“I’m calling Fleur so we can laugh at you”
The four hour car ride with Tonks parents was nicer than Remus expected. Andromeda, her mother, had a mass of black curly hair, sharp eyebrows, a beautiful smile, with white straight teeth and a kind of adventurous energy. Ted, her father, was calm and collected, with his brown hair, light eyes, and kind smile. They were pretty young and nice to talk to. Remus engaged in a long conversation about his love for the 70’s music with Ted, when he said he was in a band in his youth.
Tonks looked like a perfect mixture of them: Light eyes and crooked smile like her father, sharp eyebrows and long, straight nose like her mother. He didn’t know about her hair, though. When they met, she already had it dyed a bright pink color.
The real problem started when they got to her family’s beach house. Not because of the house itself – for the contrary, the place was amazing: the walls were covered by big windows who let the natural light in, it had a open concept kitchen, with its counter facing the living room and the dinner table, and a big pool and grill area on the outside of the house. – but the person who was laying down on the couch.
He looked a bit like Andromeda: beautiful dark hair, straight nose, pale skin, thin rosy lips. And those eyes – blue, almost silver eyes. Remus felt at a loss of breath.
“Remus, dear, this is Sirius Black” Andromeda said as she patted his shoulder “Sirius, get your sorry ass over here!” she called, making him smile.
gay panic was an euphemism for what Remus felt when Sirius walked over. He was having a proper full gay hysteria.
“Hey, I’m Sirius” he smiled, offering his hand. His arms were covered in tattoos. Remus for the love of what’s most sacred in the universe please don’t embarrass yourself, he thought as they shook hands.
“I’m Remus Lupin, nice to meet you” he could feel his face heating up. Come on Remus get a fucking grip, you’re supposed to be this guy’s cousin’s boyfriend.
“Nice to meet you too!” he smiled, looking at Remus attentively. God I could melt under his gaze- What the fuck was that thought?! holy shit.
“Sirius!” Tonks called beside them, then wrapped her arms around the boy, “I haven’t seen you in forever!”
He laughed, “and every time we see each other, you surprise me. The last time was the turtle, and this time you’re bringing a date?”
Remus groaned, “don’t remember me of the turtle, I had to take care of it for a weekend and I almost went insane.”
“Her name is Penelope Pitstop, and she’s a proper lady, thank you very much!” She stated, “and you didn’t! she’s lovely!”
“She tried to bite me! More than once!”
Tonks huffed in disbelief while Sirius cackled at their bickering. “Come on, you sod, let’s put our things on our room” she said, rolling her eyes.
“We’re sharing?” he asked
“Um, yeah? aren’t you dating?” Sirius questioned. Remus froze.
“No- Yeah! It’s just- I don’t know, I just got here and-“
Sirius laughed again, “Don’t worry, it’s fine, and you can deal with the thin walls if you keep it quiet.” he winked. He fucking winked. Remus was a mess. “I’ll be waiting so we can play cards, yeah?” and he turned back to the couch.
Remus was left staring at where he’d been, blinking dumbly as his brain tried to process the whole interaction. Tonks dragged him to their room by the wrist.
“Why you didn’t told me you have a hot cousin?!” he whispered-screamed as soon as the door was closed. Tonks barked out a laugh.
“Remus what the fuck??” she said between laughter.
He groaned, letting his back slide against the door until he was sitting on the floor, knees up against his chest, “This plan won’t work. I can’t pretend to fancy you when that man is literally by my side.”
“bro, you talked for what? 3 minutes?” she asked, whipping away happy tears.
“I have no idea, my brain became mashed potatoes every time he looked at me.” he stated.
“God, you’re being so dramatic you’re actually starting to act like him” she complained. Remus groaned again. “I’m gonna call Fleur so we can laugh at you”
Sirius wasn’t lying about playing cards. When Remus and Tonks got back to the living room, Sirius, Andromeda, Ted and another boy that looked a lot like Sirius – but with short hair and no tattoos – were sitting on a circle around the coffee table, and Sirius was dealing the cards for them.
