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Charles Leclerc & Max Verstappen | post-sprint | 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Remus: oh no we'r--

Sirius: almost three months.

Remus: wait what

Sirius: yeah remember you looked at me funny and said I was pretty then we hold hands

Remus adored his son. 

Teddy was sweet. Kind, and very empathetic for a four-year-old.

He also didn't understand the definition of 'whisper.'

So when Remus unthinkingly told his son that he should go throw out his empty paper cup of hot chocolate in the bin 'by that beautiful man' in the coffee shop, he should have known that his words would be repeated.

Loudly.

But unfortunately, he didn't realize until Teddy screeched, "THAT BEAUTIFUL MAN THERE WITH THE BLACK HAIR?"

And half of the room turned to look at them.

Wincing, Remus gazed down at his well-meaning son, trying to remind himself that Teddy was innocent and there were only fourteen more years until he was off to Uni. "Yes, Teds," he muttered under his breath with a sigh. "Right there."

Of course, the beautiful man was looking at him with a small smile, his strikingly gray eyes boring into Remus's soul. The coffee he'd just finished drinking seemed to shoot right through him, bubbling in his stomach and making him nauseous. 

And then Teddy made it worse. After throwing away his cup, he turned to the beautiful man and beamed. "Hi!"

The man smiled. "Hi, there! I'm Sirius!"

The four-year-old frowned. "No...I don't think so. You're smiling."

Sirius laughed, his smile so gorgeous Remus nearly melted into his chair. "Yeah, my parents weren't the best with names. Hey, did I hear there's a beautiful man in here?" He made a show of looking around conspiratorially for the person that didn't exist.

"It's you!" Teddy insisted, laughing.

"Wait, no! I found him! That bloke, over there!" Sirius said, voice overloaded with excitement, squinting like he was looking at something very far and pointing.

To Remus.

Remus's stomach turned.

Teddy laughed, oblivious. "That's my da!"

Now Sirius nodded, actually looking serious. "Yeah, that makes sense. I can see where you get your looks. Hey, will you introduce me?"

Teddy beamed.

It was so sweet. So adorable. And so fucking edearing, because the whole exchange was happening only two meters away. Remus scrambled to fix his expression so he didn't look quite so enamored as Teddy dragged Sirius–who was wearing a leather jacket and skinny jeans, holy shit–over.

"This is my da!" TEddy said proudly, waving in Remus's direction. "Da, this is Sirius. He's not very good at following the rules of his name."

Smiling, Remus stood, offering a hand. "Erm...hey, Sirius, I'm Remus."

"Remus," Sirius grinned easily. "Your son is quite the wingman. Do you perhaps have any plans later?"

Remus nearly passed out. Sirius wanted to go out with him? "Erm..."

"We're going to the park right now! You should come!" Teddy answered eagerly, completely unaware of Remus's mental spiral.

Sirius squatted down to look at Teddy again. "I love parks. Can we play catch?"

"YES!"

"I'm in. Remus? That okay?

Remus could only smile. "Yeah. Yeah, that's...great."

This was it. The moment he had been waiting for three years now.

Remus and him were finally alone, in their dorm, completely unbothered. Sirius felt Remus' hands under his shirt, slowly roaming higher, the cool air hitting his waist. He shivered at the contact. It was fine. This was how it was supposed to be. To be fair, he had imagined the whole 'butterflies in your stomach' thing a bit differently. Right now it felt more like he was on a broom that was falling. But he supposed butterflies was one way to put it.

He let Remus place him down on the bed. Lying was good. Made him a bit less light-headed. Take off clothes, lie on bed, put thing in hole. Another shiver washed over him. It was fine.

"Sirius!" The way Remus said his name made it clear that it wasn't the first time. He seemed worried. Oh no. Sirius had already ruined it.

"Sorry. I was just..." he trailed off. He couldn't very well tell him how wrong it felt. How disappointing it all was. This was the big thing everybody was always yapping about? Maybe it was better when it was actually happening. Or maybe Sirius was doing something wrong.

"You looked like you were on the verge of a panic attack." Remus drew back a bit, kneeling on the bed. Sirius was relieved about the distance.

