The Literal Cool Kids

The group had to make a quick pit stop in the lobby before going outside, Lily's parents had come to watch and were in the lobby to tell her how well she and Sirius did.

Lily had explained the situation and her parents said she could go.

Outside the arena, on the way to the cars, Remus and James had some questions. “Sirius, where were your parents?” Remus asked, Sirius shrugged “no idea, probably at home, actually, they might have been here to watch my cousin Bellatrix skate and then left before I went but it's no big deal” he explained. Remus nodded and looked at his feet as they walked.

“Your parents seem nice” James told Lily, they were walking slightly ahead of Sirius and Remus, “they can be a bit much sometimes but yeah” she said, “they've sort of been Sirius’s adoptive parents since his don't really care about him all that much”.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius could see the sympathetic face Remus gave him. “Yeah Lily can we not talk about that right now, let's talk about something else” Sirius wanted to change the subject really fast.

“So where is this fabled pizza place?” James asked, “it's not that great” Sirius said, “but it's just about a five minute walk that way” he finished and gestured towards the way out of the parking lot.

They paused their journey to let Sirius and Lily put their bags in their cars then walked in the general direction of the pizza place.

They walked in silence for a little while, the only sounds were the occasional cars going by. and the sounds of their feet crunching in the snow which was actually staying on the ground now instead of melting within minutes of it falling.

A few minutes later, Sirius, Lily, James, and Remus stepped into the almost deserted pizza place.

“It's really empty today” Lily commented as they were all stomping the snow off their shoes, “it's not exactly the time people usually have supper” Sirius responded.

An employee had heard them come in and appeared behind the counter. He was about their age, Sirius feels like he's seen this guy in the hallways at school before. Or maybe just in the pizza place and forgot about it.

Sirius and Lily lead the other two closer to the counter to order pizzas. “What would you like to order?” The boy asked, Sirius knew what he and Lily were used to but had no idea what James and Remus’s pizza preferences were.

“Give us a minute” Lily said before turning to face the rest of them, “yeah, no problem” the boy stayed within earshot and began to clean the counter surrounding the cash register.

“I’m getting just regular pepperoni, Lily, you're going with the usual I assume?” Sirius asked, she nodded, “alright so Canadian pizza” Sirius looked at James and Remus, “what about you guys”

Remus and James exchanged a glance, “we’ll have either or, doesn't really matter” James said.

They ended up ordering two medium pizzas, one Canadian, and one with pepperoni. After the pizza was ready they took a moment to decide where they were gonna eat it.

“I mean it's kinda cold out but we could go to the park, it wouldn't be so bad right?” Lily offered, “it snowed last night though so there's gonna be snow on all the benches and tables” Remus pointed out.

Sirius had put the pizza down on a table near the door because it was too hot to hold while they were standing in the store conversing.

“We could go to the pavilion in the park though, there's tables there and it doesn't snow in there” James said, the rest agreed and thanked the employee once again before walking out of the store and to the park.

Remus had offered to carry one of the boxes so Sirius let him take it while they were walking. Carrying the pizza came with the added benefit of keeping your hands nice and warm.

The park had a strange vibe once it got dark outside and the streetlights came on, the snow coated playground was deserted and every now and again a swing would creak in the wind.

There wasn't anybody in the pavilion, mostly because it wasn't the most glorious of buildings. It was basically just a big shed with a wall on the side that gets the most snow with some picnic tables inside.

It was enough for the four of them to have a nice, interruption-free supper.

Neither Sirius nor Lily had considered the fact that James and Remus had probably already eaten and wouldn't be up for eating much pizza but someone could always take the leftovers home and eat them later.

Remus and Sirius put the boxes down on the table and everyone chose a spot around the table. James and Lily sat next to each other and Sirius and Remus sat across from them.

As they opened the boxes, steam came out of them along with the wonderful smell of pizza, Sirius and Lily immediately took a slice each and dug in.

“What was that jump you did Sirius?” James asked, Sirius swallowed his food, “which one?” he said and he and Lily laughed.

Sirius had done multiple jumps during his solo as per the requirements, along with some in between steps that might be considered jumps to people who don't figure skate.

“The one you did right after the fall” James said, “that one's called an axel, you basically spin around one and a half times in the air” Sirius explained and did a sort of motion with his free hand to demonstrate spinning in the air.

“What happened to your spin, it was going really well” Sirius was genuinely curious. From where he saw it looked fine, but he could tell she stopped it early when there wasn't really a clear need for it.

Lily wiped some sauce off her face and said “oh yeah no I was getting up on my toe too much so I lost my balance and speed”, Sirius nodded while chewing.

Remus hadn't said anything the entire time but went in for his second slice.

