Number twelve, Grimmauld Place had always felt more like a prison than a home to Sirius Black. For that reason he was almost livid when Lupin suggested that that be where they move to. Harry had been so overjoyed to see his godfather and mentor still alive, that he did not mind giving up the home to them. Sirius tried to refuse, but somehow found himself standing in the entryway to his childhood home. Reluctantly he walked in beside Lupin.
It was not so bad at first. Then they passed the threshold and the portrait of Walburga Black. "Shame of my flesh!" Her voice rang in the halls.
Sirius winced and scowled at the painting. "Who uncovered the old bird?"
"She's your mother." Lupin frowned, either at the noise or at Sirius, it was a bit unclear.
"If we are going to stay here the first thing we do is find a way to take her down. Because I would rather sleep outside."
"Blood traitors!" She continued her lamenting. "Haven't you even the decency to stay dead? You are no son of mine. Get out of my house."
Sirius looked at the slender werewolf who was wincing beside him. "The first thing."
**
Taking down the monstrous painting proved to be harder than they had thought, and for the first few nights Sirius did sleep outside. Lupin tried to just keep the painting covered and pretend that she was not there. Sirius on the other hand seemed to take a strange perverse delight in tormenting the frail old woman in the painting as he struggled to find a spell that would take her off the wall.
One such afternoon was passing and Lupin could hear, from the downstairs kitchen, Walburga shouting at her son that he needed to have children. That thought made the werewolf pale. He could imagine the trouble that a herd of little Sirius's would do. It was a terrifying scenario to contemplate. Terrifying, but in a way, almost cute. He ascended the stairs to tell his friend that their meal was ready (they would have had Kreacher cooking for them, but the house-elf strictly refused to have anything to do with either of them)
"No, you daft old bitty. I don't care if the line dies out." Sirius was growling from between his teeth.
"What are you doing?" Lupin couldn't help but ask.
Sirius paused, one foot against the wall for leverage, and in his hands a branch from outside that he had somehow managed to wedge behind the painting. "Trying things the muggle way?" He offered with a shrug and continued to try and pry the painting down.
His mother wailed at the thought, and this sent up a chorus from the other paintings down the hall. "Muggle way?" she clasp her boney hands over her heart as though she would faint. "My son, abandoning magic and refusing to have children. Shame of my flesh."
"You already said that." He abandoned the branch and rubbed his hands on his pant legs.
"Doomed to die alone. His stubbornness will be the end of our family line." More paintings were starting to cry. It was almost comical and Remus had to lower his head to hide a little smile.
"I won't be alone." He slipped a long arm around Remus's narrow shoulders.
His mother roller her head back, letting out a moan of despair. "That filthy blood traitor? He can't have sons for you."
"No, but that hasn't stopped us from trying." He leaned down and planted a firm kiss on his unsuspecting friend.
It was at that point that Walburga Black fainted, so she was not witness to Lupin squirming out of Sirius's embrace and hastily wiping his mouth. "You tease your poor old mother all you want, but you leave me out of this, Padfoot."
Sirius's grin was wide enough that it threatened to split his face in two. "Are you blushing?"
"Lunch is ready." Remus hurried off down the hall, eager to escape the joyful barking laughter of the madman.
He busied himself with putting food on the table and pausing to wipe his mouth for the umpteenth time. Sirius had always been a bit of a 'free spirit', but Remus wanted no part of it.
And as he thought of the devil, so he was, Sirius Black slid up on almost silent feet behind him. His voice was soft and low. "Is that a wand in your robe, or are you just happy to see me?"
Remus awkwardly turned round and hit at his friend's chest. "Just go sit down and eat, you useless lump."
But Sirius did not leave as he was told; instead he slipped an arm back around the slender werewolf and grinned down at him. "Hey, Remy, is that a mirror in your pocket? Because I can really see myself in your pants?"
Even knowing he should not encourage his friend, Remus could not hold back the quiet laughter. "What rubbish. Go sit down."
"Hey," Sirius let go and made his way to a chair. "I was proud of that one. It used to work real well for me back at Hogwarts."
Remus had to stop what he was doing to laugh again. "Please don't tell me you actually said that to real people. I'm surprised you weren't hexed more often."
"Hey, now. I will have you know that that is one of my best lines." He took a bite of his food and grinned. "It was a four out of five for its rate of success."
"It was only out of pity, I assure you." Remus did his best to hide his smile.
"Hey, a pity shag is just as good as the real thing." He took a dink of pumpkin juice. "Hey, Moony, you know why the Sorting Hat placed me in Gryffindor?"
Remus blinked at his friend over the table, confused at the sudden change in topic, but before he could answer, Sirius continued.
"I think it's because, like Godric Gryffindor himself, I too have an impressive sword." That simple statement was followed by a somewhat suggestive eyebrow wiggle.
Confusion was quickly replaced with amusement- tempered with disgust. Remus threw some bread at his friend. "You get out of this kitchen, right now."
**
An owl arrived later that week, with a letter from the Ministry. Lupin read it over many times, scarcely believing his eyes. He took the pristine parchment and went to the entry way to show Sirius.
"Do you know what this is?" He smiled and waved it where the man could see it.
Sirius only paused a moment, he had somehow found what muggles called a hack-saw and was busying himself with removing the part of the wall that his mother was affixed to. "A love letter? Congrats, mate."
"What? No." He held the letter to his chest. "It's a letter from the Ministry. They are offering me a job."
Sirius paused again, this time to pull his sweaty shirt off. "That's brilliant." He wiped some sweat from his brow and grinned over at Remus. "I don't suppose you want to help before accepting the position? It's bloody hard work to do things this way."
