sweet baby Jesus, that's good coffee!
James
James wakes up to screaming. Again. What does a man have to do to get a good night’s sleep around here, honestly? Slowly but surely, he opens his eyes and squints as he pats around the floor aimlessly for wherever he put down his glasses the previous night, blinded by the daylight pouring in through the windows. After a few seconds of being wildly unsuccessful, he grabs onto them, fitting them onto the bridge of his nose and blinking as the world comes into focus.
He had been tuning out all the shouting exploding around him before he could actually make sense of his surroundings, and now that he can he tries to figure out what the hell’s going on. Sitting up with much effort, he swings his head in a full one-eighty to see Remus standing, looking surprisingly awake and put-together considering he must have just woken up not long before James did, and also clutching his stomach with hysterical laughter at God knows what – James turns away, quite sure that he’ll find out soon enough. The next person he sees is Marlene sitting up in her electric blue sleeping bag laid directly across the room from him, her hair severely mussed and her expression as confused as James feels. They’re almost a perfect mirror image of each other. Beside Marlene is Lily, except James only knows that it’s her because of the long copper locks of hair poking out from the top of her sleeping bag, the rest of her body fully submerged somewhere under the covers. James smiles to himself at the gentle image. A sudden noise yelped from the person next to him makes him flinch and snap his gaze in the direction of where Sirius sits with a horrified expression etched out on his face. He’s holding a phone that isn’t his or James’ out in front of him, the camera app opened and facing his extremely frizzy hair, what’s left of his waves that are not tangled together sticking up all over the place. James nearly bursts out laughing until he remembers that his hair is probably looking even worse and promptly shuts his mouth again. He takes one last glance at Sirius’ dropped jaw as he attempts to run his fingers through it, and failing drastically, before he hears a yell from an unfamiliar voice that makes him blink with confusion, and then double-take its owner.
Standing in the doorway of the breakroom is a beautiful dark-skinned woman with thick blonde, almost white, dreadlocks tied up in a high ponytail that hangs down her back, almost reaching where her flowing maxi skirt begins. James’ eyes widen and he takes a second to just admire her whole vibe – colourful maximalist jewellery dripping from everywhere possible and her cropped shirt clearly made by her from about five different types of material; paired with the several thin, frayed paint brushes and pencils James spots hidden all over her outfit, he decides that she’s giving whimsical, frazzled art student in the absolutely best way possible. He watches her deer-like features screw up into a frown as she shouts down at Dorcas who is laying by her feet, still in her sleeping bag positioned by the door and scowling back up at her in a literally-just-woken-up way that makes you tell that she is hearing nothing the woman is saying. James certainly can, though.
“What the fuck is wrong with all of you?” She yells angrily, though her words are still mostly directed at Dorcas who seems to have woken up a bit now, and is currently serving the woman the most disturbed judgemental glare James has ever seen. So, this is what Remus was laughing at, then. “Idiots, idiots, idiots,” The woman repeats through gritted teeth, punctuating each word with a kick to Dorcas’ stomach, fortunately padded with the sleeping bag duvet. Though unaffected by the attempted violence, Dorcas’ eyes still widen and she begins to look genuinely pissed off. This is when James wonders, do they even know this woman? Who is she, and why is she being so loud so early in the morning? It might just be because he only woke up about three minutes ago after having a sleepover in a coffee shop with a load of strangers, but James is feeling very, very scared that the angry woman will come after him next. He doesn’t understand why nobody else, except Dorcas, seems even slightly concerned for their safety. James wants answers. He catches Marlene’s eye.
“Is she always like this?” He whispers, deciding it’s a pretty safe bet that the others do know who the woman is.
“Only when she hasn’t had her morning iced tea,” Marlene whispers back, her tone deadly serious. She tilts her head. “Or if someone doesn’t care for the environment enough,” James nods thoughtfully, tucking this information away in his brain.
Sirius apparently hasn’t noticed her yet, or is just more concerned with his looks than the mayhem unfolding around him. Remus is still laughing to himself, Marlene, now turned back to where Dorcas is attempting to fend off the angry woman’s feet, is looking as confused as ever watching this random lady abuse her girlfriend, and Lily is hibernating under her blanket. Mary, though. Mary, who was previously watching quietly from a corner with a bemused expression on her face, has apparently decided it’s a great idea to get up in her hot pink, rhinestone encrusted pyjamas and intervene in the whole situation, now yelling back at the woman in what James guesses is Dorcas’ defence. It escalates quickly into quite a heated argument, mostly consisting of pointed fingers and arched eyebrows, both of them talking over each other so much that James can only catch snippets of what they’re actually saying.
“Who in their right mind—”
“You do not have the right—”
“—scaring me like that!”
“—trying to hurt Dorcas–”
This is when Dorcas herself joins in, sitting up and glaring angrily at the both of them as she voices her own opinion.
“I don’t need you two–”
Invested now, James leans forward and watches them with interest, not even noticing Remus with his arms folded and muscles flexing crossing the room over to where they are all standing until he appears lodged in between them in his own attempt to break up the fighting. He’s still wearing an amused smile, though he’s stopped laughing. James stares, slightly disappointed, as he lightly shoves each of the girls backwards away from each other to separate them. It doesn’t work. They move willingly, but continue to snap at each other bitterly, and James wonders idly who it was that screamed earlier, waking him up so abruptly in the first place. He faintly recalls a distant shriek sounding from somewhere else in the building, and a few frankly deafening ones coming from inside this very room. Again, he’s quite sure that he’ll find out soon enough.
Remus looks exasperatedly from Mary, to Dorcas, to the loud woman and back again, and James suddenly feels sorry for him being caught in the middle of their feud. He watches Remus spend about five more seconds twisting his head around as a new person speaks, and scrunching his eyebrows when they say something he doesn’t agree with, until he visibly decides that he’s had enough.
“Alright, shut up, all of you!” He booms over all the noise, his voice so loud that James still flinches, even though he saw it coming this time. Next to him, Sirius drops the phone he was using with a thud – whoever’s it was – and snaps his head up, his eyes wide with shock. Even Lily pops her head up from underneath her covers, frowning at the bright lights and unpleasant sound. Though, in her favour, everyone falls silent after Remus’ words. Mary, Dorcas and the woman all reluctantly shut their mouths, their eyes sharpened with anger after arguing so fiercely. Remus sighs with relief at the quiet, taking a second to appreciate it before turning to the woman standing in the breakroom doorway with one hand on her hip and a murderous expression on her face.
“Pandora, what are you doing here?” He asks calmly and James thinks to himself how unusual of a name that is, then he remembers he knows people called Sirius, Regulus and Remus, and changes his mind. Pandora scoffs.
“It’s my shift, in case you’ve forgotten that this is a workplace and not some sort of weird hotel,” She says, flicking her gaze around the room critically, and landing on where James and Sirius are sitting together in their matching sleeping bags and matching pyjamas. She looks them up and down with a strange expression on her face and James suddenly feels very insecure in his fluffy princess outfit. He turns his head to see what Sirius thinks of this and does it just in time to catch him sending Pandora a look of daggers back, dragging his eyes up and down her purposefully, a mocking of what she did to them. James doesn’t know why he expected any less of him, to be honest.
