yellow (remus lupin.)

eleven.

"Remus, what's wrong?" Cara asked gently, her voice soundtracked by the crackling fire.

"I took a fall. Honestly Cara, I'm feeling fine." His body betrayed him as he moved his head too quickly to gaze at her, causing him to wince.

As he watched her stare off vacantly in to the flames of the fire, he couldn't help but notice how downcast she looked. It looked as though a weight was physically sitting on her shoulders and causing her to slump, and the firey sparkle in her grey eyes had simmered to nothing but an ember.

"How are you in yourself?" He asked her, wanting nothing more than to run over and engulf her in a hug.

"Fine." She nodded with a forced smile, catching his stare.

She looked as though she was made of glass, thin glass that could shatter at any wrong moment.

"No you're not."

In just three words, Remus had found Cara's weak spot. She could lie and lie about how she was feeling and how she really wasn't about to cry, but the second someone asked if she was okay she would burst in to tears. In the most mortifying moment of her existence, tears began to slide down her cheeks as she sat in the living room of her professor's office.

"Just been a stressful week that's all. A bit homesick." She lied again, wiping her tears away before he could notice as her voice cracked.

Against his body's wishes, Remus heaved himself up off his seat slowly, making sure not to reopen any of the gashes he had given himself the other night during a particularly rough full moon. He practically staggered over to the large couch, before collapsing down next to her.

"Come here." He whispered, letting her fall into his side as she cried.

As embarrassing as she found crying in front of someone way, there was a sweet comfort in having someone to cry on. His shirt faintly smelt of coffee, and she could already sense the permanent aura of chocolate he carried around with him. She felt him press a delicate kiss to the top of her head, the scent of her peach shampoo absorbing him.

"I've got mascara on your shirt." She mumbled, flicking at it with her nails as she half laid on his chest.

"It'll come out in the wash." He chuckled, the vibration rippling through his body as his grimaced once again.

"What happened to you? It doesn't seem like a normal fall, it's more like a fight?" She asked, looking up into his battered face. "If you were scrapping down at the Leaky Cauldron on Friday night I won't tell Dumbledore."

Even with her tear stained face and somber eyes, she was still so utterly beautiful as he watched her give him a cheeky smile.

"I wish it was a fight, it would be far less embarrassing than the truth." He told her, his happiness fading as the real reason he was so beaten up flashed across his brain again.

"You can tell me you know. I'm not a grass." She said, a glimpse of hope in her eye that perhaps he would confide in her.

Just like the last time, Remus's body overtook just mind as he leant down and brushed his lips against hers. It was probably just to shut her up so that she wouldn't ask any further, but god had he been missing the feeling of kissing her. To his surprise, he felt her cup his right cheek — the one with the least amount of damage — as she kissed him harder. The skin underneath the touch of her elegantly manicured yet startling cold hand began to burn as they melted into each other.

A sudden urge of confidence washed over Cara, and she shifted herself so that she was pretty much sat on his lap. His hands naturally found their way to her waist as their kiss became deeper by the second. She had one hand on his cheek and the other laced into his sandy hair, giving it a gentle pull as he hummed into her mouth. In the split second his eyes fluttered open, he quickly slid her off his lap and back into his seat once he had caught a glimpse of his forearm.

"Oh my god, Remus you're bleeding." She gasped as she saw his now scarlet stained shirt.

"Bollocks." He sighed, undoing the cuff and rolling it up to his elbow, revealing a deep wound that had been reopened. "It's fine, just pass my wand and — "

"This needs more than a fucking spell Remus!" She cried, launching herself off the sofa. "Wait there."

Remus sat on the sofa like a told off child, annoyed at himself that he had ruined the moment. He could still feel her on his lips, and couldn't even bring himself to think about how pink his cheeks would be at that moment.

Cara had quickly dismissed the last few minutes, pushing them aside in her brain as she held a spare flannel she found in his bathroom under the warm water, squeezing out the excess before running down the steps to see him.

"Did you fall into a box of kitchen knives or something?" She exclaimed, returning to her previous seat and pressing the cloth to his cut.

The pain in his face was evident, and she realised she should probably stop pushing him into telling her what was wrong. Instead she hooked her arm around his neck and pulled him in for another kiss.

"I'm sorry." She told him, knowing how much agony he was in.

"I know you are." He managed to choke out. "Just one thing?"

"What?" Cara asked, wiping away the remaining blood from the wound.

"Stay with me. Just a little longer."

—

a/n: i think this book doubled its reads in like 24 hours??? which is insane?? thank you so much x