A/N: This is the final chapter, unless I decide to write an epilogue. This story's been an absolute blast to write, my reviewers are complete angels and I love them all to pieces, but it's time to move on. I have longer stories in progress, as well as a ton of other stuff. If you like my writing, and the way I portray Sirius and Remus, I highly recommend checking them out. (selfpimpselfpimp) Thank you all so much for reading, for reviewing, for making writing this story the most fun I've had writing in a very, very long time.
This chapter is on New Years Eve-Eve, and New Year's Eve. Yup. Cos I said so. Oh, and the speakers I refer to? Those are MAGIC speakers, 'kay? -nod nod-
Warning: Slash (FINALLY!), swearing, sexual references.
Disclaimer: Is it still legally valid if I tell everyone to call me JK Rowling?
Dedication: To anyone who read this story, and especially to anyone who reviewed. You make me feel worth something.
Falling
Sirius Black fell in love with Remus Lupin.
There wasn't any sound, just the faintest sigh of his heart. It was the simplest thing in the universe, he was merely watching Remus talking to James, a book open in his lap, chocolate sticking just out of his robe pocket, that rare, beautiful, genuine smile on his face as he laughed at whatever James was talking about. Sirius' breath caught as Remus lightly tossed his head, grinning, flicking golden strands of hair out of his face. He squeaked adorably as James reached over to try and tickle him and leaped out of the chair in delight, somehow managing to rest the book there gently without breaking his movement. James leaped up too and began to chase Remus around the chairs, both giggling in delight, Remus squealing occasionally as James managed to tickle him, the battle ending when James collapsed into his chair panting, Remus laughing at him, not even tired at all.
Though the whole scene only took maybe a minute maximum, it seemed an eternity to Sirius, as though everything Remus did happened in slow motion. The other man was beautiful. It was an unavoidable fact. It was also unavoidable that Sirius wanted to hold Remus, to do everything to and for him, to simply love and cherish him.
Sirius wondered why he had never noticed before. Now that he had realised, he could not remember a time when he didn't love Remus, but he had only just noticed. He watched Remus grin as he sat back down, putting the book on his lap again, and taking the chocolate out for a quick bite while James and Peter exchanged a few words. Remus caught Sirius' eye across the semicircle of chairs the Marauders were occupying near the fire.
"You're awfully quiet, Sirius. Is the world coming to an end?" Remus smirked, returning the chocolate to his pocket.
"Wha? I... No, no, just thinking." Sirius said absently.
"Thinking pretty damn hard about me, by the looks of it." Remus smiled. "Were you planning to steal my chocolate? Because if you were, I'll have to cut your hands off. You know that as well as I do."
"No, no, just... thinking."
"Sirius? You're weirding me out now. You never think."
"Not really..."
Remus sighed, giving up. "When you return to the world of the waking, you can tell me what was so damn interesting."
"Right... right. I'm going to bed." Sirius announced, getting up.
"Paddy!" James cried in alarm. "It's only eleven! New Years Eve is tomorrow! You can't just go to bed!"
"I'm really tired... sorry. See you guys tomorrow." Sirius turned and headed up the stairs to bed.
Sirius was awake most of the night, thinking about Remus. As a result, he slept late, and woke up at about three in the afternoon, his fellow Marauders nowhere to be seen. He sat himself in the common room, staring into the common room and thinking, remembering all the times he felt himself strangely drawn to the strange, quiet Marauder, drawing out that sharp, sarcastic wit and brilliant smile, just for the sheer joy of them being there. Three incidents in the past year stuck out especially; the sunrise, the time he had proposed to Remus by the lake, and the time he had stared up Remus' trouser leg. He didn't know why, but he dwelled endlessly on those, and other memories, until he felt he would tear out his hair with stress. Just as he was about to get up and pace, for lack of anything better to do, there was suddenly a hand on his shoulder, a warm voice in his ear.
"Hey Sirius, good to see you're finally up." Out of laziness or some other reason, Remus perched himself on the arm of Sirius' chair, smiling at the other boy.
"Hi Moony." Sirius sighed, tearing his eyes away from the fire to look up at his beautiful friend.
"Thinking again? You may just pass your OWLs yet."
Sirius laughed. "Yeah. I've just... figured something out, and it's kind of... well... shocking."
"Oh really? Care to tell your darling chum Moony what's going on?"
Sirius shook his head. How could he tell Remus? "You would... you wouldn't like it."
"Sirius. You're forgetting who you're talking to again. Evil murderous monster once a month, remember?"
"You're... you're not evil."
"The wolf is."
A pensive silence followed, broken by Remus speaking quietly, as though he hadn't quite returned from his own thoughts yet. "So what did you want to tell me?"
Sirius shook his head, getting up and sending Remus toppling into his chair. "I'm not ready to tell anyone."
"Okay." Remus accepted it, sitting himself back upright in the seat. "When you're ready to talk, I'll be waiting."
"Thank you." Sirius smiled gratefully. "I think I'm gonna go to the room, get ready for the party."
