Author's Note: Happy birthday, Liza! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it. :D
Many thanks to Sam and Lo for betaing this and helping me work through the technical issues of living on the moon. :)
Also written for…
(Writing Club) Disney Challenge. Prompt: Write about experiencing a sense of freedom the character hasn't had before.
Hogwarts Assignment #12. Lesson: Gardening, task 10. Task: Write about a character with a floral name. (Remus)
(Writing Club) Ami's Audio Admirations. Prompt: Write about a group of two or more growing stronger together.
(Seasonal) Shay's Music Challenge. Prompt: write about travelling away from home for a long time
(Seasonal) Days of the Month. Prompt: Write about Remus Lupin. Alt, set a fic on the moon.
(Writing Club) Lyric Alley. Prompt: Revealing the truth that was buried inside
(Writing Club) Em's Emporium. Prompt: Write a fanon pairing (wolfstar)
(Seasonal) Gryffindor Themed. Prompts: Remus, adventurous
(Writing Club) Character Appreciation. Prompt: Regulus Black
(Seasonal) Birthstones. Prompt: "He gives me butterflies."
Who's Your Daddy Challenge. Prompt: James Potter
Insane House Challenge. Prompt: An almost kiss
(Writing Club) Lo's Lowdown. Prompt: Space!AU
(Writing Club) Showtime. Prompt: Celebrate
Holmes Mystery Challenge. Prompt: Stars
Film Festival. Prompt: An almost kiss
Faerie Day Challenge. Prompt: New
365 Challenge. Prompt: Space!AU
World Cup. Prompt: Wolfstar
I'll Give You the Moon
3,592 words
"The shuttle is almost here," Alice announces, ducking from the room before Sirius even registers what she's said.
He's quick to run after her. The shuttle is just touching down when they arrive at the landing pad and they stand together, bouncing with excitement as they watch the passengers flood out of the small vessel.
"There are less than last time," Frank notes quietly. He stands in front of Sirius and Alice to address the newcomers—their would-be commander.
"Welcome to the moon." There are some cheers from the crowd. "My name is Frank Longbottom, your foreman. This is my wife, Alice, our engineer. And this is Sirius Black, one of the most dedicated builders on the team."
"And I'm the most handsome man on the planet," Sirius puts in, grinning at the crowd. He receives exactly one cheer and Frank rolls his eyes.
"If you've been to the moon before, go ahead and make yourselves comfortable. First timers, please stay behind and Alice and I will debrief you."
The crowd splits in half, and from the returning members a young, dark-haired man breaks from the pack and runs toward Sirius.
"Still here, huh?" James says jokingly.
"Haven't gotten bored of space yet," Sirius confirms. They start heading for the barracks, keeping a few paces behind the others. "How's Lily?"
"She's doing better. The morning sickness seems to have died down, and she's started showing."
James looks left, to the construction site. Sirius follows his gaze, taking in the row of half-finished buildings. Not much has changed since James and the others went on planet leave two weeks ago. There's only so much Sirius could accomplish with only Frank to help him.
"Do you think we'll be done in time?" he asks Sirius.
"What've we got, six months?"
James nods. "End of July."
"That's plenty of time to get Main Street up and functioning." Sirius chooses to ignore the fact that half that time the majority of their crew will be gone, heading back to Earth every two weeks. "Don't worry, mate, my goddaughter will be the first baby born on the moon if I have anything to say about it. Lily just has to hold up her end and beat Alice to the finish line."
They reach the barracks, a large building of corrugated metal that looks more like a space station than their actual station. They part ways, James heading to his pod to unpack and Sirius to go help the transporters unload the shipments from the shuttle.
The cargo is all food this time and Sirius is all too happy to show the workers to the canteen and unpack all of the crates as they bring them in. His excitement at seeing real fruits and vegetables surprises himself, but they've been living off canned and freeze-dried food for so long now that he'll welcome a fresh carrot.
There are three crates of coffee beans and he almost cries at seeing them. It's been near four months since he had the stuff and he knows this will speed up construction.
Alice joins him in the kitchen when he's on the last crate and she starts heating up the last of the canned soup for lunch, adding their new supply of spices to make it bearable.
"How is Frank doing?" he asks while they work.
She looks pained to answer. "Frustrated, of course. We've not been up here half a year and people are already losing interest in the project. We can't get enough workers to commit to a season on the moon, let alone a doctor. And don't tell Frank I said so, but we really need a proper commander again."
