everythingpeaches

[everythingpeaches]

In which Remus has needs and Sirius is eager to earn his forgiveness.

The issue with forgiveness is that as soon as it enters the mind as a possibility, it is almost impossible not to act upon it.

Remus wants to be stoic. He wants to draw it out, treat the issue with the severity it deserves and wait for forgiveness to be earned. Remus also has needs.

He still isn't really talking to Sirius, not properly. They all sit together now, the marauders reunited, and they have conversations which include all four of them without Sirius and Remus having to actually talk to one another directly.

Sirius is too grateful for this half-peace that he dare not overstep, dare not push for more. He is quiet and appeasing, rolling over and showing his belly whenever Remus looks his way.

Remus is cold, a little cruel with his words and withholding of emotion. He takes a sort of pleasure in it, like sinking nails into Sirius' skin. It's not healthy for either of them, but it's better than before.

With Sirius present again in his life, Remus is having a hard time with his feelings. His emotional feelings, certainly, but more dangerous still are the more physical desires that are resurfacing after weeks apart, because Sirius is beautiful and even if Remus hates him he also loves him, and he's hormonal and very, very horny.

It's becoming a problem.

Remus isn't sure he even fancied Sirius this much back before they started dating, when it was all longing looks and imagination. He's finding it very difficult to concentrate on anything.

He should really be focusing on his OWL studies, the exams are approaching with alarming speed, but instead he finds himself watching Sirius.

He watches him over the table at meal times, laughing and throwing his head back so that his long pale neck is stretched and exposed. He watched him at quidditch practice, thighs tight around his broom. Worse still is in their dormitory, topless and wet haired. It's driving him insane.

'I've lost my mind,' he says to Lily one day. They're in the library, Remus is supposed to be studying for defence against the dark arts but he can't get past the first sentence in the chapter of his book.

'Perhaps,' Lily says, not looking up from her notes, 'You need to get it out of your system.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, you two have always been a bit... intense. I know it's still tricky between you, but who knows maybe a bit of rough and ready is what you both need.'

'Lily!' Remus exclaims, heat flushing up his neck. The red head laughs, looking up from her papers with a wicked smile.

'I'm just saying,' she says, going back to scratching away with her quill, 'Sometimes it's easier to talk without words.'

Remus isn't one to ignore good advise, nor is he one to deny himself something he wants for long.

Opportunity arrises earlier than he expected, that very same night when he and Sirius both find themselves alone, hiding in a 2nd floor broom cupboard from Filch. Peter is somewhere under the floorboards, scurrying away on four tiny paws, and James is under the cloak so has no need for a hiding place.

Remus had grabbed Sirius and dragged him into the confined space without really thinking. Now the door was shut, and he was suddenly very aware of how close the other boy was to him.

'Erm,' Sirius says, shifting a little awkwardly, 'I think I'm stood in a bucket.' He shakes his foot and there's a sound like a rattling suit of armer.

'Sh!' Remus hisses, heat crawling up his neck.

'Sorry,' the other boy whispers. 'Are you alright? You're breathing funny.'

'I'm fine,' Remus says quickly. He is trying to focus on anything other than the feel of Sirius' breath on his cheek, or the way the other boy's leg keeps bumping against his own.

'Are you sure, it's just- oh.' Sirius cuts off, leg bumping against something else of Remus'. 'Oh.'

'Shut up,' Remus says. He wants to die.

'I didn't say anything,' Sirius replies, his voice taking on a new tone. 'I can help you with that, if you like?'

He's standing closer than is necessary, even in these very cramped conditions.

'Stop it. I'm still very cross with you.'

'Well then,' Sirius says, voice dark and dangerous, 'Let me earn your forgiveness.'

Remus already knows he is going to give in. He has appalling self control, and Sirius' fingers have started dancing across his hip bone in a way that makes it hard to think.

'This doesn't mean I forgive you.'

'I know.'

He's kissing Remus' neck now.

'I mean... I'm really...' He's not sure what he is trying to say, thought leaving his brain entirely as Sirius' lips come in contact with the soft skin beneath his ear.

'Let me show you how sorry I am,' Sirius says.

'Okay,' Remus replies.

