"Seriously, Remus, how much can you eat?" Sirius was sitting across Remus watching Remus shove half a burger in his mouth.

"I'm hungry," he replied, mouth still full, and Sirius laughed, wrinkling his nose in fond disgust.

"I didn't peg you as a meat-lover."

"You thought wrong, then," Remus said. "Okay, I can't believe you just introduced me to this place now. We have to come here more often." He was still transfixed with his burger. Sirius grinned, leaning his head on his hands and watching Remus. He should take Remus out to eat more often.

-::-::-::-::-::-::-

"You're kidding. You own one pair of pants? How do you manage?" Remus looked at Sirius with disbelief and Sirius held his hands up in surrender.

"I do a lot of laundry?"

"That's it, we're going shopping."

-::-::-::-::-::-::-

"What do you dream about, Sirius?" Remus looked at him, then away. Sirius leaned back on his couch and stared up at the ceiling. He'd forgotten he'd taped a bunch of photos there. James featured in a lot of them, but there were a lot of candids of students he'd only seen around a few times. He still remembered the day he'd made James hold the ladder as he put them up. It had been a while since Sirius had taken pictures, but he was starting to think of how good Remus would look up there.

"I don't know. I haven't dreamed for a few years now."

"Everyone has dreams."

"I don't know, I don't remember mine." That was only half a lie. He didn't exactly remember his dreams, but there were flashes of a face pressed to his eyelids when he woke up - well, he wasn't going to tell Remus that.

"That's sad."

"I guess." He paused and pushed himself onto his elbows, looking at Remus. "Do you dream?"

"Every night. I even keep a dream journal."

"Oh, of course you do. Of course you do." Sirius laughed, and Remus joined it, and for no reason at all, soon they couldn't stop. It was the kind of contagious belly-ache laughter that Sirius hadn't gotten since he was a kid.

Well, he was learning that he wasn't half as grown up as he'd thought he was, anyway. He was pretty much still a kid, and weirdly enough, he wasn't as upset at that revelation as he would've been a few months ago.

-::-::-::-::-::-::-

"I want you to try to go out for drinks and enjoy yourself, and if The Clash comes on, you're going to dance to it, alright?"

"I don't know, Sirius. I never really learned how to dance. Though, my Dad did teach me how to slow dance when I was little, but I don't think that's really the kind of dancing that-"

"Oh, you can definitely slow dance to The Clash."

"How?"

"We'll figure it out. Get your coat."

-::-::-::-::-::-::-

"Remus?"

"Sirius?"

"No, no, don't turn the light on."

"Alright."

"I just wanted to say thanks, in general, I guess. I never really - My parents, well they never-"

"You don't have to, Sirius. I mean, if you don't want to."

"No, I do want to. If I have to talk to someone, I guess I'd want it to be you."

"Oh. Okay… I want it to be me, too."

"Good. Because it's not all pretty."

"That's okay. I'm not so pretty either."

"That's okay, too."

"Good… Sirius?"

"Remus?"

"Say something. It's dark, and I'm tired, and I want you to talk to me."

-::-::-::-::-::-::-

Remus set his jacket down on the table. Sirius had been leaving the door unlocked, lately. He barely looked up from his books when Remus walked in. "Need a place to crash?"

"To study. James is snoring again and - hey, are those textbooks I see? I guess I rubbed off on you more than I thought." Sirius raised an eyebrow, and let his gaze linger just a moment too long on Remus' fond smirk.

"Don't get cocky."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna grab something to eat, that alright?"

"Help yourself." He heard Remus rummaging around in the kitchen. He always seemed able to make do with Sirius' limited ingredients. Sirius was happen with dry cereal, but Remus loved cooking. Over the past few weeks, Sirius had learned a lot about Remus.

"Hey, Remus? James just texted. He's on his way over with Lily. Sorry."

"Oh, just my luck." Remus laughed and Sirius could feel it rumble in his own chest, even from the kitchen. "Well, the more the merrier, I guess. And I better get some studying done before it's too late."

"Yeah, like you need it." Sirius found himself smiling, in spite of himself. And after a little while, he was trouble keeping his eyes open, so he stopped resisting. He let himself drift off, face down on his philosophy textbook, to the sound of Remus humming Should I Stay or Should I Go.

-::-::-::-::-::-::-

When he woke up, the world was on fire.