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James was pretty sure the 'courageous' part of being a Gryffindor could be replaced with 'idiotic' or maybe 'absolute dumb arse' and have the same meaning, because who the sodding hell fancied their best mate and still agreed to play truth or dare? To be fair, most of these nights were just dares, and it's not like anyone could force James to pick truth. That only kept him half-safe, which was in danger enough that he felt 'idiotic' and 'absolute dumb arse' still applied.
It was the usual shite they got up to in the Tower, and it didn't really matter that it was only the seventh years holed away in the boy's dorm because they were just as wild when it was only them as they were when it was everyone down in the common room.
Passing around a bottle of firewhiskey was interspersed with passing around muggle alcohol that Lily had brought with her after winter break. The worst dare so far had been one where Moony had to gulp down some firewhiskey, and he'd had to run to the loo to throw up afterwards, and he was still burping puffs of smoke every now and then.
"Truth or dare, Pete," Sirius said, sipping on a beer-- which he said tasted like piss, but this was Lily's payback for when she had to take off her skirt, so he had to suffer through it.
"Eh. Truth."
Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"I don't feel like getting up. If you can promise a dare where I don't have to move, I'll do that instead."
"No can do, Wormy." Sirius heaved a put-upon sigh, holding the bottle against his face as he thought. "Alright. Truth... what was up with that haircut you had first year? Honestly. It haunts me to this day."
Peter let out a loud groan. "For fuck's sake Sirius, we've been over this. I was eleven. It was my mum's idea, and I got it cut as soon as I could."
"Right, but why the hell did she do that to you in the first place? Were you a bad son or summat and that was your punishment?"
"Yes Sirius, that's exactly what it was," Peter said flatly. "I shaved her head and that was her revenge. Bugger off."
Sirius snickered, clearly pleased, and then it was Peter's turn to find someone to ask.
"Prongs, it's been a while for you, hasn't it? Truth or dare."
"Dare."
"Aw I really should have thought this through. Erm, kiss the most attractive person in the room, I guess."
Lily threw a bottle cap at Peter, who jumped but didn't try to dodge it or catch it.
"Don't you mean most attractive bird?" Sirius said, and Peter threw the cap at him. Predictably, Sirius caught it, sticking out his tongue afterwards.
"I said what I said, Padfoot. Prongs?"
It didn't occur to James that he could lie-- and even if it had, he wouldn't have done it-- so he grabbed the front of Sirius's shirt and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. If he gave them time to react, he'd be bombarded with questions, so he didn't let his eyes linger on Sirius and said, "Marls, truth or dare."
"Er. Dare?" she said, looking a little thrown.
"Kiss the most attractive bird in the room." James shrugged. "Gotta even it out, now."
Marlene snorted, then had to shuffle out of her spot in the circle to kiss Lily. "Mary, truth or dare."
Sirius didn't say anything, and as far as anyone else could tell, he was fine with what had happened. The problem was that James didn't fall into the category 'anyone else' where Sirius was concerned. They were best mates, practically inseparable. He knew what Sirius acted like when he was uncomfortable but wanted to pretend he was fine.
The easiest way to take care of it would be to talk about when the party disbanded, but they didn't have classes tonight, and everyone was crashing there. Sirius and James had already agreed to share a bed-- Remus and Peter had done the same-- so there would be room for everyone to sleep. He knew that Sirius wasn't going to bring it up, which meant that James was going to have to think of how to mention it tomorrow. Tomorrow, when they were all going to be pretending like they hadn't done this. Oh yeah, it was going to go great.
Evidently, he had underestimated Sirius's need for answers. Sirius didn't like to be left out of things, especially where James was concerned. He woke up far too early to Sirius shaking his shoulder-- gently, but still, James needed his beauty sleep. "Wha'?" he managed to say, peeking one eye open.
"You kissed me last night," Sirius whispered.
James yawned, closing his eye again. "Mm. Funnily enough, I remember that." Sirius was glaring at him. He couldn't see it, but he could sense that it was happening.
"Fine," Sirius said, and before James could wonder what he meant by that, Sirius was kissing him.
"Er- morning breath?" James stuttered.
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "That's all you have to say?"
"Erm. Yeah?"
"Stop being such an arse," Sirius muttered, kissing him again.
"Don't ask for things you can't have."
"What the fuck did I just say?"
"Yep, and I'm proving you wrong. Do you really think I'll get less annoying if we start snogging?"
Sirius peered at him. "What about if we start dating?" he asked. This was starting to sound like a negotiation, which was hilarious. They were negotiating for snogging and dating in exchange for how annoying James was going to be.
"I wouldn't count on it getting better. Might get worse." He'd been told that he got more insufferable the happier he was.
"Bloody hell, I hate you," Sirius said, but then he kissed him again, so he couldn't hate him too much. "I can't believe you kissed me in front of all our mates before talking to me."
"If it helps, I never planned on talking to you."
"It doesn't."
"Then pretend I didn't say that."
Sirius snickered. "Yeah alright."