Meet Cute
By the time a month had come and gone, Sirius spent every single night at the skatepark. The people there liked him. They found the way he spoke and acted strange. It wasn’t hard to figure out that he came from money, and to all of the kids around there, especially the poor ones, it felt nice to see a posh jerk be taken down a peg. Since he never chose to use his real name, everyone there just called him Rich.
Everything was well and fine. Sirius’ life was filled with a party every night and hours spent in isolation everyday, sleeping off the occasional hangover. He had become particularly good at making sure he never got one in case his parents decided to bother him before tea. If he got caught, they’d put bars on his window to keep him from ever leaving that wretched house again. Even prison would be preferable to a lifetime hidden away in Grimmauld Place.
That was what his life was like, despite Regulus’ protests, for years.
This trend was only interrupted when a new kid showed up one night in an unbelievably baggy, comfortable looking sweater. His clothes made him stand out because most everyone there dressed punk. Sirius himself had gotten his hands on a fairly large number of old, faded band tees and a nice, soft leather jacket.
He was off to the side with a few of the guys having a smoke and scrolling through Twitter when this kid showed up looking like he was anything except new. Knowing he couldn’t have missed someone who stood out so much, Sirius walked up to him.
“You new here?” he sauntered up, a cigarette hanging between his teeth. He hoped it would make a cool picture.
As he drew closer to him, Sirius was quite taken aback by how he looked from close up. The man was… beautiful. There was no escaping or denying it. His drawn face and steely gaze were alluring, pulling Sirius to him just as the moon pulls the tides, even as the newcomer refused to look at him. Immediately, he knew that he wasn’t going anywhere until they were friends at the least. He needed this moon man in his life.
“No,” was the short reply as the boy continued to scan the crowd.
“Oh,” Sirius responded dumbly. “I haven’t seen you around. Looking for someone then?”
Finally, eyes like copper glared directly at Sirius instead of vaguely in the distance.
“Fuck off,” the moon man said, a slight Welsh accent slipping into his voice.
They simply stared at each other for a few long moments before the newcomer began to scan the crowd once more. Within a few minutes of standing there silently, neither choosing to ‘fuck off’ in any manner, one of the park regulars came jogging up from behind Sirius, clapping him on the shoulder.
“Damn, Rich, you blocked my view,” he told him in a half-joking tone before speaking to the other. “Sorry to keep you waiting. This jagoff doesn’t have any spacial awareness. Do you have it?”
“Do you have money?”
“Yep.”
The newbie drew his hands from his pockets and passed something to him, taking the money, before the third boy was gone.
There was a long pause before he spoke.
“Rich is a rather unfortunate name if you’re as posh as you sound,“ he spoke towards the small crowd rather than directly to Sirius, who barked a laugh.
“No, that’s not my real name. My real name is actually far more unfortunate, so Rich is preferable. What about you?”
“What?”
“What's your name?”
Once more, the man simply stared at him.
His eyes really are so beautiful, Sirius thought. In the warm lighting from the lamps, he could see faint lines all across his face, scars from Lord knows what, that he found strangely attractive. The scars combined with the boy's freckles made him look like a piece of stained glass art or like a constellation filled sky.
“Why?”
Sirius took a drag before speaking. “You’ve got this vibe about you, did you know that? You tell me to fuck off, but talk to me anyways. Either I’m as charming as I think I am-”
“-probably not,” Moony cut him off.
“Or,” Sirius continued. “I intrigue you as much as you intrigue me.”
“Your breath smells like smoke and whiskey,” was the response he got for that. Unknowing if it was a compliment, Sirius blushed.
“Yeah, well. I drink and I smoke.”
“D’you smoke weed?” The man asked.
In all honesty, Sirius had never tried. He was comfortable with what he did and hadn’t seen any reason to try something different. Sure, some nights no matter how much he drank he couldn’t quite ignore the need for more, but he was sure that’s how it felt for everyone. Sometimes, no matter what you do, nothing is enough.
A lot of the kids he hung out with smoked weed, though.
“Not really,” he admitted, feeling the need to be honest with him.
“Want to try?”
“For you? I’d try anything.”
Twenty minutes later, the two found themselves laying under an overpass, staring at the concrete above them.
Sirius felt light and a little bit giddy. Actually smoking the blunt hadn’t been much different than a cigarette. Moony had advised him to hold the smoke in his mouth for a moment before inhaling and it had almost tasted sweet. There was, at least, an earthy note to it that wasn’t as strong in tobacco.
He laid there on the dirt ground, giggling with a man who’s name he didn’t even know, and Sirius had to admit it was the best he had felt in his life. None of his troubles seems so grand in the face of the universe.
“I gotta tell you something, Moony. I think I just might be in love with you for this. Not even romantically, just like how you love the world, y’know? Like how you love the sun in the morning and chocolate. God, I could go for some chocolate right now.”
Moony just laughed at him and passed a chunk from a chocolate bar he had, in all of his cruelty, been hiding.
“Remus,” he gasped through a laugh, “My name is Remus.”
Sirius rolled over to look at him in his beautiful eyes. “Oh that is so pretty! Why wouldn’t you tell me earlier?”
“Well, go on then. What’s yours?”
“I don’t think you’d really like to know,” he sighed, flopping back into the dirt.
It was Remus’ turn to look at him. “What do you mean?”
There was no judgment between the two as Sirius felt the compulsive need to tell this moon man with his kind eyes absolutely everything.
“Well, I have a reason to never have told anyone here all of these years, don’t I? No one will ever think of me the same. They like seeing the posh, rich kid fall from grace, but they sure don’t like being reminded that I’m posh. They don’t like being reminded about who I am.”
“That’s so sad,” Moony mumbled, earning a snort from his companion.
“Yeah, it is, isn’t it?” Sirius turned and gave a toothy smile, brushing off the heavy atmosphere threatening the lightness in his head. He didn’t want the floating feeling to go away just because he felt shitty. He always felt shitty and he deserved a break.
Sirius lost track of time as they both laid there silently, listening to cars pass. As Remus’ high started to fade a bit, he lit another blunt and passed it to him.
“I don’t feel anything unless I’m angry,” Moony admits in a whisper, as if they’re trading the most valuable currency. He supposed they were. After all, secrets were worth more money than anyone could count.
Sirius hummed in response. He knew perfectly well what that was like. He had gone through a phase like that a year or so prior where he spent all of his time angry at the world, as many 16 year olds do.
“I wish I didn’t feel anything at all,” Sirius admitted, gratefully accepting another hit. He knew it was unwise to get too inebriated when he still had to sneak back into the house, but he didn’t particularly care.
The two laid there until the early hours of the morning, talking about nothing and everything. Eventually, as Sirius got ready to leave, finally feeling controlled enough to get into his bed without getting caught, he got up the nerve to tell Remus.
“The name’s Sirius, by the way. Sirius Black. Until next time, Moony,” he gave a two finger salute and then practically ran in the opposite direction, expertly navigating his route back to Grimmauld.
Sirius knew that Remus would know who the Blacks were. He knew the other man would figure it out and think he knew everything, just like the entire world did. He could only hope that their night together would leave the moon-like man with the curious scars wanting, even a fraction of the amount Sirius did, for more.