Laundry Baskets
When Sirius woke up again it was to the sound of dishes being stacked and moved. Before he even properly opened his eyes, he knew something was off.
His left side was cold, the side Remus had been on. Sirius opened his eyes and looked at the state of the blanket which had been neatly wrapped around him to hide any evidence that Remus was even there.
Was that just a dream?
“Hey sleepyhead, come help us make breakfast” Lily called from the kitchen, she was washing the plates from last night.
Remus was nowhere to be found, and James was looking around in the cupboard for bread toppings. Sirius ran a hand through his messy hair and untangled himself from the blanket, still mildly confused and dazed from sleep.
He wanted to ask where Remus was, and if what he thought happened, actually happened, but James occupied him by making him be the middle person in his chain of getting stuff on the table. James stood by the cupboard and grabbed various items, Sirius took them and placed them on the table.
The table had already been set with plates, forks and knives, along with glasses at every chair.
“If you guys want anything else just let me know and we can sort it out” James said. “Perfect timing!” Lily said as the three of them were settling into their spots, Remus came out from wherever he was and joined them at the table.
“Did you guys wake him up just so he could help you set the table?” Remus asked, Sirius could tell that Remus hadn’t been awake for long either, he still had morning voice.
“Yeah, it's not like you were helping us from the bathroom were you?” James responded, “hey if you gotta go, you gotta go” Remus said, grabbing a loaf of bread. “If it makes you feel any better Remus, Sirius got up on his own” Lily assured.
Sirius took in the image of Remus in this state, still shaking the sleep off, messier and floppier hair than usual and overall, more cute than Sirius could imagine a hockey player being.
James had stood up and came back to the table with a bowl and box of cereal in hand, “forgot to bring out cereal” he said.
Breakfast went pretty well, besides the fact that Sirius knocked over James’s glass of orange juice while he was trying to reach for the peanut butter. Thankfully, there was only about two sips of juice left in the glass.
Sirius wanted to bring up last night, he wanted to ask about what happened after he fell asleep but didn't want to make it obvious.
Just slip it into conversation as normally as possible.
Lily helped him out without even knowing it. “So what was the last movie we watched?” she asked, Remus swallowed a mouthful of his sandwich, “I think it was the one where the guy did-” “Remus you fell asleep almost as soon as it started, how would you even know?” James interrupted.
James stood up, mouth still full, and strode over to the living room, took the DVD out of the player and matched it to the correct case then brought the case over so everyone could see what movie it was.
“Honestly I don't think any of us lasted for more than half the movie” Lily pointed out, “I know I stayed awake for about half of it but then sleep got the better of me” Sirius explained, “yeah, we know” James said.
Sirius panicked but stayed quiet and did his best to not show it.
What's that supposed to mean? Do I snore? I don't think I sleep talk.
For a moment nobody said anything.
Lily and Sirius exchanged glances.
She knows.
“What? You dropped the bowl of chips as soon as you lost consciousness” James said, they laughed and the tension around the table dissipated.
“Did you go eat the chips after?” Sirius asked, “I don't know how I could have, there weren't any left, it was the bowl that made the sound when it hit the floor, that's how I knew” James explained.
“At least it was plastic so it didn't break, otherwise everyone would have woken up” Sirius commented, “even then it shouldn't have broken, we covered almost every surface with blankets and sleeping bags” Remus said.
They talked a little while longer about random stuff that they remember about the movies and tried to piece together parts of the plots.
After everyone had eaten enough, they all helped to clean the table, Sirius ended up doing the dishes, James and Lily put away all of the breakfast food, and Remus brought all the dishes to the sink.
As Sirius was washing the first few plates, Remus would come up next to him with the next set of plates and cutlery and slide them into the sink. It was the most inefficient way of doing it but Sirius didn't mind.
James noticed though, “hey Rem, if you keep taking everything one by one, this is going to take all day!” he was exaggerating and Remus responded equally as sarcastic “actually I’m taking three things per trip thank you very much.”
Lily and Sirius giggled, Remus titled his head like he had won and put another plate into the sink without looking. His hand touched Sirius’s hand.
While his hand was still in the sink with Sirius’s hand, James kept going. “That's like cleaning up the ice by taking one pylon and two pucks every time and calling it efficient”, “to be fair James, it is faster than only picking up one pylon” Lily said.
