"Come on, Pads. Let's get you up these stairs," Remus grunted with the weight of his drunk friend leaning on him. Sirius stumbled on the first step and almost dragged both of them back down.

"I don't wanna go to bed, Moony. I wanna go party s'more," Sirius slurred. Remus sighed, ignoring his friend's protests, and how the hell he was going to get the well-muscled man up to their shared dormitory.

"Nooo," Sirius whined. "I'm not tired."

"Sirius," Remus started in exasperation, "you had ten shots in the last twenty minutes and more before that."

Sirius moaned in despair.

"So?" he asked childishly. Remus rolled his eyes, but kept quiet as his companion suddenly got a serious look in his eye.

"Hey, Moony?"

"Yeah, Pads?" Remus humored him.

"How come you never drink?"

Remus' concentration broke and he looked startled, then sad. With a faraway look on his face, he replied, "Because I can't afford a loose tongue."

Even in his drunken state, the dark-haired marauder knew when to drop it, thinking his friend had been talking about his 'condition'. Unbeknownst to him, Moony had indeed been hinting at something else entirely.

A Scottish voice outside the common room jerked the boys out of their melancholy states and they bolted up the stairs, alcohol induced jelly legs apparently forgotten. Slamming the door to their shared dormitory behind them, they sank to the floor, chests heaving. A quick glance around told them James was probably spending the night with Lily and Wormtail was doing whatever it was he did when he disappeared. He seemed to be gone more often as of late. After the adrenaline rush had passed, Sirius started to laugh.

"Great, he's gone bonkers," Remus groaned. "How do you always manage to get yourself into trouble?"

Still laughing, face flushed from the combination of alcohol and exertion, Sirius replied with, "Young, wild and free, Moony. Someday, I'm going to look back on these days as the best of my life and I plan to enjoy every moment while I can. I'm not smart like you. All I got are my looks and they won't last forever."

Remus frowned. "Don't say that," he growled angrily.

"Why not? It's true ain't it? I'm going to spend my life as an auror in eternal bachelorhood, and I'm okay with that," Sirius said, unbothered by his dismal perception of his own life.

"Why? You can be so much more, Pads!" Remus was starting to get frustrated.

"What do you care? You're not my mother," Sirius sulked.

"No, Pads, I'm not. But I ...care about you," Remus said carefully.

"Yeah? You'd be the only one. James' got Lily now, Peter's off doing merlin knows what, and my own mother hates my guts. What the hell am I supposed to think when the people I thought were supposed to care about me, kick me out of their lives? Maybe it's a sign that no one will ever love me and I should just stop trying."

"I love you!" Remus exploded.

Sirius froze. "What?" he asked, seriously now. Remus sighed, running his fingers through his hair wearily.

"Yeah, Pads, I said it. I love you. Really love you. If you hate me now I'll understand," Remus looked him in the eye, "but I'm going to ask you to give me a shot."

Sirius was speechless.

"I- you- what?" the anagmus garbled out.

Remus' face fell, the hope leaving his eyes.

"Goodbye, Sirius," Remus turned to go.

Sirius' arm shot out to pull him back, accidentally pulling too hard and knocking them both onto one of the beds. Sirius landed on his back, the attractive werewolf straddling his hips suggestively. Remus' face turned red as he processed the close proximity of their lips, but didn't pull away. To his delighted surprise, neither did Sirius. His gaze grew contemplative as he looked at the boy beneath him. He certainly didn't look disgusted by their position; flushed cheeks, parted lips, glassy eyes. No, Remus decided, he was most definitely not disgusted.

When Sirius realized nothing else was going to happen, he blinked a few times and asked, "What?" looking up at Remus' smug face.

"Were you expecting something?" Remus asked innocently.

Sirius' eyes narrowed. "Yeah," he growled, dragging Remus down to kiss him.