The Hockey Team
A couple weeks had gone by and along with it some hockey games and pond skating dates.
Today though was what Sirius considered a pretty big day, he and Lily were invited to come skate on the pond, with the hockey team.
Sirius was nervous for a multitude of reasons but Lily assured him he had nothing to worry about as he changed his sweater for the fourth time, wondering if the guys would hate him more or less based on what was on the sweater.
Sirius finally settled on a plain black pullover hoodie, checked his hair one last time and they left Sirius’s room to get in the car.
This time when Sirius pulled up to Remus’s house, the driveway was mostly full. He took the safe option and parked on the side of the road instead of risking being in the way of the other cars.
Sirius and Lily walked into the front door as usual and were greeted by the sight of about eight guys walking around, each with some sort of food or drink in hand. They were standing sort of between the kitchen and living room and Remus had come to say hi not long after Sirius and Lily got their boots off.
All the heads turned to look at them when Remus came over to offer them snacks. “Hi Remus how've you been?” Lily asked as they went for a hug, “pretty good” Remus said. They let go and Remus came over to Sirius and gave him the typical bro handshake hug combo, “missed you” he whispered, Sirius nodded in response, not having enough time to reply properly.
Remus extended an arm in the direction of the guys and the three of them went over to the hockey team.
Sirius did his best to avoid walking through the middle of the talk circle and make it to the bowl of chips without engaging any of them in conversation. James had other plans.
As soon as Sirius sat down at a bar stool a couple feet away from the main conversation, James clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Sirius man, how's it going?” James asked, “I’m doing good, shouldn't you be going and making sure Lily’s all good?” Sirius didn't really know why he wasn't in the mood to talk to his friend but the whole situation was putting him on a slight edge.
James took the hint and left, Sirius watched him drape an arm over Lily and continue the conversion with the team as if he hadn't left.
Every so often, the door would open again and some more of the team would walk in. Sirius would watch Remus greet them and bring them to the kitchen.
In zoning out he missed what Lily said entirely as she took a seat beside him. A hand waved in front of his face “hey daydreamer, why dont you at least try to hang out with them, they're not as bad as you think” she said. Sirius gave her a small shrug “they'll think I’m ok now but as soon as we get on the ice they'll all hate us” he said.
“I doubt that's the case, but even if it was, at least try and have a good time before they ruin it out there?” Lily suggested. That made something go off in Sirius’s brain and he figured why not. The bowl of chips he had been hogging was empty anyway.
They stood up and tried to join the circle, Lily slid back in beside James and Sirius stood a little out of the circle beside them.
“Who invited this fucking goth?” one of the bigger guys asked, Sirius was staring at the floor across the circle, eyes out of focus. His jaw clenched but other than that he showed no reaction.
That's what I get for wearing black on black on black hair I guess
Lily jumped in “he's my friend and I thought maybe he would want to hang out, and Remus ok'd it” she explained. Sirius gave her a smile as thanks as all the heads turned to Remus.
Remus stopped chewing “what?” he said, “who's the emo?” another, skinnier guy asked. Sirius watched Remus smile before continuing to chew and look at Sirius for a brief moment.
“He has a name you know, that's Sirius, and he's friends with Lily” he gestured to both of them in turn “Prongs’s girlfriend’s best friend” he somehow managed to put it in both more confusing and simpler terms.
“Prongs, you better watch out, your girlfriend’s best friend is a guy” someone taunted “oh fuck off Boulder, they’ve been friends since they were like four” James defended. “So?” he asked, Sirius could see an evil grin form on this guy’s face. He knows Remus said his teammates aren't dicks but this one isn't making a very compelling case to support that claim.
“So what?” Lily responded, leaning into the argument by bare minimum. “So, girls with guy best friends either fall for said friend or think they're too strong to need a boyfriend” he explained, Lily laughed.
As much as Sirius wanted to shut it down by telling him that he doesn't even like girls, he knew that would end much worse for him. “You’ve clearly never met a girl with a guy best friend and a boyfriend. Sure I might be strong enough to not need him but that doesn't change the fact that I’ll always have a crush on him” Lily said. The bigger guy looked a bit defeated, then the door opened again. “Moooonyyyyy!!!” about four dudes tumbled into the house, tripping over the massive amount of boots on the doormat.
The group laughed and Remus did his usual thing of going over and offering food and drinks. The guys came in and Sirius could get a decent look at them, they were all mildly attractive and looked like they wouldn't have shitty personalities either.
The one who charged in the door first walked by Sirius and Lily to stand in an empty spot on the kitchen end of the circle. Sirius couldn't help but notice the way he looked at him for longer than he was expecting.
“See guys, that's the kinda hair I wanna be pulling off” he said, opening a can of Pepsi. A couple light hearted laughs went around followed by a bout of friendly teasing like telling him he’d have to dye his beautiful blond locks black and let it grow for at least a year.
Remus’s mom came downstairs and said her hellos to the team, along with a “nice to see you again” to Sirius and Lily. Luckily the rest of the team was too distracted to have heard it.
