Remus Lupin watched Sirius Black out of the corner of his eye, watching the raven-haired boy stand on top of a table with two girls, with another standing at the bottom giving them a lecture, the whole ordeal with a background track of David Bowie.

"Get down from there." All three of them on the table promptly ignored her, and Sirius crouched to turn the music up.

"You're going to injure yourselves- right, Remus?"

"Mhm." Remus's unbothered response was drowned out by the music and Lily's protests.

"Moony," Sirius whined from the top of the table. Remus looked up over the top of his book at Sirius and his frizzy hair.

"Yes?"

"Tell Evans that we're fine and that she should respectfully piss off."

"No."

"Stop being a buzzkill." Sirius jokingly whined again.

"I'm not being a buzzkill."

"You're in denial."

"Seriously?" Remus muttered and turned the page of his book.

"Yes, I'm Sirius."

"You're being a drama queen if I'm being a buzzkill."

Sirius amusingly flopped over and fainted into the arms of Mary, who caught him for a split second before dropping him in the direction of the fireplace. Fortunately for Sirius (and Lady Pomfrey), he leaned forwards to the table and fell onto that instead, hitting his head on the front of the table.

"This is why-" Lily began her well-deserved "I told you so" and "This is what happens" rant before Sirius interrupted it, flipping her off, turning away, and ignoring his head entirely.

"Fuck off Evans." Lily gave Remus a look, a lightheartedly judgemental one.

"C'mon Moony, get on up here." Sirius was down on one knee on the tabletop, eye to eye with Remus, holding his hand out. Remus dropped his book on the floor and stood up, allowing Sirius to hoist him to the top of the Gryffindor common room table where Sirius, Mary, and Marlene did their studying, and Remus and Lily in the odd case the library was empty. Their hands touched and they briefly held hands as Remus climbed up, and he had suspicions his face had a soft blush that he hated. Lily silently gave Remus cheeky eyes from the ground, her eyebrows raised with a slight grin on her face. She knew everything.

She knew about Remus's conundrum. She knew that he was gay. She knew about his massive crush on Sirius Orion Black. Did she judge his taste? Absolutely, 100%. Was it because Sirius was a guy? Nope. Not that she could judge much, with her top secret of fancying James Potter and all. Which was the best Remus could ask for, to be honest. Things didn't change, which was the best part.

Sirius's hand seemed to linger on the sleeve of Remus's sweater, but by the time Remus had noticed it, he'd stopped. Remus thought to himself that it was probably nothing, and mouthed "sorry" to Lily, who was arguing with Sirius from the ground. She gave a slight nod and went on.

"Why? Jealous?" Mary chimed in, Marlene laughed, and Lily rubbed her temples as the record skipped.

"I give up," Lily pivoted and headed back to her own room. Technically, she could give them all detention, not that she would. Remus wordlessly climbed down and followed her.

"You can stay if you want to."

"Nah."

"With Sirius."

"Shush."

"He likes you, Remus."

The probability of Sirius Black liking him was one of the things that confused the fuck out of Remus because while Lily absolutely insisted that he had a thing back for Remus, the odds weren't exactly in his favor.

The odds of Sirius liking men were medium. Once during a party, he'd made out with a Ravenclaw dude during a game of Spin the Bottle when they were all so hammered that Remus was doubtful either the guy or Sirius had any memory of it, however, Remus was quite surprised he even remembered the course of events himself. But neither of them was reluctant about it.

Then came the chances of him being into Remus. Inconsiderably tiny. The first thing to come to mind was the fact of what Remus was. A werewolf. A werewolf that could kill Sirius in 2 seconds flat if he slipped up even once for just a moment. He was a monster, not to start on the rest of him. Freakishly skinny and tall, sunken in eyes due to eyebags, wiry mousy hair that always fell in his face no matter what he did to it. Not a good combination compared to Sirius Black. Raven hair and cheekbones for days. For Merlin's sake, he spent all day in the library, there was no way Sirius Badass Black would even give him the time of day, and he was pleasantly surprised time and time again when he did. The odds of a crush lying there were utter shit. Remus was a complete liability as a friend, let alone a boyfriend. The word "boyfriend" made his heart flutter, and he turned his mind back to Lily.

"Nah."

"You'd make a nice couple." She added as if that would help.

"Even if he did- I'd just rather stay single, is all."

"That's fair enough, then. I'm going to head to bed."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Remus." She said, before climbing the stairs to the girl's dormitory, and after a moment, Remus began to climb the stairs to his own dorm, hearing Sirius's record in the common room from the top of the stairwell. He swung the door open, James lounging on his bed reading the Quidditch magazine.

"Hey, Moony."

"Hey, James."

"What's up?"

"Not much." Remus lay in his bed and stared at the ceiling, letting out a sigh. James looked up from his magazine.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Something's wrong."

"Doesn't matter."

"Come on, Moony." If Remus didn't relent sometime soon, James wouldn't stop, and all Remus truly wanted to do was wallow in his own misery. He'd do it while listening to music, except the record player was in the common room, sitting on a chair because the table was occupied with what started out as homework.

"Fine." James eagerly pats on his bed for Remus to sit down, and he did.

"Keep this between us?"

"Of course." James nodded.