When Lily sees Remus next in the common room, she takes one look at him and bursts out laughing.

'See, I always give the best advice,' she says with a wicked grin.

Remus blushes, but secretly he quite agrees.

[everythingpeaches]

Hey guys!

I hope you've been enjoying my posts so far.

My plan is to continue to post micro fics that follow on chronologically, which I hope to upload to AO3 when my account gets approved.

I haven't written in a very long time so I would really appreciate any feedback you have for me.

Thank you for reading! Xx

[everythingpeaches]

In which Sirius Makes a Mistake Part 2.

'I'm sorry,' follows Remus around for weeks. Guilt drips from the words and fills the pale grey eyes which, too, follow him wherever he goes.

At first Remus is too hurt to hear it, too betrayed. Then he is just too angry.

James is there, hovering at his shoulder and waiting to offer comfort. Remus doesn't want it, can't accept it.

Lily tries to help, even though she doesn't know what's happened. She is too clever to ask questions, too good at reading people to pry. Instead she offers company and distraction in prefect duties, study groups and idle chatter.

Mary and Marlene follow Lily's lead, although Remus is sure they must both be dying to ask him what has caused this sudden and dramatic change between Sirius and himself. Neither of them do, though, for which he is grateful.

He misses his friends.

James and Peter are trying, but he can tell how badly they want him to speak to Sirius even if neither of them say it. He can't, though. He doesn't know how.

Sirius seems to understand, and stops following Remus around with apologies and instead dissappears almost entirely. His curtains are drawn tight around his bed whenever Remus eventually ascends to their dormitory for the night and they are open, bed empty, when Remus wakes each morning. He is there at meals, hovering on the opposite edge of the group in silence, like a ghost with its eyes downturned.

James, never able to stay cross with Sirius for long, takes pity on him and has him out at quidditch practice almost every evening. Lily keeps Remus in the library much in the same way. He wonders if they are coordinating, like children of divorce.

They carry on this way for weeks, and Remus wonders if he might make it to the end of the school year without having to see Sirius once. A thought that is quickly proven incorrect when he enters their dormitory one afternoon to find Sirius coming out of the bathroom, hair wet and dripping onto his shoulders.

They both freeze.

'Sorry,' Sirius says, breaking the silence first, 'I though you were at the library.'

'Headache,' Remus says. Sirius nods sympathetically.

They hover there for a moment, unmoving, waiting for the other to pounce. Eventually Remus sighs and goes to sit on his bed, rummaging in his drawer for a pain tincture. He hears Sirius behind him, rifling through his trunk. Remus finds the vial and swallows it whole, then lays back against his pillows. He thinks about closing his curtains for a moment, but he can't quite bring himself to shut the other boy out. Instead, he closes his eyes and listens to the sound of Sirius dressing.

He has missed him so much. Missed being close to him, talking to him, hearing him laugh, but he is still so angry with him.

'I'm so angry with you,' he says suddenly, taking them both by surprise.

He opens his eyes to see Sirius, standing by his bed looking over at him with guilt and shame smeared across his perfect face.

'I know, you should be. I hate myself.'

Remus doesn't know what to say to that.

'Remus I...' he trails off. Clearly he doesn't know what to say either. Remus is glad he doesn't say sorry again.

'I don't know what to do, Sirius.'

Sirius nods. He looks like he's going to cry, which breaks Remus’ heart so he turns away, looking out of the window between his and James' bed.

'I don't know how to forgive you, even if I want to.'

'I understand.'

There's a noise that sounds like a trunk lid closing and then Remus hears the other boy's footsteps as he starts to exit the room. He turns quickly to see him reaching for the door.

'Wait,' he says. Sirius stops with his hand on the doorknob and turns to look at Remus. 'Can you... just wait, don't go.'

Sirius nods and walks over to sit on James' bed, facing Remus.

'Moony, I'm so sorry.'

'I know. I do believe you, Pads.'

'What can I do? Tell me what to do and I'll do it.'

'I don't know. I want to forgive you. I want to pretend that this never happened and go back to how we were eight weeks ago. I can't, though, can I?' Remus is looking at him, now, and even though the hurt in his eyes is like a knife to Sirius, it is such beautiful relief when Remus doesn't turn away.

