Totally Falling in Love
“Alrighty kiddos! You guys are going to be leaving soon and then I’ll see you tomorrow. Should we sing our goodbye song? It’s really special, we’ll learn it today and then sing it every afternoon! Raise your hand if you see someone to come and get you!” A few kids raised their hands, a small group of parents had formed at the front of the room. “Harry? You see your mommy or daddy?” Harry shook his head for no.
“My Uncle Sirius!” Harry said excitedly.
“Your Uncle S…” Remus’s head turned sharply, and he saw Sirius standing by the door waving awkwardly. Sirius could tell he was suppressing a smirk. “I… okay! We’ll sing— goodbye, Harry, goodbye, Harry, goodbye Harry, it was fun to play today!” Seeing Remus in his work element being so good with kids made Sirius feel things he didn’t even know he could.
“Can I go now, Mr. Lupin?” Remus nodded his head and Harry ran up to Sirius, Sirius picking him up and spinning him once.
“Ah, Prongslet! I missed you! Did you have a good first day of kindergarten?” Harry nodded his head.
“It was so fun Uncle Siri! I had a blast and I made lots of friends and I love Mr. Lupin.” Harry talked about how much fun he had the entire way home. When Sirius got them inside, he asked very politely for a bowl of yogurt, which Sirius knew was on the approved after school snack list from Lily. Sirius obliged and made himself one too, sitting down across from Harry at the table. His phone buzzed.
Remus
So… that was pretty surprising… seeing you at my job.
i was pretty surprised too. i mean i knew you were a kindergarten teacher but what are the odds that you taught my nephew!
he loves you btw
talked about you the entire ride home
That’s sweet! He’s such a sweet kid, really smart too. His mom seemed very sweet as well.
lily is the most amazing mom ever
Harry told me she’s due for a daughter soon, that’s exciting.
very! her and my brother are over the moon!
this is so crazy!
what if we hadn’t matched on tinder… do you think you would have even thought twice about me?
Are you kidding me? I probably would have been inconspicuously asking Harry’s mom or dad questions about the hot man who picked Harry up from the first day of school.
i know i would have been begging to pick harry up every single day
You should.
i’m thinking i’ll tell lily and james that i want to haha
When can I see you again?
when are you free again?
I’m free Friday after work.
i’m meeting some friends for drinks on friday, you should come! it’ll be really casual
I don’t want to intrude on your night out with your friends!
there’s a big group of us and i see most of them all the time! lol. you should come too, bring a friend or two along.
then we could go back to yours or mine for a nightcap ?
I’m in, sounds like a lot of fun.
Are you sure your friends won’t mind?
1000% positive !!!!
Ok, I’ll see you then.
And maybe sooner if you pick up Harry again.
see you <3
How was he going to inconspicuously ask James and Lily if he could pick Harry up every day? He supposed he could tell them the reason… but he knew they would never let him hear the end of it.
“Uncle Sirius?” Asked Harry.
“Yes, Prongslet?”
“Do you know my teacher? It seemed like you did.” Sirius felt his cheeks turning pink.
“Uh… a little bit.”
“Cool! I love him. I think he’s the bestest! Besides you.” Sirius smiled and cleared off the table as Harry ran over to the T.V. room to play with his toys. Lily texted saying she would be later than 4:30 but Sirius didn’t mind. He loved playing with Harry. James got home around 5:15.
“Thanks again, Pads.” James said, plopping down on the couch. Harry flew up into his arms to greet him and even though James seemed exhausted he didn’t let Harry see him flinch. “My baby!” James said, squeezing Harry tight. Harry giggled and flung himself on the couch, Sirius could listen to Harry laugh all day.
“Daddy can Uncle Sirius stay for dinner?” James looked to Sirius with an eyebrow raised. Sirius nodded.
“Well, I would love to stay for dinner.” Harry smiled, pleased, and went back to playing with his toys. James smiled and let his head rest back on the couch. “Did you go back to work after your doctor appointment?” James sighed and nodded.
