“seen you from afar, wondered who you are…”
Grey eyes meet his own.
Two men have just entered the store, both looking to be about Remus’s age. The one standing in the front has fair skin that is decorated with a few tattoos on his arms and one just peeking out from the collar of his black tank top. He is wearing dark wash jeans that make his whole outfit look effortless. He has slightly wavy, shiny, black hair that falls perfectly around his face, just above his shoulders. And his face, there isn’t a single flaw about it. Fuck, if he isn’t one of the most gorgeous people Remus has ever seen in his 19 years of living.
The man behind him is wearing a soccer jersey—he assumes, he doesn’t really follow soccer—and a pair of baggy jorts that go just past his knees. He has brown skin and the same color hair as the man in front of him. But as opposed to the neat, long hair he has, the man in the back has short hair that sticks up in every direction. A glance at his face shows that he has circular glasses and warm brown eyes.
Remus looks back at the man with the tattoos and is caught staring. Grey eyes bore into his. The man raises an eyebrow before giving him a knowing smile. Remus feels his face heat up and looks away.
Lily bumps his shoulder, “holy shit.”
He looks at her and her face in a state of awe. He can’t help but giggle a little.
“Hey! Don’t laugh! They’re hot and you know it,” She gestures towards them with her free arm.
“Jesus, Lily! Don’t point!” He mumbles, smacking her arm down.
She huffs and he chances another glance in their direction. The one with the grey eyes is leaning across the counter, talking to the seventies hippie from before. He gives her a smile, showing his teeth, and Remus swears it twinkles. Holy shit this man cannot be real.
He listens closely and catches some of their conversation.
“…they really like poetry, I think. Honestly I have no clue what to get them and I was really hoping you could help me out.” He flashes another winning smile.
“Of course! I know something that would be perfect! Follow me!” the woman says and - oh shit - they’re walking over here.
He quickly diverts his eyes but he can still hear the footsteps walking right behind him. He glances at the floor and sees a pair of brown Mary Jane’s, black Doc Martens, and red Converse covered in dirt. He can guess who’s is who’s.
He tries to start a conversation with Lily to distract himself until someone appears back at the counter and they can check out but Lily is only half listening.
“Remus we should go talk to them,” she says and if that isn’t the most insane shit he’s ever heard.
“Are you insane!!!” He whisper-shouts.
“Oh shit Rem they got their book- oh they’re talking to eachother now- they’re looking over here- they’re moving- oh my god don’t look now they’re coming over here-“ Lily slowly gets quieter as she goes on and she keeps looking between Remus and just behind him.
“The Iliad, huh?” A voice says from over his shoulder.
Remus startles and turns around, fumbling with his book as he does so. He can feel his face heat up again.
Awkward. Awkward. Awkward. His brain chants at him.
“I’m Sirius,” the grey-eyed man says, Sirius, like the star. God, he was screwed.
Sirius lowers himself onto flat feet, now that he was closer Remus could tell he was an inch or two shorter than himself.
“Remus,” he replies, stuttering a bit on his words.
“Finally, someone with a name as weird as mine,” he smiles, “this is James,” he points over his shoulder with his thumb, to the man with glasses. James gives a little wave and a smile.
“I’m Lily,” Lily says from behind him and, oh Lily, his extroverted savior.
James, who was previously looking at Remus, looks at the new voice and is stunned. His smile fades and he stares, a little slack jawed. Lily just grins at him.
Sirius kicks James in the ankle, lightly of course, and he snaps out of it.
“H-hey,” he manages to stutter out.
“Hey,” Lily says coolly.
They both stare at each other for a minute in silence before Sirius clears his throat in an obvious way.
“Anyway! We were wondering what you guys thought about this book? I mean, we trust Alice,” Sirius gestures his head towards the girl behind the counter, “but we would love a second opinion.”
Sirius shows them a book titled Dreams of Love: Rossetti Poetry. Remus raises his eyebrow in questioning.
