Warning: Hint of Remus/OC action here (sorry! No flames! No flames! You know you love Sweetie anyway ^-^), but no detail. Ah yes, and some Sirius/OC *hides behind hippogriff*

Part Four

Sirius disappeared when James and Peter went to fetch Sweetie and sneak him into the castle. It was disgusting, it was wrong, it was…

Because it wasn't Sirius.

Sirius shook his head violently and ducked behind a tapestry, sliding down the wall and sitting on the ground to think. It wasn't because it wasn't him meeting Remus now, was it? He sighed and rested his forehead against his knees, knotting his fingers in his hair. Was it?

"It might be." he whispered, his heart thudding with fear and uncertainty. It had to be something – no one else got hard over kissing a friend for a dare. No one else noticed the way their friend's hair glinted in the sunlight, or the way one side of his mouth drew up in a crooked grin when they made a joke just for him. No one else deliberately made a fool of themselves just to hear their friend's laugh.

He knew it. He knew it.

Sirius liked Remus.

Well, it only made sense. He spent way too much time watching him and he got butterflies when he caught a glimpse of skin when his shirt rode up. A kiss shouldn't do this to a man, he thought irritably. He paused – so how long has this been coming on? True, he had always had a soft spot for Remus, but they all did. Remus always brushed them off when they asked if he was okay when the moon was waxing, but they all figured he was feeling worse than he ever let on. And yes, true, it had been his idea to become animagi and he had refused to let Remus know who was behind it – had it been because he was scared that he would read the gesture the wrong way? This way?

He decided that none of that mattered – all that did was that now, he liked Remus and he was beyond furious that some…that some…manwhore was after him and would most likely get his way tonight, with his Moony. Sirius froze at the thought, staring at the back of the tapestry.

Since when had he started thinking of him as his Moony? As his?

Sirius gulped and climbed to his feet unsteadily – no one could know about this, no one. Remus would never forgive him, he'd think he was disgusting, lusting after his friend like this and had actually shared a room with him…lust. Did he want Remus like that, too? No, how could he? He liked breasts and soft curves. Not once had he ever wanked in the shower over some guy's cock.

Moony's not just some guy, he mind supplied unhelpfully.

Ignoring himself, he pushed back into the corridor and stormed up to Gryffindor Tower to find that brown haired girl, Violet or something. Whatever. Once he did, he fully intended to do her hard and fast in the nearest broom closet. All of that proving his masculinity and stuff.

Once was in the common room, he couldn't see either James or Peter, so he supposed they hadn't returned with the pretty boy (Sirius flinched inwardly when he remembered that Remus had called him the same thing the night of the party). Viola, Violet, Sandra…whatshername was sitting by the fire with the flatchested redhead James had tried on in Hogsmead, so he marched over and, already in possession of her attention from the slightly angry way he had approached her, leaned down to whisper in her ear: "Today wasn't enough - I can't get you out of my head."

Whatshername stared up at him, chewing her lip in what she must have thought was a seductive manner, but just made her look like an upset child, and nodded. Sirius suppressed a satisfied smile and jabbed his thumb to the boy's staircase.

"Give me a moment, sweetheart. I gotta get something."

He dashed up the stairs – quickly, to be gone when the others got back – to get the invisibility cloak, knowing James hadn't taken it since Sweetie was a sod and might have tried to steal it. An important rule to remember around their contact – don't show him anything that he'll think he'll be able to sell for a hefty price. Sirius burst into the dormitory and froze.

Sweetie was lying on his back on Remus' bed, clothes on the floor by the door, his legs wrapped around an equally bare Remus. They hadn't noticed him over the sound of the bed springs and Sweetie's moaning, so Sirius stared, unable to tear his eyes from the lean rippling muscles across his back – long, lithe and understated muscles that he chose to hide because exposing them would mean exposing his scars – and the clenching of his firm arse as he moved with Sweetie over and over and over, roughly, deeply, rapidly. Sweetie cried out again and again, his nails raking white patterns across Remus' back to match the faded scars there, as he pulled himself up to kiss him.

Still, Sirius found himself rooted to the spot, even when Remus lifted a hand from Sweetie's hip to roam across the other boy's body. It only took another moment before Sweetie was crying out Remus' name and moaning profanities.

