Monday

Sirius had expected today to be an extraordinarily slow day, as in most Mondays. People went back to their routines on Mondays, wanting to get home as soon as they could, not worrying about buying books, which Sirius guessed made sense. He was shocked to find himself wrong, as most of the day, the shop was filled with people, mostly teenagers, searching for that damn specific book; Jana Hughes and the Crystal Sword. Righ. Sirius had almost forgotten. When the second book of the Jana Hughes saga came out, it sold out in less than two days. The most stressful two days ever, having to stand angry Karens and disappointed teens when they found out that he had just sold their last copy. They only got their second shipment a week later, which was another wave of hell.

But the thing was, they hadn’t got the damn book yet. It had been out for 36 hours and yet Sirius had no idea when they were going to get the damn book. So, his usual quiet Monday shift turned into him telling every single expectant customer that they did not in fact, have the Jana Hughes book for sale. Most of them just turned around and left, disappointed. The black haired tried not to think twice about it, he hated leaving his customers sad, but it was part of the job.

Twenty minutes before closing, when it was too late for every sane parent to go in search of the long awaited book, a man came into the shop, making Sirius’ stomach drop as soon as he looked up from his Candy Crush game. He was tall, his light brunette hair looking as if it needed to be desperately combed. He was wearing a big striped crocheted sweater, with different tones of red in every stripe, and brown baggy pants that seemed to be overworn. He looked tired, small dark bags under his eyes, but he still looked young, maybe Sirius’ age. At least he hoped so.

“Hi?” Oh gosh, he hadn’t noticed the pretty stranger -with the pretty voice- talking to him. He sat straight (oh the irony) and blinked.

“Hi! I’m Sirius, what were you looking for?”

“Uh, hi, Sirius,” he tried not to think too much about the way the name rolled out of the brunette’s tongue, “I was looking for the new Jana Hughes book? The, uh, Crystal Blade? Or the Crystal Sword, depending on the translation you guys have.” Oh? Sirius thought to himself. Yes, the Jana Hughes books weren’t inherently a teens or kids book, but he still was the first adult to go ask for one in the whole day. Even when the second book came out, most of the buyers looked around thirteen to seventeen years old. Maybe it was for a friend or something, though. Stop being fucking weird and answer him.

“Oh, you are like the hundredth person I will have to disappoint today. We haven’t got in the shipment and I’m pretty sure James- I mean, my manager doesn’t have any idea when we are getting it either.” The stranger’s lips curved down in a show of disappointment.

“‘Kay then. You guys open tomorrow?” He asked.

“Yup. Everyday except for Thursdays” Sirius nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright. Thank you, Sirius!” And just like that, the brunette left the room, leaving the librarian kind of breathless. Did that mean he was coming back tomorrow? God he hoped so.

Tuesday

“And so I have been wanting to ask this girl in my hockey team for like, months, but she has talked to me about her ex and we seem like very different people so I’m not sure if I’m her type. I guess she’s her ex, so maybe I shouldn’t…. Sirius? Earth to Sirius?” Sirius looked up at Marlene at the mention of his name. “Are you even listening?” Sirius was, in fact, not listening. The pretty ass brunette from the previous day was back in the shop. He was wearing the same pants, and until he didn’t look a little bit closer, he confused the burgundy sweater he was wearing with the one he was wearing on Monday. His hair was way better combed now, and he didn’t look that tired. 

“No, Marls, sorry, I’m not listening to you. I haven’t eaten anything in the whole day. Mind if I take my break?” Marlene looked annoyed at him.

“We are literally full. Between the Tuesday Discount and the goddamned teens looking for that Jana Hughes book…” Sirius did what he did best, and pulled his famous puppy eyes. “Fine. Abandon me at your will. You are not being very useful right now either.” He grinned widely and he kissed his friend’s head, before grabbing his sandwich and heading to the bench outside the shop to eat it.

“Hey” The black eyed man almost spit his whole sandwich when he realized that the pretty stranger was the one weighing on the bench beside him. “Sirius, right? The guy from yesterday?” He made his best effort to swallow his food as fast as he could to answer.

“Yes! It’s me. What brings you here again?” Sirius asked, before feeling very stupid. Of course, it was the Jana Hughes book.

“The Jana Hughes book. I’m on my break right now so I wanted to check if it had shipped yet, which I already noticed it did not.” There was a hint of disappointment in the guy’s voice, and Sirius knew that the gesture shouldn’t have seemed so adorable, but it did anyway.

“You were in the shop for a good ten minutes. Why didn’t you come and ask me?”

“You were talking to your friend so I didn’t want to like, barge in.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. We just started talking because nobody came to ask us anything, but that’s literally what we are there for.”

