The Dating Disasters of Sirius Black

Part eleven: Remus Lupin (again) and a Game of Chess

Late October, Sixth year Gryffindor boys' dormitory, Saturday evening

Remus stared glumly up at the canopy of his bed. He'd shut the curtains around him, but hadn't yet bothered to charm himself some silence, because he was rather interested in the loud discussion going on at the other side of the dormitory.

After a while, the argument had started to get rather repetitive, and yet again James was reminding Sirius of his recently-won team captaincy, of how this had been his first match in charge, of how important a win it had been, and so why the bloody hell had his best friend not been there to watch it?

Sirius, of course, had no decent excuse, or at least not one that he could tell to James, and his constant evasions were obviously just making James angrier. Remus knew he should possibly try and help Sirius in some way, but then, as far as Remus could work out, Sirius should have had time to catch the end of the match, and he was deeply suspicious himself of Sirius' absence at dinner and for most of the evening.

Peter slid in through the curtains, sitting next to Remus at the head of the bed and folding his arms. 'Thought you'd charmed the noise out?'

'Nah, just didn't want to have to take sides.'

Peter smiled. 'Yeah, it's like listening to your parents argue, isn't it?'

'I am always there for you,' James was screaming, 'through all your shit recently, and you can't even do one thing for me? One thing you actually enjoy, and you can't be bothered to turn up!'

'I was there at the start,' Sirius protested, 'I just had to be somewhere--'

'And you don't even have the decency to tell me where!' James yelled back.

'Do you think they'd stop if we told them they were arguing like a married couple?' Peter suggested.

Remus managed a small, rather false smile. 'James might shut up if we pointed out that he was obviously the wife.'

'Yeah--'

'If you were just shagging some girl,' James accused loudly, and Remus winced.

'Of course I wasn't!' screeched Sirius. 'How could you think that!'

'James is definitely the woman,' Peter whispered.

'Or some bloke,' James added. 'If I find out you were--'

'I was not shagging anyone! Some things are more important than shagging!'

'Oh, was it a family problem, if it was you could--'

'Stop that! Stop suggesting I have family issues every time something's wrong! You're worse than fucking Dumbledore!'

The door slammed suddenly and they looked nervously at each other.

'Which was that?' Peter asked, the pushed his head through the curtains to see.

'Remus!' James yelled, and Remus shrank back against his pillows.

'What?' he asked cautiously as his bed-curtains were wrenched open.

'You definitely didn't see him at all?'

'Not until he turned up in the common room after dinner,' Remus replied meekly.

'If he was up to something he should tell me,' James barked, eyes wild with anger, before he too whirled round and stomped out of the room.

'Well if that's over, I think I might head back to the Quidditch celebrations,' Peter said with relief and he stood up to leave.

All Remus could think was, 'Some things are more important than shagging', and he was suddenly very nervous.

#

'Hello,' Sirius said, his voice relaxed and lazy, and a little suggestive. He flopped down next to where Remus was lying on his front and slid an arm over his back.

'Hello,' Remus said tightly.

'Don't worry, James is busy with his celebratory Quidditch practice and Peter wouldn't dare miss that either.'

'Surely you shouldn't be missing it?'

Sirius made a sulky little huffing noise. 'Moony, wouldn't you rather I was here... you've changed your mind, haven't you?' The hand that rested in the small of Remus' back was slowly removed.

Remus turned in surprise to see a look of terrible misery and disappointment on his friend's face. 'Well, you missed the match yesterday, so you shouldn't you go and watch James' practice today?'

'No! He's just being an idiot, I - I want to be here.'

'Okay,' Remus said cautiously.

'Okay,' repeated Sirius. 'So, what you reading? Shakespeare?'

'Nah, quite an interesting book on the dark arts.'

'Oh, right.' Sirius shuffled closer, leaning annoyingly over Remus' arm to peer at the book. 'Looks boring as hell.' He ended that comment by pecking a little kiss to Remus' forearm.

'Sirius!'

'You have changed your mind.'

'No, just...'

'You can't be annoyed with me too!' Sirius yelped indignantly.

'I just thought that you could have told James where you were--'

'But I was with you! You didn't want me to tell him!'

'You weren't with me at dinner, or after,' Remus muttered.

'Oh. Oh. Moony I had to--' Sirius sighed, rolled over and sat up. 'I had to break up with him.'

'And it took that long?'

'Um, yeah...'

'I know you had a bet on, you told James you had a score to settle, and I knew you'd have made a bet with Halverston.'

'Yes, but--'

'So, what? You thought you may as well get your sexual favours from him before you--'

'Why, you jealous?' Sirius asked, but continued talking quickly when he saw the look on Remus' face. 'No, I didn't, really--'

'But you were making perverted little wagers with him?'

'Moony-- I - well, yes, but-- Honestly I didn't do anything, really.'

'Well maybe you should have: you won't be getting anything like that from me.'

Sirius sighed. 'I don't mind that, you know, I really don't. I'm quite happy with just this.'

'Really? I bet you aren't saying that in a few weeks time when he's after you again, or there's some other boy or girl.'

'Remus,' Sirius pulled him up to look at him properly, 'is this a real problem, or is this just you changing your mind?'

'Look, I've never had sex with anyone, and I don't want to, and you can't expect that sort of thing from me, so you're probably just better off with someone else.' Remus couldn't quite place why he was just so angry with Sirius right now, but he was, and being half-forced into whatever they were supposed to be doing wasn't making him any happier.

'You really don't understand this, do you, I--' Sirius stopped suddenly, looking embarrassed. 'Tell you a secret?'

Remus narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

'You can't tell James this, or anyone, yeah?' Remus hardly thought that was a problem, because they'd already got to the stage of hiding quite an unreasonable amount of things from James. 'I've--' Sirius actually looked really nervous, a bit pale and quite shaky.

'Padfoot?'

'I've, um, I've only really actually slept with, er, one person, and I didn't really like it, so I never did it again.' Sirius' words sped up towards the end of his confession, as if he could somehow say it so fast that Remus wouldn't hear him properly.

Remus just sat there, feeling quite ridiculously stupid. After all those times Sirius had got back from a date, all that grinning and winking at James, all those Sundays he'd spent trying not to think about all the lurid details of Sirius' various liaisons. 'You - made it all up?'