Breath still shaky, Sirius sat up, drawing his knees to his chest. He felt his penis wobble between his legs. A useless piece of meat. Sometimes its pure existence disgusted him. "Sorry. Sorry. I'm... Am I doing this right? You have more expertise here than me. I'm really just following your lead." He choked out a weak laugh.

Remus drew his eyebrows together slightly, eyeing Sirius. His eyes had changed from heavy with lust to an honest, platonic care. For the first time since they had entered this room, Sirius felt like he could breathe again. Remus loved him. He cared for him.

"Well, it's right if we both feel good doing it. There's really nobody to tell us how to do things. We can just decide what we want or don't want." he shrugged.

"Did it feel good for you?" Sirius asked.

He noticed Remus hesitating. He opened his mouth before thinking better of it, then reconsidering. "It didn't feel like you were entirely... comfortable. It's always important to me that my partners are relaxed and having a good time. But especially with you. You are my best friend above everything and I never want to hurt you or make you uncomfortable."

Sirius felt his body relax with every word. Remus always seemed to know how to talk to him. "I... Yeah. You're right. I felt... Disgusting. Not because of you though," he quickly added, "I... fuck. I love you. And I really, really want this relationship to work. I just... I dunno. It feels weird. All the skin and the spit and... I'm sorry."

Remus moved towards him; carefully, like one would approach an injured animal, trying not to scare it. "How about we leave this be for tonight? You can take a shower, I will get us some tea, and then we can do something with all our clothes on. And we'll talk about this when you're ready."

@jeggyverses-jegulus-microfic word count: 507

“Hey love?” James asked from his spot in the grass next to Regulus. “How many people have you had sex with?” Blushing Regulus fervently looked up from his book, glancing around for anyone who might have overheard his brute of a boyfriend.

“Would you keep it down, Potter, I’m not interested in discussing that with the entire courtyard!” James just grinned, completely unapologetic as he always is with brash topics like sex. “ Why do you want to know?”

“I’m just curious. It doesn’t matter, obviously, but you know all the people I’ve been with.” At that Regulus had to roll his eyes; the whole school knew the list of people Potter had shagged and snogged because he had a habit of announcing it victoriously after the fact. Regulus’ own list, however, was… short. Less of a list and more a scrap of paper with James’ name written on it.

“If it doesn’t matter then I don’t think we need to discuss it.” Regulus said curtly and returned to his book, ignoring his boyfriend’s pout.

“Wait, did you shag someone really embarrassing? Is that why you don’t want to talk about it? Oh shit was it Snape?” He pestered with dawning horror and Regulus fought back his annoyance. 

“I didn’t shag Snape.” Regulus assures him, because he’s not a monster.

“Thank Merlin.” James breathed with genuine relief then fell back on the grass. It was silent for a few blessed moments before he opened his mouth again, quieter this time. “Were they better than me? Is that it? You can tell me- maybe I can improve! I could-” Now Regulus had had enough, his book snapped shut and he turned to James.

“It’s you, James. No one I’ve had sex with has been better than you because it’s just one name on the list. Happy now?” James eyebrows raised in shock for just a second before a grin spread across his face.

“Aww! Reggie! Why did you tell me? I would have made it special; lit some candles or something?” Regulus scoffed but he was smiling.

“This is Hogwarts, there are always candles. And I didn’t need to tell you. It was special anyway.” He said the last bit quietly but James still heard him and grinned wider, reaching to take Regulus’ hand and squeeze it. 

“Okay, well… What about the people you’ve snogged, huh? Surely not just me, come on tell me. Barty?” At that Regulus had had enough of his boyfriend’s pestering and, as he really did not want to share that particular list with James, he pulled his hand back and stood up, grabbing his book.

“I’m going to read inside.” James just threw his head back and laughed. 

“Ah, babe!” He called after him. “Just tell me! We can compare notes!” 

@jeggyverses-jegulus-microfic word count: 504

Regulus was making his evening prefect rounds when he heard it; the clatter of something metal being dropped and unfortunately familiar voices. He turned the corner and came nearly nose to nose with James.

