Turns out spending 12 years in Azkaban and sleeping in a cave does not do wonders for your hair...

Remus groaned as he pushed himself out of his armchair, bracing heavily on his cane as he stood. His hip protested the movement sharply.

“Where are we going?” he muttered.

“I’ve got you,” Sirius said, already there, hooking an arm through Remus’ and steadying him as they shuffled toward the coat rack.

Remus slipped his arms into his jacket while Sirius held his cane patiently.

“So where are we going?” Remus asked again as he took the cane back and leaned into Sirius’ shoulder. “You know surprises stopped being fun sometime around my fiftieth birthday.”

Sirius only grinned.

Remus rolled his eyes, though his fingers slipped easily into Sirius’ hand as they stepped outside the front door.

The house behind them sat warm and familiar in the late afternoon light. They’d lived there thirty years now. Every corner of it held a memory.

“Can’t an old man just rest on his birthday?” Remus grumbled.

“You’ll have plenty of time to rest, babe,” Sirius said, leaning over to press a quick kiss to his cheek.

“When I’m dead?” Remus said lightly.

Sirius stopped walking.

He gave Remus a very unimpressed look.

“Not funny.”

Remus smiled faintly.

“My heart couldn’t take that,” Sirius added more quietly, squeezing his hand.

Remus’ teasing softened at once.

“Well,” he murmured, “I’ll do my best to keep breathing then.”

“Please do.”

Sirius stepped closer and wrapped an arm around him before they Disapparated with a soft pop.

They landed gently in a grassy field.

Remus blinked.

The wind rustled through tall grass around them, carrying the smell of lake water and warm stone.

Slowly, Remus turned.

Across the water, unmistakable against the horizon, stood Hogwarts.

The castle rose above the Black Lake just as it always had—towers and spires glowing gold in the late afternoon sun.

Remus stared.

“What are we doing here, Padfoot?”

Sirius stepped dramatically to the side.

“Ta-da!”

Remus followed his gesture.

Spread across the grass was a familiar blanket—slightly faded, patched in one corner and fraying on the edge.

Remus knew it instantly.

“You nicked that from the linen closet.”

“I did not nick it,” Sirius said indignantly. “It has been in my careful possession since approximately 1976. Courtesy of one Mr. Moony.”

Next to the blanket sat a basket. Beside that, a bucket of ice holding a bottle of—

Remus leaned forward, squinting.

“…Blueberry wine?”

Sirius looked extremely pleased with himself.

Remus hobbled closer, lowering himself carefully with Sirius’ help onto a conjured cushion.

“This is…”

Sirius sat beside him.

“Everything from our first date,” he said simply. “On your birthday. Fifty years ago.”

Remus looked up at him slowly.

“You remembered all of this?”

“Of course I did,” Sirius scoffed. “I’m old, not senile.”

He uncorked the bottle and poured two glasses.

“I got those biscuits too,” he said, rummaging in the basket. “And the house elves made the finger sandwiches you liked.”

Remus peered inside.

“Are those—”

“Jammie Dodgers,” Sirius confirmed proudly.

Remus barked a laugh. “They taste like red glue.”

“That’s awfully specific, babe.”

Sirius handed him a glass.

Remus took a sip.

The sweetness hit him immediately.

He winced.

“Gods,” he said. “It’s just as awful as I remember.”

Sirius grinned. "Great, isn't it?"

Remus took another sip anyway.

Then he fell quiet.

He turned slightly to look at Sirius.

Really look at him.

The man beside him was no longer the reckless boy he’d fallen in love with by the lake all those years ago.

Lines creased the corners of Sirius’ eyes now, carved there by decades of laughter and stubborn joy. His hair had stayed the same except for that one stubborn gray stripe that ran down one side.

Fifty years.

Remus reached for his hand without thinking.

Sirius took it instantly, just like always.

He lifted Remus’ fingers and pressed soft kisses against them.

The same gesture he’d done when they were sixteen.

When they were thirty.

When they were fifty.

When Remus had woken from nightmares.

When Sirius had come home late.

Always the same gentle kisses.

“Happy birthday, Moony,” Sirius said softly.

Remus looked out across the lake again.

The castle stood exactly where it always had.

Time had moved forward. Friends had come and gone. The world had changed in ways their younger selves could never have imagined.

But Sirius’ hand was still warm in his.

Remus squeezed it.

“Best date I’ve had in fifty years,” he murmured.

Sirius snorted.

Remus was cursing silently while trying for the fifth time to knot his bloody tie. It was almost winter already, the whomping willow had dropped all his leaves over two weeks ago, and he still was too incapable to do this tiny average task.

He’d had to do numerous detentions already because of it and the frustration was steadily building.

“Lupin!” yelled Peter. “You coming? We’re hungry, mate.”

“Just go already. I’ll join you there,” he answered, angrily pulling the fabric around his neck loose again.

“Sneeking off again?”

His roommates had only experienced three full moons and were already suspicious. He had no idea how he would keep on lying the coming years.

“‘Course not.”

Some murmuring, followed by a yelled “bye!” Then silence.

Remus kept on trying three more minutes, but then he just accepted his defeat. Maybe he could ask Madame Pomfrey soon. He was fairly sure she would help him.

He opened the door, but froze when he spotted Sirius still waiting on his bed.

“The hell you doing in there? You look exactly the same as before.” Sirius also wasn’t wearing his tie. However, Sirius had enough charisma and confidence that he had not had to follow detentions for that. That, and Sirius was in detention anyways four out of five days because of the pranks he and James pulled.

Given up, Remus showed the slightly rumpled tie. “Can’t handle this damn thing.”

Sirius raised his eyebrows in surprise. Then, he stood up and took it from him. Before Remus knew it, Sirius was winding it around his neck, making some loops, followed by a pull. He grinned when he janked at the now proper looking tie for fun. “Done. Now let’s go.”

Next morning, Sirius pulled Remus apart for to do his tie for him, although he was still never wearing his own.

It wasn’t until halfway second year that Remus actually learned how to tie his tie himself, and only after pestering Sirius for numerous weeks.

However, Sirius still kept doing it for him.

Sometime at the end of the third year they gave up on trying to do it secretly. They knew Peter and James knew Sirius did it for him, so no use in sneaking off like a couple when they were doing something so mundane.

In fourth year they actually became a couple, allowing Sirius to not fix his tie for him once, but twice on some days.

And today? Today Remus slings his tie loose around his neck.

“You sure, Moony?” James, his best mate, asks. “It’s your big day. Don’t you want to look prim and proper?”

But Remus shakes his head. “I’m absolutely sure. It’s our thing. Sirius will love it.”

Because Sirius still made his tie every morning, even insisting Remus wakes him up for the few seconds it takes when he can wake up later.

So when Remus strides forward, arm in arm with his mother, to greet Sirius also walking up to the aisle next to Monty, he doesn’t feel hesitant.

Sirius, in turn, smiles all adorable when he notices. They meet in the middle, both crying already and muttering how handsome the other looks.