The Polaroids at the Cafe
Remus Lupin, 5:43 pm, November 20th
Remus understood a lot of things many can't, like why his mother behaves like she does. He understands why coffee will always be better than tea and why dogs are more fun than cats. He understands finding comfort in sadness and the strange urge he feels to learn. He understands plenty of things in life. One thing he can't wrap his mind around is why his feelings toward Sirius are viewed as so sinful by others. As he sits across from him on a patio of a cafe, every feeling except for sinful crosses his mind as Sirius shamelessly rants about everything he can think of.
The tug in Remus’s chest when he makes Sirius laugh, the proud feeling he feels when he can make him flustered. Everything makes him feel so bright, so happy. He wants to be forever surrounded by this strange feeling. Even the sinful thoughts, the ones his mom had told him are wrong and dirty, seem to make him feel clean. It's hard not to think like that when the other boy is that pretty.
“-and don’t get me started on Freddie Mercury, man. He means everything to me. I remember finding my brother on the floor sobbing to Take My Breath Away, not doing anything, just laying on his back sobbing.” Sirius says, letting out a large laugh, his whole face crinkling.
Remus can not count the number of times he’s heard, “And my brother did this-” or “Reggie did that-.” Not to mention the amount of “Prong”s and “Wormy”s he's ranted about. It warms Remus’ heart, how much he adores his family. But always, the warmth turns cold and sour, knowing he can never have that.
“You love him so much, don’t you?” Remus smiles at Sirius.
“Who, my stupid baby brother? No, I hate him,” he says, face serious. Remus lifts one of his eyebrows. “Seriously, I hate 'em.” Remus looks at him skeptically. “Ok, fine, I love him more than I love myself. I would kill for him with no questions asked, happy?”
“Very,” he responds, “Tell me about them. All of them.” Remus demands, suddenly in the mood to see Sirius light up. Sirius looks off into the distance, seemingly lost in fond memories.
“Shit, where do I start,” Sirius suddenly looks back into Remus’ eyes. “Ok, Reg and I have awful, awful parents-”
“Im sorry,”
“Thank you, very kind, Moony,” Sirius responds while smirking, “anyways, when I went to school at like twelve, I met the love of my life, the apple to my eye, Jamsey,” he sighs dramatically, clutching his heart, like a teenage girl talking about her football-playing crush, “He is the most brilliant person in the world, you would like ‘em. Pretty as they come and funnier than anyone I've ever met. Later in my first year of school, I met Pete, my lover boy. Then I met Marls, and the next year came Reg and all of his horrid friends,” he says while rolling his eyes, “Barty’s an idiot, Evan is ok, I guess, and Pandora is a sweetie. Whimsical, like a fairy or some shit. They're twins, Ev and Dora. Used to scare the shit out of me when I was little after I had watched The Shining once” He softly chuckles and tucks a curl behind his pierced ear. “And I'm absolutely horrified of Dorcas. She once burned part of my hair off cause I made Reg cry.” Although he swears to hate them, Remus can tell he loves them as much as his own friends.
“I bet you deserved it,”
“Oh sod off,” Sirius smirks, “You would like them, Reg’s friends. You would love Reggie too.” He has a soft, lovely smile that’s solely reserved for when he talks about his brother, one that makes Remus want to curl up and die. He has no clue as to why. It was just so adorable.
“Reg is everything to me,” he explains while picking up the saltshaker in the middle of the table and fiddling with it, “I left him in fourth year,” he says while wincing slightly, “he was just fourteen, and I left him in that house. I'll never forgive myself.” he puts the saltshaker down and searches in his bag hanging on the back of his chair. He turns towards Remus a second later, pulling out a small photo album full of Polaroids, and opens it towards Remus.
Sirius points to a handsome tanned man with wild hair and crooked glasses, sticking his tongue out like a frat boy while putting up a peace sign. A boy with honey-colored hair and freckles on his cheeks is hanging on his shoulders, holding a beer that is spilling everywhere.
“That's James and Peter, my lovers,” Sirius stares lovingly at the picture.
Next to it is a picture of a curly-haired boy with a beautiful jawline, and a bone structure that has to have been sculpted by the god’s themselves. Seeing him makes Remus’s jaw drop. He's sitting on a couch holding a pretty blonde girl with large, poofy hair. She had pretty stars drawn all around her face in eyeliner, and copious amounts of bright blusher on her cheeks. She sits between the beautiful man’s legs, her head on his chest. They both look so happy, staring at the person taking the picture.