Remus for a moment had no words anywhere inside of him to offer up. His brown eyes traveled over Sirius's lithe form. The man was all hard, lean muscle and his hips (where they peeked over the edge of his pants) were an almost hypnotic expanse of soft plains and sharp angles. Remus felt his mouth go dry and it was a confusing experience.
"Moony, you alright?" Sirius clapped a hand onto his friends shoulder, and that was enough to bring Remus back from wherever it was his mind had gone.
"Right, I need to go send them back an owl." He turned and walked back up the stairs to his room.
Sirius watched him go, and worried slightly for his friend.
**
Remus started work at the Ministry. He was heading some research on death related magical items, and he had not been happier in years. It was good to be working again. It was good to be doing anything again after being dead (for what had turned out to be only a few months). He felt like he fit in somewhere.
Every day when he returned from work he was greeted by a tired Sirius (who was still attempting to remove the large piece of wall) and a request for dinner. Once Sirius had attempted to cook food on his own, as a surprise for his friend, and the small kitchen fire certainly was surprising if nothing else. But they both agreed it was for the best that the taller of the two stay out of the kitchen unless he could be properly supervised. Despite the normal little problems that arose from living in Grimmauld Place together, both men were fairly content.
Weeks were spent in a sort of haphazard bliss, until one day Remus returned early from work.
He was pleased to see the gaping hole on the wall had been completed. Not knowing where exactly Sirius's mother had gone to, he trod quietly through the hall. He started to go down to the kitchen, thinking to get an early start on dinner, but he had to stop at the landing for the stairwell. Sirius was bustling about in the kitchen, fixing tea in a non-magic way. It was not the wand-less way in which he was occupying his time that made Remus stop. It was the clothes-less way in which his friend was moving about.
As if sensing he was being watched, Sirius looked up to the top of the stairs. There was no embarrassment on his face as he smiled. "You're home early. How was work?"
Finally summoning the will to avert his eyes, Remus studied the wood grain of the wall. "Why, in Merlin's name are you naked?"
He shrugged his narrow shoulders. "I like to feel free?"
"Put some clothes on, please." Remus had, on a small handful of occasions, seen his friend naked before. But they had been in the school showers and pointedly not looking at each other. This new flagrantly careless way Sirius was lounging about was something different and inexplicably distracting.
Sirius watched the guarded expressions that passed over his friends face, and noted the slight pinkness that had crept over his cheeks. "Nope. It's my house."
"You have company over." He ran a nervous hand through his hair, not willing to spare a peek down at the man he was talking to.
"Bollocks, who's here?"
"I am." His voice had taken on a note of distress and he was wondering why he hadn't simply gone back out to the hall at this point in his life.
"You're not a guest… You're just Remus." He thumped up the stairs and placed himself much closer to Remus than the man was comfortable with.
"What are you doing?" He was suspicious, and the way that he almost glared out of the corner of his eye showed it.
"I've got to get past you to go upstairs and get my clothes."
"Just apparate yourself."
"Don't have my wand on me." He liked the way that his friend's cheeks were flushed and how he couldn't keep eye contact. Even if it was just Remus Lupin, his friend of so many years, it was the first time that someone had acted that way with him in… in much longer than he cared to remember.
"And why not?" He was edging back to the hall in a small attempt to escape his friend who was acting stranger than normal.
"No pockets." He placed a hand and head level on the wall beside Lupin, blocking his exit. "Are you blushing, Moony?"
"No, it's warm in here. Go get dressed."
"You know, you were blushing when I kissed you, too." He leaned closer.
"I did no such thing." He pushed at his friend's bare chest and moved to go down the stairs since the other way was blocked.
"Do you fancy blokes?"
"No." He said almost too quickly. It was an honest answer. He had never even considered being attracted to a man; there had always been more important things to worry about. "Do you?" It was another sideways glance accompanied by a nervous shuffle down a step, but it was not fast enough to save him.
Sirius placed his other hand on the wall, blocking both sides. "I've always been a believer in free love. Why would I let a lack of breasts come between me and a good snog?"
"Charming."
He shrugged languidly. "I do what I can… Hey, Remus?"
"Don't." It was an exasperated warning, because he knew that nothing he did was going to stop whatever lewd comment was about to issue from his friends lips.
"I may not be wearing an invisibility cloak, but do you think I could still visit your restricted section tonight?"
"I have no problems with pushing you down the stairs. You do know that, right?" Lupin let his head fall back against the wall and looked at one of the water stains on the ceiling.
"But, Voldamort is coming, and only your love can save me."
"I am taking out my wand." It was a warning, and he only moved slightly to open his jacket.
"I would much rather you take out mine."
Lupin straightened himself and just looked fully into the face of his friend. "Really now?"
"Yeah… that one works better when I have pants on."
"You've actually used that when someone was threatening you?"
He shrugged, running a hand through his wild locks. "What is a threat, other than another way of saying 'yes'?"
Before he could continue with his tirade of horrible come-ons, there was Remus's wand, tucked neatly up under his chin. "I am going to make dinner and you are going to get dressed."
Sirius didn't know if his friend was serious. And knowing the shorter man, he could assume that he was not… but he felt it best not to push his luck anymore than he already had. Well, not to much more in any case. "Alright, but only because you asked so nice." He made a quick dash in, wanting to steal a kiss, if only because he had forgotten how much fun it was to tease his friend.
But Remus sensed him moving and turned his head away. The end result was a sloppy peck on the edge of his ear and a little biting nip that made him flatten himself against the wall in surprise. He turned to tell Sirius off, but all that Remus saw was his friend's bare backside retreating down the hall.
Flushed and shaking, Remus finished the short walk down into the kitchen and stared at the stove for longer than necessary before finally taking off his jacket and starting on the meal.