Sunday, March 27
Sunday, March 27
Remus was first into the projector back room that evening. The room was medium sized, like a small classroom. After they had been permitted use of it they had moved couches and beanbags from other parts of the library. These had been pushed to the walls, he suspected by Ms. Pince, the librarian, for a class.
He put their snacks on the coffee-table-ish-thing by the front of the room and set up the chairs around the screen before placing his movie options in front of the projector.
To his surprise, he found a board game still intact on the back table, half-finished. Since he was usually green, he checked the score. He was behind Lily (red) by eight points, but was seven ahead of the blue, which he assumed was Dorcas.
Lily and Dorcas entered the room next, and he pointed this out to them.
“Terraforming Mars?*” Lily rolled her eyes. “This one takes hours, Rem, and you know it. But I’d be happy to continue kicking your arse until the others arrive.”
“Looks like the two of us were playing the jovian tag strategy,” Dorcas commented to Remus. “You have lots more, but I have more cards that get me points from them.”
“So, can we play?”
“You’re on, Re.”
…
Sirius entered the projector room with James in tow to find Moony, Lily, and Dorcas intently gazing at a board game. It was so complicated he wanted to avert his eyes from the mess of cards, cubes, and board tiles. It looked like the dullest thing ever, but the trio appeared to be having a blast.
“And now…” Dorcas said theatrically, “I will play Import from Europa!”
“Dorcas! I thought you were my friend!” Remus said in a falsely upset voice.
“Not while playing board games, I’m not!”
“You two have clearly been taking drama lessons from Sirius.” Lily observed from behind her hand of cards. “Speaking of which, here he is. Hi, boys. Happy birthday, Potter.”
“Hey, Siri. Hi James.” Remus said, twisting in his chair for a second before returning his attention to the board, where Dorcas was placing a blue tile.
“Only two oceans left now,” Dorcas said contentedly.
“My turn!” Remus said laughingly.
“Lemme guess,” Lily said, rolling her eyes fondly. “Search for life?”
“Search for Life!” He flipped a card off the top stack and studied it for a moment before showing it to them. “Life!”
“No way. You never actually find a microbe tag during search for life! That’s the point!” Dorcas exclaimed in outrage.
Remus smiled triumphantly. “Three points to me.”
Sirius watched him interestedly. Not the game, of course, he couldn’t make head or tail of the game. A certain amber-eyed dorky boy was much more interesting. Remus looked like he was perfectly at home doing something so ridiculously complicated, and he was genuinely enjoying it. He smiled competitively at Dorcas while laying down cards and moving the little cubes around with confident ease. It was fascinating seeing Remus, usually shy, being this dominating. It was… words. Words. What was he trying to say? Oh, right. Really fucking hot.
“Sirius, I know he’s attractive, but you’ve been ogling him for like five minutes.” A laughing Lily Evans whispered in his ear. He jumped and felt his face grow hot.
Remus hid his face in his hand of cards and pretended he hadn’t heard, but his eyes still flitted to Sirius’s.
“So, um, what movie are we watching?” Sirius said, awkward for once in his life.
“There’s a few options over by the projector,” Remus said, not lifting his eyes from his cubes.
“I never saw him blush until he met Remus,” James whispered conspiratorially to Lily, who for once looked like she didn’t hate him.
“Remus always blushes,” She murmured back, smiling, “but usually not this much.”
At that moment, Alice and Frank walked in. A few moments later Mary, Marlene, Matthew, and Peter entered, completing the group.
“So,” Dorcas said, claiming an enormous blue puff. “What movie?”
After some debate, they eventually decided on Mean Girls.
“That one’s so girly, though,” Matthew said annoyedly.
“Of course it’s girly, it’s in the title,” Remus pointed out sensibly. “Sorry if you don’t approve, but it happens to be an amazing story and I love it. Sue me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with liking things that have been appointed by society as ‘girly.’” Lily defended.
They finally settled down. Marlene joined Dorcas on her puff, and Remus sat next to Sirius on the green couch. To Lily’s relief, James sat on his own puff some distance away from her. Matthew and Peter shared the second couch with Mary, and Alice and Frank settled in the second largest beanbag chair.
