chapter three
“Have a good night mate, see you.” Donnie pat his back as Remus tugged the rest of his brown leather jacket on. “See you.” Remus smiled back to his wrinkled eyed manager who was taking care of the remaining few customers that hung around, clinging to the last few drops of their pints. It was one of the many things Remus appreciated about Don, he was always determined to let Mary and him leave on time - bar the summer nights when the crowd ushered in at all times. The man loved that bar, having worked there more years than Remus was alive. He was a trooper for his old age, working hard into all sorts of hours in the night but seemingly enjoying it.
“Bye Don, Remus!” Mary called over her shoulder as she pushed the door open, her raven curls bouncing ethereally with each stride. “Night Mary.” Remus called back, evening out his jumper under the layers before following to where the girl had just left.
He stepped out into the cold and leaned against the wall a small distance from the exist. The street was semi bustling with customers that had just left who were waiting on their Ubers or sharing a drunken conversation with some random they had the fortune of finding. Remus belonged in the former category as he pulled out his phone from the pocket of his leather jacket to text Lily and see if she was on her way, his personal taxi for the evening. Luckily she was in the neighbourhood visiting her friend Pandora, Remus usually grabbed the tube on cold nights like these - the couple quid was worth the lack of frostbite.
He slotted his phone back into his pocket after shooting Lily a quick text and idly observed his surroundings once again. To his right he spotted a familiar face not too far away, who seemed to spot him right back. Remus was still not used to the jittering pace his heart beat would take on every time he looked into those stormy eyes, although he was growing addicted to that exact sensation.
Sirius watched him with mirroring intensity, transfixed long enough to let the lit cigarette in between his long fingers go out. He didn’t seem to notice and kept the impromptu staring contest in order. Remus broke the gaze first, flickering his eyes down to the cigarette and back up to those icy eyes that juxtaposed the last of the flickering orange ash falling to the ground.
Remus turned his body to face Sirius, his shoulder now leaning against the wall instead of his back. “Need a light?” He grinned to the man who’s gaze flickered down to the worn down but not finished cigarette in his fingers, only now realising the wind killed it off.
“Might help, yeah.” Sirius smirked back, slightly sheepishly - albeit in a cocky manner, which Remus didn’t know was possible.
Remus pushed his hand into his jean pocket, having to lift his jumper up slightly to reach it and weighed up his options.
Taking a moment of flash confidence, he strode towards the raven haired man. He relished in the height difference as Sirius’ eye-length only came to around Remus’ chin and had to crane his neck up slightly. Remus hardly ever paid attention to the advantages his height gave him but he would be lying if he said that the way Sirius looked gazing up at him like that didn’t make his jeans strain uncomfortably.
Sirius seemed frozen, eyes darting between Remus’ with intensity before he clocked on and brought the cigarette back to his mouth, wrapping those deliciously bloodshot pink lips around the bud. Remus took this opportunity to lean in that small bit further ‘to protect it from the wind’ on a particularly stagnant night. He flicked the lighter and appreciated the way the orange flame lit up Sirius’ cool undertones with warm hues.
Once the end relit Remus tucked the lighter back into his pocket but kept the same distance. Revelling in the way Sirius’ cheekbones hollowed in a sultry manner as he inhaled the smoke, and watching entranced as his jaw fell slack, Adams apple bobbing slightly as he exhaled, flicking his eyes up again to watch Remus in the process. Remus swallowed thickly. The waft of tobacco circled their faces and Remus let the second hand smoke float into his lungs gratefully.
“There you are!” A voice rounded from behind the corner and echoed over Remus’ shoulder. The pair jumped around quickly to face where the voice came from. Remus scratched the back of his neck where the flush was still prevalent and hoped it wasn’t visible in the dim light. “Oh, I don’t think we’ve met, Remus is it?” The wild haired man who Remus remembered to be James stretched out his hand with a friendly grin. Remus grinned back and took his hand, still trying to gain control over his heart beat.
“Yeah, James right?”
James smiled wider at the recognition, “That’s me. We’re just about to order an Uber want to hop in? Bit too chilly for a walk.” He offered as he stuck his hands back into the pockets of his baggy jeans.
