Chapter Text
Sirius Black LOVED Christmastime. It was his favorite time of the year. The snow, the decorations, the smells, the tastes. Christmas was the best.
When he was a boy, the normally depressing Black estate would turn into a magical fairy lit heaven. Then when he was at away at boarding school, Hogwarts would go all out. During uni he would decorate his student housing to the tops, driving everyone a bit mad really. Now, out of school and working as an account for Monty Potter’s clean water charity, his office was decorated as soon as he felt a chill in the air or it was the second to last week of November—whatever came first. It was now his fifth year in the office, and he knew exactly how to set it up to get maximum Christmas without being too tacky. It was a perfect balance. Everyone in the office loved it and always wanted to come visit him once the decorations were up. It was a nice little place to spend his working hours.
The main reason he loved Christmas, was that it always made him feel safe and calm for some reason. Maybe it was how lights seemed to be lower and fires were always lit. Or it was just the spirit in the air. People seemed to be in a better mood for the most part. As the days grew closer to the end of the year, he felt fresh and new as well. It was just a wonderful mixture of feelings. He also got to spend so much time with all the people he loved and cared about because there always seemed to be parties or dinners to go to.
“Package for you.” James came in carrying a fairly large parcel in his hands and some envelops stuck under his arm. “By the way Remus is back in town if you didn’t know. He wanted to know if we all could go get drinks?”
Remus Lupin, Sirius sighed just thinking about him. They had met back in boarding school. Remus was there through scholarship, and at first was hesitant to be mates with James and Sirius who were as posh as they came. But they fell into an easy friendship. Sirius realized when he was 15 that he was madly in love with Remus. Sadly, at the point, he was also going through an immense amount of shite with his parents, and instead of telling Remus he loved him, he nearly got him expelled thanks to a stupid prank. But Remus got over it after few months, and Sirius just carried on pretending he didn’t love one of his best mates.
They all went to uni together but afterwards Remus began to work at a sort of indie news site that was beginning to grow in popularity online. Only after a few months, he started to travel the world to cover different events, catastrophes, and various injustices. Since he was one of their top journalist, Remus was always on the road and when he was back in London, he was either busy or exhausted. Needless to say, they had grown apart a bit.
James set the parcel on the desk, “Are you interested?”
“Sure.” Sirius nodded. He still loved Remus, even though it had been ages since he was a ridiculous teenager, but Sirius was sure that he’d mark the man as the ‘one that got away’.
“Great, did Reg send his gift early?” James pointed to the box. Regulus was in the states finishing up his last year of university. He was supposed to be back in time for the Holidays so Sirius wasn’t expecting any gifts ahead of time.
“I don’t know.” Sirius frowned as he looked at the box. The return label was from a company called Harry & David. “I don’t think so. Maybe it’s from someone we’ve worked with?”
“Hmm, yeah.” James shrugged a shoulder. “Open it, then.”
Sirius grabbed his scissors to slice open the package. He lifted the top to find 12 golden wrapped pears and nestled in the middle of a ceramic partridge. “What the fuck is this?”
“Partridge in a pear tree?” James said in an amused sing-song tone. “Have you been seeing someone new?”
“I’ve been seeing a few people. No one that would buy me this.” Sirius scoffed as he picked up a pear.
“Maybe someone fancies you more than a shag and you don’t know it.”
“Very doubtful. Are you having me on?”
“No way, mate. I wouldn’t spend money on some fancy pears for you.” James shook his head as Sirius stood up and picked up the box of pears.
“I’m going to put them in the kitchenette.”
“What if they’re poisoned?”
“Thanks for that.” Sirius began walking towards the kitchenette. “I don’t like pears.”
“Okay, well, someone likes you.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. There were a few blokes that he saw every so often but none of them were interested in anything more than a shag and a friendly relationship. He decided that he wasn’t going to worry about the stupid gift because it clearly had to be a joke. If it wasn’t James it was Peter, Regulus, Lily, or Andi. Someone was just giving him shite for either being single or being completely in love with the holidays. They were always on him about how he was never going to settle down.
