for arianna !
1509 words by gdocs
Remus isn't mentally prepared for his daughter to start kindergarten.
He had enough of a panic during his journey of starting work after she was born, and he's not ready for her to consistently be away from him, every day at the same time. He supposes, since she goes to school at the same time he works, it's not so different from leaving her with a babysitter, but the simple thought of his daughter going to school makes him jittery.
He knows, though, that he needs to relax, just a little. That thought leads him to beg his neighbor, Lily, to look after his daughter, Elizabeth, just for one night.
And Remus goes out.
He hasn't gone out for five years, but he still remembers this little bar he used to love in college. So, Remus goes to the Hog's Head, and he knows he shouldn't get too drunk — he's not going to be the horrible parent that's showing up horribly hungover to his daughter's first day of kindergarten — but he had taken a cab for a reason. He starts with the Hog's Head's special — Firewhiskey — and maybe he can't take liquor anymore, because it burns hard on the way down.
Breathing a little bit hard, Remus takes a break, looking around the bar and his eyes settle on someone on the other side of it. The guy there has long hair, down to his shoulders, and he's wearing a tank top and skinny jeans. There are tattoos up and down his uppers arms and the sight of him makes Remus' mouth go a little dry.
The guy is hot.
Remus does the only rational thing — he gets up and crosses the room and slides into the seat next to the hot guy.
"I'm Remus," Remus says, holding out a hand to the hot guy. The hot guy looks over to Remus, blinks, looks Remus up and down, and then slowly takes Remus' hand.
"I'm single," the guy replies. He then pauses for a second, still holding Remus' hand, and blinks and shakes his head. "Sirius. I mean, I'm Sirius."
"Nice to meet you, Sirius," Remus says, grinning at him. Sirius grins back.
.
Remus wakes up in a bed that's not his, and his back is absolutely aching. It takes him a second to remember where he is, but when he looks over to his side and sees Sirius, the night before comes rushing back to him. He wants to stay in this moment forever.
The next thing he does is blindly grasp for his phone, laying on Sirius' bedside table. When he looks at the time, he curses and sits up probably too fast for his hungover-self to handle. His head is pounding, but Sirius stirs from besides him.
"What time is it?" Sirius asks, his voice muffled and sounding groggy.
"Seven-fifteen," Remus answers, throwing his legs off of the bed. "Shit, sorry, I gotta go. Work, and stuff," he says, the lie slipping out easily. He doesn't think that Sirius would judge him for having a kid, but a part of him doesn't really want to give that information just yet.
"Shit," Sirius says, slowly sitting up. "I've got to get ready for work, too."
Remus nods and finally finds his jeans on the floor. He tugs them on as Sirius gets out of bed and starts stumbling around.
It's not until Remus has already left Sirius' apartment and is halfway home that he realizes he never got Sirius' number. He would've loved to follow up with him, but at the same time he supposes nothing's lost.
.
Remus is the first parent here.
It honestly says more about him than any of the other parents; he's spent the last eight hours at work, worrying over how his daughter's day at school is going. As soon as he was let out of work, he rushed to the school, despite him being too early for his daughter to even get out of class.
When 4:15 officially comes, Remus is right at the door, waiting for his daughter to get out of the room. His daughter is the last one out, her teacher right behind her.
"Hey, Lizzy!" Remus says, looking down and hugging Elizabeth. "How was your first day?"
"It was good!" Elizabeth exclaims, hugging her father back briefly before trying to wriggle out of Remus' arms. "Do you know what Mr. Black calls me? He calls me Liza. I want to be Liza now," she says, talking fast.
"Does he now?" Remus says, the corners of his mouth turning upwards. He knows full well that this is going to turn out just like the time Elizabeth wanted to go by Beth — she's going to take it back in a few months. Besides, he's been calling her Lizzy since the day she was born. He doesn't think he'll stop now.
Remus looks up to thank Elizabeth's teacher, but once his eyes are on him, his mouth goes a little bit dry. His hair is pulled back into a neat bun and his tattoos are covered by his button down shirt, but there's no doubting those gray eyes.
"Sirius," Remus says, blinking hard. He's not really sure he's seeing correctly.
"Remus," Sirius replies, and it's definitely him. "I didn't know you had a kid."
