Just Us.
Sirius watched as James tripped over hypothetical feet trying to catch Evans’ eye. He scoffed at the behaviour; while he enjoyed some friendly flirting, James was beyond ridiculous.
“Look at that twat, Wormy,” Sirius huffed, affectionate as ever, but still irritated.
When no response came, he looked up from his plate to find Peter drooling (slight exaggeration) over some poor bird behind him.
“Ugh,” Sirius recoiled with a bit more feeling than warranted.
“What’s got you so chipper?” Remus slid in beside him, earlier than usual, looking sleep rumpled but healthy; the new moon was a wonderful time.
“Look at these two idiots, salivating like slugs.”
Remus tutted fondly at the pair. “Leave them be, Padfoot, not everyone is charismatic like you.”
“Is that so?” He leered. This was becoming common occurrence, needling Remus into flirting back. “And that’s your opinion?”
“No,” Remus rolled his eyes, spreading butter on his crumpet, “but the grapevine insists on that particular character trait.”
“Spend time listening to what the grapevine says about me?”
For a second Remus faltered, unknowing that Sirius knew where Remus had heard it from, so he decided to just tell him.
He grinned, only slightly bitter that his friend had succumbed to the female population too (he didn’t really understand why, he pulled plenty himself).
“I heard about Pillai, you animal!”
Remus blushed under his golden skin. “Shut up.”
“Ow!” James spasmed wildly as a stinging hex was aimed his way and bumped into Peter, whose peas slid onto his lap.
“Hey!”
“Finite,” Sirius said lazily.
“Scourgify,” Remus waved his wand over Peter, while focused entirely on his breakfast. “Keep some senses on you, for fucks sake.”
“Not my fault!” James defended. Yes it was, there was no need to antagonise Lily, but James’ skull was thicker than a Kappa’s shell.
“Is too!” Peter said crossly, wiping the green from his trousers.
“You daft sods,” Remus mumbled fondly around the spoon lodged in his mouth.
“Looks like it’s just you and me,” Sirius sighed heavily, leaning onto him, “who are sane.”
“Just us,” Remus agreed.
“‘m leavin’!” James yelled. “Use the mirror if you need me!”
“Go away,” Sirius rolled his eyes good naturedly. “And please, for the love of Merlin, don’t natter on about your socks to Evans.”
“They’ve got moving snitches on them!”
“Just go, Prongs,” Remus laughed. “Try to relax and have fun, mate.”
“I would marry you, Moony, if not for Evans,” James put a hand on his heart, glancing at Sirius.
Sirius’ nostrils flared, and dramatically he said, “Get out!”
“So territorial,” James grinned, before he thundered down the staircase, missing Sirius’ jinx by a centimetre.
Silence cloaked the room as they stood amidst the clothes James had thrown out of his armoire.
Remus flopped back onto his bed, too lazy to retrieve his clothes from James’ pile; not like he cared, James had left for his date in Remus’ muggle band tee to show Lily he cared enough to learn or something.
“Where’d Wormtail go? The map isn’t here.”
“Who knows what he’s upto these days. Very secretive, our Wormy,” Sirius remarked, stepping around the clothing avalanche.
“Oh? Only him?” Remus sat up on his elbows, grinning shrewdly.
His uniform was unbuttoned down to his midriff, one flap untucked, and Sirius’ attention was rapt. “No,” he murmured. “Moony.”
“Yes?”
Remus stretched out his arm for Sirius to pillow his head on, which he did with a bright grin. They lay there in silence as he waited for Sirius to dredge the words out of his throat.
“‘s this alright then?” Sirius asked, rolling over to lay atop him, all bony elbows and knees. “Just you and me?”
This was still new, precious, fragile. James had probably guessed, but they hadn’t told anyone.
“Of course it is,” Remus assured, a kiss to his forehead. “Just us, Padfoot.”
Remus placed a bowl of rice and warm rajma in front of him.
Sirius wondered if he had once enjoyed this food if it made Remus stretch his wallet to prepare this for him.
“Here,” he said, pouring them both some whiskey on the rocks. “Sorry, I don’t own wine, this is easier to get drunk on.”
Sirius frowned slightly.
Remus filled the silence, misunderstanding Sirius’ hesitance, “I don’t drink that often, you know the wolf gets agitated.”
“You preferred beer,” he remembered suddenly.
Remus startled a bit. “Yeah, I–I still do.”
Sirius looked down at his plate, feeling a bit exposed and melancholic. His first proper meal in years, prepared by his, or who was once his, Moony.
“It was your favourite recovery meal,” Remus said lightly, correctly guessing what he was thinking. Sirius had to remind himself that Remus had also known him like the back of his hand.
“Oh,” he croaked.
“Lily tried to make it once when you and James were down with flu,” Remus continued, gratuitously offering the story, “and she burnt the rice, so I’d been summoned to salvage it to my best efforts. You really did enjoy it, even if James was more critical of the consistency of the curry.”
Sirius cracked a smile imagining the scenario to little effect; he couldn’t remember the colour of the Potter kitchen, Lily’s laugh, James’ observations or anything beyond the details of the anecdote.
“James preferred it thick,” Remus said. “And spicy.”
“Oh?”
“You could not handle it,” he teased.
Sirius smiled humorously. “You toned it down for me this time?”
“‘course I did.”
“Thanks, Moony. Did… did you learn from James?”
“I only knew to cook Cawl and Bara birth… and you liked Effie’s cooking too much to leave behind when they shifted out of London.”
“You always made my Indian cravings?” he asked, trying to appear nonchalant.
“No,” Remus laughed a bit. “I’m not that good. We flooed to them when we were all– free, to eat his special Kerala porotta and beef curry or Lily’s favourite chapatti and aloo.”
His expression must’ve changed, because Remus’ mouth was pinched, making his scholarly moustache twitch.
“Sirius?”
He came to, a bit disoriented. “Sorry, there’s–there’re a few gaps in my memory.”
“We’ll fix that, Padfoot,” Remus said sadly.
We.
“Just you and me, eh Moony,” Sirius smiled weakly, recalling it was one of his favourite phrases.
“Just us,” Remus nodded vacantly. “Been just us for a while now.”
