Coincidence

Written for: the March Monthly One-Shot exchange (Jasmin [DelusionalDoll], I hope you enjoy!), and Russian Roulette (prompt - boss/employee relationship).

Nothing seemed strange to Remus when Sirius Black turned up at the coffee shop, because it was lunch hour for everyone, and Luke, the barista, made excellent coffee.

Black swaggered in - hands running through his hair - ordered his drink (black, no sugar), and chatted up some girl at the counter until Remus couldn't stand seeing them flirt. It was sickening. They touched each other and laughed and talked, and Remus was sure she was trouble. Where could one learn a smirk like Black's?

That was just after Black - Sirius, that was his name - filled the staff vacancy. They needed a guy in sales, and he just showed up one day in a crisp suit and tie, asking for the job. He seemed acceptable, and anyway, it wasn't Remus's problem whether the bloke got hired. As boss, he had mastered the art of delegation.

Besides, there were a million explanations for Sirius to be there. He could have been exploring the culinary variety of London. Remus was pretty sure that Ms. Lavender Brown in Customer Service frequented the shop too. It was simply two colleagues having a chance meeting at a local eatery. Coincidence? Sure.

And it wasn't odd a few months later when they showed up at the same health clinic, on the same day. Remus remembered getting a coupon in the mail for that particular place, slipped into the newspaper by some opportunistic intern. It made sense that Sirius would have sought out the deal, and once he had been there a few times... who wouldn't sign up as a permanent member? Perfectly natural.

But then, Remus took the weekend off from managing the office, hopping on a train up north for a friend's 30th birthday party. And who did he see there?

"Hey, James," said Sirius, greeting Remus's uni friend and clapping him on the back. Coincidence? He thought not.

"Great to see you, Sirius!" said James. As if they had known each other for years. As if they were better friends than him and James.

What?

"Remus!" Lily cheered, when he appeared outside the gate - no longer willing to lurk there, listening. He shook his head, bemused.

"Hey, Lily, and hi, James. A very happy thirtieth." He walked up the path, pushing aside obnoxiously colored balloons tied to rocks from the garden. What was Sirius from work doing there? It had to be some kind of employee prank. He had to chuckle. Even after uni, James never really gave up on the jokes, did he?

"The same to you, Lupin! Well, I say that, but it's not your birthday - only I get the cake! Say, how's work treating you? Boss now, huh? Lily tells me you work at the same firm as Sirius here!"

Oh. No. Now Sirius had definitely figured out that Remus was there, and James probably expected them to say hello, and he still had no idea why Sirius Black was at his friend's birthday party.

"Hello... Remus? Er- Mr. Lupin?" said Sirius. Remus forced himself to turn and look, and to his surprise, Sirius seemed no more enlightened than him. His eyebrows were furrowed, and his eyes - well, his eyes were shining gray as always.

"Boss?" Sirius asked, his voice getting higher out of desperation.

"Um, Remus is fine." Immediately, Remus regretted the statement. He was Sirius's boss - separated by a few levels of staff, but he was technically his boss - he couldn't let him call him by his first name!

"You do know each other, don't you?" asked James.

"Yes," they said. At the same time.

Before Remus could speak, James's parents showed up, which was normal enough. Lily had a tendency to invite everyone, for fear of offending someone. That was probably why there were dozens of chairs set up in the yard, with people milling about everywhere eating party snacks and talking.

James and Lily went off to greet them, so Remus was stuck with Sirius, thoroughly confused.

"Sirius," he began. And stopped. Because his hands were shaking, and suddenly it struck Remus that bosses usually didn't have problems talking to people - so he must be a pretty terrible boss if he couldn't make some lame party conversation.

"Read any good books lately?" Sirius interjected.

Remus, caught off guard, laughed. "What I was going to say, before I was so rudely interrupted..."

"Mm-hmm?"

"How- why are you here?"

It was blunt, and a little mean-sounding, but if this was a prank, and not some very-unlikely coincidence, it was merited.

"James invited me?"

"My James. James Potter? Father of Harry? Husband of Lily?"

"That's the one. I got here an hour ago, and I talked to Harry, and wow, he is getting so old, I mean, he's ten, who would have guessed-?"

Remus had a look on his face, suggesting that he didn't need to guess. "Look, Sirius... it's great that you're here for James's birthday, but why have I never seen you before?"

Remus had his professional voice on, and it felt great. He kept going, not knowing how long the burst of confidence would last.

"You've never been tone of James's parties, not one, and I've been to all of them" - he put emphasis on his clear familiarity with the Potters - "so how could you possibly know him? I know all of James's friends. The man invites his dry cleaner guy to his parties, for God's sake."

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"He's over there," said Remus. "Steve." He gestured vaguely to the right.

