"We really need to talk" (closed RP for Remus, Sirius, and Lily)

[conriocht]

((OOC warning - will almost certainly contain swearing and shouting. Caveat emptor.))Remus was busying himself in his office, setting up a second chair in front of his desk, putting out a kettle, cups, a selection of teabags, milk and sugar and spoons. He slammed drawers and jammed books back on their shelves and tossed papers in the rubbish bin

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[toujours_sirius]

Sirius stood outside the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower. If it weren't for the movements of one hand, fingers twitching in a rapid, chaotic rhythm at his side, one might think he had been Petrified by a Basilisk. He stood like that for a good ten minutes, completely still except for the jerking motions of those five fingers.

It was only a few weeks ago that he had followed Moony in through this door, determined to be by Moony's side during the full moon. The two of them had curled up together, as canines and then again as humans, and he had felt content, at least for those several brief hours. Moony had put his arm around him and stroked his hair and accepted him for all that he was.Sirius hadn't realised that that was the last full-moon night they would ever spend together, that their friendship would end only a few short weeks later. He struggled to catch his breath, which was beginning to hitch somewhere between his throat and his chest

[conriocht]

Hearing what sounded like someone letting off a load of fireworks outside his office, Remus rolled his eyes and thought sarcastically, Who could THAT be? Without looking up from his book, he picked up his wand, muttered a word, and the door swung open.

[toujours_sirius]

Without a word, eyes averted so he wouldn't have to look at Remus, Sirius stalked into the office, deliberately making his steps as noisy as possible. As he passed by Remus's desk, he snatched up the chair in front of it in one fluid motion, not slowing his steps in the slightest. He strode to the corner of the room furthest from Remus's desk, set the chair down heavily, and threw himself into it.

[conriocht]

Remus glanced up from his book briefly, then licked his thumb and turned a page. He was wondering if that creature No-Face who had applied at the school a while ago - the one who gave everyone bits of gold - was somehow connected with these Japanese river spirits he was reading about. His thoughts wandered to other interesting water-related topics: the giant squid, newts, axolotls, a story he had read about a person turning into an axolotl.

All the while, he was aware of Sirius sitting there in the corner of the office, obviously seething. He turned another page of his book.

[toujours_sirius]

Had Sirius known Lily was not here yet, there was no way he would have arrived when he did. He silently scolded himself for not coordinating with her beforehand.

Just after he heard the sound of a page being turned, Sirius cast a quick glance over at Remus. If Remus was busy turning a page, he was likely not looking over at Sirius, and Sirius didn't want Remus to know he was looking his way.

The brief glance told him nothing other than that Remus was looking at his book.

Well, Remus wasn't the only one who could make noise. Sirius started tapping his foot, shooting occasional glances at Remus to gauge his reaction.

[conriocht]

Remus heard Sirius tapping his foot and started to feel amused in spite of himself. The whole situation was so ludicrous - two grown men giving each other the silent treatment - that he couldn't help but let out a slight, stifled snort of laughter. He cleared his throat and turned another page of his book, trying to keep focused on the words on the page, biting his lip to keep from laughing again.

[toujours_sirius]

Over the tapping of his foot, which Sirius had been gradually increasing in frequency and volume, he heard a snort...of laughter? Remus thought this whole thing was funny? Oh, that was rich. Not only did he find their friendship meaningless, he found the end of it worthy of laughter. Sirius glanced over to see Remus biting his lip in a clear attempt to keep his composure. What a jackass.

Noisily swishing his robes, Sirius pulled out the bottle of Firewhisky and purposely struggled with the cork. Normally, he would have removed it by magic, but that would have been too easy. Remus was driving Sirius to drink, and Sirius would be damned if he didn't make that crystal clear to Remus. After a grand struggle with the bottle, Sirius finally got the cork to pop off. It went flying onto a bookshelf near Sirius, but unfortunately didn't knock anything down.

Sirius sat back, took a swallow of the Firewhisky, and then let out a (fake) contented "Aaaaaahhhh!" to indicate his pleasure with its taste.

Yeah. Laugh at that, Remus.

