Chapter Text
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Remus asked the man standing before him, doing his best to get everything sorted out with black Friday being a mere four hours away. As the co-manager of the Lion Heart mall, he had several responsibilities, and Remus was struggling to organize all of those responsibilities. The other manager, Lily Evans, was busy supervising all of the employees and making sure everything was stocked.
“I’m Santa!” The man exclaimed, waving a large red sack and a fake beard in Remus’ face, “We’re here to set up!”
Remus jumped at the man’s enthusiasm, rather shocked. “Yes, of course,” He murmured, going down his list of names until he found “Santa Claus” and the coinciding name of the provider: “Potter Inc.” “I take it you’re… Sirius Black? Is that right?” Remus asked him, pointing the name out on his list.
The man nodded, smiling as he sat down his large sack containing what Remus assumed was his costume. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out! And you are?” He held out a hand for Remus to shake, however Remus chose to ignore it, seeing as he was rather uncomfortable when it came to strangers.
“I’m Remus Lupin, it’s a pleasure doing business with you,” Remus replied, doing his best not to mumble. Lily always got on him for mumbling.
“I assure you, the pleasure’s all mine,” Sirius responded, a sly smirk on his face as he leaned in closer to Remus. Was he… flirting? Remus almost laughed out loud, trying to shake the ridiculous idea out of his head.
“Haha, uh, you can follow me, I’ll show you where you’ll be setting up,” Remus said, eyes trained on the ground to avoid him any embarrassment.
“Oh, just let me call my partner real quick, James will be helping with the set up,” Sirius said, hopping out of the door for a split second and returning with a second man, this one with messy black hair and obnoxious glasses. The new man, James, seemed to be laughing at Sirius when he entered.
“The pleasure’s all mine? Really Sirius, you are hopeless!” James whispered to his best friend, who was currently leading him into one of the most popular malls in the area. “I thought I taught you better.”
Sirius was laughing along with him, not angry at his pal for making fun of him. “Yeah, I’d like to see you do better, Prongs.”
“Um, are you guys ready to get moving?” Remus interrupted, oblivious to the topic of their conversation. Both men straightened up, looking more aware of themselves and just a little more mature. It was impossible to take them seriously, seeing as they were clad in jeans and t-shirts, and had clearly never heard of combs.
“Lead the way,” James said, smiling kindly. Remus tried to smile back, but it was clearly forced. He really was bad at confrontation, but there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it. Thankfully, Lily was at their destination, ordering employees to move tables and booths out of the way for the Santa set up. If anyone was good at confrontation, it was Lily.
“Lily, these are the people in charge of the pictures with Santa,” Remus cut in meekly, however above all of the commotion, Lily didn’t hear him. “Lily?” Remus asked again, just as quiet. She finally noticed him when he poked her.
“Oh, Remus!” She said, smiling vividly at him, bright green eyes contrasting her flowing red hair. If it weren’t for all of the noise, you could have heard James’ jaw drop.
“Good luck buddy,” Sirius chuckled as he nudged his friend, who seemed to be paralyzed.
“What’s up?” She asked, taking a break for busting out orders and leading them all away from the scene. They settled down at a lonely table that had been shoved far away from the Santa area. Remus explained once more that the people in charge of the whole “Santa Claus” thing were here to set up. “Excellent, just in time!” She said, digging through her bag in search for their contract. “Which one of you is Potter?” She asked, still happy.
“That’d be me,” James said, raising a hand and approaching the table. Lily asked him to sign the contract once more, and he did so, but not before trying to hit on the redhead. “So, uh, did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” He asked, making Sirius cringe. Honestly, what could be worse than that?
“Excuse me?” Lily asked, her smile evaporating instantly. A glare replaced the missing smile.
“Oh, I, um… nothing, haha….” James frantically reached for the pen and paper from Lily, scrawling a signature down as he began to turn beet red. Sirius tried to comfort his friend, but James’ confidence seemed to have been broken.
