Power Outage Shenanigans
Sirius woke up and craned his neck to look at the digital clock on Remus’s nightstand.
Still no power, guess Lily’s dad was right
Seeing as he had nothing better to do, Sirius snuggled back into Remus.
A couple minutes later, Remus’s body was moving. Sirius opened his eyes and watched Remus flip over to face him. “Morning” Remus said, eyes only half open.
Sirius smiled “morning, we still have no power” he said, Remus kissed him then backed up again. “I wonder if my parents are gonna be able to come home or not then” he said.
Sirius rolled over to try and see out of the window, but the blinds were drawn so he couldn't see anything.
They got up and Remus opened the blinds, “it sure did snow last night, look” he commented. Sirius walked over to the window and saw what Remus meant.
It had snowed more than it usually does in December. “It doesn't usually snow like that until at least January” Sirius said, “yeah but January is about a week away so it's not completely unbelievable” Remus said, walking away from the window to find a shirt.
Sirius also started looking for a shirt, not being able to find one of his own fast enough, Remus threw one at him. He barely caught it and looked at it, “what? You look good in my clothes, and I know you like them anyway” Remus said, “are we gonna eat or not c’mon”. Sirius put the shirt on and together they made their way downstairs. “At least we don't need power to make breakfast” Remus said, taking bowls out of the cupboard.
They ate some leftover cake and cereal for breakfast. “We can't wash dishes though cause we don't have water if we don't have power” Remus explained. “At least we can see without flashlights though” Sirius said, looking around the kitchen.
Sirius’s eyes came to rest on Remus, “your hair is something else this morning Rem” he said, “mine? Have you looked in a mirror recently?” Remus asked and gestured at Sirius’s hair.
They laughed, Remus checked his reflection in the microwave door and Sirius opted for the bathroom mirror.
At the same time as seeing just how messy his hair was, Sirius could also see the hickey on his neck.
He walked back into the kitchen, Remus standing with their empty cereal bowls above the sink.
“Hey nice job loser, I’m gonna have to wear turtlenecks for weeks now” Sirius complained, “so am I, don't blame me, you started it” Remus responded.
“I’m joking, it was great, it's gonna be harder to keep a secret now though” Sirius said, “at least it's winter so turtlenecks are more acceptable” Remus said, Sirius laughed.
---
In the living room, Remus grabbed his almost dead phone and went through some messages. “My dad said I can turn the generator on if the power’s out for more than a couple hours, it would be good for the generator to get some use too” Remus relayed the message.
Sirius took it upon himself to check the power outage maps and times, “yeah it says the power won't be back until the afternoon at the earliest, snow plows have to get through before the electricity people can go out and fix it” Sirius said, showing the screen to Remus.
“Alright, lets get that generator going then” Remus decided, he stood up and offered a hand to Sirius, he took it and Remus pulled him up.
They went to the front door and put on all their snow gear, Sirius borrowing an old pair of Remus’s snow pants as he didn’t bring his own.
Remus gave Sirius a double thumbs up through his massive mittens and Sirius nodded. Remus had taken a keychain with lots of keys on it from the bowl near the door.
Remus unlocked and opened the door, it wasn't as windy as they were anticipating but it was still cold.
Sirius closed the door behind them and Remus led the way to the garage.
Why didn't we just put on our stuff in the garage?
Remus let them inside then hit the button in the garage to open one of the overhead doors, it didn't work.
Remus laughed “oh yeah, power’s out”, that made Sirius laugh too. They tried to open the door by hand but that also didn’t work.
They went outside, Remus shovelling the snow away from the door and Sirius kicking the ice and snow off as best he could.
They tried it again and this time the door opened.
They put the generator outside and got it hooked up to the house. As soon as it started feeding power to the house, they could see some of the lights turn on that they must’ve accidentally left switched on when the power went out.
“We have power again but let's hang out out here for a bit since we’re already outside” Remus said, Sirius agreed because he figured there wasn't much else to do.
Remus walked them around to the back of the house “let's make a snowman” Sirius said, picking up some snow. “It’s packing snow so it won't take long”, Remus nodded.
They got to work, Remus and Sirius each starting to pack snow together before switching to roll it along the ground.
“Wait, who's making the middle ball and who's making the bottom one?” Remus asked, Sirius shrugged, “I guess just whoever’s snowball is bigger by the time we decide to put them together” he offered, Remus nodded and they both continued to push their little snowballs.
Sirius found out pretty quickly why these were Remus’s old snow pants. It hadn't even been five minutes yet but Sirius knew from kneeling to push the snowball, that his knees would soon be soaked.
Sirius and Remus ended up migrating apart from each other in the process of rolling the snowballs so they would be mostly even on all sides.
Some time passed and now the snowballs had gotten quite big. “Hey Sirius, let's start rolling them towards each other cause I dunno if we’re gonna be able to put one on top of the other if they get much bigger than this” Remus called, Sirius nodded.
