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Summary for this chapter: A little recap, mixed feelings, and *gasp* Sirius and Remus kiss!

Interlude

Remus sighed as he got ready for bed later that night. He still couldn't believe the spell had worked so well. They now had about twenty-four hours to figure out what had happened until Tonks faded out. Since it had been around five p.m when she had been summoned they still had plenty of time in everybody's opinion. After all the conversations and revelations they had decided to call it a night and piece more things together tomorrow.

At around ten when James and Lily had offered to let Tonks stay with them things had gotten a little awkward in Remus' opinion. Remus didn't know why he was hesitant to stay with her overnight, but hadn't wanted to be rude. He saw Tonks get ready to protest and looked away, not wanting to accidentally convey some wrong message. He had been surprised when she had cut off her protests and answered politely.

At Remus' inner gawking she had thanked them, and said that she was tired. Remus tried to stay calm as she gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek. He had pulled himself together enough to nod when she had suggested a meeting time and left.

Now being all alone with his thoughts Remus cursed himself for his stupidness. Even though he felt something when he had seen her it hadn't been the heart-warming love from before they had died. He thought about the kiss and only felt a fond feeling for this woman who was so much like a sister. Remus shook his head. He shouldn't be thinking about his wife like a sister. That was just strange. He tried to clear his thoughts and go to sleep, but instead he just felt more awake and uncomfortable. Thoughts flew through his head and one stopped at the forefront of his mind.

'What if I never really loved her? What if I was just trying to make up for something I felt I could never have?' he halted his thoughts, startled, when he heard Sirius moving around.

Remus winced at the thought. He hadn't meant to think that, but now that he had it wouldn't go away. He hated that question; it brought too many other uncomfortable questions that he didn't want to answer. He knew it would be futile to try not to think about it because that would only make it more prominent.

When he thought about it he realized he had been looking at Sirius more often lately. He usually noticed he was staring before too long, but sometimes he lost track of time and came back to reality to see Sirius staring back. When this happened he would look away quickly and begin doing something else, pretending nothing happened.

Remus was startled by a knock on the door. "Moony, you still awake?" Sirius asked through the door.

"Speak of the devil," Remus muttered and called, "Yes, I'm still awake. You can come in"

Sirius opened the door and then closed it again it most of the way. "Hey," he said and sat on the bed while Remus re-situated himself.

"Hey, yourself." Remus replied awkwardly. 'What do you do when the object of your thoughts comes to see you?' he wondered and said aloud, "What are you still doing up"

Sirius raised an eyebrow and looked at the clock, "It's not that late," he looked back at Remus, "Actually I wanted to talk to you about today. You seemed a little out of sorts," he said, sounding concerned.

Remus inwardly flinched. He had been hoping to avoid this subject. "What about today?" he asked, trying to sound normal.

"Everything." Sirius replied bluntly. "You've been edgy since Tonks got here. What's stranger is that you haven't approached her once. Aren't you two supposed to be married? And with a kid to boot? I just can't see it"

"It's complicated." Remus said softly and sighed when Sirius remained silent and sent him a look.

"I'm not even sure how I feel about her anymore. This feels more like my sister than my wife, which is kind of creepy in an incestual sort of way. The only thing I'm really sure of right now is that it's different from what it was before." he paused and tilted his head to the side, thinking, "It's like my feelings about you and her have kind of swapped," he muttered.

As soon has he realized he had said the last part out loud Remus gasped and clasped his hands over his mouth. As Sirius looked him over, Remus wished that ,since he couldn't curl into a ball and die, (seeing as he was already dead), that he could sink through the floor instead.

Remus became less mortified and more uncomfortable as an evil smirk appeared on Sirius's face.

"Aww, Moony! I had no idea that you had a crush on me!"

"I never said it was a crush," Remus grumbled, but stopped when Sirius began chuckling.

"Not that I can blame you. Come one, look at me! You can't even tell I was in Azkaban for thirteen years." he smiled brightly at Remus, "Besides, lucky for you, I return the sentiments"

Remus began to panic as Sirius backed him into the headboard. "Wait-what do you mean?! Return?" Remus babbled as Sirius succeeded trapping him. Remus was between Sirius' arms, leaning against the headboard.

From his position straddling Remus, Sirius silenced his babbling with a finger to his lips. "Yep," was all he said before ye removed his hand and leaned forward.

Remus stifled a yelp as Sirius' lips met his softly. The kiss was over quickly, as Sirius didn't want to spook him. Sirius pulled back a little, "That wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked.

"I guess not," Remus said timidly, still shocked but warming up to the idea of kissing his long-time friend.

"Good, because I do believe I'm falling for you Moony," Sirius whispered and leaned in for another kiss, not giving the other man time to think about what he had just said.

This time Remus was prepared when their lips touched, and responded by deepening the kiss. Sirius approved by changing the angle for better access and probing at Remus's mouth with his tongue. Remus opened his mouth and moaned into the kiss. They continued their kiss until they decided to get some air.

When they pulled apart Sirius grinned at Remus's slightly glassy-eyed look though he knew he might look similar. Sirius thought this was a good time to ask a question.

"So...can I stay in here tonight?" he asked. With his tone of voice Remus could tell there was some sort of innuendo in there somewhere.

"Padfoot, you horny dog!" Remus exclaimed and his friend laughed, swiftly changing into a dog and back, barking once.

"Please can I stay?" he asked pitifully, using puppy dog eyes aided by the fact he had been a dog less than a minute ago.

Remus sighed, defeated. "Fine, you can stay- but no groping me in my sleep. Or when I'm awake," he added quickly seeing a shifty look in the other man's eyes.

"You ruin all my fun," Sirius pouted, "I'm just going to go to sleep now. No more fun for you!" he gave Remus one more pitiful look, ruined by a wink, and got under the covers. He then snagged Remus and held him to him like a favorite stuffed animal. "G'night Moony"

"'Night, Padfoot," Remus said quietly and waved the lamp off. He then fell asleep with the only light being a tiny sliver from the slightly open door.

--in the hallway-

James and Lily Potter were in shock. They moved quickly and silently to the living room and started whispering.

"Did you see that?" asked James anxiously.

"How could I not have? They were all over each other!" Lily exclaimed, trying hard to keep her voice down.

"I know they're dogs, but still..." James trailed off at the glare Lily gave him. He cleared his throat, "Anyway, what are we going to do about this?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but we need to do everything we can to keep this from Tonks," Lily said and James agreed.

They left soon after, both thinking that they had a lot to talk about. They were both still in shock. Who would've thought that they had been thrown into this situation all because of a forgotten pen?

-- -- --

End chapter 7 (Oooh, what now?)
p.s. That was my first ever written kissing scene! I think I did all right, but am still kinda uncertain about it. Oh well, whatever works, and that seemed to.