'Erm, well, look, I just did it - with a girl - once, because I thought I should and it was all girly and horrible, so I dumped her, but then I was expected to do it again after I'd told you all, and I'd done it once, so it was easy enough to pretend, and none of you three had done it, so you wouldn't know anyway, and I just spent the rest of the time trying to avoid doing it, really. I was actually incredibly pleased to find Snape in that room that time, when I was with Scarlett, because she would have expected to, and she would have thought I knew what I was doing and I didn't. That's probably why... why I got carried away insulting him, and--'

'Right,' Remus said, so that they didn't have to go into all that again. He took a deep breath. 'But why... why did you bother lying to me?'

'Dunno, I-- maybe I hoped you'd be jealous, or-- I don't know. I didn't know what else to say. After that first time, the furthest I ever went was with Julie.'

Remus found his face automatically scowled just thinking about the boy, and he could remember so clearly just how much more excited Sirius had been when he'd talked about Halverston. He finally made himself look Sirius in the eye, and of course Sirius didn't really seemed ashamed of lying, only nervous that Remus would be angry.

'So, on a scale of one to ten, how pissed off are you with me?'

'You really have lied to me quite a lot.'

'Well, yes, but would you really have been happier with the truth?' And Remus could hardly fault him there; he would most definitely have been even less happy with the truth.

'Who was she then, the one you--'

'Some girl when I was on holiday with James; he was snogging her mate, so I thought I'd better see what I could do and then we ended up--'

'Right. Probably about a five,' he added, in response to the previous question.

'Five? Is that higher or lower than when I walked in?'

'Probably lower,' he admitted.

Sirius grinned, looking rather relieved and happy. He curled down, lifted the bottom of Remus' shirt and rested his head on his belly, stroking Remus' hip with his fingers. Remus leant back against the headboard and let his fingertips run idly through Sirius' soft hair.

'So what now?' he asked, suppressing a giggle as Sirius started nuzzling into his belly-button.

'Now,' Sirius replied, still snuffling his way over Remus' stomach, 'you have to decide whether that was a real excuse you were making earlier, or whether that, now we're equally inexperienced--'

'Well, not quite.'

'Yeah, but still, pretty much.'

'And you've still kissed loads more people than--'

'So you have changed your mind.' Sirius rested the full weight of his head on Remus, face pressing into his skin and his fingernails had curled rather sharply into Remus' side.

'No, I-- I like this.'

Sirius made another huffy noise. 'Yes, but now we're having the same argument as yesterday.' He lifted his head and crawled his way up Remus' body, and then Sirius was straddling him, with his lips about two inches from Remus' own.

'Erm,' Remus said nervously.

'Because if we're going to be having a thing, it can't just be a two-boys-who-like-to-hug-a-lot thing, it's going to have to be quite a gay thing, you see, whether you fancy being gay or not.'

'Right.'

Sirius kissed him then, just gently but with his mouth open, and it distracted Remus from worrying too much about the word 'gay', though it was something that had been bothering him when he'd tried to sleep last night, though the fact that he hadn't had Sirius with him had been bothering him more, and that was actually even more worrying.

Sirius pulled away slightly, smiling. 'I can't believe I get to kiss you,' he murmured.

'Can't believe you want to,' Remus said in return, rather bewildered.

Sirius grinned wider. 'Well, go on then.'

Remus frowned, wondering what he was expected to do. 'What?'

'You read your book, and I'll try and distract you.'

The strange thing, Remus thought as he rolled back onto his front and plunged into an interesting essay on the nature of Boggarts, was that this was almost exactly how it used to be. This was normal. Sirius always did this sort of thing, was stroking down Remus' spine with his left thumb, while his chin dug pointily into Remus' upper arm. Eugh! Even the tongue poking into his ear was quite normal.

'Sirius, stop that, it's disgusting.' He batted a hand vaguely in Sirius' direction and his fingers slapped against Sirius' nose.

'I like it; your ear's all fluffy inside.'

'Is not! I do not have hairy ears!'

'You do! Feel--' He grabbed Remus' right hand and attempted to poke one finger into his ear.

'Stop it!' He flicked Sirius in the middle of the forehead.

'So you don't like the ear-tongue thing?'

'No, I can hear your bloody tongue slathering about in there, it's all slimy.'

'Fine,' Sirius said, doing it again anyway and - oh...

Remus shuddered a little, because somehow, when Sirius was doing it carefully, it was rather good. Sirius ended the move by blowing gently into Remus' ear, and then there were goosebumps rushing their way up Remus' arm.

'Changed your mind?' Sirius whispered, nuzzling behind his ear.

'No,' Remus muttered sulkily, but also feeling alarmingly breathless.

'Oh, don't mind me,' Sirius said, noticing that Remus was starting to close his book, 'you keep reading.'

Sirius' lips were sliding down his neck now, and Remus ignored his book in favour of stretching his neck forwards so that Sirius had better access.

'If I'd known,' Sirius began, curving his kisses round to the nape of Remus' neck, 'that this was such a good way of distracting you,' his mouth had slid down to Remus' shoulder now, 'then I would have tried it before.' Sirius used his chin to nudge Remus' collar away, sucking toothily along Remus' bare skin.

This, Remus decided, was the main problem. Someone who was completely straight and only interested in girls and breasts and all that sort of thing would be rather disgusted to have a bloke running his tongue along their skin, however wonderful a sensation it was. Someone who was totally straight might like the feeling of it, but, he thought, as his brain began to completely give in, it would be more of an 'oh, that's nice' sort of feeling, and not the sort of feeling that made you gasp and want to push your hips a little harder into the bed. And, of course, they'd generally prefer a girl to be doing it, and not Sirius Black, who was very beautiful, but in a very male way, with that sweep of dark hair and his warm grey eyes.

Remus whined slightly when Sirius stopped.

'Moony? You were well away with the fairies there - er, I mean - you weren't just thinking about your dark arts book?'

'No,' Remus murmured a little crossly, 'you stopped.'

Sirius swung round, so his head was resting on top of Remus' book, and the long line of his white neck was suddenly under Remus' fingers. 'Want me to start again?' And he was already pulling Remus down for a proper kiss.

#

Sirius had said they should wait until Monday night, so that James was less suspicious, and however much Remus didn't want to have to worry about how he felt right now, there was obviously something wrong with him, because he was lying there excitedly anticipating Sirius slipping into bed with him.

Remus held his breath when he heard footsteps, but then groaned as he realised it was just someone going to the bathroom, and that would mean Sirius would have to wait for that person to go back to sleep again. Bugger.

