Flowers At The Door

NYC, 8

Sirius was some type of drug, Remus decided. And good god, he just couldn't get enough.

If he wasn't watching Sirius on stage, he was watching him around Sirius' apartment. When he was doing neither of those thing, he was thinking about Sirius or texting Sirius or talking to Sirius on the phone. Sirius was quickly becoming the center of his world, and Remus was excited by that.

By some miracle or another, Regulus hadn't seemed to notice, even after two weeks of poorly hidden sneaking around, Reg didn't let on that he was any the wiser.

It certainly helped that he was seeing James again. James had sent 4 plant arrangements to the apartment in the days after their apparent argument (Regulus wasn't keen to divulge details of what happened), and on the fifth day after their argument (it was a Thursday) James showed up with a bouquet of blush colored carnations. Remus watched Regulus pin him with a stern gaze before he broke out in a tentative smile. The look of relief that took James over after that was palpable. The three of them hung out that night and each time James and Reg got caught up in their own little moment, Remus was quick to text Sirius, who was venting about trying to book more gigs since Mark was doing a terrible job of it, apparently.

Remus wanted to go to him then. His desire for Sirius heady and made the tips of his fingers throb- something like withdrawal.

He saw Sirius the next night after that and it took all of his self control not to smother him in a hug, or with his mouth, or both. Watching Sirius' mouth work around the mic... both, Remus wanted to obliterate Sirius with his mouth... and his hands, but mostly his mouth.

The minute Regulus left, with James not so inconspicuously on his heels, Remus all but sprinted to the back stage area. Peter and Mark were there with Sirius. Peter smiled and waved at Remus, but ultimately worked to stow away his drums.

Mark, who could not take a hint, smiled and approached Remus. Remus saw Sirius watching them in his peripheral.

"Hey Remus," Mark slipped a finger through the belt loop of Remus' jeans. "How've you been?"

"I'm good, Mark. How are you?"

Conflict appeared across Mark's features, but it was just as soon gone. "I- I um have been better, actually. Can we get coffee sometime, I really hate how we left us and I think we need to talk."

Remus saw Sirius stiffen and pause his task of packing the guitars away. He smiled softly at Mark. "I appreciate that, Mark, but I think we're good where we are? We tried, right? And it didn't work- and there's nothing that's going to change that."

"Rem, come on," he grabbed Remus' hand now, "one bad night together and you want to throw in the towel."

"It wasn't one bad night-"

"Oh, the bad nights were when I showered you in drinks and took care of everything and treated you like fucking royalty?" Mark scoffed and his grip tightened around Remus' fingers. "You're really okay with leading me on like that? Letting me do all that shit and then just pretending like none of it mattered?"

"Mark," Remus was stern and when he looked passed Mark, he saw Sirius staring at them and not even trying to pretend that he wasn't. He ripped his hand from where Mark was holding it. "I appreciate everything you did. I thought it was going to work out differently, but yeah we had a bad night together. We don't have a connection, and I think I realized it then. I wanted it to work so bad that I let myself believe it would. I didn't lead you on, I was lying to myself."

Mark's gaze was trained on where he was running his thumb back and forth across the waist band of Remus' dark jeans; he didn't respond.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you, Mark. But there is nothing that you could do to make this work."

"That's why you've been avoiding me."

Remus sighed. "I haven't been avoiding you. I've just-"

"Fucking save it Remus. All I've ever been was nice to you. Hell, I waited for fucking weeks before I even tried to take you home-"

"And I appreciated you making me feel so spec-"

Mark cut him off, "you don't deserve me anyways so I don't know why I'm trying to convince to give me a chance. If anything, you should be trying to convince me."

"Excuse me?"

Mark set his jaw, "no, excuse me," he stepped around Remus and headed toward the door, "when you realize what you lost, don't come crawling back."

Remus stood, dumbfounded, and watched his exit. Then he watched Sirius approach, "what the hell just happened?" He laughed and Sirius just smiled and shook his head.

"I have no clue. Are you okay?"

"Well I know Mark is absolutely off the rails today." When he looked at Sirius now, Sirius wasn't smiling- a dark look had crossed his features.

"I want you to know that every word he just said was absolutely untrue. And if he ever speaks to you again like that, I will fucking kill him."

Remus shuddered, but he wasn't scared of Sirius, "it's okay, Sirius. No harm done, I know he was just saying those things to try to get me to feel bad-"

"Hey, guys," Peter interjected nervously, "I'm gonna get going- Rem, I sorry Mark spoke to you like that- Sirius, please don't kill him, okay? Who would serenade Remus all night if you went to jail?" He flashed Sirius a quick smile while Remus blushed, "have a good night." With that, he turned on his heel and scurried out the band entrance door.

"Serenade you all night, hmm?" Sirius brought his hands up and cupped Remus' face, "that would be the perfect end to my Friday night." He leaned forward and brushed a kiss over Remus' waiting lips.

"Missed you" was all Remus managed to say before he was the one leaning forward to kiss Sirius.

"My place?"

Remus nodded.

"Okay," Sirius kissed him again, longer this time. "I'm hungry- waffles?"

Remus slipped his cold fingers under the hem on Sirius' shirt. "I was thinking straight back to yours," he murmured in Sirius' ear before he kissed his neck.

Sirius chuckled, "Remus John Lupin, if you are trying to tempt me with sex, it's working."

"Good."

"As much as I cannot wait to finally sleep with you, I need to eat first."

Remus groaned.

"And so do you."

"I ate here," Remus said as he buried his face in Sirius' neck.

"No you didn't." His voice was gentle, but still rubbed Remus the wrong way.

Remus pulled away- Sirius' lack of trust in him was hurtful.

Sirius studied him carefully, "I watched you all night Remus, I know you didn't eat here. What's goin on?"

"Mark just rubbed me the wrong way. And I want you."

Sirius' eyes danced across Remus' face before he leaned in for another kiss. "I want you too. But we need to eat first. Come on, we'll stop at the dinky little Waffle House on the way to mine. It will take 30 minutes, tops."

Remus conceded with a soft smile, "okay."

"Okay," Sirius took his hand and pulled him through the band entrance door.

Getting back into this story- hopefully updates will be more frequent now :)