InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "stay the course, Jess"

Jonathon Lahaye (nyktipolos) wrote in solitarycomm,
@ 2013-03-11 20:08:00

Entry tags:

remus lupin (lycanthropist), sirius black (blacksblooded)

WHO: Sirius Black & Remus Lupin
WHEN: Sunday evening
WHERE: Some fancy restaurant they get to have all to themselves!
WHAT: A birthday dinner ~~date~~
WARNINGS: Pssssh. Nah!

Remus wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this. He had a vague idea, if only because, well, he wasn't a complete scrub when it came to the ways of the social world. But this was still a relatively new thing. It was his birthday, yes, and that made a bit of a comfort buffer. It didn't fully change the fact that he was going to meet Sirius for dinner. Alone. Somewhere where it would just be them. Alone. With dinner. And wine. And... it was a date.

Time had done a good job of helping assist and recover from the insanity that was the night before the last full moon. Emotions had been high, particularly on his end because of just about every reason under the sun, and then all of a sudden everything had changed in one distinct moment. The moment where Sirius kissed him and stopped him from having a complete and utter meltdown. Exhaustion had settled in soon after thanks to the frantic state he'd put himself in and from there it seemed... okay. It wasn't really so different. The flirting remained, the teasing, the joking, the company. Everything else was the same except for a bit of something else added in.

That stress and uncertainty that had come from not knowing had been replaced by the comfort of knowing. Now Remus was feeling a distinct anxiety of 'what's next'? It wasn't like he'd ever been a rambunctious boy—dating and relationships had never been a concern outside of his friends. They did as they liked, each of them dating, seeing someone for whatever length of time, doing this and that, enjoying themselves and their lives, and Remus encouraged them from the side-lines. Whatever made them happy, he was happy with. Except now he was suddenly thrown into the arena and had absolutely no clue.

So why not just go with the flow! Sirius was his friend, his best friend, and he always would be. It was simple! Easy, even. Meet him, act casual, and just enjoy the night with the good company. Then tomorrow could be dedicated to researching the portal to the south and hopefully then some answers would come of the trek. Sirius could even take them on his motorcycle if it would make hm happy. Which it probably would. And would result in Remus' own nerves being a horrid mess for a while, but it would serve him right for unintentionally leading the two of them into an argument.

One that was swiftly ended as swiftly as it began—still. Remus didn't like that it happened to begin with.

Finding the address of the restaurant Sirius told him to go to, Remus stepped in slowly, glad that it wasn't a mad rush to get out of the old any more. It'd been a nice, consistent cool ever since that storm blew over. Still, getting indoors and having reason to stop overthinking would be nice. That bad habit of his was starting to get a little out of control.

"Sirius?" He called out softly, fingers twisting together as he looked around for the other man.

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nyktipolos
2013-03-17 12:59 am UTC (link)

Sirius was blushing. Sirius Black was blushing.

Remus was armed with a smile of his own upon seeing that. It was an extremely rare thing to see, in fact he could only really remember it happening a couple other times—including the time just a week ago when called out on his antics. When Remus himself was in quite the emotional tizzy, too much of one to really appreciate the rarity of the moment. Now was quite a different matter, however, and he drank it in to let it settle and burn into a proper memory. One for the record books. A kiss making Sirius Black blush? Hm. It was filed away for future usage as well, sealed with another kiss before he was bed led about again.

"Oh you're bad, Sirius," he teased in a fond tone, "but not like that. I'm still thanking you though." Because it was above and beyond expectations, it was kind. And for all that Remus knew he had good friends, kind friends, people who cared about him, and yet moments like these still surprised him. His horrid perception of self always managed to influence how he felt others saw him, even to this day. Perhaps it was something he'd never shake, though he felt he needed to step up his game in changing it. So that moments like these weren't so out of the blue—it wasn't fair to his friends. Especially not to Sirius.

