DEBT

For Immortal Passion's Random Word contest in which I selected a random word from a random page in the dictionary, picked a pairing and then wrote a story about my word.

Pairing: Remus/ Sirius

Brief Overview: Sirius screws up (again) and is indebted to Remus, who precedes to

make his life hell.

My Word: debt [det]

n

1. something owed: an amount of money, a service, or an item of property that is owed to somebody

2. state of owing something: the condition of owing something to somebody

Sirius Black had to him the look of a rat, caught doing unspeakable things.

"You didn't study did you Siri?" asked a bemused Remus Lupin, from his perch on the stairs above his friend.

"I was busy," the dark boy answered, pacing the corridor while trying to remember the 14 uses of wormwood

"What was her name?" asked Remus, smirking at his friend.

Sirius stopped his pacing long enough to glare at the young werewolf.

"If you're going to talk, at least make it something useful."

"Don't remember do you?" Remus grinned and, strolling down the stairs and brushing past Sirius, walked into the classroom.

"Sure I do, it Margaret or Maggie or Megan or something like that." Sirius stopped for a moment, looking pensive. Then he shook himself hard and glared at Remus again.

Remus smiled to himself and sat at a desk near the front of the room. Sirius promptly sat down next to him. When Moony glared at him, all he did was smile.

"I told you last time Sirius Black, I'm not letting you cheat off me."

"Aww, c'mon Moony," whined Sirius, pouting. "Don't want me to fail do you?"

Remus laughed at his friend. Sirius was always cute when he pouted.

"Maybe I do," he replied. "You need to learn to study on your own."

"Moony!" whined Padfoot. "I thought you loved me!"

Remus opened his mouth to reply, but fell silent with the rest of the class when he heard the door to the class open.

The teacher that entered was not recognized by either boy. Substitute.

As he gave instructions and passed out the tests, Sirius' smile got bigger and bigger.

A few minutes into the test, remus caught sirius "stretching" a little too close to his paper. He shifted to the other side of the desk and continued writing.

Sirius pouted momentarily, until the wheels in his head started turning. One could almost see the light bulb go off in his head.

Remus felt something whiz past his head and looked up in time to see a cluster of sparks explode onto the chalk board. He turned around to see Peter mouth the word "sorry", while a breeze blew past his hand.

He turned back around and saw Sirius gleefully writing his own test using his paper.

Remus angrily snatched it back, glaring at his friend. Sirius grinned, to which Remus bared his teeth.

"What's this?" asked a voice from somewhere behind Moony's left ear. The teacher was standing at his desk tugging on the corner of…..oh no.

It couldn't be.

But it was.

As he was grabbing back his test from his thieving companion, Remus had also liberated one of Sirius' papers, complete with his name in very clear printing in the corner.

III

"He's going to kill me," Sirius whispered to James, looking down the table to where Moony was sitting by himself.

"That's great." James was trying to eat study and try to look at Lily without Lily seeing him look at her, all at the same time.

"You're not listening to me are you?"

"Don't worry; I'm sure she likes you."

Sighing heavily and rolling his eyes Sirius grabbed his friend by the hair and forcibly lifted his head and pointed it towards Remus, just in time for James to witness the fiery demise of the flowers in the vase in front of the young werewolf. The whole time Remus was looking at Sirius.

James, hanging from his bangs in his best friend's fist, just gaped.

"Wow, he really is gonna kill you…."

Sirius whined and sunk down into his chair, releasing James. James rubbed the feeling back into his scalp while he stared down the dark boy.

"What did you do?!?"

Sirius looked up, puppy-dog eyes mournful.

"I got him a zero."

James promptly stood up gathered his stuff and took off between the tables.

"DEAD MAN WALKING!"

Sirius groaned again and sunk lower under the table.

III

Sirius found the smaller boy curled up in an overstuffed armchair in the dormitory that night. He read over his shoulder for a few seconds, before he realized that the book was in Latin and he didn't understand a word of it. He cleared his throat instead.

Remus looked up, then marked his place and closed the book.

"You owe me."

Sirius visibly blanched.

"Can't I just say sorry?" he asked desperately, his voice rising at least one octave.

Moony shook his head. "You have a debt that needs to be paid, and you owe me BIG."

Sirius wanted to argue that it was just a zero, that it didn't mean anything but he knew he was wasting his time. So he hung his head and asked what Remus wanted him to do.

The werewolf grinned a very wolfish grin.

III

Sirius Black wanted to die.

All week he had been Remus' bitch.

He carried his stuff around, he fed him, and he ran errands.

And all wearing this stupid collar... he thought, running a finger under the leather.

He didn't really mind the accessory, just the looks it got him. In fact he enjoyed the sense of power it gave Remus, as well as the ownership it suggested.

Sirius had noticed the feminine beauty of his friend a while previous and was now able to appreciate it as he was always with the boy.

He was glad however that this was the last day of his debt repayment.

All the girls were laughing at him now.

He heard someone coming down the stairs and perked up, knowing it was Remus with the key to his collar.

He went to the armchair and sat next to it as he had done every night that week, though he no longer felt any embarrassment at the position now.

Remus smiled at him and hopped into his chair. He leaned over and unlocked Sirius' collar, throwing it into the fire. Then he caught his friends' face in his hands.

"I want you to do one more thing for me…"

"WHAT?!?! HAVEN'T YOU HAD ENOUGH? With the trialing you around and carrying your books and getting your Mpfh…"

Remus silenced his friend effectively when he placed his lips on the others'.

Both boys enjoyed it, this kiss that was not too wet or demanding, but not at all hesitant. It went on for some time before Remus pulled away, sitting back into the chair with a soft sigh. He smiled gently down at Sirius.

"Thank you."

Sirius still a little stunned, cleared his throat and attempted to appear nonchalant while his heart hummed with confusion and happiness.

"Was it you first?" Remus nodded. "Was it as good as you hoped?" Another nod.

Sirius studied the werewolf for a little longer before re-arranging himself so that he was sitting in the fire as well as leaning against Remus' knee.

The other boy absent-mindedly fluffed his friend's hair, his head nodding back against the chair.

James found them like that in the morning, Sirius' head in Moony's lap, Remus' hand still tangled in his hair.

He turned around and headed towards the stairs, wondering what he would have to do to repay his debt should some of Lily's essays happen to catch fire….