How Dare You Think It's Romantic?
“You’re early.” Remus looked over his shoulder and smiled at Davey, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. “Fancy making me one?”
Remus rolled his eyes with a grin, “I suppose so. You’ll owe me one, though.”
“Noted, Lupin,” Davey said, smiling as Remus pulled another mug out of the cupboard and threw a teabag into it. “How was your weekend?”
Remus paused before sighing, “Eventful. Weird.” He said, pouring hot water into the mugs.
“Want to talk about it?” Davey took a step into the room. “I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”
“I’d rather talk to you about literally anything else, mate.” Remus grimaced.
“Had a falling out with your boyfriend?” He asked, gauging Remus’ reaction closely.
“Nope, don’t have one of those to fall out with.” Remus stirred the mugs.
“Not that pretty kid with all the hair?” Davey gestured to his hair, which he was wearing down today, and Remus had to admit, the way it framed his face was mesmerising.
“‘That pretty kid?” He repeated, side eying him.
“Yeah, that felt wrong as I said it. Please pretend those words never left my mouth. But you’re not with him?” Davey leant against the counter next to him. “Anytime I’ve seen you out of work, you’re attached at the hip.”
“Nah, we’re just like that. Or we were, I don’t know.” Remus put the milk back in the fridge. “Anyway. No. Not my boyfriend, no falling out with a boyfriend.”
“A fall out with him then?” Davey probed. “You want him to be your boyfriend?”
“I want you to shut up.” Remus laughed as Davey gasped dramatically, reminding him very much of Sirius. “I went on a date, not with him, and it was… chaotic.”
“Sounds like a good date.” Remus could feel Davey’s eyes on him.
“No need to be jealous, David.” He looked up from his mug. “If you want to go for a drink, you only have to ask.”
Davey stared at Remus. Remus, who, less than a year ago couldn’t even look him in the eye. “Alright. Let me take you out.”
“That didn’t sound like a question,” Remus smirked at him and Davey took a step closer.
“Remus,” He said in a low voice. “Would you like to go for a drink with me?”
Remus pretended to think about it and Davey rolled his eyes and started to walk away, but Remus grabbed his wrist. “Yes, I’d love to.”
“Thought so.” Davey looked down at the fingers circling his wrist. “You free after work?”
“Today?” Davey nodded, “Yeah, ok.”
“Alright then.” Davey picked up his tea as Remus let go of him. “I’ll see you later, Lupin.”
🌙✨🌙✨🌙
He definitely hadn’t intended to spend the night at Davey’s. But after too many firewhiskeys and stumbling back home with him after closing time, spending the night in the bed where he’d just made Davey say some truly filthy things seemed like a reasonable plan. When he woke up at seven the following morning and realised he’d have to go home to get changed for work, with quite a hangover for a Tuesday morning, it was less of a reasonable plan.
Davey sat up in bed to say goodbye to him, but they didn’t kiss, or even touch once they woke up. Remus significantly overthought this as he stumbled through the floo. As he landed on the rug in front of their fire, he spotted Sirius frozen in the doorway, with Edgar behind him. Remus smiled as he dusted himself off, hoping the marks on his neck weren’t as prominent as they felt. He hadn’t had a chance to heal them yet.
“Morning.” He said cheerfully. “Good to see you again, Edgar.”
“Yeah,” Edgar said flatly. “I was just leaving.”
“Alright. See you another time, then.” He looked at Sirius, who simply shrugged.
Remus headed to the bathroom and had the world’s quickest shower before looking at himself in the mirror. His neck had multiple purple patches blooming, which he quickly mumbled a healing spell to remove and did the same to the scratch marks on his chest. They faintly glowed like his scars before fading completely. He opened the bathroom door to find Sirius about to knock.
“Sorry, I’m done in here now.” He expected Sirius to move but he didn’t, his eyes trailing down Remus’ neck and bare chest. “Pads?”
Sirius jumped, “Sorry. I— No, I just wanted to see if you were ok. You seemed to have some… bruises.” The look on his face was a strange mixture of concern, approval and something Remus couldn’t quite place.
“Oh, yeah. Went for a drink on a weeknight like a fucking idiot, didn’t I?” He laughed softly.
“Didn’t know MacDonald had that in her,” Sirius said, frowning as he saw Remus’ face. “Not MacDonald?”
“Uh, no. I suppose not.” Remus said, “Can I just— I need to get ready for work.”
Sirius stepped aside but followed him to his bedroom. “Who, then?” Remus wondered how long he could pretend to look for clothes before he had to answer him. “Remus?”
“Davey,” Remus said with a sigh. Sirius’ eyebrows shot up and in the moment before Sirius schooled his face into something less obvious, Remus saw hurt in his eyes. “He invited me out for a drink.”
