Remus was sitting on his bed. It still was kind of early, but just kind of and he should really get going, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. Just couldn’t bring himself to get up. He had this empty feeling inside his head and chest, that you get, if you know what you’re supposed to do but you just don’t know how to do it. He had been sitting on the bed for at least five minutes, just staring into blank space and doing absolutely nothing, except for, well, breathing. That day there was an important quidditch match and James already went down to the pitch, really early, like always does. He probably has a specific ritual, which he does every time, because quidditch is sacred to James. Remus could imagine him walking three circles around every goal post and knocking on the wood. Maybe he even kisses them. Remus knew Peter was in the Great Hall having breakfast, because when he left, he made a lot of noise, which had been what prompted Remus to finally get up. He couldn’t understand how the other boy got out of bed, earlier just to get breakfast with James. On Saturday morning. Just when Remus was finally about to stand up. Really, he had made his mind up to it, the door to the bathroom creaked open. Out came Sirius and Remus thought it was high time for him to be finished. He had been rummaging around fin there for almost half an hour. For Remus that was not an acceptable amount of time, to be in a bathroom. How could someone spend so much time in there, it’s not even like there is a nice atmosphere in there. But now that Sirius had come out of the room, Remus was even more confused. Because he thought, if you spend so much time in the bathroom, you are supposed to come out looking at least halfway presentable, but that was entirely not the case. Remus let his eyes wander over Sirius form and he had to press his lips together to stop himself from laughing. Sirius’ hair, his precious hair, which he had been growing out slowly over the last years, because he refused to use a spell, was all messed up. It looked like a bird had built his nest in there. Sirius had always been very protective of his hair. Basically nobody was allowed to touch it and he even had a little funny hat to put on for sleeping. In the summer of second year Sirius’ mother had cut it real short and Remus was sure, that that must have been the end of the world for Sirius. Now Remus just voiced the thought, that was loudest in his brain: “What the hell happened to your hair?” When he saw the face Sirius was making, he thought that maybe he had been a little insensitive, but Sirius answered anyway. “I French braided it. Well, I tried anyway, apparently it didn’t go so well. But I saw Lily doing it in the common room yesterday, and it looked really easy. But doing it myself was not and my arms hurt so much from holding them up. And now you see this result. It is catastrophic.” Now it was even harder for Remus to hold in his laughter. “I’m sorry, but it really is.” Remus chuckled, before he started full on laughing, because Sirius just looked so perfectly scandalized. “Oi, stop laughing!”, he exclaimed. But that was really a very hard task to accomplish for Remus. “It really looks like you did not succeed with the braiding. What even did you do to make it that messy?” Remus still couldn’t stop laughing. “Okay, you can stop laughing now.”, was Sirius answer. “I have to fix this. I can’t go walking around like this.” Remus was still giggling, but he said: “I could help you. Braid it for you.” Sirius looked at him absolutely disbelievingly. “How would you know how to braid?” Remus was now grinning again. Of course, Sirius wouldn’t think he could braid. And honestly it isn’t of much use to himself, seeing as he has short hair, which you definitely can’t braid. “I do know how to braid.”, he tried to sound a bit offended. “Lily taught me. I have to admit it took me a bit to get the hang of it. But last week when I did her braid, it definitely looked better, than yours does right now. Well, if I’m honest that doesn’t say much, but Lily also said it looked good.” Now Sirius looked impressed. Because if Lily says something is good, then it must be. That is also the reason she never says anything remotely nice to Sirius. “Well, if you want to try… I mean it really can’t any worse.” Sirius starting walking towards him, but Remus stopped him. “It would probably be helpful, if you brought a hairbrush.” Sirius turned around again and vanished into the door way of the bathroom. A few seconds later he appeared again, this time holding a hairbrush in his hand. It was pink. Like the pinkest pink you can imagine. Remus really wondered where he had gotten that from. It's not like you can buy that in Diagon Alley. Then Remus let his eyes wander from Sirius’ hands over the rest of his body. He let it glide over his face briefly and admired his long legs. He really thought Sirius was very attractive. He shouldn’t think that, he knew that. Sirius was his best mate. And nothing more. And in general Remus wasn’t even supposed to find boys beautiful at all. Boys were not attractive, that is his usual mantra. He was supposed to look at girls the way he did at boys. He was supposed to be attracted by boobs. But he definitely wasn’t, he just couldn’t help it. What was he supposed to do? He let his eyes wander to Sirius face shortly, and it wasn’t even just his body. It was his whole being. All the little things. The way he walked over the earth and through the castle. And the way he smiles. Remus was brought out of his state of frankly embarrassing staring by Sirius clearing his throat. “Will this do?”, he asked while holding up the pink brush. “Err…” Remus really has to work on staying focused. “Yeah, it will. It’s fine.” With a shake of his head Remus