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Chapter 6

"Orion would like a word, Sirius," said the smaller bouncer with the disfiguring scar. "Or maybe a bit more than a word…"

"Tell Orion where he can stick his word," said Remus, who was still grinning inanely from Sirius confessing his love.

The larger bouncer sneered. "What the hell d'you think you can do to scare Orion, eh?"

A second later he reeled as if drunk when Remus' fist collided with his nose. There was a sickening crunch as it broke. The man's cry of pain was cut short as Remus leapt on top of him and wrestled him to the floor, and then wrapped his hands around the unfortunate bouncer's neck. The man choked.

"Bit of a firecracker, that boyfriend of yours…" laughed scar-face. He threw a punch at Sirius, who dodged it easily and whipped out his wand from inside his robes.

"Incendio!" he shouted and laughed at the astonished expression on the bouncer's face as he caught fire.

"Stop! Please! Please!" the man screamed.

Sirius watched him calmly. "A simple flame-dousing spell's all you need to extinguish yourself," he told the man solemnly.

The fear became even more apparent in the man's face as the flames crept up his body. "I can't do magic. Please! PLEASE! HELP ME! I'M A SQUIB! SQUIB!"

Sirius smiled. "You'll tell Orion what happens to those who cross us?"

"YES! ANYTHING! PLEASE!!!!!!"

Sirius put out the flames with a flick of his wand. The scarred bouncer cowered on the floor. "Thank you," he murmured and Sirius, seeing that the poor man hadn't really been able to fight back, helped him up and patted him on the back.

"You're just doing you're job, I suppose," he said quietly.

There was a terrible half-strangled gasp from behind them and both turned to find Remus throttling the huge bouncer, who in turn was pulling Remus' hair with one hand and trying to crush Remus' own hand with the other.

"Leave him," said Sirius wearily to Remus.

"Let 'im go, Mike," added the bouncer with the scar.

As neither of them stopped, Sirius reached out and hauled Remus off. It took far more effort than it should have done, with Remus being four inches shorter and significantly lighter than Sirius. "Christ Almighty, Remus! For God's sake, calm down!"

Remus struggled for a moment more before becoming still and quiet in Sirius' arms. "Go and make tea, love," said Sirius and Remus disappeared into the kitchen.

"I'll mend your nose if you like," offered Sirius to Remus' opponent. The bouncer was sitting hopelessly on the floor, staring at his blood that formed a scarlet patch on the pale carpet. "It won't hurt," added Sirius, soothingly, as he crouched beside the man.

"Get away from me, you bastard! Get away!"

"Let 'im fix yer, Mike," urged the bouncer with the scar. "Was 'is boyfriend that attacked you, no 'im!"

"No!" The man struggled to his feet and carefully dabbed at his nose. "Orion won't be pleased," he growled and shot Sirius a nasty look. "Not pleased at all…"

Then they were gone.

Sirius cleared away the mess in the hall- rubble, dust, blood and shards of wood from the door- with a sweep if his wand. Remus reappeared with two mugs of tea held in trembling hands.

"You're shaking," said Sirius quietly.

Remus said nothing and sipped at the scolding tea.

"You alright?"

Remus shook his head. "I nearly throttled the man! He was only doing his job and I nearly killed him!"

Sirius shook his head and shooed Remus into the sitting room. "Sit down," he said but Remus ignored him. "Relax."

Remus put his empty mug of tea on the floor and Sirius set his down without even tasting it. "I nearly killed him," repeated Remus hopelessly. He allowed Sirius to take him in his arms.

"You were protecting me, that's all! What are you worrying about?"

Remus clung to him. "Don't lie to me. You're an auror! You don't need protecting! I'm practically a murderer- do you remember at school when I nearly killed-"

"-Snape! And that was my fault, remember? Honestly, Remus, you're not a murderer. You're a bloody librarian who happens to have been in a fight after some idiot sent men to kidnap your boyfriend! It hardly makes you a killer!"

Remus sighed. "Okay. You're right, as usual." Then he smiled. "The man deserved a good throttling anyway!"

"That's the spirit!" Sirius laughed.

Remus began to laugh as well. "So, when did I become your 'boyfriend', anyway?" he whispered, stepping away from Sirius so he could see the sentiment in those inky grey eyes.

Sirius stopped laughing and smiled broadly. "Don't play the innocent with me, Remus! You want me every bit as much as I want you so just…" For a moment Sirius found himself short of words. What did he want? "…Kiss me, make love to me…whatever. Just do it!"

Remus grinned back for a moment. He brought his lips to within inches of Sirius'. "What, no foreplay?"

"We've had two years of foreplay!" Sirius murmured, kissing Remus gently.

But Remus froze and moved away.

"Two years? I don't understand."

Sirius frowned at him. "Do you not remember? Two years ago- our last year at Hogwarts? The most amazing kiss?" Images rushed through Sirius' head: a bottle of wine, a cigarette crushed underfoot, silly happy laughter, big amber eyes gazing up at him, soft lips moulded to his own…

Remus just shook his head.

"We turned Professor Thomson's classroom into a swamp? You must remember, Remus."

"Oh God! Yes! You got me drunk!" Remus stared at Sirius, incredulously. "But I don't remember kissing you. Why did you never mention it to me?" He backed away.

