Chapter 1: The road to happiness has cars
It was 1 a.m. and Remus was not back yet. Sirius Black was beginning to worry. It was completely stupid of course, maybe he had finally hooked up with someone or was having a late night at the bar. Still, it was very unlike Remus to come in late before a working day.
Sirius stroked Benjy and continued to watch the reality show re-runs. Television was the only thing keeping him from being bored to death. Well not to death, that wasn't possible anymore. He could not imagine what ghosts had done before the invention of the TV. They had probably read books or something, Sirius shuddered. How awful. Maybe that's why they used to rattle chains and bang doors, they had nothing better to do.
Sirius hoped that the calls had finally stopped coming and he got up to put the phone back on the hook. Peter, Remus' best friend, had left multiple messages a couple of hours earlier. That puzzled Sirius, as Remus didn't have any other close friends. If he wasn't out with Peter, where was he?
18 hours earlier
He was going to do it. Today he was going to make the leap that all those books and magazines said you had to. Remus Lupin repeated this mantra over and over again as he brushed his teeth. Over the weekend he had been gathering every ounce of courage he possessed and now he was completely ready to ask Fabian out.
Benjamin, his ill-tempered cat brushed against him to remind him that he was hungry and Remus could partake in all his life-changing decisions once he had his daily bowl of Friskies.
"Benjy, I'm ready. Today is the day."
"Mrow". Remus took that as a sign of support.
Remus opened up his wardrobe and pulled out his red dress shirt. Nope, not his usual greys or blues. GQ said that the colour red evoked emotion and symbolized passion.
While he was pouring out his cereal, his Aunt Betsy called. "Happy Birthday Pumpkin!", she squealed. "It's not every day a young man turns twenty six!"
"Thank you, Aunt Betsy", Remus said through his mouth full of cereal. "How is Junior doing?"
"Oh he is just growing up so fast! Here let me give him the phone.."
Yes, today was his twenty-sixth birthday and life could not be flying by any quicker. In fact, the last four years of his life felt like one long endless year filled with meetings and budgeting and long hours. He could remember his last birthday as clearly as yesterday. His parents had parceled over a large cake and Pete had taken him to a ratty old bar where he drank too much. Fast-forward a year and he could barely find any memorable events in between. Well, except for the last Friday. And it was last Friday that he was taking as a sign. A sign that things were going to change and he was going to make those changes happen.
"Well thank you for calling Aunt Betsy. I better hurry or I'm going to be late for work. I miss you!".
Remus Lupin worked at a bank. Opposite Remus and two seats to the left sat Fabian Prewett, someone Remus had been crushing on for almost two years. Fabian was charming, hilarious and ridiculously good-looking, which is why Remus always switched on his "aloof mode" whenever he was around. There was no way that Fabian would ever be interested in him and so there was really no point feeding his ego, even if Fabian wasn't really the ego-centric sort.
Still, he and Fabian spoke in the elevator and during lunch and then, the previous Friday, during the "Monthly Office Birthday Bash", they had both gotten drunk and ended up making out in a bathroom cubicle.
It was not exactly a deeply passionate and romantic night but it had been the most action that Remus had gotten in almost a year. And it was with someone that Remus could see a potential future with. His last hook-up had been with a guy named Jeff, who had called him Raymond and had left before he had woken up. So yes, Remus was going to take this thing with Fabian, whatever it was, as a sign to get things going in the love life department.
Remus spent the first half of his day taking multiple bathroom breaks to hyperventilate and at around 2 p.m., he walked over to Fabian.
"Um hey, could I speak to you in the pantry for a moment?", Remus blurted out in a garbled and extremely unsophisticated fashion.
"I'm sorry?", said Fabian. Apparently his smooth words were not clear enough.
"Pantry. Talk. Um."
Fabian's eyes flickered with some sort of recognition and he walked over to the pantry.
"About last Friday..", began Remus.
"Oh God yes, Remus look, I think we should just forget about it. Don't worry, I won't tell anybody you're gay, if you're not out yet".
What? "I've been out for a long time. This isn't about that"
"Oh", Fabian looked confused, "Well you never talk about anyone special or bring up your love life at all, so I just assumed.."
The conversation was not at all going as planned. "Fabian, would you like to have dinner with me tonight? It's my birthday and I totally understand if you're busy, we can do it next week or something but it would be really great if you could join me tonight. We could leave after work.".
"Um, Happy Birthday! I uh didn't know it was today..", Fabian paused, looking very awkward and Remus knew what that meant.
"Remus, you're a great guy. One of the nicest people I know in the office. But I just got out of a total nightmare of a relationship and last Friday I saw pictures of him with his new boyfriend all over Facebook and I dunno, fuck, I just wanted to forget. And I always knew you thought I was attractive, I mean I've felt the looks. I was piss drunk and wanted revenge and that's why I kissed you. I'm sorry, it was a mistake and I don't think I'm ready to date anyone anytime soon."
Of all the shitty birthdays he had had, this one topped the list.
Remus Lupin left work at 7 p.m. He had spent the last few hours alternating between kicking himself in the head and feeling utterly miserable. He supposed he had had worse birthdays, there was the time he had the flu. But even that memory could not be as painful as this one.
He switched his laptop bag in hand and began to cross the road, too lost in his thoughts to notice the car driving towards him-.
A/N: Hello! I haven't written in years and I've finally decided to jump back on the boat. This is a slash story so don't read it if that's something you don't enjoy! Also, please review! It's one click away :) I will really appreciate it!