It took some fiddling for the projector to work, but after some minutes of struggles, they were all seated again, bowls of popcorn and Alice’s chocolate cupcakes dispersed throughout and fuzzy blankets on almost all surfaces. About halfway through Cady’s mess of popularity drama, Sirius began to doze off. He hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, his mind whirring with thoughts of James’s birthday and what they would be doing, and, of course, Remus.
And now he was right next to Remus and sleep was so much more important than any movie about girls’ social hierarchy. And before he knew it, he had fallen asleep leaning against Moony’s fluffy sweater-covered side.
Remus suddenly felt a weight at his side, and looked over to see Sirius curled up against him, his breathing even and slow, fast asleep. He was flustered for a few minutes, but then his brain stopped arguing and the rest of him agreed that it was nice having Sirius resting against him. He covered the boy in the spare blanket and wrapped his arm around Padfoot snuggly. The boy buried himself in Remus’s side, nuzzling in further to keep warm and looking, all in all, like an ebony-furred puppy.
Sirius murmured something in his sleep that sounded like, “chocolate… parchment… warm… Remus.” Remus found his face warm for the umpteenth time since he met this boy, but this time he didn’t mind. The embarrassment was worth it, he realized; he had decided that a long time ago. He wanted to be with Sirius, with his teasing and irritation and flirtation and smiles. He cared for Padfoot, and that assurance was enough to put his mind at ease. His consciousness slowly drifted away from the movie until he was asleep as well, sprawled out on the couch with his arms still firmly around Sirius. Warm. And Sirius.
~
At around the climax of the movie, James realized that Remus’s tall head was no longer visible above the couch, and neither was Sirius’s shorter one. He peered over the sofa, assuming they had snuck out, but was pleased to find them both asleep, cuddling with each other, nonetheless, like a pair of kittens.
He poked Lily, who glared, before seeing them as well, and taking a photo. She tapped at her phone for a few moments, probably moving it into either a blackmail or cute couples folder; it was difficult to say.
When the movie ended, she shook Remus awake, who made an indignant noise before realizing his position. He ducked his head embarrassedly but then folded his arms back around Sirius and tried to go back to sleep. James looked around the small room before his eyes snatched onto a clock above the door, which read 8:46. It was early to go to bed, especially considering Sirius’s night-owl tendencies, but neither looked like they were in any hurry to move.
The rest of the group filed out of the room, exiting the library in pairs and trios. Dorcas and Marlene chatted animatedly about the movie and exchanged an adorable goodnight kiss before going to their separate dorms. Lily held back for a few moments, as though she was looking for something, and when she found it she smirked. He neared to see her writing big letters on a piece of pink construction paper.
“What are you doing?” James asked, slightly nervously.
“As Remus’s best friend, it’s my job to humiliate him.” She said, smiling impishly.
She snuck back into the room and placed her paper on the inside of the door, so that it would be visible to the sleeping boys when they woke up.
He followed her, choking back a laugh when he saw that she had written in caps on her sign, ‘USE PROTECTION!’
“They’re going to kill you!”
“I know they will, but I also know Remus’s innocent little face will turn bright red when he sees it, and that’s compensation enough.” She walked off, fiddling with putting her phone into her messenger bag before just giving up, since it was already bursting. “You coming, Potter?” She called over her shoulder when she saw he had held back.
“If you’re fine with it,” He said hesitantly.
“I guess I am.”
They walked in near silence to the dorms, conversing only over minuscule things like the weather and their friends. Lily left him in the dorms, going up the stairs on the girls’ side.
“Happy birthday. Night, Potter,” she said quietly.
“Not James?” James asked hopefully.
“Nah. Sorry, you’ve got to earn first-name basis.”
“How do I do that, pray tell?”
“Well, stop being a prat, for starters.” She rolled her eyes, as though it was obvious.
“I’m not a prat!” He protested, raising his voice slightly.
“Today you weren’t. Usually? Usually you are. Good night.”
