Disclaimer: If you know it, I still do not own it. Still own shoes and nail polish, though.

A/N: edited and reloaded 27 June 2013

You Know How I Feel

"We should tell Prongs and Wormtail."

Remus stared at Sirius in alarm. Sirius cocked his head to the side, nonplussed.

"Why don't you want to tell them? You know what happens when we don't tell secrets, Moony," Sirius reminded the werewolf. "I know they think something is up."

"That's because you've stopped making out with random girls?!" Remus screeched.

Sirius jerked backwards and almost fell out of the bed.

"You want me to snog girls?" Sirius asked, honestly confused by Remus' behavior.

Remus was on his feet and pacing their dormitory before Sirius could recover his wits and keep Remus on the bed with him. If he had known his suggestion of telling their friends about their change in relationship status would result in Remus leaving the bed, he would have kept his mouth shut. They were blissfully alone in the dormitory for once. James was off with Lily somewhere to do Head Boy and Girl things.

Or to snogging the daylights out of one another.

Everyone knew Lily caved and had said the single word James Potter had been waiting for her to say when he asked her on a date third year.

Sirius had no clue where Peter had buggered off to. Peter had been missing in action quite often this year. Sirius was not sure if it was due to the fact he was in almost none of their classes or the fact that all three of the Marauders were in serious relationships.

Serious Relationship. Sirius was in a Serious Relationship.

No, no, must not laugh.

Sirius allowed a grin to paint his features instead.

He liked the fact he was in a Serious Relationship.

After the night he had…attacked Remus with a kiss, things had been good. After some serious kissing, the pair had talked things over. Sirius was glad they were on the same wave length for once. Granted, it took Sirius thirty minutes to get Remus to admit to the fact Remus had liked Sirius in a more than friendly manner since fourth year, but by the time the sun rose, they were in a Serious Relationship. Sirius had clarified this matter before going to his own room and wound up with a stuttering non-English speaking Remus.

Then Remus had gone home.

Sirius' boyfriend had gone home. He felt an odd glow when he thought the word "boyfriend."

The weeks following before they returned to school, the boys continued to write letters to one another— something the pair had always done. Now, though, the content had changed a bit. Remus was still rather shy about the whole situation, somehow managing to convey his lack of English speaking skills through writing.

Sirius thought it was cute.

Then he wondered if he ought to have his head checked as he thought something was cute.

Once back at school, there were random, stolen snogging sessions between classes…between meals…when ever they could manage. At night once Remus was sure the other two were asleep, he'd fling his covers back and Sirius would dart over to the bed. More snogging usually happened until they fell asleep.

Sometimes more than snogging, but Sirius didn't kiss and tell.

However, neither had mentioned their change in status to either of their friends. Remus was shy about the whole thing in front of other people. Sirius wasn't, but respected Remus' silence.

The whole thing was very grin worthy.

"Stop grinning like that!" Remus ordered. "This is serious."

"No, I am Sirius."

"NO!"

"I'm not?" Sirius asked, sitting up. "Oh, no. I guess I ought to inform my mother I'm no longer Sirius. I wonder who I am? I wonder if she'll take Sirius back, since I'm not him."

"SIRIUS!" Remus shouted, pulling at his hair.

Seeing Remus in this state of high anxiety, Sirius went into damage control mode. He swiftly stood and gathered Remus into his arms. Remus tried to push him a way a few times before giving up. He collapsed into Sirius.

Since the night at the Potter's, Remus went through stages. There was Loving Stage, where Remus could not seem to get enough of Sirius. Remus played with his hair, cuddled into him, kissed him constantly, hugged him, and was pretty much perfect.

There were other stages, tragically.

Panic Stage happened more often than Sirius cared for. This stage usually included a rather jumpy Remus who would jump when Sirius bushed against him and flinched when Sirius said anything. Panic was always clearly written on his face, yet it was unclear to anyone save Sirius what caused it. James asked Remus quite a few times what was wrong when Remus was in Panic Stage. Remus never admitted what was out of order, but he would talk louder than normal and if all else failed, he fled the scene.

This only lead to James having more questions. Panic Stage was a lot like when Remus was keeping the fact he was a werewolf from them, thus why James thought there was another HUGE secret Remus was hiding.

