FIC: Why Are You Laughing? For bearshorty
Title: Why Are You Laughing?
Author/Artist: mindabbles
Recipient: bearshorty
Rating: PG
Contents or warnings (highlight to view): * a giant toddler*
Word count: 2,400
Summary: Christmas is about being with the ones you love, so a Christmas Eve with your best mate, your son, and your dear friends' three sprogs can be nothing but magical, right? Right?
Notes: I hope you enjoy this, bearshorty! Happy New Year, and thanks for joining in on the holiday fun again this year.
"Mind Sirius and Remus," Harry says. "Thank you," he adds, with a look of profound gratitude. "I'll Floo if there's any change of plans. I won't be much after midnight, I don't think."
"No worries, Harry," Sirius says. "We'll have a fun."
Harry pinches the bridge of his nose and laughs.
"Why are you laughing? That's not a proper response to, We'll have fun," Sirius says. Remus can see that his fingers flex around his wand automatically. Harry shakes his head and laughs again, as he steps into the Floo and calls out Leaky Cauldron. "Moony, why is he laughing?"
Remus turns to look at four angelic faces staring up at them. Teddy is clutching his newly acquired wand, and grinning a bit like his mother does before going out on a dangerous case. James seems to be pinching his brother and Albus looks on the verge of howling. He also seems to be hiding something behind his back. Lily is about to topple a dining chair on top of herself. "Because we're outnumbered," he whispers.
*
Remus stands in the middle of Harry's kitchen. He's been here before. Not here precisely in a physical sense, but here existentially speaking. Dinner. If they can make it through the next hour without incident, they're golden. Teddy, thank goodness is a bit easier now that he's eleven, in contrast to when he was seven and would only eat yellow food, and hated everything on Wednesday that he had liked on Tuesday. He'd better be easier to feed or he'll starve next year when he goes away to school.
Remus thinks of that day next September with equal parts excitement and sadness. He finds himself treasuring each moment of his weekends and evenings with Teddy even more now. Dora's said she does the same. He's looking forward to tomorrow morning when they'll all be together for Christmas and finds with great relief that he's not dreading seeing Dora in the least.
Sausages, check. Who doesn't like sausages? Mashed potatoes. Teddy likes them and Harry said that is currently the only thing Lily will eat, with the exception of biscuits, which don't make a dinner. Peas because he cannot maintain his self respect if he doesn’t serve something green. Besides, it's a classic. Pumpkin juice and Firewhisky.
"Give the kids the Ogden's and you and I can have a quiet evening," Sirius says, coming into the kitchen.
Remus whirls around in alarm. "Where're the kids?"
"Relax, Moony," Sirius says, smiling that damnable, crooked half-smile.
Remus wonders sometimes if he will ever stop aching when Sirius smiles that way. If they live to be 150, will he still want Sirius every waking moment, or will it fade with time and aging libido? It's been a fucking long enough time now, he thinks.
"Perhaps you haven't met these children before, but when Harry's kids are around, and Teddy's here to egg them on, relax is never a word you should use," Remus says.
"Constant vigilance, eh?" Sirius says, laughing. "Teddy took them upstairs for a play picnic. He said he'd occupy them while we get dinner ready."
"All right, then," says Remus, swelling a bit with pride. "He is a good lad, isn't he? Dinner'll be on the table in a tick."
Sirius carries goblets of pumpkin juice to the table, one with a lid on it for Lily. Remus is heaping spoonfuls of steaming mashed potatoes into a serving dish when a shrill voice from upstairs shouts, "Fire!"
"What the hell," Remus exclaims and he runs from the room, a step behind Sirius, who's taking the stairs three at a time.
They burst into Harry's bedroom. "What the hell," Sirius shouts and Lily and Albus begin crying immediately.
Teddy stands in the middle of the room, looking sheepish. At his feet is a smoking lump of…something. He's holding his brand new wand - the wand that Dora insisted on giving him as an early Christmas present, so he'd have time to get the feel of it. He is not supposed to take it from Dora's house and he is not supposed to try and cast spells, ever.