They hold each other's gaze quietly for a few minutes, Sirius thinking of what to say and Remus hoping whatever it is is enough to make him forgive.

'I understand if you can't ever forgive me. What I did has no excuse, there's no explanation I can give that will make what I did okay. It's the worst thing I've ever done and if I could take it back I would, a thousand times over,' Sirius says, 'If you want me to stay away from you I will. But I need you to know, Remus, that if you let me I will spend every second of my life trying to make it up to you, because I love you.'

It's not what Remus had expected to hear, and it isn't what Sirius had planned to say when he had rehearsed his apology over and over again in his mind. It was the truth, though. He has known it for a while, and felt it so keenly in Remus' absence these past weeks, that he is unable to waste this opportunity. It might be his only chance to say it.

'Do you?' Remus asks, staring at the boy infront of him.

'I do.'

'It doesn't make it okay, Pads.'

'I know that.'

'If anything it makes it worse,' Remus says, and feels guilty for the hurt that flashes across the other boy's face.

'I'm sorry.'

'You need to stop saying that,' he's weakening, he can feel it. The words 'I love you' are swimming round his head and making him soft. He wants to say it back, but he can't. Not like this. Instead he says, 'I don't want you to stay away.'

Sirius looks back up at him from where he has been staring dejectedly into his lap.

'I miss you, but I don't forgive you yet.'

Sirius is nodding like a sinner reprieved, hope burning in his grey eyes.

'I want to. It's gonna take time, Sirius, but I can't keep ignoring you anymore. It hurts too much.'

'I promise,' Sirius says, leaning forward and taking Remus' hand in both of his own, 'I will earn your forgiveness. I promise.'

Remus nods. It's enough for now.

'Okay.'

[everythingpeaches]

In Which Sirius Makes a Mistake Part 1.

'I'm sorry,' he says quietly over breakfast that morning. Remus doesn't answer, just shakes out his copy of the prophet and dissappears behind its pages.

'I'm sorry,' he whispers over Remus’ shoulder in charms. The boy in front doesn't reply, but Sirius knows he has heard him by the tension that ripples out across his back.

'I'm sorry,' he scribbles on a piece of parchment and charms it over to where Remus is sitting writing out his notes in History of Magic. The scrap of paper ignites and dissapears into ash.

He can't apologise at lunch, because Remus isn't there, and he has muggle studies that afternoon with quidditch practice straight after so he can't apologise then, either.

When he gets back to the common room, damp and cold from the rain, he searches for Remus and finds him sitting at a table beneath the windows with Lily. They are doing homework, papers and books spread out around them. Remus sees him, catching his gaze and then breaking it again just as quickly.

This may be, he thinks as he trudges slowly up the stairs of Gryffindor tower to his dormitory, the worst thing he has ever done. It is certainly the worst he's ever felt, worse even that when his family disinherited him and kicked him permanently out of his home. At least then he could flee to the safety of James and his family. This time, even his best friend has no comfort for him, just a reproachful tone and disappointed gaze.

He keeps replaying that night in his mind, acting it out over and over with a different outcome every time. If only he had kept quiet, if only he had just shut his mouth for once in his sorry life. What he would do to take it back, to swallow those careless words which have caused so much damage.

Things had been good. They had been happy. Sometimes Sirius thought he could not help but ruin things. It must be some innate quality, some inherited evil that he cannot fully repress. The Black in his veins, corrupting everything it touches.

He showers, the water burning his skin and soap stinging his eyes. He cries, something he hasn't let himself do since he was a boy in a house full of family who hated him. When he comes out of the bathroom finally, James is there sitting on his bed. He takes his glasses off, rubbing the bridge of his nose, and Sirius wonders when the scrawny boy from his childhood had grown up into a man.

'Hi,' Sirius says, because he can never stand a silence and he especially cannot stand silence from James.

'Hi,' James replies tiredly. 'Have you spoken to him yet?'

'I've tried, he doesn't want to hear it.'

'I don't blame him.' It hurts, but it's true. Sirius doesn't blame him either. 'I'm really mad with you, Pads.'

