Dedication: For Tara. I won't burden you with it, I'll just let you read it.

Author's Note: Here we go, later then I'd planned. Love these AU stories…here we get The Date. Enjoy!

Compromising Circumstances

Chapter Twelve

A date. Sirius hadn't been on a date in years. Let alone with his just legal godson. James would kill him. James would tie him down and flay him alive if he knew. Why was Sirius doing this again? Because Harry had pushed and pushed and pushed and…

//Knock it off. It's not all his fault. It's Remus' fault to.// Sirius refused to take an part of the blame. Oh, certainly he'd *agreed* to the date, but only at their urgings. Now he was regretting it. Especially considering the smug smile that Remus had adopted upon finding out their plans.

The bastard had even offered to double. Sirius had, of course, refused. He would *not* suffer through that. It was bad enough he was taking Harry out like this, he wasn't' going to be mocked throughout.

He had to stop looking at it this way. He *did* find Harry attractive, even though he felt rather dirty doing so. And he had agreed. He could try and enjoy it. It was just hard to look at Harry as anything other then his godson. But tonight-in an hour or so, really-he'd have to look at him as a date. Which wasn't a good idea.

//Do *not* make a move on him.// Sirius told himself firmly. That would be disastrous. He had to take this easy. Which would be difficult.

//Just finish getting ready.// He told himself, pulling on his shirt. He ran a brush through his hair, looking at himself closely in the mirror. //I'm not what I used to be, but I'm not bad.// He decided, frowning. Where had all the lines come from? //Why does Harry want me? Why can't he like someone his own age?//

It just didn't make sense to him. But he had agreed, and they'd do this. And they'd 'see what happened'. Whatever that meant.

//Half an hour to kill.// Sirius glanced at his watch. He heard a knock at his door, and turned. "Come in…?"

"Just thought I'd see how you were doing."

Remus. With that smug, self satisfied little smile. He was so damn proud.

"Fine." Sirius said. "I didn't encounter any major problems getting dressed…"

"Why are you so nasty?" Remus asked, tilting his head as he sat down on Sirius' bed.

"Just nervous, I guess." He shrugged.

"Oh, it's just Harry."

"Which is why the nervousness." Sirius said, folding his arms. "Moony….he's my *godson*."

"I know." Remus nodded. "But I really think this will be good for both of you."

"Because I've got the mental capacity of a kid, you've told me." That came out a little bit harsher then Sirius had intended. "Sorry."

"It's all right." Remus said, dismissing it. "But yes, mentally you are closer to Harry's level. I think you'll have a good time. Just take it easy, and don't get so worked up over it."

"I'll try…"

"Everything will be fine." Remus assured him.

"Yeah…"

But Sirius was still nervous. This was his first date in how long? Longer then he cared to remember. And it was with Harry.

"Anyway, I gotta go." Sirius said, giving himself one final look in the mirror. He left, wanting very much to shake Remus until he stopped smirking like that. Smirks were unbecoming on the werewolf.

Harry was waiting for him in the living room. He stood up as Sirius walked into the room, looking as nervous as Sirius felt.

"Ready?" He asked, looking his godson over. He *was* good looking. The similarities to James were a bit of a throw off, though.

"Yeah." Harry nodded, offering up a rather weak smile. //Not so sure of himself now.// Of course not. This wasn't just talking, this was going out on an actual, honest to god date. Opening the apartment door for Harry, Sirius decided that this was going to be pure hell.

***

"…Told him I didn't really care."

Sirius wasn't paying attention to a word Harry was saying. That wasn't a good sign. He was staring at his plate, picking at his food. It wasn't a *bad* date, it was just strange.

"Hey!" Harry waved his hand in front of Sirius' face. "Are you in there?"

"Oh, sorry." Sirius shook his head, and smiled. "Nah, I was about a million miles away, sorry about that."

"It's okay."

An awkward silence followed. There had been a lot of those.

"This isn't going all that well." Sirius said, voicing what he was certain they were both saying.

"I've had worse." Harry shrugged. "I too out Hannah Abbot once, and I knocked my soup into her lap. Not that it mattered much."

"That's pretty bad." Sirius agreed. "Yeah, I took a girl out once and we didn't talk at all. I dropped her off, and I figured I'd try for kiss anyway. I got a mouthful of hair and a knee in my groin."

"Oh, not good." Harry flinched. "Well, I promise if you try to kick me I won't hurt you."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Well, things were improving. A little bit, anyway. Or they had been. Now it was back to strained silence. They'd known this, though. They'd known it was going to be odd and awkward. But knowing and experiencing were two different things.

