I
"I can't believe he's still talking to that slimy snake. I thought a week would be more than enough for him to understand it's useless." Sirius huffed.
"I know ri-" James started.
"Maybe it isn't useless." Lily argued taking Remus' side, "Being nice is never useless."
James shut up and so did Sirius after catching his warning look.
Sirius wasn't even sure what she was doing sitting with them, eating her breakfast as if their company had been the most usual thing in the world. She had been hanging around them for over a week. Sirius didn't like it very much, but kept it in, because it was obvious that James was beyond happy.
"Hi Lily," Remus finally left Severus at the Slytherin table and came over to sit with them.
"Hi Remus!" Evans greeted cheerfully.
Remus sat down next to Sirius and his leg brushed against his, making his skin tingle.
Sirius could've sworn he saw Lily and James exchange a look when he shifted closer to the werewolf, but ignored it completely, deciding that he probably doesn't want to know.
Remus looked around as if looking for something and then turned to James.
"Where's Wormtail?" He asked.
"I left him at the dorms, he was finishing up an essay on Transfiguration. It's really too much for the poor bloke to handle, all this homework. He even skipped breakfast and I mean that is just…" Sirius answered instead, satisfied when the lycanthrope refocused his attention on him.
"Great," Remus grinned, "Then we have time to talk about his birthday."
Three pairs of eyes were staring at him with surprise.
"You didn't forget, did you?" The smile fell from his lips.
"Forget?" James laughed, but it sounded so fake that even he himself heard it and stopped immediately.
"Sirius?" Remus asked with hope.
"Of course, I didn't forget it's…it's…" Sirius desperately tried to remember when exactly it was, but to no avail, earning himself a disappointed frown.
"It's this Friday. We need to do something." Remus rolled his golden eyes.
"Just throw him a surprise party." Lily said simply.
"Yeah, but we need to prepare, and since we don't have that much time, it's going to be a bit complicated." Remus answered thoughtfully.
It was Monday, so in Sirius' opinion they still had heaps of time. Of course he didn't say it out loud, knowing that the ever punctual head boy would disagree.
"We just need to sneak out like tomorrow or on Tuesday and buy us some booze, everything else will be fine by itself." James concluded, making Lily and Remus glare at him.
"Well that's not the only thing we will need, at least if you're sneaking out, buy some food too." Remus shook his head disapprovingly.
"Yes! He didn't say no to the alcohol!" James smiled victoriously.
"I don't really think he knows how to." Sirius chuckled, remembering how he found his friend wasted.
Remus' head shot to him and suddenly he had a very sharp elbow in between his ribs.
"Huh?" James and Lily perked up.
"Nothing." The werewolf answered quickly.
II
"How did we end up picking up the drinks?" Remus asked Sirius Thursday evening, going down a secret passage, cursing himself for not taking a winter coat.
"You know Robert Jerkins was asking to get his face adjusted, I'm just sorry it wasn't me who did it." Sirius answered regret clear in his voice.
"I just hope, one little remark about James' hair was worth a week of detention." The werewolf said bitterly, not feeling sorry for James one bit.
"Moony, you're not the one to talk, you did break Snivellus' nose." Sirius reminded helpfully.
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't have if it would have been a simple comment on my hair." Remus noted.
"So what you're saying that it would've been okay to hit him if-"
"That's not what I'm saying at all- Ah!" Remus shrieked (yes, shrieked, not at all like a girl though, thank you very much) and fell over. He managed to trip on his own robes somehow.
Sirius hurried to pick him up, somehow managing to stumble and fall onto him in the process.
As Remus opened his eyes, he found himself millimeters away from Sirius' face.
He didn't know why. He really didn't. If you asked him he would probably say it was the unreadable emotion in those grey eyes.
Remus felt his heart skip a beat.
He would never admit it. Never. Even if someone were torturing him with silver or fire or God knows what. But it was that kind of skip.
The kind of skip that makes you catch your breath and stops your brain from functioning properly.