“Right, right, sorry, it’s Saturday, isn’t it?” Remus says with his eyebrows raised like he had completely forgotten that this is actually a coffee shop, drawing James’ attention back. Mary frowns.
“I’m not even working today, why am I here?” She asks, her tone sounding genuinely confused as she looks around the room like it’s an entirely new place.
“Surprise sleepover,” Marlene reminds her promptly. Mary opens her mouth to reply but Pandora beats her to it.
“Hold on, you guys had a sleepover here? And you didn’t invite me?” She asks, her eyebrows drawn together and her accusatory tone suggesting she finds the idea simply absurd.
“It was a very last minute thing,” Remus responds hastily, gesturing over to James and Sirius, even though Pandora wouldn’t know what that means, considering she doesn’t seem to know who they are, or why they are here in the first place. Everyone in the room turns to look at the two of them, including Pandora, and so James feels strongly compelled to say something in Remus’ defence.
“It’s true, and it’s our fault so don’t blame the others,” He says, offering Pandora a small smile, though still feeling slightly fearful of her after seeing what she did to Dorcas. Next to him, Sirius nods in agreement, but his face doesn’t display any niceties after the look Pandora gave them, which he clearly hasn’t gotten over yet. Pandora’s mouth twitches.
“I was going to blame you anyway, but thank you for that,” She grins cheekily and James doesn’t quite know what to say to that.
“You’re welcome,” Is all his stupid brain can think of. It didn’t even come out sarcastically, as well. Paired with the polite smile still on his face, he just looks like an idiot now. Oh, well. He doesn’t have enough energy for self-loathing, and doesn’t particularly feel like it today. Pandora laughs for a second and then her face falls.
“Um, did you guys have a party last night, as well?” She asks, and nobody answers, everyone looking around confusedly instead; her eyebrows raise, “The shop? It’s completely trashed,” She adds and a collective ‘Oh’ of understanding is released from the group of them. James had forgotten about that, and suddenly feels a strong surge of pity for Remus.
“No, we didn’t have a party,” Remus sighs, sounding like he almost wishes that was the truth instead of what actually happened. Marlene and Mary both wince, making eye contact with one another.
“We’ll explain later,” Dorcas says quickly after seeing Marlene’s reaction, and James watches as she shoots her a grateful look in return. He honestly doesn’t know how he didn’t realise they were dating before he got told yesterday. They remind him of himself and Regulus a bit, actually.
Oh my god, Regulus, he thinks. He’s seeing Regulus today. He has to rerun the thought through his head a few times before it actually feels real, and when it does his heart just about explodes. As happy as he is for Regulus that he got to go on that trip to Italy for his work, he was slightly put out by the fact that it meant not seeing him for nearly two weeks. Though none of that matters now, because later he’s going home. He’s going home and he’s going to see Regulus. In fact, home is Regulus.
Beside him, Sirius attempts to run a hand through his hair, forgetting how tangled it is and getting his fingers stuck halfway in, muttering to himself angrily about it in French under his breath. Mid-way through laughing at him, all of James’ promises he made to himself yesterday about telling Sirius everything today come rushing back to him. Oh, shit. He is not at all prepared for this. He has to do it, though. For both his own sanity and for Regulus. Ideally, he’d like to have Regulus at least nearby to him for the conversation he already knows is going to be one of the toughest ones he will ever experience. James refuses to have all of Sirius’ inevitable hurt and blame pinpointed in just his direction when a relationship is very clearly a two person thing. He would admit that he’s considerably more at fault than Regulus, though, as if it was up to him, Sirius would have known about him and James years ago. James sighs deeply, forgetting Sirius is literally right next to him, and feels his eyes focus on the back of his head. He really has to be more careful. Actually, no, he doesn’t. Sirius will know everything in a matter of hours, anyway, so who cares about being careful anymore? James sure doesn’t.
“So I’m guessing we don’t have to work today?” Pandora says hopefully, her eyes lighting up. If Mary, Marlene and Dorcas were dogs, their ears would prick up at this moment, them all looking to Remus expectantly for an answer. Remus grimaces.
“No, but work might be a little different, today,” He replies, not sounding particularly happy about it, staring down the hallway where the mess from yesterday lies on the other side. He turns back to the group of them with an exaggerated grin. “Manual labour, anyone?” He offers in an overly-bright tone to a chorus of tired groans from his employees. Pandora makes a face.
“If we are going to be fixing all of that,” She waves her hand around the area behind her, “then shouldn’t we just call Evan? He doesn’t start work until later today,” Remus gasps.
“Yes! That’s a great idea, thank you Panda,” Remus’ whole demeanour has changed and suddenly he looks like he could take on the world again. It’s infectious – James doesn’t know who this Evan person is but he’s feeling thankful to him for putting the smile back onto Remus’ face, and by association, his own. Remus pauses, his eyebrows drawing together, “Are you sure it’s okay? I know how busy he can get sometimes,” Pandora scoffs and rolls her eyes.
“Please, most of the time he just plays video games and eats cereal out of the box; he’s not busy, trust me,” She explains with a dismissive wave of her hand, and Remus doesn’t look entirely convinced but smiles anyway.
“OK, should you call him, or should I?” He asks, drawing his phone from his pyjama bottoms pocket. Pandora stays silent for a second, mulling this over.
“You,” She says finally, “He’s less likely to pick up if it’s me because he knows I’ll just text him if he doesn’t,” Remus snorts and nods, tapping his screen a few times and then pressing it to his ear. Next to James, Sirius clears his throat.
“Sorry, who is Evan?” He asks in a low voice so as to not be overheard by the man in question who James can hear just picked up the phone. He doesn’t direct the question at anyone in particular, looking around the room for an answer and it’s Lily who gives him the one he’s searching for in the end.
“Pandora’s twin brother, he’s a carpenter so he’s really good with tools and stuff,” She explains as she hastily ties her hair up into a bun that sits at the nape of her neck, speaking for the first time today, “We’re all kind of friends with him because of Pandora, but we don’t get to see him that often because of his work,” She pauses, her lips twitching, “Or apparently his video games,” Lily grins and falls into a light-hearted conversation with Mary, but not before James can notice something that makes his eyebrows raise. Even though he asked her the question in the first place, Sirius didn’t seem to be listening to a word Lily was saying, instead staring intently at Remus as he paced the length of the room, laughing down the phone at something Evan said. Now, James eyes the soft smile on Sirius’ lips as he still watches, and his uncharacteristically messy hair for someone who just went to sleep as normal and woke up, even if it was to screaming. James narrows his eyes, examining Sirius for any more signs that he’s been up to something, and that’s when he remembers. Amidst his tossing and turning last night as he tried to fall back asleep after the whole fire fiasco, James recalls hearing a distant laugh ring out from somewhere, and at the time he thought his ears were deceiving him, but now he’s not so sure. That’s it, Sirius is going to be the one getting cornered today, and James is very determined to drill this information out of him.