When Remus reached his own shuddering finish, no sound left him. He hung his head in…what? Shame? No, why would he? In exhaustion, and Sweetie pulled himself up to kiss him again. This time, Sweetie spotted Sirius standing in the doorway and paused. Sirius felt fear send a chill through him, certain that Remus was about to turn around and accuse him of being a pervert, but instead Sweetie turned to whisper – loud enough for Sirius to hear clearly – in his ear, "Ready for another round already?"

Remus growled, a low vibration that sent shivers down Sirius' spine and did things to him that made him want to rip Sweetie off him and take his place, and flipped him onto his front hungrily.

Unable to stay sane for any longer, Sirius closed the door softly and went down to grab whatshername and pull her from the common room, urgently needing release, invisibility cloak be damned.

Once whatshername had left the broom closet – thankfully understanding that it was just a quick shag and nothing more – Sirius sank down onto an upturned bucket and groaned miserably.

The girl just…hadn't done it for him. Yes, she'd had a nice sized chest, a pretty enough face and was certainly eager enough and yes, he had gotten his much needed release, but not because of her. In fact, if he hadn't already had a raging erection from walking in on Remus and Sweetie, he wasn't entirely sure that he would have got it up at all. The fact that he had turned the girl to face the wall so he couldn't see her face or those magnificent breasts and ran his fingers through her curly brown hair, so similar to Remus', didn't help matters at all. Neither did the fact that he had replayed the sight of Remus at his climax when he had reached his own.

At least there was no question now of whether or not he lusted after Remus sexually.

Sirius ran his hands through his hair and stood to leave. He had decided that he wouldn't tell Remus. He would go up there and wait in the common room until that manwhore left and would go up to apologise for suggesting that his friend prostituted himself for marijuana and alcohol and would then pretend as though he didn't want to rip the boy's clothes off.

If he did tell him about his epiphany that night, that Remus would no longer trust him as a friend, he would feel violated and that their friendship would either turn awkward, or end altogether and he couldn't bear that. How could he ever survive without Moony's sarcastic humour and dark wit? How could he never again bear witness to one of those special smiles he only gave to Sirus when they finished smoking behind the greenhouses? If he ever had to stop walking into the common room and laying his head on Moony's lap as an everyday thing, or had to stop wrestling and tickling him in the dorm when he wouldn't put his book down or wouldn't share his chocolate, Sirius would probably die. Violently and unpleasantly.

So, he made his way back up the tower, walking a long walk of shame, and sat in the empty common room by the dwindling fire and waited. He was only there for half an hour when James and Peter ambled in. Expecting to be ignored, Sirius was surprised when they sat on the sofa opposite him.

"Sorry about before." Sirius mumbled when the silence started to gnaw at his nerves.

"It's Moony you should be apologising to." James said, but he wasn't frowning or yelling, so Sirius relaxed. It seemed he had been forgiven already. One down, one to go. "You over your homophobic issues, now?"

"I'm not homophobic." Sirius frowned, "And he's not gay. He's been out with girls, too."

"Mate, I think we're starting to discover that our Moonpie goes out with anything that moves. Rather like yourself, Padfoot."

"I just…I don't know. I'm waiting to apologise. I figured they were up in the dorm so I waited down here." He lied, shifting under the stare James directed at him, feeling like his best friend could see right through him – he never kept secrets from James and wasn't sure how to go about it.

"Probably." James nodded and checked his watch, "Merlin, it's been over two hours, now. That werewolf can really go at it."

"Sweetie's gonna be sore in the morning." Peter said with a grimace.

"You say that like you know from experience." James grinned. Peter stammered and Sirius interrupted.

"Where have you two been?"

"Kitchens." James answered, "We had the map, so we don't need to ask where you were."

Sirius stared. James had seen him walk in on Remus on the map? Oh gods, his life was over.

"Yeah, saw you with that girl in a cupboard on the fourth floor," James continued, "That Megan one.

Sirius relaxed and only distantly realised that he had been calling the girl by the wrong name the whole time and hoped he hadn't called her anything weird to her face, but couldn't bring himself to care much.

