Life After Death Part III: Life

Remus reaches out and gently brushes the snow from Sirius headstone in the war memorial graveyard. He squats awkwardly in front of the stone, feeling even more foolish by the fact that he knows Sirius’ body really isn’t even there. Sirius is the last of a long line of graves Remus has visited today and he’s tired and cold. A little distance away George Weasley stands in front of another stone, a dark outline against the gray sky and snow. Remus watches as George kneels down, his mouth moving and Remus knows he’s talking to his twin. Remus shivers and stuffs his hands in his pockets. He wonders if he believes in the after life, that the dead can hear them.
“Where ever you are I hope your looking after Fred”
He tells the air next to the stone.
“Oh what am I saying, I hope Fred’s keeping an eye on you, more like.”
For a moment he gets a mental image of Sirius, Fred, James, Lily and Tonks sitting around sharing a drink, swapping embarrassing stories about him, and smiles. He touches the stone again tracing the name.
“I love you and I miss you”
He stays there for a moment hand just resting on the stone before standing slowly and walking over to where George is kneeling in the snow. George’s shoulders are shaking and Remus realizes he’s crying. He waits quietly until George stands, face red, snuffling slightly, before Remus hugs him.
“Come on lets go home”
George nods and Remus roots around in his pocket for the port key they’re using. Once home in the apartment over George’s shop Remus makes them tea and searches for the tin of biscuits he just purchased, while George sniffs and scrubs at his face.
“It’s almost Christmas are you planning on going to your Mother’s?”
George nods, and sighs
“Yeah, it’ll be good to see everyone again although Mum always does this memorial thing for all the people we lost during the war . . .Fred and all”
A thought seems to occur to him and he cranes around so he can look at Remus.
“You’re coming with, right?”
Remus looks at him
“I wasn’t going to assume I’d been invited but if you want, I think Christmas with your family would be nice.”
“Good”
George sighs
“It’d be horrible to try and slog through without you, besides I think Ginny’s going to be cooking most of dinner, and I love my little sister dearly but she’s a nightmare in the kitchen. We’ll be lucky if there’s one thing that’s turns out edible of the lot”
“Your making it sound more and more inviting”
Remus remarks dryly handing George a cup and sitting down.
“Will Ron be there?”
“Probably”
George sips his tea
“Hey you don’t think he’ll bring Draco do you?”
He shakes his head
“I still can’t believe it Ron and Draco. I mean Draco Malfoy of all people. What’s Ron thinking?”
“You liked Draco”
Remus points out.
“In fact you intruded the two, so this is partly your doing”
George glares at him.
“Besides”
Remus continues on
“People change drastically from how they were in school, thank Merlin. I mean when we where in school the trouble we used to get into doesn’t bares thinking about and James, Harry’s Dad, could sometimes have a mean streak almost as big as Draco’s ”
He reaches across to George’s hand
“People change, it’s called growing up and maturing”
“Bah maturing, never heard of it”
George smiles, sounding more like his old self
“Highly over rated that, me, I’ve always been perfect”
Remus swats at him and George ducks grinning.
“I got to go get some work done”
George stands and heads for his workshop.
“Has Ron told your parents yet?”
Remus leans against the doorway.
“About Draco? I don’t think so, but if he brings him they’ll know they’re together”
Remus shrugs
“They don’t make that assumption about us.”
“Yeah they did, but we’re different, we’re not together”
George kept on tinkering with something in a test tube his back to Remus. Everything in Remus’ head stops, and he make an instant decision.
“Would you like us to be together?”
Remus moves into the room until he is standing behind George. George turns to face Remus, and meets his eyes squarely.
“I’m not him. I’m not Sirius”
No, Remus thinks, you’re not Sirius, your nothing like him.
“And I’m not Fred”
Remus sits on a workbench facing George.
“So now the question is can you live with that?”
George stares at him for a few minutes, before he’s moving out of his seat and across to take Remus’ face in his hands and kiss him. The kiss is deep and intense and Remus feels heat shoot straight through his body. He’s standing without knowing quite how he got there, moving his hands up George’s body, to tangle in his hair and draw him closer. George’s hands are around his waist crushing their bodies together. They break and stare at each other breathing hard, and Remus pushes George backwards kissing him even harder. There’s a crash as things on the workbench go over, and Remus’ hands slide down George’s chest, while George’s hands rake up Remus’ back, so hard Remus’ thinks there will probably be marks from George’s nails even through his sweater. Remus’ growls softly and George bites at his lips and finally, finally they pull back.
“I don’t know if I can live with it or not”
George’s voice is hoarse and he’s trying to catch his breath.
“But I’d like to try”
Remus nods
“Well at least you’re being honest. And I care about you George, more then I have for anyone in very, very long time. We’ve both lost a lot, but I want something, something about you, just about you.”
He curls his arms around George’s waist drawing him close, feeling the heat coming off the younger man’s body, the scent of him.
“And is there any reason you can think of why we shouldn’t be having sex right now?”
George shakes his head, his hand sliding up to cup Remus’ neck pulling him close. When he next speaks they’re so close he’s more breathing the words into Remus’ mouth.
“Quite frankly I’ve been waiting to kiss you since offering you tea when you bought that spoon in the shop.”
Remus smiles slightly and closes the distances between them.