you're burnin' up, i'm coolin' down
Remus awoke to the soft rattlings of wind against his exposed ribcage, with his shirt and sheets tugged in opposite directions to reveal the skin. But just south of all that was where his blood spiked and pulsed, a realisation of the worst thing he could have woken up to: a boner.
Remus Lupin had a boner, and it was hidden by the same sheets that were also covering a sleeping Sirius. Why?
He swiftly pulled the sheets off of his trembling figure, tiptoeing to the bathroom down the hall for clarity. The door was promptly locked and the tap promptly turned on. He didn’t even touch the water - just stood in the middle of the room trying to think of disgusting things to get this boner to go away. It had been the second night of his adult life without hellish nightmares, and here he was. Already eager to revisit those memories in order to sober himself.
He felt awful just thinking about it, but it helped. Wounded bodies, gunshots fired, snotty sobs. It all rushed back, but at least the blood in his body was rushing away from his dick.
He unlocked the door and walked slowly back to his room, making a beeline.
“Headed back to sleep?”
Remus twitched, his head frozen in air before he snapped it in the direction of James. James was camouflaged perfectly into the couch.
“I, uh… was gonna grab my phone. From my room.”
“Do you want coffee?” James asked, jerking his head in the direction of the spitting coffee pot.
“Sure.”
As James got up from his spot, Remus could have sworn that there was a millisecond of time that the boy opposite him took to glance down at his shorts. Then again, with feelings and senses clearly heightened, Remus forced himself to forget this.
“You’re an early riser, aren’t you?”
“Was kinda forced into it, yeah,” Remus whispered.
He and James, of course, both respected the fact that there was a beauty queen amongst them who was trying to get some well-earned sleep. They kept their voices to gravelly, low and handsome tones.
“I am, too. Do you eat in the mornings?”
Remus didn’t feel like telling James he wasn’t the type who liked to be talked to in the mornings, and much less the type to play twenty-one questions at such an hour. The sun had barely risen. “Sometimes, if I can stomach it. But always coffee.”
It sounded like a corny Pinterest quote and Remus grimaced at the man he was becoming. It was all corny James Potter’s fault.
“It’s customary for me to cook up these big, elaborate breakfasts. Every morning. It’s what my mom taught me. Don’t feel pressured into eating, but if you will then good. There’s only so many breakfast food leftovers we can eat for dinner,” James joked.
For the next hour James busied himself with various pots and pans on the sparkly stove. If there was one thing Remus had learned over the course of knowing James, it was that he really was annoyingly lovely. Suffocatingly so. He was a cook, maid, nurse and movie critic all rolled into one man. A force to be reckoned with. James maintained the place’s cleanliness with the spirit of an enthusiastic maid.
Sirius had once told Remus that, for his nineteenth birthday, James received a mop as a sort of gag-gift. Nobody had expected him to take it as seriously as he did.
Remus brought it up to James as he sizzled something smelling of tang.
“That mop!” James gushed, in awe of only the memory. “It’s gone.”
Remus furrowed his brows, taking a sip of his coffee. “Why?”
“Sirius donated it. He complained that it got more attention than he did. What he really needs is a boyfriend or something. He can’t count on me to be giving him my fullest attention at all hours of the day, I have an attention deficit disorder for Christ’s sake.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. I got tested when I was pretty small, and now it’s just a part of me.” James blinked, smiling, like he was obviously pretty happy with the way things turned out for him. No matter what was thrown at him, he made light of it. It was his destiny - oh, James loved that word.
“Oh. Should I have known?” Remus asked.
Except… it wasn’t the adhd thing he was more concerned with. James had said boyfriend. To describe the sort of relationships Sirius was interested in. And if Remus was piecing this puzzle together properly, that would mean Sirius is…
“What? It’s fine.”
James tossed a couple of cooked eggs onto a plate and cracked new ones on the pan. It spit its rage at him, screaming as new yolk hit it. The sound alone drew Remus’ finger to his ear to block the sound. The eggs were so agonized that they awoke Sleeping Beauty with their sounds. He came out of his bedroom as if he were wearing stilettos, practically walking the hallway like it were a runway. “Too early,” Sirius whined, rubbing his eyes.