“I wasn’t going to, but an emergency broke out and I love Frank, but he freaks out a bit too much to handle things sometimes.” Sirius nodded; Frank was a nice boss to the employees but as a vice president in the company he definitely needed a better backbone. “Still wish you would’ve taken the vice president position.” Sirius laughed.
“After the day you’ve had? I think I made the right choice.” James threw a pillow at his head, causing Sirius to stumble back a bit, they both laughed, and Sirius felt really lucky that he and James were so close.
“So… guess what I found out today.” James perked up a bit, looking at Sirius to continue. “Harry’s teacher? Mr. Lupin? His first name is… Remus…” James’s face looked confused for a moment before he burst into laughter. “I hate you.” Sirius said as James was continuing to laugh manically.
“Oh my god.” He said, finally calming down. “Oh my god, this is so amazing. Harry’s teacher is your dating app hookup!? I can’t believe it.” Sirius put his face in his hands and groaned.
“I know. I don’t… ugh!” He looked back up at James, who seemed to have a softer look on his face.
“You seem to really like this guy…”
“I… I don’t know! I barley know him. He’s really funny and interesting and…”
“Yeah?”
“I… don’t want to say it where Harry might hear. But we had a lot of fun the night we met if you catch my drift.” James rolled his eyes.
“I, unfortunately, do catch your drift. That’s good though! Maybe this can turn into something real.”
“The issue is I don’t know if he wants it to be… casual or whatever. If he wants it to be easy and—and breezy then I don’t want to scare him off with relationship talk!”
“So, you would rather just not know how he felt about you and keep hooking up with him even though it’s not what you want?”
“I… well it sounds bad when you say it like that.”
“I mean he must be great in bed if you don’t wanna risk messing things up with him.” Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed; James's expression softened again. “Sirius, I’m gonna go big brother on you for a second—”
“James you are two months older than me—”
“Shh. I have a wife and child and one on the way, so I think I am more qualified in relationships than you.” Sirius didn’t have a rebuttal to that… he was right. “Look, I’m not saying you can’t just hook up and have fun. You’re 24! You can do that… it just doesn’t seem like you want to. It seems like you want to start settling down. And maybe you don’t want to start a family tomorrow, but it seems like you want to start one eventually. So regardless of how you feel about this guy or how he feels about you, what do you want from this?” Sirius sighed.
“I hate when you’re right.” James shook his head with a smile as Harry ran over to them to show them the cool thing (Sirius didn’t know what it was) that he built with his lego’s. “I told him to come on Friday. Do you think everyone will care?” James chuckled.
“You know they won’t. Alice and Frank are nice to literally everyone, Dor and Mar are always ready for a party and Fab and Gid are… well, Fab and Gid.” Sirius smiled.
“Those two are insane… nice of their sister to babysit on Friday though.”
“Yeah, Molly’s the best. Ron and Harry are friends so it’s fun.”
“Adding one more kid to their house can’t be easy though. 7 kids of their own plus Harry…” James nodded in agreement and shuddered at the thought.
“I said the same thing, but Molly said once they hit 5, the number of kids didn’t matter.” Sirius chuckled.
“Cancels it all out, I guess. Pemdas or something.” James rolled his eyes with a smile.
“You’re dumb.” Sirius shrugged. “I think Gideon is bringing his girlfriend too.”
“I thought he was gay. Or… maybe he’s the one who’s bi.”
“They’re both… something, but Gideon is the one with a girlfriend so… I’m gonna guess he’s the bi one.”
“I hooked up with one of them one time. It was nice.” Sirius said, casually, taking a sip of his drink.
“What!? Why didn’t I know this? Which one?”
“I’m not gonna lie to you… I was wasted at a party; I genuinely have no idea. And we never brought it up or talked about it ever again… so...” James laughed and shook his head.
“Slut.”
“Ya love me.” Sirius said easily. James rolled his eyes with a smile.
“Yeah, whatever.”
“So… any chance I could pick Harry up from school a few days this week?” James rolled his eyes.
