Shirt-Lifter

"Moony!" Sirius gasped. "Fuck – problem!"

"What is it, Sirius?" Remus asked, half-alarmed, half-wary.

"There is a fucking insect crawling on me!" Sirius growled, clawing at his back much like his alter-ego would. "Stupid… shirt…"

"Oh, for god's sake," Remus sighed. "Just take it off if it's bothering you so much."

And he went back to his book.

"Moony?" came a voice a minute later. "If you wouldn't mind..."

Remus turned, and groaned at what he saw.

Sirius, in his mad fumbling to do what he had suggested, had only succeeded in becoming hopelessly entangled in his Black Sabbath T-shirt.

"I can't breathe."

"If you can talk, you can breathe," Remus replied tersely.

"You of all people should know how well-versed I am in talking out of my arse."

Remus snorted. "Oh, well done you. Come here then..."

Sirius held still as Remus gently tugged and untwisted the shirt until a silky-haired head escaped it, shortly followed by a lithe, pale chest.

Sirius gifted his friend a particularly dashing grin. "Thanks, Moonshine," he said softly, lips still upturned oh-so-charmingly.

Remus paused. "I don't see an insect, Pads," he observed quietly.

"Must have fallen off in the shirt," Sirius disregarded, "unless, of course, it scurried into my jeans." His grey eyes widened suddenly. "Moony, I think –"

"Sirius," Remus cut him off. "Stop that. Is there a bug or not?"

Sirius had a hint of desperation on his handsome face now. "Maybe it was the love-bug?" he joked weakly, smile faltering just a little.

Vulnerability. Not something you see often in Blacks.

Remus felt his lips twitch, and lifted them up to meet Sirius' – a small, chaste kiss that said it all.

As their mouths parted, Sirius' grin returned in full force. "I guess this makes you a shirt-lifter."

Remus threw his book at him.

a/n Just a little one to tide you over to the weekend. I have other, longer SBRL – read it!

Still Awake did surprisingly well; I think people assumed it would be smut. Yes, I know how filthy your minds are. Speaking of, going to lasso some smutty slash now. TTFN.