find your inner rockstar
Sirius
The reaction to Remus’ announcement is quite fitting in Sirius’ opinion. Large whoops sound from all around him, and James being James even jumps up and starts dancing on a table (which Remus doesn’t look too happy about) earning a new series of cheers. At that moment, Sirius thinks that out of all the shops he could have ran into, this was the right one.
“Wait,” Dorcas pauses as they all turn to her, grabbing their attention, “What are we going to sleep on? It’s not like we have any pillows or blankets,” That is admittedly a bit of a mood killer. Sirius frowns and sees the others doing the same. Silence falls, only to be quickly lifted by a sharp gasp from Marlene, promptly setting off a chorus of ‘Whats?’ around the room. She grins, gripping the edges of the sofa she's reclining on. She turns her gaze on Mary.
“You could call Lily, right? And ask her to bring us the stuff?” Marlene suggests, eyes full with hope as she stares expectantly at Mary, whose own eyes widen and smile grows.
“Oh my gosh, yes!” Mary gasps, reaching for her phone. She looks up from where she is scrolling through her contacts app, “Lily is my girlfriend by the way,” She says, eyes twinkling as they look between Sirius and James. The dial tone begins to ring and she turns the speaker button on, holding her phone out somewhere above the middle of the table they're all perched around.
“Cool,” Sirius grins, it's a relief to know he isn’t hanging out with some secretly homophobic weirdos. Not that he suspected them to be, but crazier things have happened.
“Your girlfriend who is my best friend,” Remus mutters, earning a mock-glare from Mary which he matches perfectly as they stare each other down, dial tone still ringing, before they both descend into light laughter and smiles. Sirius watches and his heart flutters warmly.
“Hi?” A strong voice crackles through the phone, and all of their heads snap towards the small device at once.
“Lily!” Marlene exclaims affectionately.
“Marlene? Is everything okay? Where’s Mary?” Lily replies, a slightly tense tone creeping into her words. Mary laughs at her sudden worry.
“Relax, I’m right here,” She giggles, receiving a huff as a response. “Um, actually so we were just calling to ask you if you could drop us some blankets and pillows?” To this, Marlene gestures frantically, waving her arms around in the air wildly. Mary sends her a confused look before gradually saying “And various other sleepover supplies?” Marlene nods and sits still again. As they all wait for an answer, Sirius thinks of the absurdity of the situation. He is apparently about to have a sleepover in a coffee shop with a bunch of total strangers - minus James. Fame can lead to strange things.
“May I ask why you are wanting to have a sleepover in a coffee shop, the place where you work?” Lily asks apprehensively, which he thinks is a fair question, though before any of them can reply, she adds, “And who’s we?”
“Okay, it’s a long story, we’ll explain when you get here, also you are invited if you want to stay too, Lils,” Remus chimes in, leaning closer to the phone. Sirius makes a mental note to ask later how it came about that Lily is both Remus’ best friend and Mary’s girlfriend. “Oh, and it’s Remus, Mary, Marlene, Dorcas, Sirius and James,”
“Right,” She begins slowly, eerily similar to how Remus said the same thing earlier, “and who is Sirius and James?” Marlene groans. Who is Sirius Black and James Potter seems to be the million dollar question tonight.
“Ugh, we told you we’ll explain when you get here, so will you come?” Mary insists, shutting her eyes and crossing her fingers. Beside her, Marlene crosses her fingers too and so they all copy her, sitting there with their eyes screwed shut as well. If someone walked in at that exact moment, Sirius is sure they would all look quite mad. It all seems like a bit much, but also feels right - which, coincidentally, describes what the past half hour an hour has felt like as well - to Sirius anyway.
“Fine, yes I will. Sounds like it can’t be that bad,” Lily gives in, supposedly stubbornly, though you can hear the smile in her voice through the phone. Collectively, their eyes all fly open as James starts cheering once again.
“Thank you, thank you! Love you, see you soon,” Mary beams, a few quick ‘thank yous’ are uttered by the rest of them before she hangs up. It felt like a sigh of relief when Lily agreed, even though Sirius admittedly didn’t have a clue what was going on half the time.
