The night was silent, the air cold, the stars tense. Remus looked down at sirius, his black hair strewn over his face and his eyes tired yet refusing to shut. Home by Christmas, were the words that rattled remus' brain, the words that taunted him every time he woke to a war that never seemed to fade. Now they'd been here two years, Christmas had grown and later perished by the pleading heat of spring. home by Christmas, would they ever be home at all? Night was when everything felt so real, so heavy. The Germans were silent on the other side of no man's land, the trenches cold and wet, the war seemed alive at night when everything was finally still.

Another soldier, further down the trenches, let out a loud laugh to give the disguise of joy, which only served to snap remus from his thoughts. He groaned as he shifted where he sat in the mud, stretching his legs out and shifting the heavy gun off of his thigh, it had grown uncomfortable. Remus then looked down at sirius, the boy made of stars seemed so dull in this war, remus couldn't stand it.

"You can sleep, you know." Remus murmured, lifting a tentative hand to rest on sirius' arm that was thickly covered by the itchy uniforms, distinctive to the British and so separate to the Germans. Sirius glanced up at remus, his eyes like the stars that kissed them goodnight, but remus hated how those eyes looked. No longer carefree, but scared and sad.

"No, I'd rather stay awake." Sirius mumbled in reply, shifting until his head rested against remus' shoulder. His metal hat long since discarded next to him on the trench floor, probably inhabited by a rat.

"Suit yourself, but don't come crying to me when you're tired, hm?" Remus teased, wrapping his free arm around sirius. He tried to jest, to make things easier, but all he achieved was a half arsed smile from the black haired boy.

They were silent for a moment, the other soldiers sleeping or quiet and awake, giving the boys a false sense of privacy in the 12 foot deep trenches.

"Remus?" Sirius' oddly small voice broke said silence, and on receiving a soft hum from the taller solider, he continued. "We're not getting out, are we?"

Remus was stilled by the question, a sickening sense of dread and acceptance creeping into his bones. No, they were not getting out, but neither boy could afford to think like that, not if they wished for some hope of survival.

"Maybe." Remus mumbles, the single dry response holding more than a detail answer would give, and sirius understood immediately.

"Promise me something?" Sirius whispered, lifting his eyes to remus.

"Anything."

"Promise you'll stay with me, until the end, whatever it is?"

"I promise." Remus says without hesitation, his arm tightening around sirius' shoulder, gripping him as though the stars will suck the beautiful boy away if he let go. "I'll stay with you, until the end. Now sleep, sirius."