“Are there any more people we should know about, or is this everyone?” Sirius’ second question startles James out of his thoughts, and he looks up to see Marlene, Mary, Lily and Dorcas all in deep consideration about this, whilst Pandora hovers nearby Remus and his phone, occasionally leaning forward to give her input on one thing or another — whatever they’re talking about. Marlene lets out an ‘Ooh’ sound and snaps her fingers, causing them all to turn to her.
“Fabian,” She says, as if that explains everything, and apparently it does for just about everyone except James and Sirius, of course. Seeing their confused expressions, Marlene thankfully elaborates, and James hopes Sirius actually listens this time, because zoning out twice in this context is just rude, in his opinion, “Fabian works here too, but he’s not on shift today so I don’t think you guys will get to meet him. Actually, you just missed him yesterday; he left like ten minutes before you two arrived,” Marlene watches her fingers tangle and untangle absently in her lap as she speaks, only looking up when Mary shoves her phone past her and into James and Sirius’ eyeline, on the screen an enlarged photo of someone. Taking the phone from Mary’s hands to inspect it closer, James sees a tall and broad man, about their age, with floppy, strikingly ginger hair and a wide, cheshire cat grin. He’s quite handsome, and his outfit reminds James of something he thinks Remus would wear, if he was slightly more bookish in his appearance. He seems like he would be quite a nice person, all in all. James turns to see what Sirius thinks and is met with a sour expression and eyes that are still fixated on the screen resting in his palm. Again, James doesn’t know why he expected any less of him. One of the lesser traits of Sirius – and he would never admit this, which is another one – is that he can easily grow a little possessive of those he cares about, and well, James thinks this might be one of those times. He obviously has a thing for Remus, whether anything has happened between the two of them or not, and James is assuming that the idea of another man being in Remus’ everyday life is threatening him a bit. Which is bullshit, honestly. Remus has a right to be friends with whoever he wants, obviously, and Sirius has no say in that, especially when he’s not even known the man twenty-four hours. Though, James knows the bitterness will fade in the next hour or so, it always does, and, yes, it may be an issue that Sirius needs to work on, but James also knows that Sirius would never actually act on something like this, despite how he’s feeling. Well, he very strongly hopes, anyway.
Deciding Sirius has had enough time to grow a one-sided resentment towards poor Fabian, James hands the phone back to Mary and opens his mouth to speak at the exact time as she asks, “What about Gideon?” Gideon must be a controversial subject as there is a wide variety of reactions to his name. For example, Dorcas presses her lips into a thin line as she averts her gaze, staring down into her lap, whilst Mary wears a sly smile, a wolfish glint to her eyes that James definitely doesn’t like the look of. Lily groans.
“Do we have to talk about him?” She complains with an expression of extreme distaste on her face, glancing sideways over to Remus. She lowers her voice to a whisper, “Especially when Remus is right over there, you know how it all makes him feel,” Dorcas nods slowly, a faraway look in her eyes as she clearly flashes back to whatever this Gideon man did that’s so bad. At the mention of Remus’ name in this context, James feels Sirius’ body tense where their shoulders are pressed against one another, and knows what’s coming next. He only just resists the urge to roll his eyes as Sirius turns to Mary, a concerned crease surfacing between his eyebrows.
“Sorry if this is an intruding question, but what happened with Remus?” He asks, whispering now as well, a worried tone disguising the real purpose of his words; to find out if he’s got any competition in the race for Remus’ heart, and if so, how to eliminate them. James would be fairly surprised if he doesn’t have any – and now, thinking about it, he understands Sirius’ need to be worried. Mary looks warily to the women to her left, and to her right, chewing at her lip, biting it back from releasing the answer to Sirius’ question. A few more seconds and she gives in, much to Lily, Marlene and Dorcas’ dismay.
“About two years ago–” Mary begins reluctantly and Lily’s head drops into her hands. Guilt seeps slowly into Mary’s expression, but she continues anyway; James observes that gossiping must be one of her bad traits, “Gideon and Remus dated for, like, six months. They were both pretty chaotic at the time, definitely not a good idea, let’s just say that. Remus was nothing like he is now – as in, he always seemed so angry at the world, and that took its form in some sort of rebellious phase. He got loads of tattoos and piercings, joined a band, apparently,” A smile plays at her lips as she thinks back to the shock everyone felt after being introduced to ‘Rockstar Remus’ yesterday via Dorcas’ video, “He was rarely sober, and Gideon was more or less the same, to all of that. Anyway, six months in, Gideon cheated on Remus, a few times, actually. Dorcas was the one that found out, she saw him in a club making out with another guy, and immediately told Remus, of course. Remus was really upset over it, he wasn’t his normal self for weeks, and then he decided to kind of turn his life around from all the crazy shit he was doing whilst he was with Gideon, thank God. He’s fine now, but he doesn’t much like talking about it, unless it’s a funny story or something. It’s kind of an unspoken rule; never talk about Gideon, or Remus’ old self,” When she finishes speaking she’s no longer smiling, and neither is anybody else. Jesus Christ, James never would have guessed any of that. After seeing the video of Remus yesterday, he has been wondering since what on Earth happened to make him change so drastically, and well, now he knows. Heartbreak can really damage people. Yes, James has been with Regulus since he was just a clueless teenager, but over the years they’ve certainly had their rough patches to get to where they are now. James doesn’t like to think about it, but they’ve gone months without speaking and resenting each other intensely, and themselves because of it. So, even if James doesn’t know exactly how Remus felt, he does have an inkling, and that’s enough to make him feel really fucking sorry for the shit that he’s obviously been through. Mary swipes a few times and silently passes her phone over to James again, her mouth folded into a grim line. Staring blankly at the new image displayed in front of him, James’ eyebrows furrow with confusion. A tall man, about their age. Strikingly ginger hair. A wide, cheshire cat grin.
“Isn’t this Fabian?” He asks, squinting at the picture, surely mistaken. No, it is definitely Fabian, only this time he’s wearing a leather bomber jacket, one James is fairly confident he’s seen Sirius wear before, and a cigarette is hanging loosely from his mouth. There’s a smug look on his face that makes James feel rather intimidated, even through a screen. This paired with the dark, expensive sunglasses resting on top of his head let James come to the conclusion that he’s giving off very strong bad-boy-wannabe asshole vibes, instead of the shy English professor he resembled in the other photo Mary shared. Lily shakes her head.
“That’s Gideon, not Fabian. They’re identical twins,” She explains with pursed lips, and it’s at that moment James remembers that she’s Remus’ best friend. No wonder she hates Gideon so much. If it was Sirius in Remus’ place, James knows he would be exactly the same. After thinking this, he processes Lily’s words properly and raises his eyebrows. More twins; he doesn’t know why he’s surprised. Every time he starts to get used to how everything works around here, he finds out something else that shocks him all over again.