Sirius took a breath. "Okay, well, this might take a bit."

"That's fine, I'm supposed to get to know my employees, right?"

"Just be prepare for way too many weird details."

"Want to sit down somewhere?" Remus asked quickly. They sat uncomfortably at a couple of folding chairs, not looking at each other. Sirius grabbed a couple of pretzels from a bowl and stuffed them in his mouth before starting.

"I've been off, working, for years. Ages." He took a drink of water from a pitcher. "Right out of high school, I left home - didn't go to university - just left. Did my own thing. Then I got a call from James one day, saying, 'Mate, where've you been?' I figured I'd wasted enough of my life messing around and I'd better get a real job and real life and someone- a real-"

Sirius cut off suddenly and became very interested in his napkin. It seemed to Remus like he was blushing, although he couldn't imagine why. What had he been saying? Remus couldn't remember, it was all blended together in his mind along with thoughts about his eyes, and his hair, and his voice, and- Why was he thinking like that?

Sirius was talking.

"I hadn't been back since. The first time I'd been in London for practically ten years was when I went to that job interview. Now I've got a flat here, but - I don't know why I'm telling you this."

"It's fine, I don't- mind, if that's what you were thinking."

"Never mind, I don't know what I was thinking," muttered Sirius.

"You're James's friend, then, from school?" said Remus. "Of course you ought to have come, he's clearly missed you all these years." All these years he's spent not talking about you, he thought to himself.

"Not that. I adore James."

James must have heard Sirius, hollering, "Don't we all!" from a few yards over where he was manning the grill. Remus smiled weakly.

"Same here. I think I was just wondering..."

"What?" asked Sirius quickly. Remus stopped.

"Well, I don't know if you're aware, but we keep bumping into each other, in odd places? Not at work. Other places."

"Here?"

"Here, for one. At Luke's. At the clinic."

"Oh, I saw you at the coffee shop that one time, and-"

Sirius appeared to be thinking back to that day.

"Well, forget about that. I mean, I only saw you the once, when I stood up to leave. And the clinic... that was you in the waiting room." Remus blinked. "I mean, I did notice you, but-" he trailed off.

"Just a coincidence, yes?"

"Yes." Just a coincidence.

Sirius smiled at him, but it was a sad smile, and Remus felt a pang seeing him react that way. Then he questioned these odd thoughts, as usual, but finally it occurred to him that maybe he had been seeing it wrong the whole time - not a simple matter of making conversation with his unfairly good-looking employee, but something different, something yet to be determined.

Or yet to be, altogether.

"I suppose you'll be back at the office, then, after this little siesta clears up and we all go home," Sirius said, expectantly.

"We'll have to go back to being strangers, practically."

"That's why I had this idea..."

"Oh?"

"About us - me and you - getting lunch sometime? Together? At the same table at Luke's, even?"

Sirius spit out the sentence and then stayed horribly silent.

Oh. Oh.

Remus said it out loud, not of his own accord. "Oh."

He looked up in shock, his mouth wide open. Sirius had a miniature panic attack in his chair, starting to stand up and run, but stopping midway, forcing himself to sit back down. As a result, he bumped into the table, sloshing water all over it and sending a tower of plastic cups flying onto James's aunts and uncles.

"I'm sorry-" gasped Sirius- "Really, I didn't mean to say that, I wasn't going to and then-"

Remus burst out laughing. Half the partygoers turned to watch them, curiously. "No, I shouldn't have reacted that way, I was startled, that's all."

"So, if it's not a no, then..."

"Well then." said Remus, looking Sirius in the eye, and he stood up, and Sirius did too, and they were both laughing now, unsuccessfully hiding their grins, and Remus pulled him in for an awkward hug, full of poorly placed arms and faces. But it was nice, feeling the warmth of Sirius, even though he was a bit aggressive about it, and held on a few seconds too long. "Okay," he whispered somewhere near Sirius's ear.

They let go, stepping back the slightest bit on each side. "Not a kiss?" muttered Sirius. "That's a bit of a cop-out."

"I practically just met you," Remus protested.

James walked over, holding a plate of burgers, horribly burnt but loaded with toppings to over up the blackened meat.

"See?" he exclaimed. "One party and all my friends become friends. I am so welcoming."

Remus and Sirius exchanged glances. "Yep," said Remus.

"James, stop harassing them and come open your presents," called Lily. "Look, there's one from Harry!"

Everyone started to file into the house for cake and presents, leaving Remus and Sirius alone outside. Remus pushed in some nearby chairs in a futile effort to clean up the yard.

"It's going to be weird, being at work, then seeing you-" he began. "I don't know how to treat you."

"I don't want to mess things up," said Sirius carefully. "Let's just stay normal at work, and then..."

"And then what?"

"I guess we'll have to wait and see."

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