The next day when Sirius wakes up he is greeted by the sight of Moony spread out on the bed next to Sirius' with a book on his lap and sunshine rays weaving through the dirty blond locks, making him look like he's glowing.
His breath catches as his mind slowly comes out of the drowsiness.
The sight is beautiful.
Sirius smiles to himself.
He then remembers that this is as close as he will ever get to waking up next to Remus.
And that this is the last year such bittersweet pleasure is given to him.
The smile vanishes as his heart plummets, but he doesn't move and doesn't say anything.
Because the peaceful island that is the sight is warm enough to just look at. Even from outside.
Moony's frame shifts and suddenly the golden eyes are looking at Sirius'.
The sunlight lights them up and Sirius feels a sudden tug at his stomach. It's near painful.
But then again, these days a lot of things to do with Moony are.
"Morning."Remus smiles at him and Sirius puts on a grin.
It's forced, but he starts to believe it along the way, because why should he not let himself forget everything for a moment when Remus is smiling at him brightly, lit up by the morning light and so purely perfect.
"Morning." He responds. "You're in your uniform."
"I went to the library." Remus gestures to the book.
"We need to wear uniforms to the library? On Sundays?"Sirius asks incredulously.
"If that's not something you needed to worry about for the past six years, I doubt you need to worry about it now, Padfoot."Remus smiles slightly reprimanding and rolls his eyes.
"True."Sirius agrees and grins innocently.
"Getting up?"Moony asks.
"Nah, not yet."Sirius replies and snuggles into his pillow earning himself a warm glint in Remus' eyes.
"No pressure, it's only twelve after all."
Sirius sticks his tongue out. Remus chuckles at that and returns his eyes to the book.
Sirius lays there letting himself observe.
Noting the strand of hair falling over Remus' eyes and the curve of his lips.
The skin warm and smooth disappearing behind the collar of the shirt.
Moony lifts up a hand and runs two fingers under it, absentmindedly trying to loosen the material.
He gives up then and after tugging at his tie undoes the first couple of buttons.
Sirius mind goes astray and he wonders what it would be like dragging his lips down the skin under the material.
Warm.
Running his fingers down the line of Remus' spine. Slipping his fingertips under the hem of his shirt.
Soothing, coaxing.
Letting his cheek brush up past the jaw line and slowly, carefully attaching his lips to Remus'. Holding on to the guy as if his life depended on it.
Kissing till everything else… everything cold and dark that seemed to be surrounding them closing in on them slowly while they were doing their best to ignore it enjoying their last days of carelessness… till all of it slowly melted away.
Sharing air, passing it between them in gasps.
Letting himself get lost in Moony's eyes and whispering promises that would be welcome.
Letting the shame of his racing heartbeat be washed away by the one pressing against his chest.
"Sirius?" Remus' voice snaps him out of the spell.
"Yeah?"Sirius has to fight not to avert his eyes quickly.
Nothing would give his thoughts away faster.
But it's hard because he feels guilty and dirty and Remus looks concerned.
"You look a bit out of it."Moony frowns.
"Just thinking." And his voice sounds almost normal, which is great.
"Right."Remus still doesn't look all that convinced. "Well, anyway, Madam Pomfrey is still fussing around Peter, so he's not going anywhere for at least a couple of days."
"Is that what you're reading?"Sirius nods in the general direction of Remus' lap. "Looking for the potion?"
"Yes. I don't even have any idea where I should start, so it's going to be a long search."Remus sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose.
"I'll help."Sirius murmurs comfortingly. "I can see that you're about to work yourself into a frenzy, which you really shouldn't do. Peter's going to be fine either way, you know."
"I know, it's just…I don't know, something feels a bit off about the situation."Remus complains, looking at Sirius with concern shining in his eyes.
"You just worry too much, Moons." Sirius flips to his back and sits up propping himself on his arms. "Don't. You have enough on your plate as it is, okay?" He tries not to let his own worry about Moony show.
The blanket slides down his body and pools at his midsection and suddenly Moony is staring at the exposed torso and a shaky smile is building up on his lips.
It takes Sirius a second but then he remembers.
"Shit."He swears. "I forgot about that."
Remus starts choking on his laughter, obviously trying to keep it down but failing miserably.
"You can stop now, Remus, you've seen it already." Sirius grumbles as each sound cuts through his pride, injuring it further.
"Sorry."Remus gasps and slowly regains control under Sirius' blaming glare. "Sorry, Sirius."
He then pushes the book onto the bed and stands up, walking over and taking Sirius' wrist and pulling his arm up to examine the writings on Sirius' skin.
Sirius watches with all the fascination in the world as Moony's fingers brush his skin lightly and tries not to react to the sensation shooting all throughout his body from the simple touch.
He knows it's rather pathetic, he does, but it's Remus.