Sirius says nothing. Frank is the most experienced of the main team at construction and they were willing to let him be foreman when their old one got space-sick. But with their former commander gone off to a new position Earth-side, it left Frank pulling double duty as overseer of the whole operation and was taking him away from the construction.
"We're going to lose our funding soon too if we can't work things out," she continues.
"Are you any closer to getting the daylight simulator operational?" They both know the thing holding back their progress is the lack of natural light. Running sunlamps to see and work by drains their power and it's still not enough to grow anything.
Alice scowls. "No. I can't figure out what I'm missing. It'll flicker for a few seconds and then turn off. There's no way I can light the whole surface for twelve hours a day."
"We should have just set up on the other side - the sunny side."
"And then we'd spend another year and blow our budget on trying to work out how to block constant sunlight."
She sighs heavily and runs a hand through her short hair.
Sirius knows what she's too scared to say: that if things aren't sorted soon, if they aren't sent a doctor, Alice will have to go home in July and Frank won't hesitate to follow. It would be their life savings down the drain with nothing to show for it, and the operation would most likely die to boot.
He wraps an arm around her shoulders, hoping he's coming across as comforting rather than creepy. He likes Alice, but girls have never been his strong suit.
"It'll be okay. We'll make it work."
They work in silence, serving the soup to everyone who comes in. Together they count five people returning from planet leave and eight newcomers. When everyone has a bowl, he takes his own lunch to where James is sat with two other men.
"Good to see you, Pete," Sirius greets, clapping the tubby man on the back as he sits next to him. "How's your mum?"
"The doctors say she's on the mend. I wanted to stay until she's back on her feet but she said I needed to come back before I lost my nerve."
"Good woman." Sirius scans the rest of the table, grimacing at James devouring his lunch, and notices the stranger for the first time.
He has dark blond hair and stunning amber eyes, and suddenly it occurs to Sirius that he was wrong before; he's not the most handsome man on the planet.
"I-I'm Sirius," he stutters, surprising himself. From the corner of his eye, he catches James staring at him.
"Yes, I caught your introduction before debriefing. Remus Lupin." Remus reaches across the table to shake hands with him. Sirius holds on a second too long.
"So, uh, how do you like the moon so far?"
"It's amazing." Remus gifts him with a smile and Sirius' mind goes blank.
"Remus and I met on the shuttle," James says, pushing his empty bowl away. "He's a bigger space geek than you."
Sirius glares at James. He can see Remus blushing even as he ducks his head to take a mouthful of soup.
"Are you a scientist?" Sirius asks enthusiastically. He's found that half the people to join the mission did so for the adventure than for their actual interest in space and the moon. Those that did tended to be scientists.
"I'm an amateur astronomer," he admits quietly. "I think that's the only reason they let me join. I don't really have any experience in construction."
"There's more to do here than building though," Peter comments. Sirius shakes his head.
"Things have changed since you went home. Command thinks we'll get more volunteers if we focus all of our efforts into constructing Main Street – like the lack of a proper place to live is what's throwing people off." He rolls his eyes. "Alice is heading up the sunlight simulator research with the other scientists and the rest of us build. All other projects have been put on hold."
"I'm not sure how much help I'll be then," Remus says worriedly, as if they would kick him off the moon.
James scoffs. "Don't worry, mate. Hardly any of us knew what we were doing when we got here. We'll show you what to do."
There's no time to waste, they all know. After lunch Frank takes the new volunteers to one of the building sites to teach them how to use the equipment while Alice leads the much smaller team of scientists to look over what she's done with the simulator.
Sirius and the returning workers make their way to one of the unfinished houses and go to work, as if no one had left.
"You like him," James accuses as he and Sirius carry sheets of drywall into the house.
"Who, Remus? He's alright."
"Don't play dumb with me. I've known you a long time and you've never acted that way with anyone. You fancy him."
Sirius doesn't deny it. He sighs, dropping his end of the drywall, and brushing the dust from his hands. "I can't help it; he's gorgeous. He gives me butterflies. I've never felt this way about anyone."
James smiles. "I'm happy for you. Just please don't take forever in telling him."
"I won't."
:-:
The next two weeks go by in a blur as Sirius pulls twelve-hour shifts almost every night, crashing as soon as he reaches his bunk. He blames exhaustion as the reason he still hasn't confessed his attraction to Remus every time James asks. They both know he's too scared.
They manage to finish construction on three houses before Frank makes the absence announcement mid-January.
"You've all worked really hard this month, and you certainly deserve the next two weeks off," he says, standing at the front of the canteen after dinner.
Sirius notices the way Frank glances Alice's way and he knows something is up.