The three of them sat together for another half hour until they heard footsteps descending the staircase and Sweetie appeared, looking dishevelled, but deliriously happy and thoroughly shagged. He waggled his fingers at them, assuring James that he knew the way now and to sit back down, he'll show himself out. Sirius didn't miss the grin that was shot in his direction before the boy exited through the portrait hole.

"Now's your chance," James prompted, nodding his head towards the dorm, "before he falls asleep."

Sirius nodded and got up to climb the stairs to what felt was his execution, dreading the possibility that Sweetie had told Remus that he had been watching them, which was highly likely, given the nature of the guy. He pushed the door open slowly this time, checking that Remus was decent this time – although it was a bit late for caution – and, seeing that he was sprawled on his back smoking, Sirius ducked in and closed the door behind him.

By the smile Remus flashed him, Sirius guessed that Sweetie hadn't blabbed and that he had been automatically forgiven again by another person who was used to him screwing things up. This time, though, Sirius still felt the need to apologise, even if he couldn't fully explain. He sat on the bed beside Remus, watching the way the smoke left from between his lips.

"Where are the other three?" Sirius asked finally.

"Frank's with Alice tonight and the twins have a date with Slughorn, scrubbing cauldrons."

"Ah." Sirius mumbled, "Listen, I'm sorry about—"

"Don't." Remus interrupted, his eyes glinting with a hint of amber in the lamplight, the way they did when he got excited and his animal side came out. Sirius shivered pleasantly at the thought of those wolfish eyes being turned on him. "I overreacted. I'd blame the moon, but the full's still a week away."

"Just one of those days, I get it." Sirius said dismissively, glad that Remus hadn't asked why he had reacted like that himself and took the cigarette when he was offered it. He took a long, slow drag, secretly aroused by the thought of his mouth being where Remus' had just been. He opened his eyes to find Remus studying him intently and hoped to god he didn't have a hard on, but couldn't check in case he did and made it obvious.

"You okay?" Remus asked, taking the cigarette back. Sirius shifted – yep, he was definitely sporting a semi.

"Yeah fine, why?"

"You look flushed." Moony answered, lifting a single brow. Gods, Sirius loved it when he did that…so sexy.

"Oh, I, err, just met up with that girl from before."

"Right. Was she good?"

Sirius' eyes were trained on the way Remus' lips were shaped around the cigarette and rolled his bottom lip into his mouth, "Oh, yes." He breathed, before catching himself and redirecting his gaze to the window, where the moon shone threateningly, "Erm, yes. She was."

"Such a slut, Pads."

He loved the way only Moony shortened his nickname into another nickname that was somehow sweet and imagined the way the same line would sound from between his legs. Oh gods…would it be suspicious if he took a cold shower now?

"Pads?"

Sirius crossed his legs uncomfortably. Yes, yes it would be bloody suspicious, since it's nearly bloody midnight. Who has a shower at midnight? No one, that's who.

"Pads? You sure you're okay?"

Oh, shitting fuck ducks.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Just tired."

"Oh, sorry my fault."

"No, don't worry. I'm the one keeping you up."

"You're not, honestly. I always have a smoke after a shag." Remus said bluntly.

Sirius almost fainted on the spot at the revelation that this had not been Remus' first time going the 'whole way'. Why it was such a surprise, he wasn't sure, because under the old jumpers, the affair with anything with words on it and his inability to wake up in the morning without attempting to decapitate at least two people, Sirius had always suspected that Remus was pretty desirable and now he knew that first hand. Maybe it had been all those things and more that had led him to thinking that no one else but himself and perhaps the other Marauders would learn to appreciate the enigma that was Remus 'Moony' Lupin.

"Right, well, I'm going to bed." Sirius managed to choke out.

"Okay, night, Pads." Remus smiled softly, stubbing out the remainder of the cigarette on his nightstand and flicking the lamp off. Sirius replied tightly, stripping his clothes off with his back to Remus so he wouldn't reveal the tell-tale bulge and dove into bed, drawing the hangings around him and reaching for his wand to cast a few silencing charms. Finally free to do so, he slid his hand under the elastic of his boxers and groaned in relief, imagining Moony's fingers wrapping around him instead. It didn't take long to reach his relief and to fall asleep, thinking of amber eyes and tensed, scarred shoulders.