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There was a quidditch match today. That much, Remus understood. A quidditch match that was so absurd it caused Sirius to bound around and rant about it for over ten minutes after he burst into the Gryffindor Common Room. The otherwise quiet, comfy, and peaceful Common Room where Remus was enjoying his lukewarm tea and a Sci-Fi novel he’d recently started.
Is it too much to ask for a warning before he launches into these rants?
Instinctively, Remus froze with both the book and his cup in hand. He figured that if he stayed very still and didn’t respond, Sirius would either get bored and leave him to it or catch on that he was otherwise occupied. It wasn’t all that easy to turn off Sci-Fi brain processing in favor of bland sport commentary, after all.
Predictably, this plan failed. Why did I think Sirius would pick up a subtle hint?
Remus sighed heavily as he set his cup on the side table and marked his place in the novel. “Right. So, there was a Regulus-related disaster at quidditch. I thought Gryffindor was playing against Hufflepuff today? How did your brother get involved in it?”
“The snitch, Remus! Listen, all right? Are you listening?” Sirius said, eagerly bouncing on the balls of his feet. He mimed a small circular object zipping toward his own head, presumably imitating the snitch. “It was like nnneeeeerrrr-neeeerrrr-nnnnn eerrrrt! Then, it stopped! The snitch was hovering by my brother’s head as if his skull was magnetic, drawing it straight to him. You see?”
“Stop bouncing. It flew near his head? So?”
Sirius shook his own head as violently as a wet dog determined to soil the entire sitting room after puddle jumping. His long, dark hair flew out at all angles and landed in a wild heap on top of his head. It was not a terribly flattering look on him, but somehow still looked better than Remus’s dry curls.
“No! You’re not getting it.” Sirius kicked off his boots and leapt onto the sofa, jumping to emphasize his point. “Not just once, not twice, but thrice! The snitch came directly to Reggie three times in a row! It was mental! You had to be there.”
“Sirius,” Remus pleaded, unfolding his legs to avoid being stomped on. “Is jumping really necessary to the retelling? Can’t you just sit with me and tell your story?”
“No can do, Remoooo,” Sirius teased. He bounced especially high off the sofa cushions and lost control, kicking out wildly. “Shite! I’m gonna fallllll…”
At the last second, Remus grabbed hold of Sirius’s leg and pulled before he crashed to the floor. The noisy twit landed on top of him with all four limbs flailing, promptly kneeing Remus in the chest and knocking the wind out of him. Remus coughed hard.
As if I wasn’t sore enough from the full moon last night.
“Fuckin’ hell! All right, Remus?” Sirius scrambled onto his knees and hauled Remus into a hug, patting his back firmly. “Breathe, you lanky bastard!”
If we weren’t already dating, this would be the final straw for me, Remus mused, while hacking up a lung. Just another confirmation of how gone he already was for his boyfriend.
Remus wheezed as he collapsed on the sofa, dragging Sirius with him. Once he had his brilliant idiot tucked into one side, he handed Sirius a pen and rolled up his sleeve. “Here. Sit. Be good. Doodle while you talk, if you must, but I can’t stand it when you go into slinky mode. Full moon, remember?”
“Shite, sorry. But, as I was saying,” Sirius replied, popping off the pen cap and cramming it into the corner of his mouth. “Wegulus was gettin’ hawassed by de snit. Wooden leaf him alone.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Remus lightly flicked Sirius’s cheek. “Spit it out. Now I can’t understand you.”
Sirius lifted his head and spat the pen cap across the room. “Ugh. Anyway! As. I. Was. Saying.”
“The snitch was annoying Regulus, I got that part. Why was this ‘demented snitch’ causing problems?” Remus asked, shifting Sirius closer. As he hoped, Sirius tucked his upper body under Remus’s arm for a better sketching position. Which oh-so-conveniently makes it easier for me to cuddle him.
Amused, Remus relaxed against the sofa and listened to Sirius’s conspiracy theories about this rogue snitch. Every conversation with him had to have a big, dramatic scene, and this story was no different. So far, he’d mentioned the Wizard Mafia, Snape’s crew of wannabe motheaters, and the Bloody Baron. None of which were likely to have interfered with the snitch, but Remus didn’t say that.
