Sirius and Sunshine and Snow
Author's Note(s): This story was written for Brilliant Roommate Bridget as an early (very early) Christmas present. She requested something shippy (specifically Remus/Sirius or not slash) with unresolved sexual tension as well as resolved sexual tension and snow. Sorry to say I did not get around to resolving the tension. Another time.
Love to dedkake for the beta.
Disclaimer: These characters and their world do not belong to me. At all. Not even a little bit. Bridgy even gets credit for the idea!
Lily suggests it, even though it is not the least bit logical or practical or utilitarian. Despite her idea's originality and spontaneity, Sirius is leery. It began as Lily's idea after all, and she never trusts anything that starts out as his idea.
She smiles like sunshine right into James' eyes and falls prostrate into the snow. Blinded, he cannot help but fall beside her.
Peter is the next to go. Whether he too is blinded by Lily's glow or simply trying to refocus James' attention on himself, Sirius is unsure. Only he lands too close to James, and Lily tells him to pick a spot farther away. He turns away from them, presenting Sirius with his back. Instinctively, Sirius takes the opportunity to shove a handful of snow down Peter's pants and into his underwear.
Peter shrieks and grips his bottom, dancing in such a way that doesn't seem to dislodge the snow, though that might have been its purpose.
James hasn't seen. He's too busy eating snow. With Lily. Remus sends Sirius a look that isn't at all amused. Well maybe a little, but very, very far underneath his frown. So Peter's shaky laughter rings alone and awkward when he says, "You're funny. But I'll get you back." Sirius smiles at the empty threat. As an afterthought, he aims it at Remus in hopes that it, too, resembles the sunlight. But Remus is now watching Lily and James, with longing simmering in the darkness of his pupils.
"I'm going to change my pants. I'm not dressed for this weather anyway."
Sirius is still watching Remus watch Lily and James, his whole being focused on the desperate hope lurking in his friend's eyes. Curios, he follows Remus' gaze.
Lily and James have rolled over and are flailing about, purposefully, becoming angels before his eyes. Every once in awhile, the fingertips of Lily's left hand brush the fingertips of James' right hand. They are completely separate, but completely in sync. And suddenly Sirius feels a rush of longing to match Remus'.
"It's been ages since I've played in the snow like this," says Lily as she stands, carefully, to examine her handiwork.
"Me too," James lies, rising beside her, not quite as carefully and damaging his angel with two large hand prints. Sirius thinks of the snow fort they built two days ago next to Hargrid's hut from which they were in a perfect position to lob snowballs at unsuspecting underclassmen on their way to Care of Magical Creatures.
"Me too," Remus also lies, as he falls next to their angels and begins to make one of his own. He participated in the building of the fort, even if he abstained from using it for its intended purpose.
Remus is like snow, Sirius thinks. Soft and fluffy and cold. Very, very cold. Not tough and slick like ice, but shivering, shimmering like snow. Sirius has always loved snow, even if it is cold enough to bite.
"I've never made a snow angel. London doesn't get enough snow. They're for babies anyway. And other wankers who enjoy getting frozen and... wet." He kicks a pile of snow onto Remus' stomach.
Remus smiles, but only slightly. The remark was not really directed at him. But James isn't paying attention. He's being melted by another appreciative smile from Lily. They are holding hands with the same fingers that kept brushing against one another in the snow, and Sirius hopes, for his sake and theirs, that they leave soon.
Something hits him hard, right in the center of the back, a snow ball, knocking him off balance and onto James' snow angel.
He knows that if he looked, he would see tiny gray rat scurrying from him through the snow. Peter always runs away. He doesn't understand that when you prank your friends you are all supposed to have a good laugh over it, together.
He also knows that if he looked in the opposite direction, he would see a the backs of James and Lily, heading toward the lake, radiating so much energy his eyes would burn.
Sighing, he gives in to Lily's original idea and rolls onto his back, spreading his arms and legs. The snow finds bits of his bare skin on the back of his neck, his wrists and ankles, and the small of his back where his coat is riding up. The sun is in his eyes, but it is real and painful, not like Lily's sun, not like the bit of sun he has tried to share with Remus.
Remus is rising and so he follows suit. They are both more careful than James.
His snow angel has replaced both James and Lily's. Remus' is nearby his, but not close, not like Lily's and James' were. Peter's snowball threw him too far for that.
He turns and finds Remus watching him, the desperate hope still burning in eyes.
"You have snow in your hair." And he reaches up to tousle Remus' sandy curls, ridding them of snow less than intentionally.
"So do you." Remus does not brush it away. Instead, he reached up to still Sirius' hand. "I like it that way."
Sirius' breath catches. Remus' hand is warm on his, nothing like snow at all. He likes it this way too. Only he does not know what to say or whether he should move his hand and Remus is smiling, not bright and harsh like Lily's sunlight, but soft and inviting like moonlight.
"Race you to the castle."
The darkness of the castle, broken only by flickering candlelight, better hides the accepting starlight in Sirius' upturned lips when he thinks of Remus' moonlit invitation. And despite the hard run, he finds himself shivering from the wet and the cold and the snow.