ex-boyfriends and mistakes
James rubbed the back of his neck, shaking himself out of his thoughts. It’d been like someone else had taken control of his mind for a second there. “Hey, Lily,” he said, toying with the hem of his shirt.
“Um.. hey, was that for me, up there? Because if it wasn’t, I’ll totally go leave right now before I make more of a fool of myself and let you go talk to whoever it was for, but, uh, yeah.”
James blinked. “Who else would it be for, Lily?” He ran his hands through his hair. “I’ve liked you for a really long time, I thought you knew that? But yeah, it was for you. And, if you like, would you want to go out some time?”
She looked around, almost as if she were expecting someone else named Lily to come and declare the message was for them instead. “Uh, sure! Yeah, yeah, I’d love that. Yeah!”
Oh. Oh oh oh! She said yes! Oh wow! She said yes!
“Um. Thanks! Um. Do you want my number?” He asked, because that’s what you do when the person you like says yes to going out with you.
Idly he wondered why he wasn’t as excited as he thought he would be. He shook it off, he was probably still just shaken up from seeing Regulus.
“Oh, I’ll just nick it from Remus. I’ll text you soon, alright?” She looked nervous, as if she was expecting him to change his mind. It was the first time he’d seen Lily like that, usually she was so confident and assured.
“Sounds good!” He smiled, hoping to put her at ease.
She grinned and left, presumably to go find her friends. James turns too, to go do the exact same.
He almost walks straight into Remus, who was looking extremely panicked.
“Woah, hey mate, you alright?” He holds out his hands as if to steady him.
Remus rubs the back of his neck. James had noticed he’d begun to do that whenever he was nervous. “Um, yeah," Remus says. "If you don’t mind though, I need to get, um, to find Lily.”
“Oh, yeah, okay.”
He hurries away.
Wonder what that was about.
–Remus–
Remus grinned as he stepped offstage. James had been brilliant up there, he’d looked so happy.
Someone grabbed his arm as he was walking. Sirius. He kept walking, pulling him with him.
“Hey! Remus! Wait up!”
“Sorry, sorry." He grins. He loves messing with Sirius. "What’s up?”
Sirius puts his hands in his pockets and rocks back and forth on his heels. “Just wanted to hang out. Yeah, hang out. Uh, how are you?”
Remus raised an eyebrow – it was unlike Sirius to just “want to hang out.” There was almost always something else on his mind. But he ignored that. “I’m fine. Do you want to go get a drink or something?”
“Oh, oh, sure. Let’s go!” He brushes past Remus and heads towards the restaurant area. Remus had to refrain from rolling his eyes, Sirius was so eccentric.
They were just getting settled into a corner table when Remus shot straight up in his seat.
“Oh shit. Shit shit shit,” he said, running his hands through his hair.
Sirius looked at him, concerned. “What? What’s up?”
“Oh my god.” Remus said, looking around from side to side, but the person he had seen wasn’t anywhere in sight anymore. “I just, got freaked out for a second there. Sorry.” He let out a breath and let his hands drop to his sides.
"Sure," Sirius rolled his eyes. "Tell me if you want me to drop it, but right now it looks like you just saw a ghost, and it might help to tell someone what happened?"
"Um," Remus deliberated his options back and forth: he could come clean and have to deal with annoying and probably invasive questions, or he could just tell him to drop it and Sirius'd just end up wondering about it for far longer than necessary. "I just saw my ex-boyfriend."
Sirius blinked.
Not what you were expecting, huh, Sirius? Remus thought, somewhat bitterly.
“Did it end badly? Is that why you’re nervous?” Sirius asked.
He looks around again, still a little anxious. The truth was that it had ended horribly, and it was a really messy break-up. There had been yelling and screaming and cursing, and they both had taken pleasure in saying vicious things to each other. But did he really want to get in to that with Sirius? “Not really.”
Sirius clearly didn’t believe him, but he let it slide. “Is that him?” He looks over to somewhere over Remus’s shoulder and–
Shit. Shit! Only Remus would have this kind of bad luck. And it looks like he’s coming over.
–Sirius–
Oh. Oh, so Remus. Remus has an ex-boyfriend. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course! He just wasn’t.. expecting that. Expecting that he actually had a chance, however slim, with this amazing man.
He decides not to comment on it, though, for fear of Remus taking it the wrong way. “Did it end badly? Is that why you’re nervous?”
Remus hesitates. “Not really.”
Obviously, Remus was lying. He wasn’t even looking at Sirius at this point, he was staring up at the ceiling. But Sirius ignored it, not wanting to push him or ask anything nosy. Seeing a flash of movement behind Remus, he sits up straighter. “Is that him?”
The man in question looks about their age, if a little older.
Remus’s face goes pale, and god Sirius just wants to comfort him.
The man comes to their table, smiling in a way that gives Sirius shivers. “Hello, Remus. Haven’t seen you in a while, how are you?”
Remus smiles, but it looks more like a grimace. Sirius feels like he can see his walls going up. “I’ve been doing well. If you don’t mind, we’re about to order,” he gestures towards the menus.
They had not been, in fact, about to order, but Sirius ignores this.
“Oh, that’s perfect! I’ll join you guys,” the guy says, and Sirius just wants to throttle him – the way he’s looking at Remus makes him more than uncomfortable. Like, come on, man, just leave already! Can’t you see he’s tense?
Sirius slides over to sit closer to Remus when the man leaves them to go grab a drink. “Do you want to leave?” Sirius asks him softly.
Remus shrugs. “I have a feeling he won’t leave us alone either way. Besides, we have to stay here to see what the producer says anyways.”
“Do you think .. he .. you know, wants to get back together with you?” Sirius regrets the words as soon as they’re out of his mouth, he sounds so, like, naive and shy.
Remus raises his eyebrows like the prospect hadn’t occurred to him. He shrugs again. “Could explain why he wants to hang out with us.”
Sirius feels an unreasonable flare of anger towards the guy. It’s not as if he and Remus are together, so he has no reason to be angry. He’s being irrational. Obviously.
“What if,” he starts, moving closer to Remus and ignoring the voice inside his head that’s telling him that this is a very bad idea. “What if there was a way you could get him to stop bothering you for good?”
He can feel Remus shift to look at him in a way that makes him shiver – in a good way, this time. “What would that way be?”
Sirius smiles, ignoring his nerves and just going for it. He leans closer, so that they’re just barely not touching. “Can I?” He asks, hating how breathless he sounds.
Remus leans in and kisses him.