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James came into the diner with a smile that told Peter the call had been a success.
“Where were you?” Remus asked as James slid into the booth beside him.
“Calling mum.”
“Wait, I want to talk to Effie,” Sirius said with a pout.
“It was a quick phone call. Just told her the show went well. I’ll call her tomorrow and we can all talk with her.” This seemed to appease Sirius well enough.
“I still can’t believe how well you played on Remus’ guitar,” Peter told him. “It was a sight to see.”
“It was a bit of a mental idea. I’m shocked it worked,” Sirius admitted.
They laughed and ordered food, all starving at this point in the night.
“You need to watch the video properly,” James told them, turning his phone around. Sirius leaned over the table slightly for a better view of the phone and watched a bit awestruck, not at himself but at Remus who was all laughter and smiles, accepting the ridiculous situation. Sirius couldn’t help but love that he made Remus feel like that. That he could make him smile like that. He wanted to make him smile like that constantly. His eyes would occasionally flicker back to himself in the video, impressed with his own playing and confidence that he’d been able to keep, but it was clear to him the star of the video was Remus.
“Can I see that picture?” Sirius asked.
Remus was lost in the video himself, lost in the reminder of how closely Sirius had been wrapped around him, watching the black painted nails work blind magic on the fretboard, and trying not to smile when the video would catch Sirius’ focused face over his shoulder. He wanted Sirius that close to him constantly.
“Rem?”
“Hmmm?” Remus was finally pulled back to reality.
“The picture. That you took on stage. Can I see it?”
Remus hummed, pulling out his phone to look at the picture himself. The two of them both pink faced, sweat dripping down their faces. Sirius smiling from his spot tucked behind Remus’ shoulder, only now seen because of the higher angle of the picture. Sirius took his phone from him and set the picture to Remus’ lock screen before sending it to himself.
“Now you can look at our pretty faces instead of whatever you had it set to before,” he said, returning the phone.
Remus laughed. “It was set to a picture of me and mum.”
“How rock n roll, Moony. It’s okay. Hope will understand.”
He looked down at his phone, trying not to let his face flush at the now constant reminder.
“You guys ready?” Remus asked, keys between his fingers. The food was long gone, the bill paid, and he was beyond ready for a shower. They piled into the truck once again for the night and drove to the hotel, thankful for the short drive tonight. They had plenty more to do in the morning.
James hopped out of the truck. “Someone grab my bags. I’ll go check in,” he said, shooting a wink at Peter.
They met him in the lobby and he took his bags from them in the elevator. “Rooms 206 and 217,” he told them. “Last two rooms of the night.” James mentioned, even though that was a complete lie. He wasn’t about to have them foil his plan. He handed one room key to Peter and the other set to Remus and Sirius.
Peter and James found their room. Two queen beds, just as they’d booked. They set down their things before they began in whispers.
“They definitely have one bed?”
James nodded. “Should be one king sized bed.”
“God, is it weird if I want to go and make sure?”
There was a quick rap of knocks on the door. “Don’t think we have to.”
James opened the door with a smile to find an awkward, anxious Remus who was trying very hard to appear normal. “Everything okay, Rem?”
“You two have two beds,” he said, looking past James into the room. “We booked two beds, yeah?”
James and Peter both nodded.
“We’ve got one. I’m going to go ask the front desk and -”
“You can’t,” James cut him off. “Last two rooms.”
Remus exhaled, looking between James and Peter. “Would one of you want…?”
“I can’t share a bed. You know how my back is,” Peter said with a shrug. “And James is like a demon spawn in his sleep. Someone will wake up with bruised shins. Sorry, Lupin.”
He turned to hide his blushing. “Yeah, no, that’s fine. It’s fine. It’s just one night,” he choked out before returning down the hall.
James and Peter couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “This is it, Prongs. We're going to hell.”
Remus took a deep breath before reentering the hotel room. The one large king sized bed sat tauntingly in the middle of the room. Sirius was sitting by the window, bag half opened, and he looked up for an answer.
“Not sure what happened. They have two beds. But there’s no other rooms to change to.”
