InsaneJournal

Sirius Black had studied his map for a good five minutes before he decided to visit his best mate's room. Maybe Clarke was right. Maybe the third time was the charm, and Prongs would stick around this time. Either way, this was the third time that he'd be helping to introduce James to life on the Enterprise, though this time apparently Harry was around as well.

That was certainly… different.

He folded up his map and stuck it in his pocket, along with his wand and headed down to D-37, remembering the brief amount of time that he'd actually shared his quarters with James. Bloody hell, this life was so mental. But maybe this time James would stick around. And maybe things would be better with Peter.

If they could be.

He wasn't sure if he should even share that part of the story with his mate. He was tired of telling it. Tired of thinking about it. And yet it was with him, everywhere he went.

However these things worked, James thought this whole thing was kind of brilliant, but then he didn’t know the full story here. He did know that he was thrilled to meet his son and to have Pete and Sirius here. He hoped that Lily and Remus would shortly follow.

“Padfoot!” he grinned broadly when he opened the door, quickly hugging the man who was his best friend. Truly, all the Marauders were, but he was closer to Sirius than the others, if he was being honest about it.

“This is all brilliant, right?”

Any hesitation Sirius had fell away as James hugged him. Sure, this was the third time he'd done this. But when it came to having his best friend on board or not, he'd go through all of this repeatedly. And hopefully this time Prongs would stick around.

"Yeah, it's pretty brilliant," he agreed. "I mean, we're in space. There's a bar. We can still play quidditch. And you're back." By the time he finished talking, he was grinning ear to ear.

James lit up at the mention of quidditch. Sure, he’d found his broom in his quarters when he’d reached them, but there were only a few of them here, as far as her knew, and no quidditch pitch as far as he knew. Not that such things as logistics had ever stopped him from finding a way before, of course.

“Right, I think you should show me to this bar while you tell me more about the quidditch,” he said, answering Sirius’ wide grin with a nearly face-splitting one of his own. Being in space was fantastic, but being here with his very best mate and having quidditch? That was even better. Almost enough to take the sting out of finding out Lily wasn’t here with them.

"I think Gin… Ginny Weasley that is, has it set up where we're going to play in the holodeck, but on our brooms. She worked really hard at that, getting it all worked out," Sirius said. "I haven't touched it yet, cause I want her to show me, but I have flown the broom she made me around the ship a bit. Added a few charms myself. I mean, not gonna be the same quality as yours, mate, and it's not my bike but it's better than nothing, right?"

Sirius just couldn't stop smiling. It was like he was being offered another chance with his best mate, and his cynicism fell away the more they spoke.

"And if we're going to the lounge, we need to go this way," he mentioned.

“Guess you’ll have a hard time catching up to me when I play on my broom, then,” James said with a grin. “It was right here waiting for me when I got to my room. “Just lucky I was holding onto it what that thing got me.”

Quidditch on a spaceship, that sounded equal parts bizarre and brilliant. He couldn’t wait to give it a go, but first he and Sirius had some drinks to try out. “Lead the way, Padfoot,” he said, turning in the direction his best mate had indicated.

"Yep, you're still Prongs, even on a spaceship. Always bragging," Sirius teased. "I wish I'd had a broom with me." Or his bike, but that would have been more impractical.

"I'll warn you now that the bloke running this place is a bit off…" he added, "But the drinks are free and the bartenders are alright. And maybe we'll run into Clarke and I can introduce you. If not now, sometime soon. She sort of saved my life and all."

“She?” James raised his brow at that. “Well, now you’ve got to tell me all about her, mate.” Good drinks, quidditch, having two of his best mates about and finding out that he had a son, who was now older than he was, this place seemed to be a combination of mad and brilliant, but so far he couldn’t say he was sorry to be here, not at all.

"Yeah, it's a bit mental," Sirius said. "Apparently I look just like her friend who died but then I was exploring when the ship hit something and knocked myself out. And we were trapped and she took care of me for three days. So when you make it through that with someone?"

Sirius grinned. "Anyway, we're just friends. Presently."

He fell silent, expecting James to tease him as they headed into the lounge. "Check out this view," he mentioned. Maybe that would serve as a distraction.

“Presently.” James let it go at that, at least for now, even if he rather thought that choice of words was telling about just how friendly those two were. Odds were, there would be more teasing later, even if he allowed himself to be distracted now.

Sucking in a quick breath at the sight, he was nearly speechless as he looked out the large window into the space around them. More stars than anyone could possibly count sped by them. It was almost the first sense he had of really being in space. “Merlin’s tit,” he breathed as he stared at it for a moment.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, grinning. Whether he was agreeing to James' reaction to the view or how his mate had repeated his own statement to him, or both was unclear. But they were in space, at a bar, and both alive.

How much more perfect could it get?