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Remus stood in front of the shelf, checking for the number on his phone, once again trying to figure out if the number he was looking at was the same. Whoever invented this system clearly did it with the intention of torturing him. He’d picked literature for his studies so he wouldn’t have to deal with numbers anymore, and now here he was, standing in the library between two shelves full of books with between fifteen- to twenty-digit numbers on them, looking for one specific one he just couldn’t find because the digits were swimming and moving and just not sticking in his brain.
Someone let out a chuckle and he looked up to find another student at one of the desks looking directly at him. Heat and shame creeped up his neck and settled in his stomach. He’d been standing here for such a ridiculously long time, quietly mumbling the number to himself, forgetting it not even halfway through, attempting to find the matching one on the shelf, that he was now being laughed at.
He took a few seconds to decide between the need for the book for his paper and the public shame, before deciding that the book wasn’t worth it. Head down and shoulders up he rounded the corner to flee the library and cry in the bathroom in peace, when he bumped into something soft that let out a breathy “uff” at the impact.
The person grabbed his arms to keep themselves from falling over, or maybe to keep Remus from falling over, and Remus caught a glimpse of black hair and steely eyes.
Of course it had to be him of all people. Because Remus couldn’t ever catch a break.
“Sorry,” Remus mumbled, trying to avoid his eyes. Which was very difficult because they were very pretty and Remus had generally a very difficult time not staring whenever he saw them around.
“’S alright.” Black smiled. A wide, beautiful smile he knew had all the boys and girls swoon at his feet and was even more beautiful up close. “What are you running from?” The smile turned into something more amused as he glanced around in a show to find the threat.
“Couldn’t find a book, someone laughed at me,” he said and winced at himself. Great, now he sounded like a whiny baby, and a stupid one at that.
A crease appeared between Black’s eyebrows and the smile vanished. But only for a moment before he glanced at the still open tab on Remus’ phone he was holding in his hand.
“You looking for that?” he asked, nodding at the book featured on the website, telling him where said book was located in the vast library. Or supposedly doing so, if someone was not a complete failure at finding one’s way between all the numbered shelves.
Black didn’t even wait for an answer before heading straight for a nearby shelf – not the one Remus had stood in front of like an idiot – grazing his tattooed fingers and polished nails along the spines, before pulling one out. He was obviously having no problems with the library’s numbering system and Remus was jealous. He didn’t even have to glance at it twice while Remus had been standing in front of the wrong shelf for half an hour. If Black thought he was stupid, he didn’t mention it at least.
“Thanks,” he mumbled quietly, moving to take it, but the other man pulled it back in the last second to hold it out of his reach.
Remus’ stomach instantly plummeted, filling with dread at the anticipation of being publicly made fun of. And by his crush of all people.
“You can have this,” Black said then, grin growing wider, “but only if you give me your number and promise to go out with me.”
Remus stared.
Black grinned, book still held up out his reach.
If it was a joke, it was a very cruel one. Remus had seen him around, always with his mates, always loud and arrogant, laughing and tossing his hair, talking and poking fun at people. And even now, throughout their conversation, Remus had made an effort to keep his voice down while Black decidedly hadn’t. From everything Remus knew about him, he wasn’t a very kind or considerate person. From everything Remus knew about him he could be a bully, despite the man’s grin showing no sign of malice as far as he could tell. Though, perhaps he was just a really good actor and Remus wasn’t that good at reading people.
Remus had bad taste, that’s what he had kept telling himself whenever he couldn’t stop looking and thinking and dreaming, even after Black had long left his sight.
His heart was hammering in his chest, and he was starting to feel dizzy.
Remus turned around on the spot and walked off.
“Woah, hey.” A hand grabbed his arm to hold him back and Black planted himself right in Remus’ way to keep him from leaving. The cocky grin had vanished and made way to a frown.
He held out the book for Remus to take and he did after a moment of consideration, Black letting him this time.
“Sorry,” the other man said, and actually did look sorry so that Remus now felt like the arsehole. He also made no move to get out of Remus’ way. “I just thought you’re cute, that’s all.”
Black called him cute and his heart was racing even faster.
“Am I not your type, did I read that wrong?” he continued. “It’s just I’ve seen you around and I thought you were looking. I’m not usually wrong about these things.” His mouth tugged upwards at the corners in a self-assured smirk.
“Keep it down, will you,” someone grumbled from where they were working at the desks, a few affirming grunts following.
Remus wanted to hide knowing that they’d been disturbing their quiet workspace and that everyone probably overheard the whole conversation, but Black did not waver or even let on that he heard.
“Here, let me give you my number so you can think about it.” He held out his hand and waited. The smile was back. But not the big cocky grin. This one was gentle.
Remus stared at it.
After a few seconds of waiting, Black huffed a laugh and reached into his back pocket instead, pulling out a pen. Then he took Remus’ arm and pulled his sleeve back so he could write on it. Remus was in a haze through all of it. All he could think about was how nice the other man smelled and how nice the hand holding his arm felt.
He finished with a flourish, only to then grin at him and wink. “Call me. Or text me if that’s more your style.”
And then he was gone. For a few moments Remus could do nothing but stand there and feel dizzy, before he realized people could still see him and probably heard and saw all of that, and he hurried out of the library.
When he finally found the courage to look at his arm, he was already on the train home. There was a number, and next to it: Sirius <3 CALL ME!!!
All of this was a bad idea. Even if it wasn’t a joke and Black – Sirius, his brain supplied, and that was a very pretty name befitting a very pretty person – actually did want to go out with him for some reason, he would find out how awkward and boring Remus was soon enough and leave him, and Remus would be crushed and heartbroken and never get over it while Sirius would already be fucking the next guy.
Maybe it was the heart or the three exclamation marks or the pretty, gentle smile he was still thinking about, but he saved the number to his phone (checking thrice to make sure it was correct) and sent a text before he could overthink it any further.
-
A few months later Remus was standing in front of a shelf in the library again, silently cursing out all these irritating numbers and people who liked numbers and society for using numbers everywhere and whoever invented numbers in the first place –
“Here,” someone held a book under his nose, a quick look at the title telling him it’s the one he’d been looking for.
“Ugh, how do you do that?”
Sirius shrugged and smiled, lazily leaning against the bookshelf. “Numbers are easy.”
“They’re really not. Why can’t they sort them by key words or the alphabet or something?”
He shook his head. “There are thousands of books here, numbers are easier. Anything else?” Sirius asked.
Remus took the book and put it on the stack on the floor with the others, checking the titles to see if he had everything he needed. “No, that’s it. Thanks.”
“Perfect,” Sirius replied and then he was turned around and pushed against the bookshelf, lips pressing against his.
He was pretty sure he let out an embarrassing noise he sincerely hoped no one heard since they were in a remote corner this time.
“We’re in the library,” he quietly mumbled against the other man’s lips once the initial shock had left.
“Ugh, I know, right. All these books turn me on.”
His attempt to stifle a laugh at that resulted in a snort which Sirius chuckled at into his neck. And then he kissed his neck, his full body pressed against his own, a hand moving under his jumper, another grabbing his arse, and Remus stopped trying to stifle laughter and stifle moans instead.
And then someone pointedly cleared their throat next to them.
Remus shoved Sirius away and pulled out a random book, reading the cover very interestedly. Heat creeped up his neck as the woman from staff made her way through the shelves to put back books, looking very judgmental. He never thought he would be one of those people being caught making out in the library. He hated those people.
As soon as she was gone, he heard Sirius laughing quietly and he couldn’t help but join in.