“What did Madam Hooch say?” Remus asked.
Sirius let out a noise that sounded suspiciously close to a raspberry. “Don’t be ridiculous, Remus. We didn’t tell Hooch. James is investigating it.”
“Of course he is. That makes perfect sense,” Remus snarked. “Our resident expert on snitches is the team’s chaser. You didn’t happen to ask Regulus about it, did you?”
“Nah.”
Remus snorted. “Yeah, what does a seeker know about snitches anyway?”
“Exactly, you get it. Now, look. I’m going to get this rune tattooed on my chest when I finish Hogwarts. What do you think?”
Sirius prattled on and on about both the rune and the rogue snitch in half-spoken, half-hand gestured sentences while he scrawled a series of symbols on Remus’s forearm. Remus was only partially listening, since his brain hadn’t fully switched to banter mode, but he did appreciate the impromptu cuddle. It was quite the feat to convince Sirius to sit still for any length of time, so he cherished these rare moments while they lasted.
Stretched out on the sofa like this, with Sirius tucked under his arm, was one of the few opportunities Remus had to truly admire him. From this close, he could see a crooked eyelash, every faint freckle, and a few tiny scars on Sirius’s face. Even the mole that Sirius insisted was a “beauty mark” on his left temple, which he hid behind his hair, was visible. It was like seeing his boyfriend through a magnifying glass or putting him under a microscope.
I want to know the story behind every single one of these marks. I wish I could wring the details out of him, so he’d stop worrying about them.
Was this small scar on his jaw the result of a shaving incident, an old acne spot he’d scratched open, or a fight with his brother? What about the one beneath his left eyebrow? Remus needed to know everything.
Besides, Sirius deserved to know that he was beautiful and that every tiny flaw he found in himself was nothing more than proof that he was, indeed, human. How else would the mere mortal beings that surrounded him cope otherwise? Those minimal marks of imperfection were what Remus clung to when he looked at the two of them in a mirror. He knew he shouldn’t try to compare himself to Sirius, but it was human nature.
A pretty outside doesn’t guarantee a pretty inside, but Sirius has both. Clever bastard.
“Hey, Moons,” Sirius said suddenly, tipping his head back to meet Remus’s gaze upside-down. “Have I ever told you how much I like your nose?”
Remus blinked. “My nose?”
“It’s so masculine, you know? It’s a nose that gives your face character. I love your nose.” Sirius reached up to trace the ridge of Remus’s nose with his index finger, then returned to his drawing. “Don’t ever change it, all right? I know it bugs you that it’s big, but it’s nice.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. You wouldn’t be you without it,” Sirius said.
How does he say things like that? As if it’s no big deal and means nothing? It meant everything to Remus.
He pressed his face into Sirius’s hair and smiled, hiding the heat rising in his cheeks. “All right. I won’t change it.”
Not that he was planning on it, but still. If Sirius loved Remus’s nose, then who was he to argue? Sirius Black certainly knew beauty better than he did, so he had no choice but to agree.
A loud click and a flash made Remus jump. He looked up to find Lily perched on the stairs to the girls’ dorm with a camera in her hand. Merlin, she about gave me a heart attack!
Then, he realized what she’d done and was tempted to leap off the sofa and kiss her! She’d captured this cuddle on film. It was forever preserved by her new Polaroid. No matter what happened, and what the future would bring, he had evidence that this picture-perfect moment was real. That he and Sirius were real.
“Again with the camera, Evans?” Sirius said, tucking his face into Remus’s shoulder. “My hair is a disaster!”
Lily smirked. “You are a disaster, Black. Born that way, I suspect.”
“You’re not wrong. You know my family is half-mad, right?”
“I suspected as much,” she agreed.
Remus caught Lily’s eye and mouthed, “Thank you.”
She winked, then turned to run up the stairs with the still-processing photo in hand. He knew she’d keep it safe. If anyone could be trusted to hold such a precious memento, it was Lily.
I’d leave my life in her hands in a minute, why not my memories?