Five whole years had passed since two Gryffindor lovesick boys, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, had finally built up the courage to confess their feelings for each other, near the end of their 6th year at Hogwarts.
It was now the evening of their 5th anniversary together, and Remus found himself nervously running around the small living room of the apartment he shared with his boyfriend (and soon to be fiancé, if things went according to planned), desperate to make sure that everything was as perfect as it could get for his surprise for Sirius.
It took almost two hours until Remus finally seemed content with the result of his hard work. The light in the room was dim, coming exclusively from small candles that he had spread through the entire place. The sound of romantic music could be heard coming from the radio (Sirius loved common muggle stuff such as that) and the smell of freshly made dinner filled Remus’ nostrils.
He checked one more time to see if the small velvet box was still safely inside the pocket of his jacket and then went to sit next to the television, an useless effort to try and calm his nerves from the fact that he was about to fucking propose to the man of his life, who was supposed to get home from work in about thirty minutes.
Which was mostly why Remus was so startled when, just fifteen minutes later, a series of low knocks echoed through the front door of the apartment.
Frowning, he got up from the couch and went towards the door. It was classic of Sirius to forget his keys, something that Remus had gotten used to ages ago, but the other man usually just apparated inside.
However, it wasn’t his boyfriend that he found as he opened the door.
“Lils?” he asked in confusion as he stepped aside to let her in, closing the door behind him, “What are you doing here? Everything alright?”
“Hey, Rem,” she greeted him with a guilty look on her face, “I am so sorry to bother you today, I know you have plans, but is there any chance you could come home with me for a minute? Harry won’t stop crying because he broke his favorite toy again and you are the only one who knows how to fix that thing.”
Remus hesitated for a few seconds, turning his head to look around the small living room. It was just his luck that that had to happen exactly on that day.
He wanted to be home when Sirius arrived. He wanted to see the look on the other man’s face, full of surprise and love, and then kiss the hell out of him.
On the other hand, James and Lily were always there for him when he needed them, and he couldn’t just leave his friends with a crying baby and no way to make him stop. Besides, he still had, like, ten minutes.
“I promise it will be quick,” Lily added a few seconds later, probably sensing his conflict.
Making up his mind, Remus grabbed his wand from where it laid on the couch and, with just a flick of it, all the candles were blown out (he didn’t want any accidents happening while he was gone). Then, he secured the long piece of wood in his pocket and offered Lily his hand.
“Remus, you are a life saver,” Lily beamed at him as she took his hand, making him chuckle and playfully roll his eyes at the girl, and on the next second they were already apparating away.
The unpleasant, yet already familiar sensation of messy limbs and dizziness took over, but before Remus knew it, his feet found solid ground again.
He opened his eyes and...
“Wait, what? Lils, what’s going on?”
The room they were standing in was involved in darkness and no sounds could be heard, everything was completely silent. There definitely weren’t any crying Harry Potters anywhere around.
Lily giggled next to Remus in response to his question, and he was about to start speaking again when, suddenly, the lights were on. He blinked a few times to get used to the sudden brightness and began to scan his surroundings.
The first thing he noticed was the queen sized bed on the corner of the big room, immediately realizing they were at the Potter’s guest room. Turning his head a little more to the left, Remus found Lily, still giggling softly and wand in hand, looking at him with a mixture of amusement and excitement in her eyes.
It was when Remus completely turned around that his heart almost jumped out of his throat.
James was sitting in a bench behind his piano, a big smirk on his face. But it wasn’t at James that Remus was looking at.
Standing there, on his friend’s left side, was Sirius. He was wearing his leather jacket (that thing was practically a part of him, not that Remus had any complaints), dark jeans and a pair of boots, with his hair hanging loosely just above his shoulders.
“What...I...You...What?” Remus stuttered without being able to take his eyes off his gorgeous boyfriend.
Sirius simply chuckled and looked at Remus fondly, “Hello, love.”
“I thought you were still at work?” Remus spoke, looking a bit dazed to see Sirius standing there.
“Yes, well, my boss let me leave early today. I wanted to surprise you.”
Remus was actually afraid that his cheeks would split in half from the force of his smile, but he couldn’t care less.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you, too,” Sirius beamed at him for a moment, then glanced quickly at James before turning back to Remus, “Actually, I prepared something for you.”
“Oh?”
It wasn’t until Sirius bent down to grab it that Remus noticed the guitar that was hidden behind where James was sitting. Sirius carefully placed the instrument in his arms and lifted his head to look at Remus again, grey eyes meeting amber ones before he spoke, almost in a whisper.
“Happy anniversary, baby.”
Remus watched in awe as Sirius skillfully guided his fingers through the cords, producing a slow and beautiful melody in which James immediately started following in the piano.
Sirius’ silky voice followed only a few seconds later, reaching Remus’ ears like honey and melting his insides.
“Every time our eyes meet,
This feeling inside me,
Is almost more than I can take,
Baby when you touch me,
I can feel how much you love me,
And it just blows me away,
I’ve never been this close to anyone or anything,
I can hear your thoughts,
I can see your dreams,”
Remus felt tears starting to form in his eyes, but he couldn’t even move his hands to wipe them away. Sirius was looking at him like he was the most precious thing in the world, and Remus was actually afraid that he might pass out from emotion.
