Chapter Text
Let’s dance
Put on your red shoes and dance the blues,
Let’s dance
To the song they're playing on the radio,
Let’s sway
While colour lights up your face,
Let’s sway
Sway through the crowd to an empty space-
“Moony!”, A familiar voice cuts through Remus’ monthly pre-competition meltdown, this time accompanied by David Bowie and lots and lots of tears. He turns around in his chair to see the only face that could calm him down in a state like this, Sirius Black — the man you are.
Remus tries his hardest to muster up a welcoming smile to greet his best-friend with, but it only seems to result in a noise similar to a blubber break out of his mouth. The boy’s smile seems to drop upon-seeing his friends tear-stained, damp face; as he frowns softly and begins to walk over. “Oh, Rem.” He hears as the ivory skinned boy approaches him as always, with sympathy and consideration reflected in his eyes.
Remus feels Sirius’ hands move onto the back of his wooden chair, before snaking around his shoulders to bring him into backwards, slightly wonky, hug. The boy’s breath ghosts across his ear as he whispers consolations into his scarred ear,
“Nothing will go wrong, I promise you Moony… You’re the best surfer I know! I would shave my whole head if you ever lost, and you know how much my hair means to me!”. He’s also reminded of Sirius’ precious hair as a few wet ebony curls drop and seep into the rash guard he’s currently wearing, sending a small shiver up his spine.
Weird.
After a few minutes, and Remus’ tears have stopped, he finally wills himself to speak; albeit the croak still present in his voice.
“You’ out in the water?” He asks, referring to the other boy’s curly locks currently dripping through the wooden floorboards of his beach house. Sirius lets out a dramatic groan at this and slumps into a crouch next to Remus’ chair,
“Mummy dearest forced me to help Reg prepare for tomorrow, I think I have chlorine up my ass. My ass Moony!” He drawls out in his classic way of dragging the vowels in words that make him sound like an Oxford English professor. Sirius’ eyes flick up and meet Remus’; Remus has always thought that Sirius has had the prettiest, ever since they first met in year 7. He has the perfect shade of grey that sparkle blue in the sun, and which always seem to have life behind them.
“Regulus is competing too? And you think I’ll win Pads?” Remus begins to stress again; Regulus, the ‘15-year old prodigy surfer, trained since birth by his and Sirius’ Olympic parents to win every competition he’s ever entered into.’, Remus has seen Regulus race, and each time he’s seen the same dreadful look befall his rivals right as they witness it too. It’s beautiful and horrifying. Sirius must have noticed Remus’ quickening breaths as he begins to rapidly backtrack on his previous words,
“Oh, no Moons! Fuck- You’ll be fine, more than fine! Reg’ isn’t even performing well at the moment, I’m telling you you’ll thrash him!” Sirius meets his gaze once more and continues,
“He doesn’t have as much passion for surfing as you, and it shows when he’s competing! Sure he may look good next to amateurs, but next to you he’ll look like just what he is: an egotistical, overachieving kid.” He finishes in one final breath, heaving but not looking away from Remus’ eyes. Remus sighs gently,
“Don’t say that about your brother, You don’t mean it.” Remus reasoned, trying to dispel the small, faint smile growing on his lips. Sirius just sighs, standing up and sauntering over over to the door where he left his backpack when he entered; hard to even call it a backpack, Remus thought, the original zip had fallen off long ago leaving only stray strings to open the rucksack. It’s the same bag he owned from when they met long ago, except it used to be a pretty pear coloured thing: now it just looked like something that had gone through a hedge backwards 20 times before being thrown up all over, which it most likely had.
Sirius pulled out a dvd and spun towards him with it in his grip,
“Let’s cheer you up! I brought this for us to watch before I found you- uhm, ‘letting it all out’?”,
“You make it sound like I was tugging one out Pads.” Remus groans, to which Sirius hums
“Comme ci, comme ça,” He kneels infront of the dvd player and begins to fiddle around before Remus interrupts his messing,
“Sirius I-, I’m just tired alright? I don’t really wanna watch anything right now.” He gets out with an exhausted sigh to exaggerate his ‘tiredness’. Sirius’ face falls slightly, but quick enough for Remus to not notice any discomfort from the other boy, he recorrects himself quickly with a classic grin,
“Of course it’s okay moons, Uhm, I’ll just go then? Remember only good thoughts in that head alright!” Remus nods in response as Sirius stuffs the DVD back into his ‘bag’ and strolls out of the door, but not before flashing one of his ‘Sirius’ smiles, making Remus roll his eyes with a slight smirk. “They make the girls go crazy Remus! Trust me!”, he smiles softly at the memory before plopping and laying down on his couch, which has way too many pillows for his taste; but Sirius likes them, so they stay, the things I do for him he thinks fondly.
His eyes drop shut and his mind drifts away with thoughts of fluffy inky curls and a certain honey-like voice before he falls away into sleep.
Monday 9:28 AM
Remus fidgets with the hem of his rash guard as he toes the sand in front of him nervously, the speakers all around boom voices of a commentator speaking quickly and obnoxiously right in his ear; which is not helping his uneasiness in the slightest.
His gaze flicks around as he searches for his competitors — and Sirius. Regulus stands near his mother, both looking cold and like statues you should find in the British museum; they both have that stare that makes even the burliest men want to pee themselves — just a little bit. Remus is snapped out of his daze by a teasing voice by his ear,
“You’ starting to like my brother more than me, Moons?”, he turns to see a grinning (shirtless) Sirius which seems to unusually make his guts feel a bit tangled up. Huh. Remus fixes his gaze back to Sirius’ from his chest and exhales before turning back out to sea, sizing up today’s waves.
“I’m first up, I never win when I’m first.” he groans, followed by a flinch when the large buzzer sounds across the beach, seemingly snapping everyone else out of their own worries; Except for Regulus, of course.
Remus sends one fleeting look towards Sirius before moving towards the judges and padding out towards the sea, he tightens his grip around his board and waits for his buzzer signalling him to go before racing out and catching the growing waves strategically.
He weaves through the waves and spots an upcoming one, loud and fierce; so loud in fact, that he realises he now can’t hear the voices or indeed shouts, from the people on the beach. He fights the chopping waves seeking the one wave he needs to win.
Regulus
On the beach the lifeguard sounds his whistle and waves up a red card: high hazard, stay out of the water. Regulus spots his brothers head frantically look into the waves, just trying to catch a glimpse of his friend.
His heart starts to quicken as he watches Sirius grab a lifeguard’s lingering jet ski and begin running into the ocean by its side, before jumping on and flying out into the waves. Before he can even fathom what he himself is doing, he can feel the sand sinking all around his feet as he runs with his board to even attempt to catch up with his brother.
“Sirius! Where-“ he’s cut off as he splashes into the water and gets up onto his own surfboard, finding a rift in the tide that just manages take him that little bit further, he finds himself yelling loudly and incoherently above the raging storm oncoming.
As Regulus begins to hear a rumbling surge approach behind him, he spots a mass of dark curls disappear into the water — clutching a boy in his arms.
Then his whole world goes dark.