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The following morning, Sirius was awoken, disgruntledly, by a swiftly tossed pillow and a few pokes to the ribs. Grumbling, he opened his eyes to see James standing directly above him, fully dressed, wide-eyed, and far too energetic for the early morning.

"Bloody hell," He swore, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "What time is it?"

""Round 9." James answered with a shrug. "I couldn't go back to sleep." Sirius groaned, knowing that "around 9" meant it was likely only half past 8.

"Right." He answered, rolling over. "I'm going back to sleep."

"No you're not." James grabbed the cover from Sirius' bed and yanked it right off of him. "You're coming to breakfast with me." Glaring at his friend, Sirius groggily crawled off the mattress and stumbled toward the bathroom.

"I'm taking a shower first!" He called back.

As Sirius ran the faucet and waited for the water to heat up, he felt the beginnings of nervousness seep into his system. He hadn't entirely worked out how he was going to hide his cuts from James. He figured his best bet was to change into his Quidditch clothes before even going down stairs, to eliminate the difficulty of using the changing tent near the pitch.

Once the water had warmed, Sirius stepped into the stream and let the stream trickle down his face and body. For a solid ten minutes he made no move to actually clean himself in any way. He was looking forward to his day with James, but irritatingly, he was plagued by the sensation of fluttering in his stomach, which no amount of self-scolding would make go away.

It's not a bloody date, Sirius. He told himself. You've hung out with James loads of times. Calm the fuck down.

He began scrubbing down, making a careful avoidance of his cuts. He heard pounding on the door.

"Merlin's Beard!" James shouted. "How long does it take you to take a bloody shower?!" Sirius growled under his breath.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Sirius washed his hair quickly and turned off the faucet. Wrapping himself with one towel and draping another over his arm, he re-entered the dorm, and walked right into an argument between James and Remus.

"It's not even 9 in the morning, James!" Sirius rolled his eyes and grabbed some Quidditch clothes from his trunk. This was the perfect distraction.

"Who cares, Moony? It's the weekend. Do you want to spend it all day sleeping?"

"Frankly, James, yes, I do." Sirius dressed quickly, carful to keep his back to the room.

"Well, then you should have put a sound barrier on your curtains." James said in a huff.

"Padfoot loves me." He retorted. "He isn't yelling at me." Sirius distinctly noticed Remus wince at this, but James didn't seem to pick it up. "Come on, best friend." Said James, turning around and prancing over to link his arm with Sirius'. "On with our date!" Behind James, Remus buried his face in his hands and groaned. Sirius just tried to ignore the statement. He couldn't.

"Are you awake yet Padfoot?"

"Sort of," he mumbled back.

"Well wake up, then! Come on. Let's get you some coffee." Sirius couldn't help but smile.

This is a good day, Sirius. You're not going to spend it miserable. He scolded himself for being in low spirits and entered the Great Hall with a determination to enjoy his day with James.

As it was a Sunday morning, and not yet 9am, the Great Hall was relatively empty. Sirius sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table and James plopped himself down beside him. Suddenly ravenous, Sirius began piling his plate full of eggs, bacon, toast, and whatever else happened to appear in front of him.

Rather than filling his own plate, James instead started filling Sirius's goblet with coffee.

"Drink that." He demanded. "You're going to need your energy when you get your arse handed to you today."

"You wish!" Sirius attempted to jab through a mouth full of food. "If anyone needs energy, it's you."

James, who was now filling his plate snorted in response.

"Yeah right, Black. I'm going to wipe the pitch with you." Sirius rolled his eyes and the two sat in silence together. After finished his own food, James started to pick off of Sirius' plate.

"Can I help you?" James only stuck out his tongue in response.

After they had both eaten, the boys headed down to the pitch, still jabbing each other with competitive remarks about the game.

James stopped for a moment to change and Sirius waited outside the tent.

"You know," he called from inside. "You're going to regret that decision when you're all hot and sweaty later!"

"Eh. Whatever." James emerged from the tent wearing his tight-fitting Quidditch sweater and Sirius took a gulp of air.

"Last one to the goal hoop sleeps with Slytherins!" James announced without warning and took off into the air.

"God dammit!" Sirius shouted, kicking off and regretting James' head start. He still somehow managed to win.

Sirius hovered in front of the far goal post and stuck out his tongue.

"Prongs sleeps with Slytherins!" he sang. "Gets in bed and slithers in! Prongs sleeps with – " he wasn't able to finish and was interrupted in his song by James flying right into him, forcing him to spiral into the goal post. Sirius only laughed and flew upwards so he was hovering a few feet about James' head.

"Prongs sleeps with Slytherins!" he started again. He took off across the pitch.

The two played chase for close to half an hour before James remembered the snitch he'd snuck out and they turned their focus on to finding it.

"Now," James shouted across the pitch, "If you had to sleep with any Slytherin, who would it be?" Sirius shrugged. He hadn't told James he was gay. "Heather Snubs I guess." James feinted a dive and Sirius fell for it. Grumbling to himself, he flew back up to level himself with his friend."

