Sorry for putting you guys on hold... again! But I've worked a lot with this chapter trying to make it as good as possible - and considering I haven't written a dating installment before it took me a lot of time to realize what would be good enough/likely to happen and such - but hopefully you'll think it's okay... And it happened to turn out almost trice as long as my usual chapter's-lenght... how about that!

Also, I would like to say special thanks to people who gave me ideas and actually made this chapter happen. They would be .X3 and dwells-in-the-night mostly, so BIG thank-you to you guys, though I was also inspired from certain other reviews and requests, so hopefully I've managed to mix it all into a sallad I hope most of you are gonna be content with...

So without further ado I present you with...

6. The Date

Sirius was currently seated along with the rest of the Marauders in a circle on the floor of their dorm. James had begun this little "consult meeting" a while ago, kind of torn up since he started doubting his own marauder-ish abilities; he still hadn't found that darn Chamber of Secrets, and thought something needed to be done about it. Remus was currently comforting the stag by pointing out that it was probably just an empty legend of no value.

But Sirius thoughts were far away from there. Well, not too far on second thought. After all, the date was tomorrow. If he'd go to bed and fall asleep early, it would be Saturday morning in next to no time.

But he was in no mood for going to bed right now. He would much rather sit up and make himself even more excited; so excited that he would perhaps – hopefully – be able to rub some of it off on his cavalier. Besides, he had the feeling that he was missing something important, something he should already have thought of…

He looked at the hazel-eyed teen in question, and he met his gaze after a moment. Remus' eyes were as calm as ever at first, but half a second later, upon realizing Sirius had been ogling him, his pupils seemed to dilate and he got something in his eyes – a special glint that Sirius had never seen before – that made the animagus feel hope for the tiniest moment of time; hope that Remus could actually feel something more than friendly for him; hopes that he too would enjoy the date for real.

And during this very short moment, Sirius came to think of something Evans had said before, while she had been under the impression she was talking to forgetful, scatterbrained James: "He doesn't want a bloody girlfriend." ... Yet she had then seemed as if she knew Remus liked someone. And when Remus had declared to her that he would be dating Sirius... sure, she'd seemed surprised, but also very happy straight away. Almost as if she had been hoping – expecting – this to happen, merely surprised over the fact that it had happened so very suddenly. Could that mean...?

He took a peek out of his mental reasoning only to find that Remus was now quite bluntly staring at him in a very unsubtle, un-Remus-y way.

"Moony?" he asked in what wasn't much more than a whisper.

"Took you long enough to realise it, you mangy mutt", Remus said in a husky tone of voice which was, too, very out of character for him.

Sirius was hit with the realisation that he must have been voicing his thoughts out loud but didn't care much about it, because in the next very moment Remus leaned right into and across the circle to be down on all fours right in front of Sirius' face, much like one of those impulses Sirius himself often got when the two of them were on the floor together.

None of the two boys could care less of the gawking expressions of their friends' right now (it was none of their business, and surely at least one of them were bound to pass out very soon anyway), as Remus leaned in and snuck a hand behind Sirius' neck to be able to pull him even closer before their lips crashed together.

The kiss was exactly what he'd been imagining. Hot, breath-taking, mind-blowing, pulse-raging and fucking incredible! Their tongues entangled and fought for dominance, explored each others' mouths as if they had never done anything else.

"Sirius", Remus sounded in a low voice, and he made a muffled response, too busy sucking the wolf's neck to bother attempting proper language.

Sirius couldn't believe his luck; could hardly believe that this was even happening for real. After all, this was quite like something that only happened in his own very imaginative head...

"Pads?" Okay, when James said his name like that it didn't by far sound even half as sexy. "Padfoot!" Damn it! You'd think the guy would give you a break when he so clearly saw that Sirius was occupied snogging Remus senseless!

"Sirius..." Ah, back to Remus. "... Wake up."

He grunted as he did what the voice of Remus Lupin told him to most unwillingly. Great! He knew he'd been dreaming of something very pleasant, but it was slipping away from him very fast, merely leaving him with a morning problem. Ah, sweet Merlin, it almost hurt for crying out loud!

He opened his eyes and the annoyance that had been in them during the few couple of seconds he'd been awake disappeared immediately as the first thing he laid his eyes on turned out to be the very familiar pair of hypnotic hazels greeting him.

"Good morning, Sirius", said the welcome voice which seemed so much clearer now, though he still kept it low.

