for you, to infinity and beyond

“Right, so who is this guy exactly?” I ask, taking a sip of my iced coffee. “You were unnecessarily mysterious about him on the phone.”

Lily hesitates for a second. “It’s… It’s Remus Lupin.”

Both me and James stare in shock.

“Remus Lupin, like the Remus Lupin?” James exclaims. “Your childhood best friend, Remus Lupin?”

She nods.

“Oh my god, Potter, we’re going to meet Remus Lupin.”

Lily rolls her eyes. “You guys need to stop talking about him like he’s a celebrity, he’s just my friend.”

“He’s not just your friend, Evans. He’s your person. He’s your person the way James is my person. He’s so important to you but he lives all the way in Who-Knows-Where, and we’ve never met him. Of course he’s a celebrity.”

“Yeah well, he’s moving here.” She informs us, somewhat reluctantly.

I glance at James to see that he seems just as excited as me.

“Lily, that’s amazing!”

“Yeah, it is,” she agrees, but her face seems to say otherwise.

James’ brow furrows. “What’s wrong, Lils? Aren’t you excited that your best friend’s moving to the same city as you?”

She sighs. “Of course I am.”

“Then?”

She hesitates again.

“Hey,” I say, putting a hand on her shoulder. “If you’re not ready for us to meet him, that’s okay. We can figure something else out.”

She shakes her head immediately. “No, no. If you want to even stand a chance of achieving what you’re trying to achieve, you need his brains.”

James whistles appreciatively. “Your boy’s a genius, huh?”

She nods. “Yeah. I just… He’s my best friend, you know?”

“Yes?” I respond, confused. “Of course.”

“And you guys are also some of my closest friends.”

“So?”

“So, what if you don’t like him? What if he doesn’t like you? What if he moves here and you guys don’t get along, what do I do then?”

Oh. So that’s what it was. I’m almost tempted to laugh at how ridiculous it is.

“Okay, and what if? Lily, he’s your closest friend. I trust your judgement enough to assume he’s not a bad person, and I care about you enough to do my best to get along with him. Considering that he’s your best friend, I assume he’d do the same. And if we still don’t get along, so what? We don’t all have to be buddies to be there for you.”

She looks uncertain for a moment before breaking into a grin. “Yeah, you’re right. Come here, Black.”

She grabs my arm and pulls me into a hug, which I have to say is quite awkward considering there’s a table between us, but I don’t mind. James jumps up and joins in, no doubt feeling left out.

“Alright settle down, guys, he’ll be here any minute,” Lily finally says, her voice muffled by my shirt.

Both James and I drop back into our seats at lightning speed, determined to make a good first impression. Lily snorts before sitting back down.

We stay in silence for a few minutes, the tension palpable. Naturally, I start to get anxious. What if I have something stuck in my teeth and no one told me? What if my eyeliner is smudged? What if I say something stupid and Lily’s best friend hates me? What if he just doesn’t show up?

I get startled back to reality when the café’s entrance bell sounds. Lily jumps out of her seat and calls out, “Remus!”

Before I even have time to catch a glimpse of who she’s talking to, Lily runs to the man that just walked in and jumps into his arms. He catches her easily and squeezes her tight, burying his face in her hair. They fit together so perfectly, it’s beautiful.

I wait in my seat, fidgeting impatiently, but not wanting to ruin the moment.

Lily finally, finally pulls back, and I get a look at Remus Lupin's face for the first time.

And oh.

Oh my god.

That is the most beautiful man I have ever laid eyes on. His eyes flick over to mine for a second, and I can feel my cheeks heat up embarrassingly fast. Oh, this is so not going to go well for me. Why couldn’t Lily have mentioned that her best friend, on top of apparently being a genius, is also unbelievably hot?

James elbows me in the ribs, smirking.

“Keep it in your pants, Black,” he mutters.

“Shut up,” I grumble, no doubt going a deeper shade of red.

He just continues to smirk like the little shit he is.

Lily and Remus start walking back over to the table, and James immediately stops smirking, going right back to being stressed. I comfort myself in knowing I’m not the only one.

Lily grins widely. She rarely looks this happy. “James, Sirius, this is Remus. Remus, James and Sirius.”

Remus lifts a hand in greeting and offers us a crooked smile, and ohmygodIamgoingtodiewhyishesohot.

While my brain short-circuits, James stands and extends a hand, grinning easily in that effortlessly charming way of his.

“Nice to meet you, man. We’ve heard a lot about you.”

