James should be used to walking in on Remus and Sirius by now.
Honestly, it’s like they forget they’re wizards with the frequency that they forget silencing or locking charms. Usually one or the other, rarely both.
He would know, unfortunately.
He should be more annoyed than he is, but instead he finds his boxers feeling tighter than they should at the thought of his best friends getting it on less than twelve feet from him.
“Prongs,” Sirius says.
It’s not a yell to get out, or an apology.
It’s a greeting.
James stops staring at the ceiling, sparing a glance at the frankly ruined looking raven-haired boy.
He feels a rush of jealousy.
Remus regards him with curiosity, and James wonders what he’s done to earn it. His poker face is usually pretty good, good enough to trick Remus when he’s lucky.
Maybe he’s not lucky this time.
“That’s it,” Sirius says, gathering a discarded shirt to put on. Thankfully he’s still wearing sweatpants, James having caught them before it got more explicit.
“I’m tired of this shit,” he whines, looking between a worried looking Remus and a mildly irritated James.
“You want to fuck each other, and I’m not nearly humble enough to think you don’t both want to fuck me as well. Stop being thick about it mentally and start being thick about it elsewhere,” Sirius demands imperiously, waving his hands in the air as if dismissing servants, looking between them both with a stubborn expression affixed on his face.
“You want me to fuck your boyfriend?” James asks, voice as neutral as he can make it.
As often as he’s heard the tone of chaos in Sirius’s laugh, you’d think he’d stop being surprised by it.
“As if you’d be the one doing the fucking,” he responds cheekily, a grin of success at a well-executed joke displayed across his face despite the anxiety obvious in the way he holds his shoulders.
Bold as Sirius is, he’s wrong-footed right now. Vulnerable, and not admitting it.
James fills in where neither of the other two are emotionally prepared to do so.
“Are you asking me into your bed, or into your relationship?” he asks, with more hope leaking in than he wanted to convey. He meant to be neutral.
Sirius is across the room in an instant, hands grasping one of James’ like it’s worth all the gold in Gringotts. Again, he should be used to the way Sirius affects people, but he’s really, really not.
Once he’s on the bed, pulled to sit next to Sirius, facing Remus, it’s Remus who speaks.
“Jamie,” he says chidingly, in that tone that always makes James weak. It’s a single word, but it has an immense effect.
He’ll always say yes to anything that follows that name, as long as it’s from Moony’s lips. He can’t imagine Remus ever asking too much of him, usually asking too little instead.
“For fuck’s sake, Prongs, have some pride. You’re not some cheap trollop. You’re the masculine embodiment of the lesbian uhaul trope, and everyone knows it,” Sirius says flippantly, gaining a laugh from Remus as James’s jaw drops.
He’s witnessed Sirius’s wiles charm many a suitor into a state of awed horniness, but he hasn’t ever been the focus of this specific flavor of his attention.
The candid invitation on his face would disarm greater wizards than him. Even with years of inoculation to Sirius’s charms, he’s still rendered inept when the gorgeous raven-haired man aims his full concentration at him.
It’s not fair.
He looks to Remus for backup out of pure habit, but the expression on his scarred face makes the whole situation worse.
It’s two days out from the full.
James knows that Remus can’t keep his hands off Sirius around this time of the month, much less his eyes, but this time the hungry gaze he’s fantasized about in his weakest moments is leveled at him.
Hungry isn’t an accurate descriptor.
Remus looks ravenous.
“So,” Sirius says, stepping closer to James, eyes roaming lasciviously across James’s still-sweaty t-shirt, the latter having just come from pulling weeds around his personal projects in the greenhouse.
“So?” James asks, his voice breaking with nervousness.
Sirius, always the bold one, closes the door behind them.
“Decide now if you want me to kiss you, because if you don’t say the word no in the next ten seconds, I’m going to jump you,” he says, that specific tone of crude candidness in his voice, something that James is certain only Sirius can pull off without seeming like a total asshole.
He doesn’t think. His brain works slower than Padfoot’s, he knows that, but his body works faster.
It’s always been his one advantage, and he uses it now, pressing Padfoot, his Siri, into the wall as the smaller man wraps his legs around his waist, pressing his hips temptingly against James’s.
Remus groaned in pleasure somewhere in the background, reminding James that they aren’t alone.
This isn’t his Padfoot.
He’s theirs, he thinks, renewing a sense of possessiveness he didn’t realize he had. In retrospect, the feeling definitely isn’t new.
How did he not notice?
He’s been jealous for months. Years, possibly. But every time Remus calls him Jamie and offers a bite of his cherished chocolate bars that he shares only with the two of them, he’s mollified. Or when Sirius demands that James scratch his head while Remus reads the textbook to them, giving James an excuse to relax his eyes and take off his glasses after hours of strain.
James is always made to feel included by the two of them. His jealousy is constantly calmed by the way he’s cared for, like he doesn’t need more.
But he wants more, and he’s pretty sure they want more now, after what he’s seen this morning.
“You’re spiraling, love,” Sirius says, concern radiating from him as he reaches for James, then hesitates.
Is it all ruined? Did he fuck it up without even noticing?
As much as James loves chaos, he isn’t good with change.
Sirius is right, he’s spiraling.
“Jamie,” Remus says fondly. “Come here, both of you,” he says, quietly, but authoritative nonetheless.
They obey without thought.
He takes both of their hands.
James and Sirius can’t meet each other’s eyes.
“You’re both spiraling now,” Remus says with a hum.
He squeezes both of their hands, taking an exaggerated deep breath.
They’ve done this before. Panic isn’t something any of them are immune to, especially with the pressures of their respective families.
