"Greetings my friends!" James exclaimed, throwing the door open for Remus and Sirius. He was dressed in a suit now, accessorised with the tallest top hat imaginable, gloves and a cane. "Remus, you're not dressed!"

"I am dressed, I don't often go around naked. But, I wasn't aware that today was the night we were dressing up so fancily?" Remus replied, eyebrows raised at James's outfit.

"Oh no! Did I not tell the two of you? That's alright, I've got another suit, don't ask. Uh, Sirius can wear something, I'm sure. You should see Lily, she's really gone all out. Marls and Meadowes aren't here yet. I assume Peter isn't coming?" James asked, sentences running onto each other, talking even faster than usual.

"James, how much sugar have you had? This is getting out of hand now. We'll find something for Sirius I'm sure. Now, can we come in?" Remus asked, stepping towards James who had one hand on each side of the doorframe.

"Oh yes, sure."

"Thanks."

"Is this what he's like after sugar?" Sirius stage whispered, turning to look back at James who was positively buzzing.

"Coffee's even worse, but it'll wear off eventually. Now, we've got to find something to wear. I refuse to let Lily and James beat us in costume tonight."

"Do you always come wearing costumes?"
"No. Rarely ever do, actually. But when we do, it's spectacular. Often, James and Lils will do something together and the same with Marlene and Dorcas, which means Pete and I do something together. It's stupid, but fun and I can't believe James forgot to tell me," Remus explained, leading Sirius through the lounge room and into a hallway. He paused briefly in front of a room and called out a short, "Hello Lily, we're here. We might need clothes." The only response he received was a laugh and an "okay".

"See, we'll sort out clothing somehow. You're shorter than I am, so that could be interesting, but oh well," Remus said, stopping in front of another room, this time opening the door.

"Surely, surely this isn't James's room? He doesn't strike me as a neat room person," Sirius said, following Remus in and turning full circle, inspecting the room.

"No, it's not his room. It's the guest room. No, he's not a neat room person." Remus almost choked at the thought of James being a neat room person, it was close to impossible to imagine. "Lily is though, and being who they are, they share a room. So that leads to some amusing, er, conversations."

"Oh, I see," Sirius replied, his grin matching Remus's own.

"If you're lucky, you'll be able to witness some incredible conversations tonight."
"I'm sure I will. It's seemed rather amusing already."

"Gosh, you'd better be prepared for a whole lot more then. That's not even the beginning. It's barely even the prologue. Just wait until Lily tries to cook."

"Lily can't cook?"

"Neither can James, really, nothing that's not pastry or icing related. He tried to make some intricate pasta dish that was, well, not great. The pasta he made though, from scratch and all, that was good. It was just the rest of it."

"That is interesting."

"Indeed. Now, come on. Let's find some clothes. James's suits and stuff should be in here."

—

Twenty minutes later, after much running from room to room on Remus's part, and much laughter on Sirius's part, the two emerged from the guest room, dressed to a ridiculous standard, albeit an impressive one. Remus was wearing a three piece suit, another top hat, which he'd have to ask James about, why did one own so many top hats? He was wearing a tie and he had the most ridiculously shiny dress shoes. Again, he'd have to ask James why he had those.

Sirius had ended up with an option between yet another pair of dress pants that James owned, or a pair of white ones that a friend had given Lily, which were not at all Lily's size. Sirius, being the extravagant man he was, chose the white ones, a decision that Remus didn't doubt for a minute, watching Sirius's excitement when he brought them in. He was wearing a grey shirt of James's and a white jacket of Lily's. Both of them had flowers in their buttonholes and both looked as if they were planning on meeting the Queen.

Sirius had reverted back to his posh-sounding voice, darling and dear in every sentence, and that was only between the two of them. Remus was equally curious and afraid of what exactly Sirius was going to do when they went to see the others. Remus had been commanded to use the word discern as much as possible by Sirius, who it seemed still found it amusing. Remus had just rolled his eyes and said, "maybe". Which of course meant yes, and he knew that Sirius knew it, but he was just going to pretend that he didn't give in quite that easily. He'd not even known the man for a week, he couldn't let him on all his weaknesses just yet.

