A/N: New Years Ficlet. First 7 paragraphs written by my best friend and mentor, Becca, aka lenina crowne here at ffnet. Finished by me. Happy 2005.
"The name of the game is Truth or Dare," said Sirius in his best announcer voice. "If you dare."
Remus eyed the bottle of firewhisky with a mixture of concern and amusement. "And the firewhisky...?"
"Well, we're not going to play without the alcohol, Moony," Sirius told him calmly.
"Yeah, I thought you were a Marauder!" said James. "Without the whisky, we'd be no better than 4 first years sitting around and giggling. This is truth or dare as it was meant to be played!"
"Right," Remus answered skeptically.
"Fine, if you're going to be like that, Lupin, you get the first question!"
Sirius smirked and rubbed his hands together. "Now this is going to be good."
"Truth or dare?" Peter squeaked excitedly.
Remus glanced around at his three friends. He was tempted to choose dare, until he remembered the last Marauder's Dare, which had involved nine bottles of butterbeer, a trampoline, and a female house elf, and had culminated with Sirius naked on top of the Astronomy tower covered in whipped cream.
"Er… truth."
"Truth? All right. Tell us," James said dramatically, "about your first kiss."
Peter laughed loudly, and Remus paused, mulling this over. "My first kiss?"
"If you've had one," James said, smirking.
"All right, then…"
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"Happy New Year!"
Remus rolled his eyes as Sirius bounded into the room. "It's only 11:45."
"Is it? Ha, best not tell Evans, Prongsie's already mauling her down there."
"Lovely. And Peter?"
"Passed out in front of the fireplace."
"That makes the 7th year running."
"Poor bloke will never see midnight."
"He might have a better chance if the two of you didn't ply him with firewhisky every year," Remus said, more sharply than he meant.
"Ah, yes, here he comes. High and Mighty Prefect Lupin, preaching to his poor, pissed outta his mind friend," Sirius drawled. "Bit late to lecture now, isn't it?"
"I suppose so," Remus muttered.
"What are you doing up here, anyway?" Sirius asked, tossing himself down on the window ledge next to Remus.
"Avoiding my - as you so eloquently put it - pissed out of his mind friend."
"That's no fun. Who were you planning to kiss at midnight?"
"Er - no one."
"What? No one?"
"Shall I repeat it?"
"But - how? Why not?"
"I've never kissed anyone at midnight before."
"You haven't? Why didn't you tell me?"
"You could've seen for yourself. Oh, wait, no you couldn't've, you were too busy plastering your face to, let's see… first year, Marlene McKinnon, second year, Hestia Jones, third year, Professor McGonagall…"
"All right, point taken. Blimey, Moony, this is an outrage! A Marauder who's never been kissed on midnight! Even Peter's been kissed at midnight - granted, it was midnight Australia time, but midnight nonetheless!"
"Is it nice to rub it in?" Remus asked.
"Well, that's it, then. We've got to find you a girl."
"No, we - "
"I s'pose we could tear Lily away from Prongs, I don't think he'd mind, not in the sake of friendship anyway… or Alice, Frank wouldn't know, he's probably passed out on the carpet, curled up with Peter. James spiked his butterbeer, it was damn funny, shame you missed it - Merlin, when he started dancing… although, we'd best not take another bloke's girl, that could get you in trouble in the morning - "
"Me?" Remus laughed quietly.
"There's always Althea Johnson, she's not half bad to look at, although she might infect you with whatever it is that makes her smell like the inside of the Quidditch locker room - oh, or what about that fifth year, what's her name, the one with tits the size of - "
"Stop," Remus interrupted, terrified that an innocent 15 year old girl was about to be mentally undressed by Sirius. "Really. Thank you, but no thank you. What about you? Shouldn't you be out doing… whatever it is you do that make you seem like a human magnet at midnight?"
"Nah."
" 'Nah'?" Remus said incredulously. "It's 11:57 and you, Sirius Black, Snog Master of the Universe, are without a girl to brutally victimize on New Year's Eve?" He reached forward and felt Sirius's forehead with the back of his hand, feigning concern. "Are you feeling quite all right?"
"There's not a bird down there that interests me," Sirius said honestly. "I've kissed most of them already - might be a couple of first years, but I wouldn't want to scar any of them. I'd rather be up here with you."
"I don't know whether to be touched or horrified," Remus said dryly. "You are pissed, if you'd rather be up here than down there. I'm not much fun at midnight, I must admit."
"I know," Sirius said. He stared intently at Remus, who quailed under his gaze and looked out the window. A burst of gold sparks shot up from behind Hagrid's hut.
"The fireworks are starting," Remus said, searching for something to say. Sirius scooted closer to have a better angle out the window. They watched in silence as fireworks of all shapes and colors lit up the dark sky above the Forest. Then a large number '10' appeared in the air, and the countdown began.
"Eight, seven, six," Sirius said.
"Five, four, three, two," Remus breathed.
"One," Sirius finished, and the sky burst full of sparks and flames, blurring dazedly in front of Remus's eyes.
"Er - Happy New - "
But Remus never finished, because Sirius had suddenly closed his mouth over Remus's. It was wet and awkward and Remus kept his eyes wide open in shock, torn between fear and amazement and something else, something so different that he didn't even attempt to identify it.
When Sirius pulled away a second later, Remus's gaped at him. "Um - "
"You were my midnight kiss, Moony," he muttered.
"Happy New Year," Remus finished.
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"You - and you - you were his - I mean - his first - I - " James and Peter glanced at each other, looking flabbergasted.
Remus shrugged as a warm hand squeezed his.
"You said Truth," he said, smiling.