It’s not often more than one of them is panicked at once, but Remus handles it with aplomb.
A few breaths later, he speaks again.
“We have a choice here. There’s love between us no matter what,” he waits for both men to nod in agreement. “We can pretend this never happened and go on with our lives as best friends, Marauders undisturbed, or we can rock the boat, and see where this leads. Risk vs. reward, lads,” he finishes with a phrase he’s said to them both a million times.
It’s reassuring in a way James didn’t know he needed.
This is the time to be brave, that’s what Remus is saying.
He usually saves it for right before a truly monumental plan comes to fruition. When James has heard the words previously, he’s always swelled with pride at being at their sides.
He never imagined it in this context. “Risk vs. reward, lads.” It’s the reason Remus had earned the additional nickname “Captain” in their group. In the moments where Peter had long abandoned them for fear of repercussions, Sirius and James stood at Remus’s side, even when the ship was going down.
At least when detention was imminent, they knew they’d suffer it together.
James isn’t good at rocking the boat, but he’s definitely willing to go down on this ship.
With.
He meant with.
“Oh Captain, my Captain,” Sirius says in a tone that James has only heard accidentally before, definitely not a part of a conversation he was included in unless it was during truth or dare, which didn’t count.
The sultry voice is hard to resist when it’s half aimed at him. He half-fears the full force of it, while the other half of him craves Sirius giving him the same level of adoration. Sirius has always known how to make people feel wanted.
He’s run out of halves to assign emotions, but still, another half of him wants Remus’s softness too, the kind he only offers to Sirius, or James in his darkest moments, consumed by weight of his legacy,
He wants that, the softness of Remus’s sweater clutched between his fingers like it’s the most precious material on earth, no panic attack between them, souring the moment.
It’s a selfish desire, one he innately has an urge to resist, but both of them are in front of him, too tempting to say no to, even knowing he’ll never recover once he’s theirs.
He’ll be ruined for anyone else.
He’s okay with that.
More than that, he wants it.
Consequences be damned, he wants them, and he’s almost fifty percent sure they want him too.
“Jamie?” Remus asks again, voice soft and warm again, reminding James he has to answer.
“Yes, yes to whatever this is, however you’ll both have me,” he says, voice rougher than he anticipated.
Sirius beams at him, pure radiance.
Sirius starts undressing himself immediately, to James’s immediate panic, and Remus’s annoyance.
It takes a single huff from Remus for Sirius to stop, pouting up at the werewolf instead.
“To repeat your point, James isn’t some cheap trollop, and therefore you’ve already compromised his morals enough by kissing him before the first date,” Remus says chidingly to a sufficiently repentant Sirius.
Sirius straightens, assuming his House of Black persona for a brief moment as he meets James’s eyes.
“Let me woo you, Prongs? Remus isn’t so good at the romance part, but I’m dramatic enough for all three of us, you know that,” he says formally, despite his uncouth words.
James melts. He can’t help it. He doesn’t know anyone who could, under the full force of Sirius’s pleading.
“Okay,” James gasps out. Moony grins at him, a feral tint to his eyes that makes James’s mouth water as he considers what happens after being wooed.
____________________________________________________________________________
This is weird.
He’s never felt so nervous in his life, and it’s only Sirius and Remus he’s meeting.
Still, he’s never had a date with them before and so this is weird.
Maybe he should back out?
He’s spiraled down this path at least a hundred times today. He always comes back around to the same answer - he can’t.
Sirius and Remus would be perfectly okay with it, but if he chickens out of the potential to have them, both of them, then he’ll never be able to forgive himself and would likely end up a sad old spinster, telling his fifteen cats the story about the two who got away.
So James steels himself, checks his watch, and does another lap around the pitch before heading to the showers to get ready.
He’s been out of the dorm flying circles since five a.m., too antsy to stay in bed once his eyes popped open at the ungodly hour.
____________________________________________________________________________
James dresses up, wearing his favorite sweater, a gift from Sirius last Christmas. He said it would, “make witches and wizards everywhere swoon.”
Time to test it out.
He dabs on a bit of the cologne Moony had bought him for him for his birthday. Apparently the scent went with his natural one better than the cheap cologne he’d had before. Moony always had a sensitive nose before the full, but now James wondered if there was more to these gifts than the platonic light he’d seen them in.
Merlin, was he delusional, or did a lot of their past interactions have a flirtatious element to them?
For God’s sake, James had gifted Sirius a silver necklace and pendant for his birthday. James hadn’t ever so much as given a plastic bracelet to a girl he was dating, for fear that it would make her think he was committing…but when he saw the jewelry in the display case he didn’t think twice. Well, he did think twice, but the second thought was all excitement about seeing the delicate charm around Sirius’ neck.
And when was the last time James had showed up to the hospital wing to visit Remus without flowers and chocolates? Sure, the chocolates were a werewolf thing, but the flowers? Seriously?
How did no one ever call them out on the obvious behavior?
Or did they?
Is that why Lily was always making those jokes?
He thought she just had a weirdly specific type of humor, but no, as per their usual, she was just being less thick than him.
She was definitely going to give him shit about this.
He glances at his watch again, knowing what he’ll see. He’s early, again.
There’s still another two hours to kill.
He pulls out the map, locating Lily and finding her not far from him, sitting outside near the lake.
He finds her within a couple minutes, tucking the map away and taking a deep breath.
“Don’t start with me today, Potter. I’m still not interested and I’ve really enjoyed the last few days of quiet, even if it was a bit suspicious,” she says tiredly, turning the page in her book.
