And is this what you wanted
To live in a house that is haunted By the ghost of you and me?
"Is This What You Wanted" by Leonard Cohen
There was something about having Remus Lupin's cock in his arse that made Sirius Black feel whole. Not just whole but complete. An empty space inside of him was stretched and filled and bringing him unspeakable pleasure. At least that was how he saw, especially in the moment.
At this moment, Remus's hands were on the small of Sirius's back as Sirius was bent all the way over, his face pressed against a pillow as Remus's thick cock pounded deep into his arse.
Sirius was frantically stroking himself. He'd already had a couple of wanks earlier and now his prick felt a little sore and he was nearly rubbing it raw in his desperation to come again. He could feel the wait wouldn't be long at all and as he felt Remus's hands pressing down harder and his cock moving faster he knew it wouldn't be long for him either.
Finally, he felt pleasure surge through him and his prick clenched and he moaned loudly. There was a nearly unbearable moment of tension before his come shot out of his short, curved shaft in several hard and quick bursts, drenching the sheets and his fingers.
From behind, Remus shuddered, his thrusts becoming erratic but no less hard. Remus gasped and Sirius felt his cock pulsing inside of him, filling his arse with his hot come.
Moments later they both collapsed onto the bed and on their backs; both of them were breathing hard and drenched in sweat. Beneath him, Sirius could feel the bedsheets that were once again covered in wet spots from their spunk.
"Do you think Kreacher tires of cleaning up after us, Moony?" Sirius asked and rolled over, his back facing Remus.
"Anyone would tire of cleaning up after us. Though, I suppose we could be polite and take care of it ourselves," Remus answered then shifted his body and put an arm on Sirius's side.
Sirius made a noncommittal grunt. He had no intention of giving the house elf a break.
For awhile, Sirius was comfortable just like this, here with his Moony, who had quickly fallen asleep. After so many years of endless nights in Azkaban he cherished every night they were able to spend together now. But how long would it last he wondered? What if they didn't win the war? What if… What if Harry suffered the same fate as James and Lily? And Moony… What if he…
He shook his head. He mustn't think things like that. Too much time in Azkaban had trained his mind to think painful thoughts at night.
"Are you OK, Padfoot?" Remus whispered in Sirius's ear.
"I'm not sure. Just worried about the war," Sirius said.
"Oh," Remus said softly then pulled Sirius's hair out of his face and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Don't. Whatever will come will come. We have to put our trust in Dumbledore."
"Yes, and he's put his trust in Snivellus. Snivellus, Moony!" Sirius said.
"If Dumbledore trusts Snape then we should as well," Remus replied. Sirius scoffed.
"Moony… do you remember how we used to talk about adopting? If the war… if we do win…" Sirius said but trailed off, to afraid to finish the sentence.
"Yes," Remus answered. "Of course. I admit there are very large hurdles in the way of our dream of having a few pups of our own. But if there's a way we'll find it. I swear."
Sirius exhaled and felt a warm sense of calm come over him and he pushed his back into Remus, just wanting to be closer. As he drifted off the sleep he thought that he would settle for the war being over and knowing that Harry was happy and that he still had Moony with him. If he could just have those things he would be happy.
Remus woke up with a start. He was suddenly aware of several things: he was wet, a little cold, and face down on the ground. He wondered how he even ended up outside? It wasn't time for a full moon yet. He was always very careful to watch. The week before the full moon it was hard for anything else to occupy space in his mind. No, this was definitely something else.
Slowly, he pulled himself up and noticed Sirius was lying face down next to him.
"Padfoot!" Remus said, and nudged Sirius with an arm.
"Hmm?" Sirius said and slowly blinked his eyes open. "What in Slytherin's arse?" Sirius asked then pulled himself up as well.
"I don't know. We must be somewhere in London but…," Remus started then looked around at their immediate surroundings.
The walls on either side of them were covered in many coloured globs of… gum? And there were Muggles all over the place taking pictures of it. Many were taking pictures of themselves standing in front of it. And their clothes… They weren't dressed like the Muggles he was used to seeing in London.
"What is this place?" Remus said quietly.
"The gum wall!" a small Muggle child called out, startling Remus.
Remus quickly ran out of of the dark hall and out into the light, if you could call it that. It was grey and misty and there were Muggles everywhere. A second later Sirius was by his side and looking around, clearly as astonished as he was.
"Where in London are we?" Sirius said. Remus looked to his left at the wall that led down to the gum wall. It was lined with small posters and graffiti. Above it he could see bicycle tires. He walked closer to the posters and tried to absorb as much text as he could. Remus sighed as a realization hit him.
"We're not in, London, Padfoot. We're not in England. We're not even in bloody Europe!" Remus said.
