Magical Law and Government -Task #4: Kingsley Shacklebolt: Write about having to clean up someone else's mess (figuratively or literally)
Cause I'm still trying to figure it out
Remus rescues his roommate Sirius from a spider, and somehow ends up with Sirius mostly naked in his bed. 3am is not the time for this.
"I'm going to fail," Sirius mutters. His fingers are caught in his curls, which are messier than usual, and he's bent over a book. It's probably the first time Remus has really seen him studying, and it's a beautiful sight. Or maybe it would be if it wasn't three in the morning and Remus was knackered and wanted to go back to sleep, but the light woke him up and he can't pretend he's not seeing this - he has to acknowledge what is happening in his dorm room.
Remus shuffles over to the kettle and flicks the switch. No matter how tired he is, this is a cup-of-team moment so he has to do the proper thing and flick the switch on the kettle. "Why now?" He sits down on the end of his bed.
"Because Mum called me and said she's proud. But that means she'll stop being proud if I fuck up." He rubs at his eyes. "Remus, you're good at this nerdy shit, right? How do I learn everything in this book in three days?"
Remus laughs. When they first roomed together, he took insult to the comments, but he's grown used to them. Because Sirius says these things with such affection. He says them like he actually loves that Remus is a nerd.
"Sleep," Remus tells him. "Sirius, you're great in class. You have an amazing memory, and I envy that about you. But if you don't sleep, you'll be tired and unfocused and you'll fail."
"I can't sleep," Sirius admits. "I tried. But Mum's words just…" he sighs. "How about a cup of tea and then I'll try and sleep?"
"And tomorrow I'll help you revise," Remus murmurs. "We'll find a way that works, okay?"
Sirius nods. He starts to fold the corner of the book-page and Remus visibly shivers at that horrendous act. Before pressing it down to form the crease, he glances over and quickly fixes it straight.
"Got a page marker thing?" he asks.
"The word you're looking for is bookmark," Remus murmurs. He shifts across his bed and opens his bed-side table and withdraws one. "Here. Keep it."
"Really? A gift? Because you love me?" Sirius flutters his eyelashes and Remus laughs.
"Because I've gotta find a way to keep you reading more books," Remus teases.
The kettle switches off and Remus heads over to it and starts to make tea. He brings over Sirius' cup and sets it on his bedside table.
"Talk to me."
"You go on all the time about doing great, and that you wanna make your parents happy. But… but I've never tried that hard before, because you know the deal with my real parents, and—"
"Wait. Real parents?" Remus interrupts.
Sirius looks up from the book, bleary-eyed. His hair is still a mess, but he frowns a little. "Yeah. The real parents. Oh. I never mentioned it?"
Remus shakes his head.
"Well, Dorea and Charlus are Mum and Pops. They're the people that took me in. You know James… well, his parents. They're my family. But not my blood family. But what does blood matter? I had a dismal upbringing with Mother and Father that I wouldn't haunt you with at 3am. Let's just say that I'm lucky I'm a fully functioning person after being raised by…" he trails off and lets out a sigh. "But Mum is proud of me. She says all these nice things and tells me how well I'm doing, but not to worry if I don't pass an exam, because she's proud anyway."
"Sounds like she'll be proud anyway," Remus offers gently.
"But I don't want that. I want to do amazing so she can brag about it and think I'm worth this… this motherly love," Sirius insists. "Remus, I need to prove this to her. To myself. Please help me."
"I'll help," Remus promises. "I've got you, okay."
Sirius nods his head. He reaches for his tea and takes a sip, and Remus stands up. "Gotta use the loo," he mutters. He walks to the small bathroom and shuts the door.
He's just flushing the chain when he hears a screech so loud that he's sure it's woken everyone on the floor up. He rushes to the sink and he runs some water on his hands and rushes the soap, before running out of the bathroom, to find Sirius standing in the middle of the room, covered in tea, with the rest of the tea on his bed.
"Did you burn yourself? Are you okay?" Remus asks. He knows the tea wouldn't be overly hot at this point, but maybe he's misjudged, or maybe Sirius is sensitive to temperatures? Either way, he goes to get the medical box that he keeps on top of the wardrobe.
"No, it's not that. I have been violated," Sirius says, and he's visibly shaking.
"I'm sorry, you've what?"
"When you left me - alone, I might add-"
"I needed the loo," Remus points out. "I left you on your own bed. I'm… Sirius, what on earth happened?"
"A vile creature the size of my hand crawled on my… well, on my hand when I was drinking my tea." He turns his gaze to Remus, looking extremely sorry for himself. "Can you find it? I need saving."
Remus looks at the tea-soaked Sirius, the tea-soaked bed, and then at the cup on the floor. He sighs and reaches for the cup and moves it, with Sirius backing away, a panicked expression on his face as though there's a spider on the cup.
Remus glances around on the walls, but the spider is nowhere to be seen just yet, so he goes over to Sirius' bed.
"Bring a shoe. So you can kill it," Sirius suggests, watching him, whilst glancing all around the room just in case it's moved. "It might be under my pillow. I don't trust them, Remus."
