The bookstore was well stocked for a small bookstore. James couldn't keep his eyes off of the doorway where Lily had taken Remus of to. Remus had been friendly in appearance, yet there was a contention that was clear as day.

"What do you think your girlfriend wanted to talk to him about?"

This teasing was going to become unfunny very fast if Sirius kept it up the whole night. James had offered to take the group to dinner as a sort of apology for 'The Lobby' incident. It wasn't his direct fault, after all Sirius had cut his hand and they had simply forgotten to send the code, but he still felt bad. Lily after a bit of pushing agreed to a ride home and a small meal at the café under their apartment.

"Probably about how he got stuck with a git as a soulmate." James retorted.

Sirius stuck out his tongue and browsed the books. James knew his best friend had it bad. Sirius would always drag his feet and complain anytime they went to a bookstore. Sirius never had much interest of any type of media that wasn't illustrated. Manuals, textbooks, fiction, non-fiction, it didn't matter. In fact, Sirius had done all of his book reports on comic books in high school. When the teacher had refused, Sirius wrote a ten-page essay about the validity of comics in the literature community, stating that if one could comment on the paintings of the Renaissance, one could analyze the literature implications in a comic book. Apparently, the teacher thought that fighting him would be too much work and had allowed him to do so for the rest of the year.

James started towards the front to see if the others were ready to leave yet. He could hear Remus whisper. "I saw something. Something me and Sirius related. I think he saw it too. I don't know how to approach that."

So the vision was mutual like Sirius thought. James wondered why Remus hadn't addressed it with Sirius then. His mother had always taught him that soulmates were above all else sought after. If Remus thought that even for a moment Sirius might be his, why would he have left like he did.

"You could start with a not-double-date at the café next door." Lily responded.

Not-date, James didn't like that word. He had thought of it as a date-date. He had to remember that Lily was most likely getting out of a bad situation and needed to take things slow. James had seen Lily's mark on her ankle as she had gotten her shoes on for them to take her back to her apartment. Their marks were in different locations, but he would have recognized the swirling lines anywhere. They were soulmates. She had clearly stated though that right now she wasn't looking for anything the night of the movie.

Everything pointed to her being in an abuse situation with her last partner. While domestic partner abuse wasn't something James knew much about, he had experienced the second hand affects that parental abuse had on Sirius when he had come to live with them. Sirius had jumped at every noise, had lashed out at any type of affection, and had found it hard to integrate his past experiences in with his new family. James would let her take her time. He would try and slow down. Give her room to come to him as not to scare her off. He would let her integrate at her pace, just as he had let Sirius.

When she walked around the corner though, James remembered just how hard that would be. He found her to be his perfect fit. He could play of her strengths and she could rely on him in her weaknesses. Just in that moment, James wanted nothing more than to tell her. For her sake, and her timeline, he would wait and watch for the right time.

James quickly nudged Sirius and told him what he had heard. Sirius quickly went into wooing mood. Remus seemed odd around him, but Sirius believed that if this is what the universe wanted, he wasn't going to fight it. This was an incredibly big deal, because Sirius had done nothing but fight the universe for so long, wanting to be the one in control of his destiny. If Remus did have visions of Sirius and Sirius had visions of Remus, it was decided. The only technicality for Sirius was to get to know one another.

He had rushed to the table to take the opposite side as James, hopefully cornering Remus to sit next to him. Maybe he could hold his hand or wrap his arm around his shoulder. Sirius had always enjoyed physical affection. He wondered what Remus would like.

Lily was going on about some story about her sister's wedding. He laughed in all the right places, but all his thoughts were on how close Remus was siting. Her story ended and it was the perfect time to move on to Remus.

"What about you Remus? Tell us about your family."

"My dad no longer with us, and my mom lives in the countryside. I try to call once a week at-least, we just spent the holidays there."

Sirius knew a bit about complicated family life. The look on Remus' face was the same look Sirius had when someone had asked him about his family life before the Potters. Noted. Family was a sensitive subject to talk about in front of other people.

Lily and James changed the subject to work. He glared at James to stop talking. As excited as he was, Lily didn't have a problem talking to James, Remus for some reason did have a problem talking to Sirius though.

Sirius turned to Remus trying to start a conversation again. "What would you like to do with your English degree?"

"I plan on working in publishing. I've written one book and plan on writing more, but publishing is something a little more consistent."

This got his attention. Remus had written something available for pubic consumption. A window into the soul of his soulmate. Sirius prayed there were some illustrations. He would read it even if there weren't. Maybe Remus would read it to him.

Most people would have elaborated and bragged about their work, but his odd ball didn't.

"Is the book something you think I would find interesting?"

"I wrote a book about my experience as a teenager. Someone approached me and said that if I wrote about it, they could sell it. Got a bit of a paycheck, but basically sold my soul and lots of people now know about my personal life."

Lily tried to jump in and explain. "Remus really likes people to wait and read it until he knows them better if they haven't already."

Sirius felt jealous in that moment. A man molded from the universe just for him was closed off to what seemed like the whole world except his brother's soulmate. Sirius wanted to be Remus' vault. Wanted to hold the most precious secret and have Remus trust that he was safe with Sirius.

James dropped his fork confused and then decided to try and tease information out of Remus. "Bunch of embarrassing stories about a girl then? Some big party in high school?"

Sirius could almost see the snap in Remus' body language. "I was kidnapped for a year by my dad's coworker."

How the hell was Sirius supposed to continue the conversation after that?

The playfulness dropped from James face and was replaced with shame. After a beat, Remus' posture softened as well.

"We'll wait until you gift us a copy of it then." Sirius tried to add some light back into the conversations holding his hand up in a pledge motion to which James copied. "Any ideas of what your next book will be?"

"He's writing a children's book, but he hasn't found an illustrator." Lily piped in.

Sirius wrapped an arm around Remus' shoulders, he had wanted to do it all night and after the recent confession felt protective. "I know of a pretty good artist who might have some free time."

"I think I'm good on my own."

Sirius had almost laughed at the obvious insinuation. Remus wasn't going to be able to make Sirius run so easily. He locked eyes with Remus daring him to acknowledge him and the connection they had. "Are you?"

"I'm going to take both bills to the front counter and pay. Lily would you like to join me?"

James was trying to leave Sirius and Remus to talk, but Lily apparently had other plans she argued back and forth about the bill. James was trying to make it obvious that he was just trying to pull her form the table. Something must have angered her because she snapped at him. He went to placate and be as subtle as possible. "How about we go pay together. I'd have something I'd like to talk to you about."

"I won't be convinced to do something I don't want. I'm paying for my meal."

"Lily don't you think we could talk about this over there?"

For some reason this was the breaking point for Remus. All the tension that hung silently was aired out when Remus glared right into James' soul. There was fire there.

"Anything you need to say to her should be gentlemanly enough to say it in front of me."

James knew that throwing punches verbal or nonverbal only led to more violence, but the insinuation that James had anything other than good intentions set James off. He tried to remove himself from the situation, but his hand went for Lily's instinctually.

Lily quickly jumped and James saw it written all over her face. The tension and sudden movement without warning had sent her back somewhere in her head. Back to a time she wasn't safe. Remus stood up and James stepped in front of Lily trying to make sure that any anger directed at him wasn't absorbed by her instead.

For a moment it was only glaring, until Sirius stood up. At that moment, Remus turned to Sirius and punched him in the nose. James would have flown over the table if Lily didn't have his hand in hers.

James didn't know how this had happened, but this had become a fiasco.