"Remus!" Sirius called, yelling as loud as he possibly could and making Remus painfully aware of how very drunk and stoned Sirius truly was. "Prongs!" Sirius yelled. "Moony's in the fireplace!"
"Remus!" Remus heard James's voice explode through the kitchen door just a moment before the man himself.
James joined Sirius and they knelt before the fireplace, grinning stupidly at Remus's floating head as it studied them with raised eyebrow from its disembodied position.
"How's Ohio?" James asked, trying for all the world to look as though he was concentrating. Sirius swung his attention back from a fly that had been buzzing around his head and stared at Remus, stunned.
"Ohio?" He asked.
"Yes, Sirius, you know that. I'm in Ohio. Lecturing muggles, remember?"
"Ohio?" Sirius repeated, then he grinned. "Ohio!" He yelled.
"Ohio!" James responded, lifting the pitch and emphasis on the 'hi' and dragging out the 'o' at the end.
"Ohio!" Sirius yelled.
Remus sat patiently, or at least it would appear patient to any who were unaware of how tired he truly was. The 'ohio' game continued for some time until James's 'ohio' was the loudest and he dragged out the 'o' longer than had yet been done.
"…ooooooo- I'm hungry." He said suddenly and stood up, running to the kitchen.
Sirius rose from where he had been in a fit of giggles upon Remus' favourite Persian rug, and looked back into the fireplace, wiping his eyes as he did so.
"How is the job?" He asked, with a serious face, to his credit.
"The job is fine." Remus said, rubbing his eyes and sighing to avoid a yawn.
"Honestly, Moony, lecturing muggles!" Sirius shook his head. "I don't see how it can be done. Don't you just get the urge to hex them when they don't listen?"
"They're actually quite good listeners." Remus said. "It's amazing how much they want to learn."
"But you can't teach them anything, can you? I mean, what can you do?"
"Classical literature, actually."
"Ah, so all that reading paid off, huh." Sirius nodded, a deeply thoughtful expression upon his face. If it weren't for the reddening of his eyes, and drooping of his eyelids, and the slight alcoholic slur in his voice, one wouldn't even know that anything was amiss. Still, Remus knew. He always knew.
"What have you two been up to?" Remus asked, trying to engage Sirius's swiftly-slipping attention.
"Me and James baked." He said, grinning widely. "We baked a cake this afternoon, and cookies, and then a Crême Brûlée!"
"Good on you." Remus chuckled.
"And we only burnt a few of the cookies." Sirius was quite obviously pleased with himself.
"Padfoot wants to learn to cook before you get back so you won't have to do it so much." James said, skipping back into the room with a plate full of cake and cookies. "And I'm teaching him pasta sauces and roast and everything."
"We're learning together!" Sirius grumbled, rather affronted that his surprise had been spoiled. "You don't know how to cook a roast."
"Yes I do! I learnt it from Lily!"
"Liar."
"I did!"
Remus laughed and shook his head. He couldn't help staring at Sirius as the two of them argued their point. Being away for so long, he started to notice the way Sirius's t-shirt fell down from his strong shoulders, and he yearned to touch it, rub his hands up and down those arms.
"Fine," Sirius said. "But you didn't know how to bake a cake."
"And you didn't even know how to cook rice." James said, and turned to Remus. "He burnt lunch today. I nearly starved!"
"And how does Lily feel about you passing on her roast-knowledge to one such as Sirius?" Remus asked, all seriousness in mockery.
"She doesn't know about the cooking. She doesn't know we're drinking or getting high either." James said.
"Those were the two primary objectives of the day." Sirius put in helpfully.
"Yeah. When she asked what we were doing this afternoon, I nearly panicked. But I managed to stay calm in the end." James nodded, self-satisfied.
"What did you tell her?" Remus asked.
"I told her we were watching porn." James smiled.
"Nice cover." Sirius said reverently.
"That's when she said I could stay the night." James grinned.
"Slumber party!" Sirius yelled, falling back on the carpet in a fit of laughter.
Remus sighed and rolled his eyes, though somewhere during the roll his eyes managed to focus themselves on Sirius arse, one of the more alluring of his many alluring features. James spotted the stare and jumped up, informing Sirius of his need to piss and ran out of the living room. Sirius sat up again.
"You look tired, Moony." Sirius said. "Was it last night, for you?"
"No, the night before." Remus turned his head to show a scratch that ran under the right side of his jaw and down onto his neck. Sirius frowned.
"I wasn't there." He said. His frown was something desperate and sorry.
"It's alright, Sirius. I did alright." Remus soothed.
"Yes, but, I wasn't there." Sirius said. "I miss you, Rem."
"I miss you too." Remus said, and smiled a small secret smile. "And I'm coming home."
"You are?" Sirius beamed.
"Yes. I've done a semester here, but…" Remus shook his head. Sirius was still smiling.
"Moony's coming home!" He cheered, and soon it was transformed into a little ditty that Sirius started chanting as he skipped around the room. He sat down after a bit and looked into the fireplace-Moony's eyes. "Soon?" He asked quietly.
"A few weeks." Remus promised. "I just don't feel right over here."
"Because I'm not there?" Sirius teased.
"Yes." Remus said. There was a pause for a moment.
"I love you, Remus." Sirius smiled. Remus smiled. Sirius grabbed a bit of Floo-powder and tossed it into the fire, sticking his head in and, by some strange stretch of magic, kissed Remus. Though it was only a ghost of a kiss, they both felt it.
"See you soon, Sirius." Remus promised.
"Bye Moony!" Sirius yelled. "I love you!"
Remus chuckled. "Good bye, Padfoot. I love you, too."