[conriocht]

Was Sirius trying to be funny? Remus somehow doubted it, but he was now struggling very hard not to laugh outright. He raised the book a little to hide the look on his face, but he couldn't focus on the words anymore. This was all too incredibly stupid. He hoped he would be able to get ahold of himself before Lily showed up.

[toujours_sirius]

Sirius was starting to see red. He was determined to irritate Remus into being the first one to speak, and so far his plan was not working. All he wanted was one snipe, one insult, one piece of snark lobbed from Remus to him, and he would give Remus a good piece of his mind. But Sirius was not going to be the one to start it, so that Remus could throw that back in his face, too.

Fine. If he couldn't annoy Remus into talking, he would comedy him into laughing out loud. Maybe that would be even better. If Remus found all this funny, well, he had seen nothing yet.

Sirius started to rattle the bottle around in his mouth so that it clinked against his teeth. He'd deep throat the whole fucking thing if he had to.

Take the bait, Remus. Just take it.

[conriocht]

Remus finally gave up reading the book and put it down on the desk. Then he leaned his chin in his hand and watched Sirius making even more of an arse of himself, clearly trying to get Remus to say something. He would probably take the bait eventually, but in the meantime it was funny to watch Sirius trying so hard.

He remembered Sirius goofing off similarly when they were in school - not because he was angry, but just for fun - and felt a painful pang of nostalgia. They couldn't keep fighting like this. There was too much history between them. They would have to patch things up. He had no idea how to go about it, though. He was damned if he would apologize first, and there was clearly no force in hell that would make Sirius admit he'd done anything wrong. It was a dilemma, to be sure.

[toujours_sirius]

Aha! Remus had put the book down, and that was almost like folding his cards and giving in. Just a little more should do it now that he had fully diverted his attention to Sirius's distractions. In fact, since Remus was finally looking his way...

Sirius turned his head and looked Remus straight in the eyes. Not taking his eyes off Remus's, not even for a fraction of a second, he tipped his head back and took a large swallow of Firewhisky. Then, still staring directly into Remus's eyes, Sirius reached his other hand into his robes, pulled out his wand, and started to twirl it around. A quick incantation uttered in his mind and blue sparks began to fly out of the tip, creating a sort of pinwheel sparkler effect--not that Sirius could see, of course, as he was still looking into Remus's eyes, waiting for a reaction.

[conriocht]

Remus usually prided himself on his poker face, but he was apparently having an off day. He smiled - not smugly or in a way intended to be irritating, but fondly. Sirius could always get him to smile, no matter how wretched a mood he was in, no matter how terrible he felt after the full moon. He knew that Sirius wasn't doing this to be friendly or to cheer him up, but he didn't care. He smiled anyway.

Then, composing his features, he calmly poured himself a cup of tea. He would have preferred Firewhisky, but that would've meant asking for some, and he wasn't quite ready for that yet.

[toujours_sirius]

At last! Remus had cracked...sort of. He had smiled, which was close to laughing, and he had looked away first. Well, close enough. The results? Round one goes to Sirius Black!

...except Sirius didn't quite know what to do with the win. What was the point of this whole exercise again?

Oh yeah, he was trying to get Remus to yell at him, or find a really good excuse to start the yelling himself without being blamed for making the first move later on.

Well, since he had triggered something of a rise out of Remus, he supposed he could try to call Remus on it.

"Something funny, Lupin?" Sirius's tone was even and just a little bit too loud. Still staring at Remus, he continued to twirl the wand around, blue sparks spewing out of the tip.

[conriocht]

"Not really," said Remus mildly, sipping his tea. "You're going to burn holes in your clothes if you keep that up, you know."

[toujours_sirius]

"Bet you'd be glad to see that, wouldn't you?" Sirius twirled the wand even faster. "Bet that would just make your day, wouldn't it?" Eyes still fixed on Remus, he took a quick swig from the Firewhisky bottle.

[conriocht]

This was a trick Sirius and James had perfected in school, which Remus had never been able to manage, not being coordinated enough. (He'd never been any good at Quidditch, either.) "Are you having fun?" he asked. Actually, he was starting to wonder what the point of all this was.