"Yeah, I guess it is", Sirius smiled half-groggily as he stifled a yawn. "Lucky you were the one standing closest to me, or else I might have had Prong's face mere inches from my own right now", he added, casting a glimpse at the black-haired boy next to his Moony.

"Are you suggesting that wouldn't be unbelievably pleasant to everyone?" James hurried to ask with mocking sharpness in his voice.

"I'm not suggesting anything, Prongs, I'm simply telling you", Sirius teased grinning. "It isn't so very nice to hear your voice all randomly and disturbingly in the middle of one's dream, let alone to wake up to you."

"Oh, but Moony's voice you're okay with?" James asked rather pointedly, both eyebrows arched waiting for a response.

"Why of course!" he started in an overly-enthusiastic manner including hinting eyebrow-waggles, when thoughts about what little details he could remember from his dream along with the image of one now distinctly blushing Remus Lupin distracted him from continuing.

Dear God, now it hurt! Sirius clenched his teeth to suppress the sharp groan that was about to rip through his throat and hurriedly swept his eyes across the room trying to focus on something that would help relieving him of his problem without him needing to do so quite literally.

He looked past James' bed and fastened his gaze at the only boy that remained sleeping – at times drooling as he did so.

"Why haven't you woken Pete up?" he asked as soon as he thought his voice wouldn't crack and betray him, and all of a sudden he remembered what day it was. "He's got a date today too, you know."

This seemed to take James with surprise. "He does?"

"Well, sure he does", Sirius replied casually as if it wasn't strange at all. "What, did you just think we'd all abandon him in Hogsmeade like that?" he continued, acting both surprised and reproachful. "And you were fine with that? Tsk, tsk James, not such a good friend now…" he teased, making Remus roll his eyes in that usual fashion that was simply so him.

Unfortunately the mere sight of that put a stop to any imminent improvements to Sirius' condition and did not help the poor bloke at all in his aim to get up without making a considerable amount of noticeable and rather obvious noises.

James wouldn't be himself if he wouldn't have noticed his friend's troubles and used them against him.

"That dream of yours must've been really fascinating, Pads", he bit back in a very suggestive manner. "Not to mention rather... eventful."

If Sirius had been able to get up and reach James without being too revealing, he would most certainly have punched his friend in the face right then and there.

"Oh, shut up you bloody twat!" he yelled, and threw his pillow straight at his spectacled, messy-haired friend, hardly daring to meet Remus' eyes in the process.

"For Merlin's sake, Padfoot, just get up already!" James exclaimed, throwing the pillow back at him. "I'm not gonna be late to my first ever date with Lily just because you couldn't get your sorry ass out of bed!"

x-x-x

"Sorry I'm late!" James exclaimed as soon as he saw the familiar redhead waiting at the gates already. "Sirius just wouldn't... gosh, you look positively stunning!" he continued once he'd run all the way up to her and gotten efficiently distracted by the wonderful sight of a Lily with beautifully up-done hair and – from what he could see of it – nice muggle-clothes underneath her winter cloak.

James' breath was still somewhat ragged from his sprint through the corridors after having taken a shower and eaten breakfast. When James had been sat with the other three Marauders at breakfast he had occupied himself with babbling stressed out complaints to Remus – who was the only one who would listen, while Sirius pretended to listen to Peter in order to avoid dealing with a hyperactive stag – about how worried he was of getting late and how it could be that Lily wasn't present at the table and what if it didn't go well and what if she would back out and leave him if they were late and what time was it again?

"I do hope that wasn't another one of your infamous punch lines", Lily murmured in response to James' last comment, even though she did seem quite flattered by the comment judging by the light smile playing on her lips. "And you aren't late. Neither of you are, I just happened to be early."

"Oh yeah?" Sirius had almost reached the two of them now, dragging Remus along by the wrist, pulling him closer as they came to a halt. "You just happened to be done early with that kind of up-do, the carefully selected outfit and the extremely light layer of make-up you must've been very careful in applying? Geez, you must've been up by six to manage being here alrea-"

"Sirius", Remus muttered beneath his breath and indicatively gripped their now entwined hands firmer.

"All I'm saying is that even if I'm obviously done with girls now and forever, I still remember things I'd rather not, and I know the effort she's making…" By now Sirius attentively noticed that his honesty wasn't really appreciated, and decided to everyone's relief just to leave it at that. "… And I must say you've never looked better, Lily."

"Nice save, Sirius", she said dryly, flushing ever-so slightly beneath the artificial blush.

No one commented on what Sirius had said about being done with girls, all thinking different things about it though not feeling the need/having the guts/being suicidal enough to point their version of the story out.