I guess you do eat faster when you don't spend time talking

“Who was that girl with your parents?” James asked Lily, “my sister, Petunia” she said. “She didn't look very excited to be there, no offence” “yeah, she thinks skating is a waste of time, she does curling and holds a grudge against figure skating and hockey” Lily tried to explain it in brief.

“Do your families go to all of your games?” Lily asked, “definitely when we were younger because they had to drive us there, now that we can drive ourselves they don't come to every game but they still try to see a lot of them” James said.

“This might be a baseline question but how do you guys not fall over the toe picks?” Remus asked, Sirius grinned “I could ask you guys a similar question, how do you skate with a stick all the time?” he said.

“Its second nature!” James sounded defensive “it's the same for us, it's just always been that way” Sirius said.

They chatted for a while longer and until the pizzas were either gone or cold.

“Hey, I have a great idea” James started, Remus rolled his eyes “here we go” he said, James gave him half a death stare then continued. “Rem has a pond way out in his backyard cause he lives in the middle of nowhere, when it freezes maybe we can all go hang out and skate on it”

Remus looked James straight in the eyes “you know what, that's actually one of the better ideas you've had recently” he told him, “well I am a genius” James said and flipped his imaginary hair over his shoulder. “Don't get carried away, I’m still the brains of this duo” Remus said and everyone laughed.

Sirius copied James by flipping his hair just like James had pretended to, and pulled a sassy face. “See it actually works when he does it cause he has hair that's long enough to do it” Remus commented. Sirius smiled at him and ruffled his hair to make it feel normal again, Remus looked away very quickly after Sirius did that.

“Lily you have to try now cause you have hair for it too” Sirius said, she gave him a sideways glance but did it anyways. “I'm wearing a hat though so it doesn't work nearly as well” she said, they all laughed anyway “that's the price you pay for being warm” James said, “you're one to talk, you're also wearing a hat” she said.

James looked up, as if that would let him see the hat on his head. He took it off and tossed it a little ways away, “not anymore” he said with a smug smile, like he won this argument.

“Yeah except now your hat is gonna be soaked and cold” Lily gestured to the hat, discarded on the concrete floor beside the table.

James had failed to realise that there was a shallow puddle next to the picnic table due to the roof in that part of the pavilion leaking a little bit.

He sighed and stood up to retrieve the hat. James overexaggerated wringing out the hat, it hadn't been there long enough to truly be worth wringing out but it was funny anyway. He laid the hat next to him on the table instead of wearing it.

Now that the food was gone, Sirius started to get cold. The pavilion doesn't block much of the wind when it comes from the north, which it was.

He tried not to make it obvious, but even though he was wearing a winter coat and gloves, Sirius’s teeth began to chatter a little and his legs were shivering, which he tried to pass off as him just bouncing his leg.

Better these pants than jeans though

At this point Sirius could tell that he was only wearing a sweater with no t-shirt underneath. Nobody thinks t-shirts provide much warmth until they're wearing a sweater and coat in the cold without one.

Lily and James were having an animated conversation about funny things that had happened at school, with Remus chiming in every now and again.

As much as Sirius was trying to follow the conversation, he couldn't help but see Remus looking at him sometimes. It was also hard to pay attention to Lily and James because they had just discovered James also talks really fast when it's about something he's interested in, so it was really a useless effort to try and listen.

Remus scooted a little bit closer to Sirius and leaned to whisper in his ear. “Are you cold?” he asked, then sat back up straight again.

Without trying to think too much, Sirius just nodded. Lily and James were focused on each other so much it seemed like Sirius and Remus didn't even exist in their little conversation bubble.

Under the table, Sirius watched as Remus took off his winter gloves and gave them to Sirius, whose hands were resting on his knees under the table.

Sirius took them and while he was putting them on, asked about what Remus was gonna do cause his hands would get cold now.

Remus smiled and pulled a second pair of slightly thinner gloves out of his coat pocket and slipped them on, then turned to focus on the conversation again.

Sirius had put Remus’s warm gloves on overtop of his, which were just fabric. Remus had brought the sort of gloves you would wear while playing in the snow so they were nice and thick and in this case, warm from having already been worn for a while.

As soon as he felt that warm, Sirius wanted to feel that warm all over. If Remus’s hands were that warm, surely the rest of him is too and they could hug or cuddle and be warm all the time together.

The thought of laying on the couch with Remus, by a nice fireplace and watching some movie they both liked made Sirius want to melt into that scenario and never leave.

“Earth to Sirius, earth to Sirius” it was Lily and she was waving her hand around in front of his face.

He shook his head.

Was I daydreaming? What were they asking me? How long have I been sitting there not paying attention?

The questions raced through Sirius’s head before Lily said “are you ok”, he gave her a confused face and said “yeah? Why?” to which she, along with James and Remus burst out laughing.

“We just asked you if you wanted to take some pizza home and you said seven” James filled him in on the situation.