Once the two of them where outside of the mall, fetching the set-up from their trailer, James began to have one of his weekly mental meltdowns. “What was I thinking Sirius? How could I say something so lame?” James asked, lugging the giant red chair out of the trailer. Sirius shrugged, holding back laughter.
“I didn’t do so well with Mr. Lupin either, but I still have hope,” Sirius told him, helping him carry the chair.
“Okay, but Remus seems nice. A little shy, yes, but did he look like he was about to kill you when you hit on him?” James countered, defeat still encompassing him. “I don’t know if Remus even registered he was being hit on!” James continued, sneering at his overly confident ‘better half.’
“True, I guess I gotta be more obvious. Remus is really cute though, I think I’ve got a good chance--”
“You guys need help?” Remus asked, popping his head out of the door. Sirius promptly dropped his side of the chair in shock, causing James to curse loudly as he dropped the rest of the chair on his toes.
“What the Hell Sirius?” James shouted, jumping away from the fallen chair and rubbing his foot.
“Oh, sorry,” Sirius mumbled, only to be pushed out of the way by Remus, who fell to James’ side and refused to leave until James confirmed he was alright. Sirius made eye contact with James, who was smirking at Sirius’ apparent anger. “Next time, drop it on me!” Sirius mouthed, pointing at the chair. Finally, Remus got up and ended up holding the door for them as they brought the chair in. They continued this method until everything was inside of the mall, and then began to put it together.
“Carpet first, right?” James confirmed with Sirius, kicking the heavy red mat. Sirius nodded, confirming James’ inquiry.
“I can help with more of the set-up,” Remus said, bending over by the carpet and untying one of the ropes holding it together. Sirius was about to thank him, but got caught up in staring at Remus’ fine ass. Sirius hadn’t seen anything quite so beautiful in all his lifetime, and though he felt quite guilty for ogling at this person that he met less than an hour ago, Sirius figured it was hard to blame him for his inability to resist.
James spoke up for Sirius, thanking Remus for his aid and also crouching to untie the other end of the carpet. Finally Sirius regained himself and helped to unroll the carpet. It encompassed a large amount of space, and they had quite a bit of difficulty in getting it to lay flat. “Is there really no one else to help you guys set up?” Remus asked in disbelief, gawking at the work they still had to do after spending a half hour unraveling the carpet.
“Sadly, yes. All of the other ‘elves’ get here tomorrow morning to work on the finishing touches, but we’re expected to get the general set-up built,” Sirius told him as he began to position one of the walls next to Santa’s chair, motioning James over to help him. James helped him to straighten the wall, then went to fetch its partner as Sirius held it up.
“Wait, it’s still wobbling!” Remus noticed, rushing over to help Sirius keep the wall standing. Sirius was by no means a virgin, he had experienced a multitude of things that would most likely disappoint his parents (then again what wouldn’t disappoint them?), and yet despite all of this he felt like he was on fire when Remus’ hand brushed his. Silly, yes, however Sirius felt his face turn red as the incredibly adorable, pure Remus Lupin helped him lift the wall. It only lasted for a few seconds, because once it was steady Remus went to help James pull the other wall over. They connected the walls to form the front of a small, festive house with two columns supporting the roof covered in fake snow.
“Sirius, can you get the chair?” James asked, making sure the support held up the large boards.
“Sure thing Prongs,” Sirius said, dropping the fake snow and rushing over to the large velvet chair they had almost forgotten. Once again, Remus volunteered to help, grabbing one side of the chair and shuffling over towards the center of the set-up.
“Is prongs a nickname?” Remus asked, setting the chair down on a small, centered platform. Sirius found himself inadvertently laughing, reluctant to explain their nicknames.
James, on the other hand, was a bit too excited to spill all of details of their embarrassing friendship. “Yeah! I’m Prongs, and Sirius is Padfoot!”
“Why? I mean, is there a story behind it?” Remus asked, now very interested.