"No, I actually mean it", Sirius persisted, apparently insistent on being as honest as possible before the date had started to compensate for the lies he would eventually have to make up or stick to if they'd get to heavier subjects. "Really, if it wouldn't be for the fact that I'm all Moony's forever, perhaps we could've..."

"Don't even go there mate", James warned half-heartedly just as Remus and Lily had both been about to step in, without being able to conceive a grin. "Just face it: you're not deadly charming to everyone."

Sirius shrugged. "As long as I am to my Moony", he smiled and snaked his arm around said boy's waist quite unsubtly.

Remus blushed, James rolled his eyes and Lily smiled a genuine smile. All of this went noticed to Sirius, but out of all three reactions Lily's was the most unexpected and – strangely enough – the one that Sirius couldn't seem to get out of his mind. There really was something in the back of his head, nagging for his attention! If only he could make out what he was supposed to remember…

"Shall we go, then?" James asked, partly just to break the silence and partly because he was really eager for his date with Lily to begin – with or without the 'supervision', but obviously he'd have to go with it.

On their way to Hogsmeade there wasn't much talking, apart from James' numerous compliments on Lily's looks, Lily's brilliancy, Lily's choice of clothes, Lily's lovely smelling perfume (Magic Date, not that she'd ever admit it) and Lily in general. Now, Lily Evans wasn't a girl who could be bought with fawning sweet talk – she really didn't care much for it usually – but yet again she didn't exactly do much to show any discomfort at his words…

"So, where do we head first?" Lily wondered, much too eager for her own liking – if she wouldn't have been able to blame it on excitement for Remus and Sirius, that is.

"Well, as I think none of us are really up for a drink this early, we should probably save The Three Broomsticks for later, or what do you say?" James reasoned with surprising logic, maturity and politeness.

"Certainly", Lily said, quite baffled with James' very un-arrogant manner. "Any suggestions, then?"

"Hm… since I doubt you'd love it if your date started with a visit to Zonko's…" Sirius began with a grin.

"Oh for God's sake, we are not going into that distasteful joke shop!" Lily hurried to interrupt him, dislike evident in her voice.

"Distasteful?" Sirius gasped much too dramatic to be taken seriously. (Oh, har har!) "Just because of that, I do believe we will have to reverse your apparent repulsion in some way or another", he stated firmly, and Lily rolled his eyes as she believed him to be joking – in contradiction to the two fellow Marauders who knew for a fact that he was serious.

"Well, that doesn't answer the question of where to go first now, does it?" Lily reminded the three guys, which made Sirius finish his earlier train of thought.

"What about Honeydukes? The place is warm, smells good and we could need to refill our stock of Chocolate Frogs, or what do you say Moons?"

Remus, along with everybody else, thought that seemed to be a good idea, and off they went.

The warmth inside the candy shop was indeed welcome to them all, especially since snow flakes started to appear outside pretty much the second they had all gone indoors. The first snowfall of the season was unusually late this far ahead in the month of December, but that certainly wasn't to say it wasn't cold outside.

Thus, the love-struck little quartet lingered in the shop for slightly longer than it took for Sirius to purchase an almost shameful amount of Sugar Quills, Exploding bonbons, Liquorice Wands and Fizzing Whizzbees, then insist to treat Remus with a whole lot of Frogs and quite a few Chocoballs as well, never mind the lycanthrope's protests.

In the meantime James had found that Honeydukes had apparently started marketing lots of Christmas sweets even before the holidays, and some samples of the more romantic kind obviously intended for Valentine's Day had already been put out in the store. They were obviously going to be a big hit two months from there, but James noticed how the section of the shelf that held them was almost empty even now, and he simply couldn't help himself but buy a small, decorative, unsuspicious looking chocolate box labelled "Sweets for my sweet", and hand it over to Lily.

Lily, on her part, simply couldn't help herself but to smile at the gesture – even if she normally would've found it very cliché and uninventive – and almost – note: almost – hug James in gratitude.

But once the fascination of the shop had turned into boredom as they had all had plenty of time looking around at everything they could possibly drool over or shudder at, the four unanimously decided to exit despite the fact that it kept snowing all the more the longer they waited.

They wandered about the village kind of aimlessly – James innocently warming Lily's hands in his own while Sirius considered the fact that he had perhaps made enough 'couple-moves' on Remus already, especially as Rem was most certainly not as bound to appreciate those kind of advances as he made it look like – but once he noticed they had somehow passed Spintwitches three times, Sirius got a mischievous Marauder-impulse he simply couldn't not go along with.

