2
Todays is Remus’ first day on set. Regulus and James already filmed a few scenes together earlier this week, but Lily and Remus haven’t started yet. He is excited to start this new production, his job is his passion, and he always finds filming fun when it’s not tiring.
[The movie stars] 7:12am, London
James: I hope you guys are ready
James: because I already drank three cups of coffee and I’m pumped
Regulus: You will be a nightmare to film with today.
Lily: hi, I just left my house, I should be here in half an hour
Remus: Prongs, can you hurry up please, I don’t want to be late on the first day.
Regulus: So studious Lupin.
James: I’m driving, can’t text xx
Regulus: Do not get in his car, he’ll get you killed.
Remus: Good.
Lily: REMUS!!
Remus: Sorry.
Remus: I’ll wear my seatbelt, promise.
Remus shakes his head and takes a sip of his tea, leaning on the kitchen counter. He hears Sirius’ footsteps and smiles at him when he appears in the room, his hair tied up in a ponytail and only wearing his green plaid bottoms. He sends a weird wave movement in Remus’ direction and slumps in one of the chairs. The dim light of the kitchen plays on Sirius’ face and creates shadows. “What are you smiling at?” Sirius asks, rubbing his eye.
Remus turns around and starts the coffee machine. “Prongs’ text.” He puts his empty cup in the sink. “He’s picking me up.” He rolls up the sleeves of his sweater and leans on the counter again, looking at Sirius.
“Oh, ok.” Sirius whispers. “Are you excited?” He smiles fondly at Remus and gets up to pick a cup out of the cupboard.
“Yea, it should be fun.” He grabs his keys and puts on his brown Dr Martens. “I’ll be home by six.” He takes his brown leather jacket and waves at Sirius as he closes the door behind him.
James is parked somewhere he shouldn’t be and honks when he sees Remus coming out of the building, waving like a madman. “Morning.” Remus greets as he gets in the car. He throws his jacket in the back and almost hits his head when James takes a sharp turn.
“You better put your seatbelt on, we’re late.” Good morning to you too, Remus thinks. James hands him the aux chord and Remus picks a song in his “when driving with Prongs” playlist.
James taps his fingers on the wheel as soon as 2pac starts to sing. Remus hums along, bopping his head to the rhythm. It’s their favourite song to listen when they are in a car together, they sing it like they created the song and takes turns on doing the back vocals, every time.
“And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?”
Remus is smiling at James, who is giving the performance of his life. They drive through London faster that they should, but James doesn’t seem to be bothered. He just keeps singing.
“And since a man can’t make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So, will the real men get up?
I know you fed up, ladies, but keep ya head up”
Remus is quietly singing and bopping his head as he rolls his cigarette. He is desperately trying to not make a mess, but James makes it harder by driving like a fucking madman.
They arrive on set five minutes early with two rolled cigarettes in hands. They say hello to every crew member they pass while they walk to their dressing room. Regulus is already sitting in his chair, hair and makeup done. Remus waves at him through the mirror and he smiles at him in return. He gives a quick hug to Lily and kisses her head. James just says hello to the room and slumps in his chair.
“How was the trip?” Lily asks with her eyes closed as a makeup artist works on a fake bruise.
“Eventful. I thought I would throw up my breakfast multiple times.” Remus laughs.
“I was very reasonable.” James says and Regulus scoffs. They look at each other in the mirror and James raises an eyebrow at Regulus who just shrugs and turns his attention to his phone.
[From: Wormy] 9:31am, London.
Wormy: a contact just told me pics of you and Sirius are coming out today
Wormy: thought I would give you a heads up
Moony: Ugh, I hoped they wouldn’t drop them.
Moony: It’s been a week.
Wormy: sorry
Wormy: you guys look great though
Wormy: very… domestic
Moony: You saw them??
Moony: My manager is going to kill me.
Wormy: already sent them the pics, so they can be prepared
Moony: You’re the best.
Moony: Can I see them?
Wormy: Sirius asked the same thing lol
Wormy: *four photos*
Remus groans out loud and three heads snaps in his direction. “Are you ok?” Lily asks. He silently hands her the phone and goes back to the coffee machine. They just finished their first scene and have a quick touch-up break before starting another one. The whole cast -or what Remus met- works well together and the actors know how to listen to the crew and their colleagues which make filming easier and smoother.
When he comes back from the machine, James and Regulus are looking over Lily’s shoulder at his phone. James is grinning at him, and Remus gets the urge to rip it out of his stupid face.
“It could be worse.” Lily tries, a sympathetic look in her eyes.
“It’s bad though.” Regulus says. She lightly punches his arm. “Don’t say that.” She quietly scolds him.
“It’s the sad truth flower.” James chimes in. Remus slumps in his chair and dramatically hides his face with the fluffy blanket a crew member gave him when she saw him shivering. “I want to die.”
“Don’t be dramatic. There is nothing bad about the pictures. Sure, you guys look like a couple, but you always do, so who cares?” Lilys wraps an arm around his shoulders.
“People are going to be mean again.” Remus whispers.
“People are dumb, they know nothing about you or him. Fuck them.” Regulus says, sitting cross-legged in his chair.
“Yea, and you look fucking hot in the pictures. James adds. “No one will care about his arm around your shoulder or the way you smile at him.” The death glares both Lily and Regulus send his way shut him up.
“I care.” It’s not even a whisper, but Lily can hear it. She squeezes him and kisses the side of his head.