For most of his life, Remus had only really known the word 'gay' as one of the most horrid insults you could bestow on another person, so he was desperately trying to ignore the way it kept flitting around in his head. It wasn't necessarily gay that he just wanted to be close to Sirius, it didn't have to be a gay thing, just a friends thing. And so he liked to make Sirius happy; well it just meant they were very good friends, and besides; being with Sirius made Remus happy too.

Remus knew that he'd definitely employed some very skewed sort of logic to that, but then Sirius himself was a bit skewed, and who was to say what was normal and what wasn't? Apart from James, but this was none of James' business anyway.

No, he decided, of course it wasn't gay to want this. Nothing gay about it at--

He jumped as the floorboard next to his bed creaked. 'Moony?'

Sirius slid in through the curtains and under the sheets, surprisingly wearing full pyjamas, which Remus had rarely seen him in, and he found it slightly disappointing somehow.

'Shh,' Sirius whispered, 'imperturbable charm,' and he lifted his wand and muttered the words. 'Right. Oh, shit, forgot my alarm clock, can't have James or Peter waking up when I'm still--'

Remus reached behind his pillow and produced his own carefully-set alarm clock.

'Brilliant!' Sirius looked particularly pleased that he wouldn't have to get out of bed again, and snuggled closer under the covers, pushing his face into Remus' neck.

'Sirius!'

'What?'

'Are you nibbling?'

Remus felt him grin. 'No, was I?'

Remus smiled, settling back into the pillow and reaching one arm over to rest on Sirius' hip, letting his thumb and forefinger edge slightly under Sirius' pyjama shirt.

'You aren't just going to sleep, are you?' Remus asked, again feeling that strange sense of disappointment as Sirius' breathing already began to slow.

'Thought you wanted to,' Sirius said, lifting his head in surprise.

'Well--' Sirius had kissed him, rather roughly, even before he'd decided what he'd wanted to say, tasting sharply of toothpaste and mouthwash, and Remus realised that he must have cleaned his teeth a second time especially. 'Oh, sorry,' Sirius pulled off him slightly, 'that was a bit--'

'S'okay,' Remus mumbled, stretching across to kiss back rather sloppily. Sirius moaned and reached over to cup Remus' cheek, tangling his fingertips into the hair over his ear and carefully angling his mouth so he could kiss a bit deeper.

This did feel rather weird to Remus, that he was kissing Sirius while actually in bed; lying down and wearing only thin clothes, able to feel Sirius' body easily through his pyjamas as it lay along the side of his. But Sirius' mouth was warm and toothpaste-y, and he'd always loved the feeling of someone hot and soft lying in bed with him, curled along him and smelling sweetly of Sirius. Sirius lapped at his mouth quite eagerly, often accidentally nipping or scratching at Remus' lips, and it made Remus feel a whole lot better about his own skills at kissing, the way Sirius got careless when he was tired.

Sirius' fingers strayed casually under Remus' pyjama top, making him wriggle as he was kissed. Sirius kissed him a little harder and pushed in closer, knocking their hips together.

Sirius slung an arm over Remus, rolling a little so he was slightly on top of him, and Remus made a slight nervous noise, because they were almost naked and Sirius was leaning right over him. It wasn't scary or even abnormal in itself, but while they were in bed and kissing it suddenly was.

'Sorry,' Sirius said, pulling off.

'We probably should sleep,' Remus told him, though he was aware that he was still straining for another kiss.

Sirius settled back down next to him. 'Yeah, s'pose.'

'Okay,' Remus said.

'Okay,' agreed Sirius.

Remus sighed, snuggling down and wrapping his arms around Sirius. 'G'night, then,' he whispered, pecking a kiss to Sirius' cheek.

Sirius rolled a little and nestled his face into Remus' neck. 'Night.'

#

Remus hadn't really woken up properly when his alarm had gone off, and could only vaguely remember Sirius getting up, feeling a warm, clammy palm on his stomach, and maybe a wet kiss on the lips, though he wasn't sure he hadn't dreamt that bit, because after all their kisses the previous night, Sirius and kissing had woven their way into his dreams in many bizarre ways.

Now he was being woken by James shouting.

'What the hell are you doing up so early?' was the line that had brought him round.

'For god's sake, Potter,' Sirius snapped back, 'I can get up early if I want to, can't I?'

'You never get up early without a good reason.' Remus' stomach tightened nervously at the heavy suspicion in James' voice.

'I just didn't sleep very well, that's all,' Sirius replied, sounding exasperated. Remus hoped that wasn't true and was just an excuse for James, because he'd slept really well himself.

'And you've been in the shower for ages.'

'So what?'

'Have you got a date or something?'

'No!'

'Yeah, right; why else would you spend that long in the bathroom?'

'Maybe it's because he hasn't got a date,' Peter piped up gleefully.

'Is it a girl or a boy then, Black?' James snapped.

'I haven't got a date! Fuck off!' It sounded like Sirius was getting dressed rather quickly, and then the door was slammed loudly, along with mutters of 'can't do bloody anything round here'.

Remus turned to the alarm clock still resting by his head. It was barely half seven, he could lie in for at least another half an hour. He nestled into his pillow which still smelled like Sirius's hair and tried not to think about his weird dreams.

#

Remus should really have been doing his potions essay, which wasn't even half finished, but it was rather more enjoyable to spend his time shared between glaring viciously at the back of James' stupid head, and watching the way Sirius chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip as he tried hard to beat James at chess. James almost always beat Sirius, because he had the patience for it that Sirius didn't, but Remus was willing Sirius to win all the same. It was just so annoying that they were back here again, having to hide everything from James and not able to sleep together because he was getting too suspicious.

He sighed and swished his quill-feather over his parchment, thoughtfully biting at his fingernails.

Out of the corner of his eye, Peter was taking this as an opportunity to attempt to copy Remus' essay while he was too distracted to care.

Remus glanced up again and Sirius was now chewing on the pad of his thumb while pondering his next move; the neat row of his bottom teeth visible along with the tip of his tongue. He brushed the sweep of his fringe out of his eyes with his other hand, before leaning forwards to make his move, whispering to his chess pieces with his forehead furrowed in concentration.

'Hmm,' James said, stroking his chin as Sirius grinned rather wickedly, obviously having pulled off a rather clever play.

At that point Sirius happened to look up and Remus turned quickly back to his essay, wondering why he should be so ashamed at being caught staring.

