Remus smiled, watching as Sirius idly played with his hand, twining and untwining their fingers absently. They were relaxing in the shade under a tree behind James's house, enjoying the last day before going back to school. The sun was warm, and Sirius had been quiet for an abnormally long amount of time. Remus was coming close to falling asleep, lulled by the warm sun and the water lapping softly against the lake shore near them.

"Moony," Sirius said suddenly. Remus raised his eyes up slowly to his boyfriend's face.

"Mm?"

"You've turned positively golden over the summer," the Animagus announced.

"...how do you mean?" Remus asked.

"Look at this," Sirius held up their entwined hands, arm pressed against Remus's. "I look like a ghost compared to you."

Remus gazed at their hands, slightly surprised to note that Sirius was right. His own skin was several shades darker than Sirius's. The difference was much more obvious than usual.

"I guess I've never really spent so much time outside before." Remus shrugged after a moment of comparison "Usually I stay covered up, you know that. But we swam a lot and walked around and I guess it was inevitable that I'd be exposed to the sun at least a little."

"Not fair you can tan so easily," Sirius pouted. "I've been in the sun far more than you and all I've done is burn and then go back to being just as pale as before."

"I wonder why that is." Remus mused.

"All the inbreeding in my ancestry, probably," Sirius said casually. Remus rolled his eyes.

"That's your excuse for everything."

"Well, it's probably actually the truth in this case," Sirius defended himself.

"Hmm."

"...you've gotten a few freckles, too, you know," Sirius said.

"I have?" Remus asked. That was certainly news to him. He generally tried to avoid looking at himself if he could help it.

"Mm," Sirius affirmed. "Right across here..." he ran a finger lightly across Remus's face, along his cheekbone and over his nose.

"Hmm. I think my mum said putting lemon juice on your face gets rid of freckles. I wonder if that's true."

"Let's not find out, hmm?" Sirius requested.

"...what, you like them?"

Sirius grinned unashamedly. "Yeah. I think they're cute," he pressed his lips Remus's nose. Remus could feel himself blushing.

"Well," he found he was unable to think of any proper response. "Okay."

Sirius smiled, and kissed him gently, on the lips this time. Remus returned the smile after Sirius had pulled away, and they fell back into silence, content to just be near each other.