We Were Forever

"Someone spins the bottle, and whoever it lands on picks truth or dare. If they say 'truth', they have to answer any question truthfully. If they say 'dare', they have to do whatever the other person dares them to do," Lily explained once they were all seated in a circle around the bottle.

Sirius scoffed. "What do you mean you have to? It's just a silly muggle game. It's not like the bottle's been charmed to make us-"

"Do you want to play or not, Black?" Lily fixed him with an impatient glare.

He huffed and sat back. "Fine."

Lily spun first. It landed on Marlene.

"Truth or dare Marls?"

Marlene took a brief moment of consideration before she decided, "Truth."

Lily gave her a sly smile. "Have you kissed anyone?"

Quickly, and probably unnoticed by the girls, Marlene and Sirius' eyes met from across the circle. The girl turned slightly pink and nodded. "Yeah, I have."

It started rather silly. Peter was dared by Mary to write a love sonnet for Professor McGonagall to be recited at breakfast in the morning.

"If you had to pick another house to be in, which would it be?" Peter asked Remus when the bottle landed on him.

"Hufflepuff," Remus replied, chuckling to himself. "It's closest to the kitchens."

"I dare Potter to slow dance with Black!"

"Mary, I dare you to do your best impression of Professor Slughorn," it was actually quite impressive.

The game continued for quite a while, well past the point where they had begun to sober up. Mary spun and James picked truth.

"Alright… I really need to know," Mary giggled. "What are you talking about when you ask Remus about his 'Furry Little Problem?'"

Remus felt every nerve in his body tense, but James didn't miss a beat before he replied, "Remus has a horribly behaved rabbit back home. Destroyed his mum's flower garden. Isn't that right, Rem?"

Remus laughed as relief washed over him. "Yeah, Cottonball is a real nightmare…"

James spun and it landed on Marlene.

"Dare."

"I dare you to kiss one of the girls," said James with a satisfied grin.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Real mature, Potter."

"I had to slow dance with Sirius!" James argued. Sirius winked and blew a kiss at him, earning a rough punch in the arm.

Marlene just shrugged. "Fair is fair, I suppose. Any of them?"

James nodded, looking far too excited. "Yeah."

Everyone was silent for a moment as Marlene seemed to weigh her options, being sure to make quite a show over her 'thoughtful' expression. James and Peter were both practically leaning forward in suspense and Sirius was resting against the leg of the couch, arms folded with an air of amusement. Remus just watched, feeling a little awkward about the entire thing.

"Alright, Meadowes. Pucker up," Marlene teased, shifting onto her knees to face her friend.

"Oh, I'm flattered!" Twittered the smaller girl, fanning herself dramatically. They both giggled before leaning in and pressing their lips together in a very quick and simple kiss. More giggling followed as they parted and sat back down.

"Happy, Potter?" Marlene smirked.

James was still wide-eyed, but he nodded. "Yeah, that was great. Brilliant. Encore."

Marlene rolled her eyes. "Not on your life. You can pick your eyeballs up off the floor, now," she leaned forward and spun the bottle. It landed on Sirius and she laughed devilishly. "Oh, excellent. Truth or dare, Sirius?"

"Oh, Marls, why even bother asking?" Sirius' voice was practically a dare in itself.

"Alright, fair is fair. Two of us kissed, I want to see you kiss one of the boys then."

The other girls all nodded and hummed in agreement and Sirius barked with laughter.

"Is that all? Can't even come up with anything original?" He shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Honestly, I'm disappointed."

Sirius heaved himself up with a dramatic sigh and turned to face the other three Marauders. Remus laughed to himself and turned his head to look at James, wanting to see the look of dread on the boy's face when being kissed by his best friend. But then, there were fingers cupping his chin, directing his face upwards, and with only a split second to register the wink Sirius gave him, he was being kissed.

Remus froze. His eyes went wide and his entire body went rigid and time seemed to stand completely still as he felt Sirius' warm lips, parted just slightly, covering his own.

And then it was over, just as quickly as it had started. Sirius pulled away and Remus could have sworn the room got at least ten degrees cooler, even though he felt like it was on fire. He blinked a few times, staring at Sirius' whose face looked momentarily as confused as Remus felt before his usual grin broke out.

Sirius turned back to the others. "See? No big deal."

—-------

Remus couldn't sleep. He kept touching his lips.

His first kiss had not only been part of a silly game, but it had been with one of his friends. His male friend. And he… was relatively sure he didn't hate it.

It was just a silly muggle game. He thought desperately. You were tired, and you were probably still drunk.

He couldn't understand what would have made Sirius kiss him instead of James. James was Sirius' best friend, and surely that was what Marlene had originally planned, to get back at James.

You're overthinking it, he told himself. It was a game. A dare. Sirius wouldn't have done what anyone expected. You're fine. You're not… you're not gay or anything…

He groaned and turned onto his other side. Great… Bad enough being a werewolf, now you're very possibly a gay werewolf. Can't you just be a little normal?

There was a soft click, the sound of the dorm room door being closed, footsteps, and a creak as someone stepped over the loose floorboard by Sirius' bed. The footsteps paused and Remus held his breath. The curtains of his own bed rustled and he felt the bed dip as the weight of another person was added.

"Remus, are you awake?"

Just pretend you're asleep.

"I can tell you're faking," Sirius said quietly.

Remus slowly exhaled. "Then why did you ask?"

"Dunno. Seemed like the polite thing to do," he squeezed himself in to lie next to Remus.

Remus snorted. "Wouldn't the polite thing to do be to go to your own damn bed? It must be nearly dawn…" He turned to face the other boy. "Are you just getting to bed now? Everyone came up ages ago."

"Yeah," Sirius propped himself up on his side. "Sorry, I just… I was talking with Marlene…" Even in the dark, Remus could see that Sirius' face seemed a little troubled. "I've asked her to be my girlfriend."

An uncomfortable silence fell between them. Remus felt something in his gut that was almost like being punched. He cleared his throat. "Oh…er… Congratulations, I suppose…"

"Yeah…" Sirius started pulling at a thread in the blanket. "I mean, it makes sense, right? Me and Marlene?"

Remus sighed. "I don't know, Sirius. Do you feel like it makes sense? You like her, don't you?" He smacked Sirius' hand. "Stop that, you'll unravel the whole bloody thing."

Sirius groaned and flipped onto his back. "Yeah, I like her. Better than any other girl, I suppose. And I kissed her that one time and that was alright."

Remus watched him. He wasn't sure what Sirius wanted him to say. Was he looking for approval? Was he looking for someone to tell him it was a stupid idea, that girls still had cooties or something? "Why are you here, Sirius?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are you in my bed at four in the morning asking me whether or not you should date Marlene McKinnon?" There was the slightest bite to Remus' voice. He didn't know where it came from or why he couldn't stop it.

Sirius made a strange noise in the back of his throat. "I… I don't know… we've always come to each other at night to talk…" He frowned. "Are you mad at me, Moony?"

Yes. Remus wanted to say, even though he didn't fully understand why he would have any reason to be. But he sighed and shook his head. "No, Sirius, of course not…" he paused, "I just… we're getting a little old to be crawling into each other's beds at night, don't you think?"

Sirius didn't say anything, but he also didn't move.

Remus bit his lip. "I'm just saying… we're fourteen. We're ending our third year… you've got a girlfriend," the word seemed weird to say. "Shouldn't we be sleeping in our own beds?"

After a long, agonizing moment, Sirius sat up. "Yeah," he said. "You're probably right," he stood. "Goodnight, Remus."