Chapter Text
Remus reorganized his book shelf for the third time. He couldn’t decide if he wanted it to be organized by a color spectrum, genre or by author last name. He settled on the third out of arm exhaustion and flopped against his bed sighing. After several moments of staring at the ceiling, he exited his pigeon hole of a space and went into the living room in the flat where James and Sirius were arm wrestling on the coffee table. Remus shook his head, “Did you guys even bother unpacking?”
The man with glasses gave a tut, “Of course not. When Lily moves in later she’ll be exasperated that I haven’t yet and offer to help me, thus volunteering to spending hours in my company.”
“I commend you for the thought you put into it even if it makes me exasperated,” Remus said as he rolled his eyes. “Padfoot?”
Sirius laughed merrily, “Remus, ye of little faith. I’ll have you know I did in fact unpack.”
The clover-eyed man raised an eyebrow, “Did you now? Let’s see it then. I imagine what you really did was throw all your clothes into a pile on the floor, your books into a corner and everything else onto your bed. You’ll end up sleeping on a blanket on the floor like a dog tonight.”
Clutching his stomach in laughter, James walked out of the room to gather control over himself. Sirius scoffed dramatically before growing silent, knowing Remus was right. Remus sighed, “Come on, I’ll help your sorry arse.”
Sirius cheekily grinned and bounded after Remus, jumping onto his back and leaving the taller boy to grunt at the weight. “Really Sirius? Are we twelve again?”
He wasn’t annoyed per-se, but he was tired and Sirius picked a rather inconvenient time. Sirius squeezed the chestnut-haired man and slid to the ground, before giving a spin in his room.
A record player was placed on the wardrobe, a stack of vinyls haphazardly leaning against them and held in place by a pair of ratty combat boots. Clothes were discarded in two piles on the floor, assuredly dirty and clean. Another pair of boots were slung from underneath the bed, where another corner of vinyls were sticking out from and waiting to be broken. Music magazines were crumpled in the drawer of the nightstand and corners were sticking out. All of Sirius’s textbooks were spread out on his bed among his leather jacket, leather cuff bracelets and his art supplies. Paints were in danger of leaking onto the comforter and oil pastels were going to smudge if moved in the slightest. Remus groaned.
Sirius gave a sheepish smile and started picking up laundry. Remus exited and found the spare bins and started gently sorting art supplies into one and school books into the other.
Sirius stopped to put a Clash album on and Remus tapped his foot to the rhythm as he folded clean laundry and passed it to Sirius to place in the wardrobe.
The bins were neatly tucked into a corner, the magazines stacked in better shape and placed under the floor and the vinyls carefully laid in the nightstand drawer. The boots came down and went by the wall by the door and his jacket was hung on a hook they they shoddily nailed into the wall. When they were done, Remus flopped onto the foot of the bed. Sirius fell in line beside him. “Thanks Moony.”
“Honestly, what would you do without me? I’m going to have to be your butler when we graduate,” Remus sarcastically said as he side-eyed the other.
Sirius gave him a wry smile, “Only if you wear a bow-tie when you do it.”
Remus hit Sirius in the chest and the midnight-haired man pretended to be hurt. “How you wound me Moony. My dearest friend and light of my life, I am betrayed.”
At the sound of the slightest drama, James sauntered in. Of course he had been conveniently listening while helping with none of the work. “YOUR DEAREST FRIEND? BEST MATES FOR TWENTY YEARS AND YOU CALL HIM YOUR DEAREST FRIEND?”
Sirius raised a finger, “We have, in fact, not been best mates for twenty years. We’ve only known each other since we were eleven so that puts it at nine if my math is correct. And you call yourself a future engineer. It appears the dumb jock stereotype applies to you after all. Too much head trauma from football James?”
James looked around wildly at Remus for support, who merely chuckled and slid off the bed. He knew they would end up tackling each other and laughing, but he was much more interested in food than the banter of those two.
Walking into the kitchen, Remus opened the fridgerator door and found it to be a barren wasteland. He pulled his head back and shouted. “JAMES POTTER. WAS PART OF YOUR PLAN TO FORCE LILY INTO GOING GROCERY SHOPPING WITH YOU TOO? IF IT WAS, YOU’RE DEAD TO ME, YOU HEAR ME?”
James came in from the hall and sheepishly peeked his head into the kitchen. “Would it make it just a twinge bit better if I admitted I actually just forgot?”
Remus shook his head, “I knew better than to move in with you lot. It’ll be fun you said. Tell me when does Lily arrive so I can have some sanity?”
James scratched the back of his neck, “Around seven?”
Remus slammed the fridge shut, “I’m going to order pizza and after that we’re all going to the market to get food. I can’t believe the two of you have been here since this morning and you’ve done nothing productive.”