"Are you ready yet!" James called out from the lounge room, in a childishly impatient tone.

"We're coming now. Don't pretend that you didn't take an hour to get ready," Remus called back, grabbing Sirius's wrist to pull him away from his own reflection, determinedly ignoring the missed heart beat as his hand closed around skin rather than jacket, as he hoped for.

"Well, at least I was ready before guests got here!"

"Are Marlene and Dorcas even here yet?"

"That's beside the point!"

"I really don't think it is," Remus said, lowering his voice as they entered the lounge room.

James's eyes went wide as the two of them walked into the room, dressed as elaborately as they were. "No wonder you took so long! Is that Lily's jacket?"

"It is. Did she not tell you? Where is she?"

"No, she most certainly didn't. She's in the kitchen. Cooking, possibly?"

"You're letting her cook already? Really? That's a new record, I'm sure."

"She said she's got tonight handled."

"She always says that."

"I refuse to doubt her."
"Oh good, that's always a good plan. So when the apartment burns down, I can blame you?"

"Is she really likely to burn the apartment down?" Sirius asked, amusement and something like excitement in his eyes. He'd been looking back and forth between James and Remus, grinning at the sheer ridiculousness of the conversation.

"No, she's not," James said at the same time as Remus replied with, "Yes, absolutely."

"Excuse me! You know I can hear you Remus!" Lily shouted from the kitchen.

"Yes, I know Lily darling, but I also know that you agree with me," Remus replied, walking over to the kitchen door, leaning ever so slightly into the doorframe.

"Hush child, this time it'll work out," she scolded, sticking her tongue out at Remus from where she stood at the stove.

"I'm not even two months younger than you. James is the youngest here, though if she's coming, Marlene will be."

"Still, you're younger and therefore I can call you child. Especially, especially if I insult you. But hey, Sirius!" she called out.

"Yes, Lily?" Sirius replied, taking no more than two seconds to appear behind Remus, looking expectantly at the redheaded girl.

"How old are you and when is your birthday?" she asked, looking just as expectantly at him.

"I'm twenty. The third of November is my birthday. Older than darling Remus here, and by the sounds of it, everyone else," he replied, smirking at Remus who just groaned.

"You are. Dorcas turns twenty on the twenty-ninth. Congratulations on being the oldest member of this party. You've successfully made it through the longest life," Lily announced, grinning at Sirius's smirk. "James! We have a new eldest person!" she shouted. If he hadn't known her for so long, Remus would have thought that she would have a perpetually sore throat, from the amount of shouting from room to room she did. It used to drive him a little insane, particularly when they were all living together, but he'd become used to it now. You didn't really have a choice when it came to Lily. You either took her or left her, there was close to no in between. Sure, she had her faults, but there wasn't anything that majorly needed changing, so Remus was more than happy to take all of her, even if it did come with a bit of extra shouting.

"Sirius! Are you older than Dorcas?" James asked, bounding into the spot between the kitchen and the wall, which really was getting too small for three people, but that was alright. Remus just hoped that Sirius didn't have a thing about being close to people, because they'd definitely need to sort something out if that was the case.

"It appears that I am. Unless of course, your beautiful Lily lied to me. But yes, I turned twenty on the third of November. I'm assuming the rest of you turn twenty some time next year?"

"Yeah, we do. Remus and I have birthdays in March, Lily's in January, Marlene's is August and Peter's is June. So many birthdays, I've got to get planning."

"Yes, we know you like birthdays, James. But, this is a question that relates a little more directly to tonight, in fact, it's about tonight. What do you have planned for us, dear Jamesy? If we've all got costumes on — and I should add, Lily you look marvelous — you must have something planned, I know you," Remus questioned, curious to what on earth James could have planned that required them to dress up so very fancily.