“I’ll talk to the boss. Although, I’m sure she won’t mind taking one thing off her to-do list.” Sirius laughed.
“Well, ask the boss and then let me know. I’d love to just be casual about seeing Remus. Like… oh yeah, I just happen to always pick my nephew up, no biggie at all.”
“Yeah, seems like no biggie at all to you.” James said, once again rolling his eyes. “You need to be careful.” Sirius raised his eyebrow in question.
“What da ya mean?”
“Just seems like you’re falling in love with this man, and you have met him once—”
“Twice now—”
“So just… take a beat, make sure you’ve got your feelings in a row and try to figure out how he feels.” Sirius thought about it and James was right (again, which was annoying).
“When did you get so wise?” James laughed.
“Lily’s starting to rub off on me.”
Throughout the week Sirius picked Harry up every day. Harry didn’t know why Sirius was suddenly picking him up from school every day, but he also did not mind at all, he thought it was so fun. On Friday He arrived a bit earlier than planned, but he had finished up all his work for the day, so he thought why not. When he got there, Remus was sitting with a child who was very worked up and upset.
“But did you tell him that you didn’t like that?” Remus asked. The little girl sniffled and shook her head for no. “Then how was he supposed to know? Remember when we talked about using our words to tell our friends when we don’t like something?” She nodded. “Yeah, because we can’t read their minds!” He said that part in a silly voice and she giggled and sniffled one more time.
“Yeah, George is usually real nice when we play, it just made me sad.” Remus nodded.
“So next time we’re going to remember to use our words and not our bodies, right?”
“Yes, Mr. Lupin. I promise!” He smiled.
“Ok, go play little miss!” Sirius was smiling at the whole exchange. He was so good with children… and yeah, duh that’s his job, but some teachers aren’t like that. He was glad he was Harry’s teacher.
“Uncle Sirius!” Harry’s little voice broke him out of his Remus trance.
“Hey you!” He said, lifting Harry up in the air. “I missed you.”
“Missed you too!” Harry said with a smile as Sirius set him back down. Remus was walking over to them.
“You’re a touch early today.” Remus said with a grin.
“I was just so excited.” Sirius said, smirking a bit. “Couldn’t wait to see Mr. Lupin in action again.” Remus rolled his eyes lightly.
“Would you like to join us for our goodbye circle?” Sirius looked to Harry who was nodding his head enthusiastically.
“Yes, you should Uncle Sirius! It’s so much fun!” Sirius let Harry (and kind of Remus) lead him over to their colorful rug.
“Alrighty my friends! Come on around the rug for goodbye circle!” The kids excitedly chattered and cleaned up their toys, joining the circle as they did. They sang a series of songs about their day and ended with the goodbye song that Sirius had heard that first day. The kids knew most of the words to these songs already. As the kids left, one by one, all who was around the colorful rug was Harry, another little boy who Harry seemed to be friends with, Remus and Sirius.
“Uncle Sirius we should do this every day it’s so fun!”
“Do what?”
“Have you sit in the goodbye circle!” Sirius and Remus both chuckled.
“Maybe I can sometimes, Prongslet.” Harry grinned and went back to talking with his friend.
“Prongslet?” Asked Remus, Sirius smiled.
“Oh god.” He said with a slight laugh. “I call his dad Prongs, it’s a stupid nickname from when we were kids. And when Harry was born, I was joking around and said he was a carbon copy of his dad, a little Prongslet if you will.” Remus chuckled. “So thus, the nickname was carried on into the new generation.”
“Wow.” Remus started. “I’m jealous, I want a fun nickname.” Sirius smiled.
“We’ll find something for you. James is the best at it, he can crown you with one tonight.”
“Tonight?” Asked Harry. “Are you hanging out with my daddy, Mr. Lupin?”
“Your daddy, mommy, Uncle Sirius and some other people!” Harry smiled excitedly.
“You’re gonna have so much fun!” Sirius and Remus both laughed at that. The other little boy, Sirius learned his name was Sebastian, left and Harry ran to grab his backpack from his cubby.