“Ah it’s alright, my flatmate Lily’s coming to get me, should be here any minute really. Thanks though” Remus mirrored James mannerisms and stuck his hands into the pockets of his jacket, shifting his weight slightly from each foot back and forth.
James’ eyes comically brightened at the mentioned of Lily, “Lily! Oh, right course!” Remus could see the thoughts racing behind James’ eyes at a rapid speed and grinned to himself at the infatuated man in front of him.
“Speaking of, we were gonna have a couple people round on Friday,” James nodded between him and Sirius, “maybe go out after.. y’know like a proper celebration. Would you both like to come?” James looked to Remus with hopeful eyes.
“Oh yeah, Marlene mentioned the deal. Congratulations by the way, I’ll check with Lily but we should be free.” Remus smiled, he knew Lily was gonna be a pile of nerves but ecstatic either way. Remus found it amusing, the way James brought out this side of notoriously fiery Lily. After months of complaining his ear off in their living room daily debriefs about Marlene’s annoying friend, Remus would never forget the days where her stubborn resolve finally started to deteriorate.
“Wicked! I’ll send you the details, just let me know.” James looked rather triumphant.
Speaking of the devil, Remus’ phone buzzed. “That’s her here now, gotta get going. I’ll see yous.”
He brought his hand up in a small wave and gave both boys a once over with a smile, he caught the curious gaze of Sirius along Remus’ body as he turned around and made his way over to where Lily was parked.
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Sirius wanted to gouge his eyes out with the heels of his palm when he woke up. Although the pressure on his eyes was hardly blocking out the hammering headache in the way he hoped it would. It was moments like these where Sirius hated his impulses the most, the morning after where he had to face the consequences of his own actions. “Need to stay away from tequila shots..” He groaned, repeating that mantra for the 3rd time this month. Never learnt his lesson the first few times apparently.
He hissed as he flipped over in his bed, making his pillow case a spill of raven hair. The light leaking from his bedroom window was now shining directly in his eyes and amplified his tequila induced migraine two fold. He pushed through the throb in his temple and grabbed his phone from the nightstand. Sirius quickly turned his phone brightness down and flipped over once again so that the sun was no longer personally attacking his retinas.
After scanning through the spam of his iMessage notifications - James needed his phone taken off of him when he was drunk God. - he noticed that the band instagram account tagged him in a post. “I swear if Marlene posted those ones we took sloshed last night..” Sirius grumbled to himself into his pillowcase. He curiously tapped on his activity when he saw a fair few accounts follow him and pressed on the tagged post. He recognised the venue, that outfit.. this angle.
Remus. These were his photos, and god did he do Sirius justice. Sirius grinned a cocky little thing before realising there was a tag in the caption. ‘Oh jackpot’. Sirius shot up and leaned against his headboard. Now fully sentient after being a dishevelled shell of a hungover human just moments before. He carefully tapped on Remus’ profile and bit his lip wickedly when he found that his account was in fact public. Sirius manoueivered around his phone as if it was a bomb and he was a professional EOD specialist. He carefully scrolled making sure to not accidentally like one of the photos dated back to 2019.
Most of his photos consisted of ones he took himself on a little digital camera, record shops, book stores, his friends laughing, some of the gigs he had shot, all of which made him even more endearing to Sirius who was already more intrigued than usual. But when he spotted the stray photos Remus posted of himself, Sirius couldn’t help but groan out loud. Sirius’ thumb froze in its tracks, landing on a candid photo someone must have taken for him. There he was, mid laugh displaying his sharp pearly white canines with a pre-rolled cigarette dangling from his teeth.
Sirius involuntarily whined as he felt a pulse from under his boxers.
He wasn’t sure if his dignity could take that, getting off to an instagram picture where the only sliver of skin was his hands and that stretch of skin from where his neck and shoulder meet. The fact that was enough leverage to get Sirius going made Sirius grumble with stubbornness. He was not used to pining, and he was trying his best to not ruin that streak now. He forced himself out of bed and straight into the shower, where he hoped some cold water would shock some sense into that foggy brain of his.