The meal was excellent. The moment was excellent. And yes, the wine was untouched. The instant Sirius commented on it, Remus was tempted to snap back with something akin to 'well, you obviously have no idea how low my tolerance is', because even he didn't know! That was how little time he'd spent drinking in his life. He'd had a taste of firewhiskey once, hated it, and never went back. That was the extent of his drinking career. But instead and before he could say anything, the other man ducked to bring up a present and Remus opted to simply try sipping his wine and… all right. Fine. It tasted good. Fine.

As Sirius complained about the difficulty level in picking out a gift, Remus simply shot him a dry, amused look. Oh how horrid! Picking a gift because everything was available! That didn't matter half as much as what was chosen and why, and the instant he opened the gift and saw what it was, that sentiment showed on his expression. That look of amusement and faux-sympathy washed off his face entirely, replaced by one of nostalgia and contentment.

"Oh Sirius," he began, looking the book over and tracing his fingers over the cover and spine. "My mother used to read these stories to me all the time as a child." Before being bitten, before manifesting magic, these old faerie tales were what got him into stories and reading to begin with. The moment he'd been bitten though, his mother stopped reading them to him, worried that tales where the Big Bad Wolf chasing Little Red Riding Hood might trouble him even more than he already was. Then before they all knew it, he was showing signs of magic and his whole life became very much like a faerie tale. Especially the original Grimm stories.

Smiling as he looked up, Remus added, "It's like The Tales of Beedle the Bard for muggles. There's some wonderful ones and I haven't read any in ages. Thank you." Flipping through the pages, he found his old favourite and grinned at the sight of it. "This one's a mouthful: The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. I'll have to read that to you sometime." Eyes returning to Sirius, he held up the glass of wine and said, "You'd probably need a few of these to bear it though. Poor thing."

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blacksblooded
2013-03-17 08:24 am UTC (link)

He watched carefully with eager eyes as Remus opened his gift, and he could have sworn that his heart had stopped for a moment when his friend's face fell. Was that good? Bad? Great? Terrible? Words, Remus. Words would be brilliant right now-

Ah, there they were. He liked it. Sirius broke out into another smile, looking relieved before he sipped his wine and finally relaxed back into his chair. He seemed a little surprised when Remus said that his mother had read him the stories before, but that was alright. So he knew of the book, Sirius suspected that he would, but good memories were associated with it. Score one for Sirius Black. "I'm glad you like it." He said it gently, and he offered a soft smile again although he was much more pleased than he was willing to let on. He certainly wasn't going to tell Remus that he had spent over two hours in a bloody library to find that for him.

"I'm sure I could swallow it down if you were reading it to me, Remus, don't worry." He grinned playfully, and he gave a teasing little push to Remus' leg with the tip of his foot under the table. "I was looking through it before, they do seem interesting. I never really read fantasy tales before, it wasn't something that my parents ever introduced me to." He shrugged crookedly, taking another sip of his wine before leaning into the table again. "But you tell me what your favorite one is, and then I'll let you read it to me." He flashed a charming smile. "Not that I'm using this as an excuse to cuddle or anything, but I think it would be ideal if you did so in bed. Only for the whole 'relaxing' factor of it all."

Knowing that Remus enjoyed the book had lifted a small weight off of Sirius' chest, and he seemed a bit more comfortable now that it was out of the way. It was hard for him to be sentimental. Although Remus was close to him, gift exchanges were something that hadn't become important to him until he met his friends in school; he got money back home when he still spoke to his family every holiday. Sentimental value meant nothing there, he didn't lean about it until he had his first Christmas at Hogwarts. And this particular gift had to be special, important, because it wasn't just between two mates anymore. It was a first time exchange for both of them, it seemed.

"Are you ready for dessert or are you going to start reading me stories now?"

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nyktipolos
2013-03-20 09:34 pm UTC (link)

It didn't surprise Remus that Sirius was never read bedtime stories. There were a fair number of simple, childhood pleasures the other man was deprived of due to his family's incessant need to be so harsh, cruel, and generally unhappy. All without reason! If it hadn't been for the Potters, Remus might have assumed that all pureblood families were unhappy; it seemed to be a theme amongst so many.

