Disclaimer: All the wonderful characters (save a few) are JKR's.

Author's Note: I am so sorry that it took me so long to update! School has been a major bitch lately. Prom doesn't give me much time to write either. Anyway, I'll try not to take as long updating the next chapter. I hope the fact that this chapter is fairly long will help you forgive me :)

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Sirius opened his eyes blearily while last night's events came flooding back to him. He knew he had fallen back asleep around 7:00 am; the clock now read 10:03 am, so he had at least gotten an extra three hours worth of uninterrupted sleep.

He could hardly believe what he had seen the previous night. Sirius didn't think the ghost could do anything more horrible than act out his own suicide; he hoped desperately that nothing worse would follow it. He now felt even more remorse in having Remus stay over and putting him through that awful ordeal, though a very large but guilty part of Sirius was grateful that Remus had been there because he didn't know if he could've handled that encounter alone. Speaking of Remus…

Sirius looked to the other side of the bed, which was quite empty, as was the cot. Had Remus become so frightened that he had had to leave the manor? What if he blamed Sirius and didn't want to be friends anymore? If Remus wasn't his friend, he didn't know if he could stand it. The thought made Sirius feel incredibly lost and he felt tears spring to his eyes.

Then his bedroom door opened, making him jump. It was Remus, with damp hair and a towel around his waist; the sight made Sirius feel both relieved and rather hot. It was definitely not a bad thing to wake up to Remus half-naked and wet.

"Hey, you're awake. I couldn't fall back asleep, so when you did, I just got up. I hope you don't mind that I took a shower," said Remus.

"No, not at all. I was just a little worried 'cause you weren't here when I woke up. I thought you might have left," said Sirius, a bit sheepishly.

"Sirius, you don't ever have to worry about me leaving you alone after something like that happens. I wouldn't do that to you, I care about you too much," said Remus sincerely, making Sirius fall in love with him a little bit more. "Besides," he continued, "I thought it over a bit, and even though it was scary to see the ghost, it's even more exciting. I mean how many people have real encounters with ghosts like that? We didn't even put any effort into seeing it while there's ghost hunting nut bags on TV trying to take pictures of 'orbs' with their cameras. Just think how much this'll help our research project. We've basically got a first hand source if we interpret everything the ghost tries to tell us correctly."

"You're completely right," said Sirius, "I just wish I could be that optimistic about it. At least now I know I'm not hallucinating since you can see it, too. But I can't help thinking about that boy, that ghost, that haunted Susan until she cracked. Well, until her parents thought she'd cracked and then sent her to the loony bin. I think that I'm actually more afraid of my parents than the ghost. If they found out I was seeing spirits they'd ship me out right away. God, I hate them. I really, really need a vacation." He groaned and rubbed at his eyes.

"Well, I don't know about a vacation," said Remus, "but I called my mom earlier this morning and she wanted to know if you wanted to come over for dinner tonight. She really wants to meet you, so does my dad and sister. Hell, you can stay over, too. Get a good night's sleep for once, I know you need it."

"Sure, I'd love to. And my parents are coming back today from wherever the hell they were, so if we get out of here fast, we can miss them," said Sirius, feeling much better at the prospect of escaping the manor for a while. And even better, he got more time to spend with Remus! Just as long as they had separate beds.

"We can't go to my house till about 4:00, though. My mom always goes on a cleaning frenzy before someone comes over, and though I love her dearly, cleaning always turns her into some kind of bitch from hell. It's quite frightening, actually," said Remus, shuddering slightly.

"At least your mom cleans, mine hires help to do it for her. I doubt she's dusted anything in her entire, pampered life. In my opinion, she's a bitch from hell," said Sirius disdainfully. "Anyway, I'm going to take a quick shower and then we'll go get some breakfast."

Once Sirius had showered and dressed, they made their way down to the kitchen, where Agnes was frying some eggs and Regulus was once again eating like he'd never been taught how.

When Agnes bustled off to the pantry Regulus asked scathingly, "So, last night, which of you was on bottom?"

"Shut up, Regulus. We didn't get much sleep last night so we're definitely not in the mood for your crap," said Sirius, sitting down heavily and shoveling some eggs onto his plate.

Remus, also taking a seat, said, "You know Sirius, the way you worded that didn't really help our case."