"I didn't know you were a teacher," Remus replies. His daughter tugs at his hand and Remus is reminded that they're not alone. "Can I get your number?" Remus blurts out, before he can think about that maybe it's a bad idea to flirt with his daughter's teacher.
They already had sex, though, so he's not sure it can get more worse.
"Sure," Sirius says, grinning and reaching into his pocket.
"Can we get ice cream?" Elizabeth asks, tugging at Remus' hand and looking between her teacher and her father.
"Sure," Remus says, putting his number into Sirius' phone with his free hand. He grins back at Sirius as he returns his phone, and then he shrugs apologetically as his daughter tugs him away.
.
Sirius: so do you want to get coffee sometime?
Sirius: nothing extra, just coffee
Remus: I would love to go out with you :)
Sirius: ! :)
.
As it turns out, Remus likes Sirius dressed and drinking coffee just as much as he likes him undressed and in bed. It's nice to just talk to him. It's nice to get to know Sirius — to find out that he was originally going to be a musician before he decided to get into education. It's nice to tell Sirius about himself — how he had had Elizabeth accidently in college and he's been raising her by himself for the last five years.
"She'd freak out if she saw us, just so you know," Remus says, sipping his coffee and looking into Sirius' eyes across the table.
"We don't have to tell her, if you don't want," Sirius offers, smiling lightly at Remus, crinkles forming near his eyes. "If you want to continue this," he continues, gesturing between the two of them.
Remus smiles back at Sirius, because he does want to continue it.
.
Remus decides to make Sirius dinner for their three month anniversary. He's not the greatest cook, but his cooking isn't what makes it special. What makes it special is the fact that they're going to have dinner in Remus' apartment.
It's the one place Remus refused to have Sirius for a date — he knows that Elizabeth would freak out if she knew her father was dating her teacher, and he doesn't really have anyone other than Lily to babysit her and even Lily's apartment seems too close for comfort.
Still, three months seems like an important milestone, considering he hasn't dated anyone for that long since Elizabeth's mother.
"Thank you for letting me come over," Sirius says quietly, the pasta Remus made on his fork. He sounds genuine. "It means a lot to me, really."
Remus smiles at Sirius, and smiling with Sirius fills him with a giddy feeling.
"You mean a lot to me," Remus replies, kicking Sirius' foot underneath the table.
"I mean a lot to a lot of people," Sirius says, putting his fork down and tugging at his hair with a finger.
"And you're humble, too," Remus points out, letting out a little laugh.
"I'm as humble as a bumble bee," Sirius says, nodding deeply.
"What does that mean?"
"No clue," Sirius admits with a little shrug. It makes Remus let out another little laugh, and a bubbly feeling fills his chest. He wants this feeling for a long, long time. "It was the first thing I thought of."
Sirius grins, and he leans over his plate to press a soft kiss to Remus' lips. They separate for just a second before they're leaning in for another, deeper kiss.
They only have a few moments of kissing, before a little voice calls out, "Daddy? Mr. Black?"
They separate, and from across the table, they share a grin before turning to Elizabeth.
prompts:
auction - 13/2 - single parent au
Character Appreciation - Non-Canon: Single parent!AU; Record Collection - Moody's Mood For Love: Emotion: Contentment; Bingo - Gift-fic - Write a gift fic for someone on the forum that you've never gifted something to before; Time Machine - Character: Sirius Black; Book Club - Deena: (drink) coffee, (word) journey, (plot point) an interrupted kiss; Showtime - Big, Blonde and Beautiful - (genre) Fluff; Amber's Attic - (trope) secret relationship; Elizabeth's Empire - (trope) meet cute; Liza's Loves - Hey we hooked up last night and it turns out you are my child's teacher; Bex's Basement - Shockwave: Write about being shocked by something.; Lizzy's Loft - You're So Sober - (dialogue) "I'm as humble as a bumble bee." (bonus); Scamander's Case - (action) having dinner; Film Festival - (word) soft; Marvel Appreciation - (theme) family; Lyric Alley - Untangle me from your lifeline; TV Spree - Relationship: A father figure (please platonic); The Forecast Says - 1st. Sunny with clouds: Happiness; EnTitled - The One with Phoebe's Husband - Write about a secret relationship