After a bit more talking, they decided it was time to go skate. Last time Sirius and Lily were here, they left their pond skates in the coat closet by the front door. They waited to see the guys make their way out of sight so they could sneak and get their stuff without causing suspicion.
“I’ll be right there guys, just gotta grab my hat!” Sirius heard Remus call, followed by his footsteps coming towards them. As soon as he was close enough, Sirius got pulled into a kiss.
“Fuck I missed you” Remus said as they separated, “I missed you more” Sirius said. “You guys are so cheesy” Lily said, the three of them laughed and Remus tucked some of Sirius’s hair behind his ear, Sirius leaned into his hand.
“Am I interrupting something?” James asked from the doorway to the living room. Lily ran over and threw herself into his arms, “and she calls us cheesy” Remus commented, sliding his hand into Sirius’s. Lily and James had their own little kiss and catch up before James put her down “let’s go before they wonder what took us so long” he said.
Remus grabbed his hat, Sirius and Lily grabbed their bags and followed James to the garage.
Out at the pond there had been some more lawn chairs added around the edge so at least half of them could tie their skates at once. Because Sirius, Remus, Lily, and James were at the back of the pack, they stood around and waited to use the chairs.
One by one the chairs became unoccupied and after almost everyone was either on a chair or on the ice, the four of them sat to tie their skates.
Before Sirius had even taken a skate out of the bag, Boulder was back to the teasing. “Wait, the goth thinks he's gonna know how to skate?” Sirius wanted to get up and push him over but he sat, taking his sweet time untying his boots.
“What makes you think he can't?” James asked, “look at him, you don't think the ones with no social life and sad music are gonna have any friends to learn to skate with, plus, he looks so skinny he’d probably get swept away by a small gust of wind” he said, “what makes you think he needs friends to learn how to skate?” Lily responded, putting on her left skate. “I doubt Sirius weighs much more or less than Twig, Fry or me, and I haven't seen any of them get blown away by the wind” James said.
Another boy skated up, “lets see what kinda cheap rental skates he's got”, Sirius could hear Remus let out a quiet laugh beside him. He smiled to himself and took one of his skates out as if the other two guys weren't just talking about them.
“Oooh shit Milk, he's even got goth skates, what are you gonna do? Spin around hoping that we’ll fall over? Jump and slightly crack the ice hoping we’ll fall through?” Lily laughed “he's got more picks on one skate than the two of you have brain cells combined, and then some” she said. That got the other three to fully laugh and Sirius began lacing his skates.
Remus was done tying his skates but sat and waited for the rest, James was done soon after and he also stayed to wait. “Moony! Come on out here! He's tough enough to fight his own fights” one of the team members called from the ice.
That took Boulder and Milk out of their shocked silence and were about to start making fun of Sirius and Lily again. Remus got up and Sirius watched him go, followed by James, then focused back on his laces.
“See those skates are so stupid, you cant even tie them fast” Milk said.
They're running out of insults
“Who needs to tie them fast, as long as they do what they're supposed to, who cares?” Lily said, rolling one pant leg over her laces so they wouldn't get snagged on anything. Remus and James came back and put their respective sticks down beside each of them.
“Moony you're not actually letting them play are you?” “They're a total disadvantage” they complained. “Well then it's a good thing there's two of them, we'll be at an equal disadvantage then” Remus responded without hesitation and sent a wink in Sirius and Lily’s direction.
Sirius fished the clear hockey tape out of his bag to tape his laces. His jeans aren't skating pants and can't cover the laces or hooks, and he forgot how long these laces were so Remus gave him an extra roll of clear hockey tape to solve the problem.
“So you do need our things then” Sirius could not believe that this guy was still going at it, he figured he would’ve moved on by now, or his squirrel brain would’ve gone and chased the couple pucks that came by in the time they were standing there, but alas. “At least we don't need helmets, or fistfights” Sirius said, not looking up.
Once Sirius and Lily were done, they stood up together, grabbed their sticks and took to the ice.
Skating with a hockey stick had begun to feel more comfortable but Sirius would always rather skate without one. Sirius and Lily sort of stuck by each other, not wanting to interfere with the guys shooting on the nets and passing. They managed to snag a puck that went into the bank and passed it between them on the edge of the ice.
About fifteen minutes went by and someone called for everyone to stop, he suggested a game, to which everyone agreed. Sirius and Lily were both a little hesitant given the more aggressive nature of having the actual hockey team out playing instead of just them and their boyfriends, but they couldn't really protest anyway.
Remus declared himself a team captain as this is his house, and assigned James as the other team captain, everyone seemed to be ok with that set up. Everybody stood around one of the nets and would go stand behind their respective team captain as they got chosen.
They went back and forth picking players to join their team until Sirius and Lily were the only ones left standing by the hockey net. It was James’s turn, “Siri-” he started, Sirius could see that he was doing it just to get a reaction out of Remus, “just kidding, Lily” he said.