"Normally I would wish you all a safe trip home, but I have a favor to ask. As some of you know, we like to keep a couple of people on-site at all times to continue on with the project and watch over everything. Alice and I have volunteered to stay behind every month, but Alice has a doctor's appointment that she can't miss, and I'd love to join her if anyone would be willing to take our place."
Sirius stands at once. "Sure, I've got nothing better to do."
Frank smiles in thanks and scans the room for a second volunteer.
Sirius can feel James shift next to him, torn between his duty to the mission and the promise he made Lily to come home every chance he got. He's just about to break that promise when someone stands behind them.
"I'll stay," Remus offers.
Sirius' mind is whirling as he sits back down. He tunes out Frank's customary hand out of planet-leave assignments - there are bunks to be cleaned and a shuttle prepped. James nudges him softly.
"You'll have plenty of time to tell him how you feel now."
:-:
Sirius and Remus stand together as they watch the shuttle take off. When it's out of the atmosphere, they turn to each other in awkward silence.
"I should get back to work. Are you okay in the control room?"
Remus nods. "Alice showed me what to do."
"Good. I guess I'll see you at dinner."
They part ways and Sirius mentally kicks himself as he heads for the construction site. He's never had so much trouble talking to someone.
:-:
Sirius returns to the base several hours later, sweaty and tired, but he's proud to say he single-handedly finished another house on Main Street. He stops at the control tower to fetch Remus for dinner.
The blond is sitting at the main console, home to several screens and at least a hundred buttons and switches that Sirius will never understand. They all keep the base running in one way or another, and that's all that matters to him.
Remus has his head in a book but looks up when Sirius enters, smiling.
"Dinnertime," Sirius announces, joining him by the console. He glances over the security screens showing the outside of the tower, the barracks, and the canteen. Everything looks appropriately deserted considering they're the only people on the planet. "Any messages?"
Remus shakes his head, frowning at a screen that shows nothing but static. "It's been quiet today."
Sirius shrugs. "Come on, let's eat."
The men wash up and prepare dinner together in complete silence. Sirius can't help the way his mind wanders, imagining a life with Remus where they cook dinner together each night in their home - perhaps a house they build together with the own hands, right next to James and Lily's. It's a foolish fantasy when he doesn't even know if Remus fancies him, but it puts a smile on his face nonetheless.
"What are you smiling about?" Remus wonders, glancing up from his cutting board. The communicator on his wrist flashes momentarily, searching for any transmissions meant for them and finding none.
"James," he lies easily. "Did you know he's expecting a baby?"
"He mentioned it."
"My godchild," Sirius brags.
"How did you two meet? You act like you've known each other a long time."
"James and I are like brothers. His parents took me in when I was sixteen."
"Why? What happened to your family?"
Sirius pauses, debating if it's too early in his relationship with Remus to get into his 'Tragic Past'. Two weeks is probably too early, he decides.
"It's a long story. But the Potters were everything to me. They passed just after James got married, and then this opportunity came up. A year on the moon. We couldn't resist." He tries not to think about what will happen if the project fails - where he will go once James realizes that he won't be able to support his small family and Sirius as well.
He tries to change the subject as he tosses the salad. "Why did you sign on? I know you like space, but surely you had better, safer options on Earth."
Remus shrugs. "I didn't want to play it safe anymore. I spent a lot of my youth hidden away, too sick to go to school or make friends. Now that I'm better, I don't want to hide. Earth will still be there when I'm ready to settle down, but I needed to do something exciting for once."
Sirius can understand that all too well, though he doesn't say so. No one but James knows what it was like living with his biological parents, and it's still hard to talk about. Instead, he focuses on getting Remus to open up more about his past over dinner, pelting him with questions from what kind of books he reads to his favorite foods, never giving him the chance to ask questions in return.
:-:
It's the four month anniversary of Sirius' arrival on the moon and he finds himself itching to do something to celebrate the date. He's also itching to spend more time with Remus. He's done what he can, chatting over breakfast and dinner, and sometimes they even play cards before bed, but Sirius knows how important it is that he keeps working and he's spent most of the week on Main Street.
He decides that he will finally confess his feelings for Remus tonight and leaves the construction site early to shower and get things ready.
Another shipment of food is due to be delivered when the crew returns, but if he learned anything from his adoptive mum, it was cooking. He can make do with his limited supplies and fix himself and Remus a nice, romantic dinner.
Remus' nose is buried in the same book he's been reading all week when Sirius comes to collect him. Sirius has no interest in reading it himself, but he loves how excited the blond gets when he's asked to talk about it.