“And you’re still friends with him?” Sirius bursts out from next to him, his jaw dropped and his eyes sharpened with visceral anger. Mary’s eyes bulge.
“What? God, no! I only mentioned him in the first place because we used to be friends, and he used to work here, until Remus fired him,” She exclaims, both of her palms facing upwards in a desperate attempt to display her innocence. James nearly chokes at her words – Remus fired him? Fair enough, though, he would most definitely do the same, but he just can’t imagine Remus firing anyone, really. But, then again, he wasn’t there for this angry phase that he went through, and James assumes that with the rebellion, came a completely different Remus to the one he knows now. Even though it really wasn’t Mary’s thing to tell, he’s glad he knows about it now, seeing Remus in a different light, and one that he understands him better in.
There’s an unreadable expression on Sirius’ face — even to James, which is a very rare occasion — as his eyes trail over to where Remus still stands with Pandora by his side and Evan talking in his ear. Marlene makes a face.
“He didn’t fire him,” She argues, frowning. Mary scoffs, shooting her a ridiculous look back.
“Were you there?” She inquires, her eyebrows raised.
“Yes, I was, actually,” Marlene says matter-of-factly and Mary’s lips quirk.
“So, you don’t consider Remus snapping the apron straight off of Gideon’s neck by tugging on it so hard when he showed up for work, screaming in his face to never set foot in here again and about how much he hates him whilst shoving him out of the door with resignation papers at the same time, then slamming the door so hard it fell off its hinges and directly onto Gideon, breaking his nose, and just walking away, not looking back once, to not be firing someone? Because I for one think—” Lily cuts her off frantically before she can say any more. But it’s okay because James doesn’t think he really needs to hear any more, he has a pretty good idea of how the breakup went, now.
“Okay, okay! I think they’ve heard enough,” Lily interrupts, looking thoroughly alarmed as she turns to face Mary, hissing something furiously at her under her breath that James can’t hear — but, again, he’s heard enough. God, he assumed it was a messy breakup considering the whole never being sober thing and the fuck-you-world stuff Remus was going through but he didn’t expect it to be that messy. The drama-loving, nosy side of him that was raised on watching his mother’s favourite reality TV shows would have loved to be there, a bowl of popcorn in hand. The other sympathetic and deeply concerned side of him would have also loved to be there, but for Remus. At the moment, the thing he wants most in the world is to go and give Remus the biggest hug possible, but unfortunately that would probably raise questions he’s quite sure Mary doesn’t want to answer, or confess to.
Turning, James studies Sirius’ face carefully, and is met with a whole storm of emotions that he has no idea how to interpret, or help. Which, again, is a very rare occasion. Dorcas clears her throat, and James blinks, looking up to see Remus and Pandora striding towards them with matching grins on their faces. James can’t tell if he’s looking at Remus strangely or not — if he is, he doesn’t mean to. Oblivious to the conversation that just took place, Remus starts a new one as he reaches them, pocketing his phone gently in his pyjama bottoms.
“He’ll be here in forty-five minutes,” He announces happily and James can’t push the image of him being so filled with rage that he broke someone’s nose out of his head. It’s practically unimaginable, unless he really thinks about it, and considers all the context that comes with the story. He was clearly already in a bad place, and Gideon must have known that, but then again it sounds like Gideon was in a pretty bad place too. That doesn’t justify anything, though. James shouldn’t really be speculating on this, he’s not even supposed to know about it in the first place. It happened years ago, anyway, and James is fairly confident that Remus is a better person now – there’s a reason he struggles to imagine him doing anything like that.
A few of them nod in response to Remus but Mary just frowns, patting the area around her as if she’s searching for something. This is when James looks down and realises with a start that his fingers are still gripped around her phone, and that it must be what she’s looking for. He hands it back to her sheepishly, and she smiles gratefully as she takes it, checking the time as she does so. Eight in the morning, James reads from where he’s sat across from her. She looks back up with a question in her eyes.
“Does anyone want a coffee or tea?” She asks and a collective ‘yes, please’ is released from the rest of them, everyone laughing as her face falls, realising how many drinks she’s going to have to make.
“I’ll help,” Dorcas declares.
“Me too,” Pandora says, making James wish he had offered now, but he knows well that he would probably get in the way – he’s never been very good at doing anything really in the kitchen, much to his mother’s disappointment as she gradually discovered this over years of eating burnt cakes and soggy cookies. Regulus is attempting to teach him how to cook, and don’t get him wrong, he’s trying his absolute best, but he’s a bit of a lost cause, unfortunately. He desperately needs to sort his hair out, anyway, and he’s guessing that Sirius will need a bit of help untangling the monstrosity that is his too.
“I’ll make breakfast,” Remus decides and James’ mouth waters at the thought of eating his food again. That weird sandwich he had yesterday was really fucking good – he needs to remember to ask for the recipe of it later.
“Do you want me to help?” Lily asks, and Remus considers this for a second.
“No, it’s okay, thank you, though,” He answers with a smile and Lily nods, getting to her feet. James does the same, and so does everyone else. They all part in different directions, Remus to the kitchen, Dorcas, Pandora and Mary to the coffee machines in the main shop area, and Lily and Marlene to the large bag of things that Lily brought with her yesterday, rummaging through it presumably for their clothes from yesterday – or maybe they have fresh ones. James certainly doesn’t, and seriously doubts that Lily would have bought them all day-clothes as well as pyjamas. James would be rather scared to see them if they’re bought from the same shop that these fluffy pyjamas are from, anyway. Why are they sold in adult sizes? It’s fucking weird. Though, he has to admit that they are growing on him slightly, and he knows they will make Regulus laugh when he inevitably wears them again back home, so maybe they aren’t that bad after all.
James and Sirius start towards the staff-only bathroom together, not having to communicate to know where they’re going and why. They stop in front of the sinks, staring into the mirror hung on the wall directly in front of them. James can’t help but gasp as his eyes trail to his reflection’s hair. He really did not have the right to make fun of Sirius’ earlier, when he is not looking much better at all. He glances sideways at Sirius’ sullen face as he attempts to run his hands through his hair, again, and fails, again, and can’t help but burst into the fit of laughter he’s been holding in since he first caught sight of the absolute mess. Sirius turns and scoffs, his jaw dropped as his face morphs into a scandalised frown.