'I'm mad at me too.'

'Yeah, I know.' James was always so calm in his anger. Sirius wishes he would shout at him, maybe give him a good smack. This quiet disappointment was so much worse. 'I still don't understand what happened, what were you thinking?'

'I don't know. I don't think I was, really. Snape was just going on and on about how he knew something was going on with Moony, how he'd find out and then he... well he said some pretty disgusting stuff. About him and about me, I just lost it.'

Tears are welling up in his eyes again and James has the deceny to pretend not to notice when Sirius wipes them away.

'I get that, believe me I do, but why the Willow? Why tell him to go there when you knew-'

'I don't know,' Sirius cuts him off, unable to hear James say it. When he knew Remus was there, when he knew what it would mean. 'It's the worst thing I've ever done.'

James doesn't reply to that.

'Do you think you-'

James cuts Sirius off this time, 'No, Sirius, if he doesn't wanna speak to you that's his decision and you have to respect it. This is for you to fix, if you can, me and Pete won't get involved.'

Sirius nods, ashamed for asking.

'You're right.'

'I hope you can, though, for what it's worth. I've never seen you both so happy as you have been this year.'

The tears are threatening to return, so Sirius turns away to slip behind his curtains.

'Thanks, James,' he says, before climbing into his bed and hiding himself beneath the covers.

[everythingpeaches]

In which it's Peter's birthday, and the Marauder's throw a party.

'HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. YOU LOOK LIKE A RODENT AND YOU SMELL LIKE ONE TOO!'

James and Sirius finish their piercing rendition of happy birthday with a dramatic flourish, striking a pose from where they are stood on top of the drinks table.

There is a raucous round of applause from their usual crowd of sycophants, and even Peter looks rather pleased despite the insult.

'What did you think,' asks Sirius, coming to sling an arm around Remus’ shoulder, 'We wrote it ourselves.'

James approaches alongside him, his party hat hanging off the side of his head.

'Don't give up your day job, Black,' says Mary, holding a venomous looking glass of liquor in a well manicured hand.

'Ah well, you see MacDonald, I am unfathomably rich and have no need for a day job.'

'Well you were,' says James, 'But then you got disinherited.'

'Oh yes, of course. Silly me. Thank goodness for good old Uncle Alphy, eh?'

'Where's Pete gone, we need to give him his present?' Asks Remus, buckling slightly under the heavy weight of a drunken Sirius.

'Gone,' the boy draped across his shoulders says, wiggling his fingers and waving out into the distance, 'gone and left us for cake and womanly kisses.'

'You sound jealous, Black,' says Mary.

'Of the cake maybe, but I have no need of womanly kisses.'

'Been getting enough elsewhere, have we?' Marlene teases, shooting a pointed look at Remus who has suddenly become very interested in the bottom of his bottle.

'Oh look, my drinks empty,' he says, attempting and failing to unlace himself from Sirius.

'No, you can't abandon us too!' complains the other boy, grabbing hold of Remus’ arm.

'I'm not abandoning you, I'm getting a refill.'

'That's what they all say, then they're off in some corner with a long-haired temptress. Look!' Sirius points at where Lily and James have snuck away, standing awfully close to each other by the fireplace and laughing.

'There, there,' Remus says, patting Sirius' hand where it's wrapped around his forearm, 'You're the only long-haired temptress I'm interested in.'

'Well in that case,' Sirius says, eyes darkening mischievously, 'Shall we sneak away and find our own dark corner?'

'Tempting, but maybe we shouldn't leave the party we're hosting one hour in.'

'You ruin my fun you know, Moony?'

'I thought I was your fun?'

'You can be both, you're a very complex person like that.'

'I'm going to assume that's a complement. Oh look, here comes Pete.'

The birthday boy was indeed making his way over to the group, a satisfied and slightly smug smile plastered across his face. He, too, is wearing a party hat and also a lot of red lipstick across his lips and cheeks.

'Bloody hell, Wormy, who's attacked you?' Sirius asks with a laugh.

'Dianna Jones, that's who I saw you huddled away with under the stairs isn't it?' Mary says.

'Oh she's in our Care of Magical Creatures lesson, she's really nice!' Marlene answers encouragingly.

