FIC: Grown Up Things (2/3)
Oct. 30th, 2007 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leashy_bebesSeries: Grown-Up Things
Chapter: Commitment (2/3)
Rating: only for bad language
Summary: Everyone has to grow up sometime. More fluff! Some parental-inspired angst. - Ha, reading back over this before I post, I kind of feel that this is tooth-rotting in the extreme. Uh. Oh well.
Notes: My friends are all having babies and applying for mortgages and getting grown up jobs. This is, naturally, v. unsettling, and I like to spread it around via fic.
Words: About 3000
When Remus floos in to Sirius' - their - flat, the first things he sees are a Gryffindor common room armchair floating in midair, and various other bits of furniture and boxes of possessions scuttling out of the way. Then he spots Sirius and James choreographing the movements with their wands and watches them fondly for a moment before Sirius spots him.
"Hey, you," he calls, the armchair slamming to the floor. Sirius bounds over it and grabs Remus' arm. "The kitchen's all sorted. Didn't let Prongs anywhere near the bedroom, you'll be glad to - what's wrong?"
"Told mum and dad," Remus says in a low voice. There's another crash as the box James was levitating slams to the floor.
"I'll just be going, then," James says airily. "Leave you two to - domestic bliss and all that - "
"You don't have to go," Remus offers, shaking his head. "It wasn't that bad."
"No, s'alright. Meeting Frank and Peter for a drink soon anyway," James explains. "Later, lovebirds."
As James floos out, Sirius pulls Remus over to the stolen armchair and tugs him down into it. It's easily big enough to seat the two of them, and Remus lets Sirius curl their bodies together comfortably.
"Well?"
"They - it was - " Remus shrugs. Sirius's fingers trail down the side of his face as Remus swallows awkwardly and looks up at Sirius. "Look, I have to - You can say no if you want, but they - well, dad mainly, mum’s being - I just - "
"Stop," Sirius says suddenly, cupping Remus' face in his palm. "Calm down, and just tell me. Were they horrible to you?"
"No..." Remus says hesitantly. "They don't understand really, but. Oh, damn it, Sirius," Remus gives a huff and rubs his hands over his face. Finally, the words muffled into his hands, he says, "They want you to come over for dinner."
"Okay," Sirius says easily.
"Feel free to say no."
"It's okay."
"No, really, please feel free to say no."
"Remus," Sirius says slowly, pulling Remus' hands away from his face. "It's okay. I've met your parents before now, and they didn't hate me."
"They didn't know," Remus protests weakly. "They - argh, oh, Padfoot."
"What? What's so bad? We go to your parents', they see that we make each other happy, we come home and have lots of 'hoorah your parents like me' celebratory sex."
"You're so - "
"Hot?" Sirius suggests, waggling his eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion.
"Naïve," Remus says fondly, leaning close to press a little kiss to Sirius' mouth. "Just - just remember that they never expected to have a child, and they certainly never expected it to end up a werewolf and - "
Sirius slaps Remus' hand sharply, gaining a startled stare.
"If you ever call yourself an 'it' in my hearing again, I'll hit you a lot harder than that," Sirius promises. "I mean it."
"It, me, whatever - "
"No! Not 'whatever'," Sirius protests vehemently.
"Alright, fine. Me. They never expected me to end up a werewolf, and a gay werewolf is just... Just understand that they're very protective, especially my mother. I've never really asserted myself in front of them. I - "
"Remus, Remus, Remus," Sirius says in a sing-song voice, wrapping his arms around Remus' shoulders and pulling him closer. "I love you."
"Love you, too."
"And your parents love you. So I just...I'll just make sure they know that. They can't hate anyone who loves their ickle baby boy as much as I do, right?"
"Shut up, Padfoot," Remus says fondly, tightening his arms around Sirius' waist. He sighs and kisses Sirius' temple. "So we're going for dinner, then?" he asks, a note of dread in his voice.
"Yes," Sirius says firmly. "When is it?"
"This Friday," Remus says, his fingertips drumming against Sirius' neck in his distraction.
"Perfect," Sirius says. "Two days to christen the flat, and that only leaves one day to panic and buy presents for your mother."
"It's not a very big flat, Padfoot," Remus laughs, the worry fading from his eyes. "Two days might be - "
"Mmm," Sirius rumbles against Remus' throat, cutting him off and grabbing greedily at his thigh. "S'why we're christening every flat surface and piece of furniture as well."
