3 minutes and 42 seconds.

There was a soft swish as a fourteen year old girl placed a black tank top with a green Slytherin emblem on the counter.

3 minutes and 37 seconds.

"Ahem." She lightly cleared her throat, making Sirius jump.

"Right," he smirked, glancing away from the clock for the first time in about twenty minutes. Gingerly he picked up the tank top and slid the price tag under the scanner, grimacing. "You know Slytherin is for the bad guys right?" He didn't understand why so many fans liked the house. Who wanted to be evil? Besides the world didn't need any more villains.

The little girl grinned. "I like the color green," she said innocently as she handed the scowling boy exact change for her purchase.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, "sell your soul for a color." As soon as she turned away from the counter, he turned back to the clock.

1 minute and 18 seconds. He pushed his shoulder length black hair behind his ears and his brow furrowed as he stared harder, willing the minute hand to move. "Come on, come on." Slender fingers drummed the store counter.

57 seconds.

36 seconds.

15 seconds.

And it was 12:00.

"Yes!" Sirius ripped his Hot Topic employee lanyard off his neck and shoved it under the counter as he hopped over it. Walking out of the entrance he saw a familiar figure making its way towards him from the sports store across the mall.

"What's up man?" The other boy asked, pushing his glasses further up his nose and running a hand through his unruly black hair.

"Hey James. God, that shift could not have gone slower. Ugh, and why does everyone like slytherin so much?" Sirius scowled, while the other boy laughed. "come on, I'm starving."

They walked into the food court, James laughing at a snarky comment Sirius had made. James started wandering off to the Panda Express before he was yanked by the shirt collar into the Starbucks line.

"Fuck mate," James exclaimed, rubbing his neck. "I thought you were hungry."

"I am," Sirius snapped, a dazed look on his face.

"Coffee isn't food, you tosser," He grinned. "Besides, I want Chinese."

"Then get Chinese mate. I'm not your girlfriend, you can get food somewhere else." Sirius still had an dreamy look on his face and it seemed to be directed in the general area behind the Starbucks counter. James stalked off, still rubbing his neck and went to stand in the line in front of Panda Express. He turned around to give Sirius a questioning look but he was still completely focused on…what was he focused on?

"Coffee for Malfoy?" A tall, tired looking, dirty blond called out an order, and a scowling teenager with white blonde hair accepted the drink. If Sirius hadn't been completely focused on the barista, he would have noticed that "Malfoy" was a rather unpleasant classmate of his that was a few years ahead of him. But Sirius was completely focused on the barista, and honestly, you couldn't blame him. It was a busy line in front of the counter but it seemed to only be the one boy and another girl working. Sirius felt himself blush as he watched the boy bite his lip as he scrawled a customer's name on a white and green cup.

The line moved forward as Sirius continued to watch the mesmerizing boy take and fill orders with incredible ease, his blond hair swishing softly as he moved back in forth in a hypnotizing rhythm in sync with the other girl behind the counter. As he got closer, Sirius could see a little gold in the green of his eyes, and that he had a spattering of freckles on his left cheek, and that his nose crinkled when he furrowed his eyes in anger, and-

"HEY!" The blond boy, Remus his name tag declared, snapped his fingers inches away from Sirius's nose. "I don't know if this concept is foreign to you or something, but when you get to the front of the line, you order."

Sirius was suddenly aware of the grumbling noises of the people in line behind him, and the adorable bewildered look on the boy in front of him's face. His own face was suddenly redder than the Panda Express logo on the cup in James Potter's hand, who was snickering a few feet away. Shit, had he been staring that long? He had no idea what he wanted.

"I'll-" he cleared his throat, "I'll have a coffee, um please."

The blond boy, Remus, cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna have to be a little bit more specific than that, pal."

"Right." Sirius's eyes flitted back up to the menu, picking out the first thing he saw. "I'll take a caramel latte please. Oh um tall."

Remus picked up a small coffee cup and clicked the top of the pen in his hand. "Alright. Name for your order?"

"Sirius."

"yes, I'm serious. I need a name."

James was howling now, his Panda Express soft drink nearly spilling on the slightly sticky linoleum floor of the food court.

"No… that's my name. Sirius."

Now it was Remus's turn to blush. "Oh right, sorry." He quickly scrawled s-e-r-i-o-u-s on the cup in hasty cursive letters. "Your total is $4.37."

Sirius paid, his face still flaming and went over to stand next to James and wait for his order.

"Geez mate, the guy was screaming at you for a solid two minutes before you snapped out of it and ordered. What gives?"

Sirius, blushing, wasn't sure how to answer that. He himself didn't even really know why he had been so taken with the boy.

"I mean," James continued, "The barista is cute, but she's not that cute."

"I don't know mate, I think-" Sirius paused. Wait… she? Oh right, the other barista. James didn't know he liked guys. To be honest, Sirius didn't know if he liked guys. I mean, he'd kissed more girls than he had guys, and his one sloppy drunk kiss with a guy he barely knew in a bar he was too young for didn't count did it? Sometimes you just get curious, right? Experimentation is supposed to be normal. And that's all it was, he told himself. Experimentation.

"Serious?" The blond barista called out his name and he hurried to pick up his drink, barely able to look the other boy in the eyes. Still, he had to stifle as a shiver as the boys fingers brushed against his own. This didn't feel like experimentation.

"Let's just eat, eh?" He muttered to James as he hurried, blushing, to the nearest available table, while the barista, Remus, looked on, a bit confused.

James wouldn't let Sirius steal any of his Chinese as they ate, still not understanding why the boy hadn't gotten any food of his own if he was so starving. So Sirius sipped his sugary coffee as he tried not to look over his shoulder at the adorable blond boy named Remus, and sat there instead wondering if the boy was looking at him.

If he had turned around, he would have noticed that he was.