Week Five Drabbles!
It's Week Five already and we have some fantastic drabbles for you!
All participants wrote for Team Moony this week, for the prompt of
Jealousy/Envy and using the word prompt 'parchment'. Enjoy!
1.
Title: Try Not to Breathe
Author: escribo
Summary: Remus has never been able to keep a secret from Sirius
Contains: bad language
Remus abandoned his date with a gin and tonic in a plastic beaker and a promise that he’d only be a minute. He was gone, inside Sirius’ bedroom before she could complain, if she would have. Remus was sure she wanted Sirius. It was the only thing they had in common.
He made quick work searching for the letter he'd sent too late the night before in a fit of something he was too embarrassed to name. So focused on his task that he didn't hear the door--didn't hear Sirius until he was pressed tight against Remus.
"Will you stay tonight?"
"If you want me to." Remus was glad for the dark, that Sirius couldn’t see the heat in his cheeks as his hand curled around the scrap of parchment he'd found buried deep in a pocket.
"I always want you," Sirius breathed hot against Remus' neck. "Why do you bring these ridiculous girls to my parties? Do you fuck them after?"
"No."
"Then it's just to make me jealous?"
Remus forced a laugh, as if he hadn't been found out, as if he couldn't feel the wax seal had already been broken. As if Sirius didn't already know.
2.
Title: Disputed Territory
Author: gorthead
Summary: Remus and Snape have been studying together. Sirius is
displeased and takes matters into his own hands...in every sense of
the expression.
Contains: NSFW behaviour in the library
The astronomical chart Remus had been working on lay forgotten on the floor, the parchment torn, as Sirius pressed him up against the stacks, all the books about stars. Uneven shelves dug into Remus’ back, his wrists held fast in Sirius’ hands. Remus was stronger, but he had no desire to struggle. He could feel Sirius’ arousal hard against his own, his breath coming heavy now. He couldn’t look away from Sirius’ eyes if he wanted to -- but he couldn’t imagine ever wanting to, not from anything this intense and unwavering.
“I want you to be mine,” Sirius whispered, and Remus felt as though he would come right then. There was no maintaining the remotest illusion of righteous indignation, of resenting being objectified; right now, all he wanted was here, like this. He nodded, pressing his hips, his mouth impatiently against Sirius’.
Pulling away briefly, Sirius continued, “No more late-night studying with... fucking... Severus.” He punctuated each pause with a kiss, a tightening of his grip.
Remus simply shook his head, wrenching his hands free to grab Sirius’ hair, pull Sirius back toward him with enough force to elicit a gasp of surprise and pleasure.
“Only if you’re mine.”
3.
Title: Role Reversal
Author: chlare
Summary: Sirius and Remus get to spend a long lifetime together. But like all good things...
Contains: Angst, character death, older pups
Remus is used to seeing witches and wizards ogle Sirius' 'gleaming' black hair - like some kind of Muggle romance novel hero, Merlin - after all, Remus' hair is grey, his skin resembles crumpled parchment and his body, well, it has clearly belonged to a werewolf for a good half-century by now. He hardly compares.
Remus remembers the covetous looks from those believing Sirius was a prize to be won, or his favor to be curried. He's felt pangs of envy at Order members on long missions with Sirius, he's mentally hexed study partners. It's practically de rigueur.
Remus never imagined he'd be wishing Sirius were the one on his deathbed first though.
"Pads, we knew this might-"
"Moony, don't." Sirius' hand is tight on his and Remus can feel that infamous black hair fluttering on his wrist.
He doesn't want to die. He doesn't want Sirius to live through this. Maybe if it were quick, avada kedavra, but it isn't. He's simply a werewolf's host, worn through. It could be days, weeks...
And there's Sirius, eyes shining. Remus wants to say he wishes he could take Sirius' place, that he's sorry, sorry for being so frail and leaving Sirius like this-
4.
Title: Snap
Author: huntingsnarks
Summary: Sirius stokes fires and Remus’ quill suffers for it.
Contains: Quill-snapping and acidic envy.
Remus’ quill broke with a resounding snap.
Peter jumped; James snorted. Sirius turned and stared, and it took every inch of Remus’ self-discipline to offer a bemused sort of shrug.