He bent down and – despite the fact that he foolishly enough didn't carry gloves – he shuffled up some snow from the surprisingly thick layer that had already started to cover the streets, formed it to a ball as quickly as possible, and then – before Remus even had time to open his mouth and question his actions – he aimed it at the unsuspecting victim now walking a couple of meters ahead of him.

"Hey-iieh!" James cried as the snowball first hit him in his neck with a soppy splut, then slid inside of his robes causing goose bumps to appear all over his poor body. "Damn it, Padfoot!" he exclaimed as he spun around rather energetically, completely certain that the other black-haired teenager was the perpetrator of this wicked deed. "You do realise you just proclaimed war against me?"

This, Sirius seemed to have realised quite happily before he had even put his thoughts into action. He erupted into laughter as Lily turned around to see what was going on, and took cover behind his boyfriend – ahem! Supposed boyfriend, that is. He really should be more careful about getting used to these ideas… – as James formed a rather large snowball himself.

Remus cringed as James tried to aim his weapon about two inches beside his head. "Hey, don't get me involved!" he attempted to get away. "I'm just an innocent bystander."

Splat! The face of the innocent bystander was accidentally covered in ice-cold snow with a very fast melting-rate. Lily laughed as Sirius screamed for revenge and justice. That was, until she realised that Sirius' way of avenging his date was to attack and soak James'. … Yes, that would be her.

Splot! And so they had all been dragged into a snowball fight right there in the middle of the street. Sirius felt so lucky that it wasn't windy at the time for two reasons: Firstly, it would've made them all freeze to death very quickly. Secondly, and more importantly, it would've messed with his accurate aim.

The street quickly got icy as it was trampled on, and all of a sudden in the middle of everything, Remus slipped and reached out to grab something to keep him balanced, which was why five seconds later he lay flat on his back in the snow with a surprised looking Sirius on top of him.

The two were facing each other silently and motionlessly for about five seconds more with Remus still grasping the other's collar firmly in his fist, then the surprise was wiped away from Sirius' face to be replaced with a playful and slightly mischievous smile and an inquisitively arched eyebrow as he laughed amusedly.

"Moony dearest, there really was no need to throw us both off our feet like that", he teased shamelessly. "If you've been wanting this to happen you could've just told me, and both of us would've been much warmer right now", he declared with the suggestive words and eyebrow-waggles to instantly make Remus' face burn.

He barked with laughter mostly to be able to hide the tension and need he felt at their closeness and suppress his want to close that half-an-inch distance between their faces – their noses were bumping into each other, for crying out loud! – in order to fiercely snog Remus' brains out.

However, he was fairly sure that such behaviour would not only be harmful for the kids that could very well happen to stroll over here at any time, and possibly offend some conservative village idiots, but it would also shock Remus into possible brain damage and would probably give away the fact that Sirius liked him for real.

So for once Sirius Black didn't go with his impulses, but got to his feet instead and gave Remus a hand to do the same. He still smiled as he leaned close to his friend in order to whisper:

"We sure got'em there, Moonshine. Look at Lily's expression."

Remus looked. And Lily did indeed look all smiley, as if she'd found the cutest teddy bear ever and wanted to cuddle it closely. And she wasn't looking at James. But Remus couldn't do much more than bring a small smile to his lips as he was still catching his breath from that very unexpected – and to him desire filled – incident that he wished he'd be able to shrug off as easily as Sirius could.

"Guys, who joins me to defrost their poor fingers and toes inside The Three Broomsticks?" James asked to get the three's attention in a slight teeth-clapper, and he quickly got them all to follow him to the inn.

Unfortunately they found it to be too crowded for them to even fit inside the door – which, considering the circumstances, weren't particularly strange, really – and so they had to either reconsider their options or simply stand outside and wait for people to leave, hoping they wouldn't freeze their limbs off before that would happen.

It would sure be nice to sit by a warm fire right now, Sirius thought, shivering slightly. With Remus, of course. Like that time a couple of days ago, when we were in the Common Room and I pondered how to properly ask the guy out. He laughed to himself. Well, hadn't that gone bloody brilliant?

"We could move to the Hog's Head", he suggested after about five minutes of impatient waiting.

"That scabby old place?" Lily questioned with a frown.

"It's not the most luxurious place in UK, alright…" Sirius agreed, "… but it's sure good enough to warm up and have a drink at", he thought. "After all, there's bound to be room for the four of us there, and we'll probably get more privacy there than in here."