"Hmm..."
"Starting with the chair," Sirius adds grinning wickedly at Remus.
"Actually, we've already - "
"Nope," Sirius says, anticipating Remus' objection. "I nicked a different one."
"So the chair..."
"Yes, Moony, the chair we had our first snog - "
" - and other things - "
" - and other things, yes, is still in the common room. This one is disturbingly unsullied."
"Oh, well," Remus says, smiling into Sirius' face and shifting in the chair to haul Sirius into his lap. "Let's rectify that, eh?"
"Mmm, now?"
"Right now."
***
"Oh God, oh God, oh God. We're going to be late."
"I thought I was the one who was supposed to get nervous. Meeting the in-laws and all that."
Remus' hands stutter on the buttons of his shirt and he looks up at Sirius with wide eyes.
"What did you just say?"
"I said I thought I was the one who was supposed to get nervous. When Prongs met Evans' family he - "
"No," Remus interrupts, reaching out and clutching Sirius' forearm. "After that."
"What? Meeting the in-laws?"
"You - " Words, quite honestly, fail Remus. He blinks at Sirius.
"What?" Sirius asks, unbuttoning Remus' shirt, aligning it properly and doing the buttons up again. "What else should I call them?" He tugs Remus forward by his collar and presses a messy kiss on his forehead.
Remus swallows against the lump in his throat as Sirius turns away and starts searching under the bed for a stray shoe. Typical bloody Sirius. He can break your heart and put it back together again better than it ever was before, and not even notice he's done anything.
"Hey," Remus says softly, watching as Sirius hops on one foot, awkwardly trying to pull the wayward shoe onto his foot. "I do love you, you know."
"You too," Sirius says, looking slightly bemused at Remus' declaration. "We ready?" Sirius asks.
"No," Remus tells him frankly.
"We going anyway?"
"It's the Marauderly way," Remus acknowledges with a weak smile.
"It is," Sirius confirms, grabbing at Remus' hands and pressing them both between his own before kissing the tips of Remus' fingers. "Come on, Moony. How bad can it be? Let's just go."
"Damn, damn, okay, let's - just try not to swear too much and - "
"Yes, Remus, I know how to act in front of real grown ups," Sirius says, sliding an arm around Remus' waist.
"I know, I know. I'm just nervous."
"Don't be," Sirius implores. "Have a little faith in me."
"Not you," Remus says desperately. "Not you, Sirius. I just - "
"Shh. You don't need to explain. And we really are going to be late if we don't get a move on, right now."
"Right," Remus says, running both hands through his hair in a gesture oddly reminiscent of James. Sirius immediately flicks the strands back into place again. "Right."
Before he can panic any more than he already has, Sirius slips an arm around Remus' waist and apparates them into the clearing behind the Lupin house. Sirius moves to step away immediately but Remus catches hold of him and pulls him close. Sirius relaxes into Remus' clingy embrace and circles his arms loosely around Remus' waist. Remus turns his face into the warmth of Sirius' neck and inhales deeply, forcing himself to calm down.
"Alright," Remus says, nodding once as he steps back and straightens his back. "Let's do this."
***
Sirius sits quietly, stares at his plate, and tries not to look like a corrupter of innocent werewolves. He can hear his own voice asking how bad can it be, and he wishes for a time turner just so he can go back and kick his own arse for asking such a stupid question. He doesn't know how to deal with parents. His own are bad enough, but he doesn't have anything to do with them anymore, and he knows the relationship they did have isn't really anything to go on with someone else's family.
He has no idea how parents are meant to react to news like this, but this was not what he'd had in mind. Remus' mum does not want her boy to be in this relationship, that much is painfully clear. For the whole evening, she's gone to great lengths to treat them as nothing more than friends, and now she's starting to remind Remus of how wonderful and cheap and convenient it would be for him to still live at home as opposed to with Sirius. Remus doesn't tell her that Sirius is paying the rent - they'd had an explosive row about it before Remus had caved in - so Sirius doesn't mention it either. Instead he listens to the bright prattle about how it will be easier at home, tidier at home, safer at home.
Remus' dad is silent through all of this, his eyes roving over his wife and son. His silence is an oppressive presence in the room, and Sirius honestly feels like he might start squirming in his seat in a moment.
Then, Remus' mother looks at them both carefully. It's obvious she's been preparing what to say next for a while.