“I hope you don’t mind, I invited two of my friends to come tonight. My friend, Peter, and Mary from the front office, you probably have met her.” Sirius beamed.
“Oh my god, she is the sweetest!”
“Isn’t she? She just moved here like 3 months ago. We got a drink the first weekend she was here, and we’ve been friends ever since.”
“Well, sounds like we’re going to have a blast tonight. I can’t wait.
“I can’t wait either.” They locked eyes and Sirius was sure that Remus was the most attractive person he had ever seen in his life. Harry knocked them out of it when he practically ran into Sirius’s legs.
“Let’s go Uncle Sirius! I get to play with Ron tonight!” The two men laughed and said their goodbyes. Sirius didn’t want to leave Remus, even though he’d be seeing him so soon… and that’s when he came to the realization that he was totally and completely fucked.
They decided for their night out to be at Joe’s, the very bar that Sirius had met up with Remus in the weekend before. Sirius was planning on not mentioning to anyone else about him and Remus, but James did not allow that to happen.
“Aw, Siri is in love.” Marlene said, plopping down with her’s and Dorcas’s drinks. Sirius rolled his eyes taking a long sip of his drink.
“Wrong, no and if you say that in front of Remus, I will actually hurt you.” Marlene rolled her eyes, clearly not threatened by Sirius. (She would never actually say anything like that in front of Remus though, Sirius knew that.)
“C’mon, it’s sweet that you like someone, what’s the problem?” Gideon’s girlfriend, Hannah, asked. The group (besides Sirius) laughed at that.
“Aw, she’s so sweet and innocent.” Lily said smiling. “He’s the most dramatic person alive, so everything that doesn’t seem like an actual problem… is one for him.” Gideon was nodding along with a smile, Hannah seemed good for him.
“There he is, act natural!” Sirius said in a whisper-yell. Remus looked so good, obviously, and Sirius was trying really hard to be casual. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a cream sweater. He waved Remus over to the big table they were sitting at. The man walking with him, Peter, he assumed, was shorter than Remus (almost comically shorter than him) and had dark brown, almost black hair. He wore blue jeans and a black t-shirt with some band on it that Sirius didn’t recognize. The girl, Mary, who Sirius had briefly met at the front desk, was wearing a yellow dress that totally matched her perky personality. Sirius stood up and gave Remus a hug, quick and easy, no lingering.
“Sirius, this is Peter and you kind of know Mary.” Sirius said hello and turned to his friends.
“Alright y’all. This is Peter, Remus and Mary.” He said, pointing to each one as he said their names. “This is James, Lily, Frank, Alice, Gideon, Hannah, Fabian, Dorcas and Marlene.” He took a dramatic breath, as if he had said it all in one breath and it made Remus laugh so it was worth it. They sat down at the end of the table, Remus right next to Sirius.
“So, Remus, you’re Harry’s teacher?” Alice asked. “Our Neville goes to that school; he has Ms. Harris.” Remus smiled.
“She’s great! Yeah, I teach Harry. He’s the sweetest.” Remus was being really nice, but Sirius could tell it was genuine. “How do you all know each other?” He asked.
“This is going to make us sound very cult-ish…” Sirius started, causing his friends to laugh. “We all went to boarding school together… and that just bonds you in a way you can’t describe.” Remus, Peter and Mary all laughed.
“I went to a boarding school in Texas.” Mary said. “That’s where I grew up.” She smiled, seriously her accent was so cute.
“My grandma is from Houston!” Frank added with a smile. “Whereabouts are you from?”
“Oh, my goodness! I’m from this small town right outside Houston. Small world, ain’t it?” They all carried on with easy conversations and Sirius was glad that their friends were meshing so well.
“So how did you guys all become friends?” Lily asked the three newcomers.
“Pete and I have been friends since birth actually. Our—uh… our moms were best friends.” Remus cleared his throat; it seemed like something upset him for a moment but then he smiled again. “Mary moved from Texas about 3 months ago and started working at the school and we became fast friends.” Mary smiled at that. James raised his glass in a cheers fashion.
