James groaned as he was, yet again, jolted awake by the sound of Sirius and Remus screaming at each other. He managed to gather that this time Sirius had been tapping his pen irritably as Remus was trying to read in silence. He was sick to death of their bickering and got up, furious, to tell them to shut the hell up. When he crossed the room towards them, however, he was hit by the most intense atmosphere he had ever felt. It even left him feeling angry and frustrated, for Merlin's sake!

"Out!" He shouted. "Both of you!"

He had had just about enough of this. He knew that it was as product of sexual tension; he could feel it every time they were in the same room as each other. He decided that he would do something about it. If not just so he could get a decent lie in everyday.

"Pete, I've got a cool idea for a prank. You wanna help me?" He said when the aforementioned shouting marauders had left the room (in completely separate directions; Sirius to storm about the school shouting at anyone that got in his way, and Remus to make his way to the library to sulk)

"Yeah, alright. What is it?" the smaller boy replied eagerly

"Well. Basically we get Pads and Moony to kiss under the mistletoe. They're really annoying me, I figured this would be good payback" James said, stifling a laugh when Peter's face fell into an incredulous expression; obviously not sure whether he was joking or being serious.

"You what?"

"Like I said; Remus. Sirius. Mistletoe"

"You can't be serious; they can't even stay in the same room as each other without shouting"

"Exactly" James replied, with a devious twinkle in his eye.

Peter groaned in reply. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to get himself involved with this. Remus and Sirius would kill him if they found out he was a part of it.

"You don't need to do anything, Pete. I just need you to get some mistletoe from Hogsmeade." James had, again, been banned from visiting Hogsmeade this weekend as punishment for pulling a prank on Filch (again). It had been a really good one though, and it was worth missing out on the trip to see the look on Filch's face as he discovered his cat soaking wet, trailing mud through the corridors.
"Right. Well I suppose I could do that." He replied eventually.

"Good" James replied, a smug smile settling on his face.

Remus was furious! He couldn't think straight as he walked, far too fast, down the corridors towards the safe haven of the library. He couldn't stand it in there any longer. Every time he was in close proximity to Sirius his blood just boiled, and he found himself getting increasingly angry until his anger just got to a point and he had to let it out and scream at him. He regretted it as soon as he had shouted, but he couldn't take it back and apologise; Sirius would just see it as victory and gloat in his face. And a smug Sirius was even worse than an angry Sirius.

He threw his bag down onto the library table at the back of the room with more force than he'd intended and the lone Ravenclaw that occupied the library looked up in shock to see that it was Remus that had slammed his things down.

"Sorry" Remus said, smiling apologetically and hoping that he hadn't disturbed the other boy that much. He knew firsthand how annoying it was to be disturbed. He bowed his head over his book and began reading where he had abruptly left off.

The next thing he was aware of was his shoulders being gently shaken and someone talking into his ear.

"Remus. Come on, Remus. You've slept through the morning's lessons"

He shot awake. Panic spreading through him as the words took full effect.

"What?" He gasped, staring at the amused face looking back at him.

"You've missed the morning's lessons." He said again, slowly. Sirius watched Remus as he panicked and started shoving his things into his bag. He looked so tired and stressed, and Sirius realised that he was probably the reason for this. He shouldn't have shouted at him the past week. He felt awful.

"I'm sorry" Sirius said quietly as he pushed his friend back into his seat. "There's fifteen minutes left before the next lesson, you might as well use it to wake up". He said the last words carefully, not wanting to start another argument. As much as he hid it, he really hated fighting with Remus.

"I'm sorry too" Remus replied, and Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. Glad that they wouldn't be arguing for the foreseeable future.

"Not get much sleep last night, then?" Sirius asked

"Not really" Remus replied with a sad sigh

"Why" Sirius asked, before he even thought about it. "Sorry. I don't mean to ask questions. I'll just shut up" he said, making a move to leave Remus alone.

"Sit" he ordered as he was just about to leave, and waited patiently for his friend to sit back down. "I didn't get much sleep because... well, I've sort of been in pain." He watched Sirius carefully as he spoke, and felt relieved when he saw concern in his eyes. He had thought, for a split second, that he might have laughed at him and called him melodramatic.