Lily went over to James and waved goodbye to Sirius, he returned the wave and took small steps towards Remus’s team until Remus actually called his name, knowing he would end up on that team.
“Alright we get this side!” James called dibs on the side they were already on and Remus’s team started making their way to the far end of the ice, again, Sirius and Remus hung back a bit.
“You know I had to choose you last right” Remus said, Sirius nodded “yeah, it's all good, let’s just hope I don't die doing this” Sirius responded. “I’ll protect you and I’m not gonna let that happen” Remus whispered as they approached the net.
Remus saying he’d protect Sirius made him feel something, like he was even more special than Remus already made him feel.
Remus was working on organising who would play what position when a guy from the other team yelled about how they should establish rules first.
Everyone gathered in the middle and they thought of some rules. “Obviously no high sticking or shooting pucks at peoples heads” Remus said, everyone nodded “hey if my puck goes in the air and this guy you think is made of glass gets in the way that's his fault” Boulder said. “Ok you can shut the fuck up, we get it, you dont want him here and you despise figure skaters but this is for the sake of everybody. None of us have helmets right now so if your puck goes flying and almost hits Sirius or Lily but ends up hitting like Einstein or something, we’ll all have problems to deal with. If you don't want to play because I’m letting two people with picks on their skates play, then get off.” Remus said, finality in his voice. The ice was silent for a few moments.
“Anyone else who has a problem with Sirius or Lily can join Boulder on the bench” Remus said. The group nodded, James took over and brought up some other important rules like how offside won't really be a hard rule as long as you’re not always hanging out around the other team's net.
The rules were set, Boulder decided to stay on the ice, which was at least mildly convenient so the teams would be even, and the game started.
It was going pretty well, Sirius spent most of his time skating up and down the right side of the ice following where the group with the puck was headed.
He did manage to get the puck one time when it was close to their end. He passed it in Remus’s direction because he couldn't remember exactly who else was on his team. Remus received it and set it back up the ice.
Sirius thought it was cool to see how even as only half the team, they worked together to move the puck and score goals. Sirius considered it a good game so far considering he hadn't been hit by anything or anyone, but he could feel Remus’s eyes on him making sure he could get back at whoever would hit him.
Both teams had scored a few goals and occasionally someone would wince when someone else accidentally hit them in the shin with a stick but overall the game was pretty civil.
Sirius wouldn't tell anyone but he was getting a bit tired of the constant back and forth and trying to use the stick and failing miserably. He watched Lily skate about halfway up the ice with the puck before shooting it towards the net, it went a bit wide before it got there and someone on her team saved it and got the goal.
Lily smiled and Sirius was proud of her for getting an assist, James went over to her and tried to give her a casual fist bump in congratulations.
Everyone started to get tired so they stopped for a break. Sirius got to high five Lily for her assist and whispered thanks to Remus for what he said about the rules.
The four of them hung around the net and chatted, a couple other guys came over and joined in, they were actually nice.
“Hey the reason Boulder is being so hard on you is cause his ex was a figure skater and she cheated on him so he has resented figure skaters since, nothing specific to you guys” Twig explained, they nodded.
The guy who commented on Sirius’s hair from before said that he thought figure skating was actually pretty neat and cool to watch. Sirius learned his name was Blue, “you guys should demo something for us” he added.
“Don't you think they'll get mad for us taking their ice time” Sirius brought up, Blue looked around. “Nah, half of them are recouping and the other half probably won't mind the extra few minutes sitting down” he said. “And if they do they have us to deal with” James added, crossing his arms, Sirius smiled “I can always count on you, James” he said. The four of them laughed again and Lily offered Sirius her hand and they went out to center ice.
“What are we doing?” Sirius asked once they got there “I don't know, anything, I don’t think they'll really notice or care a whole lot” Lily replied.
They both did little circles in the middle, pivoting and looking at the ice, thinking of what to do. Sirius watched Lily skate off to one side and start doing crosscuts into a spin.
Figuring he had already warmed up enough from hockey, Sirius did his solo, or most of it.
He left out some of the arm movements on purpose, and other ones because he was more focused on getting the steps right. Right before he got to the camel sit spin is when he realised he should’ve at least warmed that up.
Sirius looked around quickly to see if it would be easy to not do it out of fear of hitting someone but there was nobody around. Lily was on the other side and Sirius knew she was doing her solo too and wouldn't be coming back this way for a little bit, and all the hockey players were either around the net with James and Remus, or sitting off the pond.
He went for it, not doing a fantastic job, having ended the camel part early but the sit part was good. He kept going until he got to the end of his routine and didn't put his full effort into striking his ending pose because it wasn't that important.
Sirius heard Lily stop to his right where her ending pose was followed by some muffled claps. They looked around and maybe half the team was paying attention which was a win in Sirius’s book.
Sirius and Lily were doing their best to not show how hard they were breathing as they skated up to Remus and James’s hockey net. They were each offered some high fives from the guys who promptly started talking about what they did.