The next time Remus dared look up Sirius was staring right back at him, a slight frown around his eyes.

Just because Sirius was good looking and good at kissing, and Remus quite liked staring at him, didn't necessarily mean that Remus fancied him, did it? Of course not.

As soon as James had made his move, and Remus had felt Sirius' eyes return to the chess board, he looked up again. Sirius was very beautiful, he didn't mind admitting that, but what actually was the difference between thinking someone was attractive and finding them attractive? What if it was just wanting to stare at them too often?

Or touch them?

Remus felt a sharp stab of fear, which was thankfully interrupted by a yelp of laughter from James.

'Sirius! How stupid can you get? You didn't even think about that move, look--' One of James' pieces moved and then there was some loud and gratuitous smashing of one of Sirius' players.

'Fuck off!' Sirius muttered sulkily, flashing a rather nasty glare in Remus' direction.

'Get out of that one,' James told him smugly. 'Hey, excuse me!' He waved a hand over Sirius' eyes and Remus turned away very suddenly indeed, though looked back when James' attention was back on the game.

Sirius bent forward over his chessmen, still frowning. Not so pretty when he frowns, the nice, sensible voice in Remus' head pointed out. Remus nodded slightly to himself. Sirius licked his lips.

Remus covered his eyes with his hands, though carefully keeping two fingers parted so he could still watch the way Sirius licked his lips even as he directed the game. Oh god, I like it when he licks his lips, was a very disturbing thought to be having, though again not half as disturbing as the fact that he didn't want to have to stop watching Sirius do it. He wondered when this had started, hoping to god that it had been after he'd first kissed Sirius.

'Check,' James said triumphantly. Sirius frowned deeper and started to chew on his bottom lip.

'I can't get this essay sorted,' Remus announced moodily, 'I'm going to go to bed.'

'But it isn't even ten o'clock yet!' Peter protested.

Remus ignored him and stomped off anyway, calling behind him, 'Feel free to copy whatever I've written,' just because he was feeling malicious.

Remus flopped front-first onto his bed, splaying his arms out wide so he could wallow in confusion and misery and wouldn't be tempted into what he really quite wanted to do right now.

Fancying boys didn't have to completely negate any feelings he'd ever had for any members of the female sex, did it? He could like both, or this could be just be one of those random childhood-type asexual crushes that he'd just never grown out of. He staunchly ignored the parts of his body that firmly disagreed.

'Lupin!'

Remus jumped up guiltily, as if he really had been caught doing something embarrassing.

'You just made me lose at chess!' Sirius snapped angrily.

Remus tossed his head indignantly. 'I did not!'

'You did! You were staring!'

'Looking.'

'Moony, as if I could concentrate when--' Suddenly Sirius was kneeling on the bed over him, half-straddling him, one knee actually between his legs. 'Just a quick kiss, before James stops crowing over his victory and realises we're both up here alone.' Seconds later, Sirius' palm was curved around his jaw and he was being kissed.

Sirius' kisses seemed to get more forceful every time and Remus tilted his head back to enjoy this, his mind whirling with confusion at all his conflicting thoughts. He was now more scared than he'd ever been kissing anyone, because now the urge to push forwards and into Sirius' knee was both overwhelming and purely terrifying, because he'd never wanted this before.

'Sirius!' he gasped out, fingers clinging to the bed-clothes in the effort to stop himself moving.

Sirius made a disgruntled little whining noise in the back of his throat. 'I know, James'll come in. Sorry.' He ducked his head to kiss under Remus' jaw. 'Sorry.'

Remus made his own little whimper when Sirius pulled off him.

'Moony...'

'Sorry,' Remus whispered, blushing. 'What about... tonight?'

Sirius sighed. 'He's still being all funny,' he muttered rebelliously.

'So we can't?'

'No, sorry.'

Remus turned away, gratefully flopping face down onto the mattress.

You want him, his body whispered to him. 'Shut up!' he told himself angrily.

'Y'what?' Sirius called from halfway down the stairs.

#

'Mmmarrrgh!' Remus felt a sudden tug on the collar of his jumper and then he was suddenly in a very dark, dusty cupboard, being held rather tightly against the door.

'Shush,' Sirius hissed and Remus relaxed because it was just Sirius, only to have his neck rather forcefully attacked by lips and teeth.

'Sirius,' he managed to gasp.

'Remus, it's been four days,' Sirius said with a groan and another kiss pressed to Remus' neck, 'and I'm supposed to be allowed to kiss you and I haven't been able to--'

Sirius' hands were soon on his hips and then sliding under his jumper, stroking over the skin of his sides and stomach. It was most definitely very alarming, and Remus didn't really know quite what to do, except that Sirius was now kissing his lips, and hard; head tilted carefully so they could kiss as deep as possible, and Remus supposed that he did know how to do this.

Warm palms were now sliding up his back, which was more than a little terrifying, but Sirius was so good at kissing, and Remus pushed thoughts of Sirius' wandering hands to the back of his mind and concentrated on what he was doing with his lips and tongue. It was definitely far too easy to get completely absorbed in this.

'Sirius,' Remus finally managed to say.

'Shh,' Sirius mumbled, and Remus knew he was being deliberately manipulated because Sirius moved his kisses straight round to his neck the minute Remus started to protest.

'Sirius, we're in a cupboard,' he squeaked.

'I know,' Sirius said, grinning and causing his teeth to graze Remus' throat, making him shudder. 'I like it,' he added.

Remus moaned, partly because one of Sirius' hands had tightened just above his hip while the other slid to his jaw, partly because Sirius was sucking even harder on his neck, and partly because the in a cupboard part was obviously one of Sirius' sick, perverse fantasies. 'But--'

Sirius tilted Remus' chin up and pushed him closer against the wall. 'No buts.'

'What if someone comes in?'

'No-one,' Sirius whispered, lips now just below Remus' ear, 'ever goes near this cupboard.'

'But there must be somewhere better--' Remus told him, his hands tensing their grip on Sirius' hips.

Sirius' teeth were now grazing around the shell of his ear. 'No. James would think to check secret rooms, wouldn't he? But not cupboards.'

'But the map--'

'--is in my pocket,' Sirius told him happily, and his voice was gruff so close against Remus' ear.

Remus sighed, though it was more breathless than huffy, and he privately admitted that Sirius' logic was jolly clever.