* * *
James (mostly)
And so they wait, refilling glasses of Coke and lemonade in shifts, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. James chuckles along with another one of Marlene’s extraordinary stories. He thinks about how he wouldn’t be here, making new friends and meeting these amazing people if it wasn’t for Sirius Black; being friends with Sirius has led him into some odd places and circumstances on many separate occasions. He doesn’t regret it one bit.
“Strangest fact about yourselves: go,” Mary declares suddenly, staring at them all expectantly. James could mention how he has had a weird obsession/connection with deer - specifically stags - since he was young. He could mention how he went to a weird, cult-like boarding school with Sirius for six years. He could mention how his favourite band is ABBA. He could mention how he’s in love with Sirius’ little brother, Regulus. Terrible idea, that, he thinks, though it would be a good opportunity to bring it up. You see, James has been waiting for a good opportunity to bring it up for the past seven years, except the two brothers have a rather strained relationship that they are very slowly, very carefully rebuilding. It’s delicate, James knows, and a big revelation like this might– no, will ruin it for them, even if Regulus doesn't seem to think so. Admittedly, stalling until Sirius finds out on his own is worse, hence why James is waiting for the perfect time to sit down with him and talk about it. The guilt keeps him awake at night often, yet it's only himself standing in the way of telling Sirius, which only makes his head hurt more when he thinks about it all. Soon, he reassures himself, as he always does. Thinking about Regulus makes his heart tug, he hasn’t seen him in a good couple of weeks and James is beginning to think it’s genuinely having an effect on him. Between his job, Reg's job and having to hide from Sirius, it's just been hard to find the time to see each other recently, no matter how much they want to. They’ve been texting - of course - but they can’t risk calling with Sirius so nearby James half the time, infuriatingly. Though James is veering dangerously close to the edge of his patience and is very tempted to just say ‘fuck it’ and call Reg up right in front of Sirius, who cares what he thinks. He desperately needs to hear Reg’s voice, to see him. He’s snapped right back into reality when Marlene lets out a sharp ‘ooh’ sound from where she’s sat next to him.
“I’ve got one!” She all but shouts, befuddling James before he remembers what got him thinking about Reg in the first place. He turns to her, smiling. He’s got plenty of time to think about all his problems later, right now he should just be enjoying himself.
“Let’s hear it then,” He urges, trying not to laugh at her wild eyes and clear excitement.
“Okay so, when I was younger,” She pauses, staring round at them dramatically.
“Here we go,” Dorcas rolls her eyes, though you can see it’s from a clear place of affection. Marlene, predictably, remains undeterred.
“I used to be like fully convinced I was a witch, so I used to make ‘potions’ out of cleaning products I found around the house, right? So, one day I was making my potion in the kitchen and it caught fire and literally blew up and I didn’t know what to do so I just threw it in the bin - yes burning myself in the process. And, of course, my brother had just thrown away an old cologne he didn’t like or something beforehand into the same bin and so the potion fire in the bin became a massive fire after exploding again - because, like, chemicals. And that, ladies and gentlemen, that is how I burnt down my house when I was six years old,” Marlene rambles, concluding with a bow - well - as much of a bow she can possibly do whilst sat down. A few gasps and timely ‘No’ s are spoken at the appropriate times, but apart from that everyone is silent and listening intently to her. James has to hand it to her, Marlene’s life certainly does not sound boring. The woman in question takes a casual sip of her drink, face blank as if she had just merely made a comment about the weather.
“Well, I certainly didn’t take you for an arsonist, McKinnon,” Mary comments, eyebrows raised. Remus hums in agreement.
“Yes, should I have done a background check before I hired you?” He says, his expression painted out in mock-worry. James can't help but bark with laughter at this, Remus sending him a sly grin. Marlene shoots him a glare.
“You told me you did a background check!” She exclaims, throwing her hands up in the air. Dorcas turns to Remus, an inquisitive look on her face.
“So that I could see if you seemed scared or not when I said it,” He reasons, holding his palms up, smiling guiltily. “You passed by the way”
“I should hope so too,” Dorcas says smirking, James watches as she and Marlene catch each other's gazes and keep it. He feels oddly as if he is intruding on a private moment, meant for only the two of them.
