Sirius couldn't help but admit that he was a little disappointed. It was February the fourteenth, the most romantic day of the year. For the past week he'd been looking forward to spending the day with Remus (who he still couldn't believe had agreed to go out with him). He hadn't really expected Remus to buy him a gift with the little money he had (although he did have a cheesy, heart-shaped box of chocolates hidden under the table by his bed for the werewolf), but it was a Saturday, and he'd wanted to at least have the chance to spend time with his boyfriend.

But, by the time Sirius had managed to drag himself out of bed, there was no trace whatsoever of Remus Lupin. He'd gone down to breakfast, expecting to see him there, but Lily had told him that he'd already eaten, and Remus had gone off to the library to study.

Sirius, who was now thinking that their supposedly perfect day was already looking like it wasn't going to be as great as he'd thought, finished eating and headed straight for the library. He wondered why Remus had gone there today without Sirius (not that Sirius would have been much happier if Remus had thought to take him). Although they hadn't discussed spending the day together, it seemed to be the obvious thing to do.

Maybe it was to Sirius, but Remus didn't seem to grasp the concept.

He wasn't in the library, either. Sirius was getting confused now, and a little bit worried. Where could Remus possibly be?

He searched the school for the werewolf, and found no trace. And now here he was, sitting all alone in the common room on Valentine's Day, with no friends (they all had dates) and no Remus.

It was eleven in the morning before Sirius was roused from his dejected position on the armchair by the swinging open of the portrait hole. He turned his head, checking to see if it was Remus for what felt like the hundredth time, and his heart leapt.

"Moony!" he cried, racing to the werewolf. Remus looked up, startled by the enthusiasm of the greeting.

"Hi Sirius," he said. "What's up?"

"Where have you been?" the animagus demanded. "I've been looking everywhere!"

"I was studying behind the portrait of Mendola the Mad," he informed Sirius, who took belated note of the pile of books Remus had in his arms. "I always study on Saturdays."

"But Moony," Sirius whined as Remus led the both of them up to the dormitory. "It's Valentine's Day."

"Oh," Remus said. "Is it?"

"Yes!" Sirius exclaimed. To be honest, he was a little hurt by the fact that Remus didn't care about their relationship enough to remember Valentine's Day.

"Oh. I'm sorry Padfoot. I thought I told you; I don't celebrate Valentine's Day."

"What?"

"I don't celebrate Valentine's Day."

"Yes, yes, I heard you. But how do you not celebrate Valentine's Day?"

They entered the dorm and Remus placed his books neatly beside his bed. "I don't know," he said shrugging. "It's just… I think that it's pointless."

"Pointless?" Sirius looked as though Remus had just said Merlin was nothing but a walking ape with a wand.

"Yeah. I mean, if you really love someone, you should show your love to them any day and every day. If you think about it… Valentine's Day is just a way of saying… hey, I gave you flowers on February the fourteenth, I don't have to bother for another year."

"Remus, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!" Sirius exclaimed, genuinely shocked. Remus, for his part, just looked surprised at the extent of offense Sirius seemed to take at the idea. "That is really unromantic!"

"Is it?" Remus asked.

"Yes!"

Remus sighed and sat down on his bed. "Well I'm sorry, Sirius. It's just what I think."

"In that case, I won't give you the chocolates I brought for you."

"You bought chocolate?" Remus sounded tempted by the idea of his favourite food.

"Yeah. Next year I won't bother."

"I'm sorry Sirius. I should have got something for you, even if I don't believe in the holiday."

Sirius' anger and disappointment melted as soon as he glanced at Remus. Dammit, he'd thought that he was the master of the guilty, apologetic puppy-dog face. "It's okay," he said. "We should have talked about it. It was just a misunderstanding."

"Yeah," Remus agreed. "Tell you what, why don't we sneak down to the Three Broomsticks? There's still a lot of the day left, and you know Rosmerta won't try to send us back to school on Valentine's Day." Sirius did know that. Rosmerta, the pretty young barmaid, was all too often there to catch them when they snuck out of school, and refused to serve them alcohol (which was why the Marauder's had to resort to the Hog's Head). But, despite her firmness and disapproval of their lack of school attendance, she had a bit of a soft spot for the four lads. On Valentine's Day, borh of them knew that Sirius could convince her to let them stay.

The early evening found a much more cheery Sirius downing another bottle of butterbeer (they'd taken quite a few for the road) as they sat in the empty dorms. Between them was the almost empty box of Remus' chocolates which Sirius had decided to present to his boyfriend after all.

"You know what," he said as he threw his arm around the werewolf. He wasn't exactly drunk - butterbeer wasn't anywhere near strong enough for that - but Remus reckoned that he'd had more than ten bottles of that stuff over the course of the day. That was enough to make anyone tipsy. "You know what, Remmy?"

"What, Sirius?" Remus asked patiently.

"You know what? This day worked out alright after all."

A smile tugged at the corners of Remus' mouth. "It did, didn't it?" he said contentedly.

"You know what else?" Sirius said. He leant closer to Remus and whispered in his ear, in a voice that had miraculously lost its previous slur. "I'm not nearly as drunk as you think I am."

For some reason, both Sirius and Remus seemed to find this exceptionally funny, and they were in stitches within a matter of moments, clutching their sides as they laughed like maniacs. Before long, they were in a heap on top of each other on the bed, giggling like little schoolgirls, helpless to stop.

