Welsh swearing and bandages
Soon after what Lily had coined Remus’ ‘full on gay freak out’ the rest of the group arrived. Marlene and Dorcas were first, hand in hand like usual.
Although Remus wasn’t sure he believed in soulmates, if one needed proof of soulmates Remus would say Marlene and Dorcas. They completed each other in every way imaginable, and loved one another so much it filled every crevice in every room they entered.
Remus hoped he would find a love like that, an all encompassing love that makes everyone around you happier….. and just a little bit jealous.
Remus knew that they had matching tattoos, and that Marlene always did Dorcas’ eyeliner, that Cas makes jewelry for Marls, that Marlene refuses to take off even in the shower.
The group always joked that Cas would have to make Marlene’s wedding ring, because well everyone knew they were going to get married. It didn’t even seem like a question, it was one of those things that was just going to happen.
Remus was snapped out of his admiration for his friends by Marlene shouting down the corridor to Sirius’ room, “Eh where the fuck are our hosts, this is not the greeting I expected!” Lily, Remus and Dorcas snickered as Sirius shouted back, “Oh please you were only invited because we like Dorcas!”
Marlene grinned at them all before noisily making their way to Sirius' room to give out to him for his ‘cheek’. Dorcas slapped Remus lightly on the arm and said, “Oi move over Moons!” Remus groaned but obliged.
Cas layed their head on Remus’ shoulder and traced the scars on his forearms as they usually did when they needed something to with their hands. “How are you love?”, they mumbled into his shoulder. Remus sighed before replying, “Sad and gay, so sad and so so gay.”
Dorcas and Lily burst into laughter again, Remus slapped them both lightly and exclaimed, “Hey you can’t laugh at my pain!” Lily was about to say something back when there was another knock at the door.
Remus graciously offered to answer the door and was delighted to see Peter, Mary and Emmeline. Remus and Peter had gotten to know each other well over the past couple of weeks between the group chat and parties.
Remus really liked Peter, he had thought that maybe Sirius and James would be closer from the way Sirius talked, but in reality that wasn’t the situation at all. The three were all as close with each other and made an amazing trio, their mischief was infectious and Remus could see how the trio was so popular in school.
Peter said hi to everyone and then also went down to Sirius’ room to see what was taking everyone so long. Remus hugged Emmeline and Mary and invited them both in. Remus had met Em many times since he had become friends with Mary, she had an infectious smile and was sarcastic and quick witted like Remus.
She was also possibly the kindest person he had ever met, rivaled only by Dorcas. For example Remus had a painting that Em painted specifically for him, just because he was having a bad week and needed cheering up.
Remus realized that Emmeline and Mary were another stable couple in his life, they had started dating in their 6th year of school. He actually soon put together that he, Sirius and Peter were the only people out of everyone who weren’t in soulmate like relationships, or any relationships at all to be exact.
For like the millionth time this evening Remus’ thoughts were interrupted by something. Peter came back into the room rolling his eyes, “I swear to god it takes Pads about three years to get ready!”
“Hey I heard that!” Sirius shouted from their room, “And did I lie?!??” Peter shouted back.
Sirius finally came back into the living room and winked, “Well Wormy it takes a while to look THIS good.” Peter just flipped him off.
Remus had to agree he really did look good, he was wearing black flared bottoms and a white crop top and his usual black leather jacket. Their hair was in a messy ponytail, and he had eyeliner outlining the rims of his eyes.
“And yet Moony is still the hottest person in this room!” James laughed as he and Marlene came back into the living room. Remus tried to argue but everyone just agreed with James.
Luckily, for Remus’ sake, everyone was distracted by the arrival of Regulus and his new boyfriend Alex to continue the conversation about Remus’ alleged ‘hotness’. From then on the evening went off without a hitch……. sort of.
Everyone got settled in the living room and James brought out all the drinks, Sirius didn’t even bother with a glass he just opened a bottle of wine and drank straight from it.
Sirius had spent the past half an hour almost in tears in his room, well that might be a bit of an over exaggeration, but close enough. Remus was just so pretty Sirius could barely function. was that normal?