Sirius walked over to the posters while Remus stood back and watched, waiting for his lover to come to the same conclusion he just had. At last Sirius shouted, "Seattle! Washington! This is…"
"America," Remus finished quietly, his hands in his pockets. "Did you notice anything else about the posters? Look at the dates."
"Godric's balls!" he shouted, causing a few of the Muggles to glance at him. Strangely, no one was paying much attention to either of them. For a moment, Remus had thought they were invisible but apparently he was wrong.
"2014! This is 2014! Are you sure the Muggles in America don't number the years wrong?" Sirius said, sounding very distressed.
"What? No, of course not," Remus said. He was trying to act calm because Merlin knew one of them needed to be. But he had to admit he was more than just a little bit nervous right now. Just what in the hell was going on here?
"Moony… the war! Harry! We have to get back to England!" Sirius said, turning back to Remus and walking up to him with his best sad puppy face.
"If this is even real," Remus said. "I'm not so sure. Is it easier to believe we are in Seattle, Washington in the year 2014 or to believe that we're under a spell of some sort to make us believe we are?"
"Damn, Voldemort! He must've found a way into Grimmauld Place! Oh, Merlin what has he done?" Sirius said and pulled out his wand.
"Not in front of the Muggles," Remus said pushing Sirius's hand down. "If Voldemort has found a way into your family home that means…"
Remus sighed and continued, hanging his head, "That means Dumbledore is dead and we have a traitor in our midst."
"Snape!" Sirius growled.
"Yes, that does seem the most likely conclusion," Remus admitted.
"If Snivellus harms so much as a hair on Harry's head I swear I'll end him!" Sirius said and Remus could see how hard he was clenching his wand.
"If this is a spell we should figure out how to bring a stop to it," Remus said then motioned for Sirius to follow him as he walked further up the path. They appeared to be next to a Muggle market. Big red letters above said 'Public Market Center'.
"This is Pike Place Market. I'm not that familiar with it but I have heard of it," Remus said.
Remus looked around and considered their environment. If this was an illusion it was a damned good one.
Everything about this felt real. The Muggles were all talking amongst themselves and only seemed casually aware of them. He could smell a strong smell of fish wafting from the market where lots of people were packed in. Even the rain felt genuine.
"I suppose we should at least try to apparate away from here. It may take us some time to get back to England from here. I don't have any other leads on a way to break this spell," Remus said.
Remus put out his arm for Sirius who grabbed it firmly. He then tried to focus on a destination. He tried to picture a map of the United States as best he could. What states were nearby? Oregon was close but in the wrong direction. He thought Idaho and Montana were close.
He decided to focus on Montana, though he realized he had never been there he had no way of creating a full picture in his mind. He vaguely created an image of mountains and horses and hoped it would be enough.
Nothing happened.
"Are you going to do it, Moony?" Sirius said, sounding impatient.
"I've just tried. It won't work. It… doesn't even feel like I'm trying," Remus said.
"Maybe you just don't know America well enough?" Sirius said.
"No. We'd still go somewhere. And I would feel something. But… Padfoot, I can't believe I'm saying this, I can't feel magic. At all. It's… like… there's no magic," Remus said.
"What has Voldemort done to us? What kind of spell is this?" Sirius said through gritted teeth.
Remus suddenly became aware of a person standing behind them watching them and slowly turned around to look at them. She was average height with short dark hair and hazel eyes. Something about her reminded him of James.
"Don't mind me," she said, a big smile on her face. "I'm just watching."
Remus felt the blood drain from his face. Who was this person? She was dressed like a Muggle. She wore a simple combination of shirt and trousers and looked very unassuming.
Remus stiffened. His hand slowly reached into pocket and pulled out his wand. He then walked closer to her.
"Who are you?" Remus said, his voice grave but not threatening.
"Me? I'm…" she stopped, seeming to consider something then said,"Pica."
"I'm guessing you know who we are already, so I'll skip introductions and instead demand you tell us what you know of our current situation," Remus said.
"Huh?" she said and crinkled her face a little. "You're Wolfstar cosplayers. You're street performing right? Pretty cool. I'm a hardcore Wolfstar shipper, actually. You both look exactly like I picture you looking during the second war, during Order of the Phoenix."
Remus shuddered at mention of the war and an unusual reference to the Order. Seconds later realisation seemed to hit her face and she lifted up the sleeve of her shirt on her right arm, revealing a tattoo.
"I got a tattoo!" she said excited and Remus and Sirius moved in close to inspect. Remus was stunned by what he saw. How could this person possibly have a tattoo of that!
"Moony, it's…" Sirius started.
"From the map," Remus finished, feeling light-headed and confused.