“You cannot laugh, look at your hair!” He exclaims, jerking his hand out in the direction of James’ own frizzy heap piled on top of his head. This only makes him laugh harder at the absurdness of it all, and Sirius begins to join in. Both of their shoulders shake as they cackle, pointing at each other’s hair and clutching their stomachs when Sirius gets his finger stuck in James’ hair this time. Eventually they manage to calm down and run the taps in front of them, ready to wet their curls and temporarily disperse some of the frizziness, taking deep breaths and counting down together before they stick their heads under the freezing running water. James takes off his glasses and scrunches his eyes shut, plunging his face under as he and Sirius reach ‘one!’. Trails of ice run all down his face and the back of his neck, making him shiver as he resurfaces. If he wasn’t completely awake before, he certainly is now. He attempts to steady his breathing as cold water soaks into his skin through his clothes, which makes it look like he went swimming more than awkwardly sticking his head into a coffee shop bathroom sink. He scrubs at the area around his eyes in an attempt to dry them before he puts his glasses back on, drawing them from his pocket with a shaking hand. His vision unblurring, he scrunches his curls with his hands, longing for his extensive collection of curly hair products sitting on his bathroom counter back home as he pictures how messy it will turn again as it dries later on. At least it won’t be tangled, and it looks alright for now, anyway. It will have to do. Next to him, Sirius flips his head upside down, spraying James with water as a wet dog would, and scrunches his hair just like James was moments ago. Swiping the lens of his glasses, he glares.
“Was that really necessary?” He snaps, and Sirius’ upside-down face snorts back at him. A few more seconds of intense scrunching and Sirius flips his hair back up, spraying James again, though this time he has a feeling it wasn’t by accident. He groans, wiping the water off of his face with the back of his palm, letting it fall back down to his side just in time to see Sirius smirking at him as he turns back to the mirror.
“Yes, it was,” He finally replies, splashing more water on any pieces of hair that are still partially dry with his hands, reminding James to do the same. Copying Sirius and gathering water in his palm, James decides not to dignify his words with a response. Watching Sirius slyly out of the corner of his eye, James sees an opportunity, and takes it.
“So, you and Remus…” He starts, his tone casual, and smiles knowingly as Sirius’ expression flips in the mirror. His eyes widen and begin to blink rapidly which is a common tell-tale sign that Sirius is panicking, and preparing himself to lie, which James knows well after living with him for nine long years of his life. James fully turns to him, deciding his hair is as best as it’s going to get with no products nearby, and raises his eyebrows accusingly. “Do not try to lie to me, Sirius Orion Black,” He warns, his tone firm. James does not use people’s full names lightly. Sirius hesitates before reluctantly turning to him as well, apparently deciding to stop pretending to busy himself with his hair in the mirror, when it’s clearly already done. They both stand there for a few minutes, staring each other down fiercely, their matching princess pyjamas sticking to their skin with ice-cold water and occasional droplets escaping from their hair trickling down into their eyes. Eventually, Sirius begins to shift uncomfortably under James’ undeterred gaze, letting James know that he’s already won. Turns out if you stare at someone for long enough they will ultimately snap and tell you whatever it is you want to know. He stole this trick from Sirius himself, actually, and over the years of using it back on him he’s practically mastered it. He knows Sirius got it from his mother or father, or someone in his family as Regulus has attempted to use it on him a few times too, and was gravely disappointed when he found out that James has also become a master at avoiding it. Sirius, obviously, has not.
“Fine!” He suddenly explodes, and James lets his face contort into a smug expression. He folds his arms and he leans back against the counter, settling in as he has an inkling that this might be a long conversation. Sirius averts his gaze, colour tinting his cheeks. “We… might have kissed,” He admits slowly and wow James should be a detective. “A few times,” He adds and winces as James gasps and whoops excitedly, probably too loudly considering Remus is only a few rooms over. He knew it, he fucking knew it. Oh, this is going to be so good. James is already planning out their wedding in his head – he’s thinking dark red roses for flowers, and a gold colour scheme. It must show on his face because Sirius eyes him warily.
“Do you want to hear more or should I just leave you to fantasise about my love life on your own?” He says and James tucks away his plans for later, because he will be fantasising about this wedding more, when he is on his own. He gestures a hand out.
“Please, continue,” He urges, trying to contain his excitement about all of this so as to not scare Sirius away from telling him more. Sirius faces him, a gentle smile growing on his lips.
“We stayed up talking last night for, like, an hour and I don’t know, it just happened,” There’s a faraway look in his eyes, like he’s reliving the moment, “He’s just so– ugh,” He cuts himself off and covers his face with his hands. James laughs at seeing him like this — it’s nice, because Sirius deserves it so much. James can see how much love he has to give, and he thinks that he’s finally found the right person to give it to. If this doesn’t work out, it won’t only break Sirius’ heart, but James’ own.
“Is he a good kisser?” James asks, grinning widely, and Sirius lowers his hands slightly so he can see him. Sirius stares for a second before nodding, recovering his face as James starts to laugh again. Sirius begins to laugh too, his hands dropping back down to his waist to reveal the deep crimson colour his face has turned since the start of the conversation. It’s weird, James doesn’t think he’s ever seen Sirius blush, but in the past twenty-four hours it’s become a rather common occurrence. The Remus Lupin effect. James is very, very loyal to Regulus and Regulus only, but he has to admit, the man is fucking hot – and he knows Regulus would agree with him. Sirius is one lucky man, and so is Remus.
In his peripheral vision, he notices his clothes in the neat pile which he left them in yesterday when he was changing into the pyjamas he’s wearing now, and walks over to where they are sitting on the corner of the floor, right next to Sirius’. He scoops both piles up, handing Sirius his and they both lock themselves into the two cubicles that are conveniently built into the back of the bathroom. Once he’s done, James unlocks the door and he faces himself in the mirror again. It’s strange, looking just like he did yesterday when he feels like a completely new person. So much has happened since him and Sirius hopped on the one-way train to this little unheard of town with not the faintest clue about everything that’s going to happen to them. He’s so glad they did though, even if there are parts he really wish didn’t, like the paparazzi photos, for example. He’s really not looking forward to experiencing the repercussions of those, via whatever articles and tweets have been written about him since he last shut off his phone. He’s quietly confident that Tom Riddle will have at least something to say about it, the fucking bastard. Shaking his angry thoughts away, he straightens out his dark green knitted jumper that he thinks used to be Regulus’, actually, until he must have stolen it at some point. It’s become one of his favourites, so he doesn’t plan on giving it back, and it’s not like he’s said anything, so he can’t miss it that much. Something cold seeps through his jeans by his knees, making him shiver and look down to see where water has dripped down from where he’s clutching his soaking pyjamas in one hand to his leg.
“Shit,” He mutters and looks around for somewhere to put them to dry before he leaves later. He spots a radiator tucked away behind the door and spreads them out carefully across it. He better not forget them – they’re his only souvenir of these past couple days, and even though he’s sure he’ll never forget those, he wants something physical to remember them by. Plus, he really wants to show them off to Regulus.
Sirius’ cubicle door unclicks and he walks out, shrugging his leather jacket on as he moves. He turns and sees James by the radiator, and then walks over to join him, his own pyjamas bundled up in his hands. He sets them down next to James’, and they both exit the bathroom silently, always on the same wavelength just about enough to not have to talk about these small things. The big things, though, not so much. For example, as they wander down the hallway, Sirius says something James couldn’t have predicted in a million years.