'Sorry, Moony,' Sirius said, pulling away slightly and letting his thumb swipe over Remus' bottom lip, 'just had to kiss you, you see,' he explained, his fingers reaching up to trace around Remus' right eye, 'had been too long.'

'Yeah,' Remus agreed rather too eagerly, pulling Sirius back in and kissing him.

'Fuck, Moony...' Sirius mumbled into Remus' mouth, pressing in even harder, 'fuck. You are just--' Teeth scraped over Remus' upper lip, but that was good, and anyway, Sirius was shifting his hips a little, just a gentle rocking motion, but then they were pressed so very close.

Now Sirius was moving Remus could feel just how carried away he was, and then rather painfully realised that he probably was too, if just watching Sirius licking his lips could do that to him now. 'Sirius,' he whispered, frightened.

'Sorry-- Moony,' Sirius moaned, sounding a little desperate and pained. He tried to pull away, but the movement caused him to drag himself all too wonderfully against Remus, and Remus couldn't be having with him pulling away. He settled his hands into the small of Sirius' back and urged him closer again. 'Sorry,' Sirius repeated, his voice sounding puzzled despite it's rather hoarse quality.

'Don't be,' Remus mumbled, rolling his head back for another kiss.

'Just,' Sirius gasped, 'just the way you look at me now, I can't -mmuh-- I can't not--'

'I know, it's okay,' Remus replied carefully.

'Yeah, but.' Sirius shuffled, kissing intently, 'but I shouldn't, isn't fair, so sorry.'

It made Remus ache inside, because it was becoming easier and easier -inexplicable though it was for this to have occurred in the first place-- to understand just how Sirius felt, had been feeling all this time, and it wasn't fair to make Sirius feel any worse. 'No, Sirius, I know.' And he did, because he'd also felt like he might die if he had to wait any longer to touch Sirius, to kiss him, and it didn't matter what it meant because he was so hard and he was happy enough to concentrate on feeling that and feeling Sirius.

Sirius groaned, holding him tight and thrusting a little. 'You do?' he asked uncertainly, to accompany his uncertain movements.

Remus made an embarrassing little choking noise at the feel of Sirius rolling his hips against him, but he'd gone past any feelings of embarrassment, because they were kissing messily and frantically now, and it was so terribly good and perfect. 'Yes,' he whispered, his words swallowed into Sirius' mouth.

'But you don't,' Sirius gasped eventually, lips stroking over Remus' cheek as he shifted his body. 'Moony, I get-- oh -- just, sometimes, just looking at you, and - it's -- oh --'

'Yesterday,' Remus mumbled, 'when you were licking your lips. You were licking your lips and it made-- made me--'

'Oh... bloody hell. Moony-- you--' Sirius was stroking his cheek again, and the look in his eyes was blurry and confusingly needy.

Remus grunted slightly and pulled a little harder on Sirius' hips, enjoying the rough, rhythmic pace of it and the building heat low in his belly.

'We should stop,' Sirius said with a moan, but he clearly didn't want to, and Remus couldn't stop now because he was suddenly frantic with the feel of this.

'Sirius,' he whispered, realising that nothing was going to stop this from happening now.

Nothing was more important than the feel of Sirius' body and the press of their foreheads together, Sirius sliding their bodies so fast now as they gasped, Sirius mumbling Moony and all Remus could do was stare right back at him. Sirius jerked a little faster, and then whimpered the strangest longing little cry, his breaths coming out quick and gasping as his eyes half closed. Sirius cried out again, but more softly, in a tiny, perfect way and it made Remus suddenly so desperate that he clenched his hands firmly around Sirius' hips and ground hard against him, pulling Sirius' warm, firm body as tightly as possible against his own and feeling the sensation washing gloriously over him.

When they finally stopped, both breathless, Remus carefully untangled himself from Sirius, feeling completely disorientated, and he slid slowly down the wall before his legs could collapse from under him.

'Moony,' Sirius whispered, kneeling next to him. 'Moony, are you okay?'

Remus wanted to say I'm not a girl, but right now he felt like one; like some silly little woman who'd let herself be seduced in a closet, except it wasn't at all like that because this was his fault and Sirius had asked him if he wanted to stop and he'd said no.

Sirius reached a hand up to Remus' face, fingers trembling as they rested on his cheek. 'Moony.'

'I'm okay.' Except he wasn't, because he was still shaking and confused and delirious, and just seconds before he'd been standing holding Sirius, and watching him, watching the way his face crumpled beautifully and listening to those beautiful little moaning noises. 'You're beautiful,' he mumbled.

'Yeah,' Sirius said distractedly, 'are you sure that--'

'Fine. I'm fine.'

'I made you come,' Sirius murmured, voice full of awe. He was now brushing Remus' hair away from his face.

'And I'm gay,' Remus added miserably.

'Do you hate that?' Sirius asked. 'Do you hate me? Do you think it's my fault?'

Remus sighed. Maybe Sirius had never made him feel quite like that before, but Remus found he seemed to be falling into all this far too easily for someone who claimed that all they wanted was to be friends. 'No, not your fault. I'm just so gay and you're just so beautiful.' He smiled to himself, because that just reminded him how he'd started all this, thinking suddenly that Sirius was beautiful and kissing him for no good reason, and maybe even that hadn't been innocent on his own part. Maybe he'd meant to do it all along and his subconscious just liked betraying him in wicked ways.

'But it's not all bad?' Sirius asked him hopefully, thumbing over Remus' bottom lip.

'Yeah. S'pose there's worse things I could be.'

'Moony.'

'Sorry, didn't mean that.' He reached out for Sirius, and Sirius leaned in to kiss him.

'Look, it'll be fine,' Sirius told him as he nuzzled shyly into Sirius' neck, 'no-one has to know and we can practice being gay together.'

Remus actually snorted at that, and realised that he wasn't feeling as gloomy as he'd thought. 'Yeah, right, and we'll live happily ever after! You girl.'

'Hey! It's not my fault. I've fancied you since I was thirteen: I'll probably be buying you flowers tomorrow. It could be worse.'

Remus felt the grin tugging at his mouth. 'Yeah, and it did feel fucking fantastic.'

Sirius grinned broadly and kissed him on the shoulder. 'Did it?' he asked, poking Remus in the stomach to try and stop him hiding his face.

'Maybe.' He giggled, then remembered what he'd been thinking before about how Sirius might feel. Since I was thirteen. 'I--' he started, then didn't know what he was going to say. 'I liked that,' he whispered, and he felt Sirius trying to turn him to look at him.

