Disclaimer:
Don't own, don't sue.
Author's notes:
Hurrah. An update o_O
Also, you may have noticed that I changed my username from Midnight Mint to Enjambament. You'll have to use enjambament to find me from now on. It's what I use everywhere else.
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A Waltz on a Bridge
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"James says that Lily says that if he doesn't know how to waltz by the wedding, she isn't going to invite him." Sirius said as he felt up apples on the fruit isle to make sure they didn't have any bruises.
Remus took a moment to contemplate this information as he inspected banana bunches. "You know, I don't think that's going to work very well. I know we all say that Lily'd be better off marrying a mop for all the charm James has, but I don't think a mop would really be equivalent to James," Remus paused and then corrected himself by adding: "Save the fact that it would have better hair."
"She didn't say he can't come to the wedding. Just that he has to learn to dance first."
"My point exactly."
They were all the way to the bread aisle before Remus managed to pull from Sirius what the crux of the problem was.
"You can't be serious." Remus declared, smelling baguettes. (He did love bread).
"I'm always S - "
"If you even…"
Sirius had the grace to look a little sheepish. "I am, though. Lily's making us teach him. She says while we're at it we should teach Peter."
"Why can't they just go to lessons like normal couples do?"
"Something about how she already knows how, and that it's a waste of money, and how here we are, two perfectly good waltzing young men."
"But…I mean…you do remember what it looks like when James tries to dance, right? He gets dizzy if he walks around in a circle. I have literally never known anyone who has less natural grace than James Potter."
"He's good in duels…and at Quidditch…?"
"Dumb luck - he somehow managed to make it work for him."
"Can't we make it work for him here, too?"
Remus gave Sirius a rather incredulous look as he placed a box of PG Tips into the shopping basket. Sirius had no choice but to nod in agreement.
---
"I thought you said we were meant to be learning how to dance. Why are we standing on a bloody bridge?" James asked, kicking at the gravel. He looked disturbingly like a petulant child.
Peter piped up nervously beside him. "No offence mate, but he's got a point, doesn't he? I mean we can't dance here. It's just a bit of pavement."
Remus leaned forward with a bright gleam in his eye, and at his side, Sirius clapped his hands together in excitement. "This, my dears, is only lesson one. We here to practice your balance."
"Climb the railing!" Sirius shouted.
"What?" James asked worriedly, peering over the bridge railing and down the long distance between them and the river the bridge crossed over, the water swift and icy beneath them. Then, flatly, he added: "I'll die."
"No you won't," Sirius said shooing him up onto the half-metre of cement that made up the sides of the bridge. "It's an auror exercise too. Cushioning charm before you hit the water."
James snorted and stood shakily. "It can't be that hard. Come on, Pete, if I have to do this, so do you. My balance isn't even bad, anyway."
Walking back and forth across the thin stretch proved to be harder than either Peter or James could have imagined, they both fell off within the first five minutes and if Sirius hadn't been quick with his wand, Peter would probably have been history, though he did end up quite wet. James on the other hand managed to add a sort of levitation charm to his fall so he didn't even touch the water.
When Sirius and Remus forced them back up onto the bridge a second time, however, trouble broke loose as a muggle woman who was walking her dog along the bank of the river spotted them and shrieked "Don't do it! There are reasons left to live!"
This surprised James, who stumbled and fell off again, and of course used magic to save himself, causing the woman to faint. Remus had to go down and obliviate her, and after that James declared the task was impossible and who'd made Remus and Sirius the grand-dance-masters anyway?
"I've never even seen either of you dance at all! You're just getting off on watching me suffer. Sadists."
"You have seen us dance." Sirius said, "Remember the Yule ball?"
James vaguely remembered having noticed that Sirius at least was all right at dancing but that was also the same night that James had first learned of the ambrosia that was fire whisky and, so apart from a few brief flashes the night was quite hazy.
