Title: Before the Storm
Summary: The story of the one year where war was only an abstract threat that soon turned to reality. Before that fateful night in 1981 quite a bit happened, and young graduates tried their best to build their lives (under the impression that they would have lives) after Hogwarts in terms of careers, marriages, and starting families. Remus/Sirius, James/Lily, Peter/Mary MacDonald. Explicit in some chapters.
AN: This is for thesecreteater! Happy birthday, my favorite tumblr follower, and may you have a year full of werewolves and wizardry. :)
Chapter 1: Padfoot and Moony
Remus opened his eyes before his brain could even process where he was or why he was there in the first place. The morning sun hurt his eyes, so he snapped them back shut immediately after.
This also turned out to be a bad decision, since it awakened the headache that had been waiting to pounce on Remus and make him miserable, as headaches after full moons were like to do. Yes! There it was. Remus had figured out where he was even if it was an unhappy answer.
The next expected sensation was a full-body muscle ache and burning wherever he'd scratched himself, but instead he got a wet, hot tongue running up his cheek. "Blech."
Padfoot nudged at his boyfriend's cheek with his nose before licking him again. Doggy kisses were his specialty, and he more or less wanted to cover Remus' face in them until the pain went away.
Sirius' dog-brain explained his logic quite nicely: 'Remus! Love Moony. Remus lick Remus bark kiss face Remus not hurt anymore. Lick.'
"You're disgusting," Remus tried as Sirius padded over to better be able to lick Remus' nose. Most things that he and Sirius did were objectively disgusting (including the shabby flat they occupied), though, so he let this slide. "Are you okay? I didn't… I didn't hurt you or anything?"
Sirius just continued to lick his face, so Remus considered that was a hardy: 'No, Remus! No, Moony! I love you!'.
The only reason he'd even asked—him hurting Padfoot while shifted was rare, like the wolf knew he liked the many behind the crazed dog persona—was because it was one of their first full moons alone. No Peter, no James.
The latter had gone to meet Miss Lily Evans' parents, which required a weekend stay at their house and for James to actually look presentable for once in his life. Before leaving, James had hoped and prayed that Lily's sister was as beautiful as she was so he knew the genepool he intended to marry into was strong, but when he arrived he had sent Sirius an owl describing her sister as much to the contrary. James still wanted to marry Lily, though. Even if there was a small chance they'd have bird-like and squat children.
The former had been working later at his father's tailoring shop when Sirius owled to let him know that he could handle Remus and the wolf on his own that night. Exhausted and wildly happy to be relieved of duty, Peter had fallen asleep on top of his sewing kit and the letter immediately after reading it.
"Good morning," Sirius murmured once he shifted back. He grabbed the blanket he kept stored on full moons and ceremoniously draped it over the other man, who looked positively savage with his hair mussed, dirt stains all over him, and crispy fall leaves beneath him.
Remus sighed. He'd almost forgotten that he had been in the woods naked and unconscious for a while there. "Yes, yes, good morning," he murmured, feeling a splinter wedged in his left foot throb. "I don't think I broke anything."
Small victories, Sirius decided, was what he was going to have to live with. "Good."
"Though I do feel like there's an entire unchewed rabbit in my stomach."
"Oh, Moony. That's because there is," Sirius told him while suppressing a smile. "You okay to walk?"
Remus nodded before forcing himself to sit up. His lower back felt like it had been thrown in a washing machine before being neatly sewn back into Remus. "Yes, I'm fine."
As Sirius, shirtless in the middle of the woods, helped Remus to his feet it became very clear what a huge lie that was. "What happened to your left leg? Twisted ankle?" He didn't remember seeing that as Padfoot.
"No, it's just a stupid splinter," Remus said, leaning up against Sirius for stability. His head was pounding like a bitch, but they really needed to get home without splinching before Remus' wounds could be treated.
How dare that splinter. How dare that little sliver of wood think it was worthy of Remus' foot? Sirius could not see the justice in that, so he had to right the wrong that existed in his world. Even though Sirius' legs were bruised and battered beneath his trousers, he bent over to scoop Remus up.
A squeak escaped Remus, but the strength was gone from him. He couldn't even advise Sirius to stop being an idiot and put him down because his brain still swam in his skull. He tried his best, though. "Hey, you'll hurt yourself."
"Nope," Sirius said proudly. His shoulder-length hair fell around him in dark curls that made him look rather distinctly like the dirty hippie he truly was, but there was nothing Sirius loved more than putting on a macho bravado in front of Remus. Half of the fun was that Remus knew there was nothing macho about him. "Portkey is nearby; you picked a convenient place to drop last night."
"Wonderful."
After carrying Remus, draped in a blanket like some sort of saint, to the Portkey (a Keats poetry book), things became infinitely easier.
A sudden gale whisked them where they stood. Well, where Sirius stood and Remus hung in his arms. The usual sensation dug its claws into the couple and the book they both held between them until the world stopped spinning and they found themselves in their homey, dingy flat.
Because of its small size, Sirius had no problem carrying Remus into their room and laying him down on the bed. Remus hit the mattress with a grateful groan.
With a thud, Sirius collapsed beside him.
"Urghk," he announced eloquently.
"Urghk," Remus echoed empathetically.
Where Peter and James' 'urghks' were expected there was silence. It felt Highly Unholy and Sacrilegious to Sirius. The Marauders were his life. He was in love with one and a brother to the other two.
Living somewhere aside from the dorm the four of them—and Frank Longbottom, bless his soul—was strange.
