Title: Two Canines and A Feline

Pairing: Sirius/Remus

Rating: M for swearing and explicit sex between men.

Era: Jumpy; kind of moves through their lives.

Summary: Sometimes unconditional loyalty is found in unexpected places. A fic depicting how such a small thing can bring people together in the most unlikely of times. Sirius/Remus

Notes: Alright, so this plot bunny has been nibbling away at my conscience for a while and I've been putting it off because I know it's going to be quite a long-ish story. But it just wouldn't go away, so here we are! The time constraints were impossible to get past so I shattered them altogether – for all intents and purposes, Nirvana and Kurt Cobain were around before Sirius went to Azkaban. You're probably thinking right now, 'Now, I know this girl is off her rocker. Cobain and Sirius/Remus + a feline = this bitch is hooked on smack', but I assure you that's not the case. Just read on and it WILL (hopefully) make some sense.

PS: I LOVE my readers. Your reviews pick me up when I'm down and make me squeal with joy. No joke. :)

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Two Canines and A Feline

Chapter 1: Animal Magnetism – a Tale of Repulsion

Living with Sirius Black could never be called boring.

Remus had discovered this long ago. When the young Black heir had made a solemn vow of eternal mischief in their first ever week at Hogwarts, Remus knew that his dorm-mates (Sirius in particular) would make life interesting, if not downright chaos, for the duration of his schooling. What he had not counted on in that first week of school was that the chaos would last far past his departure from Hogwarts in the form of a fierce bond of friendship between the four Gryffindors. He had also not counted on this bond slowly blurring and transmuting into something far different for Sirius and he. It turned out that he needed a bit of chaos in his life as he and Sirius had taken their friendship to the next level in their late years of school and Remus found himself with the strangely enticing prospect of forever being in the never-boring presence of one Sirius Black. Indeed, some days he questioned the 'forever' part when he'd find all of his clothes – every last stitch – charmed curiously invisible one morning, and another time his voice magically charmed to an alarming chipmunk squeak one night during...intimate activities; much to Sirius' amusement of course.

And he supposed today was turning out to be one of those days where he wondered how long 'forever' would mean with Sirius, provided he didn't implode with exasperation or amusement in the meantime.

There sat the noble and unruffled Sirius Black on their old couch, patting a cat.

Remus stared. Then gaped a little. Then stopped his gaping because he figured he must have looked like a fish. Then settled for an exasperated, worn sigh. They didn't own a cat.

"May I inquire as to why you are currently holding a cat?"

His tone was polite, having had much practice in keeping his cool when confronted with confusing or alarming situations.

Sirius cocked his head to the side as if to say, 'What, this cat?', to which Remus tried not to sigh again.

"Well as you very well know", Sirius began in his most self-satisfied of voices that meant they would be there all night marveling at his brilliance, "I, most generous, selfless and charitable of all wizards, have never missed an opportunity to display my giving nature. And so I have taken it upon myself to save a life this very evening".

Remus' eyebrows shot up towards his hairline as he carefully dissected Sirius' words and his gaze landed on the 'saved life' currently crouched on Sirius' thigh, enjoying a scratch behind an ear.

"So you brought a cat home?"

Sirius looked vaguely annoyed that Remus was not viewing the moment with the grandeur and admiration that he thought it most clearly deserved.

"He was going to be killed, Moony", the self satisfaction was gone and was replaced with earnestness to convince Remus of the direness of the cat's need, "they were going to kill him just because he wasn't born with any magical powers. Because he's a cat squib".

"They?", Remus inquired, his attitude softening slightly at Sirius' compassion for a simple cat.

"You know", Sirius flapped his unoccupied hand to indicate Remus' acquaintance with 'they', "those nasty bastards who'd like to put a ball and chain on you. The Control of Magical Creatures department".

Remus' demeanor softened more notably towards Sirius and the cat at the mention of another soul rejected and deemed unworthy of existence by that abhorrent ministry department, even if it were only a cat.

"'Too many stray cats even for the muggles', they said, so they were going to put him down because they figured there was no reason for him to live, that no one would want him".

Remus heard the bitterness and hate in Sirius' voice and he felt his heart flutter at the stubbornness with which Sirius protected even the smallest mistreated innocent soul. He reckoned that Sirius viewed the coldness and injustice with which the cat had been treated as a small reflection of how he, Remus, was treated by the ministry, and that that was largely what had made Sirius so determined to protest it.