“I don’t know how you do what you do,
I’m so in love with you,
It just keeps getting better,
I wanna spend the rest of my life
With you by my side,
Forever and ever,
Every little thing that you do,
Baby, I’m amazed by you,”
Remus noticed Sirius’ eyes were starting to water up as well, but the other man took advantage of the small pause after the chorus to swallow and blink the tears away. However, the emotion in his voice was unmistakable when he started singing again.
“The smell of your skin,
The taste of your kiss,
The way you whisper in the dark,
Your arms all around me,
Baby, you surround me,
You touch every place in my heart,”
Remus chuckled through the tears and smiled fondly at his boyfriend as he made an exaggerated gesture towards his heart to accentuate the lyrics.
“Oh it feels like the first time every time,
I wanna spend the whole night in your eyes,
I don’t know how you do what you do,
I’m so in love with you,
It just keeps getting better,
I wanna spend the rest of my life,
With you by my side,
Forever and ever,
Every little thing that you do,
Oooh,
Every little thing that you do,
Baby, I’m amazed by you.”
A silent moment passed, in which Remus just stood there, staring unblinkingly and adoringly at Sirius. Then his brain seemed to start functioning again and he threw himself at the other man, hugging and kissing him as if his life depended on it.
Once they broke apart, both were out of breath and grinning like idiots. It took only one look at Sirius and the words were out of Remus’ mouth before he could even process them.
“I have a surprise for you, too.”
“You do?” Sirius asked him, his expression filled with glee, and Remus nodded with a nervous smile on his face.
“This isn’t how I was going to do this, you know? I cooked your favorite meal, picked up some movies and I even submitted myself to the embarrassment of filling our bed with a pathetic amount of rose petals, knowing that you will mock me about it later, because I thought that would be romantic. But now, I can’t think of a more perfect moment than this.”
The confusion was written in Sirius’ face, but Remus continued talking before the other man could ask what the hell was he talking about.
“Sirius...Padfoot...Pads...You were the first person to ever make me feel like there was more to me than my furry little problem. You made a scared eleven year old boy feel accepted, worthy and loved. I fell in love with you when I was fifteen, and I never thought I would be so lucky to have my feelings returned. That was until that day in sixth year when you told me that you loved me, and that is a day I will never forget. We’ve been together for five years now, and I never want to let you go. Sometimes I feel like saying ‘I love you’ isn’t enough to express my feelings for you, but I will gladly say it to you for the rest of my life, if you let me.”
Remus could hear the surprised gasps coming from where James and Lily were standing as he got down on one knee, took the velvet box out of his jacket and opened it, revealing a silver ring with a moon intertwined with a star.
But nothing, nothing could have distracted him from Sirius, who took both his hands to his mouth with a small gasp and looked as if he was struggling not to break down crying.
“Sirius Black, will you marry me?
The words had barely gotten out of Remus’ mouth when he was suddenly tackled to the ground and his lips were attacked by Sirius’.
They kissed passionately, forgetting all about the fact that they weren’t the only ones in the room, savoring the taste and feeling of each other.
Remus never wanted that moment to end. He didn’t care about how uncomfortable his current position on the floor was, he just wanted to hold Sirius and kiss him and never let anything ruin that moment...
“I think that was a yes,” James’ failed attempt at a whisper reached the couple’s ears and they couldn’t hold in the hysterical laughter that came to the surface, forcing them to break the kiss.
As both men moved to stand up, slightly breathless, Remus heard what was probably the sound of Lily slapping James in annoyance. However, he looked at the girl just in time to catch her trying to hide a smile.
“As if my answer could ever be any different,” Sirius spoke, his eyes shinning as brightly as the star that he was named after, “Of course I will marry you, Remus Lupin.”
Remus let out a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding and beamed at him. He carefully took the ring out of the box and tried to put it on Sirius’ fingers, but almost let it fall due to his trembling hands.
He heard Sirius chuckle lightly and then felt the other man’s hands holding his and giving them a firm squeeze, and the trembling stopped almost immediately.
As soon as the ring was safely where it was supposed to be, James let out a high pitched squeak and ran towards them, throwing his arms around the two boys. Lily didn’t try to stop him, though, and was quick to join the hug.
They laughed, cried and hugged each other for a while, until Remus suddenly remembered something that was at the back of his mind.
“Hey, where is Harry, by the way?”
“Oh, we left him with my parents today,”James answered, looking at Lily with a mischievous smile, “Lily made that up to make you come over.”
Remus shook his head at the girl, impressed.
“Your wife is one clever woman, James.”
“You bet I am,” she winked.
Remus laughed at her, but stopped when he felt a pair of eyes on him. He turned around and his breathing quickened at the intensity of Sirius’ stare.
Lily must have sensed the change in the atmosphere because she took a quick look at them and pointed towards the door.
“We’re going to give you guys some privacy.”
“Wait, now?!”
She had to practically drag James out of the room, but soon Sirius and Remus found themselves alone. Sirius moved his hand to the curls on the back of Remus’ neck and gently pulled him down to rest their foreheads together.
“I am going to be Sirius Lupin,” he whispered, emotion weighting his voice.
Remus smiled at him, “You are.”
Then, in a swift move, he leaned down and took his fiancé in his arms, holding him close to his chest and taking the laughing man to the big bed on the corner of the bedroom.
And if they were a bit too loud with their celebration, James and Lily didn’t say anything. They were more than happy for their best friends.