"Actually, I think Sirius has got a point", Remus thought, earning a "thank you, love! I knew you'd agree!" from the dog in question. "It's better than just standing here, feeling one's body parts gradually go numb, isn't it?"

No one could object to that, and so they turned around and headed for the other bar.

Inside the Hog's Head there was indeed plenty of room for them, even if they had to go past Professors Slughorn and Flitwick to get to their table. It was worth it, though, and when they were about to sit down with each a butterbeer in their possession, James politely pulled out the chair for Lily, much to her appreciation.

When Sirius did the same to Remus, however, all he seemed to get was a raised eyebrow and a confused look from the other boy.

"Since when do you play the part of chivalrous knight in shining armour?" the werewolf wondered with a slightly teasing tone of voice.

"Since I play against you, Moony dearest", he replied calmly with an unembarrassed smile, making Remus shut up and sit down. Once again, Lily smiled at them.

"Where did you guys get those nicknames from anyway?" she wondered curiously as she took a sip from her beer. "I suppose I could work out where Moony and those variants come from, but I've heard the rest of you call each other all kinds of bizarre things as well", she said and paused, apparently using her high position in James' mind as an ace as she shot him a curious look and an overly nice smile. "What is it they use to call you, James?"

James looked as if he'd succumb, which was hardly surprising to the rest of them.

"Well, aside from Padfoot's various and very childish attempts at..."

"Prongs, you traitor!" Sirius interrupted immediately. "How could you ever call me childish?"

"Prongs and Padfoot, that's it", Lily stated proudly. "However, despite my many attempts, I simply can't make sense of any of them. Not Wormy either, or whatever it is that you call Peter."

"Wormtail", James was kind enough to inform her, earning a disliking glare from the dog opposite him. "What? She already knows almost everything anyway, and it's not like I've told her of our monthly escapades."

Sirius growled and Remus shook his head with a sigh as Lily's gaze grew sterner.

"What monthly escapades?" she asked demandingly, and James shot her his most charming smile to try and distract her.

"Let's not talk about that right here and now", he said, nodding towards the many adults and Hogwarts staff that surrounded them – seemingly uninterested, of course, but you never knew…

Lily shrugged, but you could tell by the determined look on her face that she would most definitely have another chat with them about this some other time.

"Guess we'd have to consider buying you a muzzle, mate", Sirius mocked him to ease the atmosphere up a bit. "You just never learn to keep your mouth shut, do you?"

"Git", James retorted quickly.

"Twat."

"Prick."

"Nonetheless, rather a prick than a twat, Prongsie-boy", Sirius said rather indicatively, which made Lily feel the need to interrupt the two of them.

"Boys, mind your language", she said, though a slight smile tugged at the corner of her lips, making her reprimanding considerably lighter and easier to wave off.

Sirius laughed and took a great swig of his drink, and James followed suit.

"Sirius!" a familiar voice reached down to the four of them, completely unexpected and out of the blue.

The black-haired Casanova nearly choked on his butterbeer at this, and didn't have to turn around to know who had just entered. Oh damn. Whatever Wormtail wanted, it couldn't be anything particularly good for others to hear, as he knew the little rat was supposed to be out on a date of his own. The hufflepuff girl surely wouldn't have ignored her date and went out with her friends instead, leaving Pete to have to look for his friends… would she? Either way, Sirius was positive he didn't want to talk to the rodent right now.

"Oh, look, lucky-knut!" he exclaimed, pointed his finger at the floor and disappearing under the table the next second.

"Padfoot, what the fuck?" James said rather bemused.

"The Cloak, Prongs", Sirius hissed from under the table. "You're bound to have brought it with you."

"But why?" James wondered in a more normal-pitched voice.

"Just… now, mate!" he whispered rather urgently as he saw what he thought was Peter's feet moving from the door to get closer to the centre of the room; closer to them.

James, never one to deny his friends what he could grant them, discreetly reached a hand inside of the cloak he was wearing and used the table to cover from both Lily's and anyone else's eyes as he pulled out his invisibility cloak and gave it to his friend without anyone realising it… except possibly for Remus, who had been awfully quiet ever since Peter had walked into the picture.

Remus! Sirius realised he'd probably have to get said boy out of here as well, in case Peter would walk up and say something stupid. That was why a somewhat bewildered Remus Lupin was pulled under the table and under the invisibility cloak within the next few seconds, and of course he went with the grey-eyed Adonis as he urged him to follow him.