"Why?" Sirius asked; his eyes intent on Remus.

"My last transformation was more painful than I'm used to. I don't know why" He said in a quiet voice.

"Are you okay?" Sirius asked. His voice was fierce with concern for Remus. He hated what happened to him through his transformations and he hated not being able to do anything to help.

"I think so. Thanks, Sirius; for asking. Nobody else does." He smiled, and then got up to walk to his next lesson. They didn't see each other all day, but when they met again later that day things were a lot calmer and Remus didn't seem to be as stressed out, Sirius noticed.

James finally managed to get his first sleep in of the week the following day, and when he woke up Remus wasn't around and Sirius was snoring loudly with his body half hanging out of bed. He laughed as he saw that Sirius' body was inclined towards Remus' bed, and wondered idly what had eased the tension between them yesterday.

He spent the afternoon trying to irritate Padfoot (an impossible task in itself) and waited for Wormtail to return so that he could set his trap. There had been minor bickering between Remus and Sirius throughout the day and he could tell that the major arguments would begin to manifest and that it would start all over again. He dreaded the moment when it all exploded again; he had a feeling this was going to be so much worse than the last few times.

Remus decided to spend his day in the common room instead of hiding away in the library like he had been doing all week. As much as he liked being surrounded by a vast amount of books, he rather missed the comfort of the sofas and the warmth of the fire. The library was truly freezing. Sometimes he even wished that someone would come and sit in the library with him, and warm him up. His mind wandered and he became vacant as he imagined just how someone would warm him up. He didn't even snap awake when the mystery person in his daydream solidified and became someone very familiar to him. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of the sofa as images of him and his favourite marauder filled his head. He wasn't sure when he began feeling attracted to Sirius, but he wanted him so much lately.

He groaned as said person shoved him out of his reverie and proceeded to drape his legs across him and steal a cushion to prop his head up. He turned to glare at Sirius but couldn't quite keep a smile off of his face as his eyes fell on his friend and noticed that he had fallen fast asleep.

James spent Saturday afternoon thinking of somewhere un-suspicious to put the mistletoe. He decided to put it above the staircase that led to their dorm under the pretence that he would use it to lure lily up there for a kiss. He smiled as he thought about doing just that. He didn't know quite how he was going to force the two marauders to stand under it for long enough yet, but he was sure he'd think of something.

The following day, as he lounged on his bed lazily looking at his Potions textbook, he heard the sound of Remus screaming at Sirius. He was alarmed by the fury in his voice, and he was shocked to see that Remus came running into the dorm and threw himself down on his bed.

"Moony" James said tentatively "You okay?"

"No" Remus replied. James was shocked to hear that his voice cracked and his body shook as if he were crying. He sat down on the edge of Remus' bed and drew the curtains around it, blocking off the outside world.

"Remus? Wanna talk about it? I'll kill him for you, y'know" he said, his voice switching from soft to furious

"Yeah, I know." He muttered into his bed. "I'd probably miss him though. He's still my friend, even though he's an arrogant prick"

"Yeah" James laughed. "I know all about that"

A minute of silence followed and he thought Remus had fallen asleep, when he shifted his position and sat up so that he faced James.

"Alright, Moony?" he asked, eyeing him with concern

"No. Not really"

"Sirius?" James asked, although he already knew the answer. When Remus reluctantly nodded, James anger rose to the surface yet again. He had always felt protective of Remus, but he had never imagined that he would need protecting from Sirius of all people. They had always been close friends and before now they had rarely argued or even disagreed over anything. They seemed to know when to ignore each other's presence to avoid a confrontation. That was why it was so weird that they were now constantly at each other throats. He didn't understand how they could flip from almost harmonious friendship to futile arguments. Unless... something had been said between them. Or something had happened... Come to think of it, they had always been really close; maybe one time they got a little too close. He didn't know what he was thinking, maybe he was getting far too ahead of himself.

"Moony, what happened between you and Sirius? Did he...try something? We all know how he gets... and you guys have always been close..."