"What about you?"

"I slept with that Ramona girl 6th year, remember? It was kind of awkward." Sirius nodded.

The stopped talking for a bit and flew around the pitch in search of the snitch. As was usual between the two of them, everything they did became a competition. It didn't matter if they were diving, ascending, spinning, speeding, what have you. Sirius found himself having more fun than he'd had in some time.

When James inevitably beat Sirius to catching the snitch, they landed with the intention of resting. Sirius instead tackled James to the ground and yanked the struggling snitch from his adversary's hand.

"No fair!" James exclaimed. Reversing the tackle and pinning Sirius to the ground. "I caught that!"

"Well I re-caught it!" Sirius told him, shoving him off. "I win." James shot him a glare and they both lay on the grass, panting. Sirius was acutely aware of their shoulders touching. "So… have you slept with her yet?" He asked after some silence. He wasn't sure if he actually wanted to know the answer.

"Lily?" James answered as though he'd forgotten her existence. "No." He was quiet for a moment. "To be honest… I haven't wanted to." Surprised at this, Sirius rolled on to his stomach and propped himself up to look at his friend.

"What do you mean you haven't wanted to? You've been after her since our first year." James frowned and looked away.

"Yeah… I know… She's beautiful and all, and she's fun to hang out with and it's wonderful to finally have her under my wing but I just haven't been… interested. Sexually, you know." He turned his head back to face Sirius and for a moment their eyes locked. For the longest times Sirius stared into hazel. James absentmindedly reached up and pulled at one of Sirius curls. "She doesn't know me." He said after a while. He closed his eyes and Sirius rolled back over onto his back.

"Well of course she doesn't," he said, pulling off James' glasses and putting them on his own face. "You've basically only just met."

"I guess."

"What do you expect?" Sirius asked. "That she know you like a best friend?"

"No…" James answered slowly. "But it feels like she doesn't try to know me. Not on a deep level, anyway. Like yesterday. We had fun and all but every time our conversation went more than superficial it just got awkward." This time James rolled over to put his face over Sirius. "Is that bad?"

"I wouldn't say it's bad." Sirius answered. "I'm sure with time that will change." James chewed on his lower lip.

"I kind of don't want her to know me like that. It's awkward and kind of embarrassing."

"Well then that is a problem if you want to be with her long term… But I feel like the awkward stage is kind of normal." Sirius' stomach was fluttering. James stared down at him, his hazel eyes boring into him.

"It was never awkward with you." He answered quietly. His eyes lingered on James for a moment and then he sat up and started to pull grass out of the pitch. Sirius rolled onto his stomach and rested his forehead on his arms.

"Yeah…" He answered into the grass. "But I'm not a girl and you're also not dating me."

"Shouldn't it be easier, though?" He heard James reply. "If I'm looking at spending all my time with someone shouldn't it be easier? Hell, Sirius, you're really the only one who does know me." At the use of his real name, Sirius sat up. James rarely used it and when did, it was for serious reasons. "I kind of like it that way."

"You okay, Prongs?" Sirius asked. James sighed and took his glasses off Sirius' face.

"Yeah." He answered, cleaning the lenses on his robe. "I'm fine. This whole thing just isn't how I expected." Sirius reached forward and placed a hand on James' shoulder.

"Don't stay in a situation that makes you unhappy, mate." For an unknown reason, James reached up and put his hand on top of the one that Sirius had put on his shoulder.

"I wish you'd tell me what was wrong." He said finally. Sirius sighed and pulled his hand out from under James'.

"I wish I could," he answered quietly. "I do." James started playing with his curls again. Sirius didn't understand what was going on. He'd never done this before. Every once in a while he opened his mouth to say something, but never actually made a sound. He stopped playing with Sirius' hair.

"Is it me?" He asked, finally. "Do you not trust me?" Sirius shook his head quickly.

"God no, James. I trust you to the end of this world, and I really hope you know that. I just can't. I don't know why, I just can't." James chewed worriedly on his lower lip. They watched each other for a long while and James again started to play with his hair.

"I'm jealous of your eyes, you know." James said. "I wish mine could be blue like yours. All the girls look at you."

"I'm gay, Prongs." Sirius blurted out before he could stop himself. "I always have been. I…" He buried his face in his hands. "I've never told anyone." He mumbled.

"Well that's no big deal, mate. Why wouldn't you just say so?" Sirius just shrugged.

"Is that what's been upsetting you?" James asked him with a hopeful tone. He shook his head.

"Oh…" Sirius moved his hands and peeked up at his friend.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. James frowned.

"Don't be. I'll respect your privacy." Sirius nodded. "I think I might end it with Lily." He said after a while. "If things don't get better." He laid down and put his head on Sirius knee, staring up into the sky.

"Whatever makes you happy," Sirius answered, feigning indifference.

On the inside, his heart was soaring.

REVIEW PLEASE, and friend me on Pottermore. My screen is fireboltrain23830. I'll try to update soon.