WORK IN PROGRESS: If You Could Read My Mind pt. 2 [R/S - R]
Title: If You Could Read My Mind... partie deux
Summary: part two of If You Could Read My Mind . . . I recommend reading that first. In this part: Sirius cooks, Remus changes & the boys dance but not with each other.
Rating: R-ish
Authors Notes: Thank you very much to lupinslittlesis for the beta :)
“How did you get so good at cooking?” Remus asked Sirius one night as they were settling down to dinner.
Sirius shrugged and answered him in between mouthfuls of steamed vegetables. “House elves, I guess. Sure, they were psychotic but not as psychotic as Mum. Better staying in the kitchen where she and Dad never went than getting in their way.”
Remus nodded, not really knowing what else to say.
“She was sweet, our one house elf, Jingle,” Sirius said with a wistful smile. “Of course, she died last year and had the honour of having her head mounted on the wall.”
Remus swallowed visibly. “Is that…er… normal?”
“Just another Black tradition!” Sirius declared with a forced grin. He gathered up the dishes with more noise than was strictly necessary and Remus flinched every time the china clanged together.
“Let’s go out tonight,” Remus said over the clatter of Sirius throwing dishes in the sink.
“Out?” Sirius turned his head towards Remus in interest.
“Yeah, out. I’m tired of staying in all the time.” Remus failed to mention the real motivation consisted of how stir crazy Sirius got when he was kept indoors too long. He figured it wasn’t strictly necessary.
“Let’s go to a club!” Sirius exclaimed, his eyes alight. He had abandoned the dishes in the sink, like always, (They need soaking Moony!) and was now perched on the kitchen counter smiling, all previous thoughts of decapitated house elves seemingly forgotten.
“A club?” Remus said reluctantly.
“Yeah, a club. You’ll like it, I promise,” Sirius said with a smile and Remus couldn’t quite bring himself to say no. He had been working so much this past week that they had barely seen each other, let alone spent quality time together. Although nearly all thoughts at work not spent on dark wizards were spent on a certain dark haired wizard, it wasn’t quite the same as spending time with him.
“I don’t have anything to wear,” Remus pointed out. Sirius looked him up and down and gave a light sigh of disappointment.
“Nonsense, Moony. You can borrow some clothes.”
“Er…,” Remus tried to think of an argument but Sirius was always one step ahead of him. This time, literally, and Remus hurried to keep up with him as he bounded off to his bedroom.
“Perfect!” Sirius said with satisfaction a few moments later.
“You want me to wear…that?” Remus asked, disbelief written all over his face.
That was a brightly patterned shirt and dark blue bellbottoms.
“It’s not on,” Remus said, shaking his head.
“Okay, fine,” Sirius sighed. “How about this then?”
He pulled out a striped rugby shirt in Gryffindor colours. Remus considered it and finally nodded. It was better than one of his own sweaters, he admitted. He grabbed the clothing and went out to the living room to change.
A few moments later Sirius came out and Remus just stared. The thing about Sirius, Remus realized, was that he had mastered the art of understated sexiness. He now realized why all the girls in Hogwarts were after him. It was because he could make anything (including the Gryffindor uniform) sexy. Right now he was in a white Hogwarts dress shirt, with the sleeves rolled up. Instead of the red and gold Gryffindor tie though, he had opted for a skinny black one to match his tight black trousers. Remus kept staring until Sirius gave him a look of confusion.
“Do I have something on my shirt?” Sirius asked and looked down self -consciously. Remus shook his head and went to the door, not pausing to see if Sirius was behind him.
The club was, if nothing else, loud. Remus cringed as soon as they entered but soon adjusted as they made their way up to the bar. Sirius ordered for the both of them while Remus waited out of the throngs of people. He came back with four shots.
“I didn’t want to go up there again,” Sirius explained, shouting over the music. Remus nodded and took the shots back to back. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night.
The club, he found, wasn’t as awful as he had anticipated. The music was bearable and it was dark enough so that he could still see Sirius, but his flushed cheeks could either be ignored or attributed to the alcohol. The heat, Remus admitted to himself, didn’t quite account for all the discomfort he was experiencing. It didn’t even account for half.
The fact that Sirius was so at ease here made Remus feel less self conscious and soon they were on the dance floor, dancing with a couple of girls from Glasgow. It had taken four shouts to figure out where they were from, and after the second Remus realized that he really wasn’t interested anyway.
As Sirius danced, he loosened his tie and undid the top button of his shirt. Remus couldn’t take his eyes off him. One of the girls, the blonde one as Remus knew her, wrapped Sirius’ tie around her hand and pulled him closer against her. The brunette (she was either Carol or Meryl) beside Remus smiled at him and rolled her eyes at her friend. Remus chuckled and glanced over at Sirius. His eyes were closed, his lashes laying dark against his flushed skin. Remus couldn’t be sure if it was the alcohol or the light of the disco ball, but something shimmered and reflected off his skin, making him seem like he was glowing. His eyes suddenly opened and met Remus’. Remus looked away quickly and interlocked his fingers with the Carol/Meryl/Beryl. He pulled her towards him without thinking and she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck.