Remus shakes James’ hand, and I don’t miss the way he quickly checks him out. I feel a surge of jealousy, but I immediately suppress it. After all, I know my best friend is quite gorgeous, and he deserves to be appreciated.

“Heard quite a bit about you too, James.”

“Have you, now?” James asks, grinning at Lily. She rolls her eyes.

I stand up rather belatedly, realizing that I probably look really rude.

“Hey,” I say, attempting to go for a charming smile and probably only succeeding in looking either flustered, or stressed, or both. “I’m Sirius.”

I mentally kick myself. Yeah, Lily already introduced you, dumbass.

His beautiful crooked smile widens. He seems amused at my expense, which would be annoying if his smile weren’t so goddamn perfect.

“Oh, I know who you are, Mr. Megamind.”

“Oh. You know who I- Right. Of course.” I stutter, sounding like an absolute idiot. A part of me is disappointed that he already knows me as Megamind. I was kind of hoping I could meet Lily’s best friend just as Sirius.

He seems to pick up on it, because he immediately adds. “I don’t follow Metrocity politics, frankly, I don’t give a shit. I know who you are because Lily talks about you a lot.”

“She does?” I ask dumbly.

“Oh yeah, loads. ‘Sirius landed himself in jail again, Sirius dislocated his shoulder again, the idiot did this, the dimwit did that...’”

My face is on fire, and I have the urge to bury myself ten feet under.

Remus glances at Lily before smirking and adding, “For some reason, though, she neglected to mention that the Sirius in question was quite so pretty.”

Oh my god, I am so fucked.

“You think I’m–? You– I–”

“Pretty? Of course. But that’s not news to you, I bet all the guys tell you that.”

I shake my head. “If by ‘all the guys’ you mean James, then yeah, sure.”

Fuck, that is so embarrassing, why did I say that?

Remus has the audacity to look surprised.

“Really? With a face like that, I would think you had a whole fanclub.”

“Stop that,” I respond, getting more flustered by the second.

“Stop what?” he asks, smirking wider.

“That. Stop flirting with me. I don’t know how to respond.”

“Don’t tell me no one’s ever flirted with you before?” There’s the surprise again.

“Of course not! I barely talk to anyone new, and all my friends are lesbians except James!”

Remus bursts out laughing. I’m not quite sure what I said that was funny but his laugh is so bright that I don’t really care.

“Gorgeous and funny, could it get better?”

“Of course it could,” I respond, instinctively self-deprecating, “We have our James here as living proof.”

James frowns disapprovingly and opens his mouth to protest, but Remus speaks before he gets the chance to.

“Oh yeah? And what does our James have that makes him better as you say?”

“Well,” I start, always happy to praise my best friend, “For one, he’s much better at being coherent around hot guys than I am.”

Remus grins. “Hot guys, huh?”

“He’s also a really great cook,” I continue, ignoring Remus’ comment.

He raises his eyebrows. “Oh, is he now?”

“Oh yeah, our James is the best, aren’t you, love?” I grin and knock my shoulder into James’.

He smiles bashfully and shrugs. “Yeah, I’m pretty decent.”

I roll my eyes fondly. “Oh, shut up, you little shit, don’t sell yourself short. Now, where was I? Right, he’s also extremely athletic, I mean just look at those muscles.” I add in a wolf whistle for good measure, and it's James’ turn to roll his eyes at me.

Remus has a strange expression on his face. It’s a mixture of admiration, amusement, and… jealousy?

“You really love showing James off, don’t you?”

“Yeah, of course,” I say mildly confused. “That’s my boy right there, I’ll always show him off. I mean, what’s not to be proud of?”

“No, for sure, I think it’s adorable. But the way you talk about each other, you would think you were dating. I’m honestly kind of surprised you’re not.”

“We’re not?!” James demands, feigning outrage. Then, he laughs and shakes his head. “Yeah, we get that a lot. Sirius even says that whoever ends up marrying me will just have to settle for being the second wife.”

“Third,” Lily chimes in, grinning.

“Shut up, you’re gay,” James retorts, snorting.

“Is that homophobia I detect?”

“Yes,” James replies immediately, completely straight-faced. He makes a big show of grabbing my waist and pulling me into his side. “Fucking hate gay people, man.”

Lily shoots me a look that says this bitch and we burst out laughing. I turn to Remus to see that his eyes are fixed on James’ hand on my waist.

“Jealous, Lupin?” I ask with a smirk, not sure where the sudden burst of confidence comes from.

“Hm, a little.” He mirrors my smirk, and my brain short-circuits yet again.