They really weren't as drunk as they seemed, but both of them couldn't help feeling that it was so nice to just… let go. To not worry about exams, about Death Eaters, about your Voldemort-supporting-family and the fact you were turning into a monster within the next month… they both needed to forget. Just for a little while.

And they did forget, Remus would realise later. They gazed into each other's eyes (once they'd recovered from their bout of laughter) and suddenly everything else just vanished. Even the fact that James or Peter might walk in on them at any moment stopped worrying them.

Their faces were so close they could almost be kissing. Just leaning forwards one inch and they'd be locked at the lips. "I've thought of a present for you," Remus whispered. "In return for the chocolate."

"You don't have to," Sirius protested. Remus silenced him with a kiss.

"I want to," he said after he'd pulled away.

And then Sirius gasped, because Remus' hand was trailing down his body, and getting closer and closer to the growing lump in his trousers. Sirius shut his eyes, tight, at the amazing sensation.

They'd only ever gotten as far as kissing before. They'd both got hard from it, but it had been an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't go any further. Sirius hadn't wanted to pressure Remus into anything, and he definitely hadn't wanted their relationship to crash and burn; it would probably have taken their friendship with it.

But now Remus' hand was at his crotch, running over his prominent erection. "Remus," he whispered.

And then Remus' lips silenced him once more. A tentative flick of Remus' wet tongue against his lips was all it took to tempt Sirius into opening his mouth and allowing Remus to taste him. While this was happening, Remus started undoing the buttons on Sirius' pants.

He didn't have a very good position to do this though, and he was really using only one hand, which makes it near impossible. To make matters worse, he was in a hurry - never something that helped. Soon, Sirius was fumbling with his trousers too, in an attempt to help the other boy.

He managed to get his pants off - mostly - but they didn't get further than the underwear at that point. Sirius pulled Remus on top of him so they were lying horizontally on the bed, both locked at the lip. Hormones going crazy and unable to help himself, he began grinding up into Remus - whose groin was in a similarly aroused state. Together, they began to rut against into each other.

It wasn't long before they were close to the edge. Before they could come, however, Remus stopped their hips and slid down Sirius' body so he was crouching on the floor between the other boy's legs. Sirius could barely keep his mouth from falling open in shock (and arousal) as Remus grabbed his erection through the fabric.

"Oh," Sirius gasped as he felt that warm hand moving over his member. Remus grinned up at him, looking positively devilish from where he was sitting. Sirius squirmed helplessly as the werewolf began pumping him with full enthusiasm.

Before he knew what was happening, his underwear was off and Remus had his bare hand grasping Sirius' exposed flesh. His eyes were squeezed tight so that the erotic sight alone wouldn't make him come, which meant he didn't actually see Remus rid him of his underwear. But he felt it happen as the werewolf's grip suddenly got better position and his soft skin could be felt as he stroked. With his eyes shut tight, he completely missed it when Remus brought his free hand down to cup his own significant bulge in his jeans.

After that, what with the pulling and the squeezing and the rubbing and the fondling - oh! The fondling! Sirius had never felt anything like it before in his life! - it wasn't long before Sirius was bucking up into the warmth of Remus' hand as he spurted everywhere. After all, he was a relatively inexperienced teenage boy. He'd lasted quite well, considering.

Remus grabbed some handy tissues from his bedside cabinet to clean them both up; Sirius had quite a projectile range. Then, the tissues suitably disposed of, he nudged and pushed Sirius until the other boy had crawled beneath the covers and promptly joined him (clothes and all).

"What about you?" Sirius asked as he pulled the werewolf into his arms.

Even in the dim light Remus' blush was visible. "I'm sorted."

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked. Remus turned even redder.

"I'm sorted," he repeated. "I… came when you did. In my pants," he added, for Sirius' benefit.

Sirius tried to ignore the way his (very) spent cock twitched at the eroticness of those words. "I see," he said into Remus' neck. "Then I shall have to find some other time to repay the favour."

"But the… well, that… was in return for the chocolates," Remus protested.

"Yeah, but I ate half of those," Sirius reasoned. "Stop arguing," he said, interrupting Remus as he tried to object again. "Besides, if I do that to you, then you can return the favour to me again."

That stopped Remus' protest in its tracks. "Sounds like a fair deal," he agreed, feeling his eyelids drooping. He could have sworn he hadn't been this tired earlier. It must have been the butterbeer.

"I should go back to my own bed," Sirius said sleepily, making no move to do so. "James and Peter'll be coming back some time tonight."

"Mm," Remus agreed.

But the warmth of the bed and the comfort of the other's arms were too much, and neither of them made any more talk of attempting to move. In fact, neither of them made any more talk at all before they fell asleep, warm and comfortable, and with the one they loved.

And James and Peter did come back to the dorm, but when they saw the position their friends had fallen asleep in, they quietly pulled the curtains around the bed and left them to dream peacefully.

Well, Remus and Sirius both wished that was what happened.

Instead, they drew inappropriate genitalia on their faces with an ink spell that wouldn't come off for another week, and then they pulled the curtains and let them sleep.

But other than the fact that many students pointed and laughed at the couple for the next few days - until McGonagall figured out how to remove the spell under the grounds that it was a "graphic image" that shouldn't be shown to any students younger than sixth year - Remus and Sirius thought that their Valentine's Day was damn near perfect.

And they continued to exchange their gifts for a long time after the holiday had ended.

Beta: chronicxinsanity