“Regulus! Oh thank Merlin, I knew someone was coming. Best to be you.” James whispered hurriedly, peeking over Regulus’ shoulder to ensure it was just him approaching then returning to help Sirius pick up a large, almost cauldron sized, metal bowl. Remus and Peter stood behind them, the former shaking his head and holding two brown fabric bags that Regulus recognized from slughorn’s potion material stocks, while Peter stood frozen still with his hands behind his back, as if Regulus couldn’t see him if he didn’t move.

“I am a prefect, James, this still isn’t good for you. What are you all doing out of your dorms? What’s that for?” Regulus hissed but James just grinned.

“I don’t know, Reg, I like my chances with you better than with Minnie. Don’t worry about it just- you didn’t see us, okay?” Then he actually winked, Sirius rolling his eyes and fake gagging at his implications, and together they lifted the bronze colored bowl and started walking away down the hallway. Remus gave him a nod, Regulus really shouldn’t be surprised he was involved, he was probably the mastermind behind this whole thing, and Peter still refused to make eye contact as he shuffled after his friends.

“I should report you!” Regulus whisper-yelled, after them, crossing his arms and huffing to himself now as he watched them round another corner, James offering only a blown kiss over his shoulder before they disappeared. 

Not a minute later Regulus heard the distinct sound of footsteps behind him and turned to see McGonagall striding up the hallway.

“Mister Black,” she acknowledged him, “finishing your rounds?” Regulus smirked.

“Actually, professor, I did see some shifty individuals stalking the halls.” She stopped in front of him and raised an eyebrow knowingly. 

“And you did not return them to their dorms?” Regulus gave an elegant shrug.

“I didn’t want to interfere. They seemed entirely too untrustworthy for a student to handle.” He was pushing his luck and he knew it, admitting he saw students out of bed and didn’t apprehend them, but he trusted McGonagall to know exactly who he was talking about. “They disappeared down that corridor.” He pointed to it. “I’m sure you could find them, if you wouldn’t mind. This really is a job for a professor.” McGonagall nodded, an exhausted but familiar look on her face.

“What the hell?” Lily exclaims as she enters the kitchen. “We left you two alone with Harry for three hours, how have you managed to make this much mess in that time?” 

Sirius looks around at all the dirty bowls and other appliances, flour covering almost every surface, tiny handprints on the cupboard doors (and a bigger one on the back of Remus’ jeans, but Lily doesn’t need to know about that one just yet). “Harry wanted to bake you cookies,” he shrugs nonchalantly. 

The redhead lets out a long breath, muttering, “Of course he wanted to bake when two people who probably don’t even know how to use an oven are babysitting. Couldn’t he have decided to this when Effie was babysitting? At least there wouldn’t be a risk of her burning the house down.” 

“Hey! I know how to use an oven,” Remus protests, eventually adding after a raised eyebrow is sent his way, “I know how to cook pasta. And pizza. Anything frozen that you just chuck in the oven really.” 

James chuckles from beside his wife. “Where is the little man anyways?” 

“Taking a nap. Sirius tired him out by chasing him around and having a flour fight.” 

“A flour fight?” Lily sounds appalled by them creating this mess on purpose. 

The oven beeps, and Sirius yelps as he takes the cookies out without wearing any gloves like an idiot, almost dropping the tray and ruining all their hard work. 

“They smell delicious,” James says. “What exactly did you make?” 

“No need to sound surprised,” Sirius replies. “But they’re just your classic chocolate chip.” 

“Are we banned from babysitting, Lils?” Remus asks. 

“Make me a cuppa to go with the biscuits and clean your mess up, then all will be forgiven.” 

Before any of the boys have the chance to process what she is doing, Lily approaches the counter, putting both her hands in the bag of flour that’s still open and throws a fistful at Sirius and Remus, cackling as she heads to the living room, settling on the sofa with a book and waits for her cookies and tea. 

By the time Sirius has calmed himself enough to unlock the door to the broom closet he's hidden himself in, he's quite confident he's alone. 

Of course, he's forgotten that Remus Lupin is just as much of a stubborn son of a bitch as he is.

"Moony, bloody hell!" he exclaims, nearly tripping over the taller boy, who's planted himself right outside of the door.

