“Do you even have a heart?” Sirius said, rolling their eyes until they landed on the boy across from them.
“Well Padfoot, we are playing cards, there’s about a 25% chance that I have at least one heart in my hand right now,” Moony spoke matter of factly, gesturing with his cards in his hands.
“Not what I mean,” Sirius took a sip from their witches brew, mourning the last 4 losses.
“Then I have no idea what you are referring to mate,” Remus grinned, that sly devilish grin that only comes from a winning streak in cards.
“What are you talking about, Pads?” James asked, reminding Sirius that them and Remus are not alone.
Sirius put their hands through their hair, “I don’t think I even know anymore,” their eyes stayed on Remus. Remus didn’t look back, all he saw were the cards. The numbers, the black and red, the spades, the clubs, the diamonds, the hearts, the chance of victory.
“Well that’s nothing new,” Peter joked.
A few cards are put down, some groups of kings, I’m fucked, some groups of aces, I’m dead–no coming back from this, and a tiny group of red 3’s added to the pile.
“How about we make this round just a bit more interesting,” Peter says.
“What are you suggesting, Wormy?” James almost regrets asking, Peter’s pranks are almost always some sort of embarrassing psychological torture, they love him but damn can the boy be a prick. Then again, he’s almost always at the end of the rest of their jokes.
“The winner and the biggest loser have to pretend they’re dating until valentine's day,” Peter takes a big sip of his beer, which gets almost immediately spit out as Sirius shakes him.
“No, no, no, no!” Sirius shouts, “look I know we all play some sick jokes on each other sometimes, but we’re not ruining my chances of getting a date this valentines.”
“Sounds like a chicken to me, what do you think Moony,” Peter turned to Remus, who was as bright red as the pigment on the cards he stared at.
Remus blinked, “What did you say again Wormtail?”
“You think Sirius’ being a cowardly little lion about this fake dating shit?”
“Yeah…sure I guess, I mean it’s not really a dream for me either though. No offense, but we all know I’m going to be the winner, and I’m sorry but the idea of kissing one of you lads doesn’t really pique my fancy,” Remus picked at his sweater threads. Sirius really hates this idea that much, the boy thought, they’re really that disgusted with dating me, I mean it makes sense, but…I thought we might have something. I wish we did.
“And I thought we had some Gryffindors on our hands Wormy,” James leans his head on his fist, staring at the friends around him, “are we in or not?”
Sirius stared at Remus for a moment, trying to will him to look up at them, to understand. This isn’t how this is supposed to happen.
“OH, ohhhhhhh, what if the winner has to wear some t shirt, like Remus’ Beloved?” Peter smirks.
“Oh I’m in this now, I don’t think you understand how much I need that shirt, Wormy. I’m playing to win–I mean loose,” James says, glancing back at Sirius.
Sirius sighs, “No, no, I forfeit,” and with that they got up and left the room, slamming the door. This isn’t just some joke, some stupid prank. This is fucking serious, they’re screwing me over. If I could just speak with James and Pete…just explain a few things to them.
Sirius stomped out haughty, down the steps to the common room, where next they were unsure until setting their eyes on a girl.
…
“Get it on, get it on!” Peter chants as James pulls over his newly won shirt.
The two boys proceed to stare at Remus expectantly, his new shirt still in his hands.
“I hate you all,” Remus says, which he always says but it feels just a bit less like a joke this time.
“You know you love us, but you gotta put the shirt on, them’s the rules,” James smiles.
After a minute of continued stillness and silence, an exacerbated Peter says, “Get. It. ON. Or I swear I’ll put it on you myself.”
Remus slips on the shirt James’ Darling written across his chest, his eyes light up for a moment and quickly he pulls a sweater on top of it, “Never specified that I couldn’t just cover it,” Remus grins from ear to ear, turning and leaving to the library with a spring in his step. Getting out of the room before any of the other boys could criticize him or change their random rules.
As soon as Remus is out of earshot, James turns back to Peter.
“And now we wait for the two idiots to realize how lovesick they are for each other,” James smiles.
“Pleasure doing business with you Prongs,” Peter shakes his hand.