The two canines were on their way of getting up from their crawling position on all fours once they had gotten out from the table, and by then Peter had just about reached their table with the hufflepuff girl accompanying him.

"Oh", they heard the smallest Marauder say, "I thought I saw Sirius with you, James and… Lily?"

"Hello, Peter. And Marlene Simmons, right?" she added politely, and then Sirius could hear them making girl-conversations telling the other of their date while James wondered why Peter wanted to see Sirius.

"Well, as I thought he was here I just wanted to thank him for setting me up with Marlene", he replied, sounding happier than usual, and Sirius knew he should really hurry the last meters to the exit. "She's really wonderful, and if Sirius wouldn't have brought us together at breakfast two da-"

The rest of what the rat said was lost to Sirius – and hopefully to Remus too – as the door to the Hog's Head closed behind them and they were left with quiet in the empty street.

"You set Peter up with Marlene?" Remus immediately asked before they had even managed to take the cloak off of them.

"Yeah, I figured it was about time that those two got together", Sirius admitted though he carefully retouched reality a bit. "And I didn't want to hear him going on about her all the time anymore, so what does a poor seductions expert do?" he added quite dramatically.

"You do realise he'll probably talk even more about her now that they're a couple, Sirius?" Remus pointed out somewhat sceptically.

"Darn it, you're probably right, Rem! Why didn't I think of that?" he wondered out loud in his most innocent tone of voice.

The werewolf rolled his eyes. "Besides, it sounded like Peter was referring to when you pulled him away to the hufflepuff table two days ago when he talked about when you set them up", he continued quite suspiciously, "but that doesn't really make any sense at all, does it? Because back when I first agreed to go out with you, you claimed that Peter had a date arranged already then."

Sirius had already a while back realised his stupidity in saying such a thing to Remus instead of just saying "we'll work something out for him" and not have that part to worry about. ... And of course he also realised that lying to people – especially loved, kind-hearted, intelligent and extremely observant werewolves with spotless memory – was really stupid as well... He leaned at the wall when trying to win some time and Remus mimicked his movement absentmindedly.

"He didn't talk about two days ago, he said today, didn't you hear him?" Sirius tried to wrench himself out of it. "While you were busy dealing with James' nerves at breakfast, I advised Pete about how he should act and what he should say and do on his date. And obviously his date has gone well so far, so I suppose that was what he also wanted to thank me for."

Sirius thanked Merlin that Peter had been so busy going on and on about his upcoming date of the day, and that James had acted an absolute wreck in the meantime, craving Moony's attention. He was also lucky that Remus seemed to accept his explanation whether he believed in it or not.

"Then I have one last question left: why did you decide to pull me with you and sneak out of there?" the brunette asked confusedly.

Sirius put on a somewhat cheeky grin. "Well, that would be because I wanted to steal you away from the others, Moony my dear", he said with that indicative voice again – which made Remus go crazy even if he didn't show it – and moved closer to the other boy so that he practically had him pinned against the wall. "Or what do you reckon Lily will say when she finds us out here in this very suggestive position…?"

Just like that, the wolf had been majorly sidetracked. This was soon going to be way too much for him to handle, really, and he felt how his pulse went racing at the proximity of Sirius' body. If only James and Lily would come and "interrupt them" soon – Remus loved being alone with the other boy too much for their own good, but it was so much easier being with Sirius today when there were people surrounding them; because when there were, he could always get away with his small errors of being too obviously close to him or looking too much at him or whatever it was, simply by blaming it on the acting. This was a rather unique day he had been granted; a day when Sirius would never question if he said too much about things he usually kept to himself, or if he reacted in an odd way on body contact – after all, he was supposed to be in love with the boy today.

But right now, it was still just them all alone… Well, he could at least be grateful to the fact that it started to grow darker around them already as it was winter and all, so that soon Sirius would barely be able to notice if he blushed lightly or moved very slowly. He only wished Sirius would make it easier for him and his straining self control by backing away a bit, but he couldn't very well open his mouth to say it because he was sure what would come out if he tried would be something in the straight opposite meaning.

"Remus?" Sirius all of a sudden opened his mouth to say, and now he sounded more serious (and less like himself, ironically). "Let me know if you think I act too weird for you, okay?" This was said in a barely audible whisper but because of the closeness and his lycanthropy, Remus heard him.

He couldn't answer though. What should he say? 'No, I actually only find this utterly pleasant'? Yeah, right, and then he wouldn't have to play hurt when Sirius would spread the word that they weren't dating anymore, so that he'd be able to escape Remus forever. But he couldn't very well say 'Yes, I do find your behaviour disturbing and would like you to keep a meter's distance from me at all times', could he? That would be a lie, not to mention that he would hate to offend or hurt Sirius like that, plus that he would hate it if he would actually comply with that.

