small_gifts | FIC: FIXING REMUS for theatresweety

Title: Fixing Remus
Author:

sleeper6
Written for:

theatresweety
Rating: PG
Prompts: Gotta Be Somebody song; Christmas lights; Sirius trying to tell Remus how he feels
Summary: Sirius tries to convince Remus to become more than friends.

“Sirius, don’t! Be careful or it’s going to break.”

“It’s not going to break.”

“It will if you keep twisting it like that.”

“I’m twisting it just fine, Remus.”

Remus Lupin yanked the string of Christmas lights away from Sirius Black’s rough hands and looked down at the little bulb that Sirius had been twisting back and forth for the past minute. He carefully turned it to the right, which immediately caused it to glow bright yellow.

“See,” said Remus in a haughty voice, glancing at Sirius. “You don’t have to twist it so hard.”

Sirius sighed and ran a hand exasperatedly through his shiny black hair. As soon as he put his hand down, though, he muttered “Shit” and quickly brought both hands to his head and smoothed his hair, making sure no strands were out of place.

Remus snorted and returned to checking each light bulb on the long strand that lay across his lap.

“What?”

“You and your hair. It’s ridiculous,” said Remus with a smirk.

Sirius put his hands down. “What’s ridiculous is you fixing these stupid lights like a Muggle when you can just make them work with your wand.”

Remus said nothing as he moved on to the next bulb.

“And why does your family insist on decorating by hand instead of by magic? You know you’re also a wizard outside of Hogwarts, right?”

Remus continued fiddling with the lights. “My mum doesn’t like to rely too much on magic,” he said quietly.

“Why?” asked Sirius as he stared at his friend’s face, which seemed to glow in the Lupins’ dimly-lit sitting room where he and Remus sat Indian-style on the hardwood floor.

Remus shrugged. He kept touching the lights, pausing only to look up but avoiding Sirius’s stare. “I think—I think sometimes she likes to pretend we don’t live in the magic world. That way she can pretend that she doesn’t have a monster for a son.”

“Moony.” Sirius reached for Remus’s left hand with his right but touched only the strand of lights as Remus moved his hand away rather quickly. Sirius was about to grab a bulb when Remus once again jerked the lights away.

“If you think this is stupid, then why are you here? I didn’t invite you,” said Remus coldly, resuming his earlier task.

Sirius pursed his lips as he stared at Remus’s face, his eyebrows furrowed as he focused entirely on the lights. Remus was half right. At the train station, as both of them—along with James Potter and Peter Pettigrew—walked off the Hogwarts Express, Mrs. Lupin immediately ran up to them and engulfed her son in a tight hug as she always did when they arrived. “She’s just glad I’m still alive and you all are in one piece,” Remus had joked once. Mrs. Lupin had released her son and turned to his best mates, asking if any of them would like to come over to the Lupin house to help decorate it before Christmas. Before Remus could tell his mother that each of his friends already had plans, James and Peter uttered an “I can’t” while Sirius eagerly raised his hand and flashed his dazzling smile at Mrs. Lupin. “I can,” he said and then turned to smile at Remus. Remus didn’t smile back, however. In fact, he didn’t say anything at all to Sirius that day. He and his mother walked off (“We’ll owl you, Sirius,” Mrs. Lupin said over her shoulder), and both boys hadn’t talked to each other in the three days between that arrival and the day when Sirius showed up at Remus’s house to help with decorations (“I got your mum’s owl,” Sirius said brightly when a surprised Remus answered the door).

It wasn’t like Remus to act so coldly towards Sirius. But he and Sirius both knew the cause of Moony’s moody behavior. It had been exactly three weeks since Sirius had invited Remus for a walk in the Forbidden Forest, chased some fairies around a tree stump, confessed his non-platonic feelings for Remus, poked a clabbert with a stick, and kissed Remus four times in one minute. Since that day, after Remus had eagerly kissed Sirius back and then unconvincingly (in Sirius’s opinion) explained his reluctance in pursuing a new relationship with Sirius, Remus tried not to be alone with Sirius so as to avoid talking about what had recently happened between them. Ignoring Sirius, though, had not worked out too well as Sirius was still able to admit more of what he felt for Remus right before Remus discouraged this by saying that they were too young (“we’re teenagers, Moony!”), that others wouldn’t understand (“it’s none of their business”), that their parents would hate them both (“my parents already hate me”), and that maybe it’d be best if they waited (“for how long?”).

“I’m not going to quit,” Sirius stated firmly as he grabbed part of the strand of lights.