tried to get the distracting thoughts out of his head. It did not work. “Err… You should sit in front of me on the floor or something, that way I’ll be able to reach your head and… err… stuff.” Remus was still half in thoughts. Sirius walked towards in with usual strutting manner and then sat down in front of him. He lent his back against Remus’ legs and after shifting around for what seemed like a minute, he was finally comfortable enough and handed Remus the hairbrush. After turning a bit to look at Remus he said: “Try your luck then.” Remus chuckled softly and said: “I don’t need luck.” When he realized what he was about to do he paused shortly. Was he really doing Sirius’ hair? He didn’t know exactly why, but it felt kind of intimate. And intimate with Sirius is dangerous, because there has to be a certain distance between them and because Remus didn’t know how to control his feelings. But he still started untangling Sirius’ hair. There were really thick knots in it. Sirius must have miserably failed at braiding. Really how does someone get so many knots in there. Nevertheless, his hair was soft and Remus liked running his fingers through it. At first he tried to be gentle, but after trying to loosen the knots as softly as possible for about a minute, he gave up. “I still don’t understand how you could have done this to your hair. I’m sorry but I’m going to have to brush a bit harder.” “Sirius shrugged and said: “That’s fine. Thanks for helping me, I guess. And I really don’t know how I messed up so badly. I just tried to like …braid, but apparently I’m no good at it.” Remus laughed at his: “No you’re really not.” After a few minutes and brushing out about a hundred knots, Remus loosened the last one and deemed this first part of his work finished. “I’m so glad I got all of these knots out- And lucky for you I actually am good at braiding. But you could ask Lily for advice on how to do it yourself, I’m sure she would love to help.” Sirius was not too sure about that. Not that he thought that Lily wasn’t nice, it was just that she didn’t like him. So, he just shrugged, again. But Remus saw that he wasn’t annoyed by him. Sirius just seemed relaxed to him and that is a sight to behold, because usually Sirius is like a little ball of energy. He shifted around a little more and then seemed even more relaxed and comfortable now. Remus said: “I’m going to start braiding then.” The other boy just hummed. It really seemed like kind of a miracle that he was sitting still for more than a minute. Even in class he couldn’t sit still, the professors probably hated him. Always wiggeling and sometimes juts standing up and stretching. Really Sirius definitely has too much self-confidence. Remus started carding his fingers through the thick hair, contemplating how exactly he was going to start. He said again: “I’m starting, then.” Now a low chuckle came from Sirius. “Are you? Starting I mean?” He voice was quite low. Remus did not respond. He should really start, but he had to collect his thought before doing that. How did braiding work again? He started braiding then. He took a little strand of hair from the front and started to work. He was actually enjoying the quit and somehow nice atmosphere when Sirius talked again. “You know? I think you could be like a professional hairstyler or something. It feels nice when you do that. I would pay money for that.” Remus answered: “O would you? I do think it is more about how it looks in the end, than about how it feels while doing it. Don’t you think?” Sirius didn’t answer and just hummed seemed to drift off again. Remus continued doing his work in silence and even enjoying it until he finished the first braid. “Do you have like a hair tie or something?” Sirius didn’t answer immediately and it seemed like he had been asleep. Remus asked just that. “Wait, did you fall asleep while I did your hair?” Sirius sat up a little straighter and seemed to ban the sleepiness out of his mind. “Well, what can I say? It was comfortable, I guess. And here is the hair tie.” Sirius extended his hand over his shoulder and handed Remus a little black elastic. “Very well”, said Remus. “You can go back to sleep then, I’m doing the second braid.” Sirius seemed to do just that. Settling back against Remus legs and relaxing. After a little while, and definitely faster than the first one Remus finished the second braid. Then he tapped Sirius on the shoulder. “I’m done. Second hair tie?” Sirius answered quicker and more awake this time. He gave Remus the hair tie and then said: “It’s perfect, thank you.” Remus just laughed. “How do you know if it’s perfect? You haven’t looked at it yet. You haven’t even felt it. I could have done whatever with your hair. And your just assuming it is perfect.” Sirius laughed with him and ran a hand over the braids. “Well, I’m quite sure it is actually perfect and I’ve even felt it now. And I have to say it also feels perfect.” “You should still go look in the mirror. I want to know if my work is actually acceptable.” Sirius walked over to the mirror next to his bed. And then he stood there staring at himself for a little while running his hands over his hair a few times. Remus watched him, while he was lost in thoughts. And a small smile spread over Sirius’ face, before he talked again. Remus just looked at him, watched as the smile developed in a full out grin and then relised, that he really does have feelings for Sirius Black. Because now looking at him in this moment felt so special and wonderful and he is in love. Remus felt his chest go warm and felt a smile on his own face. He felt how he always feels when he is with Sirius, just a little happier than without him. Then Sirius turned around and said: “It really is perfect.” And he said it with the biggest smile.