Accepting this, James moved on. “Who is it, then?”
“Who’s what?” asked Sirius, eyes finally slipping off Remus.
James’ frustration was a visible thing. “Your date, you prat! If you’ve gone and asked someone to Hogsmeade, you may as well tell us who the poor thing is.”
Feeling rather like his stomach was being cranked through a mangle, Remus ground the broken nib further into his parchment. If James’ curiosity had built into a heat-haze, Remus’ was well into blazing.
Sirius stoked the fire. “Leave it, Prongs. You’ll find out soon enough.”
A haughty James heaved off and away, Peter close behind. This left Remus alone with Sirius, Sirius and the quill and parchment and the liquid envy sizzling through his veins.
“Want to know who it is?”
Remus shook his head violently, almost upsetting the inkbottle at his elbow.
“Pity,” said Sirius, reaching for the doorknob, “as it’s you.” He flung a crooked sort of smirk at Remus and was gone when the quill cracked in a second place.
5.
Title: Congratulations Are in Order
Author: whitmans_kiss
Summary: Remus had long since learned not to covet what he could not have, so he's happy for Lily, and happier for James.
Contains: mild angst
James tumbled through their fireplace minutes after the parchment announcing Lily’s pregnancy had arrived, soot-haired and beaming.
“Congratulations, mate!” Sirius roared, lunging forward, wrapping him in an embrace. “Merlin, what’ll the world come to, with a little Prongslet about to be unleashed?”
“My condolences,” grinned Remus, stepping towards him.
Remus knew that a proper family of his own was something he’d never have - he’d never dare risk fathering a child or placing one permanently under his care, not to mention the war (or logistics). He and Sirius never discussed the idea of fatherhood; it was understood. But that didn’t muffle the quiet clutch in his chest, forcing Remus again to recognize that they'd never paint a child’s room bluepinkyellow - as though infants cared about gender neutrality - repaint it redgoldstripes after a Gryffindor sorting.
He was happier for James than he’d ever been for anything, and laughed, clapping the father-to-be on the shoulder, buying a celebratory round at the local pub for everyone as though the child were his own.
Later, after they’d all gone home, and Sirius lay sleepy and satisfied next to him, Remus pressed his fingers to his eyes, so happy that he could not stop the crying.
6.
Title: Mum Envy
Author: anothersaturday
Summary: Remus is jealous of Sirius's epic poshness, but Sirius may have more reason to be jealous of him.
Contains: some mild angst about Sirius's horrible family situation, one brief mention of underage sex
“I’ve an idea.” Sirius smirks, throwing one booted foot onto the formal dining table. Silver and bone china clatter in protest. “We-that tapestry, yeah? We could pull it down and shag, like, on it.”
Remus bites his lip. He’s never been round Sirius’s before; wouldn’t be here now, except the Blacks are away for the summer, touring the South of This and the Cote d’That. Sirius has been left behind, which is meant to be a punishment. Remus feels wrongfooted, here. He’s always known Sirius is posh, but he hadn’t quite understood just how posh. This place: all gold and brocade, ivory, grand terrible ancestors inked in parchment on the walls. Remus thinks of his own home, five rooms, peeling paint. His envy tastes acid in his mouth.
Too quickly, he says, “Pads, I should go. My mum’ll be worrying.”
When Sirius speaks, his voice is weird, all bravado. “Mums always worry,” he scoffs. He rolls his eyes, like he knows, and Remus understands then what he’s said wrong.
“Sirius,” Remus says softly, but it’s too late: Sirius is standing, now, reaching to pull back Remus’s chair.
“You’re right.” His voice is still so bright. He says, “You should go.”
7.
Title: Mother Knows Best
Author: lotherington
Summary: Remus should have listened when his mam told him
Sirius was the jealous type. OotP era.
Contains: angst, dub-con, implied infidelity, implied alcoholism, implied depression. The relationship could be read as abusive and is certainly not a happy one. I’m sorry, this isn’t pleasant.
‘You,’ Sirius snarls as he pushes Remus down into the mattress, fingers tight enough to bruise around Remus’s wrists, ‘you are mine.’ Remus whimpers, closes his eyes, unable to meet the fire and intensity of Sirius’s gaze. His mother had warned him about this.
