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Book stores were dangerous places. Remus knew this before he pulled open the large glass door, before he became intoxicated by the smell of coffee mingling with ink and fresh unread pages. Remus was completely aware of the dangers; he was aware that no matter how much restraint he used his arms would be full of words, full of stories, full of histories begging to be learned before he even reached the second floor. However, there is a vast difference between knowing and actually resisting the danger, resisting the pulling warmth of a book shop.
Remus breathed deeply once through the doors, breathed just to pull that intoxicating sent into his lungs and let it envelop his senses inside and out. The soft yellow light warmed him, wrapping around his body like a handmade quilt and fighting off the bitter cold of the streets outside. He closed his eyes and sighed into the feeling.
True to his musings Remus was enthralled before he made it passed the first shelf. The titles pulled him in whispering promises of escape, of knowledge, and fantastic adventures into his mind. He moved slowly, methodically through the store not a title or spine escaping his sharp eyes.
It wasn’t long before Remus had filled his arms with novels and tomes so thick, he wished he had grabbed a basket when he came in. But that was a fleeting thought as he let himself become lost amongst the shelves each filled with pages upon pages that seemed to muffle the sounds of his footsteps.
Far in the recesses of the shop where the yellow lights seemed just a bit dimmer, softer. Remus eyes were glued to the words adorning the book in his hands; it was leather bound, the cover inlayed with delicate gold leaf, the edges of the pages deckled and rough, it was gorgeous. He couldn’t seem to look away from it as he slowly ambled down the aisle his arms still laden down.
Suddenly, Remus found himself colliding headfirst into a warm solid chest. He stumbled backwards and landed on his butt with a low oof his numerous books raining down around him their sharp corners pushing bruises into his skin. There was a brief moment of silence before a deep silky voice began speaking frantically.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry, I want paying attention. Are you ok?”
When Remus glanced up, he felt himself lose his breath in a way completely unrelated to the fall. The man gazing down at his worriedly was beautiful. He had soft pale skin stretched across sharp cheekbones and strong jaw, his brows were arched evenly in that way people always tried to replicate but never quite could, and his nose sloped aristocratically, and his full lips were pulled into a worried pout. The man’s black hair hung down to his shoulders, it swept forward in a curtain as he gazed down at Remus.
“Are you alright?” he asked again extending a hand down to Remus who was still down on the rough carpet of the book store.
“I… yeah, I’m good,” Remus finally stuttered out before accepting the man’s offered hand. Once on his feet again the mans lips pulled into a soft grin and Remus’s breath caught again at how gorgeous it made him. His steel colored eyes were warm holding none of the hardness the color would suggest.
Remus was enamored by this beautiful stranger, he wished he could take a picture with his mind and press it between the pages of his favorite book like a sprig of lavender.
“You sure you’re ok? You seem kinda dazed,” there was still a hint of worry in the man’s smooth voice.
Remus chuckled and looked away from the man, he could feel a flush heat his cheeks as he finally snapped himself out of it.
“Yeah, don’t worry about me. Sorry I ran into you I guess I was in a world of my own.”
The man smiled again before leaning down picking up the leather book Remus dropped when he fell, “Is that so? Well, what was it that had you so absorbed?” he asked looking at the golden lettering on the cover, “The secret Garden: and Other Children’s Classics.”
Remus could feel the flush deepen as the man read the title aloud a teasing lilt in his voice.
“Yeah, I have a soft spot for them and the craftmanship of this edition is beautiful,” Remus said meeting the man’s gaze.
“Hmm, well I suppose if you are going to be lost in a world of your own The Secret Garden is an appropriate place to go,” the man said gently placing the book back into Remus’s hands.
“I guess your right about that,” Remus said huffing a laugh, “I’m Remus,” he introduced himself holding the book in one hand and offering the other to the man in front of him.
“Would it throw you off if I said my name was Romulus?” he replied flippantly.
“Um… yeah it kinda would?” Remus said not entirely sure how to respond to that.
The man laughed finally taking Remus offered hand, “Actually, I’m Sirius.”
“Wait a minute, are you telling me your name really is Romulus? Cause I’m not sure I believe you.”
This time the mans laugh was almost a cackle, “No, I’m telling you my name is Sirius. You know like the star.” He said pointing a finger upwards and glanced towards the sky.
“Gotcha,” Remus replied the silly play on words finally clicking in his brain. “Well, it was nice to meet you Sirius, I’m sorry I ran into you,” he said leaning down and picking up the rest of the fallen books.
“Aw, don’t worry about it. I think you took the brunt of the impact anyway,” Sirius teased as Remus stood arms once again full of books.
“Well, I should probably get going,” Remus said gently sliding the leather-bound book back into its place on the shelf.
