Title: Only I
Author: korosu Hikaru
Pairing/s: Sirius/Remus
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Remus wakes up to thefeeling of someone you love sleeping next to you in bed. Some sweet realisations.

Archive: Blue Flame, Hikaru's T.K. journal, the Black Unforgiven web-diary, and anywhere else (just please ask first!)

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and her associates.

I wake up this early morning, with another warm body next to mine, his arm draped casually, almost intimately, around my waist. I smiled to myself, as I snuggle closer against the torso that belonged to my best friend, my head perfectly locking into place in the crook of his neck. I heard him purr softly, tightening his grasp of me in a protective gesture only I know so well, eliciting a contented sigh from me.

I must have had another nightmare last night for me to find him sleeping again beside me. I turned in place; my head comfortably perched under his jaw, as I wrapped my arms round his neck, melding us, if possible, even closer together. He responded, as if on impulse, by fastening both his arms around my waist; again, his protectiveness of me showing.

He was the only one who ever did this for me, most probably because he would be the only one I would permit him to do so. I knew I would scream bloody murder if the day came that I would find either James or Peter in the same place as he is now. It would probably only always be him that I would allow myself to be this intimate with.

It was also only with him that I would voluntarily be alone together with. If I had to have someone to do an errand with, or go to the library with, or sneak to the kitchens with, it would always be him. He knew and assented to it, and so did both James and Peter.

It was only he who would wait for me to be dismissed from my Muggle Studies class after his Arithmancy (dismissed ten minutes earlier).

It was only he who would wait for me in the Common Room so we could head into the Great Hall together for meals.

It was only he who would choose to stay in the Shrieking Shack after my transformations, to nurse my wounds and to keep watch over me the whole night until Madame Pomfrey comes to collect me the following morning.

It was only he who would sneak into Honeydukes in between classes to get me my favourite honeycombed chocolate, and then feed it to me while I would be in the hospital wing recuperating.

It was only he who would read me Shakespearean sonnets, when I ask, to lull me to sleep.

And I? It is only I who he would ever allow to see him as he is now – gentle, sweet, vulnerable, and peaceful.

And it is only I who could ever whisper, "I love you, Sirius," so softly in his ear and be the only one he will hear in his dreams as he sleeps soundly in my arms.

Finished: 6:58 PM 01 /05/05