"Boys," she says gently, nominally including Sirius in her words, although her eyes remain fixed on her son throughout. "I know that you think your relationship is something out of the ordinary, but to be honest with you, I don't see anything more than a close friendship here. Why do you think you need to live with him, Remus?"
Remus opens his mouth almost incredulously, but before he can speak, his mother continues.
"I want what's best for you, Remus and - "
"And you don't think this is it?" Remus interrupts quietly, setting his cutlery down with a very definite click.
Sirius stares at his plate some more, his pulse thudding in his ears. He has no idea what's about to happen. Remus does not interrupt adults, he does not argue with his parents, in fact he rarely stands up for himself at all.
"No," Remus' mother says. "I do not. I don't think you understand what people think when you tell them you're moving in with Sirius, as your - your..."
"Lover," Remus says coldly. "My lover, my partner, my - "
"Remus, really."
"What do you want, mum?" Remus asks. "I'm not going to prove to you that he's more than my friend. I love Sirius. And he loves me. Mum, please, he makes me happy."
Sirius is on the verge of opening his mouth to venture that yes indeed, he does love Remus, very much so in fact, and would go through the worst hells imaginable to make him happy, when Remus' mum says something in a low voice that pulls him up short.
"He didn't always make you happy."
There's something in that tone that leaves Sirius with no doubt as to what she's talking about. Fucking Snape, and the worst fucking mistake of Sirius' life. It had taken Remus so long, so long to forgive Sirius. Hell, forget forgiveness, it had taken a long time for Remus to even be able to be in the same room with him. For a moment, Sirius is horribly afraid that Remus will listen too closely to his mother's warnings, that he might change his mind.
"That's not fair," Remus says after a few seconds of silence.
"I'm only - "
"That's not fair."
"Son - "
"No," Remus snaps. "I'm in love. I mean it. I'm in love with him."
There is a heavy lump in Sirius' throat, and he finds that he can't look up from his plate for fear that he'll cry.
"Be happy for me or don't be, that's your choice, but it won't influence mine." Remus' voice is remarkably steady, and Sirius wonders if he's ever admired his boyfriend as much as he does in this moment.
"Remus, for heaven's sake, don't be so dramatic," his mother scolds.
Next to him, Sirius can hear Remus breathing heavily and he dares a glance sideways to see that Remus is sitting ramrod straight in his chair, staring straight ahead.
"I'm trying - this is the most important thing I've ever had to tell you and you're acting like it's nothing!" Remus snaps suddenly.
"We're not, we just - "
"You are. You've all but told me it's just a phase," Remus flings the word out like it's something hateful and Sirius shifts so that one of his legs is pressed against Remus', an attempt at subtle support that's completely blown out of the water when Remus continues, "If it was a phase do you think he'd know me well enough to have touched me just now? Just when I'm - Mum, Dad, please, just - I love you. But I'm going to spend my life with Sirius, and the sooner you accept that, the better."
All parental eyes in the room had swung around to Sirius at the words 'touched me just now' and Sirius wants to disappear, all the more so when Remus' last words sound quite like an ultimatum. Risking parental wrath - and caring - for the first time in years, Sirius whispers to Remus,
"Calm down."
Remus glances at Sirius, his jaw set and his eyes hard. Sirius knows that this is something Remus just has to do, and much as he wants to offer support, he contents himself with giving Remus a warm look and pressing his leg more firmly against Remus'.
"Well, I - " Remus' mothers says, obviously offended by Remus' tone.
"Mary," Remus' dad interrupts his wife, placing a gentle hand on her arm. "I don't think we're going to get very far tonight. Maybe the boys should head home, give you both room to breathe."
"Dad - "
"We'll be in touch tomorrow, son. Come on, I'll see you out."
As soon as they stand, Remus' fingers find Sirius' and cling tightly. Their goodbyes to Remus' mother are strange and frosty, and then they follow his father out to the garden. He shakes out a cigarette from the box in his pocket and lights it with the tip of his wand.
"Remus," he says, blowing out a cloud of smoke into the dark air. "Son, I won't say I'm pleased, but...you do look happy."
"I am," Remus says, almost desperately.
"I'll talk to your mum. She'll come around."
"Thanks, dad."
For all that he complains about the smell when Sirius smokes the occasional cigarette, Remus braves it to give his dad a quick, impulsive hug. When he moves back, he doesn't look up, and Sirius finds himself in brief eye-contact with Remus' dad.