James bites his lip nervously. He needs to talk to someone, and Peter would just be too weird. This is still too weird, but at least she’s not going to run and blab to Sirius all about it. He thinks.
“I’m not in love with you,” Lily looks up at that, eyes narrowed until she sees how much of an anxious wreck he is.
“I know,” she says easily. “Now tell me what has you panicking.”
She pats the picnic blanket she’s sitting on.
He takes the offered seat, breathing slowly before answering. She takes his hand and squeezes it reassuringly, something that would have made him recite poetry to her just a week ago.
She’s never been this nice to him before. He really should have stopped pursuing her years ago. They could have been close friends this whole time.
First, the crisis at hand, he can ponder his past mistakes later.
He’s more worried about his future mistakes at the moment.
“Do you need me to get your boyfriends?” she asks. She’s making a joke, but there’s no meanness to it. She is legitimately asking if he needs them, and she’s apparently willing to go get them for him. She’s been making those jokes the whole time she’s known him.
That’s why he chose her for this conversation.
That and the unrelenting kindness she shows, even when she’s saying unkind things. She’s said horrible things to him over the years, but it’s never hit like a real insult.
“No, I can’t talk to them about this,” he says, Lily’s eyes going wide.
“Must be serious, and not the House of Black kind,” She interlocks their fingers, offering him a bit of her strength.
He gives her a weak smile at her attempted joke. She’s trying to make him comfortable. It’s working.
“I’m meeting them in an hour and a half for our first date,” he says, rushing to get the words out before he can wimp out again.
She sits up straight, tossing her book aside in a way that would make Remus gasp.
“Tell me everything,” she says, squeezing his hand in excited bursts, unable to help the squeal of excitement that comes out of her mouth.
He spends the next hour with his head in Lily’s lap, eyes closed and hand lazily thrown over his face as he gets her opinions on all the things he didn’t realize at the time were absolutely not straight behavior.
He’s struggling, a “useless baby gay” she coos at him, scratching his head lightly.
“Wait wait wait, did you actually say you picked the gem because it matched his eyes, or did you just think it?” she interrupts him at one point, an eyebrow raised in disbelief.
He frowns. “I said it. To him. Out loud, in front of his boyfriend.”
Honestly, what the fuck, James.
“And they weren’t weird about it?” Lily asks, glee displayed vividly in her green eyes when he peeks out from under his hand.
They’re pretty, but Sirius’s are prettier. A nicer shade of green, he thinks, more gray than hers.
He shakes his head.
“Well, Sirius cried a bit, and sat on my lap for a while after that, but that’s not that weird for him, honestly. Moony didn’t make as big a deal out of the ring I got him, but I think he liked it -”
Lily freezes, her fingers stopping their attempts at wrangling his wild locks.
“You gave him that ring? The one he plays with all the time while he reads?” James sits up to look her more directly in the eyes. If she’s not going to play with his hair, there’s really no reason to be in her lap.
He slips his glasses back on, nodding in response to her question.
“Yeah, he really likes fidgets when he thinks, and it has this smaller ring on it that -”
“Spins, I know,” she says, grinning at him. “I’ve been trying to figure out why it was so important to him since he got it. It’s literally his most treasured item. He won’t say a word about it, it’s been driving me crazy for months.”
James flushes, rubbing his cheeks as if it will make the blush disappear, and therefore also the butterflies in his stomach.
“I will absolutely be following up on this later, but I believe your time is up, mister. Your men are waiting,” she taps her watch.
He looks at the time. Ten minutes till, perfect. Just enough time to arrive a couple minutes early, but not enough time to spiral again, even if he walks too fast, which is an inevitability with the level of nervous energy he has.
“Thank you, Lils,” he says, pecking her on the cheek fondly in sincere appreciation like he’d do with any of his friends - not just Sirius and Remus, he’s learned some new boundaries.
But he’s still James, and being physically affectionate is a core part of his personality.
She grins at him, wishing him luck as he walks away.
____________________________________________________________________________
Remus is worried. The rumors of the morning had Sirius in a tizzy, pacing back and forth in their room as he rants.
“You saw the photo, Moony. He finally did it, he got the girl, and now the whole of Gryffindor is planning their nuptials and we’ll be asked to be best men, inevitably, you for Lily, me for James. I love crying at weddings, Remus, this is going to ruin them for me forever. He’ll probably call me brother in his toast,” he’s saying, spinning off rapidly. He’s devolving quickly, the previously perfect eyeliner he’d put on to impress James is smeared now, making him look wilder than normal.
Usually, Remus would already be comforting him, but this time he doesn’t know how. He’s fighting his own heartbreak, but he still desperately wants to cling to the hope that it wasn’t what it looked like in Dorcas’s photo.
It’s just, there weren’t many other things it could be. Remus had never seen James so relaxed with anyone but him or Sirius. Not even Peter made the cut for the level of physical affection present in the constantly moving wizard photograph.
It was a good shot, admittedly. Dorcas said it would be her wedding gift to them someday.
Mary had said that would be a cheap gift, and the conversation evolved from there, while Sirius and himself sat wondering selfishly what it meant for them.
“Moony, what do you think?” Sirius asks, demanding an answer finally from Remus, who has been watching the clock on the wall across from them for some time.
“Maybe you should ask James,” he says, as the clock ticks to two minutes before time, and the door opens, revealing a positively glowing James.
“Ask me what?” James replies automatically, his smile fading as he takes in their matching expressions of hurt.
“What happened?” He asks immediately, moving to Sirius first as he looks to Remus for a response, his hands reaching without hesitation to fix the smeared eyeliner with gentle, reassuring strokes.
