Sirius was running through the streets of London. He couldn't miss his bus. Not today.
At last he reached the bus stop. A few people were already standing in the bus shelter.
"Has the bus come by yet, sir?" Sirius asked a man.
"In that case I wouldn't be standing here, young man," the stranger retorted.
"But will it be coming soon?" Sirius insisted. He wanted to get to his destination as soon as possible.
"The bus will come in ten minutes and no sooner or later. You can see yourself on the time table over there in the shelter," the man answered agitated.
"The shel-? Oh… yeah… right…"
Sirius thanked the man politely, who was looking at him as if he'd lost his mind, and walked over to the time table.
"Padfoot?" a man said while he was staring intently at the table, trying to figure out how to read it.
Sirius turned around instantly. Only three men could use that name on him. And indeed, it was…
"Moony? What are you doing here?" He was relieved to see his friend, for he'd felt quite lost in the Muggle world.
"I could ask you the same thing," Remus retorted.
"But I asked first. What are you doing here?" Sirius said with a smile.
"I'm… I'm waiting for the bus," Remus said uncomfortably.
"Obviously. But why are you taking a bus? Why don't you… well, use the obvious ways of transport?"
Remus eyed the crowd suspiciously and then pulled Sirius out of the shelter by his sleeve so they could talk without being overheard.
"The obvious ways weren't possible for where I'm going," he said.
"Remus, don't waste my time. Where. Are. You. Going? Just spill the beans. Whatever it is, I'm not going to laugh at you."
"Well, it's just… I'm going to the supermarket," Remus said uncomfortably.
"What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing."
"Then why do you hardly dare to say it? Moons, you're not telling the truth. Or at least you're not telling me everything. Really, I can tell when you're lying. You're an awful liar, you know that."
He gave Remus a knowing look, and both of their minds flickered to Remus's 'furry little problem'.
"Lily sent me," he said after a moment.
"What for?" Sirius asked confused. How could that be embarrassing?
"For nappies and porridge," Remus sighed, giving in. "She ran out. I had to help her looking after Harry since Dumbledore is having a conversation with James."
Sirius looked at him for a second. "What's embarrassing about that?" he asked confused.
"Well, imagine if I'd run into someone I knew," he waved obviously to Sirius, "and they would see me with the nappies and all of that. They would be like: 'oh, Remus, are you having kids? I didn't know' and so on. And since I don't even have a girlfriend, it would be rather weird if I would have a kid."
Sirius noticed the look on his friend's face. He could tell that that wasn't the only thing that bothered him. Remus wanted to have a family. He wanted to buy nappies for his children. But he would probably never allow himself to have children because they might inherit his 'fury little problem'.
"Remus, it's okay. One day, you will have your family. I'm sure you will. And your children won't –," he eyed the Muggles standing next to them, "have any bad pet rabbits if you know what I mean."
"Thanks, Sirius. And what are you actually doing here?"
"M-Me?"
Remus raised an eyebrow.
"Don't give me the Moony-look! I'm… You know I like Muggle transport."
"Sirius, the only Muggle way of transport you like is a motorbike. And that is not what I asked anyway, I asked where you were going."
The roles had switched now. This time, Remus was the investigator, while Sirius was the uncomfortable victim of his gaze.
"Nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Visiting a distant cousin of my aunt's nephew. Nothing special..."
"Sirius, stop babbling. You hate your family, why would you visit them?"
But exactly at that moment, the bus stopped next to the shelter.
"Is it time already?" Remus asked, checking his watch. The hands indeed indicated 3 o'clock. "Oh, no," Remus said, looking at his clock, "Lily asked me to be back at 3. I've got to hurry, Sirius."
They quickly stepped on the bus. But due to the crowd standing between the two friends, Remus didn't get a chance to find out what Sirius was up to anymore...
…
The next morning, Remus was reading the Daily Prophet when he heard the load roar of a motorbike in his street. He covered his ears, meanwhile cursing the every teenager who wants to show off to his friends by buying such a thing.
At the moment the noise dropped, the doorbell rang. Surprised, Remus went to the hallway and opened the door.
The first thing he saw was Sirius standing on his doorstep, a grin from ear to ear stretched out on his face. Then, Remus's gaze shifted to a brand new, shining, eye catching motorbike standing in front of his house, and he had the feeling his eyes might fall out of his head.
"A beauty, isn't she?" Sirius said, looking at the motorbike over his shoulder.
"I-Is it yours?" Remus asked dumbstruck. In fact, he didn't need to ask. Only Sirius would actually buy such a thing.
"Of course it is," Sirius said with a huge smile.
"Isn't it... Well, Padfoot, isn't it a bit unpractical? You know, you live in London, and James in Godric's Hollow, and -"
"Oh, but I've thought about that. You haven't seen what she's capable of yet. You wanna come for a ride so I can show you?"
"Definitely not!"
"Aw, c'mon Moony, please," Sirius pleaded.
"Is that why you came here?" Remus asked, "To force me onto your new motorbike?"
"No, I came here because yesterday, you were desperate to know what I was up to."
"This is why you took the bus yesterday? To buy a motorbike?" Remus asked unbelievingly.
Sirius nodded fervently and started grinning again.
"I'm going to show Prongs now, but I came here first to pick you up."
"No way you'll ever get me on that bike Sirius. And cut the puppy eyes out, that's not going to work this time. I swear it won't work. Honestly... Fine!"
Sirius grinned and walked back to his motorbike.
"Come on, hurry, you don't want to let Prongsie wait to see this beauty, do you?
"You mean 'you don't want to delay Lily's heart attack?'"
"She'll survive. Hold on tight!" Sirius said grinning as Remus sat on the motorbike behind him. He started the engine and the motorbike took off into the air.
That was the moment Remus decided never to give in to Sirius's puppy eyes anymore.