Chapter 6
The next three days are almost nice. They visit some museums, and today, they go to the Brandenburger Tor, where Regulus drags all four of them to a bookshop and then he and Lupin disappear for two hours while Sirius and James eat cookies.
When Lupin and Reg come back, each is carrying a bag stuffed with books.
Regulus doesn’t bother getting a chair and dumps himself onto James, immediately ranting about his books, talking in that soft way of his that he only reserves for James.
Sirius is only half listening, trying to read the title of the book Lupin is flicking through.
It’s white, with a coloured sketch on it; a man in a coat with a green jumper playing the guitar. Sirius can’t tell if he looks happy or sad.
The title reads ‘Ansichten eines Clowns’, but the only thing Sirius understands is clown. He wants to ask, but at the same time he doesn’t.
He never has to decide, because Lupin looks up and catches him staring, grins, and hands him the book.
“It’s a german classic, I’ve read it before but I don’t have the copy anymore, so I thought I’d get it. It was half price.”
“What’s it about?”
“A depressed man”
Sirius looks up, “How… lovely?”
“Not really, no.”
“...right.” He flicks through the pages, only to come to a surprising conclusion. “It’s in german?”
Lupin gives him a flat look. “The title is German, we’re in Germany, why on earth wouldn’t it be german?”
“Because you speak english?”
“Bilingual people exist, Sirius. In fact, I’m trilingual”
“No, I know that, I mean, I speak french- wait what else can you speak?”
“Welsh”
“Really!?”
“Yeah…? Why do you speak french?”
“Because I’m french.”
“You are?”
“Yes”
“That’s… cool” Sirius raises his eyebrows at how high his voice suddenly is.
Both James and Regulus look up, too, slightly concerned.
“Are you alright?”
“What- no, yeah, I’m fine, just… voice crack, I guess, haha”
“Remus,” Regulus says.
“What?”
“You’re seventeen, not twelve”
“... I know that”
“...right.”
They all look at each other, James slowly munching on his cookie, before suddenly Lupin stands up. “Right, I’ve things to do, so… see you later”
Without another word, he rushes off, crossing the street and disappearing on a tram that was conveniently at the stop.
Sirius blinks, looking at Regulus, then back at the now empty Tram stop.
“You’re friend is a bit weird, Pads” James mumbles, and Sirius whips his head around. “What!? He’s not my friend, James”
James blinks, “Oh, sorry, I thought- because you ran away somewhere together during the tour thing of the wall?”
“What- no we didn’t”
“...yeah, you did. You were gone for like two hours”
“Where did you go, Sirius?” Regulus speaks up with a pointed look.
“Just… around. We ate sausages-”
“What!?”
“Not like that! I mean actually sausages, like hot dogs but without the bread, except with this weird curry powder and- I dunno, some german thing I guess. Then we just… walked and talked a little.”
“And then?”
“We went to a photobooth”
Regulus raises one perfect eyebrow. “Did you now?”
“...yes”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Can I see the photos?”
“No”
Regulus’ second brow comes up.
“I mean- I- They’re at the hotel” His fingers brush the smooth paper in his pocket as he says it.
“Somehow I don’t believe you”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re in your pocket, I can see the corner of the paper”
Sirius wants to bang his head against something. Desperately.
He sighs and pulls the photos out, handing them to his brother.
“Oh, Jesus, Sirius”
“I know”
“You look like-”
“Iknow”
Regulus meets his eyes again, expression softer. “Do you have a crush on him?”
“No”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m fucking sure.”
“It’s okay to have a crush on-”
“I don’t, Regulus, just leave it.” he snatches the photos back, “We were trying to push each other not fucking kiss”
“Push each other with your heads?”
“Yes”
“Okay…”
“James, tell your boyfriend to stop bullying me”
“I’m not bullying-”
“He’s not bullying you, Sirius. He’s being incredibly mature, actually, which is very surprising”
“Excuse me!?” Both Sirius and Regulus yell at the same time.
James looks between them and chuckles, kissing Regulus on the nose before looking back down at his phone.
Regulus huffs, staring right as James who doesn’t look up again, quiet fury in his gaze, though it’s greatly overshadowed by the fondness. Regulus really is fucking whipped.
Deciding to distract himself, Sirius pulls the ‘Berlin Bucketlist’ out of his backpack. It’s a list of challenges they have to do while on the trip, like order food or buy a souvenir. At the bottom, there’s a free space for your own activity you want to complete, and Sirius looks down at his own messy scrawl. ‘visit Bowie’s apartment’. That’s the only thing he really wants to do here.
