This is for round 9 of the Quidditch Fanfiction Competition. The prompt was to write a character/pairing making a first move in something, or on someone. Additional prompts were neighbour and bustling.
Sirius hated moving house. It was stressful, it took lots of organising and time, having to move everything from one place to another, having to live out of boxes for weeks until everything was finally unpacked. And then realising you had to put everything back into boxes when decorating started.
It was his idea of hell.
That was why he had planned to move once and once only. Out of his parent's house and that was it. That was what had led him to the small, first floor flat that he lived in now.
Watching other people move however…well, it was like watching someone fall over. You knew it wasn't an enjoyable experience, but you'd be lying if you said you didn't find it entertaining to watch.
This was why he was now looking out of his window every so often to watch the new guy move into the flat across the hall. And he definitely wasn't checking him out at every opportunity he had. Definitely not. Even if he did just happen to notice that the new guy was pretty fit. And it was a complete accident that he had observed he had a nice arse.
Okay, so maybe he was checking him out a little bit, but I wasn't his fault that he had a weakness for good looking guys! Or good looking guys who appeared to be moving into the flat across the hall without any help…and who appeared to be struggling with the boxes he had to carry...
Sirius shook his head, turning away from the window. He was not going to flirt with the new guy. He wouldn't be able to face the awkwardness of seeing him all the time if things didn't work out. Definitely no flirting.
That didn't mean he couldn't pine and go help the new guy.
Rolling his eyes at his lack of self-restraint, he headed downstairs to the ground floor to go and offer his new neighbour some help. His very cute neighbour who he could, under no circumstances, flirt with. He repeated the one rule over and over in his head. It was going to be hard – Sirius was naturally quite flirty. He even flirted with Lily. The only reason he was still alive was because James knew that Sirius's flirting with Lily wasn't serious and anyway, the couple had been together so long they were practically married.
Sirius was too caught up in his thoughts – thinking about James and Lily had reminded him it was their anniversary soon and he still had nothing in the way of a gift – to realise that his new neighbour had just walked past him and was starting to walk up the stairs he had just come down from.
"Oh, hey, excuse me?" Sirius spun round, realising that the new guy looked even cuter in person as he turned around. No flirting, he reminded himself, wondering how long it would take for his resolve to crumble and for him to flirt like his life depended on it. He predicted it wouldn't be long.
"Hello?" He replied shyly, sounding confused.
Sirius grinned, "My name's Sirius, I'm your new neighbour. I just…well, I noticed you carrying in your stuff and I thought you might want some help?" He offered. So far so good on the not flirting thing.
"I'm Remus," he answered, his smile as shy as his voice. "And that would be great, thanks," he continued, clearly relieved by the offer of help.
"No problem," he nodded, "It's the silver Lupo outside, yeah?" At Remus's nod he walked outside, his mind churning at a thousand miles an hour. He had never seen a guy who was just so cute before. It was going to make him a little bit crazy.
WIth a small sigh, Sirius picked up one of the boxes from the back of Remus's car, looking down to see what was inside the heavy box. Written on it in cursive writing, the black ink of the marker had turned blotchy when the pen touched the cardboard and he could see where the pen had stilled on the box for longer than it should have, were the words Books 3.
3? How much did this guy read? Three boxes just for books! Sirius chuckled, shaking his head slightly as he started walking back inside and to Remus's flat. Figuring out the mystery that was his new neighbour was suddenly very important. Cute, shy, possibly a massive geek...this really was Sirius's kryptonite.
It only took them a few more trips to get everything upstairs, Remus always bustling past Sirius to go downstairs as he went up them. The entire time they barely said a word to each other and Sirius managed not to flirt - he really did deserve a medal by now. Maybe he could get James to make him one, he was good at stuff like that.
"Knock knock!" Sirius called out as he walked into Remus's flat, a box labelled Books 5 in his hands. He was mystified that someone could own enough books to fill five boxes. He'd theorised that Remus hadn't read them all, and that many of them were presents or something.
Remus smiled, his expression a little more relaxed and open than the first time he had smiled at Sirius. It made his heart skip a little bit, not that he would ever admit to a sappy thing like that. He'd never heard the end of it if James and Lily found out. Sirius could imagine it and fought to quickly shove the thoughts to the back of his mind and to never think of them again. "Can you put them with the other ones, please?" The other asked, breaking him completely out of his train of thought.
"Yes boss," he joked with a small grin before walking into living room and putting the box alongside the other packed books. He looked down at them and, to his further confusion, realised that some of them were bigger than others. There was no way that Remus had filled completely. Yet, when he gently pressed down on the top of the biggest box there was definitely something there, right at the surface.
So Remus liked to read a lot.
Duly noted.
He spun round on his heel to see Remus already in the living room, sitting on the arm of the couch that the previous owner had left. Everything surrounding him was either in boxes or bags, and telling himself that he was not asking Remus on a date - even though he definitely wanted to - he started talking. "Well, Remus, I was thinking-" for a second everything that he had been thinking about Remus ran through his head and he decided it was best to keep that to himself, "-since everything here is boxed up, including all your kitchen stuff...well, you could come to mine for dinner if you want?" He offered, his heart speeding up slightly and his hands starting to get a little clammy. Wait...was he nervous? Sirius was never nervous when it came to asking people on non-dates. He subtly wiped the palms of his hands on his jeans as he waited for Remus's answer.