By this point Sirius looked over his shoulder so he could face the group. “Why is nobody on my side!” James exclaimed and threw his arms out to emphasize this great injustice.
“I mean technically I’m on your side” Lily said, “how? You just argued against me” he questioned. Every productive action had stopped in the kitchen to settle this debate.
“I’m on your side of the kitchen,” she answered with a snarky smile and gestured at the floor. “See, we’re on this side and they're on that side” she motioned to Sirius and Remus by the sink.
Remus’s hand brushed by Sirius’s in the water again. This time for longer.
Sirius kept his hand where it was and Remus snaked his pinky finger around Sirius’s, both of which had calluses from tying skates.
“Ok fine, technically we’re on the same side and they’re on the same side, but morally you're all taking Remus’s side” James argued.
“This proves that I’m better, or at least my ideas are better” Remus said, “what were we even arguing about? I forgot” Sirius asked.
“Ok Sirius you can't take anyone's side cause you don't even know what we’re talking about” James decided. “At least he was still being productive so he has a reason to have not come into the conversation until halfway” Lily defended.
“You know, if nobody had questioned what I was doing, we could have been done cleaning up by now” Remus remarked.
There was a pause, Sirius and Remus were still holding pinky fingers and dared not to move for fear of giving that away to Lily and James.
“Alright I give up, let's just get this done so we can hang out in the living room some more” James said and went back to the table to grab the wide array of bread and cereal.
Lily turned to the cupboard and opened it again, ready to put the bread and cereal in there.
Remus briefly grabbed the rest of Sirius’s hand before letting it go and taking his hand out of the water while James and Lily weren't paying attention.
Sirius fished the rag out of the dishwater to continue washing the remaining plates.
He saw Remus inconspicuously dry his hand using the hand towel lying haphazardly on the countertop and threw it back so it would look like he hadn't used it.
The events that unrolled had just begun to register in Sirius’s head.
Mostly one question.
Why?
If there was a conversation going on between the other three, Sirius didn't hear it. He was swimming in his own thoughts while doing the dishes that Remus continued to bring him.
Does he know? Was he awake? This is a good sign though right? Why else would someone hold your hand sneakily under the bubbles of dishwater? I mean it was only for a second but it still counts. He's equally more shy and more bold than I thought would be possible.
Nothing else happened while they were cleaning the kitchen, which was done relatively quickly after that.
Sirius dried his hands and ran from the kitchen to jump onto the couch.
“Now that is the right idea!” James said and ran after him. James landed half on top of Sirius on the couch.
“Incoming!” Remus called from the kitchen, followed by the sound of footsteps and the impact of another body landing on the couch, half on top of James, “jeez you're heavy” he joked, “hey at least I’m over six foot” Remus joked back.
“Lily, you've gotta do it too!” Sirius told her from the end of the couch, she shrugged “alright fine.”
She ran and jumped, and just as the two boys before her, landed half on top of whoever was underneath, which just so happened to be Remus.
They stayed laughing in a pile on the couch for a couple minutes.
“Alright all of you are heavy combined and my legs are starting to hurt now so get off” Sirius complained, “no I don't think so” James said and wrapped his arms around Sirius’s torso.
Sirius tried to pry James’s arms off him and slide out from underneath everyone, James had a tight grip though.
The spectacle made Lily and Remus start laughing.
“I don't want to leave you!” James faked whining and squished his head into Sirius’s side even more. “James now you're starting to sound like Moo-” Lily got interrupted by Remus gently throwing her off of him.
She landed safely on the couch and let out a gasp of surprise at the event.
This distracted James for a moment, such that his grip loosened enough for Sirius to take the opportunity to get himself free from James’s grasp and off the couch.
Now James and Remus were the only ones left in the pile on the couch, Sirius was sitting on the ground next to the couch, and Lily was laying with her head on the opposite arm rest of the couch.
“Hey Sirius, no fair!” James exclaimed, Sirius raised his arms in surrender, “it wasn't me that made you turn your attention to Lily” he said.
“So this was a group effort,” James said, looking at Remus and then over Remus’s shoulder at Lily. Remus said nothing, Lily also raised her hands, “I didn't know Remus was going to throw me off him like that” she explained.
James said nothing but stared at Remus until the silence and intensity of the eye contact made him speak, “we’re on the same side remember?”
James stayed quiet but Sirius swore he could hear the gears turning in James’s head as the pieces clicked together.
