Marlene Lupin is plotting her revenge (on_the_wall) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-05-14 22:45:00 |
|
|||
Remus hated his friends. They always seemed to think that doing the things he hated would cheer him up. What did they think a strip club would solve? What did they even like about those places? Okay, well -- there were women taking off their clothes, and maybe James and Sirius liked that kind of thing but he didn't want to see that. He didn't even know who they were, and they probably did all kinds of indecent things when they weren't working in the club that Remus did not want to even know about, let alone think about. Not that he was thinking very clearly at all right now. James and Sirius had seemed insistent on drowning him in alcohol, and Remus wasn't going to complain -- he'd hoped it would help him forget where he was and maybe he'd pass out or even die of alcohol poisoning and he wouldn't have to be forced to endure such an extremely uncomfortable situation. Unfortunately, he had stayed conscious during the entire time, and the only thing getting drunk had brought him was that he could barely stand up on his own and proper speech seemed almost as complicated as trying to understand Sirius' brain. Some things are just impossible. "Home now?" he asked, trying to use as few slurred words as possible, leaning against the wall outside of the strip club for support so he wouldn't fall over on his face, glad to finally be outside and out of the smoke filled room. James was a genius! Of course, Sirius had always known this and whatever genius he had, he'd clearly gotten from Sirius himself. Getting Remus loaded on alcohol and putting scantily dressed women in front of him is asking for trouble and they did so enjoy doing that. Besides, maybe it'd remind him of what he was missing. While he wasn't sure Marlene had ever done a striptease quite like that, he was sure she would take it under advisement if asked. "Awww," He snickered at the slurred tones of a well and truly drunken Remus. "Should we take pity on him? Take him home?" Even as the words came out, he knew they'd do it, but it was nice to wind him up just a little bit more before taking him back to the lady wife, or at least, the house. "I dunno. That dancer with the black skirt and the leg hair seemed to fancy him. Kitty-- Wasn't it?" James asked, slightly tipsy but not half as drunk as Remus. "Seemed a little old for the place really, and when she was right in front of us looked like she was wearing bloomers like my mum, but at least you'd know she was broken in," he said, nudging Remus. He didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "No? Yeah, figured. We'll take you home Moony. Let me duel-apparate you so you don't splinch off your dick and get Marlene really mad at us," he said, putting a hand on Remus's arm. He looked both ways and they were alone so he popped the both of them to Remus and Marlene's house. He drug Moony around to the front porch. "Grab him some flowers," he hissed at Sirius as he half propped his friend up against the wall. "We always said Remus liked it when the skirt was in charge," Sirius nodded solemnly, cursing his friends inability to hold their drink, but also rejoiced in it. It made for such fucking hysterical nights. The fact that he was about to apparate in a less than sober state should have been worrying but apparition in a flat out drunk state was something he was more than used to. He ran, well, staggered up after the other two boys before taking a few steps off the porch. What kind of flowers to get? He just uprooted some dandelions and hoped Marlene wasn't feeling picky tonight. He shoved them into Remus' is hand, "There you go, fair princess, er, prince." "I hate both," Remus mumbled, and then tried again: "I hate you both." The words were still slurred and mumbled, and he was holding onto James' shirt in a death-grip after they apparated, unsteady on his feet. Oh, that hadn't felt good. "Ugh," he groaned, clutching his stomach and feeling ill, and he pushed Sirius' hand away when he tried to make him grab the dandelions, and then tried to use Sirius to keep himself from falling over. "I'm jus' gonna sit now," he announced, and then he let go of both Sirius and James and fell back onto his arse on the porch. "You have to give her flowers," James said, sounding slightly exasperated as he grabbed the dandelions roughly from Sirius and shoved them into Remus's hand before casting a sticking spell. "There." He looked at Remus, looked at the door, knocked hard three times, shouted "It's REEEEEEEEMUS! He's HEEEEEEEERE!" in a loud, and slightly high pitched voice, and then grabbed Sirius's arm and took off running. He needed to make sure Moony got in before they left but he didn't want Marlene to kick both their arses for bringing Remus home in this state. He threw himself into some bushes, which shook every for seconds because he was laughing so damn hard. Sirius tried not to giggle when James shrieked because that would be silly. She's probably realise it was James but this was supposed to be a super secret returning. He didn't exactly want to fight with Marlene (she had a killer punch and was not afraid to use it) so he took off, tripping over his feet. He couldn't help but snort when they fell into the bushes. It wasn't the first time he'd fallen into a bush but at least this time, he wasn't naked. No, now he just wanted to see what Remus did, which hopefully included the words, "I'm dumb." Marlene peeked out the window to see if it actually was Remus out there, even though the wards would have gone off if it was someone they didn't have keyed into them. She rolled her eyes at the state of her husband on the stoop and didn't bother with security codes before pulling the door open -- she figured that if it was someone impersonating Remus, they would've showed up looking happy and shiny and excited to see her and not... drunk as hell. "Did you get lost?" she asked, looking down at him, standing half still inside, half on the porch, hand still on her wand. Marlene didn't wait for him to answer before reaching to help pull Remus to his feet, nudging him through