“Anyway, any more facts, not stories, anyone would like to share?” Mary asks eagerly. Silence passes for a few beats before Remus clears his throat and swallows, obviously gearing up to say something. Five heads turn towards him.
“I,” He starts before trailing off, mumbling the rest of his sentence incoherently, eyes trained on his lap.
“Pardon?” Marlene chuckles slightly, Remus turning so shy does not seem like a usual occurrence, from what James has seen today anyway. The boy sighs loudly.
“I was in a band,” He repeats, still mumbling except slightly louder this time. Marlene actually chokes on her lemonade, whilst Mary audibly gasps and Dorcas’ mouth stretches into a knowing smile - as though she had been expecting this. James looks over to Sirius, whose jaw has dropped.
“I’m sorry, you were in a band?” Mary laughs, as if the very thought is utterly ridiculous. Remus covers his face with his fingers in shame and nods.
“There’s a video,” Dorcas announces very quickly before she gets attacked by Remus, who literally tackles her to the ground and places his hands firmly over her mouth whilst she protests, attempting to fight him off. At the word ‘video’, Marlene had snatched her phone up from where it laid beside her, fingers poised, assumably ready to find this goddamn video of Remus. A video of Remus, whose first impression on James was a sarcastic, slightly scary, no-bullshit manager, rocking out on stage playing the drums or something. Eventually Remus gives in, letting Dorcas free again. She sits back upright, adjusting her jewellery, breathing heavily. She turns to the group and grins, opening her lips to speak and Remus shifts as if he’s going to pounce again. She raises her eyebrows at him daringly and he just sinks back down, admitting defeat.
“I have a video from Remus’ band era, which only ended two years ago, mind you, now who wants to see it?” She cackles at Remus’ expression - unbelievably embarrassed - and the enthusiasm of the rest of them, all immediately moving to her side to get a good view of her phone. She pulls it up from her camera roll, sometime in July two years ago, and there he is.
Remus on a smoky stage with eyeliner, ear piercings - more than he has now - and a white vest on, destroying the shit out of a guitar solo to a roaring crowd. Moving up and down the stage, his face shining from sweat as his fingers play unbelievably fast. He laughs into a microphone he’s stopped in front of and peels his shirt off as his solo comes to an end - tossing it behind him to reveal remarkably toned abs and muscles covered with tattoos. His guitar still slung over him, he starts playing what’s presumably the intro to the next song. If James wasn’t already aware he likes men, this would definitely be his awakening. He double-takes Sirius who looks like he’s about to faint, eyes absolutely glued to the screen, and James has to try very, very hard to hold back his laugh. Remus is still watching, seemingly lost in reliving the memory in his own head. Marlene and Mary, however, look as if they had just seen a pig fly—completely and utterly shocked to their cores. The screen suddenly gets grabbed by Remus and thrown back onto the sofa.
“That’s enough of that,” He says, smiling sheepishly, still half-hiding behind his hands. The group of them stare at him before beginning to talk at him all at once - except for Sirius, who is focused on the phone laying on the sofa still, in some sort of trance. James knocks into him forcefully, which seems to bring him back to reality. Sirius whips around, eyes lingering on Remus before landing on James, whose arms are folded and is serving a very accusatory expression in his direction currently. Sirius decidedly looks away, unwilling to own up to whatever reaction he had to that video. Instead, he looks at the man who is wearing a navy blue woolly jumper and jeans, with two piercings - not ten - and no visible tattoos or tendencies to remove shirts spontaneously. How on God's green Earth is this the same person? Marlene, Mary, Dorcas and James are all chattering excitedly with him right now, though he looks like he’d rather be curled up in a corner somewhere. Which Sirius finds funny as he was so confident when they first met, striding about like he owns the place. Which he does, Sirius’ brain adds unhelpfully.
Sirius sits down, still slightly dazed, and he thinks again what he had first thought when Dorcas had started playing the video. He needs to get Remus up on a stage with him. And he will.