Work Text:
Sirius’s phone rings suddenly from beside him on the arm of the sofa and he releases a sigh. “It’s work. I gotta take this,” he says, and nudges Remus’s shoulder to get him to move.
Remus grumbles. He has made himself perfectly comfortable and warm here, wrapped in a thick knitted blanket with his sleepy head on his boyfriend’s lap while Sirius ran long fingers through his shaggy curls, but he raises his head anyway and grabs the remote to pause the black and white horror film they’re watching right as the lead actress screws her face up to let out another blood-curdling scream. Sirius grabs his phone and slides himself out from beneath Remus, tapping the green call button on his screen.
“This is Sirius.”
He answers the phone in what Remus jokingly calls Sirius’s ‘work voice’ before striding out of the living room and into their little spare bedroom which is now doubling as Sirius’s office. Remus can’t help but laugh at the normally playful man’s faux-professionalism while he’s clad in only his paw print pajama bottoms. Flinging the blanket off of himself, Remus stretches his legs and picks up the empty bowl from the coffee table, then slips into the kitchen to make another batch of popcorn.
They’ve been quarantined in their flat for twelve days now, but with the way things are carrying on outside, it is looking like this could possibly last months. Remus, the introvert, is just now beginning to feel the effects of being sequestered away from the world, but Sirius started going stir-crazy around day four. But, they’ve managed to keep one another distracted with different activities: baking together, catching up with their ever growing Netflix queue, reading out loud to each other, and plenty of frisky romps in the sack followed by sweaty and sticky cuddling.
Businesses are closed, schools are closed, everything deemed non-essential is closed— Sirius has been able to continue working from home due to his tech job, but Remus’s bookstore has been shut down until further notice. Thankfully Sirius alone makes enough for the two of them to live off of, and though Remus would normally feel embarrassed by his current lack of independence and financial contribution, he is only grateful that he has his boyfriend looking out for him.
The microwave beeps and Remus pours the bag of popcorn into the bowl.
“Oh yeah, I’m fine, just feeling pretty cooped up,” he can hear Sirius say to whom Remus assumes is his boss. “But at least I’m getting some quality time in with my partner. He’s been a saint dealing with my obnoxious ass.”
Sirius laughs.
Remus blinks. His eyebrows shoot upward.
Partner? They have never used the word partnerbefore, have always stuck to the traditional boyfriend despite living together, though it’s only been for a couple of months. Somehow partnerfeels heavier, more important and solid. Embarrassingly, Remus’s heart begins to race as if he’s just overheard something he shouldn’t have, so he hurries back to the sofa with the bowl and curls his legs up beside himself.
“Moody just put me in charge of the Gambol and Japes account,” Sirius announces proudly a few minutes later when he finally returns to their living room, then stops abruptly. “What’s wrong?” he asks, and Remus just looks up at him.
“You called me your partner,” he says flatly.
Sirius frowns. “Did I?”
Remus nods.
“Why do you look so put out about that?”
“You— that's—” Remus starts but doesn’t even know what he’s really trying to relay. Sirius shakes his head and plops down beside him heavily, sending a few kernels of popcorn spilling out of the bowl. He grabs onto Remus’s ankles and pulls them both up onto his lap, squeezing his socked feet lovingly.
“Aren’t we partners though?” Sirius questions him. “Don’t we both contribute to the relationship? To the household?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“You’re more to me than just my boyfriend, Remus. You live here too. You do most of the cooking and cleaning. You’re keeping me sane during this quarantine. You’re my better half.”
“It’s just… you know partner means something pretty serious when you’re queer,” Remus says.
“Well, I’m pretty serious about you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, of course.” Sirius grins and rubs Remus’s thigh lovingly.
Remus smiles a bit at that, then after a few quiet seconds says, “You call yourself sane?”
“You ass.” Sirius laughs and leans over to give him a quick kiss, then promptly takes a handful of popcorn and stuffs it down Remus’s shirt.
“Hey!” Remus swats Sirius’s hands away but can’t hold in his laughter. “I can’t believe I’m quarantined with you, you giant five year old!”
Sirius nods solemnly. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me until this all blows over.”
Remus groans, shaking the popcorn out from beneath his shirt.
“Just my partner and I against the world,” Sirius muses. “We truly are in this together. Whatever will we do with all of this free time?” Sirius takes the bowl from Remus and sets it on the table before dipping down to steal another kiss, but Remus shifts and hits the remote with his elbow.
“AAAAAAAAA!”
Sirius jumps in surprise and rolls off of the sofa, hitting the floor with a THUNK when the starlet on screen finally screams. Remus laughs out loud, but then Sirius grabs his wrist and pulls him down to land on top of him.
“Oof! Hey!”
“Howdy, partner.”
“Does James know you call me that?” he asks, still smiling wide as he reaches for the remote and turns off the movie.
“Nah, I call you Hot Cakes to him,” Sirius jokes and smacks Remus’s ass.
“Oh my god.”
“I can make you scream that in approximately ten minutes.”
“Is that a bet?”
“Ooh, gambling! A new way to pass the time.”
“Honestly I was wondering how long it’d be until you suggested strip poker.”
“I don’t know poker, but we do have Pandemic in the closet.”
“Strip Pandemic?”
“What?” Sirius asks with a smug smirk. “Too soon? Do I move too fast for you?”
“No,” Remus responds, and leans down to press a soft kiss to Sirius’s grinning mouth. “That is a cooperative game though.”
“Guess we’ll have to partner up then.”
“I swear to god I rolled my eyes so hard I just saw my brain roll its eyes.”
Sirius lets out another barking laugh as he helps Remus up off of the floor, then promptly scoops him up and hefts him over one shoulder and carries him into their bedroom. Remus can only let it happen and he smiles to himself— exasperating as he can be sometimes, Remus honestly wouldn’t want to spend this quarantine with anyone other than Sirius Black, his partner in madness.