"Sirius. Hello," Remus says casually as he stands, like he often spends his evenings sitting on the third-corridor floor.

"I was just-"

"Hiding from me, yes," Remus says shrewdly.

He could deny it. Cite some fake prank or blame James, somehow. But the thing is, it's a lie, and an obvious one. Because Sirius wasn't exactly subtle when he'd lost his damn mind that morning, when he kissed Remus in front of the whole Common Room, and then ran away.

"Yeah," he says, scratching at the back of his neck. "So, um...what d'you think you'd believe? Rapid onset of genetic madness? Random hex? Spiked toothpaste?"

But Remus isn't laughing. He looks almost hurt, as Sirius tries to get around the awkwardness, his eyes sparkling with sadness. 

His silence just makes Sirius talk more. "I just--" he spits out, then takes a deep breath to calm himself. "I think I'm going insane. I...wanted to kiss you, so I did. And I shouldn't have, because...that's weird, right? We're...friends. And two blokes. And friends. So we should pretend it never happened. Because I don’t want to...to ruin what we have." Fuck, his heart’s hammering so loudly, there’s no way Remus can’t hear it.

But the taller boy just looks back at him. "You wanted to kiss me?" he repeats.

"Yeah. Yeah, but-"

"It wasn’t a joke? Like...a prank or something?"

Fuck, that would have been a good excuse. Too late. "Erm. No. No, I wanted it, but-"

"Well, then I can't forget it, Sirius. I'm sorry."

The words tear SIrius in two. Make him want to fall to the floor and beg, or steal a time-turner from the Ministry and stop himself from his utter idiocy. But instead, he deflates. "Right. Okay," he murmurs, biting his lip so hard he tastes blood.

"I wanted to kiss you, too."

Now he's gone mad. "What?" he gasps, blinking rapidly at his best friend.

"Yeah, I-" Remus starts, shrugging.

But Sirius is suddenly full of energy. "Moony, what? You--how long? You fucking--Merlin's sake! You just hide this from me? C'mon, mate, that's big news! You're telling me we could have been snogging for, like weeks, and you decided to be all secretive about it?"

Remus's amused smile makes Sirius melt a little. "Well, you didn't tell me!"

"I’m not the sane one, here!" Sirius retorts, grinning. Somehow, they've stepped a lot closer together.

"Well. I guess I should go find someone who's not crazy, the-" Remus starts.

“So…it’s nice out today.”

Remus can hear it, even as he says it. The strained tone of his voice, the ridiculousness of talking about the weather with his best friend of six years. But fuck, he’s so bloody nervous that he can’t even look into Sirius’s stunning gray eyes. Instead, he just focuses on the condensation on the outside of his glass of Butterbeer, on pressing a fingerprint to the sweaty surface.

Sirius, of course, isn’t having any of it.

“Moons, it’s raining,” he says with a chuckle, gesturing out the window of the pub.

Fuck.

“Good for…plants,” he mutters, grasping at straws and wishing he could melt into the furniture.

Sirius doesn’t grace that intelligent comment with a reply. Instead, he snorts. “Moony, you look like you’re going to shit yourself.”

And finally, this makes Remus look up, stunned, because what kind of date conversation is that? “Padfoot!” he exclaims, a reluctant smile forming on his lips.

The smile on Sirius’s face makes Remus want to do something crazy, like kiss him. “What?” he protests, beaming. “You do! Did you eat something bad for breakfast? See Snape’s face as we walked over here? What’s got you turning green?”

Remus can’t help but splutter a bit, knocked out of his self-conscious anxiety by Sirius’s antics. “I–I’m nervous, Sirius! We’re on a date, I–”

“So you forgot how to talk? Merlin, Moons, ‘it’s nice out today.’ How cliche can you be?” But Sirius is clearly teasing, his eyes sparkling with humor as he reaches forward and grabs for Remus’s hand, causing sparks to shoot up his arm and down his spine. “What if we talk like, I dunno, we actually know each other?”

It’s so stupid, how Sirius can calm Remus in seconds. He loves it. “We could try that,” he jokes back, biting back a smile.