Sirius wanted to tell James what Remus' issue was, but had a feeling Remus might stab him with a knife if he did.

He'd already been stabbed with a knife once in his life.

The final stage was Denial.

This stage occurred most often in private. Denial only appeared in the depths of Remus' golden eyes and it usually occurred when Remus caught Sirius staring at him with a dopy look on his face. (Sirius was man enough to admit that Remus caused him to go dopy and mushy.)

Besides the Panic and Denial, things were marvelous. They'd be splendiferous if Remus would do away with Panic and Denial. (Sirius was spending a lot of time with Remus. The use of large words was contagious.) Sirius theorized Panic and Denial would exit stage right if those closest to Remus knew about their new found contentment.

"Remus, dearest, we need to tell our friends," Sirius said softly, hoping to quell Panic and avoid Denial showing up in the dormitory. So far only Panic was appearing in those beautiful amber eyes.

Remus let his head fall to Sirius' shoulder and he let go on the tension in his body.

Denial adverted. Panic quelled.

"Why? Why can't we keep it to ourselves?" Remus mumbled.

"Don't you want to show me off?"

Sirius wasn't afraid of the answer. He knew that somewhere in Remus' thick skull there was a bit of him that wanted to drag Sirius around and show the world he'd landed such a stud. There was, though, another part of Remus that was raised sheltered from the wizarding world and thus didn't understand it was perfectly normal for wizards to be into other wizards. While Sirius had been alarmed when he had figured out he was into Remus, it wasn't because he viewed it as something wrong. Sirius had honestly never looked at guys before. Well, other than Remus.

Hell, he didn't really look at girls. He only went out with girls because he thought that was what he ought to be doing.

Sirius was an idiot.

"Hey, remember when you told me I was an idiot after I kissed you the first time?"

"Yes."

"I'm an idiot! Let's tell James and Peter! Let's tell Lanta and Regulus! Hell, let's tell Snape I'm an imbecile!"

Remus pushed Sirius away from him and felt his forehead. Frowning, Remus said, "Well, you don't have a fever. Why do you want to go tell them you're an idiot?"

"It'll be fun!"

Sirius let his arms drop from around Remus and ran to James' trunk. Flinging the lid open, he dug around through various gross items (why did James have moldy pants in his trunk already?) until he found the Marauder's Map. He pulled it out and tapped it with his wand. The map unfurled for him and told him that James and Peter were together. With Lily, Atlanta and Regulus…oddly enough.

Eh, might as well come out to everyone on the planet.

"Come along, Moony!"

Sirius bounced (honestly, he bounced) out of the dormitory and headed down to the Entrance Hall, Remus on his heels. He went out the front doors and headed down to the lake. The group of people he was looking for were all seated under a tree near the edge of the lake, enjoying the abnormally warm late September afternoon. Sirius bounded down and came to a halt near the edge of the blanket one of the girls no doubt had brought to sit on.

Sirius grinned wildly at the group. James and Peter looked at him with concerned expressions, while Lily looked mildly annoyed. Atlanta and Regulus, though, both seemed to know what Sirius was about to announce. They exchanged a look of knowing between them.

"Hi!" Sirius greeted. "Fancy finding you lot here. Together."

Sirius tripped forward as Remus ran into him. Remus grabbed him around the waist to prevent a face plant into the blanket. He quickly removed his hands from Sirius' waist the moment Sirius was stable.

"Hello, Sirius," James said. "What's going on?"

"I wanted to tell you all that I'm an idiot."

"Finally. He admits it!" Regulus said, tossing his arms in the air. "After seventeen years, he finally figures it out!"

"Reggie, I doubt he means it in the sense you think he means it," Atlanta offered, flicking Regulus' hair out of his eyes.

She looked rather odd now that she was sporting a Hogwarts uniform. She was wearing the shapeless black robe and white dress shirt they all wore, only she was wearing a blue and silver tie instead of red and gold. (Or green and silver like Regulus.) Sirius kind of missed her funky uniform from her America.

"Then how does he mean it?" Peter asked, looking confused.

"I think he means it in the sense he's an idiot it has taken him seven years to figure out he is in love with Remus," Lily explained.

Remus, behind Sirius still, choked and blanched. Sirius turned and thumped Remus on the back.

"All right, Moony?"

Remus sputtered and stopped speaking English.

"Murph."