“What? So this is an always thing now? You and Sirius against me and Lily?” he asked, “not unless you want it to be” Sirius said, which made everyone laugh.
“It was a coincidence, Sirius wanting to escape happened at the same time I thought it would be funny to toss Lily halfway across the couch” Remus explained.
Lily opened her mouth as if to argue, said nothing, then closed it again.
“Alright, you are ok though right?” James asked over Remus’s shoulder at Lily, she nodded.
Remus got off of James and Sirius got back on the couch, they sat in a more normal arrangement this time.
“So now what?” Lily asked, “good question,” everyone stayed quiet while thinking of activities.
A few ideas got bounced around, two truths and a lie, pillow fight, truth or dare, snowball fight, video games, board games, tag, sardines, uno.
They settled on hide and seek.
“Hold on, before everyone goes running off to hide, ground rules” James said, “never expected you to be the one to care for rules James” Remus commented, James rolled his eyes at him.
“Just don't go in the garage, outside, or in my parents room ok? Everything else is fair game” he said, everyone else nodded.
“Who's going first?” Lily asked, a big mistake because the boys made the shortest amount of eye contact possible before each of them kneeled while touching their nose and saying “not it!”
Lily crossed her arms “you guys are like children, but alright, I’ll seek first,” she agreed, the boys got off the ground and back on the couch. Sirius was rubbing his knee “even when the floor is covered in sleeping bags, it's still hard to land on,” he said, “it doesn't help that you went down knee first” Lily laughed, the rest joined in.
They discussed how long they would have to hide and if whoever was caught first or last would be the next seeker.
After spending way too much time debating the nitpicky rules, Lily turned to face the corner of the couch and had covered her eyes, “one, two, three, four..” she began counting, James, Sirius, and Remus shot off the couch and ran to various parts of the house.
Sirius watched James run up the stairs, even double stepping them to get up faster. Sirius and Remus ended up running off in the same direction towards the part of the house where the bathroom was.
Past the bathroom, Sirius discovered the laundry room, where the door cracked open, so he went in and left it open the exact same amount as he had found it.
Remus walked farther down the hall as Sirius went into the laundry room.
Sirius turned on the light to scope out possible hiding spots and settled on a laundry basket on the floor.
He tried to curl up on the floor and put the basket overtop of himself, forgetting he isnt 6 anymore, that didn't work.
In the distance Sirius could hear Lily counting, “thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine...”
Shit
Now frantic but still sticking with this room, Sirius looked around the room again for somewhere else to hide.
He could hear footsteps coming towards him in the hallway.
What? There's no way she could have gotten from 35 to 60 that fast
The door creaked open a bit more behind him and the footsteps stopped, “fifty-one, fifty-two...”
It was Remus, but there was no more time to think, they both had to hide.
Remus pointed at the door and closed it the same way it was then tucked himself as close to the wall and the hinges of the door as possible.
Sirius nodded, turned the light off, like how he found the room, then went to the other side of the room.
He sat on the floor against the wall and flipped over a plastic laundry hamper to hide under.
“Ready or not, here I come!” Lily called from the living room.
The hamper has aesthetic holes on two sides but it has to do. Sirius just made sure the part you can't see through was facing the door so he wouldn't be as easy to spot.
A few minutes go by, Sirius and Remus both staying silent, not moving at all.
Sirius had no proof of Remus not moving but considering there was not a single sound produced in the entire laundry room, it was a pretty safe bet that Remus was staying still, unless he's some sort of ninja.
By this point, Lily had checked most of the living room and kitchen, as Sirius could hear her going up the stairs and talking to herself occasionally about where she figured out the boys aren't.
Sirius was thankful that this game made it so that they had to stay quiet to win because he wasn't sure what he would talk to Remus about now that they're alone, especially considering the fact that he's in an upside down laundry hamper at the moment. At least the lights are off.
The floor creaked upstairs, but that and the sound of his own breathing were the only things Sirius could hear.
Another few minutes go by in near silence. The floor creaked above them a couple more times but had since also gone quiet.
Maybe she's being very thorough upstairs Sirius thought.
How long has it been? How many hiding spots could there possibly be upstairs? James’s room, a bathroom, maybe some kind of linen closet, and James’s parents room where we aren't supposed to be, it can't take that long right? I didn't hear Lily come down yet so she must still be looking, either that or she's been really sneaky on her way downstairs and hoping we’ll give away our spot.