“That's Reg and Dora,” he explains, smiling down at the picture fondly.
“I think I chose the wrong brother,”
“Oi, fuck you!” Sirius screeches.
“Get over yourself,” Remus flips over the page, eager to learn more.
The next page shows the same pretty boy and girl but with three more unfairly attractive people with them. Regulus is standing with his arms crossed, a grumpy look on his face. A man with pretty eyes, like a siren’s, and fluffy brown hair is hugging him from behind, his hands at his waist. His face is all scrunched up while smiling, and his head rests on Reg’s shoulder. Next to them is a boy who is carrying Pandora princess-style. He looked very similar to Pandora, just as pretty as the others, with shortish blonde hair and dark rosy lips. Finally, behind all of them, mid-jump is a beautiful girl with dark skin and braids with gold charms littering them flying behind her.
“Those are all of Reg’s annoying friends,” Sirius explains, smiling lovingly despite acting like he hates them all, “Those are our lesbians,” he points at the picture next to it with the same dark-skinned girl from earlier, closing her eyes and kissing the cheek of a girl with bleach dyed hair and a mullet, who’s winking one eye and smiling.
“Marls and Dorcas, my girls,”
“Why is everyone so pretty?” asks Remus, mostly to himself, scanning both of the pictures.
“Please, says you,” says Sirius after a scoff, “You’re the most beautiful person I've seen in forever. A beautiful devil.” he continues while flipping the page.
Remus thinks it's funny, really, he views Sirius as some angel, and he views him as a devil.
Remus rolls his eyes at Sirius’s last comment while scanning the two new pictures of James and Peter baking- well, trying to, flour covering both of them. The other is a picture of Reg and Sirius flipping each other off and smiling.
“That's funny. I thought you were an angel when I saw you.” Remus admits.
Sirius snorts, “The holiest devil and the most sinful angel. What a duo,” Remus feels his heart burn. How he's able to say those words like they're completely normal is baffling. To Remus, those are the most important things he's ever heard in his life. The most sinful angel and the holiest devil, he repeats in his mind. Someone should write poems about them, long and sweet and unrealistic. Remus supposes everything that is happening right now is pretty unrealistic. Yesterday he was scared that today would end up with him stranded on a street, with nowhere to go. Now look at him, the prettiest boy he's ever seen is telling him his whole beautiful life story.
Sirius flips the book again, and Remus sees James and Regulus smiling at each other shyly with a large fire in front of them, a guitar resting in Regulus’s lap.
“Look at them,” Sirius mumbles, “and they think I don’t know.”
Remus looks up quickly at Sirius, “Wait, wait, wait. Your brother and your best friend?! Really?”
“Yup. Ever since Reg ran to the Potter’s a year after me, and even before that, it was obvious they liked each other,” he explains, “I thought that was it, just a little crush. Obviously, it wasn’t. Once James came to breakfast with a green tie on,” Remus pulls a confused face at that, “School thing, his is supposed to be red. Anyways, guess whose tie is green?” he asks.
Remus feels his jaw slack, “No,” he whispers, dangerously close to laughing.
Sirius lets out a large bark of a laugh. Like a dog, Remus thinks. “Yup, and they've been hiding it from me the whole time! The whole time Moony! They think I have no idea, which is just offensive. That's my best mate and brother, for fuck’s sake!”
“You haven't told them you know?”
“Fuck no! I want them to tell me. I want to see how long it'll take” A waitress comes and takes up their empty plates while he rants, and Remus offers her a small smile. He looks back at the man in front of him, swinging around his arms like a maniac, “-it's been five bloody years, Moony, they still haven't told me!”
“I bet they're just nervous to see how you'll react,” Remus says while standing up, waiting for Sirius to do the same. He catches the hint and slowly stands, grabbing his bag and leather jacket.
“Yea, fuck that,” he says dramatically turning to Remus while walking, “They make each other so happy. It warms my heart when I see them steal glances that they think I don’t see,” that makes Remus’s stomach turn, filling with butterflies. He is so sweet. “But it's just appalling that they think I haven't noticed!”
“So let me get this straight, you don’t mind that your best mate is fucking your little brother, you’re just upset they think you haven't noticed?”
“Yea, exactly,” Sirius says looking back forward, but still looking at Remus at the corner of his eye, “Exactly,” he repeats.
Remus bursts out laughing.
What a strange, gorgeous man he has stumbled upon. Remus silently thanks a God he doesn't believe in for gifting him with his most beautiful angel.