'Of course you did.'

'No, I-- I liked doing that - with you, and-- and it felt wonderful, holding you like that and feeling you and watching you... you know.'

Sirius was silent, just continued stroking Remus' hair, and Remus sighed, his own breath wetting his own lips from where they touched Sirius' throat. And I mean that, he thought, discovering that yet again his fingers had found their way under Sirius' clothing in search of skin.

'I always did like touching you a bit too much,' Remus added, 'didn't I?'

Sirius gripped him a bit tighter and Remus could feel him nodding.

#

'He's gone!' Sirius whooped, running back into the dormitory.

'Brilliant! Come here then,' Remus told him, before blushing at his own impatience. But then it was Sunday afternoon, and this was what Sunday afternoons were for, Remus knew, hiding from James. And snogging.

'Can't get enough of me, eh?' Sirius said with a grin, clambering onto the bed on all fours and leaning close.

Remus' right hand twitched involuntarily upwards, sliding around Sirius' jaw.

'Oh, you really can't.'

'Your ego,' Remus muttered, dragging him in for a kiss.

Sirius pressed into it for a while, then pulled away so he could flop down onto the bed. 'The thing is, Moony,' Sirius said, lounging back on the pillow, 'the thing is, that, well... How serious are you?'

Remus grinned. 'I'm sorry; you're suggesting that I'm not serious enough?'

'No, I mean, about this.' Sirius had that look in his eyes again, the troubled one that Remus never thought he'd ever be familiar with.

'Oh, about--'

'Yes. So...?'

He didn't know what he was expected to say, really, because all he knew was that he rather liked this and that he wanted another kiss, and that Sirius' silly questions were eating into their kissing time and when the hell had he started thinking like that?

That worried, questioning look was still focused on him.

Remus stroked his palm, suddenly realising that it was rested comfortably on Sirius' warm belly. 'Um... I like this?'

'Yes, but--' Their faces were very close again, and all Remus wanted was a kiss. 'If you aren't serious, then you're just-- making it worse again, mm?'

Remus sighed, because Sirius was beautiful and looking at him like that, and he could hardly bear to not be kissing him right now. 'I'm serious, yes? I'm definitely serious enough. Okay? You knew that, after yesterday...'

Sirius smiled gorgeously. 'Oh, I remember yesterday alright,' he whispered.

'Sirius!'

'I made you come and you loved it, didn't you? Tell me you did,' he begged, and Remus almost groaned because there was that spark again and he slid his thumb under Sirius' shirt so he could feel skin.

'Yes,' he mumbled, 'yes, I did.'

'Ohh,' Sirius moaned, finger tipping Remus' chin as he leaned over him.

'RIGHT!'

The door banged open loudly and Remus felt like he'd just jumped a mile, nearly falling off the bed in shock.

'I caught you, finally,' James said from where he stood in the doorway, eyes bright with anger. 'I knew you were up to something, and I fucking caught you--' Remus' eyes widened as two more figures appeared behind James. '--so which of you is getting punched?'

'You will not be punching anyone!' screeched Lily Evans, who didn't seem to be wholly against physical violence, because she was quite happy to grab herself a fistful of James' hair to hold him back.

'Sorry,' mumbled Peter, 'she followed me up here...'

'Look, James,' Sirius said, getting to his feet, 'really, you don't need to hit anyone; no-one's done anything wrong.'

'Bollocks!' James yelled, looking rather mad with his head tilted at a forty-five degree angle, his eyes peering up along the line of his hair to where Lily's fingers were gripping him tightly. Behind him, Peter shifted nervously, obviously rather unsure as to whether or not he should try and save James from Lily, or whether James was really rather enjoying himself.

'We haven't--' Sirius protested.

'I have tried so hard with all this, Black, have you even any idea how difficult this is for me? And you aren't even trying, and he's a complete idiot,' James added, pointing at Remus. 'You deserve a fucking good beating, and that's just what you're going to--ahh!'

Lily had transferred her grip from James' hair to his left ear and had given it quite a sharp tug. 'Come on,' she said authoritatively.

'Evans, you--'

She tugged again, a bit harder to cut off whatever suggestive comment he'd been about to make. 'We're going to McGonagall, right now, and you can explain what the bloody hell is wrong with you to her, because I really don't understand your ridiculous fighting games.'

'But--'

'Come on. All of you!' she added.

'We didn't do anything wrong!' Sirius moaned.

'Oh, come off it,' Lily spat, 'I know that you've all punched each other at least once recently.'

'I haven't got to punch James yet,' Remus said bitterly and was rewarded with quite a lovely supportive grin from Sirius.

'And I haven't punched anyone at all,' Peter reminded them.

'I don't care,' Lily told them, 'I'm asserting my influence as a prefect, seeing that Remus is thoroughly incapable, to report you all to your head of house, come on.' Another tug on James' ear and he had no choice to follow her down the stairs, and the rest of them trooped after rather reluctantly.

There was lots of sniggering as they traipsed through the common room, though Remus thought it was likely that James was very pleased with being led around by Lily. Sirius was obviously on the same train of thought as he suggested to Lily that soon James would be begging her to spank him. Unimpressed, she just reached out her left hand and pinched his right ear too. Peter and Remus walked behind them, sniggering.

On the inside, however, Remus didn't really feel much like sniggering. It certainly could have been worse; James could have got a lot more of an eyeful than he had, could have seen what they were actually doing, but he dreaded to think what McGonagall was going to do to them this time. Did people get expelled for things like this? If James was just less irritating, he decided, then Lily would never go to so much trouble to find out what they were up to all the time, and then they wouldn't be here.

Somehow he felt even worse to find himself outside McGonagall's office than he had last time.

Professor McGonagall didn't look as surprised as she might have, to find one of her prefects dragging two students into her office by the shells of their ears. 'What now?' she asked. Remus groaned inwardly, because that was her long-suffering voice, and that was almost never a good sign.

'I caught them when they were just about to have a fight,' Lily said proudly, her body puffed up with self-importance.

'Right,' their professor said with a sigh, and she stood up and walked to the door. A few words with someone outside and she came back in. 'Well. Well?'

'I saw Potter marching back through the common room when he was supposed to be at Quidditch practice, and he looked like he was up to something, so I followed him--'

'She was in the boys' dormitory, Professor,' Sirius interrupted, his voice mimicking the telling-tales tone of Lily's.

