Kiss My Shades

Remus gets woken up by his phone ringing like crazy. He grabs it and sees James is calling him.

“James? What the fuck?” he mumbles, his voice still full of sleep.

“Hey! You have a pool right?”

“Yeah? Why?” he answers confused while rubbing sleep out his eyes.

“Is it okay if we all hangout at your place today? The cleaning lady is coming over at my house, and Sirius’ isn’t an option, and Peter doesn’t have airco.”

“You called me multiple times at 8 am to ask if you could swim at my house?”

“...Yes?”

He signs tiredly, “Sure, just wait until 12, then you all can join lunch.”

“Thanks!” Peter says, Remus hears him in the background.

“Yeah yeah, goodnight.” Remus practically throws his phone back on his nightstand and falls asleep right after putting it down. 

He doesn’t get out of his bed until 11:45, so he gets ready fast and goes downstairs. 

“Hey mom, you know the boys are coming over for lunch right?”

“Yes, Effie already texted me, love.”

“Thanks.”

The bell rings, and when Remus opens the door James and Peter are standing on the other side.

They step in and say hello to Remus’ mom, then they all go up to his room.

“Sirius isn’t here yet?” Peter asks.

“No. I don’t know why though.”

James responds. “He said he’ll try to make it in time, but he overslept or something.” 

While waiting for Sirius they talk about this new club that newly opened, the Leaky Cauldron. Marlene and Lily already went, and they said it was amazing. Mary has a job there, so that’s also good to get free drinks, Peter says.

“Remus honey, Sirius is here!” his mom yells from downstairs after a good 30 minutes. 

“Coming!”

Remus gets down the stairs and sees Sirius awkwardly making small talk to his mom. 

“There you are!” Remus says, walking in Sirius’ eyesight. 

Sirius looks over and the visible tension in his whole body immediately goes away. “Hey, I’m sorry that I’m so late.”

“No problem, mate. Lunch should be ready by now, so technically you’re right on time.” 

James and Peter walk downstairs too, and hug Sirius happily when seeing him. They chat for a bit before Hope tells them to go eat. 

Peter and James start talking to Hope when pasta is being shared and brought around. Remus looks at Sirius, who is nervously playing with the rings on his fingers. 

“You okay?” he asks him without raising his voice much. 

“Yeah. Yeah, don’t worry I’m fine,” Sirius answers fast. Remus notices right away something is wrong.

“Talk to me after dinner, okay?”

He hums in response.

They all eat and compliment Hope’s delicious pasta, and no one notices a change in Sirius’ behavior. No one except Remus, of course. 

They all help to clean the table and thank Hope for the food. 

Peter asks if they would like to play uno, James and Hope join, but before Sirius can answer Remus says, “I’m gonna give Sirius a tour in the meantime. We will be right back.”

Sirius politely smiles at Hope before following Remus outside.

“Sirius, did you get enough food at your house?”

“What- Yes?”

“And enough water?”

“Yes. Remus, what is this?”

“Did they hurt you?”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m trying to see what’s wrong. Because I care about you and I wanna help you.”

“I’m fine.” 

“No, you’re not.”

“I ate all my food on my plate, I drank my glass empty, you don’t see any bruises right? I’m fine.” 

“You ate and drank everything, and I’m proud of you for that, but something is wrong with you I see it.”

“Gosh, Remus!” Sirius is visibly losing his patience, “I’m not some puzzle that needs to be solved! I did what you asked of me, I texted you when I couldn’t get enough food or hydration from my parents! What’s your deal?!”

Remus thinks about the words he is gonna use for a second. “Why were you late?” He asks calmly.

“Because I overslept.”

“No you didn’t.”

“Yes I did-”

“Don’t lie to me, Sirius.” 

Sirius lets out an annoyed sigh and his hands go in his hair. “Because there was a dinner party that I should have been part of and I couldn’t leave fast unnoticed. You happy now?”

“What sort of dinner party?”

“With fancy fucking ass people that feel the need to study me like a fucking doll.”

“Model work?”

Sirius nods. “It’s just not a nice feeling, they look at me like I’m their puppet.”

“What did they say?”

“How do you know someone said a thing to me?”

“Because otherwise you wouldn’t be so mad about the people looking at you. Sirius, I’m not a stranger or something. I know that we don’t know each other for long but I do know you somehow.”

Sirius takes a minute to answer. “There was this man, Tom Riddle, he’s basically my mom’s idol. We did do some work with him, but I wasn’t the model for that. My father introduced me to him, and I talked to him for a bit. After a while, when my father left, he started to act so strange. He talked about taking me to fucking Sweden for photo’s, because that would look good or something? Anyways, after a while my mother came to stand with us, and then Riddle started talking about the ‘model opportunities’ he has for me. Of course mother had to hear him out, like the fucking slut she is. Gosh, I swear, she would leave my father in a heartbeat if she knew she had a chance with Riddle. But so Tom was talking about different looks, and some places that were perfect, nothing wrong with that. But then he started talking about my body.”

Remus goes to stand closer to Sirius. “What did he say?”

“He told me my cheeks were a bit too plump to do the job. And my waist could be smaller.”

Anger is boiling in every cell of Remus’ body. “He said what?!” 

Sirius quickly says, “No, not like that! I’m not mad about that! Well, yes about that too but that isn’t my problem.”

Now Remus is confused. “What is the problem then?”

“The way my mother agreed. I sometimes hate food, and I sometimes hate to drink, but I’m not fucking stupid. I’m not gonna starve myself. Problem is, I’m not sure my parents are that smart.”

“Fuck,” Remus chokes out. 

“Yeah.”

“Well, from what I’ve heard I have more than triple the brain cells from your parents, so I’ll be smart for you in their place. I’m not gonna let you starve, Sirius. You texted me your address, right?” Sirius nods. “So when that happens I’ll get food and drinks for you for every meal. You’re not alone in this.”  

Sirius grabs Remus for a hug, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

When they break apart, Sirius visibly looks better after talking about it. “You said something about a pool? Can we maybe go swimming, because I’m melting out here,” he says smiling. 

“Sure, let’s get the rest.” Remus smiles back at him. Of course he smiles back. It’s Sirius Black, how can he not? He has known him for 2 and a half weeks, and Remus has grown fond of him faster than he can keep track. 

Within ten minutes Peter and James are ready to jump in. Remus is in the pool house grabbing water guns, thinking of giving Sirius the pink one, knowing somehow that Sirius would love it. “Guys, I got water guns-” 

He stops in his tracks. 

Sirius is standing there, at the edge of the pool, also ready to get in the water.

Sirius is standing there, in black swimming trunks and a shining silver bikini top. 

Remus is standing here, and thinks he is having a stroke. 

Sirius jumps in and comes back up, his hair floating in the water like ink in liquid. Laughing at something James said. A laugh Remus wants to taste on his tongue. 

His mom’s voice rings in his ears, “Just friends?” 

Remus doesn’t even notice that Peter has come to stand beside him. “You’re literally the biggest twink I’ve ever fucking met.” He whispers into Remus’ ear.

Remus blinks fast. This can not be fucking happening to him.

Peter had summer flings. Marlene had summerflings. Even fucking James who can’t do anything casual had summer flings.

Remus doesn’t do that sort of thing. He doesn’t get crushes on people who he knows are gonna leave in a few days or weeks. He doesn’t catch feelings for people that are gonna go away anyways, and he will never see them again. Because that would be a mess.

Sirius is a mess. A hot mess.

Remus would want Sirius to be his hot mess. 

Yeah, he will be texting Lily about this.