Whiskey and Kisses

"Y-y-you fail at this James," stuttered Sirius, shivering uncontrollably.

"In my defense it did work," said James, a worried frown crossing his normally carefree features, "You know, sort of."

"As s-s-soon as I c-can walk on my own, I'm g-g-gonna k-kill you," Sirius said as a particularly violent convulsion ripped through him.

James ignored the treat and pulled his best-friend more firmly against his side, rubbing at his arms and wishing that Sirius would just let him levitate him so that they could move faster.

"Come on, Siri," he said encouragingly, "Remy'll fix you up. It's just a little further now."

Though the blazing summer sun was beating down on them from overhead Sirius' lips were an intriguing shade of purple-blue. Warming charms had no effect on him and he wasn't leeching any of James' heat nor was the sunshine and humid air helping in the slightest.

Luckily, according to the map, Remus was still in the student greenhouse working on his final project for herbology like the diligent student he was. The glass door rattled in his frame and then swung open without prompting, a testament to James' worry, and the two black-haired boys quickly made their way through the tunnel of lush green foliage to the back corner where Remus and Alice had been growing a temperamental crop of Chinese Moondrops.

Remus was there, kneeling in the dirt and stripped down to the t-shirt he usually wore under his uniform shirt and his school trousers.

"Remy," whined Sirius, "S-s-save me!"

"Sweet Circe!" exclaimed Remus, dropping his trowel when he turned and took in their friend's pitiful form, "Sirius Orion Black, what in the blue blazes have you done to yourself?"

"It was my fault," James admitted, worrying his lower lip between his teeth as Remus hooked Sirius' other arm around his shoulder sandwiching him between them, "I was working on that new spell, and Siri got caught in the backlash."

Remus sighed and shook his head, "When will you learn, no, never mind, Alice still has the cot set up bring him this way."

They laid Sirius down on the cot and James rolled his neck and shoulders with a sigh of relief. Remus bent and took a cautious sniff of Sirius' neck, ignoring the face his shivering friend made, and then pressed his lips to his forehead.

"Alright, I've got a few ideas, but it might take a while, just in case we don't make it back to the dorms tonight…Mm, you should—hey, Pete borrowed your mirror this morning, right?"

"I've already told him to cover for us," said James waving his concerns off impatiently, "Do you know how to fix him?"

"Okay, so you've tried warming charms and the typical counter charms I take it?"

"Just what do you take me for, Remus?"

"Sorry, sorry, I just had to ask," Remus made a small considering noise in the back of him throat, "He's not taking in ambient heat, so—I've got it."

He went digging through his book bag and came up with a small bottle filled with amber-colored liquid and a bar of dark chocolate.

"Let's try this."

"Firewhiskey?"

"Mmhm."

"Where'd you g-g-get firewhiskey, R-rems?" asked Sirius pouting exaggeratedly, "And m-more imp-p-ortantly why haven't you b-been sh-sh-sharing?"

"It's too hot for drinking firewhiskey, Pads, it's the middle of summer. And it's medicinal, from Madame Pomfrey," said Remus, frowning down at Sirius, "Here, take a bit of chocolate first."

Remus broke of a bite-sized chunk from his chocolate bar but Sirius was shaking too hard to hold onto it and it dropped to land on his stomach. Sirius made a noise of frustration, clenching his hands into fists.

"Easy," James soothed picking up to dropped bit of chocolate and holding it to Sirius' lips.

Sirius' let his lips slide around James' thumb and index finger, his tongue darting out to lap the stains from his fingers unashamedly.

"Stop trying to seduce me, you flirt," scolded James, with a grin, ruffling Sirius' thick dark hair.

"B-but James," said Sirius, his voice dropping into a husky register as he looked up at James through his thick sooty lashes, "I'm s-so c-c-cold, won't you c-come and warm me up?"

James snorted, but it was in relief more than anything. If Sirius still had the energy to be a tease after all then he'd probably be fine. He looked over at Remus for confirmation and saw that a mischievous look had scrawled itself across the werewolf's face.

Tilting his head back he took a big swig from the bottle of firewhiskey and quickly bent and pressed his mouth against Sirius' slightly parted lips. A bit of whiskey spilled out to run along the curve of Sirius' neck to soak into his shirt-collar but Sirius was no stranger to sudden open-mouthed kisses and caught on fairly quickly.

James was just as flushed as Remus when they finally pulled apart, though whether Remus' was from embarrassment or firewhiskey was hard to say. Sirius swallowed heavily a few times, his eyes wide and dark, again, whether from the alcohol or the kissing, James couldn't have said.

"Wow," he breathed after a long moment, "Didn't think you had it in you Remy. I'm still feeling bad though, better kiss me some more."

This time Remus snorted.

"Well, good to know the whiskey is working at least. And it's James' turn," he said handing over the bottle.

James took it and ran a nervous hand through his perpetually windswept hair, his flush deepening.

"Mmm," hummed Sirius, another, smaller James noted, shiver passing through him, his full mouth quirked into sly smirk, "Make it good enough Jamie and maybe I'll forget about my retribution."

Hearing the unspoken dare in that statement James gathered his courage and took a gulp of the whiskey, holding it in his mouth and fighting the urge to cough and sputter as it burned the back of his throat and sent waves of heat rushing through his body.

Sirius sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, skillfully parting his lips with his tongue, and gulped down the whiskey with a small pleased noise that James could feel vibrating through him. James shivered a bit himself as Sirius twined and hand through his hair and kept right on kissing him until they had to part for air.

"I can feel my fingers," Sirius announced after a moment, "It's a miracle! More magic kisses!"

Remus just shook his head, a tolerantly fond look in his eyes as he looked down at the two of them. James, more than a little shocked, really couldn't believe his best friends. Toeing off his shoe he peeled off his sock and shoved it into Sirius' stupid, grinning mouth.

"Shut up Pads. Who'd kiss you anyway."

"Gross, Prongs! And you would," Sirius retorted, spitting out the offending wad of cloth, "And so would Moony."

"Mmm. I wouldn't bet on that Siri, right now I feel rather more like kissing James," said Remus nonchalantly, his eyes, the same color as the whiskey, dark with some emotion James didn't feel particularly like labeling, especially considering that he was sure that emotion was responsible for the werewolf leaning over Sirius and bending to press his warm soft lips to the corner of his mouth.

"So mean," pouted Sirius, "Don't you love me anymore?"

All James could do was stare at his crazy friends like they'd grown three more heads, his lips still tingling and his face red as a tomato, though whether from the whiskey or the kisses he couldn't have said.

AN: Hey guys, another one for Romi's Autumn Flashfic Challenge! If you liked this fic please go check out the other stories in the challenge thread including my first response, 'Warm Me Up' which features Percy Weasley and Oliver Wood. As always, please review and let me know what you guys thought!

Dedicated to Romi for her birthday!