Remus nodded. "James is carting bloody crates of butterbeer up to the Astronomy tower. There are only thirty odd people in the castle, but he seems determined for a party. I heard him talking to Peter about fireworks earlier."
Sirius laughed. "Oh yeah. We weren't gonna tell you, mister Prefect."
Remus snorted. "You're never getting back the frisbee I confiscated now!"
The party was distracting... Sirius was pretty much forced to be social, and had little time to so much as see Remus, as a busty blonde Ravenclaw girl insisted on having a dance with him. And another. And shoving her tits up against him every chance she got.
Of course, Sirius was not much impressed by this, having recently discovered he was gay, and found enduring her company the whole evening a chore.
He didn't even really realise how much time had passed in her clutches, only that it was a lot, until James yelled loudly over the speakers.
"HEY THERE, Hogwarts cats and kittens, it's ten minutes to midnight, better find yourself someone to snog at midnight, right now!"
"Sirius..." The blonde began, pushing her chest up against him yet again.
"Ah... gotta go." Sirius departed before she could protest, winding through the dancers to the mostly unoccupied seats.
Without even consciously being aware of it, he had made his way straight over to where Remus was perched on a small loveseat, grinning welcomingly at Sirius, butterbeer in hand.
"Hey! Enjoying the party?" Remus grinned as Sirius sat down next to him. "I saw you talking to Pat, is somebody gonna get himself a new years snog?"
"Ugh. No thanks." Sirius swigged his own drink, exhaling deeply.
"Really?" Remus seemed surprised. "What's gotten into you? Usually, you'd be all over a girl like that, and you've been thinking. It's just not natural."
"Not natural at all." Sirius agreed, eyes fixing on James, as he yelled excitedly "FIVE MINUTES TO GO!"
"Moony..." Sirius hesitated, affixing his gaze to the floor now. "Have... have you ever had... feelings... that you thought were strange?"
"Um... It depends what you mean. If you're saying 'have I ever had the urge to slaughter a camel and then have sex with it's remains', then no. 'Have I ever had the urge to marry myself to a chocolate chip muffin?' Well... maybe that once... but in general, no. Help me out a little."
Sirius laughed. "No... I mean like feelings... romantic feelings... towards someone... uh... not societally acceptable?"
Remus blinked. "Are you in love with a Slytherin?"
"NO!" Sirius said loudly, in disgust. "I mean someone... someone... like... similar."
"Sirius, the idea of dating is that you're similar, you have things in common. And no, wanting lots of sex does not count."
"No, I mean... similar... like... similar... in... in the... uh... downs-"
"TWO MINUTES!" James yelled.
"In the what?" Remus asked.
"In the downstairs department." Sirius said glumly, staring at his lap.
"Oh." Remus was silent for a moment. "Oh. Well... wh... that's... I mean..."
"Yeah." Sirius sighed. "And I don't just like him. I think... I think I'm in love with him."
"Oh." Remus said again. "Does h-he know?"
"No. I haven't told anyone. I only realised last night."
"Can you tell me who he is?"
Sirius shook his head. "I can't. Y-no. I can't tell you. Ever."
"Oh. Okay. Well-" Just as Sirius raised his head, feeling daring enough to look Remus in the eyes for the first time since he had started to confess, a gong sounded, and James began the countdown.
"TEN!
NINE!
EIGHT!"
Their eyes met.
"SEVEN!
SIX!
FIVE!"
Faces drew closer
"FOUR!
THREE!
TWO!"
Remus' eyes were full of an emotion Sirius suddenly recognised, mirrored from himself.
"ONE!"
And their lips met in a loving, passionate, perfect first kiss. It lasted a long time, mouths parting, tongues dancing to the sound of cheers from the revelling crowd around them. When they finally parted, Sirius looked hesitantly into Remus' eyes, and Remus grinned.
"Took you long enough to notice." Remus whispered, and then they were kissing again, and the rest of the world simply melted away into unimportance.
A/N: I hope all my readers are as happy with this chapter as I am. Thanks again, for everything. This story has been an utter delight, from start to finish. Thank you.
Reviewers;
Silver Huntress: Not really haha, I giggled too when I wrote it. Go you! Haha I had to Wikipedia it before posting the chapter, just to be sure. But then, I also had to double check what direction the sun rises in LOL. Yeahhh I'm a bit of a ditz haha.
Tinyyellowboxes: Thanks! Haha, I came from Quizilla too, about three years ago, and I was just as stunned when I came here (albeit part of that was because I had never actually encountered slash before haha.) but you should definitely stick around, ffdotnet has some of the best written and most beautiful fics you will ever find anywhere.
remuslives23: Thank you so much! Wow, your review had me in giddy giggles for ages. :)
yourmomismyheart: Nice name! Haha you have predicting skills.
And a million thanks to lovefan81, xshrimpyx, JulzPadfootMoony, moonfoot13, Miss Music666, shufangirl, WickedWillows, Rome J Wolf, MopCat, dristi, BlackLycanth, r, and HanieFace.