“Well, guess you’re stuck cuddling up with me tonight, Moons,” Sirius joked.
Remus’ mouth felt dry as he nodded.
Sirius gathered up toiletries from his bag and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
Remus sat on the edge of the bed, trying not to think about his friend showering behind the door. He buried his head in his hands uselessly. It was just one night. He could do one night.
His phone buzzed. A text from Lily which made the picture of him and Sirius flash on his screen. He opened his phone, more to get away from the picture than actually read the text.
You two look cute ;)
He rolled his eyes. Lily, his best friend, the only one who he ever talked to about Sirius and the one he swore loved to use that against him. Not that she had much room to talk, she was dating James which one could argue was so much worse. He sent back a middle finger. His phone buzzed to life with a phone call and for the first time he noticed a small balcony. He stepped outside and answered.
“Hey, Lils.”
“Hey, Rem. That was quite a show, huh? I’ve seen a few videos pop up from it. You and Sirius looked… cozy.” He could hear the smile in her voice.
“Yeah, well we’re about to get even cozier. There was some kind of mix up at the hotel so guess who has to share a bed tonight.”
She snorted.
“It’s not funny, Evans,” he said in a harsh whisper. “He’s in there showering and joking about us snuggling up. I’m going to die. You’ll have to be the one to tell my mum I loved her.”
“God, that’s not dramatic at all. Happy to hear that spending so much time with him hasn’t rubbed off on you." There was a short pause. "James wouldn’t swap with you? I wouldn’t trade with Peter, James is a nightmare to sleep in the same bed as.”
“I tried! They have their own beds. It’s just me and Sirius.”
Lily hummed with suspicion. She put him on speaker as she sent a text to her boyfriend.
Remus caught a glimpse of Sirius leaving the bathroom, towel around his waist which made Remus feel like his heart was going to combust. “Dear god,” he whispered. “He’s out of the shower.” Eyes traced this tattooed chest, wet hair sent water drops running down his chest and torso caught only by the towel wrapped tightly around his waist as he gathered up clothes from his bag.
“Lily, I’m genuinely going to die tonight.”
“You’ll be fine, Rem. Just let whatev-”
Sirius turned to find Remus looking at him and Remus quickly turned away with a jump. “I’ve been caught staring! I’ve got to go!” He panickedly whispered, cutting off Lily and hanging up before she could say anything else.
Remus looked unblinkingly out at the parking lot, trying to will his breathing to steady out.
There was a gentle knock on the door before it slid open and Sirius leaned out, drying his hair. “Shower’s free.”
“Thanks,” Remus said, pointedly not looking him in the eyes. He was shirtless with pajama bottoms that sported their university logo and were too long, no doubt stolen from James or himself back when they shared a dorm.
Remus gathered up clothes and toiletries from his own bag and sighed once he closed the bathroom door. He set his phone on the back of the toilet, ignoring the texts from Lily that made the photo of him and Sirius flash on his screen. He tried to let the hot water wash the thoughts of Sirius from his brain.
Sirius sat on the bed, careful to not let his wet hair drip anywhere but the towel around his shoulders. He opened texts from Marlene, links to a couple different videos all of him and Remus from earlier tonight and screenshots of comments. He pulled his knees to his chest and rested his chin on them as he scrolled through comment after comment about how adorable they were, asking if they were dating, calling the moment incredibly attractive, or joking about them getting together after that. He kept rewatching the video over and over, thankful once again that Remus obscured his face and most of the time he’d been lost in concentration. With every rewatch he grew a bit more bold, every comment a bit more confident. Some twisted fate had left him sharing a bed with Remus tonight and he wasn’t going to waste it. If he needed, he could go at force Peter to trade with him if everything went wrong but between the comments and the stolen looks he’d catch, he was hopeful. Maybe he should worry about their friendship, maybe he should think about how it would affect the band, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. He had a one track mind and tonight he was going to kiss Remus Lupin.