“To friends new and old, thankful for ‘em all” Everyone whoop-ed and cheers-ed and went back to their conversations. Sirius leaned over to Remus.
“You ok? Seemed like you got a little… are you good?” Remus smiled at him and put a calming hand on Sirius’s knee.
“I’m ok.” He said simply. Sirius thought he was going to stop there, but he continued. “My mom died 4 months ago. It’s hard to talk about her sometimes.”
“That makes complete sense. I’m so sorry. Were you two close?” Remus nodded; he had a sad smile. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Remus shook his head.
“No, no. I love talking about her, it does make me sad sometimes but like… a happy sad, if that makes sense. She was amazing.” Sirius felt so sad that Remus had to experience something like that.
“It definitely makes sense. I’ve never lost someone that close to me, I can’t even imagine. If she raised someone like you, I’m sure she was amazing.” Remus’s smile almost blinded him, it was so radiant.
“Uh, Sirius?” James’s voice interrupted his beautiful Remus trance. He blushed a bright pink because all his friends were looking at him with matching smirks.
“What?” Asked Sirius, willing away his blush. He looked at Remus briefly, no blush present at all. How did he do that? Just… not care about what people thought? It was amazing.
“I was just explaining why we’re different races but have the same mommy and daddy.” James said, clearly loving that Sirius was a bit embarrassed. Sirius rolled his eyes, still willing away his blush. Curse his light skin. He chuckled though, especially in the way that James always described their family to new people.
“Ok… short story, my birth parents were the worst and the Potter’s took me and Regulus in as their own and we’ve been one big, happy family ever since.” James smiled at him, and Sirius rolled his eyes, but with a smile too. James knew how shitty Sirius’s birth parents were, he was the reason him and Regulus got out of there. He owed James everything.
“Sounds like your parents are the best.” Remus said with an understanding smile. Maybe they understood each other in a way that they didn’t even realize. They had both lost a part of themselves in some way.
“They are.” James and Sirius said simultaneously. The group laughed and they went on to talking about individual things. Sirius noticed that Mary and Peter were looking pretty friendly. He leaned closer to Remus.
“Those two a thing?” He asked, pointing towards them with his head. Remus looked where Sirius was pointing to and laughed lightly.
“Oh yeah. They just don’t know it yet.” Sirius smiled and wanted nothing more than to kiss Remus right then and there. But he didn’t really know how out Remus was. Some people were comfortable around their friends but in a sort of public place? Besides, they weren’t like… dating or anything… that might be weird.
After a while, it got to the point in the night where the group was settling their tabs, Remus walked off to close his.
“Pads, he’s so into you.” James said so only Sirius could hear. “I don’t want to hear any talk about you don’t know for sure if he likes you or whatever.” Sirius rolled his eyes.
“I know he likes me idiot.” Sirius whispered back. “We fucked, remember? I just don’t know if he like likes me.” James rolled his eyes.
“As someone who’s watched him make eyes at you the whole night, I think I know. Also, you’re 24, stop talking like you’re 15. I don’t know if he like likes me...I can’t with you.” Remus sat back down, and everyone started to grab their things, saying their goodbyes.
“Siri, need a ride home? We’re going to the same place.” Marlene said. Sirius blushed, looking to Remus.
“Actually, I was going to offer him a ride if that was Ok. Just want to chat a bit more.” He said it so casually that Sirius almost believed him, that they were just going to have a chat.
“Oh, that’s perfectly fine…” Marlene said with a knowing look. The rest of his friends seemed to understand the innuendo too. “Maybe Dor can come to ours and we can chat.”
“Yes, well, I hope you two have fun chatting. Sounds like it’s going to be so fun. Maybe Lily and I will chat when we get home.” All their friends giggled at that, and Sirius rolled his eyes, sure that he was as bright as a tomato.