"Take care of him, Sirius," he says, nodding once.
Sirius nods tightly and Remus tucks himself into the circle of Sirius' arms, allowing him to apparate them both away.
When they arrive back in their flat, Sirius guides Remus to the sofa and pushes him down gently.
"Well, that was..." Sirius trails off, groping for the right words.
"Horrific," Remus says flatly, pulling off his coat roughly and tossing it over the back of the sofa. "Don't lie, it was - god damn it, Padfoot, I'm so - "
"Don't you dare apologise," Sirius says fiercely.
"But she was awful," Remus protests.
"She was...not great, I'll give you that," Sirius admits. "But your dad said he'd speak to her."
Remus opens and closes his mouth a couple of times before giving up, shrugging helplessly.
“Besides, imagined if we had to tell my family,” Sirius continues.
Remus can’t help a snort of laughter at the very idea, but he still looks sad.
"C'mere," Sirius says, tugging Remus into a lazy hug.
"It's alright," Remus says, trying to shrug Sirius away and encountering strong resistance.
"Listen," Sirius says, "I don't want to revive puns best left dead, but I want to be serious for a minute."
"Be Sirius forever," Remus says, more to annoy Sirius than in an attempt to be funny. Sirius just tugs on a lock of Remus' hair and tells him to behave.
"Tonight wasn't great, and I wanted to disappear through the floor at regular intervals if I'm honest, but it made me realise...I want to be with you, Moony. Good and bad, happy and sad."
"Careful, Sirius," Remus says, smiling softly. "That's dangerously close to wedding vows."
There's a momentary silence, just long enough to be unnerving, and Remus lifts his head from where it's settled on Sirius' shoulder.
"And?" Sirius asks eventually.
"What d'you mean?"
"I mean that if there was a way we could get married, I'd ask you."
"You - really?"
"Like a shot," Sirius says, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought you knew that. I mean...we've both said that this is forever, and I - I thought you knew," he finishes lamely, perturbed by the unreadable expression on Remus' face.
Remus tips his head to one side and touches Sirius' face with gentle fingertips before pressing their foreheads together.
"Good and bad, happy and sad," Remus says.
"Good and bad, happy and sad," Sirius echoes, angling his face to kiss Remus softly on the lips.
>>part3
Chapter: Commitment (2/3)
Rating: only for bad language
Summary: Everyone has to grow up sometime. More fluff! Some parental-inspired angst. - Ha, reading back over this before I post, I kind of feel that this is tooth-rotting in the extreme. Uh. Oh well.
Notes: My friends are all having babies and applying for mortgages and getting grown up jobs. This is, naturally, v. unsettling, and I like to spread it around via fic.
Words: About 3000
When Remus floos in to Sirius' - their - flat, the first things he sees are a Gryffindor common room armchair floating in midair, and various other bits of furniture and boxes of possessions scuttling out of the way. Then he spots Sirius and James choreographing the movements with their wands and watches them fondly for a moment before Sirius spots him.
"Hey, you," he calls, the armchair slamming to the floor. Sirius bounds over it and grabs Remus' arm. "The kitchen's all sorted. Didn't let Prongs anywhere near the bedroom, you'll be glad to - what's wrong?"
"Told mum and dad," Remus says in a low voice. There's another crash as the box James was levitating slams to the floor.
"I'll just be going, then," James says airily. "Leave you two to - domestic bliss and all that - "
"You don't have to go," Remus offers, shaking his head. "It wasn't that bad."
"No, s'alright. Meeting Frank and Peter for a drink soon anyway," James explains. "Later, lovebirds."
As James floos out, Sirius pulls Remus over to the stolen armchair and tugs him down into it. It's easily big enough to seat the two of them, and Remus lets Sirius curl their bodies together comfortably.
"Well?"
"They - it was - " Remus shrugs. Sirius's fingers trail down the side of his face as Remus swallows awkwardly and looks up at Sirius. "Look, I have to - You can say no if you want, but they - well, dad mainly, mum’s being - I just - "
"Stop," Sirius says suddenly, cupping Remus' face in his palm. "Calm down, and just tell me. Were they horrible to you?"
"No..." Remus says hesitantly. "They don't understand really, but. Oh, damn it, Sirius," Remus gives a huff and rubs his hands over his face. Finally, the words muffled into his hands, he says, "They want you to come over for dinner."
"Okay," Sirius says easily.
