Two old friends
One evening it's just the two tired, old friends in the kitchen, and Sirius looks up from his dinner. He's in an unusually good mood.
"So. I suppose we'd better have the talk".
Remus looks up, surprised. They had just lapsed into a comfortable silence, but he senses that the conversation has suddenly shifted into uncharted territory.
He doesn't want to encourage this, he knows. Whatever Sirius is about to say, it'll come to no good.
"What are your intentions towards my dear cousin?"
Remus almost splutters into his goblet, then laughs. "What are you talking about?!"
Sirius does not smile back, instead puts on a rather severe expression. "You know perfectly well what I mean, Moony. You've been flirting for months. It's positively sickening".
It's Sirius' turn to laugh at the colour that suddenly blooms on Remus' cheeks. It's always been so difficult to get a reaction out of him, even when they were eleven. This is clearly a chink in the armour. Sirius makes a mental note to exploit it as much as possible.
"I have not been flirting!" says Remus, looking flustered and sounding unconvinced.
"You have, you have, you have." says Sirius, in a deliberately annoying sing-song voice. The pair of them have a tendency to regress when they're left alone.
Remus feels acutely embarrassed. He knew he was making a damn fool of himself, but the thought that other people have noticed is intolerable. He wants to sink his head in his hands. What must people, even Sirius, think? A 36-year-old werewolf, flirting with a 23-year-old Auror. It's so palpably ridiculous he almost laughs out loud.
Sirius has stopped laughing and is considering his friend seriously. He says softly, with more gentleness than Remus would ever have supposed him capable of, "Don't despair, old boy. You've only been flirting with her as hard as she has with you."
Something blooms in Remus' chest then, an indescribable lightness. If he knew any better he would call it love. But he doesn't know any better, not yet. He's still in total denial.
So he does his best to convince his old friend with the same arguments he's been using on himself, late at night, for months now. "No, no, you've got it all wrong, you old mongrel. We're just friends. We get on, that's all. She's great." He can't help it, when he talks about her, his face splits open into a big grin.
He looks an utter fool, thinks Sirius fondly, shaking his head.
"What?" insists Remus, knowing he really ought to leave it alone.
"Nothing." responds Sirius, maddeningly. "Whatever you say, old friend. You're definitely not flirting, then. It's just common courtesy that makes you wait up for her, late into the night, when she's been kept at work. Come to think of it, why does she sleep here so often? Doesn't she have her own place to stay? And would you say it's just a coincidence that you get paired together for missions all the time? What about all those cosy chats in the library, and the disappearing together for hours on end, that's all just my imagination, is it?"
"Yes. Yes it is." says Remus stubbornly. He gets up and starts clearing away, even though neither have finished eating.
Sirius laughs again and grabs his plate back.
"Ok then. Message received, Captain Denial. I won't mention it again." Which, they both know, means he will be repeating it often and at length. Probably in front of her.
