Okay, so here's the somewhat longer 1st chapter where the story really begins - and a fast update, like I told you! *smiles proudly*

1. Worst ever dating deal

Sirius had really only been staring at the fire. He had been in the common room for about half an hour now, and even worse so; he'd gone half an hour with absolutely nothing to do but let his eyes wander. To stare at the fire in the fireplace; casting a warm glow around the room; radiating welcome, pleasant heat about. He had been staring at the way the flames danced about – he'd most definitely not been using his spare half hour as gawking-at-wondrous-Remus-Lupin time.

The way the yellow, almost orange sun-set like shine engulfed the contours of said boy's almost copper-ish brown hair – just as much as it was bound to caress all of it at the back of his head as he was positioned right in between of Sirius' view of the fire – and the way it captured and framed the werewolf's face, and made parts of his pale skin seem on fire in a golden shade… well, these were things Sirius Black had certainly not been noticing as he had in fact spent his time trying to see past his friend and gaze at the fire.

To say he'd begun to doubt himself after the 29 minutes he'd been telling himself this, would undoubtedly be understatement. He'd of course known all along that his eyes very much enjoyed to be resting at the figure of the other Marauder – and having his heart make for a happy-dance inside his chest as soon as Remus would look up from that book he was currently engulfed in and cast an eye at him for a brief second… well, it was long since Sirius had found this strange. Now it was just natural; he'd gotten used to it by now. So used, in fact, that he no longer bothered to try and make it seem like he was not inwardly drooling because of the eye-candy he was faced with.

This time, however, Sirius had been spending time thinking about other Remus-related things as well, while he'd been registering and memorizing every single movement his friend made. He'd in fact been imagining different ways of asking his Moony out. And while most of the scenarios featured him just pulling the lycanthrope straight into a session of mindless snogging right then and there, there were some rather nice dialogues he'd imagined as well. These were the one's he paid most attention to, as those involving tongue duelling – as pleasant as it was in Sirius' head – were most likely bad ideas that would not end well once he would have to let Remus go.

Now, as tempting some of his ideas were to go through with – some of them were actually viable, even – he could not bring himself to act out on any of them quite yet. Merlin, what kind of gryffindor was he? The great Sirius Black, nervous and hesitating because he feared rejection. James would've mocked him for this if he'd known, undoubtedly.

x-x-x

It was lunch break, and they were in the dormitory. But this time, by 'they' Sirius did not refer to the four of them; all of the infamous Marauders. No, because it had certainly not went beyond his notice that James had interrupted their pleasurable prank-plotting plans to accompany Wormtail to the kitchens.

'They' were now a rather reduced number of people. To be precise, 'they' included none others than Remus and himself. And Remus was working on some essay in Ancient Runes, his head bent over his writings where he sat on the floor.

Which lead Sirius to notice what he guessed he should've noticed earlier: Remus had a very appealing neck. So appealing, in fact, that Sirius followed through with his impulse to touch it before he had even got around to register what was going on. Remus stiffened immediately. Dang it. Think fast.

"Moony?" he said questioningly, wondering for himself just as the other bloke probably was, where this was going.

"Yes, Padfoot?" Remus asked, whirling around slowly as the black-haired friend of his let his hand drop.

"A curious thought just fluttered past my head", Sirius proclaimed babbling, trying to act as his normal self as he thought of what to say next.

"Is that so?" Remus wondered curiously. "And what about it, Siri?"

The corner of the animagus' lips twitched: He loved it when Remus called him Siri. And all of a sudden, it was perfectly clear to him what he would say; because, really, he wouldn't get an opportunity better than this, and he was no bloody wimp.

"I was just thinking, you know", he started, reprimanding himself of talking too fast and forcing himself to slow down before continuing, "… if you'd go with me to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

"Of course I will", Remus replied, but before Sirius got around to bounce with joy, he added; "don't we all always?"

Sirius nearly huffed out loud. His bubbling excitement had been knocked out of him just as fast as it had come. "Well, yes, but… I guess I kind of meant on a date."

