some guy
Sirius Black was no stranger to the odd mortal admirer. Usually, it was just people who saw him in bars or clubs. His relationships with these admires was, more often than not, one night affairs. His longest relationships with mortals were friendships and even they couldn't last for more than a decade and a half without his lack of ageing becoming a point of concern. Being a vampire was a very lonely existence. At least it would be without James.
“Oi, mate, would you stop looking so broody? What are you looking at anyway?” James asked him. They were sat in a pub, not much younger than Sirius, drinking. Sirius was glaring at his phone like it had personally offended him when, really, he should have been listening to his best friend.
“Sorry, James, it’s just,” he cut himself off. “Regulus is after texting me.”
“Regulus Black texted you? How’d you manage that one? He never answers me,” James said, intrigued.
“You broke up like a decade and a half ago. Why would he answer your texts?” Sirius asked him, looking up for the first time.
“Because, you know, we’re mature. We’re friends,” James told him.
“Prongs, we both know he doesn’t do friends.”
“I know that,” three hundred years old and he still whined like a teenager, “But I do. So we’re friends, if he likes it or not.”
“I can guarantee he doesn’t”
“Anyway,” James said, dragging out the last syllable, “what did he text you?”
“Oh right, yeah,” Sirius began. “The Purebloods have like a network, I guess. Of persons of interest who might be catching onto the heaps and heaps of corruption or you know,” he mimed biting someone's neck. “So, according to Reggie, there’s this history student who did a final project on my family and their influence. And he had pictures of us. So Regulus said he thought I should know.”
“I mean this in the worst way possible, but that’s a very ‘your family’ thing. Just to have people ready to step in in case someone figures out the bullshit they’ve been pulling for centuries,” James took a sip of his beer. There was a beat of silence as he swallowed. “What’s the bloke’s name?”
“Some guy named Remus Lupin,” Sirius answered. James started laughing.
“I swear, no one involved in your family drama ever has a normal name. Never like a John or like Steve or some shit,” James rambled.
“He’s cute,” Sirius cut him off.
“Seriously?” James asked, incredulous. “This student is pulling at the threads that keep your family secrets undercover. He alerted the Pureblood network. Not to mention he’s a mortal. And you’re talking about looks.”
“Well, as you know, I’m always Sirius.” “Shut the fuck up.” “And I know that he could ruin my happy little underground existence and he’s a mortal which comes with its own set of problems. He’s still cute, look,” Sirius turned his phone to show James. The screen showed Remus Lupin’s Instagram page. The photo showed a tall man with mousy brown hair smiling at the person behind the camera. White lines crossed over his features, scars that looked like they had been there for years.
“Okay, fine, the man is hot,” James admitted.
“Thank you,” Sirius said, way too pleased with himself.
“You can’t like him though,” James said.
“Don’t be so dull, James,” Sirius responded.
“Je suis très intéressante, you little bitch,” he scolded him.
"Désolée, mon meilleur ami. He’s hot but I don’t think he’s really my type, he’s a bit… studious or something,” Sirius said looking at the photo. “One of the cousins will probably send him a death threat by the end of the week.”
“What happens if he figures it out?” James asked. “The whole,” he mimed driving a stake through his own heart. “Thing.”
“Probably end up in an asylum, would be my guess,” Sirius said, finishing his drink.
~~*~~
Sirius continued to get nearly daily updates on Remus Lupin and his investigating abilities. Between Regulus’ texts, detailing Lupin’s entire academic history and James stalking the bloke's whole following list, Sirius’ days now ran on a constant cycle of Remus Lupin News. it wasn’t an unpleasant cycle to run on, he found.
“Last year he won an award for research,” one text from Regulus read, sent the Tuesday after the initial text. Sirius had begun to read the stream of messages Regulus sent every morning like his own little morning paper. There was no longer a question about who ‘he’ was. Sirius, in an effort to preserve his mental wellbeing, had created a group chat with himself, Regulus and James. The two other men would send whatever information they had come across into the groupchat. Sirius would occasionally comment on an outfit James had seen or a particularly interesting fact Regulus had found.
On Thursday James sent a close up picture he had found of Lupin on his friend Dorcas’ photography page. His scars were clearer than they had been in any of the other photos. In most others they looked almost like a trick of the light but in this one they stood out because of the black and white filter over the photo. Lupin’s two most prominent scars were one that ran across the bridge of his nose and one that cut across his left eyelid and cut off the tail of his eyebrow.
Regulus: Does he have scars?
Sirius: ???
Sirius: Obviously? Have you not seen the million pictures James has sent?
Regulus: I never read James’ texts properly.
James: rude
Regulus: Why did neither of you mention them?
Sirius: thought you knew
James: i thought we were friends :(
Regulus: I’ll have Pandora look into it in the morning. They look old though so it mightn’t tell us anything.
Sirius: I think they add smth to him yk
James: that’s because you are a sucker for a mysterious guy
Sirius: how many times james? I am a scorpio. I like the mystery. I can’t be blamed for that
Regulus: you should be