- …. Dear GOD, you people are completely insane. INSANE. In the membrane. Yes. I'm updating a liiiiiittle early this week, because I'm gonna be too dead on Tuesday afternoon / Wedsnesday to do anything.. So here's a chapter early, you lucky gits. I've had a lot of internal bickering about this chapter, but yes. XD;

By-the-way, the ties are dedicated to Jenni. Because ties rock. Actually, most of this is dedicated to Jen. -hearts- to you.

"Him?"

Remus froze almost instantly, staring at Sirius in utter shock. He was blushing, obviously flustered. "I… um… oh Merlin!"

He was up and stumbling across the room in moments, his primary, instinctive urge to just get away ringing through his mind, the fuzzy, pleasant after-effects of the firewhisky instantly gone. He'd spoiled it all, ruined a friendship by feeling more than he was supposed to. His heart was hammering viciously against his chest and he fell to his knees to pry helplessly at the trapdoor with trembling fingers. He could hear someone repeating his name, but the lycanthrope was rather busy with just leaving at the moment…

"Remus… Remus!" One hand moved to rest on Moony's shoulder and he jerked, whipping his head around to look up at his friend. Eyes were wide and confused as he was gently tugged away from the still-locked trapdoor and pushed up against a nearby table. Remus swallowed heavily, refusing to meet Sirius' gaze as he lifted himself up to sit on the desk, topaz eyes flickering down to the pillows that littered the carpet.

"It's James, isn't it?"

Remus, despite his earlier oath not to look directly at the other Gryffindor, looked up abruptly, stunned for a moment and obviously caught off guard. Sirius, either not noticing or ignoring it, continued to speak. "He's the only one who's as clever as I am and he has dark hair…"

This thread of thought, the werewolf decided, was fairly logical, and he sighed, partially relieved that he hadn't guessed right off the bat, but slightly exasperated at the other's clueless attempt.

"It isn't James," he mumbled, wanting to fling himself out the window to escape such an excruciating conversation. "His eyes are wrong."

Sirius almost looked relieved, glad that Remus hadn't been stupid enough to fall for someone like James, but… then who was the werewolf talking about?

"What color are his eyes then?"

The other Marauder felt his stomach drop to the floor, his face a dark red as he paused and looked up at his best friend, ashamed of himself already as their eyes locked.

"Gray… like the sky before a storm," his voice was soft, almost resigned to the fact that he was practically handing out his worst secret (next to being a werewolf, of course) to him on a silver plate. Sirius was repeating the words over to himself, as if saying them once more would magically reveal the object of Remus' affections before him.

"And his hair?" He wasn't jealous. He wasn't.

"Dark," Remus answered shortly, not wanting to go into too much detail, lest Sirius find out that he was trying to convince Remus to describe himself.

Sirius leant back, shifting his weight from one foot to another as he thought. It wasn't James: Remus had already said so and James was still doggedly pursuing Lily with an infatuation that bordered on psychotic obsession. The only other person that came to mind though was a certain Severus Snape and that idea was terrifying, not to mention utterly preposterous. Surely Remus had better taste than that? Not to mention that if it was Snape, Sirius would probably take it upon himself to climb up to the Astrology Tower and throw himself off without a shred of hesitation. He shuddered a little, which sharply drew Remus' attention back from the depths of his mind.

"Sirius?" he said softly, vaguely concerned. The animagus had scooted back to sit on the desk across from him, swinging his long legs thoughtfully before he finally spoke.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Remus countered stupidly, trying to play it off as if it wasn't a big deal.

"That… that you like guys."

Remus had pulled his legs to his chest and buried his face into his knees. He mumbled something unintelligible and Sirius leaned forward. "Sorry?"

The werewolf coughed slightly, straightening up and swallowing before managing a quiet, "I… didn't know how you would… react."

Sirius' eyebrows raised as he pulled himself up all the way onto the desk, now sitting cross-legged and watching Remus nervously fidget with his tie and then his hands. There was a beat, an awkward pause that amplified the situation and seemed to make it weigh heavier in Sirius' mind. He didn't mind that Remus was gay; in fact, it was quite a relief that he was, considering the recent… thoughts that he'd been having about the light-brunette as of late. Not that he would ever admit it under pain of death, of course.

However, if Remus liked someone else, then maybe it wasn't such a good development anyway.

"Remus, I don't care about who you like. I just wish you trusted me enough to tell me who you've fallen for. That distant look that you get when you don't think anyone is looking… you're thinking about him, aren't you?"