Sirius’s snowball ended up being just a bit bigger than Remus’s so they settled on having Remus’s be the middle.
“How are we gonna do this?” Sirius wondered aloud, “yeah good question, in elementary school at least you've got a whole group to help” Remus responded.
Considering Sirius’s snowball was almost waist height and Remus’s was a bit smaller, it was going to be hard to get it on top.
“Let's just try to pick it up first and if that doesn't work we’ll come up with another plan” Sirius said, Remus agreed.
They got on opposite sides then knelt to get their arms under it. “On three. One, two, three” Remus counted them off and they both tried to stand up.
The snowball came off the ground a little. They put it back down.
“Now what?” Sirius said, Remus lent against the snowball they decided would be the bottom and looked around.
“Let’s just try it again” Remus said and came back down to help.
They tried to lift it again, this time it got higher off the ground. Sirius put one foot down on the ground while still kneeling on his other.
The snowball was slipping but they were both determined to get it up on the other one.
When it was almost all the way up, they rested it on the edge of the other snowball and Sirius started pushing it up to the top while Remus stood on the other side, making sure it wouldn't fall off.
“Ok stop” Remus said, Sirius stayed where he was, leaning with his shoulder against the snowball while Remus grabbed handfuls of snow off the ground to pack it into the space between the two snowballs so they would stay attached.
Remus came all the way around with snow and then said it was probably sturdy enough to stay up by itself so Sirius could help pack more snow in and make it neater.
“How about you go make him a head while I sort this out” Sirius suggested, Remus knelt in the snow again and started packing snow for the head of the snowman.
Sirius packed in a ton of snow between the bottom two snowballs then started walking around it, packing in more and shaving some off so it would look more even and therefore also be more balanced.
Remus came back with a big snowball in his hands “what do we think? Bigger or is this good?” Remus asked. Sirius took it and held it above the other two, “I think a bit bigger yet” he said and handed it back.
“I’ll go look for some decorations” Sirius said when he was satisfied with what he had done.
Sirius walked to a few nearby trees and picked a couple twigs off the ground, along with some pine needles that had fallen on the ground.
When he came back, Remus was making sure the head was attached to the body, “now it looks like a snowman” Sirius commented as he returned, hands full of random stuff.
Remus looked at what he brought, “perfect, well add those once I’m done up here”.
They ended up giving the snowman pine needle hair, twig nose and mouth, bark for eyes, and Remus had found bigger sticks along with some small rocks to use as arms and buttons.
“I think he's done” Remus said, taking a couple steps back to admire their work, Sirius nodded.
“He needs a name” Sirius said, they stood in silence staring at it for a few moments “I got nothing” he said.
“Me neither, we can think about it later, I’m gonna make a snow angel” Remus said and walked to the right of the snowman.
As soon as he laid down on his back in the snow and started moving his arms and legs, Sirius got in the snow next to him and copied. He laid down just close enough that their mitts would brush by each other in the middle.
At some point Sirius just laid in the snow and closed his eyes for a minute, moving snow takes a lot of effort. When he opened his eyes again, Remus was trying to get up as carefully as possible so as to not mess up the snow angel.
Remus reached out a hand and helped Sirius up.
Sirius thanked him and brushed some snow off himself before walking around his snow angel to get to the nice untouched snow above them.
He knelt down and leaned so he would be writing above the middle of their snow angels. “What are you doing?” Remus asked, “you'll see”.
Sirius wrote as carefully as possible in the snow with his finger. R + S respective to the sides each was on and then drew a heart around it so it looked like it was floating between the two snow angels.
“Cute” Remus said and gave Sirius a hug when he came back, “it’s cause I tolerate you” Remus pushed him out of the hug. “Real funny Sirius” he said, Sirius laughed “I gotta keep up my image right? Cant be going around being soft all the time now”, “not around me, you're hot when you're arrogant and cute when you're soft”, Sirius grinned “yeah, I’m trying to keep myself warm out here”. Sirius watched Remus fight his urge to laugh, he gave in and they both laughed.
“We could call him Spaceman” Remus suggested, “what? Like an astronaut?” Sirius asked, “sorta, Sirius is a star, my nickname is Moony, we built him together, and I figured Remius and Sirus didn't sound great, Moonstar is a bit strange but the moon and stars are both in space so Spaceman?” Remus explained.
“I love how you overcomplicate everything” Sirius said, “but yeah, let's call him Spaceman”.
“Wanna have a snowball fight? It'll help keep you warm” Remus asked, crouching to gather some snow.
“Sure, my knees are already soaked, can't get any worse, let's go” Sirius reasoned and bent down to get snow too.
They ran and threw snowballs at each other in an area of the backyard that was farther away from their snowman so they wouldn't accidentally ruin their work.
After a while of chasing and throwing snowballs and laughing, Remus managed to hit Sirius in the back of the neck for a second time, caught up to him and wrapped his arms around him so he would drag him down like some kind of animal taking down prey.
