The sun does not go without a fight. It lights the sky up in fire before it finally and reluctantly shrinks behind the hills, leaving the sky a pleasant shade of purple-blue as the fire finally fades. The shadows settle over them languidly like a blanket as they lounge in the grass, watching the sunset, feeling as though all is right in the world. They wait impatiently for the stars to come out, to bring light to contrast against the rapidly darkening stretch of sky above them.
"There!" Remus says pointing up as the first light appears.
"I don't see anything," Sirius replies, wriggling and rolling in the grass.
"There, you prat," Remus insists. "You don't see it?"
"No… wait… I think I do."
More stars appear, lighting the sky up like a thousand lights.
"S'brilliant isn't it," Remus breathes, more statement than question.
Sirius smiles. "Yeah, it is. It's brilliant. Everything's brilliant," he says glancing at his friend.
It is brilliant because summer just started and they have months before school starts again – their last year of school and last year before they are finally legal. They would spend the summer alone at Remus's house; his parents are visiting his sick grandparents, leaving them to lethargic days of mischief and self independence and trust that they would not set anything on fire for two weeks. Remus's mum had kissed them both tearfully, much to Sirius's embarrassment as she boarded the train, asking them repeatedly to promise to behave and how good Sirius was to come and keep Remus company before Remus's dad came and dragged her away.
The night falls rapidly now, ending their first day of summer. They had spent the day eating ice cream and running in the grass. They are young, barefoot and content, sixteen and not getting any older. Remus turns his head, catches Sirius's eyes and smiles. Yes, everything is brilliant.
---
On the second day, Remus wakes up to the smell of smoke and panic immediately grips him. He runs downstairs before he realizes that Sirius had simply burned breakfast. He laughs and Sirius whirls around, indignation written all over his face.
"Dunno how you get on without house elves," he mutters darkly and scrapes what appear to be remnants of pancake into the rubbish bin.
"We learn to cook instead," Remus replies, trying hard not to laugh again at the expression on Sirius's face.
"Now why would you do that," he muses.
"Have to survive somehow."
Sirius walks over to what he calls the "Muggle box" and pulls out an ice-lolly. "Forget cooking," he says, peeling off the wrapper. "This is a much better breakfast."
Remus glances at him disapprovingly for a moment and Sirius is reminded a bit of McGonagall but he too opened the refrigerator and pulls out an ice-lolly. "Yeah, it is," Remus says, smiling. "I'm not much of a cook anyways." And they did the same for lunch.
By mid afternoon, they both have stomachaches and Remus says his mum would kill them both if she knew.
---
Remus wakes up in the middle of the night after the third day to a flash of lightning and the low rumble of thunder. The rain begins to fall, the drone of pitter patter is deafening but it does nothing to block out the loud roars. Remus hates thunderstorms. He pulls the covers over his head and tries to go back to sleep to no avail. After turning and tossing for a few minutes, he gives up and crawls out of bed, wrapping his blanket tight around him and holding firm to his pillow.
Halfway down the hall, he realizes his mum and dad aren't home. He had forgotten. He turns around and is about to go back to his room when his eyes land on the guestroom door next to his.
He opens the door quietly. "Sirius?" he whispers.
"Mmmgh," comes the groggy reply beneath comforters and blankets. "What, Moony?"
Remus bites his lip and suddenly feels foolish. "I – I'm… err… d'you think I can stay here tonight? I can sleep on the floor or something. I – uh… am not too keen on storms."
Sirius sits up and rubs the sleep from his eyes. He looks at the blushing Remus for a moment before he replies. "Don't be stupid, Moony."
"Fine," Remus mutters feeling foolish and turns the doorknob.
"Why would you sleep on the floor?" Sirius says. "The bed's big enough." He shifts over for his friend. Remus smiles, almost shyly, and climbs in next to him. Sirius is secretly glad because he wasn't too keen on thunderstorms either but he isn't about to admit that.
"G'night, Padfoot."
"'Night, Moony."
The rumble of thunder suddenly is not loud anymore and the sound of rain turns soothing and they both slip into dreams, curled tight against each other.