“Maybe people would go ask you questions if you guys weren’t talking,” the stranger said, the grin wearing in his face and in his voice. Sirius chuckled slightly.

“Well, tell that to Marlene. I don’t know why they brought her in for the Tuesday shift. Monday’s are so much slower, I could do her company better.”

“Maybe two workers on a busy day are better than one? I don’t know, I work as a secretary to a fucking asshole, making all of my days busy, so maybe I’m not the one to talk.” He shrugged, pulled his own sandwich out of his bag, and started eating it in silence. Sirius guessed it was appropriate to do the same. “I’m Remus, by the way.” The stranger- Remus, stood up, shook the bread crumbles out of his pants and made his way back to work for his asshole boss wherever that was. Sirius spent the rest of his shift disappointing Jana Hughes readers and yelling at Marlene to stop teasing him about the guy on the bench.

Wednesday

Wednesdays were a freaking hell. The day was not really busy, but busy enough that there was a second worker in the shop, not to busy so that he could play Subway Surfers when stupid Barty wasn’t watching and threatening to snitch, but busy enough that he couln’t finish a game before being interrupted. And also, Barty Crouch, sucked. 

Maybe he didn’t inherently suck. But he had been friends with Regulus in his worst years, so…yes, he did inherently suck. Wednesdays shifts also sucked because Barty Crouch was a living and walking reminder of his brother. His dead brother, and all of the stupid shit Sirius didn’t do to stop it. He loved and trusted James, but not enough to ask him to please fire Barty. He also couldn’t quit the Wednesday shift himself because he needed the money. Thankfully, he always had the whole Thursday to recompose himself, and a full week before he had to see Barty again.

What brightened up his day, was noticing a pair of very familiar pants walking inside the store around lunch time. He immediately recomposed himself, got his body in a posture that wasn’t going to destroy his back before he turned thirty, and there he was. Remus, in all of his glory, wearing a dark blue sweater. He looked around in the store before noticing Sirius and directing himself to the register.

“Hi. I know you know what I’m going to ask, and I don’t mean to seem desperate, but…”

“We don’t have the Jana Hughes book, I’m sorry.” Sirius said sadly. Remus nodded, and started walking towards the door. “Wait!” Sirius said, immediately regretting it, but he had Remus’ attention already, so he at least was going to try. “Going to have your lunch?” Remus nodded. “I’ll join you” Just gimme a sec!” Surprisingly, Remus smiled. It was a shy smile, but a smile nonetheless. The black haired man ran to get his lunch and tell Barty he was going to take his break, leaving fast enough that the bastard wouldn’t be able to complain.

He sat on the bench next to Remus, still catching his breath a little. He accidentally sat too close, and before he pulled away, he noticed some thin silver lines along Remus’ face, closer to his neck. His brain was met with a wave of i’d like to trace them with my fingers, before his common sense returned, just hoping that whatever they were, they didn’t cause Remus any pain.

“You know, there are other bookstores in Britain that could possibly sell the Jana Hughes book.” Sirius said, jokingly, but wasn’t met with the same enthusiasm from the other man’s part.

“I know, but between work, and then rehersal, and the fact that I don’t own a car, and the fact that my legs are fucking assholes even to stand on a train for too long, and cabs are expensive, and all that shit, it’s really just the most practical thing to come here when Fenrir gives me a break.” He looked and sounded so exhausted, and Sirius felt bad for even bringing it up. “I guess I’ll just have to find a PDF online. Which I guess it’s fine but my copies of the first two books are completely annotated, you know? Mallory Pines is truly, a fantastic writer. It’s a fiction book about a bunch of gay pirates, but she still manages to blow your mind in some quotes, it’s amazing.” What was amazing, Sirius though, was how Remus’ face lit up when he spoke about something that he was clearly invested in. Suddenly, his face dropped slightly.. “Oh shit, I probably shouldn’t mention pirating books in front of someone who sells them, right?” Sirius chuckled, louder than he had wanted to, but he was glad when Remus met him, laughing quietly as well.

“I just get paid to stand here, print receipts and straight bait people when I recommend books.” Had he just said that? Well, Remus had just talked about the ‘bunch of gay pirates’, so maybe… “I guess they don’t pay me to straight bait. It’s just a non-paid, amateur hobby. Although I can only think about one single straight staff member, so maybe it’s for everyone’s best interest.” Remus was full on laughing now. Sirius always hated how the way he spoke about stuff made people laugh, but it wasn’t his fault that his parents distorsioned what ‘act in a refined way” meant. So for years he always got himself trapped in thinking that nobody actually thought he was funny, he just spoke funny. It didn’t matter now. If hearing Remus’ warm laughter implied having to speak the most exaggerated French he could, right here, right now, he would do it.

“Well, I think that being an amature straight baiter bookstore worker is a fine thing to aspire for.” He shook his head, still smiling.