"Feel free to say no."
"It's okay."
"No, really, please feel free to say no."
"Remus," Sirius says slowly, pulling Remus' hands away from his face. "It's okay. I've met your parents before now, and they didn't hate me."
"They didn't know," Remus protests weakly. "They - argh, oh, Padfoot."
"What? What's so bad? We go to your parents', they see that we make each other happy, we come home and have lots of 'hoorah your parents like me' celebratory sex."
"You're so - "
"Hot?" Sirius suggests, waggling his eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion.
"Naïve," Remus says fondly, leaning close to press a little kiss to Sirius' mouth. "Just - just remember that they never expected to have a child, and they certainly never expected it to end up a werewolf and - "
Sirius slaps Remus' hand sharply, gaining a startled stare.
"If you ever call yourself an 'it' in my hearing again, I'll hit you a lot harder than that," Sirius promises. "I mean it."
"It, me, whatever - "
"No! Not 'whatever'," Sirius protests vehemently.
"Alright, fine. Me. They never expected me to end up a werewolf, and a gay werewolf is just... Just understand that they're very protective, especially my mother. I've never really asserted myself in front of them. I - "
"Remus, Remus, Remus," Sirius says in a sing-song voice, wrapping his arms around Remus' shoulders and pulling him closer. "I love you."
"Love you, too."
"And your parents love you. So I just...I'll just make sure they know that. They can't hate anyone who loves their ickle baby boy as much as I do, right?"
"Shut up, Padfoot," Remus says fondly, tightening his arms around Sirius' waist. He sighs and kisses Sirius' temple. "So we're going for dinner, then?" he asks, a note of dread in his voice.
"Yes," Sirius says firmly. "When is it?"
"This Friday," Remus says, his fingertips drumming against Sirius' neck in his distraction.
"Perfect," Sirius says. "Two days to christen the flat, and that only leaves one day to panic and buy presents for your mother."
"It's not a very big flat, Padfoot," Remus laughs, the worry fading from his eyes. "Two days might be - "
"Mmm," Sirius rumbles against Remus' throat, cutting him off and grabbing greedily at his thigh. "S'why we're christening every flat surface and piece of furniture as well."
"Hmm..."
"Starting with the chair," Sirius adds grinning wickedly at Remus.
"Actually, we've already - "
"Nope," Sirius says, anticipating Remus' objection. "I nicked a different one."
"So the chair..."
"Yes, Moony, the chair we had our first snog - "
" - and other things - "
" - and other things, yes, is still in the common room. This one is disturbingly unsullied."
"Oh, well," Remus says, smiling into Sirius' face and shifting in the chair to haul Sirius into his lap. "Let's rectify that, eh?"
"Mmm, now?"
"Right now."
***
"Oh God, oh God, oh God. We're going to be late."
"I thought I was the one who was supposed to get nervous. Meeting the in-laws and all that."
Remus' hands stutter on the buttons of his shirt and he looks up at Sirius with wide eyes.
"What did you just say?"
"I said I thought I was the one who was supposed to get nervous. When Prongs met Evans' family he - "
"No," Remus interrupts, reaching out and clutching Sirius' forearm. "After that."
"What? Meeting the in-laws?"
"You - " Words, quite honestly, fail Remus. He blinks at Sirius.
"What?" Sirius asks, unbuttoning Remus' shirt, aligning it properly and doing the buttons up again. "What else should I call them?" He tugs Remus forward by his collar and presses a messy kiss on his forehead.
Remus swallows against the lump in his throat as Sirius turns away and starts searching under the bed for a stray shoe. Typical bloody Sirius. He can break your heart and put it back together again better than it ever was before, and not even notice he's done anything.
"Hey," Remus says softly, watching as Sirius hops on one foot, awkwardly trying to pull the wayward shoe onto his foot. "I do love you, you know."
"You too," Sirius says, looking slightly bemused at Remus' declaration. "We ready?" Sirius asks.
"No," Remus tells him frankly.
"We going anyway?"
"It's the Marauderly way," Remus acknowledges with a weak smile.
"It is," Sirius confirms, grabbing at Remus' hands and pressing them both between his own before kissing the tips of Remus' fingers. "Come on, Moony. How bad can it be? Let's just go."
"Damn, damn, okay, let's - just try not to swear too much and - "
"Yes, Remus, I know how to act in front of real grown ups," Sirius says, sliding an arm around Remus' waist.