Lily clears her throat, suddenly looking serious. “Not to break up whatever you guys have going on right now, but we should probably get to the point of the meeting. We’re kind of on a time crunch, aren’t we?”

The mood immediately changes. Without missing a beat, James starts explaining the situation to Remus.

“Right, I don’t know if you know but me and Sirius are actually not from Earth,” he starts off awkwardly. I have the urge to facepalm. Nice going, James, I think, Open the explanation by telling him we’re aliens.

Fortunately, Remus just nods. “Yeah, Lily told me. You’re from… Brumos X18 or something, right?”

“X15, yeah.”

“And…it blew up? So you came here? That was the story if I remember correctly.”

“Well, yes, that is the story. Or so we thought.”

Remus blinks. “You lost me.”

“Basically,” I jump in, because James is clearly incompetent, “Brumos X15 didn’t actually blow up and everyone over there is still alive including my brother who I left behind the first time around. We have to go back for those people, but the catch is that the planet is actually gonna blow up in, like, six months, and Evans here says you’re a genius, so can you help us?”

He stares at me blankly for a few seconds. “So, let me get this straight,” he finally says, “You’re asking me if I can build and launch a rocket, which would have to travel at near impossible speeds, in under six months?”

I shrug apologetically. “Yes?”

He scrubs a hand over his face and sighs. “Jesus, I love a challenge, but this, I mean…”

“How much do you want?” I ask desperately. “I’ll pay you anything, I don’t care.”

Remus looks taken aback. “I… You don’t have to pay me. I just don’t know if I would even be able to do what you’re asking.”

“But it is possible?” James demands, equally desperate.

He hesitates. “Theoretically.”

I dare to hope. “Well, that’s a start, right?”

Remus hesitates again. “How important is this to you guys?”

“It’s my brother. He’s everything to me.”

I can tell he’s having an internal dilemma, but he finally gives in, sighing.

“Okay, I’ll make you a deal.”

“Anything,” I blurt out immediately.

“Well, first of all, I won’t lie, this project is going to be very expensive, and I don’t have the kind of money to afford all the materials.”

I shake my head quickly. “Don’t worry about any of that, me and James will take care of all the money stuff. What else?”

“Right. Now, the most important. You need a team.”

“What?”

“A team,” he repeats. “You don’t think you two can just jump on a rocket by yourselves and go into space, do you?”

I exchange a look with James.

“Well…”

Remus snorts in disbelief. “Oh my god, you guys are unbelievable. Well, newsflash, you can’t do that. Especially considering that this is primarily a rescue mission, you need a team. There’s already you two and me confirmed, Lily, of course, if she wants in, and you’re going to need at least six other people. Less than ten isn’t safe.”

Lily immediately responds. “Well, I’m in, obviously. And I’m sure Mary will be too.”

“I’ll have to ask Dorcas and Marlene. They’ll definitely come, I mean, it’s Dorcas’ home too. My brother was one of her best friends,” I add as an explanation for Remus.

The latter nods. “Good, that just leaves three people.”

James pipes up. “We could talk to Alice and Frank, they’d probably be down. Less sure about them, but it’s worth a shot, right?”

We all nod.

“Alright, great.” Remus takes a sip out of Lily’s coffee, and she glares at him. “Only one person left, then. That can be figured out. We need to get started. Like, now. I’m gonna need your phone numbers.” He winks at me. “You know, for purely professional purposes.”

I blush and fumble to get my phone out of my phone. It’s truly embarrassing how easily Remus Lupin makes me lose my bearings.

We all exchange numbers to be able to keep in contact – and hopefully for other reasons in mine and Remus’ case, if you catch my drift.

Fortunately, my hopes are immediately met. On his way out of the café, Remus turns back to me and says, “Oh, Sirius? I saw a really nice restaurant on the way here. You and I should go get dinner there sometime. What about, say, Friday, seven-thirty?”

I gape in shock for a second. “I- Did you just ask me out? Is that supposed to be a date?”

He smiles, a real, big, soft smile. “I don’t know, would you like it to be?”

My mouth refuses to form coherent words, so I just nod. “Yes, yes, I would like that very much.”

His smile widens, and god, he’s so beautiful.

“Then it’s a date.”

With that, he walks right out the door, leaving me standing there like an absolute idiot.

The minute he’s gone, James nudges me and snickers. “Looks like you guys are getting along wonderfully, then.”

I flip him off and turn to Lily. “Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?”

She bursts out laughing. “Love you too, Black.”