He knew how to make Moony feel guilty in an instant and he finished with a rather sober look down at the desk that he was sitting on, not even glancing up to see if it had worked.

It did.

Remus had slowly pulled himself to his feet, eyes downcast as he swallowed the lump in the back of his throat, absently noting that it didn't go away, but instead, it seemed to obstruct his breathing even more. A few more steps and he was standing before Padfoot. This was so utterly foolish of him...

"It's you."

Sirius' slate eyes snapped up from investigating the tabletop, meeting Remus' determined gaze with confusion. "What?"

But Remus ignored his reaction, placing his hands on Sirius' knees and leaning up, gently pressing his lips against those of his best friend.

There was no going back.

The grip on Sirius' legs tightened slightly as he pulled back, those gray eyes looking slightly dazed for a moment as Remus stood in front of him, nervously (and maybe a little drunkenly?) awaiting judgment. Light brown hair was in his eyes and the dimming light from the windows partially hid the werewolf's expression. It was almost dusk. Remus jerked back slightly from being almost nose-to-nose with the other Marauder, his face a shameful color of crimson. God, he was such an idiot! Feet began to automatically move back to his safety net- his half-full bottle of firewhisky that, if Moony had any luck, would hopefully give him alcohol poisioning in the next 15 seconds or less...

But he stopped, mid-step.

Sirius' hand had snaked out to catch onto the other Gryffindor's tie, pulling him back and nearly strangling him in the process of doing so, and he had risen to his knees on the table, just... staring at him. The lycanthrope cringed slightly, expecting an onslaught of insults, declarations of a broken friendship, anything but this silence and the uncomfortable position that he was methodically tugged into by the animagus' tight grip on his clothes.

And, pulling the tie even closer to him which caused the werewolf to stumble a little, Sirius caught the other's lips with his own, a series of little, seperate kisses in a rhythm that Remus easily fell into, and without any hesitation. When they parted, both of their faces were red, although the light brunette's was a darker shade than Padfoot's.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Moony asked breathlessly, his heart thumping determinedly at his chest as his eyes batted open once more.

Remus' hands had fallen back to the other Marauder's knees, and he could taste the alcohol that Sirius had been drinking earlier on his lips and he could feel the animagus' breath on his skin from where he was standing.

"Tell you what?"

"That you liked me."

Sirius' legs swung down from the desk, swaying over the floor for a moment before he let his feet hit the carpet, fingers relinquishing the hold on Remus' tie almost relunctantly as he grinned. "Probably for the same reason that you didn't tell me. And, mind you, this is a new development, Moony. I don't quite know what I'm feeling right now, but I like it."

Remus let out a soft, "Oh," and managed a smile, backing up a little as the other stood. "So... you're giving me a chance?"

He laughed airily, stretching a little and looking rather satisfied with himself. "When haven't I given you a chance?"

The werewolf's grin broadened a little and he shrugged almost carelessly, following Sirius to the mound of pillows that he'd been sitting in just a while ago and plopping down next to him before scooping up his bottle of firewhisky and offering it to the other. Padfoot, graciously accepting, took a draught before lowering the bottle and capturing Remus' lips once more. The burning sensation that he got, he decided, couldn't be completely attributed to the alcohol...

Neither of them noticed the bolt sliding to one side with a soft click, and neither of them noticed two pairs of rather-large eyes (hazel and pale-blue) staring right at them from underneath an invisibility cloak in complete shock.

Bwam-bwam-bwaaaam. XD

Okay, this was a relatively hard chapter to write, seeing as I wanted to keep it realistic (or as much as a Marauders fic can be) and in character, but yes.

And yeeees. Thanks to Green and Jen for vaguely telling-me-what-not-to-do. Or something. Yes.

Next chapter will come when I don't have difficulty spelling words that're longer than 2 letters. Or when I get 45-50 reviews. Or when pigs sprout wings and promptly use them to aid the clock-manufacturing elephants that live in Sweden. Or maaaybe when I catch up on sleep. Either way, more is coming. ;D

Also, I've noted that I constantly say / sing things in a weird opera voice when I get really into something. I blame the MISTAAAAAKE! guy from Scrubs. Fully.

Oh, and, on a totally semi-related note, I drew really bad art for this. Because I wanted to. So there. The link is on my main profile if you wanna see it, because FF hates me. XD;