Walking back into school the next morning, Remus was feeling a weird mixture of elation and terror. He felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest, but had been simultaneously been replaced with a time bomb and he couldn't see the timer. Somebody knew. Holy fucking shit, somebody knew. He hesitated standing in front of the doors to the school. If he turned around now, he could probably make it home before his mom left to work. And if she was sidetracked with getting ready, it would be easier to convince her he needed to change schools again, right?
James Potter's arm linked through his before he could make a decision.
"What's up mate?" He smiled as he dragged Remus into the building, Sirius accompanying them on Remus's other side. "So, me and Sir were thinking…"
"We were?" Sirius interrupted. Clearly this wasn't a discussion they had had prior.
"You don't remember?" James asked, throwing Sirius a devilish wink. "We were thinking about hanging out at my house tonight. You know a guy's night – No - a stag night if you will."
"Stag night, as in strippers?" Remus asked confused. He had never heard the words "stag night" strung together outside of a small budget movie.
"Hey, if that's what it takes to get you there, man." Remus blushed. Not exactly what he meant. Sirius laughed when he noticed.
"We were thinking maybe like video games, and action movies," Sirius said, nudging Remus playfully on the shoulder. "We're inviting Peter and Frank too."
"Yeah!" James fist bumped the air. "No girls allowed!"
"Title of your sex tape?" Lily joked, overhearing the last part of the conversation as the three boys walked up to the rest of the group. Alice choked on her coffee.
"Doesn't matter what I call it, you'd still watch it, wouldn't you Evans." Lily rolled her eyes.
"Truth be told, she'd probably audition." Marlene quickly received a swat on the back of the head for her choice of comment. Both James and Lily were blushing so hard, you'd think that they would be bleeding out of their pores.
Still chuckling, Sirius detailed the plan for the night to Frank and Peter. Frank had previous arrangements (i.e. it was date night and he was whipped) but Peter said he would definitely be there. Soon the first bell rang, and the gang dispersed for their daily dose of public education.
Sirius pulled James over in the hallway. "Guys night? That plan came out of the blue."
"Relax. It's just guys hanging out being dudes being pals."
"This isn't you flirting with Remus for me, is it?"
"Dude. Come on. It's just a chance for you – for all of us - to get to know him better. It's not like we're gonna play spin the bottle or anything." James flashed his cheeky smile before he slipped into McGonagall's class, and flushed Sirius trailing behind him.
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. James spent most of his classes wondering how he was going to ask Lily out, one day, eventually. Sirius used his time to decide what he was going to wear tonight, how he was going to act, if he should take a shower. Remus focused his energy on deciding if it was cool of him to bring Mario Kart. Was Mario Kart even still relevant? Were they going to make fun of him because he had barely any characters unlocked? Peter actually paid attention, the nerd. But soon classes were over, and everyone was headed to their cars promising to see each other soon.
Once he was by himself, driving home, to pick up Mario Kart and maybe brush his hair, Remus noticed that something had gone unnoticed. Marlene hadn't said anything. Or acted any different. At all. She had still talked to him at lunch, passed notes with him in english, waved at him in the hallway. It was almost as if this hadn't changed anything. She knew his biggest secret – his two biggest secrets – in the entire world, and still liked him enough to steal his fries and bring up inside jokes from work. He silently thanked her. That girl was a treasure.
He kissed his mom on the cheek when he got home, and ran up to his room to get his stuff. "James and Sirius invited me over. I'll be home later." That was a mistake. His mom followed him up to his room asking him questions about "these boys" and when he was going to invite them over, so she could meet them.
A few neighborhoods over, James was getting an equally large earful, but from a frantic teenaged boy.
"Does my hair look ok?"
"Yes, if you brush it any more it's all going to fall out."
"What!? Does it look thinner?"
"Oh my god relax, you lunatic."
"Do you think we should clean up a bit?" Sirius was frantically picking his underwear off the floor, and shoving shit in drawers.
"Afraid he won't like your Star Wars undies?" James, however, was nonchalantly lounging on his bed, not too worried what his friends would think of the massive pile of dirty clothes he had on his chair.
"James!"
"Sirius, they're guys. We're not expecting the Queen." Sirius glared at him anyways and continued to clean.
"How often do I wear this shirt?" Sirius asked, pondering his outfit in the mirror.
"The fuck?"
"Like do I wear this shirt around him too much? Should I go for a different one?"
"You look fine. Wow you really have it bad for this guy." James blanched, "Oh my god. Is this how I am about Lily. Is it this annoying?"
Sirius's frantic features went deadpan as he turned to stare at James. "You're ten times worse, I promise you."
"Am not."
"James you've had me smell your breath for you." Sirius paused for a second. "Actually, could you check mine?"
"Not a fucking chance." James backed away as Sirius tried to chase him down and breathe in his face.
Thankfully, the doorbell rang, saving James from his manic pursuer. Remus and Peter stood on the doorstep.
"Hello boys." Mrs. Potter called from the kitchen, were she was making spaghetti for dinner.
"We'll be in my room mom!" James called as he led Remus and Peter up the stairs.
"I'll leave dinner on the stove for you!" Mrs. Potter shouted back up the stairs, but she had a feeling they would be holed up in James's room until well passed her bedtime.
Remus and Peter exchanged greetings with Sirius, who was laying on the bed, definitely not trying to act natural. "So!" James clapped his hands, "Any one want to play spin the bottle?" Sirius swung a pillow at his head.
