Chapter Text
After…
“I don't think this is what Dumbledore meant when he said 'lie low'.”
“Is it not?”
Remus is on a muggle bus in the middle of Europe, legs folded uncomfortably against the seat in front of him, sat next to the most wanted wizard in Britain and he honestly doesn't know how he let it get this far.
Sirius had shown up at his door two days before with a haunted look about him as he recounted Dumbledore's instructions. They had spent an awkward hour wondering what the hell they were supposed to do next before Sirius had blurted out, “Let's go to Amsterdam.”
It is not the first time they have gone on an impromptu trip to Amsterdam.
“Oi, stop making that face,” Sirius mutters, elbowing Remus gently. “It'll be fun.”
It isn't the first time Sirius has said that either.
“I just...,” Remus lets his protests fall away grudgingly. They've had this conversation countless times already. When Sirius first proposed it, when they left the flat, when they crossed the English Channel, etc. “Fine.”
Sirius grins. “There's a good lad.”
After all these years, his smile is still the same. The way his eyebrows raise mischievously, how one side of his mouth slopes slightly higher than the other. Everything is just as Remus remembers. Even if the rest of him is different, there's still that smile.
He forces his eyes away. Before they had left, Remus had gently suggested that they not discuss The Past. They both knew exactly what he meant by that. The world is complicated, they are complicated. Neither of them need anything else on their plates, let alone the baggage of their previous relationship.
Even so, he can't stop thinking about it. And about the first time they went to Amsterdam. The place it all started.
The memory is stuck fast in his mind as he tries to tell himself Sirius' motivation for this trip is purely because they all had such fun on the first trip and not because of some secret agenda to get back together.
He wouldn't mind if it is.
The rouge thoughts make him feel dirty. Here there are, years later, with a thousand more important things and Remus is thinking about his feelings.
To be fair, he'd been thinking nearly the same thing on the first bus ride they'd taken to Amsterdam.