“It’s for our lesbian friend’s engagement party,” Sirius explains.
“In that case, it sounds perfect!” Lily chimes in and Remus nods in agreement.
“You’re perfect…” Remus hears James mumble under his breath in a daze.
“What was that?”
“Nothing!” James smiles sheepishly and looks down at the floor.
“Well we better go…” Sirius glares at James before turning his attention fully to Remus, “but it was nice meeting you.”
“You too.” Remus is looking anywhere but Sirius’s eyes.
Sirius lingers a bit before heading towards check out, James right behind him. When he is finally turned away Remus lets his eyes follow him. James is chatting with Alice while Sirius busies himself with getting his card out of his wallet. They finish checking out and head towards the door and as they open it, Remus catches Sirius looking back at him. Sirius gives him a little wave before completely disappearing out the door.
Remus can tell, from just that short conversation, that he is going to be thinking about this Sirius for at least a few weeks. A quick glance at Lily tells him that she feels the same about James. She is mirroring how James looked when he first laid eyes on her, her cool demeanor completely dropped. Remus can’t help but laugh.
Lily snaps out of it at the sound of his laughter, “HEY!” she yells at him, “It’s not funny!!”
Remus’s laughter only becomes louder.
“Okay! Okay! You’re one to talk mister ‘R-R-R-Remus,’” she mocks him.
Remus isn’t phased, he just keeps on laughing. Lily is glaring at him but it’s only half-hearted, really.
She continues to try and make her point over his laughter, “you were all ‘oh Sirius you’re so cool and handsome and-‘“
-
A few hours later they are huddled around the television watching the new episode of Yellowjackets, eating dinner from one of the few restaurants they have, Hufflepuff’s, it’s called. Remus sticks a fork in his cheesecake as the exit music for the show plays out of the TV.
“I can’t stop thinking about him,” Remus admits in defeat, with a sigh.
“Me neither,” Lily says and they fall into silence.
He breaks it a few moments later, “I mean we only exchanged maybe a few words! He wasn’t even that hot-“ Lily gives him a look, “okay he was that hot but still!” Remus throws his hands up in defeat.
“You’re preaching to the choir, love.”
“How have we never seen them before?”
“Maybe they’re new in town, maybe they’re on vacation, who knows.”
Lily’s right, he thinks, who knows what they’re doing here. Why should he keep thinking about it? It was such a quick interaction and really he was probably overthinking it. I mean there was no way someone like that was kinda sorta flirting with someone like him. No. No way. He was definitely over analyzing the whole interaction. Really he just had to shove it down into the back of his brain and never think about it again! Perfect plan!
“By the way, Rem—the convo we had earlier reminded me to ask you—did you see that Mary and Marlene are getting engaged?” Lily breaks through his thoughts once again.
He sits up a bit at this, “really?”, he questions.
“Yep,” Lily waves her fork in the air and then looks a little hesitant at what she’s about to say next, “and they’re having an engagement party…” she trails off to let him fill in the blanks.
He realizes what she’s saying and shakes his head, “Can’t go, sorry.”
“Please Rem!” She pleads.
“Lily, I barely know them and you know how I am around crowds. I won’t know anyone there and-“
“You’ll know me!”
“I don’t know, Lily…” he trails off and looks towards the floor.
“I swear i’ll stick by your side all night! And i’ll carry the conversations! And we can stand in the corner and judge people!”
Remus looks up to a grinning Lily, practically begging him to just do this one thing. And as he said before, he would do anything for her, so he relents.
“Fine, i’ll go.”
“Really! Yay, okay! So we need to get a gift for them some time this week because the party is pretty soon, I forget exactly when so i’ll have to check, but I was thinking we could get them-“ Lily starts her rant and he knows there is no backing out of it now. He loves Lily with all his heart so he’ll do it. As long as she’s there he’ll be fine, he always is with her.