“And I walked in on him in just his boxers,” He says so quickly that it takes James a second to realise exactly what he said. When he does he whips his head around so fast he’s surprised it didn’t fall off, just to see Sirius staring straight ahead very pointedly in order to avoid eye contact with him.
“You did what?” He yells back, unable to help himself, stopping midway through the hallway in shock and tugging on Sirius’ wrist when he carries on moving. He turns back around and huffs a laugh at James’ dropped jaw.
“I walked in on Remus when he was just wearing his boxers,” He repeats calmly, at a normal speed this time and James takes a full moment to properly process this. Right, okay then. He scans Sirius’ face, the small smile tugging at his lips and the way you can tell they’re slightly sore if you really look for it. The Remus Lupin effect.
“Of course you did,” He says blankly, shaking his head at the ridiculousness of it all, and starts to walk again, knowing there’s no point in asking how that situation even came about. Sirius laughs again, and James shakes his head some more as they pass through the doorway of vines and into the main shop area. He sucks in a breath. He hasn’t been in here since last night when plants were on fire and glass had been shattered all over the floor, and everyone was running about screaming. Now, there are no plants to be set on fire, just a pile of ashes, and the glass has been swept up by the people who were running about screaming yesterday. Even with these details, it still looks a hell of a lot worse than it did last night, the darkness disguised things you can only see in the light; every broken mug, every coffee-stained surface. But with all eight of them, plus Evan, they should be able to get it looking as normal as possible within the next few hours, James thinks positively to himself. He watches for a second as Lily and Marlene bustle around the room with bin bags to put any unsalvageable broken objects they find in, adjusting tables and chairs as they go into their correct positions. James makes his way over to grab his own bin bag to help, determined to get the place looking like the same cosy little cafe/library/vinyl shop that he stumbled into when he first got here. James was making his way, until a hand pressing against his chest blocks him from moving any further. He looks down, confused, and then to the side, in the direction of where the hand came from to see Pandora leaning across the shop counter with a mischievous grin. Before James can think too deeply about what that could mean, the ruins of what was once a carefully organised, aesthetically-pleasing coffee making area catches his eye. The large shelf that snapped in half last night still hangs precariously, just about clinging on until Evan arrives to fix it later. All the decorations and jars of fancy coffee related substances that are far too professional for James to even know what they are are no longer scattered about the floor and countertop in varying states of disrepair, but being cleaned and sorted into neat piles by a guilt-ridden Mary. Progress, James thinks to himself firmly. She seems to have also gotten the coffee machines working again, except one in the middle which looks slightly charred, and must be the one that got lit on fire yesterday, as lined up on the serving counter that Pandora has draped herself across is several drinks, all different shades of brown, and all different temperatures.
James reluctantly averts his gaze from the wreckage behind Pandora, and instead focuses on her, raising his eyebrows at her playful expression and the hand still pressed against his chest. Sure that she’s got his attention, she retreats back behind the counter, taking her outstretched arm with her, and picks up one of the drinks laid out, just as Dorcas turns and adds another one to the pile. This is when the strong, bitter scent of coffee that’s lingering in the air hits him properly and he suddenly craves the caffeine-fueled energy boost he knows it will give him. Appearing next to him, Sirius eyes the drinks longingly, his face lighting up when he gets passed one by Pandora at the same time as James does. He peers inside the cream-coloured paper coffee cup it’s served in at the swirling dark liquid suspiciously, only able to identify that it’s definitely coffee, and not what type. Deciding he trusts the three women set with the task of making it enough to not poison him, he takes a long sip, his eyes widening as he does so. Sweet baby Jesus, that’s good. Hints of caramel and cinnamon twist around his tongue in perfect complement of each other, the actual coffee made exactly right to suit his taste and James declares internally that this stuff will be his new water for the rest of his life. Lowering the cup reluctantly from his lips and immediately craving another sip, he turns to see Sirius’ reaction. Long story short, he’s visibly very much obsessed too, and James wonders if they’ve got the same drink, or different ones that taste just as nice. Knowing how strong Sirius typically likes his coffee, he guesses that it’s probably just pure, bitter espresso and that’s enough to make Sirius’ eyes pop out of his head with delight. He whirls back around to face Pandora, cup in hand, and can’t help himself from incredulously bursting out, “What the fuck is in this?” as he lifts the drink to his lips again, just to make sure the liquid inside is real and not crafted from his wildest, most incredible dreams. It slips down his throat easily, the flavours leftover dancing around his mouth sweetly. Oh, it’s real. Pandora grins widely at their undeniably positive reactions, but it’s almost a knowing smile, as if she already knew what their favourite drinks in the world would be, when they didn’t even know it themselves. She leans forward.
“I have a gift,” She whispers mysteriously, before casually going back to sprinkling some sort of dark powder into someone else’s drink, and James waits a second to determine whether she’s being serious or not. A minute goes by, and she hasn’t said anything further, not even glanced back up to them as she moves onto stirring some weird tree bark looking thing into a pale cup of tea, dyeing it slightly green. Considering her words, the simply divine drink in his hand, and Pandora’s slightly eccentric appearance, James decides that he one-hundred percent, absolutely believes her. Meanwhile, Sirius just stares at her, and for a moment James grows scared that he’s going to laugh or say something offensive, knowing from multiple cringe-worthy experiences that he doesn’t really believe in or tolerate that kind of thing.
“Well, you can’t argue with that,” Sirius says plainly, staring for a second more before going back to sipping his drink happily, and James breathes out a quiet sigh of relief. Sirius can sometimes be the epitome of unpredictability, and James swears it’s going to be the death of him one day. Pandora shoots him a playful grin in response, and James wonders if she really does have ‘a gift’ – he certainly wouldn’t be surprised after this goddamn cup of coffee. He brings it to his lips again, unable to help himself, and feels a whoosh of air from behind him as Marlene races past, bin bag in hand and an unnervingly focused expression on her face. James can tell how guilty she feels about all the damage being mostly her fault, and how desperate she is to make it right again. James sets down his coffee cup on a nearby table decidedly, tugs his own bin bag out of the dark roll tossed on an even nearer-by table to him, and picks up some jagged-edged shards of patterned china resting beside his feet dutifully.
He walks around carefully, shoving anything too broken to be fixed into his bag, and apparently encouraging Sirius to do the same. Despite them circling the room together, they don’t talk, rather comfortable in silence and instead James listens intently to the harmonic tinker of glass clinking, coffee machines whirring and pans sizzling from the kitchen, where Remus is standing, still in his pyjamas, overlooking what will soon be their breakfast. Lily notices them as the three of them cross paths and she sends them both a grateful smile and a nod, to which they graciously return, and James admires her outfit that she must have brought from home and just changed into, as he hasn’t seen it before. Fitted, slightly flared denim jeans and a nice deep red knitted jumper, paired with the array of expensive gold jewellery that she’s been sporting since they first met yesterday. They’re matching, James realises with a start, and makes a mental note to bring this up with her later, when he feels like he won’t get murdered for disturbing the sudden mutual tranquillity of the room. Mary and Dorcas leave quietly, hanging up their aprons as they go, and presumably to go and get dressed out of their pyjamas that they’re still wearing, and rocking, if James is honest. He’s really quite jealous of Mary’s silky, rhinestone-studded pyjama set in particular, and considers asking Lily if she’d take him to the shop where she bought them originally, but thinks better of it. He’s already got his own princess pyjamas, anyway, which, like he previously said, are growing on him rather well.
