Leaving London
If there was one thing Sirius Black was certain about, it was that Lily Evans was a godsend to their friendship group. Of course, she had joined it after her and James started dating, but she was the gold string that thread effortlessly into their tangle of friends and pulled everyone in tighter. She looked after all of them with a fierce determination, and made each of them smile more times than Sirius thought possible.
It didn’t come as much of a surprise that Lily was the one to plan their two-month-long roadtrip to Europe, and in excruciating detail at that. It was an idea James had come up with to celebrate all of them graduation from university. Sirius doubted the plan would be adhered to, if he knew himself and his best friend, but it was endearing nonetheless. She had told everyone her plans were ‘extremely necessary’ to follow after the fiasco that occurred during that one drive from London to Newcastle for the NYE party her parents threw one year. It was nothing compared to the roadtrip they would embark on today - it had only been a three-hundred mile drive - but it was chaos. They had fought so much over the aux to choose music that it ended up breaking from being thrown around, Peter needed to pee every half an hour so they stopped at more service stations in one trip than Sirius had collectively been to in his life, and Dorcas had insisted on using a physical map and gotten them lost down dead-end country roads far too many times. Not to mention that Remus had been so carsick that he had been forced to lay down in the boot so they didn’t have to deal with seeing him vomit.
Lily had even made set seating arrangements for the minivan they were hiring for the trip. She and Marlene were at the driver’s and passenger seats as they were the only two the group could trust to have the capabilities of driving on the other side of the road for the next month. She had a rota for when her and Marlene would each drive so that they could both get adequate rest during the journey around Europe. Peter was behind Lily, Dorcas behind Marlene, and Mary in the middle, so she could easily give directions as the new resident navigator. And in the back-seat, it was Remus in the middle with Sirius and James on either side of him. The sandy-haired man had given Lily a withering look when she told him where he would be sitting, aware of how loud and excitable the two men would be. It was probably why she wanted them as far away from her in the vehicle as possible.
Sirius couldn’t tell if he should be ecstatic about being beside Remus for the next two months, or insanely worried about his behaviour in such close proximity to the other. His mind flickered with images of resting his head on Remus’s shoulder, charming him in hour-long conversations and sharing earphones to listen to their favourite songs when the aux was off to let people sleep. It could be a chance for Sirius to make progress with his long-time crush, or a chance for him to devastate years of friendship with his hopeless infatuation.
“C’mon, Moony, you’re lucky to be with us! We’ll keep you distracted so you won’t throw up,” Sirius said to Remus in front of the crisps aisle. With James too, they were in the supermarket to stock up on snacks for the trip.
Remus scowled, “Actually, I have tablets for travel sickness now. There won’t be any vomiting.” James and Sirius cheered loudly when he said it, earning themselves shoves on their shoulders.
“Brilliant- you’ll be able to join in the Mario Kart tournament then,” James patted him on the back, “We think we might get almost a thousand races done over the whole trip.”
“… As long as I can be Yoshi.”
“Of course, Moons,” Sirius grinned at him. He watched a soft smile creep over Remus’s face before the man turned on his heel to face the shelves of Doritos.
They left the Tesco with a stash of biscuits, breakfast bars and crisps. Everyone else was at Lily, James and Sirius’s apartment, waiting for their return so they could pack the minivan and depart London.
“Lily!” James’s voice echoed through the whole apartment floor as he unlocked their front door. “We’re back!”
The three men shuffled through the door, and dumped the bags on the kitchen counter, Sirius jumping up to sit on the one space of the counter unoccupied.
James looked rather smug as he watched his girlfriend rummage through the carrier bags.
“We have catered for everyone’s tastes,” he declared, “Countless Snickers for Moony, those berry cereal bars you love, Lils, sweet and salted popcorn for Mary and Marls, Hula Hoops for Dorcas-“ she cheered loudly at the mention of her favourite crisps, and James winked at her, “and of course, Mr Kipling cakes for me and Pads.”
