Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and am not profiting from this story.
Author's Notes: The plot bunny for this wasn't originally mine, but as soon as I heard it, it took up residence in my head as if it had already been there. My friend was kind enough to turn over ownership of said bunny, and then I had to write this, even though I've not done it the way it deserves to be done. And then I had to post it, because I don't know if I could ever do it better.
o.o.o.o
Sirius disappeared after his best man speech. Even James wasn't sure where he'd gone, not that he'd admit it if he did know, and Remus sat and smiled serenely, unknowingly, when asked.
It was an hour later that Lily finally spotted him again. He walked up slowly, meandering really, in a way that seemed as if it were supposed to be aimless. The other black-haired man, the one standing with his arm around her, didn't see him approaching.
It looked like he was coming to her, but he went past her and for a second she thought she'd been wrong. He whispered something to James, who laughed, and then the next instant she knew she'd been right after all. Her husband was letting her go and Sirius was sweeping her onto the dance floor.
"There's no music," she said, because it had stopped ten minutes before, and Sirius looked away for a moment. A song started. It was an old, familiar song that made Lily's stomach flutter suddenly.
They'd danced to this before, once.
"Oh," Lily breathed.
Her eyes were bright and shining as she looked up at him. Her face was shining too, her skin creamy and white, framed by two long dark red curls. He pulled her just a little closer and her dress swirled around their feet.
He meant it when he said, "You look beautiful."
She blushed, and that was better still, because his eyes lit up and he smiled. Suddenly she wished she still had her veil. Shyly she averted her eyes, to stare helplessly at his chest.
His steps faltered.
"Your husband loves you," Sirius told her, just a bit sharply, to make up for the way his pulse quickened. She laid her cheek against him and felt it in the beating of his heart.
"And you," she assured him, and it could mean anything.
The people around them seemed to dim, the murmur of voices growing softer to their ears, the room disappearing. They might have been the only people left in the world.
"My best friend loves me," he said this time, and it was a different statement altogether.
His hand was warm against the small of her back. Hers moved on his shoulder, feeling his personality there, as well.
"And me," she added, and it meant everything.
He slid away a step, so they danced now staring into each other's eyes. His were clouded slightly but bright still. She straightened her shoulders. When she smiled it was warm and soft and everything she could never say with words.
She wondered at him briefly, if he saw it there waiting for him, and begged him with her heart to answer somehow. He knew it and stared a long moment. He considered.
The music was drawing to a close, only a few bars left to enjoy his presence this near, then everything would come back. She wanted to press closer. She wanted to enjoy it before it ended.
"Mrs Potter," Sirius murmured, unconsciously reverent. There was a look in his eye that even James couldn't have read, but he smiled, and finally Lily knew.