"That's because he's telling the truth. I know that you were fucking," said Regulus tauntingly.

"We were studying you miserable little prick," said Sirius.

Regulus looked as though he were just about to make a retort when Agnes came back into the kitchen, looking daggers at Sirius.

"I told you not to use that disgusting language in front of me, didn't I?!" She was red in the face and beads of sweat glistened on her forehead. She looked rather dangerous. Trust her to only hear what he said and just turn a deaf ear toward Regulus; that seemed to happen quite a lot.

"Was that the door?" asked Remus, looking politely curious.

"Oh, your parents must be home, boys!" said Agnes, face lighting up as she hurried to greet them at the door.

"Why the hell are they home so early?! They're not supposed to be here till this afternoon! Let's get out of here, quick!" yelled Sirius, panic in his voice.

"Sirius, calm down! I only said that to stop Agnes from murdering you. But you're right, we should get out of here before she comes back," said Remus. With that, they rushed out of the dining room and into the ballroom, escaping into the garden.

"We'll come back later to get our stuff," said Sirius, Remus nodding his consent. They made their way to Sirius' car and drove off.

"Is Regulus always that horrible, or is it only 'cause I was there?" asked Remus.

"He's pretty much always that way. I don't want to sound full of myself, but I know he's always been jealous of me. I'm better looking and girls like me more. I've always had more girlfriends and prettier girlfriends than Regulus has, and I know that really gets to him," said Sirius, not mentioning the fact that he'd have gladly given Regulus any of girlfriends.

"Speaking of which, you wouldn't believe all the girls that are crushing on you. Just yesterday, I heard at least six girls talking about you in class," said Remus, and then asked almost hesitantly, "Have you given any thought to asking any of them out yet?"

"I'm still adjusting to the move right now and then there's the whole deal with the haunting, so I don't feel up to dating any girls at the moment," said Sirius, only partially lying.

Then, Remus' cell phone rang. After glancing at the caller ID, he answered.

"Hey, James," said Remus. Pause. "Perfect timing; we'll meet you there. Bye."

"What'd he want?" asked Sirius.

"He wants us to meet him at the theater to see some horror movie," replied Remus.

"A horror movie? Oh yeah, really perfect timing, my ass. Do you honestly want to sit through a horror flick after what happened last night?"

"Seriously, Sirius. What the hell else do have to do?"

"Good point. But I'll warn you, I'm not very good with scary movies to begin with. Strange time of day to see one, too. James must like to wet himself better in the morning than at night."

"James is very spontaneous. For as long as I've known him, he's gotten me to do some really weird things at really weird times with him. Once, we even tee-peed Snivellus' house at 3:00 in the afternoon. I never could figure out how he'd never caught us. Anyway, I'm not great with those movies either, but they're James' favorites so I've been dragged to a lot of them. It didn't sound like this one would be too bad."

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"James, I hate you."

James only grinned at Sirius' comment. "You mean you really didn't like the part where the ghost possessed that chick and had her murder all those people? That's so classic, how could you not like that?"

"Let's just say I'm not very fond of ghost stories at the moment," muttered Sirius, catching Remus' eye.

Sirius could honestly say, though he'd felt completely traumatized and forcibly reminded of his own ghostly tormentor watching that film, it had almost been worth it just to have Remus clutch at him in terror. It would have been a nice distraction if they were a couple and they'd just been able to make out through the whole stupid movie. Sirius knew that he'd lose his self-control sometime soon, especially when circumstances such as these presented themselves.

"Wow, I didn't realize it was already so late," said Remus, checking his watch. "Let's just head over to my place, Sirius."

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After stopping at the manor to get their things (luckily, they were able to avoid Agnes) they pulled up the drive to Remus' house.

Sirius had only seen the outside of the house a few times, and he thought it quite charming. It was very reminiscent of a cottage but it was bigger with two stories. The front yard was lovely and obviously meticulously well cared for; there were all sorts of flowers clumped together in beds of earth and vines had been trained to snake their way up the front of the house.

"My mom loves to garden. She's actually won prizes for some of her flowers," Remus informed Sirius as they walked up the narrow cobblestone pathway to the front door. Before they could open it, however, a small girl with long brown hair rushed up behind Remus and hugged him around his legs.

"Guess what, Remus?" she asked enthusiastically. "Mommy made an apple pie for dessert tonight!"