The kind of skip that makes your heart start beating uncontrollably after it.
The kind of skip that you fearfully hope goes unnoticed. Or maybe noticed if the other heart did a similar skip too.
"You okay?" Sirius asked and the werewolf could feel his warm breath. The question sounded weird. A tad bit too quiet and intimate.
Sirius was staring at him, almost not blinking and making no movement to get off.
Remus managed something resembling an ' Hhh'm fine' .
He took in pink parted lips and an unfocused stormy grey stare.
Did Sirius always have that dimple in his cheek?
It was cute.
Wait.
Hold on.
Baaaaacking up now.
Why.
Why was it cute?
It was like somebody pulled a break in the lycanthrope's head. You could almost hear that screeching sound. Honestly.
Suddenly Remus was squirming trying to get out, in process making Sirius snap out of it too and jump away.
"S-s-sorry."
Remus heard an apology, but was way too busy hiding his flaming cheeks and uneven breathing to answer.
After a while, calming down and collecting himself enough to put his thoughts into a small little box in the back of his mind. It should not be opened while Sirius is still mere steps away. Sirius and his dimple.
III
Do not jump on him. Control. Control is everything. Breathe in. Breathe out.
Remus under him. Remus staring at him. Remus' body close. Warm. Under him. Close. Remus.
Do not jump on him. Control. Control is everything. Breathe in. Breathe out.
So this passage had gotten twice smaller than Sirius remembered it being. He found it hard to breathe, hard to walk, hard to think. Hard to function.
Had he given himself away just now?
If he did then he regretted that he didn't even manage to steal a kiss in the process.
And how did he even know if he had?
Remus was certainly too… too awkward to say anything straightly.
Straightly. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Not funny.
Did he need to ask? That wouldn't be probable seeing as talking was hardly an option because his voice left to go on vacation.
'Hey so did you notice that right there? Oh yeah, that was just same 'ol me, and my crush on you. Yup, as in I'm in love. What? No, that wasn't my wand in my pocket, don't be silly.'
Yes. He could imagine that going down. Fun, yes?
.
.
.
No.
IV
"You're finally back!" Said James to the pair of his awkward looking and unusually quiet friends.
Sirius glanced at Remus, coughed and after putting the magically from inside widened bag with all the goods in James' hands took off to the dorms, almost sprinting.
"What happened?" James asked suspicious.
"What happened. Nothing happened. What do you think happened? Why would anything happen? Because nothing did."Remus answered quickly in a monotone and after blushing brightly turned around and backed away into the corner of the room hid himself behind the largest book possible.
"Okay." James hummed amazed.
V
"Why is Remus asleep in a chair?" Asked Lily, having just come back after catching a pair of third years trying to sneak out and taking them to McGonagall.
"I have no idea what happened, but Sirius is in the dorms not letting me sleep, murmuring about something – I quote- 'clicking, really clicking this time, like honestly truly completely unforgettably undeniably without a doubt clicking' and Remus didn't even try to come up, just murmuring something about 'nothing happening' and refusing to say another word." James tried to conclude shortly.
Lily looked at him puzzled.
"They'll probably both go crazy before they even get together."
"It might be. Maybe our plan has flaws." James rubbed the pitch of his nose.
"We shall proceed anyway. If they go crazy, at least they'll be crazy together. Lily Evans does not fail." She said in a hushed tone.
"You can be one scary girl sometimes, Evans."
"You don't know half of it."
"But I certainly want to."
James Potter got himself a bruise on his left arm. The wink was totally worth it. He regretted nothing .
VI
Remus' little box refused to stay closed. His subconscious had a very… bland sense of humor, opening it as soon as the guy closed his eyes.
Dreams. Dreams of Sirius. Bad kind of dreams. Bad in the best of senses.
And that God damned dimple.
Somewhere in between those bad dreams something was born.
Something that maybe had been waiting to be born or simply to be discovered for a long time.
Maybe, just maybe that something was still there when the most confusing morning of Remus' life rolled around.