Operation save Phoenix Cafe
They didn't go to the cafe the next morning, but they were still up early. They went to as many places that they could that offered printers and made a bunch of business cards, cards that said the name and location of The Phoenix Cafe.
They walked around the busiest parts of Paris, handing the cards out to any stranger who passed them, however the two boys had very different approaches. James would talk about how amazing everything was and hype it up as much as humanly possible. Sirius, well he did it two ways. He would either flirt with the potential customers (to improve his skills for Remus, of course) or grab them and yell "C'est le meilleur endroit pour manger à Paris ! Si vous n'y allez pas, vous ne connaîtrez jamais le bonheur !" A bit on the dramatic side, but it definitely worked because when they peaked at the restaurant at lunch time, there was a line out the door.
A few hours before the time when people would start going to dinner, they passed out the rest of their cards. They continued their face-to-face promoting but also played around and hid them in places where people would find them.
Towards the end of the expected dinner rush, they took another glance and they were even busier than before. They watched as everyone went in, and came back out with satisfied smiles on their faces.
They watched as Lily moved to lock the doors, they ran in at the last minute...totally casual though.
"Sick of us, were you?" She smiled as she let them in, but she looked more excited than they had ever seen her before.
"What on earth do you mean? Sick of you?" James feeling a rush of serotonin and confidence, wrapped his arm around her waist.
She pushed him off, playfully and with a smile, "You didn't come at all today."
"That's what she said." Sirius moved to stand in front of Remus, who was standing at the front table putting his waiter things away and laughing at his joke. "But in all honesty, we were busy today doing some...things..." Remus glanced at him curiously, "and couldn't make it in before closing. Hi Remus."
Remus leaned forward on his elbows so his face was only a few inches from Sirius', "Hi."
Sirius' voice caught in his throat and when he spoke again it was barely a whisper, "Did you miss me today?"
Remus placed one of his hands down on the table and his fingers brushed against Sirius', "Maybe a little." He whispered as softly as Sirius had, who was feeling like he might explode. "What made you so busy today that you couldn't come see me- us? Us, I mean."
Sirius smiled, feeling slightly euphoric, and pulled the last card out of his back pocket, sliding it between Remus' fingers.
He picked up the card and looked at it. He looked up at Sirius, then back at the card. He held it up between his pointer finger and thumb, staring right into Sirius' icy blue eyes, "You did this?"
Sirius just smiled.
He let out a breathy laugh and moved over to where James and Lily were cleaning off tables. He grabbed Lily's hand, placed the card in it, then gave James a knowing look before walking back to the kitchen to tell Peter.
Lily looked down at the card, up at James, then back at the card, "You- you're the reason so many people came in today?" She looked at him with wide eyes.
James laughed, "Two grannies made me kiss them both, luckily on the cheek, before they agreed to come check this place out."
She sucked in a breath and grabbed James' hand, pulling him over to the register. She showed him all the cash in the till and all the receipts. "James," She shook her head, "You don't understand how much this helped us. I- thank you." Her eyes were misty and her hands, shaky.
Sirius flung his arm around James' shoulder, "Don't thank us yet, Love."
She honestly looked slightly scared, "What do you mean?"
Sirius gave her his best cocky grin, "This was just phase one. Hey Pete!" Peter popped his head out of the kitchen window, "How early can you and Lisa get here tomorrow morning?"
The next morning, they were all at the Phoenix bright and early.
Phase two was in motion. The plan was to split into three teams: Peter and Lisa, James and Lily, and Sirius and Remus. They were going out on the town with boxes of food samples to hand out to people, in hopes of convincing them to stop by.
James and Lily lucked out pretty quickly- stumbling across a party in a park. As people surrounded the two of them, James looked over and saw Lily smiling, "I take it you're not made at me for coming up with all these schemes then?"
She looked over at him and laughed, "Not at all! This is seriously one of the best things to ever happen to me." He blushed and looked away, "Out of curiosity...how many phases are there?"
"Three."
"Three?" He nodded and she did a nod back, "So what's phase three?"
"You'll find out tonight." He winked and grabbed a new box.
Sirius and Remus walked around a close perimeter to the restaurant until Remus found out that Sirius has been completely slacking on sight seeing.
"You're telling me that you've been in Paris for almost a month, and haven't gone to the Eiffel tower?"
"That's where all the boring tourists go!"
"Well, that is frankly just not true." He turned and walked backwards in front of Sirius so he could face him, "I go as often as possible you know."
"Really?"
Remus nodded and grabbed a hold of Sirius' hand, "C'mon, I'll show you."
They walked through all the tourist areas of Paris, handing out food and talking poorly in French to locals who glared at them while they did so.
After handing out every last piece of food and throwing away the boxes, they walked through a small park and stopped at a pond. They leaned forward on the railing of the fence that surrounded it and looked up into the night sky.
Remus turned and admired Sirius silently for a few moments before he spoke softly, "Where did you learn French?"
Sirius laughed bitterly, "My parents were very keen on raising me and my brother to be respectable men. They began drilling the French language into us pretty much as soon as we could talk."
Remus raised his brows, "Makes sense. I live here and you speak it better than I do."
Sirius bumped him with his shoulder, "Anyone could speak better French than you."
Remus scoffed at him, "Are you saying I'm rubbish at French?"
"Not at all...well not entirely. You just need some practice." He smiled a toothy grin at him.
"All right then," He turned so he faced him slightly, "teach me some French."
Sirius stood up straight, pretending like this was the moment he had always dreamed of, "Repeat after me if you will..." Remus laughed, "Mes parents m'ont nommé d'après un loup."