They said their goodbyes and Remus led Sirius to his car, parked right by Peter’s (who was Mary’s ride home).
“Are you sure you don’t mind driving me home in the morning?” Asked Sirius as Remus backed out of the parking spot. Remus put his hand on Sirius’s knee and Sirius pretty much melted inside.
“If I get to spend the night with you, I’d drive you anywhere.” And that was just about the best thing that Sirius had ever heard.
“You know what I’ve noticed?” Asked Sirius, after they finished. His hand caressing Remus’s abs. “You never get embarrassed. Like when my friends were calling us out about leaving together, not even a blush.” Remus smiled easily and stretched a bit, putting his arm behind Sirius’s head.
“I used to when I was younger. I realized that if I didn’t care what people thought of me, if I didn’t let it affect me, I could better focus on me and who I wanted to be.”
“That’s incredibly insightful and also insane. How can you just not care?” Remus chuckled and turned his body a bit to look at Sirius more.
“Like I said, I used to care a lot. When I was in high school, I was basically… well, let’s just say your friends wouldn’t have been friends with me.”
“What are you insinuating? That we were bullies?” Sirius wasn’t actually offended, and he was pretty aware (mostly thanks to Lily and the girls) that him, James and Frank were sort of… the worst during most parts of school.
“No, of course not. Just that you were probably popular, and I was just… not. I was a total geek.” Remus smiled; he didn’t seem like he actually cared.
“I don’t believe for a second that you weren’t Mr. Popular.” Sirius said. “I mean, look at you! You’re so sexy, there’s no way you didn’t have people all over you.” Remus laughed loudly and shook his head.
“I’ll prove it to you.” He slid out his bed, Sirius feeling extremely cold all of a sudden, and walked over to the bookshelf in the left corner of his room. Remus was so sexy, him just walking around his room naked… Sirius could barely breathe. On the very bottom shelf he grabbed a thick red book and carried it over to the bed, prompting Sirius to sit up like Remus was. Remus flipped through the pages until he got to the one he was looking for. “There you go. Remus Lupin, 12th grade. And, as you can see with your own eyes, total geek.” Remus had a victorious smile on his face as Sirius looked to the picture.
Sirius saw a sweet looking boy with glasses and the same curious smile that the Remus he now knew had. The glasses were a bit big for his face, causing him to maybe look a little silly, but geek? No. He was adorable.
“Nope. Adorable. I was right.” Remus made a sound a protest.
“You’re delusional! It’s only because you’ve seen my glow-up.”
“No, sir. Your glow-up is very impressive, don’t get me wrong, but you were adorable then. Now you’re mainly extremely sexy and I would very much like to have another go around if you’d like… but I refuse to believe that we wouldn’t have been friends!” Remus smiled, almost dumbfounded by Sirius, and tossed the yearbook on the ground, pulling Sirius into a passionate kiss, resulting in the second go around that Sirius wanted.
The next day Sirius woke up to the smell of breakfast, bacon, eggs, sausage and the lot. He got up, quickly found his clothes all over the floor, thankfully finding all the items this time, and walked out towards the kitchen.
“Morning sleepy-head.” Remus said. He was reading the paper, sitting at his kitchen table with a coffee in his head. “Sleep Ok?” Sirius smiled and nodded, sitting down in the chair across from Remus.
“Like a log. How long have you been up?” Sirius looked at the clock on the wall it was about 10:30, Sirius never slept this late.
“Since 8. Teacher life… I usually don’t sleep past 8, it’s sad.” Remus was smiling and stood up walking towards the coffee maker behind the island of his kitchen. “Coffee?” Sirius nodded, he was desperate for some coffee actually, he usually woke up around 7:30-8, even on the weekends.
“Yes please. I hardly ever sleep this late… guess I was… worn out.” A slight blush creeped onto his face again as Remus was smiling victoriously. He poured some coffee into a red coffee mug.
“Cream?” Sirius nodded.
