All in the Family

Chapter 169: The Ghoul in Pyjamas

It was general mayhem as they landed in some garage slash chicken coop looking place, two things all eight agreed should never be put together again.

Regulus fell onto a table and scattered tools in a million directions while he received a bruise from each, Remus scared a chicken so bad it made a noise he hoped to never hear again as it pecked at his nose, Alice had hay in places she'd never wish for, and Frank broke several eggs, proof of which was the yolk all over his pants.

"What the hell kind of nut house are we in?" Peter asked in concern as he looked at the dismantled parts of some other menace of a machine.

"Sirius' dream home," Remus smirked as he firmly brushed the chicken aside and rubbed at the mark.

Sirius did not deny it as James poked his head out of the door and called, "hey, we're back at the Weasley's!"

Regulus found the book amongst the dangerous looking pointy things and happily followed him out along with the others, but Sirius called out before he got far, "don't finish it! I want a look around!"

"Fine," he agreed as he read out the fascinating chapter title, Ghoul in Pyjamas. This place was just full of its usual oddities.

Sirius started humming to himself as he circled the dismantled bike, running his hands over the engine and tapping his wand on the tires, eying every loose bolt and exposed wire with such a deep desire to know more about it Remus couldn't drag his eyes away as he felt the others leave. They didn't have to hide out anymore, and that was weirdly freeing, but he was pretty sure this would have happened regardless. Prongs had only been in it for the fun of the ride and would leave this in Sirius' capable hands as he kept interacting with the others, but he could sit here and watch Sirius for hours get invested in this.

Padfoot began picking up scattered tools and arranging them back on the work table, his wandering eyes traveling the dusty ground to make sure he didn't miss any, and seemed surprised to see him still in place, just leaning against the wall and watching him with a fond smile. "You weren't actually mad before, were you? About me kissing you in front of everybody?" He sounded more concerned than actually curious like he seemed to want to as he forced a smile at the end.

"No," he said quickly as he shifted guiltily in place for Sirius thinking otherwise. He would have thought kissing him in the hospital wing had cured Sirius of that lie. "More surprised than anything, you've never done anything like that with one of your hookups before. I didn't realize there would be a change when you committed, but no, didn't really bother me."

To his horror, Sirius made that horrendous face again, the one he had back when he'd first confessed his crush. Remus went painfully stiff and wondered again if Sirius had even fully accepted himself there was a difference.

Sirius shook himself though and said quickly, "okay, just making sure."

He kept himself in place and would not let him deflect, or this would get far worse very fast. "Sirius, what was that?"

"What?" He said sincerely enough, and Remus pressed his lips together as he eyed him. Sirius kept meeting his eyes and fidgeting with his hands, he kept shifting in place like he wanted to go back to the bike already now that he was sure nothing was really wrong, perfectly normal. He was even twisting his wrists around like he missed the feel of the engine revving beneath him and it was really distracting.

He started fidgeting with the sleeve of his robes and tried for a moment to think how to ask, before as usual just letting his mouth run, it often got the best results with him, even if he did acknowledge himself a hypocrite for scolding Sirius for doing the same. At least he kept his thoughts crowd friendly. "I, um, I'm just worried you haven't quite realized yet that, I'm going to run out of ways to keep you, ah, newly entertained in bed one day. Please don't feel the need to pretend otherwise if you, still think, you want something else. The sooner you rip that band aid off, the better."