The tattoo resembled images from the Marauder's Map. Specifically an image Remus and Sirius had never seen themselves but Remus suspected that James or Peter might have seen it had they ever taken the time to look at it at the right moment. There were black shoe prints that faced each other with two scraps of paper floating nearby with the initials RL and SB on them.
"It's us having a shag," Sirius said, sounding as confused as Remus felt.
"Yup," she said then let her sleeve go.
"I don't understand," Remus said.
"Aww, I'm sorry. You guys are taking this really seriously. I'll just get out of your way. Nice meeting you!" she said and started to walk away.
"No! Wait," Remus said and she turned around, looking worried. "What did you say your name was?"
"Pica. I go by Pica Scribit online. If you've read any Wolfstar fic you might've heard of some of my stuff. A Cure for Nightmares, Highland Fling, TransFigured, or A Conspiracy of Cartographers?"
Remus had no clue how to respond to what she just said. It must be Muggle references of some sort.
"What is Wolfstar?" Sirius asked.
"Oh, that's the ship name for Remus and Sirius. I don't like it, actually, but it's really popular. I'm sort of shocked that you don't know it since you're cosplaying as them," she said, smiling again.
Whatever manner of dark magic was going on here, this person wasn't a part of it. She seemed unaware, unassuming, straight-forward and friendly.
"Someone built us a ship?" Sirius said and she laughed, bending over slightly and clasping her hands together. Remus smiled, surprising himself. No, that was definitely a genuine reaction.
She leaned up quickly, her burst of laughter finished, and said, "I can't tell if you're just messing with me or if you really don't know what shipping is."
"We really don't. Enlighten us, please," Remus said, trying to sound friendly though he was shaking.
"Shipping means you want the characters to get together. Lots of people ship Remus and Sirius," Pica said, her smile never fading.
"We are together," Sirius said then grabbed Remus hand and squeezed tightly. Pica's smile widened at this. Remus glared at Sirius. Dramatic, as always, Remus thought.
"We are lovers," Remus admitted. "Are you implying there are people who… want us to be lovers?"
"Yup," she said.
"How do they know who we are and why would they care what goes on in our personal lives?" Remus said, feeling increasingly like he was in a dream.
"They read the books and feel like you should be," she said.
"The books?" Sirius sounding more curious than confused.
"Harry Potter!" she said and laughed.
Sirius let go of Remus's hand and stepped towards her, seeming anxious.
"My godson! Tell me, what do you know of him? Is he alive?" Sirius said.
Pica looked baffled. She didn't say anything for a moment. Remus thought she was likely deciding what she should say next.
Finally, she spoke, "Yeah. He's alive. He married Ginny Weasley. They have kids!"
Sirius laughed then grabbed Remus and hugged him.
"Did you hear that Moony! Harry is alive!" Sirius said. Remus held Sirius tight, rubbing his hands on Sirius's back. He couldn't bear to remind him that this might all be an illusion. But Remus was beginning to suspect this was all too real.
"Tell me, Pica," Remus said from over Sirius's shoulder, "How old do we look?"
"I don't know. Remus and Sirius would've been in their mid-thirties during the second war," Pica said.
"We are in our mid-thirties," Remus said, more to himself than to her.
"That's perfect then," she said. "Well, I'm going to go, now. I'm just here to buy some tea at MarketSpice." Whatever excitement she had must be wearing off, Remus thought as she began to walk away.
"Wait!" Remus said and she stopped and turned around, again. "Is there a way we can reach you?"
"Just Google Pica Scribit. You can probably find my tumblr pretty easily," she said and waved goodbye with a small smile and walked toward the crowd of Muggles in the market.
"Are you just going to let her go, Moony?" Sirius asked.
"We don't have any choice," Remus said.
They stood in silence as Pica slowly disappeared into the market.
"What's a Google?" Sirius asked.
"I haven't the faintest idea. But I have decided something," Remus said.
"Yes?" Sirius said.
"This isn't a spell. This is real. We are in the year 2014. This is the city of Seattle, Washington in the United States of America and magic does not exist," Remus said.
Remus watched as Sirius's already pale face became paler.
"I don't understand. Did Harry somehow kill Voldemort and destroy magic? And how did we end up eighteen years in the fucking future?," Sirius said sounding lost.
"I don't think we are in the future. I think, and I don't even know why but I do, that this is the present. Somehow we've ended up in an alternate universe. One where…" Remus said but struggling to finish.
"One where what, Moony?" Sirius asked.
"One where we don't exist. We are characters in a story. A popular one at that, apparently," Remus said.
"How?" Sirius said, his face worried.
"I don't know. But I have a sudden urge to go see if we can find copies of 'Harry Potter', don't you?"