AN:
all of this chapter will be Remus' perspective
Remus didn't know why he felt the need to say the words, but they had slipped out. It seemed to be a common occurrence when he was around her.
He had hoped she hadn't heard it, but hearing her heart pace increase slightly, told him that she had.
However, Aurora didn't seem like she was going to respond. She just carried on reading.
They sat in silence for a few minutes—him playing the with the top of her socks and her trying to act as if she wasn't ticklish, and that it wasn't affecting her in any way.
Of course, their peace was disturbed when James entered the house noisily, muttering something along the lines of 'stupid, how could I forget the toes'. It was something Remus felt he didn't need the answer to.
"Hi Moony." James said, a sad tilt in his voice as he sat down on a sofa.
"What's got you so sad?" Aurora asked for him, peering up from her book.
Dramatically, James sighed, sinking further into his seat so he was practically falling off. "I didn't get to see the zoo."
"I'm sure there will be plenty of other chances for you to see animals, Prongs." Remus told his friend, but James only replied with a glare.
"Why can't I be unemployed," He grumbled. "Then I could go to the zoo anytime I want."
"But who will support Remus and me in our old age? Our brilliant minds are not built for work." Aurora joked.
When Aurora spoke about them growing old together, Remus' heart, he's pretty sure, skipped a beat.
"I'm sure Lily can work for all three of us. A brilliant woman she is," James' face lit up at the mention of Lily, something that hadn't changed for over 10 years. "Speaking of my beautiful wife and mother of my child and all future children we may have." He picked himself up off of the sofa and pranced into the kitchen.
James was more like a deer than he thought.
They settled back down into their silence, and sadly, it only lasted like that for a few seconds.
"Remus!" Lily shouted, walking out of the kitchen.
"Yeah?" He asked, tilting his head back so it was resting on the top of the sofa, looking up at the redhead.
"Come on, you're cooking dinner." Lily had taken up trying to teach him to cook.
It was not going well.
"Wait. You need to be supervised? To cook?" Aurora asked, grinning. "How long has this been going on?"
Remus sighed, and was going to answer, but Lily interrupted him.
"Ever since we left Hogwarts. Can't trust him by himself near a kitchen."
Aurora laughed. "I have to see this."
Aurora stood up, and Remus' lap felt empty. Before she walked into the kitchen though, she offered a hand to him, and he took it.
She pulled on his hand with a bit more force than necessary, bringing him on to his feet. He had expected her to let go of his hand, but she held on, much like she had earlier by Sirius' bike. Remus wasn't sure if she noticed either times, but he didn't say anything—and acted as if he didn't notice either.
"What are you making?" She asked as they stepped into the kitchen, removing her hand from his to re-tie her hair back into a plait.
"Lasagna," Lily said, and Remus groaned. "What's wrong with lasagna?"
"There's just so many steps," He complained, not wanting to spend so long in the kitchen.
He walked around the island to where Lily was standing, half watching Aurora as she slid into one of the stools. "Are you sure you want to be that close?"
"You can't be that bad." She shrugged.
"Oh no. I am," He snorted. "However bad you're thinking, multiply it by 10,"
"So, like, burning down the building bad?"
"Worse," Lily cut in. "Somehow he managed to score high enough in his OWLs for Potions to take it for NEWTs, and by then he had taken Potions for five years, right? So we all thought he would be fine," Lily told the very much extended—in Remus' opinion—story whilst bringing ingredients out of the fridge and setting them in front of him. "He was not fine. At all. Nearly blew up the dungeons if Sirius didn't react fast enough to replace whatever he was about to chuck in."
"Very impressive," Aurora smirked. "I'm sure you will do just fine."
Remus sent a glare her way, and she smiled sweetly—acting all innocent as if she hadn't said anything.
"Where did James go?" Aurora asked after a few minutes of silence, getting bored of watching them stir something in a pot.
"He went up to see Harry with Regulus." Lily told her.
Aurora hummed, and continued looking around the room. "Bored?" Remus asked, wanting her to say no.
"Not at all."
Remus was thankful she wasn't. He didn't really want her to leave the room.
They continued like that for a while, Lily telling him what to do, him occasionally fucking it up, and Aurora asking questions like 'what's your favourite animal' and then guessing what it was before they answered.
"What's your favourite book?" She chose to ask as Lily was putting the lasagna into the oven.
"Why books?" Remus countered, before she could answer her own question.
"You were reading yesterday," She stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And you read all the time at school. So I assumed you had one."
"Watching me, were you?"
"Only all the time," She said playfully. "My favourite hobby."
"Don't know where you would find the time for that, you were always in the library."
"Watching me, were you?" She parroted.
He hadn't really been watching her. He just noticed that she was in the library more than he was, which was a lot. But that didn't stop the blush crawling up his neck.
Lily, who had been watching the interaction, butted in. "You're free to go, Remus."
Remus smiled at Lily, happy to be finished with cooking, and thankful he still had all of his fingers. "Come on." He said to Aurora, grabbing her hand and dragging her out of the room.
"Where are we going?" She asked, but didn't make any move to stop him from pulling her along.
Remus walked up the stairs, reluctantly letting go of her hand, and entered his room.
"And we're in your room because...?" Aurora asked, hesitantly stepping in, leaving the door open.
"You wanted to know my favourite book," He told her. "I figured I'd just show you." He gestured towards the overflowing bookcase.
Aurora approached slowly, inspecting the shelves. "You have Alice in Wonderland?" Her face lit up when she saw the book and picked it up. "I loved this book as a kid."
"Sure it was just as a kid?" He joked.
Aurora glanced up at him and smiled, putting the book back in its place. "Which one's your favourite then?"
Remus moved to stand beside her, facing the books. He looked at the rows, searching for it, and plucked it out when he found it. "This one."
"A romantic, are you?" She looked at the book—Pride and Prejudice—in his hands, taking it into her own.
Remus didn't bother answering, as she opened the book.
"You were reading this last night," Aurora said. "How many times have you read it?"
That earned a small chuckle from him, as he knew it was over 50. "Too many,"
She handed the book back over to him, and he was now aware of how close they had been standing, only centimetres apart. "Why do you like it so much?"
She had tilted her head to meet his eyes. "My mum loves it, and I guess now I do."
Aurora hummed, turning away, back to the shelves. "But still, unrequited love..." She trailed off.
"Only temporarily." Remus reminded her.
"How could I forget her hatred for him was 'only temporarily'." She said playfully.
A cough from the doorway interrupted their conversation and Remus turned to see who it was, seeing that it was James grinning.
"Yes Prongs?" Remus asked, throwing the book on to his bed.
"Did I interrupt anything?" He wiggled his eyebrows up and down. Remus glared at him until he continued with the reason about why he was there. "Dinner's ready, come on love bugs!"
AN:
hahah i only listened to taylor swift whilst writing this (and irritated my family with my god awful singing but oh well)