“Oh yeah, a great story!” James said, settling down in Santa’s chair and bidding Remus to come close to him, causing Sirius to glare angrily at James. “So it all started in high school. We had this weird project in psychology where we were supposed to find our ‘spirit animals,’ right? So anyway, Sirius wasn’t taking any of it seriously,” cue Sirius’ muffled chuckling in the background, “and our teacher was getting kind of mad at him. Finally, she had had enough, and decided to assign him an animal. She decided he was a black dog, which is apparently some omen of death or something? But anyway, McGonagall’s exact words were ‘You’re definitely a grim because you bring nothing but despair into my classroom,’ and it was all anyone could talk about for a month! And then for the rest of the school year I don’t think anyone called Sirius by his real name. My spirit animal was a stag, and so Sirius decided to call me prongs to make up for his new nickname, padfoot. You’ve got to understand, McGonagall is a very calm, reserved teacher, but when she decides to dish out shade, it’s monumental.” James was out of breath when he finished, clearly very involved in this tale, finding it quite hysterical.
Remus looked amused, smiling at Sirius as he chuckled at the tale. “Were you really so bad of a student that your teacher referred to you as the omen of death?” Remus asked, eyes trained on Sirius and making him turn red again. Sirius cursed his face for portraying his every thought, but also relished in the fact that Remus was immensely oblivious to it all.
“I wasn’t the best student, but neither was James. He left out that McGonagall assigned him a Stag because he was unruly and rather hopeless, and somehow that connected?” Sirius said, raising an eyebrow at James. Remus giggled, all rosy cheeks and freckles and overwhelming adorableness. Sirius though he was going to fall over, but luckily James noticed and helped to steady him.
“Are you guys about done? I’d like to start locking up, it’s a quarter till twelve,” Lily said, the clicking of her heels echoing throughout the now silent mall. James whipped around, eyes wide as he struggled to fix his hair.
“Relax, it’s not getting any better,” Sirius whispered to James, standing up and pulling his gaze away from Remus. “Yeah, we’re done for tonight. The rest of the crew will top it off tomorrow morning,” Sirius answered, audible to the rest of them this time. “Thanks for having us.”
Lily smiled sweetly at Sirius and Remus, making sure to ignore James. “Thanks for your hard work, I’ll see you tomorrow at four thirty AM sharp,” she reminded them. Remus still had the trace of a smile on his face, and Lily’s heart warmed at that. Now more than ever, it seemed rare to catch him smiling. She was grateful he was enjoying himself, and that these men seemed to be nice to her friend. With that, she turned to James, thanking him as well and deciding to forgive him for his cheesy pickup line. “Remus, would you help me finalize these numbers before you leave?” She asked, gesturing towards her clipboard.
“Yeah, sure thing Lily,” Remus said, jumping up from his spot and waving bye to Sirius and James. He didn’t notice the wistful smile Sirius gave him, and Sirius rolled his eyes in disappointment once Remus was gone.
As soon as Lily had Remus in his office, she began to interrogate him. “So?” She asked excitedly, “Do you like him?”
“Huh?” Remus asked in surprise, glancing down at the numbers he had been working on calculating. “I’m sorry, who?”
“Oh my goodness, how could you not notice?” Lily sighed, slouching down in her spinning chair and exhaling loudly in disappointment. “That dude, Sirius? He was infatuated with you, and he’s not bad looking either! Did he seem nice? Do you like him???”
Remus felt his face heat up, looking away from Lily quickly as he began to stutter out nonsense in his defense. “Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Besides, that James guy seemed really into you, and you didn’t knock him out! What’s up with that?”
Lily rolled her eyes, chuckling. “Oh my goodness, you like him, I can’t believe it!”
“What? I never said that!” Remus cried out, dropping his pencil and trying to explain himself. Alas, it was too late to sway Lily’s mind, she had already decided she was going to help her best friend get a boyfriend.