"Well, I get that you know how, I remember you going on about how your mother making you take lessons from some old batty crone with hairy ears or something, but what about Moony?"
Remus didn't say anything but instead he tugged at Sirius's sleeve. Together they both climbed up onto the bridge railing.
"You lead, you're taller." Sirius said, and James was surprised to notice that Remus was slightly taller than Sirius.
And then they danced the waltz. They danced the waltz on a skinny little bit of cement thirty metres from a rushing river on one side and they looked fucking good doing it too. James had always imagined that seeing two men dancing together might look sort of weird but at least with Remus and Sirius is didn't. They leaned together in just the right way and predicted each others movements before the other had thought of them and when they finished to unheard music they leapt of the bridge and seemed to float to the ground.
Remus smiled breathlessly, and James dutifully looked away when they leaned in, though at the last second his eyes flitted over to glance at them, and instead of sucking face gruesomely like he imagined they must do sometimes, they were standing stock still, foreheads pressed together and eyes closed.
A moment later they pulled apart, James still forcing away his surprise, angry at himself for not remembering that Sirius and Remus were more a married couple than even he and Lily were – that sometimes they were just as gentle with each other as James had seen his parents be. James glanced over at Peter, who was staring at his shoes and whistling out of tune.
"Right, right." Remus said, clapping his hands together and clearing his throat politely. "There was a nice demonstration for you, ladies. Now lets get on with it."
In the end, they did manage to get James and Peter into a passable state of waltzing, though Peter seemed to accidentally turn the wrong direction quite often and consequently Sirius decided not to make them try on the bridge railing.
The best part was undeniably the three incriminating photos that Remus snapped from behind some bushes of Peter standing on James's feet to be lead around like a little girl and the cringing look of pain on James face as the certainly-heavier-than-a-seven-year-old Peter crushed his toes.
---
That night the world twisted itself into shades of thallow blue until the edges of the sky were nearly green and yellow, but lovely and unlike bruises.
Remus yawned on the sofa. He was wearing mismatched socks. Sirius decided his favourite sock it the one that looks like a watermelon, all pink with black spots through it.
"Did you know, Remus, that everything in the world is made of little tiny things called atoms, and that ages ago, they though that atoms were small watermelons, or maybe the were little raisin buns? Something like that."
Remus laughed and pushed his hand up to his eyes. He always covered his eyes when he was laughing, like he was afraid to see the way other people had interpreted the humour in a moment and he didn't want his own enjoyment ruined.
"I think that what they meant was that atoms were like watermelons or raisin buns, they had a similar structure."
Sirius shrugged, unperturbed. "The air would taste nicer if it was made of raisin buns."
Remus half-laughed again, releasing a bubble of mirth like a hiccup.
"It's good to have this week off." He said, still grinning. "You know, I only ever take time off for moons."
"I know." Sirius replied. He sat down next to Remus heavily, releasing a cloud of dust. Remus opened the circle of his arms with enough space for Sirius to slide in.
"Are you excited for the wedding?"
"Of course." Sirius replied. "Lily is alright. They're probably good for each other."
Remus rolled his eyes. "High praise."
"Well, not everyone can be us."
"You seem down." Remus said after a moment. Sirius was inspecting his hand, tracing the veins and then pushing them together so that they matched up. Sirius's fingers were longer than Remus's but their palms were about the same size.
"Why do you say that?"
"You're too quiet."
As if to further prove the point. Sirius fell silent. Remus bent forward to peer at his face but Sirius was only collecting his thoughts.
"I know that we're going to the wedding together, kind ofbut I was just thinking…you know we're probably not going to get to dance with each other."
Remus contemplated this for a moment. "Probably not." He said. "But it doesn't really matter."
"It kind of does."
Remus shrugged.
