James was charming the coat rack in his hallway to bow to anyone who walked past. He thought it was a nice little gesture that would make a good first impression on Lily's parents. They were coming over for a dinner for the first time in the evening and Lily had mentioned how excited they were to see a house of someone who was magical.
Lily had also warned him not to over do the dinner - "they like you already, because they are excited I have a boyfriend, so you don't need to win them over, just be polite and don't talk too much and try to act like a normal human being" -, but James didn't think that adding some whimsical little charms here and there could be considered "over doing" it. After all, he didn't want to disappoint them. What if they saw his flat and decided it wasn't magical and good enough for their dear daughter?
"Why aren't Sirius and Remus here to help us?" Peter asked, from where he was lounging on James' coach and casting evanesco on bits of trash on the floor.
"Bastard is not answering his mirror." Which was true, but James knew he could just as easily floo or apparate to their place, but he knew that if Sirius was here he'd be anything but helpful. He'd mess the place up just by his mere presence and wrankle James' nerves by unhelpful tips for the dinner. He was his brother, and he loved him, but for times like this, when James needed to collect his compose and prepare to pretend he was an adult and man worth of Lily's hand, it was better to have Wormtail's cheerful assurances by his side than Pads' reckless madness which was too catching.
Peter didn't press him on the matter and they continued their work in silence.
By the time James got the coat rack done - which had taken the better part of the morning - Peter had finished cleaning up the living room. It was a small apartment, with one bedroom, and James had only lived there for a few weeks, since they had finished with the school. He had only rented it because he couldn't go back to his childhood home anymore, not after his parents had died and there were too many memories. Sirius had offered to let him live with him, but James had declined, because he hoped to convince Lily to move in with him.
It hadn't happened yet, but if tonight went well, he would be one step closer.
Just as James was checking critically his bathroom and trying to remember what cleaning charms his mom had always used to on toilets, there was a loud crack in the living room. Sirius, he thought even before he heard Peter yelp "Sirius!". Nobody else had a nerve to just barge in unannounced. He heard how Sirius stormed to kitchen and he flinched how angry his stomps sounded.
"I'm moving in", Sirius barked from the kitchen.
"The hell you are", James answered quickly. "And you are not stealing my food! Hands off!"
Sirius was poking at his finely prepared dish on the table, preserved with cooling charms. "What's the occasion? I didn't know you can cook."
"Wormtail helped. Really, hands off now, it's for Lily and her parents", James said and pushed Sirius away from the table.
Sirius perked up. "Oh cool. I have always wanted to meet them."
"You are not staying", James said. "You are going to take your arse right now right back to your own home."
"It's not my home anymore. I'm moving out", Sirius said stubbornly.
Peter had also come to kitchen. "Hi Pads. I'll put tea on."
"Sirius. Why would you be moving out?", James demanded.
Sirius' face turned moody. "Tired of fighting."
James and Peter looked at each other. Sirius and Remus fighting was something that hadn't happened for a long time, and whenever it had happened, it had always been different from how any other fights were between the Marauders. Their fights were more difficult, and there were always reasons (even though James half of the time didn't understand the reasons even if they tried to explain them to him afterwards), and most depressingly of all, they were never over quickly or easily but dragged on and dragged all the rest of them into the middle of it.
James and Peter had a silent staring battle of wits, which Peter lost and with resigned sight asked Sirius: "What are you two fighting about?"
"The fuck if I know! He has been fucking moody whole week, snarking and shouting at me like everything's my fault. I'm fucking tired of his shit."
"Have you asked him what's wrong?" James asked, even though he knew the signs, and that this fight would not be resolved by the time they had finished their tea.
"Of course! And he had the bloody nerve to start to yell to me and tell me my face is what's wrong."
James took a deep breath and steeled himself. "Right. Sounds to me you two are just being idiots over something. Go back home, grovel to him and make up. You are not staying in here today, Lily's parents are coming over."
Sirius snarled at him. "Bloody good friend you are. Grovel to him? You too think it's always my fault? He's the one who should beg me to forgive him. You know what? Fine, I'm going home, and I'm going to tell him that - that I am fed up with his bullshit and guilt tripping and I'm not going to deal with it anymore."
Sirius stormed off the kitchen, only to turn at the doorway. "And I'm getting my stuff and moving in, whether you like it or not. I'm not spending one more night at that place."
He disappeared with a pop and James sat down at the table and put his head in his hands and groaned.
Peter sat at the table too and sipped his tea. "Do you think they broke up?" he asked and James looked up at him, surprised at the frank question.
The two of them had awkwardly and briefly talked about Sirius and Remus before, putting together pieces of puzzling behaviours, but coming to no real conclusions. It was clear that Sirius and Remus were... Sirius and Remus and they had their own weird version of the friendship, but how much of that was just Sirius being Sirius and Remus being Remus and how much was because the friendship was maybe going beyond friendship... It was a question James and Peter had pondered aloud only once, in drunken nervous giggles, when they had been both little drunk and Sirius and Remus had been both passed out at Remus' bed.
