There was another crash and Sirius groaned, gripping the stair banister in a vice as he climbed them. He was too tipsy for this. He didn't have to waste time wondering which room to go to, for the worst singing to ever grace the planet erupted from the far left. It was empty, save for two individuals. One standing on the ping pong table holding a whiskey bottle with a third of it missing like a microphone screeching into it, and another holding his hands over his ears looking as though he would rather be anywhere else. The latter caught Sirius's eyes with his own pale green ones and bared his teeth. Sirius gestured back to the hallway and he followed.

"Where the fuck have you been?" he hissed, crossing his arms tightly across his chest. Sirius bit his lip and smiled, thinking about the boy he had just given his phone number to. "I got sidetracked."

His charm did not go over well, if the sigh and clenched fists were anything to go by, but that didn't come as much of a surprise. Remus acted terser than usual when he had to be the sober one in charge. But this was more than just that.

"What crawled up your ass?" Sirius scoffed. "Your girlfriend didn't show up?"

"Not my girlfriend," Remus muttered, looking down. "And if she did, I didn't see her."

Guilt rose up in Sirius' stomach, and he threw an arm over Remus's shoulder. "Oh no, Moony. Maybe you just keep missing her."

Remus shook his head, and ran a thumb over the cell phone in his hand. "I texted her asking where she was, no response. The only reason I came was because she wanted to."

"So you were planning to flake on us?" Sirius gasped, and jabbed a thumb in the direction of the room, where the screeching was now intermittent. "Can you imagine me taking this useless sack back to our flat by myself?"

"Of course not, I would have come to get you, and you know that. I was just really looking forward to hanging out with her in a more traditional setting." There was a dull thud and a quiet grunt of pain, and Remus winced. "I think that's our cue," he said shortly, signaling that he was done with this conversation.

James grinned sloppily at them from the floor. "Hey Padfoot, you left me, why'd you do that?" he sniffed with hazel eyes.

Sirius smiled. "You ran off to hang with your football mates, don't you remember, Jamie? But we gotta go home now, Moony's in a strop."

"I am not," Remus insisted, and James rolled his head to the other side, as if he had just noticed Remus was there. "Moony! Hey, where's your girlfriend?"

"She didn't show," Sirius cut in before Remus could say anything. He hoisted James up to his feet, and pulled his arm over his shoulder. "So we're gonna bitch about her on the drive home."

James narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips in what Remus assumed to be a scowl, but looked more like a pout. "Bitch."

Remus smiled as he grabbed James's other arm to support. "Appreciate that, Prongs. Now let's get out of here so I can responsibly drown myself in vodka."

There wasn't much conversation as it took all their concentration to get James down the stairs and back out the front. The car was parked a couple of streets away, and by the time they got to the right intersection, the brisk air had sobered James up enough that his legs and brain regained somewhat of a connection. As he was unceremoniously shoved into the backseat of his car, he remarked, "I can't wait for Halloween."

"I bet, you absolute tosser, but you're gonna be the designated driver then," Sirius replied, climbing in after him and tossing the keys to Remus. "Won't have your wasted ass butchering sacred Halloween songs in my presence, so help me god."

If James had a retort, it left him and was replaced by a nauseous moan. He ducked his head into Sirius's neck and Sirius removed his glasses and perched them on his head. Sirius shared a look of amusement with Remus in the rear-view mirror as they set off. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through his contacts, wanting to make sure Severus knew he meant it when he said he wanted to keep in touch. He sent a little wave emoji and was rewarded with a middle finger back.

"What are you grinning about back there?"

Sirius looked up and caught Remus's eyes again. James lifted his head and blinked blearily at his phone. "Too blurry," he complained, yet making no move to put his glasses on. Sirius put the phone face down and glared at him. The car slid to a halt at a red light, and Remus made a cycling motion with his hand. "Spit it out, I don't plan to be coherent for the rest of the night."

Well, Sirius was absolutely dying to talk about it anyway. "I met a guy at the party."

"Is he legal?" James inquired earnestly with a wicked grin, looking straight up and letting his glasses fall. Sirius shoved him roughly while also leaning down to pick up the glasses, sighing deeply as he did so, to fold them safely in the car door pocket. "Shut up."

"We'll take that as a no then," Remus said, safely spared any attack by virtue of being designated driver. Sirius flipped him off instead, and then leaned back and let out a soft sigh.

"He goes to school with us, he's a chem student, which I know isn't my usual type, but I just had this feeling when I met him. Have you ever met someone and knew they were going to be an important part of your life?"

"No offense, Padfoot, but you say that about every person you hook up with," James remarked with a laugh and Sirius rolled his eyes, but he didn't argue. He knew he was the type to fall fast and fall hard, but this felt different. He could see Remus giving him a look in the rearview, like he wanted to give him the usual 'be careful and don't let yourself get hurt again' speech, but it didn't come.

"Well at least someone in this car has good romantic prospects," he sighed instead, and Sirius shook his head.

"I asked him out and he didn't exactly say no, but he didn't say yes either. I may have just made a really cute new friend."

James scrunched up his nose. "Well that's not allowed, you already have two cute friends right here." He yelped when Sirius grabbed his chin and planted a smacking kiss on his cheek. "Ew, Moony, help me!"

