"Reeemus"

I continue reading. He sighs.

"Remus, if you don't answer I can get you fired, you know this."

I lower my book and give him an annoyed smile. Working in a bookshop had been a dream come true. The very annoying boss however, was not part of this dream. The very annoying, extremely hot boss. Also very straight.

"What do you want Sirius?"

"I want you to talk to me!" Except for the occasional drop-in, Sirius only was in the store on Mondays but he had recently taken to coming in more often than before.

"Can't you talk to someone else and let me read?"

"Who else? No one is here!" It was true. Bookstores at Thursdays in the morning wasn't many persons hang out-places, except the occasional elder, but not even Mrs. Hanson was here to kill some time this morning.

"Maybe you should talk to one of your friends. Or girlfriends." The last remark was said with a smirk. I had seen one too many of his lady-friends not to notice that there was no way he could actually be faithful to all of them.

"Funny thing is, not a single one of those people are here! And, I want to talk to you! Tell me more about the mysterious Remus!" His affectionate smile is spreading across his face and makes my stomach make a flip. He really is too beautiful to be true. No wonder girls are always throwing themselves at him.

I think about his question. What is there to know about me? Of course, not the things he would find the most exciting, it probably wouldn't be good for business to have a gay man working in the store. But it was he wanted to know, I was sure of it. It had finally dawned on him that I stared too much on his muscled arms or looked a little bit too impressed when he straddled his motorcycle. Not that his motorcycle wasn't impressing, but I would definitely be more impressed if he were to straddle me…

"Hellooo, earth to Remus!" A piece of crumbled paper swooshed next to my head.

"Well, what do you want to know then?" I asked. If he, for some reason, would ask, then I supposed I just had to tell the truth. Not about the crush I seemed to have developed on him, but about my preferences, sure. I didn't think he would mind, not really. Under the time I had gotten to know him, nothing seems to point in the direction of homophobia. Of course, this isn't a subject that comes up so often.

"I want to know about this!" And with reflexes way too fast, he snatched my arm and in seconds had the shirt rolled up. "Look at these scars! Where you really that depressed?"

I stare at my own arm and almost completely forgotten memories raced through my brain.

Seeing how I, once again, started to lose focus on the real world I guess I couldn't blame Sirius for doing it. But it still hurt! He had taken hold on my arm with both his hands and swiftly rotated them, one hand left and the other right.

"Did you just do that? You're such a child!"

"Well, you are the one zoning off all the time!" Well, I can't really argue about that.

"I don't like talking about it." I took my arm back and rolled down the sleeve again.

"Just say so then, instead of going into dreamland!"

A few angry glances back and forth until Sirius can't be quiet for any longer.

"Tell me something else!"

"What do you want to know? I don't want to sit here and tell you my life story."

"Fine. How about your parents?" Quick to adapt to the crumbs he's getting from me. Never unhappy, that's what I lov- liked about him. Liked. No matter how nice he was, or how nice he looked, you can't very well date your boss. If nothing else because then his girls, sweeping in here to yell, simply kiss him or the occasional slap, would hurt my feelings even more. No Sirius Black for me.

I don't care if he thinks that I stare. It's not my fault that he's being bloody good-looking, with a mysterious background and sexy scars to boot. In fact, when I see it like that, it's actually HIS fault that I'm staring at him! How very rude wouldn't I be if I did not do what his entire presence told me too? Clearly I had been out of my mind when I hired him. Even if he was a much better salesman than Peter ever had been. It also was fortunate to be rid of Peter, much longer with him would have caused my head to explode and him in tears. So it was the best for everyone that James managed to get Lily knocked up, making his parents seeking new employment.

And that's when Remus had entered their lifes.