DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, or the television show mentioned in the notes.

James Potter loves his friends. This is a well-established, widely known fact. Peter Pettigrew is one of his closest friends; his jokester mate. Remus Lupin is, without doubt, his best friend; his confidant. And Sirius is his brother in all but blood; his twin; his other half; his platonic soulmate. They are his self-made family, brought together through Hogwarts and Gryffindor House, and he will fight anyone who has a bad word against them.

James loves Remus like family; thinks of the werewolf as someone who needs his protection and his support. James loves Sirius like a twin; they basically share one massive brain.

But in the romantic relationship between Sirius and Remus, James can't help but think that Remus is the so-called 'settler' whilst Sirius is the 'reacher'. He loves them both so much, and he would never dream of telling them, but in the recesses of his mind, he thinks that maybe Remus could do better.

Don't get him wrong, James love Sirius. Thinks he's brilliant, in fact. But Sirius has a lot of issues, most of which stem from his family. He has both mammy and daddy issues. (He very secretly, and very deep down, wants his mother to love him and his father to be proud of him, however much he hides it. But James knows, because he is Sirius's soul-brother.)

Sirius also throws the word 'love' around a lot, James has noticed. And James knows this is because his mother, Walburga Black, and his father, Orion Black, have never once told their children that they were loved. Sirius and Regulus have probably never heard their parents say 'I love you' or 'I'm proud of you' and this is probably what has made Sirius profess his love for everyone and everything.

It is hard for Sirius to differentiate between what he likes and what he loves, and James knows that this is because of the lack of love and attention he got as a child. He knows this. But still, it worries James that Sirius doesn't actually recognise or feel love sometimes – he just thinks he does.

Sirius's lack of love and affection as a child can also make him incredibly jealous and possessive. That being said, James is quite proud of Sirius for being able to keep his overprotective urges down when it comes to Remus. Despite Sirius's inability to feel real love sometimes, James knows that his soul-brother really does love Remus. And he is proud that Sirius hasn't seriously hurt anyone for Remus's attention yet. But he is still worried about what will happen when Sirius finally loses control of his jealousy.

Sirius Black may seem confident and cheeky, indifferent and careless, but James knows that he has a lot of deeply rooted insecurities. He has a lot of self-doubt, more than James, and a lot of self-hate. Sirius was brought up to hate everyone and everything not pure of blood, and it has taken him a long time to rid himself of those thoughts; but they still pop up in his mind every now and then – even if he doesn't believe in such ridiculous notions. These thoughts can make him incredibly rash and thoughtless at times. He can be loving and kind and generous, but James worries that Sirius's flaws outweigh his strengths.

Remus is different, James thinks. Remus is brilliant as well, no doubt about that. But James knows that he has his fair share of problems, too. His 'furry little problem' causes him anguish and he hates his scars – though, since they started joining the Wolf on Full Moon nights, Remus no longer hides himself from them anymore. That said, his scars make still him feel very inadequate and self-conscious. But even still, James still believes that Remus could do better. James reckons that Remus is settling because the werewolf doesn't think he can find anyone better. But James thinks he can. If he tried, he could.

Remus is too patient and too forgiving for his own good. After the Incident in fifth year, when Sirius sent Snape to the Shack during a Full Moon, Remus forgave Sirius after only two months. This sounds like a while, but James thinks Remus should have stayed angry and disappointed for longer; Merlin knows that James stayed livid until the summer before sixth year, when Sirius showed up on his doorstep – homeless and alone and begging for help from his brother.

Remus is the smartest Marauder, no doubt, matching Lily Evans (the light of James's fairly decent life) academically. But he is also smart outside of school as well; meaning that Remus is a genius but he also has common sense. Remus is sarcastic and dry-witted, and he never fails to make James (or the others) laugh with a quiet joke or a sarcastic quip. And Remus is always there for them, if they need an ear to listen or a shoulder to lean on. James has leaned on Remus many times throughout their years at Hogwarts, as has many others.

Despite what Remus believes of himself, he is not a bad looking bloke. Sure, he's not conventionally good looking like Sirius is but he has a way about him that makes him attractive. Even James can admit that, and he's as straight as they come! He can admit that Remus is an attractive bloke from a purely objective, outside perspective.

So, with all this in mind, James believes that Sirius is the 'reacher' and Remus is the 'settler'.

James wants to have trouble answering this question, and he does a bit. Except that he doesn't, not really. And it makes him feel ashamed. Ashamed to be Sirius's brother and to have so little faith in him. Ashamed to feel so worried that Sirius will fuck it up. Truthfully, he doesn't necessarily believe that Sirius will fuck it up – he just thinks that it is a strong possibility and that Remus would get hurt if he did. He doesn't want Remus to get hurt. He doesn't want either of them to get hurt. He doesn't want to worry about that or about their relationship. But he does, and he can't help it.

James doesn't want to hurt his friends – his family. Which is why, if asked who he thought the reacher was and who the settler was, he would answer with: "I don't know," or "I couldn't say," because he doesn't want to hurt Sirius and he doesn't want to argue with Remus.

James loves Sirius, he really does, but he thinks that Remus could do better.

Sirius is a brilliant, wonderful, messy person. He is loyal and kind, but he has a load of issues and he finds it difficult to talk about his family and his internal conflicts. Instead, he shouts or he starts fights; or he causes himself injury. James knows about this – the self-inflicted damage – because he is not an idiot and he is Sirius's best friend. He would be a pretty shitty friend if he didn't know that Sirius sometimes hurts himself out of frustration.

James doesn't want Sirius's problems to become Remus's problems as well. Remus already has enough to deal with without adding Sirius and his extensive issues to the mix. James is worried that Sirius will mess it up because Sirius has never been in such an important relationship before. He is worried that one or both of them will get hurt.

James wants to believe in his friends, but it's hard – knowing them as he does. He can't do anything about it, either. They are both already in love, even if Remus hasn't exactly said it yet. James just has to be there for them in case it goes tits-up, and hope that it doesn't.

A/N: This idea sprung from an episode of How I Met Your Mother (Season5, Episode13: Jenkins).

Thanks for reading! And I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.

Written: July, 2016
Rewritten: October, 2018