“How do you even do that?” Sneak was very enthusiastic, he was asking Lily about her donut spiral. Lily shrugged, “I just kinda” she trailed off and picked up her one leg behind her back and then put it almost to her head.
There was some collective amazement. “Hey Sirius lets go do field moves” Lily said, pulling him back to the main ice. Field moves were probably the coolest to watch and one of the most fun to do, jumping gets tiring and spinning makes you dizzy.
Lily did a regular spiral and Sirius was warming up spread eagles. He did an inside one then waited for Lily to be out of the way and did an outside one along almost the entire length of the pond, on the side without people.
Sirius did a spiral too, just for the sake of it, it was definitely better than in his spin. “Wanna do a spiral train?” Lily asked, Sirius nodded and she led them to one side, Sirius stood behind her while they worked out specifics.
“So we go this way and then this way” Lily said, her hand making a snaking motion so Sirius could see what she meant and where they would change it. “Ok and then what, pump right three times then left leg up?” Sirius asked, “yeah sure, that should be enough” Lily answered.
Sirius put his hands on Lily’s hips and she put hers on top of his. “Hey Prongs, what did I say, he's gonna take your girl!” Boulder called at him. “Oh give it up would you, just watch” James responded and Lily and Sirius shook their heads.
They started to go for real this time. Left leg went up and then as they got to the middle, they kept their legs in the air and leaned to change the edge and end up near the net again. Another small round of claps went around.
“Wait I wanna try one more thing” Sirius said “remember how Minerva tried to teach us that under the leg spiral? I think I figured out how to get it to work” he said. Lily looked intrigued so he continued, “she always made me go under cause you can get your leg up higher but I never make it, maybe we can try and have you go under since you're shorter and won't have to crouch as far”, “ok lets do it”.
“I guess we just get speed then when we come around this corner the second time, you let go of my right arm and go under and grab my left arm and by then we’ll be on a straight line again” Sirius reasoned, Lily nodded.
They grabbed shoulders and did as they said they would, when they dropped arms, Sirius put his left arm out to wait and grab Lily’s. He felt her fingers but he couldn't hold them so they didn't quite get it.
Another few attempts and a couple falls go by and this time they're determined to either get it or stop trying today, either way it would be the last time for today.
Sirius had gotten marginally better at holding his one leg up a bit higher so that was a bonus.
Lily’s hand landed right in his, Sirius pulled it to make her go a bit faster and in turn bring her up so they could hold shoulders again.
“There we go!” “fuck yeah!” and other exclamations went around between them, and they could hear some of the others saying it too.
Once everyone had settled down, someone asked from a lawn chair, “hey Stevius do that thing again where you went along the edge of the pond going sideways but on this edge instead”.
Sirius laughed a little at the name then looked at his group and shrugged.
Guess Remus isn't the only one who likes to watch spread eagles
He went and did one while doing his best to avoid eye contact with all the guys on that side, at the end Sirius switched it to an inside edge to step out of. Some clapping happened again and the guy next to Remus exclaimed “I can do it too!” Sirius watched a smile play over Remus’s lips, “I’d like to see you try” he said.
“Not the whole thing, the end” he explained and came out onto the ice next to Sirius then sped off to the other side and did about half an inside spread eagle to turn the corner really sharp and came back.
This had some of the other boys coming back onto the ice, realising they could figure skate too.
James and Lily went to the middle and she went ahead and started spinning him around. Sirius watched for a moment, leaning on the top of the net.
Soon everyone was back on the ice, trying to imitate figure skating, some while holding hockey sticks. Sirius was glad that they had stopped insulting the sport and at least tried it.
Remus bumped into his shoulder, “hey” he said in a very low voice, “hey what” Sirius whispered back. “Hey, who let you be that attractive in front of me when I can't do anything about it” Remus answered.
Sirius sneaked a glance down and rolled his eyes “really?” He said, “go skate it off” he laughed a bit and Remus hit his arm playfully with his hockey stick before putting it down on the net and going out onto the pond. Sirius would rather hold his hand and skate with him but he didn't, he just followed a couple steps behind.
Everyone was figure skating with varying degrees of success. Sirius almost got bumped into by what seemed to be the tallest guy on the team who was trying to spin.
He was in awe of the frenzy around him until a hand pulled him along, he knew it was Remus. Sirius let himself be pulled until he crashed into Remus because he had stopped.
Remus held his biceps to straighten him up again, they laughed. “What’d you drag me out here for?” Sirius asked, “teach me something” “I’ve already taught you loads”. Which was partially true, Sirius had taught Remus some basic spins and some field moves but not really any steps or jumps because steps are boring, and Sirius wasn't sure how many jumps Remus would actually be able to do in hockey skates.
“Show me a jump and then teach it to me” Remus said, Sirius agreed and did a salchow as that was the next one he learned as a child after the waltz jump. Remus tried to copy, he didn’t get off the ground.
