@wolfstarmicrofic | May prompt #22: locked in a room | word count: 806
“You look silly like that.”
Sirius, with James’s invisibility cloak pulled up to his neck, was just a floating head bobbing next to Remus, following him around like a puppy on his prefect rounds.
Sirius winked and pinched Remus’s cheek. “Well, I’m out past curfew. Wouldn’t want to be caught.”
Remus blushed. Potent satisfaction swelled in Sirius’s chest.
Yet with only a week left until the end of their sixth year, he was tired of playing this game. Remus was never going to make the first move, which left the life altering decision on whether their friendship could survive love — requited or not, forever or not — up to Sirius.
“Stupid,” Remus mumbled, smiling.
Sirius pulled the cloak over his head and completely disappeared.
Remus stretched his arms out, trying to snatch the cloak. “Sirius, c’mon, where are you? You know what, whatever.”
Still hidden and following several long paces behind, Sirius let Remus walk all the way up to the seventh floor. “Moooooony,” he’d call every few minutes in a hollow voice, like a ghost. “Oh Moooooony.”
“Fuck oooooffffff,” Remus would sing back.
He acted annoyed, but Sirius saw the smile on Remus’s face. It was starting to feel dangerous being alone with him. Many a daydream involved this very scenario, with Sirius pulling Remus under the cloak, unseen, kissing him hot and fast until they were out of breath.
Sirius contemplated. His own thoughts made his face warm and zipped an energy through him he didn’t know what to do with, so he took off running. He didn’t try to hide the sound his pounding footsteps made.
Sirius tackled Remus around the middle, cloak slipping off his shoulder, knocking the wind out of them both. “Gotcha, Moons!”
Remus grabbed his shoulder and tried to pry him off. To Sirius’s surprise, he also pulled out his wand.
Sirius cackled. “Gonna hex me, Moony?”
“Thinking about it,” Remus exhaled, but pocketed it quickly. “You drive me nuts.”
“Tell me about it.” No, really, please tell me about it.
Arms still wrapped around Remus’s middle, their faces a breath away, Sirius could feel his heart beat incessantly in his temples, his longing almost giving him a headache. It would be so easy to kiss him right now.
“That’s odd.” Remus pulled away and Sirius let him.
“The room of requirement just appeared.”
An intricately carved door, which was not there a moment ago, had nestled its way between two sleeping portraits.
Remus pulled the map from his pocket. Studying it, his eyebrows pinched together. “No one is around,” he said, looking up again and peeking down both ends of the hall. He turned back to Sirius. “Did you need something?”
“No,” Sirius lied. He was very certain he knew why the door had appeared.
“I wonder what’s inside…” Remus trailed.
Sirius very pointedly did not indulge him.
“Don’t you wonder?” Remus asked him, his annoyance turning playful. “Let’s go inside.” Remus held the door open for Sirius, and they both stepped across the threshold.
It was simply a broom closet. Cramped, dark, dusty.
“Well, this is stupid,” Remus mumbled. “Perhaps someone’s jinxed it?”
Sirius doubted it. “Maybe.”
“Let’s go then.” Remus reached for the door, but it was gone, as if it had never been there at all. He palmed the wall in a panic.
Sirius groaned and tipped his head back.
“It’s gone,” Remus breathed. “The door is gone.”
“It will come back,” Sirius calmed him.
“It’s jinxed,” Remus said to himself. “It’s a prank. Oh Merlin, is this what James was trying to tell us he was working on? I’m going to —“
“Moony. Moony.” Sirius grabbed Remus’s chin to turn his face towards him. They both stopped breathing. “It’s not jinxed.”
“Because I summoned the room,” Sirius grimaced. “On accident, but I think I did. And now it won’t let us out until I get what I asked it for.”
Remus’s eyes bounced across Sirius’s face. His stare lingered on his lips. “What did you ask it for?”
Sirius’s heart ambled up his throat until he was choking on its pulse. His grip, still on Remus’s chin, slid up to cradle his face. Sirius smoothed his thumb across Remus’s cheek, who leaned the weight of his head into Sirius’s hold. Fuck, why was this so easy and yet so hard?
“The courage to do this,” Sirius whispered, guiding Remus down to kiss him. Soft, slow, scared. When their lips met, his stomach flipped and his knees might’ve buckled.
Sirius felt Remus sigh in relief across his cheek. He threw his arms around his shoulders and felt himself be tugged in by the middle.
When they broke apart, amazed and grinning and on the verge of disbelieving laughter, the door was back.
