Remus decides that Sirius has been beaten, kidnapped, and driven across town, because, really, no one takes this long to grab a couple of beers and fetch a jumper that Remus needs really fucking right now. He doesn't remember November ever being this cold before, and if he breathes in deeply he can smell that frigid chill that boasts snow. Snow, however, would be nice right now. Anything would be better than the sleet and grey skies that have haunted Remus' days since autumn reached its peak. He shifts painfully in the night air and wraps his arms around his frame just a little tighter, the gravel of the roof crunching like ice beneath his sneakers.
The door to his left swings open violently and a flustered Sirius stumbles through the tar-and-pebble threshold.
"What is that?" Remus inquires, pointing a long since numb finger at something that seems to be attacking Sirius' back, "and where has the light gone?"
"Turned it off," Sirius grunts under the weight of the long monster, "can't see the stars otherwise."
Sirius settles the object against the air conditioning duct and catches his breath, hand on his hip. Remus makes out the figure of an ancient-looking and rather large telescope. At least he assumes it's a telescope. He decides that it could also be a cannon.
Sirius, still panting, tosses Remus a red cardigan that Sirius never wears. The wool scratches Remus a bit, but he burrows into the too-large fabric with intense relief, gathering the long ends of the sleeves into balls in the palms of his hands and hugging his knees to his chest.
"Stars?"
Sirius is setting up the behemoth now, positioning it just before the long fall to the front lawn of the apartment building. Remus decides that it is definitely a telescope, though he's sure it must be some early ancestor to the telescope he used to fool around with when he was fourteen.
"Yup. Nicked this from my parents' attic once, it still works. Have you ever seen the rings of Saturn, Moony?"
"No. Nor have I ever seen you this enthusiastic over something that doesn't involve girls or alcohol," Remus says suspiciously.
"Shut up," he mumbles reluctantly, though it's kind, and Remus remembers Sirius' wide eyes during a lesson on the orbit of the planets around the sun in Divination class once.
Sirius is uncharacteristically quiet as he squints through rusted metal and glass, and Remus wonders if he has frozen before he beckons him, grinning teeth catching the faint light of a street lamp on the quiet street below.
"Thank god the moon isn't out tonight, come look at this."
Remus winces as the cold breeze assaults his now-exposed body, and bends over slightly, hands gripping at his arms. It takes a moment for him to realize that the bouncing white ball he sees is a planet, and it takes just a second for him to care enough to steady his shivering and completely push his eye against the instrument so that he can examine the object further.
His heart leaps.
"Rings! Sirius, I can see the rings!"
He hears Sirius come up behind him, and can sense his smile.
"Oh my god...I can't believe it. Look at that! That's amazing, I never would've thought...hey, where'd it go?"
"Well the earth is moving, you know."
"But that fast?" Remus questions, bringing himself away from the lens.
"Well it's a small...you know, view," Sirius mumbles as he works at repositioning the telescope.
Remus is quiet for a while, thoughtful.
"Sirius?"
"Yeah?"
"I feel very alive."
He can hear the sound of Sirius' windbreaker as he stares fixedly through the telescope, tentatively turning a knob. He can see the hair that falls into Sirius' eyes unnoticed, and the smooth skin of his hands that never seems to crack in the winter, and even though Remus is shivering, teeth threatening to clatter from the cold and from some sort of nervous excitement, this is the warmest he has felt all night.