"I just turned my head for a second," Teddy says. "I told him not to touch my wand. I cannot believe he -"
"You can stop right there, young man," says Remus. "And give me the wand." Remus holds out his hand for the wand, which Teddy doesn't argue about turning over. "Here, where is James?"
Albus and Lily continue crying and Remus goes to sit next to them to make sure they aren't hurt. "Who shouted fire?"
"I did," says Albus. "And then Teddy used his wand to put it out and he's not supposed to because he told us he wasn't supposed to and it's because Christmas pudding is supposed to be on fire before you eat it. James said that the Christmas picnic wasn't right without the pudding being on fire. I don't want a Christmas picnic because a picnic is sandwiches."
"You put out the fire with a charm?" Remus asks Teddy. He bites back praise because now is really not the time, although he catches Sirius mouthing well done. "Hang on. Christmas pudding? That was the Christmas pudding? Your dad is not going to be very happy about that," Remus says.
"I think James is more worried about Mummy. She told Gran that we'd bring the pudding this year," Albus says through his sniffles. "That's why he's hiding. He always hides because he thinks he won't get a telling off that way. He always does and he always tries to talk Mummy out of it, but she says she has big brothers, so he can't trick her. He's always in trouble, though."
"That's what you get when you name a child James," says Sirius.
"You do know his middle name, right?" Remus asks.
"Dinner then, is it?" Sirius asks, reaching to gather the remnants of the Christmas pudding that Harry and Ginny probably started three months ago.
"Yes, I suppose so," says Remus. "Perhaps James will come out for sausages. Ted, we'll talk about this later."
The meal looks very nice, if Remus says so himself. It's not quite Hogwarts' fare, but a platter of perfectly browned sausages, buttered peas, and fluffy mash is a meal he'd happily have any day.
Sirius helps the kids into their seats and James comes tip-toeing into the room as if they might miss his entrance.
"We'll discuss the flaming pudding later, James. Have a seat for your meal now, okay?" Remus asks. James nods and sits. He's quieter than Remus has ever seen him and he doesn't take that as a good sign.
"Sausage, Albus?" Sirius asks.
"I don't want to eat the animals because animals are lovely and are our friends and what if they decided to eat us we wouldn't like it one bit I am a veterinarian because you wouldn't want someone to bite you and chew you or chop you up into sausages," Albus says.
"I'll have his," says James, holding up his plate.
Lily looks at the potatoes Remus has carefully placed in the middle of her favourite plate with her favourite spoon and opens her mouth and yowls. "Bits," she howls, pointing at a lump of potato that must have slipped through Remus' careful mashing.
"Start with this, darling," Remus says, handing her the pumpkin juice. She promptly takes the lid off her pumpkin juice and pours it all down her jumper.
James eats three helpings of everything, copying everything Teddy does precisely. Albus eats two helpings of potatoes and exactly four peas, because he is four. Lily eats five sections of an orange because she won't eat anything else. Sirius tucks in with gusto and Remus manages to settle down enough to eat a bit.
Remus looks at the clock with an unbridled joy he hasn't felt since Teddy was small. It's almost bedtime. Teddy is going to spend the night at Andromeda's, leaving right after dinner, then it's stories, tucking in, and they're home free.
Remus Floos Andromeda and sends Teddy through with a kiss and a Happy Christmas.
"Are you all right, not having Teddy on Christmas?" Sirius asks when Remus comes back to begin to hurry the little ones through teeth-brushing and face-washing.
"I'll see him there tomorrow anyway, and look at it this way," says Remus. "The sides are a bit evener now."
*
"Silent night, Moony," Sirius says, smiling.
Remus takes a deep breath and realises there is nowhere he'd rather be than right here with Sirius. The house is quiet and the faerie lights on the tree cast a golden light in the room. The warmth in Remus' chest has little to do with the Firewhisky he's sipping.
"Don't say that too loudly," Remus says, smiling back. The children are tucked in. They've had their stories, brushed their teeth, had second and third drinks of water, and used the toilet a corresponding number of times. However, they are not all asleep yet, so they can't let their guard down.
