Chapter Text
It’s eleven o’clock at night and Remus wants to strangle Sirius. He’s doing his Arithmancy homework and absolutely cannot figure out the last formula, which may have something to do with the fact that he’s been sitting at his homework all day. He started out in the common room, but reverted back to the dormitory when more and more people started coming in and made noise. (The library was temporarily closed due to “an incident with intentional misuse of magical props involving several unknown students” – the Marauders’ latest prank gone wrong, they hadn’t expected the effect to be so big.) Normally he wouldn’t mind as much, just concentrating on his work and blocking out the sounds, but it was close to a full moon, and during the last few days before a transformation, he was always a little irritated and his senses sharpened, so he was more sensitive. Defeated, he grabbed his books and parchment and went upstairs to continue his Arithmancy essay (“Predicting the Outcome of Uncertain Events: An Exemplary Study”), which worked fairly well until Sirius decided that he desperately needed to shower right in this moment, so he was trying to concentrate while Sirius made all this noise, rummaging through his stuff, grabbing toiletries and new socks and-
“Sirius, is it really necessary to be this loud?! I’m trying to concentrate here,” Remus snapped.
Sirius’ head spun around, looking at Remus. There must have been something in his look, because he immediately let go of the drawer he was about to open and practically ran into the bathroom. Remus felt a little bad, even though he knew that Sirius knew it was only two days before the full moon and he was always more short-tempered during that time.
Finally, he was able to enjoy the silence and concentrate on his work. That is, until Sirius turned the water on and started singing. So now here he is, forced to listen to his friend sing in the shower – he thinks it’s Rebel Rebel, a Bowie song from last year, but you can never be too sure with Sirius’ bad singing (not that he’d ever tell him that) – while still trying to do his homework. Remus is pretty sure Sirius thinks he can’t hear him over the water, but in contrast, he actually can’t not hear him. Concentrating is really hard when you know that your best friend is the source of the sound of running water right next door, probably running his fingers through his hair right now to get the shampoo in. That has to take forever considering the length of Sirius’ hair by now, and then he has to rinse it all back out, weaving his fingers through the sea of black hair…
Remus has completely forgotten about the essay he’s supposed to be writing right now by the time the bathroom door opens to reveal a half-naked Sirius. He’s completely lost in thought, no idea how much time has passed. He didn’t even notice the water getting turned off, or when Sirius stopped singing. (He also missed the minutes filled with the sound of running water and a suspicious lack of noise from Sirius. Although, if he’d paid attention, he might have been able to catch soft panting and a few sighs and little stifled moans with his sharpened senses.)
Sirius is standing in the doorframe, a towel wrapped around his hips, only wearing a shirt, as it seems. It’s tight and partially wet from Sirius’ hair, so it sticks to his body like a second skin.
Damn. All that extra exercise James puts the Quidditch team through really pays off, Sirius has gained quite the muscles. Remus looks away as fast as he can manage, which is just a moment too late for one mate looking at the other, but hey. Sirius is pretty.
Oh.
Merlin.
He’s… Sirius is pretty.
Remus freezes. Then Sirius destroys what could have been a moment of self-realisation for Remus and asks him to borrow his DADA notes, because, of course, he forgot to do the homework. Remus says no.