the doorway of the house (and hoping he wouldn't stumble into a wall). She would've had to have been deaf to not hear the rattling in the bushes near the house, and again, given that the wards hadn't gone off, she had a very clear idea as to who was hiding in them. Aiming her wand at the plant, she shot the most powerful itching spell she knew through the bush at James and Sirius before spinning on her heels and entering the house, letting the door slam shut behind her. "Hey! No fair!" James shouted just as the hex hit him. So much for stealth. And now he was itching like crazy. He shifted against the bush so it would help scratch his back. "Probably ought to get back to Lils," he said. "We've got a fucklot of explaining to do." With that he scratched his arm once more and then disappeared from the plant with a soft pop, with Sirius following not seconds after. Remus winced when the door slammed shut, looking down at the dandelions clutched in his hand. Did he get these for Marlene? Why did he get weeds? He tried to drop them, but they seemed to be stuck to his hand. He didn't remember picking them. "Um," he started, trying to think of something to say so they didn't have to stand there in silence. "Um, I think these are for you," he said, holding out the pathetic bouquet of dandelions. "But I can't get 'em off my hand. I'm sorry." Yes. There. That was a complete sentence, wasn't it? It was a start, anyway. Marlene just stared at Remus, eyebrow raised, not exactly sure of what to make of this. "Sorry you were picking my weeds?" she asked, peeling the makeshift bouquet of flowers from his hand and sweeping into the kitchen, pulling a glass from the cupboard and setting the dandelions into them, and then moving that into the middle of the table. "They're pretty weeds though. Thank you," she said as she returned, leaning against the wall. "You should sit down. I'll make tea." He nodded slowly, and he carefully stumbled closer to the table, grabbing the back of one of the chairs. With the meticulousness that one would apply to handling fragile artifacts or placing the last domino down in a maze, he pulled the chair away from the table and carefully sat down, making sure he didn't miss the seat. "Tea would be good," he said, looking up at her as she stood against the wall -- which was likely the first time he's really looked at her since after the full moon. He should say something, he knew he should... but the alcohol was making it really, really hard for him to think straight. "Uh... I think you're really pretty," he said, instantly wincing at his choice of words. He sounded like an idiot. "I think you're really drunk," Marlene replied almost instinctively. She'd rarely believed it when people would tell her that she was even before the war started. And now? They had mirrors in the house; she knew what she looked like. "I'll get some cheese and crackers too; that'll probably help sober you up a bit until the tea is ready." She dug through the fridge, through the cabinets, trying to figure out what in the world she should say to him. "You and the guys have fun?" Maybe he wouldn't have to say anything at all. Maybe Remus could just pretend as if nothing had happened, and they'd both just slip back into the life they'd had before... all of that happened. He didn't think it would be that easy. "No," he groaned, resting his head down on the table. "I guess they did but I hate strip clubs and I don't know why they think dragging me to one is going to make me feel better." He was babbling, even though he knew he probably shouldn't admit to Marlene that he'd just come home from a strip club but for some reason his mouth kept going even though his brain was telling him to stop. Well that was just fantastic. James and Sirius were taking Remus to strip clubs. That was sure to make him want to come home to his wife that was practically one gigantic scar. "I don't know why either," she said quietly, her reply likely muffled by the sound of the tea kettle hissing. She pointed her wand at the kettle and hovered it from the stove to the table, filling up the cups with more steadiness than Marlene could have managed had she been holding it with her hands. Once the kettle was back in place and the stove was off, she set her wand on the table and put sugar and honey into her tea, stirring it quietly. "I still love you, you know. I never stopped. Sirius said you thought I did." And suddenly Remus found he couldn't look at her anymore, staring down into his tea, waiting for it to cool before he started to drink any. He reached for the honey and sugar but, unfortunately, didn't quite have his coordination back yet, and most of the sugar ended up on the table rather than in his tea. He decided to wait on the honey. "You shouldn't," he blurted, hating how alcohol made him so damn talkative, as if it somehow removed the filter from his brain to his mouth. "I almost killed you. You should hate me -- I hate me. You have nightmares about me, don't you? Aren't you afraid of me? Why would you love someone you're afraid of?" He wished he would stop asking questions he didn't actually want to hear the answers to. "You didn't almost kill me. They did. Marius and Tabitha did, because they wanted to do it in the way that they knew would hurt you the most. It's what they do for fun and you know that. Hell, they had me thinking you were dead for three days, Remus," she explained, somehow managing to keep her voice calm and even as long as she stayed staring into her cup of tea. "I've been having nightmares for almost two years straight. You know that. We're in the middle of a war, and we've already both lost so much. I'm not afraid of you when you're you, Remus. I never have been and I'm never going to be. And don't hate yourself, bloody hell. That's exactly what they want. We got out of there; stop letting them kill you anyway." "But if I wasn't a werewolf, this wouldn't have happened. If I weren't with you then they couldn't use me against you," Remus said, even though he knew the argument wasn't very sound. They would've just used someone else against her, or just flat out killed her themselves, or any number of any other