At Sirius’ presence this morning, Remus felt differently. He felt that his face could have been an apt instrument for James’ intricate cooking - like it was hot enough to fry those eggs in a minute.
That stupid boner.
“Queen Bitch has risen,” James announced, smiling to himself at his proud David Bowie reference.
“You wish,” Sirius rebutted, taking his seat beside Remus on the edge of the couch. He twisted around with his position until he decided to sprawl, letting his feet fall into Remus’ lap.
Remus froze. Were they that close? Were they really close enough for that to be the norm? Was it okay to be doing this willy-nilly in front of James?
“I’m not the real Queen Bitch. Just the bitch part, actually.”
Remus laughed in a scoffing sort of way, having not expected for that to be Sirius’ point of pride. He would have assumed Sirius would opt for the Queen title. But he supposed he admired that about Sirius: the twenty year old was always keeping him on his toes. It just worked out that Sirius’ toes happened to be a little quicker, two steps ahead, always clad in ballet slippers or pumps. He was too complex of a dancer for Remus to keep up with the tempo. He would always be stumbling in front of Sirius’ too-fast steps. He hated that.
“Alright there, Starman and Queen Bitch. Breakfast is ready if you want to eat,” James said.
With all the grace of a gazelle, Sirius removed his feet from Remus’ lap and sat at the dining table. Remus followed him and sat beside. It was an odd sort of Renaissance painting, this dining room scene. A modern family depicting the caregiving mother, the crossdressing young adult, and the…
The…
Remus didn’t know what he was. The too-tall mess, maybe. The too-tall mess on a good day.
Sirius dipped a soup ladle (there were about five in the entire residence) into a colourful fruit salad. He then topped the other half of his plate with Cool Whip whipped cream and licked his index finger in a way that made Remus look away in shame. He instead tucked into his own meal.
“How are you feeling about this arrangement so far, Remus?” James asked.
“Feels perfect. I can’t thank the two of you enough.”
James laughed merrily. “I never thought I’d see you so sappy, Rem, but it’s good to have you. Cooking for three might be a bit of a challenge for me, but…”
“You already cook for three. Three, or four, or ten,” Sirius argued playfully.
“You know my mum. It’s the way she cooks, and it’s the way she taught me to cook.”
Remus glanced up at the millionth mention of James’ mum. “I still want to meet her. You two always talk about how she’s like Mother Nature or something.”
Sirius nearly choked with how quickly he tried swallowing his biteful of strawberry and cream. “That’s- excuse me,” he said, clearing his throat. “That’s because she is! She can turn stones into diamonds, I swear. She just has the knack.”
“The knack?” Remus questioned, looking over at James for guidance.
“Like magical powers or something. She’s a witch,” James clarified.
It clarified nothing. “Ah, I see.”
Sirius gasped and seized James’ hand. “James, this Sunday!”
As if a secret language was being spoken between the two of them, James’ eyes flashed with remembrance and he in turn seized Remus’ hand. “Remus, this Sunday! We’re heading to my mum’s house, which is my childhood home, for dinner. There’ll be loads of people, it’s kind of like a party. You should come!”
Remus twisted in his seat, uncomfortable? Excited? He didn’t really know.
“Will I know anybody?” Remus asked, not yet convinced.
“You’ll know me,” Sirius crooned. “Isn’t that enough? Don’t worry, I’ll stay by your side the entire time. We’ll be fused by the hip.”
Remus swallowed his food. The only hands at the table that weren’t conjoined were his and Sirius’, but right on cue, Sirius took it upon himself to touch Remus’ hand as a sign of affection.
“Sure,” Remus caved. He was physically unable to say no to Sirius when his hand was so gingerly placed atop his own.
“Marvellous!” James exclaimed. His voice was mock-medieval.
Sirius picked up on the joke and got up, clearing plates and sticky cutlery off the table. “Indeed, very merry!”
A party. A party. Remus used to work parties every night, getting to see the kinds of people who attended them. But this party was going to be different. Familial, inviting, cozy. A reminder of the family he wished he could have. But now, with everything that had gone down in the past month, was it safe to say that this was Remus’ family too?
Could he finally attach a belonging to his character?
⊹₊ ⋆