Both of them are squeezed together under a fuzzy warm blanket, sitting on the worn couch while watching TV, Sirius making comments about the electricity.

"So this is electric TV thingy or whatever."

Remus looks over at Sirius. "Er – just call it a television."

"Can I add the word thingy to the end?"

Remus sighs, flicking the remote up and turning off the television.

"Whatever."

Sirius smiles, and curls farther under the blanket, giving a playful shiver.

"I hope you don't mind if I scoot closer, Moony. This blanket is tiny." Sirius says, his body wiggling leftways towards Remus. He snuggles closer to him.

"Comfortable, Padfoot?" Remus asks after a moment, looking up at the ceiling.

"When will Prongs and Wormtail come?" Sirius says, ignoring Remus' question.

"I've already told you," He responds. "Probably tomorrow."

"Morning?"

"Probably evening," Remus scoffs. "They're always late…"

"So… what do you wanna do?"

Remus inhales. "Er…" He exhales. "I dunno…" And he inhales again.

"You sound funny when you breathe."

"Oh, so should I stop breathing then?" Remus asks with a scowl.

"Let's play Truth or Dare. Or perhaps we can bake cookies!"

Remus looks critically from Sirius, to the luminous red alarm clock, reading the letters 11:00. He sighs.

"My parents are already asleep."

"That's what makes it so much fun!" Sirius says eagerly. Remus regrets giving him that ice tea that evening. Perhaps too much caffeine…?

"So we would have to be extra quiet."

Sirius presses a finger to his lips, and then zips up his mouth like a zipper, throwing away the key like a little five year old keeping a promise.

"All done!" He whispers.

"I'm tired, Sirius." Remus complains, leaning back on the couch.

"Well, I wanna do something.

Remus looks from the kitchen to where Sirius is already running through dares in his head.

"I pick baking cookies." He says wearily, and Sirius jumps up squealing.

"Quiet!" He reminds snappishly, and walks into the kitchen, getting out a bowl.

"This will be sooooo fun, Moony!" He squeals excitedly, clapping quietly.

Remus shoots him a glare. "Keep your energy low, Padfoot."

But Sirius is already searching through cupboards getting out flour, eggs, water, chocolate chips, sugar, and other various ingredients, all laying them on the counter.

"When I was younger," He explains, grabbing the milk. "I used to make cookies all the time when I was angry at my parents. They would always send me to my room and then they would go to bed, so I would leave my room and slam all the cupboard doors I could in the kitchen. And then I would have the nicest dozens of cookies, all misshapen, some filled with chocolate and some filled with warm sugar… and they were all for me."

Remus smiles at the thought of Sirius making cookies at midnight, stuffing the insides of them with sugar.

"That's why I know this recipe so well." Sirius continues, pouring chocolate chunks into the bowl.

Getting out the tablespoon spoons, Remus joins him.

---

More than an hour had passed, the clock beeping 12:00 eerily at them. They hadn't bothered to keep quiet, not even Remus. They were both covered in flour and the finished dough, in some cases. Remus was laughing so loudly, and couldn't help doing it every time Sirius threw a handful of flour his direction or plopping it on his head.

Running a hand through his hair, flour spitting in all directions, Sirius stirs the dough.

"A bit… runny. Perhaps not enough flour."

"We got most of it on us and the floor instead of the bowl." Remus reasons, smiling, and dips his finger into the dough.

"It's like pancake batter."

"Yum." Sirius comments, licking his own finger.

"Then I guess we'll make a cookie pancake." Remus says, licking the rest of his finger, when he all of a sudden feels Sirius' finger come in contact with his nose, letting a gooey cookie-pancake substance rest there and trickle gently down the skin.

Sirius laughs and leans forward with a smile, grabbing a towel. Remus grabs his wrist, shaking his head. "That will smear the grease, Pads."

Without further hesitation, Sirius decides on the only other way to get the batter off, and licks it off of his nose.

Jumping backwards, Remus touches his nose disbelievingly.

However, he knows that Sirius is just playing, so he grabs a handful of batter and smears it over Sirius' face.'

Spitting, Sirius wipes it from his eyes.

"Can I have some help here, Remus?"

Laughing, Remus takes his finger and draws it down Sirius' cheek, licking it afterwards. "Grab some soap, Siri. Perhaps a mop too."

They clean they're faces and change into their pajamas, laying their flour-covered clothes into the laundry basket, after putting the batter into a large circle shaped skillet and putting it into the oven.

They sit by the oven after they clean the floor and counter, waiting for the ding that their cookie-pancake is done.

It takes fifteen minutes until both of them jump up and take the steaming cookie out and place it on the floor. They pry the pieces from the perhaps a bit-too-gooey-dough and lick their fingers until the entire pan is empty but still nice and hot.

"It's two in the morning, Siri. Can we please sleep now?" Remus asks tiredly, placing the pan in the sink.

"Fine. Do I have to sleep on the floor?"

"We'll see." Remus says, grabbing Sirius' hand and dragging him up the stairs.

---

He's lying on the floor on a lumpy air mattress, facing the bed where Remus is on, sleeping peacefully, which is about two feet above him.