“Right. Quite the drink.” Sirius said quietly, “Work’s going to be fun today, then.”
“Oh, don’t!” Remus grimaced. “I don’t regret it, but I am not excited to see him at work in less than an hour.”
“Was it not weird?” Sirius leaned against the door frame, ok so they were talking about it, apparently.
“In what way?” Remus looked puzzled.
“He’s so… old.”
“He’s twenty-seven.” Remus laughed.
“Exactly! We weren’t even at Hogwarts at the same time.” Sirius said, “So his heart didn’t stop or anything? You didn’t kill the old chap with your—”
“I’m begging you to shut up.” Remus rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Do you have any hangover cure?”
“Yes, but you can only have it on one condition,” Sirius said on his way out of the room.
Remus sat on the edge of his bed, pulling on his boots and lacing them up. “What?”
Sirius reappeared with a small vial, “Later, you have to tell me in excruciating detail how awkward it was to spend time with your boss, knowing that he did that to your back.”
Fuck, Remus had forgotten to check his back. “Can you heal them for me?”
“You want me to heal your sex injuries?” Sirius shook his head, “Nah, Moons. I’m good.”
Remus rolled his eyes, “Fine, I’ll tell you all about how awkward it was, just give me the fucking potion.” Sirius uncorked the vial and handed it to him. It tasted like orange and soil and Remus held his nose for a moment so he wouldn’t throw it straight back up. “Thanks, love,” Remus said, then froze. “Sorry.”
“You don’t have to—” Sirius said as Remus rushed past him towards the living room. “Moony it’s… fine.” By the time he reached the living room, the whoosh of the floo drowned out his last word. Sirius sat on the sofa with his head in his hands. The way his heart had reacted to Remus calling him love was embarrassing. He hated that that was one of the seemingly conditional parts of the way they treated each other. He hated that he’d lost it.
🌙✨🌙✨🌙
Remus just made it in time for work and was making tea when he heard the staffroom door close. He turned around to see Davey with a worried look on his face.
“Alright?” Remus asked. His brain automatically leapt to ‘oh no, he regrets fucking a werewolf and now he’s going to fire me rather than have to face the dark creature he woke up next to this morning’.
“Lupin,” He seemed to be weighing his words carefully. “I had a really good time last night.”
“Yeah, so did I.” Remus said.
“I don’t think we should do it again…” Well, there it was. Next, he’d ask if he was sure that he couldn’t transmit lycanthropy through bodily fluids or something else ridiculous he’d read in the Daily Prophet and Remus would have to bite his tongue because Davey was his boss, and yeah, this was actually a very bad idea from the start. “Remus?”
“Sorry, what?”
“I said that I don’t think we should do it again. I shouldn’t have— I feel like I took advantage of you.”
Well, Remus hadn’t expected that.
“How?” Remus asked.
“Well there’s the eight years I have on you, and I’m your boss. I shouldn't have--” Davey said, “I’m not saying ‘it isn’t you, it’s me, because it’s not that, it’s just the situation.”
“Oh.” Remus said, “Yeah honestly when you came in and said that, my brain jumped to the worst conclusions, so I guess it wouldn’t be particularly smart to do that again. Even though I want to.”
“Remus!” Davey groaned, unable to wipe the smile from his face.
“For the record, you didn’t take advantage of me at all. I was a very willing participant in the entire evening, but I get why you think we shouldn’t do it again, and I know you’re probably right.”
“Thanks.” Davey’s shoulders visibly dropped in relief. “Did your not-boyfriend see the state of you when you got home?”
“I’m not going to answer that,” Remus said with a grin. “He refused to heal the scratches on my back.”
Davey laughed so hard that Remus thought he might choke. “You asked him?”
“I was hungover and sleep-deprived,” Remus said, putting the tea bag in the bin. “I failed to read the room.”
“Still hungover?” Davey asked.
“Nah, Sirius has a nice little stash of potions. Still, sleep deprived as shit though.”
“Alright, you can spend the day in the archives if you want. Then you don’t have to deal with people.”
“Are you sure that’s ok? You don’t want people to think you’re giving me special treatment.”
“When I’m the reason that you’re hungover and sleep-deprived, I’m happy to help you out. Next time, you’re on your own.” Davey touched his arm gently. “Have a good day, alright.”
“Yeah, you too,” Remus said as Davey left the room.
As he headed down to the basement where the archives were located, he realised how much he ached, and wished he’d brought a pain potion with him. As much as the last few nights had been great, he was secretly looking forward to a night in to do nothing and talk to no one.
