Written for the Speed Drabble (SiriusJamesRemus, justify, "Did you see the news?", 1 hour) and the Romance Appreciation Challenge: You are born with words on your arm which are the first words your soulmate says to you, (setting) hairdresser.
Word count: 966
I like my men (how I like my coffee)
"James, James, did you see the news?" Sirius asked, voice loud enough as he burst into the room that it almost covered the chime installed on the entrance door.
It was lucky, Lily thought, that their customers were mostly used to the madness that was Sirius Black already, because otherwise she'd be out of a job.
"No, Sirius, I dare say I have not," James replied with an eyeroll. "I'm actually very busy—new client and all, as you can see," he added, nodding his head toward said client, a young brown-haired man who looked like he had seen better days and who's growing confusion Lily could only empathize with.
"You don't work here, Potter!" Mary yelled over the sound of the hairdryer she was using to style a lady's hair. "Go ogle ass somewhere else! Why are you even still here? Lily finished with your hair hours ago!"
"Well, for one, I don't have to justify myself to you, and b, I'll ogle who I want, wherever I want, McDonald!" James yelled back cheerfully.
Sirius cleared his throat, crossing his arms and staring at James pointedly. It was hard to say who blushed more rapidly or prominently: James, or the new client, whose name Lily still hadn't been able to get.
Though she was torn between banging her head against the wall, running away and changing her identity (hopefully that would stop them from following her), and reminding Mary to focus on her work and never engage James again, Lily finally hissed at Sirius to "Apologize! Now!"
It was a sad day for the human race where the sanest person in their group, herself not included, was Sirius Black, but alas, that was their situation at the moment.
"To whom?" Sirius hissed back, eyes shifting back and forth between James and their mystery man. "And why am I even the one who has to apologize for this? James was the one ogling his ass!" he protested, gesturing toward Lily's next client, who was really beginning to look like he'd rather be anywhere but here.
"Apologize!" Lily hissed again, grabbing Sirius' arm and digging in her fingernails. "Or else…"
"Ow, ow, fine, fine, I'll do it, no need to resort to violence, Lily!"
Lily smiled, widely and innocently. "I'm sure I have no idea what you're speaking of," she said, patting at Sirius' arm softly. "Now just do it!"
Rolling his eyes, Sirius muttered, "I still don't get why I'm the one who has to apologize when Mary and James were the ones who…"
"You're apologizing," Lily started, tone dry as the desert, "because James is your boyfriend and because Mary is mature enough that she'll apologize without further prompting on my part." She raised her voice at the last part, looking pointedly in her soulmate's direction.
Mary smiled widely and waved her hairdryer at them. "I'm sorry, Mr.!" she shouted cheerfully. "Won't happen again, Lils! I swear!"
Lily seriously doubted that, but well, at least the intention was there. She looked back at Sirius, raising an eyebrow. "See?"
Sirius looked as convinced by Mary's promise as she was, but he shrugged. He put his newspaper on the counter and turned toward the stranger—Sirius was the only person Lily knew who still read the news on actual newspaper instead of on the internet like everyone else. It was a habit he had gotten into while trying to piss off his parents, and to James' constant disarray, a habit he had never managed to lose.
"I apologize for my boyfriend," Sirius started, and then he smiled, showing pearly white teeth. Suddenly, Lily knew that she wasn't going to like what came next.
Spoiler: she was right.
Sirius licked his lips and slowly racked his eyes over the man's body. "In his defense, though," Sirius continued, "you have a great ass."
The man looked so startled it took him a moment to reply. The silence seemed to stretch on forever, oddly potent. "Thanks, I guess. I'm Remus," he finally said.
From the way Sirius' eyes suddenly widened in delighted surprise, smile frozen on his face, those words meant something to him.
From the way his left hand drifted to his right wrist, it was easy to guess what.
"Holy shit!" Sirius breathed. "Fuck. Wow, I mean, are you really…?"
Remus shrugged, an almost shy smile playing on his lips as his eyes darted from Sirius to James and back to Sirius again. "I guess?" He rolled up his sleeve and extended his now bare wrist, and as expected, the words Sirius had just said were scribbled in a painfully familiar handwriting (if it could even be called that), the permanent tattoo a mark of their soulmate bond.
Sirius' eyes, impossibly, seemed to widen even more. His smile, previously stretched thin on his face, eased, softening into something more real as he showed his own wrist.
Sirius' eyes darted to James, who was watching the happenings with rapt attention. "Do you -" He stopped, licking his lips. "Is James your soulmate too, do you think?"
Remus shrugged, but smirked. He unveiled his other wrist. "I don't know, what do you think?"
Sirius peered at the other mark and immediately burst into laughter. "Oh, that's James alright!"
Remus smiled. "Yeah, I thought so too."
This was obviously enough for James, who took this as his cue to join the conversation, and prove, once again, that Lily would never understand James Potter, no matter how long they had known each other for.
Because his first words to his second soulmate—the one Lily knew he and Sirius had spent years trying to meet—were these: "I told Sirius my skills at finding the hottest asses would come in handy some day!"