A/N: This was written for the Geek Pride event. The list of prompts is at the end.

Remus stooped over the table, not sure he'd be able to make it to the room he'd rented for the night. The pub wasn't the seediest of places he'd ever been, though there were a few unsavoury characters who looked distrustful of his weak appearance.

Most expected a perpetual traveller to look strong, and Remus never had. He did, however, hold more than enough scars, so people tended to realize he didn't have much in the way of a home as soon as they saw him.

People's eyes would always go to his waist, looking for a sword, and when they didn't find one, their brow would crease as they wondered how he protected himself from the dangers on the road.

Truth was, he didn't. Not well at least. That was where some of the countless scars had come from. He could have learned to use a sword, but he didn't like weapons. They'd been trained on him enough as a child that he only associated them with fear, and he hadn't been able to overcome that fear to use one effectively himself.

Life was exhausting. When his parents had thrown him out at the age of five, they certainly hadn't expected him to live this long, only longer than he would when the villagers showed up at their door with pitchforks to get rid of the werewolf boy.

The fact he'd made it to adulthood was as surprising to him as it was anyone else, and he couldn't have explained how he'd done it.

The chair across from his scraping against the floor made his head shoot up from the table's surface. His eyes met a young man about his own age with black hair and gray eyes. The boy was smirking at him, and Remus couldn't tell if he was meant to be fearful or not.

"Where are your companions?" the man asked.

Remus' stomach twisted. Telling the truth could be dangerous if it gave someone the confidence to attack, but the inn was quiet enough that the man would figure out the truth from observation alone.

"I don't have any."

"I didn't used to," the man said. "Only found that lot less than a year ago."

He motioned to another table where two men and a woman sat eating and chatting happily. Their cheerfulness made quite the picture in the otherwise gloomy pub.

Remus did the usual precursory inspection for a weapon that he hated when others did to him. It wasn't ideal, but it wasn't for formality's sake.

The man was amused by the notion that he'd be carrying a blade.

"Look all you want." He leaned back in his chair and held his arms wide. "I don't need flimsy metal to defend myself."

Remus' blood ran cold as he realized the implication of the words.

"You're a witch," he said quietly.

Witches were often called tricksters because of their reputation for causing trouble. Remus should have known no one else would randomly approach him in such a place and start up a conversation.

The man laughed as if that was an even funnier notion than him carrying a sword.

"Close but not quite."

Remus' brow furrowed.

"Let me make it very clear," the man said, leaning over the table. "I'm a wizard, as is James over there."

He motioned at his friends, though Remus couldn't tell which of the men was meant to be James.

"Peter and Lily are the witches."

Remus felt like there should have been enough differences between the two races for him to immediately tell them apart, but he couldn't. It was off putting.

Only a handful of times had he laid eyes on a wizard, and he'd kept his distance each time. He'd tried to keep his distance from the witches, but it hadn't always worked out well for him. They didn't take any kinder to werewolves than humans, and they had keener eyes for spotting them.

"There's no way," Remus said slowly. "Wizards travel alone when they travel at all. They don't pair up, and they certainly don't let witches tag along. You're tricking me."

He expected the witch to use a smooth lie that would almost convince Remus he was wrong, but instead, the man shrugged.

"No use arguing when I know the truth well enough. I can't very well prove it. There's no discernible difference between our magics. We've tried for years, but it turns out my parents were always as full of shit as I thought they were when they went on about inferior magic."

It was blasphemous for anyone to say, let alone a wizard. Wizards were notorious for their arrogance. It was their most defining trait after their magic.

"What are you doing out here with common folk then?" Remus asked. "And how in the hell did you wind up travelling with two witches?"

It seemed he had stumbled on the apparent wizard's favorite topic.

"As I said, my parents were full of shit. It gets quite tiring having to smell said shit every day. It makes you want to get some fresh air."

It wasn't unheard of for wizards to just up and leave their cities, though it was rare. Remus was willing to accept it as truth.

"And the others?"

"James' parents left the Great Cities before he was born. He's never lived behind the wizards' walls. He'd fallen in love with Lily before she'd even detected her magic. They ran away to be together."

His smile had grown fond.

"The three of us met Peter while he was on the run. Got framed for an outbreak of the plaque. You gotta go after the guy who sometimes turns into a rat, you see?"

Remus blinked a few times.

"Why are you talking to me? What do you want?"

"Well, I certainly hope you're not actively on the run, but it's obvious you could use some company. You look like someone who hasn't slept well for months because of your paranoia."

Remus glared, but he couldn't argue against the truth.

