"They say it's your birthday, we're gonna have a good time." - The Beatles
Look, James knows that he can be impulsive sometimes, and okay, maybe also a bit obnoxious, but he likes to think that those are only moments and not the entire time. So, it's understandable when he's cursing his luck for not feeling confident now.
James is allowed to be nervous right now, of course, since he is about to ask Remus to go on a date with him, which, all in all, should go well, since James already knows Moony like the back of his hand. All he has to do is get Moony to agree, and James already has a perfect solution for that.
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"Moony, Moons, Moonshine, Moon of my life"
Remus sighed in exasperation at the multiple nicknames, albeit he could feel heat rising to his cheeks at the way James was looking at him,
"What do you want, James?"
James shifted nervously, and Remus could feel his usual confidence slowly leave him, and, as amusing as Remus found that, it also made him kinda nervous,
"You know it's my birthday tomorrow, right? Right, silly me, course you do, Moony. You never forget any of our birthdays. Right, right. I was wondering if you'd do something special for my birthday?"
Remus didn't know what to think, but then again, he trusted James with his life, and the least he could do after all that James has done for him was agree. So, with that in mind, he slowly nodded his head and watched as James's face broke into a wide grin.
"Moony, would you do me the honor of going on a date with me? Just a small one, you know? To see if we're compatible, and... you know, I do fancy you a lot, Moony, and I don't want to ruin everything if you do agree and it doesn't work out, but you did tell us that you were into guys, so I just thought that-" James was rambling, so Remus simply held his hand up with a smile on his face,
"Prongs?"
"Yes, Moony?"
"I'd love to go on a small date with you. Just to see how it goes. Then we can decide."
"Really?! I mean, yeah, cool, course, thank you Moony. Um-yeah, I'm sure it's gonna be great, so um-the day after tomorrow sounds good, yeah? Yeah, cool- um- see ya Moony!"
The moment James was out of the dorm room, he let out a whoop, skipping down the stairs to go tell Sirius and ask him for date ideas. It's Hogsmeade weekend, after all. Inside the room, Remus lets his face fully flush and allows a smile to grace his lips, feeling it widen as he hears James's whoop from the other side of the door, already thinking of all the places that they could go to, and okay, maybe he had also fancied James back for quite a while. The two boys, although in different rooms, had identical grins and flushed cheeks.
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As soon as morning came, James was woken up by the three bodies jumping on top of him, shouting happy birthday. He groaned, tossing a little to try and dislodge them so he could turn over to sleep again. Yes, he's usually awake at this time, but he would've liked to sleep in on his birthday at least!
"JAAAAAAMES! Wake up already you sleepy head! We need to celebrate early so that we can send you and Moony out on that date in time."
At that, James opened his eyes and woke up, just like that, to see three faces grinning at him. He could see Moony getting a little pink, and he could feel his own face heat up in response to Remus's blush.
"Oh wow, so now you wake up, huh? Just gotta mention the fact that he has a date with Moony and up he goes, just like that."
"Shut up, Sirius." James could feel his face heat up as Moony's did in front of him as well. Nonetheless, he slowly got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up, and he couldn't help the hopeless, sappy grin from lighting his face up at the idea of his date with Remus today. Oh how he couldn't wait!
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It was chaos, as it always was on a Marauder's birthday, nothing new there, but the slightly different change was that James was actually looking forward for when the time rolled around, so they could finally break off, which usually wouldn't happen until the next morning on normal birthdays, but today was different because today he could finally go on a date with Remus, as he'd been wishing for since the start of the year.
James couldn't sit still for the life of him. First of all, his friends sang at the top of their lungs in the great hall for him, then they brought out a cake that they definitely had to bribe the house elves to make, and then they threw him a mini party in the common room, before they finally took him up to the the dorm room to give him his gifts, and let him and Moony get ready for their date.
At the moment, Sirius was sitting on his bed, helping him pick out an outfit, while Pete was on the other side of the dorm, helping Remus pick out his own outfit. It looked hilarious to an outsider, but really, what else was expected when the people going on the date shared a dorm with each other?
The moment Sirius let out a victory sound, Pete also let out a similar one, so Remus went off to change in the bathroom while James stayed to change his clothes right where he was, blushing when he noticed Remus giving him a shy smile before entering the bathroom to change.