Remus, confused, pulled something out of his backpack. "I brought Mario Kart?"
"An excellent alternative" Sirius sighed. The boys figured out how to set the game up and got down to choosing their players. James only had three remotes though, so Remus volunteered for position of cheerleader.
"Are you sure?" Sirius asked, "It's your game."
"Yeah, I'm shit at videogames anyways."
"Yeah no kidding." James said, "you've got no fucking characters."
"Shit," Peter said, "I always play as Daisy."
"Who?" Remus asked.
"Oh my god."
Soon the war was well underway.
"Bitch did you blueshell me?"
"Suck it Mario!"
Remus was in stitches, laughing as he watched Sirius spin off rainbow road and plummet to the earth.
"Fuck, I keep falling off the road." Sirius blew a strand of hair out of his eyes only for it to fall straight back into his face. "Damn it, I can't see with my hair in my eyes."
"Well, maybe if you didn't brush it five million times it wouldn't be so fluffy." James playfully nudged him, only making him fall off the road for a second time.
"Shut up James," Sirius growled.
"I could do something with it if you want." Remus said, trying to sound nonchalant, not like he just wanted to run his fingers through Sirius's hair. "I know how to braid."
"Yes. Um sure." Sirius was also trying to sound nonchalant, not like he just wanted Remus to run his fingers through his hair. "I think I have a hair tie on the dresser." Remus found one, sat cross legged on the bed behind Sirius, and got to work.
James smiled noticing that the number of times Sirius fell off the course coincided pretty heavily with how deeply Remus's hands were tangled in his hair. "You're blowing this race mate. At least give me some decent competition."
"Am I not competition enough for you?" Peter jerked his remote around a particularly tight corner.
"Dude you're in ninth place."
"Oh yeah? Well take this." Peter lobbed a blue shell at James, who quickly dipped into second, letting Luigi take the blow for him.
"You're not supposed to announce it, dumbass."
Remus had also noticed the correlation between Sirius's performance and his braiding skills. Remus had worked his way down from the top in a classic French braid, purposefully leaving some choice strands out to frame Sirius's face. Finally, he reached the end of the boy's shoulder length hair, and wrapped the rubber band around the end of the braid three times, just as Sirius, in eleventh place, crossed the finish line.
"Done!" The said in unison.
"Dude…" James's mouth was open. He and Peter had been watching Remus work since they had finished the race a good minute before Sirius. "You look good."
Sirius patted the back of his head, letting his fingers explore Remus's handiwork, before getting up and walking to the mirror to look for himself. "Hot damn, Rem. I look fucking fantastic."
Remus chuckled. "Eh, it's not my best work."
"I am not kidding. I look like a god."
"Woah there, Zeus, tone the ego down." James chuckled, "I want a rematch." He said, nodding to the TV.
"James, you won."
"I know Peter. I want to do it again."
"God," Sirius sighed, "and you complain about my ego."
Sirius gave Remus his remote this time, taking a break to marvel at how damn good his hair looked. "Seriously, Rem, you have to do this for me for school one day." He sank to the floor next to Remus, as the other three boys started on Bowser's Castle.
Sirius decided to backseat drive, since Remus was, as he had stated earlier, pretty shit at video games.
"If you turn left there, there's a shortcut that will spit you out in front of James."
"Hey, who's side are you on?"
"Uh, I don't know if I want tips from you, Mr. Eleventh place."
"Uh excuse you. I was distracted."
Remus smiled.
"Distracted driving. What a bad example you are."
"Do you want to break my record and go for twelfth place? Or do you want to shut up and take my help."
Remus took the left turn the next lap, and it did indeed spit him out in front of James. Of course, he promptly lost that lead, much to the anguish of Sirius.
The rest of the night consisted of James kicking his friends' asses at Mario Kart, and them eating spaghetti at like midnight before deciding it was probably time to head home. James and Sirius started to walk Remus and Peter to their cars.
"Oh, Peter I forgot to show you something in my room." James grabbed Peter's arm and dragged him back into the house. "Bye Remus. I'll see you tomorrow man." He slammed the door.
Sirius glared at the door. What a subtle wingman. "I'll walk you to your car, I guess." He and Remus trudged down the gravel path. "This braid really is so cool. Where'd you learn to do that? Do you have a sister?"
"Oh no. There's not much to do in a hospital so my mom would let me braid her hair to pass the time."
Sirius stopped. "Hospital?"
"Oh." Remus stopped as well, but the same panicky feeling that normally would have a vice grip on his chest right now wasn't there. "Uh…I was sick a lot as a kid."
There was genuine concern in Sirius's eyes. "Are you ok now?"
"Uh…it's manageable." Remus didn't feel panicked, but he still couldn't bring himself to tell Sirius the whole truth just yet. Yes, the fact that someone knew, and his life wasn't over gave him an unnerving sense of peace. But looking at Sirius right then, Remus knew that he wanted things to stay as they were for just a little bit longer. "Don't worry about it."
"Ok." Remus opened his car door and hopped inside.
"I'll see you at school tomorrow."
"Can't wait."
Peter was walking out of the house, confused, because all James had apparently wanted to show him was that the staircase in his house had "exactly twelve steps, and isn't that weird, shouldn't we count them again?" He waved goodbye to Sirius, and drove off as Sirius walked through the front door, to James sitting on the steps and grinning ear to ear.