“You jump left remember, I jump right so it'll be opposite for you” Sirius explained, then tried to do a left salchow to demonstrate. After a few more attempts, he gave Remus a couple more pointers but he still couldn't quite get it.
“Ok here” Sirius held out his hands, Remus took them. “Do it again but this time I’m gonna keep you balanced and give you enough speed” Sirius said as Remus pushed off again.
Sirius let go of his one hand to let him do the half spin after the three-turn and before the jump. He almost did the jump right this time.
“I think if you pull your hands in tighter when you're in the air you should get it” Sirius said. They did a couple more. He was right, after Remus fell a few times, he got the jump on his own.
“Was that just a ploy to get me to hold your hand?” Sirius asked, Remus grinned and nodded, “and to make it less obvious”. Twig skated over, Sirius hoped he hadn't heard their exchange “wait teach me a jump!” he said.
Sirius went ahead and explained the waltz jump, Twig leaned a bit too far forwards but had everything else right. Sirius told him to stand up straighter and he would get it.
He tried, it didn’t quite work so Sirius offered to hold his hands so he could just focus on standing upright and less on balance. He did it right that time.
“Told you figure skating was gay” he heard Boulder say.
Could this guy seriously not come up with something else to talk about?
“He's going around holding Moony and Twig’s hands, give me a straight reason someone would do that?” he asked, everyone stopped what they were doing to listen.
“Its a legit teaching method” Lily said before Sirius could say anything, Boulder scoffed “yeah right, just like that stupid rope tied to the ceiling, tell you what, you guys should learn to fall like real men” he spat.
Sirius really didn't want to be dramatic but this guy was getting on his nerves. “I don't know what kind of people you think we are but you guys get to wear padding and helmets to stop you guys from getting injured every two seconds, during games and practice. We get nothing, a girl at our rink broke both her wrists falling from a difficult jump during a competition last year, she kept going until she finished her solo. She took that fall like a champ, finished her routine, and then went to the hospital. Don’t you dare say we should fall like men, holding and offering hands and using the harness is our version of helmets and elbow pads when we’re learning, it’s not a gay thing” Sirius rebutted.
He purposely left out the part about holding hands also helping with leaning in a certain way if it felt unnatural at first, mostly because it was irrelevant in the moment.
The ice stayed quiet again, nobody dared speak or move until Sirius let out a breath and skated off the ice to one of the lawn chairs.
He watched people slowly continue their antics while he cooled off some more.
He didnt notice Twig had come to sit next to him until he spoke “for the record, I didnt think it was gay, and it really helped” Sirius smiled “thanks”.
Most of the guys went back to shooting on net after ten minutes of messing around with figure skating moves.
“What's your favourite thing to do on the ice?” Twig asked out of nowhere. Sirius thought for a moment “mostly field moves but there's some jumps I like. What position do you play?” he asked, “left wing, cause I’m small and fast, or at least, that's what coach tells me” Twig answered.
“Why do you keep skating even though most people think less of you cause you aren't playing hockey?” Sirius was not expecting to have some deep meaningful conversation with a hockey boy other than Remus. “It's fun, and I’m a bit of a show off” Sirius laughed, “I think you kinda have to be to figure skate” Twig didn't seem to hate Sirius’s answer.
“Yeah” he just agreed, not really knowing what else to say. “You two are good ones” Twig said, “what's that supposed to mean?” “I’ve talked to some figure skaters that are so full of themselves it's annoying” Twig said honestly. “Yeah there's a fair few of those that I know too” Sirius paused to laugh, “it's funny to watch them when you guys start to come in towards the end of our session. One minute half of them are on the boards gossiping and the next they're all out on the ice doing everything in their power to impress every guy that walks in”.
Twig looked at him for the first time since he sat down “wait really?” “yeah, you didn't think we all had the energy to be doing all of those difficult jumps and spins back to back for an hour and a half did you?” Sirius said, thinking it was obvious. “I mean I figured not but I’d never seen anything else so I just assumed I was wrong”. “Yeah you try spinning around tons without a break and not being dizzy” Sirius said.
“They all like you two more than they let on, you know. They're seeing if you’re as soft as they assume figure skaters are so they're being a bit harsh but I could hear them while you guys were skating and they were all pretty amazed” “thanks” Sirius gave him a genuine smile, Twig returned it.
“Also your style is great, no matter how goth or emo everyone else thinks it is” Twig said, shortly before getting snowed, “Twig stop flirting and come play!” the guy who said it meant it as a light hearted joke and it got Sirius and Twig to laugh and get up, they grabbed their sticks.
Twig gave him a fist bump as they set off, “hey you got a nickname? Calling you Sirius feels too formal and, well, serious especially when everyone’s calling me Twig”, Sirius laughed. “Might be a bit weird but it's Padfoot, or Pads for short” Twig laughed and Sirius expected it, “alright great, let's go then Padfoot” Twig said as he passed Sirius a puck.