Remus sighed. “Sirius, not now.”

“Yes, now, Remus. You can’t keep avoiding me.”

“I told you; I need more time.”

“More time for what? To come up with lamer excuses?” Sirius shook his head. “Uh-uh. You either know or you don’t. Which is it?”

Remus’s shoulders slumped as he shook his head, the light brown bangs falling over and covering one of his eyes. “Why do things have to change? Why can’t we stay friends?”

“Things aren’t going to change, and we are still friends, always. We’ll just—we’ll be a little bit more.”

Remus turned his head to face Sirius. “But what’s the rush, huh? We’re only seventeen, and neither of us has ever been interested in anyone like that. Or is this because of James? Now that James has Lily, you want to make sure you have someone too.”

Sirius groaned and scratched his head in frustration. “This isn’t about James; it’s about us, Remus.” He paused before continuing. “I like you so much.”

“Sirius . . .”

“And maybe I do want what James has, and what Peter allegedly has with those girls in Hufflepuff and—and—and what half of the school seems to have with the other half. What’s wrong with that?” Sirius rubbed his head again, his hair now quite uneven. “Don’t you want someone like that, Moony? Everyone else does. And I don’t want to be the last one to know that.”

Remus looked away, suddenly concentrating really hard on the plain Douglas fir tree sitting a meter away.

“I don’t want to be alone anymore; nobody does.” Sirius leaned closer. “Don’t you ever get lonely, Moony?”

Remus’s gaze returned to Sirius, and he responded without thinking. “No, I don’t get lonely because I have . . .” his voice trailed off as he suddenly realized what he meant to say.

“You have me,” Sirius finished for him.

“It’s not going to be easy,” whispered Remus after a while as he continued tightening the lights on the strand.

Sirius joined his friend in the task at hand. “It can be now that the hard part’s over.”

“What’s that?”

“Finding someone who cares. I believe there’s gotta be somebody out there for everyone. But a lot of people spend almost all their lives searching and waiting for that someone. You and me, though, we already have each other.” Sirius smiled. “And we like each other.”

Remus remained silent so Sirius continued: “Would I be here messing up my very awesome hair if I didn’t like you for real?” Remus almost smiled as Sirius pointed to his rumpled head so Sirius kept going: “Or trying to fix these darn lights with my delicate fingers instead of with magic?” Sirius twisted one of the bulbs for effect but cried out as it broke in his hand. “Ow!”

Remus pushed the strand of lights away from Sirius and grabbed his hand to inspect it. “Or—or bleeding half to death trying to help with the same stupid lights?”

Remus rubbed Sirius’s hand gently. “You’re not even bleeding, you prat. It’s just a scratch.”

“You sure?” Both teenagers leaned in closer to one another as they looked over Sirius’s hand.

“I told you not to twist them so hard,” scolded Remus in a soft voice.

Sirius playfully rolled his eyes. “Oh, the hell with the lights, Remus.” He pointed his wand at the strand, and all lights immediately brightened.

“That’s cheating, Sirius,” said Remus, finally releasing Sirius’s hand.

“It’s making it easy, Remus.”

Remus sighed. “This won’t be easy, I know it. But I’d like to try.” He grinned at his best friend. “I want to try.”

“Yeah?” asked Sirius. Remus nodded, and Sirius’s smile was suddenly brighter than any of the lights on the strand. Remus picked up the lights once more and stood up. Sirius got off the floor as well. “Where are you going?”

Remus pointed to the tree. “We have to put this on the tree now.”

Sirius snatched the string away from Remus’s hands and flung it over the boy’s neck instead. With both ends of the string in his hands, Sirius gently pulled Remus to him and kissed him. Remus slowly pushed Sirius away. “Sirius, my parents—”

“—Are outside putting more of these things on top, around, and all over your house,” interrupted Sirius as he tugged again on the strand, bringing Remus’s lips to his once more.

“Sirius,” murmured Remus against Sirius’s lips.

“Hmm?”

“Be careful with the lights.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

leafyaki.livejournal.com

:D Thank god Sirius is so persistent! I love it! Especially when Sirius threw the string around Remus's neck and used that to pull Remus to him for a kiss X)

And some bits really tugged at my heartstrings too: “I think—I think sometimes she likes to pretend we don’t live in the magic world. That way she can pretend that she doesn’t have a monster for a son.” Oh, Remus. Sirius had better make him happy!

Lovely fic! :D

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stocking stuffers, more like....

FIC: FIXING REMUS for theatresweety

FIC: FIXING REMUS for theatresweety

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