After that, they hadn't talked about it, just passed some looks between each other whenever Sirius was being a little too touchy feely or jealous with Remus, or Remus was teasing Sirius with that almost flirting-but-not-quite way of his which sometimes made Sirius almost-but-not-quite-blush. But mostly, the two of them had let it be, and James hadn't felt a need to press on the subject, not even when Sirius had told him that Remus would move in with him after school. Explanation was good; since Remus didn't have a place and Sirius had extra room at his place and didn't like living alone, it made sense. Still, James had, quietly, wondered if there was more to it, and he knew Peter had too.
But still, it felt unnerving to put those ponderings in words and speak them out in daylight while neither of them was drunk.
"Maybe", James croaked and cleared out his throat. Then he let himself think about it, Remus and Sirius, Moony and Padfoot, not just 'regularly fighting', but actually breaking up... "Oh my god, I hope not."
There was a knock on the door. James had a bad feeling he knew who it was, and thought, this is not what I wanted to deal with today, nor any other day. He went to open the door.
"Hey Prongs", Remus greeted him, although James noticed his smile was strained and he looked tired and tense. Also, he had his trunk with him. "May I come in?"
James nodded, little reluctantly, and stepped away to let Remus inside.
"I know this is on short notice, but could I stay here until Monday? I'm going to my parents then, but they have guests this weekend and I'd rather not go there and disturb them before they have left." Remus said all of this very politely and reasonably, but he was twitching and playing with his robe's sleeve like he did when he was nervous.
"Can't you just go home and make up with Sirius?" James asked with little hope.
Remus tensed. "He has made it very clear he doesn't want me there anymore, so I'm afraid that's not an option."
"Just try to talk to him?"
Remus breathed out a long breath and looked at James with a sad expression, some of his tenseness going away and leaving just resignation. "It's better if I don't. Not right now. It's... been rather a bad week, and I am afraid that soon one of snaps and says something that we'll both really regret."
James had some really nasty, depressing flash backs from his fifth year. Déjà Vu, indeed, he thought gloomily.
"When has 'not talking' ever been good idea for the two of you?" he asked, trying to get through Remus and appeal to his reasonable, logical part. It seemed to almost work, Remus was hesitating, when there was a loud crack in the living room.
"IS THAT BASTARD HERE?!"
Sirius stormed from the living room to hallway, with a crumbled paper in his hand. His face looked murdeous and when he saw Remus he waved the paper in the air.
"THIS is all you were going to leave for me?! A piece of note that you are leaving? Not enough fucking common courtesy in you to even tell that to my face?" Sirius was yelling, his face red, eyes wild.
"I wonder why I wasn't jumping with joy with the prospect of having you yelling at my face", Remus said with feigned, cold politeness, but then looked away from Sirius. "I'm sorry James that we bothered you. I'll go to my parents now." He reached for his wand.
"The fuck you are going! You piece of arrogant shit, you listen-"
"SHUT UP", Remus snapped and turned to Sirius with blazing eyes and it was such a rare sight to see him lose his mind that James reflexively took a step back. "You are calling me an arrogant shit? If I had realised that it would be this big of a deal to you, I would have never told you. But you know what? I had clearly too much faith in you, I thought you would be better than your racist family, but no. And I don't want to listen to any more of your little jokes on the matter. You are disgusted, fine, keep your opinions, but I am fucking leaving and you are not going to stop me or follow me."
James wished he had a camera, although he wasn't too sure whose face would have been more worth to capture; Remus', red and angry and yelling with indignation, or Sirius', gobsmacked and speechless and mouth open.
"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked confused and Remus stared at him with disbelief and outrage.
"You. You have been a nasty piece of shit ever since I told you about my date with Fabian", he said.
I guess they didn't break up then, James thought little hysterically.
"You were on a date with him? You never said that!" Sirius said defensively flailing his arms. "You... you said you had a coffee with him! You should know by now not be subtle with me, Moony!"
"I... Are you pulling a joke now?" Remus asked bewildered. "You called him a disgusting flaming poofter yesterday after he left."
"I thought he was hitting on you!"
Remus' expression hardened. "Well, he was. And it wasn't unwanted. So you do think it's disgusting?"
"Yes! No! I mean - it's Fabian, he's-!"
"You have always liked Prewetts, don't you dare try to say it was because you didn't like him or-!"
"Maybe", Peter shouted suddenly and loudly over the fighting pair, "Padfoot was feeling a little jealous?"
That silenced the both of them and left the hallway with an awkward silence.
"And maybe", James said uneasily to break that silence, "it's time you two got yourselves back to your home and talkedabout this like human beings."
There was a little more of the awkward silence, flushed faces and then Sirius grabbed Remus' arm and there was a crack as they disapparated.
James and Peter looked at each other. "Merlin", Peter said with a feeling, "I am not sure if we did a good thing or not."
James nodded, knowing what he meant. Sirius and Remus made sense in a way that those tragic romance novels that Lily liked to read made sense. They fit together, maybe, but James knew with certainty that there would be raised voices and tears and drama too in the future, maybe as soon as tomorrow - he could imagine it already, "but what if he doesn't really love me and it's just a fling for him and of course I am not asking him this instead of bothering you with my insecurities because I am an useless piece of crap" - and that they would drive him mad and bald before forty.
"At least they are gone now", he sighed and levitated Remus' trunk to take it to his bedroom for now. "Bathroom needs cleaning and we have only three hours left."