"Oh, to be in love, how must it feel, Messrs Prongs?" Sirius, the little shithead, asked, swooning and falling into Peter's arms, who smirked, and let out a Victorian-worthy sigh, putting his hand that wasn't holding Sirius to his forehead, "Oh, but how would us commoners know? After all, Messrs Prongs is our leader; he and he alone can experience the luxury of a date with our most renown Messrs Moony." Peter sighed, dramatically wiping an invisible tear from his eye, "Oh but to be the most popular Messrs Prongs." Peter sighed once more and Sirius followed suit, and they both ended up laughing on the floor, with James looking down at them from where he was standing, clothes changed, staring at them, half amused and equally half unamused at his best mates antics.
Right then the bathroom door opened and out popped Remus, with a green jumper that brought out his eyes and definitely some of Sirius's makeup around his eye, and those black pants fit him like a glove, which had James blushing the second he looked at him, before that same huge smile that lit up his face in the morning came up again, and he couldn't help it this time either, neither could he help his smile going wider as he saw Remus blush and smile back.
Beside them Sirius cleared his throat, standing up and pushing James towards Remus, who held his hand out for him to take, before he began to walk them out of the door, smiling one last time at Sirius and Peter, and waving before he closed the door.
And off they walked to Hogsmeade.
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It was good. It was really good. Remus was laughing and smiling as he was holding James's hand, which, in turn, made James very happy, which made Remus even happier, and so on and so forth, which just ended up with James and Remus smiling brightly at each other and existing in their little bubble of happiness, smiling and laughing and holding hands, then joking and laughing hard enough to fall off their chairs and getting up with flushed faces.
James is so happy he can feel his cheeks hurting from smiling so much, and he knows that Remus is happy too because he can see the crinkle around his eyes, and he can see the dimple on his right cheek that James loves so much on permanent display, making James's heart melt just a little bit more, and he can feel his smile turning more and more love sick by the minute, and Remus's smile is mirroring his by the end.
After they're done with their drinks at The Three Broom Sticks, they visit Honeyducks, getting enough to last them all until the next month, with James insisting to pay for everything, and Remus just blushing while he holds James's hand the moment he's done paying, hugging his arm and smiling at him shyly in thanks, which only serves to make James blush and smile back, the smile never leaving his face.
After a while of walking around, Remus started to pull him to a secluded little path, never letting go of his hand until they reached a bench and sat down, with Remus turning to look at James, his face flushed and his grin big, and his dimple on display for James and James only,
"Here, your other birthday gift; the genuine one, not the gag gift. I wanted to give it to you when we went out." Remus smiled at him, and James took the wrapped gift from Remus, his heart fluttering in his chest as he unwrapped it carefully and opened up the box, finding a small necklace inside,
"Go on. Open it."
James nodded and opened up the pendant, his heart warming up as he saw the photo inside, and he turned to crush Remus in a hug, feeling like his heart would burst when Remus hugged him back instantly.
"I love it. Thank you, Moony"
Remus was smiling when James pulled away from the hug, and he couldn't help it when he saw him like that, all smiley, flushed and happy. James slowly put his hand on Remus's cheek, watching him press his face into his hand, slowly nodding his head at the question in James's eyes when he leaned closer.
James moved slowly, wanting to savor every second of his first kiss with Moony, slowly leaning in as Remus did the same. When their lips finally met, it was like a whole new world of magic opened up before the two boys. They both grinned into the kiss, pressing closer and closer until there was no space between their bodies, utterly lost in the sensation of each other, moving their lips together and arms going around necks and waist, pulling the other as close as possible.
When they reluctantly broke apart, they rested their foreheads together, breathing heavily and smiling like two idiots in love.
"So, you wanna be my official boyfriend now, Moony?" James asked, and Remus could hear the smile in his voice, and he could feel his face slowly break out in a similar grin,
"I'd love to, Prongs."
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Later, when they returned to the dorm, they would get endlessly teased by Sirius and Peter, who for sure will somehow get all the details from them, but for now, Remus and James sit together and talk quietly while holding each other and eating chocolate ( and, occasionally, every so often, they would feed each other said chocolate. When Sirius and Peter find out, they make sure to continue making fun of them for the next week.).