“Call your manager tonight, see what they think.” Regulus says. “But the best to do would be to ignore it completely or respond something nonchalant.” He hates when Regulus is right.
The rest of the day is spent filming and re-filming scenes. They change outfits and makeup after lunch and start filming what will end up being outdoor scenes, in decors mostly made of green and blue screens. Remus finds these kinds of scenes harder to film, because they must imagine the landscape around them and completely ignore the lack of real decor. His friends and colleagues make it easier. James forgot half of his lines when he was talking to Regulus and had to improvise which -Remus knows it- infuriates Regulus. Remus tripped multiple times on the same root. It made James laughs so much, he had to be put in time out. Lily smashed it. She kept her seriousness throughout it all and only cracked a smile once. The director was overall happy with the result, and they were able to leave the set early.
On the ride back to the flat, Remus can’t stop himself from opening Twitter. The comments are mixed, half of them is freaking out about their supposed romance and the other half is homophobic comments, calling them slurs and queer-baiters. Remus learned, early into his acting career, that you cannot make everyone happy, and some people will hate you just because they can.
“Stop reading the comments.” James’ voice makes Remus snaps out of his thoughts.
They are welcomed by Peter and Sirius with beers and incredibly loud singing. The four of them sit around the coffee table to eat the takeaway James and Remus picked up on the way back. Their new T-Rex record is playing in the background and the flat smells like cigarette and coffee. Sirius’ signature scent. Remus can tell he stayed here all day by the open guitar case leaning on the arm of the couch, the discarded papers and the full ashtray on the kitchen table. James is telling them about the day, curled up in the black leather armchair. Sirius is laughing at James’ retelling of Remus’ fall on camera. Peter is laughing too, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Remus who just takes a sip of his beer. It wasn’t that funny.
“Wolfstar is trending on Twitter right now.” Peter says, looking down on his phone.
Remus groans. “I hate this ship name.”
“I like it.” Sirius says nonchalantly. Of course, he does. Remus doesn’t look at him. He doesn’t want to meet his gaze because he would probably see the light blush on Remus’ cheeks.
James hands another beer to Remus and squeezes his shoulder lightly before sitting back down. The doorbell rings moments after and Sirius goes to open it. He comes back with a red-haired Marlene under one arm and a giggling Mary under the other. Lily follows close behind, two bottles of white wine in hands.
“Hello!” They greet everyone. Marlene ruffles his hair and sits on the armchair Remus was leaning on. Mary kisses his cheek and sits with Peter; they immediately start talking about the photoshoot they are doing in a couple days.
Mary is a model. That’s how she met Peter, who is a photographer. That’s also how she met Marlene and Lily. His friend group all crossed paths at some point in their career. Marlene is a singer, but she is tall and has pretty eyes, so Peter likes to have her in front of the camera in some of his campaigns. Remus was the one to recommend Lily for one of Peter’s campaigns, when they were still in college. Mary is Peter’s muse. She poses in most of his campaigns, and he always pictures her in such artistically beautiful ways. They are a pair; they recommend each other to everyone in the industry and moved up the ladder hand in hand.
They spend the night catching up on each other’s lives and end up drunkenly singing karaoke with shampoo bottles as microphones. Marlene and Sirius are the only ones who sing properly, even drunk, and Remus watches them cover Killer Queen from the balcony, where he is smoking with Lily. Well, he smokes, and she steals a hit occasionally. He exhales the smoke and taps the ashes on the ashtray balancing on the railing. Lily is quietly looking at him, Remus can feel her gaze on the side of his head
“Stop looking at me.” He whispers and meets her gaze. “I know what you’re thinking.”
She sighs. “So why aren’t you doing something?”
He looks at Sirius, swirling and singing in the living room. “He’s my best friend, Lils. I can’t lose him.”
“You wouldn’t.” She scoots closer to him, takes a hit on his fag and blows out the smoke.
“How can you be so sure?”
“You look at him the same way he looks at you.” Oh. He doesn’t say anything.
Remus knows Sirius since their first year in college. Remus was new to the city, he had never left Wales before, and was desperately trying to find a balance between his first acting role, school and his social life. He was working his ass off and didn’t have time to make any friends. The ginger girl from the coffee shop was kind to him, but they weren’t friends yet and he rarely had time to talk with his roommate, James, who had been nothing but kind and friendly with him.
He entered the dorm one night and found James bundled up with Peter and Sirius, pop corns in hands and lights turned off, watching Spider-Man. Sirius was the one to ask if he wanted to join them. Remus accepted.
They welcomed him so easily in their trio and Remus never felt like an outsider, especially when Sirius was around. He always made sure he was included and when they talked about an old prank or a high school memory, Sirius would give him context and the two others would re-enact the scene for him. He never had real friends before Peter, James and Sirius. He rarely went to school as a kid and when he did, he was known as the sick child. He quickly learned that illness and school don’t really fit well together. But with them, Remus wasn’t scared to be ridiculed.
James calls Lily to sing a Shakira song with him. She chuckles, quickly hugs Remus and goes back inside. James gives her a shampoo bottle and starts singing. Lily is laughing and everyone else is cheering them on. Remus smiles and lights up another cigarette.
[From: Wormy] 02:57am, London
Wormy: stop being sad by yourself
Wormy: it’ll be okay
Wormy: come dance with me
Wormy: we can sing a Bowie song if you want
Wormy: I’ll make you swirl