Sirius laughs softly. He kicks his feet onto the coffee table and points his wand at the fire, making the flames go higher, dancing merrily behind the grate. "All in all, not a bad Christmas Eve," Sirius says.
"No, I'd say not. Although, I'm surprised you didn't have something else, or someone else, to do," Remus says, trying desperately to keep his tone even.
"About that, Moony," Sirius says. His moves his index finger so it brushes the back of Remus' hand. "The thing is there isn't -"
Remus holds his breath and the Floo flares and Andromeda's face appears in the flames. "Remus? Teddy says he left his wand behind at Harry's. Can you bring it tomorrow when you come for Christmas?"
"Oh, of course," says Remus, inhaling suddenly.
"Hullo, Sirius. I hope you'll be coming as well. We've enough Christmas pudding for everyone," Andromeda says.
"Don't tell Harry and Ginny," Sirius mutters, pressing his hand against Remus'. "I'd love to come. Thanks, Andromeda. Happy Christmas."
"I'll look for it now," says Remus. He can't help the stupid grin on his face. So many times in his life, he's felt that happiness was just within his reach only to be snatched away. Now, Teddy is well, he and Dora have come to a happy accord, and it looks as if he'll be spending all of Christmas with Sirius who seems intent on touching his hand.
"Good night, then," Andromeda says and she fades from sight.
Remus begins to say he'd better go and look for Teddy's wand, wishing desperately that they had waited to give it to him, meaning that the moment with Sirius would not have been interrupted. He begins to speak, but the words are cut off by a shriek from upstairs of No, no, Lily, back to bed, and then an oddly booming, but very babyish Bed too too tiny. Chockies." At the same moment, the floor trembles.
"What in the name of-" Sirius says, standing.
Remus joins him just as a nine-foot-tall toddler lumbers into the room. Well, she bangs her head on the doorframe first, and then she lumbers into the room. A lamp is a casualty in her wake. As is the vase that Molly gave Harry and Ginny for their wedding.
"Merlin," Remus says, frozen for the moment in the horror of a toddler the size of an Erumpent.
"Chockies," Lily bellows, smashing her huge, dimpled fist down on the coffee table, splintering the legs and sending Remus and Sirius' tumblers of Firewhisky flying.
James and Albus cower on the staircase. James has Teddy's wand in his fist. When Remus looks his way, he puts his hand behind his back hastily.
"You want chocolate, Ducky?" Sirius asks, smiling at her in that way he has that makes everyone pay attention.
"Yes," says Lily, taking a thudding step toward Sirius. Remus sees his fingers clench around his wand as if to do battle, for the second time this evening. "Yayas says chockies."
"James said you could have chocolate, did he?" Remus asks. He shoots a look toward James, who scampers a few steps higher on the staircase.
Lily takes another step into the room and stomps a flower pot into dust. She picks up a chair and lifts it to her mouth.
"James Sirius Potter," Sirius says, with a tone that brooks no argument. "Get down here and give me that wand."
James runs as quick as a little mouse, gives Sirius the wand, and darts back up the stairs to join his brother.
Remus stands in front of the fireplace, hoping to stop Lily from hurting herself, even if he can't stop her from destroying Harry and Ginny's living room.
"Finite Cantatem," says Sirius.
Lily shrinks rapidly back to about two feet and Sirius darts forward to push the chair she'd been holding aside.
"Oh," says says, appraising her suddenly less intimidating size. "Chockies?"
*
"You all right, Padfoot?" Remus asks. "You look a bit peaky." Sirius collapses onto the sofa next to him and Remus hands him a tumbler of Firewhisky. "Well-deserved," he adds, taking a sip of his own.
"Children should be kept in a tiled room and hosed down twice a week until they are twelve," Sirius says. He drinks from the tumbler Remus has handed him with gusto.
"I disagree with you on principle, but only just, and only on principle," says Remus. "I don't know how they manage with three."
"You saw Harry," Sirius says. "He couldn't wait to get out of here. And I thought it was only because he was looking forward to an evening out, and here he was hoping to escape certain death."
"We're both alive, so I think the most you can claim he was hoping to escape was probable death."