"He does this," Sirius explained, good natured smile on his face. "But Evans is right."

Peter rolled his eyes, turned to Atlanta and asked, "Why does this happen when I move my wand this way?"

He jerked his wand upwards, then to the left and something blew up behind them. Atlanta raised her eyebrows. There were several shirks and screams as people scampered out from under a tree that had all it's leaves blown up into the air. The leaves began raining down, creating a shower of reds, oranges and yellows.

"I don't know. What were you trying to do?"

"WAIT A MINUTE!" James shouted.

"Yes, James?" Sirius asked.

"What is going on? Sirius just informed us he's an idiot and none of you are surprised? And what does Sirius being an idiot have to do with him being in love with Remus?"

"James, darling, you really are dense, aren't you?" Lily fondly asked.

"Fuknksuiskiphfem," Remus said.

"Did he make up his own language to speak when he's flustered?" Atlanta asked.

"I think so," Sirius offered, tossing an arm over Remus' shoulder. He pulled him to his side. Remus came, but remained stiff as a board.

"What am I missing?" James demanded.

"We're dating," Sirius said as Remus sputtered and blanched again. "He didn't want to tell you yet, for some unknown reason. Love, it helps it you breathe."

Remus sputtered, choked and crumpled into a heap at Sirius' feet.

Atlanta crawled over to him and peered at him. "I think he's okay. I think he has issues believing it's true."

"Hufmikmufhm," Remus said. It sounded as if he was agreeing with her.

Atlanta pulled Remus into a seated position. Sirius dropped down next to Remus and plunked his head into Remus' lap. Peter jerked his wand again and all the leaves fell off the tree. The group sat in the pile of leaves for a moment not moving. Sirius opened his mouth and got a mouthful of leaves.

"How the hell did you do that?" Regulus asked.

There were sounds of people trying to escape the leaves.

"I don't know. I'm supposedly good at Charms," Peter muttered, lost in the pile of leaves.

"So, wait. Sirius is dating Remus?"

"Yes, James." Lily said.

"For how long?"

"I don't know, they didn't share that bit."

"They've been into one another for a very long time. Only they failed to know it," Atlanta said. "They finally got their act together and decided to like one another while allowing the other person to know. Brilliant when that happens. Though, Remus is having issues processing this for reasons unknown. I think you are now caught up, James."

"Fickliekd," Remus offered.

"Yes, dear, that makes a whole lot of sense," Atlanta mused.

Sirius was buried, so he remained silent, as he didn't need another mouthful of leaves. He also didn't want to move from Remus' lap even if he was buried in leaves.

"Are we going to stay buried in leaves?" Regulus asked.

"Don't you like being buried in leaves up to your neck?" Atlanta asked in a tone Sirius didn't understand till Regulus remained silent for a long beat. Atlanta let out a laugh.

Clearing the leaves away from his face, Sirius announced, "I can't see. I'm buried alive!"

Sirius pulled his head out of Remus' lap, regretfully. He fought his way to the surface and stared at the group as they laughed. The others had their heads above the leaves, but had leaves and twigs stuck in their hair. Regulus was slowly running his hands through Atlanta's hair, pulling leaves out. James was running his hands over his hair to remove the leaves. Lily was plucking leaves out that James missed. Slowly, everyone worked to get out of the leaves Peter had burred them in. Somehow, the leaves were contained to the blanket. After they were all on their feet and leaf free, James grabbed both Sirius and Remus by the shoulders and asked, "Just to be clear, you two have finally started dating right?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean finally?" Remus asked, his voice cracking a bit.

"Ark! He speaks English!" Atlanta laughed.

"Well, anyone could tell Sirius was into you," Peter offered. "Though, James cannot claim this."

"I can claim if I see fit," James remarked in a lofty tone.

Lily rolled her eyes, grabbing James by the hand. With her free hand she plucked out a leaf of out his crazy hair. The Battle of the Leaves had left his looking more out of control than usual.

"You're hopeless," Lily commented fondly.

"So, everyone understands Remus is mine?" Sirius asked.

Remus turned bright red.

"Yes," everyone chorused.

It wasn't until two hours later, Sirius realized Regulus Black had been hanging out with a bunch of Gryffindors and one of them had been James Potter. And no one wound up hexed, cursed or beaten up.