Title: The Art of Evasive Tea Drinking
Author: Lyra Lupin
Format & Word Count: Ficlet/ Drabble, 567
Rating: G
Author's Note: Why confront life when you can just drink tea?

The Art of Evasive Tea Drinking

The two men sat at the breakfast table in comfortable silence, Sirius with a steaming cup of Darjeeling in one hand and 'The Prophet' tightly gripped in the other. His breakfast partner, Remus, held a porcelain tea cup between his thumb and index finger, leaning back with a large, ancient book from the Black library. In this quiet morning ritual, both men reveled in a meditative solace before the break of day.

However, this morning's routine was about to lose its peaceful aura, as it had every morning this past week. The culprit was a young petite witch wearing pastel heart printed pink flannels and a lavender tummy-baring tank top that left nothing to the imagination. Singing at the top of her lungs, she bounded into the Grimmauld kitchen, her bunny slippers skidding across the tile.

"Ohh, girls just wanna have fun! Girls, wanna have fun, girls!" she sang confidently as her body twisted and jived to the music feed from the strange object connected to her ears, a Muggle listening devise she had called an I- Pod. With an intolerable amount of noise for seven a.m., she pounded through the cabinets for biscuits and clinked around the china cupboard for an empty mug.

Sirius looked over the edge of his paper at Remus who, cup half-raised to his lips, sat frozen. His eyes seemed to be attached to the young woman's wiggling bum as she now leaned deeply into the fridge.

"Something caught your eye, Moony?" Sirius asked, half smiling. The professor did not respond.

"Oi, Remus!" he repeated louder, and Remus started, pale eyes unreadable, voice distant.

"Did you say something?"

Sirius laughed, putting down his paper to take a sip of tea.

"No mate, just making sure your tongue was still in your mouth."

Annoyed, Remus returned to his large tome, but his reading was, once again, interrupted.

"Oh girls just wanna have fun!"

She'd somehow ended up right at his side, singing loudly, her hip bouncing rhythmically against his arm and purposely knocking the ancient volume to the floor.

She pulled a wire out of her ear to say, "It's too early for that! Give a girl some tea, would you?" She smiled blazingly and held out her cup.

Remus silently filled her request and was met with a swift kiss to the cheek.

"Thank you, professor," she replied in her best seductive voice.

Then putting the wire back into her ear, she ruffled Sirius' hair before bouncing out of the kitchen, exclaiming, "Later, cuz! Moony!"

After the Tonks storm had subsided, the kitchen seemed calmer than ever.

"You like her." Black's dark eyes twinkled as he called out his friend.

Remus retrieved and opened his fallen book, casually looking up at Sirius.

"Of course I like her. So do you."

"Remus!" Sirius laughed. "Ask her out! She's obviously fond of you. Trust me, she didn't wear that tiny little shirt for my benefit. "

Remus put down the book and picked up his tea cup in contemplation, answered in a pleasant detached voice he often used when being evasive.

"Maybe someday… someday after all of this is over…Really isn't time for that now."

Sirius huffed. He'd heard this excuse too many times.

"More tea?" Remus asked, lifting the pot.