"Well, happy Christmas, Moony," Sirius says. He raises his glass again. "It'll be Christmas in about ten minutes, not too early for a Christmas toast to remaining alive."
"Speaking of, you going to join us at Andromeda's tomorrow?"
"You and Dora pals again, are you?"
"We do all right."
"What does that mean, then?"
"It means we're friends again and we seem to be doing pretty well with Teddy."
"He's a good lad, despite the fact that he almost had us killed." Sirius takes another sip of his drink. Remus waits. He's known Sirius long enough to know when a question is coming. "So you and Dora are finished for good. Anyone else on the horizon?"
"Are you my Aunt Gertrude?"
Sirius flashes him an indignant look. "Do I look like your Aunt Gertrude?"
"What I mean is that you would know if there was anyone else on the horizon, wherever the hell that is." Remus takes another deep breath. "There is someone quite interesting. He's a bit of an arse sometimes, but he is terribly fit, so I suppose that makes up for it."
"Oh," Sirius says and then falls silent.
Remus covers Sirius' hand with his. "Padfoot, you giant idiot. I mean you." Sirius turns and opens his mouth, his lips starting to curve into a smile. "You're so rarely silent, I'm going to take advantage of it."
Remus leans close and kisses Sirius, a soft, chaste touch of lips. It's gentle and easy and the best, longest awaited, first kiss of Remus' life.
"Moony," Sirius whispers, pressing in again, a little harder this time. His lips part and Sirius traces Remus' mouth with his tongue. Remus leans in to deepen the kiss and Sirius pulls back. "I didn't think I'd have a chance. I thought I'd have this - best mates - for the rest of my life, and that was brilliant, but if this is real, this would be immeasurably better."
"I think we've missed enough chances," Remus says. "I don't intend to make that mistake again."
"You always have the best plans," Sirius says. He kisses Remus again and Remus feel a flare of desire so powerful he moans into Sirius' mouth. "Come home with me tonight?"
"Try and stop me," Remus says, threading his fingers through Sirius' hair. "Happy Christmas, Padfoot."
Author/Artist: mindabbles
Recipient: bearshorty
Rating: PG
Contents or warnings (highlight to view): * a giant toddler*
Word count: 2,400
Summary: Christmas is about being with the ones you love, so a Christmas Eve with your best mate, your son, and your dear friends' three sprogs can be nothing but magical, right? Right?
Notes: I hope you enjoy this, bearshorty! Happy New Year, and thanks for joining in on the holiday fun again this year.
"Mind Sirius and Remus," Harry says. "Thank you," he adds, with a look of profound gratitude. "I'll Floo if there's any change of plans. I won't be much after midnight, I don't think."
"No worries, Harry," Sirius says. "We'll have a fun."
Harry pinches the bridge of his nose and laughs.
"Why are you laughing? That's not a proper response to, We'll have fun," Sirius says. Remus can see that his fingers flex around his wand automatically. Harry shakes his head and laughs again, as he steps into the Floo and calls out Leaky Cauldron. "Moony, why is he laughing?"
Remus turns to look at four angelic faces staring up at them. Teddy is clutching his newly acquired wand, and grinning a bit like his mother does before going out on a dangerous case. James seems to be pinching his brother and Albus looks on the verge of howling. He also seems to be hiding something behind his back. Lily is about to topple a dining chair on top of herself. "Because we're outnumbered," he whispers.
*
Remus stands in the middle of Harry's kitchen. He's been here before. Not here precisely in a physical sense, but here existentially speaking. Dinner. If they can make it through the next hour without incident, they're golden. Teddy, thank goodness is a bit easier now that he's eleven, in contrast to when he was seven and would only eat yellow food, and hated everything on Wednesday that he had liked on Tuesday. He'd better be easier to feed or he'll starve next year when he goes away to school.
Remus thinks of that day next September with equal parts excitement and sadness. He finds himself treasuring each moment of his weekends and evenings with Teddy even more now. Dora's said she does the same. He's looking forward to tomorrow morning when they'll all be together for Christmas and finds with great relief that he's not dreading seeing Dora in the least.
