A day after the fireplace incident (as Sirius was calling it in his head these days), Sirius found himself alone with Remus again in the library. It was not as though things were ever awkward between them after the incident but Sirius hoped that nothing like it would ever happen again.

Remus, for the most part, had assumed it was a rare slump in Sirius' otherwise quick wit. What else would it have been? So both boys were happy to ignore the embarrassing conversation and move on with their lives.

They had Charms paper due later that day and Remus had nearly finished his 3rd revisions. Sirius, predictably, had barely started.

"You know I'm just rubbish at Charms."

"Not true," Remus was quick to point out. "You've done perfectly well during all the practicals."

"Fine. Then I'm just rubbish at writing papers."

"Wouldn't be if you just started on time."

Sirius threw him an annoyed look but he was too busy bent over his parchment to notice. Idly, he wondered whether James planned on finishing the paper or whether he was going to pretend he injured his arm during Quidditch to get out of it-an excuse he'd been saving to use all year. Peter, on the other hand, unfortunately lacked James' creativity, Remus' intellect, and Sirius' prowess of writing down rubbish (half copied from Remus, no less) and hoping for the best.

"You know, I do worry about Peter sometimes." Sirius said, casually, hoping Remus would take the bait. The previous night, Peter was the last to arrive to their dormitory just as the two of them had decided to head to bed (James was already snoring by this point, having gone to sleep earlier). Both Sirius and Remus were still awake, lying in their beds when Peter had quietly tip toed back into the room, his face blotchy in the moonlight from crying it seemed. But there was no mistaking the triumphant smile on his face.

"Well," Remus said, smiling a little but not looking up from his parchment. "who do you think he'd tried your stupid advice on?"

"Margot Tinfoote, obviously! James practically handpicked her for him, didn't he? The question is, did it actually work?"

The pair of them slowly turned to look at a group of Gryffindor girls who were friends with Margot sitting in the aisle of tables opposite. A few of them, having noticed Sirius glancing their way, turned about thirty different shades of red and started giggling excitedly.

Remus, who was used to the effect Sirius seemed to have on girls after being his friend for five years, smiled knowingly and turned back to face him.

"Well, if it did work, then that would be really pathetic wouldn't it?"

"What would be pathetic?"

"I mean, if Wormtail got himself a girl-following your stupid advice, no less-then that would make me the lone wolf."

He knew Remus was joking; come to think on it, Sirius could hardly remember the last time Remus seemed hung up or concerned about a girl. They somehow seemed to bounce off his radar. Still, Sirius wanted to blurt out how wrong he was.

"You've got to be kidding, Moony. You're a total dreamboat. If I was a girl, I'd fancy snogging you."

He said the words without really thinking about them, but neither of them batted an eyelash. Sirius had said these kinds of things to Remus from time to time, sometimes even in public to embarrass him further. This time Remus shot him that look again. That "I hope you're not going to misbehave" look that caused all those bloody knots.

"Careful, Black. Snogging a prefect can cost you house points."

"Even if I was an excellent kisser?"

"I think I should be the judge of that seeing it as it hardly counts for anything if you're the one who's claiming to be an excellent kisser."

"Fine, then want to have a go at it?"

Sirius moved his hand and pressed it on his friend's knee. Suddenly Remus looked as though he'd swallowed a very large melon that was now stuck in his throat. After a second, Remus laughed (or did he just giggle?) and turned a bit red himself-not unlike the group of girls who were sitting opposite. He had just opened his mouth to say something when James appeared behind him with his arm in a sling.

"Are you two going to shag tonight or are you going to actually finish that Charms paper?"

Sirius looked back at Remus, his hand still on his knee, and said very loudly so that the whole library could hear: "I was really hoping to shag Remus, to be honest."

The group of girls sitting opposite suddenly turned to look at them (along with every other group in proximity) and burst into shrieks of laughter. James rolled his eyes and settled into the empty chair between them, forcing Sirius to let go of his grip. He could still feel the hard muscle in Remus' leg where he'd held him and it was making him feel lightheaded all of a sudden.

"Well, don't let my presence stop you." James said, turning to either of them, who had strangely fallen quiet. "Go on, then! Clearly I was interrupting something saucy."

Remus, who was trying not to smile, his face still somewhat flushed, turned back over to this Charms paper but didn't get much revision done. Sirius rolled his eyes at James and said "I see you've broken your arm."

"Oh, my arm really is killing me!" James cried, feigning pain as he pressed his arm to his chest. "If only I hadn't injured it so badly beyond magical repair during Quidditch practice then I really could have finished this Charms paper that I was so eager to get started on. Such a shame."

Sirius kicked the leg of his chair muttering "Stupid git."

"Jealous, Padfoot? Now that you actually have to write yours and I don't?"

