Title: Between Friends
Rating: PG, that's Psychedelic Gabbros to you. (Or K+, if you prefer)
Warnings: Sleeping!Remus is highly adorable. Women with heart conditions are advised not to look directly at him. (With copious apologies to LittleKuribo). Slashy undertones. Feel free to ignore the blatantly obvious if that's what you'd prefer. "Embraced like brothers" my ass…
Notes: Another prompt-fic from the deep. This one is a tad spastic, owing to the strict list of characters that I was given. The prompt: Remus is sleeping and Sirius can't wake him up. It's odd, but, then again, most of my stuff is.
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Remus was snoring blissfully, his mouth slightly open and the tiniest bit of drool slowly making its way towards freedom. Sirius was kicking himself for not having brought a camera. There was something oddly compelling about a sleeping Remus. Sirius couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. Something in his presence seemed to change while he was asleep — his expression unguarded and the ever present fear lurking in his eyes, fear that he would be discovered and shunned, was absent.
Sirius liked it. He decided right then and there that no one was going to wake Remus up.
Unfortunately, this was far easier said than done.
"Shh!" said Sirius, for the fifteenth time.
"Sorry," said James, in a decidedly un-contrite manner as he set up the cards for yet another game of exploding snap. "I don't see what you're so worried about," grumbled the messy haired boy. "remus will be able to get plenty of sleep after the feast."
Sirius wasn't particularly concerned about Remus' sleeping habits, but he wasn't quite prepared to share with James exactly why he was so intent to keep Remus asleep. Not that there was anything weird about wanting to watch your friend sleep. Nothing at all. Sirius grunted as James shot him a funny look.
"Evans!" James suddenly shouted, earning him an irritated "shh!" from Sirius and a "hey!" from Peter as james haphazardly tossed the cards onto Peter's lap, where they promptly exploded.
James stuck his head out of the compartment door, flashed a winning grin, ruffled his hair for good luck and said, "hey Evans. Have a good summer?"
From what Sirius could tell Lily just ignored him. Which for the notoriously short-tempered (at least when it came to James) Lily Evans was a remarkable feat. Sirius smirked, maybe she really was warming up to him after all.
"James Potter, you arrogant, pig-headed, brainless, numbskull! I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last bloody boy on Earth!" Lily's infuriated rant wafted breezily into the compartment.
Then again, maybe not.
Not more than a minute later James slunk dejectedly back into the compartment.
"Wanna play exploding snap?" Peter asked hesitantly.
"No," said a very sullen James and he moped and made faces at the compartment floor. "Why? Why won't she go out with me? I'd go out with me, if I could. What does sodding Gregory Bodger," James snarled the name of the dreaded and despised Hufflepuff chaser that Lily had been dating at the end of the previous year with an alarming amount of venom, "the nancing git, have that I don't?"
"You shouldn't let Lily get to you like that mate," Sirius said, in an attempt to be supportive.
"I don't care what Lily thinks!" James shouted unconvincingly. "Does it look like she's getting to me?"
It did, but Sirius chose (wisely) not to comment. On the bright side, it was now quiet. James sulked, muttering murderously under his breath about the evils of women, Hufflepuffs, red-hair, Lily, Lily's pet cat Ginger and (oddly enough) sugar quills. Peter sulked too, but only because James was doing it. Remus snored happily. Sirius watched Remus sleep, wondering why he'd never noticed that Remus had a freckle on the tip of his nose before.
Snape chose that unfortunate moment to stick his head into their compartment.
"Potter," he spat.
James stopped sulking immediately. "Snivellus," he replied, seemingly flippantly, but with a definite threatening undertone. He stood up, wand in hand.
"Shh!" said Sirius, without thinking.
Both James and Snape stopped glaring daggers at each other to stare at Sirius incredulously.
"Err… Sorry," said James in a way that suggested he couldn't believe he was actually apologizing for threatening Snape too loudly. He moved out of the compartment and into the hall. "Remus is sleeping." He shrugged, looking clearly like he wanted to let the whole world know it wasn't his idea.
Snape blinked.
"You got a problem with that, Snivelly?" Sirius said defensively.
"No?" said Snape, who was only just getting over his stupefaction.
Snape blinked again.
James sneezed.
Miranda Todd, the head girl came towards them.
"Later, mudblood lovers," snarled Snape as her turned and stalked off dramatically down the train hallway, shoving a first-year into the wall on his way past in an effort to gain back some of his nasty Slytherin dignity.
"Well that was odd," remarked James.
"Very odd," said Sirius.
"Very, very odd," added Peter.
"Shut up Peter," Sirius said, as he returned to Remus watching.
"Err… Sirius?" asked James timidly.
"What?"
"What are you so obsessed with letting Remus sleep?"
"He's tired," said Sirius shiftily. Unfortunately, five years of sharing a dorm room with Sirius Black had gifted James with the ability to read him like a book. He cast Sirius a doubtful look, causing the other boy to squirm uncomfortably.
"And so you're staring at him?"
Sirius blanched. "What do you mean?"
"Padfoot, you've been staring at him this whole train ride, then you won't let me pound Snivellus in the safety of our own compartment because it might wake him up. Doesn't that seem a little odd to you?"
"No," said Sirius resolutely. He was not odd. He was not peculiar. It was completely normal to be fascinated by your sleeping friend's faces. Wasn't it? Yes. Yes it was. He was not odd. And definitely not queer. He gave a slight shudder at the though, and his left eye twitched suddenly.
"No?"
"No."
"Not even a little—?"
"Bugger off James!" shouted Sirius.
For one breathtaking moment Remus stirred in his sleep, but he simply rolled over, scratching his nose sleepily.
James snorted. Sirius glared. Peter was staring avidly at Remus to see if Sirius had pulled some kind of prank on his face.
The trolley witch knocked on the door.
Remus stirred, and groggily said, "whazzat?"
"Nooo!" shouted Sirius as he launched himself at the poor confused trolley witch.
"What?" said Remus. "Padfoot?"
Peter was staring at him alarmingly. The unfortunate thing about Peter's stares were that they were anything but subtle. Eyes bulged, and mouth gaping open, Peter was staring disconcertingly at Remus' nose. He wondered idly if he'd somehow gone to sleep and woken up in a bizarre alternate dimension.
James, meanwhile, was desperately trying to keep Sirius from murdering the poor witch. "Remus! A little help would be nice," he bellowed.
"Erm, right," Remus said stupidly, and grabbed hold of Sirius' right arm. Sirius stopped death threats immediately, and fell still, looking at Remus with wide, startled eyes.
"Alright. Now just what the bloody hell is going on here?" Remus demanded.
There was a moment of absolute silence.
"Nothing," said Sirius unconvincingly.
"Nothing at all," James added, with a horribly cheesy grin.
Remus groaned. What on Earth had he done to warrant these lunatics as friends?
- - - - - -
Finis.