Whatever the reason he got the pears was, it wasn’t anything that he needed to concern himself with. He was more concerned with seeing Remus for the first time in about a year and a half. They had barely talked over that time, just the occasional reply on Facebook and mutual likes on Instagram. They never really called each other on the phone or even sent a text. He knew that James and Remus and Peter and Remus and Lily and Remus all talked to each other every so often. Marlene, Mary, and Dorcas all got texts regularly. Sirius never did. But he couldn’t complain because he never reached out to Remus either. He had concluded that that was what their adult friendship was, just a nice acquaintance, sadly.
Once Sirius was done with work he met James in the lobby and they made their way to the pub down the way. Remus, Lily, Mary, and Peter were already there with pints in front of them. One for James and Sirius as well.
“Remus Lupin, a sight for sore eyes. I can’t believe it’s been so long. James said, nearly crawling over Lily in the horseshoe shaped booth to give Remus a hug. Lily just shook her head at the fact that her husband wasn’t interested in giving her a hug. “How have travels been?”
“Ah, busy, fine.” Remus smiled. He was tan and he looked tried, probably the jet lag. “Hi Padfoot.” Remus greeted him with a smile, using his old nickname.
“Moony.” Sirius smiled back at him, feeling that familiar fluttering in his gut when he saw Remus for the first time in a while. He wished so much that he could get over the man. It had been ages. Maybe it was just the fact that he never told him? Sirius couldn’t figure out how to say anything like that to him. It also seemed fairly clear Remus didn’t care enough to reach out to while he was away, so spilling the fact that he had been crushing on him for so long probably wouldn’t be the best. “How was… well everywhere?” Remus had been working on a long term project on the rise of nationalism around the globe.
“Um, it was interesting. I don’t know, I saw a lot of not great things but I met some great people who were trying to stop shite from happening. It’s good to be back in London, though. I think I’ll be staying here for a while, so you all will be sick of me soon enough.” Remus said before taking a sip of his drink.
“We can never be sick of you, mate.” Peter tilted his glass towards the man.
The table began chatting about their lives, catching Remus up on everything. Mary and Peter finally moved out of the mildewy flat they had been in for two years to a decent studio. Lily and James were trying to get pregnant. Marlene and Dorcas were engaged and busy planning the wedding of the century — bigger than Wills and Kate’s they kept saying. “And what about you, Sirius?”
“Just the same old same old.” Sirius came to the conclusion that he was at the point in his life where nearly everyone was getting married, having babies, or making some big life choices that he was going to be forever single. He couldn’t remember his last big life event after starting to work for Monty. He hadn’t even taken a good holiday in years.
“Sirius has a secret admirer. At least I think, we’ll see if he gets anything tomorrow.” James informed the group eagerly.
“Huh?” Lily furrowed her brow. “Why tomorrow?”
“I got these posh pears with a partridge.” Sirius explained.
“And it’s twelve days before Christmas.” James pointed out. “It’s totally your true love.”
“I’m convinced one of your or someone I know is just giving me shite for one reason or another.”
“The twelve days of Christmas usually start the day of Christmas.” Remus said, because Remus always knew those little details. Back in school Sirius used to be on him all the time for having his nose in a book. It’s not as if he was boring. He was known to have plenty of fun and get up to plenty of mischief but he was still ridiculously smart and well read. Sirius always thought the mix of those qualities were attractive.
“So his secret admirer is dumb? Which bloke you’re shagging is the dumbest?” Marlene asked with a laugh.
“Lockhart.” Lily took a sip of her cider.
“Why would you say that it’s one of us giving you shite?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, Sirius, I don’t think anyone has time to care that much to send you those golden wrapped pears.” James assured him.
“Why don’t you think it’s one of your many dalliances falling madly in love with you?” Remus questioned with a raised eyebrow.
“Bugger off, it’s not. And what the fuck do you mean by many dalliances?”
“Your recent sexual partners. I’m sure there are a lot unless you’ve changed your ways since I’ve last seen you.”
Sirius just shook his head, sending Remus a glare.
“He’s convinced that he’s closed off enough that there’s no way anyone could possibly love him.” Peter explained to Remus.