"Well, nothing really, but we need to get to know Sirius here, so we definitely need to interrogate him in some form or the other. I wanted to go outside and see how many people looked at us strangely, but Lily insisted it was too cold. It's still an option though," James replied, looking up at Remus hopefully.

"It's pretty cold out there, but you know what you would love? Sirius's motorbike."

"Yes! We should go for a ride, I bet we'd get stranger looks if we went somewhere on a motorbike dressed like this than if we just walked around," Sirius agreed, grinning at James, looking very much like a puppy that had just been told he was going on a walk.

"Can I trust you to not crash into anything?" James asked, looking intrigued, but cautious, as if he wanted to do it, but wasn't entirely certain if it was safe.

"Of course! I drove Remus here, didn't I? And we took the pastries AND I brought him back safely. Is that enough proof for you?" Sirius asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"I suppose so. Though Remus is surprisingly a lot more trusting of people he's only known for a few days than I am," James replied, though he was grinning and clearly thought that that was indeed enough proof for him.

"You were the one who invited me here. So that's all on you," Sirius pointed out, though turned to grin at Remus before turning to look at James again.

"Well, boys why don't you go to get take out, because as much as I hate to admit it, Remus was right, it wasn't a good idea to let me cook," Lily announced, stepping out of the kitchen to collapse on the couch, looking utterly defeated.

"Oh Lils, you said it'd be good tonight," James laughed a little, before shrugging and nodding to Sirius, "alright mate, how do you feel about that?"

"As long as Lily's not dying on the couch, that sounds fine. You'll need to take off that top hat though, and put a helmet on," Sirius replied.
"She's not dying, this is standard. Yes, I suppose that's a bit safer. Well, let's go then. See you guys, text me if the girls get here," James said, waving a quick goodbye to Remus and Lily before following Sirius out the door.

Sitting down next to Lily, Remus let out a breath as soon as he heard the door close. He leant back into the arm rest, curling his legs up into him, closing his eyes, knowing that Lily wouldn't mind. It was weird having Sirius there with the three of them. It wasn't bad, it wasn't bad at all, but it was weird. They'd all been friends for such a long time, it was weird having someone new with them. But it was weirder that he didn't seem out of place at all. It was weird that nothing seemed off, it was weird that he'd just slotted into their lives like he'd always been there. It was great, it really was. Remus liked him a lot, possibly...too much, but what was going to happen if Sirius turned out to be someone that wasn't as great as he appeared now? What would they do, what would he do, if they became good, proper friends and then after months, or years, or whatever, Sirius turned out to be the type of person you absolutely didn't want to slot neatly into your life. What if it was all a ploy?

"Remus. What are you thinking about?" Lily asked, her voice soft and soothing, though he wished it wasn't. Remus could feel the couch move beneath him which meant she was sitting up after however many minutes of just flopping there, surely it had been half an hour at least.

"Nothing important, really," Remus replied, his eyes were still closed, he refused to look at Lily, he refused to see her bright green eyes full of kindness and concern, he refused to look at the expression that they both knew would get him to give up almost any information, almost.

"You're lying, Remus. Come on, please?"

"It's nothing, really," he insisted, slowly opening his eyes, hoping that if he looked at her, she'd believe him.

"I know that's not the truth, but if you really don't want to tell me, that's okay. You don't have to, not at all, but I'd like it if you did. Don't put more on yourself than you already do," she replied, smiling gently at Remus, he could hear in her tone that she wanted to help, so he'd try. He'd try tell her, but how could she help? What would it matter?

"Fine, Lily. I was thinking about Sirius, and how he fits into this whole thing really easily, and is that not a little concerning? I don't want him to end up being awful, but I can't help but wonder if he will be. What if this is all fake? I really do think he's brilliant, he seems talented, weirdly kind, he's amusing and he's helpful. He's been nothing but lovely, and he's seen me frustrated. He really would be great to have in our little group, but what if he ends up being none of those things? I'd really, really hate to be wrong about letting him into this."