"And I'm supposed to trust you?"

"You're supposed to give us a chance and trust us if we earn it."

They stared each other down for a few seconds.

"Why are you trusting me?"

The man shrugged again. He had the demeanor of someone who didn't care what Remus decided, but his gaze was intense.

"Because, nameless stranger, there's something about you that says we'll need you as much as you need us."

He didn't think before saying, "Remus. My name's Remus."

The man gave him a dazzling smile.

"Sirius. Sirius Black."

He held out his hand. Remus looked at it for several seconds. He knew of the Blacks. They had a reputation for being ruthless as far as wizards went, yet he felt the same sense that Sirius did.

So, despite his rational judgment, he took the offered hand.

XXX

The following months were a whirlwind.

Remus had thought he'd seen all that he could in the world. After all, he'd been wandering the kingdom alone since the age of five. There wasn't a shortage of messes he'd found himself in or unsavoury characters he'd come up against.

But travelling with two wizards and two witches was something else entirely. People were scared of both races in entirely different ways, but they kept their distance in a way that was very different from the way werewolves were treated.

Nightly, he found himself wondering if he should reveal everything to them. They stood up against the prejudices against witches with passion, which gave him hope, but he had yet to raise the question of werewolves with them. There was no guarantee that they would be just as accepting.

Two months in a row, he snuck off during the full moon with excuses that he had things he needed to do. He knew he was running on borrowed time. His friends weren't stupid enough to ignore the timing of his disappearances forever when each full moon brought with it the paranoia of the masses.

The morning after his third full moon disappearance, he found himself wandering towards the campground he knew he would find the group at.

Every muscle in his body hurt, but he practiced ignoring it as he walked, preparing to act as though nothing were wrong when he saw his friends.

When he found the tents, he was surprised to find Sirius sitting at a campfire with breakfast cooking. He looked at the sky to ascertain that the sun had yet to rise.

This wasn't normal behavior, and he felt even less like eating than he had moments before.

"Remus," Sirius called without turning to look at him. "You should come eat. You'll need a boost of energy after spending the night as a wolf."

Remus' steps only paused for a moment as he continued towards the log across from Sirius.

"You know," he said flatly.

The familiar smirk was more irritating to him than ever.

"We'd guessed before we offered for you to come with us. The only people who travel entirely alone are criminals and outcasts."

"And you invited me to come with you?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"We have an accused murderer in our ranks. What do you expect from us?"

"To show more caution around potentially deadly beings."

Sirius threw his head back in laughter. Remus only scowled for the several minutes it took for Sirius to calm down.

"There's nothing deadly about you, Remus. Of the five of us, you're the least likely to cause anyone harm. Besides, what kinds of magicians would we be if we couldn't protect ourselves from a werewolf?"

After the time he'd spent with them, Remus was very aware that they could kill him at the slightest hint of danger. Earlier on, he'd worried they might if they discovered the truth, but that extreme fear had dissipated over the months.

"Okay. Fine, but still, why take in a random werewolf when you could go on with your lives. Surely, you've met loners before who you didn't invite along."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, watching Remus as if he were daft.

"I explained it to you when we first met," he said. "There was something about you. I wasn't making that up."

He stood, but whereas Remus had expected him to walk away and leave him, he moved instead to Remus' log, sitting close enough that Remus could feel every movement he made.

"It didn't take long for me to make sense of it," Sirius continued, his voice soft in a way that made Remus' body tremble. "All my life I've dreamed of meeting someone like you. Inviting you to come with us may have been the most important thing I've ever done for myself."

He couldn't bring himself to look at Sirius. He stared instead at the fire, trying to process what he was being told, but Sirius reached out to take his hand, and there was no denying that the other man was real, not a figment of his imagination.

"People don't get involved with werewolves," Remus said, his voice shaking. "And you learn pretty early on that you shouldn't hope to be the exception to that rule."

Sirius gave a slight laugh, though Remus could detect the tremor of nervousness in it.

"Well, congratulations," he whispered. "Say the word, and you can be the exception to it."

He didn't say a word. He did, however, finally turn to look at Sirius seconds before covering his mouth with his own.

For the first time in ages, he was able to fall asleep after a transformation. For the first time ever, it was wrapped in a warm set of arms.

A/N: Geek Pride prompts used:

Stand 1: Lord of the Rings: (AU) Fantasy

Stand 2: Shadowhunters: (dialogue) "All my life I've dreamed of meeting someone like you."

Stand 3: Naruto: (plot point) character is being discriminated against

Stand 4: scarf: (word set) wrap, long, warm

Word count: 1,949