“Splendid,” the shorter boy grins. “So I was thinking, after this, we can go to Zonkos, get some dungboms, then snog a bit, hm?”

“Sirius!”

“C’mon, Moony, tell me it’s a good plan!”

@wolfstarmicrofic - 261 words

“Did you bring a gift?” Little Harry jumps up and down like a tiny spring and Remus is helpless. He is not Sirius. He doesn't bring constant gifts, he has neither the money nor the energy. Besides, Sirius will be here in a minute, as soon as he has parked that ridiculous motorcycle. Bud disappointing the little one seems mean.

“Uhm... well, I brought you... Sirius. Right? And he'll bring a gift.. I think.”

“You two always come together!” The little one really gets perceptive these days.

“Uhm... we live together. Like... room-mates.”

“Like?” a voice pipes up in the background. James has impeccable timing. “Means, you are not?” They haven't been for a year, but strangely it never came up in a conversation.

“Well...” Remus is about as good in thinking up lies as he is in picking presents. “I... uh...”

Just then Sirius finally appears, throwing a little ball in the air where it scatters into millions and millions of sparkly pieces that form a Quidditch player on his broom, before forming back into a ball as they fall to the ground.

Harry is delighted. James... is cautious. “So what about this room-mate thing.”

Sirius is far bolder than Remus would ever be, and for more confident for their friendship. He grins, puts his chin on Remus' shoulder, than leans in for a kiss to his cheek with a mischievous grin. “Take a wild guess.”

“Sirius…what the fuck?”

Remus Lupin was good at many, many things. However, he prided himself at knowing far too much about Sirius Black. It came from years of obsessing over the other boy, of staring after him like a prat, wishing for something he’d thought he would never have. It was mortifying, yeah, to look back and remember how down bad he’d always been, but now that he was actually dating Sirius, Remus at least had the advantage of knowing his boyfriend better than almost anyone.

So he noticed right away when Sirius showed up to breakfast one morning with all new jewelry.

The shorter boy’s style was a signature thing–something that most people, not just Remus, had witnessed for years and could speak about. Layers of necklaces and rings, piercings in his ears and a wish for one in his bellybutton. But Remus knew that all of those pieces of metal had always been silver in color.

Which was why it was such a shock to see him wearing all gold today.

“What’s up, Moons?” Sirius asked innocently as he joined them for breakfast, eyes wide. 

Truthfully, Remus wasn’t sure he liked it, but he wasn’t about to say that.

Thankfully, James Potter was not so tactful. “You look like a prat,” he said through a mouthful of toast. “All that gold shit. Why’d you change all your necklaces and stuff? Silver looks way better on you.”

Trust James to say what everyone else was thinking.

Sirius, turning a bit pink, just shot James a look. “Fuck you, Prongs, you look like a prat. I did it because of our Defense lesson on Friday. Didn’t you hear what the Professor said?”

“Since when d’you listen in class?” Peter asked, shocked, and Remus had to agree.

Sirius flipped him off. “Since we’re learning about werewolves,” he said in a murmur, looking around to make sure nobody overheard. “Don’t you guys think that’s a bit important?”

“Mmm. I’ve always wanted to meet one,” Remus said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and sipping his juice.

“I just mean–s’good to know, right? Practical,” the shorter boy shrugged. “And on Friday, the Professor mentioned silver can…y’know…irritate werewolves. So I…” he gestured to his body, to the new accessories.

Remus might have cried. “You…changed all of that for me?” he whispered, dumbfounded, wanting to pull Sirius into a kiss in the middle of the Great Hall.

Meanwhile, James snorted. “Sirius, our professor is shit! That’s probably not even true! Is it true, Moony?” he demanded, turning to Remus, who was too busy blushing and tearing up.

“Erm,” he swallowed. “It’s not, actually. But Sirius, the fact that you were willing to change–”

“Oh, thank Merlin!” Sirius exclaimed, pulling out his wand and moving to transfigure his accessories back. “I hate gold on me.”

Remus grinned even wider, completely enamored by the boy next to him. Leaning into Sirius’s side and murmuring into his ear, he said, “I love you so fucking much, Pads.”