"But they're wrong, you know. I want him and I reckon you'll want him too once you get to know him".

At Sirius' words Remus considered the cat again.

It wasn't much of a looker to be honest. It was young, still scrawny, with short ginger hair, a long pointed face and large yellow eyes. In fact, it was a bit of a mongrel. But it had been accepted onto Sirius Black's short list of unconditional friendship, not unlike Remus had, and for that, Remus couldn't help but accept it too.

Smiling at Sirius' compassion, he started forward, intending to tell Sirius that they'd keep the cat as long as he wouldn't be the one cleaning up globs of hairballs and to give the charming animagus a little snog to show what he really thought of Sirius taking in the little mongrel, but he didn't make it there. As soon as he approached, the cat growled and hissed furiously and backed up against Sirius' chest, sinister yellow eyes glaring at Remus.

Why you little shit.

Remus resisted the urge to blast the cat across the room. The nerve. He'd been perfectly willing to let the little toerag stay here even though he wasn't particularly fond of cats and it had actually hissed at him. He knew why, of course. Animals had always been able to sense that there was something not quite human about him, that there was darkness, a monster, lurking beneath the surface of a human exterior, and it greatly unnerved them. It wasn't the first time that animals had wanted to run from or attack him but it still sent a stab of hurt through him.

Sirius saw the flicker of pain behind the brown eyes and quickly reprimanded the cat. He pushed it back down to its former position, despite the cat's stiffness and grabbed Remus' hand, pulling him towards them. He was pulled practically onto Sirius' lap and he tensed as the cat hissed and spat with even more fury and...terror. Remus flinched, trying to move off of Sirius' lap, hating the reminder of what he was, how others, even animals, thought of him. But Sirius wrapped an arm around his waist and held him there.

"Now listen up, you little snot", Sirius began crossly, speaking to the cat, "Remus lives here too and you don't hiss at him. He's family".

Remus felt a strange flutter in his chest at how Sirius so easily admitted that he considered him family, but he couldn't help but think that reasoning with a cat was pointless.

"Don't worry about it, it happens all the time. It's not his fault".

He tried to move off of Sirius' lap again, wishing his voice hadn't had the bitter edge that it had with his last statement. Sirius only tightened his hold and ignored Remus' words.

"Look, he's no harm at all", Sirius continued, referring to Remus as he began petting the cat again whose only response was to angrily flatten his ears even more, "Wouldn't harm a fly, this one. Unless of course you're a death eater – trust me, I've seen his binding hex, nearly chokes them to death he does. But I'm sure he wouldn't do that to you".

The cat continued to glare at Remus but the posture was visibly relaxing with Sirius' soothing strokes. Sirius had always had a way with animals and it had become even more pronounced after he had become an animagus; it was as if animals accepted him as one of them. And now it seemed, that if Sirius trusted something, the cat would be more willing to trust it too. Remus felt himself relaxing as the cat no longer looked as if it wanted to take a chunk out of his face, and he realised Sirius' thumb had been stroking slow circles over his hip in a similar action to that which had soothed the cat. Amused and somewhat irritated that Sirius thought him, subconsciously or consciously, to be a skittish animal that needed soothing, he sighed audibly. Sirius looked up at him and smiled, seeming pleased with himself that they were all getting along so well. Remus glared. Sirius' smile widened at the glare and leaned up to press his lips against Remus' not quite unwilling ones. Remus slowly pressed back, cupping Sirius' face with a hand as his other rested on his shoulder, relishing in the familiar glide of silken skin, his frostiness melting at the warm tingling running through his body at Sirius' touch.

They were interrupted by a low yowl as the cat promptly took off, leaping off Sirius' leg and darting under the table. Sirius had yelped as the claws had dug into his leg where the cat had leaped off and rubbed his leg gingerly.

Remus listened to Sirius curse and grumble with amusement. Really, he brought these things on himself.

"Ah well, eh? He'll get used to us eventually", Sirius muttered, casting one last glance at the glint of yellow eyes under the table before turning back to continue snogging the life out of his receptive flatmate.

'Eventually', being the keyword there, Remus thought vaguely as he thought he heard a hiss from under the table when he kicked his shoes off.

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Not actually a huge fan of cats but meh. Please let me know if this was too soppy or not, I'd really appreciate any feedback.

Review, you animals.

;)