“These go out of date in three days,” Lily snorted as she picked up the cakes from the bag.
James turned to face Sirius, who was grinning,“Padfoot, we have to absolutely speedrun our way through eating these.”
“Fine with me, Prongs,” he nodded, ruffling his hands through his best friend’s curly hair.
The next half an hour was spent loading up the minivan with everyones’ luggage, and the bags of snacks they had. And then another half an hour rearranging it all and ditching bags after they inevitably realised they couldn’t fit it all in there.
“Maybe we should force Moony in the boot again, and put the suitcases on his seat,” Sirius joked as the car boot failed to close for the fifth time.
Remus glared at him, though the corner of his lips were twitching.
“If there’s one person I might put in the boot, it’s you, Sirius,” Lily huffed.
He feigned offence, shaking his head at the redhead, as he leaned against the side of the van.
Finally, they were ready to depart, bags tucked between knees and squished under seats.
“Okay, Mary, pop Google Maps on,” Lily requested as her seatbelt clicked on. Sirius settled against the corner of his seat, his legs squashed against the car door by the bags filled with 2 litre bottled water and diet coke.
“Can I have the aux first?” James asked as soon as the engine started. Sirius snorted; his best friend had been going through a High School Musical phase lately, and was most definitely about to subject the eight of them to Troy Bolton’s vocals.
“Sure,” Lily said apprehensively, as Marlene passed the cord back. Sure enough, ‘Bet On It’ began to sound through the van’s speakers, and he could almost feel Remus’s will to live drain away from beside him.
“Do you like any musicals, Moony?” Sirius asked him, his lips curled up.
“I can’t say I’ve seen many. You showed me the Hairspray movie that one time, and everyone’s seen Hamilton, but that’s about it.”
Sirius gripped the left side of his chest jokingly, his voice exaggerating, “This is but a crime, dear Remus. I just have to enlighten you over this month. We’ll start with Wicked.”
Remus looked amused, “Sure, Pads. It’ll keep us occupied.”
Sirius relaxed back into his seat, pleased with himself. He spent the next hour listening to James screeching out lyrics from the whole trilogy, and gazing out the car window as they drove down the motorway South. He pointed out sheep to Remus whenever he saw them gathered in fields, jumping in his seat like a little kid everytime. The boy beside him just smiled back at him endearingly, his eyes shining as Sirius told anecdotes from when he and Regulus were young and snuck out on walks to see the sheep, and the horses, and the cows, in the farms near their country estate.
“Did your parents never take you to petting farms?” Remus asked.
Sirius shook his head, “I don’t think barns, buckets of hay and goats that bite are really their scene.”
“I’ll take you,” Remus said quietly, “I’ll take you to the one I always went to as a kid, back in Wales.”
Sirius’s cheeks began to hurt from how widely he smiled, “I’m looking forward to that, Moons.”
They were approaching Folkestone now, where the Eurotunnel was, and Lily was telling them to all get their passports out ready for the check-in.
This was always the most monotonous part, going through the border, and Sirius was certain he had lost all blood flow to his lower legs at this point. He ached to stretch them out, but they had to stay in the van during the cross to France. It was only 35 minutes, and when they were in Europe, they would stop for lunch on their way to Paris. He could go for a quick walk then, he thought.
“You okay, Padfoot?” Remus’s voice snapped him out of his thoughtful state, as he felt the train start moving.
“I’m okay,” he nodded, fiddling with his fingers, “It’s a bit cramped,” he said apprehensively, knowing it was likely worse for Remus with how long his legs were.
“C’mon,” Remus gestured to his lap.
The black-haired man stared at him blankly.
“Put your legs up,” Remus elaborated, “I don’t mind.” He flashed a reassuring smile.
“Thanks, Moony,” he shuffled around to stretch his legs across the man’s lap, his back now against the side of the van. Remus rested his hands over Sirius’s knees, and after a few minutes, his long, calloused fingers began tracing shapes over Sirius’s jeans softly.
Sirius stared up at the car roof, his cheeks flushing red.