Remus thinks nice is probably an overstatement, but not wanting to burst Peter's bubble he smiles and agrees.

'Nice one, Pete.'

'Thanks. We're going to Hogsmede together next weekend,' he says and then, apparently unable to stop himself, he adds, 'She asked me!'

They all make noises of approval and Pete puffs up his chest proudly. He is rosy cheeked from drink and grinning madly.

'Oh Pete, we've got your present!' Lily says, finally rejoining the group with a very satisfied looking James.

'What have you two be-' Remus stops Sirius with a hand over his mouth.

'I'll just grab it,' Marlene says, hurrying away.

Sirius licks Remus' hand with an extremely wet tongue.

'Eugh!' The werewolf wipes his hand down the length of Sirius' arm to dry it off. 'You're disgusting.'

'You love it.'

There's a second where Remus thinks Sirius is going to say 'you love me' and his heart jumps nervously because, yes he does, but he hasn't got round to telling Sirius that yet and he doesn't want it saying in front of his friends in the middle of a very busy Gryffindor common room. Sirius, too, seems to sense danger in his choice of words and his face flushes. They both look away from each other, the rest of the group seemingly unaware of their sudden awkwardness.

Marlene thankfully chooses that moment to reappear with Pete's elaborately wrapped birthday present. He tears off the paper like a child on Christmas morning and cries out in pleasure when he sees the brand new wizard chess set inside.

'Oh wow, thanks guys! Mine was so battered.'

'We know,' said Mary, 'This one has a self mending charm.'

'Ah it's great, thanks so much!'

The rest of the party goes on, and the crowd starts the thin as students stagger back to their dormitories. Eventually it is just their small group that's left, spilled out over cushions and around the fireplace.

James has got his arm around Lily, who's laughing at a story Mary and Marlene are telling. Pete is half asleep, mouth drooping open where he leans back against the armchair. Sirius is sat against Remus' side, fingers tracing patterns on the back of his hand as they talk.

It's in moments like this, Remus thinks, he is most happy. When the moon is a distant memory, a barely visible cresent hidden behind cloud cover. He struggles to remember the loneliness of his early childhood. How good life can be, he thinks, and hopes for many more nights like this one.

[everythingpeaches]

In which Sirius is distracted by green apples.

Lily, despite the past five years of intense dislike, has grown rather fond of James in the past year. But Lily is also a human being with a finite amount of patience and James on his own is very different to James and Sirius together.

'What have you done?'

It's a pointless question, she can see what they've done. What they've done is spilling like rapids down the fourth floor corridor and staining the hardwood green.

'It was an experiment,' Sirius says with a reckless amount of nonchalance.

'It was an accident,' James corrects with a more appropriate degree of chagrin.

'What exactly were you trying to do?' Asks Remus, looking far more amused than Lily who has turned a rather lovely shade of plum.

Lily took her role as a prefect a lot more seriously than Remus, who had thought it a joke when his shiny gold badge had first arrived in the mail. The other marauders had certainly found it hilarious. It had turned out not to be a joke, though, but rather some harebrained plan by Dumbledore to instill a level of control over the unruly marauders. So far, the plan had been unsuccessful, mostly because Remus ignored his prefect duties on every occasion presented to him. Still, the private bathroom had its perks and he didn't mind patrolling when it was with Lily. That was until they stumbled upon James and Sirius in the middle of a slime filled corridor.

'Well James bet me five sickles that I couldn't transfigure the water in the taps to firewhisky-'

'A bet I won, by the way,' James interrupts.

'Well anyway, I got a bit distracted while I was casting and I think I got my ahs and oohs mixed up, and well...' he trails off, gesturing to the mess around them.

It's a wonder no professors have emerged to investigate the sound of rushing water or the cries of alarm coming from some of the lower hanging paintings.

'It actually smells rather lovely,' Remus says.

'Green apple,' Sirius confirms with a nod and a slight blush.

It was the smell of Remus’ shampoo.

'Oh,' Remus says, his own cheeks flushing.

Oblivious, Lily throws her arms in the air and lets out a huff of annoyance.

'Well, as lovely as it smells it can't stay here. It's going to start running down the stairs. Can't you stop it?'