Sighing, Sirius climbs out of his 'bed' and shakes Remus.

"Rem? Remmmuuusss? Moony?" He asks quietly, shaking him again. Remus grunts.

"What do you want?"

"I'm cold down there. I'm lonely too. Can't I get in the bed?"

"And make me get out of it onto the floor so I'm lonely and cold?" Remus grumbles sleepily.

"No," Sirius whispers. "I wanna come in here with you."

Grunting, Remus slides over to give Sirius some room. Smiling, Sirius climbs under the blanket and hugs Remus for just a moment.

"Thanks, Moony."

And he can almost feel Remus' muscle twitch as he smiles.

---

Remus is always the first to wake up. For him, he wakes up when the birds wake up, which is promptly around six in the morning. Yawning, he looks over, where Sirius has snuggled up to him, breathing calmly. He grins at the sight before taking Sirius' hand off of his shoulder and climbs out of the bed, changing into his 'on-the-road clothes' and tiptoeing to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

It's already seven when he wakes Sirius up, all ready and dressed.

"What is wrong, Remus, is it even daylight?"

"Just because it isn't noon, Pads, doesn't mean that you can't wake up at this time." Remus scolds, swatting Sirius across the head to wake him up a bit more.

"Do I have to get up?"

"You'll miss breakfast."

"Is your family already up?" Sirius asks.

"Yeah. Come on."

Grunting, he rubs his eyes. "I'll be sleeping the car today, you know."

"Fine. As long as you're not sleeping all day. Now get up before I bring the water pitcher." Remus warns, smiling, and swiftly moves down the stairs.

Sirius flops back down onto the bed.

---

"Where's Sirius?"

"Asleep upstairs."

"But – it's noon." James retorts.

"I know. He wouldn't get up this morning." Remus says, shrugging.

"Sorry we're a bit late," Peter says apologetically. "I couldn't find my shoes because James, here, had hid them."

James snickers. "So can we come in?" He asks, inviting himself in and stepping into the house. He smiles. "Remus, my good friend," He says, grinning, in a wickedly weird tone. "How good it is to see you." And he hugs him a bit too hard.

"Er… you're squeezing my lungs into my stomach, James – please let go–"

"SIRIUS!" James screams, ignoring Remus and letting go of him, running up the stairs. Peter sighs, dropping his suitcases.

"He's been a bit… enthusiastic."

"So has Sirius," Remus shares bitterly. "We made a cookie pancake at midnight yesterday."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah."

"We were… er, sleeping, I guess." Peter says blandly. They can both hear James' eager shouts wafting downstairs.

"So how did you get here?"

"We took floo powder to Sirius' house actually… we thought he would still be there. And his parents went berserk, and not only because we got ash all over the carpet but because we were filthy Gryffindors who were friends of filthy Sirius… er, apparently they weren't aware that he left. So we walked to your house."

"Were you okay?" Remus asks worriedly.

"Oh, yeah, we were fine. James shot a couple of Stunning Spells blindly and we just ran out of the house. They don't like us very much, I think."

Remus laughs, and then they hear the loud and fast thumping of James breathlessly coming back down the stairs.

"Yeah, Sirius is up. He's coming." James says, winking at Remus.

"How did you get him up?"

"Jumped on the bed, jumped on him, I guess." He replies, smiling.

"SIRIUS! SIRIUS BLACK!!" Remus says irritably, shouting up the stairs. He hears a muffled reply. "IF YOU DON'T COME DOWN HERE WITHIN THE NEXT MINUTE WE'RE LEAVING WITHOUT YOU!!!"

He can hear Sirius going into the shower walking around his room as the floorboards creak above Remus' head.

"Mum? Dad? We're gonna leave in about… ten minutes," Remus walks over to the kitchen where his parents are eating. "After Sirius finishes upstairs and James and Peter get something to eat."

"Alright then. There are pancakes in the kitchen, boys." Mrs. Lupin says to James and Peter, who nod and head into the kitchen.

"So you have everything packed? Clothes? Toothpaste? Toothbrushes? Hairbrushes? Shampoos? Cameras? Snacks? Blankets? Sleeping bags? Flashlights?"

James nodded, trying to follow along as he stuffed a piece of a pancake into his mouth.

Sirius storms down the stairs, his hair wet and his skin still damp.

"Hey," He says with a nod. "Are those pancakes?"

James tosses him one. "Eat up," He pats a spot on his wrist. "We're leaving in two minutes."

Groaning, Sirius slumps down in a chair. "But I'm sooo very tired.

"We could have gone to bed earlier. You insisted on making cookies."

"It was a cookie-pancake, Rem."

"If you're so tired why don't you have something… caffienish?" Peter suggests, looking in the fridge.

"How about some more iced tea, huh, Rem?" He says, winking. "That thing spiked me up real right."

Remus scoffs but pours him a glass anyway. "Drink fast, then."

"Why can't I have actual firewhiskey to spike me up instead?"

"Because that's for me, you dolt." Remus says bitterly, sticking his tongue out at Sirius.