"Ready for dinner?"
Sirius leans against the doorframe, enjoying the way Remus' amber eyes roam down his body, taking in the no doubt pleasurable sight of Sirius in his tight jeans and favorite band tee. He's even wearing his black leather jacket even though the artificial weather machines keep the temperature comfortably warm.
"You look … different," Remus offers.
"I decided I needed a change today. I've been here four months to the day, and I want to show you something special, if you'll let me?"
Remus agrees without any hesitation and it gives Sirius hope as he leads him out of the control tower, past the barracks, to a spot of grey ground illuminated only by a lantern. Sirius has dragged some crates out of storage and created a makeshift table and chairs from them. Two plates of his moon-famous casserole sit atop it, and he thinks the scent of it alone should be enough to entice Remus to stay.
"What is this?" Remus wonders, cautiously taking a seat at the table.
"I wanted to show you my favorite place on the moon."
Remus looks around at their barren surroundings. This side of the compound hasn't been touched yet, and there are no sunlamps to light their way.
"It's really … dark."
"That's why I like it." Sirius reaches out and dims the light of the lantern until it's just enough of a hazy glow for them to see their plates with, then he points up at the sky. "I always enjoyed stargazing when I was younger. Sometimes it was the only thing that got me through the day. I come here because it's quiet, and it's easier to see the stars away from the sunlamps."
He delves into his upbringing as they eat. It's difficult and he pauses a lot, but Remus is a good listener, and he encourages Sirius to take his time, to stop if he needs to. The urge to suppress the memories again is tempting, but he ignores it. He explains to Remus about his less-than-ideal family life and how his brother was the only good thing in his life. With tears in his eyes, he reveals how his parents kicked him out when he came out to them. He went from being a Lord's son to a beggar in the blink of an eye, and then the Potters took pity on him.
"I haven't told anyone that - I haven't ever felt the need to," he says, unable to look Remus in the eye.
"I'm glad you did. I know that must have been hard for you."
Remus reaches across the table and lays a hand on his. Sirius forces himself to meet his eyes.
"I like you, Remus. That's why I wanted to bring you out here, to tell you all of this. I've been trying to ask you out for weeks, but I didn't know how to. I've never been as nervous around anyone as I am around you."
Remus walks around the table and leans in for a kiss, but stops when a loud beeping sounds from the communicator on his wrist.
"Someone's trying to reach us."
They rush back to the control tower and Sirius stands back, letting Remus answer the call.
The main screen flashes and then a face appears and Sirius' breath hitches.
"Regulus?"
"Sirius, thank god. I wasn't sure this would go through," his brother says, grinning.
Remus stares between them and backs away from the screen. "I'll let you two talk."
Sirius sits, unsure of what to do or say. "How did you find me?"
"Your name was in the newspaper - part of the first crew sent to colonize the moon. Quite the legacy."
Sirius snorts. "I just needed some time away."
"I'm glad you're okay. I've been worried about you. Mother was out of line. The things she said…"
"It's in the past, Reg. I've moved on."
"Good." Regulus clears his throat and shifts, reaching for something out of sight of the monitor. "Unfortunately this isn't exactly a personal call. I have some bad news."
Sirius frowns, thinking of all the possibilities. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. It's Uncle Alphard. He passed away last week." Sirius drops his head into his hands. "Apparently he'd been sick for a while, but he never told us."
"Thanks for telling me, Reg." His throat is dry and he can barely breathe. Next to Regulus, Alphard was his closest family member. He'd been the first person Sirius came out to, and had been the one to convince Sirius that he should accept what he was feeling.
"There's more, Sirius. Alphard left you everything. The house, the business, the money. It's all yours."
:-:
Sirius and Remus stand side by side, holding hands as they watch the shuttle land. Sirius can barely contain his excitement as he watches his friends pile out. Frank, Alice, James, Peter, and five more of the previous crew members have returned, along with three new members.
Frank is in foreman mode and as soon as everyone is settled, he starts introducing people and debriefing the first timers. Meanwhile James has been staring at Sirius through the whole speech and Sirius knows the handholding hasn't been lost on his friend.
Peter and the rest of the returning crew head for the barracks while Alice leads the three first timers - an engineer and two scientists - to their lab. Frank and James stay behind and crowd Sirius and Remus once they're alone.
"Glad to see you finally made a move," James jokes, grinning at Remus.
"Did anything exciting happen while we were gone?" Frank asks.
Sirius and Remus share a knowing smile. "As a matter of fact, we received a very important call," Sirius says, doing his best to keep a straight face. "We have a new benefactor."