Well, here's chapter two, finally! Sorry it took so long, I actually had it mostly finished within a week of being back from berlin, but it's been hell getting on since. This ahs been the first time I've been able to post this, believe me! I promise the next installment will happen much quicker!

Warnings, Disclaimers, etc in the first chapter, thanks to all who reviewed!

The Deal.

Chapter two, James.

James and Peter were quite surprised the next morning when Remus and Sirius rushed in quite late for breakfast. They were more surprised by the catcalls and whistles that followed them.

"What's going on?" James whispered to Sirius. He grinned, glancing at Remus.

"My darling Remus decided to tell everyone about our relationship." He drawled, before he smiled fondly at Remus, "silly idiot that he is. We had agreed to keep it quiet."

"You and Remus are dating!?" Peter shrieked. Sirius smirked, ignoring all the spectators, and kissed Remus deeply. He then looked at Peter, the look plainly saying 'what do you think?'.

"Oh. OH!" He gasped, finally comprehending it all. "Umm... cool." He squeaked. Sirius just smirked at him.

"Hey, James, you all right?" Remus asked, frowning at James, who had gone incredibly pale.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go to Potions." He muttered distractedly. Remus nodded, frowning in confusion and worry. James just gathered his things and walked off, without looking back.

Sirius could tell Remus was worried. It was clear in his golden eyes, in his stiff posture, in the way he would turn the page, calculatedly, every so often, without having read a single word. He was worried, concerned over James' lack of communication since or about this morning.

He wanted to cheer him up, make that worry go away. It was his job, as loving and loyal boyfriend, to do so. If he was in a normal relationship with Remus, that would be all too easy, but this wasn't normal relationship and Remus wasn't a normal boy. He was not only dealing with lying to a friend, he was also dealing with coming out to the entire school and coming out in a relationship with his best friend at the same time. James obviously had a problem with one of those concepts, and Sirius had a feeling he knew which one.

James was too easy to find, really. Far too easy, and Sirius knew that he had wanted to be found, he'd probably been waiting for Sirius to hunt him down since this morning.

He'd gone to one of the abandoned classrooms in the West Wing of the school. The West part of the school had been abandoned many years ago. No one knew what happened to that part of the school, all they knew was that it was completely abandoned. No one ever used the rooms for anything, most people liked to pretend it didn't exist. It was perfect for the Marauders, and they'd turned a few of the rooms into our their private rooms. Some had cleverly concealed beds, some had tables set up for quiet working, some had couches for relaxing and playing and they'd even attempted to recreate the Room of Requirement using one of them.

James was in the work area, next door to the room with the beds. He seemed to be working, and on further inspection, Sirius could see it was the finishing touches to the second Marauders' Map, the first one having been confiscated last week.

"Why are you doing this to him?"

"Doing what?"

"Hurting him, hiding from him. He wants your approval, and you are sulking up here like a pathetic child."

"I am a child, Sirius, and so is he! Have you even considered what this could do to him? Werewolves mate for life, Siri, and I know you couldn't stay with him for life, you'd get bored. So the question is why are you doing this to him, because we both know you won't be able to handle a relationship without sex for more than a few days." James muttered, "We both know."

"James, just because we didn't... look, I know about Werewolves and their mating habits, and I know that I can't have sex with him, but I'm not with him for sex, and we can certainly manage everything else. Who knows, James, I may even decide one day that I could be with him for the rest of my life. The fact is, we're happy now, and we have been for far longer than a 'few days', and we will hopefully continue to be, and we'd appreciate your support. He needs it, even if I understand why you could never give it to me, at least try to give it to him, OK?" James glared sullenly, but finally relented.

"Fine, I'll go congratulate him. But I don't believe for one second that you two are going to work out, you're too much of a 'here today, gone tomorrow' man, and he's been forced into the whole 'white picket fence and forever' kind of deal."

"I get that, just don't go saying stuff like that to Remmie and we'll be okay, Now come on, even Peter's being better than you with this, and I half expected him to be the one to blow, not you. Why are you being so jugemental. I know you're not like that, but Remus… Remus is petrified that you're homophobic and you're up here planning ways to lynch us!"

"Yeah, well, Peter wasn't dumped by one of the involved parties, was he? I'm sorry, I know I'm being unfair to Remus, but Sirius, what you have with him, what you must have, considering his mating habits… that's what I wanted, and it… it hurts me that he can give you that and I can't." James sighed. "I'm just a little hurt rght now, I'll get over it… just make sure I'm best man, alright!" He laughed, despite the pain shining in his eyes, and headed towards the door. "I suppose I'll go and congratulate the blushing bride, shall I?"

After a moment's pause, Sirius laughed as well, moving towards James by the door and slinging an arm around his shoulders, ruffling his hair.

"He'd kill you if he heard you call him that, you realise that, right?" James giggled. "What?"

"I always knew you were a closet bottom, Siri!" With that james ran to the Common Room before the other boy could murder him.