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Sirius used to be taller than James. It wasn't by much, just a couple centimeters of height on him. But that didn't last very long.
It must have been third year when that flipped. They got back from summer break for the start of their third year at Hogwarts, and James was taller than him, the tosser. Sirius frowned at him, and he had to look slightly up for it. What an arse. James grinned and stood on his tiptoes to pat Sirius on the head. "Aww, how is it down there?" he said, voice cloying like he was talking to a baby.
Sirius swat his hand away with a glare. "Don't be so bloody smug, I'll be taller than you again before the end of term."
"Yeah," James agreed, "but I'm gonna enjoy it right now."
The biggest height gap they ever got was in fourth year. James could rest his elbow on top of Sirius's head, and Sirius was about to start really worrying that he wasn't going to grow anymore. He was turning fifteen in a few months, and he wasn't any taller than he'd been at the start of last year! Meanwhile, James had shot up like a weed.
Remus and Peter were taller than him right now too, but that was so not the point.
The point was that James took perverse glee in being taller than Sirius, nicking his sweets and putting them on the top shelf of the loo where Sirius couldn't reach even if he got on the counter-- he knew because he had tried and all he had succeeded in doing was banging his face on the cabinet and getting a massive bruise on his face.
Sometimes James would tilt his head to the side when they were standing next to each other and rest his cheek on top of Sirius's head. Protests that James was mussing his hair had no effect. Elbowing him in the side also didn't help, but when he tried that, James would wrap an arm around him. And, well, Sirius couldn't poke him in the ribs then because what if James stopped hugging him entirely? He couldn't risk that.
But it was real damn annoying that James not only could rest his head on Sirius's while they were both standing, but that he did it all the buggering time.
"You alright?" James asked, and it would have been sweet if he wasn't punctuating the question by raising a hand to rub at the crown of Sirius's head. A little reminder of all the shite Sirius wasn't good at it-- he devoutly ignored the fact that being shorter than James wasn't a personal shortcoming.
"You're an arse," Sirius managed to get out through the warble in his voice, shoving James's hand aside none too gently. He stormed off without looking back.
Sirius muttered another curse and strained his arm towards the marshmallows. Who the hell had put them on top of the cupboard? It couldn't have been Lily, she was shorter than him. Peter was shorter too, so he was out. That left Remus and James. Remus might be the sort of arse to hide the marshmallows up there, but the more likely culprit was James. For a loving boyfriend, he sure was a berk.
Sirius growled and dropped back to his regular height. He narrowed his eyes at the marshmallows, willing for them to come down. He could grab his wand and grab them, but that would be cheating. He put one hand on the counter to steady himself and jumped, fingers brushing the bag but not making enough contact that he could grip them.
"You need help?" James asked.
"Not from you," Sirius grumbled, jumping again. That was somehow even less successful than his first try, and his shoulders slumped down. "Can you grab me the marshmallows?"
"Sure," James said, sounding amused. He didn't point out that Sirius had just told him to bugger off though, so he was counting it as a win. James rocked onto his toes and reached up, easily plucking them off the cupboard.
"Thanks," Sirius said begrudgingly. "But next time maybe you could leave them where they're supposed to be?"
"I do love teasing you, but that wasn't me. Not this time, at least."
"Moony?"
James shrugged. "Probably." He leaned down and kissed Sirius, and that took the sting out of having to ask for help in the first place.