“And sugar please.” Remus crafted the coffee for him and sat back down, sliding the cup to Sirius who grabbed it quickly. “Thank you.” He felt a little like an addict… for Remus too. He was wondering if Remus would be up for a morning round…
“Hungry?” Asked Remus. Sirius nodded and Remus plated up some of the breakfast he’d made. “Want to… well, do you need to get home right away? I wouldn’t want Marlene to worry.” Sirius felt insecure all of a sudden… was Remus trying to get rid of him?
“Oh… I… well, I don’t need to get going but if you want me to I can.” Remus raised his eyebrows and shook his head, standing up and walking over behind Sirius, putting his arms around his chest.
“Not what I meant. Wondering if… you can hang out a bit… maybe we can have a reprise of last night… and do something fun this afternoon… what do you think?” Remus was whispering in his ear and Sirius’s entire body was tingling, goosebumps all over his body.
“I… can definitely do that.” Remus chuckled, kissed his cheek and went back to sit down. “I probably should text Marlene though.” He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text. With Remus. Staying all day, don’t worry about me.
“How long have you two lived together?” Asked Remus, taking another drink of his coffee.
“Since school ended. She… didn’t have anywhere to go. No family or anything and… well, my parents are pretty wealthy… not to sound weird. They set me and James up with condos after school ended, James and Lily have retired to a house with their family, but the condo is perfect for me and Mar. Her and I… we dated when we were young before we both realized we were totally gay.” Remus laughed; he was the best listener ever. “Dorcas is really good for her. I think they’re planning on getting a place of their own soon.”
“Sounds like you’re a really good friend.” Sirius shook his head.
“She’d do the same for me… James… James did do the same for me… it was the least I could do for someone I love.” Sirius felt emotional all of a sudden, he took a quick drink of his coffee to calm himself down.
“Sounds like James is pretty great too.” Remus said softly. “How… old were you when your parents adopted you?” Sirius found it so refreshing that Remus referred to Effie and Monty as his parents. As far as he was concerned, Walburga and Orion were sperm and egg donors. The Potter’s have always been his real family, same with Regulus.
“I was 13, but I had been living with them away from school since the year before. Regulus, my other brother, was 11. I… it’s really good James got us out of there… Sorry. Not the most pleasant breakfast conversation.” Remus chuckled and shook his head.
“It’s good to talk about these things.” Remus looked over at a picture hanging on his wall, right by the front door. “That’s my mom over there.” He pointed and Sirius looked, seeing a kind looking woman who had Remus’s eyes and smile.
“You look just like her.” Remus smiled at that and nodded.
“Everyone always says that. My dad always said that I got nothing from the Lupin’s except the name.” Sirius chuckled.
“I unfortunately look just like my birth dad… however, I like to make the occasional joke with my real dad about how much we look alike. It always earns a laugh.”
“I mean, obviously you and James don’t look alike, but you act alike. So, it’s easy to accept that your brothers even though you’re different races.” Sirius chuckled again and nodded, feeling pleased that James being his brother was something that made sense to Remus. He wanted everyone to know that James, Effie, Monty and Regulus were his family. He had nothing to do with Orion and Walburga now and never again.
“Do you have siblings?” Asked Sirius, taking another bite of his breakfast. He shook his head.
“Only child. Spoiled rotten, apple of my parents' eye… typical only child things.” The two laughed and Sirius thought about how domestic this entire scene felt… like he and Remus were a couple, and they spent every morning together, talking about these things and everything and nothing. “Peter and I practically grew up as siblings though. Our families vacationed together, all that stuff. So, he’s the closest thing I have to a brother.”
“Sometimes chosen family means just as much.” Sirius said smiling, Remus smiled back and stood up, walking over to Sirius.
“So, I was thinking,” Remus leaned down at Sirius’s side, who turned to face him, “we can head back in my room for a bit…” Sirius blushed heavily. “Then we can maybe go to the zoo or the museum or the aquarium or something ridiculously childish and fun.” Sirius thought there was nothing that could have possibly sounded better than that. And he was starting to realize that James was right.
He was totally falling in love with Remus Lupin.