“Dorcas had a photo of you and Lily, from this morning,” Remus says, and James’s eyebrows knit together in confusion, not understanding the unspoken question there.
Sirius looks up at him with watery eyes, brushing aside his hands and stepping away from him.
James flinches back, looking hurt as his eyes flick between them, looking for some explanation for their unusual behavior.
“Did you just come to tell us the happy news?” Sirius says, acid oozing from his perfectly enunciated words.
Remus frowns. “No need to mean, Sirius.” He looks back to James, who just looks lost.
“Everyone thinks you’re dating Lily,” he says, finding the words finally.
James’s mouth pops open in surprise, his cheeks flushing as he connects the dots.
“Oh. Oh,” he looks less stressed by the second. Sirius looks at him as his shoulders un-tense, his annoyance mounting.
Sirius really doesn’t like being out of the loop.
Remus doesn’t either, but he’s generally less bitter about it than his dramatic counterpart.
“Definitely not what happened. I was freaking out this morning, and then it hit me, I need a new best friend!” he says victoriously, as if that explains everything.
Sirius cries openly now, taking a seat on Remus’s lap as he coos at the smaller boy, rubbing circles in his back.
He’s pretty sure what Sirius thinks is happening is not what is actually happening, but since he isn’t sure what’s happening either, he doesn’t feel equipped to provide any actual comfort.
He does have questions, though.
James is about to have a meltdown across the room, looking at Sirius in panic as he sobs into Remus’s shoulder.
He keeps opening his mouth to speak, or moving to cross the room, but then he stops himself.
Remus takes a breath, hands tightening where he’s holding Sirius.
“I think you should sit down on the bed and tell us what you mean before Sirius spirals any further,” he says.
James obeys immediately, taking the spot next to Remus, close enough to touch but maintaining the distance for now.
“I meant that I need a new best friend because you both can’t be anymore. You’re going to be my boyfriends, I hope,” he says quietly, like he’s afraid of the words.
Remus’s stomach flips. He needs to hear it again before he really believes it -
Sirius looks up from Remus’s shoulder, eyes narrowed at James menacingly.
“Then why were her hands all over you, and why do you smell like her shitty perfume,” he says, obviously jealous. Remus wants to intervene, but something in James’ expression stops him.
James is even more well-versed in dealing with an unruly Sirius than Remus is.
“You don’t have to worry about Lily, Pads, you’re far prettier than she is,” he’s said those exact same words to Sirius before, sarcastically then. There’s no doubting his sincerity now, not with the way he’s looking at Padfoot.
The words sound different in this context, a flirtatious grin on James’s face, his eyes boldly tracing the curve of Sirius’s lips.
Remus swallows hard, and the motion captures James’s attention, eyes dropping to Remus’s throat.
He’s never seen James like this, so uninhibited. He’s not flustered like when they’d first discussed this. He’s a man who’s decided exactly where his place is in the world, and he’s living his role to the fullest. James is weirdly in his element.
“I should thank Lily. Whatever she said to you was apparently a confidence boost. It looks good on you,” Remus responds cheekily, making James blush.
Sirius’s head whips to look at him, his face etched with overdramatic betrayal.
“We’re still mad at him,” he says to Remus, who rolls his eyes in response. “Flattery will only get you halfway there!” he barks at James, who laughs.
“How about I make it up to you - both of you - on our date? We can even snog in public to dispel the rumors, if you want. Or start some new ones,” he waggles his eyebrows in a look of pure mischief. “Then I’ll just have a reputation as a respectable slag instead of them thinking I”m dating her. I mean, Lily, you, and Remus, all in one day? People would be frothing at the mouth with jealousy over one or another of us.”
Sirius smacks James’s arm, before moving off of Remus’s lap to place his offending hand on James’s thigh instead.
“That would be a good start, minus the part where you included her,” he raises an eyebrow. James holds up his hands in assent, urging him to continue. “I also expect flowers, publicly. And you’re not getting her anything for Christmas.”
Remus scoffs, about to intervene. “Counter-offer,” James says before he can respond, a mischievous glint in his eye.
“I get her fluffy socks, and I get you and Moony more definitely not platonic jewelry to match the stuff from last Christmas,” Remus really shouldn’t have worried about how James would handle an angry Sirius, even in the new context.
Sirius is a blushing mess in an instant, his hand automatically reaching up to touch the moss agate. He does the motion so often, there’s a shiny spot on the gem from his fingers brushing against it.
“I accept your terms,” Sirius says imperiously, in stark opposition to how melted he is under the radiant light that James’s affection fills the room with. How the hell had Remus ever managed a stroppy Sirius before James intervened?
Remus has never met someone as warm as him, one reason he’s never been able to deny James anything. Sirius is the same, apparently.
New context or not, this was his Jamie. Their James. The same one he’d always been, just a bit cheekier.
___________________________________________________________________________
Sirius re-applies his makeup quickly, preening when James and Remus praise him.
“Sirius isn’t the only pretty one,” Remus says lightly, testing the waters.
Sirius watches for James’s reaction. Remus never needed to be worried, James blushes prettily at him like he hung the stars.
“Thank you,” he says sweetly, looking away suddenly and rubbing the back of his neck. He’d been bold moments before, but that bravado is gone now, replaced by the awkward virgin going on the first date that’s ever mattered to him.
“When was the last time you were on a real date, Prongs, not that Madam Puddifoot’s nonsense you take girls to for a laugh?” Sirius asks, trying to make light of the situation, but unfortunately he manages to hit on James’s anxiety in one go.
