Author's Note:
I'm not entirely sure when this is set, but it's a Remus and Sirius!lives fic, because I implied that it is after the war is over, while they're working with the Order. No warnings necessary!
Disclaimer:
I own nothing from the franchise itself.
Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Forum: Assignment 6: Ancient Studies: The Aztec Empire
Extra Credit (optional): To be written only after writing for one of the main tasks
Task #4: Must prominently feature someone from one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families.
"Come on, Moony, have a heart."
Remus Lupin, otherwise known as Moony, was a man of very much heart, but this entreating plea didn't have as much effect as the merchant hoped. The merchant in question was Sirius Black, a whopping six foot and three inches of frayed jeans, band t-shirts, and extravagant rings, and his wares mostly consisted of complaints, pouts, and the occasional vintage whine.
"We're getting off at the same stop," Remus said, for perhaps the fourth time in as many seconds. "There isn't any point. You'd have to go all the way to one end of the train and I'd have to go to the other, and knowing you, you'd get stuck behind some suitcase and miss our stop. And you'd bugger up the mission at the same time."
He said it all quite placidly, pointing out the flaws like one might correct a quadratic equation, but Sirius still took great offence.
"Am I that bad of a partner? D'you really think I'd mess up like that?"
"We're supposed to be incognito. Under disguise. That's what these damn beards are for, aren't they? I don't know what you think screams subtle about sprinting across a train platform into each other's arms."
Two seats down, a pair of businessmen that got on noisily at Reading let out twin bursts of laughter, snorting to themselves over some puff piece in the newspaper; probably revelling in the misfortune of someone poorer than them. A baby at the end of the carriage began to cry again. There was the distant, but distinct sound of someone coughing.
Everything about the rattling train was ordinary, from the grimy windows to the faint scent of cider spilled underneath a seat somewhere. They were supposed to be blending into it all; just two chaps on a weekend trip to Tavistock. Not two romantic leads in a cheap gay tele-novella, which was what Sirius's idea would imply.
"C'mon," Sirius said, nudging him. "What's the harm in it?"
Remus picked up his worn paperback and flipped it open, resuming where he left off. It was the universal signal of someone who was disinclined to continue a conversation, but Sirius thrived best when universal signals winked on and off at him. He liked to wink back, flirt with the idea of acquiescing to their requests, and then leave them high and dry.
Sirius sighed, a touch ruefully, and rubbed the proud chin hidden beneath his scruffy black beard. The beards were a suggestion of Bill Weasley's, who had never been able to grow more than a shadow on his jaw, in contrast to the wild mess that flopped all over his head and fell in his eyes. Every time a chance for disguise came up when he was leading a mission, he leaned right into the 'art of beardery.'
Remus was fairly certain that wasn't a thing; he was also sure that if it was a thing, then Bill definitely didn't have the right definition of it.
"You're sucking all the romance out of the situation, you know that?" Sirius leaned against the window, seemingly entranced by the brown hills and trees rolling by. "I guess that makes sense, since the only romance you've ever experienced is through those paperback books of yours."
With a snap that sent a reverberation down the train, Remus shut the book. The spine was faded and severely cracked, the pages gritty with overuse. He didn't exclusively read romance novels, and tended more towards crime fiction, but unfortunately this one was a romantic novel. Contemporary, and packed tightly with the usual tropes. He didn't have a leg to stand on, but he did have a foot to kick Sirius with.
"Oi," Sirius barked, a rough laugh escaping him as he jerked his shin out of range. "Mind your clogs, Moony."
"You're an arse."
"A pretty one, though." Sirius winked, and then leaned back against the window, turned inward to give him a briefly solemn stare. "Ours is two stops down the line, and I'm pretty sure our bloke just exited the carriage."
"One of us should head him off," Remus murmured. "The other one should stay here to keep our cover. I'm pretty sure you'd rather be on the move than sit here, and honestly, if you keep fidgeting, I won't be held responsible for your injuries. Keep the coin on you."
Sirius tapped his pocket to confirm that the galleon was tucked safely away. Then he winked again, and said, "You just want me to climb all over your lap, don't you?"
"Oh, by all means." Remus shifted the book out of the way and withdrew his wand instead, gesturing with a deadpan stare. "All aboard."
He was rewarded with a low chuckle. Accompanied by a lot of shuffling, Sirius clambered out of the window seat and into the aisle, loudly announcing his need for the loo. He offered to find a tea cart while he was at it, and Remus held up two fingers to indicate sugar, keeping up the part. He whistled as he sauntered down the aisle, narrowly avoiding the sticky fingers of a kid hanging over an armrest further down.
Once he was gone, Remus waited for the first stop to roll by before he did anything. Sirius kept him in the loop with brief messages through the galleon, but their job was mostly to watch and avoid interactions, so there wasn't much to report. When they were speeding their way towards their destination, he shrugged on his plaid, wool-lined jacket that apparently made him look like a sheep farmer, and tucked his book away. Quickly and quietly, Remus stowed away all their belongings, and swung their bags over his shoulder. He made a show of glancing at his watch, and then wheeled the last little luggage bag down the aisle, in the opposite direction to Sirius.
It wasn't the accusation of not having much romantic experience that niggled him. That much was true, and he couldn't really fight it. There had been a few incidents with Tonks which he remembered fondly, if a bit awkwardly, but war could rather put a damper on that sort of thing. No, what really irritated him was the audacity of such an accusation to come from the one man Remus desperately wanted to have some romantic experience with.
Remus grit his teeth, standing in the wobbly mid-section between carriages, where the floor felt flimsy and detached from reality. The train started to slow as the stone edge of a station oozed into view. The coin grew hot in his pocket, and he checked it discreetly as he disembarked.
