:3 This idea came to ma just a couple of days ago. Thanks to some prodding from Lucathia Rykatu, I actually got around to writing it. The parts aren't really connected apart from the two characters. They're in chronological order but there can spaces from days to months between the fic breaks.
This is set at least pre-Prisoner of Azkaban.
A Working Day
By Dark Ice Dragon
Observations
Claire looked up from the counter at the faint sound of jingling. The door closed quietly and she smiled at the person shaking extra droplets free from his coat.
"Extremely soggy this morning, isn't it Remus?"
Remus glanced up from his task, a small smile on his lips at the question. "Quite."
It had been raining on and off for the last couple of days and some time during the night, it had had turned into a very heavy downpour. Remus' hair was plastered to his scalp, not one hair left dry from the drenching. His threadbare clothes were completely soaked through from his coat right down to his shoes. She wouldn't be surprised if whatever was underneath his coat was wet as well, as the coat wasn't waterproof. Remus' face had a sheen from where the water clung onto the skin.
All in all, he looked like he had just climbed out of river.
Claire shook her head. She didn't know why Remus never used up an umbrella but seeing as Remus' clothes weren't usually new, it was probably because he couldn't afford one. 'He must be usin' all the money he earns on his rent,' she thought.
Remus didn't talk about himself very much. No mention of family, friends or what he did when he wasn't working. Or he might be working somewhere else during the nights as well as here during the daytime.
"I've put some towels on the radiator in the back a little while ago," Claire said out loud. "They should be warmed up enough now. Go dry yourself," she ordered.
Remus looked at her in surprise. She hated that look. That look said, 'You're helping me? Why?' What had happened to him before that made him wonder when she went a little bit out of her way to help him that he found it so unexpected? It was like he expected her to hate him or something.
"Thank you." Remus moved as quietly as he could (not that he needed to with the rain pounding on the windows. But maybe he was trying to reduce the amount of squelching his shoes were making) to the backroom.
Claire stretched. It was going to a long day. Who would go out to buy books on a day like this?
Claire looked out the corner of her eye. Remus had his back to her while he was stacking some books on the shelves.
There. He did it again.
He was rubbing his stomach every so often when he thought that she wasn't looking.
It wasn't the 'I'm hungry' kind of rubbing – there was too much force behind the hand. And they had both just come back from lunch, each having sandwiches. It was the kind where you applied pressure to a painful part of your body. Claire frowned thoughtfully. But why…?
Maybe he had gotten into a fight.
It didn't suit the picture that she had of the mild-mannered man. But the alternative was worse.
Remus looked up at her blearily. Claire had followed him into the backroom that morning. She found him tiredly slumped in one of the chairs. "I'm fine," he mumbled.
"No. You're not," Claire said sternly. He looked a mess! There were heavy bags underneath his eyes and there was something… off about him today other than how he was. She took one of his clenched hands that was laying on top of his lap, forced it open through sheer will and placed two pills in his now open palm.
He looked down at them confusion.
"Painkillers," was the short answer. "You either take 'em or you go straight back home."
"But-"
"No," she said again, firmly. "You're not feelin' well. Why didn't you just phone me and take the day off?" she asked him.
Remus shrugged. "I didn't want to leave you looking after the shop by yourself."
Despite herself and the current situation, Claire smiled in amusement. "I was able to look after the shop before you came along. Remember?"
"Which is why you had a help ad in your window," was the quick reply.
Claire's smile widened. "Now I know you need to go to bed; you're showin' a side that I haven't seen before. Come on now, shoo!" She made motions with her hands as Remus watched, a small smile also growing on his face. Seeing that he wasn't budging, Claire sighed. "I'm not goin' to fire you 'cause you were off for one day."
And That Look returned before Remus bowed his head to the floor. Without another word, Remus downed the two pills and sipped from the glass of water that Claire had left on the floor when she was opening Remus' hand. He took both without much thought of how it tasted and they went straight down.
The hand that had been left, dipped into his coat pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar.
Claire eyed the size. It wasn't quite family-sized but it was still on the big side. "I didn't know you had such a sweet tooth."
Remus' small smile turned into a grin.
"Remus, what's wrong?"
Remus' body tensed at Claire's voice. "Nothing. There's nothing wrong," he assured her.
"Right," she said wryly. "That's why you've been jumpin' at shadows all of today."
He didn't respond, save for fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt.
"You're worried about that wolf sighting, aren't you?" There had been a wolf sighting in the papers that morning – no pictures, but it was still reported. People were already beginning to think that their pets and young children were going to be eaten.
Just then, the bell above the door jingled. Claire looked over and saw that it was Mrs. Yeoman with her Skye Terrier, Douglas. Customers were supposed to leave their dogs outside –it was a bookstore- but Douglas had been so well-trained (and cute!) that he could be let in.
Remus stiffened again. "I forgot something in the backroom," he mumbled before disappearing.
Claire followed him with her eyes but didn't move to stop him.
She couldn't force him to be around dogs when he was scared of them, could she?
Remus sneezed as soon as he entered the shop. And sneezed again.
Claire looked at him in worry. "Do you have allergies?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Not really – just a sensitive nose."
She looked at the spray-can underneath the counter. "Oh. I was just tryin' a new air spray."
Remus waved a hand, somehow knowing that Claire was going to get rid of the can. "Don't get rid of it; I'll get used to it after a while."
He sneezed for a third time.
Claire waited by the telephone, knowing that it was going to ring sooner of later. While waiting, she doodled on a scrap piece of paper that she had found lying about.
Remus was never late. Even through the harshest storms, he would make it on time. The exception was once a month. She had noticed the pattern after a few months of him working under her. Every once a month, Remus would call in sick. She even knew the signs that he'd be showing before he called in sick: he'd be jumpy, a bit more stressed and weary. When he came back, he'd be immensely tired, always be wincing ever so slightly from even being touched and he always ate chocolate. It wasn't a brand that Claire knew of or knowingly tasted but it was always the same brand.
But as she doodled, Claire realised why that sounded so familiar. It wasn't something entirely medical as she had thought. She'd heard it because she's seen it happening with her friends. Particularly, her female friends.
'Why,' she wondered, 'would she pretend to be a guy?' There were a few advantages that she could think of: if you were a guy, you would receive less trouble if, say, you were out at night, and looking at 'him', she could have been teased mercilessly by the other girls in her class because of her looks.
The phone rang by her elbow.
Just before she picked it up, she resolved to go and buy Remus a really big chocolate bar for him tomorrow.
(Grumble) It's a heckofalot easier to write one-shots than multi-chapters. Saying that, I want to continue this fic. It probably won't be for a while though so it's staying as Completed for now. Just may as well say it now, there won't be any romance between the two of them.
I can't remember if Remus had said what he had been doing before becoming the Defence Against the Dark Arts but eh...
This was meant to be a humourous fic but eh, it didn't turn out completely like that.
And yeah, used some fandom clichés for some of these.
Hmm, if Remus can't get a job easily in the wizarding world, shouldn't it be easier to get a job in the Muggle world where there's no stigma about being a werewolf?
Any problems/spelling mistakes, anything like that, please tell me.