“Ok, in my defence, whenever I zone out in math class and someone asks me for the answer, I say seven and you know what it works more often than you’d think” he said, face turning more pink than it already was from the cold.

Lily and Remus ended up taking a few of the leftover pieces of pizza home. James picked up his hat from the table before they all began the short trek to the arena.

On their walk back to the arena parking lot, the conversations continued. Sirius would steal looks at Remus as often as he dared to see him in complete awe of the night sky with the limited amount of stars you can see in town due to the streetlights.

“Hey, Moony, get your head out of the stars and pay attention, important question, which team do you think is gonna win the Stanley Cup this year?” James asked.

Remus shifted his gaze towards James who was walking backwards to face him. “It's too far out to tell at this point” he said, “oh come on, you're no fun! Just take a guess” James asked again.

Remus sighed “fine, I don't know, uhh the Montreal Canadiens doesn't seem so bad this year so far” he answered. James seemed satisfied with that and turned back around to continue his point to Lily about the Stanley Cup.

Moony, I wonder what that's all about

Sirius wondered but dare not ask, just in case it was something other than a stupid nickname he got for accidently throwing a model version of the moon at a wall during class in grade four.

“Wait, you guys have nicknames, ok spill, what's yours James” Lily got excited. Sirius smiled, he knew that she loved nicknames for some reason. It may have been because they’re more fun and interesting than real names or because they have stories to them which are also very diverse.

“Alright fine but fair trade, you have to tell us your-” James said, Remus cut him off and sort of jumped to push down on James’s shoulder to intersect their conversation. “Prongs is his, cause he suggested taping multiple hockey sticks together so they’ll be a giant fork, so for that terrible idea we have dubbed him prongs, mostly cause it seemed funnier than ‘tines’ to a bunch of ten year olds”.

James pushed him off and gave him the sort of middle finger you give to your friends when they make you mad but you don't actually mean it.

“Hey, it's what you get for calling me Moony in public” Remus said, “Remus, at least it's not as bad as Sirius’s” Lily said.

The look on Remus’s face made Sirius both want to tell him but to also never see him again after doing so.

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the ground as they walked and said “it's Padfoot”.

James snorted a bit and Remus laughed quietly, “you're allowed to laugh” Sirius said and the four of them laughed together.

“Alright Padfoot, backstory” James demanded, “I don't know, there's not much to it, Lily came up with it I think, or maybe a coach?” Sirius started, the truth was it had been so long he forgot who thought of it.

“I was just really shy at skating when I was little so I barely made any noise when I skated and landed as gently as possible so I wouldn't damage the ice so they called me padfoot and I guess it stuck, at least between us” he said and pointed between himself and Lily.

James and Remus nodded. “Your turn, where’s Moony from?” Lily asked, “well Remus here is a bit crazy and loves to look at the stars and moon so that's just what we named him” James said.

By the time they had finished explaining everyone's nicknames, except Lily’s, they had made it back to the arena parking lot.

“I almost don't want to go home” Remus admitted, “what do you mean?” James asked, “it's warm and cozy there, just how you like it”

Remus looked around “I don't know, I like to hang out with you guys, that's all. It makes me notice the cold less too” he said.

“I would say we could all go to one of our houses and hang out longer but it's Sunday and I know I need the sleep, I don't know about you guys though” Lily said.

That sparked an idea in Sirius’s head of going to Remus’s house and hanging out with just him and how awesome that would be, but his mom wouldn't allow it and he should try to be at school on time one of these days.

“Hey, better idea, my parents are going out of town next weekend so then maybe you guys could all come over and hang out, maybe have a sleepover or something, if kids our age still do sleepovers” James suggested.

“That sounds like a fun idea, sure, why not” Sirius agreed, Lily looked at him in shock but said nothing. “Alright great, we can work out the details over text then, see you guys later!” James said and waved as he parted from the group to find Remus’s car in the parking lot.

Sirius was fiddling with the edge of his coat when he remembered he had Remus’s gloves on.

As Remus was awkwardly saying his goodbyes and turning to leave, Sirius took the gloves off and held them up so Remus could clearly see them.

Remus shifted the weight of the pizza box into one hand so he could take back his gloves in the other, “thanks” they said at the same time, proceeded by shy smiles and flushed cheeks, at least on Sirius’s end.

Remus quickly turned and followed the path James took to his car.

Sirius turned back to Lily who had one raised eyebrow, “you'd almost think he likes you Pads” she said.

“Really? Cause I’m sure he would have given you or James the gloves if you guys were cold, I don't think it's that deep” words just started rushing out of him in excitement.

Sirius stopped as Lily giggled slightly, “I guess we’ll have to wait and see”

They walked to Lily’s car together so Sirius could take his skating shirt out of the dress bag and place it nicely on the backseat of his car.

Lily pulled out of the parking lot first and Sirius followed her until the intersection where they had to go in opposite directions to get to their respective houses.