“Um,” James says, a self-conscious look on his face. “Never?”
Remus and Sirius look at him with surprise on their faces.
“You’ve been on lots of dates, though,” Sirius says blandly, going through his memories with a fine-toothed comb.
James shrugs.
“You weren’t going on dates all those times, were you?” Remus asks.
James shakes his head. “It started with one girl asking me out to make the guy she liked jealous, and then it worked, and I guess she told her friends, and I’ve just been kind of matchmaking the whole time,” he shrugs again.
Sirius is cackling. Remus is still stuck on one thing -
“So we get to take you on your first real date, ever?” he asks, and James doesn’t think he’s imagining the possessive tone of his voice.
Sirius stops laughing as soon as his brain catches up with Remus’s observation.
“Does that mean you’re a -” Remus cuts him off, throwing the closest pillow to him at Sirius to stop him.
James looks small, self-conscious.
“Yes, okay, I’m a virgin,” he says frustratedly, refusing to meet either of their eyes.
“You know that’s okay, right? It doesn’t change anything, except my plans for the third date,” Sirius winks at James, who’s starting to look less embarrassed.
“Why don’t we table this for later. I’m sure it will come up again at a later point,” James’s eyes flash with amusement. They both know what’s coming next.
“That’s what she said!” Sirius barks excitedly.
____________________________________________________________________________
An hour later, they’re in a restaurant in Hogsmeade that James has never been to before.
It’s not the type of place teenagers come to, he can already tell by the snobbish look of the host who greets them.
All three are underdressed for the establishment, but the moment Sirius turns on the pureblood manners and drops his last name for the reservation, the man suddenly doesn’t seem so upset about their presence.
In fact, he looks weirdly impressed. Even punk eyeliner and a muggle band t-shirt aren’t enough to diminish the royal air Sirius has about him when he chooses to.
After the maitre’d has taken their drink orders, Sirius ordering an elvish wine for the table, James turns to Sirius with wide eyes.
“This place is really nice,” he says, a bit in awe.
There aren’t even prices listed on the menu.
“Does he spoil you like this all the time?” he asks Remus, who blushes, sheepish as always about accepting gifts. He shrugs, subtly spinning the outer ring of the dull gold ring.
“It would be significantly more often if he let me,” Sirius says in a bored sing-songy voice, flicking through the menu with a look of extreme concentration.
“Might as well put that down, Jamie. He always picks when we come to fancy places like this. Unless you have a secret knowledge of French food I don’t know about?” Remus asks challengingly, gesturing to the menu.
James happily sets aside the menu, which was entirely in French. He’d been stumbling through the basics, glad one of his babysitters growing up was French. It wasn’t much, and definitely not enough for the complex culinary terms he was sure it was filled with.
“I surrender control completely. French is not my preferred language. But at some point, I have to take you to my favorite curry house in London so I can do the same,” he says mock demandingly.
Sirius looks up at that, eyes locked onto James’s with steely determination. “I accept your terms, providing it’s not that place we ate at after the concert.”
Remus snorts. “That wasn’t even a curry place. How drunk were you? You ate four slices of that pizza, you weren’t complaining then.”
James grins at the memory. “He was off his arse. You don’t remember him being that fucked up because you were definitely on his level. You tried to order a full English at a pizza joint.”
The maitre’d clears his throat, arriving with the wine for Sirius to taste and approve before pouring their glasses.
Sirius orders for them as promised, speaking flawless French to the frankly dumbstruck older man.
James and Remus sit back comfortably as Sirius handles it.
They’re all struggling with finding the balance between the old and new, but they’re getting there, finding ways to mix the flirting with the older humor. They bounce off of each other so naturally in conversation, always have.
The new dynamic is evolving, but it’s working for them.
____________________________________________________________________________
Valentine’s Day is in three days, Remus realizes with absolute horror a few days after their date..
Things have been going well, so well.
“I need help,” Remus says suddenly, his quill paused above the parchment where he’d just written today’s date, causing the realization.
Lily looks up from her books with concern. They could go hours studying together without talking, but this wouldn’t be one of those times, she guesses, closing the book she’d been puzzling over with a final-sounding thud.
“Which one of your boyfriends is it about this time?” she asks, amusement in her eyes.
Remus blushes. Between him and James, and now Sirius too insisting on Lily being his new best friend as well, Lily has been privy to more information about their relationship than any of them individually.
She’s now their resident expert, and considering how hard she ships it, she’s not exactly upset.
She’s already been planning to bring Dorcas and Mary into the mix to lighten the load though.
No matter how intriguing the gossip, she still has homework to complete.
“Valentine’s Day, it’s soon,” he says with horror.
She frowns at him. “Don’t tell me that you haven’t planned anything,” she says, concern stitched between her brows.
He shakes his head, eyes growing more panicked by the second.
She waves her wand, gathering their things immediately and standing.
“Get up, you fool! You’re dating the two most sickly sweet romantics in the world, who have undoubtedly planned ridiculous shows of affection for you. We need to get planning!” she says authoritatively, smacking her hand on the table to make him snap out of it.
He snaps to attention, following her out of the library immediately.
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It’s not enough. Remus isn’t good at proclamations or grand gestures like the other two, so he’s stuck with gifts as his primary option.
He worked on the gifts for almost two days straight, claiming he was doing an extra credit project to dispel Sirius’s suspicious eye. Lily dropped by often, doing what she could to speed the process along.
But now it’s one sleep away, and he doesn’t feel like it’s enough. Nothing could be enough.
