Written for:
Race to the Top - (food) Cherry
State the Obvious
Sirius has decided that tonight is the night. Fate better be on his side.
"Hey Hope, you off out?" Sirius asks as he walks into the house.
"Bingo with the girls," Hope says, pushing her arms into the sleeves of her olive-coloured cardigan and fluffing her hair out. "I'd stop and chat, dear, but I'm already late. You boys have a nice sleepover. I bought snacks and there's money for a pizza. I'll be back in a few hours." She kisses Remus' cheek and hugs Sirius quickly on her way out, giving James and Peter a quick wave when they appear behind Remus.
Sirius takes off his jacket. "Sorry I'm late," he says. He doesn't explain that he's late because he needed to look his best for Remus. His hair has never looked better. He's wearing his new leather jacket and nice, tight boxers. Snug in case Remus gets a look.
"It's fine," Remus says, a wide smile on his lips, and Sirius feels a little lost as he always does when Remus looks at him like that. Or, well, when Remus looks at him at all. "We've ordered the pizza already, it should be another fifteen minutes at the most. Come on, let's go upstairs and put your stuff away. You can get changed if you like, or later if you prefer. Whatever you want."
James and Peter are already in their pyjamas, as is Remus, and this is the perfect chance. He's surprised it's come so quickly and easily, but maybe fate has decided that tonight is the perfect time for Remus and Sirius to fall in love and live happily ever after. Sirius is a big believer in fate.
"We'll get the movies set up," James says, holding up some videos which Sirius ignores in favour of following Remus. He's too adorable in his pyjamas. Where the others have t-shirts and pyjama bottoms, Remus has a matching set with buttons up the front and everything and Sirius is very much a fan. Though he'd be even more of a fan of Remus sleeping naked.
"So, your nineteenth is soon. Anything planned?" Remus asks. "James is taking it upon himself to plan a thing, so wanted to check with you first before we went ahead."
"Oh, nothing planned," Sirius says. He wonders if it'll be like James' eighteenth where they went to a club. At a club, he could get Remus up to dance and just press up against him and blame it on the other people there.
Or if they go away on a trip, he could share a room with Remus. Maybe 'accidentally' book a room with one double bed?
"A trip would be good," he blurts out. "We can share rooms to save money. How about it, Moony? Wanna share with me?"
Remus laughs softly. "I'd have imagined you'd want to share with James. But how can I turn down an offer like that?" They walk into the small bedroom and Sirius drops his bag down. He starts to pull out his clothes. Remus sits down on the bed, and Sirius realises this is his chance.
Usually, Remus leaves, or they go into the bathroom to change. But Sirius is pretty proud of his body. He's been going to the gym and whilst he's not got the muscles those guys have, it's still looking half-decent, and, more importantly, it's looking much better than James'.
He turns back towards Remus, but not fully. He's pretending to look at the bookcase as he takes off his t-shirt, because he can't be obvious and face his friend. He has to disguise what he's doing. But he knows if Remus were to glance in his direction, Remus will get a good look at him.
He doesn't risk looking over as he starts on his jeans, undoing his belt and button. He pulls the zip down slowly, pretending to be fascinated by the titles on the spines of the books. Remus is still in the room. A very good sign. Maybe they'll stay up here for the whole night? Or at least until Hope gets home. James and Peter can watch the films. Sirius can stay undressed. Perfect.
He bends down, slower than he usually would, and starts to pull the jeans off. The underwear is nice and snug and he hopes Remus is impressed. Once the jeans are off, he's going to turn back to his bag and lean down to get his pyjama bottoms and Remus gets to see his arse.
He hopes Remus is looking.
He's just turning and leaning, taking a moment to sort through his stuff, when there's a pounding on the door.
"Remus, where did you put the popcorn?"
Sirius grabs his bottoms and stands up as Remus falls off the bed, bangs his leg on the chair by the desk and runs as fast as he can from the room.
Sirius glares as James looks in. "I thought you said you've been to the gym," James mutters. "Don't worry, we can't all have a body like mine."
Sirius throws a slipper at him and feels a little bit of satisfaction when it connects with James' head. James disappears and Sirius lets out a sigh as he pulls his pyjamas on and retrieves the slipper from the doorway, pulling those on too.