There were a lot of things that Sirius loved about Remus, and not that many things that he didn't, but this was one of the things he didn't love. Sirius wished that for once Remus would boil over, or commiserate hotly with Sirius about how they should and screw what anyone thought. Sirius could remember maybe three or four times in his life that he'd ever seen Remus angry. It wasn't fair and Remus didn't care. Sirius knew that Remus was passionate to a degree that few people were but he was always so furtive.
Sirius turned his cheek when Remus bent towards him for a kiss, and in response Remus frowned. "Are you angry at me now?"
"No." Sirius replied, too quickly.
"Look Sirius." Remus began, with a long-suffering sigh that immediately made Sirius madder. "Small steps, huh. Most everyone from school who's there will know. And some of James's family too. But we can't flaunt it. It's James and Lily's wedding, and the Evans and Potter families are not exactly of the same mind as hippy communes in America, or wherever, right. Give them a break. We're revolutionary enough as it is."
"What is a hippy commune?"
"Never mind."
Sirius remained stiff in Remus's arms. "I love you. I love you. Can't that be enough for now?"
Sirius grimaced. "It's enough, Remus, but why can't we have more? Why do you always do this, this 'Let's wait and see' thing. What are we waiting for, anyway? I just want to dance with you my best friend's wedding. We're not having public sex, for God's sake." He sat up abruptly and pulled out of Remus's embrace.
"We've got to pick up tuxes at eight." He said shortly. "Don't stay up to late."
The bedroom door almost but not quite slammed behind him.
---
Sirius remained cross with Remus all the way until the wedding two days later. They didn't see too much of Lily as she was off doing her bridely things like prancing about with hair curlers and zipping herself into several hundred kilograms of crinoline.
James didn't seem to notice the strain either, but it was only to be expected. He spent most of his free time sitting in the corner and rocking back and forth muttering to himself. Every now and then he would wail something along the lines of "What if she changes her mind!" or "Have you seen her sister's husband? Have you seen him? What am I doing?"
Then there was the ceremony and Sirius was sure he'd never seen two people look more in love, or more stricken, or happier than James and Lily did for those short moments, with the possible exception of himself and Remus the last time they stood together in a mirror (well, except for the "stricken" bit, marriage seemed to do that to people). The whole thing softened Sirius up a little, especially after Remus caught his eye when Lily was walking down the aisle with all the attention was turned towards her and blew him a sheepish kiss.
The reception was the sort of party everyone wants to have for their wedding. The guests were all slightly tipsy but not drowning in the open bar. Cheery grandmothers recounted embarrassing tales of youth, while their husbands danced with the youth on their toes. Magic seemed to sing in the air, and even the muggles noticed it, all of them breathing deeply as though they were catching a perfume on the breeze but couldn't quite determine what it was.
Sirius busied himself by eating the fondant roses off the back of the wedding cake where no one would miss them (hopefully) and chatting with a red haired young woman who was likely to be related to Lily in some way - Sirius couldn't determine exactly how.
About three minutes into the conversation, Sirius realised that the woman was flirting with him.
"You said that you were good friends with, uh, James, right, being his best man and all? How long have you known him?" She leaned forward and presses her breasts together, making the clear line of her cleavage stand out. Sirius decided she wasn't that great at flirting. Objectively examining her performance, he thought she could have talked about him a little more and maybe tilted her neck so he could smell her perfume. Remus was good at that, he always tilted his neck around Sirius - he knew Sirius liked to smell people.
"A long time, before we started school. If we met at his mother's thirty-sixth birthday party, which seems about right to me, than thirteen years. Funny, an unlucky number for us then."
She laughed, all tinkling bells and soft doe eyes, which annoyed Sirius, because he hadn't really said anything funny enough to warrant a laugh. "It's a lovely wedding isn't it?" She continued. She kept waving her empty champagne glass around in front of his face, and Sirius was pretty sure she was hoping he'd offer to refill it for her, but he didn't want to do anything to give her false pretences.