"Well, I'll simply have to enlighten you with all of my favourites," he said happily, content to subject Sirius to the wonder of listening to what muggles imagined to be true, fanciful worlds of magic and the like. He would most certainly be ignoring every story about wolves or anything of the like though. For reasons. Well-deserved reasons. No one needed to hear those, thank you. "They'll all make for good cuddling, as most of these stories were originally designed to terrify muggle children into being good," he added with a smile. "Perfect bedtime material."

Remus had never been scared of them when he was young. Perhaps it was how his mother had read them, or maybe it was because he used to be so much more bold than he'd become. He used to be the child that never knew fear, that could do anything without even suffering a single shudder—now it felt like everything caused a shudder, caused fear, paranoia, upset. It was what it was though, and for all that he wished things had been different, at least there were still stories to live vicariously through. These would be good ones to remember and to share with someone he cared very deeply for. A cheesy notion, his mind unhelpfully noted, but he didn't muchly care.

"Ohh, dessert too? My goodness, better watch yourself, Sirius, lest I become spoiled," Remus chimed with a smirk, setting the book down and patting it with a reassuring 'for later' look. "Go on then, what other surprises do you have in store?" He asked as he took another sip of wine. Wine that was quickly disappearing. He hadn't drank that much, had he? It tasted good, so maybe he had. Or maybe he was simply drinking it quicker than he ought to. Right. Slow down. Pacing.

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blacksblooded
2013-03-21 06:47 am UTC (link)

Sirius couldn't help but smile at the offer, finding a sense of amusement and endearment in the way Remus spoke so fondly over something as simple as a book. He really made it sound fantastical, so much so that Sirius was considering taking him up on that offer. "Better than the stories I read when I was a child, I can promise you that." He cracked a smile, and left it at that.

The books in the Black household were dark, dark enough where Sirius knew more dark spells than he should have at the age of eleven when he first entered Hogwarts. It made him feel out of place, like his mind was in a darker hole than the rest of his year, and it wasn't until he was accepted into Gryffindor that his scared little brain started to calm down. He didn't miss those days. Not one bit.

"Don't get used to it, handsome, it's a special occasion, remember?" He teased back, pushing a playful kiss to Remus' forehead before disappearing back into the kitchen, only to return with a proper dessert that Remus would enjoy. He placed it down on the table, and finally his eyes moved to the other man's wine glass before he gave an amused, and slightly mischievous grin.

"Remus, you finished all your wine already? No, see, you have to have some to go with dessert, that was the entire reason I picked this label." And without asking, before he could be stopped, Sirius promptly refilled Remus' glass before sitting across from him. "I assume you like it, then?"

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nyktipolos
2013-03-22 07:31 am UTC (link)

Now that was something that Remus could certainly believe. The things that Sirius knew, the very way he thought when they first got to know one another in school... he didn't even want to know what sort of books the other had stuck his nose into. The kind that belonged under lock and key, most likely. The kind that his family probably dug out for a bit of light reading after a Sunday dinner—all charmingly dark, twisted, and frightening. It could be worse though, at least they weren't into drinking blood or... he was going to stop thinking now. That was still Sirius' family. Even if he didn't like them. Hated them. You couldn't choose your family.

"Oh, that's right. My twenty-second birthday. A very special occasion worth noting. Worth being spoiled for," he said with a smirk, not even realising that he'd completely finished the wine by then. And okay, how was he supposed to pay attention to wine or snark when something as delicious as chocolate covered strawberries was placed in front of him? Honestly! His expression said it all and Remus really, really, really wanted to try one. He was even about to snatch one with no regrets at all when words were happening again and his attention was spirited away.

"More? Are you serious? I can't..." But there Sirius was, filling up the glass again and Remus shot him a pouty face. "Of course I like it. That doesn't excuse having more." Because that was a perfectly logical way of thinking. And was a perfect excuse not to drink more. He honestly couldn't! Remus knew, he knew this wine had a high alcohol content. It was there, quiet plainly written out on the bottle. 20 percent. That was a lot. The last wine he drank had, what? 11? Exactly.

No more. No. No.

But those strawberries...

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