Back into the future

Did you tell him

As Sirius and Remus walked through the portrait hole into the common room, they spotted James sitting in an armchair near the fire with a book in his hands.

"Careful Jamie, Lily might actually start to like you if she sees you reading this much." Sirius joked.

James looked up and gave a weak laugh in reply before turning back to the pages. Sirius turned his head to look at Remus who was frowning back at him. They decided to sit down on one of the couches opposite James, as they did Lily came through the entrance, who spotted Remus instantly and raised an eyebrow at him. Remus blushed slightly before nodding to James.

"Lilypad, perfect timing, look at dear James here reading a book." Sirius said, wiggling his eyebrows. Lily ignored him while Remus elbowed him in his stomach. James looked up at Lily and then closed the book with a snap before standing up.

"Rem, you have something on your neck." He said. Upon closer inspecting it he held his hand up for Sirius to high five. Sirius frowned and clapped his hand with James' apprehensively. Then James stalked away to the boys' dormitory. Both Lily and Sirius followed him with their eyes and then looked at each other. Remus just stood there sputtering, until Lily addressed him.

"I thought he didn't know?"

"He didn't." Remus replied.

"Or at least, so we thought." Sirius added.

"Right." Lily continued. "Either of you been to visit them today?"

"James and I tried, but they weren't there. They were with Dumbledore." Remus answered.

"Guess they must've figured something out..." Lily said with a hint of sadness in her tone.

"Yeah, guess so."

"Well, I better go upstairs, see you tomorrow." Lily said laying a hand on Remus' shoulder for a second before moving along to the girls' dorms.

A sort of awkward silence fell over the two boys remaining in the common room.

"Well, that went well."

"Did you tell him?" Remus asked, turning to look at Sirius.

"No, why would I have told him without you?" Sirius asked, a little affronted that Remus would think of that.

"How does he know?"

"I don't know, same way as Lily found out?" Sirius replied, before he yawned and plopped down on the couch behind him. "And we were going to tell him now anyway, why are you-

"I don't know." Remus interjected. "I'm just... I don't know. Why didn't he say anything, why- why..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Hey, calm down, come on, sit." Sirius said as he sat up and grabbed Remus' wrist and pulled slightly to get him to sit beside him on the sofa. "Deep breaths. It's all good."

He put one hand on Remus' back and grazed him thumb softly over his spine. His other hand was on Remus' chest and his gaze was fixed on his eyes. Sirius took deep breaths for Remus to mimic until he his heart rate had slowed down significantly.

"It's all good." Sirius whispered. "I know you like to have control over these kinds of things, and you still do."

"No, I don't. He knows. How does he know? He wasn't supposed to know."

"I know, but we'll ask him. It's all going to be okay." Sirius said softly as he moved one of his hands to play with Remus' hair, at which Remus laid his head down on Sirius' shoulder. "It's all going to be okay." He said again, into Remus' hair as he kissed him on top of his head. The room fell silent. All that could be heard was the sound of the two boys breathing. Slower and deeper as they both fell asleep.

Hours later Remus felt a little tug on his arm. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting as he adjusted to the light. He heard Lily whisper "You're going to mis breakfast." He flew up, panicked at that, but he saw Lily smile softly as she said "don't worry, nobody saw. Disillusionment charms." He sighed and looked at Sirius, who was stirring as he woke up from the lack of warmth from Remus. They saw Lily laugh softly before she stood up and walked out of the common room, leaving the two alone.

"What was that about?" Sirius said sleepily.

"We need to get up." Remus replied.