It didn’t matter anyway, because Remus was way too good for him, and his best friend!! So Marlene and him had agreed that getting stupidly drunk seemed like the best way to hide from his feelings.
Remus came over to sit beside Sirius, “Can I put on my playlist now?” he asked eagerly. Sirius pretend to consider it, but then laughed and nodded toward the speaker on the other side of the room. Remus grinned ecstatically and made his way across the room.
Sirius had to admit, it was a great playlist, and everyone seemed to agree. When ‘More than a woman’ came on, Dorcas asked Marlene to dance with them, and they were soon followed by Emmeline and Mary.
Sirius was beginning to feel very single until the next song came on, Cruel Summer. Mary and Marlene shouted at Sirius to come dance with them, I mean how could he not?!? He grinned and jumped up to join the group dancing in the middle of the living room.
Remus’ quiet people watching while nodding along to whatever conversation was happening around him, soon turned to not so subtly looking at Sirius laughing and dancing.
As if they could sense his eyes on them Sirius looked up at that moment, making direct eye contact with Remus.
Remus looked away quickly, a redness blooming across his cheeks, but not before Sirius could wink at him.
At this point Remus was practically swooning and thought it best to rejoin whatever conversation was happening around him.
Remus was trying really hard to pay attention to the conversation he was having with Lily, Regulus and Alex when Cruel Summer came on. But he couldn’t help but watch Sirius dancing with the girls, his face was almost glowing with happiness, and was light up by a beaming smile.
Remus smiled secretly to himself, he really did love that smile.
Lily leaned in and whispered in his ear as he continued to, not so subtly, stare at Sirius, “Still distracted by lover boy?” Remus rolled his eyes and gave Lily a dirty look. She just continued, “You really think your dirty looks are going to work on me anymore?!? I’m immune to them by now, and you’re just huffing because you know I’m right”
Remus didn’t want Lily to be right, but she always is. He just groaned and placed his head on her shoulder. “I hate it when you’re right,” he grumbled. She laughed and patted his head sympathetically.
For some reason Marlene decided it would be a good idea for them to all do shots, maybe it was nearly the whole bottle of wine she had already drunk, or not, who knows?
Sirius went to get the shot glasses from the kitchen and Remus offered to come with them, he needed a little break from the noise.
While Sirius rummaged around trying to find enough glasses Remus leaned against the counter. He placed his fingers gently on his temples and rubbed small, slow circles, trying to ease the pain a little bit.
Sirius looked up concerned, “You ok Moons?” they asked. Remus nodded, “Mhmm just a little twinge, I’ll be fine,” he assured Sirius. Sirius wasn’t fully convinced but Remus knew his limits and Sirius didn’t want to doubt him. But one more question couldn’t hurt.
Sirius looked warily at Remus, he knew there was a fine line between overbearing and caring, and he just wanted to make sure Remus was ok. He took a deep breath before asking, “Would you rather be alone in here for a bit, to help with your head or anything? I can tell everyone you’re on the phone or something?”
Remus opened his eyes to look at Sirius, who had a look on their face somewhat resembling a sad, worried puppy. Remus cocked his head to the side and said, “Do you really think I would rather be left alone if the alternative is being with you, because that will never happen. I always want you around Padfoot.”
Sirius nearly almost swooned, god this boy made it hard to NOT fall in love with him. Instead they just smiled and continued to hunt for the shot glasses. “Arrête de dire des choses comme ça ou je vais devoir t'embrasser.” He mumbled under his breath, “ou pleurer jusqu’à épuisement, les deux options semblent bonnes.”
Finally Sirius found the shot glasses and then both carried them into the living room.
Two rounds of shots in and Remus was the most sober out of the group, if he knew one thing it was that he had a good tolerance. So when Lily remembered she had left her phone in the car, Remus decided it was probably best if he went to get it.
On his way back into living room he remembered a second too late about the unusually low doorframe. He tried to duck but unfortunately depth perception had never really being his strong suit, especially when he was two shots in, and proceeded to bang his head.
A violent string of welsh curse words poured out of Remus mouth as he rubbed the spot on his head that he had whacked on the doorframe. Sirius, who was leaning against the wall just beside the doorway laughed and turned to Remus. Sirius opened his mouth to speak but Remus got there first, “I know, I know, remember the low doorframe, it’s a bit late now!”
