"Ready James?" Remus asked, grinning at the other boy.
"All set, Remus. I think we'll make it," James replied, returning the grin and running a hand through his already messy hair.
"I sure hope you're right."
And with that they both broke into a sprint, sliding around the benches and carrying bags and boxes between them. Skidding out the door with a whoop, James yelled, "Ha ha! I won!"
"Only just!" Remus protested, watching James with his bright eyes and even brighter grin. This was their game. They were his favourite afternoons, when the two of them closed together. Not that he didn't love Dorcas and her bubbly exiting, excited for her afternoon. And Peter's quiet inspection of everything before leaving. And of course, he liked his own way of closing. But there was something about sprinting after James that made him grin wider than he almost ever did. It was only a little thing, but they shared it, and that was enough for Remus.
"So, plans for the afternoon?" James asked, locking the door once he was done celebrating his win. It was always a lucky thing, to win. Remus was taller, with long, lanky legs that let him take bigger steps, but James had always been the sporty one, training as hard and as often as he could, so he had a lot more power, though Remus was surprisingly strong.
"None. Not really. Talk to Peter about his leave. I've got to rearrange the shifts," Remus replied, leading the way down the steps, tilting his head to indicate the same question directed at James.
"I've got none. Lily's not going to be home until late tonight, she's studying so much and tells me I'm a distraction! Can you believe that?" James sounded incredulous, exclaiming over Lily as he matched his step with Remus's, the two walking down the street.
"You? A distraction? Gosh, no, really?"
"Ha. Ha. You're so funny."
"I'm betting Lily would think so," Remus retorted, eyebrows raised, smirk playing on his lips.
"Well, I disagree completely," James replied, sticking his tongue out at the other boy. "Park?" The suggestion hung in the air, Remus biting his lip, eyes raised to the sky, consider the options.
"Yeah, why not," he agreed finally.
Walking together, Remus flinging an arm around James's shoulders, it was easy. It was easy walking with him like this. There'd been a time when all Remus had done was stress that James was going to leave, that James was just going to get tired of him and say goodbye and mean it. But it hadn't happened yet, and they'd know each other for twelve years now. Their mothers had been friends or acquaintances of a sort and as was the habit of mothers with fairly young children, the two of them had been introduced, though never friends until school when they happened to be placed in the same dorm room. And now, after too many years, Remus had realised that there were few things that James would shy away from, and some physical affection wasn't one of them. To be honest, Remus probably could probably hold James's hand and he would snicker, but allow even that. So they walked down the street, crossing roads, and generally making their way to the park without Remus removing his arm from James's shoulders, however awkward it became. Their conversations and the comfort more than making up for the slight awkwardness.
"So, Dorcas's birthday," Remus began, they'd been in the park for a few minutes. Idly conversing about birds and whether or not it was okay to feed them bread.
"Yes, that. Well, you saw the cake. I mean, it'd be hard to miss it. I didn't actually manage to give it away, so it's in my fridge. But other than that, what should we do?"
"I mean, her birthday is a Sunday, the twenty-ninth, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Well, why don't we do a thing on Saturday, and then the group of us can stay at someone's house the night after all the other guests have gone?"
"That's a good idea. Also, I was thinking, as far as presents go, she's always wanted to dye her hair. I was talking to Lils about it, and she said dark blue would look nice with the darkness of her skin tone? I've got no clue what the hell any of that means, to be honest, but maybe someone could buy her hair dye?" James suggested, his face scrunching up in confusion as he attempted to remember what exactly it was that Lily had said.
"Why doesn't Lily get it? Considering she's the most likely to know what she needs to get."
"Apparently she's already got everything planned and doesn't want to mess it up."
"Right, okay. Well, I can buy it, if you want, though it was your idea. And I'll obviously do something else as well," Remus replied, rolling his eyes at James. James with his fantastic ideas, but limitations on how they would actually work.
"Awesome!"
"I'm glad you think so. Marlene's back tomorrow, isn't she?"
"Yeah, she is. Maybe she can take some of Peter's shifts? Maybe you can take a day off?"
"That could be a good idea, to have Marlene, we can probably make it so her and Dorcas's schedules line up. Are you okay for a bit of change in your schedule?" Remus asked, absentmindedly scratching at his neck as his mind filled with possible solutions. So lost in the thinking process he was, James had to clap his hands to get his attention back.
"Sorry James. Just trying to think everything through," Remus said, smiling apologetically at the boy.
"I know. And it's better if you do your thinking now instead of when you're meant to be sleeping. Which seems to happen quite a lot, if you ask me."
