Come in with the Rain.
A week after the ‘Eddie incident’, Sirius spent the evening at Lily and James’ house watching films and then fighting over choosing YouTube videos to watch. Other than the fact they were all sober, it felt like old times. Harry was with James’ parents, and shortly after 2 a.m., James and Lily were almost asleep on the sofa, so he called them lightweights, made sure they got up off the sofa so they’d go to bed, and decided to head home.
The storm outside was raging, and he debated getting an Uber but decided that a ten-minute walk in the rain wouldn’t kill him. It would, however, make him very cold and soaked to the skin. He smiled at the doorman as he swiped into the building and strolled to the lift. He pressed the button for the seventh floor and pulled out his phone. A few seconds later, the lift shuddered to a stop, and the lights went out.
Sirius did not do well in enclosed spaces. He struggled in vocal booths at the best of times and a dark lift dangling halfway up a building was… well it was less than ideal. He fought the urge to call Reg, not wanting to be put in time out by his little shit of a brother again, so he opened up the group chat he had with him and Barty. One of them would still be awake.
He swore at his phone. Remus had just started feeling better after last week, he’d probably be asleep, but he had to check before he curled up into a ball in the corner of the lift hoping that it wouldn’t suddenly just… drop.
Remus was glad that Teddy was at his parents’ for the night, he could just throw on a hoodie without having to think about the baby monitor, which of course, needed power to work. He grabbed his keys and put the torch on his phone. He approached the stairwell that surrounded the lifts and frowned.
“Sirius?” He called, not wanting to make too much noise because it was 3 am, and he wasn’t a hypocrite. He went down the next flight of stairs. “Sirius?"
He frowned at his phone, before hitting the call button.
“Remus?” Sirius sounded shaky and Remus’ dislike for phone calls suddenly didn’t matter at all.
“Hey.” He smiled, “I’m going to knock on the wall, tell me when it’s close to you.”
He walked around the structure and knocked a few times.
“That’s by my head!” Sirius laughed.
“Alright.” Remus sat down with his back pressed against the wall he’d just knocked on, tapping lightly again. “I’m right here.”
“Where’s Teddy?” Sirius asked.
“Left him home alone of course. He can fend for himself in the dark. Nah, he’s with my parents tonight.” Remus laughed softly. “They take him one Saturday night a month to encourage me to go on dates and I stay at home, eat ice cream and lie about going on dates every month.”
Sirius huffed out a laugh, “At some point surely it’s just easier to go on a date.”
“Hmm, maybe.” Remus said, “But then I wouldn’t get to stay at home and eat ice cream.”
“Then you’re going on dates with the wrong people.”
Remus laughed, “Evidently. I don’t know many people who’d see that as a date, though.”
“Like I said, the wrong people.” Sirius grinned, “I mean, throw in a bottle of wine and a film and you’d probably get more interest.”
“But I’d also have to… I don’t know… spend time with people.” Remus closed his eyes and willed himself to shut up.
“Is that not the point of dating?”
“Perhaps. Maybe I can just marry myself like the cheer coach on Glee.” He resisted the urge to smack himself in the head, lest it be audible.
“Put some respect on Sue Sylvester’s name, please, Remus.”
Remus laughed, “My apologies to Sue Sylvester.”
“She would not accept them.” Sirius paused, “Have you dated much since…”
Remus frowned slightly, “Oh, uh, not really. I’ve been out with a few people I suppose. Nothing I felt was going to go anywhere, though.”
“And just to clarify. It’s people? As in, not just women?”
A grin crossed Remus’ features, “Yes, it’s people, Sirius.”
“Oh, cool. Good.” Sirius stammered.
“Did you think I was just strangely knowledgable about men fucking each other?” The sound of Sirius spluttering both on the phone and through the wall made him laugh, loudly, it also made a horde of butterflies rise from his stomach to his chest and he didn’t know what to do with that.
“You used he/him for the person you dated while you were separated, that was my first clue,” Sirius said when he could breathe again. “But yes, before that, that’s exactly what I thought. I read that first book and then you told me you’d written it and I was like oh, oh no, does this man know he’s not straight?”
Remus laughed again, “I regret not leaving you to bring it up now.”
“Oh, yeah, that would have been a great conversation. ‘Hi Remus, has it occurred to you that you might actually just want to get dicked down?’.”
“You seem so sure it’d be that way around?” Remus said in a low voice. Silence for a few moments before they both burst out laughing. “I woke up while you were sleeping when I had the flu and I saw you there with my book open on your chest and I was like oh fuck. This is going to lead to an uncomfortable conversation.”
“And did it?”
“Nah. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Not like when my mum decided that I was definitely just being modest and decided to read the first one I had published.”
“Please tell me you’re being serious.” Sirius said, then cackled as Remus simply said ‘mmhmm. “Oh to be a fucking fly on the wall.”
“She basically asked what you wanted to, but she wasn’t quite as direct. Wanted to make sure I wasn’t in the closet, did I even like women… that sort of thing. So I got to explain bisexuality to my mum. She hit me with the old ‘but everyone looks at people of the same gender and thinks they’re attractive, Remus’.”
“Ah, so it’s genetic.” Sirius teased.
“And it’s not in your family?” Remus shot back with a grin.
“What? Oh, Reg! Yeah, Barty isn’t a man. Well, no, he is, he’s just more… chaos… gremlin.” Remus laughed. Being able to hear it down the phone and through the wall was comforting. “Thank you for sitting here with me.”
“Oh. No problem. I’d say ‘anytime’ but I don’t want to tempt fate.” Remus hugged his knees to his chest.
“If you ever want someone to eat ice cream with so you don’t have to lie to your parents…”
But before Sirius could finish his sentence, the power came back on and the lift started moving. He heard Remus laugh down the phone, presumably at the noise of surprise he’d made, before hanging up. When Remus got to their floor, luckily only two flights of stairs up, Sirius was waiting for him in the hallway.
“I have Cookie Dough, Raspberry Ripple, Chocolate and Strawberry,” Remus said with a smile.