Remus' slight smile of encouragement faded away immediately at those words, and he looked genuinely shocked, for the first time not trusting his werewolf ears.

"What?" he asked in a silent voice, staring wide-eyed at the other wizard.

Sirius had to cover things up quickly as to not scare the boy away. So much for not being a wimp.

"Because Lily made me a deal that she'd go with James if she knew you had someone to go with as well. Like on a double date", he said, but nearly bit his tongue off as he added that last part. Sure: it seemed more logical that Lily would ask for this, but it would be so much more complicated for Sirius seeing as he would now actually have to come up with something to convince the girl of all this, rather than just help James get a date with her.

"Oh, did she, really?" Remus asked, and Sirius was surprised to find that Remus seemed to have asked only to carry the conversation on; not as if he really doubted what had been said – which, in all honesty, Sirius had expected him to do – or even needed another confirmation. "And why would she explain this deal to you?" the werewolf continued, and this was the question Sirius had feared because he realised it made no sense at all. But somehow it seemed like Moony understood something that was beyond Sirius' knowledge, as if he'd already guessed the answer.

"I don't know", Sirius shrugged, and prayed to Merlin that Remus wouldn't question it. "But I figured it would be real great if I went with you … You know, because I really wouldn't want to miss out on anything when James finally gets his first date with Lily, and, well, since we know each other already and all that…" he hurriedly tried to explain.

"I… I see…" Remus nodded.

"Yeah and don't worry; it's not like we have to do a whole lot of obvious 'couple-things' anyway", the dog was quick to assure, in hopes of making his friend more comfortable with the idea. "People will probably not even notice that we're going out; the only ones who'll know will be Lily and James."

"Right…" the werewolf said hesitantly. "But what about… what about Peter?"

"Don't you worry about it", Sirius quickly caught on with it, and seeing as he'd made so much up already, he figured another white lie wouldn't do more or less. "He actually has a date."

"He does?" Remus asked in surprise. "With whom?"

"Ah, you know, that hufflepuff girl he talks about, what's-her-name…" the black-haired Marauder hastily made up.

"Marlene?" Remus suggested.

"Yeah, that's right, her", he agreed.

"Wow", the wolf said, still surprised as he hadn't heard anything about this from Peter himself.

"I guess stranger things could happen", Sirius commented with a shrug.

"Yeah, quite obviously…" the other sixth-year agreed pointedly.

There was a silence when Remus didn't continue and Sirius understood that he was thinking things over, but he also understood that this silence would soon be a very awkward one if it lasted much longer, and he needed an answer as soon as possible; the quicker the answer, the bigger a chance that it'd be a 'yes'.

"Look", he said in an attempt to convince the other boy, "all you have to do is tell Lily that we're going together; we don't really have to make an effort, because the important thing is really that we're all there, and I think Lily is in fact going to give James a chance for real; otherwise she wouldn't have agreed on this at all, right?"

"Right…" Remus said slowly, as if he actually saw some logic in this.

"And neither one of us would want to be the reason for James' nonexistent love life to remain nonexistent, now would we?" the animagus continued.

"No, of course not."

"Does that settle it, then?" Sirius wondered, anxiously and hopefully at the same time.

"Yes, I-I guess", the lycan said with a small nod and swallowed, hesitantly meeting the other boy's grey eyes. "Okay."

"Great!" Sirius smiled enthusiastically before catching himself doing so. "… James will be thrilled."

Remus was to go back to his work, but shot Sirius small, tentative glances rather frequently. Sirius registered merely half of them for once, as he was deep in thought of how in hell he would be able to make this work for him. He couldn't regret what he'd said but half-heartedly – still he cursed violently in his head at times for his stupidity. How in Merlins holy y-front pants would he ever deal with this? There was no fucking deal!

Da-da-Da-daam - a bit of action in this chapter! So whatcha say? Like it, hate it? Got any ideas on how this thing might develope? I'd really love it if you did! Review either way, though, and I'll try to update soon again! :D