Sausages, check. Who doesn't like sausages? Mashed potatoes. Teddy likes them and Harry said that is currently the only thing Lily will eat, with the exception of biscuits, which don't make a dinner. Peas because he cannot maintain his self respect if he doesn’t serve something green. Besides, it's a classic. Pumpkin juice and Firewhisky.
"Give the kids the Ogden's and you and I can have a quiet evening," Sirius says, coming into the kitchen.
Remus whirls around in alarm. "Where're the kids?"
"Relax, Moony," Sirius says, smiling that damnable, crooked half-smile.
Remus wonders sometimes if he will ever stop aching when Sirius smiles that way. If they live to be 150, will he still want Sirius every waking moment, or will it fade with time and aging libido? It's been a fucking long enough time now, he thinks.
"Perhaps you haven't met these children before, but when Harry's kids are around, and Teddy's here to egg them on, relax is never a word you should use," Remus says.
"Constant vigilance, eh?" Sirius says, laughing. "Teddy took them upstairs for a play picnic. He said he'd occupy them while we get dinner ready."
"All right, then," says Remus, swelling a bit with pride. "He is a good lad, isn't he? Dinner'll be on the table in a tick."
Sirius carries goblets of pumpkin juice to the table, one with a lid on it for Lily. Remus is heaping spoonfuls of steaming mashed potatoes into a serving dish when a shrill voice from upstairs shouts, "Fire!"
"What the hell," Remus exclaims and he runs from the room, a step behind Sirius, who's taking the stairs three at a time.
They burst into Harry's bedroom. "What the hell," Sirius shouts and Lily and Albus begin crying immediately.
Teddy stands in the middle of the room, looking sheepish. At his feet is a smoking lump of…something. He's holding his brand new wand - the wand that Dora insisted on giving him as an early Christmas present, so he'd have time to get the feel of it. He is not supposed to take it from Dora's house and he is not supposed to try and cast spells, ever.
"I just turned my head for a second," Teddy says. "I told him not to touch my wand. I cannot believe he -"
"You can stop right there, young man," says Remus. "And give me the wand." Remus holds out his hand for the wand, which Teddy doesn't argue about turning over. "Here, where is James?"
Albus and Lily continue crying and Remus goes to sit next to them to make sure they aren't hurt. "Who shouted fire?"
"I did," says Albus. "And then Teddy used his wand to put it out and he's not supposed to because he told us he wasn't supposed to and it's because Christmas pudding is supposed to be on fire before you eat it. James said that the Christmas picnic wasn't right without the pudding being on fire. I don't want a Christmas picnic because a picnic is sandwiches."
"You put out the fire with a charm?" Remus asks Teddy. He bites back praise because now is really not the time, although he catches Sirius mouthing well done. "Hang on. Christmas pudding? That was the Christmas pudding? Your dad is not going to be very happy about that," Remus says.
"I think James is more worried about Mummy. She told Gran that we'd bring the pudding this year," Albus says through his sniffles. "That's why he's hiding. He always hides because he thinks he won't get a telling off that way. He always does and he always tries to talk Mummy out of it, but she says she has big brothers, so he can't trick her. He's always in trouble, though."
"That's what you get when you name a child James," says Sirius.
"You do know his middle name, right?" Remus asks.
"Dinner then, is it?" Sirius asks, reaching to gather the remnants of the Christmas pudding that Harry and Ginny probably started three months ago.
"Yes, I suppose so," says Remus. "Perhaps James will come out for sausages. Ted, we'll talk about this later."
The meal looks very nice, if Remus says so himself. It's not quite Hogwarts' fare, but a platter of perfectly browned sausages, buttered peas, and fluffy mash is a meal he'd happily have any day.
Sirius helps the kids into their seats and James comes tip-toeing into the room as if they might miss his entrance.
"We'll discuss the flaming pudding later, James. Have a seat for your meal now, okay?" Remus asks. James nods and sits. He's quieter than Remus has ever seen him and he doesn't take that as a good sign.
"Sausage, Albus?" Sirius asks.