Suspect leaving. Following. Two minutes.
Not the most professional language, but it did the trick. Remus whispered a response, the letters around the coin morphing into: Mind the gap.
The platform was hardly heaving with people, and the few that were mingling together quickly dispersed as the train threatened to depart without them. He shuffled through greetings and partings, lugging the stubborn bags behind him, and settled near the flaking green fence. He cast a silent spell around the perimeter of the platform around him, just in case their target slipped through or changed course. There were supposed to be Aurors waiting on this side of the train, just in case neither of them happened to be competent, but he was confident they wouldn't need them. All they had to do was watch which car the target got into, and then report back.
Scratching the scruff that passed for a beard all over his chin, Remus leaned back against the cold iron and waited. He didn't like to be idle, not like this, but usually he was much calmer. He wondered if it was the childish idiocy of what he was planning that made him feel jittery, or the fact that it was Sirius he planned to do it with.
"Oi," Sirius said, striding down the empty platform towards him, a faint frown on his face. "Where were you? I saw him get into a car, and the Aurors were waiting with broomsticks to follow him. Told me to bugger off and wait for the next lot of instructions. Did you know we were staying here?"
"I suppose the bags aren't just for show," Remus said. "Stay there a moment, will you?"
Sirius frowned even harder, and kept on walking. "What?"
Remus held up a hand, the universal signal for stop, and was pleasantly surprised when Sirius stopped immediately. He was treated to a series of head tilts and silent gestures while Sirius worked out whether or not they were in danger, reaching questioningly for the holster that held his wand. Remus shook his head. He checked the distance between them and deemed it far enough. He nudged the bags aside with his feet, and held out both arms.
Then he cocked an eyebrow, tilted his head slightly, and waited.
It took less than a second for the offer to dawn on Sirius. His eyes blew wide open, and his frown faded, leaving him utterly baffled. Remus almost got cold feet at the blank look of shock, wondering if perhaps it was one of those things that was supposed to stay a joke. But then Sirius let out a bark of triumphant laughter; between one second and the next, he was sprinting down the platform towards them.
For a split second, Remus was somewhere else. He was walking out of Ancient Runes class, head buried in his notes, the scent of dust and ink clinging to his robes while his classmates buzzed and muttered around him, only to stumble to a confused stop when he heard a cheer and the sound of pounding footsteps. It hadn't surprised him, then, when Sirius jumped onto him, wrapping his arms around him and clinging like a koala bear. It had warmed him. He remembered stumbling into the wall, giving into laughter and the weight of slim arms thrown round his shoulders, dropping his notes on the floor. It was hard to care about things like classes and homework when one of your best mates was laughing in your ear, messy and tie-undone.
It wasn't the same on the train platform. Sirius ran straight into his arms, but he didn't knock Remus into the classroom wall, or climb up onto his hip while their friends hollered and whistled behind them, out of breath from the chase. There was no dizzy, carefree lilt to Sirius's smile, nor the dazzling, arrogant confidence of a boy with the world at his feet. Maybe there never quite would be again. But there was something infinitely warmer about wrapping his arms around Sirius and feeling how solid and sure he was, something soothing about the smell of leather and lingering bourbon on his skin, something about his quiet, rough laughter that sent a shudder down Remus's spine.
"This is all to make me eat my words, is it?" Sirius murmured, squeezing him tightly.
They probably looked silly. Two grown men leaping into each other's arms on a platform after disembarking the same train; it had to earn them some funny looks, even on a near-empty platform. But Remus found he didn't care.
"Nobody could ever make you take back your words, Sirius," Remus said, sighing fondly. "But you should know better than to challenge me by now."
"Nobody, huh? Wouldn't be so sure about that, Moony. You've never been just nobody."
Remus drew back quite abruptly, cheeks aflame. He was a grown man, but he still blushed like a schoolboy when caught off guard. Sirius wasn't much better, though he wore it roguishly, leaning down to snatch up one of the bags. His clothes were rumpled from their hug; embrace seemed like a more accurate word, but it also seemed like something out of one of his paperback books, so he avoided it out of survival instinct.
"We should find somewhere to stay," Remus said, "since apparently we'll be needed here a while longer."
They settled easily enough on a decision, winding their way through the ticket machine and out onto a quiet road. There was a spring in Sirius's step, as though the mere act of catering to him left him buoyant, light on his feet. Remus shook his head as they headed for the nearest Bed & Breakfast, and resolved to be a little more indulgent, if it meant he got to see a hint of that boyish, carefree smile again.
"Hey, if we are on this thing for a few more days, you know what this means?" Sirius said.
"That I'll have to wait another week to finish my book in peace?"
"No." Sirius shoved him lightly. "It means we get to keep the beards."
Remus didn't stop walking, but he did dip into his pocket for the galleon. When Sirius caught sight of him tapping out a message, he leaned forward and asked, "Oi, what are you doing?"
"Messaging whoever's available," Remus said immediately. "If we hurry, we might be able to get the next train back."
Sirius snatched the coin out of his grasp and held it up above his head. "C'mon, Moony," he said. "You and me in a cosy Bed & Breakfast, with these stunning beards and your newly discovered romantic side? Doesn't that sound like something you'd be interested in?" He waggled his eyebrows. "I know I'm definitely interested."
Remus drew his wand calmly.
He didn't get a chance to cast a spell before Sirius took off with a cackle. The bags floated along behind him, blatantly breaking several important rules, and the coin glinted above his head. Remus found that he really didn't care about the rules right now. All he wanted was that laughter, and that quick zip of warmth that shot through him, exciting and familiar, like an old friend.
Remus stowed his wand away, let the grin steal over his face, and gave chase.
[Word Count: 2323]