"Luckily, no one is asking you. But yes, it is better than that," the snark was real, Remus's tone the perfect embodiment of sarcasm.
"Ah, I love birthdays," James sighed suddenly, a vague look drifting across his face.
"You do?" Remus asked, laughing a little, he knew that James did like birthdays, but what was the sudden sigh for?
"I do, I really do. You get to celebrate the fact that someone else exists! I really like Dorcas, I'm glad she exists."
"Me too, me too."
"And I'm glad that we get to celebrate the fact that she exists," James followed up, still looking pleasantly vague. If they lived in a magical word, Remus would have said that James was enchanted or something. In this world, he'd normally have said that James was drunk, but he'd been with him all day, there'd been no alcohol involved from what he knew, and definitely none recently. So was he really that enraptured with birthdays?
"It's Lily's birthday after Dorcas's. Then it's good old Arthur's. Then it's yours and mine, Moony!" James announced, clearly happy with the amount of birthdays coming up ahead because he positively beamed at Remus, who was struggling to control his laughter.
"Good old Arthur's?" Remus asked, curious as to how James even knew what Arthur's birthday was. Were there plans to celebrate? Remus didn't even know how old he would be, only that it was certainly older than Dorcas and Lily. But if James wanted to go around celebrating everyone's birthday, then Remus wasn't going to stop him.
"Well, maybe not old. But definitely good! Yeah, his birthday is on the ninth of February, I think. Something like that," James replied, still overly excited.
James had always done this, Remus supposed. Memories of sullen nights in the dorm room that had changed to...interesting in the time it took to click his fingers, all because James had thought of something that had made him excited. Peter was always quick to join in, usually procuring something that was similar to whatever James was excited about. Whether it was planning a new prank, or something about Lily. Something about class or just some abstract question that had resulted in far too few hours of sleep. Still, it was a little strange to see, but that didn't stop it being amusing at the very least.
"So, do we need to start planning Lily's birthday as well, then?" Remus asked, a curious smile playing at his lips, his slightly curly, dark brown hair glinting slightly gold in the sunlight.
"Probably, but I need to think about that. She's turning twenty you know, it's got to be special. Maybe she's planning something?"
"You know, other than Arthur, we're all turning twenty next year, except for Dorcas who is turning twenty this year," Remus pointed out, patting James on the shoulder as if sympathetic.
"Well yeeees," James whined, as if Remus was missing some drastically important point, "But, you know!"
"What do I know, James? Enlighten me, please."
"It's Lily!"
"Ah, alright then. Well, yes if you're going to do something because "you know, it's Lily!" then of course you need to think long and hard about that," Remus replied, grinning at the other boy, almost wanting to shake his head. He really was absolutely enraptured by Lily, luckily for him, and everyone else that had to be around him, Lily seemed to be pretty enraptured with him as well. Which made it far easier for the two of them, and spared Remus many a headache. The nights that James had spent keeping Remus up until dawn, talking and talking and talking about Lily were uncountable and Remus fully intended to do the same if he ever fell for someone. Though of course, James had been younger, but that didn't really mean anything, did it?
After a stream of protests from James, met with only sarcastic responses from Remus about Lily, the two had drifted off into companionable silence. Remus had finally let go of the other boy's shoulder and his hands were currently shoved inside his jacket pockets, blissfully glad that he didn't have to suffer the awful pockets of women's clothing. It was a nice day, despite it being freezing. The sky was clear, though the sun had practically set with it being something like half four already. In fact, it was probably after that. Time usually passed rather quickly when Remus was with James, like Lily, he thought of James as quite a distracting person.
Walking through Remus's favourite part of the park, he stopped, just to tilt his head back and look up at the trees. They were bare, with it being winter and all, but they somehow managed to thrive so many so close together that they were so very close to intertwining their branches and with a little bit of imagination, he could almost see them helping each other, not quite touching, but only inches away, supporting each other. And of course, that's not how trees worked, he knew that, but still it was where his mind went every time he looked up at these particular trees. And really, what did it matter that he let his imagination get the best of him sometimes?
"Earth to Moony?"
"I'm here, I'm here. Just look at how amazing these trees are though."
"Pretty amazing, I suppose?"
"More than amazing. Have you ever really looked at them? Have you seen them in the spring? When they've got bright leaves and flowers?"
"I mean, I suppose so. But I don't really remember what exactly they look like."
"In spring, you have to come here and you have to look up and see them properly."
"Alright, I suppose I can do that. We can have a picnic, I guess?"