Still, he waits till he can hear two sets of sleeping breaths, then sneaks the boxes into their school bags, hidden underneath their usual supplies, but just under the surface, so they should find them sometime during their first class of the day.
He goes to sleep then, hoping that he doesn’t disappoint tomorrow.
____________________________________________________________________________
“Good morning, moonbeam,” he’s woken by a very cuddly Sirius.
“Good morning,” he says, voice rough with sleep and desire for the beautiful man before him.
“Do you know what day it is?” Sirius asks, eyes heavy as they scrape over Remus’s sleepy form.
It’s too early to be this turned on.
“No, is today something important?” he asks.
James snorts, holding up one hand in a silent countdown, making Remus chuckle when exactly on cue, Sirius flops backwards on the bed dramatically, whining about how he’s the only romantic left in the world.
Remus and James share a smile just for them, Sirius too focused on his antics to notice their silent reverie.
They adore him, they really do.
“Siri, he’s fucking with you,” James is the first to give in, grinning as Sirius raises his head, looking at Remus with narrowed eyes.
“You. Betrayed. Me. That’s it, James is getting all of your gifts too,” he says petulantly.
Remus grins, pressing Sirius to the bed so fast that James is reminded of just how supernatural his boyfriend’s wolfy strength can be.
He presses a kiss hungrily to Sirius’s lips until the smaller man is squirming.
Then he lets up suddenly.
James watches them with flushed cheeks. He’s shared a few pecks with both of them, cuddled some, but they haven’t gone past that.
They’re taking this slow. For him, he’s reminded. Does he still want to go slow?
He thinks of fucking them, even in the abstract.
Yes. He definitely wants to go slow.
He wants it, but all of this is new to him. He wants to learn how to date them at all before they take that step.
But he could stand to go a bit faster… Making out in the room of requirement didn’t sound half bad the more he thought about it. Or maybe just more kissing? He wouldn’t mind being pressed down by Remus like that.
He’s spiraling again. He’s doing that a lot lately.
“That was your Valentine’s gift by the way,” Remus says to Sirius, getting an offended gasp in response.
James laughs at that, breaking him out of his dirty thoughts.
“I’ll see you two at breakfast,” he says with a wink. “I’ve got to pick something up on the way.”
He walks out, hands in his pockets, humming pleasantly to himself as he goes.
“So he’s gotten way hotter lately, right?” Sirius says as soon as the door closes behind James.
Remus nods readily.
“It’s the confidence,” he says hungrily, humming in thought.
Sirius looks at him with an arched eyebrow. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you two eyefucking earlier,” he says, making Remus feel very called out.
“Is it a problem?” he asks.
Sirius laughs. “You know it’s not. He checks out my ass more than yours. That’s all the validation I need. So what if he wants to be under you like I was. I can empathize.”
It’s easy to forget how observant Sirius is sometimes.
Remus and James have better grades. James excels at academics and has more emotional intelligence than the other two put together, despite his naivety. Remus is the philosopher, the planner.
Sirius, though? He’s cunning. He sees every detail in perfect clarity, and he never forgets. He’s the one they rely on most when things go sideways, when all planning and preparation has gone sideways, and all that’s left is to talk their way out of it.
People trust James and Remus, but they adore Sirius,
“Breakfast, love?” Sirius says, already rising, reaching for his shirt and tie.
Remus grins, luxuriating in the knowledge that Sirius is his.
Theirs, now.
It feels happier that way, as if it would be selfish to be the only one loving Sirius.
“In a minute,” he says gruffly, pulling a surprised Sirius back to bed in a practiced move.
____________________________________________________________________________
Prongs is panicking.
They’ve discussed this. They’re not keeping it a secret, and honestly, most people will probably chalk it up to their usual antics anyways.
Still, walking into the Great Hall with flowers on Valentine’s Day is a statement, even if James has done it before. It meant so much less then.
“You’ve got this, Potter,” Lily says, appearing from nowhere. It was more likely that she had simply been walking to breakfast and saw him, but he’s so zeroed in on his task that he jumps at the interruption.
“Chill, they’re already dating you. This is the easy part now. They’re going to love it. Now get in there,” Lily gives him a little push, and he starts walking.
His brain may be frozen, but his feet still seem to be working at least.
By the time he reaches the table, he’s remembered that he’s a Gryffindor.
He bows dramatically to Remus, offering the bouquet with a flourish. He’d had to special order the correct flowers for this one, but he knew Remus knew the language of flowers from all of his secret victorian romance novels, so he thought the effort would be appreciated.
Remus blushes bright red as James leans in close to whisper, “I found your stash of romance novels three years ago. There’s no card, you’ll figure out what they mean.”
The people watching groan in frustration, hoping for the public proclamation they’d expected.
“Thank you, Jamie,” Remus says softly, looking over the flowers with curiosity.
James sits down, then, gathering food onto a plate as Sirius stares at him expectantly.
“Excuse me!” he says, a dramatic response poised on his lips, gaining several sets of eyes.
James planned it this way.
Remus liked his antics, sure, but he didn’t like the lingering attention afterwards. James smiles briefly at Remus as he allows Sirius to make a small scene about being neglected, ending in a pout that has several people giggling.
As always, Sirius knows just how to play to a crowd.
He knows James is ramping up to something when James turns an imperiously arched brow to him, a nearly perfect mimic of Sirius. “Did you need something?” he says, earning several laughs from the crowd.
When everyone’s eyes are on the gasping Sirius, James grins at him, turning the full force of his most charming smile onto the shorter wizard, leaning slightly too close into his space, close enough to get a whiff of Sirius’s shampoo. Green tea and sandalwood.
Back on task, Potter, there’s an audience to please.
