Nice Night?

This was meant to be a normal night out. It was just Sirius, James, and Peter; The marauders, as they dubbed themselves as teenagers before they realised how stupid it sounded. Whatever, it stuck, and it was them.

They were currently celebrating Sirius’ 22nd birthday. Before this, of course, they had had a proper party with no small amount of drinking and catching up with many of their friends from school. But now, they were having a traditional marauders evening (well, it’s almost morning). The steady supply of beer from James and Peter’s repeated trip to the bar (the birthday boy gets special treatment, according to James) always kept a drink in his hand. They were laughing and reminiscing about memories of past birthdays and making plans for future ones. It was truly lovely, the continuous flow of alcohol painting everything in a sickly sweet haze. Sirius was brought back to himself by the voice of James Potter invading his eardrums.

“Siriusssss.” James was swaying dangerously on his barstool and Sirius swiftly held out his hand to steady him. James had definitely drank a lot more than previously thought. Actually, come to think of it, Peter was looking a little more spacey and giggly than he’d noticed before, too. 

“Can you grab the next round? Please? I know it’s your birthday but I’m kind of dizzy and I don’t want to spill all our drinks,” James pouted as Peter nodded along encouragingly. Right, time to get up. Meandering through the tables, he made his way to the bar.

After weaving through drunk groups of girls and old men with beer bellies that definitely gave him one or two dirty looks (a boy is dressed feminine, god forbid), he reaches the bar and locks eyes with-

Oh.

Oh, he’s pretty.

The scar that runs from his eyebrow to the corner of his lip and crosses over his nose. The tawny brown curls that fall over his eyes, eyes that Sirius is looking into so intently and maybe it’s the lighting, or maybe his eyes are deep pots of gold that reveal more and more the longer you look.

No. Stop. Focus, Sirius. Snap out of it. He is working right now and probably straight anyway. No. 

The boy clears his throat. Maybe because Sirius has been staring at him for…He doesn’t know how long. Time stopped working when he caught sight of this beautiful, mysterious stranger that he is still staring at and probably making very uncomfortable. Breathe. Just breathe.

The boy clears his throat again. Right. Drinks.

“Hey,” he starts with, Sirius is trying so very hard to be cool and nonchalant but his voice is very shaky and there is a blush crawling up his neck and he is hoping this boy is incredibly unobservant or this is going to be a problem.

“Hi.” The boy is staring at him. Sirius sends out prayers to the god he doesn’t believe in that this stranger cannot see him blushing profusely.

“Can I get you anything?” He sounds oblivious but Sirius can see a ghost of a smirk playing over his lips. Is Sirius staring at his lips too much? They are very nice lips. Sirius would bet they’re soft. Sirius would like to find out. Fuck. He needs to stop being so weird.

“Uh, yeah. Three beers, thanks. Um. yeah.”

That was horrible, this is horrible, Sirius is going to crawl into a hole and die. The boy isn’t even hiding the smirk now. The triumphant twist to his lips is enough to make his knees buckle. Sirius leans on the counter a little more for support. 

The bartender begins speaking again, a smug lilt to his slightly gravelly voice. “Is that all?” He grabs the beers and sets them on the countertop. “Nothing else?”

“I’m Sirius. What’s your name?” was out of his mouth before he could think about it.

“Sirius. That’s a pretty name. A star, yes?” Sirius nodded, finally hearing a slight accent that he can’t place and very much focusing on being indirectly called pretty (okay, maybe not. Let him have this). “I’m Remus.” 

Remus. Remus, Remus, Remus, Remus, Remus. Oh that’s lovely. Sirius is just smiling stupidly at him. Remus is smiling back. Sirius rather likes his smile.

“Oh, you’re quite pretty, Remus. Did you know that? You should. It’s very important that you do.” Sirius should not have said that, Sirius should run away now. But no, he shouldn’t because Remus is looking at him like that and Sirius would like him to never stop.

“Well, you’re not so bad yourself, Sirius.”

Sirius is going to perish. This lovely, lovely man is talking - flirting - with him and Sirius is being embarrassing constantly. He doesn’t even have the excuse of the drinks he’s had tonight because his tolerance is annoyingly high and James finished half his drinks for him. It’s just Remus.

Remus starts again, “Drink some water and sober up a bit, Sirius. My shift ends in ten if you want to wait.”

Sirius will definitely be waiting.

When he gets back to the table, still a little wobbly on his feet, James is nowhere to be seen. Peter assures him that he just left with some girl but he fires off a quick text to make sure he's alright just in case. 

Ten minutes goes by so slowly. He keeps checking his phone for the time and apparently time moves much slower than he thought it did because ten minutes is just taking too long. He does opt for water, though, abiding by Remus’ advice, and he makes idle conversation with Peter, but it’s clear his mind is on something else. Or someone else. Someone with golden eyes and curls Sirius would like to run his fingers through and scars he’s like to trace with the pads of his fingertips. 

When ten minutes comes, he lets Pete know he’s going, being incredibly vague about the whole thing, but he doesn’t miss the knowing look in Peter's eye. 

Making his way over to the bar once again, he catches Remus’ eye and he mouths “wait outside”, so Sirius begrudgingly heads out the door and leans against the brick wall very impatiently. When Sirius finally spots Remus exiting the building, he bounds over to meet him, feeling more than a little excited at the prospect of spending time with him.

“Hi,” Sirius whispers, looking up to meet Remus’ gaze. He didn’t notice how tall Remus was before, but it’s very evident in the way he looks at Sirius, head tilted down.

“Do you want to go back to my flat?” Remus begins, and the yes is tumbling out of Sirius’ mouth much too quickly. The smirk from before once again situates itself on Remus’ lips. “We have to walk but it’s only a few blocks from here.” Sirius would definitely like to go to Remus’ flat and so they start walking.