'That is hardly the issue--' She was interrupted by a knock on the door, and Remus realised with great foreboding just who it was going to be.

'Do join us, Mr Halverston,' McGonagall told him sharply.

'What's going on,' Halverston asked with great suspicion, sliding reluctantly into a chair. 'I haven't done anything wrong,' he added.

'Well I haven't done anything wrong either,' James said, 'but--'

'I think you might find, Potter, that that is not a consensus opinion,' their professor told him.

'Please, just, Minerva, please.'

'Potter!' The quill she was clutching snapped suddenly.

'Just--' James leant forward, eyes pleading. 'I'm not misbehaving, not this time, please--'

'A case of The Boy Who Cried Wolf for you, Potter?' Lily asked smugly.

The four of them looked sharply at her, and Remus could have done without anyone saying the word 'wolf' while his nerves were already rather frayed. Halverston appeared to be cleaning his fingernails.

'Professor, please,' James begged, 'I was honestly, honestly trying to help, if you just knew...'

'But I don't know, do I? Because no-one will tell me.' She had leaned in too, presumably having realised that James was her best chance of finding out.

'I was just trying to help--'

'James, look, it's all fine now,' Sirius explained gently, 'things have changed. So don't you worry your pretty head.' Sirius patted one of James' hands, both of which were holding the edge of the desk in a vice-like grip.

'No they bloody well haven't! You can be so immature sometimes!' Remus gawped at the thoroughly ridiculous concept of James describing someone else as immature. 'These things don't change! You can't just say it's gone away, because I know it hasn't; it can't have.'

Remus cringed quietly in his seat, because now it was painfully obvious why James had been the way he was about this. It wasn't just about protecting their group and their friendship, or even about protecting his best friend. It was because James assumed that Sirius felt the same way about Remus that James himself felt about Lily Evans.

'No, James, I didn't mean that, I mean-- It isn't me that's changed, you see.'

'What? But--' James paused, staring at Sirius. 'You mean...?' He breathed out a long, shaky breath. 'Remus John Lupin, you absolute, complete and utter prick,' he said, not taking his eyes off Sirius.

'James Potter!' McGonagall cried in horror.

'So everything's fine now, isn't it?' Sirius said, ignoring their teacher.

'But--' James flailed for words. 'You're really--'

'Yes.'

James looked totally bewildered, and all Remus could think was that how on earth Sirius could think that in front of their head of house, was a good time to tell James. Peter seemed confused too, though Remus found he couldn't tell if it was because he didn't understand or just because he was so shocked. Lily looked completely lost and Remus couldn't quite bring himself to check on how Halverston had taken all the cryptic conversation.

'Right.' McGonagall's eyes were bright with murderous anger and her facial expression was taut and tense even by her standards. Remus shuddered. 'What we're going to do,' she said, 'is: one -or more-- of you is going to tell me exactly what is going on right now.'

'Okay, then,' Sirius said, his voice eerily calm.

Everyone stared at Sirius in confusion.

'It all started when James discovered that I had a terrible crush on Remus--'

Sirius paused there, obviously for effect, while everyone gawped, and Remus found himself wondering how inconspicuously he could crawl under McGonagall's desk so he could die quietly and without fuss.

'Well, obviously Remus is a complete sex god, so it wasn't that much of a surprise,' Sirius continued, and Remus wondered if he maybe hadn't already died and already gone to hell, 'but James thought it was well out of order, and that Remus should at least be able to hang around his own dormitory without getting drooled over, so he went and punched me.'

Sirius accompanied that description with a demonstrative swipe of his fist, a cheeky grin and a roll of his eyes. McGonagall blinked.

'Now, eventually Remus and I made up,' Sirius said, 'but then James got angry because he thought Remus was leading me on by being all pally and such, so he kind of lost his temper with Remus. Anyway, I'd been sort of seeing Julie here, because he's just so pretty,' Sirius reached over and scrubbed Halverston's hair, 'but Remus had kissed me on my birthday and he got jealous when he discovered that Jules and I were still together, so he punched Julie that time.'

Peter tried to clear his throat unobtrusively.

And then,' Sirius told them, over-emphasising the drama of the situation, 'Remus and I worked things out and got together, but we didn't want to tell James because he'd been all interfering, so when he walked in on us earlier he obviously thought that I was trying to surreptitiously grope Remus, or that Remus was leading me on again, so that's why he'd threatened to punch one of us.

'So you see, that's about it really.'

He finished his speech with a bright smile at McGonagall, and settled back to see what she would say. Remus closed his eyes and tried not to be sick.

Professor McGonagall just sat there, her face stony and her knuckles white where her hands were gripping the desk.

'Out,' was what she said finally.

'I'm sorry, professor,' Lily enquired politely, 'what did you say?'

'I said OUT! Get out! All of you!' she roared. 'If I ever see any of you in this office again, or if any of you EVER punches anyone again, I will have you all expelled, do you understand? Yes, that includes all of you. Just GET OUT, right NOW!'

'What the fuck was that?' Remus yelled, admittedly rather louder than he should have, because McGonagall could clearly still hear them. Lily and Halverston still looked confused, as did James. Sirius looked rather pleased with himself as he sauntered down the corridor and away from McGonagall's office door, and Peter was actually sniggering.

'Yes, Black,' Lily said, 'what the hell was that supposed to be?'

'First rule of good lying,' Sirius told her as Peter's laughter got louder.

'What on god's earth is the first rule of good lying?' Lily hissed.

Peter snorted. 'It's easy,' he told her once his laughter had died down, though his mouth still twitched with occasional amusement. 'If you're stuck in a tricky situation, and you can't think of a good excuse it's all you have to do.'

'Oh fuck,' James whispered in awe, finally understanding.

'What you do,' Peter said smugly, 'is tell the truth in a sarcastic manner.'

'What?' asked Halverston, stopping suddenly in his tracks and turning to look at them from where he'd been stomping off ahead. His eyes rested on Remus. 'Oh, that explains a lot,' he muttered rather bitterly.

'Wait a minute,' James said, eyes boring into Julian's.

'Though I think,' Halverston said, noticing James' expression and starting to back away, 'that it might be time to cut my losses and run. Er, bye.' He quickly legged it down the corridor, disappearing around the corner.

James turned to Sirius, not looking very happy. 'Don't know what you're all complaining about,' Sirius said, 'she didn't even take any house points, never mind give anyone detention.'