This is the real part of his gift after all, not the flowers he’s hidden behind his bag, but the public declaration, the show.
Sirius and Remus are possessive in different ways.
This suits them both, in different ways. People will hardly remember Moony’s part in this, focusing on Sirius and James, centerstage, just as Remus likes it.
“You didn’t really think I’d leave you out, love?” James interrupts Sirius with a single beseeching comment. He’s laying the honey on thick, giving his biggest heart-eyes.
“Star of my heart, don’t you know that bouquets just don’t suit you?” Sirius frowns, confused now that he’s been complimented to bits. He can’t be mad at James when he looks at him like that.
“Then what suits me?” Sirius asks with a practiced quiver of his lip.
James’s eyes dip to watch the motion, just as Sirius wanted.
He falters for a second before regaining his footing. This is his show, after all.
Sirius loves the spotlight, but he knows when it’s not his time to be the star.
James summons the lush flower crown, still hidden beneath bland brown wrapping paper, to his hand wordlessly, serving two purposes - showmanship, and finding out if he’s right that Sirius gets turned on when he flexes magically.
Sirius has always been shy about dueling him, while challenging anyone else who looks his way, but he loves watching James duel, always pushing him to go for another round.
James didn’t think much of it until Lily told him that she’d seen Sirius literally drool once when James performed a complex wordless spell.
Sirius claimed to be sapiosexual, maybe that extended to magical proficiency.
Sirius’s eyes turn dark, and James gets the feeling that he’s prey that’s being stalked.
James was probably spot fucking on with that observation, he delights.
“Every drama queen needs his crown,” James says, winking as the paper magically unfolds. Like unfurling leaves.
He practiced that move a lot.
An embarrassing amount, but it’s worth it for the effect it has.
To be fair, it’s not all the spell. It’s mostly Sirius’s astounded gasp that causes the crowd to react. Even the professors look invested at this point. Money is changing hands in a few places across the Great Hall.
Sirius is the perfect picture of a shocked starlet, mouth poised in a perfect “o”, but James knows different.
Sirius is playing into it exactly as he expected.
Sirius is a wild card that only James can anticipate the outcome of in his most chaotic moments.
Sirius reaches for the crown, but James slaps his hand away, earning giggles from the crowd, and a few gasps.
Sirius glares at him, until James reaches to place it on Sirius’s head himself.
“You can’t crown yourself,” James says teasingly, and Sirius relents with only an eyeroll as argument.
James didn’t anticipate what would happen after the show.
This was as far as he got, and now he was blushing.
Sirius waved his hands imperiously, “Shoo, your Queen dismisses you,” Sirius says with a smile, but a tone that leaves no room for argument.
People laugh, but they do turn away eventually. Remus meets eyes with a bashful James, an absolutely glowing Sirius piling food onto all three of their plates in practiced motions, insisting that neither of them eat enough, really.
There’s something deeper than Remus’s usual amber as he looks at James this time, and James wonders if that’s what he looks like when he’s in love.
James can empathize.
Too early, too fucking early, James. He chides himself mentally, focusing on his breakfast instead of the way Moony is looking at him.
____________________________________________________________________________
Sirius has a different class for the first period, so he sends them both off with a kiss on the cheek and a flirtatious smile.
James and Remus have fifteen minutes till runes, and that seems like forever with the bouquet hanging between them heavily.
“Jamie,” Remus stops suddenly in the hallway, a few doors down from their class, too early for people to be milling about.
Everyone was late on Valentine’s. It was practically tradition.
“Jamie?” Remus asks again, finally getting the brown eyed man to meet his eyes.
“You know it’s not fair when you use that name,” James whines, quiet enough to prove he has some self preservation.
“Oh?” Remus says, glancing briefly somewhere behind James before pushing the slightly shorter male backwards through a tapestry that he holds open suddenly.
James isn’t breathing.
There are more important things, like the fact that Remus just revealed a place that he really needs to add to the map. Also, Remus is hot, and so much closer than normal.
“You know that bouquet was basically a profession of undying love, right?” Remus says, his breath hot against James’s ear.
He didn’t need to consult his flower language dictionary for James’ message. It was heavy-handed, blunt, straight to the point - every bit the daring Gryffindor Remus knows him to be, more lion than him and Sirius combined.
James nods, unable to form words at the moment.
“As long as we’re clear,” he growls, his mouth latching onto James’s lips first in a brief but passionate kiss.
He pulls back, looking for James’s reaction.
Whatever he sees, it triggers him to go back in for more.
This time, it’s not his mouth. James moans as Remus sinks his teeth into James’s neck, undoubtedly leaving a hickey.
James has never been so turned on.
Remus steps back then, fixing his clothes carefully before leaving the alcove, only pausing before the exit to say, “Just so you know, that was your gift.”
He winks, mimicking James’s flair before leaving. “Liar!” James calls out belatedly behind him.
He checks his watch with a sigh of relief. He has a couple minutes to get himself together before he has to face people again.
____________________________________________________________________________
Sirius finds the box first, in his spare time before class starts, having given Remus time to express his appreciation for the flowers appropriately in private.
He’s digging for his favorite quill when he comes across it.
It’s red, a gold ribbon tied around it in a simple cross.
He makes sure no one is watching before untying it, opening it to reveal a small metal compact mirror, beautiful silver, obviously antique, but probably not very expensive.
He’s touched, but when he reads the note, his perspective about it shifts.
“It’s a three-way mirror. We all have one now. It gets warm when one of us is trying to contact the others, just open it and say our names. One or the other, or both. Love, Your Moony”
It’s not sappy. Remus isn’t sappy.
