āWant to dance?ā He motions toward the dance floor. Itās small and already packed with bodies grinding against each other. The perfect excuse to invade Siriusā personal space.
āYou meanāus?ā A note of apprehension filters into the question.
āSure,ā James shrugs. āWouldnāt be the first time.āĀ
Sirius barks out a laugh. āNot sure the uncoordinated arm-flailing we performed at the Yule Ball in Hogwarts counts, mate.āĀ
Mate.Ā
James grinds his teeth so hard he can hear them creaking, but itās better than releasing the scream haunting his vocal cords.
Mate.Ā
Heās never resented a word as much as he does in this moment.Ā
āAll the more reason to show weāve improved since then.āĀ
Sirius laughs, throwing his arms around to indicate the space around them. āShow to who? Nobody here even knows us.ā
āTo each other. Nobody else matters anyway.āĀ
Coming on too strong?Ā
Possibly.
But his patience is fraying along the edges.Ā
A couple more minutes of Sirius acting like this, like James is just a mate, a buddy, a person to grab a beer with, but nothing more, never more, and heāll do something heāll probably regret in hindsight, but which he will not be able to prevent.
Like yanking Sirius into his arms, all those solid six feet of his strong, lean body, and shutting him up with a kiss.Ā