"Cool, my favorite," said Remus as the girl let go of him. "Anna, this is my friend Sirius I told you about. Wanna say hi?"

As though she had just become aware of Sirius' presence, Anna became immediately shy and hid behind her older brother. She muttered a greeting.

Just then, the door opened to reveal a pretty, middle-aged woman of whom Remus was a spitting image; the same light golden brown hair, amber eyes, and ovular face structure. Her face split into a wide grin upon spotting Sirius.

"I thought I heard voices out here! You must be Sirius; I'm Remus' mom. You can call me Karen if you like. Well, don't just stand out here come in!" she said ushering the three of them inside. "I've heard so much about you from Remus, I'm so glad I finally get to meet you!"

As Sirius stepped inside the house, he was immediately hit by the smell of a baking pie. The inside of the house was nicely decorated and clean, but unpretentious. It felt very homey, a quality that made Sirius feel contented and at ease. As he looked around he heard Mrs. Lupin whispering to Remus behind him.

"He's so cute! Why haven't you asked him out yet?"

"I already told you, mom, he's straight."

Sirius, with his back turned to them, smiled a bit, not letting the two of them know that he had heard them. Remus was making it harder and harder to prevent Sirius from confessing his love for him and Sirius just hoped that he could make it through his time here without doing just that.

Remus showed Sirius to his room; it was half the size of Sirius' room, but most teenagers' rooms were a lot smaller than his anyway. It was neat and clean with a desk, a couch, a large bookcase, and a full size bed. It wouldn't appear to be very extraordinary to anyone else, but there was something just so Remus about it that Sirius couldn't help but love it.

"You can bunk on the couch if you don't mind," said Remus gesturing towards it. Well, that was certainly a load off of Sirius' mind.

They sat in the room for a while and talked. Sirius found himself wishing that he could just stay here with Remus forever and not have to go back to his horrible family. Too bad life never worked out quite the way he wanted it to. Remus was just voicing some of his ideas of what the ghost was trying to tell Sirius when they heard the door.

"Oh, my dad must be home. I was wondering when he was going to get here; he normally gets off earlier. He probably arrested somebody," said Remus. Sirius was confused.

"Wait, I thought he owned the bookstore with your mom," said Sirius, perplexed.

"It's in both their names, and my dad still does some things at the store, but his full time job is a policeman," said Remus, walking out of his room with Sirius trailing behind.

When they reached the living room, they saw Remus' dad coming in from the entrance hall. Sirius didn't expect him to be so…big. He was probably around six foot, and though he wasn't fat, he was very muscular with a large, broad frame. His hair was graying and he had a large mustache. Remus had clearly gotten all of his physical traits from his mother. Sirius might have been timid to approach the man if it weren't for his smiling, jovial air.

"Hey there, Rem," said Mr. Lupin. His eyes darted to Sirius. "You didn't tell me you were having a friend over. He doesn't look familiar so then he must be the famous Sirius Black!" he said in his deep, gruff voice, extending his hand to shake Sirius'.

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Lupin," said Sirius.

"Call me John, Mr. Lupin makes me feel old," he said. "Ooh, is that apple pie?" John made his way to the kitchen.

"You don't look a thing like your dad," said Sirius.

"Yeah, everyone tells me that. They say that I inherited everything from my mom, right down to my attraction to men," said Remus, laughingly. "My dad looks a bit intimidating to most people, but he's one of the nicest guys I know. When I told my parents I was gay, he accepted me right away, no questions asked and I don't think a lot of fathers would do that. If anything my mom had a harder time accepting it. I think she was a bit disappointed because she wanted me to get married and have kids, but she's perfectly fine now that I've gotten it across to her that I can still do all that. We told Anna, but she doesn't really understand very well. She asked me just yesterday why I don't have a girlfriend."

"You're lucky to have such a nice family. I wish mine cared about me like your family does about you," said Sirius in a slightly sad tone. Remus looked as though he was just about to say something consoling, but Karen's voice calling them for dinner interrupted him.

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Dinner was a boisterous affair. Remus' parents told Sirius lots of embarrassing stories about Remus' childhood, all of which made Remus slightly red in the face. Sirius was mostly enthralled with John's accounts of dangerous things he'd done while on duty, one of them dealt with an armed robbery. When they had all finished their pie, Karen shooed Sirius and Remus outside, hinting that Remus should show Sirius her prized rose bushes.