"I don't want to eat the animals because animals are lovely and are our friends and what if they decided to eat us we wouldn't like it one bit I am a veterinarian because you wouldn't want someone to bite you and chew you or chop you up into sausages," Albus says.
"I'll have his," says James, holding up his plate.
Lily looks at the potatoes Remus has carefully placed in the middle of her favourite plate with her favourite spoon and opens her mouth and yowls. "Bits," she howls, pointing at a lump of potato that must have slipped through Remus' careful mashing.
"Start with this, darling," Remus says, handing her the pumpkin juice. She promptly takes the lid off her pumpkin juice and pours it all down her jumper.
James eats three helpings of everything, copying everything Teddy does precisely. Albus eats two helpings of potatoes and exactly four peas, because he is four. Lily eats five sections of an orange because she won't eat anything else. Sirius tucks in with gusto and Remus manages to settle down enough to eat a bit.
Remus looks at the clock with an unbridled joy he hasn't felt since Teddy was small. It's almost bedtime. Teddy is going to spend the night at Andromeda's, leaving right after dinner, then it's stories, tucking in, and they're home free.
Remus Floos Andromeda and sends Teddy through with a kiss and a Happy Christmas.
"Are you all right, not having Teddy on Christmas?" Sirius asks when Remus comes back to begin to hurry the little ones through teeth-brushing and face-washing.
"I'll see him there tomorrow anyway, and look at it this way," says Remus. "The sides are a bit evener now."
*
"Silent night, Moony," Sirius says, smiling.
Remus takes a deep breath and realises there is nowhere he'd rather be than right here with Sirius. The house is quiet and the faerie lights on the tree cast a golden light in the room. The warmth in Remus' chest has little to do with the Firewhisky he's sipping.
"Don't say that too loudly," Remus says, smiling back. The children are tucked in. They've had their stories, brushed their teeth, had second and third drinks of water, and used the toilet a corresponding number of times. However, they are not all asleep yet, so they can't let their guard down.
Sirius laughs softly. He kicks his feet onto the coffee table and points his wand at the fire, making the flames go higher, dancing merrily behind the grate. "All in all, not a bad Christmas Eve," Sirius says.
"No, I'd say not. Although, I'm surprised you didn't have something else, or someone else, to do," Remus says, trying desperately to keep his tone even.
"About that, Moony," Sirius says. His moves his index finger so it brushes the back of Remus' hand. "The thing is there isn't -"
Remus holds his breath and the Floo flares and Andromeda's face appears in the flames. "Remus? Teddy says he left his wand behind at Harry's. Can you bring it tomorrow when you come for Christmas?"
"Oh, of course," says Remus, inhaling suddenly.
"Hullo, Sirius. I hope you'll be coming as well. We've enough Christmas pudding for everyone," Andromeda says.
"Don't tell Harry and Ginny," Sirius mutters, pressing his hand against Remus'. "I'd love to come. Thanks, Andromeda. Happy Christmas."
"I'll look for it now," says Remus. He can't help the stupid grin on his face. So many times in his life, he's felt that happiness was just within his reach only to be snatched away. Now, Teddy is well, he and Dora have come to a happy accord, and it looks as if he'll be spending all of Christmas with Sirius who seems intent on touching his hand.
"Good night, then," Andromeda says and she fades from sight.
Remus begins to say he'd better go and look for Teddy's wand, wishing desperately that they had waited to give it to him, meaning that the moment with Sirius would not have been interrupted. He begins to speak, but the words are cut off by a shriek from upstairs of No, no, Lily, back to bed, and then an oddly booming, but very babyish Bed too too tiny. Chockies." At the same moment, the floor trembles.
"What in the name of-" Sirius says, standing.
Remus joins him just as a nine-foot-tall toddler lumbers into the room. Well, she bangs her head on the doorframe first, and then she lumbers into the room. A lamp is a casualty in her wake. As is the vase that Molly gave Harry and Ginny for their wedding.
"Merlin," Remus says, frozen for the moment in the horror of a toddler the size of an Erumpent.