Sirius swiped a dismissive hand through the air as they said, “Oh we are wayyy past your shit memory Moonshine, I think what we really need to focus on here is the fact that Im nearly positive you just swore a shit ton, but I couldn’t make out one word you said.”
Remus had leaned against the wall beside Sirius, and now brought his head closer to Sirius’ so he could hear over the noise of the room. Sirius inhaled sharply, but Remus didn’t seem to notice. He was more shocked by Sirius stupidity than breath control.
“Well unless you have magically become fluent in Welsh overnight I didn’t think you would understand a word I just said,” Remus laughed. Sirius shocked by the stupidity of their earlier statement grimaced in embarrassment. “I forgot you spoke Welsh,” he said through an embarrassed laugh.
“rchi'n gwybod am idiot rydych chi'n bert iawn” Remus replied smirking. Sirius stared in awe for a second before remembering themselves and continued the conversation. “Mhmm, impressive I guess, it’s no five languages or anything.”
Remus who had returned to rubbing his head where he had banged it, looked up and grinned, “Always so modest about your talents Pads!”
Sirius dramatically clutched a hand to his chest, “You think I’m talented! Oh Moon man this means everything!” Remus rolled his eyes once again but Sirius slapped his arm and said, “Hey don’t roll your eyes at me! I was about to say that it’s still kind of impressive though.”
It was Remus’ turn to be dramatic, “Only kind of!” he exclaimed but stopped when he noticed Sirius moving with the music. Remus sighed internally, of course THAT song had to play.
Sirius snapped back to reality, “You were saying about how amazing you are or something,” they said teasingly to Remus, but Remus had now become more focused on how painfully accurate the lyrics were.
‘You’ve ruined my life, by not being mine’
Remus opened his mouth to reply when Mary interrupted him, she grabbed Sirius’ arm and squealed excitedly, “This is our song!!” Sirius whispered something about joining her in a second and turned back to Remus.
“As much as I would LOVE to list all your amazing quality’s, we would most likely be here for the whole evening, and as lovely as that would be I think Mary would actually murder me.”
And with that Sirius winked at Remus and made their way back over to Mary, Marlene, Cas and Lily as the chorus of Gorgeous started playing.
Remus groaned internally, and cursed his own amazing music taste. Watching Sirius Black, one of the most gorgeous people ever, dancing to gorgeous, was possibly the worst thing for a pining Remus to witness.
As the evening continued the group began to form different smaller groups. Some dancing, and some just chatted, everyone kind of flitted from one group to another. It was Remus’ kind of party, not too many people and he knew and liked everyone.
He was deep in conversation with Lily and Alex about how much Zeus sucked (which is a lot!) when he was distracted Sirius making their way over to Regulus. Both boys began conversing in rapid french, Remus understood exactly none of what they were saying, but it was kind of hot.
Lily snapped her fingers in front of Remus and Alex’s faces, “I get both of your boyfriends speaking french is hot but we’re still in the middle of a conversation!” Alex grinned and stood up, “Sorry guys but I think I have the sudden inkling to learn french.” Lily shouted after Alex, “Traitor!” but couldn’t contain her laughter.
Remus feeling the bravery off three shots and a couple of cans of cider decided he should join the french club. He looked over at Lily with pleading eyes and she stuck her tongue out at him, “Ugh just go already!” she laughed, and pushed him off the sofa.
Once Sirius had another drink or too he had a pretty stupid idea, but it wouldn’t hurt anyone so they decided to do it. He made his way over to Regulus.
“Salut mon petite frère”
Regulus looked up, slightly confused, and saw Sirius looking at him hopefully. Getting the memo he continued the conversation in french.
“Salut? pourquoi parle-t-on français” he said skeptically.
“Moony parlait gallois, il faisait sexy. Donc si je parle français, peut-être qu'il trouvera ça sexy, facile!” Sirius replied, shaking their head at Regulus’ brainlessness.
Regulus chuckled at his now very drunk brother, “Ah petit homme pathétique”
“Peut-être que oui,” Sirius admitted, “mais il nous regarde en ce moment”
They nodded their head in Remus direction and Regulus looked quickly over to see Remus half listening to Lily and paying most of his attention to Sirius. And his boyfriend making his way over to them.