situations. He knew this. He felt stupid and cowardly for allowing Marius and Pryce to get to him like this. "I'm sorry. I just think about how afraid you were every time I look at you and... that's why it's hard, it's not 'cause of your scars or anything, and... I don't know," he finished, feeling pathetic. "I'm trying not to. I miss being with you." Why did James and Sirius do this to him? He wanted to wait until he could articulate how he felt clearly and without sounding like an idiot before talking to Marlene about all of this. "You'd still be my friend, I'd still try to help... and hell Remus, they used me against you too. You're the one who walked knowingly into a trap to try to help me. We can't just give that up because one bad thing happened, you know? We're okay. We get another chance," she replied, not understanding why this was so hard. If he missed her then what was the problem? "I just... I'm always scared like that. And I hate that and wish I wasn't. I don't wanna die but we're fighting in a war against a bunch of malicious sadistic psychopaths. It's scary. This whole thing is fucking scary," she admitted, pausing to take a sip of her tea. "It's scarier alone. It sounds lame but it's really fucking true; Even though I hate that you were there too I don't want to think about what a mess I would've been if I'd been alone through all that." "I know. I know. It's just sometimes I think everyone would be safer if I'd never --" Remus stopped, as if suddenly remembering his tea, picking the cup up and taking a few large sips. He set the cup back down with a clunk on the table, looking tired. "I guess I just think that if I remove myself from the picture, at least that'd be one less thing for everyone to be afraid of. There's no reason for werewolves to exist. All we do is just -- we just destroy things." He wished he had more alcohol. Maybe it wasn't too late to drink himself into unconsciousness yet so he could get out of this conversation. He started to try and stand up, but then thought better of it, sitting right back down in his chair. "Maybe try to stop thinking of yourself as a werewolf then. You're only one a single night a month. The other three hundred fifty something days out of the year, you're Remus. You'd do anything for your friends and you're an amazing dueler and you stole peacocks with me." Marlene stood up and pushed in her chair before walking across the table and grabbing both of Remus's hands, pulling him up to his feet and slipping gingerly under one of his arms. "You need to sit someplace more comfortable. You're gonna have to walk, though; I'm still too sore to drag you there myself," she said quietly, moving towards the sitting room and taking care to make sure Remus's arm didn't brush up against where her shoulder had been bitten by Tabitha the previous week. She plopped him down onto the nearest sofa and saddled up next to him. Not wanting to give him a chance to fall asleep on her now that he was in a more comfortable environment, she twisted so that she was sitting on her knees, facing Remus directly as she took his face between her hands. "Okay drunky, if you don't remember anything else, I want you to remember that I want you to be here, and I want us to still be us, okay? I don't want to lose you, too." It was a good thing Marlene had made sure that she had his attention, because the sofa was really comfortable, and Remus would've been happy to just fall asleep right then and there. Instead, he focused on Marlene and what she was saying, and he nodded. "Okay. I want us too. I want to be here and I'm really sorry I went to a strip club and that I made you go see Caradoc's mum by yourself, I should've gone, it was the only thing he asked and I didn't even do it and I don't like slags," he finished, realising his apologies ended up getting mixed together somehow, although it had all made perfect sense in his head. "I'm really sorry." "I'm glad you don't like slags," Marlene smiled, kissing him lightly on the forehead before letting her hands fall away from his face. It might not have been an apology that entirely made sense, but at least he was talking to her -- alcohol addled or not. "We can talk about it more once you get some sleep, yeah? And there's still stuff we can do for Doc; he has that flat at the university. I didn't go there. And Mrs. Dearborn told me to stop in anytime. Next time you'll come with. And I guess I'll reconsider getting that job at a strip club to make you pay attention to me, hm?" Remus was nodding again, thinking the sofa was a perfectly acceptable place to sleep, and he managed to kick off one shoe but gave up on the other. "You don't have to take your clothes off to get me to pay attention to you. I don't mind when you do, though. ... I missed you," he said, scooting over closer to her and curling an arm around Marlene's waist. He leaned in to kiss her with alcohol on his breath, then her jaw and her neck, leaning his weight against her... and then he was snoring, fast asleep, his body slumped over with his head on her shoulder against the crook of her neck. Marlene rolled her eyes in amusement, quietly noting "Mr. Boozehound needs a breathmint," before suddenly being very glad that Remus appeared to have passed out, and wouldn't have heard any reference to himself being any sort of canine: an alcoholic one or not. She tried to shift on the couch to get herself comfortable -- this wasn't exactly the best position she could think of to sleep in, especially with his head pressing against her shoulder -- and finally ended up pushing Remus's body up with both her arms and repositioning him so that he would be lying down across her lap, a throwpillow resting between Remus's head and her thighs. Marlene reached to curl her fingers around a blanket that was draped across the back of the sofa and with a gentle tug brought it across his body. After a few minutes of twisting on the couch to try to get herself comfortable as well without disturbing her snoring husband (not that she was too worried - Remus was out cold), Marlene settled back against the cushions to get some rest. Things weren't perfect, but maybe they didn't have to be. |