"I think we're doing this the wrong way." Harry finally said, pushing away his plate of half eaten food.

"I'm gonna agree with you." Sirius nodded. 'But I'd like to know what you think the 'right' way would be."

"Forget about 'dates'." Harry said, leaning forward as he spoke. "Forget about dating, and all that sort of stuff. We shouldn't have tried to change anything, everything was fine. Just, you know. With the whole 'liking' thing added in."

"So what? Just keep on normally and throw in a little snogging now and again?" Sirius gave a little laugh. It sounded ridiculous to him.

"Something like that." Harry flushed. "Look, let's just get out of here. Go for a walk, or something."

"Okay." Sirius called over the waiter, and paid. He had Harry left, and began strolling down the street.

"See?" Harry said, twining his fingers in Sirius'. "This is better."

"Yeah, it is." He had to admit his godson was right. This was much better then that weird, pseudo-conversation in the restaurant. Of course, Harry holding his hand like this was something new. Not exactly *bad*, just different. And it sent small, almost forgotten tremors up his arm.

"Good." Harry said, giving Sirius' hand a squeeze. "And don't make yourself talk, just to fill up the quiet."

"I don't do that."

"Yeah, you do." Harry nodded. "There can be quiet, it's fine. Just as long as it's not weird quiet."


"Define 'weird'?" Sirius asked, grinning.

"All heavy and 'what now?' We don't need to have that." Harry moved closer, their sides pressed together as they walked.

"Nah, I guess we don't." Sirius agreed, This was starting to go better then he'd expected. Much better, really. They walked in silence for awhile, and Sirius tried very hard not to think about how bizarre the situation was. Eventually, they found themselves back outside the apartment building.

"Here we are." Harry said, pausing.

"Yeah, this is us." Sirius agreed. He was *very* familiar with that look in Harry's eyes. Though not generally from Harry.

"I bet Remus is waiting up for us."

"I bet he is."

"We'd better get our goodnight's out of the way now, huh?" Harry licked his lips.

'Who say's there's going to be goodnights?" Sirius let a teasing note creep into his voice.

"No goodnight?"

"Well, you said to forget about it being a real date…"

"Jerk." Harry laughed, and Sirius found himself laughing as well. He pulled Harry close, and slowly brought his face down level with his.

"We'll say our goodnights." He promised, brushing his lips gently over Harry's. He didn't want to do too much, go too far. Not this soon. He felt Harry's lips part under his own, and had to draw back. His body was reaction too strongly, too quickly. He felt Harry lean forward, lingering.

"I think that's enough of a goodnight for a first date." Sirius said, placing finger over Harry's lips.

"Yeah." The younger man nodded, smiling softly against Sirius' finger. "So…?"

"So what?" Sirius asked, turning to open the door to the apartment complex.

"There gonna be a second date?"

"We'll see." Though Sirius was pretty sure there was going to be.

"Am I still sleeping in your bed tonight?"

Shit. Sirius had forgotten about that. It wasn't uncommon for him to end up in bed with a date, but for different reasons. He didn't know if he could control himself.

"Yeah. I'll take the couch though." Just to be on the safe side. Harry grinned, and Sirius felt himself flushing. //I can't help it, I've been celibate too long.// Not by choice, of course.

"All right."

They walked in silence up to the flat, and were neither one surprised to see Remus reading a book on the couch.

"Oh." He feigned surprise. "Hello!"

"Hey Moony." Sirius said, closing the door behind Harry.

"Hey Remus!" Harry gave a little wave and went straight to his room. "Gonna get changed for bed."

"Yeah, me too." Sirius nodded. He was tired. Glancing at the clock, he realized it was later then he'd thought. He ignored Remus and his questioning expression, heading to his room and changing quickly into a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. He wasn't going to give Moony the satisfaction. He heard the door open behind him, and expected to see his lycanthropic friend. It was Harry.

"Just seeing if you were done…"

"And what if I wasn't?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. Harry just shrugged. "Al right, the room's yours. Is Moony still on the couch?"

"Yeah….I think he's looking for juicy details."

"Which he's not going to get. Goodnight Harry."

"Goodnight Sirius."

There was an awkward moment, and Sirius was very tempted to kiss him. But he knew once he did, that would be it. The kiss would lead to touching, and eventually the bed, and now was not the time for that. So he just averted his eyes, and left the room. He'd kick Remus off the couch, and try *very* hard to get some sleep.

But he had feeling sleep would be a long time coming.

~~~~~~~