Regulus smiled softly as Alex made his way across the room. Without a word Alex placed his arm around Regulus’ waist and laid his head on his shoulder, exhausted. On instinct Regulus kissed the top of his boyfriends head and began to rub small circles on his back.
Sirius was so happy for Reggie he felt like his heart could burst, but they had to uphold their ‘mean older sibling’ role, “Ouais ça n'aide pas ma solitude en ce moment, et mon désir intense.”
“Oh tu es juste jaloux! En plus qui sait, peut-être qu'il est aussi mauvais que toi” Regulus smirked. Sirius smacked him lightly across the arm, “Wow, tu le dis si romantiquement”
Regulus chuckled at his brother, “Oh désolé, peut-être que le jeune monsieur Lupin vous rend votre amour toujours grandissant” Sirius tutted at Regulus, “Ce n'est pas le moment de sarcasmer! C'est l'amour de ma vie dont nous parlons”
While Sirius ranted about Remus, Regulus had noticed Remus excusing himself from his conversation with Lily and started to walk towards them.
Hurriedly, he interrupted Sirius, “Oui, nous ferons attention parce qu'il vient ici en ce moment!” Sirius hurriedly whipped around to see Remus making his way towards them.
Sirius was suddenly starting to think that this plan may not be the best. Remus was coming this way, which means he would actually have to talk to Remus, which doing while this inebriated probably wasn’t the best plan.
Luckily Marlene saved Sirius from his impending embarrassment by grabbing his arm and pulling him up onto the table, “It’s Beyoncé!” she shouted. “We can’t not dance to Beyoncé!” Sirius couldn’t really disagree with that logic, so he smiled apologetically at Remus who had just joined Regulus, and hopped up onto the table.
As ‘Crazy In Love’ started playing Marlene shouted at Remus, “Remus Lupin you have immaculate music taste!!” He laughed and jokingly blew Marlene a kiss. She tried to catch it but stumbled, knocking into Sirius.
Sirius, who had been (ever so slightly) staring at Remus, didn’t see Marlene in time and lost his balance, falling backwards off the table.
He somehow managed to land on their feet, but the bottle that had been in his hand slipped and broke on the floor, resulting in some of the glass to bounce up and cut Sirius’ shin.
Sirius didn’t even notice the cut at first, everyone helped clean up the glass. James automatically took up his role as the mum of the group, and decided that maybe it was time for everyone to start heading home soon.
In dribs and drabs the group soon went home, Regulus and Alex leaving first, because Alex was exhausted after meeting so many new people. Next Mary and Em decided to call it a night, but Peter chose to stay behind and would crash on James and Sirius’ couch (although James assured them that the three of them would probably end up together in James’ big four poster bed, just like old times)
Dorcas and Marlene left not long after that, and soon it was just Remus and Lily left to go. James, being the designated driver, hadn’t drunk anything tonight and was ready to take them home whenever they wanted to go.
Lily was already dozing on the couch, but Remus, in good conscience, couldn’t leave somewhere he (and others) had made so messy. He was Hope’s son after all, she didn’t raise him to leave a guests house in a mess.
So while Peter, Sirius and James chatted in hushed tones while Lily drifted in and out of sleep on James’ shoulder, Remus started carrying glasses and stuff into the kitchen. He just placed them down on the worktop and just sat for a moment.
He almost started to doze off but jolted awake when Sirius came into the kitchen, “Jesus fucking christ, you scared the shit out of me Sirius!” he exclaimed. Sirius was about to laugh at Remus’ reaction, but he took a step forward and winced in pain.
Remus looked worriedly at Sirius’ leg, “Would I be able to take a look at that, if that’s ok with you. You might have cut it on the glass earlier and not realized?” Sirius winced at the thought, but obliged. He sat up on the counter top so Remus could take a look at his leg.
Remus grimaced when he pulled up Sirius’ trouser leg, there was a cut about three inches long down his shin. “It doesn’t look to bad,” Remus said, “It’s not too deep so you don’t need stitches, probably just sticky stitches, but I really should disinfect it and bandage it up.”
