James runs his hands through Remus' hair and thinks at how flawed he is; pale skin littered with scars, big dark circles under his eyes, body that looks too skinny to hold up his head, and shaggy hair, not any one length, falling in his tired tired eyes. And yet it all falls together into someone who you can't tear your eyes away from. Makes you want to kiss those thin lips until they bruise. And you do it- you hold that thin body as he shivers, naked. You trail your tongue over his scars, wanting to make him gasp, and it's only later when you're in bed alone, when your brain is the body part that's doing the thinking, it's only then you think about the symbolic gesture, and wish you could somehow kiss away his emotional scars.

"Don't," Remus says, though, once. And James knows what he means, somehow, and stops and puts on his robes and walks out. And talks to him like before. And he makes sure that he waits until Sirius or Peter is with Remus under the cloak before joining them. And the next lips he kisses are full, and he stares at big, lively green eyes and feels another kind of bliss.