Sirius tripped under the weight but flipped himself over as he fell so his face wouldn't be in the snow, Remus held on and was laying halfway on top of him.
Remus’s legs were still in the snow behind him in the direction he had come from while Sirius was laying perpendicular to him.
“Gotcha!” Remus exclaimed, “yeah, I can see that” Sirius said, scooped up some snow in his right hand and brought it down onto Remus’s neck.
Remus leaned with his elbows on Sirius’s stomach to lift his upper body up and shake his head like a wet dog.
“Bastard” he muttered, “you were the one who started it this time” Sirius said. Remus gave him that and settled his head on Sirius again.
“Should we go inside?” Remus asked, “yeah, I’m cold and should probably go home before your parents come back” Sirius said.
Remus stayed where he was but moved his eyes to look at Sirius. Sirius lent his neck down to try and kiss him but couldn't reach so Remus moved a little and closed the gap.
Sirius slid out from under Remus because Remus didn't want to move, and as much as Sirius didn't want to, he knew he had to.
He gave Remus a hand up and they walked back to the house together.
They took off their snow gear and hung it over various kitchen chairs, and covered several registers with their hats and mitts. The ends of Sirius’s hair was wet from the snow getting on it then melting, Remus didn't seem to have that problem as his hair was all short enough to fit comfortably in a hat.
Remus plugged his phone into the wall because it would actually charge now and let Sirius join him in reading the messages from the barstool beside him.
What Sirius assumed was the hockey team group chat was asking if they could skate at Remus’s, to which he said no because of the amount of snow on everything, and that it was Christmas tomorrow.
Remus’s dad had texted to tell him their flight was delayed by two hours. He also asked how the generator was running, Remus said it worked like a charm and put his phone down.
Sirius checked his phone and let Remus read over his shoulder, it felt fair and he didn't really mind if Remus knew what was going on.
Lily: james is really bad at wrapping gifts, I thought you were bad then I hung out with him, at least I have an excuse to hang out with him again though and help out
Sirius: sounds like fun, do you have power yet?
Lily: no but its not so bad, been building a puzzle for most of the time, and I shovelled the driveway, you?
Sirius: been doing not much of anything really
Lily: you sure you arent still at Remus’s?
Sirius: yeah
Lily: suree, alright, I’m gonna go help James, talk later
Sirius: yeah stay on the road, I dont wanna hear you needed to be pulled out of someones lawn
Lily: wasnt planning on it
Sirius put his phone on the counter. “Guess we can't go clean the ice together though cause I really should go home and you've got other stuff to do in here” Sirius said, “it's ok, it's been a lot of fun with you, like more than ever” Remus said. “If you ever need someone to help clear and flood the ice before James and the hockey team complains about it, let me know, I can even teach you more skating if you want” Sirius offered.
They got up and walked to the front door, Sirius took his phone and charger from the living room and started to put on his wet coat and boots again. Remus did the same, “you're staying here, why are you getting your winter stuff on?” Sirius asked, zipping up his coat, “you're not gonna wanna brush off your car alone, plus I gotta check on the generator anyways”. Sirius shrugged and continued.
“Some of your stuff is still upstairs” Remus said, “yeah, I'll probably come back at some point so I’ll get it then, it's just like a pair of pants and two t-shirts anyways” Sirius said.
He picked up his mitts and put his hat on, grabbed his bag of skating gear and walked out the door, followed by Remus.
Sirius unlocked and started his car, threw his stuff in the backseat, and took the snowbrush out then got to work.
Remus had taken their spare snowbrush out of the garage and helped him by brushing the other side of the car.
When the car was cleaned off, Sirius shovelled a path behind his car so it could get onto the road. Remus had checked on the generator while he was doing that and came back, stood next to Sirius’s car and watched.
“Whatcha doing?” Sirius asked, “supervising” Remus replied, Sirius laughed “if that's what you wanna call it”, “if you slip and fall, at least I can drive you to the ER”. Sirius shook his head but kept going.
What a lovable little dork
When he finished he gave the shovel to Remus, “see you later then” Sirius said, “yeah” Remus said.
They stood in front of each other, next to the car, Sirius wanted to hold his hand or hug him or something but was frozen in place, just looking at him. For some reason saying bye was the most awkward thing.
It's not even goodbye for a long time, why is this weird?
Part of Sirius knew the answer and that was the fact that this would be the first time they would be by themselves for more than the amount of time it took for Sirius to drive to his house for an extra pair of socks and shirts and back. This was a big step even if it didn't seem like it to anyone else, not that anyone else knew.
Remus gave him a hug then they kissed goodbye, followed by at least three smaller kisses.
Sirius got in his car and backed out of the driveway, he waved to Remus who was still standing with the shovel as he got onto the road. This time he let the Christmas music play.
It's close enough now