“Sirius” Remus whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear. Sirius stayed quiet. “Sirius,” he whispered again.
His voice is quite something when he whispers, I could listen to it for days.
Remus didn't say his name again this time so Sirius responded, “yeah?”
“How much do you wanna bet she already found James and they're just hanging out now without us?” Remus asked.
“That would make sense” Sirius reasoned, “James’s first hiding place is almost always under his bed whenever we played hide and seek, he probably hid there and Lily seems like a smart person who would find that out pretty quick” Remus said.
Sirius nodded, then remembered Remus can't see him in the dark and through plastic. “Yeah, I used to hide under beds when we were little and played, she always found me pretty quick”.
Does she know I’m hiding in the same room as Remus and wants us to talk or something?
“It's been almost fifteen minutes” Remus stated, how he knew that? Sirius has no idea but his back and knees and butt and the rest of his body is telling him it has definitely been longer than he would like to have been sitting the way he is.
Humans were not built to sit curled up in tight spaces.
“Maybe she forgot about us and is just fully focused on talking to James” Remus said, “maybe she's tiptoed down here and is waiting for us to start talking and then she won't have to spend as much time looking for us” Sirius said.
“Yeah, or-” the floor creaked again, making Remus stop mid sentence.
Now two sets of feet were walking down the stairs.
She caught James.
“I already checked the kitchen and living room, so you go check the entryway and I’ll look down this hallway, if we don't find them there, we’ll tackle the basement together” Lily explained and footsteps started getting louder.
Lily walked into the bathroom, then out and past the laundry room.
Just when Sirius thought they were safe, Lily came back and opened the door all the way, flooding the room with light from the hallway.
Sirius could see the light on either side of him, then it disappeared, the door began to creak closed again, but it stopped.
By the sound of it, Lily was sliding on her socks into the room, in one motion she lifted the laundry hamper off Sirius and said “gotcha!”
Sirius blinked to adjust to the light, “about time” he muttered. Lily put the hamper down, right side up and offered Sirius a hand, he took it and got up.
“Now we just have to find Remus,” Lily said, leading Sirius out of the laundry room. Remus put his finger to his lips to tell Sirius to not help Lily find him, Sirius nodded on his way out.
James met up with them in the hallway, “hey you found Sirius, no sign of Moony in the entryway though” he reported.
James turned to Sirius, all dramatic, “do you know where Remus is hiding?” he asked, “nope, no idea” Sirius answered as normal as possible.
“Yeah right, you guys were probably hiding together and you're just not telling” James said, he came up super close to see if Sirius was telling the truth then walked in the direction of the basement.
The trio searched downstairs for a little bit before coming upstairs again.
“Ok this is getting boring, let's do something else” James suggested, Lily and Sirius shrugged at each other.
“Remus, you can come out now, you won” James called and Remus came out of the laundry room.
“I told you they hid together!” James said, “yeah but he wasn't also in the laundry hamper, they were just in the same room” Lily pointed out, James flicked his hand “technicalities” he said.
“Where did you hide then?” Lily asked Remus, “behind the door” he said and led them all back to the laundry room to look at where he had been standing for the entire game.
“Lets not do that again” James said after they had regrouped on the couch in the living room. “Are you that sore of a loser?” Lily asked, “no, but it's not exactly fun when you get found in the first five minutes and it takes twenty to find the rest” he said.
“Hey it wasn't our fault you guys were hanging out by yourselves for like fifteen minutes without even looking for us” Sirius brought up.
“We were sort of hoping you guys would come out, thinking I forgot to find you, or at least that you guys would start making noise so it would be easier” Lily explained.
“Well then you have no idea how competitive me and Padfoot are” Remus said, “I mean come on, his nickname is basically ‘quiet’, can't get much better at hide and seek than that.”
They gave up arguing about hide and seek, James turned on the tv and they all watched whatever show was on.
Nobody was really paying much attention, they were just talking over it, but it did make for good background noise when the conversation died or there was an awkward silence.
After lunch, Sirius and Lily helped to put the living room back together, exactly as they found it, then left.
James and Remus waved at them through the window in the front door as Sirius drove away, Lily in the passenger seat.
I have to ask her, I need to know.
Sirius took a deep breath.
“Did me and Remus cuddle last night?”