Sirius shouted something to him and motioned towards the tables. Remus nodded and went to follow but Sirius held up his hand, gesturing for him to stay with the brunette. Remus nodded again, finding no use in shouting. Beryl (he had heard the blonde call her), kept her arms wrapped around him and he rested his hands tentatively on her hips. He could feel her breathing hot against his collarbone as they moved against one another. As he closed his eyes, it was all too easy to imagine the hot breath was someone else’s. With only slightly more effort, breasts could be forgotten and brown hair turned black as it touched his neck.
He felt himself growing hard against her as she ground her body against him. He opened his eyes and they immediately fell on Sirius sitting at a table across the room. Sirius was staring at him, watching him, and this sent a thrill through his body. He was achingly hard against her as he ran his hands up and down her back, all the while keeping his eyes on Sirius. He wondered briefly why Sirius kept staring at him and if he was trying to tell him something. Beryl kissed down his neck and undid the top button of his shirt. He kissed the top of her head absently and Sirius stood up from the table suddenly, the chair falling over behind him. Remus’ hands stopped moving as he watched Sirius walk away into another room.
Beryl was saying something in his ear, but he wasn’t listening. She was just extra noise. He muttered that he’d be right back as he untangled her arms from around his neck. She looked rather affronted, but let him leave her standing in the middle of the dance floor amongst the other illuminated dancers.
Remus scanned the room quickly but didn’t see Sirius. He checked near the bar before looping back to the table where he had last seen him. Sirius was standing near the table again, his hand resting easily on the chair that had been righted.
“Where you been?” Sirius asked with a false smile that Remus saw right through immediately.
“Looking for you.”
“I just went to the loo,” Sirius said. “You and Beryl seemed to be getting along.”
“Yeah, uh, we were,” Remus replied awkwardly, still aware of his hard on, which was probably quite visible in these tight pants. If Sirius noticed, he didn’t say anything, and Remus didn’t mention it.
“Did you want to bring her back?” Sirius asked while running a hand through his sweaty hair. The black tie hung limply around his neck and the top two buttons had been undone, although by him or the blonde, Remus didn’t know.
“Oh no, I’m rather tired, actually,” Remus said with an apologetic smile.
“Me too, let’s go,” Sirius said quickly and lead led the way out of the loud, crowded club.
The outside air felt cool on their sweat covered skin. The moon was almost full and Remus felt dread sink low in his stomach like it always did when he thought of his transformation. He was brought out of his thoughts, however, by Sirius laughing.
“What?”
“You’ve got,” Sirius pointed towards Remus, “lipstick on your neck there.”
Remus cursed as he felt himself go red. He wiped his neck with his sleeve. “Okay?”
“No, it’s…,” Sirius trailed off as he came closer. He unrolled his right sleeve and used it to wipe the dark red lipstick off Remus’ neck. Remus was surprised at how gentle he was, and how fast his breathing was coming. He must be hot from the club, still, he told himself. He stood absolutely still as Sirius rubbed at his neck, trying to get the evidence off.
“There,” Sirius said as he stepped back.
“You’ve got lipstick on your shirt now,” Remus pointed out.
“Oh, it comes out,” Sirius replied with a knowing smile. Remus laughed and fell into step with him as they walked home.
“So, what happened to the blonde?” he asked.
“Oh, she got bored and went elsewhere,” Sirius said with a shrug.
“Bored with you?” Remus repeated, in slight disbelief. He had heard a lot of complaints from women concerning Sirius Black, but boring was never among them.
Sirius shrugged again and put his hands in his pockets. “I guess I was preoccupied tonight or something.”
“Something on your mind?” Remus asked carefully.
“Naw, just the usual,” Sirius replied vaguely and Remus didn’t push it. They walked up the stairs to the flat clumsily and pushed open the door. Sirius went to say ‘Lumos’, but Remus grabbed the light switch before he had finished.
“The shirt suits you,” Sirius nodded approvingly at Remus as they stood in the hallway.
“Er… Thanks. Here, I’ll give it back,” Remus said and took it off in one fluid motion. He handed it to Sirius and walked over to the living room, not noticing his reaction.
“Good night,” Remus called over his shoulder as he started to take off his pants.
“’Night,” Sirius replied and made his way to his own room, but not before stealing a glance at Remus. He cursed under his breath and locked his door when he got to his room. Remus pulled the covers up close even though it was a hot night. There was only so much Sirius Black he could take, Remus reasoned, before his primal urges started taking over.
As he satisfied himself, he wondered when exactly Sirius had come to take over his thoughts in this manner. There was, of course, that rather poignant night with Natasha, but he wondered now if it hadn’t been sometime before then. He wondered if the night he caught Sirius making love had only been the catalyst for a much bigger reaction. He came before he could deliberate further, images of Sirius dancing shirtless in his mind. He swore he heard Sirius groan from down the hall but quickly dismissed it as an alcohol-induced hallucination. As he fell to sleep, it didn’t occur to him that the alcohol had worn off some time ago.