This time during the game, Sirius and Lily were more included in the plays. Sirius went between the nets following everyone's lead and even passed the puck up the ice for someone else to shoot.
The ice was getting really torn up and used now though. They took a collective break to run their sticks along the surface and try to free up the ice chunks that came loose and checked for any really weak spots.
Someone was going around with the snow shovel to clean it up a bit. The sun was starting to go down and everyone was more tired than they were willing to admit but they all wanted to keep playing.
As a group they identified a couple very weak spots and tried to pack in some of the holes with snow so at least if you did skate over it, you wouldn't immediately fall on your face.
They played one last game and decided that anyone could stop playing and go inside whenever they so chose. Remus told everyone that there should be warm hot chocolate waiting for them when they got there. James called the game quits when there was seven of them left, himself, Remus, Lily, Sirius, Twig, Sneak, and Lefty.
James went to join Twig, Sneak, and Lefty in the lawn chairs to take his skates off but Lily grabbed his hand “can we just skate together a little more?” she asked, Sirius wanted to do the same, and he almost did. The three hockey guys seemed pretty chill so Sirius wouldn't mind holding Remus’s hand, but he refrained for Remus’s sake, not knowing if he would be ok with it.
They were talking amongst themselves and very quickly untying skates. Sirius figured he wouldn't have to wait long.
As soon as they said they were heading in and started walking away, Sirius felt Remus’s hand take his and he started to skate away with it.
Remus spun Sirius around a couple times then pulled him in for a kiss. It was unreal, it reminded Sirius of their first kiss, out on the pond in the dark with the Christmas lights hanging in the trees. This time though there was still the sound of James and Lily skating.
Remus held Sirius by the back of his neck and his waist, Sirius held onto Remus’s broad shoulders. They both leaned into it more until Sirius heard Twig’s voice “hey Moony I wa-” his voice cut off and the sound of James and Lily’s blades stopped.
Sirius went to pull away but Remus held him tight and bit his bottom lip, either Remus didn't hear him, or he didn't care. Either way, Sirius fell back into the kiss until it came to a natural end.
They looked at each other for a few seconds, Sirius ran his fingers along Remus’s bangs.
“I love you, so much” Remus said and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. Sirius was shocked for a second, “I love you too” he said and threw himself back into Remus’s arms.
The momentum made them spin on the ice and Remus put Sirius back down to give him a quick kiss before turning to where Twig’s voice had come from.
Sirius looked with him but they couldn't see him. “Twig, I know you're there, what were you gonna say?” Remus said, holding Sirius’s hand and skated towards the lawn chairs.
Twig came out from behind a tree, “my bad, I was just wondering if we had to bring in the pucks or not” Remus answered him “leave ‘em out here, I’ll probably come back to flood it soon anyways”.
Sirius wasn't really paying attention, he was more focused on getting his skates off so he could warm up. He knew he was still smiling like a dork because Remus said he loves him.
James and Lily came off the ice too and the five of them walked back to the house together. Sirius and Remus dropped hands once they got out of the forest and into the main backyard in case someone saw.
“Oh yeah by the way Twig, you tell anyone and you're gonna wish you hadn't” Remus threatened. Twig nodded very quickly, making it obvious he understood as they walked into the garage.
The five of them made their way through the garage and into the very loud kitchen. Everyone was talking and making jokes and laughing while drinking their hot chocolates.
Sirius and James rushed over to the living room to use the fireplace as a hand warmer, shortly followed by Lily.
Twig came over and did the same, then Remus came in with hot chocolate for all of them. “So there is a reason you people have so many mugs” Lily commented, clutching the drink. Remus nodded “of course, can’t have an entire hockey team take turns with three mugs”.
---
Everyone stayed for supper, they ordered pizza. The original plan was to have it delivered but based on where Remus lives and the current weather, the pizza place didn’t allow it.
Sirius, James, Lily, Remus, and Twig were brainstorming by the fireplace over how they were going to get the pizzas. At first Remus had offered to pick them up but then was reminded that this was his house so he had to stay to keep the peace and to make sure nobody burnt the house down.
Remus’s mom came downstairs and told them that Remus’s dad would be able to pick up the order on his way home. Having defrosted enough, they rejoined the team in the kitchen.
The group was still in a circle together, some in chairs, some standing, some leaning against the counter. The conversations had separated a little bit but as soon as the five came into the kitchen, everyone greeted them and started the group conversation again.
Everybody was really civil and didn't talk directly to Sirius or Lily much. Sirius was happy to listen and stick by his friends instead of being continually picked on for stuff that didn't matter.
Sirius looked over Remus’s shoulder when he checked his phone. Remus turned the screen away from him so he couldn't see what he was looking at. Remus leaned a little closer to Sirius’s head and whispered “my dad’s here, I think he could use a hand with the pizza”, they stood like normal again and Sirius nodded but didn't look in Remus’s direction.
Remus waited a little longer then snuck out of the kitchen, Sirius followed. Even though they both knew the guys wouldn't hear the door and think anything of it, they still opened and closed the front door as quietly as possible before walking to Remus’s dad’s car.