It was Sirius' turn to look incredulous. "I thought you remembered!" he cried. "I thought you were embarrassed or thought it had been a mistake or didn't want to spoil the memory or fancied women or were scared of commitment or-"

"-Christ in heaven!" moaned Remus, cutting Sirius off. "Two wasted years…"

They stood staring at each other, five feet apart.

Sirius eventually broke the silence. "I don't know what to say."

"I love you," Remus half-whispered.

"I know."

Neither of them would remember moving towards one another, yet somehow they found themselves holding each other and kissing, slightly frantically, as if their lives depended upon it. Sirius' hands were everywhere and Remus could feel electricity coursing through him at every touch. After a few moments the kiss became deeper, slower and somehow stronger. Remus' hands were entangled in Sirius' long black hair, caressing it.

If Remus had ever been asked about the kiss he could have described how it felt in one simple word: 'right'.

The two men broke apart and surveyed one another. They were panting, pale-skinned, red-lipped… each the most beautiful thing in the eye of the beholder.

"What was it you said about 'making love'?" asked Remus, innocently.

Sirius was having none of that. "Bedroom now," he growled.

"I never did see much of your strip routine," laughed Remus, obligingly heading towards the staircase.

Sirius didn't miss a beat. "I don't usually do private parties," he said huskily. "But for you I might just make an exception…"

"You better had."

##

Sirius awoke in a tangle of limbs and hot sweaty bed linen. It took him several seconds to realise what had woken him up. Somewhere in the street someone was banging incessantly on a door. Sirius waited for the noise to end. Beside him, Remus stirred. "Too much noise…" he groaned.

Sirius managed to disentangle himself from Remus and the bed, and walked across the room. He opened the small window that faced out onto the street and yelled- "Shut the hell up!!!!!"

When he turned back to the bed, Remus was grinning at him. "I think that's our door!"

Sirius started to pull on Remus' dressing gown (with some difficulty as it was rather too small). "I'll get it."

"Why not ignore it?" asked Remus.

"Because I don't want my door being blown off again!"

Sirius had coaxed Remus' dressing down into some semblance of respectability by the time he got to the front door. "Stop knocking! I'm coming, alright!" he opened the door and found himself looking into the eyes of the bouncer with the terrible scar- only now that scar was coupled with two black eyes, a busted lower lip, a deep cut above the right eye and a swollen cheek. The man grinned at Sirius' horrified expression. He was missing his two front teeth.

"What the-" Sirius began.

"Walked into a door," said the bouncer.

Sirius gestured him in. "Some door…" he said faintly. "I take it Orion wasn't too happy.

A trickle of blood leaked out from the corner of the bouncer's mouth. "He weren't ecstatic," he admitted. "I'm John by the way." He held out his right hand, then changed his mind and offered his left. Two fingers on the right were broken- sticking out at crazy angles.

Sirius shook the man's left hand. "I'll fix you up if you like," he offered.

"That'd be nice," said John. "Can I have some food? I don't like to ask but I haven't really got anywhere else to go, on account of the fact that Orion threw me out of my flat above the Star Club."

"No problem," said Sirius.

Remus appeared downstairs. He was fully dressed. "There's nothing but cake to eat, I'm afraid. Nor will there be if I don't get to work and earn some money soon." He kissed Sirius, a little too passionately, considering Sirius was half-naked and a guest was stood three feet away.

John coughed awkwardly. Remus and Sirius broke apart- Remus was blushing furiously but Sirius just grinned. There was a long silence in the room. "So where exactly do you work?" John asked Remus politely.

"Muggle library. Near the muggle bank." John shook his head and Remus tried again. "It's two streets down from Knockturn Alley."

John nodded. "Yeah, I know the place. It'll be bloody murder trying to get there this morning, though. You ought to hurry."

Remus flinched a little at the words 'bloody murder'. "What's going on this morning?" he asked.

"There's been some sort of accident. Muggle police patrolling the area, thick as fleas. They're stopping all who try to pass and questioning them. But you know muggles well, I'm sure they won't detain you too long… "

Remus groaned. "I'm going to be late for work as it is- I can't afford to lose this job…" He thought for a moment then pulled a face. "I'll just nip down Knockturn alley."

A look of concern passed across Sirius' face. "Knockturn Alley isn't the safest place in the world, Remus. I'll come with you."

Remus shook his head. "Not dressed like that, you won't! Besides, you've got to fix up our guest." He kissed Sirius once more on the cheek. "See you tonight."

Remus left Sirius attending to John.

##

Despite the early hour, Knockturn Alley was crowded. Indeed, it was so crowded that Remus didn't notice the cloaked figure following him.

He didn't notice until the figure stepped right up beside him and drew his wand. "Petrificus Totalus," said the hooded man and Remus fell to the floor, stiff as a board and completely paralysed. He was dragged to a dark shop doorway.

The cloaked man pulled down his hood and looked down on Remus triumphantly.

Remus, unable to struggle or even cry out, found himself staring up into the eyes of Orion.

"You're boyfriend is a remarkably difficult man to track down, Remus," said Orion. "However, now I have his boyfriend, I imagine he'll give me his undivided attention…"