niki alex

Hey there! I made a few constructional edits to the Affairs series as it's posted on A03:

> This Thing Between Us (the original one-shot) has been renamed to Affairs.

-> The Haven Hotel (the second installment has been renamed to This Thing Between Us.

The one-shot that was The Haven Hotel, now acts as Chapter 1 of the long-fic (hence the rebranding).

I tried to make this as seamless and uncomplicated as possible. I'm posting this here to help limit any panicking when someone goes and sees the fics 'missing' They aren't missing! Just renamed :

Remus is walking across his uni campus on Monday afternoon when he gets a call from a number he doesn’t recognise. 

“Hello?” he answers, pressing the phone to his ear.

The voice that replies is immediately recognisable, even before he introduces himself. “Remus! It’s me— James. Can you talk?”

“Um… yeah,” Remus says, looking around. “Give me a minute.” It’s not a very busy time of the day and so it’s easy for Remus to find a secluded corner. He runs over, leaning against the wall of the old building as he indicates that James can continue speaking.

“Is everything okay?” he asks, and then he panics. “Is Sirius—”

“Sirius is fine,” James says quickly. “I’m calling on behalf of the club. Your number was on the form you filled out last week— or, rather, the form Sirius filled out for you... I wonder if he realised I’d recognise his handwriting.”

Remus replies with what is probably an awkward laugh. He’s still not entirely certain what the reason for this call is. “So is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s great. Say, I know it’s last minute, but would you be able to come see me at the club tomorrow? I’d like to run through the particulars of your membership with you. I know Sirius would’ve gone over some of it already, but this is just standard procedure stuff.”

“Oh,” Remus says. He’s been half-expecting this call ever since James mentioned it at the party last week, and the prospect of returning to the club so soon is both daunting and exciting. “Well then, yeah. Is it okay if it’s in the morning, though? I have class from 2pm.”

“That’s actually perfect. How’s 9am?”

“I can do that.”

“Great! I’ll see you then.”

-----

The club is empty when Remus gets there. James swipes him in, and when he notices Remus looking around, he explains, “we're not open yet. At this hour, it’s usually just Lily, myself, and some of the staff.”

James leads him into what Remus can only assume is his office. The room is actually a bit larger than Lily’s, and much less decorated with kink gear. Remus doesn’t comment on either of these things. He starts to sit in one of the armchairs angled towards the desk but James stops him and instead ushers him over to a brown leather couch in the corner. 

“Tea?” James asks, motioning to the coffee table where he’s already set everything up. Remus nods, appreciative.

“Help yourself,” James encourages him, sitting beside him.

Remus is already much more at ease than he’d expected to be. It’s almost a little strange now to see James fully clothed, in soft grey trousers and short sleeved button up. Remus watches him as he stirs a concerning amount of sugar into his tea and with his other hand, idly pushes his glasses further up his nose. 

“I know Sirius explained most of the membership process,” James says. “Like I said yesterday, this part is just a formality for Lily and I to get to know you better.”

“Shouldn’t Lily be here then?” Remus asks.

James smiles. “No. Not at this stage anyway. How it works is that I vet the submissives, and Lily handles the Doms.”

“So I’m being vetted?”

“You’re already a member, really,” James says, raising his brow as he sits back on the couch. “This is… a conversation. There are no wrong answers.”

“Right.”

“Your membership isn’t contingent on Sirius—”

“He’s the one paying for it.”

James falters, just for a couple seconds, and Remus almost feels guilty.

“That’s true,” James admits slowly. “But, well, even if things don’t work out between you and Sirius, we have no intention of kicking you out.”

Remus can’t imagine a world in which he chooses to stay here if he and Sirius end their relationship, but he doesn’t say that.

“So as I was saying, your membership isn’t contingent on him. You’re free to come here with or without Sirius. In fact, I hope you eventually will. I hope you make friends here, and start to think of this place as yours instead of just his.” James pauses for a few seconds, as if to let the words sink in. He waits until Remus nods in acknowledgement, his throat suddenly too dry to muster up a verbal response. He sips his tea.

“Let’s start at the beginning then,” James says. “You said you discovered BDSM through reading?”

-----

It is not, much to Remus’ relief, a stressful conversation, despite being incredibly invasive at times. Just as James had assured him, the entire thing is over and done with in perhaps thirty minutes, and it does feel more like a conversation than an interrogation.

James is good at talking and evidently also good at listening, nodding along attentively and asking follow-up questions when needed. He asks Remus what books, specifically, he'd read, and then about his experience practicing BDSM prior to Sirius. James is visibly relieved —though he tries to hide it— when Remus explains that his experience had been limited and not nearly as structured but ultimately pleasant— nothing tragic or traumatic to speak of.

When James asks him about what it feels like to submit —why he does it, what he gets from it, is it something he’ll pursue for himself even if Sirius isn’t in the picture— Remus expects to be far more reluctant with his responses, but James is easy to talk to. Perhaps it is the fact that he is one of Sirius’ best friends, or the fact that he is also a submissive and therefore understands exactly what Remus feels in that regard. James listens to him talk without interruption, smiling throughout.

“And how have things been between you and Sirius?” James asks. 

The question catches Remus off guard. “What do you mean?”

“I mean. Are you happy? Are you satisfied? Are your needs as a submissive being met?”

“Oh.” Remus almost laughs. “Yes. He’s— he’s perfect.”

James raises a brow.

Remus bites down on his bottom lip and looks away. “He’s everything I’ve ever wanted,” he elaborates.

“So there’s nothing you’d change?” James asks.

Immediately, Remus thinks about the contract and the always growing list of questions that have been burning a hole in his chest ever since he first read it. Now, he is almost certain that Evan has something to do with it, but Evan is yet another list of questions he doesn’t have answers to. All day yesterday, Remus had been turning over the sparse details he had managed to force out of Sirius and trying to work up the courage to ask for more.

“No,” he says quietly. “I don’t think I’d change anything.”

James nods slowly. “For what it’s worth, we do periodic check-ins with all members involved in long-term dynamics. It’s nothing invasive— we just want to make sure everyone’s comfortable. Beyond that, however, relationships are largely left up to the people in them. We’re not interested in micromanaging anyone’s personal life.” 

“Okay,” Remus says. “I’m fine with that.”