“Finally! the lovebirds are back!” he said, handing them two little bundles of cards. “By the way, Remus, this is Regulus” he pointed at the boy who was sat next to him, then pinched his cheek, “my silly little baby brother.”
Regulus rolled his eyes and slapped his brother’s hand “don’t calm me that.”
“you see, he’s a bit snappy and doesn’t really like people, but Reggie’s only bark no bite” he patted him on the head.
“stop treating me like a fucking dog, you prick” he hissed, “nice to meet you, Remus.”
“uhh… nice to meet you too, Regulus” he said as he took a seat between Ted and Tonks. He looked down at his cards. Well, it’s not bad, to be honest.
They played in silence for a while, only the flip and flic of cards as a background noise. Regulus had the best poker face in the world, Remus couldn’t even estimate how far or close he was from winning. Sirius and Andromeda sometimes tscked when they drew a bad card, but didn’t gave much emotion besides that. The silence last until Regulus placed an 8 of diamonds on the pile and Tonks grunted:
“Shit, Regulus, how can you always place the cards I need after my turn?”
after that, the caos was established.
“sucks to suck, bitch” he deadpanned.
Sirius intruded “Like you’re one to talk, Tonks, You keep messing with my game!”
“and you shuffled this deck with your ass, Sirius, really, what the fuck” Andromeda complained.
“If you’re unlucky that’s not my problem.” Sirius stuck his tongue out at her. Remus looked down at his cards, face flushing. Holy shit man get a grip.
“If you’re the one who can’t shuffle and gave me the worst hand in the world, yes it fucking is” she argued.
“If you’re that annoyed about my shuffling, why you didn’t do it?”
“your voice is annoying me, shut the fuck up, Sirius” Regulus snapped.
“you little shit-“
Remus looked at Ted wide eyed, and he smiled kindly in response. “Don’t worry, they’re just a bit… competitive” he whispered, placing down a 9 of spades, while the other four screamed at each other, “is your turn, Lupin”
“Oh- yeah, sorry” he picked up a card from the pile. Then, after his turn, he looked back at his cards. Shit, I should’ve picked up that 9.
After a few more rounds of screaming, Ted won the game, smiling sweetly as he put down his deck.
“argh dad, again?!” Tonks growled. Sirius covered his face with his hands and groaned. Regulus dropped his head on the table.
“Teds, since I’m married to you, I have the rights to half of your victory, right?” Andromeda coaxed, resting her head on his shoulder. Ted chuckled.
“That’s not fair!” Tonks argued, “I’m the daughter, I should inherit the victory!”
“Really, Ted, how can we never get even close to beating you?” Sirius complained.
“Uh… I almost did, to be honest” Remus murmured.
“WHAT?!” The four of them screamed in unison, while Ted cackled at them.
“Yeah…? I almost won, but I got distracted by your bickering.” he scratched the back of his neck nervously.
“Holy shit Dora, you’re dating a genius” Andromeda blurted.
Remus shot a quick glance at Tonks because of the nickname. The name Nymphadora Tonks was 10 times worse than Remus Lupin – and his name was basically wolf wolf – and the girl probably would hold a grudge against her parents because of it until the day she died. Until then, she demanded everyone to call her by her surname. But right now, she seemed fine.
“Shit, sorry Lupin” Sirius said, smiling sheepishly at him. Regulus snapped his head up so fast that Remus thought he was going to break his neck.
“what the fuck did you just said?”
“what do you mean, Reg?” Sirius questioned.
“Did you just said sorry because you made someone loose?” Regulus asked in utterly shock, “are you sick?” he put his hand on Sirius’ forehead, trying to feel his temperature.
“fuck off!” Sirius laughed, slapping his hand away, “I just think that at this point, a win against Ted is a win for all of us!”
Regulus raised his eyebrows and gave Sirius the most judgmental look that Remus had ever seen.