"I've gathered," Remus mutters. It's 3am. He doesn't need this. He starts to strip the covers. "I don't see it."
"Maybe it's on me!" As the words tumble from his lips, Sirius' eyes widen even more and he lets out a panicked noise and rushes into the bathroom. Remus follows, intent on calming him, but he stops in the doorway as Sirius kicks his pyjama bottoms away and stands there in his boxers.
This is what Remus wants to see, and it's also what he doesn't want to deal with at 3am when his brain doesn't want to process things properly.
He stares.
"What? Is it on me? Is it in my hair?" The panic starts up again and Remus rushes over. "No. It's not. Look, how about I check your hair for you, and then you can relax, then wait in here until I've finished looking."
He carefully checks Sirius' hair, wishing he had prior warning to this spider phobia, before he heads back into the room. He shakes the duvet out and removes the covers, before folding it and setting it aside. The wet duvet cover is thrown in Sirius' washing basket.
Remus strips the pillows on Sirius' insistence, just in case the spider had touched them too, but the spider is nowhere to be found.
Then the bottom sheet, because that's got tea all over it too.
"Are you sure you're not just being paranoid?" Remus checks.
"I saw it with my very own eyes," Sirius insists. "And I'll have you know that paranoia is a skill; it is the secret to longevity."
Remus rolls his eyes but he carries on searching, and he's about to pull out the bed to look behind it, when Sirius gasps loudly.
"There it is!" Sirius proclaims suddenly, pointing to a miniscule spider on the wall by the window.
Remus just stares at the small thing. Tomorrow he is changing roommates. All this work over something so tiny that he didn't even see it in his sleepy state. He had imagined it was a big, massive thing, because okay, those aren't all that nice. But this is about a centimeter long. Two at the most.
He gets some paper and nudges it towards the window. It takes a few minutes with the spider running each-which-way, but finally he manages to get it out and then closes the window.
"You saved me!" Sirius says, with a grin. He looks more composed all of a sudden, well, as composed as a man with messy hair and in his boxers can be after that giant freak-out. "But my bed is ruined."
"I can get that dry," Remus starts.
"Guess I can't sleep in that tonight," Sirius continues with a sigh. "Hey. Your bed doesn't have tea on it. I call big spoon." He moves towards the bed, but hesitates, and glances at Remus for permission.
Remus reaches up and rubs his eyes. He goes around the bed and sits down on the edge and reaches for his own cup of tea and takes a big sip, and then another.
"Fine," he finally says. "But I don't put out until the third date." It's meant to be a joke. He knows his tone sounds like he's joking, but Sirius' lips curve into a wicked grin as though he doesn't realise that there is a joke.
"Third? Well, I was planning on putting out on our first, but I'm happy to wait." He pulls Remus' duvet back, tugging on it because Remus is sitting on part of it. Remus stands up to allow him to do it, and Sirius wiggles a bit too much as he crawls onto the bed.
Remus might be sleepy, but he knows what's happening. Sirius is trying (and succeeding) to look enticing and seductive.
"If you're trying to seduce me, please wait till the morning when I can fully appreciate it."
"Deal. Aren't you a little overdressed for bed though?" Sirius looks Remus over. "Or am I underdressed? Should I put something on, or…"
Remus can't help but smile. He pulls his pyjama top over his head and throws it onto Sirius' bed before moving towards the bed.
"And the trousers," Sirius tries. "They're so dorky. Who wears pyjamas with patterns like that. You're better off naked."
"Boxers," Remus mutters.
"Well, I suppose you could wear them," Sirius mutters, clearly put out by the idea. "For now."
Remus does as he's told, and when he climbs into bed, he realises that Sirius wasn't joking about being the big spoon.
"We should do this more often," Sirius mutters, his breath on Remus' neck. "Maybe make it permanent when we're dating?"
"Yeah," Remus says, because he likes the sound of that. He's had a bit of a crush on Sirius since day one, and he hopes he doesn't wake up in the morning to find out that this is a dream.
He closes his eyes, but arms wrap around him. "You can tell me to back off and I'll listen," Sirius murmurs. "Consent is good though. Let me know either way."
"I consent," Remus murmurs, and Sirius holds that little bit tighter. He's asleep in minutes, Remus can tell by the way his breathing evens out, but despite how tired he was not that long ago, he tries to fall back asleep, but it's a struggle. Because all he can think about is how Sirius is holding him.
1889 words
Bromance to Romance - 13. (dialogue) "Paranoia is a skill; it is the secret to longevity."
Showtime - 12. "I need saving."
Film Festival - 4. Dorky Pyjamas
Lizzy's Loft - 12. Hopeless Opus - Not what I had in mind
Buttons - Actions: 5. Trying to sleep
Fight Club - (Scenario) "You're my roommate who's super cute and it's the middle of the night and you're cramming for your exams in your flannel pyjamas and dishevelled hair and it's becoming increasingly hard for me not to kiss you"