‘He’s a Scorpio, dear, watch he doesn’t catch your eye wandering, now. Kill him, that will.’ At the time, he’d rolled his eyes and shook his head, laughed and said ‘Yes, mam,’ kissed her cheek and jumped on the back of Sirius’s motorbike, off towards the next adventure.
‘Look at me,’ Sirius growls, jerking Remus back to the present, back to the cavernous house and the voices that won’t ever go away, back to the scars and cobwebs and stacks of parchment and shadows and arguments and drink and desperation. ‘Say it, Remus,’ he shouts, his jaw tight, his eyes wide and mad.
‘Yours,’ Remus gasps brokenly, burying his face in the damp pillow they share as Sirius bites and scratches and bruises Remus’s skin, a promise of forever stretching years and miles but not quite bridging the chasm between them marked on his flesh, in among the other scars he carries. ‘Yours. Yours, Sirius. Yours.’
8.
Title: Gestalt
Author: eprime
Summary: Remus can't see the forest for the trees.
Contains: a little angst
Remus replenishes his quill and carefully inscribes the next line of his essay. He pretends not to notice his friends huddled together in the far corner of the common room. He's used to it by now.
He's always assumed that even they need a break from dealing with a monster. He can't blame them. Only, the past few months it's happened more frequently. First they whisper, then they disappear with thin excuses and guilty smiles.
Remus isn't sure what to do, so he ignores the part of him that wants to rage and fling childish questions that he already knows the answers to. He ignores his seething jealousy and smiles blandly when they make their excuses and escape.
Ink drips unnoticed onto the parchment as he turns his head away. They are moving toward the stairwell. His eyes blur for a moment until a warm hand cups the back of his neck and Sirius is there.
"Come up, Moony. We've something to show you."
Before they enter the dorm where James and Peter are waiting, Sirius kisses him, a slow, tentative press of lips. His eyes are warm and hopeful.
The second surprise is almost as good as the first.
Comments are screened. Please include both the number and title of
your favourite and least favourite fic in your vote. That's one
OVERALL favourite and one OVERALL least favourite. Participants,
you are encouraged to vote, but please don't vote for your own
drabble.
Happy Reading! :)
All participants wrote for Team Moony this week, for the prompt of
Jealousy/Envy and using the word prompt 'parchment'. Enjoy!
1.
Title: Try Not to Breathe
Author: escribo
Summary: Remus has never been able to keep a secret from Sirius
Contains: bad language
Remus abandoned his date with a gin and tonic in a plastic beaker and a promise that he’d only be a minute. He was gone, inside Sirius’ bedroom before she could complain, if she would have. Remus was sure she wanted Sirius. It was the only thing they had in common.
He made quick work searching for the letter he'd sent too late the night before in a fit of something he was too embarrassed to name. So focused on his task that he didn't hear the door--didn't hear Sirius until he was pressed tight against Remus.
"Will you stay tonight?"
"If you want me to." Remus was glad for the dark, that Sirius couldn’t see the heat in his cheeks as his hand curled around the scrap of parchment he'd found buried deep in a pocket.
"I always want you," Sirius breathed hot against Remus' neck. "Why do you bring these ridiculous girls to my parties? Do you fuck them after?"
"No."
"Then it's just to make me jealous?"
Remus forced a laugh, as if he hadn't been found out, as if he couldn't feel the wax seal had already been broken. As if Sirius didn't already know.
2.
Title: Disputed Territory
Author: gorthead
Summary: Remus and Snape have been studying together. Sirius is
displeased and takes matters into his own hands...in every sense of
the expression.
Contains: NSFW behaviour in the library
The astronomical chart Remus had been working on lay forgotten on the floor, the parchment torn, as Sirius pressed him up against the stacks, all the books about stars. Uneven shelves dug into Remus’ back, his wrists held fast in Sirius’ hands. Remus was stronger, but he had no desire to struggle. He could feel Sirius’ arousal hard against his own, his breath coming heavy now. He couldn’t look away from Sirius’ eyes if he wanted to -- but he couldn’t imagine ever wanting to, not from anything this intense and unwavering.
“I want you to be mine,” Sirius whispered, and Remus felt as though he would come right then. There was no maintaining the remotest illusion of righteous indignation, of resenting being objectified; right now, all he wanted was here, like this. He nodded, pressing his hips, his mouth impatiently against Sirius’.