He nods to Remus, immediately grinning when he’s reminded of his newfound knowledge regarding him and Sirius, as he passes the empty window frame joining the main shop floor and the kitchen, and receives the same courteous greeting back. As he peers down at various pans and ingredients lining Remus’ counter, dozens of inviting flavours fill his nose at once, causing him to step back with the force of it. His stomach promptly growls and he suddenly realises just how hungry he really is after a night and morning of such emotionally-demanding excitement. Even though he slept fairly well once he was able to get to sleep the night before, his brain awake and whirring with just—everything, he still feels really fucking tired. Not in a yawning, physical sense – plunging his head in icy water and downing nearly a full cup of coffee all in the span of about fifteen minutes helped massively with that, but more in a done-too-much-crying-and-laughing-and-screaming-in-the-past-twenty-four-hours-to-act-normal-anymore way. He hopes that being reunited and talking about it all with Regulus later will fix it. God, he’s got so much to tell him. And he’s really looking forward to hearing about how Italy was for Reg, even though they texted a little about it before James left with Sirius for Godric’s Hollow, he doesn’t yet know many details of the trip – and he wants details. He pointedly avoids thinking about the whole revealing to Sirius that he’s been lied to the past seven years by the two people he cares most about in the world thing, deciding he’ll make time to stress about that later, and just wants to forget about it and enjoy himself here whilst he can. Speaking, or thinking, rather, of the devil, Sirius materialises next to him as he always does and strikes up a flirty-looking conversation with Remus, unsurprisingly. James turns away, not wanting to intrude, or hear what they’re saying to each other because judging by their faces it is not for his ears, and finds Marlene already heading in his direction, wearing a strange expression, and her clothes from yesterday again. She lands in front of him, and he opens his mouth to speak when she very obviously flicks her eyes up and down his outfit in a judging manner and he promptly shuts it again. An uneasy wave of insecurity washes over him, and suddenly he feels very much like curling up in a corner. He thought he looked good, but—
“You look like you’re supporting the Snakes in that jumper,” Marlene remarks, shaking her head disapprovingly, interrupting his thoughts. Oh. Well, he hadn’t associated the jumper colour with the trademark green of his rival team previously, but now he certainly has. This can no longer be one of his favourite outfits, which is a bit of a shame, but at least Regulus can have his jumper back now. James looks down and grumbles incoherently in response, a frown tugging at his eyebrows. Meeting Marlene’s eye again, he feels a spark of curiosity alight inside of him.
“Why do you support the Lions? You don’t live anywhere near Gryffindor,” He asks with a small smile to make sure she knows that he’s asking with good intentions, and not trying to be snarky. She smiles back like she expected the question, and picks at her fingernails absently as she answers.
“They’re the best, aren’t they?” She raises her eyebrows, and James laughs, about to agree with her when she continues speaking, “Plus, my Dad is a massive Lions fan, he used to live in Gryffindor, and he raised me right to be one too,” James nods appreciatively and another question comes to his mind.
“Do you play, then?” He asks, and at her confused expression he adds, “Football,” Her eyes brighten with recognition before a small hint of sadness fills them instead.
“I mean I used to, I was supposed to go professional but then I wanted to wait a year to improve my skills a bit so I didn’t embarrass myself on the pitch, but then life sort of got in the way and it never happened,” She explains, her face clouded over with the memories, “I coach the younger girls’ team round here, so I still play, but it hurts a little to think about what could have been, you know?” James’ heart aches for her. It could have easily been him in her position, scarily so. He can’t imagine his life without football, and he thinks that Marlene couldn’t at one point either. Immediately he tries to rack his brain for anyone important he knows that could help Marlene’s situation, even just a little bit. He could ask one of his coaches; Coach Kingsley might—might—be able to arrange some sort of try-out for her in the next season, if there’s any space available on the female Lions team, and if James offers just the right amount of money to just the right person. Apparently sensing all the calculations and plotting going on inside his head, Marlene makes a panicked face.
“I’m not asking for your help, please don’t bother,” She pleads quickly, and James reluctantly agrees that he won’t, just to make some of her evident worry and guilt disperse, but quietly promises himself that he absolutely will bother, because surprise, surprise football is one of his soft-spots for things like these. Plus, he quite likes Marlene, and sees a version of himself in her, on some level.
She relaxes, deflating like a balloon, and for a moment James does feel a bit bad, though he could see how much she so obviously wants this from the pain pursing her lips and stinging her eyes as she spoke about it to him, and decides that attempting to make her dreams possible is worth the small betrayal of trust. They both go back to cleaning quietly, joining Lily on her rounds of the room once again. Sirius and Remus are still lost in conversation, or each other’s eyes would be a more accurate description, James remarks amusedly to himself, and Pandora has now moved on to bringing each person’s drink to them personally, her face lighting up at each amazed reaction to the taste of it. James seriously thinks she might be a witch or something – though the good, extraordinarily talented at coffee-making kind. James turns as Dorcas and Mary slip back into the room, no longer wearing their pyjamas or matching satin, pink bonnets on their heads, just as Remus announces rather loudly that breakfast is ready, much to James’ stomach’s delight. Instinctively smiling at the thought of food, specifically Remus’ food, they all position themselves onto the stools lining the bar, sitting in the same order as they did last night for dinner. Unable to help himself, James chuckles quietly at the blissful memories of being attacked with a tea-towel by Remus, trying The Lupin Special, being introduced to Remus’ Mum over the phone, and forcing Sirius to admit that he likes Remus’ big muscles to the man himself, much to all of their amusement. Listing these events out in his head, he realises the common factor with a smile. Nothing about today, last night or yesterday would have ever been possible without Remus Lupin and for that James sends a silent ‘thank you’ in his direction, making sure that he’ll send him a verbal one later, when he’s not busy dishing out large bowls of various mouth-watering breakfast foods for them to choose from. They all tuck in ravenously, including Pandora even though she already ate because passing up Remus’ food would be a genuine sin, as cleaning and watching/participating in screaming matches takes a lot of effort, believe it or not. Remus walks through the doorway a few seconds after disappearing from the kitchen and settles on a stool, picking his own food to go on his plate; toast cut into four quarters, with four different types of spreads across each slice, endearingly enough. Idle conversation is exchanged, though the majority of the time everyone is too busy eating to speak, until they all have just about finished, left satisfied and delighted after the hearty meal, and Remus starts up a new conversation.