"They're the best part of the park. But yeah, we should have picnics in the spring. Maybe my birthday, since you're so excited about those at the moment."
"Well, I wouldn't say that being this excited over trees is really much better. At least it's people that I'm excited about."
"Hey! I'm not that excited, I just think you need to see them properly."
"Alright, alright. If you say so."
"I do."
"Clearly," James replied, laughing. He'd never been one for sarcasm, only jokes and laughter on his end, so naturally, there was no sarcasm to the conversation, only James sounding perplexed and laughing, almost giggling really, at his interpretation of Remus's insanity.
—
"Time to head home?" James asked, looking at his watch.
"Yeah, I'd say so. What's the time?" Remus questioned as a reply. The two had been walking and talking for far longer than he'd expected when they began the walk. It wasn't a bad thing, though Remus had planned to finally go grocery shopping, but that was alright. That could all wait until tomorrow. It wasn't like he was ever going to pass up a chance like this.
"Half five," James replied, grinning at the other boy.
"Half five!" Remus exclaimed. They'd spent some time under the trees, yes, but neither of them were particularly slow walkers, he couldn't conceive how they'd spent so much time just walking. Of course, they'd been talking near continuously, so perhaps that was it? James was looking at him with similar incredulation. How could this have happened? With matching sets of shrugs, they both grinned.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow. You're not coming until afternoon, yeah? Who's opening up?"
"I mean, I wasn't going to, but I think Peter was going to come open with you and of course he'll not be there. Dorcas might be able to, I think she was coming in the morning anyway," James suggested, running his hands through his hair.
"Right, so I really need to get these schedules under control. Yeah, she was coming in the morning, she doesn't like getting there any earlier than she has to though," Remus said, fiddling with the edge of his sleeve.
"Don't stress, it's fine Moony, mate. And she hasn't opened up in weeks and weeks now, you may as well ask. Otherwise, I know you can handle it on your own, but I can come if you want."
"Fine, I'll ask. As for you, you need to enjoy your morning off, so absolutely no coming in. Stick with your habit of turning up just in time."
"Oh you think you're so hilarious."
"No, no, I really don't."
"I wish you did."
"No, no, no, none of this. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, James. Enjoy thinking about birthdays."
"See you, Rem. Enjoy the trees."
—
"Hey Peter, give me a call back when you get this, yeah? Just wanted to make sure everything's as okay as it can be, and yeah, we need to talk about you coming back, no rush, take as much time as you need."
Remus left the message, wishing for once that Peter had picked up the phone. Generally, the mere idea of talking on the phone sent shivers down his spine, but Peter had never been one to convey tone through a text message. It was all too difficult to work out what he was trying to say through writing, so Remus usually called him instead. It was a solution that had taken Remus awhile to work out, but it did work a whole lot better than trying to guess what Peter was trying to say, while attempting to make his own meanings as clear as possible.
Hello Dorcas, I know you hate this, but would it be possible for you to come open with me tomorrow? Because it was Peter's shift, but clearly, he's not gonna be there. If you can't, don't worry.
He sent the message, biting his lip and tugging at the elastic band around his wrist. He shouldn't have felt guilty, it was a question, it was only a question. But he was getting so fidgety that when he walked over to grab his textbooks, he immediately dropped them. Which was of course followed by Remus's usual stream of swearing that really was quite impressive. Impressive in the most unimpressive way of course. Taking a few deep breaths, he bent down to pick up the books again and picked up his laptop on his way back to his spot on the couch. Opening a textbook, notebook and his laptop, he settled down for a long few hours of studying. His water bottle was next to him and it wasn't likely that he'd move for some time now.
Hey Remus! Sorry, I can't actually open with you tomorrow, I promised Marlene that I'd come with her to do some weird sunrise thing-o before I went to work. I'm happy to do any shifts next week, opening, closing, whatever, I'm free all week. Again, sorry mate, I wish I'd thought of that before agreeing.
Remus had only been ten minutes into his work and finally getting a rhythm into it, when Dorcas's message came. He grinned a little, wondering what "sunrise thing-o" Marlene had found for the two of them to do. Probably something that she wouldn't approve of Dorcas calling a "thing-o", but that was half the fun, Remus supposed.
No problem Meadowes. Thanks for letting me know about next week. I'll see you tomorrow.
It would be a peaceful morning then. No one there with him, like he'd planned for Tuesday almost, though he prayed to whatever gods existed, that it wouldn't be quite that much of a mess when he got there. Though anything was a possibility, he supposed. Ah well, that was a matter for tomorrow.
