Work Text:
Remus flipped through the pages of his potions textbook absent mindedly but none of the contents stayed in his mind for more than five seconds. Why the hell was it so hard to focus? He couldn’t even blame the moon because that wouldn't be for at least two weeks. All the Marauders were surprisingly in the dorm, Sirius and James were playing chess and James’ bed. He could faintly hear James muttering curses under his breath after yet another lost match. Then he fell back on the bed, making it squeak in a way that stung Remus’ ears.
He attempted to read a few more pages before ultimately giving up and closing the book with a bit more force than necessary. James was whining about being bored. It was a saturday night and they were all just sitting in the dormitory after all.
“Can we play truth or dare again?” James asked. Remus had recommended the game when they were celebrating Gryffindor’s quidditch victory and they were all drunk. Now he started to regret it.
Unfortunately Peter and Sirius agreed and the three gathered on the floor. One thing that Remus was sure about was that he wouldn’t join no matter what. That lasted about five seconds until Sirius looked at him disappointed and opened his mouth.
“C’mon Moony!” He whined “It’s gonna be boring if you don’t come”
He was going to say no but after he saw Sirius opening his mouth again he just caved in. Maybe he could play along for one round until the others would realise how boring the game is when you aren’t blackout drunk.
“Okay, I’ll start,” James said. “Pete, truth or dare?”
Peter picked dare and James pondered for a few moments.
“Write an anonymous love letter to the prettiest girl in our year” James challenged. He was already rummaging through his trunk for parchment and a quill.
“Absolutely not! That’s way overboard.” Peter objected and pushed the parchment back to James.
"At least I won’t make you write your name on it” James shrugged. Peter sight and wrote a short letter to Mary. Lily was probably objectively the most attractive girl in their year but James would have lost his shit so choosing Mary was probably best for all of their sanity. Or maybe Peter liked Mary.
Then it was Peter’s turn to ask and he chose Sirius. He answered dare before Peter even finished talking. He was dared to rip his latest essay into shreds.
“What the fuck? I spent hours on that,” Sirius protested.
“Game is game, don’t blame me” Peter said and grinned. Sirius dug out his two feet long Herbiology essay slowly into pieces. He looked so extremely sour he could have very well eaten a dozen lemons.
After discarding the parchment bits Sirius turned to him.
“Truth or dare?” He asked. Couldn’t he have picked James? He tried to look annoyed for a moment and then picked truth.
Sirius’ smile spread from ear to ear which should have been the first warning sign.
“Have you ever fancied a boy?” Sirius asked, suddenly sounding much more serious. Haha, get it serious Sirius? This is not funny!
He just sat there stunned. Was his minor third year crush on the Gryffindor headboy that obvious? Why was Sirius only bringing it up now, three years later? Was his even more minor crush on Sirius right now that obvious? He opened his mouth and closed it again.
"No” He stammered out and stared at the floor. Then he looked up at Sirius. He looked almost disappointed?
“Alright, ask James next”
He asked James some basic question about girls which James answered with no hesitation. The whole atmosphere was off. After a few painfully awkward rounds with cliche questions and dares they decided to call it quits. James and Sirius played a few more games of chess and whispered about something. He just shut the curtains and tried to fall asleep. That turned out to be almost impossible.
Why did Sirius ask him that? If he only wanted to make fun of him then why did he look so disappointed when he said no? Probably because he couldn’t make fun of him because he said no. He played around with the possibility that Sirius might like him too, that had to be it! No, no it wasn’t. He was just desperate and making things up.
He laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. Minutes turned into hours and the whispers and movements of chess pieces next to him had quieted a long ago. Then he heard someone make his way across the floor towards his bed.
“Moons? Are you awake? Can I come in?
Sirius.
He nodded and realised that Sirius can’t see him through the curtain. He mumbled something incoherent and opened the curtain to let Sirius crawl in. His dark hair was frizzy and he pushed a strand behind his ear.
Why was he here?
“I’m sorry about asking you that,” He whispered. Why was he apologizing?
“It’s fine,” Remus reassured. He tried to keep his eyes locked with Sirius’ but that was near impossible.
They sat in silence for a moment. He wanted to just tell Sirius to go back to sleep but his gaze was drilling into his soul. He deserved to know.
“Uhm..” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know how to say this but I lied. In the game. I have actually fancied a boy before”
“Really?” Sirius gasped. He hummed in agreement. “Who?” He was waiting for that question but was in no way prepared to answer it. He stared at the curtain behind Sirius so intently he swore he could soon see through it.
“It’s… He’s…” He stammered. He couldn’t do this. Sirius gave him an encouraging nod. “It’s you”
Silence. He felt like he was about to pass out. His vision was blurring and his heart was beating so fast he felt like it would stop.
“What?” Sirius whispered. Did he really need to repeat himself? Maybe Sirius did want to just humiliate him after all.
“It’s you” He repeated, a bit more confident this time. “I’m sorry, it’s dumb and it will probably go away soon so you can just forget about it”
Sirius looked at him with wide eyes. “I- What?” He looked to be summing things up in his head. “You like me? What the hell?!” Sirius was full on whisper shouting and grinning wildly.
Remus closed his eyes and nodded. Was Sirius happy?
“No. Fucking. Way. You have to be joking Moony!” He continued and laughed. A silencing charm would have really been necessary.
“I’m sorry, like I said it’ll pass” He sight and was already preparing for the fall down of this and what tomorrow would be like. What the rest of his time at Hogwarts would be like.
He dared to look at Sirius who looked utterly confused.
“What? No, I like you too, you dumbass! I was just just asking if you are joking” Sirius said, raising an eyebrow.
He felt like he was floating. “Why would I joke about something like that?” He asked.
“You could be joking about anything, you never joke” Sirius just shrugged like they were talking about something as ordinary as quidditch. “But to the point: Do you accept my confession?”
Did he?! “Yes? Of course yes!” He laughed. Everything felt so light all of a sudden. He had to be dreaming. Things like this don’t happen to people like him. People like Sirius goddamn Black don’t fancy people like Remus Lupin.
“Are we dating now, is this how it goes?” He asked Sirius half-joking.
“Nope. We have to wait another two weeks,”
“Really?”
Sirius swatted him on the shoulder. “No” He giggled a bit. “We can be boyfriends now my brother” He paused. “Or no, definitely not brother since we are dating now and it would be weird but you get the point”
“Can you stay the night here?” He requested. Sirius smiled.
“Fine, but let’s not make it a habit. Pete and Prongs will start to get suspicious”
“We do have to tell them at some point, when we feel up to it” Remus reminded. “Or we can just see how long it takes them to put the pieces together” He was actually kinda worried about how the other would react, hopefully not too badly.
Sirius laid down and signaled Remus to come too. They wrapped their arms around each other, it was awkward, he had to admit but felt too nice to give up.
“I might have to make this a habit, Prongs can sleep alone” Sirius whispered.
“You’ve been sleeping with James?” He laughed into the blanket.
“Yeah, sometimes he or I can’t sleep,” Sirius tightened his grip a bit. “He might have to join us though because I am not sleeping without you”
He giggled a bit. “Alrigth then”
Sirius kissed him on the cheek. “Imagine I can do that now!” He smiled and started slipping into sleep.