Remus rolled his eyes, "Mes parents m'ont nommé d'après un loup."
Sirius smiled, satisfied with the fact that Remus was actually doing this. He cleared his throat and spoke again, "J'aimerais acheter des fleurs de garçon très attrayantes."
Remus laughed, "J'aimerais acheter des fleurs de garçon très attrayantes."
"Sirius ne ressemble pas à une bite quand il parle français."
Remus turned to face him. His voice still had the ghost of a laugh to it, but he spoke quietly just to him, "Sirius ne ressemble pas à une bite quand il parle français."
The corner of Sirius' mouth tugged up into a half smile. He was completely lost in Remus. He licked his lips softly and the words poured out of his mouth before he could really process what exactly it was he was saying, "Je veux vraiment t'embrasser tout de suite."
Remus smiled and placed his hands very lightly on his hips, "Alors fais-le."
Sirius smiled and pressed up slightly to place his lips on Remus'.
They were only there for a second before Sirius pulled away, breaking the kiss, but keeping their faces close together. Remus smiled. A big full smile, and Sirius mirrored it. Remus moved one hand onto Sirius' cheek and pulled him in for a long kiss.
Their lips moved in sync and when Sirius' parted slightly, Remus' tongue dipped between them- tasting Sirius. Sirius let out a heavy breath, a gasp- somewhere between an exhale and a moan and Remus pulled their bodies together while simultaneously pressing Sirius back against the wooden railing. Sirius twisted his tongue with Remus' and he tangled his fingers into his hair. Their kiss was everything that Sirius had imagined during many sleepless nights in his hotel bed. Everything and so much more.
Remus hesitantly pulled away and placed his forehead against Sirius'. Sirius blushed and let out a laugh. Remus laughed too, "What?"
Sirius cocked his head to the side with a goofy grin, "I think you're actually pretty good at...French." Remus laughed as the insinuation rolled off Sirius' tongue, "You probably don't need practice."
Remus rubbed his thumb across the other boy's jaw, "I don't know...I quite enjoyed our practice." And he pulled Sirius in for a heated kiss. Sirius kissed him back eagerly, wrapping his arms around his neck. Remus had one hand still on his cheek, the other on his hip.
The hand on his hip moved to his back and began to slowly travel down lower. Sirius pulled back, breathless and overwhelmed. Remus nudged Sirius' nose with his and dipped his head to talk against his neck, "Um...do you need to go back to your hotel? Because uh- my studio isn't far, if you want to go check it out?"
Sirius just nodded, probably more enthusiastic than he should have, and Remus pulled away completely, gesturing for Sirius to follow him. They kept their distance throughout the walk to Remus' place, but the distance was ignored as soon as they stepped through the door.
Remus had his lips attached to Sirius' neck, pushing against him and tugging at his clothes. Sirius' head lolled back, allowing Remus full access to his throat, laughing breathlessly and palming Remus through his jeans.
When they reached the bed, they were both fully stripped down to their underwear and rubbing carelessly against each other. Remus pushed Sirius onto the bed and crawled on top of him. Both of them had blown pupils and staggered breaths. When Remus was fully on top, Sirius grabbed onto his neck and crashed their lips together. Their hands grasping for every part of each other that they could reach, feeling the connection coursing through them.
Remus moved from his mouth to his throat, then his collarbones, and started a trail down his chest. When he reached Sirius' waistband, Sirius let out a laugh. A hard, breathy one that shook his entire body.
Remus pulled back up to his face, "What? What's going on?"
Sirius just kept laughing despite the worried look on Remus' face, "I was supposed to take you back to the Phoenix for phase three."
Remus let out a relieved breath and leaned down to kiss Sirius, who was still laughing, totally blissed out.
After Sirius located his phone from his discarded jeans and texted James, he laid back down in the bed next to Remus. They just laid there. Exchanging soft (and sometimes not so soft) kisses, laughing, and telling stories until they both fell asleep; Remus pressed against Sirius' back with his lips grazing the nape of his neck.
James and Lily reached The Phoenix Cafe right as Sirius texted James, "Looks like it's just you and me for phase three, Evans."
"Mhm..." she scooted to stand closer to him, "and what exactly is phase three?"
James opened the door and Lily was lost. Sitting at one of the tables was two women. One with black, curly hair and dark skin, the other blonde with her hair pulled back into a sleek pony. And they looked to be taste testing her food.
"Dorcas, Marlene, this is Lily. Lily this is Dorcas and Marlene- lesbians."
"Shut the fuck up, James!" The blonde one yelled from her seat.
"Uh- nice to meet you?" Lily turned to look at James, "I don't know what's going on."
James moved to sit next to the two girls, "Dorcas and Marlene are getting married here in Paris in a couple of days, and their food fell through last minute. Now that they have tasted your food and enjoyed it, they have agreed to my proposition, so now you just have to. Lily. Would you like to cater a very fancy and high-end wedding?"
Lily just sat there with her mouth gaped open.
"I'm Dorcas." The one with the curly hair stepped forward with a comforting smile, "We really like your stuff and would love for you to cater our wedding. Here's how much we are willing to pay if you take the job."
Lily took the piece of paper that Dorcas was holding out and when she saw the amount on it, she nearly collapsed. "Holy shit." Her eyes shot to James, who was already looking at her knowingly, "This would save the restaurant."
"This would save the restaurant." He confirmed.
She let out a sound that was halfway between a cry and a laugh, "Holy shit."