#I can just imagine sirius and remus greeting each other with 'howdy partner!' every time harry is around now

[neongreenllama]

Cherish

@wolfstarmicrofic

cw mentions of sex, nudity, (none of it is explicit or even sexual), excessive use of the word ‘lover’

--

Sirius sighed in contentment as he leaned back into the warm water filling the bathtub. He’s had a long, stressful week full of politics and business meetings and loud teenagers. Months, if he thought about it. Years.

But today he had a free day and for once nothing to worry about for the upcoming week, and he intended to cherish every last –

A gentle knock on the bathroom door disturbed the peace and quiet he had built for himself.

He sighed as the door opened a tiny bit, just so a head could poke in.

“Pads? I really need to piss.”

“Come in, don’t mind me.”

Remus entered and closed the door behind him.

“I’m really sorry to disturb your well-deserved bubble bath, but I’d rather not have to go to the garden and be watched by Mrs. Dawson.”

Sirius waved him off. “Eh, I don’t care. What better sound to accompany your relaxing bath than your lover relieving himself.”

He played with his foam for a while with no other sound in the small room than the quiet popping of bubbles. Then he looked up to find Remus giving him a very pointed look, rolled his eyes, and let himself slide down until the water enveloped his head completely, so that his lover could piss in peace. It really was nice and quiet down there, surrounded only by the calming sounds of water. Unfortunately, the bathtub wasn’t big enough to contain him completely, so his knees ended up poking out and quickly getting uncomfortably cold.

Also, he wasn’t a fish, so he did need to breathe sometimes.

He emerged just as Remus was finishing up and bit back all the comments he wanted make because he knew they would not be appreciated. Just as he was about to ask Remus if he would join him, the door swung open again – no knock, he thought he’d raised him better than that – and a rude teenager waltzed in only to stop in his tracks at the sight of them.

Sirius threw his hands in the air.

“Oh, please, come in. Let’s all piss together as a family. What’s privacy anyway?”

“Er …” the rude teenager said.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Remus said and turned to leave.

“No. Stay,” Sirius drew the words out and reached for Remus’s arm to hold him back. “Join me?” he asked with the sweetest voice he could muster and played with the bubbles to lure him in.

The annoying teenager made a disgusted face. “Maybe I’ll just go to the garden, come to think of it. If Mrs. Dawson asks, I’m fertilizing the flowers.”

“No need,” Remus stopped him. “I’ve work to do anyways.”

And then his lover closed the door behind him (gently, not like other people) and he was left with one moody teenager.

“Go on, then. Do your business.” The annoyingly moody teenager did, and Sirius leaned into the warmth one more. “Will you join me, then? We can play battleship like we used to.” He accentuated his speech by splashing the water.

“Ew, no. I’m not sharing a bath with you.”

Sirius shot him a very dirty look. “I liked you better when you were little.”

“I liked you better when I was little too,” the sassy teenager shot back, and Sirius had to put him in his place by splashing the water at him.

In his attempt to duck out of the way (failed. miserably.) he made a mess.

“Ugh. Aim. Jesus fucking Christ, have I taught you nothing?”

“You –“

“Clean that up,” he interrupted before this could be mistaken for a democracy.

The hormonal teenager rolled his eyes but surprisingly did as he was told – probably because he realized how disgusting he was.

“Get my lover for me, will you?” Sirius spoke as he was finishing up and getting ready to leave.

“Eugh! Stop calling him that!” the hormonal monster that came in the deceivingly innocent form of a teenager spat, making a very disgusted face.

“What else should I call him? Boyfriend? We’re not sixteen anymore. Partner? We’re not cowboys.”

“Anything but that, it’s gross. What happened to good old 'Moony'? Or ‘Remus’?”

Sirius ignored his question and frowned. “When did you start thinking our love is gross? When I had to explain to you what sex was because you walked in on us when you were five – “ he kept talking over the loud groan that erupted “– you asked what it’s called and I said ‘It’s called making love’ and you looked at me with such awe when you asked ‘You can make love?’” The door slammed shut but Sirius kept telling the story he’d told a hundred times to the empty room. “And with big eyes you asked me ‘Where do you put all the love that you make?’ My heart melted. And I said ‘We give it to each other.’” He put a hand to his chest where his heart was. “’And sometimes two people make so much love that they make a baby. Like your when they parents made you.’ And you nodded like that made all the sense in the world. You were so adorable.”

Sirius closed his eyes and breathed in the quiet that came after he had finished speaking. Then he dipped his head under water once more, letting himself sit in total peace for a while. When he emerged, Remus had quietly entered the room.

Sirius smiled sweetly at him. “Changed your mind?”

Remus smiled back. “You’re hard to resist. Work can wait.”

Sirius played with his bubbles while Remus got undressed.

“What happened to our cute little Hazza?” he asked into the companionable silence.

Remus huffed as he pulled off his last clothes.

“Hormones,” he answered, confirming Sirius’s suspicion.

He scooted forward so Remus could get in behind him – the only way they fit into the tub.

“I miss little Harry. He was fun. We should have cherished him more.”

“You seem to forget how much he kept us on our toes,” Remus said as folded his long limbs around him. “You have to see the positive side. We get way more time for ourselves now.”

He settled in and Sirius leaned back into his chest, sinking into his lover’s arms and just che –

“What did you do to Harry by the way? He seemed very put out.”

“Nothing! I didn’t do anything! He started it!”