That wasn't to say it was bad, since he and Remus could shag and shag and shag and nobody would walk in on them and yell 'Moony, Padfoot! Put some clothes on, for Merlin's sake!'. Sirius got to share a bed with Remus, and they got to make their own meals before heading to work. Then, they could home and shag some more without any curfew or adult supervision. They were the adults now.
"We're adults," Sirius reminded Remus with a mumble into their mattress.
"We pay taxes."
"We could adopt a kitty and nobody would stop us."
"Sirius," Remus groaned. He was always on his back about a goddamn kitty.
They barely had enough in Gringotts to keep the apartment. Sirius was still in training to become an Auror (meaning he got a salary, but not as big of a salary as the real Aurors), and Remus was working on a team of research coordinators that studied the genetic effects of vampirism on muggle bodies. Sure, that wasn't Remus' dream job, but one requirement for becoming a teacher was a background test which he was almost sure to fail.
It was the eighties and Remus was a gay, pot-smoking werewolf. He lived in poverty, dressed like a typical homosexual (the sweater vests were really a dead giveaway), and was covered in mysterious scars. Those were not exactly the traits of someone qualified to be around children, according to the Wizarding Board of Education.
One day, maybe the tides of discrimination would lessen. Maybe there would be a cure for lycanthropy, maybe they would finally legalize same-sex marriage… One day.
"We can't afford a kitty." Yes, that was what they had been talking about.
"We could just feed it table scraps and make it go outside to go to the bathroom so we don't even need kitty litter. What in the hell are we saving money for?"
"Rent."
"Okay, yeah, we have to pay rent and buy groceries, but after that we've still got money left over." Sirius wrapped his arm around Remus's waist, carefully avoiding fresh scars. He kissed the shell of Remus' ear, hoping to seduce his way to having a furry friend for Padfoot. "Enough for me to take you on a nice dinner every once and awhile, get some new clothes, adopt a cat from a shelter…"
Remus really did not need this after a night of wolfing out. The dead rabbit in his stomach was also settling pretty nastily. "Sirius, it makes sense to save galleons right now. What if one of us gets hurt and has to stay at the hospital? We have to have a stockpile, just in case."
"You sound exactly like your father."
"Shut up," Remus sighed. His father was the king of knut-pinching since the Lupins had never been affluent. "I love you, now shut up."
"You know what would shut me up?"
"Oh my god."
"A wonderful fuzz-ball of love and kitty-ness."
Remus rested his cheek on a nearby pillow so he could get a better look at Sirius. "You're literally unbearable."
"I'll make you breakfast," Sirius offered.
Oh, please. Was this second year? Remus Lupin knew how to bargain with Sirius Black and that was the bare minimum offer.
"I'll give you a nice warm bath and massage your shoulders."
Remus narrowed his eyes.
"I'll give you so much sex that your cock falls off."
"You're insane."
"Is that a yes?" Sirius asked, eyes wide and filled with hope. Even though Remus had built up a tolerance to his bargaining skills, the puppy eyes got him every time. Remus was a weak, weak man in the face of love.
"We're getting bargain brand cat food, and you have to deal with the litter box," he gave in.
A wide smile spread on Sirius' face as soon as Remus made that sad, relenting sigh before speaking. Sirius couldn't help it, he just pounced on the other man in their bed.
"Ow."
"You're the best Moony in the world!" Sirius told him eagerly before digging his hands into Remus' hair to haul him in for a kiss. They both hadn't shaved and had stubble all over, but that somehow almost made it better.
Sirius was definitely sticking his knee against a blooming bruise that Remus had, but Remus had had worse. He'd grown up with Sirius, James, and Peter. Roughhousing wasn't new to him, and he wasn't going to let it get in the way of kissing the most gorgeous and wonderful bloke to ever stick his knee in a bruise on the face of the earth.
Remus loved him. Oh, he was so hopeless for him. Sirius had impossibly soft black hair that looked perfect without any styling whatsoever, a pair of positively gleaming silver eyes, and a fit body to top it all off. Sirius blackened the eyes of people who insulted Remus and spat on the idea of pureblood supremacy, a physical firestorm when he was angry. That same fire came out when he kissed Remus for quite a different reason that Remus was even fonder of.
And then there was that Special Sirius Something. The confidence that drew women to him like he was a magnet, and the suave ability to reject them all in a way that made them fall more in love. Everything Sirius touched turned to gold, and he didn't even have to try.
Remus, on the other hand, tried. He tried so hard. Life felt like an uphill climb for him and while Sirius certainly had the demons of his parents in his head that would never prevent him from acting normal in public.
Remus twisted in strange positions to hide scars in the right light. He wore layers of clothes to cover himself, and only let Sirius see what was underneath. As a stark contrast, Sirius was most comfortable stark naked. He loved his body and so did Remus, and for some reason Sirius was the only one around who liked Remus' body.
"I'm the only Moony in the world," Remus reminded Sirius as if Sirius would ever take a compliment back.
"And you're my favorite," he repeated, nosing his cheek. "Now, how about I make you some waffles before I treat you to a dip in the tub."
With a content and utterly enamored sigh, Remus ducked down to give him another kiss. "That would make you my favorite Padfoot in the whole world."
"Damn right it would," he teased before giving Remus' arm a squeeze and hopping out of bed, shedding his trousers now that they were alone. Sirius liked to claim he cooked better naked, and Remus certainly didn't mind the view—and it was funny as hell when he tried to cook bacon shirtless and the hot grease bubbles popped to splash on Sirius.
Wrapping himself even further in the blankets—the one from the woods and the sheets of their bed—Remus nuzzled himself into a cocoon of warmth, making Sirius be the one to get the owl message from James that arrived shortly after.