Sirius hadn't visited Remus after the attack. Well, no, that wasn't true. He had visited. Every day. He'd just made sure to do it when Remus was asleep and wouldn't know he had been there. It had been easier when he was petrified, even though every second Remus spent unnaturally still had taken years off Sirius' life. Still, he hadn't visited when Remus was awake. He knew that made him a coward, even if he'd justified it with all the work there had been to do. If he was spending twenty hours a day on important tasks then there just was no time to visit.
Remus seemed so much more peaceful now, without the fever or the petrification. It loosened something deep behind his heart, and he couldn't help but rest his fingers against Remus' wrist just to count his heart beats. He was alive. He was getting better. It would be okay.
Remus' eyes had begun moving slightly behind his closed lids, and Sirius knew he'd probably wake up soon. Time to go then, quickly, before Remus knew he was here. He could come back later with Lily and James, maybe, and welcome him back to the world of consciousness with a safety buffer between them. He had just been about to stand up when Remus spoke. Fuck. Too late now. He'd throw out some platitudes, then, and get away as fast as he could.
"Well, you must feel like a million galleons then, because that's what you look like." The banter was familiar, and slipped easily off his tongue. Only the slight crack in his voice betrayed the ten thousand emotions lurking just under Sirius' surface.