🌙✨🌙✨🌙
Sirius met Edgar out the front of the muggle cinema at half past seven. He’d just had time to pop home and change and hear from Remus about how fucking nice Davey had been at work, even if they weren’t going to hook up again. He was in a weird mood because of it, honestly. In the last ten days, he felt like everything had changed and now he didn’t know how he was meant to feel about anything. Going out with Edgar again was probably a bad plan, but it was too late to cancel, plus it turned out Edgar was pretty good in bed, so he decided to push through.
“You look lovely!” Edgar said, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “How was your day, Siri?”
Sirius baulked a little at the nickname, but caught himself, “Not bad, fixed six broken limbs. How was yours?”
“It was nice waking up next to you.” Edgar said, “The rest didn’t compare.”
Sirius smiled at him, “Yeah.”
He paid for their tickets and popcorn and they headed into the cinema. Throughout the film, Sirius found himself thinking about how much Remus would like it, and during that scene, all he could think of was whether Remus would have grabbed his hand in fear like he did when they watched horror films at home. Edgar remained firmly in his seat and kept all extremities to himself.
The film was really good. Sirius was already weighing up whether it would be weird to come back and watch it again with Remus.
As they were walking back to Diagon Alley, where they planned to have a drink before heading home, Edgar seemed nervous.
“Everything alright?” Sirius asked after a few minutes of awkward one-sided conversation.
“I was wondering if you wanted to make this thing with us official,” Edgar said with a slight smile. “Be my boyfriend?”
Sirius’ brain stopped working. Then he got a flash in his brain at the way Remus had looked stumbling into the flat that morning covered in hickeys with a confident smile on his face. This was best for both of them.
“Yeah, I’d like that.” Sirius said, “Do you fancy coming to the pub on Friday night? See all the Gryffindors again? So I can introduce you as my boyfriend?”
“All of them? How big is the pub?”
“Well our year, anyway, James, Lily, Marlene, Dorcas, Pete and Mary,” he said counting them off on his fingers.
“No Remus?” Edgar said, smiling.
“Oh fuck, how did I miss Remus off. Yeah, of course, Remus will be there, quite possibly with Mary, I don’t really know what’s going on there.” He shrugged.
“Mary MacDonald did that to him this morning?” Edgar’s eyes were wide.
“Oh, um, no. That was someone else.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, that makes sense.”
Sirius prickled slightly. “Why? Because he’s bisexual he’s more likely to sleep around.”
“No. That came out wrong. I just didn’t want to come across as… Honestly, Siri, bisexual or not, the man is sleeping around. I don’t think he needs you rushing to his defence on that.”
Sirius couldn’t really argue with that and he knew it. So he just nodded as they entered The Leaky Cauldron.
It wasn’t that he didn’t find Edgar attractive, or have a good time with him. Both of those things were objectively true. Sirius just wished that he had nothing to compare it to. He wished that his heart did the stupid little thing when Edgar called him Siri, and he wished that he was more excited to call him his boyfriend. But it was just early days, right? Comparing the depth of his feelings to the way he felt about Remus wasn’t productive or sensible.
🌙✨🌙✨🌙
Friday night came around quickly and found all of them down at the pub. It was very much four couples and Pete, no matter how much Remus and Mary were denying being a couple. She leant into him, and his arm fell easily around her shoulder, just like it had around Sirius’.
Apart from Marlene and Dorcas doing a very obvious double take when they saw Remus and Mary which caused them to erupt into laughter, nobody seemed particularly surprised that the vibe had changed considerably in the two weeks since they’d last met up.
They’d decided to play pool as doubles, which suited Pete, as the perpetual first out. He decided that he was going to commentate, much to everyone’s amusement.
After Sirius somehow took a shot that missed every ball, including the white ball, he tried to hand the cue to Remus, who just blinked at him.
“He’s not your team, honey,” Mary said softly.
Sirius looked from Mary to Remus and then over to Edgar who was currently talking to Marlene and Dorcas, and hoped that he hadn’t noticed.
“Muscle memory.” Sirius rolled his eyes, “Sorry for trying to poach your teammate!”
“I’ll let it slide this once.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “You picked your team, you can’t swap now.”
Sirius heard what she was saying and nodded. “I’d say ‘see you in the final’, but the chances of the two of you beating Marlene and Dorcas are next to none.”
“Maybe we’ll surprise you,” Remus said, smiling at him.
“Maybe so,” Sirius winked at him before turning back to the game and passing the cue over the table to Edgar.
Remus and Mary, as suspected, did not beat Marlene and Dorcas, so they sat with James and Lily while Edgar looked a little bewildered at the competitiveness between Sirius, Marlene and Dorcas. Of course, he wasn’t used to it.