'Ah well, in theory yes!' Sirius says, pulling his gaze from the other prefect to smile brightly at the angry red head.

'But in the very practical sense,' James says, attempting seriousness, 'no.'

'I've never been as good at the counter charms, my attention span doesn't usually last that long. I like making messes, not cleaning them up.' Sirius explains, leaning casually against the wall and twirling a piece of hair around his finger. 'That's normally Moony's job, but you've stolen him from us.'

'Well I am sorry, Black, but I should think you ought to learn to clean up after yourself, don't you? Remus isn't your maid.'

Remus thinks that role describes him rather perfectly, but the look in Sirius eyes tells him he's one comment away from making a joke about Remus in a frilly white apron so he shuts up and leaves Lily to the admonishing.

He instead turns his focus to the ever flowing stream of green. It looks very much like the same spell they had used to flood the dungeons in third year, with a few tweaks Remus is sure he can work out.

He loves undoing magic. It is like untangling threads, picking pieces apart until the knot comes loose and order is restored. He especially enjoys undoing Sirius' spells, who casts magic with such careless ease it leaves Remus both incredibly envious and full of awe.

Remus begins muttering incantations under his breath, twiddling his wand around and feeling the flow of liquid begin to slow and then, eventually, receed back up the corridor and into the taps of the fourth floor bathroom.

Lily, James and Sirius stop their bickering to watch with equal expressions of shock.

'Moony, you're a genius!' James shouts appreciatively.

'Shush!' Lily hisses, flapping her hands at James before turning to Remus, 'Wow, nice work, Remus.'

'Told you,' Sirius says with a smirk.

Remus makes his usual show of modesty, although he is secretly quite pleased with all the praise.

'It was nothing, really, pretty simple. Although I'm not sure what to do about the smell.'

The hallway, now clear of liquid, still smells overwhelmingly of green apples.

'Well it could be worse, at least it's not dungbombs. It is rather lovely,' Lily says, causing Remus to blush again.

'We should probably get away from here before Filch turns up and makes us scrub the teachers' toilets again,' James says and then, hopefully, 'Coming Lily?'

'We should really finish patrolling,' Lily begins but Remus can tell her hearts not in it.

'Oh come on, Lil, it's pretty late already and it's Hogsmede tomorrow, I thought you wanted to get up early to beat the breakfast rush,' he says, glancing at where Sirius is still leaning against the wall. He would very much like to cut his patrol short and head back to Gryffindor tower.

'I suppose...' she starts, and James takes that as all the encouragement he needs.

'Come on, then, I'll walk you back!'

Together, the pair start off down the corridor leaving Remus and Sirius to follow several paces behind.

'So,' Remus asks, watching his two friends in front of them, rather than the boy beside him, 'What was it you were thinking about that distracted you so badly you flooded the corridor?'

'Well,' Sirius replies slowly, fingers brushing against the back of Remus' hand as they walk, 'let's get back to the dormitory and I'll show you.'

'Oi Black,' James calls over his shoulder, making both boys jump suddenly.

'What do you want, Potter?' Sirius hisses back.

'You owe me five sickles.'

[everythingpeaches]

In Which Sirius is obsessed with Remus' mouth.

Sirius, it has become apparent, has a bit of an oral fixation.

Remus, in turn, has an unfortunate habit of putting things in his mouth.

It is becoming a problem for Sirius.

One day in transfiguration, he accidentally misfires the spell he was aiming at his white rabbit and turns James' textbook into a very fine hat.

'Oi!' The quidditch captain yells, making Sirius jump and turn away from where he was watching Remus chewing absently on the end of his pencil.

That same evening, he is caught again by Lily who is lecturing him on his attempt to bribe the fat lady to change the password to the Gryffindor tower to 'James Potter has crabs'. It's a fair retaliation to James' own retaliation from his earlier mishap with the hat, in which James had charmed Sirius' hair purple.

'Sirius, are you listening to me?' Lily asks, who is not unused to Sirius' ignorance but is particularly intrigued by the vacant look on the Black heir's usually haughty features. She follows his gaze to see Remus, sitting with Mary and Marlene, scribbling away at his Care of Magical Creatures essay and sucking enthusiastically on a sherbet lemon.