"Oh Rem, is this because of —"

"No! Lily, no. Just, no. Please let's not even talk about that, any of that, alright? This is about Sirius and only Sirius. Okay?"

"It would be fair enough if it was because of him, you know. It would be okay as well. Of course it's going to impact things now," Lily said, her voice an unspoken promise, he knew that she was trying to help, and he knew that she was right, but he wished he were a platypus or something and could just close up his ears. He didn't want to listen to it, he knew she was right, he knew it, but that didn't mean that it didn't make his stomach curl at the very though. It didn't mean that he didn't tense up at the very thought.

"But Lily, Sirius is just a friend, and he's nothing like that. Or do you think he is? Do you think he could be?"

"No, I don't think he's like that at all. But Remus, answer this honestly, are your thoughts toward Sirius only platonic?"

"I, I guess so. Sure. Yeah. I'd say so," Remus replied, desperately trying not to stutter over his words, "Yes. I mean yes! Absolutely!"

"Oh Rem—"

"We're back!" James called out as he swung open the door, carrying plastic bags full of food. "And Marlene and Dorcas are finally here too!"

"I'll talk to you later, okay Rem," Lily promised in a low voice, barely loud enough for Remus to hear. "Hello! Oh wow, you've really outdone yourselves with the costumes, haven't you? Sorry, I tried to cook again, it was a bad idea, so we've got whatever James and Sirius brought back. Indian, I'm guessing by the smell."

"Hey, Marlene, Dorcas. How are you?" Remus asked, standing up to give both women a hug, knowing that he might as well, there'd be hugs going 'round either way.

"You saw me today, Remus, you don't need to ask how I am," Dorcas said, laughing a little as she reached around to give him a hug. Both women were wearing the most extravagant hoop skirt dresses Remus could imagine, he had no idea how they managed to get through the door, he had no idea where they managed to find them on what was probably a day or two's worth of notice. They really had outdone themselves and looked particularly smug about it too.

"Alright then, but how do you sit down?" he asked, gesturing to the masses of material.

"Very carefully and with a lot of room," Marlene replied, grinning at Remus, clearly excited.

"I see. Well, it's a good thing we host these nights in James and Lily's apartment rather than mine."

"That is a very good point," Dorcas agreed, smiling at her girlfriend's obvious excitement.

"Shall we then?" James asked, he'd somehow managed to slip past both girls and lay out all the food, of which there really was an excessive amount. Excessive food, excessive outfits, it was going to be a brilliant night.

"We shall!" Came the chorus of replies and in minutes they all had bowls piled with food. James sitting on the couch next to Lily, who was being very careful not to spill anything on her magnificently gold dress. Marlene had managed to sit on the armchair that was her particular favourite, one she usually shared with Dorcas, but with the dresses on, that wasn't quite manageable, so Dorcas was sitting on the chair that was on the other side of the couch. Both Remus and Sirius were sprawled on the floor, Remus amazed with the fact that Sirius still hadn't managed to spill anything on his incredibly white outfit. It really was impressive, or at least that's what Remus thought, perhaps it wasn't all that impressive.

—

Over food, they'd all shared many, many tales of varying proportions of insanity. James had shared the entire tale of his courting Lily, or rather of him being an idiot and Lily eventually accepting when he grew up a bit. Or rather, a lot. Lily had spoken about all the pranks that James, Remus and Peter had spent hours on, and the pranks that Lily, Marlene and Dorcas had returned with. All in all, they explained that their school was a place of many pranks and only slightly fewer detentions. Marlene had told them all that she'd actually had the two dresses they were wearing for years and years, they were her great-grandmother's or something and she thought what better use? Dorcas felt the need to tell Sirius all about Remus's chocolate obsession, something which Remus was unabashedly unashamed of, though he did cover his face with his hands when Dorcas recounted the rage Remus had been in when they'd all stolen his stash. They'd all found out a fair amount about Sirius too; his favourite band was Queen, but he'd listen to almost anything with good lyrics and a good beat. The first reason he'd grown out his hair was to frustrate his parents, but he was thinking about cutting it now, to which Remus rather wanted to protest to. They'd found out that black irises were his favourite flowers. He'd found out that Sirius played with his hair a lot, but not in the way James used to, no, it wasn't meant to make his look "cool", he couldn't quite work out if it was just a habit, or if it was something he used to calm himself down, but it was rather mesmerising. He'd found out that Sirius's eyes quite literally lit up when he was excited, but were quick to dull down if something even remotely upsetting came up. He'd found out that Sirius would have fit in with James, Peter and himself perfectly at school, their mischief making probably would have been even more impressive than it was.