"I guess I'm just miffed that it was my idea in the first place to pretend breaking an arm and now you've stolen it."

"You can break your arm too if you like." James offered, tilting back his chair so that it balanced on the back legs.

"We can't very well both break our arms a day before the paper is due, you prat. It'd be too obvious."

"Then maybe a leg then? Or get Moony here to hit you with that Spotting Hex. It'll almost look like you've got Spattergroit."

"I'll do no such thing." Remus said. He was a prefect, after all.

"Of course Moony would never raise a wand to hurt his lover, would he?" Sirius said as he and James both watched their friend turn redder in the face. Remus muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like "twats" before standing up and gathering his things.

"Leaving your lover so soon, Moony? I'm disappointed. We didn't even get to snog properly."

"Well I can hardly get any work done with you distracting me, Sirius. Besides, I was pretty much done anyway." He did not say this unkindly but Sirius could tell that something was bothering him. He did a quick doubling charm on his own paper and handed one copy to Sirius, telling him not to copy anything word for word before saying goodbye to the both of them and heading back towards the Gryffindor common room.

When Remus was out of earshot, James tutted his friend. "Looks like you harassed him too much this time, Padfoot."

"Harassed him?!" Sirius replied, half-laughing. "You know he's the one who instigates it. He flirts back most of the time anyway."

James cocked an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. "Oh, really?"

"Yes, really. Just not when you're here. He's shy about his affections for me."

"Hmm," said James, scanning the copy of parchment Remus had left behind. "That's clearly why he's left you a copy of his paper with all the his words written backwards."

Sirius snatched up the parchment out of his hands and scanned it himself. "Well, he does have a temper sometimes. Especially when it's close to that time of the month."

James smirked at him but didn't bother mentioning that it was actually nowhere near that time of the month when Remus was forced to transform into a savage animal. Instead he simply surveyed his friend with that smirk riding further up his lips.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Oh, nothing. Just that I've noticed you seemed to have spent more time flirting with Moony than you normally do. Some of those girls you usually chat up are starting to feel a bit neglected. They've even been asking Wormtail about you. Anything you want to confess?"

This was the first time James had explicitly addressed the ongoing mock flirting between Sirius and Remus. Sirius couldn't remember when it had started but he'd pretty much always been that way with Remus ever since he discovered how much fun it was to tease him. And how much more exciting it was when Remus played along. Now that he was perfect, there were even more things Remus could pretend to threaten Sirius with that made the whole thing much more fun. James had never found this odd, sometimes even encouraging them to continue on in his presence much to Remus' mortification.

Sirius thought about telling him about the knots he sometimes got in his stomach and then thought that was probably the dumbest idea he could think of. Instead he shrugged his shoulders. "Our love isn't any of your business, Prongs."

"It is if you two share a room with me!" James said suggestively. Suddenly, unbidden to his mind, came images of Remus and himself, sprawled across the white sheets of their dormitory bed. Sirius must have turned bright red at these thoughts (he'd again had no idea where they'd come from or why they were there) because James stopped laughing for a second and shot him a quizzical look.

"You know, I expect that kind of blushing from Moony, but not from you."

James had said this in an even tone, testing the waters. He was neither joking nor was he being entirely serious about it. If anything, he seemed curious about it. Sirius was determined not to lose his cool this time as he didn't want a repeat of what had happened between himself and Remus the previous night by the fireplace where he felt he might have given himself away. Yet, his mind felt blank.

James was starting to question his friend's silence. He leaned forward to try and meet Sirius' gaze because, for some reason, he was pretending to be extremely interested in desk in front of them.

"Merlin's saggy left ballsack, Padfoot! Have you actually got a bit of a crush on Moony?"

"What?" Sirius felt as though James had just punched him in the gut. "No, of course I haven't!" As he said the words, however, he started to wonder why they didn't quite feel true. "Well...no, I haven't got a crush on Moony. It's Moony, for God's sake. But...I don't know."

James was silent for a moment. "You know, it's alright if you do. I'm your best mate."

Sirius looked up at James, considering what he should say. Though, to be frank, he wasn't even sure what exactly he felt for Remus. All he had was strange sensations in his stomach when he least expected them and images too, apparently.

"Well, I dunno." He replied. "Sometimes I just feel funny around him. You don't think that makes me loony do you?"

"No, I don't think that makes you loony." James said, his serious face slowing becoming filled with mischief. "But I think I've finally worked out how you can get out of writing this paper."

"A bit irrelevant, Prongs, but okay?"

"Isn't it obvious? You've gone and got yourself sick with Moony Fever!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and kicked the back leg of the chair James had tilted himself on, sending him crashing to the floor. "Prat."

Author's Note: Thanks so much to everyone who left a review/faved/followed! I'm so delighted you've decided to follow along ^.^