Sirius is so eager to get through the door that he practically drags Remus up the stairs (the elevator is out of order) and speedwalks to the door and waits very impatiently as Remus fumbles with his keys.

When Remus gets the door unlocked and walks through, Sirius is immediately walking in after him. Remus has only just turned on the light when Sirius crowds him against the door. 

He’s mildly out of breath from running and that’s very evident in his voice when he leans in closer and says “Kiss me.”

Remus does not hesitate. His arms immediately go to wrap around Sirius’ waist as Sirius’ hands come up to cup Remus’ jaw. Remus is panting into the kiss and it’s the best sound Sirius has ever heard and scratch that because Remus is making soft sounds in the back of his throat and scratch that because Remus is just the best in everything and Sirius can’t decide. They do eventually make their way to Remus’ bedroom, leaving a trail of hastily discarded clothes behind them.

They spend that night wrapped up in eachother, changing each other's lives without even knowing it. But they could both feel it, the shift of everything as they knew it, the start of something significant.

—-

Sirius awoke to a warm body pressed comfortingly into his back as memories from last night came flooding back to him. God, he hoped Remus’ neighbours had access to headphones, for everyone's sake. 

Doing his best to move slowly and cautiously so as not to wake the peacefully sleeping man next to him, he reached down to the floor next to him for his jeans, fishing his phone out of one of the pockets. He glanced at the time (11:46) before checking his messages; one from James last night, saying he left early and he’s safe and one from Peter earlier this morning asking him when he’ll be back to the flat they all shared. He quickly sent a thumbs up to James and made the executive decision to ignore Peter until he talked to Remus. Sirius layed back down, making himself comfortable in Remus’ inviting arms. 

He watched as Remus’ eyes began to flutter open, smiling softly as Remus rubs his eyes and smacks his lips. He’s really quite adorable in the mornings.

“Hi,” Sirius whispers, once Remus fully gains consciousnous, looking at him fondly, “How are you feeling?” Sirius doesn’t really know what to say. He doesn’t do this often. Does Remus want to see him again? Does he ask for breakfast? What is going on here?

“Good. Tired. You?” Remus is still looking at him with that fond look on his face and Sirius is focusing so intently on it that it takes him a minute to realise he should probably respond. 

“I’m good.” He takes a deep breath, gaining as much courage as his brain will allow, “So I don’t exactly do this often and I’m not really sure what the etiquette for these kinds of things are but I would very much like to see you again if that’s okay? Or you could just ignore me completely and we can forget everything if you want that but if you don’t want to forget this I’d very much like that. So um, yes?” Remus takes one look at him before bursting out laughing.

Remus’ eyes are beginning to water with how much he’s trying to restrain his laughter. “Yes, I would like that, Sirius.” He’s smiling again, looking at Sirius with such affection in his eyes that Sirius just melts. “Would you like breakfast? Eggs?” Sirius nods so they get up, get partially dressed (Remus does not bother with a shirt. Sirius’ restraint is weakening) and head to the kitchen.

Cooking with Remus is…Nice. The sort of calm domesticity that comes with making jokes and flicking each other's arms, Remus waving a spatula around threateningly when Sirius distracts him, Sirius kicking Remus’ calves under the table and squealing when Remus retaliates. Sirius eventually realises that he needs to go home at some point and he does not have a car and neither does Remus. He fires off a quick text to James, asking if he’d be able to pick him up. James responds quickly, asking for the address and saying that he can be there within half an hour.

While they wait, they get to know each other a little better. The talk about favourite colours (Remus’ is sage green. Sirius makes a mental note of this), they talk about what it was like for Remus growing up in Wales (“So that’s what the accent was”) and they talk about Sirius’ art. All in all, it’s a very nice morning.

When James texts him that he’s waiting outside, Remus escorts him down the stairs. Sirius has a hand on the car door handle when he realises he forgot something, quickly running back to Remus he pulls out his phone.

“Can I text you? So if you want we can…Do this again sometime?” He wishes he wasn’t so nervous, hopefulness threaded through his voice. Remus nods and puts his number in the phone. Once he’s finished, Sirius lets out a slightly meek (Shhhh) goodbye and gets in the car where James is waiting, trying to hide the smug look gracing upon his features.

“Nice night?” He asks, seemingly innocently, but Sirius can see the glint of mischief in his eye.

“Fuck off.” He mumbles. Then, “I could say the same to you. Peter says you left with somebody?” James snaps his jaw shut. Serves him right.

“Shut up,” James murmurs, avoiding eye contact. As they drive home, James asks increasingly embarrassing questions about Sirius’ nice night and Sirius only gets him to shut up when countering them with his own.

—-

James is so incredibly, irreparably screwed. Listen, in his defence, he didn’t plan on going home with his best friend's little brother. He didn’t even know he would be at the bar. But Regulus is…Well, Regulus, and James is a weak, weak man. And now he is a weak, weak man who may possibly die soon. Because if Sirius finds out about this, his days are numbered.Risk of death aside, James has had a very nice night. It was unexpected, sure, walking to the bathroom only to get stopped by a very lovely raven haired man, but now, James has the possibility of actually being with the guy he’s had a crush on since fourth year. 

Regulus left quite abruptly this morning because of a shift at the cafe he works at, leaving them with very little time to talk about what this means for them.They did, however, exchange numbers, so maybe they can arrange a time to talk about it all? To be honest, James is freaking out. Regulus is so important to him and he doesn’t want to mess this up.

James has been staring at his phone for twenty minutes. He is going to mess this up. Finally building up some of that trademark James Potter bravery, he texts Regulus.

James: hi there. can we talk over coffee or something? wanna figure this out.