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It was late and every part of Remus was aching.
He should’ve been in bed ages ago, curled up against Regulus’s thin frame as they once again pretended to not share a room in the Professors' Quarters and failed miserably. There was nothing more Remus wanted to do but the warmth of his husband pressed against him seemed like a pipe dream the longer he looked at the stack of scrolls in front of him.
Remus had been foolhardy, delusional even, when he had started his grading earlier in the day. As his final class of students had stumbled out of the Charms room bleary eyed and ready for dinner, Remus had chosen to skip the meal entirely and had retreated into his office to become one with the scenery for the foreseeable future. The full moon was in a few days, he could feel it in his bones, and so Remus had wanted to get a headstart on the essays about the Freezing Charm, Silencing Charm, and Impervius Charm he had assigned to the second, fifth and seventh years respectively.
But after hours of sitting, reading and striking out egregious spelling errors Remus was starting to give up on the future of the Wizarding World. These were there youngest and brightest minds? Charlie Burke in second year couldn’t remember the difference between frost and moss for some ungodly reason, at least 5 students in his fifth year had truly…. unique ideas for applications of the Silencing Charms on various household animals and a very gifted seventh year in his NEWT level Charms class had the most cramped handwriting known to man and creature alike.
”Do these children even know English or have they secretly invented a brand new language no one’s ever seen before?” Remus muttered to himself as he crossed out another misspelling of theory with a flick of his quill.
He hadn’t even noticed Regulus open the door until blinding light from the hallway made Remus flinch back and groan in pain. His office had been dim, with only the soothing flames of the candles placed strategically around the room flicking back and forth, the perfect environment for Remus to keep his ever building migraine at bay.
A growl built in his throat before he could stop it and Remus jumped as a hand caressed his spine as a steaming cup of tea was placed down on the desk next to the essay he had currently been grading. A low voice chuckled and murmured in his ear, “Poor love, are the mean papers getting to you?”
Remus nodded sullenly, pouting haughtily as he closed his eyes and leaned into Regulus’s hold. A muttered spell shut the door tight, a second tidied the scrolls and quills into neat piles to be attended to later and a third started up a soft classical tune playing off the record player in the corner gifted to them by Sirius for their one year anniversary. Remus let some of the tension in his spine leave him as he felt one of Regulus’s hands come up to cover his eyes, the entire world going blissfully dark.
”That better, love?” Regulus asked in a soft voice. Remus hummed contently in response, simply enjoying the feeling of his husband’s hands on him. Soothing circles were being rubbed into his back and Remus’s thoughts drifted into a soft lull. He had no clue how much time had passed but when Regulus eventually took his hand off Remus’s eyes all the older man could do was blink blearily up at him with a dazed smile.
”Come on mon soleil, let’s get you to bed,” Regulus smiled down at him fondly. “I drew a bath for you to help with your joints and the latest edition of the Runes Periodical Journal came in. I can read it to you while you stretch.”
Remus stood, leaning into his husband with a smitten grin, “Sounds absolutely perfect seren, thank you.”