Belated Birthday Blues

Remus stared down the long-haired redhead standing in front of his desk. "Ginny, do you know what yesterday was?"

"Of course I do!" she laughed at him. He sure seemed to be in a foul mood about something, but she wasn't having it. "It was Thursday."

"Yeah, Thursday," he muttered.

It had been that day, which could not be argued, but it had also been something very important. It was Remus Lupin's birthday, and none of the friends he now had remembered it. He was in a right snit about it, especially when the specific Weasley he wanted most of all to remember it didn't.

"Look, Remus," the young woman asked, bringing him out of his thoughts, "have you seen my brother? I have to talk to him about this thing we're doing."

"No," he answered her again with a glare. "Bill is nowhere to be found."

Lupin wasn't sure he would want to see him, either, even if the oldest Weasley could be located. Bill had been putting him off at a distance all week, and Remus was one werewolf who didn't like it. He thought they had gotten closer as friends, and possibly more. He was willing to face the wrath of Molly to prove it, but lately Bill didn't seem to want to take that step.

Or maybe it was just because he was too old for the other man. Ten years in wizard time wasn't all that much older, but there had to be something to explain why the man he cared about was just not giving him the time of day, and especially when it was his birthday. Remus was always very conscientious in remembering a certain someone else's birthday in November with no problems at all. Couldn't he be afforded the same courtesy?

Obviously not, he mentally sighed.

While he was busy with his thoughts of doom and gloom, Ginny flounced out of his office. It was an office Remus had at Gringotts, and that had been thanks to Bill Weasley. The curse breaker had effectively argued on his behalf that a werewolf skilled as he was, who had among other things been the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, would be a natural at fighting curses. Somehow the irascible goblins had been won over, maybe as a byproduct of the long oppression of magical creatures, and Remus now had one of the best jobs he had ever had.

~*~

A few hours later, Bill came by briefly to see Remus. He looked as good as ever with his hair tied back and his trousers fitting snugly on his lean form. It did nothing to alleviate Lupin's bad mood. In fact, it created the opposite effect.

Go ahead, Weasley, he thought, flaunt yourself in front of me, you…

Before Remus had time to think of anything truly insulting about the man in front of him, Bill leaned over his desk and tucked one of the graying strands of hair behind the werewolf's ear. It made an involuntary shiver of pleasure pass through his body.

"Listen, mate," Weasley said, sounding apologetic, "I have this thing after work with my Mum and Dad. You will understand if I can't get out of it, won't you?"

Bill didn't sound like he was inviting him, so his reaction was chilly at best. "Do what you have to do. Mate."

That last word was particularly offensive in his opinion. He didn't want to be Bill's friend. He wanted to make the redhead scream from the top of his lungs in the heat of passion. He wanted to bend him over the desk and have his way with him right now. He did not want to be just a random mate. The idea was simply hideous and offensive to all Lupin's senses.

~*~

The afternoon progressed normally for Gringotts, but the storm cloud that had taken residence over Lupin's head did not disappear. He saw Bill walk by him several times offering smiles and a friendly pat on the back. Instead of reveling in what might have been secret touches, Remus became all the more grouchy. He wanted the work day to end and as quickly as possible so he could just leave and go drown his misery in some firewhiskey.

When the work day was finally over, he was packing his things into his briefcase. Packing would have been the nice word for it. Throwing and being petulant was the better description for what he was doing.

"Hey, Remus," called out Bill from the doorway.

Standing on one foot and leaning in at an angle as he was, the fang earring dangled deliciously from the other man's ear. Lupin would have liked to have done some nibbling and sucking on that ear, but it seemed Weasley changed his mind about him and the direction their relationship had been going. Again he cursed the damned red-haired man.

"What do you want?" he finally acknowledged in tired exasperation.

"It just occurred to me that it is Friday. We have the weekend ahead of us. Why don't you just go with me to see my parents? I was going to meet them at the Leaky Cauldron. After that I could go with you like we originally planned."

"Why should I?"

"Oh, don't be like that. Let me buy you a beer, mate," Bill said.

Again with that damned "mate" business! Remus inwardly fumed. Of course, when he looked at the curse-breaker's inviting face, he couldn't say no. In spite of the werewolf's best resistance, Bill had become a weakness for him.

~*~

The two Apparated near the place and were just about to walk in when Bill decided to discuss something. "Remus, don't think I haven't noticed that you've been off lately. Who stole your chocolate and made you the big bad wolf?"

He huffed and glared. Finally he said, "Do you know what yesterday was, Bill?"

"Of course, I do," he shrugged as he opened the door. "It was Thursday. It was also… your birthday."

Bill turned to Remus with a smirk as the gathered people behind him in the pub shouted choruses of "Happy Birthday!"

He stared agape in shock for a long time until Bill took his index finger and lightly closed his mouth. "You thought I forgot, didn't you?"

"Yes," Remus confessed.

"Not a chance," Bill said before possessively kissing his werewolf in the presence of gathered family and friends. "I just had to make you squirm."

"If you really want to make me squirm, I have some ideas," he whispered out of the side of his mouth while he looked at the small commotion taking place on the opposite side of the room.

Bill winked at him. "I do have a few ideas of my own about that, but that, and you, will have to come later. Right now I had better make sure all the candles on your cake don't burn down the place."

From the back of the pub a huge cake with many brilliantly lit candles was brought out for all to see.

"Huff and puff and blow your candles out, Remus!" giggled Ginny, one of Bill's accomplices in the surprise party.

"How old are you, anyway?" shouted a different person from the crowd, probably one of the Weasley twins.

"Twenty-six," he answered guilelessly as if it were true.

A chuckle rippled from those who heard it, and he blew out all the candles. Then the party started for real as the cake was cut and pieces were passed around.

"Oooh, just the kind I like," he said as he tasted the cake frosting.

"That's because I know what you like," Weasley said as he brought Remus a drink.

When Remus would have licked the frosting off his lips, Bill commanded. "Stop! Let me do that."

Lupin looked at him inquiringly as he leaned over and glided his tongue over the sweet mess at the corner of his mouth. He moved in deliciously slow motion to make sure everything had been lapped away from his skin.

"Yes, I guess you do know what I like," he said with a throaty laugh.

He looked around at everyone who had gathered to celebrate his birthday, and he smiled especially for his lover in satisfaction. The trick that they all had for gotten his birthday had been a painful terror to endure, and he had so easily been duped. Now that it was all over, it was worth it to know so many people, particularly Bill, cared about him. With that sense of contentment, he noted that his birthday cake had never tasted finer.