“And what are you an amateur on?” The long haired man said, trying not to sound too desperate to learn even the slightest bit about Remus’ life.

“Bass, and sometimes drums. Although I had my first paid presentation like a week ago, so maybe not so ‘amature’”

“That’s so cool!” Srius said.

“It would be cooler if I could make it my living, though. Did I mention to you that my boss is an asshole?”

“Only like three times,” they both laughed, and Sirius could swear he saw Remus blush. “Nah, don’t worry, it’s fine. I had an asshole boss too a few years ago, before my roommate James hired me here. Who knows? Maybe I can get Crouch fired and ask him to hire you!” He was obviously joking -maybe not so obviously-, but the idea of working with Remus almost the whole day almost the whole week made his heart beat faster.

“As pleasing as that sounds, my job as a secretary is going to help me get some experience to…” Remus’ expression changed, as he focused his eyes back at the bookstore. ”I think they are calling you back?” Sirius turned around. The bookstore was almost empty at this point, and Crouch didn’t have a history of caring about the ‘do not eat lunch in the register’ policy, so hell to it. James would understand. He made some of the signs he and his coworker had been using for years, until he got tired of discussing, showed him the finger and went back to talk to Remus.

“I solved it. What about you? Shouldn’t you go back to work?” Sirius asked, childishly hoping not.

“I already called and told them that I think I might have gotten food poisoning while you were playing extortionist with your hands. Fenrir can go a day without me.” They smiled. 

The rest of the afternoon, they spent talking about everything. The black haired didn’t even have the time to feel guilty- not that he should have, because the bookstore was literally empty for the rest of the shift. Sirius learnt where exactly Remus worked, which lit up a light in his head. 

After he was left alone to close he put himself to work.

When he got home about five hours later, Sirius couldn’t understand why he was so proud of himself. He managed to get to a bookstore thirty minutes away, right before they closed, and get their last copy of Jana Hughes and the Crystal Sword. 

Before wrapping it up in wrapping paper, he decided to get a little bit creative with the bookmark…

Thursday

Every day that went on, Remus regretted even accepting the job. Sure, it was good money, and sure, he needed the experience to work in the recording place, and sure, if everything went according to plan, Moonage Dream could possibly have their first song recorded in five years, but still.  Working with Fenrir was exasperating. He had him walking around carrying useless papers that needed to be thrown away anyway, making his hips hurt and his brain itch for hours a day. The only thing that had kept him going the past three days was the unreasonably hot guy from the bookstore two blocks away, Sirius. That bastard didn’t have the right to make him laugh so much, he wasn’t even that funny! Once he realized he had run basically breathless at one of his dumb jokes the previous day, he understood that he was falling in love and couldn’t be saved.

 But, as Lily had said, was it really that bad? Of course it was. Remus had a reputation to maintain and falling in love with a guy who worked at a bookstore and thinking he looked cute in his stupid work apron was going to ruin it.

Without realizing it, Remus spent four and a half hours wishing it to be lunch time, only to realize, the moment he got to the exit, that the bookstore was closed on Thursdays. Great. 

He was grabbing his head in one of his dramatic desperation moments, about to get upstaires to the dumb break room, when Dorcas run into him, already in her hockey uniform.

“Remus! Here you are! I’ve been looking for you in your office!” She said, cheerful as always.

“Yeah well, Fenrir has me running back and forth all day, so I haven’t been in my office since pretty much nine a.m. What 's up? Why were you looking for me?” He asked curiously.

“This guy came in at like ten, he had black hair, and dark eyes… Oh! He said his name was Sirius!” Remus eyebrow’s shot very high into his forehead while his stomach sank, and he tried to recompense himself as fast as he could. “He left a package for you, it’s in my office. Could you get it? I’m running late to hockey practice and the date with the pretty blond girl isn’t gonna ask itself!” Remus smiled politely, something he didn’t do often, except in Dorcas’ presence, and contained his excitement as he walked to Dorcas’ office.

He almost screamed when he saw the suspiciously rectangle shaped gift, wrapped in pirate hat printed wrapping paper, with his name in a very neat handwriting.

 He definitely screamed a bit when he opened it, only to find nothing more and nothing less than Jana Hughes and The Crystal sword inside it. 

He excitedly opened the book, and he noticed a paper falling from inside it. He grabbed it, and realized it was the bookmark, but it had something behind…

In the same neat handwriting, it wrote; I was kinda getting tired of seeing you walk out of the store disappointed, so I drove a bit and got you this. I thought maybe you can tell me about it when you finished it? Or maybe we could just go out for the sole reason that you are fun as hell to be around or something idk ;)

~amateur straight baiter

It didn’t take Remus a minute to call the number under the sign. The book could wait.