Remus let out a long-suffering sigh, but Sirius could see he was grinning. That girl had no idea what she was missing out on.

Bright green eyes opened, only to squeeze shut at the blinding sunlight streaming in through the sliver of exposed window where the curtains hadn't quite yet met. She rolled onto her side safely out of its view, and allowed herself to view the person snoring beside her. The morning beams gave color to his pallid complexion. Severus was always so tense, it was nice to get the occasional glimpse of him completely relaxed and at ease. She smiled at his sleeping form for a few seconds before rolling herself out of the bed, wincing at every crack and pop that erupted from her limbs and back. His bed wasn't small, but there wasn't exactly free real estate to stretch out the way she usually would.

Her head, thankfully, had nothing more than a dull ache that could be easily soothed with a strong dose of caffeine. She shuffled herself to the bathroom and rinsed the acrid morning breath, further decayed from the booze she had last night, out of her mouth. Her phone was perched on top of the toilet seat and she scrolled through the notifications from the lock screen mindlessly, one in particular giving her pause.

"Oh fuck," she groaned in a gurgle, spitting out mouthwash. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and padded down the short hallway to where the other bedroom was located. She knocked, not wanting to invade entirely on his privacy, and slowly turned the knob to open the door a crack. She wasn't sure if she was grateful it was unoccupied. At least if Remus was home, she could apologize in person. Now she was leaning against the wall, attempting to craft one over text.

It wasn't even a big deal, people forgot their phones all the time. Okay, in an overly dependent on technology age, it wasn't all the time. But Lily wasn't that addicted to her phone, and in her haste to get ready, she had left it in the bathroom and hadn't realized it until they had gotten to the party, and by the time they had come back to Severus's place, she was too sad and drunk to remember. But now she was sober, and the unread message was above her, just out of reach. But she wasn't going to make the same mistake as Icarus, so she deleted the huge paragraph, replacing it with a single short sentence. Oh, sorry Remus, I left my phone at your place!

Pleased with herself, she made her way to the tiny kitchen to find Severus already up, a blanket draped around him like a shawl and a hand rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"Morning sunshine," she simpered, leaning against the counter.

Severus yawned. "How is it I drank zero alcohol and you're more chipper than me?"

Lily shrugged. "The prospect of free coffee fuels me." She busied herself with the coffee maker while Severus pulled a water bottle and banana out of the fridge. Lily glanced at her phone, the black screen glaring at her.

He wasn't there. Lily had arrived with the intent of the three of them driving to the party together. But Remus had gone ahead without them apparently, and Lily tried not to take that badly. Just because he had asked her if she wanted to go didn't mean he wanted her to go with him. She turned her phone face down and sniffed, hitting the brew button with more force than necessary.

"So what happened to you last night?"

"Nothing," Severus answered far too quickly, and took a hasty swig of water. Lily crossed her arms and fixed him with a stare. "It's hazy but it'd be hard to forget that starry look you had."

Severus made a face at her that melted into a soft smile. It was a little nauseating in Lily's opinion. "It wasn't anything special, just met a guy."

"What?" Lily's mouth fell open and she fumbled the act of grabbing a mug. "While I was off getting drunk and depressed, you of all people were chatting up a guy?"

"I wasn't chatting him up, he was chatting me up," Severus clarified, and furrowed his brow. "What do you mean getting drunk and depressed?"

Lily shook her head and waved a hand. Unfortunately it was the hand holding the full carafe of coffee and a few drops hit her hand, and she winced. "It's not important." Severus didn't need the burden of her issues with Remus on top of his usual stress. She ran her hand under the running faucet. "This guy, how cute was he?"

Clearly Severus's desire to talk about this trumped his curiosity since he dove right into the story, and Lily listened intently while she prepared them both cups of coffee. She pushed one into his hands, and he took a horrendously large gulp and kept talking.

"And then he kissed me," Severus concluded with wide black eyes. "On my face!" As if worried that his words could be misconstrued, he jabbed his index finger roughly into his cheek.

"That's adorable," Lily said with a laugh perhaps a second too late, but this behavior was so uncharacteristic of him, she couldn't help but be off guard. She guided his hand back to his coffee mug and ran a thumb over the nail mark. "So when are you seeing him again?"

Deflating at a frighteningly rapid pace, Severus shrugged. "I don't know. I want to as soon as possible, but I guess that reeks of desperation, right?

Lily didn't think she was the best to judge how much desperation was socially acceptable, given how much she was dying to flood Remus's inbox with messages that would no doubt be full of hysteria.

"I think you should text him and tell him that, let him decide if you are," she said after a minute of silence. She shifted to properly throw an arm around his shoulders. "And if he does, I'll key his car, yeah?"

Severus rolled his eyes. "You will do no such thing. But thank you, Lily, you're a really good friend."

And she knew he wasn't just saying that because he had to. The strangled whisper in which it was uttered spoke to genuinity. She squeezed him in a side hug as long as she could before he made a strangled complaint about oxygen deprivation and needing to brush his teeth. Lily released him with a long-suffering sigh and went to rinse her own mug out as well. Her phone was still lying face down and she picked it up, but there were no new messages. She stared at the message history, remarking to h