Sirius came into the kitchen just then, skipping along. “I’ll have you know that we arranged the furniture to best accentuation social settings. But on with this talk of pizza. Will there be pepperoni?”
Remus glared at them both, “You’ll get whatever the bloody hell I order and deal with it.”
Sirius winked, “Well aren’t you just adorable when you’re hungry?”
Finding the situation unamusing, Remus lunged for the man in front of him, James interfering only seconds before he was able to tackle him. “Oi, you’re going to break the dining table and stools at this rate. Take it outside if you’re going to have a row over food.”
Remus spun on him, “YOU DID THIS. IT’S NOT EVEN HIS FAULT.”
James backed up, his arms in front of him. “Alright, alright. Let me know when it gets here.”
Still glaring, Remus gave a grunt and dialed the number for delivery while Sirius propped himself up on the counter and waited for the order to be place. When Remus hung up he gave him a soft smile, “I really am sorry we forgot. I distracted James all morning by messing about and it slipped both our minds.”
Remus ran a hand through his hair. “I know. You were excited to have a place without your parents’ daggers for stares and the Potters fussing about you. I get it. I’m just hungry, that’s all.”
Sirius gave Remus a knowing look. “Hungry eh? I think not Remus. What’s really troubling you?”
The taller man sank back against the fridge and grew quiet. Sirius looked at him with eyes the color of mercury and waited patiently, knowing he would tell him once he formed the words. “Dora and I broke up last night.”
Those mercury eyes widened to become full moons. “WHAT? You two have been through everything. You two were sweet on each other even in primary school and then when she made the first move five years ago you could barely say yes you were so smitten. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED?”
Remus shook his head. “She wanted to see other people now that she transferred universities. I couldn’t bloody well tell her not to with her being in Dublin and all. I just wished she would have done it sooner. I think she was waiting for me to and then realized I was going to keep pretending like everything was going to work out alright.”
Sirius grumbled, “I suppose it makes sense but blimey I thought if anyone could make long distance work it would be you two. True love is dead I suppose.”
“Thanks. You’re a true mate for that one,” Remus replied solemnly.
Sirius cringed, “Right, sorry. Don’t worry, I won’t tell James or Lily about you and Tonks. You can bring it up whenever you want. Just try to not be so cranky around Lily because she’ll figure it out. Then you’ll have to talk about her and she’ll start crying and then you’ll be crying. You two will be a mess together and I doubt that’s what you want right now.”
Remus nodded absentmindedly before switching the subject. “What do you think it’s going to be like living with the two lovebirds?”
Sirius gave a shrug. “I imagine they’ll have enough decency to keep it to a minimum around us. It’s ridiculous she insisted on the fourth bedroom when you know bloody well she’ll be cuddling James every night.”
“You’re just mad you were robbed of your studio room,” Remus replied with a faint smirk.
“Damn right! I had every right to it since I pay the larger portion of the rent,” Sirius said with his fist shaking angrily in the air in the direction James disappeared to. “I can’t believe I let him talk me out of the larger bedroom for it, just to have the rug yanked out from underneath me.”
Remus raised a hand to pat Sirius on the shoulder, patronizing him. “Treat him like a brother and he wrongs you like one too.”
A moment of silence fell over them as Sirius’s eyes wavered with a twinge of pain. “It’s Regulus’s first year. I wonder if he’s moving into the dorms alright.”
Remus gave him a sympathetic look. “You could always go visit.”
Waving the idea off, Sirius shook his head. “Not until tomorrow. Who knows when mother dear will quit wailing that her baby boy is going off to be an adult and follow in his father’s footsteps. I’ll wait to avoid that mess.”
Remus nodded. “Fair enough.”
Both of them were nervous and embarrassed, their hands fidgeting awkwardly at their sides. Sirius finally broke the silence. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked softly.
Remus swallowed, “I guess. I knew it was coming so I feel like I shouldn’t be upset, but here I am.”
Sirius swung an arm around Remus’s bony shoulders and pulled him closer. “Look, you’re at university. There’s plenty of other girls for you to woo with your extensive knowledge of literature or whatever it is you do in the English department. Do you all have poetry reciting competitions? I never did quite understand what you actually do in your classes.”
Remus gave him an incredulous look until he noticed Sirius was just teasing him to take his mind off the subject. He returned the half hug and then swung his legs off the counter and onto the floor. “I guess we should go wait for the pizza.”
“I call dibs on the first slice,” Sirius said with a grin.
Remus gave him serious look. “Touch the first slice and I’ll push you down the stairs.”
“I’d like to see you try. You love me too much to kill me, slow torture sure but not outright death,” Sirius called over his shoulder just as the doorbell rang.