Pulling away briefly, Sirius continued, “No more late-night studying with... fucking... Severus.” He punctuated each pause with a kiss, a tightening of his grip.
Remus simply shook his head, wrenching his hands free to grab Sirius’ hair, pull Sirius back toward him with enough force to elicit a gasp of surprise and pleasure.
“Only if you’re mine.”
3.
Title: Role Reversal
Author: chlare
Summary: Sirius and Remus get to spend a long lifetime together. But like all good things...
Contains: Angst, character death, older pups
Remus is used to seeing witches and wizards ogle Sirius' 'gleaming' black hair - like some kind of Muggle romance novel hero, Merlin - after all, Remus' hair is grey, his skin resembles crumpled parchment and his body, well, it has clearly belonged to a werewolf for a good half-century by now. He hardly compares.
Remus remembers the covetous looks from those believing Sirius was a prize to be won, or his favor to be curried. He's felt pangs of envy at Order members on long missions with Sirius, he's mentally hexed study partners. It's practically de rigueur.
Remus never imagined he'd be wishing Sirius were the one on his deathbed first though.
"Pads, we knew this might-"
"Moony, don't." Sirius' hand is tight on his and Remus can feel that infamous black hair fluttering on his wrist.
He doesn't want to die. He doesn't want Sirius to live through this. Maybe if it were quick, avada kedavra, but it isn't. He's simply a werewolf's host, worn through. It could be days, weeks...
And there's Sirius, eyes shining. Remus wants to say he wishes he could take Sirius' place, that he's sorry, sorry for being so frail and leaving Sirius like this-
4.
Title: Snap
Author: huntingsnarks
Summary: Sirius stokes fires and Remus’ quill suffers for it.
Contains: Quill-snapping and acidic envy.
Remus’ quill broke with a resounding snap.
Peter jumped; James snorted. Sirius turned and stared, and it took every inch of Remus’ self-discipline to offer a bemused sort of shrug.
Accepting this, James moved on. “Who is it, then?”
“Who’s what?” asked Sirius, eyes finally slipping off Remus.
James’ frustration was a visible thing. “Your date, you prat! If you’ve gone and asked someone to Hogsmeade, you may as well tell us who the poor thing is.”
Feeling rather like his stomach was being cranked through a mangle, Remus ground the broken nib further into his parchment. If James’ curiosity had built into a heat-haze, Remus’ was well into blazing.
Sirius stoked the fire. “Leave it, Prongs. You’ll find out soon enough.”
A haughty James heaved off and away, Peter close behind. This left Remus alone with Sirius, Sirius and the quill and parchment and the liquid envy sizzling through his veins.
“Want to know who it is?”
Remus shook his head violently, almost upsetting the inkbottle at his elbow.
“Pity,” said Sirius, reaching for the doorknob, “as it’s you.” He flung a crooked sort of smirk at Remus and was gone when the quill cracked in a second place.
5.
Title: Congratulations Are in Order
Author: whitmans_kiss
Summary: Remus had long since learned not to covet what he could not have, so he's happy for Lily, and happier for James.
Contains: mild angst
James tumbled through their fireplace minutes after the parchment announcing Lily’s pregnancy had arrived, soot-haired and beaming.
“Congratulations, mate!” Sirius roared, lunging forward, wrapping him in an embrace. “Merlin, what’ll the world come to, with a little Prongslet about to be unleashed?”
“My condolences,” grinned Remus, stepping towards him.
Remus knew that a proper family of his own was something he’d never have - he’d never dare risk fathering a child or placing one permanently under his care, not to mention the war (or logistics). He and Sirius never discussed the idea of fatherhood; it was understood. But that didn’t muffle the quiet clutch in his chest, forcing Remus again to recognize that they'd never paint a child’s room bluepinkyellow - as though infants cared about gender neutrality - repaint it redgoldstripes after a Gryffindor sorting.
He was happier for James than he’d ever been for anything, and laughed, clapping the father-to-be on the shoulder, buying a celebratory round at the local pub for everyone as though the child were his own.