"Chockies," Lily bellows, smashing her huge, dimpled fist down on the coffee table, splintering the legs and sending Remus and Sirius' tumblers of Firewhisky flying.
James and Albus cower on the staircase. James has Teddy's wand in his fist. When Remus looks his way, he puts his hand behind his back hastily.
"You want chocolate, Ducky?" Sirius asks, smiling at her in that way he has that makes everyone pay attention.
"Yes," says Lily, taking a thudding step toward Sirius. Remus sees his fingers clench around his wand as if to do battle, for the second time this evening. "Yayas says chockies."
"James said you could have chocolate, did he?" Remus asks. He shoots a look toward James, who scampers a few steps higher on the staircase.
Lily takes another step into the room and stomps a flower pot into dust. She picks up a chair and lifts it to her mouth.
"James Sirius Potter," Sirius says, with a tone that brooks no argument. "Get down here and give me that wand."
James runs as quick as a little mouse, gives Sirius the wand, and darts back up the stairs to join his brother.
Remus stands in front of the fireplace, hoping to stop Lily from hurting herself, even if he can't stop her from destroying Harry and Ginny's living room.
"Finite Cantatem," says Sirius.
Lily shrinks rapidly back to about two feet and Sirius darts forward to push the chair she'd been holding aside.
"Oh," says says, appraising her suddenly less intimidating size. "Chockies?"
*
"You all right, Padfoot?" Remus asks. "You look a bit peaky." Sirius collapses onto the sofa next to him and Remus hands him a tumbler of Firewhisky. "Well-deserved," he adds, taking a sip of his own.
"Children should be kept in a tiled room and hosed down twice a week until they are twelve," Sirius says. He drinks from the tumbler Remus has handed him with gusto.
"I disagree with you on principle, but only just, and only on principle," says Remus. "I don't know how they manage with three."
"You saw Harry," Sirius says. "He couldn't wait to get out of here. And I thought it was only because he was looking forward to an evening out, and here he was hoping to escape certain death."
"We're both alive, so I think the most you can claim he was hoping to escape was probable death."
"Well, happy Christmas, Moony," Sirius says. He raises his glass again. "It'll be Christmas in about ten minutes, not too early for a Christmas toast to remaining alive."
"Speaking of, you going to join us at Andromeda's tomorrow?"
"You and Dora pals again, are you?"
"We do all right."
"What does that mean, then?"
"It means we're friends again and we seem to be doing pretty well with Teddy."
"He's a good lad, despite the fact that he almost had us killed." Sirius takes another sip of his drink. Remus waits. He's known Sirius long enough to know when a question is coming. "So you and Dora are finished for good. Anyone else on the horizon?"
"Are you my Aunt Gertrude?"
Sirius flashes him an indignant look. "Do I look like your Aunt Gertrude?"
"What I mean is that you would know if there was anyone else on the horizon, wherever the hell that is." Remus takes another deep breath. "There is someone quite interesting. He's a bit of an arse sometimes, but he is terribly fit, so I suppose that makes up for it."
"Oh," Sirius says and then falls silent.
Remus covers Sirius' hand with his. "Padfoot, you giant idiot. I mean you." Sirius turns and opens his mouth, his lips starting to curve into a smile. "You're so rarely silent, I'm going to take advantage of it."
Remus leans close and kisses Sirius, a soft, chaste touch of lips. It's gentle and easy and the best, longest awaited, first kiss of Remus' life.
"Moony," Sirius whispers, pressing in again, a little harder this time. His lips part and Sirius traces Remus' mouth with his tongue. Remus leans in to deepen the kiss and Sirius pulls back. "I didn't think I'd have a chance. I thought I'd have this - best mates - for the rest of my life, and that was brilliant, but if this is real, this would be immeasurably better."
"I think we've missed enough chances," Remus says. "I don't intend to make that mistake again."
"You always have the best plans," Sirius says. He kisses Remus again and Remus feel a flare of desire so powerful he moans into Sirius' mouth. "Come home with me tonight?"
"Try and stop me," Remus says, threading his fingers through Sirius' hair. "Happy Christmas, Padfoot."