Author's note and disclaimer: fluffy, un-betaed (but edited and spellchecked!) Remus/Sirius, reposted from LJ to give it a more permanent home. The puppies and Hogwarts are, obviously, not mine. I just like to borrow JK Rowling's toys.
With All Due Speed
"You've never even kissed anyone?"
Clearly, Remus thought, this was beyond the belief of even Sirius, who had loved it so much when Remus told him he could believe six impossible things before breakfast that he adopted it as a kind of personal slogan.
They were alone in the common room, Remus trying to finish a Charms essay, and Sirius making sure try was the operative word. As usual, Pads had gotten the subject onto who might fancy whom, and what everyone was doing about it.
Remus had only confessed to get a second of silence, shocked silence though it was.
"Not all of us have a harem," he said, scribbling the last of a paragraph.
"Harem?" Sirius sputtered with laughter, then sobered up. "This is something we must fix with all due speed."
"I appreciate the thought, truly, but—" He stopped. There was no distracting Sirius once he grabbed onto an idea like this; Remus saw the familiar scheming light in his eyes.
"Oh, the possibilities," Sirius said. He didn't rub his hands together, but he might as well have done. "Who do you want to kiss?"
"I don't know," Remus said quickly, because if he had let his mouth drop open, had let himself stare at Sirius, not even Pads, always more excitable than perceptive, could have failed to feel the significance of that silence and that stare. "That's why I haven't got around to it yet."
"Pick anyone, and we'll make it happen." Sirius threw his arms wide in a gesture probably meant to convey the vastness of the possibilities, and Remus couldn't help but smile. "Oi, except Evans, obviously," Sirius added, dropping the pose.
"Let me think about it," Remus said.
But all he could think about was exactly the same thing he always tried not to think about.
It was bad enough being different in one huge, awful way. Why did he also have to be different in a way that made him wonder at odd moments whether his best friend's skin could possibly taste as good as it looked?
"Don't think too—ha ha!—hard, Moony. Already look hot and bothered."
Remus threw a pillow at him, and Sirius cackled like a mad boy and retreated for the time being.
He was back soon enough. Remus had known that no amount of terrorizing the corridors—and certainly no homework—could distract Sirius too long from a quest like this.
"Right, then." He plopped down practically in Remus's lap, scattering parchment. "Who should the lucky girl be?"
Ten minutes had been long enough for Remus to realize that he had to tell him, but not nearly long enough for him to find the right words. "The thing of it is, Pads," he began, and that was all he had.
"It is Evans you want," Sirius guessed wildly. "It's Melinda Bishop, despite the horrible glasses. It's... oh, Moony, no. Not a Slytherin."
"I don't know," Remus burst out. "Only not. Er. Not a girl."
Saying it out loud felt even odder than he'd expected. Then he realized that was at least partly because Sirius had gone completely still.
Remus supposed it was something that he hadn't flung himself to the other side of the sofa.
"How—" Sirius swallowed audibly. "How long have you known?" He darted a glance at Remus from under his eyelashes.
That was his gently concerned voice, the one reserved for battered egos and Ts on essays. Remus's heart started beating again. "Always, I guess."
"Why didn't you tell me, you git?"
Remus almost laughed in relief. It was just like always, Sirius warm beside him and looking at him with no more frank curiosity than when he said anything else mildly unexpected, and no more hurt than that of being left out of a secret.
"You don't care?"
"You don't pay much attention, do you? Didn't you hear the names Honor Blakely called me? Everyone else did."
"I thought she was just being... creative."
Sirius smiled like he'd never even heard of shame. "Seeing as she caught me snogging her cousin Alexander when she thought she was on a date with me, creativity wasn't really a factor."
"Oh. Oh." Remus had to laugh now.
"See here, Moony." Sirius shifted to look down at him, a light in his eyes Remus had seen there before, but never directed at him. "Why don't I be the first?"
The feeling that jolted along Remus's spine was such a weird mix of thrill and dismay that he couldn't even put a name to it. Not as a joke, he thought.
For such a determinedly clueless boy, Sirius could seem like a mind-reader when he wanted to. "Wouldn't it be better with a friend?" he said, looking down and toying with the strewn parchment so he didn't quite touch Remus's knee. "Someone who, you know, loves you. And all?"
It was suddenly very hard to talk. "And all?" Remus managed to say.
Sirius met his eyes and grinned. "Yeah."
Breathing was getting iffy too. "Define 'and all'."
"Not just a friend," Sirius said, grey eyes steady on Remus's, and deep enough that Remus thought he could fall into them forever. "My balance." He leaned over and brushed a kiss against Remus's cheek. "The one I can't imagine being without." He moved down to Remus's jaw, pressing gentle kisses as he did. "The one I've wanted for—"
"God, Sirius," Remus whispered, because he was close enough now that Remus could feel his breath on his lips, and he couldn't stand it anymore. Half-formed fears of awkwardness fled, and with absolute certainty he twined his fingers in Sirius's hair and tugged him up into a kiss.
Sirius kissed like... well, like a puppy, with more enthusiasm than finesse, all teasing tongue and warmth; but gently too, fingers curled round Remus's neck as if to keep him from panicking. Remus savored it all, the feel of Sirius's silky hair, the taste of him, chocolate not unpleasantly mixed with not-terribly-clean boy, and most of all the feeling, like a star blooming in his chest, of how right this was.
Sirius slipped away, and Remus couldn't hold back a small protesting noise, but Sirius kissed his neck, nipped at his collarbone, and the protest turned into a sigh of pleasure.
Sirius nuzzled him one last time, then looked up, beaming, hair mussed, lips kiss-swollen; the most beautiful thing Remus had ever seen.
"Is it always like this?"
Sirius squirmed upward and swiped a quick kiss, as if, like Remus, he couldn't quite bear to stop. "No," he said. "But for us, maybe it is." He settled back down against Remus's chest as if he planned to stay a while.
I'll run a fever for the rest of my life, Remus thought. Especially once we... A little nervousness snaked through his happy daze. "Don't you, um. Want more?"
Sirius grinned up at him. "With all due speed, Moony."