He watched her from the bottom of the stairs, his heart a little lighter than usual after being rejected by Lily. Someday, maybe, things would change.
~
Sirius woke up slowly. The first thing he noticed was that the background noise of the movie had stopped. He was surrounded by something warm and comforting, but he wasn’t conscious enough to know what, so he snuggled into it. After some time he realized the source of heat was Remus, who he was still curled up next to. Although maybe ‘in his arms’ would be a better description. He smiled sleepily and buried his face deeper in the soft, warm part of Remus’s neck. The next thing he noticed, upon opening his eyes, was that the room was now empty. There was a small window on one wall, and faint light was visible behind the blinds. It must have been morning, but early. He didn’t want to move. It was cozy and warm here, and it smelled like everything that was so distinctly Remus : chocolate and tea and parchment and autumn leaves.
Remus began stirring as well, still clutching Sirius comfortably. Both boys reddened when they were fully conscious, but smiled at each other softly and clasped hands.
“So, um, now what?” Sirius wondered, filling the silence that hadn’t yet become awkward.
“I think maybe getting up is step one,” Remus suggested, but neither of them moved.
“You’re warm, Moony,” Sirius complained when Remus did begin rising. “It’s nice here.”
“I guess we don’t have classes anyway,” Remus agreed. So they stayed, curled up close to each other.
“What are we?” Sirius asked suddenly after a very cozy while.
“I don’t know. What do you want to be?”
“More than friends. Crushes? Boyfriends?”
“Somewhere between the two, I guess.”
“Do you want to be my boyfriend?”
“Yes,” Remus said immediately. “A lot.” He reddened. “I’m just not ready to do more yet, if that’s okay. This is nice, right now. I don’t want to lose that.”
“That’s perfect for me,” Sirius said contently. Neither had any reason to move, so they didn’t. It was wonderfully lazy.
When they finally got up, Sirius was the first to spot Lily’s sign. He waved Remus over from where the boy was trying desperately to untangle himself from his sweater and the blanket.
“I will murder her with no guilt,” he warned, his face bright from anger or embarrassment. Who he was warning was unclear, but he was cute angry. Well, Remus was cute, period.
“We do kinda look like we fucked, hon,” Sirius told him, looking his boyfriend(!) up and down. Remus’s sweater was still twisted, he had marks on his arms from the blankets, and his hair was even messier than James’s. Sirius doubted he looked much better.
Remus evidently agreed, looking down at himself sheepishly. He tugged the hem of his pant leg down to cover his prosthetic leg more, and pulled the sleeve of his sweater self-consciously over a scar on his arm. Sirius pushed it up, tracing the scar as if it was a battle wound or a tattoo. Remus was beautiful, even if he couldn’t see it. Remus hugged him a little more tightly.
When they released, the subject changed. “I didn’t know how much eyeliner you wore until it smeared like that,” Remus smirked, brushing at Sirius’s undereye and sending tingles along his cheeks.
“I didn’t know it was possible for hair to get as messy as yours did,” Sirius retorted playfully. In truth, it was perfectly adorable, the golden-brown curls spilling out of order in an extremely sexy bedhead look. Without thinking much, he ran his fingers through it, like how Remus had done to him that while back. It was extraordinarily soft.
“We can’t all have hair that obeys our every whim.” Remus said, eyeing Sirius and ignoring how much his heart was thumping. Sirius’s hair never really left the shoulder length waves, which was nice, albeit a bit boring. “Can I braid it again?” Remus asked softly.
“Sure! Wait… again?” Sirius frowned at him.
Remus shrugged, not looking remotely sorry. “I put a little braid in when you were ill. You looked like a princess.”
“So that’s why everyone was laughing!” He playfully scowled.
Remus sat down, once again playing with the little strands as they tied together. This time, Sirius recognized the little shivers on his spine as attraction. Remus began tracing little circles on his back, and Sirius sighed happily. None of the other boys or girls compared.
When they left the library some time later, Sirius, to the shock of Ms. Pince, checked out Red, White, and Royal Blue.