Remus is thoughtful.
This is more so than usual, though.
What’s that?” Lily asks, settling into her usual spot beside Sirius in Care of Magical Creatures. It was required for the medi-witch track.
Sirius smiles at her, the flower crown sitting proudly on his head to her intense amusement.
“Oh, just a casual declaration of love from Remus,” he says, inspecting the compact carefully, putting away the box and ribbon it came with.
Lily responds with equal dismissiveness, “Nothing new, then.” She takes her class materials out, leaving it at that.
When class ends, Sirius grabs her by the arm, holding her back from leaving.
“Do you think it was an actual declaration of love?” Sirius asks, gripping her arm in panic.
Lily rolls her eyes. “You’d be stupid to think they don’t both love you. And we both know you’re not stupid,” she smirks at him before leaving him alone with his thoughts.
Lily catches him again just outside the door of the classroom.
“They’re waiting for you around the corner,” Lily says quietly as he passes.
He thanks her with a nod and a cheeky grin, more confident than he feels.
It gives him the moment to prepare that he needs, though.
They all have a free period now, for three hours.
They always spend it together, but today will be different.
Sirius has yet to give his gifts.
“Come along,” he says as he rounds the corner, James and Remus following without words, not bothering to ask how he knew.
Sirius keeps his cards close to the chest.
They reach the Room of Requirement briefly, doing a quick loop through the hallway to make sure no one is around before they enter.
Sirius opens the door, the room he’d practiced summoning easily before them.
There’s more flower petals than planned, but otherwise, everything is as he remembers. Practice made perfect, after all.
Candles light the room softly, flower petals strewn over the floor, a vase waiting thoughtfully for Remus’s bouquet on a table by the fire.
There’s a large settee, double the width of a normal one, practically begging for a good makeout session.
Both the other men are staring at the setting, sexual tension thick in the air as they take in the setting.
Sirius is in his element, the setting constructed by him through meticulous forethought.
His planning hasn’t been in vain, judging by the way their eyes follow him as he plucks their gifts from their waiting place on the coffee table by the fireplace.
“It’s my turn,” he says, the nervousness of the moment fading easily into excitement as Remus and James take their places on either side of him, where they belong, his mind provides.
“Unwrap them slowly, mon tresors, I do love the anticipation,” he says, and both of them pause their curiosity to look hungrily at Sirius.
Sirius preens, gesturing for them to go on.
Remus unwraps his first, revealing a soft cashmere sweater, deep green to offset his generally golden appearance. That job over the breaks had done wonders for his appearance.
He runs his hands over the luxurious fabric, likely trying to calculate how much it cost in his head and failing to get anywhere near the accurate number. Sirius will never tell.
Remus doesn’t get nice things for himself. Sirius lavishes him in the things he deserves, the things he believes so firmly that he doesn’t deserve that he can’t even voice his desires.
He’d been the same way with Sirius, at first, but he could never resist the attention Sirius showered him in, apparently completely able to accept the finer things in life when they came from a place of love.
He focuses on James next as he reveals a leather wand holster, a set of deer antlers artfully etched in dark brown.
He recognizes the artwork immediately. He hasn’t seen this particular one, but Sirius’s drawing style is too distinct to mistake for anyone else’s.
James wants to cry, but that’s not a romantic reaction. It could ruin the moment.
Then Sirius waves his hand, producing a hanky and handing it to James, a soft smile on his face that Sirius knows James has rarely seen.
He’s not like James, able to show his feelings, in a way people understand. He learned a long time ago that his reactions are inappropriate, and spent so much time training himself into correctness to avoid punishment that now, even when he tries, he has a hard time discerning what he’s feeling at all.
James always knows how he feels, and most of the time, he knows how Sirius feels too, which has been exceptionally useful through the years.
Sirius will be damned before James feels shamed for exhibiting an emotion, no matter how embarrassingly sappy.
“So that’s why you were muttering, ‘he’s going to weep’ over your sketchbook,” Remus says with a smirk.
Remus looks at him with shock, he was certain that he’d been saying that in his head.
James barks out a laugh, wiping his eyes with the hanky, the holster in his hand like it’s the most precious thing he’s ever held.
“It’s beautiful, Siri,” he says, making Sirius feel like that Grinch cartoon Remus made him watch, his heart growing two sizes at once.
James says it like he’s not talking about the holster.
Sirius is antsy. To most people, he’d look uncomfortable, like he wants to be anywhere but there. It’s not how he feels, but it’s what people see.
The Black household really taught zero emotional intelligence skills.
James understands what he’s saying, though. Sirius thinks that by now, James must have a whole section of his brain dedicated to Padfoot Vocabulary (as Remus refers to it).
James grins down at him, not hesitating to capture Sirius’s lips in a kiss.
It’s not a peck like the ones since their date, or hungry like their first.
It’s better, softer, warmer, more loving. It lingers.
Sirius melts like a stick of butter thrown into an active volcano.
When James pulls back, they’re both rosy-cheeked in the happy way, no shame left between them.
When Sirius looks back at Remus, he does a comical double-take.
Moony isn’t wearing his old, but nice sweater anymore.
He’s wearing the new sweater.
When did that happen?
James doesn’t look surprised, so obviously he noticed.
Sirius would be annoyed at his lack of awareness if Remus didn’t look so damn good wearing something Sirius picked out for him.
They don’t bother going down to dinner that night, too wrapped up in their own peaceful little world.
When they emerge, there will be bets to settle and questions to answer thanks to the rumor mill, but for now, they have this little slice of heaven to enjoy.
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