared - for he knew some of them to be quite effective in at least quelling the symptoms of hay fever.

As soon as he opened the cupboard, however, it became clear why Sirius hadn't taken anything. All Remus found on the bottom shelf were empty bottles. With a pang of guilt he realized that he'd used the last bit this very morning to make his lover feel better; he should've saved it for now, as Sirius seemed much worse than when he'd woken up.

So what to do now? Maybe he could take some Floo powder to a Diagon Alley apothecary's. But that would take quite some time and he didn't like to leave Sirius alone for long.

Remus shrugged. All he could do now was go and check how bad Sirius really was. Try to offer some comfort. And see that he had enough tissues of course, Remus thought, smiling wryly.

When he came into the little bedroom, Remus wasn't half startled by what he saw. His Padfoot, his lean, sexy lover, was sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands, looking weary and miserable. He was sniffling wetly through a stuffy nose, rubbing it angrily with his knuckles - no more tissues, apparently - and as Remus watched, spot-bound, he saw Sirius' body tense up, his shoulders hunched, and his head slightly tilted back as he waited for the sneeze to come out, coaxing it out with gasping breaths. "Huh… hh… huhh… HEEAHHtssschuhh!" He fell forward with the force of the sneeze, shaking all over. Hunched into a little ball, he kept sneezing, shivering uncontrollably with each sneeze "HUHtsssh! WRAHHtschuh! HhTSSH! Etschhuh! HEATSSH! Ohh…"

Remus couldn't stand it any longer. With two long strides he stood by the bed and sat down next to Sirius, taking his sneeze-racked body into a strong and loving hug.

"Hey, Padfoot," he murmured into Sirius' hair as the other man relaxed into his embrace and hid his face in Remus' shoulder with a sigh, exhausted from the sneeze attack.

"How come you're so bad today, Pads?"

A faint shrug. Remus held him tighter, stroking his back. "You don't know?"

"Tired, I guess." The scratchy growling voice was so typically his lover's that Remus felt a slight shiver of pleasure all down his spine at hearing it, despite his sincere concern and sympathy. "Too much monkey business. Too little sleep. Hell, I don't know. The sodding season."

He lifted his head from Remus' shoulder, looking at him through the tangled strands of black hair that hung down in front of his face. His great, dark, miserable-looking puppy eyes were shimmering with tears. Sneeze-tears, Remus guessed - Sirius Black was too tough to cry over something unimportant like hay fever, wasn't he?

He bit his lip. The pleading look in Sirius' eyes was melting his heart like a well-aimed Steam Spell. If there were anything I could do for you, Padfoot, anything at all, I'd do it right now. And at the same time he said those words aloud.

Sirius smiled faintly. "I know, Moony. Thanks. But frankly I haven't a sodding idea what you could do. We're all out of your wonder potions." He couldn't say more, for his nose started to twitch and a sneeze rushed out as he swiftly covered his face with his hands, "HEITSCHUHH!"

"I could take Floo powder to Diagon Alley and get some more," Remus pointed out, voicing the idea he'd had outside, although he already knew what Sirius' reaction would be.

"No." The black-haired man shook his head and rubbed his nose. "No way, Moony. Too much trouble. You don't have to go out of your way for me. Come on, man, you've got better things to do. How many books d'you have to read again? A hundred?"

Remus sighed and with careful fingers he stroked some of the hair out of Sirius' face. "You're so bloody stubborn, Padfoot. D'you think I'd rather let you suffer than take a bit of effort? You know better than that."

"Well, I'm not - huhh…" Sirius took a deep, hitching breath, wriggling his nose. A glassy, pre-sneeze look spread over his face as he turned his face away again. "Huhh-uhh… sniff… dammit, it's gone. I'm not suffering, Moony. I'm just uncomfortable. It'll be all right."

"You've been inside all day and still all you do is sneeze," Remus persisted. "I call that more than

uncomfortable.""Hey, I'll l-l-live, you know…" Even as he spoke, his face scrunched up and he had barely time to turn his face away before he sneezed again, a harsh bark of a sneeze "WRAHCHAAH!" Sniffing repeatedly, he rubbed his nose with his fingers. "Ahh, that wasn't half bothering me."

Without a word Remus reached out for a tissue and handed it to his companion. He couldn't look at that stubborn dog's face - Sirius was a fool and an idiot, and too damn attractive for the state he was in. Remus looked away ins Blaue hinein, blinking his eyes, still holding loosely on to his lover's body, trying to overcome his confusion.

He was startled by a hand on his cheek and a pair of dark, red-rimmed eyes boring deeply into his.

"Moony," Sirius said in a soft, tender voice, looking at him intently. "It's okay, Moony. Honestly it is. Of course I feel like hell, but I also know it'll be over soon. It's always that way. And the last thing I want is to be without you for hours as you go all the way up to bloody London and back. Just stay with me, and hold me, and get me tissues…" he sniffed and grinned suddenly "…and I won't be miserable at all."

Remus swallowed. His throat felt thick and dry and his insides were swimming in a pool of hot and bubbling

liquid."Really?"

"Really."

"So all you want me to do…"

"…is stay with me," Sirius finished, nodding.

For a minute or so they sat looking at each other.

"Then can I do now what I've been wanting to do all day?" Remus asked timidly, but with unmistakable laughter in his voice.

"What's that?" Sirius tilted his head to the side, giving Remus his irresistible puppy look.

"This," Remus whispered almost soundlessly as he leaned over and kissed his wonderful, gorgeous, sneezy-nosed Padfoot on the mouth with glorious intensity.