Later, after they’d all gone home, and Sirius lay sleepy and satisfied next to him, Remus pressed his fingers to his eyes, so happy that he could not stop the crying.
6.
Title: Mum Envy
Author: anothersaturday
Summary: Remus is jealous of Sirius's epic poshness, but Sirius may have more reason to be jealous of him.
Contains: some mild angst about Sirius's horrible family situation, one brief mention of underage sex
“I’ve an idea.” Sirius smirks, throwing one booted foot onto the formal dining table. Silver and bone china clatter in protest. “We-that tapestry, yeah? We could pull it down and shag, like, on it.”
Remus bites his lip. He’s never been round Sirius’s before; wouldn’t be here now, except the Blacks are away for the summer, touring the South of This and the Cote d’That. Sirius has been left behind, which is meant to be a punishment. Remus feels wrongfooted, here. He’s always known Sirius is posh, but he hadn’t quite understood just how posh. This place: all gold and brocade, ivory, grand terrible ancestors inked in parchment on the walls. Remus thinks of his own home, five rooms, peeling paint. His envy tastes acid in his mouth.
Too quickly, he says, “Pads, I should go. My mum’ll be worrying.”
When Sirius speaks, his voice is weird, all bravado. “Mums always worry,” he scoffs. He rolls his eyes, like he knows, and Remus understands then what he’s said wrong.
“Sirius,” Remus says softly, but it’s too late: Sirius is standing, now, reaching to pull back Remus’s chair.
“You’re right.” His voice is still so bright. He says, “You should go.”
7.
Title: Mother Knows Best
Author: lotherington
Summary: Remus should have listened when his mam told him
Sirius was the jealous type. OotP era.
Contains: angst, dub-con, implied infidelity, implied alcoholism, implied depression. The relationship could be read as abusive and is certainly not a happy one. I’m sorry, this isn’t pleasant.
‘You,’ Sirius snarls as he pushes Remus down into the mattress, fingers tight enough to bruise around Remus’s wrists, ‘you are mine.’ Remus whimpers, closes his eyes, unable to meet the fire and intensity of Sirius’s gaze. His mother had warned him about this.
‘He’s a Scorpio, dear, watch he doesn’t catch your eye wandering, now. Kill him, that will.’ At the time, he’d rolled his eyes and shook his head, laughed and said ‘Yes, mam,’ kissed her cheek and jumped on the back of Sirius’s motorbike, off towards the next adventure.
‘Look at me,’ Sirius growls, jerking Remus back to the present, back to the cavernous house and the voices that won’t ever go away, back to the scars and cobwebs and stacks of parchment and shadows and arguments and drink and desperation. ‘Say it, Remus,’ he shouts, his jaw tight, his eyes wide and mad.
‘Yours,’ Remus gasps brokenly, burying his face in the damp pillow they share as Sirius bites and scratches and bruises Remus’s skin, a promise of forever stretching years and miles but not quite bridging the chasm between them marked on his flesh, in among the other scars he carries. ‘Yours. Yours, Sirius. Yours.’
8.
Title: Gestalt
Author: eprime
Summary: Remus can't see the forest for the trees.
Contains: a little angst
Remus replenishes his quill and carefully inscribes the next line of his essay. He pretends not to notice his friends huddled together in the far corner of the common room. He's used to it by now.
He's always assumed that even they need a break from dealing with a monster. He can't blame them. Only, the past few months it's happened more frequently. First they whisper, then they disappear with thin excuses and guilty smiles.
Remus isn't sure what to do, so he ignores the part of him that wants to rage and fling childish questions that he already knows the answers to. He ignores his seething jealousy and smiles blandly when they make their excuses and escape.
Ink drips unnoticed onto the parchment as he turns his head away. They are moving toward the stairwell. His eyes blur for a moment until a warm hand cups the back of his neck and Sirius is there.
"Come up, Moony. We've something to show you."
Before they enter the dorm where James and Peter are waiting, Sirius kisses him, a slow, tentative press of lips. His eyes are warm and hopeful.
The second surprise is almost as good as the first.
Comments are screened. Please include both the number and title of
your favourite and least favourite fic in your vote. That's one
OVERALL favourite and one OVERALL least favourite. Participants,
you are encouraged to vote, but please don't vote for your own
drabble.
Happy Reading! :)