“Weren’t you getting that one?” Sirius asked as Remus made to walk away.
“Hmm? Oh, no. I already have most of the individual stories, I can’t justify getting another copy even if it’s a beautiful edition.”
“I see,” Sirius replied lightly, “Well, have a good rest of your night Remus. Try not to run into anybody else, yeah?”
“I will do my best, but no promises,” Remus joked before waving goodbye and heading to the check out counter laden down with several other titles. With his bag of new books in hand Remus paused at the door of the book shop taking in one last deep breath savoring the warmth before wrapping his coat just a bit tighter around himself and taking that first step back into the freezing night air.
Several days had passed since that night in the book store, occasionally the image of Sirius’s wide smile and warm eyes would flit behind Remus’s eye but he brushed them aside. After all he would never see the beautiful stranger again, what was the point of wishful thinking?
One evening when he went to unlock his flat his foot bumped a box sitting harmlessly in front of the door. Remus leaned down and snagged the box and inspected the shipping label; it was from the book store.
Remus frowned he didn’t remember ordering anything when he was there but it was addressed to him. Not wanting to stand out in the cold any longer than necessary he tucked the box under his arm and shouldered his way into his home.
Pulling out his pocket knife Remus carefully sliced through the tape and pushed away the packing peanuts to find a leather-bound book with golden writing on the cover. Remus blinked in confusion; he was sure he had put this book back on the shelf. Carefully he pulled the tome from its box the leather soft and buttery in his hands, as he did a slip of paper fell from its pages and fluttered to the floor.
Remus set the book aside and snagged the paper off the ground to see neat cursive written there.
Remus,
Maybe you can’t justify it, but I can. If you ever want company next time you get lost in that secret garden of yours give me a call.
-Sirius
999-999-9999
Remus rolled his eyes and scoffed before slipping his phone from his back pocket and dialing the number written neatly by Sirius’s name.
“Hello?” Sirius’s voice was smooth and warm against Remus’s ear making him shiver slightly.
“Well, the good news is that I haven’t physically run into anybody since I met you.”
“Remus?”
“Umhm,” he said in way of confirmation, “the bad news though, I’m mildly concerned that your stalking me now.”
“Wait! How did you get to that conclusion?” Sirius asked amusement in his voice.
“How did you get my address?”
“Oh that? I didn’t. Luckily you have an account at the book shop and they were willing to ship it to you, however they refused to even give me your last name. It’s been a hell of a time trying to stalk you on Instagram.”
Remus chuckled at that, “Even if you knew my last name you would still probably be disappointed on that end, I’m not really one for social media.”
“I see, you’re the private kind, are you?” Sirius said playfully. “Well how about rather than trying to find you online, we do this the old-fashioned way. Would you like to get coffee with me Remus? Or tea, if you don’t like coffee. Or hot chocolate, if you don’t like tea. Or-“
“Sirius,” Remus said halting the other mans rambling, “I would love to get coffee with you.”
“Really? Great! That’s great.”
Remus smiled at the way Sirius had become flustered, after a few minutes they had hammered out the details of the when and where of getting together.
“By the way its Lupin. My last name, just so you know,” Remus said as their conversation began winging down.
“Hmm, well that’s fitting,” Sirius commented, “mine’s Black. And I am on social media by the way, so feel free to look me up. I find it flattering when people cyber stalk me.”
Remus snorted at that, “Alright I will,” he glanced up at the clock in his kitchen and groaned, “I’m sorry its getting kinda late, I should probably go. But we’ll talk again soon, and thank you for the book. Honestly, I should probably try to convince you to take it back because I am very much aware of the price. And believe me that was far too much for you to have spent on someone you barely know, but not gunna lie I really want it.”
Sirius laughed, “You are more than welcome. And even if you tried, I wouldn’t take it back. I got it for you because I could see in your eyes how much you wanted it. I’m just happy it makes you happy.”
“It really does, thank you.”
“Your welcome. Have a good night Remus I’ll text you tomorrow, I wanna know what you think of my endless selfies.”
“Good night Sirius,” Remus whispered before pulling the phone away from his ear a grin on his face. Gently he ran a finger down the spine of the leather book loving the feeling under his fingertips and the fresh memories of the man who gave it to him.
Remus thought he knew the dangers of stepping foot into a book store. He knew he would probably spend more time and money there than he should, he knew he had literally zero space left on his packed bookshelves for the new stories he would be bringing home, and he knew that no matter how good it smelled the coffee in the café was iffy at the best of times. What he didn’t know was that somewhere deep amongst the shelves was one Sirius Black, what Remus didn’t know was that he would soon be in danger of falling in love.