"I know, I know. I'm just nervous."
"Don't be," Sirius implores. "Have a little faith in me."
"Not you," Remus says desperately. "Not you, Sirius. I just - "
"Shh. You don't need to explain. And we really are going to be late if we don't get a move on, right now."
"Right," Remus says, running both hands through his hair in a gesture oddly reminiscent of James. Sirius immediately flicks the strands back into place again. "Right."
Before he can panic any more than he already has, Sirius slips an arm around Remus' waist and apparates them into the clearing behind the Lupin house. Sirius moves to step away immediately but Remus catches hold of him and pulls him close. Sirius relaxes into Remus' clingy embrace and circles his arms loosely around Remus' waist. Remus turns his face into the warmth of Sirius' neck and inhales deeply, forcing himself to calm down.
"Alright," Remus says, nodding once as he steps back and straightens his back. "Let's do this."
***
Sirius sits quietly, stares at his plate, and tries not to look like a corrupter of innocent werewolves. He can hear his own voice asking how bad can it be, and he wishes for a time turner just so he can go back and kick his own arse for asking such a stupid question. He doesn't know how to deal with parents. His own are bad enough, but he doesn't have anything to do with them anymore, and he knows the relationship they did have isn't really anything to go on with someone else's family.
He has no idea how parents are meant to react to news like this, but this was not what he'd had in mind. Remus' mum does not want her boy to be in this relationship, that much is painfully clear. For the whole evening, she's gone to great lengths to treat them as nothing more than friends, and now she's starting to remind Remus of how wonderful and cheap and convenient it would be for him to still live at home as opposed to with Sirius. Remus doesn't tell her that Sirius is paying the rent - they'd had an explosive row about it before Remus had caved in - so Sirius doesn't mention it either. Instead he listens to the bright prattle about how it will be easier at home, tidier at home, safer at home.
Remus' dad is silent through all of this, his eyes roving over his wife and son. His silence is an oppressive presence in the room, and Sirius honestly feels like he might start squirming in his seat in a moment.
Then, Remus' mother looks at them both carefully. It's obvious she's been preparing what to say next for a while.
"Boys," she says gently, nominally including Sirius in her words, although her eyes remain fixed on her son throughout. "I know that you think your relationship is something out of the ordinary, but to be honest with you, I don't see anything more than a close friendship here. Why do you think you need to live with him, Remus?"
Remus opens his mouth almost incredulously, but before he can speak, his mother continues.
"I want what's best for you, Remus and - "
"And you don't think this is it?" Remus interrupts quietly, setting his cutlery down with a very definite click.
Sirius stares at his plate some more, his pulse thudding in his ears. He has no idea what's about to happen. Remus does not interrupt adults, he does not argue with his parents, in fact he rarely stands up for himself at all.
"No," Remus' mother says. "I do not. I don't think you understand what people think when you tell them you're moving in with Sirius, as your - your..."
"Lover," Remus says coldly. "My lover, my partner, my - "
"Remus, really."
"What do you want, mum?" Remus asks. "I'm not going to prove to you that he's more than my friend. I love Sirius. And he loves me. Mum, please, he makes me happy."
Sirius is on the verge of opening his mouth to venture that yes indeed, he does love Remus, very much so in fact, and would go through the worst hells imaginable to make him happy, when Remus' mum says something in a low voice that pulls him up short.
"He didn't always make you happy."
There's something in that tone that leaves Sirius with no doubt as to what she's talking about. Fucking Snape, and the worst fucking mistake of Sirius' life. It had taken Remus so long, so long to forgive Sirius. Hell, forget forgiveness, it had taken a long time for Remus to even be able to be in the same room with him. For a moment, Sirius is horribly afraid that Remus will listen too closely to his mother's warnings, that he might change his mind.
"That's not fair," Remus says after a few seconds of silence.
"I'm only - "
"That's not fair."
"Son - "
"No," Remus snaps. "I'm in love. I mean it. I'm in love with him."
There is a heavy lump in Sirius' throat, and he finds that he can't look up from his plate for fear that he'll cry.
"Be happy for me or don't be, that's your choice, but it won't influence mine." Remus' voice is remarkably steady, and Sirius wonders if he's ever admired his boyfriend as much as he does in this moment.
"Remus, for heaven's sake, don't be so dramatic," his mother scolds.
Next to him, Sirius can hear Remus breathing heavily and he dares a glance sideways to see that Remus is sitting ramrod straight in his chair, staring straight ahead.