Ah. That explained that then.

The next morning at breakfast, when Remus is licking jam from his knife, Sirius misses his mouth entirely and dribbles tea down his chin in a rare display of clumsiness.

He misses a bludger and nearly falls of his broom in quidditch practice when Remus, who is watching from the stands, lights a cigarette and plucks a stray piece of tobacco from the corner of his mouth.

His friends have started to notice, even James and Peter, who are usually painfully unobservant when it comes to their fellow marauders' love lives.

Mary buys Remus a whole packet of sugar quills on their next trip to Honeydukes.

Marlene keeps asking the werewolf to roll her cigarettes for her, stating that her tongue is 'just too dry' to do it herself.

Sirius smells a conspiracy.

'You know,' James says to him one evening around Easter while Remus is sucking on a piece of Peter's chocolate egg, 'there's a way to get over this obsession you've got.'

'What? I don't know what you're talking about,' Sirius says in a very unconvincing attempt at nonchalance.

Remus licks melted chocolate from his fingers and Sirius, in turn, knocks his ink well over, covering his muggle studies homework in sticky black liquid.

James laughs, clearing up the spill with a flick of his wand.

'Just snog him already, will you?'

Sirius pretends not to hear him, his pale face turning a very Gryffindor shade of red.

The next day he and Moony are sitting in a quiet corner of the library. Remus actually has work to do, and so does Sirius but he is only pretending to study, and keeps shooting Remus looks out the corner of his eye.

'Pads,' Remus starts, making Sirius jump, 'your book is upside down.'

Shit. Remus is smirking at him, his eyes glinting with that ever-present slyness that makes Sirius’ palms go sweaty.

'Yes, well, I'm a very talented reader,' Sirius replies quickly.

'Hm,' Remus hums, flicking the page over in his own book. He glances at the text in front of Sirius, and a smirk tugs again at the corner of his mouth. 'I never knew you were so interested in flower arrangement charms.'

Sirius looks down at the book, flipping it right way round and reading the chapter title. Well bollocks. He looks back up at Remus, who is leaning forward with his chin on his palm, his expression almost daring. It gives Sirius a sudden burst of confidence, something he only ever seems to lack in the presence of the boy before him.

'There's a lot you don't know about me, Lupin.'

He's flirting.

'Is that so, Black?'

Remus is flirting back.

'Yes, lots of things. I have many interests.'

They are both leaning closer to each other, so close now that Sirius can count the freckles on the other boy's nose. His heart is beating in his ears, and he involuntary wets his bottom lip with his tongue.

'Such as?' Remus asks, his eyes darting down to Sirius' mouth and then back up to meet his gaze with an almost indiscernible arch of his brow.

'Well... you,' and with that, and a rush of giddy adrenaline, he closes the gap and kisses Remus. It's electric. He thinks he might fall off his chair.

Moony is just starting to lace his fingers through Sirius silky black hair, which feels better than Sirius could have been prepared for, when there is an almighty crash from the shelf behind them.

'Yes!' Someone who sounds suspiciously like James Potter hisses, then 'ah fuck!' And a very Lily Evan's sounding 'Shhhh!'

The two boys spring apart and turn to see James, Lily, Mary and Marlene spilling out from behind the toppled bookshelf.

'Fucking hell, Prongs!' Sirius shouts, forgetting they are in a library.

'It was Mary's idea!' James protests, receiving a smack up the back of his head from the girl herself.

'Was not,' She hisses, 'it was a collective effort!'

Remus rolls his eyes, 'You're a bunch of voyeurs.'

'Out!' Comes Miss Prince's angered shriek, hurrying towards them in a fury. '-making such a racket, get out this instant!'

The group scrambles to their feet, hurrying through the shelves to the exit. Remus and Sirius lingering only to gather their books, but before they could hurry after the others, Remus quickly grabs the shorter boys arm and pulls him close, dropping one quick kiss onto his lips.

'Took you long enough,' he mutters, and then follows the rest of the group out of the library leaving Sirius to follow behind, looking very much like he's just been struck around the head with a beaters' bat.