Luckily, it was only a few seconds before Remus nodded. "Sure, sounds good," he agreed easily.
Sirius nodded, trying not to sag with relief. "Brilliant. Well, it's getting kind of late so you could come over now?" He offered.
Once again Remus nodded, smiling. "Yeah, alright."
A few minutes later, they were standing in Sirius's flat, which he was only now realising was slightly cluttered. Or maybe it just looked cluttered because Remus's had been empty? He mentally shook himself; it really didn't matter. "Make yourself at home," he told Remus before walking to the kitchen. "I've got pizza?" He called from his spot at the fridge, expecting Remus to be in the living room. But when he turned around the person he'd been ogling from his flat window was leaning against the the kitchen doorway, smiling at Sirius.
"Pizza's good," he commented simply.
It took Sirius a minute to remember how to function normally. What the hell was wrong with him today? Maybe not flirting was messing with his head. Or maybe Remus was just too cute for his own good. "Pizza it is!" He declared, pulling the pizza out and trying to concentrate on making it. Somewhat unfortunately, pizza does not take long to prepare and his distraction was in the oven too quickly for his liking.
Sirius plopped down on a chair at the small dining table he had put in his kitchen, pushing the other chair out with his foot in a silent offering for Remus to sit. The other man caught on quickly and sat down in front of him. "So, what do you do?" Sirius asked finally.
Remus smiled, "I'm a high school English teacher," he answered.
High school teacher? He looked like he was still in college. Then again, so did Sirius. But he'd never gone to college, so it was a moot point.
Remus sighed, "I graduated early," he answered Sirius's unasked question and it clearly wasn't the first time he'd had to explain his youth. "I technically should still be taking the teaching course."
Sirius nodded, "Bravo to you then," he grinned. Advantages of Remus: cute, very smart, sweet, easy to get along with. Disadvantages of Remus: they were neighbours and things could get awkward if he tried anything. Then again, that was less of a disadvantage and more of a risk. He could take that risk, right?
"What do you do?" The question pulled Sirius away from his musings.
"I work at a music company. It's not a huge label or anything, so you wouldn't have heard of it, but it's fun," he replied with a light shrug, Not that his parents understood that. He was a useless waste of space according to them, not like his younger brother with his brilliant test results and plans to become a doctor.
"Nice," Remus grinned and Sirius thought his heart might stop. His grin was even cuter than his smile.
"Goonadatewithme?" Sirius blurted suddenly, the words so fast they blurred into one. Smooth Black, you idiot, he thought. James was going to laugh like a maniac when he found out. The Smooth Sirius Black, who could flirt with a tree if he so wished, couldn't flirt with one cute guy. He flushed bright pink and looked away at the oven, praying for the timer to beep. It didn't. He mentally cursed pizza for being so quick to prepare but taking so long to actually cook.
"What? You might want to repeat that, in English this time. Which that certainly wasn't - and I would know," Remus gently teased, although his confusion was evident through his teasing tone.
Sirius sighed, turning back to Remus. "I...I said, go on a date with me?"
Remus stared at him in shock for a few seconds, opening his mouth as if to say something. Sirius quickly cut him off.
"I'm sorry, I know I only met you today, but I really want to go on a date with you. Plus, for some reason I keep getting all nervous around you and I can't flirt anymore and before I could flirt without even meaning to! And I just really want to go on a date with you." He would have continued, but Remus looked...he looked amused. "What?"
"Sirius, I may have...I may have mistaken this for a date," he admitted, his shyness returning and a faint blush blooming on his cheeks.
Now it was Sirius's turn to stare in shock. "Y-you did?"
He nodded, looking down at the table. "Yeah. I mean, most people would've just left me in the flat to get a takeaway or something, but you were asking me to dinner, and you looked kind of nervous...it kind of made sense, you know?"
It did. "Well...I guess that makes things kind of easier then, I don't have to wait to go on a date with you," he grinned.
Slowly, Remus looked up. "I s'pose you're right," he agreed, grinning back at him.
They sat in silence for a minute, just grinning at each other, before Sirius spoke again. "So... can I kiss you now or do I have to wait until I walk you home?"
Remus chuckled, "I thought you were finding it hard to flirt?" He retorted, raising an eyebrow.
"I was. Maybe it's coming back to me," Sirius lightly shrugged.
Remus rolled his eyes playfully, "I suppose now is as good as any other time," he answered finally.
Sirius nodded, "Good," his heart was already racing as he started to lean forward, Remus doing the same. It was so loud he was sure Remus could hear it and was just being polite by not mentioning it.
Their lips were only millimetres apart and their eyes were fluttering closed and then...
The timer went off.
Now you're ready, Sirius thought, a little bitter, lightly resting his forehead against Remus's with a small groan. He could hear Remus chuckling and opened his eyes, brown meeting gold. "Stupid pizza," he murmured, reluctantly getting up and moving away from Remus to turn off the timer and pull the interrupting pizza from the oven.