Chapter 2
Remus woke up to golden light streaming through the curtains and a warm weight on his chest. Sirius was curled up under Remus’s arm, his face in his chest and his arm resting on his stomach. Remus reached down to stroke Sirius’s dark curls. He could hear the faint hum of Effie’s radio in the kitchen, the smell of tea and toast just prominent enough to make his mouth water. As Sirius stirs he freezes, not wanting to be the thing to wake up the sleeping star. He burys his face into the crook of Sirius’s neck, clinging to him as if the boy was his life source. as the shorter boy slowly wakes, Remus immediately fakes being asleep, trying desperately to stay like this for as long as possible.
Suddenly the door crashes open and James bounces into the room “THE GIRLS ARE HERE AND THE REST ARE ON THE WAY” he shouts excitedly not noticing Sirius catapult himself off the bed in an awkward attempt to disguise the blatant snuggling as a muffled “quiet James!” Comes from Effie in the kitchen.
Soft chatter echos through the house as the girls greet everyone, old and new faces meeting. As the roar of laughter and excitement dies down and the house begins to settle into the usual quiet rhythm Remus finds himself picking away at the library, cataloging and reading everything. He started the project the first summer he spent at the potters, it’s been 4 years since and it’s become his favourite project while visiting. that’s where lily finds him, tucked away with a cup of tea and a lit sandalwood candle. “Are you and Sirius together or something?” Lily asks blatantly. Remus freezes and attempts to reply calmly “what gave you that idea?!” He failed. “You two were practically eye fucking each other every time you are in the same room. And James said you were cuddling this morning. I don’t think that’s very heterosexual of the two of you. Also there’s no fucking way either of you like women” lily replies with a smile.”I don’t know what we are.” Remus says, his voice breaking. “Sometimes you can just be, you don’t have to know” Lily replies softly, reaching up to hug the tall boy, who was trying to hide the frustration and confusion on his face as tears welled up. “I don’t want to lose him” Remus says. “Tell him that”.
As the minutes turned to hours in the vast library Remus watched the sun go down, and the house filled with the smell of fresh tikka masala and naan. *knock knock* “dinner moony” Pete says “everyone is waiting”.
Remus took a seat at the long table filled with his true family in between lily and Marlene, right across from Sirius who evaded his eye contact the whole dinner. After the meal the group decided to go out, Remus being more of an introvert agreed under the premise that he got to decide when they leave.
Back in the shared room Remus has draped himself on the bed with a book, no need to change his knit sweater and corduroy pants are all he needs. Sirius rummages through his bag and retrieves a cropped AC/DC shirt and some baggy ripped jeans, fishnets for underneath. “Woah what are you doing” Remus says as Sirius begins undressing, “moony we are both guys who cares it’s not like your gay” he says, essentially sending 1000 shards of glass to remus’s heart. “Whatever, I’ll see you in the truck” he said as he rushed out before Sirius could see the tears welling in his eyes. “Oof” exclaimed Marlene as the tall boy slammed into her in the hallway “watch where your going idio- oh honey what’s wrong?” The tone in her voice changes as she sees the watery eyes of his. “I- he- ffuck” Remus says as he rubs the tears from his face. “I’ll be ok, I’m ok.” He says as he inhaled deeply. “Is this about… him?” Marlene asks quietly, “you know he’s got some really shitty internalized homophobia and shit, give him time” she says softly before walking him out to the car.