That being said Sirius would very much like to be surprised at the desire running in hot waves through his lower abdomen when Moony bites his lip in concentration. He would like to be, but Sirius is at the point where he is honest with himself about this so he isn't.
"This is cutis atramentum, isn't it?"Remus asks glancing up at Sirius' face. Sirius manages to nod and let out an agreeing sound which actually sounds an awful lot like a moan.Remus doesn't seem to notice though, he goes back to examining the skin.
At that moment the door slams open and standing in the doorway is a stunned looking James.
He looks at the two guys for a moment.
Takes in Sirius' expression.
Then throws a calculating gaze at Remus.
"Am I-" He starts hesitantly at the same time that Remus says:
"Oh hi, James."
The guy releases Sirius' arm and grins up at his other friend.
"Never mind then."James hums but smirks at the blush spreading over Padfoot's cheeks. "Hi, Moony, morning, Sirius. What are you up to?"
"Just trying to think if there are any loopholes for the skin ink spell." Remus motions towards Sirius with his hand.
"Is that what you were doing?"James throws Moony a speculative look, to which the guy responds with a very confused one.
Sirius however chokes on air and turns his head down, a trick he learned to hide his face behind his hair a long time ago.
"I can't remember to be honest, Remus, but I'm pretty sure we got it from 'Beauty Spells and Charms'. Red book, about this big."James replies then with an easygoing smile and indicates the size of the book with his hands.
"I'll go find it, maybe at least this problem we can solve."Remus nods.
Sirius' stomach then rumbles and they both turn to look at him, which couldn't be more unfortunate because he's still red and not just from the 'skin ink' thing.
"Missed breakfast."He explains sadly.
"We know."James rolls his eyes.
"On the table."Remus responds and Sirius looks over his bedside table to see a small pile of food Moony probably scavenged for him from breakfast.
"Moons," Sirius whispers, "Have I ever told you you're my favorite person ever?"
"Only every time I give you food, Padfoot." Remus laughs. "And we both know that I'm not even your favorite person in this room."
"You mean that jackass."Sirius snorts and scrunches his nose motioning to James. "Not even close."
James lets out a sound of protest.
"No, Sirius, I mean that your favorite person is and probably will always be you."Remus teases and James chuckles.
"Well, Moony, it's hard to compete with perfection, but you come in close second."Sirius grins.
"Right. And I shall enjoy this short lasting honor until someone else offers you food." Remus nods solemnly. Then starts walking toward the door. "Well I'm off to the library. Again." He sighs giving a small nod to his friends and disappearing behind the door.
"So what were you doing before I came in, Sirius?" James teases and earns a nasty glare in return.
"I wasn't doing anything." Sirius grumbles defensively.
"Oh, really." James wiggles his eyebrows. "You were looking ready to pounce at any moment, Sirius. If you insist on feigning innocence at least make it a bit more convincing."
Sirius feels his face burn but refuses to give into the obvious provocation, instead he just grabs a muffin sitting on the table and stuffs his mouth.
"Maybe next time you should let Peter use the skin ink thing just a tad bit lower, so Remus feels compelled to examine that." James grins with mischief and Sirius freezes.
The image enters his head just for a split second before he chases it out but it's more than enough.
He groans and falls back pulling the covers over his head.
"Sod off, James, I hate you."
"Perhaps I should leave you to your thoughts for a while, Padfoot."James laughs.
"Shut up!"
"Oh, come on you make it too easy." Potter plops down on his own bed and smiles satisfied with himself. "Or is it that Remus makes it too hard?"
He almost hears the wheels turning in Padfoot's head and waits until the guy gets it.
"I cannot believe you just said that!"Sirius yelps but his voice breaks mid-sentence and the desired angry effect is not achieved.
"Anyway."James dismisses the topic as if it's the most casual thing in the world and Sirius hates him all the more for it.
He's dying here, it's not fair.
"I was thinking."James hums.
"Dear Merlin, never do that again, James, you'll injure yourself."Sirius bites still hidden in his bed.
He takes a bite of the muffin and chews thoughtfully, willing every other thought away.
Good thing that when friends don't offer much comfort, food does.
"Very funny. As I was saying… I was thinking, you know yesterday the whole Peter thing? Do you think the potion was placed on our table, exactly where we usually sit, on purpose?" James asks.
Sirius thinks about it for a moment.
He then pulls the blanket out of his face and looks at James frowning.
"I doubt it. I mean it's just a prank, I doubt very much that someone actually would go out of their way to do it particularly to Peter. The guy hardly has any enemies. And it's not like we sit in exactly the same spot in exactly the same order."He reasons, because it doesn't look very likely that it would be possible to position the glass in such a particular spot on purpose, when so many others could've just taken it at any time before they came in.
"You're right of course."James nods. "I just… I don't know, maybe I was expecting that it's something personal."
"You were expecting?"Sirius chuckles. "You're just looking for a good fight, James."
"I am." Potter doesn't bother denying it.
