So I was on vacation this past week, and I had time to write. It was nice. And since I'd already been attacked by a rabid one-line plot bunny while sorting laundry, I ended up with this. Hopefully it's all right.

Warnings: Sirius/Remus slash. Other than that, nothing.

Disclaimer: So not mine that it makes me sad.

------Packing Charms------

Remus finds it funny that James Potter is incapable of performing a proper Packing Charm. No, that isn't true, he corrects himself. He doesn't enjoy his friends' failings. What amuses him, year after year, is entering the common room just before Christmas holidays to find said myopic animagus begging one Sirius Black to pack his trunks for him.

This year is no exception, and Remus looks on with as much merriment as ever while a bargain is hammered out: two weeks of Transfiguration homework and a third of the secret stash of Dungbombs which James had thought safely hidden until that moment. Sirius will coerce Remus into helping him make good use of them over the holidays, since they are, as usual, the only two Marauders remaining at Hogwarts.

Upstairs, Sirius packs James's trunk with a swish-and-flick that would move Flitwick to tears. Remus watches the socks fold themselves into matched pairs, and wonders how they manage it. He asks Sirius, as the other boy is the only one Remus knows who is able to achieve that particular effect. Sirius laughs and says that it's all in the wrist, that he learned the trick from a cousin, and does Remus want Sirius to teach him?

And Remus shakes his head impatiently. "No," he says, "The socks. How do they know?"

Sirius blinks at him incredulously for a moment. Then, "It's magic," he explains. "You don't have to understand how it works. The socks just know."

Sirius finds that he's never as lonely as he expects to be when James is gone over the break. There's still the Map to be worked on, still pranks to be plotted, still Slytherins left to be humiliated. And, naturally, still Remus to bother.

And bother he does, or tries, for Remus never seems particularly troubled by his persistence. Remus is surprisingly prone to mischief during the holidays; Sirius almost never has trouble coaxing him out of Gryffindor Tower, or the library, or any of a number of other places that Remuses like to hide themselves during their free time. They put the Invisibility Cloak to great use, since James has been generous enough to leave it behind. (At least, this is what Remus assumes. Sirius, who after all did James's packing for him, knows the truth.)

Remus earns more detentions over a single Christmas break than he has over the whole remainder of his Hogwarts career.

Remus finds it's harder to resist Sirius when he's alone than when his coaxing powers are combined with those of the other two Marauders. He doesn't know why this is, though he suspects that Sirius's perfect puppy-dog eyes have something to do with it. Doubtless their effect is weakened by the hilarity that is James and Peter's attempts at pleading.

Remus almost wishes that the other Marauders were here, so that he could stay with his books, out of trouble. So that he didn't have to huddle under the Cloak with Sirius, feeling the glow of trust that comes from being a co-conspirator in a grand plot. So that he didn't have to watch Sirius's face, lit from within, as he describes the details of a new plan. So that he didn't have to turn away, blushing, and try to ignore the funny, twisting jig his stomach seems to perform every time he makes Sirius laugh.

He almost wishes James and Peter were here.

But not quite.

Sirius finds Remus in the library. He sits down across from his friend, and Remus greets him without looking up from his book. Sirius, for once, is content to sit quietly and wait. It's Christmas Eve, and the peaceful feeling that hovers like mist throughout the castle has infected him, as well.

Outside the window, a gentle snow is falling, silent. The moon paints it silver and collects blue shadows along the drifts. In the distance, one can see the hazy blackness that is the Forbidden Forest. It is truly a beautiful night.

Sirius, however, doesn't notice this. He's too busy watching the deep gold lights that the candlelight brings out in Remus's hair. It draws his eyes, a splash of honey color against the red-and-green backdrop of Christmas decorations. It doesn't bother Sirius that he is contemplating the color of his friend's hair; he's too full of holiday warmth and holiday pudding to let anything trouble him.

Besides, he thinks, it doesn't feel strange at all.

Remus finds that he's not surprised when Sirius kisses him. It's as though he's been expecting it for ages—forever—without knowing it. No, there is no surprise. There is, however, confusion. Remus doesn't understand why Sirius is kissing him out of the blue, without a word of warning, nor does he understand why it feels perfectly normal.

He tries to articulate this without it sounding like rejection, but all that comes out are a few stuttered, disjointed question words. Still, Sirius seems to get the point.

"It's like the socks, Moony," he answers, his eyes begging Remus to understand.

And Remus finds that he does.

---end---

So there it is. Hope you liked it!

Ambika-san