Remus was fully dressed before leaving the bathroom, pajama pants and a large Bowie shirt, and his hair as dried as he could get it with the towel quickly run over it. He moved his bag onto the floor, plugged his phone in, still ignoring all the texts from Lily, and he sat on the very edge of the bed. Sirius was closer to the middle, already crossing the imaginary line that Remus had hoped would keep them separate. Remus tried to make up for it, the very edge of his body dangling over the side to put as much distance between them as he could.
“You’re going to fall out the bed like that. C’mere, Moons, I don’t bite.”
Remus forced out a laugh. “That’s not true.”
Sirius laughed, wrapping his arms around Remus and pulling him onto the bed. Remus tried and failed not to blush as Sirius’ arms wrapped around his middle for the second time today. He was now properly on the bed, no longer at risk of falling off if he so much as sneezed. But this also meant the gap between them had diminished greatly. The king bed should be able to accommodate them both with plenty of room to spare but it seemed like Sirius was keen to ignore that. Remus’ heart was beating quickly as he did his best to avoid looking at Sirius, to avoid thinking about Sirius and the warmth that was left behind where he had been wrapped around him, to avoid the feelings that came with that.
“I was looking through videos of tonight,” Sirius said with a smile.
Remus laughed awkwardly, unsure what to say.
Sirius pushed himself a bit closer. Remus swore he could feel the warmth radiating from Sirius’ skin but Sirius still felt miles apart. Remus was looking at the carpet, seemingly studying the pattern with how interestedly he was looking at it when in reality he was just trying to keep himself from looking at Sirius. He felt the bed shift as Sirius closed more of the gap between them.
“A lot of people think we looked cute together,” Sirius continued on.
Remus felt like his face was on fire. Maybe he should give up and just sleep on the floor in the other room. “That’d be crazy,” he forced out.
“Would it?” Sirius asked, confidence dripping from his voice but Remus thought he could hear nerves laced into the question.
Remus swallowed. The bed creaked as Sirius’ weight shifted, leaning forward to try to catch Remus’ eyes.
“Would it be crazy?” He asked again. A hand came to rest on Remus’ knee and finally he turned, not meeting Sirius’ face but looking at the hand on his knee.
“I don’t know,” Remus whispered, his brain was buzzing and he couldn’t think, not with Sirius this close to him.
“I don’t think it would be crazy,” Sirius said, using his free hand to guide Remus’ face up to finally look at him. And he did, with ridiculously wide eyes he looked at Sirius, looked at his smirk and his raised eyebrows and his own wide and curious grey eyes.
Remus couldn’t take this. His heart was beating so quickly he felt like he might be ill if he didn’t do something now. The thought of running out the room crossed his mind but to his own surprise, he leaned in and closed the little remaining gap between the two of them. His lips connected with Sirius’ just like he’d thought about doing for literal years. He could feel Sirius’ mouth stretch into a smile before he began to kiss him back. After a while Remus pulled back with a shaky breath.
“Was that okay?” Sirius asked.
“You’re amazing.”
Sirius laughed. “Thank you. I meant more like are we okay? Can I keep kissing you?”
“Please,” Remus replied a bit breathlessly.
Sirius tilted his head and his fingers ran along Remus’ jaw as he kissed him back, more ready this time, deepening the kiss with his own years of ignored feelings and new found confidence in those feelings.
Remus’ hands found their way around Sirius’ body, one hand moving through his wet hair, pulling him gently into him.
They stayed like that for a long time. They had years of university-aged making out to make up on. Kissing and laughing, Remus saying how he never thought that this would happen, and Sirius saying how he always knew it would. At one point his screen flashed and they caught a glimpse of the time. It was nearing three in the morning and they had another show tonight with driving and set up. Reluctantly they agreed to settle in for the night. Lying down beside each other, Remus now thankful for the shared bed.
Sirius pulled Remus in closer, arms slipped under the shirt and wrapped around his middle in a way that seemed to quickly be becoming his natural state. Remus grabbed his phone from the side table to take a quick picture, Sirius peeking out from over his shoulder and arms around Remus’ waist just like on stage. He put his phone back before turning to face Sirius, letting him bury his face into his chest and kissing him on the forehead before falling asleep.