"Leave it, James" Remus replied in almost a whisper

"I'm just trying to understand why you're always fighting. I want to help" James said quietly, not wanting to push Remus over the edge. He could tell he was close to breaking point and he didn't want to be on the receiving end of Remus' shouts. "Also it's getting really annoying and I'm not sure I could keep from hitting him if this goes on any longer" He said with a laugh

"Sorry. I just...I don't know. James, I'm sort of"

"Gay. Yeah, I know" He cut him off, smiling as he looked at his friend's bewildered face

"But. What? How do you know?" Remus stammered, not being able to properly form his words. He had tried to be so secretive. He hadn't even told Sirius. As such...

"I can tell, Moony. I don't think anyone else knows; Pete definitely doesn't. But I've seen the way you look at people. Well. Mainly the way you look at...Sirius" He said this very carefully, watching Remus as he said his name. Waiting for any sign of anger, but all he saw was a very confused and upset Remus. "I'm sorry, Moony. I'll just shut up and leave you alone" he said smiling apologetically, hoping that he wouldn't be upset with him.

"It's okay. You don't have to"

"Do you...feel something for him?" James asked quietly, as he watched Remus shift nervously at the top of his bed, look around for his wand and then wrap the bed in a silencing charm.

"Yes" He said quietly. And James thought that he would break down right there and then; he had never seen Remus look so broken. He watched anger and pain flicker across his face and turned around to see Sirius stood at the edge of the bed, curtains pulled aside. Remus performed the counter curse and sighed, knowing that things would escalate and he would end up arguing with Sirius again.

"Prongs, can I have a word with Remus please?" Sirius asked politely.

"No. No Sirius, you can't. Leave him alone. You've already done enough damage" James replied with more anger than he had intended.

"Why does it always have to be me that's done something wrong?" Sirius said looking down almost as if he was upset. James realised with surprise that Sirius really did look upset.

"It's okay, James" Remus said with a sigh. "It'll happen sooner or later" And with that James left the dorm, dragging a confused Peter along with him.

Sirius sat down next to a shaken Remus and pulled at him until he allowed him to wrap his arms around and hug him.

"I'm sorry, Remus. I'm so so sorry"

"Yeah, me too" Remus mumbled whilst pressed against Sirius' chest. "I didn't mean to make things bad between us. I'd take it back if I could"

"Why?" Sirius asked, sounding shocked and almost hurt

"Because I made things go wrong, and now you're always angry with me and we argue all the time"

Sirius laughed quietly. "I'm not angry, you stupid fool. I was hurt. You kiss me, and then run off and don't talk to me for 5 days, and then when you do eventually talk you shout at me. What was I supposed to do?"

"Sorry. I just... I didn't want to deal with the repercussions. I couldn't stand to have you ignore me, so I just...sort of stopped talking to you altogether"

"Why?" Sirius said, his voice cracking. "Why would I ignore you?"

"Because you're ashamed and embarrassed of me" Remus said quietly before Sirius moved back and pressed his hands to each side of Remus' face, looking him in the eye. Remus panicked; he had no way of escaping.

"No" Sirius said fervently. "I would never be ashamed of you. Never!" He said speaking the word with such force and anger that Remus moved back. "You don't seem to understand. When you kissed me...it was the single most amazing thing that I had ever felt in my entire life"

Remus' eyes widened as his mind tried to process the words that had just been spoken.

"Really?" He asked, not quite able to keep the smile from forming across his face

"Yes Remus. Now will please you do it again; I'm getting quite impatient"

Remus laughed as he reached his hands up to twist them in Sirius' hair and he kissed him with more passion that he knew he was capable of.

James and Peter made their way up the staircase and opened the door of their chambers to hear Sirius furiously scream Remus' name.

"Oh Merlin. They're at it again" Peter cried as he stood in the doorway.

James laughed at his choice of words. "Oh I think they're really 'at it' this time. Guess we didn't need the mistletoe after all"

A.N.
Ta-daa: My first Remus/Sirius fic. Please be kind, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with these guys yet. Sorry about all the angst, it kind of wrote itself. Feedback encouraged!