Disclaimer: Still not mine, despite my best efforts.

A/N: First of all, I would like to say that this chapter is in honor of illicit programs on my computer that make it very easy to register for class, getting all the classes I want/need, and in a matter of minutes. And also for wonderful parents who agree to pay extra room and board so that I can have a single room next semester, which means: no annoying, crazy, nutcase roommates, and also no first years around (ahh…the benefits of being an upperclasswoman, single room, and a first year free building. (I admit they aren't all bad, I wasn't. but most of them are.))

Second of all, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this chapter. Nothing really happens, it exists solely to get to the next chapter. As a matter of fact, I probably could have left it out, but I did have some fun with it.

Thirdly, I've mentioned before how people in my stories tend to get bits of my personality…well, Lily got it this time. There are a few comments she makes that sound familiar to me, but the big bit is the feminist tangent about engagement rings. I'm not saying that everyone should agree with me, I very much recognize everyone's right to their own opinion. Everyone should do what works for them, I know plenty of feminists who disagree with me on this topic. I'm not trying to convince anyone, Lily just ended up with part of my personality.

Fourthly, I love everyone who reviewed, thank you so much! You're great!

Ok, probably no one cares about this, and this turned out to be a really long author note. Oh well, on to the story I guess…

Tiramisu

Chapter Five: In which nothing really happens.

Sirius lifted his head as Remus sat down beside him and poured himself a cup of coffee. Sirius watched his friend for some sign of what he was thinking, for what his ultimate reaction to Sirius' confession would be, but a foot colliding with his shin and a sharp look from James told him he wasn't actually being unobtrusive at all, despite his best efforts. Remus produced a small vial from his pocket, it contained a deep purple liquid. He poured a couple drops into his coffee, stirred it briefly, and took a sip. He sighed.

"Ah. Feel better already." Sirius eyed the coffee jealously, and his friend curiously. So Remus was act as if nothing happened, he could play along, if that's what Remus really wanted. Well, he could play along for a while. Remus looked at Sirius looking at the coffee.

"You forgot to bring some didn't you?" Remus continued, "Well, luckily for both of us, I assumed that you'd be hungover this morning, otherwise we'd both be screwed." With this James and Lily tried unsuccessfully to stifle laughs and were given identical threatening glares by Sirius and Remus.

Remus pulled the vial out again and placed it on the table for Sirius, who grabbed it and immediately poured a couple drops into his coffee. He took a sip and sighed, feeling the pain and nauseousness from his hangover melt away. However, it didn't take care of his nervousness from sitting next to Remus.

"Thanks, Rem." He said, handing the potion back to his friend. As the bottle passed from one to the other their fingers brushed over each other, sending jolts of electricity into Sirius' fingers, and straight up his arm. He looked up, his eyes meeting Remus'. They lingered that way for only a moment before both looked away. They fought the awkwardness they had been ignoring as it began poking them like an annoying little brother, trying to get their attention. The longer they ignored it, the more persistent it became.

Lily either didn't notice the awkwardness, or else simply decided to ignore it in favor of teasing them. Most likely the latter.

"So…" she said, nonchalantly, "how was your night, Remus?" Remus looked at her, seeing, as the rest of them did, right through the innocent sounding question.

"I believe you already know that."

"See, I disagree." She continued, "I know what you did, but I don't know how it was." She smiled, "I know how Sirius night was. I was just wondering if you had as much fun at our reception as Sirius did?" Remus opened his mouth to reply, but before he could speak a voice interrupted him.

"Lily! There you are, dear! Why, what a splendid wedding that was yesterday! You looked just wonderful! I've never seen such a beautiful bride!" It was Lily's Aunt Margaret, who spent several minutes gushing over the wedding, paying no attention to Lily's thanks before launching onto a different topic. "So, Sweetie, where are you going on your honeymoon?"

"Oh, we're not having a honeymoon, Auntie." Lily finally got a word in edgewise, "We're both taking some time off, but we're just spending it at home. The most exciting things we'll probably do will be dinner with our parents, and hanging out with these two." She indicated Sirius and Remus."

"No honeymoon? But, you must have a honeymoon!"

"Well, we thought about it, and it would be nice to get away, but we can't really afford it right now. Besides, it doesn't really matter to us, we'll have the time to spend together anyway, why does it matter if we're at home or not? We really didn't need it, and we can come up with much better and more useful things to spend our money on. It just seemed like an unnecessary expense to us, like an engagement ring." Sirius, Remus, and James braced themselves, they had heard many reactions to Lily's opinions on engagement rings, and judging from Aunt Margaret's reaction to their lack of honeymoon, hers wasn't going to be a good one.

"Darling," Aunt Margaret looked startled, "you didn't have an engagement ring?"

"Of course not, neither of us have the money for that. Besides, I didn't want one."

"Didn't want one? But, Dear, whyever not?" Uh oh, the boys thought collectively, here we go again. They looked at each other knowingly, they'd heard this many times before, three quarters of which had been in the year since James and Lily's engagement.

"It's a ridiculous, antiquated, tradition." Lily continued, "It's awful! James might as well have just pissed on me if he was going to give me an engagement ring." Her Aunt looked startled, "I understand that you're probably in favor of engagement rings, Auntie, but I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing one. All it is, is men marking their territory. That way they can say 'hands off, my property' without even needing to be their. And if there's one thing I can say for sure it's that I am no ones property."

The boys fought their usual urge to clap as Lily reached her spectacular finale. Aunt Margaret's reaction was a common one, she looked surprised but decided nit to argue with the newlywed feminist, mumbled something supportive of engagement rings, and wandered off.

"Wow, Lil, nice job that time." Sirius complimented her.

"Well, I won't be able to do it as much anymore. If I want to keep it up I'll have to find someone who is engaged to follow around." They laughed, some of the tension leaked out of Sirius' shoulders. They continued talking, discussing the wedding mostly, while they finished their breakfasts, studiously ignoring any comments or innuendo about the events of the night before. As they finished up Remus spoke.

"Lily, can I talk to you for a minute…outside…"

"Sure, Remus." She smiled, excited to finally be getting the other side of the story.