Remus’s dad was walking towards them with a stack of three pizza boxes, along with his work bags. “Here, you guys take these and there's some more in the backseat” he said, handing Sirius the pizzas.
“I thought today was Saturday, who the hell picks a job where you have to work on a Saturday?” Sirius thought out loud while he waited for Remus to get the rest of the boxes out of the car.
“I usually don't, today there was apparently a very important conference or something so I had to be there, it certainly didn't feel very important I’ll tell you that much” Remus’s dad said as he closed the car door for Remus.
They headed up to the house, Remus and Sirius leading the way. Remus paused before opening the door, “just brace yourself ok” he said and awkwardly leaned to open the door without dropping the pizza.
As soon as they stomped off the snow on their boots, the whole team came flying at them. They ripped all the boxes off Sirius and Remus and checked their sweaters pockets to make sure they hadn't stolen any.
They were gone as quickly as they had come and Remus shrugged to Sirius, “like a bunch of seven year olds right” he said and slipped his boots off. Remus’s dad had already made it to the kitchen, having not been in the center of the frenzy.
Sirius took his boots off and Remus practically dragged him to the kitchen. “What's the hurry” Sirius laughed, “I’m hungry, the pizza smells amazing, and with that crew there's no telling how much of the good flavours will be left if we fall behind” Remus rattled off as they got to the kitchen and he dropped Sirius’s forearm.
Lucky for Sirius and Remus there was still pizza left when they got there, they helped themselves to some and stood around with everyone again.
The conversation had quieted down a bit considering everyone was trying to eat but of course everybody also had things to bring up so they talked anyway.
When the conversation died down again, Lefty started asking James and Lily about their relationship because of course he did.
“So James, you never really told us where you guys met, so let's hear it” Lefty said, the group nodded along. Sirius watched as James pushed his glasses up, “well you see, after scoring the winning goal, this guy” he patted Sirius on the shoulder, “came up and said I did a good job, and with them being best friends, Lily was with him” James finished. “Right so how did that turn into this” someone else gestured vaguely between them.
“We went out for pizza a couple times I think, or coffee?” James said, “yeah” Remus agreed. “Wait Moony was there for your guys' dates? That's kinda weird” Blue commented, Lily shook her head gently, “at first it was all four of us going and having pizza as friends” she said.
Sirius caught Twig giving them a sort of eyebrow raise, knowing that he knows. “I need a timeline, when was all of this?” Sneak said, “November ish?” Sirius looked to the rest of them for reassurance even though he knew he was right.
Einstein put his half finished slice of pizza down. “Wait, were you guys the ones having a snowball fight in the park when there was like two centimeters of snow on the ground?” he asked.
Sirius had almost forgotten about the snowball fight, the only reason he remembered was because of the nightmare that was trying to get his soaked, frozen pants off after.
How would he have even known or remembered that? Should’ve nicknamed him elephant instead of Einstein for that memory
“That was us, yeah” Remus said, “yeah, I almost got chased by a dog” Lily laughed. Sirius wondered how many more of the team members had seen that. “And you kept sliding on the grass” Einstein said to Sirius.
He felt his face heat up slightly “yeah not my proudest moment” he answered. Lefty tried to get them to keep talking about their whole love story when Blue stepped in.
“Why are you so interested in them? Do you wanna join?” he asked, Lefty shook his head, “no, I’m trying to get with this one” he said flatly and pointed at Sirius. Sirius took a bite of pizza to hide his reaction as the team responded to Lefty.
“Didn't know you swung that way dude” “yeah, how long have you known?”. A smile started to grow on his face as Lefty responded “just kidding! I’m trying to figure out how to get my own girlfriend”. They laughed and returned to the original conversation.
“Alright so Lily, any single girls that skate with you guys?” Lefty asked in a joking business manner. Lily laughed and rolled her eyes, “tons, I think Bellatrix would throw herself at any of you if given the chance” she said.
The guys paused to exchange glances and Sirius started laughing. “Why's that so funny?” Sneak asked. “As much as I enjoy seeing the downfall of hockey guys occasionally, this would be too much. Trust me, you don't want her” he said, “what have you dated her before or something?” Fry asked, it was a fair question given he wouldn’t know any better.
Lily, James, and Remus laughed, “she's my cousin and she's a bit full of herself, I commend anyone who can stand her for longer than a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner” he said.
“You're related to her, how do we know you aren't exactly like her?” Boulder asked. “You know families can be related but not end up with the same personalities right?” Lily asked. “Yeah, I know most of you have siblings, they’re nothing like you so why would you think Sirius and his family are anything alike?” James asked.
They nodded seeing as they figured that was a reasonable answer. “Actual advice though for getting a girlfriend, maybe try hanging out with girls, or at least try to meet new people, cause I know from my brother that hockey teams tend to be good friends but they don't have a lot outside that. Maybe go out and make new friends who might be girls, or might know girls who would be interested” Sirius explained. “Oh and how would you know, Mr ‘doesn’t have a girlfriend’” he couldn't quite tell if Blue was joking or not so Sirius kept his laughter to a minimum.