'But you--'

'Doesn't matter anymore, everything's fine, er, right, Moony?'

Remus managed a small, nervous, watery sort of smile.

'I'm sorry, but you just expect me to believe this? God knows how you convinced Professor McGonagall, but--'

'Don't be thick, Evans, we didn't convince old McGonagall of anything, she just thought I was talking bollocks.'

'Oh god, really?' Remus sighed in relief.

'Because you were talking bollocks!' Lily exclaimed.

'He really wasn't,' James said tiredly.

'So you expect me to believe that Sirius Black has just dumped Julian Halverston for Remus Lupin! If I repeat that in front of anyone else I'll get laughed out of school!'

'If you repeat that in front of anyone else, you'll get a punch in the face and we'll all get thrown out of school,' Sirius told her.

'But--'

'How about we show you?' Sirius offered, stopping where they were, not far from the portrait of the Fat Lady. He quickly looked both ways in what appeared to Remus to be a 'checking the coast is clear' sort of gesture.

The protestations of four people were cut off when Sirius slid his palm around the back of Remus' head and pressed their lips together.

'Oh bloody hell,' James said with a gasp as Remus struggled a little against Sirius' grip.

'Yeah, Remus looks really convinced,' Lily said sarcastically.

'And you've been doing this with Halverston of all people?' James asked incredulously.

Remus was finding it rather difficult to keep up the will to struggle, having been desperate to kiss Sirius all day, he was finally getting to. He let himself relax just a fraction and lifted one of his hands to rest on Sirius' hip.

'Fuck...' James repeated.

Remus pulled away quickly when he realised that Sirius was getting rather carried away and was trying to slip his tongue into Remus' mouth.

'Julian's right,' Lily said, 'that does explain a lot.'

Sirius actually growled, his hand still resting against Remus' hair.

Lily's eyes flickered nervously and she stepped back a little.

'Well,' said Remus, hurriedly breaking the silence, 'here we are, back at the portrait-hole, er.' Luckily he already had every excuse to behaving rather weirdly, so no-one seemed to mind. He muttered the password to the Fat Lady.

'So you're gay,' Lily said thoughtfully, stopping him as he tried to escape into the common room.

'Shut up, Evans,' Sirius told her rudely, and Remus found himself being dragged through and across the room. 'Remus and I have to have a little chat.'

Remus' head was swirling, but he couldn't hide his grin as they stomped up the stairs and finally reached their room, because they appeared to have got away with that, mostly. And James knew, yet had just seemed to be rather surprised as opposed to angry, or violent.

'So, I do believe we were busy until we got so rudely inter--'

Remus ignored Sirius' rambling and grabbed him firmly by the chin and kissed him.

'Moony!' Sirius gasped in surprise, nevertheless kissing him back rather forcefully.

'Less talking, more kissing, mm?'

'Oh yes,' Sirius mumbled, opening his mouth a bit wider and rolling Remus swiftly over to pin him to the bed.

Remus moaned gratefully, finally able to kiss Sirius in peace, without needing to worry about who might catch them or interrupt. After all, James and Peter didn't mind, so the rest of the world could fuck right off, because Sirius was kissing him--

'Guess what-- Oh, yuck!'

They both pulled away to glare at Peter who was standing in the doorway looking rather sick.

'In case you can't tell, Peter; we're busy.'

'You'll never guess who James is talking to,' Peter said, continuing to be totally oblivious to how completely unwanted his presence was.

'The Giant fucking Squid?' Sirius suggested. Remus smothered his smile and began to slide his fingers up the back of Sirius' jumper.

'Lily Evans,' Peter informed them.

'I do believe,' Sirius told him, sounding rather agitated, 'that he has talked to her before.'

'Yes, but it's just the two of them, and she's listening and not running away. I heard her describe him as 'very sensible'.'

'What?' yelled Sirius.

'I know!' Apparently she thinks he behaved very appropriately about you two and all this, and she's actually comforting him.'

'Oh my god! We actually helped James get his grubby claws into Evans!' Sirius let go of Remus in shock.

Remus smiled, suddenly ridiculously happy; he'd genuinely never thought that James could have even the smallest chance with Lily, but if she really thought that he'd behaved very maturely, then maybe, maybe it was possible.

'I have to see this,' Sirius added.

'Oh no you don't,' Remus told him, pretending to himself it was because he thought that James and Lily should be left to talk on their own, and not because he desperately didn't want Sirius to go anywhere right now. 'I think Pete should borrow James' cloak and go and have a listen for us, and coincidentally just happen to leave us in peace at the same time.'

Sirius cocked his head thoughtfully to the side. 'That does sound like a better idea.'

'But--' Peter started to say.

'Yes, go on Pete, because otherwise you'll have to stay and watch Remus and I do this some more.' Sirius pushed Remus back down and immediately pressed their lips together again.

'Oh - yuck, that is really disgust-- Okay, I'm going.' There was the sound of James' trunk banging shut and then the slamming of the door, and Remus let himself relax into Sirius' kiss.

'See, isn't this just great,' Sirius said between sloppy slurps against Remus' mouth. 'We got our Shakespearian happy ending after all.'

'Sirius! Shut up.'

'Well, now you know how I used to feel when you ignored me for all your books,' Sirius said happily, smirking into the kiss.

'But-- Oh, for god's sake. And Shakespeare's stuff isn't all happy,' Remus pointed out, 'sometimes everyone dies horribly at the end.'

'You're the one who never knows when to shut up,' Sirius commented, shuffling down towards his neck.

Remus closed his eyes and hummed with pleasure as Sirius slid lips along his throat. 'Neither do you. Though you did get one part of the Shakespeare right: in his day women didn't act, so they had men play all the women's parts.'

'I hope you aren't suggesting that I'm playing a woman's part?'

Remus laughed and tilted his head further back as Sirius' kisses reached his collar.

'Well,' Sirius said, ' I always knew that Shakespeare had the right idea.'

'No you didn't!' Remus protested. 'You always said that Shakespeare was a load of old fluffy bollocks and you didn't know why I bothered with it!'

'Mmm.' Sirius moaned into Remus' neck. 'Swear to me, Moony.'

Remus pulled him up for another kiss on the lips, Sirius' tongue warm and wet and so comfortable against his own. 'You fucking gorgeous bastard,' he mumbled.

Sirius gave a little snuffly laugh, which felt ticklish against Remus' lips, and then stopped his mouth with a kiss.

####