Facts had been shared around by everyone, as well as all the questions that were asked as James started bringing out the alcohol. Stupid questions that ranged from everyone being asked "what's your favourite colour?" and "books or movies?" to "if every person in the room was hanging over a cliff and you could only save one, who would you save?" and "what's your darkest, not deepest, but darkest secret?". They'd all been answered with varying amounts of laughter and varying amounts of truth.

Marlene and James had said that red was their favourite colour. Dorcas had said blue. Lily had said green. Remus said he couldn't choose, but maybe burgundy. Sirius had laughed and replied with "rainbow, of course!"

Everyone had agreed that books were better than movies, but movies were good when you didn't have any energy.

James said that he would save Lily, Lily had said that she'd find a way to save them all, though her actual response was, "I'm not letting a fucking question tell me who I can save, I'll save you all!" Marlene and Dorcas had rolled their eyes before grudgingly saying they'd save each other. Remus and Sirius had immediately replied with "I'd jump".

James's darkest secret was apparently that he'd secretly stolen before, to which everyone told him that they all knew that so it wasn't a very good secret. Marlene and Lily had shrugged their shoulders and shaken their heads, promising that if they thought of anything, they'd let them know. Dorcas had said that she'd cut all of her sister's hair off one time, but blamed it on her brother. Remus just shook his head, and that was that. Sirius, Sirius had declared that he had far too many dark secrets to choose just one, to which everyone laughed at except for Remus who just wondered if he was telling the truth or not.

The night passed like that for the most part, a movie was turned on at some point, though Remus wasn't really sure which one it was. The time passed with questions, both stupid and serious. It passed with clashing senses of humour, Marlene and James with their brash jokes and loud laughter. Lily, Dorcas and Remus with sarcastic comments and Remus with little moments of dark humour. Sirius's humour jumped everywhere, from puns on his own name, to insisting Remus must be a werewolf with a name like Remus Lupin, to conversations where he discussed murder, to pointing at something in the movie and declaring "that's me". The more the night went on, the more comfortable everything was, and Remus knew that it wasn't because of the food and the alcohol. It was comfortable, but just for now, just for now, Remus was going to go with the comfort, rather than doubting it. It was only one night. Only one night.

It was just past midnight when Marlene started to fall asleep, she always was the first one, and so with much difficulty in making their way around everything in such large dresses, both Marlene and Dorcas retreated to the guest room, almost making it without knocking anything over. With armchairs free now, Remus lay sideways on one of them, and at James's confused look he insisted that "gays couldn't sit on chairs properly, surely you know this by now?" Which had Sirius laughing madly, but nodding in agreement all the while.

It was peaceful, they'd not drunk enough to be considered drunk, which was good, because no one needed a drunk James right now. But it also meant that they could talk like normal people, and so they did. They spoken about all topics imaginable. From the week, to literature, to art, to birds, to snow, to electronic devices. The conversation didn't often lull, but it certainly wasn't forced. They were all just friends, participating in their weekly ritual, which wasn't really so much of a ritual considering they didn't ever follow the same pattern. But it was ritualistic all the same. It was two-thirty in the morning now, and both James and Lily had fallen asleep on the couch. Usually, they managed to get to bed before falling asleep, but it wasn't rare that they fell asleep on the couch.