After a short walk around the back yard, Sirius and Remus collapsed onto a wooden swinging love seat.

"I like your parents a lot. Can I trade you?" joked Sirius.

"Do you really want them to tell embarrassing stories about you to your friends? I can't believe my mom told you about how I used to dress up in her clothes. You know, I'm surprised that she didn't guess I was a homo right then and there, if that's not a big clue, I don't know what is," laughed Remus.

They sat in silence for a while, gazing at the sunset. The pink, orange, and purple hues swathed Remus in a warm light that made his hair shimmer like golden thread. Remus looked so unbearably beautiful that the sight made Sirius' throat constrict. His will power was collapsing; the protective barrier that surrounded his emotions and desires was crumbling away into dust. His fear of what society and his family would think of him was finally overcome by his intense, raw feelings for Remus. He couldn't take not being with the person he loved most, no matter what the repercussions of that would be. He couldn't hide anymore, he had to tell him.

"Remus, there's something I need to tell you," said Sirius, voice quavering.

"Go ahead," said Remus concernedly.

"This is going to be difficult, I've only ever told one person before. I've kept this from you because I didn't want to take the risk, but I don't have the strength to keep it bottled up any longer. Shit, I don't think I can do this," said Sirius, eyes watering, voice threatening to break.

"You can tell me anything Sirius. I won't laugh at you, judge you, or tell anyone. You can trust me," said Remus firmly.

Sirius took a deep breath. He was going to say it before he lost his nerve completely. "I'm gay, Remus. I'm gay and I've hopelessly fallen for you. I care about you so much it hurts, but I promised myself that I'd never tell you because if my parents found out, they'd disown me. But now I've reached the point where I'd risk everything just to be with you. Please tell me that I didn't make a horrible mistake in telling you this," said Sirius desperately. There it was, everything was on the table. Except for the love thing, he didn't want to scare Remus away. Now he just had to wait for Remus' reply.

"You're not joking with me are you?" asked Remus somewhat disbelievingly.

"Remus, that's the last thing I could ever joke about," said Sirius sincerely.

"In that case, I feel exactly the same way," said Remus quietly. Sirius felt himself break into a huge smile.

"Really?" asked Sirius.

"Really"

Sirius let reality sink in for a moment. "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, you could kiss me," said Remus, voice thick with emotion.

They leaned in slowly toward one another until their lips met in a hesitant, tender kiss. Sirius felt as though he had died and gone to heaven. Fireworks erupted behind his eyes and his insides were dancing a violent tango. Kissing Remus was like nothing he had ever experienced; it was sheer bliss.

After their lips had become accustomed to each other, the kiss became hungrier and more needy. Sirius felt a fiery passion that had been fueled by pent-up desire for much too long. Remus' tongue met Sirius' and they grasped each other as though afraid the other might slip away.

"Hey, John! They're kissing, you owe me ten bucks!"

Sirius and Remus broke apart abruptly, looking toward the kitchen window. Karen smiled and waved at them.

"She really knows how to ruin a moment, huh?" said Remus, laughing. Sirius laughed right along with him. "Let's go to my room 'cause we obviously have no privacy here."

As they walked inside, John was handing Karen a ten dollar bill.

"We're just gonna go to bed mom, g'night," said Remus trying to slink past them.

"Wait just a second you two!" she called sharply. "I know what boys' hormones are like. Now, I know that if you want to have sex, there's not much I can do to stop you, but at least be safe and use a condom."

"Mom! That was the first time we ever kissed, we're not moving to sex that fast!" cried Remus indignantly.

"John, don't you have anything to say to them?" asked Karen, nudging her husband in the ribs.

"Sirius, if you get my boy pregnant, I want it understood that you'll be paying child support," said John.

"Sure thing," said Sirius, laughing as he followed Remus back to his room. He could hear Karen scolding John out in the kitchen.

Sirius lied down with Remus on his bed and let himself be enveloped in Remus' arms. It felt good to lie there like that, no one had ever really held him before. Exhaustion catching up with them both, they fell into a peaceful sleep together.

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Author's Note: I hope everyone liked this chapter. Again, sorry it took so long to write.