“I’m feeling very analyzed right now.” Sirius took a long pull of his beer. What Peter said was 100% true. He didn’t want to fall for anyone and he didn’t want anyone to fall for him. He had his heart broken enough by his own family, it wasn’t exactly easy for him to get into relationships. It was part of the reason why he never told Remus. Relationships were scary and foreign to him. He was lucky enough to be able to friends with him.
“We can change the topic.” Remus offered.
“That’s a brilliant idea, Moony.” Sirius relaxed. There was no more talk the rest of the night about the bloody pears.
***
The next morning, Sirius walked into his office to find two crocheted turtle doves sitting on his desk. They were adorable but Sirius couldn’t help let out a long sigh. He had spent a wonderful night and morning not even thinking about the fact there might be another gift waiting for him at work.
“Good morning, Sirius.” Nymphadora, his cousin and current intern said behind him, making him jump. She was spending some time at their office on her free days from uni in her first year.
“Christ, Nym. How are you so quiet at one point then the loudest person at another?”
She laughed, “The better question is why are you so jumpy?” Nym asked as Sirius took a seat, picking up the two birds, who’s beaks were met at a little heart. “Has anyone been in? Is James here yet?”
“Nope, just you, Gideon, the bloke who works in the mail room, and me so far.” She said. Sirius wondered if it could be one of the blokes he was shagging or had shagged. He and Gideon hooked up regularly but he was now monogamously dating some bloke who worked in an office in the building. Maybe things changed? “This are so cute, they look hand made”
“Yeah…” He set it down. “Has anyone been in here?”
“I don’t think so but I haven’t been in long.” She took a seat at the chair across from his desk. “Are those love birds?”
“Turtle doves.” Sirius huffed a breath.
“Like the on the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me…”
“Yes, exactly like that.”
“So, you’re someone’s true love, that’s exciting.”
“No, it’s not. It’s almost stalker-ish. It might be exciting if I were dating whoever this person was.”
Nymphadora frowned and leaned forward. “Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually. It should also end in 12 days, right?”
“Almost two weeks of this?”
“They’re just gifts.” She shrugged one shoulder.
“Right, can you make copies of these. I need to go talk to Gideon.” Sirius handed his cousin the folder he had on his desk. He needed to at least ask Gideon, just to make sure. He had a feeling it was probably going to make him look mad or still interested in him, but Sirius just needed to set his mind at ease that it wasn’t Gid.
“Hey, Sirius.” Gideon smiled as Sirius stopped at his work area. “What’s going on? You look like you’re on a mission.”
“Ah, a bit.” Sirius glanced around, making sure no one with close enough to hear. “You haven’t sent me anything yesterday or today have you?”
“What?” Gideon asked with a very confused look on his face. He wasn’t a very good liar so Sirius let out of breath. At least it wasn’t him.
“It’s nothing. I don’t want to sound like a crazy person accusing you. It’s just there was no one else in the office…”
“Right.” Gideon frowned. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything fine. I’m just getting these gifts with no name on it.”
“Stalker?”
“Glad that I’m not the only one to draw that conclusion.”
“Well, it’s not me. I can’t believe you thought it was me.” He said jokingly.
“It’s just Nym said you were one of the only few here. I’m guessing someone dropped it off last night.”
“Weird. What is it?”
“Don’t go telling everyone, please. Not that James won’t hesitate to bring it up to everyone if asked. But I got pears and a partridge yesterday and today on my desk when I walked in there were stuffed animals of two turtle doves.”
Gideon laughed loudly. “Shut up, you’re lying.”
“No, I’m not lying.”
“That’s either really tacky or really romantic, isn’t it? I guess it depends on who it’s from.”
“There’s no one I would think that this was romantic from.”
“I’m sure there’s someone.”
“Anyone who would do it, I’m either not interested in or someone is having me on. There’s no way that this can be romantic.”
“Right, well, I’ll keep an eye out for gift bearing weirdos for you.” Gid snickered.
“Thanks, I think.”
Sirius left Gideon alone and went back to his office where the stuffed birds were still on his desk. He wished that there was someone he could love where this would be adorable for him. He always told himself he was fine with being forever single, but he really did want to be able to have the deep connection with someone else. Maybe one day things would be different for him and there would be that special someone he could see himself finally being vulnerable with, but there wasn’t anyone now. Certainly not anyone who would send him these these gifts.