Remus couldn't help but think that James might just be the nicest person he'd ever know.

Remus thought of a way to tell James. He was sure James would be okay with it.

Wait, he'd be cool about it, right? Remus bit his tongue until he tasted blood.

"Is this about the rumors?" Remus swallowed and looked to the floor, contemplating standing up.

"Which ones?" Even though Remus knew exactly what rumors James was referring to, it was best to make sure. If you go missing for a night about every month and come back with scars, rumors begin to spread and do so like wildfire.

"Moony if you're- Just know it doesn't matter to me. Nothing wrong with that." Remus let out a breath of relief. Not that he'd thought James would mind. It was always complicated. Everything seemed like it was.

"Seems like you've figured it out already."

"Okay then. Glad you told me, mate."

"That's not the only thing."

"Go on then." Remus flopped onto his stomach and groaned into James's pillow.

"Why's everything got to be so bloody complicated?"

"If anyone gives you shit-"

"No, no. Nothing like that."

"Well, what is it then? Do you fancy someone?" Remus groaned into the pillow again and heartlessly kicked the bedframe with his gangly leg.

"Taking that as a yes."

"Mhm."

"Let me guess who it is." Only James Potter would turn something like this into a game.

"Sure."

"Sirius?"

"Huh?"

"It's obvious you have a thing for him mate."

"What-" James gave Remus a look that he truly knew. Really and truly knew. Not like he understood any of it, but like he knew.

So Remus took a deep breath and cut his losses.

"You can't tell."

"Wouldn't dream of it, dear Moony."

"I'm a half-blood," Remus started off his sentence.

"He doesn't care about that."

"He's too good for me."

"Nah. he's just Padfoot."

"Sure." James laid down beside Remus and gave him a James Potter bear hug, and Remus bitterly sat back up at the sound of his name being screamed from the common room.

"Remus!" He stuck his head out the door to see Mary and Marlene standing at the bottom of the stairs, Marlene looking behind them.

"What is it?"

"Sirius needs walked down to the hospital wing."

"What's he done?"

"Just hurry up, his head started bleeding after he bumped it on the mantel trying to change the record." Remus thought to himself that it was one of the most Sirius-like ways to end up in the hospital wing he'd ever heard of, and was internally rolling his eyes. Remus was also internally kissing him, but those were two parts of his brain that didn't bother each other.

"Why can't-" It hit Remus exactly why they weren't doing it, and he headed down, waving to James on the way out.

Sirius rubbed his head as he unsteadily walked down the stairs.

"You've likely got a concussion."

"Already heard it from the girls."

Damn girls, Remus thought to himself.

"After the rant from Lily-"

"You deserved that,"

"Probably."

"How badly does it hurt?"

"I've had worse." Sirius closed his eyes and took a breath, which he had a tendency to do when the topic of his family and the things they'd done came up.

"From-"

"Rather not talk about it right now."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize, Moony. Sorry you have to walk me down, I can probably do it on my own if you want to get back to your book-"

"Happy to do it."

"If you say so, Moony."

"I shouldn't have brought it up, I'm-"

"Nope. Don't you dare."

"I want to say it even more."

"You're not allowed. Ever again." They got to the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey sighed at the sight of them.

"What's happened here?"

"He's hit his head." Madam Pomfrey lifted Sirius's hand off the gash, and she winced at the blood.

"You'll be alright. Remus, you can stay if you'd like." Madam Pomfrey motioned to a bed and handed Sirius a bottle of some potion that he drank, climbing into bed.

"You don't have to stay."

"I'm going to." Remus sat on a stool.

"Unless you want me to leave,"

"Nah."

"Don't you have homework with Evans?"

"Bold of you to assume we didn't finish it before the tabletop capade."

"Can I have the answers then?"

"...No."

"What about my fatal head injury?"

"Use it to get an extension on it, if it's so fatal."

"Moony, you really are a mastermind." Sirius's eyelids began to droop, and he stifled a yawn. He looked so...soft. His eyes were tired, he was smiling, and he wrapped the hospital blanket around their shoulders, pulling Remus halfway into the bed.

"For Merlin's sake, go to sleep."

"I'm fine, Remus. I don't need you to worry about me." Remus didn't know what exactly possessed him to say what he did next. Maybe it was the hospital wing, possibly the softness on the display of Sirius's face, likely the sleep deprivation.

"I like worrying about you." Sirius gave up and began to nod off next to Remus.

When Madam Pomfrey went in to tell Remus to go up to bed, she decided not to bother them. The two were asleep on top of each other, Sirius's head leaning on Remus's shoulder, their legs tangled together, holding each other's hand.

Remus woke up in the dark hospital wing and glanced at the clock.

3:28

He stood up. Fuck. He didn't mean to fall asleep. Sirius slept like a log, and Remus wasn't too worried about waking him up. He tucked the blanket around him and smiled at his light snoring. Remus exited the hospital wing and crept up the stairs to his dorm. He shut the door as quietly as he could, but it woke James anyway, who looked over at Remus, slight guilt filling him up.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. You tell Sirius yet?" Remus looked down at his shoes, not looking James in the eye.

"He's just Padfoot, mate."

"I know."

All Remus could think was, to you he is.