With a soft smile, and a "come if you want" directed in Sirius's direction, Remus stepped onto the rather large balcony and lit a cigarette. It was something that Lily despised, so Remus rarely smoked when she was around, but both James and Lily had agreed that if he really did want to smoke, he could, just not inside the house. So, there he was, on the balcony, thankful for the multiple layers that went into his costume, jumpers didn't exactly match, but he had every intention of putting one on if it was too cold.

Within seconds, Sirius was standing out there with him, looking relaxed and possibly more peaceful than Remus had seen him since they met. "I didn't think you'd be a cigarette person."

"No one does, but there you go. You're learning about me too."

"Oh, I think I learnt a lot about you, Mr. Werewolf."

"Did you now? I'm a hundred percent certain that I learnt more about you."

"I doubt that very much."

"I see."

"Did you know that after every joke about death you make, you bite your bottom lip?"

"I didn't know that. But did you know that my lip is pierced, which is probably why I do that."

"You what?" Sirius asked, hand over heart, looking shocked. "I need a cigarette myself, now," he continued, taking a cigarette out of the box and lighting it. Shaking his head as he put it to his lips. "Scandalous, Mr. Werewolf."

"Hey! They're mine!" Remus protested, half laughing as Sirius raised his eyebrows, taking a drag. "And yes, people tend to be shocked about that too. I'll wear it next time I see you."
"Is that a promise?"

"It could be a threat?"

"Well, that's no way to convince me to come see you again."

"I'm certain you prefer the threat to the promise, Sir Black. But who said you'd be coming to see me? Maybe I'll come find you."

"Pfft, you don't know where I live, but I know where you live, where you work and where your best friend lives. That leaves you at a very large disadvantage."

"True, true. But I have your number and you don't have mine? Also, various spies."

"Since when do you have my number?"
"Since I asked James to give it to me."
"That, Mr. Werewolf, is just plain rude."

"Well then, there's another fact for you, I'm surprisingly rude," he smirked, taking another drag of the cigarette.

"I don't believe that. I bet you're the type of person to apologise about the littlest things."

"I refuse to talk about my apologising habits. I bet you're the type of person to pretend that you think you're so great, but really, you just don't know what to do when someone compliments you."

"Hush child. AND I'm older than Lily, so I really can call you child."

"Well, you're certainly not mature enough to be calling anyone a child."

"You really do enjoy insulting people, don't you, darling? What are the plans for the rest of the night then?"
"Anything. Everything. Nothing."

"Ah, so you're an English Lit student then."

"Rude. But yes. And basically, there are no plans."

"I figured that."

"Intelligent and good looking. Goodness Sir Black, whatever will all the young maidens think?"
"Nothing, hopefully."

"Gay?"

"Indeed. You too?"

"Pan."

"Out?"

Remus smiled half heartedly, what was the answer to that? In a way, yes. In others, no. "To the people here tonight."

"Peter? Your parents?"

"And yourself?" Remus asked, hoping the lack of a response was enough of an answer for him.

"Guess why I'm homeless now," Sirius replied, putting out his cigarette on the balcony railing, eyes glassy as he sighed.

"I'm sorry."
"They were shit anyway."
"Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt." Remus stepped closer, wrapping his arms around the other man and pulling him into a hug, ignoring the fact that his heart was pounding far too quickly.
"Wish it didn't though."

"Me too."

They stayed like that for awhile, wrapped in each others arms. It should have been weird, but it wasn't. They stayed there, breathing in each other's scent, taking in the other's pain. Soft words were murmured by both of them. Remus gently running his hand through Sirius's hair, Sirius softly leaning further into Remus the longer they stayed there. It should have been uncomfortable, but it wasn't. Remus was warmer than any of his many jumpers had ever been able to keep him. Neither boy noticed when James and Lily stood up off the couch and stood, staring at the two of them for a minute before shaking their heads and walking off to their bedroom. Neither boy really cared when one or the other pulled them down to the single chair on the balcony, and neither boy complained when they squished on it together and sat up, looking out into the night, neither boy moved away and neither boy made any mention of going back inside. They were there, and they were comfortable. Even if it shouldn't have been.