Though lately, ‘figure out where the fuck Lupin goes every night’ is a close second.
Today, they were supposed to order food, but since Lupin’s disappeared now, he supposes that isn’t going to happen anymore.
Until now, they’ve only ticked off two out of twelve items. Regulus and James are both finished.
Speaking of, Sirius doesn’t actually know when James’ ‘I love Reg’ plan will actually take place. The first week is almost over and he still hasn’t done anything, as far as Sirius knows. And between Reg having a meltdown and James being ecstatic, Sirius would be the first to know.
In two days, they have the big scavenger hunt around the city, which Sirius is not looking forward to, though he supposes it’s the perfect time for James. Regulus will be too distracted trying to win to be suspicious about James’ nerves, and James will surely be able to convince McGonagall to have one of the clues be at the Museum Island.
The issue with this is that they won’t want Sirius around so he’ll have no choice but to stick with Lupin if he doesn’t want to get lost.
The Brandenburger Gate itself is pretty cool, the amount of people taking selfies in front of it is just a little pathetic, Sirius thinks. He can see his brother not-so-subtly judging every single one of them. Regulus is one of those people who think phones should be banned at museums. It pisses him off to no end when there are twenty people in the way of the painting taking pictures. Sirius can’t really say he cares, but he’ll hate them in solidarity for Reg.
As the day merges into afternoon, the three of them get back onto the U-Bahn and start the complex journey back to the hotel. At first, they go in the wrong direction, and later on they get on a wrong tram but eventually, a good two hours later, they walk up the stone staircase to their rooms.
Sirius fully expects Lupin to be lying in the bed reading or something, but he’s not. It doesn’t look like he’s even been back since they left this morning. Sirius checks the time on his phone, 18:34. That’s a little late if they’d been out since 9 am. But, with an uncomfortable twist of his stomach, Sirius realises he doesn’t actually have Lupin’s number. Not for the first time during the trip, he looks out the window, hoping Lupin will somehow be there but he’s not, and Sirius doesn’t like it.
The hell he supposed to do about it, though? He doesn’t have Lupin's number, or email, or anything, and he shouldn’t care but he does. God, Sirius wants to scream.
He paces, and paces, and paces. Then he paces some more.
Dinner he spends fidgeting, staring from the door to McGonagall and back. If she’s noticed that Remus isn’t here, she certainly isn’t showing it.
After dinner, he, James and Reg go to the pool, though none of them actually go in. Sirius is too nervous, Regulus is too shy about his top surgery scars, and James just wants to cuddle Regulus, so they sit at the edge, and stare down at the water.
“Sirius?”
Regulus nudges him while James has gone to the loo.
“Hmm?”
“Why are you being weird?”
“I’m not”
“You are”
“I’m not”
He mates Regulus' gaze, fistrated, only to pause at his brother’s look. How does he know everything?
“It’s okay to care about people”
“Yes, you’ve mentioned”
“I mean it”
“I know”
“Do you?”
No. “Yes”
“...alright”
They don’t stay long after that, Regulus gets cold and James is too good a boyfriend. So Sirius returns to his room, alone, and guess what? He paces.
The clock ticks and ticks, minutes pass slowly and when Sirius blinks back into reality, it’s past midnight.
Where the fuck is he?
Sirius grabs his phone, slips on his shoes and quietly leaves the room.
James is reading a book when Sirius opens the door, Regulus asleep with his head on James’ chest, arms thrown loosely around James’ waist.
James barely looks up, still engrossed by his book, and Sirius doesn’t hesitate to throw a sock at him.
“Sirius! What d’you want?” he whisper-shouts, annoyed that Sirius could wake Regulus up. It’s the only thing James can actually get mad at Sirius for. Bothering his boyfriend. Figures.
“Come on, Prongs. We’re pulling a heist.”
“But Reg’s sleeping”
“And he’ll still be sleeping when we get back. Come on, you have the rest of your life to stare at his pretty face, don’t pout about it now.”
James rolls his eyes, but there’s a slight smirk tugging at his lips. He puts his book down and carefully picks Regulus up, slips out of the bed and then lays Reg back down so gently Sirius has to roll his eyes. James tucks him in, brushing his hair from his face and kissing him twice before finally putting his shoes on.
They close the door behind them, and Sirius can feel the excitement radiating off of James already.
“So, what are we doing, Pads?”
“We, my dear Prongs, are stealing some information.”
“I see. And how will we do that?”
Sirius grins.
“We’re breaking into Minnie’s cave”