#I do endorse Sirius and James doing anything and everything I am morally against to keep each other safe

[neverenoughmarauders]

Padfoot and Prongs

I needed to continue with the soft vibes from @sorenphelps cuddle pictures for the Bodyguard AU and @goldenlionprince's new Can't Sleep ficlet. I also needed James to get better after what I've put him through so far. (Mostly I need to stop writing this and focus on some of my current WIPs but I CAN'T).

'I think the bomb has just dropped,' James smirks from his bed. Sirius has to remind himself that James isn't actually talking about real bombs. They've lived different lives, him and James. 

'Wanna see?' He pats the Sirius' shaped gap between the edge of the bed and himself.

'What are we seeing?' Sirius asks seating himself gently. With James' leg still propped up, with James still only leaving the bed to go to the bathroom or move to the sofa ('for a change of scenery!'), Sirius is all too aware of how the mattress will shift under his weight. James is too, he can tell from the way James tenses for a moment, but soon he is next to James, and the world makes just a little more sense. 

It's not that it isn't torture, having James' left side press up against him like this - and not doing more. Because it is. But it's still something: feeling James' body shift against Sirius' every time James adjusts himself a little or types on his keyboard. Knowing that James wants him near him, feels safe around him, trusts him.

'Rosier Senior's office,' says James with a familiar mischievous glint in his eyes, and moves the screen so that Sirius gets a better view.

'It's really unlucky - for him that is - that his son got away.'

Don't remind me. 

'I was busy.' 

At first, when Sirius had heard the gunshot, he'd been sure Rosier had missed. It wouldn't be the first time. But the pained cry; James' cry; James' body sliding to the floor, had immediately alerted Sirius to the grave reality. He had a choice. His first job was to keep James safe, not go running after some scrawny kid with a gun just because he wanted to tear him limb from limb.

'I was only looking for a couple of emails in evidence against his son for that murder case,' James smirks innocently. 'But then, like father, like son.'

There hadn't been much in Rosier's private emails - according to James - but there had been a second, and third email account. The fourth was where the really incriminating material had been. And indeed, an affair, Sirius is reminded, as a woman storms into the office.

'That's his wife?' Sirius asks, enjoying seeing Rosier Senior duck as his wife throws her phone at him.

'Soon to be ex-wife, I think you'll find,' James grins, not taking his eyes from the laptop screen. 'That's much better - throw that - ouch, that's got to hurt. Ten-nil to the wife, don't y'think?'

Sirius can't help but drink in the view of James, who over the last few days has come alive again. The way his hazel eyes gleefully watch his handiwork; the way his lips keep twitching with amusement; the way his hair is impossibly messy now he spends all his time in bed. Prongs, Sirius has started calling him. Padfoot, James has added to his list of names for Sirius.

Padfoot and prongs. It's got a nice ring to it.

James' work to get evidence against Rosier Junior will never matter, because Sirius isn't planning to let the son live long enough for that. It's strictly professional - Sirius can't have someone get away from him. And yes, maybe he's going to enjoy shooting the boy in both knees first, before ending his misery, just as a last lesson. Never too late to learn something new. Like what Sirius does to people who -

'You okay, Padfoot?' James asks, frowning suddenly. 

''Course I am,' says Sirius, 'a bit bored, being stuck here with you all day... every day.'

'Hm, that is a problem,' James nods as he closes his laptop. 'I can't really have you be bored. It would look bad in the employee satisfaction survey.'

'So what do you suggest we do?' Sirius asks, arching an eyebrow.

'There's not much I can do,' says James, pushing himself closer to Sirius, a finger suddenly tracing Sirius' lips.

'That's a shame,' Sirius agrees as James removes his finger. Sirius is trying very hard to keep it together for just a little longer. Hard being the word of the moment. 

'Though I can think of a thing or two, Soldier Boy.' 

So can Sirius. When he leans over and kisses James, hungrily, greedily, he doesn't even mind the small, needy moan that escapes his lips. It's James, and Sirius has missed him so very much.