“So, I’ve been meaning to ask this, but why are you two here? In Godric’s Hollow?” He inquires, his eyebrows raised with curiosity and the small grin curving across his mouth eliminating all possibilities of bad intentions with his question. His body turns so it’s angled towards Sirius and James, giving them his full attention for their response. James makes eye contact with Sirius and a wordless conversation passes between them. Once he’s sure that they’re on the same page, James looks back at Remus, and the rest of the little audience that has gathered to hear what he’s about to say next, and smiles.
“Well, a few days ago I was trying to sleep when at, like, midnight, Sirius decides to call me, the inconsiderate git, just to tell me that he’s seen a video on Instagram of this cute, little town in the countryside that we absolutely have to go to, and I was just like fine but can you piss off now please so I can go back to bed, and he did,” James explains, Sirius piping up with his own sarcastic comments at the appropriate times, “And then I woke up in the morning, looking forward to a day of rest because I didn’t have training for once until I realised oh shit I have to go to this fucking town in the middle of nowhere — no offence — and I’m like panicking and then I check my phone and Sirius has texted me saying to meet him at the train station in an hour, so I’m rushing but I managed to get there just in time, believe it or not, though I wasn’t too happy about it, to say the least,” He finishes to a chorus of laughs which he can’t help but join in on as he remembers how stressed he was that morning, and Sirius only adds to it, making him laugh harder.
“The sass I had to deal with from this man, honestly, I thought about getting off the train and leaving him in Slytherin,” Sirius admits shamelessly and James draws his biggest, most dramatic mock-gasp, pressing an offended hand to his chest.
“You wouldn’t dare!” He exclaims loudly, his jaw dropped with feigned shock. Sirius raises his eyebrows.
“Do you want to bet on that?” He counters, lips twitching, and just as James gears up to start what would only be the most exaggerated fake argument of the century, a familiar voice interrupts him.
“But why come here when you both have such glamorous lives in the city?” Pandora asks thoughtfully, tilting her head to the side. James takes a second to process this, his smile fading marginally when he does. He stays silent, knowing that it would be better for Sirius to answer this one – and answer, he does.
“Sometimes our jobs can get a bit overwhelming, feeling like everyone’s eyes are on you all the time, the pressure of it, and being in the city with all the people, lights and cameras doesn’t really help that, and so me and James need a break every so often, when it all gets a bit too much, you know? And what better place to do it than in unheard of little towns as far from the city as you can get, right?” Sirius says with a shrug of his shoulders and a meek smile. James couldn’t have explained it better himself, honestly. Sirius is right, of course. The public eye, the constant bustle of London streets, the unbearable stress of the daily lies he feeds to Sirius, the internal and external pressure to be the best at his job, all the time. It’s goddamn overwhelming, alright. James thinks about how some people carry the burden of his stress—tripled—around on their shoulders everyday and don’t even break a metaphorical sweat, and wishes to himself that he could be as strong as they are. For the time being, he’s just grateful that his problems aren’t really bad problems to have at all, if he thinks about it, feeling slightly disgusted with himself that he’s been genuinely moping about being too famous, and being too in love. He never once thought he’d be one of those celebrities, but obviously fame has gotten to his head a bit too much recently. After realising this with a frown at nothing but his own thoughts, he decides he’s going to try and be a lot more self-aware in the ongoing future, starting now.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love playing football, and even the fame that comes with it, but it’s just the paparazzi that really pisses me off, because no matter who you are, you deserve privacy, yeah? And they totally violate that, and are just— everywhere in the goddamn city these days, so going to places like these – it’s an escape,” He states, and then makes a face, “or it was,”
The paparazzi have always trailed Sirius around like sick puppies, since the minute his first musical hit released, and even before that because of all his father’s undeserved political fame, but they’ve never quite caught up to him and James this quickly before when they would ‘run away’. It’s infuriating, and unnerving, and just overall terrifying to think that they could go to furthest corners of the country, and they would always follow two steps behind them. James and Sirius have a mutual suspicion that it’s probably because Sirius’ manager, Mr. Karkaroff, has a dirty habit of purposely calling the paparazzi on the pair of them every now and then for his own sick entertainment. In fact, James is frankly shocked that he and Regulus haven’t been caught out by them yet, it’s not like they’re particularly careful out in public, not anymore. With years of hiding, comes following years of recklessness and a certain disregard for the possibility of people with cameras wherever they go, as it turns out. They used to be scared to leave the house together, in case any photos taken got back to Sirius, but now they just do whatever they please, thankfully. James is sure that it will bite them in the back one day, and honestly? He can’t wait.
Sirius nods in agreement to his words, a distant look in his eyes, and James averts his gaze to his entwining fingers to stop himself from growing too angry about the whole situation, as he seems to do so often.
“I’m sorry,” Lily says gently, causing James to look up. His expression softens at the clear sincerity in her eyes and he smiles, deciding to make the most of being here with these people whilst he can.
“Thank you,” He replies meaningfully, speaking for both himself and Sirius. Lily nods back, and so do the others, and in that moment James has never wanted to wrap his arms around so many people at the same time before in his life.
“Do you think Evan is going to bring Barty?” Marlene pipes up suddenly from a few stools over, her question directed at Pandora, and James turns his head towards her. Despite not really knowing what Marlene means, he watches cautiously as Remus’ eyes widen, Mary’s jaw drops and an expression of fear flashes across Lily’s face. Dorcas’ eyebrows raise but Marlene seems largely unbothered, maybe a little concerned, if anything, and James and Sirius both don’t know what the hell is going on, as per usual. Pandora remains calm, her eyes spark with something like amusement at the question, and the reactions from the rest of them, though. She pauses for a second before answering.
“Probably,” She responds, and everyone who is not her, James or Sirius all look around frantically at each other, their expressions comically panicked. Just as James is about to inquire on who Barty is and why he is such bad news, several large bangs echo throughout the shop, silencing him and everyone else, followed by two heavy sets of footsteps and the alarming sound of one person’s obnoxiously loud laughter. James catches Lily’s eye, only realising his own mouth is frozen in place with its jaw dropped open when he sees that hers is too. Should he be scared? He is for a moment as the cascade of footsteps and inane laughter grows louder, and closer to rounding the corner where the group of them are sitting, where he’s sitting, until he remembers that Remus is fucking ripped and has a successful history with kicking unwanted people out of his shop, and suddenly feels much safer. Hearing that the pair of footsteps are just about to turn the corner and reveal their owners, he fixes his gaze onto the wall that they will emerge from, his stomach turning uneasily.
Black and green streaked spiky hair, silver metal facial piercings, and dark, snaking tattoos peak around the wall along with sharp grey eyes that fall directly onto the line of stools on which they are all perched. The laughter slows to a stop, and James can’t tell whether he misses it or not. The eyes flick over the sea of them menacingly, and James catches Sirius’ own to see him open-mouthed looking as fearful as James feels.
“I thought you said there were no more people to know about,” Sirius whispers slowly, and the laughter rings out again. And no, James certainly did not miss it.