So he hesitated with his answer for so long that both of them seemed to be relieved when they heard the familiar voice of one Lily Evans.

"… Didn't see them leaving at all, and if they'd wait for us they ought to be freezing by now… Oh!" she turned her gaze from James to the other two boys. "… Or maybe not…" she added, and actually blushed as Sirius decided to comment on her staring – which amused him a great deal since they hadn't in fact done something for real, but barely standing there looking not-so-innocent and all.

"Care to take a picture, Evans?" he teased her. "Or would you rather join us?"

There he went again with that eyebrow-waggle of his. Lily and James both rolled their eyes at him simultaneously.

"Honestly, sometimes I don't understand what Remus sees in you, Sirius", the redhead said. "You're unbelievably immature."

Sirius shrugged. "Who doesn't love that about me? I bet even you do, you just won't admit it to yourself."

Another eye-roll. Sirius wondered if it was Remus' behaviour that had been so contagious to her.

"You may have to consider the idea that even if Remus loves you, that doesn't mean everyone else does." She could've just ended it with 'Remus loves you' for all the difference it made in Sirius' mind. He considered that idea alright, and found it very intriguing; so intriguing that he got lost in thought and didn't even notice how Remus' whole body stiffened next to him. "Speaking of which, how in the world did you guys realise you were both in love with each other?"

Lily was particularly curious of this and had pondered the question ever since she was told they would go on this date – especially since she had tried to convince Remus that Sirius was in fact in love with him ever since she discovered the werewolf's love for the hopeless scallywag.

Sirius felt like he should take the directive of answering her question, so that Remus would have plenty of time making some believable story up while he could actually just tell the truth and none would be the wiser.

"Well, for me it was actually not dramatic at all", he thus said, and at his words everyone thought of how unrealistic that seemed for Sirius, the drama-queen – ahem, king – personified. "Guess I kinda realised it when I couldn't close my eyes to it any longer, I mean… don't get me wrong, I wasn't in denial or something but I was just… oblivious", he explained, and gave a bit of extra thought to it since he hadn't actually thought particularly much about it. "We'd always been close, right Moonshine? I had never even imagined life without him. But after a certain incident in which I had acted like a total ass…"

"Don't you always?" Lily interjected with certain softness around her usually sharp voice, letting them know she was joking and did in fact listen to what was said.

"… The point is", Sirius continued with a look of feign annoyance at the interruption, "after that I had to face that I might lose him for real…"

"You wouldn't have. I forgave you", Remus felt the need to interpose, as he had gotten unexpectedly carried away with Sirius' words – they did touch many soft and sensitive spots, he had to admit. Sirius was really skilled.

"You did, Rem", the black-haired dog said, smiling softly at him with a look of true fondness in his eyes which almost caused the wolf to lose his balance. "You did, so quickly I hardly dared to believe it, in fact. I guess that's just another thing I love about you."

Remus could get used to this. Definitely. And it was so wrong because the words didn't hold the meaning of which they were made out to. He had to gulp several times to avoid saying or showing how badly he wanted them to be real.

"Anyway, I hated the thought of losing him", he continued explaining to the curious redhead. "And even after I had been forgiven… by Remus, that is… I guess I grew more protective of him. Somewhere in the middle of all this I realised how much I'd do for him… and that I loved you." He said the last part directed to Remus himself. After all, this was a wonderful day in which he was supposed to be in love with the lycan; truly, madly, deeply in love. "More than I should, really. But it has gone great so far, so…" he trailed off. Admittedly he supposed it could've gone greater. But, oh well, one step at a time, right?

Remus inwardly snorted. Yes indeed, look at how absolutely splendid things had gone! Just look at the fact that Sirius had no idea that he liked him for real, and judge for yourself of the greatness of their love.

Not that he was bitter or anything. He had Sirius as a friend and that was by far more than he had ever expected upon arriving to Hogwarts; so much more than he deserved, and that should be enough… Should be…

He almost flinched as Sirius' fingers gently wrapped around his own, pulling him out of his own thoughts and back to reality and expectant gazes.

"Oh", he said as he realised they ought to be waiting for him to tell them his part of the story. "… Well, my version isn't quite as good as yours, Sirius. I, for one, was in denial." He shot Lily a meaning glance, and that was that.

