Why What How
Remus was softly flicking through the pages of a book when Lily entered the shop. She came crashing in, barging through the door, tendrils of red hair all over. “Remus!” She cries, clutching the counter, and panting for air. Remus raises an eyebrow but doesn’t spare her a glance. “Remus, so sorry I’m late, I - Oh, I’ve just had an awful morning.”
She sounded quite desperate, and almost tearful. Remus looked up, folding the book over and sticking a receipt (from this mornings over priced coffee) in it, so as to not lose his page. “Hey, Lils,” Remus says, voice soothing, “What’s going on?” He gently leads the girl over to a chair, setting her down and giving her his full attention. “I - I - Oh, Remus,” and she promptly begins to cry.
Remus hugged the girl, tucking her under his chin, feeling the sudden urge to protect the fiery redhead. “My Mum had a fall last night,” Remus gasped, a sudden, jolting fear shit through him. Lily’s mum was an angel. “No - no don’t worry, doctors say she’s completely fine, it’s just she broke her ankle, so she needs a care taker.”
The girl took a shuddering breath, and aggressively wiped at her eyes. “Which would be fine, but I don’t have enough money to afford one, so I need to do it. And I had to call Petunia, and you know how she is.”
Remus took Lily’s hands in his, calming the girl by rubbing his thumbs in her hands. “Look Lily, Petunia's a bitter and self-righteous hag, don’t concern yourself with her, okay? And, how about this, I can help with your Mum. I can do Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, you do the rest.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.” Lily wailed, Remus smiled gently at her. “Good thing you’re not asking me then. I love your mum, and she’s always been so kind. Like the mother I never had,” Remus hugged Lily again, “Let me do this for you - for the both of you.”
Lily nodded, dried her eyes and launched at him, hugging him again. Then she cried again. She laughed wetly, “I don’t know what I did to deserve a friend like you, Remus.”
Remus chuckles, “Coffee and cake? What do you say?”
“But you hate going there,” Lily gasps. “Yeah, well,” Remus shrugs, “I love you even more.”
The coffee shop was fairly empty when Remus got there, a few elderly folk sitting at the back taking about book clubs and cats. The cafe was warm, a kind contrast to outdoors. The sun may have woken him, but it didn’t last into the day and Remus shivered outside without a jacket. British summers were fun.
He inspected the cupcakes on display. Vibrant colours of red, orange, greens and blues decorated each cupcake. Lemon sponge, chocolate, red velvet, and more.
“I recommend the red velvet and buttercream one.” Sirius? Sirius.
Remus looked up to see Sirius clearly attempting to smile at Remus, it came off more like a grimace. “I - ” Remus was confused, best not to look a gift horse in the mouth though, “Good morning. Thank you for the suggestions, I’ll take two, please.” Sirius grabbed two for Remus, and headed to the till to input the prices. “And a coffee, please?”
Sirius rolled his eyes. He didn’t look happy, but there was no sign of his usual scowl of grumpy demeanour. Remus’ head felt quite foggy, what the fuck was going on here. “Anything more specific.”
Remus blushed, “oh, an Ice Latte, please.”
Sirius looked confused, “You don’t like Iced Lattes.”
“Yeah, Lily says it one of my failings as a human.” Remus taps his fingers against the counter, “It’s for Lily, she’s sad.” Sirius looks at him strangely, before handing him the coffee.
Remus began walking away, the Ice Latte freezing his fingers already. “Oi, Remus,” Sirius calls after him, “You forgot the cupcakes.”
Remus goes back, picks up the paper bag, which he uses as a buffer between his skin and the cold coffee. “Wait, hold on,” Remus says, brows furrowed, “You do know my name.”
“Yeah, I suppose I do.”
Back at the shop, Lily had stopped crying. Marlene and Mary had arrived, and shocker, the shop was empty.
“Dorcas was pissed when she came home last night,” Marlene grins, “Doesn’t matter, we had really hit sex though.”
“Don’t be so crude, Marlene, no wonder nobody comes in here,” Mary hissed. “That’s not strictly true,” Lily says through a mouthful of cake, “There’s a kid in the back smoking weed.”
“Should we kick them out?”
“No, probably not. Maybe the smell of drugs will attract more customers.” Remus snickers at that. Marlene isn’t wrong, this part of town was home to very many delinquents and crack heads.
“Remus, love,” Mary bats her eyelashes at him, “be a dear and go grab me and Marlene coffee, please.”
“No,” Remus scoffed, “I’ve already been once already.”
“It’s not our fault you went considerate enough to get us some coffee,” Marlene sticks her tongue out at Remus.
“I was beginning to doubt wether you were ever going to show up today at all.”
Mary raised an eyebrow. “I won’t go,” Remus said adamantly, “and you can’t make me.”
“Your back,” Sirius says, surprised. Oddly, he’s still being nice. Or at least he was trying. “I’m back,” Remus sighed. “Mary and Marlene are met, yet I’m still stuck doing the coffee run.”
“You mean you don’t enjoy coming here every day? With my charming service.” Remus laughs at that, “You’re funny.”
“Another perk to coming here then. Maybe this Mary is onto something, she sounds nice.”
Remus shakes his head, “No, she’s proper evil.”
“I’ve met Marlene,” Sirius comments, “she’s nice.” Remus groans playfully, “No, don’t go liking her. She’s an ass.”
“Try actually serving the customers now, Black,” says a young man. “Aye, aye, Frank. Well, Lupin, you heard the man.”
“Iced Latte, Cappuccino, Flat White.”
“If you insist.”