“So why does Bones hate you?” Mary asked Remus when James and Lily headed to the bar.
“What do you mean?”
“He hasn’t said a word to you all night. He talked to me for ten minutes about some rare book that you’d know much more about than me, but he’s completely ignored you. Plus the way he looks at you really makes me feel weird.”
Remus looked at her for a moment and she thought he was about to get angry, but he sighed, “Thank fuck. I thought I was just being paranoid. I’m not imagining it, right?”
“Definitely not.” She shook her head and her curls bounced fluidly. “Do you think it’s because of how you and Sirius are… well, were?”
“It’d be my best guess. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything to make him hate me. Unless he has something against bisexuals or werewolves.” He chuckled. “Or maybe both.”
“It’s a very niche bigotry if that’s the case.” Mary took her hand in his, “Want to come back to mine later?”
“Yeah, I would.” Remus grinned down at her. She’d stayed over on Wednesday night and he’d regaled her with his escapades from Monday. She’d thought it was hilarious and was thrilled for him. Davey had come over a few times in The Leaky Cauldron when they’d all been out to say hi to Remus, and it was safe to say that everyone in attendance agreed that he was gorgeous. Including Sirius, albeit reluctantly.
“Good.” She nodded, leaning her head against his arm. “This is much easier than I was expecting.”
“Same here. It’s— Oh, thanks!” James set down a tray of drinks in front of them and tried to remember who’d ordered what. “Mine’s the half.” Remus said as he took it off the tray, “White for you?”
Mary nodded and took the glass Remus handed her, “Thanks!”
“Don’t mention it.” James smiled across at them. “So how did this happen? Moony’s been very tight lipped about it.”
“And you think I’m just going to tell you, Potter?” Mary leaned back against Remus’ arm. “You’re damn right.” Remus groaned but was saved by Marlene and Dorcas cheering and throwing themselves at each other as Sirius and Edgar shook their heads, evidently having lost.
Marlene and Dorcas got another round in, as was tradition for the winners. Sirius looked over at Remus with his half of Bass and a glass of lemonade and tilted his head questioningly. “You having a night off?”
Remus nodded, “I have to work tomorrow morning.”
“Hasn’t stopped you in the past,” Sirius said with a grin. “I seem to remember you needing a hangover cure on Tuesday morning.”
Lily looked over at Remus, “Tuesday?”
“Are you leading our Remus astray, MacDonald?” James asked Mary with a laugh.
“Nothing to do with me, I can assure you.” She said, feeling Remus’ arm tighten around her slightly.
All eyes were on Remus who just shook his head, glaring softly at Sirius for bringing this up. “I went out on Monday night with Davey.” He said quietly. The entire table erupted, apart from Edgar who was looking from him to Mary.
“So, do you have a preference for who you chase, or is it just about the thrill of the hunt for you?” He asked, so only Sirius, Remus and Mary could hear. Sirius pulled away from him slightly and looked at him. “I mean—”
“No. No preference.” Remus said tightly.
“Was that a—”
“Oi, Remus!” Marlene called down the table, unaware of the tension she was thankfully disrupting. “What happened?”
Remus felt his cheeks flush, but before he could respond, Sirius spoke up, “If the marks he came home with on Tuesday morning are anything to go by, he had a great night.” He winked at Remus over the table, flinching slightly as Edgar’s grip on his hand tightened.
Lily eyed Remus suspiciously, “So you’re really not together?”
“We’re really not together!” Mary laughed. “Why would we lie about that?”
“But you’re so cute!” Remus and Mary looked at each other and rolled their eyes. “You are!”
“Just friends, sorry to disappoint.” He shrugged, avoiding Lily’s eyes which remained on him throughout the following conversation debating how good Davey was in bed, which Remus respectfully remained silent for.
Remus and Mary were the first to leave, to wolf-whistles and cheers as Mary led Remus to the door by the hand. When they got outside, she turned to him, her smile falling. “Are you alright?”
“Uh, yeah?” He said, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’re just going to ignore— ‘Do you have a preference for who you chase, or is it about the thrill of the hunt?’ Thing?” She frowned, “I don’t think that was just about you being bi, honey.”
“Then what was— Oh.” Remus looked back towards the door, his jaw dropping, “You think it was a werewolf thing?”
“That’s what I got from it. Pretty sure Sirius did too.” She swung their hands between them. “How does he even know? Do you think Sirius told him?”
“Nah, he wouldn’t. Probably heard the rumours at school or something.” He pulled her towards him, “I don’t care about him though.”
“You don’t care about your man dating a bigot?” She raised an eyebrow. “Or you just want to leave?”
“Both.” He said with a wolfish grin.