"I'm trying - this is the most important thing I've ever had to tell you and you're acting like it's nothing!" Remus snaps suddenly.
"We're not, we just - "
"You are. You've all but told me it's just a phase," Remus flings the word out like it's something hateful and Sirius shifts so that one of his legs is pressed against Remus', an attempt at subtle support that's completely blown out of the water when Remus continues, "If it was a phase do you think he'd know me well enough to have touched me just now? Just when I'm - Mum, Dad, please, just - I love you. But I'm going to spend my life with Sirius, and the sooner you accept that, the better."
All parental eyes in the room had swung around to Sirius at the words 'touched me just now' and Sirius wants to disappear, all the more so when Remus' last words sound quite like an ultimatum. Risking parental wrath - and caring - for the first time in years, Sirius whispers to Remus,
"Calm down."
Remus glances at Sirius, his jaw set and his eyes hard. Sirius knows that this is something Remus just has to do, and much as he wants to offer support, he contents himself with giving Remus a warm look and pressing his leg more firmly against Remus'.
"Well, I - " Remus' mothers says, obviously offended by Remus' tone.
"Mary," Remus' dad interrupts his wife, placing a gentle hand on her arm. "I don't think we're going to get very far tonight. Maybe the boys should head home, give you both room to breathe."
"Dad - "
"We'll be in touch tomorrow, son. Come on, I'll see you out."
As soon as they stand, Remus' fingers find Sirius' and cling tightly. Their goodbyes to Remus' mother are strange and frosty, and then they follow his father out to the garden. He shakes out a cigarette from the box in his pocket and lights it with the tip of his wand.
"Remus," he says, blowing out a cloud of smoke into the dark air. "Son, I won't say I'm pleased, but...you do look happy."
"I am," Remus says, almost desperately.
"I'll talk to your mum. She'll come around."
"Thanks, dad."
For all that he complains about the smell when Sirius smokes the occasional cigarette, Remus braves it to give his dad a quick, impulsive hug. When he moves back, he doesn't look up, and Sirius finds himself in brief eye-contact with Remus' dad.
"Take care of him, Sirius," he says, nodding once.
Sirius nods tightly and Remus tucks himself into the circle of Sirius' arms, allowing him to apparate them both away.
When they arrive back in their flat, Sirius guides Remus to the sofa and pushes him down gently.
"Well, that was..." Sirius trails off, groping for the right words.
"Horrific," Remus says flatly, pulling off his coat roughly and tossing it over the back of the sofa. "Don't lie, it was - god damn it, Padfoot, I'm so - "
"Don't you dare apologise," Sirius says fiercely.
"But she was awful," Remus protests.
"She was...not great, I'll give you that," Sirius admits. "But your dad said he'd speak to her."
Remus opens and closes his mouth a couple of times before giving up, shrugging helplessly.
“Besides, imagined if we had to tell my family,” Sirius continues.
Remus can’t help a snort of laughter at the very idea, but he still looks sad.
"C'mere," Sirius says, tugging Remus into a lazy hug.
"It's alright," Remus says, trying to shrug Sirius away and encountering strong resistance.
"Listen," Sirius says, "I don't want to revive puns best left dead, but I want to be serious for a minute."
"Be Sirius forever," Remus says, more to annoy Sirius than in an attempt to be funny. Sirius just tugs on a lock of Remus' hair and tells him to behave.
"Tonight wasn't great, and I wanted to disappear through the floor at regular intervals if I'm honest, but it made me realise...I want to be with you, Moony. Good and bad, happy and sad."
"Careful, Sirius," Remus says, smiling softly. "That's dangerously close to wedding vows."
There's a momentary silence, just long enough to be unnerving, and Remus lifts his head from where it's settled on Sirius' shoulder.
"And?" Sirius asks eventually.
"What d'you mean?"
"I mean that if there was a way we could get married, I'd ask you."
"You - really?"
"Like a shot," Sirius says, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought you knew that. I mean...we've both said that this is forever, and I - I thought you knew," he finishes lamely, perturbed by the unreadable expression on Remus' face.
Remus tips his head to one side and touches Sirius' face with gentle fingertips before pressing their foreheads together.
"Good and bad, happy and sad," Remus says.
"Good and bad, happy and sad," Sirius echoes, angling his face to kiss Remus softly on the lips.
>>part3