Sirius was surprised at how Lily seemed to let it go just like that, without hearing any details. Once again it felt like it was something he missed about her, like she knew something about Remus that no one else did. But that couldn't be, because she obviously didn't know that this was all a fake. … Did she?

For the first time Sirius considered the possibility that he had perhaps overestimated his own cleverness. What if Lily had in fact realised it was a scam already, simply deciding to go along with it because… Yeah, why? To get a couple of laughs on Sirius' behalf? That didn't seem like her, from what he had started to learn about the girl who was obviously more than simply a law-abiding prefect and the teacher's pet.

A gust of cold air interrupted all the thoughts Sirius had had time to think during the latest few seconds, and Lily shivered visibly, awaking Prongs from his apparent slumber enough for him to put an arm around her – and apparently Lily was actually cold enough as to lean in to the touch rather than to jinx the arm off him.

"What do you say we head back to the castle and a warm fire?" James suggested to all of them, and the green-eyed witch seemed quite keen on the idea. "We've been around pretty much everywhere anyway, and it's getting dark."

Sirius would be willing to bet that all four of them knew James really wouldn't mind the darkness himself, though he supposed it seemed a decent thing to say, even if he doubted James had any plans of actually ending the date just because they went back to the castle.

"You're saying that you back out on Zonko's?" he mocked in fake-agitation. "Are you no longer bothering filling up our joke supplies? Do you leave me here, alone and miserab-?"

"You're included in the 'we', and therefore free to come with us, you know", James clarified with a roll of his eyes. Really, why does everyone keep imitating his Moony as soon as they want to seem responsible? "And even if you don't, you won't be alone, because then I'm guessing Moony will stay with you. And you didn't seem to be so very miserable being alone with him a couple of minutes ago", he pointed out, even if he probably didn't draw exactly the same conclusions as Lily about what he and Remus had been doing – he pretty much nailed it regardless of what he believed. "Besides, our supplies hardly need another refill, Pads", he added with his usual, joking voice and a wink… which he perhaps shouldn't have done so very straight-forwardly right in front of Lily.

"So you're not coming, then?" Lily wondered, considerately choosing to ignore the last comment of James'.

Sirius really wouldn't have had anything against heading for their comfortable common room, cosily warming up in front of a crackling fire in the couch or on the floor – his doggy instincts made him feel quite at home and comfortable on the floor as well – admiring the way the light played with Remus' hair openly this time…

It was just that he suspected Remus was quite fed up with this entire act – not that the lovely werewolf would ever choose to phrase himself like that – and would like to take a break from it, which he wouldn't be able to do in James and Lily's presence.

Sirius felt quite bad about himself now as well. It must have been such an over-whelming day to his – well, not technically his, he knew that! – poor Moony. After all, when he'd agreed to "go out" with him, it had been on the term of them not having to do 'a whole lot of obvious couple-things', and really, he thought, it took just about someone with Remus' incredible strength, heart and self-control to be able to go through with this for a day like the brunette had. That was three more things he loved about the boy, by the way.

So, basically, he said no to Lily's request, with the explanation of him having too much energy left for the day to sit down and relax yet.

"But you two go ahead", he said politely, then in a not quite as polite manner he added: "Just don't keep her up too late, Prongs. She's cranky when tired."

Lily frowned at his words but kept her head up high as she was to say goodbye to the dog and his werewolf.

"Do you know what, Sirius?" she said right before she turned to walk away with James. "You're actually not as bad as I thought you were."

Well, that was… sort of nice. Too bad then, that she had said that while unaware of the fact that he was a bloody cowardly liar. Things would've been so much better if this had all been for real; a real date, with no lies, no hiding; Remus having real feelings towards him.

Not that he was bitter or anything. He had Remus as a friend, and surely two friends could stargaze together all alone as they walked about in no particular direction in deserted streets to stay warm (after finishing the best date in Sirius' life). Could they not?

Sorry if it was too long, I actually tried to part the chapter into two pieces but it just wouldn't work with me :/ And also because this is extra long I admit that I haven't thoroughly checked my grammar, but hopefully you weren't too bugged about it... Also it hit me that some of you might be confused as to how the whole thing seemed to go unbelievably well to Sirius and no one suspected a thing about it... Well, all I can say is hit me with ideas, and do take notice of how I wrote a lot in italic *wink wink*

Now I would very much like for you to review and tell me what you think about it, because as you might have noticed I do tend to try and listen to any feedback/idea and keep it in mind for future improvement (and since this was new to me I guess it would be kinda nice to hear that it didn't suck too bad ;p ).