---
They dance in the softly falling rain on the fourth day.
Sirius becomes Padfoot and prances in circles, black fur damp and pink tongue lolling to catch the drops falling from the sky. Remus laughs and runs with him, arms out, head tilted up. They dance in the wet grass and slip in the mud, getting the stuff all over their clothes and hair when Padfoot jumps on Remus. Padfoot becomes Sirius again and they laugh.
They dance in the rain until the stars peek out amongst the grey clouds.
---
Sirius gets a cold and they stay in on the fifth day. Remus brings him soup from a can, warmed. He scarfs it down eagerly and flops back against the couch, and pulls the covers up. Remus sits next to him and reads.
Not being able to sit still for more than a few minutes, Sirius wiggles under the blanket and looks at Remus. "What're you reading?" he asks, breaking the silence.
"It's this Muggle book my parents used to read to me when I was little. Mum would read it to me when I'm sick and give me soup. Not the kind from a can, warmed, but real soup. You know chicken soup. It's a Muggle thing my mum does. But I dunno how to make that for you." He looks away apologetically.
Sirius laughs his bark of a laugh. "S'okay, Moony. Don't worry about it. I'll live."
A comfortable silence ensues. "Want me to read to you?" Remus suddenly asks.
"Yeah. Please. I'd like that."
Remus flips back to the first page. "Once upon a time…" he began.
---
"What do you think James and Peter are doing?" Remus asks. He tilts his head up to look at Sirius sitting upright next to him in the grass. He is lying down with his hands behind his head looking at the shapes of the clouds as they pass overhead. It is hard to believe that it had stormed for two days by staring up at the cerulean sky.
Sirius shrugs, still playing with a snail he found earlier near the creek. "I guess James would still be drooling after Lily. She's a clever girl, that one. She knows better than to like the sorts of James Potter."
Remus grins. "Yeah, she is. But don't you think she does like him? She's just not showing it; probably to annoy James. No girl's been able to resist him yet."
"Maybe."
"What about Peter?"
"Ah… probably lazing his fat arse away at his parents'. He hasn't bothered to owl us all summer that bugger. Ah, well. Who cares?" He turns his attention back to the snail he held captive between his hands and Remus knows he had lost Sirius's interest. But that is the thing about his Padfoot – he is spontaneous and rarely has enough attention span to notice or keep his mind on anything for more than two minutes. Remus smiles and loves everything about his friend; he admires him as he watches the graceful hands sweep long black hair away from grey eyes and his long body shift in the grass, eager and itching to do something new. But he doesn't get up.
They go back to their peaceful silence because neither had anything to say anymore and nothing had to be said. They lapse back into their own thoughts and while the sixth day away outside, in the sun, sitting on the grass, doing absolutely nothing.
---
"Hey, Remus? We're out of ice-lollies."
"Hmm…." Remus replies, not looking up from his book. "I expect we'd have to cook now."
"You cook. Remember the last time I tried?"
"Yes, I do, Padfoot, and I don't think we should repeat that experience." A soft smile lifts the corner of his mouth.
Sirius's heart jolts. He watches his friend sitting next to the window with the sun sets the horizon on fire like it did everyday, bringing to clarity the dust motes falling all around him. His breath catches and he wants to write poetry for Remus's eyes. Remus's beautiful hazel eyes; they were big but not too big and much brighter and expressive than James's. He wrenches his own eyes away almost painfully and scoffs silently. Poetry? Really now, Padfoot, he tells himself. He suddenly has the strong urge to kiss Moony and he does.
He crosses the room in three loping strides and bends to kiss Remus. He starts but does not pull away. Lips brush shyly against each other, barely touching before Sirius pulls away.
"Sorry. Shouldn't've done that. I'll be in the kitchen," Sirius mutters, a bright blush coloring his cheeks.
But before he gets up, Remus pulls him into another kiss, harder this time. Sirius smiled against Remus's mouth and seven now is his favorite number. It is the end of the seventh day and the book Remus was reading drops to the floor and goes unnoticed as his arms reach up to pull Sirius closer.
Review please.