"It is pretty good." He replied, eyes scanning the hall for any signs of Remus. It was all well and good to be bickering but this was Lily and James wedding, and they ought to at least spend a few minutes together. He finally spotted him in a ring of children who were trying to drag him onto the dance floor. Remus's hand was up in front of his face, so Sirius knew he was laughing. The flower girl, James's younger cousin, had stuck some of her flowers through Remus's buttonholes. He was a pretty sight.
Sirius caught Remus's eye for a moment when the music lulled. Remus grinned at him sweetly, and Sirius decided that he'd been stupid. A dance at a wedding was a silly thing to fight over, and Remus was probably right anyway. They weren't here to create a scene after all.
Save me. Sirius mouthed gesturing towards the girl in front of him who was talking inanely on about the nice flower arrangement Lily had chosen for all the bridesmaids, or something equally uninteresting.
"It's very nice outside this time of year." The girl was saying. Sirius took a step back, because in his distraction, she seemed to have gotten much closer to him. "There's lovely gazebo out in the gardens, I saw it when I was coming in."
"Is there?" said Sirius, dubiously.
"Yes." She replied. Her voice was lower now, and Sirius suspected that the twitch her eye seemed to have developed was in fact an attempt at looking smoky and mysterious. She laid one freckled hand on Sirius's arm. Sirius swallowed.
"You know, I fear that I may have given you the wrong idea." He began generously, looking frantically around for Remus who was supposed to be saving him, and who seemed to have disappeared. "I fear that I'm already, umm, spoken for-"
"So am I." She said, cutting Sirius off. She held up her hand, displaying a wedding ring. Sirius felt ill. There was something really wrong with anyone who came to a celebration of matrimony with the intention of cheating on their own spouse.
"The thing is, you're not really my type. It's not that you are nice looking, or something, but-"
"Hello." Remus's voice declared cheerily from right behind Sirius. Before he had turned around, Sirius felt a thin arm slip under his suit jacket and around his waist. Remus's head tipped onto his shoulder.
Very quickly and softly, Remus whispered in his ear. "I've been thinking about it." He began, breath puffing against Sirius's neck. "And you were right. If a wedding is about people in love, we should have to pretend, and anyway, everyone who matters knows and we probably won't ever see the rest of these people again."
Sirius smiled wide, and bumped his hip against Remus's gently in gratitude.
"Umm…hello? You are…?" The woman Sirius had been talking to asked, raising one eyebrow in obvious irritation.
Remus stuck out the hand not nearly entangled in Sirius's belt loop. "Remus Lupin." He said. "I'm Sirius's boyfriend. Hmm…for what's it been now, five years? Six maybe?"
Sirius couldn't hide his half-laugh in time. It was funny how Remus was all stoic silence, until he decided not to be, and then he went all out.
"Oh, so that's how it is." She said, turning her nose into the air comically. She slammed her empty champagne glass onto the cake table and flounced away.
"That's how it is." Sirius returned smugly to the empty space the girl had previously occupied before sighed and blowing a few strands of air out of his eyes. "Thanks." He added, more quietly.
Remus smiled a little, just enough for the corners of his mouth to turn up. The stood still for a moment, with Remus's arms still around Sirius and leaning down enough that Sirius could look at the top of his downy head.
Remus pulled away, and hummed a little, recognizing the song the band was playing. "Sirius Black." He whispered. "Will you dance with me?"
Sirius grinned again, wolfish and eager. "Most certainly, I will."
The floor wasn't very crowded when the stepped on but a space cleared around them almost instantly as the other couples turned to watch them. But the other guests did not move to look at a spectacle, or gasp at those two men dancing together, but because it was clear that Remus and Sirius knew what they were doing.
They waltzed easy, like the floor was new hardwood and they were children in socks, just gliding, breathless and anticipating each step with eloquent glee. When the music stopped, there would be a hassle. A nasty brother-in-law for Lily to placate and thwarted tradition to be brushed uncomfortably back into place, but for those suspended moments, they were ethereal and untouchable and they knew it.