Sirius directed Remus to where they kept their first aid kit, and while Remus tried to find what he needed Sirius quietly sung under their breath, just kind of staring off into the distance.
Remus returned to Sirius with what he needed, and he couldn’t help but laugh. “Should I be worried about major blood loss here,” he jokingly asked, “Because you seem pretty out of it to me.”
“Oh ha, ha.” Sirius replied with a dead pan expression, yet they both knew there was a smile hidden there. “When did you move degrees from English Lit to medicine?” Sirius joked. It was now Remus’ turn to return a dead pan expression.
“Actually no, still going strong on the english degrees, however I am trained in first aid, and spent a large proportion of my childhood in hospitals. Between the two you get to know a bit.” Sirius immediately felt guilty, they tried to apologize but Remus stopped them.
“Don’t apologize, ok? It’s really fine, it’s not a topic I don’t talk about or anything, maybe just not the cheeriest conversation theme,” he said while prepping the alcahol wipes for Sirius’ cut.
“Ok this is going to sting a little bit, is that ok?” Remus asked Sirius, Sirius nodded and Remus began disinfecting the cut. Sirius barely even winced, even Remus who had an amazing pain tolerance hated this part of it, alcahol wipes stung like a bitch. Then he remembered.
He looked up to Sirius with an empathetic look, neither boy said anything but a mutual understanding passed between them. Sirius nodded at Remus to continue, with a look that was reassuring, but Remus could tell there was a hint of sorrow behind it, some of the past memories he had buried down long ago were resurfacing in the back of his mind.
Remus continued tending to Sirius’ leg in silence, he knew Sirius would start talking again when they were ready. After about two minutes Remus was finished. Gently he let Sirius’ trouser leg fall and stood up from the floor a bit too fast.
This was probably not the best idea for a slightly anemic 6ft 3 person, he stumbled forward a bit while the black spots he was used to danced before his eyes. This resulted in Remus nearly knocking against Sirius’ knees.
He was now face to face with Sirius who was still sitting on the counter top. Remus gulped nervously and seemed to be frozen, unmoving. He could see every small detail on Sirius’ face, their grey/blue eyes, a wisp of hair that always fell down no matter what, their pink tinted lips parted slightly and a rosy glow to his cheeks which was a result of the copious amounts of alcahol he had consumed throughout the night.
Another affect of this alcahol was Sirius’ reaction to the two’s new found proximity, almost on instinct they leaned a bit closer to Remus, as if Remus was some sort of magnet he couldn’t help but be attracted to.
For a moment they both just stood there, drinking in eachothers presence, dictating every little feature of the other to memory.
Remus couldn’t help but think that this might be it. If he told Sirius how he felt would it ruin everything? Or should he take the leap, it couldn’t hurt to see how badly he could fall from it. Or it could hurt, very much.
The words were on the tip of Sirius’ tongue, but he just couldn’t do it, the thought of rejection was so terrifying it made Sirius feel physically i’ll. If it went badly not only would his heart be broken, but they could loose their best friend.
‘But what if it didn’t end badly?’, Sirius thought.
Remus wondered, ‘How badly could it really hurt?’
At that moment James shouted from the living room, “Ok Remus, Lils and I are ready to go when you are!”
This managed to snap them both out of whatever ‘trance they had been in. Sirius smiled at Remus sheepishly and hopped off the counter. “We better get in there before James carry’s you to the car himself.” They both chuckled and walked back into the living room.
Later that night Remus lay in bed, dazed and a bit drunk. He wanted to believe that Sirius had felt the chemistry between them in they moment, but Remus doubted it. He assured himself it was just the alcahol, and after another while finally managed to drift off to sleep.
Sirius could hear James’ snores and Peter’s light breathing as he lay awake, staring at the ceiling. They wanted so badly for Remus to have felt that moment between them too. It was somewhat like electric, Sirius had almost been buzzing with anticipation. But then didn’t some people get a buzzing feeling when they were drunk.
Sirius played a game of mental gymnastics half the night, back and forth, over every moment, but un the end they decided it was best to just assume it was the alcahol. It took a good while after that but eventually Sirius managed to nod off.
What idiots.