“Yeah Sirius, how would you know” James joined the joke. “Firstly, how would any of you know that I don't currently have a girlfriend, and secondly, I’ve dated people before so I’m not exactly new to this whole thing” Sirius defended, technically the truth but that was in grade seven. They only dated for about three weeks anyway so it doesn't really count, especially in this situation.
“When was the last time you had a girlfriend and what was her name?” Boulder asked, “I don't know, when was the last time you stopped caring about other people's business?” Sirius responded.
“Hey what if he's gay though” Blue brought up. As soon as he said it, Sirius could see Remus had stopped chewing in his peripheral. “Oh c’mon guys, no guy who dresses that way, with the long hair and pretty eyes is straight” Blue tried to reason.
“Do you have something you wanna tell us, Blue?” Fry asked, “yeah that sounded like a pretty gay sentence to me” Sneak added. “No, I’m just saying it's a possibility” none of them looked convinced.
“Statistically, about one in five people are gay among our generation so in theory there is about four gay people in this house right now” Einstein said. That shut them all up for a bit until someone suggested they play the game of ‘find out who’s gay by showing them pictures of popular male celebrities’. Nobody made a move to start the game and half of them were on the fence about it anyway, calling it a waste of time and pointless.
A few people thought that it would be fun, Sirius didn't want to participate, even though he knew it was all fun and games. He got up to get the cold crust of the garlic bread that came with the pizza.
Remus appeared at the counter beside him, “I get the feeling Einstein isn't straight” Sirius started, “why” Remus asked. They stood close together so nobody could overhear them and spoke quietly. “Cause why else would he know that fact” “you don't know our Einstein, Fry one time asked him for the answer to a calculus problem he had and he did it in his head, and got it right, he also did it in like thirty seconds” Remus explained. “Guess you guys gave him the right nickname then” Sirius said.
When they came back to the circle, Remus’s mom came downstairs. “How is everyone doing?” she asked, a round of ‘good’s went around and Twig told her that they left some pizza for her.
“Are you guys staying overnight or when are you planning on going home?” she asked, putting some pizza on a plate. Everyone looked at Remus, “you guys can stay if you want” he said.
The group rejoiced, some of them explained that they’d be going home soon due to their parents not allowing it on short notice, and some had work early in the morning.
---
The remaining group cleaned up the empty pizza boxes and began brainstorming ideas for where they would all sleep.
While everyone was in the living room discussing, Sirius, Remus, Lily, and James were in the kitchen figuring out where to put the rest of the pizza.
A brown haired guy who Sirius hadn't really heard talk before came over. “Yeah, just go downstairs, it should all be where you left it” Remus told him and he booked it to the basement.
“Who was that?” Lily asked, “Moth” Remus and James said together. “We joke that he's allergic to sunlight and he only ever spends his time playing video games when he's not at the rink, a bit socially awkward but the guys he came with are staying so he doesn't have a ride home, even though he wouldn't wanna be there anyway” Remus explained.
Sirius and Lily nodded, “so what's in the basement?” Sirius asked, “just an old NES my dad had, I used to play it but not as much anymore so when he's here and running low on talking to people energy I let him go down and play for a while” Remus said.
The four of them left the kitchen to go help in the living room. “And another thing, don't you find it strange they're always hanging around with Moony and Prongs?” Sneak asked, “what we talking about” James asked, casual as ever.
“Why they don't hang out with us, they stayed with you guys in the kitchen instead of helping us in here with stuff” Sneak said. “Maybe cause Remus and James are the only people here we know” Sirius said, “alright so what are we thinking with the sleeping set up” he moved on from the point as fast as possible before someone could come back to it.
“We don't know, there's like ten of us and I don't know if we can all fit here” Twig explained. Remus took a look at his own living room and then spoke “well at least two if not three people can fit on the couch, someone in the recliner and the rest on the floor in sleeping bags or blankets?”
“This doesn't have to be a stereotypical slumber party set up either, we’re all just sleeping over, not slumber partying” Twig brought up “but we can” Blue smiled. “Either way what I’m saying is, you can sleep in your own room and that'll give us extra space here, Lily and Prongs can have the spare room maybe?” Twig suggested. Lily and James gave a slow nod. “Moth will probably just fall asleep downstairs so that takes him out of the equation” Fry added.
“Ok so we’ve got six left, that should fit better” Blue said. The group nodded, “I call dibs on the recliner!” Sneak called and jumped into the recliner. “I want the couch for my back’s sake” Fry said, which made sense, he was easily six foot five if not taller and Sirius would be surprised if that didn't cause back issues.
Blue ended up calling the other half of the couch which left Einstein, Twig, and Sirius with the floor.
It was nowhere near bedtime yet but at least they had everything planned for when they would get too tired to think about it.