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When you made a map that was supposed to be the perfect image of the Hogwarts Castle, you had to know its every little corner. But, since it was a school, not every little corner was available to ordinary students such as James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter.
But making such a map was certainly an important step in their scholarly development and they decided that that was a good enough reason for them to break all the rules of where in the school they were allowed to go.
That was how they found the kitchens.
And ever since they did, they went down the stairs leading to the Hufflepuff Common Room at least once a week. They tickled the painted pair and roamed around the kitchens like kings.
The house elves liked them - but perhaps that wasn’t anything special, as Sirius once said, “They’re dense, they like everyone.” He received cold looks from all three of his friends for that and was told that he still had to work on his “pureblood arsehole attitude” as Remus had put it.
But anyway, the house elves always surrounded them the moment they walked into the kitchens, and it was never to complain about them being there but to offer them food.
Sirius, with his pureblood arsehole attitude, always took whatever they handed him and even wanted more. He was quite rude as he did so too. Remus and James simply politely accepted what they were given and only sometimes asked for something else.
But Peter… Peter was the only one who didn’t take anything from the house elves. If they had time, Peter set up on one of the tables and baked something of his own. His friends ran around the kitchens, feasting on the food the house elves supplied as Peter quietly prepared something else each time they were there. Sometimes it was biscuits, sometimes muffins, and sometimes anything else that came to his mind.
That had been when they first discovered the kitchens, back in their fifth year, they couldn't get enough of them. But then they went down there less and less often until finally they only visited when they needed some food for parties.
Except… That wasn’t exactly the truth either. What James and Peter didn’t know was that Sirius and Remus still sneaked off into the kitchens once a week.
After their friends had already dropped off to sleep, the two pulled on James’ Invisibility Cloak, clutched the map in hand and crept out of the Gryffindor Tower and into the kitchens.
The house elves still adored them, even though Sirius was still an arsehole to them. (Which he was working on. He promised Remus he would.) They always supplied them with infinite amounts of chocolate and… baking ingredients.
Because apart from Peter, Remus was also quite fond of baking. Not as much as his mum, he’d say, but still enough to want to take Sirius on baking dates.
Especially given that apparently, Sirius couldn’t bake.
“What do you mean you can’t?” Remus laughed when he’d first heard it.
Sirius shrugged. “No one ever taught me. We never did anything in the kitchen back home.”
Remus hummed. “Right. See, those pureblood privileges are taking all the joy out of your life. You’ve never baked! ”
Ever since then, Remus had made it his priority to teach Sirius how to bake. But, the truth was, Sirius was a horrible learner.
“Careful with that,” Remus told him as he searched for a bowl in the kitchens’ cupboard. Sirius was battling a bag of flour. “You don’t wanna—”
Boom.
Remus blinked, his words dying in his throat, and looked up. And almost immediately, a grin pulled on his lips. Sirius was frozen, the bag ripped open in his hands. But his face was covered in flour.
“How are you so rubbish at this?” Remus laughed, standing up and carefully taking the bag from Sirius.
Sirius grimaced and proceeded to try to wipe his face with his sleeve.
“I told you I didn’t know—” he mumbled and then started coughing.
“No, stop,” Remus said, grabbing Sirius’ head gently and pulling it away from his arm. “We gotta do this gently or you’ll suffocate.” He turned around and walked over to the sink, glancing at the flour bag on his way there. “Is there any actual flour left in there?”
He grabbed a rag and turned on the water, soaking it.
Sirius huffed. “I didn’t spill it all out.”
“Mhm,” Remus hummed, turning off the tap and walking back to him. “Good.”
He gently grabbed Sirius’ chin to steady him and pressed the wet cloth to his face, wiping away the flour.
Sirius’ first instinct was to scowl and pull away, but Remus looked quite pretty, concentrating like this, and his hands were especially soft, and Sirius would be lying if he said he didn’t like the feeling of them on his skin.
“Alright,” Remus said after a minute or two, pulling away. “Crisis averted. Now, we’re making chocolate chip tonight.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “Of course we are.”
Fifteen minutes later, he was sitting on the counter, one opposite the one Remus was working at. He was with his back to Sirius, adding the chocolate chips to the bowl of dough.
He glanced back at Sirius, one hand reaching for a spoon. “You know this isn’t much of a lesson if all you do is watch.”
Sirius shrugged. “I quite like watching you, thank you very much.”
Remus rolled his eyes but felt his cheeks heat up, and began to stir.
“Oh, and I quite like this part too.”
Sirius jumped off the counter and headed for Remus, his hand reaching for the cookie batter.
“No!” Remus exclaimed, pulling the bowl away from Sirius’ reach. “Get your sticky fingers out of here.”
Sirius gasped in offence, not stopping his attempts to get to the bowl. “Come on, Moony!”
“It’s not healthy!”
“I’ve had it multiple times before!” Sirius shot back and just as he thought he’d have a bit of the batter, Remus spun around, holding the bowl behind his back.
Now they were practically chest to chest, and Sirius had to look up at Remus. Bloody height difference.
“That’s why it’s even less healthy,” Remus said calmly. “You can’t have too much, you’ll get salmonella.”
“I don’t even know what that is,” Sirius retorted.
Remus rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Bloody pureblood education…”
And then, much to Sirius’ surprise, he leaned down, pressing a quick kiss onto Sirius’ lips.
Before Sirius properly registered it, Remus was walking away from him.
“That’s enough sweets for now,” he said, heading for the oven. “Now you’ll have to wait.”
But he only really had to wait ten minutes. After the cookies had baked, they both sat on the floor of the kitchens, Sirius in between Remus’ legs, leaning into his chest, the tray of cookies in front of them. Remus wrapped one of his arms around Sirius’ waist, gently caressing his stomach.
“Do you think we should leave some of those for Prongs and Wormy?” Sirius asked with his mouth full.
“Mhm, I suppose,” Remus said. “But then we’d have to explain how we got them.”
Sirius twisted to look up at Remus.
“Yeah,” he said. “And share them.”
Remus felt a smile pulling on his lips. “Tough decision.”
Sirius wrinkled his nose. “Maybe we don’t have to.”
Remus grinned and leaned down to kiss Sirius.
“We don’t,” he whispered against his lips.