He heads downstairs just as the door knocks. Remus rushes past, not meeting his gaze as he goes to get the pizza, and Sirius sighs as he goes to the kitchen. "We're getting pizza. Why did you need the popcorn at that moment?" he mutters.
"Just making sure we had some," Peter replies, checking over the snacks. "We've got about six packets. That's more than enough."
Sirius glares. They were supposed to only have one box with 3 packets, so he could share with Remus, and their hands could brush when they both reached in. Trust his friends to be thoughtful enough for everyone to have a bag, and ruin all of his carefully thought out plans.
He sighs and opens the cupboard, retrieving the paper plates and napkins. When he gets into the living room, the coffee table has been cleared of everything and the pizza boxes have been opened.
"Some of everything," Remus says. "And I got an extra box of nachos because I know you love them."
"Not as much as I love you," Sirius tries, and Remus laughs. It's a beautiful sound, and clearly Remus doesn't realise that he's being serious. He takes the nachos and starts to load his plate up, giving the pizza with pineapple a dirty look and wondering how James and Peter could eat it.
"I guess the good pizza is for us, and the trash pizza is for them," Sirius mutters, and Remus laughs again, and Sirius feels the ever-present butterflies that Remus causes.
Sirius is doing everything he can to get Remus' attention and nothing is working. He just has that same beautiful expression on his face that he always has when looking at Sirius. He always looks at Sirius the same way, and Sirius knows that when Remus Lupin does fall for him, he'll see the change in his lovely expression.
They watch horror films on the television and Remus doesn't cuddle into Sirius for safety. He cuddles into the stupid cushion on his other side - the one that Sirius didn't think to remove. That stupid cushion is ruining everything. He watches the box and he's annoyed. Annoyed that he doesn't have Remus' attention. The stupid TV and stupid cushion do.
He has to try something drastic, so he gets up and goes to the kitchen in search of something sexy. Perhaps there's a banana he can eat seductively?
And when he goes looking around the kitchen (finding no bananas) he comes up with something just as perfect.
Cherries. Or, more importantly, cherry stems.
Tying them can't be too hard, right? Proper sexy. This will clearly make Remus fall into his arms forever.
Sirius eats the cherries quickly, needing a reason to even have the stems in the first place. He can't very well come into the room with the stems for no other reason. He quickly finds that he doesn't like cherries, but it's too late to back out of this clearly-perfect plan now.
"Bet I can tie this cherry stem into a knot," Sirius says, with all of the confidence in the world. Because he's Sirius Black and fate is on his side. Hopefully. And fate will allow this to go well. It's his destiny to do this and win Remus' heart. Or at least somehow seduce him.
"No you can't," Peter scoffs, gaining a glare from Sirius.
"Can," Sirius mutters. Remus is watching and he can't very well back out now. He pops the stem into his mouth and starts trying to work out what to do.
Unfortunately, it's not as easy as he imagined. The seconds pass, and as he believes he's got it, he feels the stem go back in his throat, and realises that it's going down his windpipe.
He can't catch his breath. He can't breathe and he starts to choke. Before he knows it, the other three are shouting, though he's so focused on the cherry-stem that he's not sure what they're saying. He hears one throw out the word 'ambulance' and then Remus shouting for them to shut up.
Suddenly arms are wrapped tightly around him, just under his ribs, and he's squeezed hard. He always pictured Remus holding him lovingly, but he's squeezed again, and again, and finally, the cherry stem dislodges itself from his throat and he spits it onto the floor.
He glares at it as he sucks in a breath and another, and feels the pain under his ribs.
"I almost choked to death," Sirius moans.
"Oh good, yes, state the obvious," James responds.
"Fuck, that hurt," Sirius gasps, ignoring James and dropping down on his hands and knees. "I thought you loved me." He turns his hurt gaze to Remus.
"I saved your life, so if that isn't love, I dunno what is," Remus snaps. "Don't you fucking do anything so stupid again and scare me like that! Why were you even doing that? You know what, you're banned. Banned from… from eating cherries."
"They taste like crap anyway," Sirius mutters.
"You have no sense," Remus continues.
"You're like an angel with no wings. You're my saviour!" Sirius croakily declares in between breaths. "What would I do without you?"
"Were you dropped on your head as a baby? Don't put stupid things in your mouth, Sirius." Sirius can finally hear the panic in his voice. He leans down and throws his arms around Sirius, and Sirius is delighted. His plan. It's all working. It went a bit dodgy there in the middle, but he's back on track. But after a moment, Remus stands up again.
"Fuck. Hurts to breathe. I think I need you to do mouth to mouth." He glances up at Remus hopefully, and the stern look fades into something a little more amused. The expression Remus always wears when looking at Sirius.
"Yeah. You're not breathing properly," Remus agrees. "I'm an expert at that too. Uh… but maybe we should do it upstairs, because we don't want to distract the others from the film." His bottom lip works its way between Remus' teeth as he stares at Sirius, and it finally occurs to Sirius.
Remus has always looked at him like this. Ever since Sirius has developed feelings for Remus. And he now realises that perhaps Remus has always felt something for him.
"Was it worth it?" Remus asks, a little more quietly. "Almost killing yourself just to get my attention when you could have just asked?" He looks quite sorry. "Did I hurt you too much? I'm really sorry."
"You're always worth it," Sirius says. "I heard that mouth to mouth works better when people are naked."
Remus laughs at this. "I won't say no if you want to strip down to your boxers again," he says, rushing Sirius to the stairs.
"Oi, I'm not cleaning this up," James calls from the living room. "Get back here and pick this cherry stem up. It's gross. It's been in your mouth."
"Not the only thing that'll be in my mouth," Sirius tries to call back. His throat feels a bit off and he can't shout. "Fuck, he can't hear my great comeback." He stops on the stairs as though he's about to come back down.
"It's not the only thing that'll be in Sirius' mouth," Remus calls smugly. "And you - get moving. Bedroom is that way."
"So, what helped me win you over?" Sirius asks, moving up the stairs and ignoring the pain, which will clearly be bruises come morning.
"Win? Are you sure it's not just me taking pity on you?" Remus retorts.
Sirius scoffs at this. "It was the underwear earlier," he decides as he walks into Remus' room. He spins around, grabbing Remus by the front of his pyjamas and shoving him lovingly towards the bed.
"Yeah. That might have been it," Remus admits, as Sirius moves to straddle him. He doesn't say anything else, because Sirius is an impatient shit and they can talk later. Sirius presses his lips eagerly to Remus', and fingers wind into his hair as fate finally lets them be together.
Talking about their relationship can happen tonight. But right now, Sirius decides that Remus needs to kiss him all better.
Remus pulls away for only a moment. "I'm not an expert or anything," he says, eyes shining, "but the person getting mouth to mouth usually has to lay down." He glances to the bed behind them.
Sirius can't move fast enough.
2282 words
Autumn Seasonal
Days of the Year - 26th November - Black Friday: Write about someone going to extremes in order to get something.
Sarcastic Month - 3. (dialogue) "Were you dropped on your head as a baby?"
Jewellery Month - 25. Cherry: (food) Cherry
National Author Month - 13. Roald Dahl - Word: Disguise
Comic Book Day - 5. The Adventures of Tintin: (dialogue) "You're like an angel with no wings."
World Farm Animals Day - 2. Pig - (trait) Positive
Colours - 13. Olive
Flowers - 6. Anemone: (dialogue) "Was it worth it?"
Moony's Neon Cafe - Drink 22. White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino - (emotion) relief
Writing Club
Gotta Catch Them All - 20. Torchic: (action) Hugging
Showtime - 14. (emotion) apologetic
Lizzy's Loft - 10. I Can Lift a Car - I'm clumsy cause she finds me attractive
Elizabeth's Empire - 13. Satisfied - Hamilton: Prompt: (word) chance
Amber's Anime Adventure - 9. "You are too young to worry about failure. In a pinch, just muddle through."
Lyric Alley - 10. You will live to tell
Artist Appreciation - 3. Picture To Burn: Prompt - (dialogue) "Oh good, yes, state the obvious."
Sophie's Smut Bucket - 1. (word) Moan
Insert Title Here - 20. Prompt: (object) television
Celebrating Women - 10. Princess Sofia (Sofia the First): (dialogue) "What would I do without you?"
Sandwich Event - 9. Goat cheese- (character) Remus Lupin
Fortnightly
Equals - Stop the Rain - Write about someone optimistic
Scented Candle Day - 7. Unconditional Love Candle - Write your otp and make it fluffy and full of love